In October 1935, Mao Zedong and others led the Central Red Army to northern Shaanxi and successfully joined forces with the Northern Shaanxi Red Army. Northern Shaanxi became the foothold of the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army.

Why is it said that the "Xi'an Incident" was a huge test for Mao Zedong's strategic planning ability?

Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai before and after the Xi'an Incident

In October 1935, Mao Zedong and others led the Central Red Army to northern Shaanxi and successfully joined forces with the Northern Shaanxi Red Army. Northern Shaanxi became the foothold of the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army. At this time, there were only a few thousand people in the Central Red Army, and even if the Northern Shaanxi Red Army was included, there were only 10,000 people in total.

There are nearly 300,000 Kuomintang troops surrounding Shaanxi and Gansu. With such a disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, the survival of the Party Central Committee and the Red Army can be described as perilous.

Mao Zedong faced such a severe situation, and one can imagine the great pressure he was under. Mao Zedong, who had always been good at strategic planning, took the initiative. On the one hand, he severely attacked the invading enemies militarily, and on the other hand, he fought politically against Zhang Xueliang's Northeastern Army and Yang Hucheng's 17th Route Army.

Under Mao Zedong's planning and the efforts of Zhou Enlai and others, by September 1936, the Red Army, Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army and Yang Hucheng's 17th Route Army had reached an armistice and an agreement to resist Japan. A good situation of the "Trinity" of the united front had basically been formed between the Red Army, the Northeast Army, and the Northwest Army.

On December 12, 1936, after Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng's bitter remonstrance to Chiang Kai-shek to "stop the civil war and unite to resist Japan" was ineffective, they launched the Xi'an Incident, detained Chiang Kai-shek, and quickly called the CCP. Shocked by such drastic changes, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China responded quickly. Mao Zedong made short-term and long-term plans for the Xi'an Incident that day.

On the day of the Xi'an Incident, Mao Zedong did four things: First, he called Pan Hannian who was negotiating with the Kuomintang, asking him to persuade the Kuomintang to join the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in resisting Japan and saving the country; second, he called the Presidium of the Military Commission In the name of reporting the Xi'an Incident, he asked the corps to prepare new strategic actions; the third was to call on the people to "demand that Nanjing depose Chiang Kai-shek and hand him over to the people for trial"; the fourth was to remind Zhang Xueliang that he should control Chiang Kai-shek in his own hands, and told him that Zhou Enlai would go to Xi'an to discuss plans.

The next day, the Political Bureau meeting of the Central Committee had a serious discussion on the "Xi'an Incident". At that time, the opinions on the handling of the "Xi'an Incident" were mainly reflected in three aspects: first, to lead the country with Xi'an as the center and control Nanjing; second, to "demand that Chiang Kai-shek be removed and submitted to a public trial by the people"; third, to get rid of Chiang Kai-shek, it is beneficial from all aspects.

Xi'an Incident (stage stills)

Zhou Enlai commendably put forward different opinions at the meeting. He advocated neither overthrowing the Nanjing government and starting a new one, nor establishing any form of central government in Xi'an that was opposed to Nanjing. Zhou Enlai's idea was endorsed by Zhang Wentian, who was "in charge of overall responsibility" within the party. In his concluding speech, Mao Zedong proposed that we specifically pointed out Chiang Kai-shek's personal mistakes and did not juxtapose anti-Chiang and anti-Japanese.

After the meeting, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai called Zhang Xueliang to announce to all officers and soldiers that Chiang Kai-shek was guilty of treason and remnant of the people, in order to unite the entire army politically, and asked Zhang Xueliang to send a plane to pick up Zhou Enlai and go to Xi'an. The reason why the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to hand over Chiang Kai-shek to the people for trial at the beginning of the Xi'an Incident was largely influenced by the attitudes of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng towards Chiang Kai-shek.

After the Xi'an Incident, the Nanjing government was in chaos. The pro-Japanese faction headed by He Yingqin insisted on sending troops to attack Xi'an to quell the incident; Huangpu clique and some people in the Central Army clamored to lead troops to "bloodbath Chang'an ". The Kuomintang military planes bombed Sanyuan, Weinan, Shaanxi and other places, and 200,000 troops were stationed in the area from Tongguan to Huayin. The war was about to break out.

Under this extremely severe situation, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, headed by Mao Zedong, put forward the strategy of "keeping Chiang Kai-shek safe" and publicly called for a peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident. Zhou Enlai was ordered by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to go to Xi'an for talks with Zhang Xueliang. During the talks, Zhou Enlai focused on how to deal with Chiang Kai-shek.

