The Red Army's Long March "Walks at Night with 'Lanterns'"

【Guangming Shushu】

Author: Chen Jin (Party History Expert, Former Deputy Director of the Literature Research Office of the CPC Central Committee)

"Wujiang Yin", published by the People's Literature Publishing House, is a new work that tells the story of the deciphering of the secret electricity during the Long March of the Red Army. When I read "Wujiang Yin", I read it mainly from the aspect of party history, not a completely literary reading. Even so, it attracted me. This documentary novel densely describes the history of the Conquest of the Central Red Army's Long March from the passage to the Decision of Hadapu to the foothold in northern Shaanxi, which can also be regarded as the writing of a large history. A little bit about three points of reading feelings.

"Wujiang Yin" handles the relationship between the deciphering of secret telegrams and decision-making and commanding relatively well.

"Wujiang Introduction" by Pompeii People's Literature Publishing House

In works on the subject of telecommunications detection, it is not possible to write about the leadership at the upper level, and if we do not write about this level, there will be no corresponding historical thickness and historical position, and the application of telecommunications detection will have no height. Therefore, the work wrote about the passage to the army, the Zunyi Conference, the four crossings of Chishui, the south crossing of the Wujiang River and so on. From Red Army generals to non-commissioned officers, there are many characters in the novel, about hundreds. At the same time, the appearance of each character is connected with the second bureau of the Central Military Commission, the department responsible for the decipherment of secret telegrams, and the setting is clever.

This work also answers some of people's questions, what questions? During the Long March, at the most critical historical juncture of the four crossings of Chishui, the Red Army fundamentally relied on "walking" to fight a war, one moment to the east, one to the west, one moment straight, one to detour. Why? Not even the legion-level cadres were clear. In fact, many decisions are based on information detected by telecommunications. The brilliance of the generals of the Red Army lies in analyzing intelligence, making judgments, and then looking for fighters, getting rid of the enemy, mobilizing the enemy, and destroying the enemy. Deciphering is the basis and premise of some decisions. Sometimes, without the decipherment of the secret code, the Decision-making of the Red Army is like walking at night without "lanterns".

"Wujiang Yin" handles the relationship between character spirit and work creation relatively well.

The so-called relationship between spirit and creation means that only with a great spirit can there be great creation. Based on Zeng Xisheng, Cao Xiangren and Zou Bizhao, "Wujiang Yin" reflects the unique feelings, sacrifice spirit and dedication of a generation of communists through the image shaping of the "deciphering the three masters". In the work, Xiao He, who was transferred from the Second Bureau of the Central Military Commission to the Ninth Army, said before leaving that he must decipher the "secret breath", but he really did it before his sacrifice, and said in the last telegram sent to the Second Bureau: "Farewell forever, you are moving forward." This reminds me of the last telegram Li Bai sent when he died in Shanghai in "The Eternal Radio Wave": "Farewell forever." "The story of "Wujiang Yin" is of course earlier. This is the inheritance and the spiritual tradition of the party.

The spirit is reflected in the details. Some of the details in the work are well written. For example, Zou Bizhao's small black notebook. Every time he broke a secret telegram, he had to write it in a notebook, the words were very small, and the writing was very dense, that is, he hoped not to change the notebook before the victory, and used a notebook to record the whole process of the victory of the Red Army's Long March. When the Long March reached northern Shaanxi in victory, Zou Bizhao did not change his notebook, that is, the book had not yet been written down to the last page. This detail appears three times in the work, apparently to convey a spiritual connotation. For another example, when crossing the Wujiang River in the south, the Red Star Medal that Zeng Xisheng won during the Central Soviet Period fell into the water. You know, it was a symbol of the supreme honor of the Red Army soldiers, but Zeng Xisheng didn't seem to care, and he didn't tell people about it later. Why, this is the spiritual portrayal of that generation in the face of honor.

Writing about people is to write about the spirit, what spirit? It is the person who is engaged in telecommunications detection by the Second Bureau of the Central Military Commission, who is "more special than special materials." They have a special personality, and this kind of character is persistence, dedication to their own work, attachment to victory, and behind them is the attachment to ideals and beliefs. This is the big spirit. Only with the great spirit can there be great creation, and with the great spirit, their creative and even somewhat magical work can have a special legend, and their contribution to the revolution has a certain irreplaceability. It is written in the work that from the first breaking of the enemy's code in the autumn of 1932 to the three main divisions of the Red Army in the autumn of 1936, the "three masters of deciphering" personally deciphered as many as 860 kinds of enemy codes! "Wujiang Yin" is a novel, and this number is the first time I have seen it. If this material comes from real historical sources, this is quite shocking. After checking with the author, I learned that this is the real historical material, which is really a well-deserved miracle!

There are many deciphering experts of the Red Army's opponents, the level is not lower than that of the Red Army, and the equipment is even more advanced than that of the Red Army, but they cannot create the miracle of "deciphering the three masters". For example, in the work, it is written that in 1933, the Kuomintang's leading deciphering expert "Huang Jibi" said in a report to Shangfeng that the Telegrams of the Red Army were "carefully studied in classification, after two months, without a clue" and "no way to analyze." After two months of work, there is no way to analyze, the difference is not in technology, not in professionalism, the difference is in spirit.

"Wujiang Introduction" also deals with the relationship between density narrative and stretch narrative relatively well.

When I watched the first "sketch", I was worried that if the whole work was narrated in a "sketch" way, it would be too dense. However, after the author finished writing the "sketch" with a large density of historical materials, he entered the second "silhouette", and my heart was put down. This part fictionalizes the character of Dr. He, who has a vague connection with Xiao He in the "sketch" part, and through the process of his search and research, the fate of "Deciphering the Three Jies" before and after is connected, and at the same time, other hidden fronts are strung together. In this way, the time and space are enlarged, and it is very stretched to read, and there is also a sense of involvement. This structure is very good.

Guangming Daily (2022-04-02 12th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily