Wake up（150）

 

Chapter 29 Power Fight

 

150

 

There are some memories that you can't resist and can't escape. Memories are your shadow, and those worth remembering are always unforgettable. No matter the sweetness, bitterness, or sadness of the past, there are scenes in dreams in dreams.

Tomorrow's tomorrow, forever and ever, the gorgeous youth has already broken the thread. The past, the past, walked away from the fingertips in the era of the storm that I can no longer remember.

After He Jiafu and Li Tiandao met again, they chatted about the past again.

Li Tiandao said: "Our young years left too much pain, but no pleasant memories. Maybe we will no longer contact each other in a few years, maybe we have forgotten each other. The era of the Great Leap Forward has long been forgotten by people. The era of the Cultural Revolution This period of experience is also calm, and even dynamic resets gradually seem to have never happened. In fact, it is not that we intend to forget those painful experiences, but life is too realistic, and no one can do anything about it.”.

He Jiafu smiled wryly and said, "It is impossible for a person to travel with a thick bag on his back. The more things he picks up, the slower his pace will be, so there will always be some things thrown on the road, and some people will always be forgotten. The past What people and things used to bring us was not happiness, but pain, but now it can no longer be compared with the previous life, and I think that is enough.”

Although He Jiafu and Li Tiandao don't want to recall the past, their topics can't always avoid those old things.

The Cultural Revolution was an unbearable nightmare for the Chinese people in the 20th century. It is also a topic that they can never avoid.

What happened to the Cultural Revolution? How did it happen? How should we understand it and judge it? Will it happen again? So far, there are different opinions on the answers, and these questions are still shrouded in a veil of mystery. Young people don't know anything about it, as if this is an anecdote that happened in the Qin Dynasty.

The Cultural Revolution - Mao Zedong's comprehensive suppression of the political backlash caused by his own major decision-making mistakes and "wrong line"; Mao Zedong established a new balance at the core of party power and reshuffled the composition of party and government power at all levels across the country an attempt at playing cards; a nationwide political upheaval and social disaster caused by the supreme leader of a one-party regime to maintain his supreme power.

The causes and process of the Cultural Revolution were very complicated, with many inevitable and accidental factors mixed together, but the formation of its general historical context was determined by a series of actions taken by Mao Zedong to relieve the power crisis he faced in the party. Following this thread, we may be able to find the inner historical trajectory of the Cultural Revolution.

Comrade Mao Zedong had served in the army for decades, and when he entered his old age, he still hoped to do a few more important things for the party and the country so that China, a hard-won socialist country, would not turn into revisionism or capitalism. Let this great socialist country stand forever in the east of the world. He tossed and turned day and night to prevent the tragedy of the Soviet Union from happening in China.

On March 1, 1963, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Instructions on Strictly Increasing Production and Savings and Opposing Corruption and Theft, Opposing Speculation, Opposing Extravagance and Waste, Opposing Dispersalism, and Opposing Bureaucratic Movement."

Mao Zedong pointed out: "Many phenomena that have grown up in recent years that damage socialism are the reflection of bourgeois ideology in our ranks. All corruption and theft are actually crimes of the restoration of capitalist forces." He called on: "Where the leadership has been manipulated or usurped by the enemy, and where the leadership has been held by degenerate elements, there must be a struggle to seize power." Mao Zedong's speeches are essentially the nature of the "Four Cleanups" movement.

Under this state of mind, Chairman Mao was determined to carry out large-scale socialist education in urban and rural areas of China, and launched the "Four Cleanups" movement, viewing it as a class struggle. During this period, Chairman Mao called on the main leaders of the Party at all levels, including the leaders of the Party Central Committee, to go down to "sit down" and personally grasp the "Four Cleansing" movement.

However, Liu Shaoqi's views and practices on the "Four Cleanups" movement are completely different from those of Mao Zedong. Represented by Liu Shaoqi, the views on the nature of the "Four Cleans" movement are: the contradiction between the "Four Cleans" and the "Four Unclears"; the intersection of internal and external contradictions within the party, or the intersection of the contradictions between the enemy and ourselves and the internal contradictions among the people.

From December 15, 1964 to January 14, 1965, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a working conference in Beijing.

Mao Zedong proposed before the meeting that every member of the Politburo Standing Committee should give a speech at the meeting. However, the speeches of several Standing Committee members were arranged at the later stage of the conference. For Mao Zedong, what the Standing Committee members said in their speeches, whether they were true or false, and what positions, viewpoints, and ideas they expressed were of great importance to him. Therefore, he does not advocate the method of preaching according to the scriptures, but speaks extemporaneously, speaks casually, speaks the truth, and expresses one's own point of view. In the speeches of the members of the Standing Committee, there were three "bright spots" that attracted Mao Zedong's great attention. One is Liu Shaoqi's speech; the other is Lin Biao's speech; the last highlight is that Chen Yun, an "expert" in economic work who should have spoken at the conference, refused to speak at the invitation of Mao Zedong.

