Chapter 28 Mao Zedong instructed to resolutely fight back against Chiang Kai-shek

Facing the increasingly aggressive anti-communist activities of the diehards of the Kuomintang, Mao Zedong drafted instructions for the Secretariat of the Central Committee on this day. In addition to ordering the Jiangnan troops to move northward immediately and dispatching a force from North China to strengthen Central China, he also required all Party and Shandong troops in Central China and Shandong to The army must be mobilized urgently to fight for holding on to the anti-Japanese base areas and breaking the attacks of the diehards.The instruction stated that before Ye Ting arrived in Jiangbei, the military command was unified under the command of Chen Yi and Liu Shaoqi; after Ye Ting arrived in Jiangbei, he was unified under the command of Ye Ting, Chen Yi, and Liu Shaoqi.The Central Plains Bureau unified leadership of Shandong and Central China, and the Shandong branch was placed under the jurisdiction of the Central Plains Bureau.The instructions require that all parts of the country must resolutely oppose this attack by the Kuomintang and its high-pressure policy across the country.

As early as the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang Central Committee, Chiang Kai-shek made a report on "Awakening the Party Soul, Carrying forward the Party's Virtue, and Consolidating the Party Foundation" at the meeting, claiming: "We must fight against the CCP, and we should not be afraid of it...We have no respect for the CCP." Just like in the 15th and 16th years of the Republic of China, it should be adopted not to fight it, but not to accommodate it. Now it must be strictly controlled, taught, and protected; In the spirit of "struggle", the plenary session decided on the policy of "preventing, restricting, dissolving, and anti-communist", passed in principle the "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties", established the Anti-Communist Committee, and strictly restricted the words and deeds of the Communist Party and all radicals.

Later, Chiang Kai-shek secretly approved and promulgated the "Measures for Dealing with the Communist Party Issue" and "Draft Measures for Preventing Communist Party Activities in Occupied Areas", and strictly enforced them. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek still advocated the continuation of the War of Resistance Against Japan and severely condemned Wang Jingwei's surrender activities. His overall plan to prevent and oppose the Communist Party was mainly conceived and arranged internally, and was not fully disclosed. In any case, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang Central Committee can be said to be a turning point for major changes in Chiang Kai-shek's policies.As Zhou Enlai analyzed in his report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: After the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang Central Committee, it began to take the "road of downward development", shifting its focus from the outside to the inside, shifting its focus from the front to the bases of the Communist Party, and starting to focus on " How to restrict the Communist Party, guard against the Communist Party, and even oppose the Communist Party, how to eliminate the influence and elements sympathetic to the Communist Party, and how to eliminate the middle elements other than the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, in order to create a situation where the Kuomintang dominates. So the thinking is old-fashioned, frictions abound, and all wars of resistance Freedom of speech, publication, assembly, association, and belief is extremely restricted. There are many harsh requirements, unlimited restrictions, and unfair treatment for the Communist Party, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the Eighth Route Army, and the New Fourth Army. people, armed conflict".

From Chiang Kai-shek's point of view, the Eighth Route Army has expanded rapidly, and is grabbing territory everywhere. Once it occupies a piece of territory, it will establish a political power.Thinking of this, he wrote in his diary: "The Communist Party takes the opportunity to expand its power, which is really an internal worry." Determining practical countermeasures will be enough to eliminate worries.” It is precisely because of this consideration that Chiang Kai-shek secretly approved a series of anti-communist plans at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang Central Committee.He also secretly ordered Lu Zhonglin to instruct all counties to prohibit the recruitment of troops by the Eighth Route Army, and to abolish the two administrative offices in central Hebei and southern Hebei.An order was also issued to each theater: It is forbidden to drive to other regions without the order of the Military Commission, and each theater shall not be in charge of administration.

In February 1939, Lu Zhonglin returned to Hebei from a meeting in Chongqing, his waist straightened a lot.On the first day of work, he first sent a telegram to Zhu De and Peng Dehuai, demanding that the Eighth Route Army immediately withdraw from Hebei and hand over all the guerrillas; then, he spread out the map and began to fill in the areas, county commissioners and county magistrates in the Eighth Route Army-occupied area letter of appointment.The next day, he secretly ordered the troops to wait for an opportunity to occupy more territory. At the same time, Zhang Yinwu from Hebei and Qin Qirong from Shandong attacked the Eighth Route Army everywhere, causing bloodshed.They publicly shouted: "It is better to perish by the Japanese than by the Communist Party." "The Eighth Route Army must surrender power!"

The Communist Party stopped making concessions, and came to a tit-for-tat confrontation.The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a telegram to Zhu and Peng: 1. Ask the local senior commander and local administrator to replace Lu Zhonglin, and make Zhu De the chairman of Hebei Province; 3. Not only cannot the current regime in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei border region, central Hebei, and southern Hebei be abolished, but Shandong and other regions should also follow suit; 4. The government pays less, and the Eighth Route Army and guerrillas have to eat, so it is really difficult to stop collecting food Five, for unreasonable attacks, you must fight back, and never give in easily.

At the end of May 1939, Mao Zedong saw the "Measures for Handling the Communist Party Issue" secretly approved by Chiang Kai-shek three months ago.In this top-secret document, two attitudes were proposed to deal with the Communist Party members: "The upper level pays attention to the 'surrender of reason' and deals with it strictly; They want to fight, but we have nothing to do.” On June 10, Mao Zedong put forward the guidelines for anti-friction at the senior cadre meeting: “It is still our policy to actively help Jiang and urge Jiang to go the other way. …Unification does not forget struggle, struggle does not forget unity, the two cannot be neglected, but unity is the main thing, and it will not be broken if worn.”

