Chapter 14 The 14th chapter on the eve of parting

When Li De walked out of the "independent house", the sky had already turned white.The last group of people who embarked on the journey has gathered in the distance, and the sound of people shouting and neighing can be clearly heard. The staff around Li De waited for Li De with two horses. One horse was carrying his supplies, including the coffee and a few boxes of cigarettes he had saved, and the other horse was his mount. At this time, Li De was standing in front of the "independent house", looking at the gray sky, feeling an indescribable feeling in his heart.He always felt that there was something unfinished, and he stared at the sky thinking.It wasn't until the staff around him urged him several times that he got on his horse and galloped in the direction the troops were advancing.

From midnight to dawn, Li De had been having the final conversation with Xiang Ying. Their conversation started with staying behind in the Soviet area.Xiang Ying first bargained with Li De on the remaining troops, and Li De has been patiently persuading Xiang Ying that the tens of thousands left behind cannot be said to be too few.Then they talked about Chen Yi, and finally Xiang Ying talked about Mao Zedong. He felt that reminding Li De at this time was because he cared about the cause of the proletariat, and there was no personal grievance or gain or loss. Mao Zedong is a man worthy of vigilance. He is an intellectual of peasant origin, and his mind is full of peasant consciousness. He has no respect for Marxism-Leninism. Shrewd... Xiang Ying said so.

Li De listened thoughtfully. Xiang Ying also said: As soon as I arrived in the Soviet area, I encountered the anti-revolutionaries and the Tomita incident. This person's political inclination was originally right-leaning, but he handled the Tomita incident with a "left" balance. The reason was that the anti-revolutionaries eliminated those who opposed His people... Li De's description of the Tomita incident in his later "China Chronicle" quoted Xiang Ying's point of view.Zhou Enlai called Mao's terror measures "excessive actions in the struggle to suppress counter-revolutionaries."Xiang Ying thought it was a "partisan struggle".

Zhou Enlai suggested that Mao Zedong should march with the army, not only because he was the founder of the Central Red Army, but also because of his calm command ability, which can stabilize the morale of the army at critical moments. When Li De and Bogu were studying the list of where to stay, they had to think a lot about whether it was better to keep Mao in the Soviet area or take him to the west. Long before this, Li De and Bo Gu had intentionally asked Mao Zedong to go to the Soviet Union to recuperate from illness, but Mao Zedong firmly disagreed, saying: I will not go anywhere, absolutely not.Mao Zedong certainly understood what it meant to let him go to the Soviet Union.

Later, when I was walking and chatting with Snow in northern Shaanxi, I saw Bogu walking towards me. Mao Zedong pointed to Bogu and said to Snow: That person is the one who wants to kill me. Li De was noncommittal to Xiang Ying's warning, but Xiang Ying was more familiar with Mao Zedong than Bogu and Li De, and knew Mao Zedong's potential influence and deep foundation in the Red Army.He repeatedly reminded Li De: You must pay attention to Mao Zedong's words and deeds, and prevent him from exerting influence on the troops. The consequences will be terrible... We have put him in the central column, and with Dong Biwu, Xie Juezai, and Xu Teli, there will be no problems.Li De said so.

Don't forget, there are also Luo Fu and Wang Jiaxiang.Xiang Ying reminded Li De more specifically. Both Luo Fu and Wang Jiaxiang came from Moscow, and they had different opinions before, and they were both in poor health. Xiang Ying didn't know what to say, but he was still secretly worried about Li De and Bogu. He had a hunch that Mao Zedong would not be reconciled to such silence, and that sooner or later Mao Zedong would launch a counterattack.On the surface, it is impossible for Mao Zedong and the people of the Central Military Commission to have too many opportunities to contact, not to mention that during the Western Expedition, he could not eat well, sleep well, and had to march and fight. How could Mao Zedong have the mood and time? What about political activities?It was difficult, almost impossible, for Mao Zedong to regain his leadership of the army.

