Chapter 24 Section 3 "December 1" tragedy

Li Zonghuang, who ascended to the throne of the temporary "Grand Official of Borderlands", originally hated the old forces of Longyun and his connivance of pro-communist elements such as the Democratic League, and his own character was rebellious. He is upright and honest, with a bold and decisive style", "has the revolutionary spirit of never bowing to evil forces".This caused Li to always maintain a fierce mentality during the student riot incident, that is, the more the "treacherous party" conspirators incited the students to make trouble, the more I, Li Zonghuang, would confront them!Even after the massacre, Li still insisted that the student movement was directed at him, the interim provincial chairman, and that the old forces of Long Yun colluded with the Communist Party to prevent him from controlling the military and political power in Yunnan. A hooligan act of trouble and trouble.Therefore, at the beginning of taking office, in order to show his loyalty to the party and Chiang Kai-shek, and to nip possible anti-government student movements in the bud, Li Zonghuang decided to take severe measures from the very beginning, and joined hands with Guan Lin, the commander-in-chief of the Kunming garrison, and the Fifth Army. Army commander Qiu Qingquan used the army, police, secret agents, and the backbone of the Kuomintang party group to use the dual tactics of sabotage and intimidation, which made most teachers and students fearful and retreated despite difficulties. On the evening of the 25th, when the students changed the meeting place to the lawn in front of the UNU Library to continue their speech, Li Zonghuang immediately ordered his party agents to take turns to counterattack as planned, and persuaded Qiu Qingquan to dispatch the Fifth Army The officers and soldiers disrupted the demonstration with drastic measures of firing guns and cannons, in order to intimidate the students and make them afraid to go out for demonstrations.

Later, some researchers analyzed that Li Zonghuang, Guan Linzheng and others were indeed most afraid of students rushing out of the campus to march that night, and a professor from Southwest Associated University told Li in advance that this kind of campus assembly is a normal activity, and it usually takes It will end late at night, and it is impossible to hold high lanterns and torches in the streets and alleys to demonstrate in the middle of the night.However, Li, Guan and others, who are highly sensitive and vigilant, firmly believe that this statement is just the opinion of nerds or fools who are ignorant of the routines of world affairs and political struggle, and it is not reliable. They are more willing to believe what their spies intercepted. The secret information about the echoes between Yan'an and Kunming.

It is this kind of self-righteous and somewhat neurotic stubbornness, as well as the so-called "countermeasures" backed by force and unconstrained style, that aroused strong reactions from students in various schools.Plans for the parade had been cancelled.The students who never thought of going on strike, instead, experienced humiliation and extreme righteous indignation, started a strike movement on the second day demanding "removal of the illegal ban on assemblies and parades" and "protection of freedom of speech and body". At the critical point when the school strike wave formed a huge wave and threatened to burst the dike, the "Liberation Daily", the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the Chongqing "Xinhua Daily" rushed to the wind and published the "Notice to the Nation" drafted by the Kunming "Strike Union". Compatriots" and other strong words of appeal. "Xinhua Daily" even made a generous statement and published an editorial, pointing out that "these requirements are very gentle and reasonable", and the authorities' actions are really too domineering and outrageous.Afterwards, the school strike wave broke out in an instant with a monstrous momentum, and began to spread to vast areas outside Kunming.

The sudden rise of the student movement, like thunder rising from the ground, caught the Yunnan authorities by surprise.At this time, Li Zonghuang and others not only did not review and take remedial measures for their improper disposal.On the contrary, they firmly believe that their actions are a real "anti-traitor party" struggle, a glorious portrayal of a fearless revolutionary spirit loyal to the party-state and leaders, and a loyal executor of the leader's will and ideological decisions.As early as the eve of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, when he learned that some students in Kunming were secretly manipulated by the CCP’s underground party and publicly jumped out to call for the formation of a coalition government, Chiang Kai-shek issued a secret order to the Ministry of Education, pointing out unequivocally: "Our country has fought hard for eight years. Soldiers and civilians sacrificed and went through many dangers and hardships to lay the foundation for the final victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Now the counter-offensive is about to begin, and the conspirators who intend to sabotage the Anti-Japanese War see that victory is in sight, take advantage of the opportunity, spread rumors, use false names, and wantonly incite, especially for the The young people in schools are agitating and using them everywhere, hoping to cause student riots, disrupt the wartime order, and weaken the anti-Japanese forces. The government maintains law and order and safeguards law and order, and it is duty-bound. If students in schools around the world are willing to be used by others to disrupt order and launch student riots, the government will regard them as In order to hinder the war against the enemy and hinder the victory of the War of Resistance against the country, it must be dealt with decisively and severely, and there will be no tolerance." The "categorical and severe punishment" mentioned here is naturally like capturing Ah Q who rebelled and started a revolution. Same, "click" means beheading.In Chiang Kai-shek's view, unless such drastic measures are used, it is not enough to stop the behavior of "disaster for the country" and quell the raging student tides everywhere.

