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Peng Zhen was criticized by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. (Internet picture)
Peng ZhenHe is a very important figure in the history of the Communist Party of China. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1923Communist Party of Chinathe qualification is second only toMao ZedongDong Biwu and other first representatives of the Communist Party of China. He served as the Secretary of the Northeast Bureau during the Kuomintang-Communist War after the Anti-Japanese War, and made great contributions to the Communist Party’s seizure of the three northeastern provinces and then the whole of China. quiltMao ZedongIn May 1966, after he deemed it unfit to be reused, Mao made a bold statement: “Peng ZhenHe is a small person, and I can knock him down with just a little finger. ”
Long-term presiding over the work of the Northern Bureau
Peng Zhen joined the Communist Party of China in 1923. He was arrested and imprisoned for betrayal by a traitor in 1929. He spent a total of six years in prison. He was unique among the leaders of the Communist Party of China. He was not released from prison until 1935. Peng Zhen arrived in Yan’an in 1937 and took charge of the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China together with Yang Shangkun.
When Peng Zhen presided over the work of the Northern Bureau, he had already shown his sensitivity to rules and regulations. At that time, Peng Zhen, based on the opinions of the Northern Bureau, came forward to resolve a dispute between Communist Party members who came out of the enemy’s prison over whether they had written letters of repentance. At that time, some party members followed the instructions of the Central Committee and the Northern Bureau and wrote letters of repentance as required by the Kuomintang government in order to be released from prison as soon as possible to participate in the anti-Japanese struggle. Another group of party members were rescued by the organization. After these two groups were released from prison, the latter It is believed that the former can no longer be recognized as party members, while the former accuses the latter of violating organizational discipline and should be punished. Peng Zhen came forward to explain that party leaders did not have the right to write a letter of repentance, but the former’s doing so was approved by the Central Committee and Liu Shaoqi reported to the Central Committee for approval and wassuance. This was how the incident was calmed down, and both groups were restored to party membership afterwards. .
Another event worth recording when Peng Zhen presided over the Northern Bureau was the December meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on “submitting everything to the united front”. At that time, this policy was proposed by Wang Ming, and Liu Shaoqi and Peng Dehuai were responsible for conveying the spirit of the meeting to Peng Zhen. Peng Zhen went to Liu Shaoqi and Ren Bishi and asked: “Why don’t we give up the leadership? Didn’t the Great Revolution fail because we don’t want the leadership?” Liu Shaoqi said: “Who said we don’t want the leadership anymore? I told you not to say it!” From this conversation, at least we can Two pieces of information were drawn. First, the conflict over the line dispute between Mao Zedong and Wang Ming had become public at that time; second, Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi began to form an alliance, and Wang Ming was about to be overthrown.
Peng Zhen understood it immediately and emphasized at the North China Military Branch Expansion Meeting: “If the party wants to avoid making mistakes, it must lead collectively.” When Peng Zhen and Deng Xiaoping conveyed this spirit to the lower levels, there was also discussion below, and Peng Zhen and Deng Xiaoping decided after discussion A small-scale meeting of party members and leading cadres was held to discuss the issue of striving for leadership. Peng Zhen’s speech was reviewed by Deng Xiaoping in advance, and Peng Zhen burned it immediately after the meeting. Peng Zhen later discussed with Nie Rongzhen and held a small meeting to discuss leadership issues.
Actively participate in seizing the Northeast
After the conclusion of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, what lies ahead is the imminent victory of the Anti-Japanese War and the issue of how to seize the world with the Kuomintang after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Before Mao Zedong left Yan’an for negotiations in Chongqing, he talked with Liu Shaoqi all night. The topic was nothing more than the occupation of Northeast China after the civil war. After Mao Zedong left Yan’an, Peng Zhen hosted a farewell party at the Central Party School for the first batch of cadres who set off to work in Northeast China. Liu Shaoqi proposed at the meeting: “We have decided to send troops to (Northeast)… The Japanese have collapsed, the Manchurian Emperor Puyi has been captured, the Soviet Red Army has left, and the Kuomintang has not gone yet. You must rush to grab it.” “Peng Zhen Chronicles” ” unabashedly recorded: “In order to seize the Northeast, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, under the auspices of Liu Shaoqi, began to make drastic arrangements for the Northeast, and successively issued instructions for various regions to quickly dispatch cadres and troops to the Northeast.”
