preface
In mid-April 1949, while waiting for the Nanjing government's formal reply to the Internal Peace Agreement, Zhou Enlai accompanied Zhang Zhizhong and others to take a good rest in Beiping to ease the spirit and tension that had been maintained during the negotiations.
A few days later, the Beiping theater circles organized a party at the Chang'an Grand Theater to welcome Chairman Mao and the CPC Central Committee to Beiping.
I. Chairman Mao watched "Farewell to the Overlord" and his eyes were filled with tears
After receiving the invitation, Chairman Mao decided to attend the party. After dinner, in the courtyard of the Shuangqing Villa, Chairman Mao asked Li Yinqiao: "What time do you leave?" ”
Li Yinqiao knew that Chairman Mao was very fond of watching Peking Opera. Seeing Chairman Mao ask himself, he replied: "The road is not easy to walk, it is estimated that it will take an hour on the road, and we will be able to arrive at the grand theater on time when we leave at 6:30." ”
"Then it's set to leave at 6:30." Chairman Mao, while taking a slow walk, said thoughtfully:
Figure | Mr. Mei Lanfang
"Watching the drama is also work, Mei Lanfang is going to take the stage today!" In the theater industry, Mei Lanfang is a big celebrity, which is not simple! After the Japanese imperialists invaded China, he stayed in seclusion and never acted again; he hehelved the coercion and inducements of the Japanese aggressors and the Kuomintang reactionaries and sang and danced. The artist's national integrity is very valuable! ”
Li Yinqiao said: "I have heard of it too. ”
Mao Zedong sighed: "When we go to see Mei Lanfang's performance today, we want to promote this sense of nationality and justice and call on people to learn from him. ”
When Li Yinqiao rode with Chairman Mao to the Chang'an Grand Theater, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Ren Bishi, and others had already arrived. Chairman Mao was placed in a box in the middle of the second floor, and he wanted to go downstairs to see it, but was dissuaded by Zhou Enlai: "Soon after the liberation of Peiping, the environment no longer allows you to be an ordinary spectator." ”
The finale of this night is Mei Lanfang's "Overlord Farewell". The 54-year-old Mr. Mei Lanfang plays the overlord Xiang Yu's Aiji, and Mr. Liu Lianrong plays Xiang Yu. Both of them are celebrities in the Peking Opera circle, singing and playing well; as soon as Mei Lanfang appeared, she gave warm applause from the stage, and in the process of playing together with Liu Lianrong, she also won the applause of the audience.
The performance on the stage was very exciting, and the audience on the stage was also fascinated.
Figure | Overlord Byeji fragment
Surrounded by chu voices, the Overlord and Yu Ji made their final separations in the tent, "Look at this situation, this is the day you and I are separated." "The Overlord said...
"In this way, the concubines are ugly." Mr. Mei's body trembled, even his voice was trembling, he slowly got up from his seat, took a step back, looked at the overlord, and then stepped back, still looking at the overlord, with infinite affection in his eyes.
Then Yu Ji suppressed her grief and danced the last dance for the overlord. After the sword dance, the Overlord received an urgent military information and said, "Quickly follow the lone killing to get out of the siege!" At this moment, Yu Ji's heart was agitated and extremely complicated, and when the overlord was not prepared, he drew his sword and killed himself...
Figure | Chairman Mao
Li Yinqiao sat behind Chairman Mao, and when he saw that the Western Chu Overlord and Yu Ji were parting from life and death on the stage, Chairman Mao's eyelashes trembled and his eyes were full of tears...
At the end of the performance, Mei Lanfang and all the actors closed the curtain on the stage, and the whole audience erupted into a burst of warm applause, and Chairman Mao also stood up from the box and applauded vigorously.
Stepping out of the box, Chairman Mao emotionally said to Zhou Enlai and others: "This is really a high-level artistic performance!" In the future, these people are all dramatists of new China, and they will have a position in politics and will be respected! ”
Zhou Enlai was also very excited and said: "Chairman, Mr. Mei Lanfang knows that you are going to come to see him perform, and he is also very excited!" ”
A song "Farewell to the Overlord" touched Chairman Mao greatly, and on the way back to the Shuangqing Villa by car, he said to Li Yinqiao: "Don't learn from the Western Chu Overlord." I don't want to learn, you don't want to learn, everyone doesn't learn! ”
The next afternoon, in Chairman Mao's office, Chairman Mao again said to Zhou Enlai: "Let all our leading cadres look at "Farewell to the Overlord." ”
Chairman Mao attaches so much importance to the play "Farewell to the Overlord" for a reason. During the period from Xibaipo in Hebei to Xiangshan Villa in Beiping, the liberation of all of China was on the agenda, and the most important thing at this moment was to command the People's Liberation Army to continue to advance, across the Yangtze River and to Nanjing.
