On May 21, 1947, the eastern Hebei delegation was attacked by bandits when they camped in Chaihulanzi Village, Chixi County (later merged into Chifeng), on their way back from attending the conference. Twenty-two members of the delegation died, including five provincial and prefecture-level cadres. The sacrifice of so many high-ranking cadres at one time was also unique in the entire war of liberation, and the incident had an extremely bad impact.
How did this attack happen, and what happened to the bandits who attacked the delegation?
1947 was a crucial year for the Liberation War to enter the strategic world. In order to cooperate with the Northeast and North China People's Liberation Army operations, the Jichareliao Sub-Bureau was required to actively prepare and launch offensive battles to eliminate the Kuomintang 93rd Army operating in the Jinxi area.
To this end, the Jichareliao Sub-Bureau held a special mobilization and deployment meeting in early April, and representatives of the provincial, regional, and prefectural party committees at all levels in the area under its jurisdiction attended the meeting. The eastern Hebei district sent 13 representatives, plus the accompanying guards and staff, a total of 72 peopleEscorted by a guard platoon of more than 30 people, it successfully arrived at its destination Linxi County after more than 10 days of travel.
Previously, the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army had turned the tide on the Northeast battlefield by "going south of the Yangtze River three times and protecting the Linjiang River three times", and they were planning to launch a "summer offensive" in mid-May. In order to cope with the Northeast Battlefield, the Eastern Hebei Military Region also actively prepared to launch the Luandong Campaign, attack Changli County, cut off the Beining Road, and prevent the enemy from reinforcing the Northeast.
Changli is a very important station on Bac Ninh Road, with more than 1,900 people defending the enemy, strong fortifications, and Yima Mountain in the north of the city as a natural barrier, which is a difficult bone to gnaw. Cheng Zihua, commander of the Jichareliao Military Region, attached great importance to this and specially allocated more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition and some military maps and other materials to the Eastern Hebei Military Region.
Since the eastern Hebei delegation was about to launch a campaign, the eastern Hebei delegation decided to send a platoon of guards to escort them to the meeting to escort the supplies back to eastern Hebei first. The guard platoon was well-armed, all captured Japanese**, each squad was equipped with a light machine gun, and there was also a mortar in the platoon. Li Zhongquan, director of the Political Department of the Military Region, was very relieved about this.
On May 16, the Jidong delegation also began to return after attending the meeting. The Jichareliao Military Region telegraphed the 22nd Army Sub-district to send a regiment to guard the direction of Chifeng, and another cavalry company to escort the delegation from eastern Hebei. The cavalry company was handed over to Li Zhongquan, deputy director of the delegation, because he was a veteran Red Army cadre who had participated in the anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign and the Long March, and had rich military experience.
On the evening of the 20th, the delegation arrived at a village called Chaihulanzi in Chixi County. The village is 45 kilometers east of Chifeng and 100 kilometers west of the paddock. At that time, the enclosure had been liberated, and there was no hostility to the west of Chai Hu Lanzi. Although there are some enemy troops in Chifeng, the 22nd Army Division has already sent a regiment to guard it.
As it was already dark and there were no other villages to go further, the delegation decided to camp there. However, Chaihulanzi is a small village, with only more than 30 households, and the delegation and the cavalry company combined have more than 200 people, and they cannot settle down.
Li Zhongquan inspected the terrain, there were earthen walls inside and outside the village, and there was a bald mountain behind the village. Even if there is an accident, relying on terrain and features, you can resist for a while, waiting for reinforcements from the cavalry company. In addition, the main threat came from Chifeng in the east, so Li Zhongquan arranged for the cavalry company to camp in Caifeng Yingzi, more than two miles east of Chaihulanzi.
At dawn on the 21st, Li Zhongquan got up early as usual and walked around the village. Suddenly, Li Zhongquan noticed that someone was faintly leading a horse in the distance, and when he looked back, there were also people and horses moving on the hillside behind the village. He immediately asked the sentinels who they were, and the sentry called out to them, "What part are you from?" Unexpectedly, the other party fired a few bullets.