Advocating force and using force to resolve student unrest has become a routine for Chiang Kai-shek.Whether it was the student movement across the country after the "September 18th" Incident in 1931, or the student movement before the Xi'an Incident, at the last moment Chiang advocated the use of force at all costs. Just as Chiang said to Zhang Xueliang before the Xi'an Incident: "For Those young people have no choice but to shoot them with guns.” The harsh “countermeasures” adopted by the leaders of the party and state have virtually set an “example” for some high-level members of the Kuomintang, and the power of an “example” is infinite. of.Driven by this inertia of thinking, Li Zonghuang in Kunming believes that it was the series of measures taken by the authorities on the evening of the 25th that effectively prevented the plans of the "traitorous party elements" and "made it impossible to meet purpose of the parade".Regarding the occurrence of the school strike, he believed that it was another organized counterattack by the "treacherous party elements" after they failed to make trouble.The local authorities must take "severe measures" to counter this counterattack, so as to make them make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again, and finally perish.

On the afternoon of November 27, Li Zonghuang once again found Guan Linzheng, Qiu Qingquan and other military generals and secret service leaders to convene a meeting at the provincial party headquarters. They decided to confront each other and organize an anti-strike committee. Zhang Zhuoyu, director of the Political Department of the Fifth Army, is the chief executive. The strike committee consists of intelligence, action, sabotage, and confrontation groups. The leaders of each group are all members of the Kuomintang, the Three Youth League, military political workers, gendarmerie leaders, and key secret agents. .In addition, Ji Tingchen, a student of Yunnan University and secretary of the Yunnan University Branch of the Three Youth League, and Cai Linbi, a student of the Lianhe University and secretary of the Union University Branch of the Three Youth League, served as liaison officers.This time Li, Guan and others put forward a clear program of action, which calls for "organization against organization, propaganda against propaganda, and action against action", spare no effort to suppress the propaganda of "treacherous party", and organize a large number of comrades in the party and youth groups to launch countermeasures. Make it impossible for "treacherous party elements" to smoothly gather and march.If the students insist on strikes, demonstrations, and disruption of order, they will "use force when necessary" until they "shoot" and "suppress this student movement at all costs." On the evening of the 25th, Zha Zongfan, the spy chief who once called himself "Old People of the King", even more nervously incited at the meeting: "Now the party and the country are in crisis, and party members must be loyal to the party and the country. The students of the Union are all the Communist Party, and we Go beat them to death." For a while, the entire Provincial Party Headquarters meeting hall was full of voices and emotions, and a choking smell of blood splattered in the air.

After the meeting, Guan Linzheng sent a secret telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, reporting that four universities in Kunming held current affairs seminars on the evening of the 25th, and staff from the party and youth groups had been sent to control the venue. On the 26th, students from the United Nations University began to instigate a class strike, advocating "organization of a coalition government, cessation of civil war, withdrawal of U.S. troops in China, freedom of speech and assembly, etc., and seduced the workers of the Yudian spinning mill, and some initiated a strike to expand the strike in Kunming and a large-scale joint demonstration. action", etc.Ask for instructions: "In addition to doing everything possible to strictly guard against it, if the reactionary situation expands, parades and demonstrations are carried out, and the government and Junzuo are redoubled, what attitude should we take to deal with it?"

The action plan was quickly reported to Chongqing. After Chiang Kai-shek's attendant received Guan Linzheng's telegram, it was handed over to the party, government and army briefing meeting at the official residence the next day.The meeting made the decision that "the Ministry of Education sent people to persuade the resumption of classes. If the enlightenment is ineffective, it will not hesitate to disband; and it was decided to reorganize the party, government and military reporting organization to deal with the current situation command organization."But before the official document was completed according to the procedure, the "December 1st" tragedy broke out.

Under Li Zonghuang's instigation, starting from November 30th, the organized staff of the Yunnan Provincial Party Headquarters and various provincial branches, military officer corps, and students from the branches of the Fifth Army in Kunming, as well as some special agents, began to work in There were physical conflicts with students who went out to publicize in the streets of Kunming City, and some members of the Party and Youth League entered the campus to forcibly destroy tables and stools for charity sales, tore up slogans, and shouted slogans such as "Down with the Communist Party". Students serve with fists and slaps.At this time, the students did not know that the top KMT officials had issued a secret order to "suppress the student unrest at all costs." When someone asked the spies why they beat people, the spies stared back and asked, "Why didn't I beat them? 80,000 yuan, and there will be a reward of 40,000 yuan for hitting a middle school student." There was arrogance and arrogance in his words, and more than a dozen students were wounded or pierced by bayonets that day, including Professor Wen Yi of the Lianhe University. Duo's son Wen Lihe.The students who were beaten dizzy and dizzy, felt that the atmosphere was not right, returned to school under the instructions of the underground party of the Communist Party of China, closed the school gate, never went out again, and went on strike on campus to show resistance.In the face of this situation, Li Zonghuang, who is self-willed by nature, showed a tougher posture than professional soldiers Guan and Qiu.

