Last Saturday was November 25th. Around this date every year, the term “egg fried rice” becomes a sensitive word on the Chinese internet because it marks the day Mao Anying was killed by U.S. Air Force planes on the Korean battlefield. There has always been a folk saying that the reason Mao Anying was bombed to death was because he was secretly making egg fried rice in Peng’s office, and the resulting smoke attracted the attention of the U.S. Air Force planes, which then dropped napalm bombs, killing him. The official has always vehemently denied this claim. The “Liberation Army Daily” and Xinhua News Agency have both published articles specifically criticizing this as a rumor. The movie “The Battle at Lake Changjin” says that Mao Anying went in to grab documents and military maps and was bombed to death, sacrificing himself for the country.
Recently, the Chinese Academy of History also made a video specifically to debunk the rumor, claiming that the egg fried rice story is the most malicious slander and smear against the martyr Mao Anying: “When the nation was in crisis and the enemy was approaching, Mao Anying stepped forward and enlisted in the army. However, the heroic act of Martyr Mao Anying’s sacrifice for the country has been smeared with various dirty water in recent years, among which the rumor that Mao Anying’s death was caused by making egg fried rice and attracting enemy planes is the most malicious. Heroes are not allowed to be defiled, and dignity is not allowed to be desecrated. Today, we will further clarify the historical facts and restore historical clarity.”
Around November 25th, the term “egg fried rice” cannot be casually mentioned; once mentioned, the consequences are very serious. Three years ago, a food writer named Wang Gang, who is very good at cooking, taught everyone how to cook online, and I learned many dishes from him. He posted a video teaching everyone how to make egg fried rice: “Hello everyone, I’m Wang Gang. In this video, I’m sharing a staple food with you—Yangzhou fried rice.” As a result, it caused a lot of Little Pink’s attacks, saying that he was slandering the heroes. Wang Gang quickly came out to explain that he was just a cook and not highly educated, and apologized to everyone.
Two years ago, a public account of China Unicom also caused criticism for an article teaching everyone how to make egg fried rice on November 23rd, and it was eventually banned. You see, even though China Unicom is also the CCP’s own son, the term “egg fried rice” cannot be casually mentioned either. If you really don’t believe in evil and mention egg fried rice online on November 25th, you will be directly detained later. So you see, egg fried rice has become a topic that cannot be discussed in China around November 25th. It cannot be mentioned within the country, but we can talk about it freely outside the country. Today, I’m going to talk about egg fried rice anyway. Speaking of Saturday, I even went out to eat a bowl of egg fried rice and posted a photo, and as a result, many people were scolding me.
In my opinion, it is valuable to figure out the true relationship between egg fried rice and Mao Anying’s death. Why does the CCP fear a bowl of egg fried rice? “From entering the war to his heroic sacrifice, in just 37 days, at the young age of 28, Mao Anying did not receive any honorary titles or medals for his special status before his death. However, like the tens of thousands of volunteer soldiers who left their lives in Korea, he sacrificed himself for the country in this war of peace and justice, and will be remembered forever.”
The claim that Mao Anying died from egg fried rice originated from Yang Di. Yang Di was the deputy chief of the operations department of the Volunteer Army headquarters and later became a cadre at the rank of a full army. He had a habit of writing memoirs, and he wrote a total of three memoirs. The second one is “In the Days of the General Staff Headquarters During the War of Resistance Against Japan”, and the third one is “In the Days of the Volunteer Army Headquarters”. I have basically read Yang Di’s memoirs, and they are of very high historical value. In his “In the Days of the Volunteer Army Headquarters”, he talked about the details of Mao Anying’s death, and in the first edition, he didn’t mention egg fried rice, only fried rice. In the 2003 edition, he changed fried rice to egg fried rice. As soon as this statement came out, it immediately caused a public outcry. Everyone thought, “Fortunately, it was a bowl of egg fried rice that attracted the U.S. Air Force, otherwise wouldn’t China have become North Korea?”
