In September 1980, Comrade Hua Guofeng resigned as premier of the State Council, and in June 1981, he resigned as chairman of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. At the turning point in history after the death of Chairman Mao, Comrade Hua Guofeng assumed the most crucial role, and under his leadership, China successfully completed the smooth transition from the era of Chairman Mao to the post-Chairman Mao era, and the peaceful handover from the core of the cpc's leadership of the first generation to the core of the second generation of leadership. His exploits will be forever engraved on the monument of Chinese history, and his revolutionary spirit and noble character are worth learning from future generations.
Chairman Mao praised: "Young people who seek truth from facts"
In 1921, Su Zhu was born in a working family in Jiaocheng, Shanxi, during the period of study, he was very concerned about national affairs, in 1937, the July 7 Incident opened the prelude to the national Anti-Japanese War, 16-year-old Su Zhu chose to devote himself to the torrent of revolutionary anti-Japanese resistance, in June 1938, 17-year-old Su Zhu entered the anti-Japanese guerrillas, in October of the same year, officially joined the Communist Party of China, and changed his name to "Hua Guofeng", taking the meaning of "Chinese anti-Japanese national salvation pioneer".
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Comrade Hua Guofeng carried out anti-Japanese activities in Jiaocheng, held several posts, persisted in the War of Resistance Behind Enemy Lines under extremely difficult conditions, and he also mobilized the masses of the people to participate in the War of Resistance against Japan and made important contributions to the development and expansion of the local anti-Japanese armed forces and base areas.
In 1941, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered the most arduous period of combat, the area around his base area was almost surrounded by the strongholds established by the Japanese army, Caozhuangtou was an important stronghold of the Japanese army in Jiaocheng at that time, there were more than 100 people stationed, in order to destroy this stronghold and thwart the arrogance of the Japanese army, Hua Guofeng seriously studied the battle plan, in view of the disparity between the enemy and our forces, outwitness became the best choice.
He and his comrades in the enemy's engineering department successively did ideological work for Wang Guisheng, a brother-in-law who cooked for the Japanese army, and the buyers, enlisted their help, mobilized them to resist Japan and save the country, and at the same time gave them the method of retreating from the whole body. Therefore, on the night of September 18, Hua Guofeng led his troops to sneak into the Japanese stronghold, and Wang Guisheng opened the gate of the stronghold and sent a signal, this raid killed more than 30 enemy troops, captured more than 70 people, captured a large number of weapons and equipment, including mortars, heavy machine guns and other heavy weapons, and also captured rice, white noodles, cans and other materials, our personnel destroyed this Japanese stronghold without a single casualty. Zhi Zhi Cao Zhuang tou fully demonstrated Hua Guofeng's command ability and spirit of fighting heroically and not being afraid of sacrifice.
In 1949, Hua Guofeng went south with the army and worked in Hunan, where he stayed for more than twenty years. In order to change the appearance of Hunan, he has always been committed to building a new Hunan, repeatedly went deep into the front line of production, struggled hard with the masses of the people, and was evaluated by Chairman Mao as "telling the truth and being an honest person." Hua Guofeng attaches great importance to agricultural production, not only presides over the construction of water conservancy work, but also vigorously supports Comrade Yuan Longping's hybrid rice project, in addition, in the transportation construction, medical system, culture and education and other fields have made important instructions. Under his leadership, Hunan's economic construction and social development have achieved remarkable results, and Comrade Hua Guofeng has been respected and loved by the people of Hunan.
