Chapter 24 5. Xie Juezai, Secretary of Mao Zedong

In mid-May 1933, an old man with a crew cut, gray sideburns and mustache, traveled from Shanghai to Ruijin in the Soviet District.He was Xie Juezai. Although he was not yet fifty years old at the time, his arduous struggle made him look like an old man in his sixties. After coming to Ruijin, Xie Juezai met with Mao Zedong who had been away for five years.The two comrades-in-arms chatted indulgently, and they didn't realize that it was lunch time.In order to entertain this old comrade-in-arms who had experienced many hardships along the way, Mao Zedong specially ordered Qian Xijun to buy three eggs at the fellow's house, and then brought rice from the cafeteria and stir-fried sauerkraut with chili, which was regarded as an extra meal, and cleaned up for Xie Juezai.After the meal, Mao Zedong said to Xie Juezai: "I am short of people here, let's continue to cooperate." In this way, Xie Juezai lived in an empty room opposite Mao Zedong and served as Mao Zedong's secretary.Soon, he was appointed Secretary-General and Minister of the Interior of the Central Workers' and Peasants' Democratic Government.

When he first arrived in the Soviet area, Xie Juezai was not very familiar with the environment and conditions here.For the first time, he drafted a meeting notice on the Land Survey Movement for Mao Zedong. After it was sent to Mao Zedong for review, it was edited beyond recognition by Mao Zedong, and almost only the word "notice" remained.It turned out that because he didn't know much about the content of the land survey campaign, he only wrote the time, place and participants of the meeting in the notice, and the purpose, requirements, and preparations for the participants of the meeting were incomplete and accurate. As a result, Mao Zedong made a lot of deletions and revisions.Xie Juezai suddenly felt that his knowledge of the revolutionary struggle practice in the Soviet area was not enough, and he was quite disturbed.

Mao Zedong comforted him and said, don't worry, go to the masses to investigate and study more, and the situation will be familiar.From then on, the cadres and masses in the Soviet area would often see an old man who didn't speak much but smiled all day long, appearing in the corners of the fields and people's homes, watching, asking, and writing something down in his notebook. One day in November 1933, Xie Juezai was assigned by Mao Zedong to inspect the work in the Soviet Area of ​​Ruijin County. After a few days of understanding, the masses reported that some cadres in Ruijin County used their powers to encroach on the interests of the masses. Corruption and waste were serious. Xie Juezai decided to squat down and investigate carefully. .After a few days, the investigation made Xie Juezai furious: Tang Renda, chief of the Accounting Section of the Ruijin Ministry of Finance, only devoured the public funds handed over by various military and government agencies, the masses returned public debts, grain ticket money, sold public property money, and concealed landlord fines and confiscated money There are thirty-four items, totaling more than 2,000 yuan, and other small amounts of corruption and waste are even more.This is simply a book of crimes. The Soviet government actually sneaked in such a shameful guy. The cadres and the masses are tightening their belts to save money, but fattening up this corrupt official. Xie Juezai's lungs are about to explode.

That night, Xie Juezai left Yang Shizhu, Chairman of the County Soviet, and Lan Wenxun, Minister of Finance. Under the light, Xie Juezai's face was tense, a flame burst out of his benevolent eyes, and his gray beard flickered.Seeing this, Yang Shizhu and Lan Wenxun knew that Xie Juezai was going to get angry, so they sat blankly, waiting for Xie Juezai's criticism. "Are you... are you still a member of the Communist Party? Are you still worthy of being a Soviet cadre? Now everyone is saving every morsel of food and every copper coin to support the front line, but you have such a large amount of corruption and waste here, do you all know it? Are the accounts made by the accountant Tang Renda true or false? Have you checked them all? As a leading cadre, you don’t understand the situation. Immediately imprison Tang Renda.

After returning, Xie Juezai reported the situation to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong was also very angry after hearing this, and ordered Tang Renda to be sent to the Supreme Court of the Central Government for trial. Lan Wenxun was dismissed for investigation, and Yang Shizhu was warned and punished. According to Mao Zedong's opinion, Xie Juezai drafted the instruction "On Punishing Corruption and Waste Behavior" for the Central Executive Committee. After the "Instructions" were promulgated and implemented, some corrupt criminals were exposed, and an atmosphere of opposing waste and practicing strict economy was formed.A cheerful smile appeared on Xie Juezai's face again.

In the Soviet area, the work was very intense and life was very poor. Mao Zedong’s living standard was the same as everyone else’s, three qian for salt, two qian for oil, and twelve taels of rice (sixteen taels for a catty) a day.Such a small bowl of rice, accompanied by clear soup, vegetables and water, was eaten by the tall Mao Zedong in just a few mouthfuls.At this time, Xie Juezai often suppressed his hunger and gave some of the rice in his bowl to Mao Zedong with a smile. Mao Zedong was used to working at night, and Xie Juezai often accompanied him to work, day and night, sleepy and tired.One night, Mao Zedong looked at the thin face of Xie Juezai, who had a gray beard, and said affectionately, "Xie Huzi, is this enough food for you during the day?"

Xie Juezai said cheerfully, "Enough." Mao Zedong smiled and said: "I'll get a pumpkin, you go get some firewood, let's cook the pumpkin and eat it." So, the two of them got pumpkins and firewood separately, cooked pumpkins under the moonlight, and continued to work after eating until late at night. Xie Juezai was not only a good assistant to Mao Zedong, but also a good secretary-general of the People's Government.During his tenure as Secretary-General of the Soviet Central Government and Minister of Internal Affairs, he often went deep into the grassroots to investigate and understand the situation, and participated in the construction of the central and local governments at all levels. He formulated the first "Electoral Law" in the base area and led history. The first people's democratic elections since then have devoted themselves to and contributed to the construction of political power and the legal system in the base areas.

In October 1934, Xie Juezai bid farewell to the Central Soviet Area with the large army and embarked on the road of the Long March.