Chapter 29 29. The undercurrent under the song

Lianghekou (a town in Maogong County). The afternoon of June 25, 1935. It will be a historic moment when two major communist armies and their leaders join forces here for the first time, when Mao Zedong, leader of the Red Front Army, and Zhang Guotao, leader of the Fourth Red Army, attended the Third Party Congress held in Guangzhou in 1923. The first reunion after graduation.Since he began to preside over the work of the Hubei, Henan and Anhui revolutionary bases in 1931, Zhang Guotao has been leading the Red Fourth Army in combat, opened up a series of bases, and established a very effective Red Army team.Mao Zedong has endured various hardships since the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, but he persisted in the revolution and fought tirelessly for the cause of the party.

On this day, the weather was not beautiful, and it was raining cats and dogs.At around 5:00 p.m., Zhang Guotao rode a white steed, guarded by about 10 cavalrymen, along the dirt road, splashing muddy water. Hearing the sound of horseshoes coming from far and near, Mao Zedong and others hurried out of the dark brown tarpaulin tent, and forty or fifty people waited in line.After a while, Zhang Guotao rode his horse and came straight to Mao Zedong and others.Zhang Guotao received such a grand welcome, and his self-esteem was greatly satisfied.He got off his horse and warmly shook hands and hugged Mao Zedong and others who came up.

Seeing the warm handshake between Mao Zedong and Zhang Guotao, the Red Army soldiers cheered, and the slogans were loud.Under the cheers and support of the Red Army soldiers, Mao Zedong and Zhang Guotao stepped onto the podium, and the rain dripped from their uniforms.Mao Zedong made a welcome speech, and Zhang Guotao made an answer.Then they went into the town and held a banquet in the lamasery.The two leaders who participated in the founding of the Communist Party of China and now each lead the Red Army have not had much contact for more than ten years. At the beginning, the two did not leave a deep impression on each other, but today is a reunion after a long separation. People are polite to each other, and they are very affectionate at the moment of historic meeting.

Mao Zedong, as usual, enlivened the atmosphere of the banquet with his chili humor.He ate a few deep-fried red peppers in a row, but he didn't finish the meal, which made the colleagues around him giggle. Mao Zedong joked to the comrades present: "If you can't eat spicy food, you can't be a real revolutionary." Bo Gu, whose ancestral home is Jiangsu, immediately objected. He said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "There are many great revolutionaries among Jiangsu people, and they don't like to eat your Hunan spicy peppers. On the contrary, He Jian in your province eats peppers better than you. That's right, what a revolutionary he is!"

Zhang Guotao smiled reluctantly, but did not answer.He doesn't want to get involved in this debate about whether he can eat spicy food. He hopes that people will tell him about the situation of the Red Front Army and the details of the Zunyi Meeting, or mention the topic of the Red Fourth Front Army, so that he can take advantage of this to show off to people. After reviewing their own achievements, they can also inquire about the strength of the Red Army on the one hand, so as to plan for their future outlet and development.But no one mentioned these topics.Zhang Guotao felt left out and was unhappy.

Obviously, under the cover of the superficial joyful atmosphere, there was another undercurrent: jealousy, dissatisfaction and resentment.After the dinner, Zhou Enlai personally sent Zhang Guotao to his residence.Zhang Guotao tried to find out the inside story of the Zunyi Conference and the Huili Conference from Zhou Enlai, but found nothing, so he directly asked Zhou Enlai: "Brother Enlai, the difficult battle has caused a lot of losses. On the one hand, how many people are left in the army?" Zhou Enlai looked tired, with dark halos around his eyes due to lack of sleep, but there was a mysterious light in his eyes, and infinite wisdom was hidden in his thick, thick beard, with a politician's demeanor.He tactfully asked: "How many people are there in the Fourth Front Army now?" Zhang Guotao said: "We have 100,000." Zhou Enlai replied: "We have 30,000." Obviously, both sides are testing, and both are exaggerated.

