Chapter 56 3. Chiang Kai-shek "Killing the People and Raising the Soldiers"

Changchun was originally the granary of the Songliao Plain, rich in products. During the Puppet Manchukuo period, it was the political and economic center of the entire Northeast. In the most prosperous period, the population once exceeded 600,000. After the Japanese surrendered, there were still 500,000. In May 1946, after the Kuomintang army entered Changchun, there has been constant fighting here. Many people have moved out, and there are also many landlords who fled from the countryside to escape the land reform. A large number of Kuomintang military and political personnel and their families have also increased. .By March 1948, the total number of soldiers and civilians in the city was estimated to be around 600,000 according to the Changchun Municipal Government.After Siping was captured, a large number of Kuomintang military and political personnel in Changchun fled abroad. Some ordinary people also moved to the countryside seeing that Changchun was besieged, and the population decreased.When it was completely besieged by the PLA in June, the entire population of the city was estimated to be around 500,000.

Among them, the army has 100,000 people, the regular army of the Kuomintang army has 60,000 people, various local wandering troops and various bandits who fled from the countryside into the city (Zheng Dongguo once organized two brigades in order to manage these people. can't really manage) and the logistics staff add up to 40,000 people.About 500,000 people have to eat, burn, and keep warm when it gets cold every day, which has become the most important and most difficult problem in the city.The New Seventh Army was originally stationed in Changchun, and they collected some grain and horse feed, so it was not a big problem.The Sixtieth Army retreated from Jilin and Yongji to Changchun in March, and they had no family background.When they first entered the city, the New Seventh Army distributed some soybeans and bean cakes as horse feed to the Sixtieth Army.

In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Zheng Dongguo made great efforts to purchase 1.5 million kilograms of military rations, and the Changchun Municipal Government also bought 500,000 kilograms of soybeans.So the army still had some grain to eat at first, but later they could only eat horse feed mixed with grain, and finally even the soldiers of the 60th Army could not eat enough.The only external support is airdrops.According to estimates by experts from the Associated Press at the time, it would take 40 airdrops per day to barely meet the needs of the city.But at that time, the civilian airliners arranged by the Kuomintang government could only come four times a day at most, and the air force's planes were not many, usually nine times a day.However, we were unable to come due to bad weather, or because our army had anti-aircraft artillery and did not dare to come, and because the air force originally stationed in Changchun had conflicts with the New Seventh Army, the air force was unwilling to work hard, so The airdrops were carried out at high altitude with an extremely irresponsible attitude, and food was often dropped on the PLA positions outside the city.According to incomplete statistics, our army got more than 3,000 bags of rice alone, and all the temporary venues for our army's meetings were made of enemy parachutes.In September, the KMT's Northeast "Suppression General" actually claimed that "both engine oil shortages", and even the symbolic airdrop could not be maintained.According to the Kuomintang army's own statistics, during the entire Changchun siege, the Changchun defenders received only 300 tons of airdropped food, and the average amount of food on each soldier's head was only 6 catties, which is a veritable drop in the bucket.Under such circumstances, the food in Changchun City must be getting less and less day by day.In spring, sorghum rice in Changchun City sold for a few yuan a catty, and in July it sold for 36.5 million yuan (10,000 yuan at the time was about 1 yuan today) a catty.Someone made a calculation at that time, and there were about 30,000 grains of sorghum rice per catty, so each grain of sorghum rice was worth 1,200 yuan.At the most difficult time, there was no grain to sell, and occasionally someone who made a fortune from hoarding grain sold it for 100 million yuan a catty.A bundle of green grass is also exchanged for a bundle of banknotes, and a gold bracelet is only exchanged for a small steamed bun.Those 10,000-yuan bills that were airdropped were of no use at all.

Of course the people who suffer the most are the common people.The Changchun Municipal Government made a survey in April 1948 and believed that all the food in the city could only be eaten until July. After July, let alone the people, even the army cannot guarantee it.The commanders of the 60th Army and 6 divisions of the New Seventh Army stationed in the city jointly sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek.Chiang Kai-shek’s call back still required the Changchun defenders to stick to it. What did they say in the telegram, “I treat you and my soldiers like brothers and nephews, and I have not forgotten your hardships for a moment. But if you are not prepared, the reinforcements will be killed on the way.” Annihilated. I hope you will endure hardships and support them to the end."Regarding the food issue, Chiang Kai-shek came up with a very vicious idea, which was to call Zheng Dongguo to "kill the people and support the soldiers".The specific method is to ask the Changchun Municipal Government to forcibly confiscate all the grain in the households of the common people, and not allow any grain transactions in the market, and then the government will distribute the grain according to the individual.Obviously, this method is to collect all the food of the common people for military use.

