After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the only bandit who was not caught, absconded for 40 years, and was arrested at the age of 82, what happened to him? This is a bizarre story about the bandit Ma Duanru. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he fled for various crimes, and for 40 years he hid among the people, hiding from the encirclement and suppression of the People's Liberation Army. Eventually, in an unlikely situation, his true identity was revealed and he was arrested and imprisoned. How did Ma Duanru escape the pursuit during his 40-year fugitive career, and under what circumstances did he show his feet? Let's find out.
1. Ma Duanru's dark past
Jiang'an County is located in the northwest of the Sichuan Basin and is known as the "key to northern Sichuan". It is a place of peaks and ravines, and has been a hotbed of bandits since ancient times. In the spring of 1949, after the People's Liberation Army conquered Chongqing, it quickly advanced to northern Sichuan. Jiang'an County soon fell, and the people cheered for the arrival of a new life.
However, in this joyful atmosphere, a heinous dark corner is exposed. It turned out that during the rule of the Kuomintang, Ma Duanru, a squadron leader of the Jiang'an County Police Department, used the power in his hands to become a fierce bandit leader. He has hundreds of bandits under him, who do all kinds of evil.
Born in 1892, Ma Duanru grew up in a poor family and joined the security gang at a young age. He is cunning and suspicious, and he quickly makes a name for himself in the gang. In 1927, with his extraordinary force and cunning methods, he was exceptionally hired as the squadron leader of the Jiang'an County Police Department. From then on, he began his reign of darkness.
As a squadron leader, Ma Duanru is supposed to maintain law and order and protect the safety of the people. But he did the opposite, using the power in his hands to extort money. The bandits under his command are vicious and do everything they can. Raids and robberies of homes, murder and arson, and rape of women, all of them were spared. In just a few years, Ma Duanru has committed countless tragic crimes in Jiang'an County.
What's even more terrifying is that Ma Duanru not only did evil himself, but also industrialized crime. He established a tight network of bandits in Jiang'an County, controlling them at all levels, and his subordinates were well fed. Sometimes, Ma Duanru would also personally lead the bandits to loot in the nearby villages, bloody the villages, and kill people like hemp. Innocent villagers were devastated, their families were destroyed, and the tragedy was unbearable.
What Ma Duanru did has long gone far beyond the scope of ordinary bandits. He was simply a bloodthirsty madman, a vicious criminal. After the arrival of the People's Liberation Army, the people of Jiang'an County finally had the opportunity to tell Ma Duanru's crimes, and the voices were full of sorrow and shock. This has aroused great attention from the PLA, and they are determined to bring Ma Duanru to justice and prosecute all cases.
2. The beginning of a fugitive career
In the spring of 1949, after the People's Liberation Army conquered Chongqing, it quickly advanced to the Sichuan Basin. Jiang'an County soon fell into the hands of the People's Liberation Army. Ma Duanru knew that his crimes would be liquidated sooner or later. He was once a squadron leader of the Kuomintang, and his hands were stained with the blood of innocent people, and if he was captured by the People's Liberation Army, he would definitely be severely punished.
Faced with this desperate situation, Ma Duanru resolutely abandoned the identity of the squadron leader, and fled into the deep mountains and forests of northern Sichuan with hundreds of bandits under his command. Thus began their long career on the run.
After escaping into the mountains, Ma Duanru did not rest on his laurels. Instead, he began to reorganize his bandit forces. He first recruited some remnants of the Kuomintang, and then recruited some local gangsters and poor peasants, and quickly strengthened his strength.
With this huge armed force, Ma Duanru became even more rampant. They often went down to the mountains to raid homes and rob innocent people. Every time Ma Duanru's bandits descended the mountain, none of the nearby villages were spared, and homes were looted. The villagers were afraid of being attacked, so they had to flee for their lives in the middle of the night.
Ma Duanru's arrogance soon attracted the attention of Chiang Kai-shek. In order to win over this powerful armed force, Chiang Kai-shek made an exception and appointed Ma Duanru as the commander of the Seventh Column of the Southern Sichuan Military and Political Region, thus legalizing his banditry.
After obtaining this title, Ma Duanru became even more unscrupulous. Not only did they raid homes and houses in the mountains, but they also often went down to raid towns and rob shops and wealthy families. The bandits under Ma Duanru are extremely vicious, doing all kinds of evil, and causing tragedies everywhere.
On one occasion, Ma Duanru led his men on a rampant ride through a small town, killing people and setting fires to women. The people of the town suffered a lot, their families were ruined, and they were miserable. Afterwards, Ma Duanru even told his subordinates that this was just a "small lesson". You can see how bloodthirsty and brutal he is.