In 1955, when Hua Guofeng was the secretary of the Xiangtan Prefectural Party Committee, he personally received Chairman Mao when he returned to Hunan, and it was this meeting that made Chairman Mao have a deep impression of this young man. Years deep into the front line, his skin was tanned, his face was covered with ravines, his hands were rough, there were deep lines, and there was a thick stratum corneum on the second joint of his middle finger, which were the work marks left on him, which were dried out by his footprints step by step. Chairman Mao took his hand, smiled, and said, "You young man, have sunk." Yes, it is necessary to go deep among the masses and seek truth from facts. ”
In 1963, during Chairman Mao's trip to Changsha, he again met with Comrade Hua Guofeng and asked him carefully about the situation in Hunan, and Hua Guofeng reported to Chairman Mao in 9 words: "The fields are thin, the cattle are thin, and the people are thin," and at the same time he also mentioned realistically that "Chairman, this year's grain output will not be as high as in the past." ”
After listening, Chairman Mao had a serious expression and was worried about the lives of the masses of the people, but he greatly praised Hua Guofeng's attitude of seeking truth from facts: "You are very good, you are telling the truth, and you are a good comrade who can stand the test of time!" ”
At the beginning of 1971, Hua Guofeng was transferred to the central government, fully assisted Premier Zhou Enlai in his work, and did a lot of work in national economic construction, ensuring market supply and stabilizing prices. Chairman Mao once said to him: "I am assured that you will handle things." "It is enough to see the affirmation of his trust and ability to work.
After the death of Premier Zhou Enlai, at the suggestion of Chairman Mao, Comrade Hua Guofeng was appointed acting premier of the State Council, and he began to preside over daily affairs. It is said that Hua Guofeng was not very confident in his succession to Premier Zhou, and Chairman Mao encouraged him: "I appointed you because you know that your level is not high." A person who has shortcomings will not be proud and will constantly improve himself. ”
As for why Hua Guofeng was chosen, Chairman Mao also had his own considerations, which can be seen from the recollection of Wang Dongxing, the head of his guards:
"First of all, he has regional and provincial work experience and has done well in the years as minister of public security. Second, he was loyal and honest. Third, he is not cunning. ”
Hua Guofeng has more than 20 years of grassroots experience, and his achievements in Hunan are obvious to all, whether it is the county, the provincial party committee or the central government, he has always been able to adjust his positioning in a timely manner to carry out work, and the profound mass foundation and work experience are the foundation that supports his achievements in the central government. In Chairman Mao's eyes, Hua Guofeng was a doer who did not like superficial things, cared about the people's livelihood, hated bureaucracy, sought truth from facts and did practical things, and never "played tricks." Such a person must be worth reusing.
Hua Guofeng took the lead in solving three major urgent problems
At 00:10 on September 9, 1976, Chairman Mao died in Beijing at the age of 83. On the evening of September 8, Hua Guofeng was receiving foreign heads of state in the Great Hall of the People, and when the two sides were talking happily, the staff suddenly ignored the eyes of everyone, quickly ran to Hua Guofeng's side, said in his ear, "There is a phone to find", and then saw Hua Guofeng, who had a serious face after answering the phone, hurriedly bid farewell to foreign guests and drove in the direction of Zhongnanhai.
On the night of Chairman Mao's death, Hua Guofeng held an emergency meeting to discuss China's next three major problems:
The first is how to arrange Chairman Mao's aftermath, the second is how to deal with the remains, and the third is whether China will invite foreign delegations to Beijing to participate in the condolences.
In response to the above three issues, the meeting was fiercely discussed, but the first thing that reached an agreement was to protect the remains of the chairman and let people from all walks of life mourn and look up. The meeting lasted from one o'clock in the morning until dawn when the initial plan was drawn up.
At 4 p.m. on September 9, the Central People's Radio sent a grief-stricken message to the world: At 00:10 a.m. that day, Chairman Mao, the great leader of China, passed away, and he left us forever. Yang Zhengquan, then deputy director of The Central Radio, recalled: "The people of the whole country were shocked! Eight hundred million people are deeply saddened by the loss of their beloved great leader! ”
The news immediately spread throughout the north and south of the great river, and people in the literary and art circles wrote down their memorials one after another, and the masses of the people working in the farmland and factories also stopped their work for a long time.
Zhu De's wife, Kang Keqing, said bitterly:
"In the past six months, three great men, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Mao Zedong, have died one after another, and the losses to our party and country have been too great."