After learning that Song Ziwen would come to Xi'an, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Xueliang agreed on the terms of negotiation with Song Ziwen. After integrating the relevant ideas of the CCP and Zhang Yang, they proposed the establishment of an anti-Japanese coalition, a transitional government to eliminate pro-Japanese factions, and a preparatory meeting for a national salvation conference in Xi'an. They also proposed "protecting Chiang Kai-shek's safety" and other ideas, which provided ideas for the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident.

At the same time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China formally proposed the strategy of "keeping Chiang Kai-shek safe", began to abandon the external propaganda of "putting Chiang Kai-shek to trial by the people", and publicly called for a peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident.

On the same day, Zhou Enlai met with Yang Hucheng after his talks with Zhang Xueliang, and informed Yang Hucheng of the relevant situation. Yang Hucheng expressed his agreement with Zhou and Zhang's opinions. At this point, the Red Army, the Northeast Army, and the Northwest Army reached an agreement on the preliminary opinions on the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident.

Yang Hucheng

On December 19, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee met again to discuss the Xi'an Incident. Zhang Wentian proposed that we should put anti-Japanese resistance as the center, and it would be inappropriate to demand that Chiang Kai-shek be handed over to the people for a public trial. At this meeting, Mao Zedong made it clear that the party's policy was to "peacefully resolve the Xi'an Incident on the basis of unity against Japan."

This meeting became a turning point in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's decision-making on the Xi'an Incident. Mao Zedong formally established the policy of peacefully resolving the Xi'an Incident at the meeting. After the meeting, Mao Zedong called Zhou Enlai and requested that "the Anti-Japanese Army in Xi'an should also move forward in accordance with the policy determined at this meeting." This ensured the direction of Zhou Enlai's negotiations in Xi'an to peacefully resolve the incident.

On the morning of December 20, Song Ziwen came to Xi'an in a private capacity to investigate the situation. He was worried that He Yingqin, who was "cruising against Zhang Yang," would be caught and did not dare to meet Zhou Enlai. However, Zhou Enlai still asked someone to convey the CCP's opinions on peacefully resolving the Xi'an Incident. Song Ziwen was very excited after learning about it and greatly appreciated the CCP's performance at the critical moment.

At this time, the Northeast Army lost the battle on the front line in Xi'an. On December 21, Zhang Xueliang, who had been in Xi'an, even bid farewell to Chiang Kai-shek in person and rushed to the front line to take command in person. Under this severe situation, Mao Zedong called Zhou Enlai and proposed that Zhou Enlai and Zhang Yang discuss and negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek, restore Chiang Kai-shek's freedom under certain conditions, and unanimously resist Japan under these conditions.

At this point, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, represented by Mao Zedong, raised the issue of releasing Chiang Kai-shek for the first time, and clearly proposed a number of specific negotiation conditions for stopping the civil war and jointly resisting Japan. This marked a major change in the CCP's decision to peacefully resolve the Xi'an Incident. It was a fundamental change from "trialing Chiang's crimes" to "protecting Chiang's safety" to finally "releasing Chiang to resist Japan." This change in decision-making provided a strong guarantee for the peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident.

On December 22, Soong Ziwen and Song Meiling met Chiang Kai-shek after they arrived in Xi'an. Chiang Kai-shek's attitude changed significantly that day. He agreed to Zhou Enlai's request, but his condition was that he would not come forward and the Song brothers and sisters would come forward on his behalf, and he would only use his "leader's personality" as a guarantee without any written signature. At this point, the conditions for negotiations around the release of Chiang Kai-shek were finally mature, and it also cleared the way for Zhou Enlai to play an important role in the upcoming negotiations.

Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng

Judging from the several changes in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's decision-making to resolve the Xi'an Incident after the Xi'an Incident, Mao Zedong, with his excellent strategic planning capabilities, contributed the most important force to the final peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident. It was Mao Zedong's far-sighted strategic planning that guided the direction and created conditions for the peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident, and also created important prerequisites for the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to join forces to resist Japan. Mao Zedong's victory in this huge test also marked his growing political maturity.

Reference:

"The Biography of Mao Zedong": written by Jin Chongji and published by the Central Literature Publishing House

"Why Mao Zedong": written by Ren Zhigang and published by Guangming Daily Publishing House