What Ma Duanru did has long gone far beyond the scope of ordinary bandits. He was simply a vicious criminal, a bloodthirsty madman. When the People's Liberation Army learned of what he had done, it was furious and decided to launch an operation to suppress the bandits and bring him to justice.
3. The opium trade
In the process of fleeing, Ma Duanru did not settle down. Instead, he began to covet another, more lucrative criminal industry, the opium trade.
In 1950, Ma Duanru personally went to Zhenxiong, Yunnan Province, to inspect the local opium production. There, he saw large poppy fields, where workers were toiling to pick poppy flowers and extract opium glue. Ma Duanru immediately salivated over the profit margins of this "white drug".
Soon, Ma Duanru rented a manor house in Zhenxiong, which was dedicated to poppy cultivation. He hired a large number of peasants, cultivated opium poppy on a large scale on the estate, and established an entire opium production line. From sowing and fertilizing to picking and refining, Ma Duanru controls the whole process to ensure the quality of opium.
After the opium was produced, Ma Duanru used his power in northern Sichuan to organize a special transportation team to transport opium from Yunnan to Jiang'an, Sichuan. On the way, they sometimes disguised themselves and sometimes marched at night, avoiding many of the PLA's blockades.
After arriving in Jiang'an, Ma Duanru's men would disperse the opium in batches and hide it in secret warehouses. The opium is then distributed through underground pipes to traffickers everywhere. Soon, Ma Duanru established a huge opium sales network in the Jiang'an area.
With this considerable opium business, Ma Duanru's financial resources and strength grew rapidly. He began to buy weapons and ammunition in large quantities, recruit more men, and expand his ranks of bandits. At the same time, he also plundered and robbed innocent people inside and outside Jiang'an County to support his opium business.
Ma Duanru's crimes soon attracted the attention of the PLA. They were furious and decided to launch a massive anti-bandit operation to completely eradicate the cancer of Ma Duanru.
In the spring of 1951, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) began an operation to arrest Ma Duanru in Jiang'an County. They not only mobilized a large number of troops, but also mobilized local militia, peasant associations, women's associations, and other forces to participate in the encirclement and suppression.
4. Fight wits and courage with the PLA
In the face of the PLA's anti-bandit action, Ma Duanru did not retreat timidly. On the contrary, he used his years of accumulated experience to fight the People's Liberation Army with wisdom and courage.
First of all, Ma Duanru set up countless ambush points all over Jiang'an County and strictly guarded them. Whenever the reconnaissance team of the PLA enters a certain area, his bandits launch a surprise attack from the prepared bunkers, inflicting heavy losses on the PLA.
On one occasion, a PLA reconnaissance team was attacked by Ma Duanru bandits near the county seat of Jiang'an. The two sides met in a valley and fought fiercely for more than an hour. In the end, the PLA reconnaissance team barely withdrew under the cover of heavy firepower.
Ma Duanru's ambush tactics have caused great resistance to the PLA's anti-bandit operations. In response to this situation, the PLA had to step up reconnaissance in every operation to guard against surprise attacks.
At the same time, Ma Duanru also used his local acquaintances to infiltrate a large number of people's Liberation Army (PLA). They infiltrated the PLA, acting as undercover agents and informants, providing Ma Duanru with valuable military intelligence.
On one occasion, an undercover agent of the People's Liberation Army told Ma Duanru that the People's Liberation Army would launch an attack on his base camp at some point. After Ma Duanru learned of this information, he immediately mobilized all his forces and set up a huge ambush circle.
Sure enough, the attacking PLA troops soon fell into the encirclement of Ma Duanru. The two sides met in the valley and a fierce shootout ensued. Ma Duanru's bandits occupied favorable terrain and inflicted heavy casualties on the PLA.
Eventually, under the cover of heavy firepower, the PLA units barely withdrew. Ma Duanru's ambush circle once again dealt a heavy blow to the PLA's anti-bandit operation.
In the face of Ma Duanru's cunning tactics, the PLA is also constantly summing up lessons and formulating new countermeasures. They intensified their investigation efforts to strictly guard against death, and at the same time infiltrated Ma Duanru's interior, sending undercover agents to track his whereabouts.
In this way, the two sides launched a battle of wisdom and courage in the valley area of Jiang'an County. Ma Duanru relied on his years of accumulated experience to create a lot of trouble for the PLA. But the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is also constantly summing up, and soon found a way to deal with it.