Chairman Mao had many secretaries, such as Chen Boda, Jiang Qing, Hu Qiaomu, etc., and Ye Zilong was one of them.
From 1935, Ye Zilong was transferred to Chairman Mao's side as a military staff officer and secretary, and in 1962, he was transferred to the Beijing Municipal Party Committee.
Roughly speaking, Ye Zilong stayed with Chairman Mao for a total of 27 years. He accompanied Chairman Mao through many periods, such as the period of the Agrarian Revolution, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the early period of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and made many contributions.
Although Ye Zilong's merits are great and his identity is important, in the special decade, he still has not escaped.
Since 1966, Ye Zilong has been imprisoned on charges of "eavesdropping on secrets" and interrogated by Jiang Qing and others for seven years.
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Ye Zilong was born in 1916, a native of Liuyang, Hunan Province, not far from Xiangtan, and Chairman Mao is also considered to be a fellow villager in the same province.
Leaf dragon
In middle school, Ye Zilong was educated in the progressive ideas of communism and joined the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army at the age of 15.
In 1932, Ye Zilong joined the Communist Party of China and worked in the Sixth Red Army and the Third Red Army. Because he had read books for several years, Ye Zilong did all the propaganda work in his early days, such as propagandists, mimeographers, translators, etc.
Later, the chief saw that Ye Zilong was clever and literate, so he transferred him to the Red First Army as a technical secretary and chief of the secret unit.
In October 1935, Ye Zilong was transferred to the Confidential Unit of the Central Military Commission as an interpreter because of his down-to-earth ability, loyalty, and loyalty.
A month later, Chairman Mao took a fancy to Ye Zilong and made him his own military staff officer and secretary.
On the one hand, this is because Ye Zilong has been in the Red Army for 5 years, has certain military experience, and is trustworthy. On the other hand, the two are fellow villagers in Hunan, so it is more convenient to communicate.
In this regard, Ye Zilong followed Chairman Mao and served as his confidential secretary.
In April 1947, Ye Zilong also briefly held a leading position in the army, briefly serving as the chief of staff of the Central Column.
From March 1949, Ye Zilong began to serve as the director of the secret office of the General Office of the Central Committee and the director of Chairman Mao's office.
During this period, the director of the General Office of the Central Committee was Comrade Yang Shangkun, who was Ye Zilong's top boss.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao often attended various meetings and made various important speeches during the period.
And Ye Zilong, as the director of the secret room, naturally wants to record all the contents of Chairman Mao's conversation completely, so how can this be done?
Ye Zilong thought left and right, and finally came up with a good idea, that is, to record all of Chairman Mao's conversations with audio recording equipment, and then organize them into words, so that nothing would be missed.
Soon Ye Zilong reported this proposal to Comrade Yang Shangkun, and after discussing with Hu Qiaomu, who was in charge of cultural propaganda work, he felt that it was feasible and applied to Premier Zhou Enlai.
After Premier Zhou read this proposal, he also felt good, so he asked Chairman Mao's opinion.
According to historical records, Chairman Mao initially agreed to record his conversation on audio recording.
Therefore, Premier Zhou formally approved the proposal of Ye Zilong and others.
So in 1956, the secret room began to purchase a batch of recording equipment and carefully trained several recording personnel.
Soon, the time came November 1959.
Chairman Mao held a meeting in Hangzhou, attended by comrades Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Yang Shangkun, and others.
After the meeting began, Chairman Mao talked very much, talked about many topics, and mentioned the "Soviet question."
Originally, according to the course of the conference, the Soviet question was not within the scope of discussion.
Therefore, Chairman Mao specially greeted the participants and asked them not to record the content of the conversation.
After hearing this, Hu Qiaomu interrupted Chairman Mao's words and asked, "There is still a recording, should you turn it off as well?"
Chairman Mao then realized that the recording equipment had been turned on, and he suddenly said a little angrily: "What kind of recording, what are you doing here?"
Seeing that Chairman Mao was angry, Ye Zilong quickly asked the staff to turn off the recording equipment, and explained: "Chairman, this is for the convenience of work, no other ideas!"
At this time, Yang Shangkun also stood up and reviewed: "Chairman, the purchase of recording equipment is my idea, and it has also been reported to the premier for approval."
Chairman Mao listened, his face slowed down, and he nodded and said: "I have always disliked being recorded, and I always feel that I am not free to speak, but if you want to do it, I have no objection."
After that, Chairman Mao waved his hand and motioned for them to sit down, and the little episode passed.
Later, not only will there be recording equipment at the venue, but when the great people travel, there will also be a recording engineer on the special train.
In the spring of 1961, the great man took a special train to Guangzhou. On the way, the great man chatted with a waiter for a while in the lounge.
As the waiter left the lounge, he ran into a sound recorder, who ostentatly said he knew the conversation.
Subsequently, the waiter told the great man the news.
When Chairman Mao found out, he was very angry, because the lounge was his private space and belonged to his privacy.
And from the order side, if the recording file is leaked and obtained by someone with ulterior motives, then the consequences are serious!
Therefore, Chairman Mao immediately instructed the Secretariat to seriously investigate this matter.
In the end, Ye Zilong and Kang Yimin, deputy director of the secret office, were given serious warnings, and another deputy director, Wu Zhenying, was given warning treatment.
Afterwards, the Secretariat held a special meeting to discuss the matter, and stipulated that all future meetings of the central and local governments were not allowed to be recorded!
Originally, Chairman Mao wanted to destroy all the audio recordings over the years. However, at the request of Premier Zhou, some important recordings of the conversation were preserved.
Originally, Ye Zilong was punished for his work mistakes, and this matter should have passed.
From 1962, Ye Zilong was transferred to the Beijing Municipal Party Committee as the head of the industrial department.
Unexpectedly, after 1966, this matter was turned over by Jiang Qing, and this "recording time" was also defined as the crime of "eavesdropping on secrets".
As a result, Ye Zilong began a seven-year detention career, and Comrade Yang Shangkun was dismissed from his post.
During this period, Ye Zilong went through the process of being censored and interrogated many times, but he did not give in.
It was not until 1973, when Chairman Mao learned of this, that he said good things for him: "I know Zilong, and others are very honest and do not have this kind of mind!"
In this way, under the protection and care of Chairman Mao, Ye Zilong regained his freedom, but he was not arranged to work for the time being.
It was not until September 1977 that Ye Zilong was reassigned to work as deputy director of the Beijing Machinery Industry Bureau.
Since then, Ye Zilong has successively served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and vice mayor of Beijing.
After retiring in 1992, the organization took into account Ye Zilong's merits, allowing him to enjoy the treatment of the mayor of Beijing, which is equivalent to the treatment of the province and minister, which can also be regarded as an organizational affirmation of him!
In March 2003, Ye Zilong died in Beijing at the age of 86.