"I hope to be able to carry out water conservancy projects for the benefit of the country and the people like Dayu. Based on Fu Zuoyi's ideas, it was decided to appoint him as the first Minister of Water Resources after the founding of New China.
However, to Fu Zuoyi's regret, many old comrades did not agree with his ideas, and even had a contemptuous attitude towards him, causing him to feel neglected.
**, Fu Zuoyi One day, **I met Fu Zuoyi by chance, he asked Fu Zuoyi if anyone neglected him, and asked him if he had any power in the Ministry of Water Resources. Fu Zuoyi was surprised by this, explaining that due to his busy work, the deputy minister's instructions were not much different from his opinions.
**After hearing this, his face was gloomy, but he did not speak. I thought this was the end of the matter, but I didn't expect *** to be furious when he learned about it. So, why does you attach so much importance to Fu Zuoyi?
Does Fu Zuoyi really have a position or no power in the Ministry of Water Resources? And how did you deal with this? Fu Zuoyi was born in Ronghe County, Shanxi Province in 1895, and his family has been farming for generations.
His father later worked by the Yellow River, chartering a boat to carry coal, and later the business grew larger, opening several businesses, and the family's conditions became better and better.
Fu Zuoyi was gifted and intelligent, with an excellent memory, he entered school at the age of 6, was admitted to the primary school outside the east gate of the county at the age of 10, and was admitted to Yuncheng Hedong Middle School at the age of 13. Fu's father was not respected by his neighbors because of his background, so he decided to let his eldest son Fu Zuoren and second son Fu Zuoyi join the military to improve the social status of the family.
That's how I earn my money. Fu Zuoyi was deeply moved after hearing this, and since then he has been advocating simplicity all his life, although he has become a general, he also wears cloth military uniforms like soldiers, and is called "cloth general".
After graduation, Fu Zuoyi was assigned to the 10th Regiment of the Yanxishan Division in Shanxi Province as a trainee officer, and was soon promoted to company commander. He went to the barracks every day before dawn to practice with the soldiers, and when a platoon commander shouted that the drill was wrong, he would go out to correct him.
Fu Zuoyi, who was promoted to battalion commander in 1923, can remember the names of the 800 people in the battalion and have an in-depth understanding of the personality characteristics of each officer. He cared about his soldiers and went out of his way to help them whenever they were in trouble.
On holidays, he often gave gifts such as pork and rice dumplings to the soldiers. In October 1924, the Second Zhifeng War broke out, and Yan Xishan led the Jin army to attack Shijiazhuang with the direct line.
Fu Zuoyi was promoted to commander of the 4th Regiment of the 8th Brigade because of his outstanding performance. In October 1927, Yan Xishan ordered the Jin army to attack the Feng army led by Zhang Zuolin in five directions.
Although the Jin army was ambitious, its combat effectiveness was still slightly inferior to that of the Feng army. Soon, the Feng army defeated the Jin army and retreated again and again. However, when the Jin armies retreated, a shocking event occurred in Zhuozhou, which was only more than 60 kilometers away from Beiping.
Fu Zuoyi went deep alone and shined here, which also became an important turning point in his life. Zhuozhou is the throat of the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway to Beiping, and its strategic location is very important.
Therefore, when Fu Zuoyi occupied Zhuozhou, Zhang Zuolin was very panicked, and immediately appointed Zhang Xueliang as the commander-in-chief, and mobilized 30,000 troops to attack Zhuozhou. During the siege of the city by the Feng army, many senior officers took advantage of their classmates with Fu Zuoyi to send him a letter of persuasion to surrender, but Fu Zuoyi ignored it.
Although the Feng army launched 7 attacks in a row, and also used aircraft, artillery, tanks, etc., it is incredible that Zhuozhou is still as stable as Mount Tai and has not been breached.
After Zhang Zuolin learned that Fu Zuoyi insisted on not surrendering, he decided to adopt a strategy of persuasion. He sent Yu Guohan, a senior staff officer of the Feng army and Fu Zuoyi's teacher, into the city to deliver a letter of persuasion.