Bo Gu, Li De and Xiang Ying talked like this for a long time, and they left Xiang Ying and returned to the "independent house" until after two o'clock in the morning.Immediately afterwards, they began preparations for the journey. The surrounding area was hazy, and clouds of mist drifted dignifiedly.Some forward positions are still in the hands of those left behind, and the enemy blindly fires artillery on these positions in the dark night. After sending Li De and Bogu away, Xiang Ying returned to the house, trying to imagine what the Soviet area would be like after the Red Army troops left.At this time, he was already the master of the Soviet area, a kind of unprecedented pressure poured down heavily, and a sense of pride that the heaven would send a great responsibility to the people spread from Xiang Ying's chest bit by bit.He opened the curtains with a wave of his hand, and a ray of morning light shone dimly into the room from the east.Xiang Ying thought: It's time for a hero to act.

All the troops participating in the Western Expedition passed through the Yudu River.Long before the troops set off, Zhou Enlai commanded the engineers to erect the pontoon bridge.People marching west across the pontoon bridge, first to the east, then to the south, and finally to the west. In "The Long March - An Unheard Story", Salisbury described the symbol of the Long March - Yudu in this way. Yudu is a quiet small county on the banks of the Yudu River in southern Jiangxi, with a population of less than 10,000.It was little more than a ferry, a fair, and nothing significant had ever happened in this town. In October 1934, it was a scene of tranquility and abundance. The weather was fine, with warm days and cool nights, and little rain.Most of the crops have been harvested, leaving only late rice, buckwheat and sweet potatoes in the fields.Bean stalks and other things are drying on the blue-tiled roofs, some are hung under the eaves, and bean paste is placed in red clay pots against the courtyard wall.Green-skinned and red-seeded bitter gourds, orange-yellow pumpkins and bunches of bright red dried peppers are piled up in the corner of the yard.Farmers know they have enough food to last until the next harvest.But there was an uneasy atmosphere in Yudu at this time: the Red Army had procured a large amount of rice in the summer, and it had been expanding its red in an unusual way.The harvest is quite good, and people are busy planting, harvesting, harrowing, and transplanting rice seedlings all year round.At this time, I could take a breath, but I was worried that something might happen, and no one could figure out what it was.The Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, and the bright red couplets and vicious and frightening door gods pasted on the door frames of every household are a bit worn out.People hope that these things will continue to protect them from bad luck.

The people in Yudu didn't realize that the Red Army's journey was different from every time until they saw the Red Army troops crossing the Yudu River continuously, because the Red Army took all their belongings with them.Only God knows when the Red Army will come back after leaving. They quickly realized that after the Red Army left, the Home Returning Corps would come and take away the land they had been assigned, and they would have to start over again from the beginning. First, a few old people cried, which soon affected the folks who saw them off. They stood by the Yudu River and watched the Red Army go away. They were crying.

From the course of action of each legion, it can be seen that the final direction of advance is to move south.This is inseparable from the secret deal between He Changgong sent by Zhou Enlai and the representative of "Southern King" Chen Jitang before the Long March.When the Red Army troops passed through the Chen Jitang defense area, they encountered almost no real resistance. When Salisbury wrote about the early days of the Long March, there was this passage: Liu Bocheng likened the central column to the seat of a sedan chair. The column could not move as quickly as a combat force. Thousands of porters and their heavy burdens—the wounded, the sick, and the elderly were hindered. The columns became heavy chains, dragging down the faster-moving combat units.In the end, I had to get rid of those heavy burdens (the porter actually carried the desks, chairs and filing cabinets).

