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Returning to Thinking

In the spring of 1949, the situation of the Liberation War had changed fundamentally, and Bao Huiseng once again faced a new choice. Bao Huiseng thought: Although I have worked in the Nanjing government for more than ten years, Chiang Kai-shek's group has always believed that I am a suspected communist. If I continue to follow Chiang Kai-shek, there will be no way out. So he submitted his resignation to the Ministry of the Interior.

At this time, many people fled to Taiwan, and Bao Huiseng also obtained the documents to go to Taiwan. However, he did not go to Taiwan, but took his family to Macau. Bao Huiseng was thinking, thinking about which way to go next. At this time, the family's life depended on the severance pay. How many days can it support with such a meager salary? Just from the perspective of supporting the family, he had to find another way to make a living. However, there were so many people here, but he had no relatives. Except for his family, there was no one to talk to. Poverty, loneliness, emptiness, and hesitation were like four giant pythons entwining his anxious heart.

At first, Bao Huiseng always locked himself in his room. He wanted to write a book about the period of the Great Revolution, and he had already outlined it, but he couldn't settle down. Later, he felt bored at home, so he went to the casino of the Central Hotel to try his luck. However, his luck was not good, and he lost more than he won. It can be said that gambling to relieve his sorrow only made him more sorrowful!

This day, he lost all his money. When Bao Huiseng was about to leave the gambling table, he looked up and saw a familiar face—Xu Kexiang! Yes, it was him—Xu Kexiang, the mortal enemy of the Communist Party and the culprit of the "March 30th Incident"! This man was still so cunning. When Bao Huiseng heard that he had bought a house and property in Macau, and saw him spending a lot of money in the casino, he felt like a hundred mixed feelings were broken in his heart.

Bao Huiseng paid more attention to the news from Peking: the Kuomintang Hunan Provincial Chairman Cheng Qian and the First Corps Commander Chen Mingren led their troops to revolt, and Changsha was peacefully liberated; the Gansu Provincial Capital Lanzhou was liberated; the Qinghai Provincial Capital Xining was liberated; the Kuomintang Suiyuan Provincial Chairman Dong Qiwu and the Corps Commander Sun Lanfeng led their troops to revolt, and Guisui was peacefully liberated; the Kuomintang Xinjiang Provincial Security Commander-in-Chief Tao Zhiyue and the Provincial Chairman Bao Erhan issued a telegram to revolt, and Xinjiang was peacefully liberated; the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was held in Peking... These news, like spring thunder, shook Bao Huiseng's heart. He felt excited and excited. However, what made him even more excited and excited was another big news that followed - on October 1, Beijing held the founding ceremony, and Mao Zedong solemnly announced to the world: The People's Republic of China was founded!

Bao Huiseng finally made the decision to "get closer to the Communist Party". He wrote a letter and two telegrams in one breath. The letter was written to Mao Zedong, Chairman of the People's Republic of China. The two telegrams were one to Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council, and one to Dong Biwu, Vice Premier of the State Council.

The full text of the telegram to Zhou Enlai is as follows:

Beijing People's Government

Dear Brother Zhou Enlai:

Brothers, you have fought hard for more than 20 years to get to where you are today. I admire you very much. I still hope to win peace with victory, to make a new beginning with peace and the people, to comfort the people and punish the criminals, and to bring the world back to benevolence. The South Heaven is leading the way. I will come to meet you as soon as there is a ship.

Bao Huiseng

Bao Huiseng asked a reliable friend in Hong Kong to send the letter and telegram. Then he waited, waited, and waited anxiously! The short 20 days seemed so long. The reply finally came, and Bao Huiseng was overjoyed, because the message clearly said that he was welcome to go north. He led his family to pack up as quickly as possible and rushed to Hong Kong to raise funds to go north.

On November 29, Bao Huiseng arrived in Beijing. The familiar streets, the familiar Beijing accent, the past scenes seemed like just a day ago, but he had been away from this ancient city for 26 years!

