Before the battle of crossing the river in April 1949, Tao Yong, commander of the 23rd Army Corps of Sanye, carried out a fierce bombardment of the British battleship "Purple Quartz" on the Yangtze River, which had a considerable impact at home and abroad. ** I appreciate this favorite general very much: no matter which country's warship, as long as it hinders the people's army from crossing the river, it will be fine. **When I met with General Tao Yong in 1952, I joked: Since you love war so much, don't be an army commander, be a naval commander!
It's funny, but he's not telling a joke. Tao Yong had just returned from North Korea and was now the commander of the East China Military Region, and had never been on a battleship before. Tao Yong knew that his professional level was not enough, so he studied hard, gradually learned a lot of knowledge about sea navigation, and finally could even lead a fleet to sea alone. It didn't take long for Tao Yong to become one of the few outstanding officers in our navy, and he was appointed deputy commander of the navy and commander of the East China Sea Fleet.
But in the 1960s, Li Zuopeng and several others successfully framed a large number of officers and officers, and put the blame on Xiao Jinguang and Su Zhenhua. Tao Yong is an honest man, he and Xiao Jinguang are in the same group, so he himself has become the target of some people's attacks, often found faults, criticized, Tao Yong is under a lot of pressure. In 1967, the "big bang, big magnification, big character poster debate" affected the East China Sea Fleet, and Tao Yong stubbornly carried out some intra-party resistance.
On January 21, Tao Yong, Liao Zhengguo and others said: The East China Sea Navy is the vanguard force! The opening of the "Big Four" here is to disrupt the troops, and this point has been clearly defined. We need to sort out these problems as soon as possible and report them to **. Liao Zhengguo and Tao Yong have been comrades-in-arms for many years, and he recalled that day Tao Yong had clear thinking, firm tone, and was very normal.
But at this moment, a mutation suddenly occurred. Tao Yong's assistant greeted the barber and said he was going to cut his hair. It was Zhou Miaoji who cut Tao Yong's hair, and he was ready for everything, but Tao Yong had not yet appeared. At first, he thought he was at work, so he kept waiting. However, until two o'clock, the commander had not appeared, and Zhou Miaoji went to the back of the dormitory, wanting to find Tao Yong.
The hotel manager also understood what Zhou Miaoji meant, so he accompanied him to meet the leader. The two of them passed by a well, instinctively looked into the well, and were startled: a brand new hat floated on the water! Someone can't have fallen into this well, right? They shouted, and the other two people also ran over, and together they dragged the man out of the well, and it turned out to be Commander Tao Yong.
Later, in the No. 105 ward of the hotel, the doctor gave Tao Yong first aid, but his heart was gone. Tao Yong was taken to a Navy 411 hospital, where he was confirmed dead at the age of 54. A few days later, Li Zuopeng, Liu Haotian and others announced to the outside world that on January 21, Tao Yong committed suicide in the sea on suspicion of treason and drowned. As soon as the news came out, everyone was stunned, and there were all kinds of opinions. It didn't take long for Li Zuopeng to be appointed first vice chairman of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Tao Yong's "suicide" has many suspicious features: the well is very deep, and there is not even a ** neck, jumping from such a low place, objectively speaking, it is a very dangerous thing. In Tao Yong's pocket, only the pages of the archives of the Shanghai ** organ are damp, while the middle part is almost dry. In addition, according to relevant sources, Admiral Tao Yong's physical condition was not bad on the day of the accident, and he jumped into the well, which is also unreasonable. If you accidentally fall into the water, you will not drown. Tao Yong is also a naval admiral, so he drowned in a well so quickly?
*, Su Yu, two generals, during the period of Sanye and the New Fourth Army, were Tao Yong's division commanders, and they won his respect. The news of Tao Yong's death made both of them very sad. Hearing that Tao Yong "threw himself into the well and died", General Manager Chen was furious and yelled: "Who told me that he committed suicide?" Tao Yong has no possibility of jumping off the building at all! This matter must be thoroughly investigated! Tao Yong has always been known for his boldness, it is really hard to imagine, what kind of difficulties made him so determined to want to commit suicide? However, it is a pity that the cause of General Tao Yong's death is a mystery and there is no clear record.