Chapter 22 4. The first peace talks

With the People's Liberation Army completely encircling Beiping, Fu Zuoyi had to deploy defenses against Beiping on the one hand, and on the other hand tried to find a peaceful solution to the North China issue. The city defense of Beiping was roughly based on the central axis from Tiananmen Square to the Drum Tower. Li Wen’s Fourth Corps was in charge of the west, and Shi Jue’s Ninth Corps was in charge of the east. "The unit with the most complete organizational system and the strongest combat effectiveness among the units it belongs to.Guo Zongfen, deputy commander-in-chief of the North China "Suppression General", was in charge of the entire city defense and public security, and Li Wen was the commander of the city defense.However, the defense in the innermost circle of Beiping City was still in charge of the only remaining Fu Zuoyi troops and troops not directly related to Chiang Kai-shek at that time, because Fu Zuoyi was always not at ease with the Chiang family's direct descendants.For example, the area around Deshengmen was defended by the 309th Division, which was under the direct command of Zhao Shuqiao; the area from Xizhimen, Fuxingmen to Guang'anmen was directly under the 311th Division, which was under the command of Sun Yingnian. The defense of the 101st Army with Li Shilin as the commander; the defense of the 205th Division of the "New Army" (also known as the "Youth Army") transferred from Taiwan with Deng Wenxi as the commander of the Andingmen area; the defense of the Yongdingmen area by Liu Chunfang. The division commander's fourth cavalry division defended.

Fu Zuoyi's first tentative peace talks were on December 14, 1948.Li Bingquan, the cousin of Li Tengjiu, the director of Fu Zuoyi's liaison office, was already an underground member of our party (the same Li Bingquan who sent the important information about the KMT general's surprise attack on Xibaipo mentioned earlier), and was the director of the interview department of "Pingming Daily".According to the instructions of the party organization, Li Bingquan has already done work to Li Tengjiu, hoping that he can persuade Fu Zuoyi to take the road of peace.Li Tengjiu told Fu Zuoyi about Li Bingquan's situation in a secret meeting with Fu Zuoyi. Fu Zuoyi immediately said that this matter should be properly studied and asked Li Tengjiu to keep in touch with Li Bingquan and protect Li Bingquan's safety. On December 12, Fu Zuoyi met with Li Bingquan.During the conversation, Li Bingquan formally stated to Fu Zuoyi that he was sent by the Peking underground party to meet Fu Zuoyi, welcomed Fu Zuoyi to take the road of peace, and was willing to contact Fu Zuoyi in the contacts between Fu Zuoyi and our party.Fu Zuoyi said that he would send people to conduct direct negotiations with the Communist Party, and Wang Kejun would arrange the specific matters.Wang Kejun and Li Tengjiu recommended to Fu Zuoyi one of his old subordinates and think tanks. Cui Zaizhi, who had helped Fu Zuoyi run the "Struggle Daily" in the past and was now the president of "Pingming Daily", was the negotiator. Together with Li Bingquan, they represented Fu Zuoyi went out of the city to negotiate with the CCP.Therefore, this first negotiation sent two people without any military and political positions as representatives, and Cui Zaizhi was actually the one who really represented Fu Zuoyi to conduct tentative negotiations.In addition, there is a radio operator, a translator, and a driver.Under the arrangement of Wang Kejun, the five people left the city from Guang'anmen on December 14, and took a jeep to the PLA camp.According to Fu Zuoyi's opinion, he hoped to go directly to Xibaipo to meet Mao Zedong.

Fu Zuoyi was extremely cautious in arranging this meeting.One of the important considerations for arranging Cui Zaizhi and Li Bingquan, both of whom work in the press, to negotiate is that if Chiang Kai-shek's spy system finds out about this, they can say that it is a matter of the press. It has nothing to do with Fu Zuoyi.That's it, Fu Zuoyi also specially made the most confidential arrangements. Except for Wang Kejun and other individuals who knew about this matter, he also decided to isolate himself from the outside world during Li Tengjiu's illness and hospitalization, and was responsible for contacting Cui Zaizhi and Li Bingquan who were out of the city. .