As soon as this statement came out, it caused a lot of people’s anger. The first to be angry was Mao Anying’s original wife, Liu Siqi. She said online, “This is impossible, there were no eggs or rice in the Volunteer Army at that time, they could only eat sorghum.” She said that the sorghum statement was made by Xu Muyuan, who said that they could only eat sorghum for breakfast at that time. Later, Cheng Pu also said that there were no conditions to make egg fried rice, how could it be possible? So Liu Siqi was very angry. Another person was the daughter of Gao Ruixin, Gao Ruixin was the staff officer who was bombed to death with Mao Anying that day. But these two people are actually stakeholders, because their relatives died in that bombing, so they don’t want their relatives to die because of a bowl of egg fried rice.
How did Mao Anying die? Let’s examine this carefully. Before examining this matter, we need to briefly introduce the background. How did Mao Anying go to Korea? There has always been a saying online that Li Kenong recommended him, but in fact, with the disclosure of other people’s memoirs, it was Mao Zedong who discussed with Mao Anying himself and wanted to send Mao Anying to the Korean battlefield. On October 7, 1950, Mao Zedong hosted a banquet for Peng Dehuai in Zhongnanhai, a family banquet, and Mao Anying was present, and it is said that Zhou Enlai was also present. Mao Zedong entrusted Mao Anying to Peng Dehuai on the spot and asked him to take him to Korea to gain experience. Peng Dehuai was stunned at first, he was afraid, this burden was too heavy, and Mao Anying had never fought a war. Although he participated in the Red Army for a few days in the Soviet Union, he had never been on the battlefield for a day. Think about it, if you take Mao Anying to the battlefield, it would be too dangerous, so he tried his best to refuse at first, but Lao Mao was very determined, and he entrusted Mao Anying to him. Peng Dehuai had no choice, and the next day he flew to Shenyang with Mao Anying and let Mao Anying stay at Gao Gang’s home for more than ten days. On October 23rd, Mao Anying entered Korea and arrived at the headquarters of the Volunteer Army.
Mao Anying’s official identity at the Volunteer Army headquarters was a Russian translator, but in fact, during the entire period of work at the Volunteer Army headquarters, the workload of Russian translation was almost non-existent. Moreover, the Russians themselves also brought translators, and he only translated twice during his 32 days of work at the Volunteer Army: once when the Soviet ambassador to Korea met with Peng Dehuai at the Volunteer Army headquarters, and the other time when a Soviet committee went there to meet with Peng Dehuai, he did the translation. Besides that, there were no other translations, and his other identity was the party branch secretary of Peng Dehuai’s headquarters office, but he actually had nothing to do. He didn’t need to be on duty there either. Many people’s memoirs prove that Mao Anying’s work there was very leisurely, and he usually played chess with Old Peng, and made some interruptions during the combat meetings. At that time, everyone knew that the 38th Army didn’t perform well during the first battle, and Peng Dehuai was furious. At the meeting, Mao Anying stood up and gestured with a small stick in front of the map. Others didn’t know he was Mao Anying because he used the alias Yang Translator. The people below were very strange, how could this translator be so bold, he was talking when Old Peng was speaking, but no one dared to speak, and Old Peng didn’t dare to speak either. You can see that his position at the Volunteer Army headquarters was very special.
What happened at the Volunteer Army headquarters on November 25th? The Volunteer Army headquarters was in a place called Dayudong in northern Korea at that time, which had been moved several times. The earlier place was in Dadong, and Dayudong was a gold mine, a cave dug by the county town, which was convenient for concealment. There were two houses in this gully, one was Peng Dehuai’s own office and rest room, and the other had three rooms. Ding Ganru was the chief of the operations department, Yang Di was the deputy chief of the operations department, and they lived in one room, a dozen staff officers lived in one room in the middle, and Mao Anying and a person named Zhao Nanqi lived in one room. Mao Anying was a Russian translator, and Zhao Nanqi was a Korean translator, and they were arranged to live together. Zhao Nanqi later became a general and vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and he was a Korean, so his purpose was also very important. Mao Anying’s rank was very low, but he had a separate room to live in, and his treatment was very high.
