Chapter 47 Chapter 8: Zeng Zhongsheng, the Senior General of the Red Army Killed by Zhuo Keji

After the Lianghekou meeting, the headquarters of the Red Fourth Front Army was located in Zagunao. Zhang Guotao and Chen Changhao have just finished performing a double reed.Zhang Guotao refused to implement the Songpan Plan on the grounds that the unified command of the two front armies had not been resolved; Chen Changhao sent a personal message to Mao, Zhou, and Zhu, asking to support Zhang Guotao as the chairman of the Central Military Commission. At this moment, the two were sitting together to discuss the next step.Suddenly there was a loud noise from the yard, and Chen Changhao was about to get up to see what happened when Huang Chao, the secretary-general of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army, hurried in and said, "Chairman Zhang, Zeng Zhongsheng ran out from the Security Bureau, clamoring for Go to see Mao Zedong. The guards arrested him." As soon as Huang Chao's words fell, someone outside the house shouted: "Zhang Guotao, why don't you let me go to see Mao Zedong? You have a ghost in your heart!" Zhang Guotao heard this. Angry and impatient, his chubby face suddenly turned a liver color.Chen Changhao didn't like it, so he hurriedly said to Huang Chao: "Tie him up and take him away." Seeing Huang Chao turned around and wanted to leave, he ordered again: "Use cotton to cover his stinky mouth. Get up!" Zhang Guotao looked out of the window, his face gradually showed a murderous look: "This Zeng Zhongsheng is really impatient!" Who is this Zeng Zhongsheng, how did Zhang Guotao get so angry?This starts with Zhang Guotao's trip to Hubei, Henan and Anhui.

Zhang Guotao came to Hubei, Henan and Anhui in April 1931 with Wang Ming's "Sword of the Above".When Zhang Guotao got out of the car, he picked his nose and eyes and slandered the Hubei, Henan and Anhui bases for implementing the "non-Bolshevik line" for a long time.Subsequently, the leading organizations of the Party and the Red Army in the base areas were reorganized, announcing the abolition of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Special Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the establishment of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Central Branch Bureau. Zhang Guotao used Xu Xiangqian's words: "It's not that he is incompetent, but his character is not good. He is using an excuse to eliminate counter-revolutionaries, cut off dissidents, and establish personal rule.... People with bad qualities like Zhang Guotao, who engage in patriarchal rule, are fundamentally He shouldn’t have been sent to Hubei, Henan and Anhui to be the top leader.” After Zhang Guotao’s arrival, he implemented wrong military struggle strategies, created red terror, and adopted a policy of ignoring the people, which brought serious disasters to Hubei, Henan, Anhui and the later Sichuan-Shanxi base areas.The final failure of the Red Fourth Front Army was completely brought down by Zhang Guotao from within.From Hubei, Henan, Anhui to the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, Zeng Zhongsheng fought tit-for-tat with Zhang Guotao from beginning to end. Zhang Guotao hated him deeply and wanted to get rid of him long ago, but he was afraid of Zeng Zhongsheng's prestige in the base area and the Red Army. The first step was to use his authority to censor, suppress and attack Zeng Zhongsheng.Until August 1, 1933, Zhang Guotao finally arrested Zeng Zhongsheng illegally on trumped-up charges such as "leader of the right wing" and "activities of a small organization formed in conjunction with the Tuochen faction and the reorganization faction", and tortured him to extract a confession.But Zeng Zhongsheng resolutely rejected all the charges imposed on him, and fought against them unyieldingly.Afterwards, Zeng Zhongsheng was imprisoned by Zhang Guotao for a long time.

In March 1935, the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army crossed the Jialing River westward and began the Long March.At this time, Zeng Zhongsheng was still illegally detained by Zhang Guotao. He dragged his battered body and moved with the army on crutches.He firmly believes that the dark clouds will eventually dissipate and the revolution will eventually triumph.He made friends with the soldiers who "prisoned" him, and often used the opportunity of camping and eating to talk with the soldiers and teach them culture.Sometimes when more and more people listened to him, Zhang Guotao would strictly stop and control him.

Zeng Zhongsheng was overjoyed and excited when he heard the news of Mao Gong's reunion, thinking that the Fourth Red Army could be saved, and the victory of the revolution was hopeful again.Therefore, he asked to see the Party Central Committee and Mao Zedong.This is the scene at the beginning of this article. After Maogong joined forces, the Party Central Committee sent Li Fuchun, Liu Bocheng, Li Weihan and other comrades to form a central delegation to Zagunao to express condolences to all officers and soldiers of the Fourth Red Army.At that time, the garrison of the Fourth Red Army was beating gongs and drums and setting off firecrackers. It was very lively. The officers and soldiers sincerely welcomed the Central Delegation and celebrated the victory of the two main forces of the Red Army.When Zhang Guotao accompanied the delegation for dinner, Liu Bocheng asked about Zeng Zhongsheng.

At this time, Zhang Guotao did not change his face and heartbeat, and told a big lie: "Comrade Zhongsheng was seriously injured in the battle in the Hubei-Yuan-Anhui base area. I left him to recuperate. He will come back when he recovers." When Zeng Zhongsheng's Chen Mingyi told Zeng Zhongsheng that the central delegation had arrived and was concerned about his situation, he was so happy that he shed tears: "I'm finally saved!" He wrote a letter to the Party Central Committee, expressing that he would continue to work for the Party, and that his problem was willing to accept the review of the Central Committee and wait for the Central Committee to deal with it.

Unexpectedly, this letter fell into the hands of Zhang Guotao.Seeing Zeng Zhongsheng's awe-inspiring voice in the letter, Zhang Guotao was restless and terrified.He was afraid that after Zeng Zhongsheng was released, the truth and his series of wrong activities would be revealed to the Party Central Committee.Zhang Guotao shook his hand holding the letter, raised his eyebrows angrily, and said, "Zeng Zhongsheng never repented, and if I don't kill him, I don't understand the hatred in my heart!" So he secretly ordered his confidant Huang Chao to execute Zeng Zhongsheng.

One night in August, Huang Chao ordered his men to take Zeng Zhongsheng to a dense forest in Zhuokeji, northwestern Sichuan, and said, "The troops are marching tonight, so you should rest here first." Zeng Zhongsheng didn't know what to do, so he sat on the grass. Taking advantage of his unpreparedness, two executioners suddenly put a rope around his neck, strangled him alive, and then threw his body into the river. In order to cover up people's eyes and ears, Huang Chao ordered people to shout loudly in the south of Zhuo Keji: "Zeng Zhongsheng fled in collusion with the enemy! He surrendered to the enemy! Hurry up!" He also asked some people to pretend to "search" on the nearby mountains and spent a whole night. .

The next day, Zhang Guotao said viciously at the cadre meeting: "Zeng Zhongsheng, the leader of the right wing, escaped and collaborated with the enemy last night, fell into the river and drowned. This proves that he is a counter-revolutionary!" Zeng Zhongsheng was only 35 years old when he was killed. . As an outstanding communist, Zeng Zhongsheng, as a senior leader of the party and the base area, was killed by Zhang Guotao, who was also a senior leader of the party and the Red Army.The harm of left-leaning putschism and the vicious expansion of Zhang Guotao's personal desire for power are the most fundamental reasons for Zeng Zhongsheng's murder.

Zhang Guotao came to Hubei, Henan and Anhui as a representative of Wang Ming's left-leaning blind activism, and soon he was about to integrate the power of the party, government, and army.But Zhang knew that his power base in the Soviet area was weak, so he was determined to consolidate his power base by "transforming" the party and the Red Army in the Soviet area. He first denied the work in the base areas.In his report to the Central Committee, although he also said a few good things about Zeng Zhongsheng, he also said that although the Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Soviet areas had achieved some achievements, "it cannot prove that the line within the party is correct." The reconciliation of the three lines" and "the current task is to intensify the struggle on the two fronts and make a thorough transformation in reality." Secondly, he proposed "intensifying the elimination of the reorganization faction" and clearly listed the elimination of counter-revolutionaries as the "Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Soviet Areas" One of the most fundamental and urgent tasks of the moment."In order to carry out the anti-revolutionary task, he changed the Political Security Bureau of the Hubei, Henan, Anhui Soviet Governments to the General Political Security Bureau and set up branches in various counties.After Zeng Zhongsheng, who was the political commissar of the Fourth Red Army at that time, and others had a heated debate with Zhang Guotao on the army's course of action, Zhang Guotao, who was scheming, accelerated the pace of "suppressing counter-revolutionaries" with ulterior motives.