Li Zhongquan was worried that he had injured his own people by mistake, so he asked the sentry to shout to identify himself. The sentry shouted: "We are the Eighth Route Army, and we are here from eastern Hebei for a meeting. ”
Unexpectedly, the other party replied: "Fuck, you are the Eighth Route Army, and we are the Ninth Route Army." He fired at the village with a denser burst of bullets. Only then did Li Zhongquan realize that he had met an enemy.
The sudden appearance of General Li Zhongquan's enemy did not alarm the cavalry company in the east, indicating that they were coming from the west. But there is no enemy in the west, so why did the enemy suddenly appear?
The bandit leader's name is Bai Jinhui, who defected to the Japanese and became a traitor during the Anti-Japanese War. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Bai Jinhui recruited troops to organize the armed forces, and appointed himself as the president of the local maintenance association, controlling the Baicha area. At that time, the main force of the Kuomintang was far away in the rear of the southwest, and in order to control the northern region, it could only appoint some Japanese puppet traitors to take over on the spot. Bai Jinhui secretly colluded with the Kuomintang receivers, and agreed to support them after the takeover was successful.
It's just that the Eighth Route Army, which went deep behind enemy lines to resist the war, quickly took over this area. In view of Bai Jinhui's influence in the local area, in order to do a good job of unity, the Eighth Route Army appointed him as the head of Baicha District. But Bai Jinhui disobeyed the yin and yang, and only verbally agreed, but did not actually arrive. Later, the Eighth Route Army carried out a series of revolutionary activities such as rent reduction and interest reduction, which touched Bai Jinhui's interests and made him even more dissatisfied.
In June 1946, the map of the old northern region launched an all-out attack on the liberated areas. Bai Jinhui secretly incited the Japanese puppet personnel and landlord armies, launched a rebellion, and killed local cadres and soldiers in the liberated areas. The People's Liberation Army saw through Bai Jinhui's conspiracy and attacked him, and since then he has openly become a bandit.
After that, the Kuomintang 93rd Army occupied Chifeng, and Bai Jinhui was related to him through his fellow villagers, and was appointed as the captain of the Peng County Security Brigade, with more than 300 people under his command. During this period, he led people to attack the liberated areas many times, and although our army attacked them many times, he was not completely wiped out because of his familiarity with the terrain.
At the beginning of April 1947, when our army was attacking the paddock, the Kuomintang 13th Army ordered Bai Jinhui to go to the periphery of the paddock to respond. Bai Jinhui walked halfway and encountered a deserter from the 13th Army's spy team, only to learn that the enclosure had been liberated. They lost their dependence and decided to flee to the Horn Temple through the outside of the dam.
On the way, Bai Jinhui encountered a group of bandits with more than 100 people who were about to go to Chifeng to join the Kuomintang 93rd Army. After they got together, they discussed, thinking that the Eighth Route Army was not easy to walk on the way to the Horn Temple, so they decided to turn to Chifeng. Since Bai Jinhui had the largest number of troops, he served as the commander-in-chief.
On the evening of the 20th, they camped more than 10 kilometers away from Chaihulanzi, and gathered and set off the next day when the rooster crowed. When the vanguard of the bandits arrived 1 kilometer west of Chaihulanzi and heard that there were troops in the village, they began to test the village, and were discovered by Li Zhongquan, who had risen early.
Through some firepower testing, Bai Jinhui learned that there were not many Eighth Route Army in the village, and there was no heavy **, so he tried to take down the village and loot the property, and asked the Kuomintang for credit. They divided into several groups and quickly occupied the commanding heights on the south, north, and west sides of the village, and blocked the main road out of the village.
The image of the bandits in the TV series was that Li Zhongquan lived in a courtyard in the east of the village, Su Linyan, the director of the delegation, lived in the courtyard in the west of the village, and other comrades lived in the middle of the village scattered. Li Zhongquan rushed back to the courtyard and immediately sent a few people to seize the bald mountain behind the village, organize the construction of improvised fortifications, and at the same time sent two guards to contact the cavalry company. But soon the guards came back to report that the cavalry company had not been found.
Under the command of Li Zhongquan, everyone relied on the earthen wall outside the courtyard to block the enemy. Due to the large number of bandits, they invaded the village after dawn, and the two sides began to fight for each house. According to the prior agreement, everyone gathered in the courtyard where Li Zhongquan lived. Due to the urgency of the situation, Li Zhongquan once again sent 6 people to break through to the east to contact the cavalry company.
