Chapter 41 7. Mao Zedong established Peking as his capital

After Mao Zedong left Changsha to organize the Autumn Harvest Uprising in early September 1927, he has been leading the revolutionary armed struggle in the countryside for more than 20 years.Except for a trip to Chongqing for negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he has never been to a big city.But it is different now, the Chinese revolution is about to win nationwide victory, a new China is about to be born, and the Central People's Government is about to be formed.Both Mao Zedong and the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party had to go to big cities to plan various major events for the founding of New China.This big city is Beiping, which has just been peacefully liberated, because Beiping will be the capital of new China.

There was a process in setting the capital of New China in Beiping instead of Nanjing, the capital of the original Kuomintang government, in which of course Mao Zedong played a key role. From the perspective of the Communist Party of China, it was officially announced that the capital of New China would be Beiping at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Xibaipo on March 5, 1949.Mao Zedong said at the meeting: "We hope to occupy Nanjing in April or May, and then hold a political consultation meeting in Beiping, establish a coalition government, and make Beiping the capital." From a national perspective, it was held in September 1949. At the first plenary session of the Political Consultative Conference.The resolution of the meeting stated: "The capital of the People's Republic of China is set at Beiping, and it will be renamed Beijing from now on." Of course, such a decision must have been made earlier.Judging from the information available so far, Mao Zedong first discussed this idea at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held in Xibaipo on September 8, 1948, commonly known as the "September Meeting".An important topic of this meeting is to plan for the construction of new China.

Mao Zedong said at this meeting: "The state power of the people's democratic dictatorship is different from that of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship. Therefore, in the choice of the capital, Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, cannot be used as the capital of the new democratic republic." Then And where is the capital of this new China under the people's democratic dictatorship?Mao Zedong did not say it in his official speech at the meeting.However, during this meeting, when Mao Zedong talked with Xu Xiangqian, he had already revealed that he would not only set the capital of New China in Beiping, but also strive for the peaceful liberation of Beiping.

At this time, Xu Xiangqian was commanding a North China Corps to fight in Shanxi and was fighting Taiyuan.Mao Zedong asked Xu Xiangqian if it was possible to fight for the peaceful liberation of Taiyuan. Xu Xiangqian said that he had fought for it in many ways. Even Yan Xishan's teacher went to the city to persuade him. Yan Xishan not only refused to listen, but killed the old scholar who had taught him. up.At this time, Mao Zedong said: "It seems that it is impossible not to fight Taiyuan. It is best not to fight Peking." Famous city, as the capital of new China. Why is the capital of New China set at Beiping?There are several considerations for this:

(1) Chiang Kai-shek set the capital of his reactionary regime in Nanjing, and Mao Zedong set the people's regime in Beiping.This kind of political consideration of tit-for-tat with the Chiang Kai-shek dynasty was the main reason for the establishment of the capital in Beiping. (2) As an ancient capital in history, Beiping has a certain cohesive force for the unification and solidarity of the whole country; Beiping is also the birthplace of the "May 4th" Movement and played a leading role in the process of China's new democratic revolution. (3) At that time, the diplomatic structure of our party was "one-sided". Beiping was close to the Soviet Union, Mongolia, and North Korea, which could facilitate the strengthening of ties with the socialist camp at that time, and the assistance from the Soviet Union. Considering the international situation, it was more convenient. Safety.

On this point, Mikoyan, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPSU Central Committee who was appointed by Stalin to come to Xibaipo on January 31, 1949, also discussed this in his talks with Mao Zedong. aspects of support. Precisely because Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had established Beiping as the capital of New China very early on, Mao Zedong and the Central Committee emphasized the concern for the peaceful liberation of Beiping and the protection of its urban buildings and cultural relics in many previous instructions.For example, on December 17, 1948, in a telegram from Mao Zedong to Lin Biao, Luo Ronghuan, and Liu Yalou, the telegram specifically specified, "and tell Cheng and Huang."Cheng and Huang here refer to Cheng Zihua, commander of the Second Corps of the East Field, and Huang Zhiyong, chief of staff of the Second Corps. surrounded.In the telegram there are these two paragraphs:

(1) Fengtai, Mentougou, Shijingshan, and Changxindian are important industrial areas. Our Fourth Column and Eleventh Column are fighting in this area. I hope they will fully protect their industries. The method is to keep everything intact and use the original workers and staff , factory director, and manager work, our army only sends personnel to supervise and send troops to protect. (2) Shahe, Qinghe, Haidian, and Xishan are important cultural relics areas, and all the original management personnel are also intact. Our army only sends troops to protect and contact people. Pay special attention to contacting faculty and students of universities such as Tsinghua University and Yenching University, and discuss with them how to reduce losses during combat.

