Chapter 10 Chapter IX Russian Conference

When Mao Zedong led the central government and the Third Red Army to march northward at night, Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen, the heads of the First Red Army stationed in Russia, could not get news from the headquarters of the Right Route Army. They were anxious and sent a telegram to inquire about the situation: Xu and Chen did not call back because they were busy chasing the Central Committee and filling the empty positions left by the Three Army Corps. At 17:00 on September 10, Peng Dehuai and the others packed up their team and prepared to set off after experiencing the shock brought by Li Te. Before leaving, they took the time to send a telegram to the First Army:

Lin Biao and Nie Rongzhen felt that the situation was serious after receiving the telegram.On this day, they also received a telegram from Zhang Guotao.In order to maintain the stability of the First Army, they issued instructions to the political commissars of the 1st and 2nd Divisions Liu Yalou and Huang Yu: On the afternoon of September 10, Zhang Guotao received an urgent telegram from Xu and Chen, reporting the situation of the central government secretly going north at night.Zhang Guotao was furious when he heard the news.It is determined that "only Mao Zedong can play this trick. Now it seems that after the two armies meet, all he plays is political tactics. The stubborn and childish dogmatists are just for his use."

Zhang Guotao immediately found Zhu De and yelled at him: "They (the central government) are gone! They have done things like this and caused losses to the revolution. Why are they going underground with the martyrs!" After speaking, he burst into tears and cried bitterly .Only then did Zhu De know what had happened.Prior to this, Zhang Guotao made his own opinion, acted arbitrarily, and communicated with the central government without telling Commander-in-Chief Zhu and Chief of the General Staff Liu Bocheng.In the face of Zhang Guotao's crying, Zhu De acted very calmly, and immediately reported the situation to Liu Bocheng after returning. Liu Bocheng said: "Don't believe him." From then on, they have already prepared for all unexpected events Prepare.

On September 11, the Party Central Committee who arrived in Russia called Zhang Guotao: At this moment, Zhang Guotao has completely ignored the central government.Mao Zedong only took away tens of thousands of people from the first and third armies. What kind of climate can be achieved by going north alone?And now he is not only in charge of the 80,000 Red Fourth Front Army, but also the Fifth and Ninth Army Corps of the First Front Army.Not only did he not lose, but he strengthened his strength, and he can do whatever he wants.Zhang Guotao said that "this telegram neither tells us the steps of their future actions, nor does it tell us the enemy situation in the north, so we cannot act on it."And angrily sent a telegram reprimanding the central government:

At the same time, Zhang Guotao also sent a separate telegram to appease the leaders of the first and third armies: Mao Zedong knew that the struggle between the central government and Zhang Guotao was irreconcilable. At 11 a.m. on the 12th, the Central Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in the Russian border (now Gaoji Village, Diebu County, Gansu Province) to discuss Zhang Guotao's problem and the next course of action.Those present at the meeting were: Members and alternate members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian, Bo Gu, Wang Jiaxiang, Kai Feng, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Fa.

Ye Jianying, Cai Shufan, Lin Boqu, Luo Mai (Li Weihan), Yang Shangkun and Li De were the heads of the column of the Military Commission. The leaders of the First Legion were Lin Biao, Nie Rongzhen, Zhu Rui, and Luo Ruiqing. The leaders of the three armies Peng Dehuai, Li Fuchun, Yuan Guoping and Zhang Chunqing. Zhou Enlai was unable to attend the meeting due to illness. The meeting was first reported by Mao Zedong.His expression is very serious, where is the revolution going?Where is the Central Red Army going?Another critical moment of life and death has come.The test they face is no less than the eve of the Zunyi meeting.Any indecision may lead to serious consequences.In the past, the struggle with Zhang Guotao was carried out within the scope of the Politburo. Now it is time to reveal the inside story of the struggle between the two lines.He said in a heavy tone:

Today's agenda is the course of action for the future. The Politburo has already decided on the issue of moving north.After our first and fourth front armies met at Lianghekou, the Central Committee made a decision, and now the Central Committee adheres to this policy.Some comrades opposed it, and they had an opportunistic policy, represented by Chang Kuo-tao.The Central Committee used many methods to win him over.Send representatives to negotiate, make concessions, etc., but finally split.The central government has fought many struggles with them, but so far it has failed to achieve its goal.The Fourth Front Army initially stood still. In mid-July, the Party Central Committee instructed the Red Army to concentrate, but due to Zhang Guotao's obstruction, it failed to materialize.When Zhang arrived in Luhua, the Politburo decided that he should be the general political commissar, and Zhang Guotao mobilized the Fourth Front Army.But before reaching Maoergai, he wavered, and when Maoergai completely overturned this decision, the main force went to Aba, and the right army went to Banyou.After Zhang arrived at Aba, he was unwilling to go north and asked the right army to go south.Seven comrades of the Politburo (including Xu and Chen) held an informal meeting at Vice Chairman Zhou's office and decided to telegraph Zhang Guotao, asking him to go north.Xu and Chen said at the time that it was not good to ask them to go back to the grass, but Zhang Guotao insisted that they go back, so they advocated going back.