After Cui Zaizhi and others left the city, they saw the People's Liberation Army outside the city.After explaining the situation, they were told that it was impossible for them to go to Xibaipo, and they could only go to the Pingjin Front Command of our army to make contact.Cui Zaizhi and others had no choice but to return to Beiping City.The next day, Wang Kejun sent them out of Xizhimen again, and first entered the defense line of our Dongye Eleventh Column, where they were received by Commander He Jinnian of the Eleventh Column and political commissar Chen Renqi.The Eleventh Column immediately reported the matter to the Pingjin Front Command.On the one hand, the Pingjin Frontline Headquarters forwarded the report to the Central Military Commission, and on the other hand, it ordered the Eleventh Column to send people to escort the out-of-city representatives to the designated location of the Pingjin Frontline Headquarters.

Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Liu Yalou, the leaders of the Pingjin Front Command, telegraphed the content of the conversation between Eleven Zong and Cui Zaizhi and others to the Military Commission in the early morning of December 16, and put forward their own opinions.Lin Biao and others said, "We can go to Tong County to directly host this negotiation when necessary." Since "our army is absolutely sure of capturing Beiping and Tianjin and completely annihilating and defending the enemy. Therefore, the content of the negotiation is in favor of getting the enemy to lay down their arms." .In the afternoon of the same day, the Military Commission called back and agreed to negotiate "with the basic principle of getting the enemy to lay down their arms."

At that time, our Pingjin Front Command was in Mengjialou, Jixian County, where Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan’s East Field Command was located. Later, Nie Rongzhen also went there. According to the order of the Central Military Commission, the Pingjin Front Command was established there, and later established The General Front Committee of the Pingjin Front, as the supreme command commanding our Northeast Field Army, the North China Military Region, and local troops of more than 1 million troops on the North China battlefield.The news that Cui Zaizhi and others wanted to negotiate with our army was reported to Mengjialou by troops outside Beiping City on the 14th.In order to keep secret and not reveal the specific location of the headquarters, the reception location should be selected in a village not far from Mengjialou.Political commissar Luo Ronghuan decided that Su Jing, chief of staff of the Dongye Command, would be responsible for receiving Fu Zuoyi's representatives.

Su Jing (1910-1997), born in Haicheng, Fujian (now Longhai County), studied at a normal school and worked as a teacher. In 1932, he joined the army and joined the Red Army, becoming one of the few intellectual cadres in the Red Army at that time. He served as the combat staff officer and chief of the reconnaissance section at the headquarters of the First Red Army, and participated in the Long March.During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he successively served as Chief of the Reconnaissance Section of the 115th Division Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, Secretary-General of the Dongjin Detachment Headquarters and Director of Military Law, Director of Security and Minister of Enemy Works of the Political Department of the 115th Division, and Deputy Director of the Public Security Department of the Wartime Work Committee Chief, Secretary-General of the Political Department of the Shandong Military Region.He entered the Northeast in the early days of the War of Liberation, and served as the director of the general staff of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army and the Northeast Field Army General Command (also known as the Operations Division) and the director of the intelligence department, and the director of the staff of the Pingjin Front Command. negotiation.After the founding of New China, he successively served as the deputy chief of staff of the Central South Military Region, the director of the Military Affairs Department of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and the deputy director of the State Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China. He was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General in 1955.

After Su Jing accepted the task, she chose Bali Village not far from Mengjialou, and prepared a reception place in the yard of the landlord Hou Yuntai. On December 17, Cui Zaizhi and others came to Balizhuang under the escort of a guard platoon from our eleventh column.During the initial contact, Cui Zaizhi made it clear that he came to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the North China issue on behalf of Fu Zuoyi, and proposed Fu Zuoyi's specific plans for a peaceful settlement. Withdraw, through negotiations, comprehensively resolve the problems in Beiping, Tianjin, Zhangjiakou, Tanggu and other places.In order to achieve a comprehensive solution, Fu Zuoyi put forward some specific requirements, including: in order to obtain some of Chiang Kai-shek's large aircraft, we should give up Nanyuan Airport; We released the thirty-fifth army, the main force of the Fu family that had been surrounded in Xinbaoan, and entered the city of Peiping at the same time as our army; after Fu Zuoyi electrified the whole country and announced the peaceful settlement of North China, a North China coalition government was established, and Fu Zuoyi's army was under the command of the coalition government .