At around 9 a.m. on December 1, according to the prearrangement, Li Zonghuang and his assistant Li Yaoting gathered the assistant officers of the various departments of the provincial party department and the party department of the city and county, as well as the plainclothes special agents from the dispatching office to the open space in front of the auditorium. , ready to attack the school in an all-round way.Before leaving, Li Zonghuang personally lectured and cheered up the party members: "In the past when I was running the party in Kunming, the students also made troubles and came to the door. At that time, my officer Ning Bojin and the others were not afraid, and they also beat them. Now, they are attacking us again, this is a great opportunity for everyone to pledge their allegiance to the party and the country, and we must fight back with propaganda for propaganda, blood for blood."

When a large number of bewitched party members were about to leave, Li Zonghuang was still worried, and ordered the head of the guard guarding the gate of the provincial party headquarters to collect the needles and bayonets on all the guns of the guards, hand them to the party members, and hide them around them as murder weapons .Seeing that the needle bayonets were not enough, Li ordered the party members to collect attack and self-defense equipment.Therefore, in the provincial party headquarters, the poles for carrying water in the kitchen, the wooden buckets for holding water, the spoons for cooking, the wooden sticks for lighting the fire, the iron brazes for frying fried dough sticks and kebabs, and the mops for cleaning toilets were all collected for action. .When the party members had attackers in their hands, Li Zonghuang inspected and ordered his confidant Yang Can to lead the team to run to the operation command post of the Three Youth League Headquarters on Ru'an Street, and waited there with the officers, cadets and other soldiers. The spies united with one office and rushed towards Yunnan University, Sino-French University, the new campus of the United Nations University, the National Normal University, the High School Affiliated to the National University, Kunhua Girls' High School, and Nanjing Middle School in a murderous manner. With the backing of Li Zonghuang, hundreds of party members, soldiers, and spies rushed into the school in high spirits. They beat everyone and smashed everything they saw. In a short time, Yuan Fuli, a professor of the Department of Geology of the United Nations University, and more than 20 students were knocked to the ground, screaming.At that time, Yu Zai, a teacher of Nanjing Middle School and a retired military officer, was passing by the gate of the United Nations University. Unfortunately, a grenade fired by a mob knocked him down on the spot, and he was sent to the hospital where he died.At around 12 o'clock that day, under the leadership of Zhou Shen, secretary and head of the Propaganda Section of the Yunnan Branch of the Three Youth League, 40 or 50 special agents forcibly broke into the United Teachers College and threw grenades in the courtyard.There were few students in the Teachers College, and they were caught off guard. Seeing that the opponent was approaching fiercely and abnormally, they had to climb into the Kunhua Industrial School outside the window of the cafeteria to ask for help. The Jedi counterattacked with a wooden stick, which drove a large number of spies out of the school gate.It's just that the gate had just been closed, and it was breached by a large number of party members who followed up, and two grenades were thrown from outside the gate.The smoke rose and the noise passed away. Li Lulian, a student of the Lianhe Normal University, was blown to the ground on the spot. Some students risked their lives to rescue Li and rushed him to Yunda Hospital for emergency treatment.Another female student, Pan Yan, was wounded in the chest by a grenade, her fingers were cut off by shrapnel, and she fell to the ground covered in blood, moaning in pain.Seeing this, one of the thugs acted like a beast. He raised a pointed iron rod and stabbed him three times in the abdomen. Pan passed out and died after being sent to the hospital.Zhang Huachang, a student from the Kunhua Industrial School, was wounded in the head by a grenade and fell on the stone sill of the teacher's college gate, unable to move. A spy stepped forward and raised a wooden stick to hit his head violently. Black and red blood immediately flowed from Zhang's right ear. When it flowed out, white brain matter floated on top of the red color, and "the brain matter and blood have been mixed together, it is hopeless", and he died on the spot.Miao Xianglie, a student from the United Nations University, and Li Yun, a student from the Kunhua Industrial School, were seriously injured by the grenade. Miao lost one of his legs. ——This is the general story of the “December 1” tragedy in Kunming that shocked China and the world.Coincidentally, on the day of the tragedy, Lu Han had already returned to Kunming and officially succeeded Li Zonghuang as the chairman of Yunnan Province.As a result, the relationship between Kunming and Chongqing once again became turbulent, and they fell into a big battle with complex factions, secret identities, and each being their own master.