It was wrong for Zhang Guotao to resist the central decision.We can't wait for him to go north here now, and we can't rely on them to go north together now, but we should go north alone. We should think clearly about our future from south to north.There is no way out in the end to the south.The terrain is not good, and the supplies in minority areas cannot be solved. The Red Army can only be reduced but not supplemented, and there is no strategic retreat.There is no political way out for going south, and the central government cannot let the First and Third Armies go to a dead end and change the policy of going north.

We adhere to the basic policy of developing to the north and develop to the east of the Yellow River.We should not turn ourselves into a turtle in an urn. We can reach our destination, as long as we maintain hundreds of cadres and thousands of soldiers, this is a great victory.To achieve these tasks, we need unity.This is more important than ever.We get things done with extraordinary work. Mao Zedong finally said: From today's perspective, this is a struggle between two lines.It is necessary to make organizational conclusions in the future.But is it necessary to immediately release the mourning Medtron letter (that is, the ultimatum-author's note)?Not appropriate.We still have two armies, and there are still many cadres there.We have to do our best to win them over, and we have to call them by telegram, using various names (Lin Nie, Peng Li, Li De) to send telegrams.I guess they still have the possibility to come.

After Mao Zedong's report, Peng Dehuai went on to make a report on the organization of the army.According to the current actual situation, there are too many personnel in the agency and too few combatants in the army. He suggested that the existing troops should be reorganized.Streamline the staff of the agency and enrich them in the army.At the same time, the troop establishment should be reduced to facilitate command.He proposed a downsizing plan, please discuss. During the discussion, Deng Fa, Li Fuchun, Li De, Li Weihan (Luo Mai), Wang Jiaxiang, Nie Rongzhen, Yang Shangkun, Lin Biao, Bo Gu, etc. spoke one after another. They agreed with Mao Zedong's speech and firmly supported the policy of going north.Expressed great indignation at Zhang Guotao's splitting of the Central Committee and splitting the Red Army.They exposed Zhang Guotao's warlord rule in the Fourth Front Army, and worried about the fate of the Fourth Front Army going south.Under the circumstances at that time, everyone also said some impulsive words, belittling the cadres and work of the Red Fourth Front Army.

