Chapter 73 Mao Zedong and Strong joked about "paper tigers"

On July 31, 1946, after Soong Ching Ling's careful arrangements, a famous American female writer and reporter, Anna Louise Strong, flew from Peiping to Yan'an on the plane of the US inspection team. There was a reason why Strong chose to go to Yan'an at this time. On June 30, relying on his absolute military superiority and economic strength, and with the support of the US military and diplomacy, Chiang Kai-shek brazenly tore up the peace agreement and armistice agreement reached between the KMT and the Communist Party, and sent 1.6 million troops to the Communist Party's The Liberated Areas launched an all-out offensive.

Under the circumstances at that time, the strength of the Communist Party was obviously at a disadvantage compared with Chiang Kai-shek.The army is only 1.2 million, and the field army is only 10,000. The ratio to the Kuomintang army is 1:34.Moreover, the main force of the people's army is not concentrated, and is divided into more than a dozen base areas.The equipment is basically the level of millet plus rifles, without any foreign aid. Because of this, Chiang Kai-shek spoke loudly, claiming that he would be able to win in just 3 to 6 months.Chiang Kai-shek's chief of staff, Chen Cheng, parroted his tongue, and said: "Maybe three months, at most five months, can completely solve the army led by the CCP."

Can Yan'an withstand it?Some people in China are suspicious, some people in the party are depressed, and some friends in the world are also secretly worried about the Communist Party.Strong belongs to this category and chose to come to Yan'an at this time. At about 11 am on the third day after Strong arrived in Yan'an, Chiang Kai-shek's plane bombed Yan'an City, which gave her a big shock. A huge explosion suddenly appeared in the sky over Yan'an. As a reporter, Strong, like a conditioned reflex, immediately picked up the camera and ran out of the cave to observe the movement. The staff and translators advised her to leave the yard and go to the air-raid shelter, but she insisted. refused.

People had to forcibly pull her into the air-raid shelter.Standing at the mouth of the bomb shelter, Strong witnessed the indiscriminate bombing. After the air raid, Strong went to the bombing site in a jeep to conduct field investigations, and wrote her first report after arriving in Yan'an: "The Eyewitnesses of the Bombing in Yan'an". confidence!Quickly eliminating the fear of the United States and Chiang Kai-shek accumulated in people's hearts, so that the whole party and the people of the whole country can build up the confidence to defeat Chiang Kai-shek, is an important task before Mao Zedong, the leader of Yan'an, and it is also a prerequisite for the people's army to defeat the enemy.

Mao Zedong first did the work of encouraging the senior cadres in the party. On July 6, Mao Zedong replied to Li Fuchun and Huang Kecheng regarding their opinions on the current situation: "Many points of view in your analysis are realistic and good. But the shortcoming is that the difficult conditions for US imperialism and Chiang Kai-shek are underestimated; at the same time, the favorable conditions for the international and domestic people's democratic forces are also underestimated. The second time After the World War, the position of the revolutionary forces in various countries is much better than after the First World War, not worse."

On July 7, Mao Zedong widely publicized the idea of ​​defeating Chiang Kai-shek with the help of the "Manifesto of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for the 9th Anniversary of July 7th". When revising the Manifesto, he added a few words of weight: "The current rampantness of the Chinese reactionaries does not show their strength and vitality, but their weakness and radiance." "The reactionary attempts of Chinese and foreign reactionaries can be defeated." On July 20, Mao Zedong drafted the party directive "Smash Chiang Kai-shek's Attacks with a War of Self-Defense", emphasizing again: We can defeat Chiang Kai-shek, and the whole party should have full confidence in this.Mao Zedong said that we were able to defeat Chiang Kai-shek because Chiang Kai-shek's military superiority and U.S. aid were only temporary factors, while the justice and injustice of the war and the support of the people were factors that often worked.What Chiang Kai-shek waged was an anti-people and counter-revolutionary war, which would inevitably be opposed by the people of the whole country, including the Kuomintang-ruled areas; what the Chinese Communist Party led was a patriotic and just revolutionary war, and would surely win the support of the people all over the country.This is the most basic basis for Chiang Kai-shek's inevitable defeat and the people's inevitable victory.