This controversy was caused by the establishment of the policy of the Fourth Red Army going south, and reached a fever pitch in the process of implementation. After the second campaign against "encirclement and suppression" in Hubei, Henan and Anhui was over, Zeng Zhongsheng and others suggested that before the enemy's next "encirclement and suppression" came, the Red Army should mobilize part of its troops to mobilize the masses and combine local armed forces to eliminate the reactionary forces in the base areas, and use the main force to go south Develop outward, restore the work in Yichun, Huangmei, and Guangji areas, and then intimidate the Yangtze River, contain the enemy, and cooperate with the central base areas in the struggle against "encirclement and suppression".However, Zhang Guozhu rejected this correct suggestion, and put Zeng Zhongsheng and others on the hat of "revealing the mask of Li San's line and introducing opportunism in actual work".When the Central Sub-bureau of Hubei, Henan and Anhui held the first enlarged meeting, leaders of the Fourth Red Army, such as Zeng Zhongsheng, Yu Dusan, and Kuang Jixun, once again affirmed the reasons and correctness of the southward offensive policy and won the support of most comrades present. So far, Zhang Guotao reluctantly Agree with the policy of the main force of the Red Army going south and developing outward.But in terms of specific arrangements, Zhang changed from conservatism and ordered the Fourth Red Army to capture Yingshan within one month, go out of Qianshan and Taihu Lake, threaten Anqing, shake Nanjing, and carry out military adventures.

