Zeng Qingliang, a telegraph operator at Xining Radio, was conflicted by a 100,000-strong telegram one day in mid-March. This telegram is related to the life and death of the *** department of the Western Route Army.
At that time, the Western Route Army was ordered to open the Northwest Passage, but due to the "encirclement and suppression" of the Ma Jiajun, almost all the troops were wiped out. Only the team led by *** escaped death and broke out.
After Ma Bufang learned the news, he immediately ordered Ma Buluan to send a regiment to pursue from Dulan, Qinghai, to the north, and ordered Ma Biao to send a cavalry to pursue them in the starry night, and they must be completely annihilated.
At the end of the message, a sentence was added: "100,000 urgent!" After the telegram was translated into a code, it was immediately sent to the radio station of Ma Jiajun's headquarters.
Xiong Weibang handed over the telegram of life and death to his subordinate, telegrapher Zeng Qingliang. Zeng Qingliang should send this telegram, he struggled inwardly. As a captive, Zeng Qingliang, although his duty was to send a report, he hesitated.
Zeng Qingliang was a Red Army soldier who worked as a telegraph operator in the Red Army and was later sent to the Red Fourth Front Army as a radio station director. He endured tough battles in the Western Route Army and lost most of his troops.
He was facing the "encirclement and suppression" of Ma Jiajun, and his situation was very dangerous. His status made him hesitate at this critical moment, but his duty told him that he had to send this telegram.
On March 14, the Military and Political Committee of the Western Route Army, surrounded by Ma Jiajun, held an emergency meeting and made a difficult but necessary decision. ** and Chen Changhao were assigned to leave the army and go to northern Shaanxi to report on the current situation of the Western Route Army.
The remaining troops were divided into three detachments, and the Western Route Army Working Committee composed of Li Zhuoran, ** and others was unified under the leadership of the Qilian Mountains to continue the arduous struggle against the enemy.
Although this decision entailed great difficulties, it was a necessary choice in order to protect more comrades and complete the task. The soldiers of the Western Route Army will be firm in their faith and march forward bravely until the final victory.
Under the guidance of the West Route Army, Liu Junying, captain of the radio station of the West Route Army, Liu Yuting, operator Liu Yuting, radio operator, Huang Zikun, Feng Guoshou, Chen Zuren and other staff members bravely undertook the task of carrying the radio station under the command of Commander Sun Yuqing.
However, this kind of operation, under the strict search and arrest of Ma Jiajun, is full of risks, and it is very likely that their whereabouts will be exposed.
Yang Junying, captain of the radio team of the Western Route Army, recalled that in order to protect the main force from moving west into Xinjiang, they deliberately sent telegrams to attract the enemy's attention and make the other party think that the leaders of the Western Route Army were behind the flank.
However, this operation put them in danger, and they were eventually discovered by the enemy's mountain search force, and Liu Junying and six other radio staff members became prisoners. Ma Jiajun brutally treated these captured soldiers of the Western Route Army, including **, raping female soldiers, and forced hard labor.
Although more than 20,000 soldiers of the Western Route Army were captured, their fate was harrowing.
Some of the people in the Ma Jiajun were forced to serve the Ma Jiajun. These forced laborers were able-bodied Red Army soldiers under the age of 25, about 3,000 people.
They were turned into "supplementary regiments" and were subjected to inhumane treatment for heavy manual labor such as building airports and roads. Later, these strong men were sent to Lanzhou and incorporated into the Eighth War Zone, but in Xi'an, Hu Zongnan found out that they were members of the Red Army's West Route Army, and he didn't dare to stay at all.
After hearing the news, the office of the Eighth Route Army in Xi'an negotiated with them, and finally let them return to northern Shaanxi. Among them, after some of the telegraph operators were captured, the enemy treated them favorably and hoped that they would work in Ma Jiajun.
However, these telegraph operators did not intend to surrender to the enemy, but "reluctantly took shelter from the tiger's den" and waited for the opportunity to return to Yan'an. Liu Jingyan, an engineer at the headquarters of the Western Route Army, heard that the radio personnel of the Western Route Army had been captured, and sent a telegram to Zhang Zhijun, the director of the Xining radio station, hoping that Zhang Zhijun would treat them preferentially.
Zhang Zhijun found Xiong Weibang, the head of the radio station, and gave him some advice.
Xiong Weibang was troubled by the pressure of work, and hoped that someone could help reduce the burden, but talent was hard to find. Zhang Zhijun proposed to find technicians from among the captured personnel of the Western Route Army, and Xiong Weibang welcomed this.
Zhang then submitted a report to Ma Bufang, pointing out that the expansion of the station and the increase in services had led to a shortage of personnel, and suggested that radio technicians be found among the captured personnel.
Ma Bufang understood the importance of professional talents, so he ordered a personnel search.
After Zeng Qingliang was sent to Ma Bufang's Xining Radio, he got a top-secret telegram about chasing the whereabouts of *** and others. Ma Bufang learned about this through Jiang's secret telegram.
Zeng Qingliang's face changed greatly after seeing this telegram, because it could lead to a catastrophe for the first party. He decided that he could not send the telegram, but he knew that if he suppressed it, it could affect his wife and children.
After intense consideration, he decided that he would rather sacrifice himself than send this telegram. He began to pretend to be sending a message, but in fact he did not send it. Eventually, he put the draft of the telegram code back on Xiong's desk and went home.
Four days later, Ma Bufang found that his subordinate Liu Chengde was fighting the Red Army's Western Route Army at Qingshantou near Yumen, but he did not receive support from Ma Biao and Ma Buluan.
He immediately held the two men accountable, but they said they had not received the telegram. Ma Bufang then ordered the electricity office to investigate the responsibility. Zhao Huanyao, the person in charge of the electricity department, immediately asked Zhang Zhijun, the director of the radio station, to hold him accountable.
Zhang Zhijun asked Xiong Weibang why the telegram was not sent, and Xiong Weibang replied that it was because the signal was intermittent and not sent in time. Zeng Qingliang only realized the problem at this time, and he admitted that he deliberately suppressed the telegram.
Zhao Huanyao scolded Xiong Weibang angrily after hearing this, but he could not solve the crisis. In the end, Zhu Changyu explained to Ma Bufang that because of the weather, there was a lot of interference, and the telegram was not sent, and Ma Bufang accepted this explanation.
Xiong Weibang and others were rescued, and the rest of the Western Route Army led by ** also successfully escaped.
After the formation of the united front, Zeng Qingliang and others returned to Yan'an to continue their work. He was promoted to the rank of major general in 1961 and died in Beijing in January 1996 at the age of 80.
Although a long time has passed, Zeng Qingliang's heroic deeds of successfully saving thousands of Red Army soldiers at the time of the Red Army's crisis, regardless of his personal safety, are still deeply moving!