However, Fu Zuoyi did not show the slightest intention of giving in when the army was besieged and the situation was critical, he said: "I remember that in the tactics taught to us before, there was no surrender, and I asked the teacher to forgive me for not being able to obey!" ”
However, out of love for the people of Zhuozhou, Fu Zuoyi decided to go out of the city alone to negotiate. He wrote in a letter to his family: "I joined the army to save the country and save the people, if the people of Zhuozhou die because of my persistence, then I will be very sad!" ”
Fu Zuoyi's heartfelt words deeply moved the people of Zhuozhou, and they said: "Master Fu can't go out of the city, if Master Fu insists on going out of the city alone, the people of the city are willing to die with all the soldiers!" ”
At this time, it was meaningless to hold Zhuozhou, so in the persuasion of all walks of life, Yan Xishan decided to let Fu Zuoyi discuss a truce with the Feng army. Fu Zuoyi immediately sent Zhu Xizhang out of the city to negotiate, and said to him: "You are going to negotiate peace with Fengjun this time, not surrender, you must remember!" ”
He asked Zhu Xizhang to insist on putting forward three demands during the negotiations, and only in this way could they sign.
Fu Zuoyi put forward three demands: first, after the battle, his troops should be reorganized into the National Defense Force; Second, the people of Zhuozhou in this battle must be given bereavement and compensation; Thirdly, he himself will retire from the military and will not accept any positions.
In the end, the offensive and defensive battle of Zhuozhou ended with a compromise between the two sides and lasted three months. And Fu Zuoyi also became famous in the first battle and became a high-profile general......From the challenge to the peaceful liberation of Beiping, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, a large number of territories occupied by the Japanese army were waiting for the Chinese army to take over.
As the Eighth Route Army fought on the front line, the area of control was rapidly expanded; And the Kuomintang troops were mostly in the rear and moved relatively slowly. Chiang Kai-shek did not want all the territory to be occupied by our army, so he ordered the Kuomintang troops everywhere to quickly go forward to fight for the territory, which was also in the interests of Fu Zuoyi.
Fu Zuoyi led 60,000 people to Baotou and Guisui, and had already led the army to defend these two cities and was ready to enter the city to receive them. Unexpectedly, at this time, Fu Zuoyi's troops suddenly occupied the cities of Baotou and Guisui, and although our army resisted, it was forced to withdraw from the battle due to lack of ammunition.
After the outbreak of the civil war in 1946, *and*** jointly launched an attack on Datong. Because Yan Xishan was unable to keep Datong, Chiang Kai-shek assigned it to Fu Zuoyi's 12th theater to stimulate Fu Zuoyi to surround Datong.
After Fu Zuoyi received the order, he sent representatives to pretend to negotiate peace with our army on the one hand, and sent troops to attack Jining to support the direction of Datong. After a fierce battle, Fu Zuoyi's troops conquered Jining, and our army had to withdraw the encirclement of Datong.
Soon after, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Fu Zuoyi as the "Commander-in-Chief of the North China Suppression", and Fu Zuoyi believed that he was capable of fighting a decisive battle with our army. Fu Zuoyi, who maintained a good relationship with our party during the Anti-Japanese War, has now become "the vanguard of the civil war, and even challenged *** and published the "Open Telegram to ***".
Fu Zuoyi also proposed that the Kuomintang recruit the Communist Party: "As long as Mr. Mao agrees to participate, if you don't dislike it, I am willing to be the most ordinary clerk under Mr. Mao and be absolutely loyal to you." ”
However, Fu Zuoyi didn't know that Yan Youwen, who drafted this open telegram for himself, was actually an underground member of our party. And this public telegram was written only after *** and *** agreed.
On September 5, 1948, the North China Field Army attacked Fu Zuoyi's Suiyuan, forcing Fu Zuoyi to send troops from Beiping and Zhangjiakou to support. On September 12, the Northeast Field Army launched the Liaoshen Campaign, and Fu Zuoyi faced a two-front battle and was in a passive state.
When the situation on the battlefield in North China reversed, Fu Zuoyi began to consider peace talks. He sent representatives Zhou Beifeng and Zhang Dongsun to the liberated areas to reach a "meeting minutes" with ** and others.
However, Fu Zuoyi hesitated at this time, and our party thought that he might be using the tactic of delaying the army, so the PLA launched a general attack on Tianjin on January 14 to force Fu Zuoyi to recognize the situation and accept peace talks.
** Leave some time for Fu Zuoyi to think, if he still does not accept the proposal between 1 o'clock on January 17 and 12 o'clock on the 21st, the PLA will launch an attack on Beiping.
After 29 hours of hard work by the People's Liberation Army, Tianjin, known as "impregnable", was conquered, and Fu Zuoyi failed to see the ultimatum and decided to hand over Beiping. On January 19, representatives of the two sides, Su Jing, Wang Kejun, and Cui Zaizhi, signed the "Agreement on the Peaceful Settlement of the Problem in Beiping."
This agreement was revised by the Military Commission and ***, and was signed again by the representatives of both sides as a formal agreement on January 21. The agreement provided for a truce between the two sides from 10 a.m. on January 22.
