Chapter 49 The branch is built on the company

The Chinese People's Liberation Army is placed under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China, which is the basic principle and the foundation of the army. "The branch is built on the company" is an important way to realize the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of the people's army, and it is the basis for the construction of the people's army. "The branch is built on the company" began in the Jinggangshan struggle period and has been followed to this day. This principle of army building was first put forward during the famous "Sanwan Adaptation".

On September 29, 1927, after Mao Zedong led the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops to Sanwan Village in Yongxin, they organized a reorganization of the troops.The significance of the reorganization is that, firstly, it laid the foundation for the party's absolute leadership over the military, and secondly, it began to establish a democratic system.The former can ensure that the army has the correct political and ideological direction; the latter can enable the army to establish a completely new type of internal and external relations and ensure the unity between officers and soldiers and between the army and the people.It can be said that it carried out the earliest and relatively successful exploration and practice for the Chinese Communist Party on how to build its own army, marking the beginning of the formation of Mao Zedong's thought of building the people's army.

However, the construction of a new type of people's army cannot be completed by a single reorganization.The Sanwan adaptation led by Mao Zedong lasted only a few days, and rushed to Jinggangshan without having time to form a formal program and documents. It can only be regarded as the beginning of building the people's army. What's more, at this time, for the workers' and peasants' revolutionary army who had no fixed place to live, it would take a period of time and a process to truly translate the principles and systems established by the Sanwan adaptation into the conscious actions of Red Army soldiers.

"The branch is built on the company" is an important content of the Sanwan adaptation, and it is also an important creation of Mao Zedong's principle of proletarian army building when he marched into Jinggangshan and led the struggle in Jinggangshan. Although the Chinese Communist Party established party organizations in the army under its control as early as the period of the Great Revolution when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated, they were generally set up at the regiment level, that is, the regiment as a branch.However, the company, the grass-roots organization that has the most direct and closest contact with soldiers in the army, has not established a party organization.The Regiment Political Instructor's Office directly manages the company's political instructors, and the political instructors only do propaganda and education work, so political work has no mass base, and there are very few party members among the soldiers.This method, even after the failure of the Great Revolution, was still used in the troops of the Nanchang Uprising and Autumn Harvest Uprising led by the party.

During the struggle practice of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao Zedong realized that if the party organization is not established to the grassroots company, it will not be able to form a leadership core, and it will not be able to truly control the troops.Therefore, during the reorganization of Sanwan, the principle of "the branch is built on the company" was established: that is, the branch is built on the company, the squad and platoon establish a party group, the battalion and regiment establish a party committee, and the regiment and company establish a political instructor system Change to regiment, battalion, and company party representation.As a result, the party's organization penetrated to the grassroots level, directly controlled the soldiers, greatly strengthened the party's leadership over the army, and strengthened the relationship between the party and the soldiers.

This is a whole new idea. The Sanwan adaptation put forward this idea, but it was not immediately put into practice.The lack of time is certainly one reason, but the more important thing is that to establish a party branch in a company, there must be party members. Zhang Lingbin was one of the few fighter party members at that time. He once recalled the situation of the party organization in the company: "At that time, I was an ordinary soldier in the company. The party members of our company were the Pingliu Peasant Self-Defense Army and the Wuhan Guard Corps The forces preserved after the failure of the Great Revolution were small in number and secret. There were only four party members, the party representative, the company commander, a platoon leader, and me. Once, the four of us held a party group meeting, which extended the time. I Back in the platoon, the platoon leader on duty was a non-Party cadre. He asked me where I had been. I said I had gone to the mountain to collect firewood. He said there was a lot of firewood here. Why did I run so far? He ordered me to kneel as a punishment. Kneeling on the Triangular Rock and refusing to get up for over an hour. I would rather suffer for the sake of keeping the party secret."

As a result, developing party members among company soldiers, especially those who were born as workers and peasants, has become the primary task of implementing the principle of "the branch is built on the company". At that time, the reorganized First Regiment of the First Division of the First Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army entered Maoping on October 7.In order to solve the army's supplies and at the same time expand the political influence of the army, starting from October 8, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army began guerrilla activities in various counties along the Hunan-Jiangxi border.

The first stop is Shidu in Ling County, Hunan Province.Subsequently, the troops moved slowly along Shizhou and Banxi to the water mouth in the mountainous area on the border between Hunan and Jiangxi. During the march from Shidu to Shuikou, Mao Zedong began to cultivate party activists among fighters of worker and peasant origin.Lai Yi, who was the squad leader of the second company and the first squad of the first battalion at that time, clearly remembered the scene of Mao Zedong carrying out in-depth and meticulous ideological work among the soldiers decades later: "Every day I marched, I saw Comrade Mao Zedong appearing in the ranks of the soldiers. He Dressed in plain clothes and straw sandals, in this company today and in another company tomorrow, talk to soldiers, ask them what they do at home? How did they join the revolutionary ranks? Ask them about their understanding of the revolution and their views on the current situation. Because the troops deserted a lot at that time, they also had a lot of guns, so sometimes ordinary people had to be hired to carry the burden. One day, Comrade Mao Zedong went to a company, and a soldier didn't know him. He thought he was an ordinary person, so he asked him to carry the burden. Comrade Mao Zedong Kindly say, I have selected you for several days, and today our company commander told me to rest. The comrades who knew Mao Zedong said: "This is the Chairman Mao sent by the Central Committee!" The soldiers were all surprised. Thanks to Comrade Mao Zedong He is so approachable, everyone gathered around him without restraint, and told him about their experiences."

