During the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, many children of the Kuomintang senior ** were not proud of the rule of the Kuomintang, but showed great interest in the Communist Party and played an important role in the liberation cause. They used their identities to engage in underground work, transmit important information, and made outstanding contributions to the cause of liberation. For example, Fu Zuoyi's daughter, Fu Dong, played an important role in the peaceful liberation of Beiping, passing on many key intelligence information. Another example is Zhao Zongfu, the son of Zhao Daiwen, the former Minister of the Interior and the Dean of the Supervision.
Under the influence of the Communist Party, Zhao Zongfu chose the path of fighting for the liberation of the country. He was born in 1915 and is a native of Wutai County, Shanxi. Because of his father's power within the Kuomintang, Zhao Zongfu's childhood was relatively happy and provided him with the basis for exposure to progressive ideas. During his time at Jinshan Middle School, he was exposed to more progressive ideas and met a group of progressives.
Zhao Zongfu was extremely interested in the revolutionary wave of the National Revolution, and he received a great deal of progressive ideas in his school, and he was also influenced by communist and Marxist ideas. Through extensive reading of newspapers and books, he saw clearly the reactionary nature of Chiang Kai-shek and gained a more objective understanding of the Kuomintang. After the September 18 Incident, the three northeastern provinces gradually fell, which made Zhao Zongfu's view of the Kuomintang more objective and deepened his devotion to the cause of national liberation.
The Kuomintang adhered to the policy of "non-resistance" and made "suppressing the Communists" its top priority. Zhao Zongfu was even more disappointed by the KMT's inaction, especially after learning that his compatriots had been brutalized. He decided to join the Communist Party, because at that time a large-scale demonstration was held in Shanxi Province, hoping that the people would take into account the overall situation to resist Japan, but the "volunteers" of the Kuomintang in Shanxi Province opened fire on their unarmed patriotic compatriots, triggering the "December 18" incident, which made Zhao Zongfu completely realize the reactionary nature of the Kuomintang.
At the same time, he made many acquaintances with Communist Party members in Jinshan Middle School, and was influenced and introduced by Zhang Panshi, so he made up his mind to join the Communist Party of China. Once he joined the Communist Party, Zhao Zongfu not only did not relax his theoretical study, but also successfully became a teacher in Jinshan Middle School with the help of his father's relationship with Yan Xishan. At school, he repeatedly promoted progressive ideas, warned his classmates that the country was facing a crisis, and composed a school song to encourage them.
In addition to his educational work, he also insisted on underground work, often collecting internal intelligence of the Kuomintang in the name of visiting his father. In 1943, Zhao Zongfu's father Zhao Daiwen died of illness, and the following year when he went to Yan'an, he was personally received, and he also encouraged him to inherit his father's will and go back to support Yan Xishan to persist in resisting Japan. However, with the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Yan Xishan returned to power and implemented conservative policies, brutally suppressing progressives and undermining the democratic revolutionary movement, much to Zhao Zongfu's heartache.
He continued to spread progressive ideas and expose the reactionary nature of the Kuomintang at the Jinshan Middle School, but this news soon aroused the hatred of the Kuomintang reactionaries. Zhao Zongfu later served as the director of the Shanxi Provincial Information Department and the director of the ** Education Department, and used his legal status to transmit a large amount of information during his tenure, laying the foundation for the liberation of the Communist Party in Taiyuan. With the continuous advancement of the Liberation War, the situation of the liberation of Shanxi has become more urgent.
Yan Xishan gradually realized that Zhao Zongfu might be a member of the Communist Party, so he tried to use him to negotiate terms, hoping to get leniency. However, Zhao Zongfu unwaveringly stated that "personal safety is a trivial matter", which angered Yan Xishan and eventually led to Zhao Zongfu being imprisoned. It is worth mentioning that considering the relationship between Zhao Zongfu's father and Yan Xishan, Yan did not directly execute him. In 1949, the People's Liberation Army finally liberated Taiyuan, and Zhao Zongfu was rescued.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he devoted himself to the cause of national education, served as the first dean of Taiyuan Institute of Technology, and made great contributions to the cultivation of talents in New China. However, after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, he was not spared. The rebels seized on the fact that his father was a Kuomintang **, and even dug up the so-called "black material" to insult him, claiming that he was a counter-revolutionary, and did not mention anything about his contribution to the liberation. On June 21, 1966, Zhao Zongfu's body was found in the school, and the cause of his death is still unknown.
In those crazy times, a person's death was not seen as a big deal. After the Gang of Four was crushed, ** began to implement the policy and finally rehabilitated Zhao Zongfu.