Chapter 4 3. During the period of criticizing the "bourgeois reactionary line"

Faced with a series of consequences caused by the "Red Guard Movement", Zhou Enlai considered an important issue, which was how to objectively and correctly understand the nature of the contradictions within the party, and then grasp and deal with the policy issues for the cadres who made mistakes. In August, when Zhou Enlai talked about the issue of the working group, he pointed out many times that even if he made a mistake in policy or line, he should point out his mistakes in the spirit of "learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and heal the sick and save the patient" as Chairman Mao said. , to help it correct.And said: On this issue, I feel the same as the comrades working in the central government. On behalf of them and myself, I apologize to you (referring to the people in the unit where the working group is located).At the same time, I should make it clear to you that this issue has already been resolved at the Central Plenary Session (that is, the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee).

Based on this understanding, Zhou Enlai opposed holding on to leading cadres on working groups and other issues, making unlimited appointments, and even adopting the practice of "dismissing officials" by the masses. In early September, he presided over a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to discuss the draft of the "Interim Regulations on the Approval Procedures for the Appointment and Removal of Senior Party, Government, and Military Cadres (Draft)". Cadres are protected.After that, whether it was talking with the masses or presiding over the formulation of relevant documents, Zhou Enlai has always insisted that leading cadres at all levels should not be characterized by mass organizations and "dismissed from office".

In late September, in response to questions from the Red Guards and some others, Zhou Enlai emphasized: "It cannot be said that making a wrong line is a counter-revolutionary, but a wrong line is a contradiction among the people. I have made a wrong line, but I am willing to correct my mistakes and learn from Chairman Mao. "If a person makes some mistakes in revisionist viewpoints and tendencies at one time, as long as he recognizes them and resolutely corrects them, the party still adopts the policy of curing diseases and saving lives for such people. Such people, at all levels They are found in the leading organizations." "36 ministers and deputy ministers of the Central Committee and the State Council have been suspended for self-reflection. There are those who are willing to make revolution. They make mistakes in the line and still think that they are revolutionaries subjectively. As long as they are willing to correct their mistakes, it is not an issue of friend and foe.”

In order to carry out the criticism of the "reactionary bourgeois line" across the country, Mao Zedong presided over the work conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing from October 9th to 28th to further solve the problem of understanding of the "Cultural Revolution" by senior and middle-level party cadres.At the meeting, Chen Boda and Lin Biao made keynote speeches, criticizing Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping by name, accusing them of being the proponents and representatives of the "bourgeois reactionary line", and advocating that mass movements are "natural and reasonable".Liu and Deng were forced to review again.

If we say that the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee held in August of this year was the second "big move" that pushed the "Cultural Revolution" to its climax (the first "big move" was the political bureau enlargement meeting), then, the October Central Work Conference is the third "big move".Through this meeting, the issues of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, which had been "solved" at the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee, were brought up again on a larger scale, and it was asserted: "The struggle between the two lines is still going on, And it will go through many iterations.”

It is obvious that criticizing the "reactionary bourgeois line" has brought about a series of serious consequences. First, the issue of Liu Shaoqi is becoming increasingly clear and open.For this reason, Zhou Enlai paid close attention to the social reaction to Liu Shaoqi and Wang Guangmei's problems. On October 11, he ordered Xu Ming, the former deputy secretary-general of the State Council, and the head of the Ministry of Public Security to send people to inspect the big-character posters about Wang Guangmei on several main streets in Beijing, and copy back the title and brief content. On the 12th, he commented (to Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, etc.) on the "Invitation Card" issued by the Red Guards of Tsinghua University on the same day for the "Thoroughly Criticize Wang Guangmei's Right Opportunist Line" conference: "I am going to send people to Record the recording and bring it back to Comrade Wang Guangmei instead of going to the meeting.”

For Liu Shaoqi himself, Zhou Enlai paid special attention to and paid attention to his appearance in public during this period.During Mao Zedong's 8 consecutive interviews with the Red Guards, where Zhou Enlai personally served as the "commander in chief", Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, as the main leaders of the party and the country, participated in each interview without stopping.Among them, on National Day, Liu Shaoqi still appeared on the Tiananmen Gate as the head of state after Zhou Enlai's careful arrangements, ranking next to Mao Zedong and Lin Biao.At the Sun Yat-sen 100th anniversary commemorative meeting held in November, Zhou Enlai had considered that Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping could "ask for leave" and not attend the meeting because it was estimated that the Red Guards attending the meeting might rush to the rostrum and shout slogans. A lot of meticulous work has been done, and necessary protective measures have been taken at the same time, both Liu and Deng attended the conference).

