Chapter 27 The epilogue lifts the veil of history

We always try to use a fixed model to explain history, but history is always ever-changing, giving people unexpected endings. In June 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Yan'an.This congress, which is called unity within the party, encountered an unexpected situation when it was carrying out the most important agenda - the election of the Central Committee.When discussing the list of candidates put forward by the central government, most of the delegates expressed dissatisfaction with Deng Fa and Kai Feng, the two former Politburo members.When the preliminary vote was not passed, Mao Zedong came to the stage to speak, do the work of deputies, and included the two of them in the list of candidates for the Central Committee.In the official vote, the two of them still did not exceed half, so they were not elected as members of the Central Committee. On April 8, 1946, Deng Fa, Bogu, Ye Ting, and Wang Ruofei were killed in a plane crash on their way back to Yan'an from Chongqing and were buried in Yan'an.Kai Feng was transferred to the Northeast Bureau, and died of illness in Beijing in 1955.

Although Zhang Guotao has long since withdrawn from the stage of history, Mao Zedong never forgot the grassland struggle.He talked about the line struggle with Zhang Guotao many times, and believed that it was a critical moment to determine the future and destiny of the Chinese revolution. During the Lushan Conference in 1959, Mao Zedong said when talking about the split with Zhang Guotao: "At that time, rely on (Ye) Jianying, don't forget this one. Otherwise, the central government will be a prisoner." Although history has passed for many years, in the "Cultural Revolution" storm, the issue of "Zhang Guotao's line" was brought up again, making some cadres of the former Fourth Front Army doomed.Chen Changhao spent more than ten years of loneliness in the Soviet Union and returned to Beijing in 1952.He changed from a general of the Red Army who fought on the battlefield to a scholar who devoted himself to writing, and edited a "Russian-Chinese Dictionary".During his more than ten years as deputy director of the Central Bureau of Translation and Translation of Marxist-Leninist Works, he worked diligently for the translation of Marxist-Leninist classics.After the "Cultural Revolution" began, he was brutally criticized by the Red Guard rebels. On July 30, 1967, Chen Changhao passed away unjustly.

After Zhang Qinqiu was rescued and returned to Yan'an at the end of 1937, he has been working silently for the party.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, she served as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Textile Industry. During the "Cultural Revolution" when "cleaning up the class ranks", Zhang Qinqiu's experience after the failure of the West Route Army was put on the line by the rebels and labeled a "traitor".Zhang Qinqiu couldn't bear this insult, and committed suicide on April 22, 1968 as a final protest. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the Party Central Committee began the work of rehabilitating historical injustice cases.A large number of unjust cases and historical mistakes caused by the "Cultural Revolution" have been corrected. Not only the unjust cases of Liu Shaoqi and Peng Dehuai have been vindicated, but Chen Changhao, Zhang Qinqiu and many old comrades who have suffered wronged and suffered have also been given fair evaluation.

Some earlier historical issues were also re-examined and policy implemented.After Li Te left home to join the revolution, his mother never knew the whereabouts of his son. In 1949, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army went south to Huoqiu County, Anhui Province, Li Te's old mother ran for eight miles, sitting on the side of the road and watching groups of People's Liberation Army soldiers passing by, trying to find her son.After sitting for a few days in a row, the team was over, and then turned and went home disappointed.It wasn't until half a century after Li Te's death that some veteran comrades of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army reported that Li Te and Huang Chao were mistakenly killed revolutionary comrades after a retrial by the organization department.In the "Chinese Military Encyclopedia" published in 1997, they were included in the book as "senior commanders of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", and at the end of the entry they explained: "At the beginning of 1938, they were framed and killed in Dihua."

Although Zhang Guotao made a final decision, the issue of the West Route Army has always been a sensitive historical topic, which has been debated endlessly.Comrade Li Xiannian consulted the historical archives of that year, and wrote a long report "Explanation on Several Issues in the History of the West Route Army" to the Central Committee on February 25, 1983, expounding his own views.He wrote: "Although the West Route Army failed, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission, the majority of commanders and fighters fought tenaciously under extremely difficult conditions in order to complete the tasks assigned by the Central Committee. Comrades gave their precious lives for the revolution. In the past, the central government only criticized Comrade Zhang Guotao and Comrade Chen Changhao, not only did not hold other comrades accountable, but also fully affirmed the heroic fighting spirit of the vast number of commanders and fighters of the West Route Army. This is very correct. But , some articles, writings, speeches and documents have improperly commented on the history of the West Route Army. For example, Zhang Guotao ordered the formation of the West Route Army and the crossing of the Yellow River without authorization. The army is a victim of Zhang Guotao's line, etc. These statements may be due to the lack of a large amount of historical materials, etc., and are understandable. I am really not clear about some situations in the past forty years. Now, many situations are relatively Once it is clear, it should be corrected according to historical facts. Doing so will be more conducive to unity.”

Only under the historical background of bringing order out of chaos can it be possible to objectively study major issues in party history and draw scientific conclusions. In 1991, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China re-published Selected Works of Mao Zedong.Under the paragraph about the West Route Army in "Strategic Issues in China's Revolutionary War", a new note was made: "In July 1936, after the Red Fourth Front Army and the Red Second Front Army joined forces, due to the active efforts of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the After the struggle of Zhu De, Liu Bocheng, etc. and the commanders and fighters of the Fourth Front Army, Zhang Guotao was forced to agree to go northward with the Second Front Army, and ended in Huining, Gansu Province in October of the same year. Campaign plan. In early November, according to the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission, the troops crossing the river were called the West Route Army. They fought alone for four months under extremely difficult conditions and wiped out more than 20,000 enemies. It failed in March 1937." This comment, which differs from Mao Zedong's original text, was formed after careful study and repeated research, and was approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which actually restored the reputation of the West Route Army.

On August 14, 1982, Marshal Xu Qianqian solemnly said in a conversation with comrades in the Central Party History Research Office: "After receiving Zhang Guotao's telegram asking us to go south in September 1935, our biggest mistake was to agree to go south. As for whether Zhang Guotao sent I told you responsibly that I had never seen the telegram about the use of force to solve the central government. Chairman Mao talked about Zhang Guotao’s harm in Yan’an. As for the harm, we are not easy to ask. We also said that the harm We have implemented Zhang Guotao's line, so it is not convenient for us to say anything."This conversation was not published in the "Yanhuang Chunqiu" magazine until 1993, which attracted the attention of many scholars and experts.With the emancipation of the mind and the deepening of research, some historical "black boxes" are gradually being opened, allowing future generations to uncover the mysteries of history.

At the end of this book, I think: as a historian, his goal is to record and reproduce the real history.But after all, we are not the personal experiencers of the past. When writing a book, we often ask ourselves: Is what we write true?Is it objective?Can it stand the test of history?Maybe there are still many historical facts that we don't know, or for some reason, the parties still keep some secrets. History is not a little girl who can be dressed up, it is a veiled maiden. It may be difficult to lift the veil and see its true face, and it will take several generations of efforts.