On the morning of 21 January, Fu Zuoyi convened a meeting of the "General Suppression" organs and personnel at and above the army commander level in North China, and announced that more than 200,000 Kuomintang defenders in Beiping City had begun to leave the city and accept peaceful reorganization at designated places.
On January 22, Fu Zuoyi signed the agreement, and the negotiations for a peaceful settlement of Beiping were declared successful.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) successfully entered Beiping City on January 31, and the peaceful liberation was a complete success, opening a new chapter in the history of this ancient city. When *** asked Fu Zuoyi whether he had any power or not, ** was furious after hearing it.
On February 22, 1949, Fu Zuoyi met *** and others in Xibaipo. When Fu Zuoyi saw ***, he immediately said: "I am guilty, I have fought with the communist forces before......He shook his hand cordially and said: "You have promoted the peaceful liberation of Beiping, you are a great hero, and the people will never forget you." ”
After the two talked, ** asked Fu Zuoyi: "What kind of work do you want to do after the founding of New China?" Fu Zuoyi said: "I don't want to work in the army anymore, so it's best to let me go to the Yellow River loop to engage in water conservancy construction." ”
After hearing this, he nodded and said: "Water conservancy construction is a good choice, but the scope of work to go to the Yellow River Hetao is too small. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, you can serve as the Minister of Water Resources, so that you can play a better role. ”
As a result, Fu Zuoyi's appointment as the Minister of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China was decided. In fact, Fu Zuoyi was appointed Minister of Water Resources, mainly because he had presided over the water conservancy construction in the Hetao area during the Anti-Japanese War and had accumulated rich experience in water control.
Fu Zuoyi, the first minister of water resources after the founding of the People's Republic of China, not only worked for 23 years until he resigned due to illness in 1972, but also made remarkable achievements in his position.
However, his appointment was questioned and opposed by some veteran comrades, who even said: "The old revolution is not as good as the new revolution, and the new revolution is not as good as the counter-revolution." In this regard, ** resolutely said: "Which of you has the ability to make the 200,000 defenders of Beiping obey our command, settle Beiping peacefully, and ensure that the ancient capital will not be lost at all?" ”
This sentence eased the discontent of all parties. Despite this, in the early days of Fu Zuoyi's tenure, some leaders of the Ministry of Water Resources did not treat him favorably. Once, he took a special car to the meeting hall of the Ministry of Water Resources, but when the meeting ended, he found that his car was parked in a remote place, which turned out to be deliberately done by someone.
In addition, some cadres of the Ministry of Water Resources expressed opposition to the document issued by Fu Zuoyi in the name of the minister. Therefore, for a long time at the beginning, he would ask the deputy minister to give instructions to all the documents that Fu Zuoyi had read, instead of signing them himself.
Fu Zuoyi doesn't care about this, he thinks that as long as it's good for the people, it doesn't matter who gives instructions. However, ** does not think so. He found that Fu Zuoyi's name was not included in the document submitted by the Ministry of Water Resources, and he felt that something was wrong.
That day, ** met Fu Zuoyi while walking in the Temple of Heaven Park. After the two chatted for a while, ** directly asked Fu Zuoyi if he had suffered snubbing in the Communist Party.
Fu Zuoyi was a little surprised, but still replied that he had fought against *** before, but he didn't blame it, but felt very satisfied. He said that he was a "layman" in water conservancy and needed to learn from other comrades.
** nodded in agreement, and encouraged Fu Zuoyi to ask other comrades or the masses for advice, and work while studying. Then, ** asked Fu Zuoyi if he had no real power after serving as a minister in the Ministry of Water Resources, because his name was not seen in the document.
Fu Zuoyi explained with a smile that he often needed to go out to inspect because of his busy work, and the vice minister saw that he was busy and gave instructions on his behalf, whether it was his own instructions or the vice minister's instructions, the result was the same.
**After hearing this, he didn't make a sound, and Fu Zuoyi thought that this matter was over. However, ** was very angry about it after knowing it.
** He once praised Fu Zuoyi for "drilling" into the water conservancy industry and making great contributions to the water conservancy construction of New China. He not only went to the grassroots level many times to conduct research and formulate regulations and targets, but also presided over the construction of many large-scale water conservancy projects during his tenure as minister of water resources, benefiting the broad masses of the people.
Minister Fu Zuoyi's hard work and selfless dedication have won high praise.
Comrade Fu Zuoyi died at 11:30 on April 19, 1974 in Beijing at the age of 79. On April 23, a memorial service for Comrade Fu Zuoyi was held at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, and the leading comrades sent wreaths, Comrade ** personally presided over the memorial service, and Comrade ** delivered a eulogy.