However, as the criticism of the "reactionary bourgeois line" at the Central Work Conference continued to heat up, Liu Shaoqi's problem was finally "stabbed" out. On October 18, some Red Guards from other places put up a big slogan "Down with Liu Shaoqi" on the viewing stand in front of Tiananmen Square.In the afternoon of the same day, a big-character poster reading "Down with revisionist Liu Shaoqi" also appeared in Tsinghua University.After Zhou Enlai learned about it, he immediately sent Zhou Rongxin, the Secretary-General of the State Council, and Tong Xiaopeng, the first deputy director of the General Office of the Central Committee, to the Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace on the east side of Tiananmen Square to persuade the Red Guards to remove the slogans.

The next day, Zhou Enlai personally met with representatives of the Red Guards from Harbin Institute of Technology who had put up slogans on Tiananmen Square, and answered their questions about Liu Shaoqi.Regarding the fact that "Mao Zedong Thought" was not mentioned in the Eighth Party Constitution, Zhou Enlai said: "Mao Zedong Thought was not mentioned in the Eighth Party Constitution. This was Chairman Mao's proposal. In view of the international situation at that time, the Chairman said that it may not be mentioned every time a congress is held." When asked whether Chairman Mao was a "minority" in the party and whether he was "bombarding the headquarters", Zhou Enlai replied: "Chairman Mao's status was established at the Zunyi Meeting. Now Chairman Mao's prestige is flourishing, no one can I don’t dare to publicly oppose it.” “Even if Comrade Shaoqi made mistakes, I have no right to answer you now. You have to think about Comrade Shaoqi’s big-character posters posted on Tiananmen Square. Comrade Shaoqi is a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo Führer, if you post slogans on Tiananmen Square, foreigners will suspect that we are mobilizing the masses and creating public opinion. Comrade Shaoqi is not an ordinary party member, nor is he an ordinary leader. Even if he wants to be replaced, he does not need to mobilize the masses. Adopt the ideological education policy of 'learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones, cure diseases and save patients'." "You should be more cautious in doing things. For those things that are not advocated by the central government and not included in the 16 articles, you must consider the consequences more. You can't make the central government in a passive position." "I advise you not to go to Tiananmen Square to put up Comrade Shaoqi's big-character posters. It is best for schools to avoid this problem."

While Zhou Enlai repeatedly discouraged the Red Guards from fighting Wang Guangmei face-to-face and expanding Liu Shaoqi's issue, some people in the Central Cultural Revolution Group did the opposite, inciting the Red Guards to fight Wang Guangmei many times, and advocated the slogan "Down with Liu Shaoqi" Public. On December 18, Zhang Chunqiao privately summoned Kuai Dafu, head of the Tsinghua "Jinggangshan Corps" Red Guards, and encouraged him to push the action of "downing Liu Shaoqi" to the society.A few days later, Kuai Dafu organized more than 5,000 people from Tsinghua University to march on the streets. For a while, slogans and slogans "Down with Liu Shaoqi" could be seen and heard everywhere in the main streets of the capital.Even so, several leading figures of the Central Cultural Revolution were still not satisfied. On the 27th, in a public speech to the Red Guards, Jiang Qing openly led and exposed Liu Shaoqi and Wang Guangmei, saying that Liu had made a "Khrushchev-style" report, and expressed his "support" for the Red Guards to take Wang Guangmei back to Tsinghua University.