Zeng Zhongsheng believed that the Red Army should develop outward from its solid positions and take on the task of assisting the Central Soviet Area. The main thing is not to attack the enemy's important cities, but to destroy the enemy's vital forces, consolidate and expand the base areas, so as to contain the enemy's forces.But Zhang Guotao once again rejected this correct suggestion, and the troops had to follow Zhang.When the Fourth Red Army was in action, Zhang Guotao reorganized the leadership of the Fourth Red Army. Kuang Jixun, who had opposed him with Zeng Zhongsheng, was demoted to the commander of the 13th Red Army. Under the leadership of Xu Xiangqian and Zeng Zhongsheng, the main force of the Fourth Red Army went southward and conquered Yingshan County in one fell swoop. Afterwards, the enemy's situation, terrain, and especially the mass base were carefully analyzed, and it was believed that the enemy's forces in Yi (Chun), Huang (Mei), and Guang (Ji) areas were weak. It is also easy to be effective in cooperating with the Central Soviet Area; while leaving Anqing in the east, you have to pass through the White Area for nearly 400 miles, and there are more than 5 brigades of enemy troops stationed along the way.Zeng Zhongsheng, Xu Xiangqian and others reported their opinions to the central sub-bureau of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, and at the same time sent troops out of Yi (chun), Huang (mei), and Guang (ji) areas.After a month of fierce fighting, more than 7 regiments of the enemy were wiped out and more than 5,000 enemies were captured. They effectively cooperated with the anti-"encirclement and suppression" struggle in the central base area and formed a large red area centered on Yingshan. However, Zhang Guotao ignored the great victories achieved by the Fourth Red Army's southward campaign, and wrote four consecutive letters to Zeng and Xu, accusing the main leaders of the Fourth Red Army of changing their eastward plan for "violating the orders of the branch bureau" and "abandoning the task of assisting the central base areas." ", "repeating the Lisan line", and the Central Sub-bureau are "differences in principle on the line", etc., and strictly ordered that "the troops should immediately return to the north without stopping at all." In view of the inevitable struggle with Zhang Guotao, in order to clarify the right and wrong, Zeng Zhongsheng immediately wrote a report to the central government, clearly expressing his opposition to Zhang Guotao's wrong military policy of attacking Anqing, and refuted Zhang Guotao's lack of collective leadership of the party and his reliance on workers and peasants. An arbitrary claim to military adventure. Under Zhang Guotao's many orders, Zeng and Xu had to give up the favorable opportunity to wipe out a large number of enemies and move their troops back north.After moving to Jiminghe, Zeng Zhongsheng convened a meeting of cadres above the party branch secretary and instructor of the Fourth Red Army under the guidance of firmly believing in the party and the commanders and fighters of the Fourth Red Army, and publicly discussed Zhang Guotao's letter.For Zhang Guotao's unreasonable accusations, the participants were furious and unanimously passed the statement, which once again explained the disadvantages of going east, the correctness of going south and the great significance of victory.According to the results of the discussion at the meeting, Zeng Zhongsheng wrote back to Zhang Guotao, saying that "in addition to being absolutely obedient in organization, politically, it is necessary to make a very sincere appeal to the Central Branch and the Military Commission."At that time, the Fourth Red Army only had more than 20,000 people, and their weapons and equipment were poor. They did not have the conditions to attack Anqing and threaten Nanjing. Therefore, Zeng Zhongsheng sharply criticized Zhang Guotao's wrong policy of attacking Anqing in his letter: "We really don't understand the difference between the order to occupy Anqing in one month and the order to occupy Wuhan in two weeks according to the Lisan line!" As for using party principles to act emotionally, success or failure will always be measured by the interests of the party.Unexpectedly, Zhang Guotao is a small-hearted person. Zeng Zhongsheng's letter was upright and strict, which hit Zhang Guotao's heart.After reading the letter, Zhang jumped up as if stung by a bee. Zhang Guotao knew very well that if he wanted to become the "Supreme Emperor" in the Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Soviet Areas, he had to get rid of Zeng Zhongsheng and his followers.At the meeting held by Zeng Zhongsheng in Jiminghe, Zhang believed that Zeng was publicly demonstrating against himself, and he could not do anything about it.But Zeng and other Red Army generals are all outstanding in battle and well-respected by everyone. If they don't do well, they will ruin themselves.At this moment, Zhang Guozhu couldn't help but be overjoyed by an enemy's divorce plan. He thought that the opportunity to get rid of his dissidents had come. After the Fourth Red Army captured Yingshan, Xu Jishen, chairman of the Western Anhui Branch of the Hubei, Henan and Anhui Military Commission and commander of the 12th Division of the Fourth Red Army, led his troops to stay in Yingshan.Chiang Kai-shek's spy chief Zeng expanded his feelings, and sent a special agent to send a personal letter to Xu by virtue of his experience of being a classmate of Whampoa with Xu.In this letter, Zeng Kuoqing was deliberately evasive, falsely claiming that he had colluded with the enemy, and expressed his welcome to vote for Chiang against the Communist Party.Xu Jishen's stance was firm and upright, and he immediately arrested the person who was coming, and sent him and the letter to the Fourth Red Army's military headquarters.After understanding, Zeng Zhongsheng believed that this was "completely a means for the enemy to use various schemes to destroy us", and then sent the secret agents and letters to the Central Sub-bureau for processing.However, Zhang Guotao, without any basis, used this incident to concoct the so-called big injustice case that Xu Jishen and others "really prepared to pull the troops to the Yangtze River to surrender to Chiang Kai-shek".He also slandered Zeng Zhongsheng for leading the Fourth Red Army to the south because he was "instigated by counter-revolutionaries".Therefore, he sent Chen Changhao to the location of the Fourth Red Army, announcing the resignation of Zeng Zhongsheng's political commissar, and then slandered him for making "systematic mistakes along the entire political line."Put him on the hat of "resisting the Central Branch Bureau" and "conniving the activities of counter-revolutionaries", and transferred Zeng Zhongsheng to the rear for review. With Xu Jishen's arrest and Zeng Zhongsheng's dismissal as the prelude, Zhang Guotao set off a crazy "suppression of counter-revolutionaries" in the Fourth Red Army.During the "Eradication of Counter-revolutionaries" of the Fourth Red Army, many of the cadres of the 12 regiments in the 4 main divisions were unjustly killed. The rampant "elimination of counter-revolutionaries" severely damaged the strength of the Fourth Red Army and the Hubei, Henan and Anhui bases. Facing the attack of a powerful