Before peace and war in Peiping have been finalized, our army must be fully prepared to attack Peiping and destroy the enemies in the city.It was precisely in accordance with this important instruction from Mao Zedong that the two heads of the Liaison Office of the Political Department of the Second Corps of the East and the Wild, under the introduction of the famous patriotic democrat Zhang Xiruo of Tsinghua University, visited Tsinghua University in late December 1948. Professor Liang Sicheng, an authoritative scholar of ancient Chinese architecture, asked Liang Sicheng to mark the positions of important ancient buildings in Beiping on a military map and delineate areas where shelling is prohibited.They stayed in Liang Sicheng's study and waited until Liang Sicheng finished marking the painting before leaving.Later, due to the peaceful liberation of Beiping, this military map failed to play a role, but the incident quickly spread throughout Beiping.

On January 16, 1949, when the peace negotiations had entered the final critical moment, our army still did not give up its preparations for a possible attack on Peiping.On this day, Mao Zedong once again gave the following instructions in a telegram to Lin Biao and others: Actively prepare to attack the city.For this siege, careful planning must be made to avoid destroying the Forbidden City, universities and other famous and valuable cultural relics.You must make the heads of each column understand and confirm this.Let the enemy occupy these cultural institutions, but we do not attack them. After we occupy other large urban areas, we will disarm the enemies who occupy these cultural institutions by means of negotiation and disintegration.

Do so patiently, even if the occupation of Peiping prolongs a lot of time.For this reason, you must conduct detailed surveys of all parts of the city, and make sure that the heads of each unit fully understand which places can be attacked and which places cannot be attacked.You must call a meeting of the heads of the various siege forces and give precise instructions.For this reason, your command post must have accurate telephone contact with every siege force, and every progress in the battle must be placed under your command and supervision. The well-intentioned and detailed instructions of Mao Zedong's telegram are rare among his many instructions on combat.From this, we can fully see how much he and the Party Central Committee attach importance to protecting Beiping.