Less than 15 minutes after the news of Chairman Mao's death was announced, the world's major mainstream media followed closely behind, and for a time, the news spread to every corner of the world, shocking the whole world, and letters and phone calls from all over the world continued to be transmitted back to China.
In order to maintain domestic stability and prevent all possible situations, the central authorities also issued the "Instructions on Strengthening Combat Readiness Duty," and the entire Platon Army immediately entered a state of first-level combat readiness.
In view of the consideration of various aspects, the central government finally made a decision:
"We are not prepared to invite foreign governments, fraternal parties, and friendly people to send delegations or representatives to China to offer condolences."
From September 11 to 17, the mourning ceremony was solemnly held in the Great Hall of the People, and various grass-roots units across the country also held condolence activities, and on the 18th, millions of cadres and masses from all walks of life in the capital gathered in front of Tiananmen Square to participate in the memorial meeting, and Hua Guofeng delivered a eulogy.
At the memorial service, there were sobs and cries of pain, and even the masses fainted.
After Chairman Mao's death, more than 200 countries, political parties, organizations and their leaders around the world sent telegrams of condolences one after another, and more than 30 countries, including the DPRK, held memorial activities. Earlier, on the day of Chairman Mao's death, the United Nations lowered its flag to half-mast in mourning, and Waldheim, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, also delivered a speech praising Chairman Mao:
"A great political thinker, philosopher and poet. His courage and determination to realize his ideals will continue to encourage future generations. ”
As early as 1956, Chairman Mao had proposed reforming the traditional funeral method, promoting cremation, not building graves, and saving resources. Chairman Mao, as the main advocate, took the lead in signing the proposal, and after his death, he asked for cremation and return to the mountains and rivers.
However, as the founder of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao was too important to China, so at the emergency meeting presided over by Hua Guofeng, it was decided to keep his body permanently.
Therefore, on the night of Chairman Mao's death, Liu Xiangping, then minister of health who received the order to preserve the remains, and Yang Chun and Xu Jing, experts of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, rushed to the hospital, and then Xu Jing and two other experts formed a three-person working group to first do emergency anti-embalming treatment of the remains, and also made a meticulous arrangement of Chairman Mao's remains, and specially customized a set of Zhongshan suits.
In addition to the emergency embalming of the remains, the central government also issued an order on September 11 to develop a crystal coffin for the storage of the remains, which was also known as the "First Task".
The manufacture of crystal coffins involves a number of technical fields, and China has never had a precedent for making crystal coffins before, and the technical aspects are blank, coupled with the extremely strict requirements of the central government for crystal coffins:
The most stringent requirements put forward by the central government for the design and manufacture of coffins are "solemn and generous, majestic and majestic." It has a unique national style; there must be reliable safeguards for possible situations such as earthquakes, wars, destruction, attrition, etc."
Due to the tight time and heavy task, in the following days, the design room was often brightly lit, considering that the manufacture of the crystal coffin took a long time, the central government also deliberately rushed to make a plexiglass coffin cover for temporary use. The shape of the coffin was designed by a professor at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts at that time, which also became the prototype of the crystal coffin.
The production technology of the crystal coffin at that time can be described as "difficult to go to the sky", the raw materials are made of high-quality natural East Sea crystal, smelted into large quartz plate glass, the technician Xu Zhaocai invented the process of "blazing, molding, splicing" to solve the problem of smelting crystal plates, the purity of quartz powder is 99.9999%, and the super large quartz plate is welded by a small crystal plate piece by piece, which puts forward extremely harsh requirements for the technology of the workers. So far, quartz powder with a purity of 99.9999% can only be produced in China in the world. The lighting and optical facelift inside the crystal coffin is also an innovative move, the crystal coffin from scratch, Chinese technical workers overcame many difficulties, and finally developed a crystal coffin that meets the central requirements.