The central column was well protected, with few casualties, more due to enemy bombing and occasional accidents, such as a startled horse falling down a mountain stream with its men on its back, than from fighting. In this column, of course, there are Li De, Fu Gu, Zhou Enlai who commanded the battle, as well as Mao Zedong, Wang Jiaxiang and others.Wang Jiaxiang suffered an abdominal injury more than a year ago and has not healed yet.There are also 30 women cadres here, most of them are senior commanders and wives of senior cadres, and many of them are senior cadres themselves. Like an elephant team dragging logs, the Red Army moved to the southwest corner of the Soviet area, and from there quietly crossed into the White area.The time at this time is October 20, 1934. Before setting off, the Red Army browsed a large number of enemy newspapers, but did not see a single message about the Red Army's upcoming breakout.Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai and others let out a long breath. On the night of October 21, the Red Army successfully broke through the first blockhouse defense line and crossed the Taojiang River.Then quickly advanced to the second blockade. October 10, the day of Double Tenth.Camping in Nanchang, Chiang Kai-shek's mansion was extremely busy and lively.Soong Meiling took the clothes that had already been ironed for Chiang Kai-shek from the attendants. On this day, Chiang Kai-shek had to give lectures to dignitaries from all walks of life in the military and government as usual. When Chiang Kai-shek stood in front of the large podium and looked at the crowds of dignitaries from all walks of life in the audience, his heart was filled with the joy of imminent success.His opening remarks naturally started with "encirclement and suppression", and the spirit of making peace with the outside world first was also a topic he repeated repeatedly. Although it was an old tune, it still won rounds of applause from the audience.Chiang Kai-shek finally said: The encirclement and suppression of the red bandits is just around the corner, and I hope that all walks of life will unite sincerely... The next day, he saw that important editorial in the Republic of China Daily.The topic of the editorial is the current issue.The editorial said: Natural disasters are approaching, the Second World War is imminent, and the Communist bandits take the opportunity to cause chaos. People should advocate benevolence, justice and morality, abstain from drinking and dancing, and work hard for the survival of the motherland and China.The editorial also wants people to believe that the situation in Jiangxi is changing rapidly in the troubled times. The Communist bandits can be wiped out within a year. … Chiang Kai-shek was well aware that this editorial had elements of fiction, but the successive victories in suppressing the CCP made him feel that the eastern sky had dawned.In such a good situation, he has decided to take a turn in the northwest.Not only inspections, but a more important factor is to understand the people there.His senior advisor, von Seeckt, once said that he only knew the troops and not the people.He wanted to make a gesture to show his advisers how he understood his people. Just as Chiang Kai-shek was proud of his northwest march, the Red Army was beginning a major strategic shift at the fastest speed. It was not until the end of October that the Kuomintang became aware of the rumors of the Red Army's transfer. It took a month for Chiang Kai-shek to fully understand the Red Army's intentions. At that time, the Red Army had reached the Xiangjiang River. On October 18, the Nanchang newspaper published a piece of congratulations on conquering the "Xingguo Model District" on the 14th. On October 27, the same newspaper said that the "red bandits" were trying to break out and escape, and that the Red Army attacking Xinfeng and Anyuan had been routed, with tens of thousands of casualties.The next day the newspaper added: On the 28th it was announced that Ningdu had been captured, on the 31st it was announced that the "Red Bandits Base" had been smashed, and the Red Army had withdrawn from Ruijin to other places. Another newspaper said: The Communist Party has suffered repeated defeats, but it is still very tenacious. It will take a few days to completely wipe it out. Until December, the newspapers in Nanchang still said: The clean-up work in the former red area injured 10,000 Communist troops and captured 40,000 enemies. The whole world knew very little about China at that time. On November 9, 1934, the "New York Times" reported in a report that 40,000 Communist Party troops had withdrawn from Jiangxi and Fujian, which had been blocked for several months. On the way to the west, they marched along the Hunan border on both sides of the Guangdong-Han Railway, looting in an area 100 miles long and 12 