It was in such an informal conversation that Mao Zedong discovered and cultivated a group of party activists who were workers and peasants. Mao Zedong's actions set an example for party members and cadres. Party representatives and Communist Party members of all companies followed Mao Zedong's instructions and did ideological work while marching. Deputy squad leader Liu Yan is a party member. Seeing that squad leader Lai Yi had a firm stand and was brave in combat, he took the initiative to talk to Lai Yi during the march to learn about his family situation and personal experience.

Lai Yi had long wanted to express his long-cherished wish to the party organization. At this moment, he poured out all the words he held in his heart: "I used to be a paper worker. I joined the Communist Youth League when I was working in a trade union. I couldn’t stay any longer, so I fled to Xiushui, Jiangxi, and found this revolutionary team.” He asked Liu Yan to reflect his urgent desire to join the party to the party organization. Liu Yan said happily: "Okay! I will definitely report your request to the party representative." Sure enough, one day, a party representative approached Lai Yi and said to him: "You have a request to join the party, which is very good. Committee member Mao instructed to recruit a group of workers and peasants to join the party. In the future, you should work better and strive to join the party. "

The harsh environment tested everyone in this team.When they arrived at Shuikou, Yu Sadu, the former division commander, and Su Xianjun, the commander of the third regiment, left without saying goodbye. The escape of Yu and Su caused great repercussions in the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.Mao Zedong noticed from the escape of Yu and Su and the extensive conversations among the soldiers: Any company with a certain number of party members not only has high morale, but also can effectively supervise the cadres, and the appearance of the troops is very different.Although the principle of "the branch is built on the company" was established during the Sanwan reorganization, there has been no time to develop and enrich workers and peasants to join the party. Now is the time. On the afternoon of the second day after the troops were stationed in Shuikou, the party representatives of each company secretly notified the candidates who had joined the party and went to the regiment headquarters for a meeting in the evening. The late autumn night in the mountains is very quiet.When the party representatives of each company led the party members to the Ye Family Ancestral Hall next to Shuikouwei, Mao Zedong had already been waiting in the small attic in the back hall of the ancestral hall.In the attic, there is a square farm table, several long benches, a kerosene lamp on the table, and two pieces of drooping rectangular red paper on the table. Three squiggly English letters "CCP".The first party building event after the reorganization of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army Sanwan will be held here. A total of 6 people took part in the oath to join the party, in addition to Lai Yi, Chen Shiju, Li Huan, Ouyang Jian, Yan Hui and so on.When everyone saw that Committee Member Mao was going to personally preside over the swearing-in ceremony for them to join the party tonight, they immediately felt a warm current of happiness surging in their hearts. After everyone arrived, Mao Zedong walked to the square table and announced: "We will start the meeting now." First, the introducers for joining the party (in fact, they are all party representatives of each company) introduced the resumes and political performance of the new party members.Then, Mao Zedong walked up to the six new party members and asked many questions in turn. Mao Zedong walked up to Lai Yi and asked, "Why did you join the Communist Party?" "If you want to stand up, you must overthrow the local tyrants and evil gentry, overthrow the Kuomintang, and join the party will be more powerful." Lai Yi answered very simply. Mao Zedong nodded in satisfaction and praised: "It's a good speech." Later, Mao Zedong explained the three English letters that no one had seen before: this is "CCP", which means the Chinese Communist Party in Chinese.He also explained the oath of joining the party one by one. The oath to join the party began, and the venue was solemn and quiet.Standing in front of six new party members, Mao Zedong raised his clenched right hand and led them to read the party oath.He read a sentence, and everyone read a sentence: "Sacrifice the individual, work hard for the revolution, class struggle, obey the organization, strictly keep secrets, and never betray the party." The loud voice echoed in the small attic for a long time. After taking the oath, Mao Zedong said kindly to the new party members: "From now on, you are all glorious Communists. From now on, you must unite the masses, do more propaganda, do more mass work, strictly organize your life, and strictly guard the party's secrets." Before leaving, Mao Zedong told the party representatives of each company: After returning, each company must organize a party branch and pay close attention to development work.In the future, each company will hold the swearing-in ceremony for new party members in batches like today. The party building of the Shuikou company is the first party building activity in the history of our army to put into practice the principle of "building branches on the company".Party members with worker and peasant backgrounds have become the backbone of the army, providing a strong guarantee for the establishment of a new type of people's army under the absolute leadership of the party. Soon after Shuikou established the Party, each company of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army held party building activities one after another. This not only added new blood to the army, but also attracted many outstanding workers and peasants to the Party’s arms, making the Chinese Communist Party like a huge magnet and a strong group.According to Han Wei’s recollection: “In 1927, there were small groups in the platoon, and even a branch. By 1928, there were small groups in the class. The party representative had to serve as the secretary of the party branch to carry out the party’s work. The party members in the army were not fully disclosed at that time. Delegates educate party members, usually through small groups and branch meetings.” As soon as the branch was established, the company immediately had a soul, and various tasks were carried out quickly.At that time, the branch assigned party members to do three tasks: study the current situation, understand the thoughts of the masses, relieve their concerns, and pay attention to cultivating and developing new party members.The party members have to study the current situation almost every day, actively educate and train comrades who have a firm revolutionary will, are active in work, and abide by discipline, and then introduce them to the party.In this way, the masses will move closer to the party organization. Since the branch is built on the company, the stability of the troops has been greatly improved.The party maintains close ties with the general public through party members, so the work is very active.The political atmosphere of the company gradually became stronger, and the number of party members continued to increase. This truly formed the core and fortress of the company. Many new party members grew up from actual training and became the backbone of the company's leadership. The practice of the later revolutionary struggle fully proved what Mao Zedong said: "The reason why the Red Army fought hard and did not collapse is that 'the branch is built on the company' is an important reason."