11
On November 15th, the Volunteer Army was in Dayudong. Because they had captured many U.S. military vehicles in the first battle, about 60 vehicles, they buried some branches. When the U.S. Air Force planes were reconnoitering, the propellers blew up the branches and found these vehicles, and they were all destroyed. The Volunteer Army was very distressed, and dozens of vehicles were very precious. At that time, they suspected that Dayudong might attract the attention of the U.S. Air Force. That day, Hong Xuezhi held a meeting at the Volunteer Army headquarters and announced several disciplines: boil water before dawn every day, finish breakfast, enter the cave at 7 o’clock, everyone enter the cave to work, only a few people on duty outside, and no cooking is allowed during the day. This was the requirement of the Volunteer Army headquarters.
On November 24th, the reconnaissance plane circled in the sky. Yang Di reported, and Hong Xuezhi held a meeting at night and re-emphasized three disciplines: boil water and finish eating before dawn, no smoke during the day, and everyone must retreat to the cave to work before 7 o’clock. But Peng Dehuai was not very cooperative at the time. That dawn, Hong Xuezhi pulled Peng Dehuai into the cave. There are two versions of how he was pulled in: Yang Di recalled that Hong Xuezhi wanted to pull him to play chess, and they played several games of chess. Yang Feng’an recalled that they held a military meeting in the cave for more than two hours, and that day was the first day of the second battle. In short, everyone had to enter the cave to work on November 25th, and no more smoke was allowed, but around 11 o’clock that morning, Mao Anying was bombed to death in Peng Dehuai’s office.
Hong Xuezhi recalled that everyone entered the cave at 7 o’clock that day, and Mao Anying also followed into the cave, but for some reason, he went back to Peng Dehuai’s office around 9 o’clock. Yang Feng’an recalled that Peng Dehuai was studying the military situation in the cave, and around 9 o’clock, he asked Yang Feng’an to go to the office to ask the operations staff about the front-line situation, because the office still had two staff officers receiving telegrams from the front line. After Yang Feng’an arrived at the office, he saw Cheng Pu and Xu Muyuan, and then Mao Anying and Gao Ruixin returned to the office.
Cheng Pu said that Mao Anying didn’t enter the cave at all, he was busy in the office, looking for documents, and fell asleep on the table, sleeping until 9 o’clock in the morning, and after getting up, he looked for something to eat. Ding Ganru also said that Mao Anying got up at 3 o’clock, made a tea pot of rice to eat, and fell asleep on the table, sleeping until 9 o’clock in the morning, and then got up to look for food.
So there are two different versions: one is that Mao Anying followed the large army into the cave at 7 o’clock in the morning, and came back at 9 o’clock; the other is that Mao Anying didn’t leave at all, and had been in Peng Dehuai’s office. On the day Mao Anying was bombed to death on November 25th, Peng Dehuai sent a secret telegram to Beijing, and this secret telegram was very important because Peng Dehuai needed to explain to Beijing. It is said that he pondered over this telegram for more than an hour when he wrote it. The telegram has been made public afterwards, and the gist is that on November 25th, we all retreated to the cave at 7 o’clock at dawn, but Mao Anying and three others did not leave, and were in the Volunteer Army’s office. At 11 o’clock, the U.S. Air Force planes came, and these four people left, and then went back again. The U.S. Air Force planes came again and dropped napalm bombs, and Mao Anying and Gao Ruixin were bombed to death, and Cheng Pu and Xu Muyuan survived.
Peng Dehuai’s telegram shows that Mao Anying did not leave Peng Dehuai’s office. He got up in the middle of the night and ate a bowl of rice, and fell asleep on the table. No one dared to call him, and he got up in the morning and didn’t eat sorghum, and he was hungry, so he started looking for food. First, Mao Anying did not leave Peng Dehuai’s office. Second, what was Mao Anying doing at the time? Cheng Pu recalled that they were on duty, and Mao Anying was working on receiving and sending telegrams, and was busy until 9 o’clock in the morning, and fell asleep on the table, and got up to look for food. If this is the case, Martyr Mao Anying’s sacrifice must have been very heroic, but Cheng Pu’s recollection has problems.