Let's look at Liu Shaoqi's speech first. To sum up, many of Liu Shaoqi's speeches touched Mao Zedong's most sensitive nerves, but what Mao Zedong found most unacceptable and intolerable was his sharp evaluation of the wrong nature of the "three red flags". "Three parts are natural disasters, seven parts are man-made disasters." This kind of evaluation was not made by Liu Shaoqi directly, but by borrowing the words of ordinary people. Liu Shaoqi impassionedly pointed the finger at Mao Zedong's "finger theory": "In the past, we often compared our shortcomings, mistakes, and achievements to the relationship between one finger and nine fingers. I'm afraid we can't do it like this everywhere now. . . . Therefore, the relationship between shortcomings and achievements cannot be said to be the relationship between one finger and nine fingers, but probably the relationship between three fingers and seven fingers." Liu Shaoqi's series of views made Mao Zedong see clearly at a glance the following The true face of his partner for many years and his intended successor: From the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the two had disagreements about adhering to the new democratic stage or directly transitioning to socialism. Over the years, not only did they not heal, but the rift grew wider , Has come to consider whether to break up the time.

Lin Biao's speech just became the opposite of Liu Shaoqi. Unlike Liu Shaoqi's ambiguous attitude towards the three red flags, Lin Biao clearly emphasized the correctness of the three red flags, the correctness of Mao Zedong's ideological line, and the unshakable authority of Mao Zedong in the party. Lin Biao made a speech: "Facts have proved that these difficulties, in some aspects, to a certain extent, are precisely because we did not follow Chairman Mao's instructions, Chairman Mao's warnings, and Chairman Mao's thinking. If you listen to Chairman Mao If you understand Chairman Mao's spirit, then you will take far fewer detours, and today's difficulties will be much smaller... I deeply feel that when our work is doing better, it is Chairman Mao's thinking that can go smoothly. When it is implemented, Chairman Mao's thought is not disturbed. If Chairman Mao's opinion is not respected, or when it is greatly disturbed, things will go wrong. The history of our party for decades is such a history. "

At this moment, Mao Zedong, who was already facing "dark clouds overwhelmed the city and wanted to destroy it", desperately needed someone to support him. Lin Biao's speech undoubtedly gave him an unexpected surprise. After the speeches of other members of the Standing Committee, Mao Zedong did not make any comments. Only after Lin Biao spoke, Mao Zedong praised: "Comrade Lin Biao gave a very good speech, about the party's line, about the party's military policy. I hope to sort it out Let’s give you a week or half a month to figure it out.”

It can be said that at the meeting of 7,000 people, Mao Zedong faced unprecedented isolation because he had to bear the responsibility for a national disaster. This kind of isolation is not because some people deliberately want to exclude or deny him, but because most people cannot bypass Mao Zedong's serious mistakes and the historical responsibility he must bear because of conscience. At that time, Lin Biao saw the best opportunity for Liu Shaoqi to expose the deep differences in his thinking with Mao Zedong due to emotional impulsiveness, and aroused Mao Zedong's vigilance and dissatisfaction. He jumped out and sang against Liu Shaoqi. Of course he knew that if there was a crack in the alliance between Mao and Liu for nearly 20 years, then someone would always replace Liu as a result of the split. As long as you can do this, you can achieve miraculous results in gaining Mao Zedong's trust.

Mao Zedong finally replaced Liu Shaoqi's "successor" position with Lin Biao. Lin Biao's speech at the meeting of 7,000 people should have played a considerable role. Of course, Lin Biao's praise of Mao Zedong did not start from this meeting. Mao Zedong's appreciation of Lin Biao began in the 1950s. In short, Lin Biao's speech was like adding a heavy weight to Mao Zedong's side on the balance that was beginning to tilt.

Before the meeting, Mao Zedong arranged for several members of the Standing Committee to speak. During the meeting, Mao Zedong personally asked Chen Yun to speak, but Chen Yun politely refused and did not speak on the grounds that "the industrial investigation has not been completed and he is not sure". Chen Yun is an expert in the party's economics. He was in charge of the country's economic work for many years. In terms of economic construction, Mao Zedong claimed that he did not understand Chen Yun. He also said that Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping did not understand Chen Yun. The No. 1 "authority" of domestic economic work. Since the 7,000-person meeting is an economic work meeting to discuss urgent national economic difficulties, Chen Yun, as the No. 1 authority on economic work at the core of the party, should of course speak the most. However, it is somewhat strange that the person who should have spoken the most did not speak. Chen Yun's refusal to speak was nothing to the other Standing Committee members or participants, at most it was a bit of a pity, but to Mao Zedong, it was not a matter of regret, and there was something to it.

