Chapter 43 Chapter 42: The sharp conflict with Jiang Qing

Chen Boda's situation is getting worse and worse.He was not only criticized by Mao Zedong one after another, but also constantly excluded by Jiang Qing within the "Central Cultural Revolution Group".In Chen Boda's later years, he recalled the sharp conflict between him and Jiang Qing in the "Central Cultural Revolution Group".Chen Boda said that Jiang Qing practiced "dictatorship" in the "Central Cultural Revolution Group": If the "Central Cultural Revolution Group" held a meeting, Jiang Qing would always continue to talk nonsense, and let her talk go, and nothing could be discussed with her.This kind of meeting will only allow her to use the name of the group, treat the group as her independent territory, and continue to "dictatorship" and run amok.

What I think I should do is to study, to go to some schools, factories or some residential places to see and talk.According to Chairman Mao's policy of "documentary fighting, not violent fighting" and the central government's decision, as long as I know where there is violence, smashing and looting, I will stop it.Sometimes he came back with some weapons to beat people, in order to tell the people in the group that they knew about these things. Jiang Qing said, "Why don't you hold the group meeting, what are you doing with these things?" My greatest crime, first of all, is to raise the so-called line question with extreme arrogance.This can never be forgiven.At the same time, I randomly interviewed some people, talked nonsense, and caused some comrades to suffer greatly. This is also unforgivable.

Chen Boda recalled how Jiang Qing "reviled" him in the "Central Cultural Revolution Group": After Premier Zhou presided over the Central Cultural Revolution Meeting, I only participated in the meetings convened by Premier Zhou, and no longer convened group meetings.When Premier Zhou is not in Diaoyutai to convene meetings, I usually don't enter that "office building". I don’t remember which year it was, but I once casually walked into that office building to see the comrades in charge of the phone, and sat down in the meeting hall for a while.Suddenly, Jiang Qing came, and so did Kang Sheng. Yao Wenyuan lived upstairs, and he would arrive as soon as he was called.

Jiang Qing announced the opening of the meeting, scolded me, and Kang Sheng also spoke.I can't remember what they said, mainly they said, why not call a group meeting, and so on.I had to let them scold without answering.Obviously, I can deal with Jiang Qing only because I don't want to convene a group meeting alone. Because Chen Boda could not stay in the "Central Cultural Revolution Group", he once proposed that he hoped to resign from the position of the head of the "Central Cultural Revolution Group" and go to work in Tianjin.Chen Boda once recalled: The origin of the Tianjin issue is that I heard that Comrade Wan Xiaotang, the first secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, committed suicide.Comrade Wan Xiaotang is very familiar to me. Before the Cultural Revolution, when I went to Tianjin, he was almost always the one who entertained me. After the Cultural Revolution, I heard that he committed suicide. looks.

Because I didn't want to be the leader of the "Central Cultural Revolution Group", and I really couldn't continue to be the leader. When something happened in Tianjin, I proposed at the central meeting that I should work in Tianjin, and Chairman Mao agreed.Although I did not propose to resign from the name of "team leader", but the meaning is self-evident. ... However, after a few days, Chairman Mao said that the situation in Tianjin is also very complicated, and it is difficult for you to work, so let Xie Xuegong go.Of course, it was impossible for Xie Xuegong to know about all the conversations at the Central Committee.Once, on Tiananmen Square, Chairman Mao met Xie Xuegong and told him about it. Maybe Premier Zhou was also there.Xie Xuegong's journey to Tianjin was indeed like this.Later I heard that Chairman Mao once knew Xie Xuegong.In the future, to solve the problems of various provinces, the central meeting, under the specific chair of Premier Zhou, made a division of labor, and I participated in Tianjin affairs. When deciding on the main candidates, I proposed Xie Xuegong as the first secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China according to the opinions of the central government.

Once, two factions of college students in Tianjin fought each other, and one faction was besieged, with water and electricity cut off. The central meeting presided over by Premier Zhou decided that I should go to Tianjin to solve the problem immediately. One side was surrounded by layers, and I was almost squeezed to death. Fortunately, the People's Liberation Army rescued me, found a jeep, pushed me into the car, and drove out in a hurry. This is what I often feel grateful to the great People's Liberation Army. When there was some order in Tianjin, Jiang Qing listened to her ears in Tianjin and called dozens of large trucks at night to bring all the activists in Tianjin to Beijing. It was too late for me to stop this, and I was forced to to participate.As soon as the meeting ended, Wang Kangzhi, the deputy mayor of Tianjin, returned to Tianjin and committed suicide. Jiang Feng of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau was imprisoned.

