The Red 17th Army was once a heroic armed force with revolutionary ideals and high morale, and its commander Zhang Tao was also an admirable commander. However, in the smoke of war, an accidental event made him lose his way, deviate from his original intention, and finally embarked on a road of no return full of hardships and ups and downs. During the revolutionary war, defection to the enemy was often an unforgivable serious crime, but after the war, he became the village chief safely, and what kind of magnificent history does this contain? What happened back then to allow him to embark on such a deviant path of destiny and return?
1. The road of the original intention: Zhang Tao's ideals and pursuits for devoting himself to the revolution
The Great National Revolution of 1927 swept away groups of young intellectuals who threw themselves into bloody battles for the liberation of the country and the people. Zhang Tao is one of them, a young man from Hunan Province who came from a poor peasant family.
The young and vigorous Zhang Tao joined the famous Eighth Army of the Hunan Army, grew up in the vigorous baptism of war, and soon showed extraordinary bravery and command skills. In 1927, the Eighth Army was reorganized into the 36th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
It was during this period that Zhang Tao became acquainted with Comrade Huang Kecheng, who was the political instructor of a regiment of the 36th Army. Both of them are local young people in Hunan, with similar family backgrounds, and they hate to see each other late. Huang Kecheng saw that Zhang Tao was full of revolutionary enthusiasm and was sincere, and took the initiative to promote the concept of the Communist Party to him and introduce the party's grand goal of fighting the world for the poor and low-level workers.
Gradually, Zhang Tao's understanding of the Communist Party became deeper and deeper, and he also agreed more and more with the party's ideas. Under the influence of Huang Kecheng, he decided to join this team of people fighting for the interests of the people and became an honorable Communist Party member.
Soon after, the Kuomintang rightists launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, and Huang Kecheng was forced to leave the 36th Army to participate in the workers' and peasants' revolutionary armed rebellion in southern Hunan. Zhang Tao also lost contact with him. However, Zhang Tao was deeply concerned about the perverse actions of the Kuomintang rightists, and the revolutionary fire in his heart became more and more vigorous.
In 1930, Huang Kecheng was ordered to serve in the famous Red Fifth Army led by Peng Dehuai. So he went to Wuhan and personally mobilized Zhang Tao to participate in the revolutionary cause of the Red Army. In the face of Huang Kecheng's enthusiastic call, Zhang Tao agreed categorically, and without saying a word, he left the Kuomintang reactionary faction and joined the ranks of the Red Fifth Army.
2. Dark fork in the road: the reasons for Wang Wenyi's defeat and Zhang Tao's rebellion
In January 1934, Chiang Kai-shek launched the fifth frenzied "encirclement and suppression" operation, in an attempt to annihilate the Red Army forces in the central revolutionary base areas and southeastern Hubei in one fell swoop. Under the guidance of German advisers, the Kuomintang army adopted a new tactic of advancing from pillboxes and marching step by step, in an attempt to gradually compress the space for the Red Army's activities and reunite and annihilate it.
Because of its special geographical location and close proximity to the central revolutionary base areas, the revolutionary base areas in southeastern Hubei have naturally become one of the key targets of this "encirclement and suppression." In the face of the fierce attack of the Kuomintang army, Zhang Tao, the commander of the Red 17th Army, strategized and bravely commanded the troops to counterattack.
At first, Zhang Tao adopted the strategy of luring the enemy into depth, sending a small force to attract the enemy's attention, and then led the main force of the Red 17th Army to advance to southern Hunan, trying to feint the Kuomintang army's Tongshan county. But the enemy commander Guo Rudong was not fooled and still acted cautiously.
Zhang Tao immediately changed his strategy and ordered his troops to move to attack Mushigang on the border of Hubei and Jiangxi, which was not only an important supply depot for the Kuomintang army, but also had an extremely advantageous geographical location, which could go south to join the troops of the central Soviet region, and to threaten the important town of Daye in the north.
Sure enough, after a fierce bloody battle, the Red Seventeenth Army finally captured Mushi Port and annihilated the defenders. Zhang Tao took advantage of the situation, grasped the psychological weakness of Guo Rudong's meritorious service, led the troops in the nearby mountains, and when the enemy army was exhausted, he suddenly launched an attack, annihilating more than 1,000 Kuomintang troops and seizing a large number of ordnance.
This victory, known as the great victory of Mushi Port, undoubtedly greatly boosted the morale of the officers and men of the Red 17th Army. However, at this juncture, Zhang Tao and others had a psychology of underestimating the enemy and being proud and complacent, and let the Red Seventeenth Army rest in Mushi Port for seven days, which simply gave the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of.
In order to retaliate for the defeat, Guo Rudong quickly mobilized the strength of 6 brigades and quietly moved forward, and when Zhang Tao noticed the abnormality, the Red 17th Army had fallen into the enemy's semi-encirclement.
After studying the situation, Zhang Tao judged that there were heavy troops on the southeast, south, and west, and only the north was relatively safe, so he decided to move north. But in hindsight, this may have been the result of Guo Rudong's plan of "encircling three ques". Sure enough, when the Red Seventeenth Army moved to a place called Wang Wenyi, it was Chinese New Year's Eve, and the soldiers were exhausted. Zhang Tao ordered to rest on the spot and prepare to continue the next day.
However, no one expected that Guo Rudong's army had already touched it that night and launched a fierce surprise attack! In the face of a serious imbalance in the forces of the enemy and us, the Red Seventeenth Army was quickly crushed, suffering heavy casualties, and the various departments also lost contact. Zhang Tao and a very small number of guards broke through in a hurry, and in the end, only Wang Yixun, the deputy platoon commander, led more than 100 people to return to the team, and then merged into the Red 16th Division.
The complete defeat of this battle was undoubtedly a heavy loss for the 17th Red Army, and Zhang Tao, as the military commander-in-chief, naturally had to bear full responsibility for this. However, his analysis of the reasons for the defeat was biased, he insisted on subjectivism and dogmatism, and had sharp contradictions with the higher-level party committees.
3. Tainting the original intention: the humble life after the mutiny
The fiasco of the Battle of Wang Wenyi dealt a huge blow to Zhang Tao. In the post-war summary, the higher-level party committees severely criticized his mistakes and demanded that he conduct a thorough examination. However, Zhang Tao was influenced by the old ideas, resting on his laurels, and was never able to correctly recognize the root cause of failure.
At the same time, he also learned even more grim news: during the "sweep" operation of the Kuomintang army, his family was brutally persecuted, his wife, children, brothers and sisters were killed, and his hometown was looted and humiliated. This was undoubtedly a heavy psychological blow to Zhang Tao, which made him begin to shake his confidence in the revolutionary cause.
Under the pressure of such internal and external troubles, Zhang Tao had the idea of escaping reality. He believes that since he is unable to serve in the party, it is better to go on another path, and maybe he can save his own life. Under the influence of such thoughts, Zhang Tao made a painful decision: to defect to the enemy and rejoin the reactionary faction of the Kuomintang.
In March 1934, Zhang Tao led the remnants of the guards to abscond from the Red Army position, but was soon discovered and accepted by the Kuomintang army. After all, Zhang Tao was born in the Red Army, had relatively old qualifications, and was once a cadre at the level of army commander, so the Kuomintang still gave him a very high evaluation and rank and appointed him as the commander of a battalion.
Despite this, the rank of the battalion commander was already far below his position during the Red Army, so to speak, and he was secretly humiliated. However, in the environment at that time, Zhang Tao also had to humiliate himself so much in order to save his life. He also had the idea of returning to the revolutionary ranks in his heart, but every time he thought of the tragic fate of his parents, wife and children, he couldn't help but dispel this thought.
In this way, Zhang Tao barely survived in the Kuomintang camp, during which he was exiled and transferred abroad many times, and his life was miserable. He originally remembered the revolutionary friendship with Huang Kecheng and others, and once considered whether he could reveal some confidential information about the Red Army, but in the end he gave up. Maybe it's because I'm still nostalgic for those eventful years, or maybe it's because I have a glimmer of hope that the revolution will one day succeed.
With the start of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Zhang Tao was also recruited by the Kuomintang and arranged to serve in a remote stronghold. During this period, he never came into contact with any of the Red Army or Communist forces. It was not until 1949, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army finally won a complete victory in the war, that Zhang Tao regained his freedom.
He returned to his hometown of Hunan and lived an idle and obscure life in that small village. Sometimes I feel nostalgic for those eventful years, but more often than not, I am deeply ashamed of the appalling fact that I defected to the enemy. But even so, he was not punished as severely as many traitors in the end, thanks to the protection and forgiveness of his old comrade Huang Kecheng.
4. Regaining the original intention: new life and new roles after the founding of the People's Republic of China
The birth of the People's Republic of China has brought new life opportunities to Zhang Tao. With the blessing of Huang Kecheng, he escaped punishment and regained his freedom. But more importantly, all this gave him the opportunity to re-examine his former choices and regain his original revolutionary intention.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Tao took the initiative to confess to Huang Kecheng about the defection that year. Although Huang Kecheng expressed strong dissatisfaction with his deviant behavior, considering his past revolutionary history and the special circumstances at that time, he did not severely punish him, but magnanimously forgave him.
Under the guidance of Huang Kecheng, Zhang Tao re-realized the mistake of the rebellion of the year, and developed a heartfelt yearning and desire for the cause of the party and the people. He offered to rejoin the Chinese Communist Party, but unfortunately, his application to join the Communist Party was ultimately rejected due to his serious mistakes at the time.