Chen Yun did not speak at the meeting, but at the Xilou meeting half a month later, he actually confessed his thoughts, and the tone was quite different from Mao Zedong's tone at the meeting of 7,000 people. As a result, Mao Zedong was very passive and very annoyed. The division of lines and the balance of power between the two lines of thinking, two views, and two judgments within the party all appeared in Mao Zedong's vision at a glance. This point is crucial to how Mao Zedong sticks to his bottom line, how to maintain his authority, how to adjust his strategy, and how to start the struggle within the party. In Mao Zedong's premonition that a new power game within the party was coming in the depths of his consciousness, Chen Yun's silence was a disturbing, confusing and even unfathomable blind spot and unknown.

Mao Zedong suddenly proposed a "venting meeting" at the end of the meeting. The reason why Mao Zedong held a venting meeting was because the experimental campaign on the "three red flags" was implemented by the central ministries and commissions and the provincial and municipal committees. During the implementation process, the huge losses caused by "natural disasters" and "man-made disasters" The harm caused by the party members and cadres at the lower level is serious, and the rebellious psychology and emotional resentment caused are also strong. However, as a rule, they do not blame the initiators of the line policy, but the specific executors who forced them to implement it, their immediate superiors. Letting out the anger in these people's hearts can be said to kill three birds with one stone: First, it can ease the tense atmosphere caused by the struggle within the party in the past few years. Avoid "making too many enemies"; second, it can get rid of the domineering, arrogance, and bureaucratic habits of high and middle-level cadres, and further strengthen the prestige of the central government and himself in the grassroots, middle, and high-level party organizations of the entire party; Know the true thoughts, emotional attitudes, and political stances of the entire party's grassroots and middle-level leading cadres about Mao Zedong's own thoughts, line, and prestige over the past few years, so as to respond.

As a result, the central ministries and commissions and the provincial party committees were forced to review by representatives, far more explicit, deeper, sharper, and more essentially pointing to the fundamental mistakes in Mao Zedong's ideological line over the past few years than Liu Shaoqi's report and speech. What worried Mao even more was that most of the people who vented their anger were leading cadres such as the county party committee secretary and prefectural party secretary. The Supreme Being, but in fact most of them do not agree with his ideological line, and are dissatisfied and worried about his serious mistakes. These county party secretaries, prefectural party secretaries, including provincial party secretaries and ministers of various central ministries, are afraid that they will all leave Mao Zedong and go to Liu Shaoqi's side.

Mao Zedong was well versed in the explicit and unspoken rules of power struggle within the party. At a historical stage, if the supreme leader of a party wants to firmly control the supreme power in his hands and maintain his sacred and inviolable authority in the whole party, a minimum prerequisite is that he guides the main work of the party in this historical stage. The party's line, principles, policies, and ideological theories must be "correct", proven by practice and recognized by the entire party. However, after four years of hard work and fanaticism, the myth of Mao Zedong's "always correct" has been shattered. He left Maicheng on the main battlefield of the party's economic work and was defeated. If the three red flags are negated by history, by facts, by the whole party, and by the people, then it means that he, as the supreme leader of the party, is fundamentally wrong in the guiding line and theoretical principles of the main work of the party. At the end of the meeting of 7,000 people, Mao Zedong realized that the crisis was coming.

Time is not an eraser, it cannot wipe out our deep-rooted memories, and then forget the people who never forget.

Little by little, just like you, just like me... I think of the days we walked together, the most beautiful moment of the young and middle-aged, but quietly left. After the vicissitudes of life, the country is in chaos, and the relationship between people is like a stranger.

Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi had serious differences on the issue of "four clean-ups". Mao Zedong regarded Liu Shaoqi as Khrushchev, and began to make up his mind to remove Liu Shaoqi.

The Cultural Revolution swept across China and changed the perception of all Chinese people. Each of us comes into this world in much the same way, with the same structure, with the same habits, we are obviously similar in so many places, but suddenly become completely different. Fighting with people is more intense and cruel than fighting with heaven and earth.

Recalling the past events of the national martyrdom is like a thousand layers of waves surging. Although He Jiafu and Li Tiandao did not want to recall the past events of the Cultural Revolution, their hearts were filled with sadness. Today, they can tell each other their hearts and minds, and they can regain the lost time of the past. Their memories were stranded on the red road of the Cultural Revolution, and their memories are more bloody, angry and helpless.