The 6 men rode horses, threw grenades, and suppressed the enemy with 20 rings in their hands, and finally 5 people successfully broke through. It took them a lot of time to find the cavalry company in the north mountain of Caifeng Yingzi. However, the leader of the cavalry company did not directly reinforce Chaihulanzi on the grounds that the enemy situation was unknown, and only after a long delay did he begin to take a detour up the mountain.
At this time, the enemy had begun to besiege several courtyards where the members of the delegation were concentrated, and the courtyard where Li Zhongquan lived became the focus of the attack. They blew open the gate and stormed into the courtyard. The courtyard developed into a fierce situation of room-by-room competition, and members of the delegation continued to die.
The 20 rings of the delegation were not effective at blocking the enemy from a distance, but they played a huge role in close combat. The bandits did not dare to approach easily, so they began to gouge the wall and send people to climb up to the roof.
Li Zhongquan judged that the enemy's situation was serious, and the cavalry company was delayed in coming for reinforcements, and he was afraid that it would be difficult to escape. He prepared for the worst, and after discussing with Su Linyan, the director of the delegation, he decided to burn all the documents and codebooks, even if he sacrificed, he could not let the secrets fall into the hands of the enemy.
At this time, the bandits were still shooting and throwing grenades into the courtyard, and some bandits had already climbed onto the roof of the courtyard. The guard reminded Li Zhongquan to change out of his cadre uniform, and Li Zhongquan said with some anger: "How can any cadre not wear a cadre uniform when he is in danger?" Even if we die, we are also good cadres of the Communist Party. ”
Li Zhongquan then said: "Comrades, either we all die, or we will rush out. Everyone said in unison: "Rush! With that, he immediately rushed to the gate. When the bandits saw that everyone had come out, they immediately shouted: "The one who has four pockets in his clothes is a Communist Party cadre." ”
In an instant, bullets rained down on them. The guards who rushed to the front were shot and killed as soon as they opened the gate. Su Linyan rushed out of the gate and ran 70 meters to the east, and was also shot and died. After running more than 70 meters, Li Zhongquan was shot and wounded in the right elbow, so he had no choice but to change to holding the gun in his left hand and shooting back while charging eastward.
But then a bullet entered his left back, piercing his rib through the tip of his left lung, and although he was seriously wounded, he was able to move with the help of the guards. After the bandits occupied the courtyard, they began to loot the property in the courtyard, and only sent 5 bandits to chase Li Zhongquan on horseback.
Seeing this, Li Zhongquan ordered the guards to return fire, and a few gunshots knocked out the two bandits, and the other three did not dare to chase after them. Li Zhongquan, supported by the guards, ran towards the Caifeng camp, encountered the cavalry of the 20th Army Division who rushed to reinforce him, and finally escaped.
The other yard also resisted fiercely. Everyone worked in groups of two or three, each group guarded a room, and the bandits stormed into the courtyard and were beaten out several times. The bandits then climbed onto the roof and threw torches and grenades into the house, injuring several deputies. Among them, Wang Keru and Ji Guang committed suicide when the bullets were about to run out. The rest of the deputies insisted on resisting until nearby troops rushed in to reinforce them, and eventually repelled the bandits.
After nearly 3 hours of fierce fighting, a total of 22 people were killed, including 5 representatives, due to the fact that the enemy was outnumbered. They are:
Su Linyan, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Minister of Organization of the Eastern Hebei District;When the cavalry company escorting the delegation arrived at the scene, the bandits had already been beaten away, and later the cavalry company and its personnel were severely punished.Wang Keru, Director of the Department of Finance of the Eastern Hebei Branch;
Ji Guang, Propaganda Minister of the 15th Prefectural Committee of Eastern Hebei;
Wang Minmin, deputy political commissar of the 15th Sub-district of eastern Hebei;
Hu Liguang, director of the Political Department of the 12th Army Subdivision in eastern Hebei.
The cadres who died in the incident were the first to arrive to reinforce the cavalry unit of the 2nd Garrison Regiment of the Rebei Army Division, and at that time they had two companies led by regimental staff officer Li Tianzeng to carry out tasks nearby. After Li Tianzeng heard the sound of gunfire, he immediately sent a cavalry reconnaissance platoon to reconnoitre, and at the same time gathered the team and rushed in the direction of Chaihulanzi.