Figure | Chairman Mao is at work
At this crucial historical juncture, it is imperative not to be like Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, who does not think about the long term and misses a good opportunity.
As early as December 1936, Chairman Mao listed the battle of Chenggao in Chuhan and Han when listing the example of the victory of the strong over the weak in "The Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War". He pointed out in the article: "The fear of temporary bad political influence must be at the cost of long-term bad influence." ”
This naturally reminds people of the fact that Xiang Yu could have killed Liu Bang at the Hongmen banquet, but he let Liu Bang go because of a momentary bad political influence. When Chu Han confronted each other around Xingyang and Chenggao, Xiang Yu had several opportunities to defeat Liu Bang, but all of them sold their fame and reputation and missed good opportunities.
Chairman Mao asked Li Yinqiao, "Do you dare to believe Chiang Kai-shek?" ”
As early as New Year's Day 1949, when the three major battles were about to end, Xinhua News Agency published in the form of an editorial the New Year's Day dedication drafted by Chairman Mao entitled "Carrying the Revolution to the End." It analyzed the international and domestic situation at that time, thoroughly exposed the enemy's conspiracy to gain a chance to breathe by crossing the river and then make a comeback, and called on the vast number of commanders and fighters to take advantage of the victory to pursue and completely eliminate the Chiang family dynasty.
With regard to the tactics and timing of the river crossing operation, the CPC Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and leaders at all levels have worked hard to proceed from the overall situation, repeatedly discuss and study them, and adopt correct decisions.
Originally, in order to facilitate negotiations with the Kuomintang, on February 25, the Japanese Military Commission sent a telegram to the General Front Committee and Sanye to "capture Pukou and shell Nanjing." But by March 27, the plan, which had been in preparation for more than a month, was revoked, avoiding the destruction of the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties.
The launch date of the Battle of the River Crossing was raised from January 12, and the time was repeatedly negotiated and changed until April 18.
On the issue of the liberation of Nanjing, Chairman Mao has always been thinking about it. After watching "Farewell to the Overlord", he suddenly asked Li Yinqiao while walking: "Yinqiao, do you believe in Chiang Kai-shek?" ”
Li Yinqiao replied, "I don't believe it! ”
Chairman Mao nodded and said, "That's right. Chiang Kai-shek is a man who has done everything he can, and never counts what he says! After saying these two words, he continued to walk, still with a deep thinking look on his face.
Figure | Chairman Mao and Captain Li Yinqiao
A few days later, Chairman Mao couldn't sleep soundly in the bedroom of the Shuangqing Villa, got up and walked to the courtyard for a walk. Li Yinqiao followed close behind, and seeing Chairman Mao's frown tightened, he carefully followed him and did not dare to say a word.
After walking for a long time, Chairman Mao suddenly asked Li Yinqiao in a very heavy tone: "Some people are still advising us not to fight across the Yangtze River. ”
"Yes!" Li Yinqiao said emphatically, "How can you not have a victory in hand?" What else is there to be polite to chiang kai-shek of the Kuomintang! ”
Chairman Mao stretched out his big hand, stroked Li Yinqiao's back, and said, "Or our warriors are smart!" ”
On April 20, the Nationalist government in Nanjing sent a telegram to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, categorically rejecting the Internal Peace Agreement (Final Amendment)
On the same day, the middle and eastern groups of the Third Field Army of the People's Liberation Army, commanded by Su Yu, began a campaign of forcibly crossing the Yangtze River by force.
Figure | Battle of the River Crossing
On April 21, Chairman Mao, in the name of chairman of the Military Commission of the Chinese People's Revolution and zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, issued an "Order to March to the Whole Country" to the Chinese People's Liberation Army, ordering the People's Liberation Army to:
We should forge ahead courageously and resolutely, thoroughly, cleanly, and completely annihilate all Kuomintang reactionaries in China who dare to resist, liberate the people of the whole country, and safeguard the independence and integrity of China's territorial sovereignty.
The natural dangers of the Yangtze River have attracted the attention of successive generations of military experts since ancient times, and the Jiangpu, Pukou and Puzhen on the north bank of the Yangtze River are the direct barriers of Nanjing, which are regarded as bridgehead positions, and conquering Miura has important military value for crossing the river and liberating Nanjing.
At that time, the Miura area was garrisoned by the 28th Army of the Kuomintang Li Yannian Corps. The Twenty-eighth Army was one of the most elite units of the Kuomintang, with sufficient soldiers and rich combat experience, which won the trust and reliance of Chiang Kai-shek.
They strengthened the defensive facilities of the position, which consisted entirely of strongholds, fortifications were fortified, and improved the support facilities such as trenches, barbed wire, and mines in front of the position. The Kuomintang vainly attempted to establish a defensive line by relying on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River to protect Nanjing's "impenetrable".