enemy, Zhang Guotao panicked and abandoned the Hubei, Henan and Anhui bases in the autumn of 1932. The main force fled in a hurry and aimlessly.Zeng Zhongsheng, who was traveling west with the army, and other comrades fought face-to-face with Zhang Guotao, criticizing his mistakes righteously and sternly. The troops fought bloody battles from Hubei via Henan to Shaanxi, and suffered heavy casualties. The dissatisfaction among the officers and soldiers of the Red Army became more and more serious. Zhang Guotao was isolated and his life became more and more difficult.In order to change this unfavorable situation, Zhang Guotao began to retreat. In early December 1932, Zhang Guotao held a meeting of some cadres above the division level in Xiaohekou, Chenggu, southern Shaanxi.The meeting became a powder keg from the very beginning. Many comrades criticized Zhang Guotao severely. One comrade was so angry that he stood up and pointed at Zhang Guotao and said: "Zhang Guotao, you kill this one today and that one tomorrow, saying that this one is a counter-revolutionary and that one is a counter-revolutionary, you are the number one counter-revolutionary! You lost your base and caused the Red Army to suffer consecutive defeats. What do you want to do when you bring the Red Army here? ?” Zeng Zhongsheng also sharply criticized Zhang Guotao’s mistake of retreating without purpose and plan and his undemocratic paternalistic leadership style with a lot of living facts at the meeting. By October 1933, the Red Fourth Front Army had expanded to five armies with more than 80,000 people, established a red regime in Bazhong City and 22 counties, with a population of 5 million, and the Sichuan-Shaanxi Base Area entered its heyday. Zhang Guotao felt his wings grow hard again.So, this scheming and cunning man once again extended his magic hand to Zeng Zhongsheng, then chief of staff of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission. Zeng Zhongsheng was studious and talented when he was in middle school. He was a well-known high-achieving student. In addition, he had studied in Whampoa Military Academy and Moscow Sun Yat-sen University successively, so he had high military and political literacy.He was not only good at military command and regime building, but also good at summing up experience and understanding practical problems in China's revolutionary war from a theoretical perspective. He was known as "a pen in the army" at that time.When Zeng Zhongsheng served as the chief of staff of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Committee, he not only directly commanded the Red Army to fight, but also devoted himself to the construction of the local party and studied military science seriously.He successively wrote pamphlets such as "Key Points of Combat with Sichuan Army" and "Key Points of Guerrilla Warfare" to guide troops in combat. Just as Zeng Zhongsheng devoted himself to the research of military academics in order to improve the military quality of the officers and soldiers of the Red Army and summed up the experience and lessons in combat, Zhang Guotao attacked him. On August 1, 1933, Zeng Zhongsheng, who had just finished writing "The Essentials of Combat Against the Red Army", stood up, stretched his arms as if relieved, and was about to go out to enjoy the bright sunshine.A confidant of Zhang Guozhu broke into the house with more than a dozen people, and tied up Zeng Zhongsheng without any explanation. Zeng Zhongsheng asked angrily, "Why did you arrest me?" "Why did you arrest you? You will know when you see Chairman Zhang!" After he finished speaking, the confidant raised his hand and slapped Zeng Zhongsheng heavily across the face, and blood immediately flowed out from the corner of Zeng Zhongsheng's mouth. Before going out, Zeng Zhongsheng pointed to the manuscript on the table and said to the group of people: "This is written in blood, you must not destroy it!" Seeing Zhang Guotao, Zeng Zhongsheng angrily asked: "What crime have I committed? You treat me like this." Me!" The muscles on Zhang Guotao's face tightened, and he said gloomily, "What crime did you commit?" Then he slapped the table again, "In Hubei, Henan and Anhui, you colluded with Xu Jishen to mess with me; when you arrived at Xiaohekou, you see The Red Army is coming to an end, and seeing that I, Zhang, is worthless, he gathered together with Kuang Jixun and his gang to rebel against me. Is this a minor crime?" Zeng Zhongsheng retorted: "At the party meeting, you can say anything, this is the party It is allowed by domestic democratic life." At this time, Zhang Guotao had already torn his face, and he was determined to get rid of Zeng Zhongsheng who had made trouble for him many times, so he threw away the fig leaf and stopped covering up. "You are limited to 5 days. Write a 'self-surrender letter' and fully explain your crimes against me!" Zeng Zhongsheng was so angry when he heard this: "Zhang Guotao, thanks to you, you are still a Communist Party member! I, Zeng Zhongsheng, should be open and aboveboard. You! You have killed so many people, how many souls are demanding debts from you!" In the prison cell, Zeng Zhongsheng was thinking about the "Keys to Fighting the "Red Suppression" Army", and he asked the detainees for pens and paper , with amazing perseverance, rewrote the book from memory. This book has about 30,000 words and is extremely rich in content.Zeng Zhongsheng systematically summed up 10 kinds of anti-"encirclement and suppression" tactics: (1) fighting on the inside, breaking down individually; (2) focusing on the enemy's contact points; 5) Concentrating on the east and attacking the west, avoiding the reality and attacking the enemy's key points with erratic actions; (6) besieging a point and destroying reinforcements; (7) luring the enemy to go deep, concentrating forces and destroying them; (8) deploying a large guerrilla battle net; (9) Try to play the role of night battle; (10) highlight the outside attack.At the same time, Zeng Zhongsheng also analyzed in detail 10 "encirclement and suppression" tactics that the enemy might adopt based on experience, and put forward effective countermeasures for the Red Army to wipe out the enemy. After reading this book, Zhang Guotao couldn't help but be impressed by Zeng Zhongsheng's incisive insights and outstanding talent.He picked up a pen and ticked off the three words of Zeng Zhongsheng, and commented: "This book is very valuable. All Red Army cadres should hold a copy in their hands to discuss it again and again, and propose points that need to be discussed in the book for discussion." Soon, the Red Army All officers and soldiers of the Fourth Front Army have read this book and feel that it is well written.At first I thought it was written by Zhang Guotao, but later I realized that it was Zhang Guotao who wanted to keep the work of greedy heaven for himself! After the Long March of the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai heard that Zeng Zhongsheng was being imprisoned by Zhang Guotao, so they asked Lin Yuying, in the name of the representative of the Communist International, to telegraph Zhang Guotao to save Zeng's life, but it was too late! In 1945, at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Yan'an, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China completely rehabilitated Zeng Zhongsheng.