Zhang Xiangshan
A word from the first meeting
In early October 1937, it was after the PingshiGuan Victory. In the late autumn of the Mountains of Northern Jin, the leaves are falling, the sky is blue, and from the depths of the mountains in the north and west, there is a faint sound of cannons from time to time.
I (who served as deputy director of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee and deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee) arrived here from Shanghai--it has been five or six days since the Eighth Route Army Forward General Political Department is stationed in Wutai Nanru Village. Together with the six or seven Japanese students who arrived at about the same time as me, we were settled in the Propaganda Department of the General Political Department and waited to be assigned. One afternoon, Section Chief Wang of the Propaganda Department informed us that Comrade Deng Xiaoping, deputy director of the General Political Department, had asked us to talk.
Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng
We followed Section Chief Wang into Comrade Xiaoping's house, and Chief Wang saluted a comrade who was about 30 years old, and we also saluted. This person was none other than Comrade Xiaoping whom I had first met. He stood up and saluted us in return. Comrade Xiaoping was not tall, his eyes were shining brightly, he looked very shrewd and strong, and he was wearing a gray coarse cloth military uniform that was washed somewhat white. His room was clean, there were several books and some thin documents on the Eight Immortals table, a blanket and a neatly folded quilt on the kang, and a leather satchel hung on the wall. Comrade Xiaoping sat us down, asked the attendant to pour each person a cup of boiled water, and then asked about each person's experience and impression of the Eighth Route Army after coming here. Since it was the first time to talk to the senior cadres of the Eighth Route Army, everyone seemed a little restrained and did not answer so enthusiastically. When Comrade Xiaoping saw this situation, he smiled and said, "Everyone can talk casually." So we talked interspersed for a while. I also talked about the situation of seeing the collapse of the Kuomintang troops and Yan Xishan's troops on the way north, and I felt very discouraged.
After that, Comrade Xiaoping spoke. He first said that the Eighth Route Army is in need of such new blood as intellectuals, so we students are very welcome to join the Eighth Route Army. He then spoke of the War of Resistance Against Japan, pointing out that this war against Japanese imperialism must achieve a comprehensive national war of resistance, not a simple government war of resistance. To this end, the Communist Party of China put forward the Ten Programs for Resisting Japan and Saving the Country, and it is necessary to strive for the realization of this program. He also said that the most urgent task at the moment is to develop the anti-Japanese national united front, especially to mobilize the masses. At present, in the battlefield of North China, one of the most important reasons why the Central Army has been defeated and retreated so quickly is that it has not mobilized the masses and has not received the support of the masses. The Eighth Route Army must not only fight a war, but must also mobilize the masses and mingle with the masses.
Comrade Xiaoping encouraged us to accept the test of protracted war in the army and to grow up in practical struggle. In conclusion, he exhorted us that the overwhelming majority of the soldiers and cadres in the Eighth Route Army are workers and peasants, and that they have a lower level of education, but they are politically firm, brave in combat, and have practical experience; comrades of intellectual origin must respect the workers and peasant cadres; the two must do a good job of unity; if you encounter any problems or difficulties that you do not understand, you can talk with the old cadres, and they will enthusiastically help you.
This conversation lasted less than two hours, but it was very instructive for those of us who had just arrived at the Eighth Route Army, and at the same time it made us feel that the head of the Eighth Route Army had no official frame, was approachable, and that there was an equal comradely relationship between the superiors and subordinates.
Words that will always haunt me
At the tree-lined walnut trees along the Qingzhang River in Xiangxian County, cadres of the division's direct subordinate unit held a rally to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the founding of the party. Comrade Xiaoping made a report at the meeting. There is such a passage in the report, which seems to be plain, but in fact has a thousand connotations, so it has always haunted my heart and not forgotten.
In his report, Comrade Xiaoping gave a brief account of the party's history and talked about the achievements of our party since the Zunyi Conference, especially since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and pointed out that since then our party has developed, the anti-Japanese national united front has been established, the New Fourth Army of the Eighth Route Army has expanded, and many victorious battles have been fought on the anti-Japanese battlefield. This is possible because our Party's political line is correct. Immediately afterward, he said with emotion the following passage: Comrades are happy, because everyone is working under the leadership of the correct line, and no matter who they are, as long as they work sincerely and sincerely, they will continue to make achievements. This was not the case in the past when the erroneous line ruled the whole Party. At that time, despite great efforts, there were no corresponding results, and there would be constant setbacks and losses, which was very painful. I hope that under the leadership of the party's correct line, everyone will do their best to give play to their wisdom and talents and make contributions to the party and the people.
