Chapter 37 Struggle (12)

Zhou Enlai was in charge of this campaign against "encirclement and suppression", and at a meeting held in Ningdu in August 1932 (translation note: it should be October) he replaced Mao as the general political commissar of the Red Army. During these years, Zhou did not side with Mao.He believed in positional warfare, which he believed could "keep the enemy out of the country."He felt that Mao's behavior was weird. At the Ningdu meeting, the two had a heated debate. @Of course, Zhou was not as strongly opposed to 28 Bolsheviks as Mao was. The Red Army repelled Chiang Kai-shek's fourth "encirclement and suppression".This is a controversial issue in the history of the Communist Party of China. Did Zhou's tactics under the guidance of the 28 Bolsheviks play a role, or did the influence left by Mao Zhu win this anti-"encirclement and suppression" victory? But in any case, This victory against "encirclement and suppression" made Mao even more isolated.His "cowardly guerrillaism" is therefore regarded as backward as the spinning wheel in the age of automation.

In April 1933, a meeting was held after the victory of the anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, which put Mao's military prestige into hell.Mao did not attend the meeting, he suffered another malaria attack, suffered another setback and was bedridden. The Christian doctor came and ordered Mao to stay in the hospital for four months, but he recovered faster than that.Before long, he blamed Dr. Fu Lianzhang for feeding him extravagantly.He said, "Let's not forget that this is a time of war." Now it was the doctor's turn to look like he had malaria.Fu recalled: "Suddenly, my face was as red as a carrot."

Mao hadn't written anything for a long time, and in 1933 he wrote his first article in several years, "Economic Work Must Be Attentioned," which was the first time he touched on economic issues.Since he left the military command to Zhou Enlai, Mao devoted himself to the research of grassroots work with enthusiasm like a novice. He inspected the Soviet area on horseback, counted the harvested grain, and organized a salt team to smuggle necessities into the Kuomintang-occupied area.He began to listen to the peasants again, something he had rarely done since leaving Jinggangshan.

The central government launched a campaign to expand the Red Army by one million people (there were less than half a million people in early 1933).Earth walls were built around each base, known as "bronze walls and iron walls".Mao pointed out that such an expansion of the red would take away the labor force in the farmland.He also believed that these earthen walls would plunge the Red Army into positional warfare.Mao said in a report on the life of the masses: "What is the real iron wall? It is the masses, and it is the millions of people who sincerely support the revolution."

The Japanese invasion once again cast a shadow over China.Like a dark cloud covering the sun, it casts a strange light on the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.What are they fighting for? Is it more important than defending the territorial integrity of the country against foreign enemies? The "Manchuria Incident" was a nifty excuse for Tokyo to set foot on the prostrate body of its gigantic neighbor for the first time.Its initial effect was to distract Chiang from destroying the Red Army, but its long-term effects were far-reaching. Mao's nationalist ideology remained undiminished, and among the leaders of the Communist Party he was almost the only one who preached against imperialism to the peasantry.He reminded the peasants that the worst thing the Kuomintang did was that they colluded with foreigners in an attempt to open the door to rule China from the outside.

People laughed at it at the time, and few people outside the Soviet zone had heard it.But ten years later, this statement shows its wisdom.Mao and Zhu declared war on Japan in April 1932, but they had not seen a single Japanese for several years, and they controlled only a tiny fraction of China's population (their decree was only in effect on a population of nine million). Mao did have a vision. His goal is not an abstract blueprint for socialism, nor is it a repetition of the Soviet revolution, but it seems that "another October Revolution" took place in the valleys of Jiangxi.

He never dreamed of a world revolution.China is the base.If China is in danger, there is nothing more important than saving her.If there is no China, any revolutionary preaching can only be empty talk of intellectuals divorced from reality. Mao began to lean towards the establishment of an anti-Japanese united front, but the power he had at the time could only be to plan this matter.The central government has not issued any anti-Japanese declaration.In fact, the 28 Bolsheviks had never been affected by nationalism. They regarded Japan's aggression against China as the beginning of a joint imperialist attack on the Soviet Union.

In December 1933, a tragedy occurred in Fujian Province.A prominent Nationalist army, the Nineteenth Route Army led by Cai Tingkai, turned against Chiang Kai-shek.Cai wanted to fight the Japanese instead of encircling the Communist Party, and he sent secret emissaries to the Communist Party. But the CCP was hesitant, and their attitude towards the rebellion of the 19th Route Army was indifferent and hostile.Wang Ming denounced Cai in Moscow: "You should spit in his face when you shake hands with him." Before the Chinese Communists decided to help Cai, Chiang had used tricks to eliminate the heroic Nineteenth Route Army.

Mao must have sympathized with Cai.He wanted to build an anti-Japanese united front that included all patriots outside the Communist Party, as long as he was not a reactionary. In 1936, Mao recalled that the CCP was wrong not to unite with Cai. However, Mao did not put himself in a difficult position for Cai.In fact, he sharply criticized Tsai for trying to find a "non-existent third line" between communism and reactionaries.And more importantly, Mao lacked the requisite influence to oppose the emotional tide that was victorious against Cai.Besides, he never strikes without certainty of victory.So he had to go with the flow, an episode that Mao recalled as unsettling.