Whether within the party or in the enemy's camp, Zhou Enlai's outstanding ability is recognized by everyone. is just because he has been in Mao Zedong's assistant position for a long time, and will inevitably be covered by Mao Zedong's brilliance.
So, how outstanding is Zhou Enlai’s ability? It is no exaggeration to say that no matter how difficult the problem is, he can properly solve it!
Zhou Enlai
0 On the night of September 9, 1935, after Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai led the Red First and Third Corps out of danger and continued northward, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China repeatedly informed Zhang Guotao of his mistakes, asking him to correct his mistakes and quickly lead the troops northward. But Zhang Guotao refused to admit his mistake and ordered the 4th and 30th armies of the left and right armies to turn around and move south, hoping to establish a base in Sichuan and Kangbian, and even openly establish a new central government in October.
From then on, after about a year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Red Army led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai went north, they have flourished in all aspects and their work has been carried out in a vivid and exciting way. On the other hand, after Zhang Guotao advanced south, he was always in a remote area with sparse population, food scarcity and sensitive ethnic conflicts. The troops dropped sharply from more than 100,000 to more than 40,000, and the situation was increasingly difficult.
At this time, more and more commanders and fighters of the Fourth Front Army saw clearly Mao Zedong's greatness and Zhang Guotao's selfishness and incompetence, and everyone's dissatisfaction with him was increasing day by day. At the same time, Zhu De, Liu Bocheng and others who followed the left line army operations have been fighting resolutely against Zhang Guotao's separatist activities.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has always been generous to Zhang Guotao and gave him the opportunity to correct his mistakes. On January 13, 1936, he ordered Zhang Guotao to cancel the new Central Committee and announced the decision on Zhang Guotao's mistakes within the party. Under the tremendous pressure of reality, Zhang Guotao had to abolish the new central government on June 6 and prepare to go north.
On July 2, the Red Second and Sixth Corps led by Ren Bishi, He Long and Guan Xiangying successfully met in Ganzi with the Red Fourth Front Army. On the 5th, under the order of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Second and Sixth Corps of the Red Army were organized into the Second Front Army. At this time, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others jointly called Zhu De and Zhang Guotao and transferred to Bishi, proposing to ask the Second and Fourth Front Army to leave southern Gansu. In this way, Zhang Guotao reluctantly agreed to go north to join the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
At the same time, Peng Dehuai, under the order of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, led the main force of the Red Front Army to advance south, occupied Huining City, Jiangtai Fort and other important places in Gannan , and supported the Second and Fourth Front Army. On October 9, the General Command of the Fourth Red Front Army arrived in Huining City; on the 22nd, the General Command of the Second Red Front Army arrived at Jiangtai Fort, and the two fronts met with the First Red Front Army. In this way, the three main forces of the Red Army finally met.
Zhou Enlai during the Red Army
On November 15, Zhou Enlai quickly rushed to Helianwan to welcome the Second and Fourth Front Army on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Zhou Enlai's mission this trip is very difficult: on the one hand, it is to deal with the troops of the five armies mobilized by Chiang Kai-shek and ready to attack the Red Army at any time, as well as the defense of the Red Army under the order of Chiang Kai-shek; on the other hand, Zhang Guotao still had ulterior motives and stabbed the knife in the back at any time. What's more serious is that due to Zhang Guotao's instigation and concealment, the Red Fourth Front Army was always suspicious and fearful of the Central Committee.
Chiang Kai-shek's wishful thinking was: on the one hand, the five armies sent by him were attacking the Red Army from Huining to Guyuan , and divided into four routes from south to north; on the other hand, Ma Buqing and Ma Hongkui led their troops to prevent and block the Red Army along the Lanzhou-Ningxia section Yellow River .Taking advantage of the fact that the Red Army was not yet firm in its foothold and was extremely tired due to the long journey, it was so sinister to wipe out the Red Army in one fell swoop!
Faced with such a serious enemy situation, if you are not careful, it may bring a catastrophe to the three main Red Army who have just met! But what is even more heartbreaking is that Zhang Guotao finally led the Fourth Red Army to the north and achieved the three main Red Army meetings. However, Zhang Guotao was always disinterested with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Who knows if he would wait for an opportunity to stab the knife in the back? is a difficult time for internal and external troubles and internal and external difficulties! Let’s see how Zhou Enlai dealt with this crisis!