Cheng Pu’s memoirs have errors in the time when Peng Dehuai went from the office to the cave. He said that Peng Dehuai had been sleeping in the office until 11 o’clock, which is obviously wrong, because many people’s recollections and telegrams show that Peng Dehuai entered the cave at 7 o’clock. Cheng Pu’s explanation materials to the special case team in 1972 are also unreliable, because he was also implicated during the Cultural Revolution, and he didn’t dare to write the truth casually. Cheng Pu said that he and Xu Muyuan were on duty, which is not a problem, but does Mao Anying belong to this sequence? Mao Anying had no specific work in the entire office, he was only a Russian translator, and he didn’t need to be on duty in the staff officer’s shift. Gao Ruixin was in charge of receiving and sending telegrams, and on November 18th, Gao Ruixin replaced Zhang Yangwu, and Zhang Yangwu left, and Gao Ruixin came to write the telegrams. No memoirs mentioned that Mao Anying needed to register telegrams, so this is also not true. Cheng Pu expanded his and Xu Muyuan’s duty to Mao Anying.
Was Mao Anying really making egg fried rice that day? Yang Di recalled that everyone retreated to the air-raid shelter that day, and he went to the scene to check, and found Mao Anying and Cheng Pu making egg fried rice. He said, “How can you make egg fried rice, you are not allowed to smoke”, and Cheng Pu said, “How dare I make egg fried rice, it was that translator who was making it.” Yang Di’s statement was confirmed by Yang Feng’an and Ding Ganru. Yang Feng’an said that Peng Dehuai and Hong Xuezhi were studying the military situation in the cave, and around 9 o’clock, he asked Yang Feng’an to go to the office to inquire about the situation, and after Yang Feng’an arrived at the scene, Mao Anying and Gao Ruixin were making fried rice. Ding Ganru recalled that Mao Anying got up at three o’clock and ate, and got up at nine o’clock and started to make fried rice again. Zhao Nanqi also said that Mao Anying was looking for a bite to eat. The fried rice statement was confirmed by many people.
Liu Siqi said that there were no eggs, but in fact, there were eggs. Other people’s memoirs also said that there were eggs, and the eggs were brought by Pak Il-woo, the second marshal of the Korean People’s Army. Pak Il-woo had worked in the Chinese army, and after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he returned to North Korea and became the second marshal of the Korean People’s Army. Pak Il-woo brought a basket of eggs when he went to the Volunteer Army headquarters to see Peng Dehuai, so there were eggs. Cheng Pu said that he took apples and roasted apple peels, and it is possible that he ate egg fried rice and then went to eat apples. Whether it was egg fried rice or apple peels, this had already violated military discipline. Hong Xuezhi had already said at the military meeting that no fire was allowed during the day, and no smoke was allowed. Cheng Pu said that they were eating and chatting in the room at first, and when the U.S. Air Force planes came, they ran out, and Mao Anying said that his coffee was still inside, and went back. Coffee was particularly important to Mao Anying. He had lived in the Soviet Union for many years and had developed the habit of eating Western food, and he especially liked to drink coffee. On November 14th, Gao Gang went to Korea to comfort the Volunteer Army and specially bought an iron box of coffee in the Shenyang market and gave it to Mao Anying. Mao Anying first finished eating egg fried rice, ate apples, roasted apple peels, and brewed coffee, and when the U.S. Air Force planes came, they ran out, and Mao Anying went back, and the U.S. Air Force planes came and dropped napalm bombs, and Mao Anying and Gao Ruixin were sacrificed in Peng Dehuai’s operations room.
In summary, first, Mao Anying violated military discipline. He did not abide by Hong Xuezhi’s requirement to enter the cave at 7 o’clock, and he also violated the regulation of not allowing smoke. Second, the main reason for Mao Anying’s death was because he violated military discipline. If he had followed Peng Dehuai into the cave, he would not have died. Third, why does the CCP care so much about whether Mao Anying died from egg fried rice? Mao Anying’s behavior on the Korean battlefield showed his privilege, violated military discipline, and no one dared to manage him. This is extremely unfavorable to the CCP’s image, and at the same time reveals Mao Zedong’s attempt to establish a family empire. After Mao Anying’s death, the CCP pushed Mao Yuanxin, Li Na, Jiang Qing, and others to high positions, showing Mao Zedong’s intention to cultivate successors. Mao Anying’s death was a blow to Mao Zedong, but it was a fortunate thing for the Chinese nation, otherwise China might have fallen into a situation like North Korea.
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