On the way, he happened to encounter the guards rushing out with Li Zhongquan on his back, and Li Tianzeng handed it over to the team behind him for treatment, and he immediately rushed to reinforce him. Subsequently, the Rebei Army Division and the Chixi County Detachment successively sent several companies. Seeing that the situation was not good, the bandits ransacked the village and scattered.
* After the incident, the Jicha Reliao Branch was extremely shocked and strictly ordered to eliminate the Bai Jinhui bandits. From mid-June to early August, our cavalry units continued to strike at the bandits, but the bandit leader Bai Jinhui was able to escape. Subsequently, Bai Jinhui led the remnants of the bandits to flee to Duolun and took refuge in the Kuomintang army.
In March 1948, Duolun was liberated. Bai Jinhui's bandit unit was severely damaged and almost completely annihilated, but he once again escaped the blow of the People's Liberation Army. Soon after, Bai Jinhui gathered a group of remnants and tried to come back to attack the district office. During the battle, Bai Jingchun, Bai Jingchun, the eldest son of Bai Jinhui, was killed.
In September, Bai Jinhui defected to the Kuomintang 13th Army and served as the regiment commander. He took his bandits and continued to attack the liberated areas, committing heinous crimes.
In December, Bai Jinhui returned to his hometown of Baicha Horse Rack to prepare for the New Year here. When the Rebei Cavalry Regiment learned the news, it sent troops to surround it. After a night of fierce fighting, the white bandits were killed by 8 people, and Bai Jinhui escaped again. After several blows, it was difficult for him to gain a foothold in Duolun, so he led his team to flee to Beiping and took refuge in Fu Zuoyi.
At the beginning of 1949, Fu Zuoyi was forced to revolt under pressure. More than 250,000 people from the headquarters drove out of Beiping City and waited for the reorganization of the People's Liberation Army. According to relevant historical materials such as "Keshiketeng Banner Chronicle", after Fu was reorganized into the People's Liberation Army, Bai Jinhui served as the deputy commander. At that time, Bai Jinhui's identity was naturally clarified, but the relevant parties did not deal with it.
Many readers may not understand why Bai Jinhui, a habitual bandit who has done a lot of evil, is not executed in accordance with the law?
In fact, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has always given preferential treatment to those who rebelled and surrendered, and even took prisoners. In order to win the uprising of Fu Zuoyi and speed up the liberation of the whole country, he was given an extremely lenient policy. Siye once sent an open letter to Fu Zuoyi pointing out:
"The army guarantees the safety of the lives and property of the officers and soldiers and their families who voluntarily put down **. ”After that, the People's Liberation Army and Fu Zuoyi reached an agreement: Fu Zuoyi's troops could be retained and driven out of Beiping to wait for reorganization. Those who are competent and willing to stay are to continue to stay in their original positions. For those who are unwilling to remain in the army, the safety of their lives, property, and family members shall be guaranteed, and their return to their hometowns shall be facilitated.
It was precisely because of Bai Jinhui's identity as an insurrectionist that he was not disposed of. The preferential treatment of the rebels reflects the CCP's political demeanor of keeping its promises, putting the people first, and being lenient. It had an important impact on the disintegration of the Kuomintang army. From north to south, Dong Qiwu in Suiyuan, Cheng Qian in Hunan, Lu Han in Yunnan, and other local Kuomintang troops followed Fu Zuoyi's example and telegraphed uprisings, saving the people from the dangers of war and greatly speeding up the liberation of the whole country.
The peaceful liberation of Peiping, I believe that the officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army must have hated Bai Jinhui to the core. But they proceeded from the overall situation of the liberation of the whole country, and did not enforce the order and prohibition, did not take revenge, and did not embarrass Bai Jinhui.
Good and evil will be rewarded. Although the People's Liberation Army did not deal with Bai Jinhui, he did not receive forgiveness from fate for his many evils. Soon after the peaceful liberation of Beiping, the troops were reorganized. Bai Jinhui knew that he was guilty and that it was difficult to gain a foothold in the People's Liberation Army, and proposed to return to his hometown.
Seven months later, at the age of 48, Bai Jinhui died of illness in Duolun, ending his life of sin.