At this time, the Thirty-fifth Army of the Eighth Corps of the Third Field Army of the People's Liberation Army was ready to quickly complete the task of taking Jiangpu, Puzhen, and Pukou head-on, eliminating the enemy in northern Jiangbei, and cooperating with the brother troops to capture Nanjing.
Before 00:00 on the 21st, the 35th Army launched a devastating offensive against the Nationalist troops clinging to the north bank of the Yangtze River.
The 103rd Division of the 35th Army was tasked with capturing Jiangpu City. After the battle began, the division quickly destroyed the enemy fortifications and took control of the commanding heights of Zhao Jia Mountain. However, the stubborn resistance of the defending enemy, coupled with the hidden and strong cover of the bunker, the siege was once frustrated.
The People's Liberation Army stepped up its offensive and finally broke through the city defenses from the northeast corner of Jiangpu City. The fighting continued until dawn the next day. Of the 2,000 defenders, more than 500 were killed or wounded and more than 1,000 were captured. At the same time, the 104th Division quickly cleared the forward position of Puzhen; the 105th Division crossed a large area of water network southeast of Wuyi and inserted itself directly into Puzhen along the Dongge Highway.
The warriors fought harder and harder, capturing the high ground and taking advantage of the favorable terrain to fight the enemy. By the 22nd, the enemy's Yangtze River defense line had finally been completely broken. It is difficult for the enemy to form a confrontational deployment, and can only collapse on all fronts under the rapid division and encirclement of our army.
On the same day, Chairman Mao wrote a commentary for the Xinhua News Agency entitled "My 300,000 Troops Successfully Crossed the Yangtze River in the South."
In the afternoon, Li Yinqiao served Chairman Mao to get up in the bedroom of the Shuangqing Villa. Obviously, chairman Mao was very happy with the news that the People's Liberation Army had successfully crossed the Yangtze River. While wearing clothes and stretching his arms into his sleeves, he said to Li Yinqiao: "Chiang Kai-shek wants to delay time, reorganize the army, and make a comeback; he thinks we are still good at deception, do you know that we also need this time to mobilize the army, repair ships and build ships!" He's building a defensive line over there, and we're setting up cannons over there, and no one is idle..."
Chairman Mao put on his clothes, asked Li Yinqiao to light a cigarette for him, and then said, "The result?" He has only lost a notoriety of delaying time and undermining peace agreements, and he has no advantage. We took advantage of the night, took advantage of the cover of artillery fire, and all of a sudden three hundred thousand troops passed! Their army has collapsed, and our army is going to fight in Nanjing! ”
After that, based on the latest news and more detailed content he received, he wrote a commentary for Xinhua News Agency entitled "A Million Troops of the People's Liberation Army Crossing the Yangtze River".
Third, after the victory in the Battle of the Crossing River, Chairman Mao wrote down the poem "We must not be the overlord of fame and learning."
Due to the gradual collapse of the front line, on April 22, Tang Enbo, commander-in-chief of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou garrison of the Kuomintang government, hurriedly decided to abandon Nanjing, the Kuomintang government scattered, the "Presidential Palace" and the government organs below it withdrew in a hurry, and the soldiers of the Kuomintang army also scattered and fled, and the city of Nanjing had almost become an "empty city.".
On the night of the 23rd, the first to cross the river into Nanjing was the 104th Division of the 35th Army, which detoured from the left wing of Nanjing City, quickly occupied the Purple Mountain Observatory, the 466 Highest Peak, The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and other places, and controlled the city of Nanjing from the southeast.
Among them, the 312th Regiment Special Agent Company of the 104th Division received an order from the regimental headquarters to occupy the "Presidential Palace" at the Xiaguan Wharf, immediately drove straight in from Zhongshan North Road, and under the guidance of the uprising police and underground party organizations, held high the red flag and ran to the "Presidential Palace" on Guofu Road (now Changjiang Road).
Figure | The People's Liberation Army captured the Presidential Palace in Nanjing
When the special agent company arrived at the presidential palace, the guards inside immediately opened the door in cooperation, and the brigade quickly lined up to rush in, seize the favorable terrain, and put an alert on all the passages inside and outside the presidential palace.
At that time, the presidential palace was already empty, from the front yard to the back yard, full of documents and pieces of paper. One of the desk desks in the office, with the desk calendar turned open, remained on April 22, 1949.
Then plastered soldiers of the People's Liberation Army rushed to the roof of the presidential palace, and the flagpole was still hung with the "wolf's tooth flag" that was red in the sky and the sun. The plasters of the People's Liberation Army immediately ripped off the flag of the Kuomintang government and replaced it with a red flag when our army charged into battle.
Since then, the People's Liberation Army has occupied Nanjing, the center of Kuomintang rule, and announced the demise of the Kuomintang's 22-year reactionary rule.
