Chapter 38 Chapter 10 "Furong country full of morning glory" - "Changsha decision" in 1974

However, 1974 was not peaceful from the start. On New Year’s Day, an editorial jointly published by People’s Daily, Red Flag Magazine, and Liberation Army Daily pointed out: “Continue to criticize the thought of respecting Confucianism and antifa” and “criticizing Confucius is an integral part of criticizing Lin.”This sent a signal that "criticizing Lin" should also contact "criticizing Kong". On January 12, Wang Hongwen and Jiang Qing sent a letter to Mao Zedong, suggesting that "Lin Biao and the Way of Confucius and Mencius" (one of the materials) edited by the "Peking University and Tsinghua University Great Criticism Group" be forwarded, saying that this material "has a profound impact on the current situation of continuing to criticize Lin Biao and Hole will help a lot." On the 18th, with the approval of Mao Zedong, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China reposted "Lin Biao and the Way of Confucius and Mencius" (one of the materials), and then launched a massive "criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius" campaign across the country.

Do Jiang Qing and others really want to "criticize Lin and Confucianism"?People remember: In 1972, when Zhou Enlai presided over the daily work of the Central Committee, in the process of criticizing the counter-revolutionary crimes of Lin Biao and his gang, he put forward correct opinions to criticize the ultra-left ideological trend, intending to lead the struggle against Lin Biao to a deeper level.It was precisely because Jiang Qing and his gang obstructed it that the movement to criticize Lin came to an end. As for "criticizing Confucius", it is nothing more than a set of blindfolds played by Jiang Qing and others in order to "struggle with reality".As early as 1973, before the party's "Ten Ten Congresses" were convened, Jiang Qing tried to "criticize the law and criticize Confucianism" and tried to insert the content of the so-called "Confucianism and Legalism struggle" into the party's "Ten Ten Congresses" political report.As a result, Zhou Enlai denied Jiang Qing's claim on the grounds that "this issue still needs to be digested for a while."

This time, Jiang Qing and others played the sign of "criticizing Lin and criticizing Confucius". It seems that only by pulling out Confucius who died more than two thousand years ago can he criticize Lin Biao and his group who died more than two years ago. Approve through".This monstrous lie was precisely exposed by the "Gang of Four" themselves. On January 25, at the mobilization meeting of "Criticizing Lin Biao and Confucianism" of the central government and the organs directly under the State Council, Jiang Qing and others regarded themselves as the main persons in charge of the "Criticizing Lin Biao and Confucianism" movement led by the Party Central Committee. The outline put Zhou Enlai and other central leaders present at the meeting in the position of being led and accused.One of the "reality" they proposed to "criticize Lin Piao and Confucius" is to criticize the so-called "back door", that is, "criticize Lin Biao and Confucius" and criticize "going through the back door".This is completely ulterior motives.They are trying to take advantage of the dissatisfaction of the masses with "going through the back door" to deliberately confuse the two types of contradictions of different natures, and then bring down a large number of party, government, and military leaders at the central and local levels.In the middle and late stages of the "Cultural Revolution", it was precisely because of Zhou Enlai's unremitting efforts that many veteran cadres were "liberated" and used.Therefore, the spearhead of the "Gang of Four" was finally aimed at Zhou Enlai.

Just before and after the "1.2 Five" Congress, Jiang Qing and others also created a series of "political incidents": They wrote a large number of letters and sent "materials" to the military system in their own names, and ordered the "Liberation Army Daily" to suspend publication for several months, and "set fire to wasteland" in the army; They encircled and suppressed plays such as "Three on the Peach Peak", criticized the so-called "black paintings", and criticized the documentary "China", in order to "fight back against the restoration of the black line of literature and art";

They single-handedly created incidents such as "Mazhenfu Commune Middle School Forced Girls to Death", "Huang Shuai Refutes 'Wang Yazhuo'", "Beijing Yongle Middle School Students Forced to Jump From a Building" and other incidents to "prove" "the resurgence of the black line of education"; They fabricated the so-called "snail incident" out of thin air to "prove" that the leaders of the State Council approved the introduction of foreign advanced technology as "worshiping foreign things and fawning on foreign countries", etc.

