After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Liberation, after more than three years of fighting, we finally won a hard-won victory. Although many Kuomintang war criminals later fled to Taiwan, many others became prisoners and were imprisoned.
In order to better carry out ideological and political transformation of these war criminals, we have also established a special war criminals management center.
At that time, there were the Beijing War Criminals Management Center, the Fushun War Criminals Management Center, and the Shandong War Criminals Management Center, which held some high-ranking Kuomintang generals, such as Huang Wei and Du Luming, and was later called Gongdelin.
In 1948, according to the documents issued at the time, as long as one of the 12 crimes listed in the document was committed, it would be treated as a war criminal. Later, in 1952, he put forward opinions on the treatment of different types of war criminals. Later, he proposed not to deal with the Kuomintang war criminals for the time being, and to wait for the right time.
It was not until 1956 that the policy of not killing and educating and reforming the Kuomintang prisoners was decided. But before 1956, there were still some heinous war criminals executed, what crimes did they commit, and why were they executed before the amnesty?
At that time, there were many Kuomintang generals in Gongdelin who not only refused to accept reform, refused to admit their crimes, but also tried to commit suicide. Later, with the deepening of educational reform, great changes have also taken place in the thinking of some people. Although some people reflect on their own problems, the list of crimes committed is too numerous to mention.
In 1954, three war criminals were executed, Zhang Zhankui, Liu Peixu and Han Buzhou.
Zhang Zhankui, born in 1897 in Shangcai County, Henan Province, was very poor when he was a child, after he was born, a family of six people lived in two broken grass houses, when the father in order to support the children, he could only use a broken burden to carry the two children of the family to walk through the streets and alleys to ask for food.
The family often went hungry and had a full meal, but later Zhang Zhankui grew up a little and was able to go out to work for others, so the family had a little fixed income. And the reason why Zhang Zhankui joined the army is also because he can eat enough if he joins the army. At that time, Feng Yuxiang came to Zhoujiakou to recruit troops, and Zhang Zhankui signed up for the army in order to have something to eat.
However, soon after joining the army, Zhang Zhankui's wit and courage were revealed, and he started from a reserve soldier who only ate and did not pay salary, and worked all the way to the brigade commander of the 14th Brigade of the Kuomintang Cavalry.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Zhankui did perform well, and in the defense of Zhoujiakou, he defeated the Japanese with fewer enemies and more enemies.
At the beginning of April 1938, the Japanese army bombed Zhoujiakou one after another, and Zhang Zhankui's team was responsible for garrisoning. Before the Japanese attack, the organization also sent Zhang Xia and others to Zhang Zhankui's team to carry out anti-war work and publicize the anti-Japanese war.
At that time, Zhang Zhankui's team was also in very difficult conditions, with only four small cannons and six heavy machine guns, and there were only more than 1,000 people in the team. In one Japanese attack in October, there were about 4,000 people in one brigade. However, at that time, Zhang Zhankui and his soldiers were inspired by the propaganda of the Anti-Japanese War, and Zhang Zhankui also bluntly said in his speech to all the officers and soldiers that they could not be slaves of the country, but must fight to the end to defend their hometown.
But it was also such a general who was called an anti-Japanese hero by the people of Zhoujiakou at that time, and finally embarked on the road of no return. After Zhang Zhankui joined the army, he has been in Feng Yuxiang's army. Although Feng Yuxiang had later accepted the leadership of the Kuomintang, because of the internal contradictions of the Kuomintang, there were constant disagreements between Feng Yuxiang and Chiang Kai-shek.
Later, it led to the outbreak of the Central Plains War, when Zhang Zhankui was still under Feng Yuxiang's command, but after losing the battle in the Central Plains War, Zhang Zhankui stood in Chiang Kai-shek's team, which is why when Chiang Kai-shek was liquidated later, Zhang Zhankui was not only not affected, but rose step by step.
Later, Zhang Zhankui followed Chiang Kai-shek and began to actively **, in order to better confront the PLA, Zhang Zhankui was not only a Communist, but also returned to his hometown to recruit more than 2,000 people into the team. But in the end, it turned out that the victory was ours.
In 1949, during the battle to liberate Nanjing, Zhang Zhankui was captured and imprisoned in Gongdelin. Around 54 years, the anti-rebellion movement broke out, although Zhang Zhankui had a performance in the War of Resistance, but the crime was difficult to extinguish, hateful, and finally executed.
Liu Peixu, who was executed in the same year as Zhang Zhankui, also defected. Liu Peixu is different from Zhang Zhankui in that his background is not low, he graduated from the Baoding Army Military Academy, and was later assigned to the 26th Regiment of the Ninth Division of the Beijing Army. Later, because of his good performance, he was transferred to the Eighth Mixed Brigade of the Henan Army, and this team happened to be in the hands of Wu Peifu.