Later, in the discipline of troops entering the city formulated by the Beiping Military Control Committee, the protection of cultural relics and historic sites in Beiping was listed as a special article. Due to the peaceful liberation of Beiping, this ancient city, which has finally returned intact to the people after many efforts, will soon become the capital of new China.Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to enter Peiping. In order to welcome the Party Central Committee to enter Peiping, the Pingjin Front Committee and the Beiping Military Management Committee made serious preparations, and specially set up a five-member group headed by Ye Jianying.Central to the preparations was absolute safety.From Xibaipo to Zhuoxian County, the North China Military Region is in charge; from Zhuoxian County to Changxindian in Beiping, the Dongye Five Columns are in charge; from Changxindian to Xizhimen, the Dongye Four Columns are in charge; Li Kenong, head of the Social Affairs Department of the Central Committee, personally commanded the Central Security Force; the security around Xiangshan was arranged by Liu Yalou, Chief of Staff of the Dongye Headquarters. The Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ended on March 13.After the meeting, the central authorities began to prepare to move to Peiping.At this time, the central government was no longer in the state of walking with a wooden stick when it moved to northern Shaanxi, because Lin Biao sent a lot of cars seized by Dongye. There were more than 100 American-made ten-wheel trucks alone, and 10 Multiple jeeps.Both the central authorities and the security forces set out by car.Before departure, Mao Zedong excitedly said to Zhou Enlai: "Today is the day to go to Beijing, and I am happy even if I don't sleep. Today is going to Beijing to 'catch the exam'. Going to Beijing to 'catch the exam', what can I do if I am not mentally good!" Zhou Enlai laughed He said: "We should all pass the exam, don't return it." Mao Zedong said: "If you return, you will fail. We will never be Li Zicheng. We all hope to get good grades in the exam." On March 23, the "Five Secretaries" of the Central Committee Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi and the staff of the central government set off from Xibaipo in 12 cars and 10 large trucks.The first jeep was the leading car, Mao Zedong was in the second jeep, the third was a guard car, the fourth was Jiang Qing and Li Na, the fifth was Liu Shaoqi, and the sixth was Liu Shaoqi’s family members. The seventh car is for Zhou Enlai's family, the eighth car is for Zhu De's family, the ninth car is for Ren Bishi's family, the tenth car is for Lu Dingyi's family, the eleventh car is for Hu Qiaomu's family, and the twelfth car is for Ye Zilong's family. It may be due to a coincidence that Mao Zedong and the central leadership withdrew from Yan'an and moved to northern Shaanxi in March 1947; left Mizhi Yangjiagou in northern Shaanxi and marched to North China in March 1948; left Xibaipo and entered Peiping , in March 1949.It's March that welcomes spring. The convoy passed through Lingshou and Quyang, and lived in Shulu Village in Tang County that night. Pass Baoding on the 24th and live in Zhuo County. At 2 o'clock in the morning on the 25th, accompanied by Ye Jianying and Teng Daiyuan, the deputy commander of the North China Military Region, they got on the train in Zhuo County. Ye Jianying reported the current situation of Beiping to the central leadership in detail on the train.In the early morning, I got off at Tsinghuayuan Station in the western suburbs of Beiping, and Nie Rongzhen, Peng Zhen, Li Kenong and others were already there to greet me.At noon, after a short rest at the Yishou Hall in the Summer Palace, head to Xiyuan Airport. At 3:00 p.m. on the 25th, a grand and solemn military parade was held at Xiyuan Airport, with Liu Yalou, chief of staff of the Pingjin Front Command, as the commander-in-chief (in order to welcome Mao Zedong and other heads of the central government to enter Beiping, it was originally planned to hold a grand military parade. The general public lined up to welcome the welcome ceremony, but when this report was sent to Mao Zedong, it was immediately rejected by Mao Zedong. Later, someone proposed to hold a military parade, and Mao Zedong readily agreed, so representatives of democrats from all walks of life also went to Xiyuan where the military parade was held The airport came to meet Mao Zedong and the head of the Central Committee and expressed their welcome), 50 60 guns fired 500 flares.Amidst the rumbling gun salute, Mao Zedong boarded the first jeep.Then, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Ren Bishi boarded the car one by one to inspect the troops under review.Also participating in the military parade were Lin Boqu, Peng Zhen, Lin Biao, He Long, Nie Rongzhen, Ye Jianying, Wang Jiaxiang, Li Lisan, Teng Daiyuan and others.The troops to be reviewed in this military parade are still the three hero regiments of the East Field Four Columns who served as security missions in Beiping at that time and made great achievements in the famous Tashan blockade in the Liaoshen Campaign, namely the Tashan Heroes Regiment, Tashan Heroes Regiment, and Tashan Army. It is composed of the Defense Heroes Group and the Baitai Mountain Heroes Group.In addition, there are cadres above the company of the four verticals, a motorized infantry regiment, two artillery regiments, a tank battalion, and several heroic and model representatives. After the military parade ended, Mao Zedong and the leaders of the Central Committee came among the welcoming crowd.The party, government, and military leaders who arrived in Peiping earlier, representatives from all walks of life in Peiping, and democrats from all walks of life who had already arrived in Peiping, such as Shen Junru, Guo Moruo, Li Jishen, Huang Yanpei, Ma Xulun, Fu Zuoyi, etc., welcomed Mao Zedong and other central leaders here.There were also more than 1,000 representatives from all walks of life who came to welcome.Mao Zedong shook hands with democrats from all walks of life and talked cordially. That evening, Mao Zedong and other central leaders arrived at Xiangshan, the temporary residence of the CPC Central Committee and the headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.Mao Zedong lived in Shuangqing Villa there until September 21, 1949, before moving into the city and living in Juxiang Bookstore in Zhongnanhai. In the early morning of the next day, Xinhua News Agency broadcast the news of Mao Zedong’s arrival in Peiping to the whole world: “The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army moved to Peiping yesterday. " Sixteen years after the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China left Shanghai in 1933, it entered a big city again.After Mao Zedong left Peking for 30 years, he came to Peking again (Mao Zedong visited Peking twice in his youth, and the second time he left was April 11, 1920).When the special train he took arrived in Peking, he said affectionately to the comrades around him: Have you ever been to Peking?I have been here for 30 years!At that time, in order to seek the truth of saving the country and the people, I traveled all over the world, and even my pants were stolen on the way, and I suffered a lot.Now 30 years later, returning to the old country, it is really "a thousand peach trees in Xuandu Temple, all of which were planted by Liu Lang after he went away" (note: this is a poem by Liu Yuxi, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty).Earth-shaking, earth-shaking! Since then, Mao Zedong has been leading the Chinese people in Beijing to carry out earth-shaking socialist revolution and socialist construction until he died of illness in Beijing on September 9, 1976.