miles wide. Three weeks later, the "New York Times" said that the Kuomintang had defeated the Communist Party in Jiangxi. As soon as he crossed the Du River, Mao Zedong sat on a stretcher.The stretcher is made of two strong long bamboo poles and a rope net.It is light and flexible, like a hammock, it sways from side to side when walking.Mao Zedong buried his emaciated body deeply in the stretcher. In the first few days, he only slept, and even if he couldn't sleep, he kept his eyes closed.He is recharging his energy, and he knows that a more difficult journey is waiting for him. Luo Fu's stretcher walked in front of Mao Zedong, and Wang Jiaxiang's stretcher walked behind him.When the mood is good, the three people will sit up on the stretcher and exchange a few words of their views.During the break, the three stretchers were placed in a row, and there were more opportunities for the three of them to chat.All this was premeditated by Mao Zedong in advance. Carrying the burden on her shoulders, Yu Ying walked along with the team of migrant workers. She walked for several days and nights, but she didn't know where she came to.The mountains in front of me became more and more black, connecting the sky and the earth together.The head of the army has already begun to climb the big mountain, and the figure is shaking among the mountains, but the tail of the army still has no end in sight. The sound of people shouting and neighing became a sound, and the heat wave gushing out from the crowd was mixed with the smell of sweat and rancidity. Yu Ying seldom speaks in the crowd, she is afraid of revealing her identity by talking too much. When others talk to her, she can nod and shake her head to answer, and she will answer by shaking her head. Walking in front of Yuying was a middle-aged man in his 40s. The middle-aged man was not tall, and his trousers were rolled up high, revealing the earthworm-like blood vessels on his legs.The man talked about his wife and children all the way, and the late rice in the field that hadn't had time to harvest. As soon as the troops started climbing the mountain, their speed slowed down significantly.They can only lay down the burden on their shoulders and wait. The middle-aged man wiped his sweat and said to Yu Ying: "Brother, I think you are also an honest person. You said if we go on like this, when will we be tall?" Yu Ying smiled and shook her head.She herself couldn't tell when it was the end, but she firmly believed that as long as the Red Army moved forward, she would go on.She knew that Wang Tie's army was ahead, and she wanted to follow Wang Tie, even to the ends of the earth. This is the limit of what.The man sat down on the ground, looked at the mountain in front of him and sighed. The person in front moved.Yu Ying picked up the burden and walked forward for a while, and the crowd stopped again.A horse was blocking the mountain path with a full body of sacks on its back. Perhaps the horse was too tired. It was trembling all over, standing there hunched over, but it just didn't move. The horse was pulled by a young soldier of seventeen or eighteen years old. He held the rein tightly, yelled and cursed, but the horse just didn't move.The troops behind were blocked behind, and the voices were noisy.The little soldier was in a hurry, put down the reins, turned behind the horse, and carried the horse's buttocks with his shoulders. The old horse trembled and seemed to understand the master's intentions, so it jumped up its front legs hard.It wanted to make itself step up a step, but it staggered, shook its body, turned over and rolled down the mountain stream.The old horse neighed one last time. The little soldier leading the horse never expected such an ending. He looked at the mountain stream like a fool, and shouted down the mountain for a long time: "My God, I lost the rations of the whole company." The little soldier sat down on the mountain road and burst into tears.He was weeping for the horse, for their rations on the road.The cry of the little soldier infected everyone who saw him.They stopped to persuade the little soldier, but the little soldier didn't seem to hear the sound of persuasion, and continued to cry unrelentingly. When Yu Ying passed by this little soldier, she couldn't help but stop. She walked over, squatted beside him, and stared blankly at the mountain stream.She did not know how to comfort the little soldier.The little soldier glanced at her, and said as if asking for help: Brother, what do you think I should do? Go find your troops.Yu Ying said so. The little soldier's tears flowed out more violently. While wiping his tears, he said: I lost all the rations in the company, and I will be shot. Yu Ying didn't know what to say, so she took out a piece of horse meat in her bosom, which was a day's ration given to her in the morning.She shoved it into the arms