At this time, the Red Fourth Front Army had about 80,000 combat troops, and the First Front Army had only more than 10,000 people.The Red Fourth Front Army is much more numerous than the Red First Front Army.From the leaders of the two armies after the meeting, it seems that the obvious difference in strength between the two can also be seen. Zhang Guotao's face is plump and ruddy. Although he is not fat, he is not thin, and he shows no signs of hunger.As for Mao Zedong, he was very thin, with a haggard complexion, deep wrinkles, and a very reserved manner, but his eyes were piercing, as deep as the ocean, and as clear as the sky.Obviously, this is a pair of eyes that have been trained to see through the hearts of others and the political situation after he has experienced countless hardships on the road of life.Zhang Guotao's gray military uniform fits perfectly, and there are two pockets inserted diagonally in the clothes, while Mao Zedong still wears the old military uniform he had been wearing during the Long March. A pair of chopsticks, and a big tea mug hanging on the belt.Zhang Wentian, who has the demeanor of a university professor, always has the brim of his hat so soft.Bo Gu wears round nearsighted glasses, and there is obviously something wrong with the temples of the glasses.Zhou Enlai's beard grows long.Zhu De's face was dark and thin, more like a cook.

After Zhou Enlai left, Zhu De came to visit Zhang Guotao again. The two talked about the transition and current situation of the Red Front Army and the Red Fourth Front Army. Condition.Zhu De recounted the struggle of the Red Front Army in detail, and said to Zhang Guotao with a sigh: "Now the Front Army can no longer fight. It used to be a giant, but now all the flesh from its body has been lost, leaving only a pair of bones. "Zhu De estimates that there are more than 10,000 troops directly under the Central Committee, and all the cannons have been lost. There are not many machine guns left, and almost all of them are empty barrels. Each rifle has an average of about 5 bullets.

After understanding these situations, Zhang Guotao felt that he had the capital of strength, and the soldiers on all sides had more guns and more guns, and the soldiers were strong and strong. Therefore, the ambition to achieve personal goals secretly grew by using power to overwhelm the masses and the strong to bully the weak.Many people who participated in the Long March can still remember Zhang Guotao's conceited characteristics. Even Li De seemed to be aware of Zhang Guotao's state of mind at that time, recalling: "Zhang Guotao, about 40 years old, has a burly body and a dignified appearance. He treats guests like a host. He behaved very confidently and was fully aware of his military superiority and administrative power.” In the eyes of the soldiers of the Front Army, Zhang Guotao’s attitude was in line with the modesty and simplicity of the leaders of the Red Front Army. A stark contrast.

Zhang Guotao was born in a wealthy landlord family in Shangli, Pingxiang, Jiangxi.This is a family of scholars and officials for generations.His great-grandfather was a Daoist for several times; his grandfather was a Hanlin and also served as a magistrate for several times; his father, Zhang Jiaming, was a Xiaolian Duke and the largest Hakka landlord in the area with nearly a thousand hectares of land and forests.Because of such a wealthy family, Zhang Guotao received a good education and was admitted to National Peking University after graduating from middle school. Zhang Guotao was one of the main student leaders when the May 4th Movement broke out in 1919, and they met when Mao Zedong was working as an assistant librarian in the Peking University library.

It is undeniable that Zhang Guotao has strong organizational and activity skills, but he also has a strong desire for leadership.This point was fully demonstrated as early as the first year of the Communist Party of China.At that time, he was only a student of Peking University, a disciple of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. He participated in the preparation of the first congress of the Communist Party of China and was promoted as the chairman of the congress.The First Congress of the Communist Party of China elected Chen Duxiu as the secretary, Zhang Guotao as the organization director, and Li Da as the propaganda director—Zhang Guotao became one of the first three leaders of the CCP. After the establishment of the Communist Party of China, Zhang Guotao was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a member of the Political Bureau, and a member of the Organization Bureau.Zhang Guotao stayed in Moscow for three years.He used many pen names and aliases for himself, such as "Teli", "Kaiyin", "Te", "Tianshi", etc., in order to express his extraordinary personality and his extraordinary influence. . In 1931, the Shanghai Central Bureau sent him to lead the very important Hubei, Henan and Anhui base areas.Since then, he has led the army and civilians in the base areas to fight many major battles with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang army, and almost all of them have won victories, and their strength has continued to grow.He moved his base twice—the first time was from the Hubei-Henan-Anhui border area to the Sichuan-Shanxi border area, and later in the spring of 1935 to Northwest Sichuan.Zhang Guotao has a strong personal desire for power, and he regards the Fourth Red Army as his personal capital.He believes that whoever has more troops is stronger, and whoever should be the number one.With the growth of the Red Fourth Front Army, his ambitions have become more and more inflated.On May 30, 1935, on the eve of the reunion of the First Red Army and the Fourth Front Army, Zhang Guotao announced the establishment of the so-called Northwest Federation. The central government's division of courts is a serious step in Zhang Guotao's vain attempt to usurp the supreme leadership.Zhang Guotao's "welcoming" attitude towards the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army planted extremely harmful hidden dangers for the unity and unity of the Party and the Red Army.