On October 8, the central government decided to build a memorial hall for Chairman Mao and display the remains in a crystal coffin for posterity to see. After many field visits by the design team, the site of Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall was finally set in the south of Tiananmen Square, in the middle of the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Zhengyang Gate. After the site selection was determined, the appearance of the memorial hall was also determined, and on November 24, at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, Comrade Hua Guofeng delivered a speech to the representatives involved in the construction:
"Today, we solemnly held the groundbreaking ceremony of Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall in Tiananmen Square in the capital, Beijing, to put into practice this decision of the central government that meets the common aspirations of hundreds of millions of people.
I believe that the workers, cadres, engineering and technical personnel, and commanders and fighters of the People's Liberation Army who participated in this solemn construction project will certainly be able to live up to the great trust placed in them by the party and the people and successfully accomplish this glorious task. ”
After that, the labor force opened ground here, and the masses of the people continued to voluntarily join the ranks of building chairman Mao's memorial hall, and finally, in only half a year, the chairman Mao memorial hall was successfully completed.
On September 9, 1977, on the occasion of the first anniversary of Chairman Mao's death, the memorial hall was officially opened to the public, and to this day, when people walk into this place, the respect and admiration in their hearts will also arise spontaneously, and Chairman Mao's great achievements will always be remembered.
Deng Xiaoping sighed: "Hua Guofeng, this person, chose the right one."
After Chairman Mao's death, the first question before the party and the state was: Where is china's direction? In order to conform to the development of history, at this important juncture, Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying, and other comrades resolutely intervened, saved the national cause, and pushed the great cause of the party and the people to continue to move forward.
"History has pushed me into this position, and I must bravely take on the responsibility regardless of my personal safety."
Comrade Hua Guofeng's boldness and measures were also praised by Deng Xiaoping, and after learning that he had successfully smashed the conspiracy of the careerists, Deng Xiaoping immediately blurted out, "Hua Guofeng is a good person, he has chosen the right one, and it seems that I can live in peace in my old age." In Deng Xiaoping's handwritten letter to Hua Guofeng and the Central Committee, it is mentioned:
I wholeheartedly support the decision of the Central Committee that Comrade Hua Guofeng should serve as chairman of the Party Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. The recent struggle against the usurpation of power by the party by careerists and conspirators took place immediately after the death of the great leader Chairman Mao, and the Party Central Committee headed by Comrade Guo Feng defeated these bad guys and won a great victory; this was the victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, the victory of the socialist road over the capitalist road, the victory of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing capitalist restoration, the victory of consolidating the great cause of the Party, the victory of Mao Zedong Thought and Mao Zedong's revolutionary line. Like the people of the whole country, I am heartily pleased with the victory of this great struggle. Long live the great victory of the Party and the cause of socialism!
At an important turning point in the country's development, Hua Guofeng resolutely took over the baton of the leader and helped the country get on the right track, in addition to making important contributions to politics, his achievements in economic construction were even greater.
Hua Guofeng has always paid close attention to China's economic situation, devoted himself to restoring the near-collapsed economic situation on the mainland, advocated inviting veteran cadres to come back, and encouraged the broad masses of the people to actively participate in production and construction.
In addition, in the fields of diplomacy, science and technology, education and other fields, Hua Guofeng has also led China to make many breakthroughs, and the science and technology education related to the future of the country has also been restored under his efforts.
After successfully completing the country's transition period, starting in September 1980, Hua Guofeng gradually resigned from all his positions and chose to retire from the leadership position, but after he was idle, he still cared about the development of the country until the last moment of his life.
In his later years, Hua Guofeng rarely went out, but there were two fixed days every year when he must take his family to chairman Mao's memorial hall, that is, on Chairman Mao's birthday and death day, and the rest of the time, he basically stayed in the compound, reading books and newspapers every day, and giving the vegetables, melons, fruits, and pine soil planted in the yard. Sometimes, former comrades-in-arms would come to visit, and the central authorities would send people to comfort them, and Hua Guofeng was always approachable, warmly received them, and talked with them, but no matter who he was chatting with, he always followed a principle: he did not talk about political affairs.
On August 20, 2008, Hua Guofeng died in Beijing at the age of 87, and xinhua news agency published an obituary calling him an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a tried and tested loyal communist fighter, and a proletarian revolutionary.