Chapter 42 Grasp the future (4)

After Zhou's speech, the 28 Bolsheviks never got the initiative again.Moreover, since the Zunyi meeting, Zhou has never again raised a fundamental challenge to Mao's leadership or thinking. Mao's regained power was primarily military.At least during the entire Long March, the barrel of a gun ranked first among all powers.He became the number one figure in the Chinese Communist Party and has since entered the Politburo*.This gave him a higher authority than any of the Red Army generals in Jinggangshan or Jiangxi.Zhu De remained commander-in-chief of the Red Army and continued to support Mao.

----------------------------------------- * Mao did not become the general secretary of the party. Zhang Wentian, a member of the 28 Bolsheviks - critical of Bogu and Braun - took over the post.Mao's position was the chairman of the Military Commission, and in this respect he successfully replaced Zhou Enlai and Braun (school note: Mao only entered the newly established three-member military group with full command of the military after the Zunyi Conference). In 1935, the CCP did not have the post of chairman, which later became the highest position of the party, but the general secretary was not the highest position as before.After the Zunyi meeting, the party's ambiguous leadership is also evident in the official historical materials published in Beijing, which simply say that Mao has since gained "leadership."

Mao put forward a series of strategies at the Zunyi Conference, which can be said to be the summary of his outstanding military thinking. ·If the enemy is strong and we are weak, the Red Army must concentrate its forces to fight the war of annihilation. ·Do not fight unsure battles, make great strides forward and retreat to seize opportunities. · Lure the enemy to go deep and avoid fighting positional warfare. · The Red Army is both a combat team and a propaganda team.Those who make mistakes should be taught education, instead of secret punishment, every fighter should know the next step

purpose and danger. At a mass meeting in a Catholic church in the city, Mao explained the strategies while laying out the slogan for the coming months: "Go north to resist Japan." The Twelve Days of Zunyi changed the face of the Long March and gave this disastrous military retreat a new political mission: for the dual purpose of the nation and the revolution. It is clear that the Chinese revolution has emerged from Moscow's shadow.Stalin had more important things to do now, and he no longer cared about the CCP running around, and he didn't believe that this group of peasant troops could complete the arduous task of the Chinese revolution.

More importantly, for the first time, the Chinese Communist Party was not led by a formidable Soviet.It was no accident that power was transferred to Mao at a time when contact with Moscow was very difficult and the connection between the Comintern and the CCP almost disappeared. Mao still admired the October Revolution.Thirty years later—when he had good reason not to speak well of the Soviet Union—he told André Malraux that one of the reasons for going northwest was “to be able to connect with the Soviet Union.” ⑦ But in Mao's view, the center of gravity of the Chinese revolution should still be in the Chinese countryside.

In addition, within the party and the army, Mao also gradually resisted Stalinism in terms of organizational methods.It is especially true of his belief in the transformation of man and his flexible, indigenous, and spiritual over material military strategy. Mao's ultimate goal was to reach northern Shaanxi and start resisting Japan from there.At the same time, he also wanted to join Zhang Guotao's army in northern Sichuan and establish Soviet power in this mythical province. After a rest in Zunyi, when the Long March resumed, Mao looked neat and unrestrained.The guards found that Mao was wearing a specially made gray military uniform that fit well.

Mao had a horse, but only rode it when he was very tired.Twice he contracted malaria and was so ill that he could not ride a horse and had to march on a stretcher carried by two warriors.