Zheng Dongguo handed over the problem to Changchun Mayor Shang Preacher.Seeing the telegram sent by Chiang Kai-shek, Shang preached that he was determined not to do this.Shang said: "Under the current situation, I cannot guarantee that the municipal staff will not be corrupted and extorted. The result will be unbearable harassment." More importantly, "The so-called collection of materials and food is based on dictation, regardless of whether they receive it or not. Anyway, we can only eat until the end of July, and after August, there will be no food to give!"what to do?There must always be a way to implement Chiang Kai-shek's plan.After much deliberation, the Headquarters of the First Corps and the Jilin Provincial Government jointly formulated and issued a "Draft of Interim Measures for Wartime Changchun Grain Control". , half of the surplus must be sold as military rations, and the other half must be sold in the market; the food control committees of the street protection organizations will inspect and implement the above situation; all sales of grain must be at the price agreed by the government, and prices are not allowed to be raised; if there is any violation The offenders were severely punished, up to the death penalty.In fact, the above-mentioned methods did not have much effect. At the beginning, there was still a little grain sold, but the price was high; when there was no grain to sell, the above-mentioned method was equal to zero.By July, there was simply no food to sell in the city.

There is also a problem that ordinary people can hardly think of. At that time, there was no commercial circulation in the city. Strictly speaking, the concept of "buying and selling" has been deformed or actually impossible to exist.Because the so-called buying and selling at that time was actually just trying to buy grain. When the price of grain had changed from a few yuan per catty to 100 million yuan per catty, the original banknotes had lost any effect.Zheng Dongguo had no choice but to issue a kind of "promissory note" by the Changchun Branch of the Central Bank of the Kuomintang in the city. The number of notes increased from hundreds of thousands at the beginning to tens of billions.Who can have such a promissory note?Of course the common people do not, only the army and the government that issue promissory notes do.So during this period of time in Changchun City, the army and the government actually used a piece of paper printed and distributed by themselves to plunder the common people, and some people who held real power even made a fortune at this time.According to Changchun Mayor Shang’s recollection:

Due to the excessive issuance of large promissory notes, prices in Changchun were ten, hundred, or even a thousand times higher than those in the Kuomintang-ruled areas of the pass.The military and political leaders of the Kuomintang in Changchun remitted tens of billions and hundreds of billions of money to Beiping, Shanghai, Changsha, Kunming and other places.The tens or hundreds of billions of money in Changchun are only worth a few catties or tens of catties of sorghum rice, but when remitted to the mainland, they can be exchanged for tens or hundreds of taels of gold.Therefore, they used the blood and tears of the Changchun people to make a fortune.As far as I know, the food stored by the three divisions of the New Seventh Army can survive the winter.

The 60th Army was in a more difficult situation. In October, it was close to the last moment, but there were no reports of soldiers starving to death.As for the officials above the junior level of civil servants and above the head of the military attache, they still live a corrupt life of rice, white noodles, fish and meat, and full food all day long. When it is impossible to buy grain, the army is the first to start grabbing grain.Anyone who saw ordinary people's food in their homes would rob it, and even robbed it when they saw smoke in their homes, so that poor people did not dare to cook if they had a little food.At this time, the Kuomintang air force dropped grain into the city at most nine sorties a day, and the armies in the city fought each other every day to grab the airdropped grain. Some troops boiled water in a large pot every day. Grab the airdropped food and pour it into the pot to prevent other troops from snatching it.People who had no food to eat began to eat various substitutes, first to eat distiller's grains in the distillery, and then to eat grass roots, bark, and leaves, and even scrambled for leaves on the ground.In Changchun City, a bundle of banknotes can only be exchanged for a bundle of grass, and a big cake can be exchanged for a big girl.In addition to the lack of food, another big problem is the lack of fuel. First, houses were demolished, coffins were dug, and later the bitumen on the asphalt road was dug up to make fuel.Under such circumstances, the number of deaths due to starvation gradually appeared and gradually increased, and there were even incidents of selling human flesh.

When the hunger in Changchun City became more and more serious in late July, Zheng Dongguo received an order from Chiang Kai-shek, still asking him to stick to Changchun. supply the army.Knowing that Changchun has been surrounded by our Dongye army and cannot enter and leave freely, this method is to drive the hungry people to our army's guns as long as Changchun does not want people from Changchun.This is Chiang Kai-shek's further "killing the people and raising the soldiers". In order to implement Chiang Kai-shek's order and ease the difficulties of life in the city, Zheng Dongguo ordered his subordinates to take various measures to drive the residents out of the city.In order to achieve this goal, the military and political personnel of the Kuomintang adopted various means.The first is to drive them away by force.Those who have no food at home, those who are unemployed, those who violate the laws and regulations, prisoners in prisons, beggars, disabled, and those without status are all driven out by force.There was even an indicator that one policeman would drive away 8 people, one security chief would drive away 3 families, and even the public officials of the original Kuomintang government had to be driven out of the city as teachers.The second is incitement, saying "The Communist Party is for you poor people, go out and find the Communist Party"!The third is spreading rumors.At one point they said, "July 1 is the birthday of the Communist Party, and the People's Liberation Army released the card for three days, so they can leave the city at will";Anyone who issued a card will be searched, and any food will also be searched.Moreover, anyone who is stuck will not be allowed to enter again.In this way, a large number of hungry people swarmed out of Changchun. At first, our sentries still did not allow them to leave the city, and our army had already built barbed wire and dug trenches on the lines set around the encirclement.However, when these hungry people left the city, their identity cards were confiscated by the Kuomintang army guarding the city, and they resolutely prevented them from returning to the city by force.

In this way, a large number of hungry people in Changchun who could not get out or get in were stranded in the "vacuum zone" between the two armies.In August, our siege troops once released some, and more than 20,000 hungry people left the blockade in three days.But the number is increasing, reaching tens of thousands by September.