※ ※ ※ The Wang Kangzhi and Jiang Feng mentioned here have a lot of contacts with Chen Boda.After Chen Boda fell from power, Wang Kangzhi, Jiang Feng, and Tianjin writer Fang Ji were all called "Chen Boda's best friends in Tianjin" by the Tianjin newspapers at that time. In early 1968, Wang Kangzhi committed suicide after being named by Jiang Qing.Before committing suicide, Wang Kangzhi left a will and gave Chen Boda his collection of ancient books of the Song Dynasty. At the beginning of 1979, Chen Boda, who was in Qincheng Prison, learned of the news of Wang Kangzhi's redress from the newspaper, and immediately made a request to the relevant department to return the two Song edition books that Wang Kangzhi had given him to Wang Kangzhi's family.

Chen Boda also recalled that in the "Central Cultural Revolution Group", he and Jiang Qing "reciprocated" each other: "I look down on you!" Chen Boda said: It may have been in 1968. Once, I received a call from Jiang Qing, saying that there was a meeting at her residence.I went, and Jiang, Kang, and Yao were all there first. Jiang Qing said: "You want to force a literary editor to death." I said, the editorial department of the newspaper censored each other's history. I didn't start it, didn't participate in it, and didn't publish any articles. How could it be that I wanted to force him to death?

Kang Sheng said: "You didn't read what he wrote, it was 'The Dead Book'." Then, Jiang Qing slammed the big porcelain cup on her table to the ground and it shattered into pieces, expressing her extreme anger towards me.I felt that there were guards and soldiers outside the house, and it would be strange to see this pile of debris, so I packed up these pieces bit by bit, took them back to my residence, and asked my staff there to put them in a ditch where no one could step on them. inside. At that time, if that literary and art editor should die unexpectedly, I will bear a serious crime for it.But Kang and Jiang didn't care about anyone's fate.This matter was brought up to me as a problem, and it was just "if you want to impose a crime, there is no reason to worry about it."

I heard from others that Jiang Qing was about to use the literary and art editor as his secretary at that time, so he made such an excuse for this.I also heard from others that it was not used because Chairman Mao opposed it (these things were just heard at the time, without any fact checks). Jiang Qing had already found an excuse to drive me out of Zhongnanhai.After the above incident happened, I went to live in the newly found house the next day, wanting to avoid continuing to be abused by her in Diaoyutai.Of course, sometimes I also visit the former residence of Diaoyutai. Just when I left Diaoyutai, at a meeting chaired by Chairman Mao, Jiang Qing took the opportunity to formally sue me, saying:

"Chen Boda doesn't want us anymore. He has left Diaoyutai and lives elsewhere. I and xx (referring to her daughter) will go back to Zhongnanhai to be the chairman's secretary." She was trying to sow discord.Under the circumstances, I didn't say a word.At one meeting, Jiang Qing said: "The conflict between me and Chen Boda is a conflict of principles..." Zhang Chunqiao also looked at me angrily at the meeting. Once I got angry, I stopped listening to Jiang Qing's domineering, got up from my seat, and walked out of the auditorium.Jiang Qing turned around and said loudly: "I look down on you!" I replied, "I despise you too!" Chen Boda constantly quarreled with Jiang Qing in the "Central Cultural Revolution Group".However, Chen Boda could not tolerate Jiang Qing, it was all because Jiang Qing was the "First Lady": A young man in charge of photos in a newspaper found a photo of Chairman Mao and Jiang Qing, and put them together.It is said that this was instructed by the literary editor.I didn't know about it before, but I heard about it after a meeting, and I didn't ask again.But during a meeting, Jiang Qing suddenly made a statement about this photo, to the effect: "People say that I want to be Wu Zetian and Empress Dowager Cixi, and I am not as capable as them. I don't tell me about any historical issues. I interjected and said, "You said I was going to force him to death, who would dare to tell you?" Jiang Qing said loudly, "You are spreading rumors!" Premier Zhou continued, "Did you say so?" Jiang Qing confronted the Premier. At this time, I left the venue, walked around the hall, and entered the venue again.Premier Zhou said, "What are you doing back here?" After listening to Premier Zhou's words, I felt that I could no longer attend the meeting, so I went back to my residence. That night, two comrades came, one was in charge of the security work at the Prime Minister's Office, and the other was a staff member of the General Office of the Central Committee at that time.When they met, they didn't say anything, but as soon as I saw him, I was deeply moved by the Prime Minister's kindness.I said, "If it wasn't because of Chairman Mao, who would care about her?" In this case, I also told others later. After this incident, I learned about the production process of this photo through the publicity liaison officer, and only then did I see this fake photo.