In view of the increasingly serious situation in Beijing, Zhou Enlai personally summoned 11 representatives of the "Jinggangshan Corps" of Tsinghua University at the end of December, and once again clearly opposed the posting of the slogan "Down with Liu Shaoqi", pointing out: "The nature of the contradiction in this formulation will change. up".The students asked: "Don't Liu Shaoqi belong to the conflict between the enemy and ourselves?" Zhou Enlai replied: "That's what you think, but I don't think so. You can't impose your views on me." Zhou Enlai also said: "I have asked the chairman twice for instructions. However, the chairman still does not agree to allow Wang Guangmei to return to Tsinghua (inspection). You can ask her to answer questions in writing, and I can handle this matter. But it cannot involve Liu Shaoqi’s question. I can’t answer Liu’s question.” After the Central Work Conference, Zhou Enlai continued to reiterate the party's cadre policy on some occasions, emphasizing the distinction and handling of two types of conflicts of different nature.At the same time, the Red Guards from all over the country were asked not to send representatives to the provincial, prefectural, and county-level cadre meetings to convey the spirit of the Central Work Conference. Drawing more consistent conclusions will enable the overall work to proceed better.” In addition, Zhou Enlai also prevented the Red Guards from copying and reprinting Chen Boda’s speeches at the Central Work Conference. However, Zhou Enlai's efforts were limited after all.Under the vigorous instigation of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing, the whole situation continued to develop in a direction opposite to the subjective wishes of Zhou Enlai and other revolutionaries of the older generation. At the beginning of January 1967, thousands of Red Guards and rebels began to gather around Zhongnanhai. They gave speeches, shouted slogans, distributed leaflets, and wrote slogans, strongly demanding to "find out" Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Tao Zhu, and criticize several members of the State Council. The main leaders are Chen Yi, Li Fuchun, Li Xiannian, Tan Zhenlin, Yu Qiuli, etc.All of a sudden, all kinds of critical speeches, denunciation articles, "orders", and "petitions" were accompanied by a large number of songs and slogans, and they were broadcast to Zhongnanhai day and night through loudspeakers. Destroy" trend. Xihua Hall, where Zhou Enlai works and lives, is in the northwest corner of Zhongnanhai, just across the street from the streets where people come and go.The endless noise outside the wall has made him unable to rest and work normally for several days.For this reason, someone advised him to leave Zhongnanhai temporarily and find a quiet place to work and rest.Zhou Enlai replied: "Zhongnanhai is my job, where Chairman Mao, the Party Central Committee and the State Council are located. No matter what happens, I will never leave Zhongnanhai. If someone comes to rush, I will stand up and defend Zhongnanhai!" In the early morning of January 5, Zhou Enlai came to the west gate of the State Council and persuaded the students who had been "squatting" here overnight for "grabbing" Tao Zhu.He said: "It's so cold, if you don't leave, I can't sleep. Stop shouting from your loudspeakers, even Chairman Mao can't sleep!" "I have to ask the chairman for instructions on Tao Zhu, and It needs to be discussed by the Party Central Committee.” Zhou Enlai's speech showed that he did not approve of the sudden announcement by Chen Boda and others to overthrow Tao Zhu a few days ago.On the issue of inner-party struggles, he has always advocated that we should be open and honest, and seek truth from facts, especially not to play tricks behind the scenes or to humiliate people face to face. On the night of January 6, when Zhou Enlai learned that Liu Shaoqi and his wife had left Zhongnanhai to go to the hospital, they felt that something was wrong, so they immediately sent a car to chase after them, but they were unable to catch up.Soon he learned that Wang Guangmei was "deceived" by the Red Guards of Tsinghua University to go to the school and was ready to criticize her.Therefore, he called Kuai Dafu overnight and ordered his immediate release, and personally sent his secretary to Tsinghua University to urge Wang Guangmei to be released. The next day, Zhou Enlai severely criticized the act of "deception" in a conversation, saying: This action is indeed not open and aboveboard-to deceive Wang Guangmei out of Zhongnanhai, and to Tsinghua University for criticism.What kind of play is this? It's a prank!This is not normal, the Communist Party is not like this.I don't agree with this style of work.This kind of bad style cannot be advocated. It is a conspiracy behind the scenes, not an upright political struggle.Now, this bad style must be eradicated.He also pointed out: Struggle against Wang Guangmei, this is not her problem alone, don't expand this problem any further.This is also the opinion of Chairman Mao and the Politburo. Under Zhou Enlai's direct intervention, the Tsinghua Red Guards were forced to release Wang Guangmei. After the "January Storm" in Shanghai this year, a wave of "comprehensive power seizures" quickly set off across the country, and the "Cultural Revolution" entered the stage of "the world is in chaos".Taking this as a sign, the "Red Guard Movement" gradually declined.As mentioned above, during the entire four months, Zhou Enlai turned the tide and tried his best to minimize the damage caused by anarchism to the party, country and people; at the same time, his care, love and precepts also deeply inspired , Educated the vast number of young people, prompted some of them to gradually think, awaken, and finally rise up to fight against the evil forces. Zhou Enlai's noble character and touching image will always be engraved in people's hearts!