Judging from the above plan, it is conceivable that Fu Zuoyi will take the road of peaceful settlement.However, he still wants to preserve his own strength, and the purpose of establishing a coalition government with our party on the basis of certain strength is also very clear. On the morning of the 19th, Liu Yalou, the chief of staff of the Pingjin Front Command and the chief of staff of the Northeast Field Army, talked with Cui Zaizhi and others all morning.According to the instructions of the Central Committee, Liu Yalou clearly told Cui Zaizhi that the basic principle of our solution to the peace and Tianjin issues is: on the premise of laying down arms and disarming, it is absolutely not allowed to preserve its reactionary armed forces, and it is not allowed to electrify the whole country to establish a joint North China alliance. government.If the other party agrees to our peaceful settlement of the terms of peace and Tianjin, the life safety of Fu Zuoyi and his subordinates and the loss of private property can be guaranteed; if the stubborn commanders and division commanders of Chiang Kai-shek's system want to resist, they can be arrested first; The troops can be adapted into two armies.

Obviously, both sides intend to solve the problem peacefully at this time, but on how to solve this key issue, the basic policies of the two sides are still very different. On the afternoon of the 19th, the radio station that came with Cui Zaizhi reported the main points of Liu Yalou's conversation to Fu Zuoyi, and Fu Zuoyi called back soon.In the reply, he only said that the Jiang's army in Beiping was more than ten times larger than his army, and it was very difficult for him to arrest Jiang's officers.Fu Zuoyi didn't mention a single word about other issues.This attitude of course made Cui Zaizhi very embarrassed, because Fu Zuoyi did not express anything on key issues.It was not until December 23 that Fu Zuoyi sent another telegram to Chairman Mao Zedong to Cui Zaizhi, asking him to forward it.The full text of his telegram is as follows:

