In 1974, when the domestic situation was at a very delicate and complex moment, the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee suddenly received a secret letter, and along with the secret letter was handed over to them an iron box.
After reading this letter, the expressions of the three leaders of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee - Duan Junyi, Li Dazhang, and Liu Xingyuan - became very solemn. Because this letter came from Beijing, and the person who wrote it turned out to be Premier Zhou.
Several people felt deeply that the matter was of great importance, so they immediately summoned an absolutely reliable cadre and handed the iron box to him for safekeeping, specifically emphasizing that no one should know about this matter. This top-secret letter, and the even more mysterious iron box, were not finally made public until several years later.
At that time, what was in this iron box was not the so-called top-secret information, but the ashes of a person. This person was Marshal Peng Dehuai, who said "who can fight with a sword, only I am General Peng".
As the founding father of New China and the commander of the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War, Marshal Peng Dehuai made indelible contributions to New China. However, in 1958, Mr. Peng's situation began to undergo unexpected changes.
In 1958, Marshal Peng Dehuai took advantage of the opportunity to return to Hunan to visit relatives and conduct research on the local rural grassroots. He soon discovered that the Great Leap Forward at that time had achieved obvious and huge achievements, but at the same time it had also caused a considerable degree of damage, clearly showing left-leaning mistakes.
In fact, he was not the only one who felt this way, including most of the central and local leading comrades at the time. Correcting the mistakes of the left has become the general trend.
The first thing Mr. Peng did was to write a letter to Chairman Mao, detailing what he had seen and heard at the grassroots level. At the beginning, his suggestions were affirmed by Chairman Mao. Many major leading comrades believed that the problems of the Great Leap Forward should be revised and rectified in a timely manner.
Premier Zhou was equally surprised and excited about this rare recognition. Chairman Mao, on the other hand, quoted a large number of Mr. Peng's letters and added the title "Comrade Peng Dehuai's Letter of Opinions".
In this way, the Lushan Conference began in a positive atmosphere. The participating leading comrades discussed and studied during the day and explored how to solve the "left" problems in the Great Leap Forward at the national level.
However, at this time, Mr. Peng's speech began to gradually affect the direction of the meeting. During the seven days of the meeting, Mr. Peng's speech was extremely intense. First of all, he said: " should look for economic lessons, don't complain, don't hold people accountable. Everyone has a responsibility, everyone has a share, including Comrade Mao Zedong. "
His reason is that the slogan of surpassing the United Kingdom within two years was proposed by Chairman Mao, so Chairman Mao should bear certain responsibilities. As his speech progressed, he once suggested that " Chairman Mao and the Party have a high prestige among the Chinese people that cannot be found in the world, but abuse of this prestige is not acceptable. "
These remarks made everyone present tremble. Although everyone's starting point was to solve the mistakes, both Premier Zhou and later Comrade Xiaoping, as well as the vast majority of the participants, believed that Mr. Peng's speech was "inappropriate."
Chairman Mao did not react violently to these criticisms of Marshal Peng Dehuai at the beginning. In view of the current situation, he first raised the issue of unification of thinking. Finally, Chairman Mao gave this evaluation of the current stage of the Great Leap Forward: " achievements are great, there are many problems, and the future is bright. "
In fact, the two voices have had a fundamental impact on the direction of the Lushan Conference. From the beginning, the conference corrected "leftist" mistakes and gradually turned into a question of criticizing "rightist" opportunism. Including Peng Dehuai, Huang Kecheng , Zhang Wentian and others have been criticized.
After the meeting, Peng Dehuai resolutely submitted his resignation and resigned from all positions, hoping to return to his hometown to work in farming. During this period, Premier Zhou was in the most difficult position among the two opinions.
Until 1965, Chairman Mao personally wrote a letter asking Mr. Peng to come back and continue to make some contributions to the country and the people.Little did they know that Mr. Peng's emergence objectively squeezed the space for some speculators to seize power at that time. They began to launch desperate criticism and attacks on Mr. Peng. Mr. Peng's letter to Chairman Mao of the Central Committee was also maliciously intercepted and destroyed. Under repeated criticism, Peng Dehuai fell seriously ill and eventually became ill and died in 1974.
At this time, in order to prevent the Gang of Four from committing another outrageous act, Premier Zhou immediately arranged for personal guards to take out Mr. Peng’s ashes from the funeral home in order to properly preserve the ashes for future rehabilitation.
In view of the complexity of the situation at that time, Premier Zhou did not tell whose ashes were in his letter, but the person who could make the Prime Minister so troubled must be a "big shot."
According to Premier Zhou's requirements, the ashes in the iron box must be placed in a proper place and must be inspected and maintained at regular intervals to prevent rust and damage. Except for necessary maintenance, the iron box must not be moved without authorization. Even if an accident occurs and it is necessary to find another storage place, it must be reported to the State Council, and he himself will know the approval.
After receiving the secret mission, Duan Junyi, Li Dazhang, and Liu Xingyuan handed the iron box to a designated person for safekeeping and kept it strictly confidential. It was not until 1978 that many cadres and comrades who had been overthrown in the 1960s and 1970s began to be rehabilitated. At this time, Mr. Peng's niece Peng Gang immediately started applying to rehabilitate her uncle.
The first person to receive the application was Comrade Chen Yun, who is in charge of daily work. In the working meeting hosted in November of that year, the first thing was about the issue of rehabilitating President Peng Dehuai. After Chen Yun discussed with Comrade Hua Guofeng, Hu Yaobang, and Xiaoping, everyone unanimously agreed to rehabilitate Comrade Peng Dehuai and restore his reputation.
In December, Comrade Xiaoping personally presided over the meeting and announced Comrade Peng Dehuai's past contributions to the country and the people, overturning all the negative evaluations and unfair treatment imposed on Peng Dehuai by the Gang of Four.
On the other hand, based on the information left by the Prime Minister before his death, Beijing quickly sent people to Sichuan to find Liu Zhenya, who was responsible for keeping the urn. At this time, Sichuan learned that for such a long time, the iron box actually contained the ashes of Marshal Peng Dehuai.
Inadvertently, they made a great contribution. Seeing all the truth come to light, Liu Zhenya and others personally handed over the iron box and the Prime Minister's letter to the comrades in Beijing who were responsible for taking over. After the memorial service, Mr. Peng’s ashes were officially moved to Babaoshan .
Although Premier Zhou, who secretly protected Mr. Peng’s ashes at that time, is no longer alive, but. The entire country is finally on the right track again. Although Mr. Peng suffered unfair treatment during his lifetime, history finally gave him a clean slate.