Dare to fight and dare to win, this is Mao Zedong's style and the spirit of the Chinese Communists! In Yan'an, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De was the first to meet Strong.In addition to Zhu De introducing the strategic plan of the People's Liberation Army to Strong, what impressed Strong most was his image metaphor. Commander-in-Chief Zhu said: "The Kuomintang army is like a big ship, and we are like the sea. When the big ship comes, there will be waves on the sea, but after that, the sea will return to calm." The exciting moment came. Mao Zedong sent a message that he would meet Strong in Yangjialing.

On the morning of August 6, 1946, Strong took a large truck and drove towards the muddy bank of the Yanhe River. Under the muddy river water were uneven stones.The car bumped across the Yanhe River, climbed up a dangerous slope, and reached Yangjialing on the other side.Accompanying them were Lu Dingyi, who was in charge of news work in Yan'an, and Ma Haide, an American doctor who had worked in Yan'an for 10 years. The cave dwelling where Mao Zedong lived was backed to the northwest, with a steep hill standing behind it.There is a small flat under the hillside on the opposite side of the mountain, which is Mao Zedong's vegetable field.In his spare time, Mao Zedong would grow peppers, corn, beans, tobacco leaves, etc. there.

Mao Zedong was already standing in the yard waiting.Under the guidance of Lu Dingyi and Ma Haide, Strong rushed forward.When Strong held Mao Zedong's big hands, she immediately felt a kind of firmness and strength. Mao Zedong held his little daughter with one hand, and pointed to the prepared conversation place with the other, motioning for everyone to sit down together. Mao Zedong wore a dark blue cotton uniform with large patches sewn on the trouser legs, and his demeanor was unhurried.This calmness and friendliness quickly dispelled Strong's tension and uneasiness.It was in this relaxed atmosphere that Mao Zedong delivered his famous "paper tiger" thesis to Strong.

The conversation started with Mao Zedong first asking about the situation in the United States. Strong was very surprised that Mao Zedong knew more about American affairs than she did.She wrote: "This is unexpected, because in years, he has not even had a post office with the world." When the topic turned to the possible war between the United States and the Soviet Union and the ongoing war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Mao Zedong expounded his "paper tiger" thesis with a hearty laugh: "All reactionaries are paper tigers. They appear to be terrifying, but in fact they have no great power. From a long-term perspective, the truly powerful power does not belong to the reactionaries, but to the people."

"Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters, the American reactionaries, are also paper tigers. When it comes to American imperialism, people seem to think that it is incredibly powerful, and the Chinese reactionaries are using the 'power' of the United States to frighten the Chinese people. But the American reactionaries will also want to Like all reactionaries in history, it proved to be of little strength." A conversation between Mao Zedong and the American journalist Anna Louise Strong.In this conversation, Mao Zedong put forward the famous assertion that "all reactionaries are paper tigers" "Take China's situation as an example, what we rely on is millet plus rifles, but history will eventually prove that this millet plus rifles is more powerful than Chiang Kai-shek's aircraft." Adding tanks is even stronger. Although there are still many difficulties facing the Chinese people, the Chinese people will suffer for a long time under the joint attack of U.S. imperialism and Chinese reactionaries, but these reactionaries will fail one day, and we will always Victory will come one day. The reason for this is nothing other than the fact that the reactionaries represent reaction, and we represent progress." Here, Mao Zedong clarified a fundamental strategic thought, that is, the revolutionary people must despise the enemy strategically and as a whole, recognize their paper tiger nature, dare to fight against them, and dare to win victory. This kind of strategic thinking contains an extraordinary and profound insight.As Strong felt: it revealed "a great truth of the age". This conversation continued well into the night.Mao Zedong and Strong were always in high spirits and never felt tired.Later, Strong said it was the happiest moment of her life. After this conversation, Mao Zedong published "A Conversation with American Journalist Anna Louise Strong", making public the famous argument that "all reactionaries are paper tigers". In the era when the reactionary forces are overwhelming the city with dark clouds, this thesis brings hope and strength to the people of China and the world, and establishes their belief in victory. Armed with the idea that "all reactionaries are paper tigers", Yan'an led the people in the liberated areas to fight against the seemingly powerful Chiang Kai-shek's army.After more than 80 battles in more than 4 months, the People's Liberation Army wiped out more than 4.14 million enemies, and Chiang Kai-shek's "all-round offensive" was crushed.