But when Peng Zhen went to Northeast China to take charge of the work, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had not officially broken up, and they were still fighting and talking. In November 1945, Liu Shaoqi called Peng Zhen and ordered Peng Zhen to give up his strategy of occupying large cities in the Northeast. He instructed Peng Zhen to first establish a reliable base area, gain a firm foothold, and gradually gain advantages in the Northeast according to the situation. Lin Biao then called Peng Zhen and suggested that the center of the Northeast base area should be east of the Shenyang and Harbin lines, with Yanji, Linjiang, and Tonghua as the consolidated rear. At the end of that year, Northeast Military and Political University was established, with Lin Biao as president and Peng Zhen as political commissar.
From left, Mao Zedong, Peng Zhen, Sihanouk and Liu Shaoqi. (Image source: public domain)
Follow in the footsteps of Mao Zedong
After the overall situation in Northeast China was settled, Peng Zhen returned to work in the central government, but was soon sent to Peking to take charge of the work. At this time, Peng Zhen followed Mao Zedong closely. In November 1948, Mao Zedong wrote to Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Peng Zhen and others, proposing to add the word “revolution” to the full title of the Military Commission, and “Mao Zedong Thought” in the Youth League documents was changed to “Marxism-Leninism”, Peng Zhen proposed the next day, believing that Marxism-Leninism should be written on it, and Mao Zedong Thought should also be written on it. Peng Zhen listed a lot of reasons and finally concluded that it is beneficial to clearly state the relationship between Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.
Until after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Peng Zhen closely followed Mao’s pace, and the same was true for the “Great Leap Forward”. In 1957, Mao deliberately retreated to the second line and resigned as the president of the country. When the “Great Leap Forward” began in 1959, Liu Shaoqi succeeded him as the president. Mao felt deeply that he had lost power. He once said during the “Cultural Revolution”: “After 1959, Deng Xiaoping did not Discuss it with me Peng Zhen was aware of such complaints in 1959. When presiding over the 157th meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee, he pointed out that the job of the Secretariat is to serve as secretary to the Political Bureau. Now Chairman Mao feels that the situation is unclear. There is distress and the problem of blockade needs to be solved. The chairman is 66 years old this year. If he is forced to read so many things, what does the secretariat do? Peng Zhen also believed that “ventilation” between the Secretariat and Chairman Mao was not enough and must be considered as a political issue. Those in charge of the division of labor should talk to Chairman Mao at any time if they have problems. When presiding over the 160th meeting of the Secretariat on November 9th and 10th, Peng Zhen emphasized: Chairman Mao has a keen sense of smell and felt uncomfortable as soon as he returned to Beijing, so the Beijing Municipal Party Committee must thoroughly carry out the (rectification and anti-rightist movement) movement and ” The headquarters and staff will do a good job.”
Considered unworthy of “reuse” by Mao Zedong
But soon the great famine came, and the “Great Leap Forward” could no longer end. Peng Zhen, like Lin Biao, once again escorted Mao. Although Peng Zhen also talked about the work mistakes of the “Great Leap Forward”, he mostly talked about natural disasters. Before the meeting of seven thousand people, Peng Zhen sent a letter to Mao Zedong. In the letter, he attached the material “Scenery Record of the Three Years of Guangxu” on the famine in southern Shanxi from the second to the fourth year of Guangxu. The letter said: “During these three years of famine, Shanxi In some counties in the south, more than two-thirds of the people died.” He believed that the difficulties were mainly caused by natural disasters, and that it was inevitable that people would starve to death in disaster years. However, Peng Zhen believed in his speech that “it was our mistake, first of all, that the central government Secretariat Responsible, including not including Chairman Mao, Shaoqi and other comrades of the Central Standing Committee, including, as many mistakes as there are mistakes.” Deng Xiaoping immediately took Peng Zhen to Chairman Mao. Mao Zedong reviewed it on the spot, and Liu Shaoqi followed step by step. , believed that many “provinces and cities believe that the fault lies with the central government, but dare not speak out. Now that some people dare to speak out, it means improvement.” Liu Shaoqi then determined that the three-year famine was “30% natural disasters and 70% man-made disasters.”