Mr. Mao: (1) In the future, the way of governing China and building the country should be entrusted to you to achieve common political goals. (2) In order to seek the immediate salvation of the people, it is planned to electrify the whole country immediately to stop the fighting and promote the peaceful reunification of the whole country. (3) I will never maintain the army, nor will I have any political intentions. (4) In the transitional stage, in order to avoid damaging the incident and corrupting the place, after the power is sent out, the national army will stop any offensive actions and temporarily maintain the status quo. Your army should also retreat slightly to restore traffic and stabilize the order. Please contact us for details. Send people to discuss the solution in Pingping.During this period of turning around, I hope that you will not be embarrassed by the way of disarming.After this stage, it is up to Mr. to decide how the army will deal with it. I hope that the facts can be taken into account and handled properly. I believe that Mr. Wang's political views and demeanor will greatly contribute to the stability of the country. After Cui Zaizhi saw this telegram, he knew that Fu Zuoyi still insisted on his original idea, that is, he could not lay down his arms, he still wanted to electrify the whole country, and he still wanted to form a coalition government, which was far from the conditions discussed by Liu Yalou.For this reason, on the one hand, he forwarded the telegram to Su Jing, and asked the Pingjin Front Command to forward it to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; Basic conditions, otherwise the negotiation will fail.Fu Zuoyi never sent another telegram to Cui Zaizhi, but Li Tengjiu, the director of Fu Zuoyi's liaison office, sent a telegram asking Cui Zaizhi to return to Beiping to report on his work.Cui Zaizhi went back to Peiping alone, while Li Bingquan and the radio station remained in Balizhuang, maintaining this direct communication channel between the two parties. The first negotiation on the peaceful settlement of the North China issue came to an end.Strictly speaking, this negotiation ended in failure, because although Fu Zuoyi wanted to take the road of peace, it was very difficult for him to completely abandon the old concepts formed over the years, and it was also very difficult for him to quickly accept our party's propositions. Difficult, this requires a process.For Fu Zuoyi, it must be a very painful process. According to Li Shijie, Fu Zuoyi's chief of staff, during this period, Fu Zuoyi's ideological struggle was very intense. He walked up and down all day, and repeatedly asked three questions to discuss with his close subordinates: (1) Is the peace talk a surrender? (2) Can one still be a human being without morality? (3) Is our past history over?One day in late December, Fu Zuoyi said to Li Shijie: "Prepare for war! The conditions of the two parties are too far apart to discuss at all." In this way, Fu Zuoyi's repetition on the peace issue was fully reflected. The failure of the first peace talks quickly spread among Fu Zuoyi's senior generals.Under such circumstances, Fu Zuoyi had no choice but to entrust Li Shijie and some senior generals to study the peace talks separately, that is, to solicit opinions separately.The result is: Deputy Commander-in-Chief Guo Zongfen believes that as long as the fortifications are repaired, Beiping City can still be defended, and there is no need for peace talks at present; Deputy Chief of Staff Liang Shuzai agrees to make peace, but believes that peace cannot be made alone, and it is best to negotiate with the largest non-Chiang in the Kuomintang. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi from the direct line of the Guangxi faction get in touch and act in unison, which is conducive to negotiating conditions with the Communist Party; Zheng Xiaolan, the deputy chief of staff, clearly expresses his disapproval of the peace talks; and the one who fully supports the peace talks is An Chunshan, the commander of the 104th Army who was a prisoner , Zhu Dachun, deputy commander of the 35th Army, and Liu Chunfang, commander of the Fourth Cavalry Division. Fu Zuoyi can have repetitions, and Fu Zuoyi's subordinates can have disagreements. These should be normal phenomena.However, China at this time was in a period of rapid change in the history of the Chinese nation, and changes in all aspects were developing at an extraordinary speed.Just when Fu Zuoyi was indecisive, a series of major events happened that forced Fu Zuoyi to undergo drastic changes: On December 11, the 104th Army, one of Fu Zuoyi's three main forces, was wiped out while fleeing south from Huailai. On December 14, our army completed the siege of Peiping. On December 14, under the strong pressure of our army, Fu Zuoyi had to move his general headquarters from the western suburbs of Beiping to Zhongnanhai in the city. On December 20th, I Dongye cut off the transportation line between Tianjin and Tanggu, and the possibility of the Kuomintang troops in the Beijing-Tianjin area withdrawing from the sea to the south no longer existed. On December 22, another main force of the 35th Army, which Fu Zuoyi relied on, was wiped out in Xinbaoan, and the commander Guo Jingyun committed suicide. On December 24, the 11th Corps, the only corps in Fu Zuoyi's system, and the 105th Army, the third main force, were wiped out in Zhangjiakou. Yuan Qingrong, the commander of the 105th Army, was captured, and Zhangjiakou was liberated by our army.So far, Fu Zuoyi's three main forces have all been wiped out. On December 25, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced the list of 43 top war criminals of the Kuomintang group, and Fu Zuoyi was among them. Simultaneously with the above-mentioned situation on the North China battlefield, the following major events are also happening in other places on the land of China: On December 10, the Chiang Kai-shek regime, which had completely collapsed on all fronts, declared martial law across the country. On December 15, the Huangwei Corps on the Huaihai battlefield was wiped out.Before that, on December 4, the Du Yuming Group was completely surrounded by our army. On December 24th and 30th, Bai Chongxi, the commander-in-chief of the Central China "Suppression General" of the Kuomintang, sent telegrams twice, advocating "seeking peace with the Communist Party." It can be said that each of the above-mentioned series of major events is forcing Fu Zuoyi to make a decisive decision and vote for the people's camp, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous.Therefore, in this general environment, it is impossible for him to take the road of recalcitrance, and he can only advance