On November 18, Zhou Enlai calmly came to Helianwan, warmly welcomed Zhang Guotao and Zhu De, who had been following the Left Route Army, and introduced to everyone the huge changes in the situation in the past year that the Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, and especially the negotiations with Zhang Xueliang .
Zhou Enlai's meeting with Zhang Guotao this time gave Zhang Guotao a great shock. is far from the same as when he met at Lianghekou more than a year ago: more than a year ago, the Central Red Army led by Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong were in a very downturn, but Zhang Guotao was at its peak; but now the Central Red Army has flourished under the leadership of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, but Zhang Guotao is in a deep crisis. Zhang Guotao lamented: Zhou Enlai has already won the precedent of the trend!
How wise Zhou Enlai was. He immediately seized the key points of the problem and focused his energies on taking advantage of all opportunities to publicize the central government's policies to the commanders and fighters of the Fourth Front Army. All the opportunities mentioned here, even if there are only a dozen people, he would shake hands one by one and have enthusiastic conversations with everyone.
Mountain Castle Battle (oil painting)
Zhou Enlai's conversation hit the nail on the head. First, he expressed a warm welcome to the Red Four, affirming their great military achievements; second, he promoted the importance of the Red Army's great unity, emphasizing that unity is strength, and unity means victory; third, he introduced the situation to everyone and told everyone that Northeast Army is willing to fight against Japan with the Red Army. Now that the main Red Army has arrived in northern Shaanxi, everyone is ready to fight against Japan!
Zhou Enlai's words made everyone excited and excited, achieving at least three goals : First, it made everyone understand the spirit of the central government; second, it eliminated everyone's barriers to the central government and enhanced the understanding and unity of the three main Red Army; third, it made the strongest mobilization for everyone, allowing everyone to develop strong confidence in the future. This means that the internal troubles were resolved by Zhou Enlai.
What is extremely valuable is that Zhou Enlai also seized the opportunity and used his extremely superb political wisdom to rescue a group of cadres and soldiers who were being cruelly persecuted by Zhang Guotao. The most famous of them is Liao Chengzhi, the son of Liao Zhongkai . Zhou Enlai met Liao Chengzhi who was escorted on the road. That night, Zhou Enlai sent someone to call Liao Chengzhi to the headquarters, and there were also people in the headquarters, including Zhang Guotao.
Zhou Enlai yelled at Liao Chengzhi: Do you know the wrong one? Is the understanding profound? Will it be changed? Liao Chengzhi answered one by one. Afterwards, Zhou Enlai kept Liao Chengzhi for dinner. During the meal, Zhou Enlai only talked to Zhang Guotao and ignored Liao Chengzhi. Soon, Liao Chengzhi was released. Later, Liao Chengzhi recalled that if Zhou Enlai had not handled this way at that time, he would have been killed by Zhang Guotao that night.
As early as 2 months ago, Zhou Enlai had made careful preparations to welcome the Red Second and Fourth Front Army to the north, and decided to focus on the supply of the Red Second and Fourth Front Army. Therefore, as soon as the Red Second and Fourth Front Army arrived in the Shaanxi-Gansu base, their supplies were quickly supplemented. This also shows how meticulous, meticulous and advanced it is for Zhou Enlai to deal with the problem.
It is particularly worth mentioning that at this time, in order to attack the Kuomintang army that was invading four routes, on November 19, Zhou Enlai personally went to the Shancheng area north of in Huan County, and quickly deployed the main force of the Red Army to conceal and standby annihilate the enemy.The next day, most of the 78th Division of the 1st Army, which relied on its strong troops and well-equipped , Hu Zongnan, entered the Shancheng area, and was severely damaged by the Red Army, and more than one brigade was annihilated by the Red Army. Zhang Guotao later admitted that Zhou Enlai made the most contributions in the victory of this battle! At this point, external troubles were also resolved by Zhou Enlai.
From this example, it can be clearly seen that when the three main Red Army teams met, it was a time for internal and external troubles and internal and external difficulties. But once Zhou Enlai took action, all these very difficult problems were properly solved. This is a powerful proof of Zhou Enlai's outstanding ability!
References:
"Biography of Zhou Enlai": Jin Chongji's Central Documents Publishing House