When Mao Zedong encountered an intra-party crisis, Lin Biao stepped forward to defend Mao, believing that the mistake was caused “precisely because he failed to follow Chairman Mao’s instructions.” Lin Biao’s speech was highly praised by Mao Zedong, who took the lead in applauding and hoped that Lin Biao would sort out his speech. At the same time, Mao Zedong turned to Liu Shaoqi and believed that Liu Shaoqi’s report should also be sorted out, otherwise “what he said was unfounded” and the differences between Mao and Liu had become public. It was at this time that Mao Zedong believed that Peng Zhen was not worthy of “reuse” and decided to overthrow him and Liu Shaoqi. The number of times Peng Zhen met Mao Zedong dropped sharply from the 7,000-person meeting.
Disaster is imminent due to internal strife in the Demon Cave
After the meeting of seven thousand people, Mao always had reservations about Peng Zhen, but on the surface he remained polite and friendly to Peng Zhen. Mao also beat Peng Zhen from time to time to show his severity. Peng Zhen had already sensed the coming crisis in the case of “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” before the “Cultural Revolution” began. At that time, Guangming Daily published Wu Han’s response to Yao Wenyuan’s criticism in the “Guangming Daily” briefing on the “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” case. At that time, Mao Zedong Still in the field, he gave instructions in the briefing: “I have read them all and have been sleepless all night.” At that time, Mao Zedong was in Shanghai and saw that newspapers across the country did not reprint Yao Wenyuan’s articles, so he asked the Shanghai People’s Publishing House to print Yao Wenyuan’s articles into a single volume and distribute it nationwide. At this time, even if Peng Zhen Being stupid also knows how to make a big mistake.
That is, at the end of 1965 when the “Hai Rui Dismissal from Office” case was not over, Peng Zhen was invited to Mao Zedong for a private conversation. Mao Zedong informed Peng Zhen that the political conclusion of Wu Han’s issue would be made in two months, and further mentioned the investigation of Luo Ruiqing. He asked Peng Zhen to talk to the Ministry of Public Security and the Central Military Commission after returning to Beijing, and pay attention to underground activities, and said: Underground activities will never be allowed within the party and the military. Mao Zedong’s move was obviously to confuse Peng Zhen, making Peng Zhen mistakenly believe that Mao still regarded Peng Zhen as “one of his own.” The following year, Mao Zedong overthrew both Peng Zhen and Luo Ruiqing, which fully demonstrated Mao Zedong’s extraordinary political skills. Sure enough, in May 1966, Mao made a bold statement: “Peng is really a small person. I can knock him down with just a little finger.”
What is interesting is that until January 1966, Peng Zhen did not know that he was about to be in disaster. At the party group meeting of the Ministry of Public Security on January 9 this year, he also demanded in his speech that Chairman Mao’s instructions not to engage in “underground activities” should be implemented, and he clearly pointed out: “Investigations are not allowed within the party. We have no one.” The party will never use bugs or anything like that. If we don’t do it for ten thousand years, we won’t use this example.” Peng Zhen clearly echoed Mao Zedong when he said these words.
Thinking about how to improve the legal system in the prisons of the Communist Party
After Peng Zhen was arrested, he fully demonstrated his struggle experience honed in the Kuomintang prison. Once, Peng Zhen’s task force was interrogating Peng Zhen. The guard brought a pair of handcuffs to him. Peng Zhen immediately got angry and said, “Do you know what this is called? This is called a tool! What are the tools used for? First, it is for prevention. The second reason for the prisoner’s escape is to prevent the prisoner from committing another crime. Do you understand? Now I am locked up here all day long. In the hut, I have to report to you every night. Can I escape? Can I commit a crime? “Peng Zhen asked at the same time: “Who asked you to put it on me? “The guards? Peng Zhen was speechless and walked away silently. Until he was released from prison, Peng Zhen never wore handcuffs once.
At the same time, Peng Zhen also relied on his many years of experience in charge of political and legal work. He knew that the bigger and more serious the problem was, the more it showed that they had no materials at hand… After the Second Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1970, Peng Zhen Discovered from radio and newspapers Chen Boda’s name disappeared. As expected, after the Chinese New Year in 1971, Peng Zhen got the news of the party’s criticism of Chen Zhengfeng. In October of the same year, Peng Zhen discovered that Lin Biao’s name also disappeared from the newspaper. Later, when his daughter visited the prison, he learned that “September 13″ event”.
(This article has been abridged)
Editor in charge: Fu Longshan
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