Obviously, Comrade Xiaoping had this painful experience. In 1933, when he was working in the Jiangxi Soviet District, he was criticized by the Provisional Central Committee for pursuing the "Left" line as a representative of the "Luoming Line" in Jiangxi, and was dismissed from his post as the head of the propaganda department of the provincial party committee, punished with the last serious warning within the party, and later transferred him to the General Political Department of the Red Army and assigned to the Propaganda Department to edit the newspaper. This is precisely the first "down" in Comrade Xiaoping's personal experience of "three downs and three ups" that comrade Xiaoping talked about in his conversation with foreign guests after the "Cultural Revolution." So he understands how "happy" it is to work under the right line than we do.
A harmonious picture
In August 1940, the troops of the 129th Division participated in the Battle of the Hundred Regiments and were tasked with breaking the western section of the Zhengtai Railway, and I went to the front with the division's front-line headquarters.
I remember that on the day when the division headquarters camped in Anfeng, Xiyang County, the staff officer of the headquarters called me to inform me that Chief Liu Deng had something to look for me and asked me to go immediately. I couldn't figure out what was urgent, put down the microphone, and took three steps and two steps to the residence of Chief Liu Deng of the headquarters. The guard standing in the courtyard saw that I had arrived, pointed to the cave in the doorway with a cloth single curtain hanging from it, and said, "Go inside, the chief is inside."
I gently lifted the curtain and went into the cave. The light inside was dim, and I saw Master Liu and Commissar Deng standing side by side in front of a large military map nailed to the wall of a cave with a scale of 50,000. After I saluted, Comrade Xiaoping turned to look at me sideways and motioned for me to wait. At this time, I could clearly see that he was holding a lit candle, illuminating the place where Master Liu's finger was, and when Master Liu's finger slowly moved on the map, the candle held by Comrade Xiaoping also moved with Master Liu's finger. Because Commander Liu was blind in one eye, and the place names printed on the map were smaller than ants, it was not easy to see clearly, Comrade Xiaoping helped Commander Liu read out the place names, and they also discussed the route of the troops from time to time.
After reading the map, Chief Liu Deng began to ask me questions, asking me about the Japanese prisoners in this campaign, and asking whether these prisoners had been sent to the rear. I reported that the Japanese prisoners had been sent away one after another, and none had remained at the front headquarters. Comrade Xiaoping said, that would be fine. We feared that there were still captives left in the front echelon, with limited mobility, and that if one ran away in the middle of the operation, the secret would be revealed.
Because it was in an emergency state of combat, I did not dare to delay them for more than a minute, and as soon as I finished talking, I immediately resigned.
However, the moving picture of the two of them standing side by side in front of the military map and working together to discuss how the troops would move was deeply imprinted in my heart. In the years that followed, I saw or heard more examples of the two of them working together, interacting with each other, caring for each other, and uniting together.
Travel lightly
In 1954, after Comrade Xiaoping succeeded Comrade Bishi, he served as the secretary general of the Party Central Committee, and then divided the work in charge of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee. In 1956, he was appointed General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and was still in charge of the work of the Central Liaison Department. During this period, I have been working in the Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, so I have more opportunities to contact Comrade Xiaoping.
During comrade Xiaoping's division of labor in charge of the Central Liaison Department, I followed him to the Soviet Union seven times, and apart from attending the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which was a ceremonial activity, the remaining six were work visits, some of which were negotiations or talks between the two parties, some of which were participation in multilateral international conferences, and some of which were attending the 26 drafting committees of the Communist and Workers' Parties to discuss the drafting of the Moscow Declaration, for which I stayed in Moscow for several weeks. In either case, every time he went abroad to the Soviet Union, Comrade Xiaoping often only traveled to and from three locations in Moscow: the hotel on Lenin Hill, the Kremlin, and the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union. As soon as the talks or conferences were over, he returned to China and did not make visits in the Soviet Union.
When Comrade Xiaoping served as the head of the delegation, he never made polite or daily demands to the unit that presided over the organization of the delegation's visit, and at the same time had no intention of calculating some arrangements made by the master in this regard. His attention was focused on political talks and work, and with regard to the members and entourage of delegations, he always sought to be competent. Comrade Xiaoping himself generally does not have a secretary, and the work in this regard depends on the working group of the delegation. He also did not bring a doctor or nurse with him, and at most a guard, but this was only to take care of daily life and not to be a veritable guard, because in the Soviet Union this kind of guard work could only be done by the invited side. Comrade Xiaoping, as the regimental commander, made such an arrangement, and the other members of the regiment also followed suit. In this way, the Delegation had reduced a lot of redundancy and at the same time reduced the internal affairs of the Delegation, allowing the Delegation as a whole to concentrate on its external work.
(Excerpt from "Zhang Xiangshan's Chronicles of The History of Remembering People", published by World Knowledge Publishing House)