All of these have become the "reality" that Jiang Qing's group proposed to "criticize Lin and Confucianism".No wonder there was a saying that "criticizing Lin and Confucius" was the "second cultural revolution", and Jiang Qing and others seemed to be the reappearance of the "Central Cultural Revolution Group" back then. At this time, Zhou Enlai was at the time when the cancer was developing and his condition was getting worse.Since late January, he had had bloody stools for days and had to be treated for cancer control. He still needed cooperation for recovery and rest.But in the face of repeated attacks by the "Gang of Four", Zhou Enlai could neither put down his work and rest with peace of mind, nor would he remain silent indifferently.One of his thoughts at this time is: before he falls ill, there must be someone who can take his current position, so that he can continue to deal with and contend with the "Gang of Four" in future struggles.

The person Zhou Enlai had considered for a long time who could succeed him was Deng Xiaoping. Zhou Enlai knew that Deng Xiaoping had just resumed his post in the party, government and military, and he must seize the opportunity to arrange Deng's actual power and create all conditions to enhance Deng Xiaoping's reputation and expand his influence inside and outside the party and at home and abroad.Because once you have a case, it will be difficult to return to work. On January 18, 1974, Zhou Enlai presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and proposed the establishment of a five-member group of the Central Military Commission, led by Ye Jianying and attended by Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Deng Xiaoping, and Chen Xilian, to handle the daily affairs of the Military Commission and emergency combat matters.Deng Xiaoping thus entered the core of the military leadership.Later, the Politburo meeting formally proposed this proposal to Mao Zedong, which was approved by Mao Zedong.In this way, the first step in the pattern of Deng Xiaoping succeeding Zhou Enlai was taken.

Zhou Enlai had long understood the meaning of the "three arrows" (that is, "criticizing Lin, criticizing Confucius" and criticizing "going through the back door") conspiracy carried out by Jiang Qing and others before and after the "1.25" conference. At the beginning of February, he personally wrote to Mao Zedong to clarify his views on this issue, pointing out that it would be too narrow if only the issue of "going through the back door" was studied in the movement, and the unhealthy trend would never stop there; Analysis and differentiated treatment can be effective.Prior to this, Ye Jianying also reflected this problem to Mao Zedong.Soon, Mao Zedong denounced Jiang Qing and others' "three arrows at once" as "rampant metaphysics and one-sidedness."At the same time, Mao also prevented the distribution of speeches made by the "Gang of Four" at the "January 2nd Five-Year" Congress, preventing their plot to target a large number of veteran cadres.

After Jiang Qing and others lost in the first round of competition, they were still unwilling to give up.In March of the same year, at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to discuss candidates for the sixth special session of the United Nations General Assembly, Jiang Qing openly pointed his target at Deng Xiaoping and disagreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (actually the opinions of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai) proposed by Deng Xiaoping for various reasons. Lead a delegation to attend the General Assembly meeting, and make suggestions for the General Assembly speech on behalf of the Chinese government.This was the first time that the "Gang of Four" had directly attacked Deng Xiaoping since Deng Xiaoping's reinstatement.

Due to Jiang Qing's opposition, the Politburo's first discussion was unresolved.The next day, despite Jiang Qing's obstruction, Zhou Enlai took a pen to comment on the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, agreed with the plan proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and sent the document to Mao Zedong and members of the Politburo for circulation.Jiang Qing was furious after seeing the approval document, and even "ordered" the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to withdraw its original report. When the Politburo of the Central Committee discussed candidates to attend the UNGA meeting for the second time, thanks to Zhou Enlai’s efforts in advance, members of the Politburo, except Jiang Qing, unanimously agreed that Deng Xiaoping would lead a delegation to attend the special session of the UNGA.For this reason, Jiang Qing became hysterical and rioted in the Politburo.After the meeting, Mao Zedong learned of Jiang Qing's performance and was very dissatisfied.He wrote to warn Jiang Qing: "Comrade Deng Xiaoping's going abroad is my opinion, you should not object." He forced Jiang Qing to restrain his arrogance.

