23. Along the Way to Demobilization

In the spring of the 38th year of the Republic [~1949], Kaifeng fell [to the communists], and most of the employees and important equipment of the Yellow River Water Conservancy Project head office and affiliates were evacuated to Nanjing. The governor of Hunan Province, Cheng Qian, requested that the Xiangjiang River be returned to the city of Hengyang. At that time, the political situation was changing extremely fast. Suddenly, Cheng Qian made a secret deal with the communists, and Chen Mingren defected [to the communists].

So, before we could start work [on the new project], we had to continue to withdraw to Guilin, along with the employees and their dependents. There were dozens of cars and a thousand or so people. At this time, funding was no longer available. When they arrived in Guilin, many of the employees had to make a living by selling vegetables and small items. Their hardships and difficulties were truly too horrible to contemplate. Without any other option, they used up what they owned or sold it along the way. At that time, many things [like this] happened when other agencies dismissed their employees. I always treated people honestly and gave aid to the public. Even though everyone is impoverished, they never complained.

I was appointed the director of Yangtze River Hydraulic Engineering Bureau. Because it was necessary to go to Chongqing, we had to dismiss the other group in Guilin. A lot of hardships were experienced before reaching Chongqing. Recalling that my colleagues in the Yellow River Project, who had been working together for more than ten years, were in the end being forced by the [political] environment to disband and leave, it makes me sad to even think about it!

The [Yellow River] Bureau office was located in the Beibei district of Chongqing, where my wife and children were settled together. I came to Chongqing for two reasons: One reason was to sort out the upper reaches of the Yangtze River as part of the water works. The other reason was because, at that time, the area around western Henan was not completely entrapped [by the communists]. The plan was to go back to Henan from Shaanxi and fight through guerrilla warfare. However, the war situation had reversed too quickly, and there was no chance [to carry out this plan]. What followed was an act of painful separation from one’s flesh and blood.