In the "Communist Party Issues Handling Measures", in terms of military affairs, it is required that the military, political and military orders of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army must be unified in the central government, and must not be separated from the station, and must not be assigned to areas, and the expansion of force is not allowed; in terms of party affairs, the Communist Party is required to obey the Three Principles of the People and obey the leaders. , to abide by the Anti-Japanese War and the founding of the country, not to have any secret or public organizations in various places, to stop propagating communism, not to set up independent newspapers and magazines, and to print various propaganda materials; The training institutions are either closed down or taken over by the central government.

After the Pingjiang tragedy, the whole situation took a turn for the worse.At the memorial service for the martyrs who died in the Pingjiang tragedy, Zhou Enlai sent an elegiac couplet and wrote: Mao Zedong made a report on "Sanctioning Reactionaries with National Law" at the meeting.He said: This matter is no small matter, we must oppose it, we must protest!Who would intervene in such a major matter of killing anti-Japanese comrades?Who should come out and ask about this matter?If such a thing had happened in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, our high court would have intervened a long time ago... What is the reason for this?This is because China is not unified.If things go on like this, China will be in trouble, and all those who resist the Japanese will be killed.

What does it mean to kill anti-Japanese people?That is to say, the Chinese reactionaries carried out the orders of the Japanese imperialists and Wang Jingwei and prepared to surrender, so first kill the anti-Japanese soldiers, first kill the Communists, and first kill the patriots! Mao Zedong changed the subject and pointed directly at Chiang Kai-shek: Now there is a secret method popular in the country called the "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties"... This method is the root of all kinds of criminal acts that undermine unity.We hold this meeting today to continue the war of resistance, to continue to unite, and to continue to make progress.For this reason, the "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties" must be abolished, those capitulators and reactionaries must be sanctioned, and all revolutionary comrades, anti-Japanese comrades, and anti-Japanese people must be protected.

Mao Zedong once said the following passage, which can be the best footnote for him to resolutely fight back against Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist policy: Because the die-hards are stubborn, and when they come to rub, you must rub off.If you don't rub it off, he will become more and more fierce.When you grind it away, it is like hitting him on the head, so that his head will not dare to get in again.He just thought about it, it's better not to grind it, just say dear.At this time, we also say dear to him, invite him to drink tea, and everyone talks about peace.So friction is to deal with diehards, but in the end it is still about love.But there is a principle, we don't hit people first, if they call, I will call too.The ultimate purpose of friction is to make peace, and friction is the best way to make peace.But isn't it going to be frictional, like the civil war of the past ten years?Then we don't agree with doing that. ...We fundamentally oppose this kind of friction between anti-Japanese parties that cancel each other out.However, if rebellion in any aspect is inevitable, if it deceives others too much, if it implements oppression, then the Communist Party must deal with it with a strict attitude.This attitude is: people don't attack me, I will not attack others; if people attack me, I will attack others.But we stand on a strict self-defense standpoint, and no Communist is allowed to go beyond the principle of self-defense. In the autumn of 1940, due to the active support of Britain and the United States, Chiang Kai-shek believed that the victory of the Anti-Japanese War was only a matter of time, and that his own serious troubles had to be resolved as soon as possible.It was under this international situation that Chiang Kai-shek believed that the timing was in his favour, that he was confident and could do whatever he wanted, so he prepared to launch a new anti-communist upsurge!Then, when the situation of the Anti-Japanese War had just improved, the plan to attack the Communist Party was about to be released. Because Chiang Kai-shek lost the power to carry out large-scale armed friction in North China, it was difficult to do anything big, so he shifted his anti-Communist focus to Central China, waiting for an opportunity to attack the New Fourth Army.The victory of the New Fourth Army in northern Jiangsu made Chiang Kai-shek even more eager to take revenge against the New Fourth Army headquarters in southern Anhui.It was He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi's "Hao Dian" that became the starting point of this anti-communist upsurge. On November 12, Mao Zedong telegraphed Zhou Enlai, Xiang Ying, Liu Shaoqi, etc.: Chiang Kai-shek dispatched troops and generals to prepare to attack the New Fourth Army, but he was still afraid that the chaos would be too big to deal with.You should give air to all parties. Briefly, there are 300,000 troops in central China preparing to attack the New Fourth Army. We hope to stop dispatching, so as not to turn into a civil war, in which both sides suffer and the enemy gains.But if it is necessary to fight the New Fourth Army, the New Fourth Army must defend itself, and the Eighth Route Army must not sit idly by, and the other party should bear the responsibility for the chaos.This air, properly placed, may stop or delay its attack. On November 14, the "Plan to Exterminate the Bandits in the South of the Yellow River" and "Solution of the Case of the New Fourth Army in the South of the Yangtze River" formulated by the Military Command of the Chongqing Military Commission were waiting for Chiang Kai-shek to sign.Two days later, Tang Enbo, Li Pinxian, and Han Deqin's 200,000 people had received a preparation order to attack the Central China Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.Gu Zhutong has begun to deploy troops from the front lines of Zhejiang and Jiangxi to encircle and wipe out the New Fourth Army headquarters and its subordinate troops in southern Anhui.