At that time, warlords were constantly fighting, and for middle-level officers like Liu Peixu, it became commonplace to see the opportunity to change their courts. At that time, under the persuasion of Tang Shengzhi of the Northern Expeditionary Army, Liu Peixu also planned to seize Wu Peifu's arms train. After this incident, Liu Peixu was captured in a battle with the Feng department.
During his captivity, he happened to meet his former classmates, so he joined the Feng department, and later he was transferred to the team of Yan Xishan and Tang Shengzhi. But Tang Shengzhi was anti-Chiang at that time, although Liu Peixu also followed Tang Shengzhi to participate in several anti-Chiang battles one after another. However, after Tang Shengzhi's defeat, Liu Peixu was captured again and soon joined Chiang Kai-shek's ranks.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Liu Peixu retreated from Shanghai to Hubei in the face of the Japanese offensive, which made Chiang Kai-shek very dissatisfied. Knowing that he was no longer reused by Chiang Kai-shek, he came to Hong Kong on the pretext of recuperating from illness, and secretly planned anti-Chiang activities.
After joining Wang Jingwei's command, Liu Peixu not only became a traitor lackey, but also began to cultivate traitors. Later, Liu Peixu felt that he couldn't earn a way out with Wang Jingwei, so he began to contact the military command spy organization to assassinate Wang Jiangwei. After a failed assassination, he went into hiding in Beijing, disguised as a businessman.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China He also planned riots and robberies many times, and was later arrested and imprisoned in Gongdelin. In 1954, this traitor, who had defected many times, finally came to trial and was sentenced to death.
Similar to Liu Peixu's background, Han Buzhou also graduated from the Military Academy, and as a native of Shanxi, he joined Yan Xishan very early.
Similar to Zhang Zhankui's experience, Han Buzhou also performed very well during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, not only brave and good at fighting, but also made great achievements, so he was constantly promoted, becoming the commander of the second guerrilla column in the second theater at that time, and later became the commander of the Fifth Army of Fang Jun in Shanxi Province.
But I didn't expect that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Han Buzhou, who had a good cooperative relationship with our army. During the Liberation War, he sided with the enemy and became an executioner.
According to relevant records, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression at that time, our troops were ready to take over Datong. However, with the connivance of Chiang Kai-shek and Yan Xishan, Datong not only refused to surrender, but also slaughtered people in the city.
Later, Han Buzhou received Yan Xishan's order to arrive in Datong, and in order to be able to take over Datong, Yan Xishan reached an "agreement" with the Japanese army in Datong, and the Japanese army in Datong could not hold a surrender ceremony.
As Yan Xishan's right-hand man, Han Buzhou was ordered to occupy some county towns in Shanxi, and after Yan Xishan's troops occupied the county seat, they also invaded and harassed the local liberated areas, and even connived at the robbery of troops.
After the outbreak of the Taiyuan Battle in 1948, in more than six months, we had more than 40,000 people. Many experts evaluate the Battle of Taiyuan as the most difficult battle of all cities. During this period, our equipment and personnel suffered heavy losses. And Han Buzhou, who was in charge of garrisoning, was completely on our hostile side.
Resist in the corner too far away, stubborn. But fortunately, in the end, we still won the Battle of Taiyuan, and Han Buzhou also became a prisoner. After being defeated and captured, Han Buzhou was also sent to Beijing Gongdelin for reform.
Although Han Buzhou was meritorious during the Anti-Japanese War, because of the huge losses he caused us during the Liberation War, it was also difficult for Han Buzhou to forgive his crimes, and he was executed during the anti-rebellion movement in 1954.
It is also said that because of the fact that Han Buzhou made great contributions during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and later had a better effect of education and reform, he was transferred to the general corps of the North China Military Region Officer Training Corps to study, but because Han Buzhou was not in good health, he died not long after.
Although some of these three Kuomintang war criminals had outstanding performances during the War of Resistance Against Japan, they committed unforgivable crimes during the War of Liberation, which led them to such a fate. Compared with them, many Kuomintang war criminals were included in the later amnesty list because of the remarkable effect of their transformation in Gongdelin.
And contributed a lot to the construction of New China, some became members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, some focused on literature and history, and some became lecturers in military academies. The reason why they were able to become builders of socialism again was that they deeply felt what kind of new China had taken on under the leadership of the party.
They saw how the people of New China united to build the country, and they also reflected on their past mistakes from the new look, and confessed their crimes with deep sorrow, so they were forgiven.
It can be seen that our policy towards war criminals and prisoners has always been very lenient, especially for these past enemies, and it is more difficult and more effective to change their mentality than to blindly pursue their crimes.