step by step on the road of peacefully resolving the North China issue. At the same time as the above-mentioned major events, within Fu Zuoyi's troops in Beiping, there also occurred a small event that Fu Zuoyi did not know at the time: not only Fu Zuoyi was considering taking the road of peace, but even the "suppression of the general" in North China In the sequence, the Ninety-two Army, which belongs to Chiang Kai-shek's direct lineage, and the First Brigade of the Armored Corps are all conducting peace negotiations with the People's Liberation Army behind Fu Zuoyi's back.Even the thirty-fifth army of Fu Zuoyi's direct descendant was preparing for an uprising. The 92nd Army originally belonged to the 17th Corps under the command of Hou Jingru, and was originally stationed in Tianjin. At the beginning of December, in order to rescue the 35th Army stationed in Xinbao, Fu Zuoyi transferred the 104th Army and 16th Army stationed near Peiping to Huailai and Kangzhuang. Feeling empty in Beiping, he transferred the 92nd Army to In the southern suburbs of Beiping, the military headquarters was stationed at Dahongmen, and the army commander Huang Xiang lived in Wangfujing Tizi Hutong in the city.When Beiping was surrounded by our army, Huang Xiang knew that he had become a bird in a cage and a turtle in an urn, and he was very anxious.At this time, Zhang Boquan, commander of the 21st Division of the 92nd Army, had contacted Xue Chengye and Li Jieren, underground members of our party, and was preparing to stage an uprising at an appropriate time.Zhang Boquan also accepted the arrangement of my underground party organization, and asked Ji Hong, an underground party member, to go to his headquarters as an adjutant in the staff office, responsible for liaison on related matters.According to the request of my underground party organization, Zhang Boquan took Li Jieren, who had worked in the 92nd Army, to work for Huang Xiang, and asked him to lead his troops to revolt.Since Li Jieren was originally Hou Jingru's nephew, and Hou Jingru had contact with the underground organization of the Communist Party of China as early as August 1948, he had hinted to Huang Xiang that he could vote for the Communist Party if necessary.Huang Xiang agreed to the uprising, so on December 21 he sent lieutenant colonel staff officer Song Quanxia and Ji Hong out of the city to contact the People's Liberation Army.Song Quanxia and Ji Hong arrived at the headquarters of the East Field Three Columns in Majuqiao at that time, and met Xiao Jinguang, the commander of the East Field One Corps, and other responsible persons.After the negotiation, the two sides agreed that from now on, the 92nd Army and the People's Liberation Army would cease fire first, and that the 92nd Army should wait for instructions for future actions.If an attempt to revolt is discovered and the 92nd Army is in danger, the troops can be brought to the People's Liberation Army-occupied area.But a few days later, the Nanyuan Airport, which was guarded by the 92nd Army, was captured by the People's Liberation Army.Fu Zuoyi ordered the Ninety-two Army to recover.Because a ceasefire agreement with the People's Liberation Army was reached only a few days ago, Huang Xiang felt very embarrassed.But Fu Zuoyi's order had to be carried out.Huang Xiang had no choice but to order the 21st Division to perform a counterattack mission.Zhang Boquan, the commander of the 21st Division, accepted the task on the surface and sent a regiment. In fact, the regiment only sent a company to feign an attack and then withdrew. Fu Zuoyi didn't know the details, but he only knew that the Ninety-two Army's counterattack was ineffective, and he cursed at the Ninety-two Army: "They are not fighting, they are just putting on a show!" Of course Fu Zuoyi didn't know that Huang Xiang and Zhang Boquan were indeed putting on a show.If he does not take the path of peace, others will. The Kuomintang army has an armored corps in Beiping that uses all armored vehicles. It has three brigades, namely, the first brigade, the second brigade, and the fourth brigade, which are respectively responsible for stationing Qianmen, Yongdingmen, Guang'anmen and Xizhimen in Beiping.The captain of the First Brigade was Yu Weizhe, who used to be a member of the Communist Party of China, but later lost contact with the organization.At this time, after many efforts, he finally connected with Wei Yan, an underground party member.After Wei Yan reported to his superiors, the higher-level party organization sent Wang Su, who was in charge of the enemy's work in Beiping, to contact Yu Weizhe specifically.After a period of work, Yu Weizhe persuaded a squadron of the Fourth Brigade and the Second Brigade of the Iron Armor Corps. They had agreed that as soon as the People's Liberation Army launched an attack on Beiping, they would immediately revolt, turn the car around, and attack from inside and outside. Clearing the way ahead can also block the temporary airport built by Fu Zuoyi in Dongdan. The 35th Army is the direct descendant of Fu Zuoyi's direct line. When the 35th Army rescued Zhangjiakou, only two divisions went there, so the two divisions that were wiped out in Xinbaoan, and the 262nd Division was not dispatched. , still staying in Peiping, staying by Fu Zuoyi's side.After the two divisions of the 35th Army were wiped out, Fu Zuoyi rebuilt two divisions in Beiping with local troops and restored the 35th Army. Ding Zongxian, deputy commander of the army, concurrently served.This is the deputy army commander Ding Zongxian, who is an old friend with Feng Jiechen, the manager of the Beiping Enterprise Company. After my underground party member Du Renzhi did some work for Ding Zongxian through Feng Jiechen and Mr. Liu Houtong, Ding Zongxian expressed his willingness to take the road of peace. The People's Liberation Army's peace talks broke down, and his 262nd Division must have a separate uprising between Deshengmen and Andingmen where it was stationed. As long as the People's Liberation Army launches an attack on the city, the 262nd Division will cooperate internally and externally to welcome the People's Liberation Army into the city.In order to express their mutual commitment, Ding Zongxian and Feng Jiechen formed a brotherly alliance at the Shandong Hotel.When Du Renzhi learned about these situations, he asked Fu Zuoyi's deputy director of the office and deputy director of the political affairs department, Yan Youwen, to tell Fu Zuoyi: "If the general wants to put all his eggs in one basket and stick to Peiping, his subordinates are not very reliable. As a result, the people will betray their relatives and leave their relatives. lead to failure." These words could not have no effect on Fu Zuoyi.