Despite this, Zhang Tao did not give up. On the contrary, he put more effort into the cause of building his hometown. He used his organizational experience and leadership skills from his time in the military to take an active part in the local land reform movement.
In those days, the implementation of land reform was an extremely difficult task. In order for the broad masses of peasants to truly redeem themselves from feudal and free themselves from the yoke of hereditary exploitation for thousands of years, it is necessary to reach the core of power of the landlord class. This requires a group of leaders with foresight and sagacity who are familiar with the actual situation in the rural areas to set an example and take the lead in declaring war on the landlords.
Zhang Tao is one such leader. He used his affinity and organizational skills to spare no effort to propagate the party's land policy to the villagers, defend their grievances, and help them establish their own class organizations. Due to the particularity of the geographical location, the small village where Zhang Tao is located is a microcosm of the rural areas stretching along the border between Hunan and Hubei, and its importance can be imagined.
In this way, in the process of the land reform movement, Zhang Tao gave full play to the role of the party's assistant and grassroots organizer. When the regional party committee praised his performance, he was finally elected as the village head, and since then he has really stepped into the track of a new life.
Since then, Zhang Tao, as a new identity of a reborn village head, has devoted his life to serving the people of his hometown. He built roads and bridges for the villagers, solved the problem of drinking water, applied for funds from the higher authorities to build a primary school, and cultivated many new forces for the revolutionary cause.
In addition, Zhang Tao also actively reflected the people's voices to his superiors, and wrote letters many times to redress the grievances of his fellow villagers. Every Saturday and Sunday, he would convene a meeting of the villagers, so that everyone had a chance to speak out, and strive to put the people in real power. At that time, most of the elements in the village who were not very honest were corrected by Zhang Tao one by one.
In this way, a former rebel, after re-embracing the revolutionary cause, also established his own business. Although he was never allowed to rejoin the party organization, he used his practical actions to interpret the purpose of the communists to "serve the people wholeheartedly", and it can be regarded as making up for the mistakes of the year to a certain extent.
5. History: Huang Kecheng's magnanimity and Zhang Tao's eventual regain of fame
During Zhang Tao's tenure in the village, his old friend Huang Kecheng had been interceding for him in the higher-level party organization. Huang Kecheng believes that although Zhang Tao did make a serious mistake of defecting to the enemy in those years, he was still an old comrade who was loyal to the revolutionary cause and made contributions after the founding of New China, and he can be completely forgiven.
In Zhang Tao's fifth year as village chief, a major event finally changed his fate. In 1954, when Huang Kecheng was transferred to Hunan, he made a special trip back to Zhang Tao's hometown to inspect. He learned that over the years, Zhang Tao has been serving the people with a diligent and simple image, and is deeply loved by the villagers.
After seeing Zhang Tao in person, Huang Kecheng was even more excited to reunite after a long absence. The two couldn't help but think of the eventful years when they fought side by side, and reviewed together the entire tortuous process from the Kuomintang reactionary faction to joining the Red Army, and finally defecting to the enemy.
Although Zhang Tao's treacherous behavior is painful, Huang Kecheng has a revolutionary friendship with him for decades after all, and does not harbor too much malice and prejudice against him. During the conversation, Huang Kecheng said to Zhang Tao: "Comrade, you did make mistakes, but you finally returned to the arms of the people, and this is the most important thing. Now it seems that you have proved your loyalty to the party and the people with practical actions, and this is enough. ＂
After Zhang Tao heard this, tears welled up in his eyes, he didn't expect his old revolutionary friend to be so magnanimous and compassionate. From then on, his desire to rejoin the party organization became even stronger.
After returning to his superiors, Huang Kecheng personally wrote a material for Zhang Tao, repeatedly expounding his experiences inside and outside the party, in the Red Army and the Kuomintang camp, and resolutely rehabilitated him at great political risk. At the same time, he also listed Zhang Tao's contributions to his hometown over the years.
After Huang Kecheng's strong appeal, the higher-level party organization finally made the decision to re-admit Zhang Tao. Although he was ultimately unable to rejoin the Chinese Communist Party, he was at least allowed to join the Chinese Communist Youth League, which can be regarded as re-entrenchment in the party's green organization.
In 1956, under the auspices of Zhang Tao, Jiaxiangzi held a grand oath-taking ceremony for joining the group. 65-year-old Zhang Tao, witnessed by Huang Kecheng, re-embraced the party's banner and read out the oath of joining the group. Countless villagers at the scene applauded and cheered, and everyone was happy that he could finally get Zhaoxue.
From then on, as a member of the Communist Youth League, Zhang Tao continued to work hard for his fellow villagers until his death in 1975. Although he was not allowed to rejoin the Communist Party of China, it was enough to make up for his mistakes and finally reconnect with the righteous path of the revolution. And the only thing he regrets may be that his life-saving benefactor Huang Kecheng died of illness in 1957 and did not have the opportunity to witness his final rehabilitation.