Zhang Wentian said in a speech: This time it is a struggle between two lines.One is the line of the Central Committee, and the other is the right-leaning warlordism-Zhang Guotao line.No matter in any aspect, Zhang Guotao fully demonstrated the tendency of warlordism.In the future they will inevitably form a second party.But we still have Commander-in-Chief Zhu and the two armies, and there are many cadres there.After our work, it is still possible to fight for it.The central government's attempt to win Zhang Guotao failed, but as long as there is still a chance, we will still win him. Zhang Wentian pointed out: The current strategic policy is to use guerrilla warfare to open up international ties and conduct civil wars on a larger scale.During the operation, try to obtain rest supplements and expand the team.Our cadres should be more united and firmly believe that we are the only ones who are right.We are weakened physically, but strengthened politically.Finally, he agreed with Peng Dehuai's report and reduced the number of troops. Before the end of the meeting, Mao Zedong made a conclusion on behalf of the Central Committee.He said: Today I have summed up the problems of the Fourth Front Army. This struggle is a struggle between two lines, a struggle between Bolshevism and Zhang Guotao's warlordist tendencies.Zhang Guotao's warlordism may develop into a betrayal of the revolution in the future, which is unprecedented in the party.The current strategic policy and Sichuan-Shaanxi-Gansu plan have undergone some changes.Because the First and Fourth Front Armies had already been separated, Zhang Guotao's southward movement caused considerable losses to the Chinese revolution.But instead of going low, we're going high.It is impossible for us to be active between Tianshui and Minzhou for a long time.Northeast Gansu and northern Shaanxi are places we must pass through. The meeting of the Russian community ended after half a day.The meeting passed the "Decision on Comrade Zhang Guotao's Mistakes."Due to time constraints, the decision was only passed in principle at the Russian Conference.After going north to Hadapu, the Politburo Standing Committee commissioned Zhang Wentian to draft the text of the "Resolution" at a meeting on September 20.It was not announced within the scope of the Central Committee members until December 1935, and it was orally conveyed among senior cadres of the Red Front Army.The central government did this to save Zhang Guotao and win over the cadres and soldiers of the Fourth Front Army.Therefore, the struggle is controlled within a very limited range.According to Peng Dehuai’s recollection, at the meeting, “Someone proposed to expel Zhang Guotao from the party, but Chairman Mao disagreed. He said that this was not his personal problem, and that the commanders and fighters of the Fourth Front Army should be seen. If you expel him from the party, he still commanded tens of thousands of troops. Tens of thousands of troops are still being deceived, and it will be difficult to meet in the future. When Zhang Guotao established the puppet central government, someone wanted to expel him from the party, and Chairman Mao did not agree. It will be much more difficult. There will be no future rendezvous of the second and fourth front armies in Ganzi, let alone a general meeting of the first, second, and fourth front armies in northern Shaanxi." Next, let's take a look at the "Wrong Decision About Comrade Zhang Guotao" of the Russian Conference: (This decision is only issued to the party's Central Committee members) Now, the central government has only taken away less than 10,000 troops.Not only did Zhang Guotao not suffer losses, but he also controlled the Fifth and Ninth Army Corps of the First Army.Zhang Guotao despised the central government and took away the vast majority of the Red Army. It is extremely unlikely that he will change his mind.Since the Long March, such a situation has appeared, which is really unexpected.Now that the central government is in danger, it is impossible to go south, and it is a dead end to go to the desolate minority areas in the northwest. Now it can only go north, and there may be a way out.However, with the current exhausted army, it is not a big deal to fight against the Kuomintang army.In the barren mountains and remote areas of northern Shaanxi, how to survive is a problem.Now that we have reached this point, we cannot back down and hesitate.The most realistic thing is to lead the Red Army northward, looking for a place to recuperate.There is no need for the central government to keep so many institutions, and it should be as streamlined as possible.There is no need for the Red Army to keep an empty shelf, and it has to be downsized in order to command operations.The Russian Conference agreed with Peng Dehuai's opinion on reducing the number of troops and decided: 1. The Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was established, with Peng Dehuai as the commander, Mao Zedong as the political commissar, Lin Biao as the deputy commander, Wang Jiaxiang as the director of the political department, and Yang Shangkun as the deputy director. 2. Establish a five-member regiment composed of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Wang Jiaxiang, Peng Dehuai, and Lin Biao as the leadership core of the Central Red Army. 3. Establish an establishment committee, with Li De as the director and Ye Jianying, Deng Fa, Cai Shufan, and Li Weihan as members, responsible for the establishment of the troops. On the one hand, the army went northward alone, and the situation was quite grim.In order to avoid the blockade of the Kuomintang army, any delay is not allowed.After the Russian border meeting ended, on September 13, the Central Committee led the First and Third Armies to continue northward. They arrived at Maya Temple on the 14th, and at the bridge crossing they passed along the way, they still left a small number of sentries as guards, waiting for the Fourth Front Army to follow up.On this day, the central government sent a telegram to Zhang Guotao, Xu Xiangqian, and Chen Changhao to make a final effort to fight for it. Zhang Guotao did not reply to the call. At this time, he was convening a meeting of the left army cadres in Aba to denounce the central government.Liu Bocheng and Zhu De have become the targets of siege at the Aba meeting, and they are in a difficult situation.Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao also did not reply to the Central Committee. They had received a telegram from the First Army Corps informing them that there was a dangerous cliff bridge on the way north of the Russian border.The first army left a company to garrison, and asked Xu and Chen to send troops to take over the defense.After Xu and Chen read it, they smiled wryly; the bridge is 200 miles away, so it is not easy to go to defend it.Besides, the map has been taken away by Ye Jianying, how can they go north?Xu and Chen could only report the situation to Zhang Guotao, that's all. Brazil, where the Right Army is headquartered, is dull these days.The departure of the Central Committee and the First and Third Army Corps dealt a severe blow to the mood of the Fourth Front Army cadres.They simply don't understand the struggle at the top, and they certainly don't understand what's happening before their eyes. Li Xiannian, political commissar of the 30th Army, came to look for Xu Xiangqian. The two of them sat sullenly in the wilderness outside the village, their eyes filled with confusion.Li Xiannian remembered that after the Battle of Seats, they picked the best of the captured spoils and sent them to the central station.When Bogu saw the yaks, biscuits, and canned food, he thanked him repeatedly; when Mao Zedong saw the cigarettes, he was so happy from ear to ear.How harmonious the relationship was at that time, the changes these days are like a nightmare.How should he explain it to his subordinates?He confided his distress to Xu Xiangqian, and it took Xu Xiangqian a long time to say a word: "I don't understand, what is the trouble between the Red Army and the Red Army?" For several days, Xu Xiangqian was tormented by pain and contradictions in his heart.As the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army, I have never encountered such a difficult choice.On the one hand, the central government, and on the other hand, his own troops and leaders. Zhang Guotao and the central government fell out, and Xu Xiangqian was caught in the middle. He had to make a choice, whether to go with the central government or Zhang Guotao.In his memoirs, he described his thoughts at the time: "If the Right Route Army goes northward alone, it is equivalent to dividing the Fourth Front Army into two halves. It was not easy to form such a team with a lot of blood and sweat! Divided into two halves, each going to one side, no matter from a rational or emotional point of view, I find it difficult to accept. I think, should I go with the central government or go south with the army? Let’s go, I can only take a few guards and ride a horse to chase the Central Committee. At that time, Chen Changhao’s prestige was not lower than mine. He could speak and write, he was brave in battle, and he was also a political commissar. He didn’t nod , I can’t lead the team by myself, at most I can take away a few people quietly. After much deliberation, I decided to stay with the army and let’s see.” Xu Xiangqian wrote: “In this way, I have carried out Zhang Guotao’s plan. Going south to order, made a mistake that I will regret for life." Mao Zedong led the Central Committee and the 1st and 3rd Armies to the north. Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao led the 4th and 30th Armies to the south a few days later, and crossed the grassland to join the Left Army.No one could have predicted what fate awaited them.