Bao Huiseng was warmly received. The next day, Dong Biwu invited him to dinner, and Dong Biwu said to him: "Your return is the decision of the Party Central Committee." Bao Huiseng was very moved and excited. He talked to Dong Biwu about his impressions along the way. He saw the frugal atmosphere of socialism and the serious style of the government from the good order in Tianjin and Beijing. He said that this atmosphere is not only incomparable with Chongqing, Chengdu, and Kunming during the Anti-Japanese War, but also very different from Wuhan, Changsha, and Guangzhou during the Great Revolution. Dong Biwu introduced to him some of the hard work of the government in establishing revolutionary order, sorting out municipal affairs, and appeasing exiles after the liberation of Ping and Tianjin. Bao Huiseng really felt that the people's government is a government that truly works for the people.

A few days later, Bao Huiseng received an invitation: Zhou Enlai invited him and his wife to a banquet in Zhongnanhai. On the afternoon of December 25, Bao Huiseng and his wife came to the Qinzheng Hall in Zhongnanhai. In addition to him and his wife, there were 10 to 20 people attending the banquet, all of whom were people from all walks of life who had just returned from overseas.

At the end of the banquet, Zhou Enlai said to Bao Huiseng: "Please stay for a moment. I have something else to say to you."

After seeing off the other guests, Zhou Enlai sat down with Bao Huiseng. "Where have you been? I've been looking for you for a long time but couldn't find you!" Zhou Enlai's question was a little complaining, but more sincere.

Bao Huiseng's mood at this time was unusually complicated—there was a strong shock, heartfelt gratitude, and even more deep regret and guilt. He felt ashamed and wanted to burrow into the ground. However, his old friend's sincerity and frankness suddenly gave him a sense of sublimity. He seemed to be looking up at a mountain that soared into the sky. He felt an indescribable comfort, and the depression that had been pent up in his heart for 22 years suddenly poured out...

The conversation lasted for an hour and a half. At the end, Zhou Enlai said to Bao Huiseng: "You have a big family, and you have to make a living!" This was obviously an understanding of Bao Huiseng's past. "However, you were not an ordinary Communist Party member in the past, and you have to give an explanation to the Party."

There is no record of what Bao Huiseng said next. However, a passage in an autobiography he wrote recently may be able to show his feelings at the moment: "Most of the senior cadres of the Communist Party, from Chairman Mao on down, were my companions in my youth. They created a new era out of hardship. I am very pleased, but also ashamed. I returned to my hometown. I felt warm in spirit, but still couldn't avoid shame. I am willing to contribute my labor to the Communist Party and the people's government."

On January 27, 1950, Bao Huiseng arrived at the North China People's Revolutionary University as arranged by Zhou Enlai. He was assigned to study in the third group of the fourth class of the Political Research Institute. At the beginning, Bao Huiseng was a little uncomfortable with the collective life of the revolutionary university. But he thought: "I have done things like charging into battle, and I can get through this little bit of hardship with just a bite of the bullet." So, he did everything according to the regulations and did not dare to lag behind others in anything. Sure enough, after two or three weeks, he got used to everything.

When the textbooks were handed out, Bao Huiseng saw that, except for the works of Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi, most of them were what he had read more than 20 years ago, and he had even taught others. He thought it was a new version of an old story, and there was no difficulty. However, when he spoke in discussions, he found that others spoke better than him, and his own speeches were always imperfect and sometimes even wrong. At this time, he felt that he had been away from the revolution for a long time, his theoretical level was backward, and the problems of his standpoint, viewpoint and method had not been solved. He felt the difficulty of learning. With a correct attitude towards learning, the effect was naturally much better.

After more than half a year of study, Bao Huiseng wrote a 30,000-word "Summary of Thoughts". This is a comprehensive and systematic self-confession. Bao Huiseng sorted out his thoughts in the first half of his life, reviewed the mistakes and their roots in each stage, and although some parts were too simple, his attitude was sincere.

As the new year was approaching, Bao Huiseng received a graduation certificate with a big red seal of the North China People's Revolutionary University. Seeing a few red plum blossoms outside the car window and a spring feeling in his heart, Bao Huiseng reluctantly left the campus of the Revolutionary University.

After graduating from the North China Revolutionary University, Bao Huiseng was assigned to work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, first as a researcher and later as a counselor.

On July 2, 1979, Bao Huiseng died of illness in Beijing at the age of 85.