After liberation, the city of Nanjing was full of joy and laughter, gongs and drums were noisy, and the People's Liberation Army, dressed in a loess cloth military uniform, marched through the streets of Nanjing with a healthy stride. The people of Nanjing warmly welcomed the People's Liberation Army, and merchants, clerks and residents along the street spontaneously put out tea and rushed to give it to the soldiers, and exciting welcome scenes could be seen everywhere.
The news of the victory in the Battle of the Crossing River was transmitted to the Shuangqing Villa in Xiangshan, Beiping for several days, and Chairman Mao was obviously much happier than usual, and he could sleep peacefully without taking sleeping pills.
Figure | Chairman Mao reading the People's Daily
On the afternoon of April 23, Chairman Mao got up, wore a dark Zhongshan suit and soft-soled cloth shoes on his feet, and went to the gazebo in the courtyard to read the newspaper, which was the "outside" of the People's Daily carrying the news of the People's Liberation Army's occupation of Nanjing.
At this time, photographers Xu Xiaobing, Hou Bo and his wife, and Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Zhengqing happened to come to the courtyard of the Shuangqing Villa, saw Chairman Mao, Xu Xiaobing and Hou Bo were in professional habits, and immediately seized the opportunity to go forward and take a picture.
When Chairman Mao saw them coming, he stood up and said to Li Yinqiao, who was standing nearby, and the three people who had just arrived: "Nanjing has been liberated, don't you want me to be happy alone, should everyone be happy?" Come, take pictures together. ”
The people standing outside the pavilion immediately gathered around and gathered around Chairman Mao and took another group photo.
Back in the office, Chairman Mao read the newspaper in his hand again, and while reading it, drew some bars and circles on the newspaper.
At this time, Yan Changlin also came to see Chairman Mao and saw that Chairman Mao was writing a congratulatory message to the PLA officers who had won the victory in the Battle of the Crossing River and liberated Nanjing. After that, Chairman Mao drank hot tea, smoked the cigarette that Yan Changlin had lit for him, and wrote a poem with a stroke of his pen:
The Seven Laws and the People's Liberation Army occupied Nanjing
Zhongshan was windy and rainy, and millions of heroes crossed the river.
The tiger is better than the past, and the world is turned upside down.
It is advisable to chase the poor and the poor, and not to become the overlord of the famous school.
If the heavens are full of love and the heavens are old, the right way in the world is vicissitudes.
In the poem, "It is advisable to chase the poor and the poor with the courage of the remaining heroes, and not to become the overlord of the school." It quotes the historical story of the Chu-Han dispute more than 2,000 years ago, and uses the current plan of "carrying the revolution through to the end".
When writing this poem, Chairman Mao thought of Xiang Yu as a leader who could not win the victory, a leader who sold fame and reputation and was indecisive. If Xiang Yu annihilated the main force of the Qin army and took advantage of the victory to eliminate Liu Bang with 400,000 troops, Liu Bang would not have a chance to breathe.
At the same time, he also thought of Liu Bang as a leader who dared to carry the struggle through to the end, a leader who was pragmatic and resourceful. When Xiang Yu was besieged and besieged, Liu Bang took advantage of the victory to pursue, and finally "won the heavenly unification".
This poem is a request to learn From Liu Bang, not xiang Yu. It is to use the history of the Chu-Han conflict for the present, and to demand that "the revolution be carried through to the end."
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Sima Qian wrote 130 volumes of the Records of History, and the first 12 volumes of benji wrote the history of the highest authorities since the Yellow Emperor. The seventh and eighth of this era write Xiang Yu and Liu Bang respectively. From this, we can see the historical status and major historical influence of Xiang Yu and Liu Bang.
They also deeply influenced Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao often commented on Xiang Yu in his speeches at meetings, when he talked to people, or when he wrote articles. Sometimes it is a separate review, and sometimes it is a comparison between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang.
On January 30, 1962, chairman Mao expounded the importance of promoting democracy, daring to listen to different opinions, and concentrating collective wisdom in his speech at the enlarged Central Work Conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and commented on Xiang Yu.
"As long as it is a major matter, it must be democratically discussed, different opinions must be carefully listened to, complex situations and different opinions must be seriously analyzed... If not, it's a one-man domination. Such a first secretary should be called a bully... We now have some first secretaries, even Liu Bang in the feudal era is not as good, but a bit like Xiang Yu. If these comrades do not change, they will eventually collapse. Isn't there a play called "Farewell to the Overlord"? If these comrades always do not change, it is inevitable that one day they will have to 'be ji' just. ”
Chairman Mao especially loved Peking Opera and classical literature, and these ancient Chinese cultures contained infinite wisdom, and Chairman Mao also used this wisdom to the fullest to add color to the revolution and the construction of the motherland.