of the little soldier, turned and drove on again. It began to rain lightly, the surrounding mountains were all gray, the mountain road was smooth and slippery, and the burden on the shoulders suddenly became heavy.Yu Ying couldn't tell whether she was walking or falling asleep, but her feet moved forward mechanically.From the march to the present, like all the marchers, she has not had a solid sleep.In the first few days, they walked at night and slept during the day. There was no house, no bed, only grass and woods. Yu Ying felt very tired, and fell asleep with her head tilted while holding her burden.Soon she woke up again, looking at the people lying around, she thought of Wang Tie.She always thought that Wang Tie was right ahead, what was Wang Tie doing now, was he marching or fighting, was he sleeping too?When she was thinking so miscellaneously, she fell asleep hazily again.After an unknown amount of time, she was awakened by a strange sound. At first, she thought it was raining, but when she opened her eyes, she realized that the sound came from the top of her head.Not far away, several men were peeing with their backs to her.These days, she seems to be used to all this, but she is still not used to it when it is convenient for her. She has to walk a long way and keep away from the crowd.Every time she came back, people around her always looked at her curiously. Someone jokingly said to her: You are afraid of seeing people with that thing. She couldn't help but blush. Another migrant worker said: Look, he is still embarrassed, like a big girl. People burst into laughter. When she was lonely, the people around her always made fun of her. Once a few people came to take off her pants. At the beginning, she did it with her hands and feet, but seeing that those people succeeded, she got anxious and bit a person. hand, they let her go.The man's hand was bleeding from her bite.They don't understand why this frail young man in front of them is doing this.They left her awkwardly, stopped joking with her, and turned to her hostilely together.She wants to cry. Only the middle-aged man kept talking to her about family affairs. She was tired of hearing it over and over again, but the man still said it over and over again. It was getting dark and it was still raining.From time to time, there were one or two gunshots ahead, and the sound was muffled, like thunder rolling across the sky. From time to time on the mountain road, someone exclaimed something, and news came from the front, that horses and people fell down the mountain stream, and people were more careful when going forward. The whole team stopped and walked, but the rain kept falling.Yu Ying felt that she could fall asleep as soon as she closed her eyes at this time. She was too sleepy for more than ten days. Her legs seemed to be filled with lead, and they were getting heavier and heavier. She felt that she had no strength to walk any longer. The burden on my shoulders has fallen to the ground several times.At this time, an order came from the front of the team: rest in place.Yu Ying didn't know how she conveyed this order behind her.She put down the burden and lay on the ground with a crooked body.The stagnant water on the ground rippled under her body, and Yu Ying couldn't care where she was lying, and quickly passed away.In her sleep, she seemed to hear the middle-aged man talking about his wife, child and rice again.It's annoying.After Yu Ying said this in her heart, she fell into a deep sleep. Wang Tie walked towards her, and all the Red Army soldiers she mobilized to join the army walked towards her with smiles on their faces.Wang Tiechong said to her: The Red Army has won, and we have won.People sang and danced, and Wang Tie said to her: Let's get married.She nodded shyly at him.She was galloping on a white horse, and Wang Tie was also chasing after her on a white horse. Flowers and butterflies were everywhere on the grass, and victory banners were planted on the capital... This time Yu Ying slept very deeply.When she woke up, she felt something strange. She saw that she was lying in a puddle, the rain had stopped, the eastern sky had turned white, and the morning wind was blowing a bit cold. There was another strange thing that surprised her. The people who carried the burdens in front of and behind them disappeared, and there were only empty burdens left in the rain.At first she thought they must have taken shelter from the rain.But it wasn't until the team set off that they hadn't returned, and she suddenly realized that they had deserted.She looked at those burdens without a master and wanted to cry.She knew that everything in the burden was the life of the Red Army, and she couldn't bear to watch these burdens being thrown on the mountain road.She has no ability to take all the burdens in front of her. Yu Ying cried, and she cried very sadly.