In this way, Zhou Enlai won the second round of the contest with the "Gang of Four". Practice has shown that Deng Xiaoping led a delegation to attend the special session of the UN General Assembly, which is of great significance both domestically and internationally.It played a key role in quickly increasing the prestige of Deng Xiaoping, who had just been reinstated, and consolidating and strengthening the position he had already gained in the leadership of the central government.For this reason, Zhou Enlai also attached great importance to Deng Xiaoping's trip.Regarding flight safety issues, we also personally intervene and check, and no negligence is allowed. Before the trip, Zhou Enlai convened meetings with civil aviation and other relevant departments many times, repeatedly studied the flight plan, and gave instructions on many technical details.For example, he once suggested to the crew in charge of this flight mission that in order to ensure the smooth flow of the flight route, simultaneous test flights of the east and west routes could be arranged in advance.In this way, if one route cannot be flown for some reason at that time, another route can be taken.When the crew members pointed out that they had never flown on the western front before and had great difficulties, Zhou Enlai gave them another idea: "You can go to the Beijing office of Air France and ask them to help solve it." After contacting, Air France quickly provided They collected all kinds of materials needed for the flight test, and actively sent a navigator to assist with the aircraft.Under Zhou Enlai's careful guidance, both the east and west routes were successfully tested, and Deng Xiaoping's time and safety to go abroad were reliably guaranteed. At the end of March, Zhou Enlai wrote to Mao Zedong: Comrade Xiaoping's going abroad has been strengthened in all aspects; when the delegation left Beijing on April 6, a grand farewell ceremony was planned to be held in a grand manner.After being approved, Zhou Enlai told the person in charge of civil aviation and relevant departments: "Comrade Deng Xiaoping attended the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the People's Republic of China. We will pave the way for him to successfully complete his mission, add glory, and spread a red carpet for him." The highest standards of diplomatic etiquette. At 7 o'clock in the morning on April 6, although Zhou Enlai stayed up all night, he was full of energy and never tired. He drove to the Capital Airport in person to see Deng Xiaoping and his party off.Colorful flags fluttered at the airport, and thousands of people dressed in colorful costumes sang and danced to send off warmly. On April 10, Deng Xiaoping made a speech on behalf of the Chinese government at the sixth special session of the UN General Assembly, comprehensively expounding Mao Zedong's theory of "three worlds" and the foreign policy of the Chinese government, which aroused widespread concern from the world public opinion.Some people of insight believed that Deng not only represented the image of New China, but was undoubtedly the "best agent" of Premier Zhou Enlai. On April 19, Deng Xiaoping led a delegation to return home with honor.Zhou Enlai went to the airport again and held a grand welcome ceremony to "clean up the wind and clean up the dust" for his old comrades-in-arms. At this moment, only a few doctors in charge of Zhou Enlai's health care knew that Zhou Enlai had been suffering from illness for more than a month, so that he had to postpone his hospitalization time and time again. In mid-March, when Zhou Enlai's blood in his stool reached 100 ml per day, he accepted the doctor's advice and went to the hospital for a comprehensive examination. He was diagnosed with cancer recurrence.But at this time Zhou Enlai still said that he could not be hospitalized immediately.For a period of time after that, he still worked more than ten hours a day, even day and night, overloaded. Deng Yingchao did not "reveal" the reasons for Zhou Enlai's repeated delays in hospitalization until several years after Zhou Enlai's death.She said: During that time, Enlai was always worried about Xiaoping's affairs. He was worried that people like Jiang Qing would attack Comrade Xiaoping while he was in the hospital, so he could not leave his job...