At the end of 1933, the Security Bureau of the Red Fifth Army received instructions from superiors to investigate and arrest Cai Zhong, the political commissar of the Red 34th Division. This move surprised Liu Xiangsan, chief of the pre-trial section, who had just returned from the training course of the Red Army Security Bureau. Cai Zhongke is a veteran of Jinggangshan, the old revolutionary base area, and was the regimental political commissar of the Red Front Army during the first anti-encirclement and suppression, and his reputation is extremely high. Liu Xiangsan led people to the Red 34th Division to investigate, and found that there were no issues involving Political Commissar Cai. Should he carry out the order of his superiors to arrest Commissar Cai? Or do you make your own judgment based on the actual situation? Liu Xiangsan is in a dilemma, how will he choose next?
1. The higher-ups ordered the arrest of Political Commissar Cai, raising suspicions
At the end of 1933, when Liu Xiangsan returned to the Security Bureau of the Red Fifth Army after finishing his studies in Ruijin to attend the training course of the General Security Bureau of the Red First Army, he found that the department had changed a new director. The new director of the bureau is named Kuang Zhuquan, a veteran comrade who was born in Chenxian County, Hunan Province and is rich in revolutionary experience. Kuang Zhuquan not only participated in the Southern Hunan Uprising, but also served as a regimental representative during the Jinggangshan period, and later served as the political commissar of the Red 22nd Army.
Soon after, Kwong appointed Liu Xiangsan as the temporary acting executive minister and instructed him to investigate an important military matter. It turned out that a special commissioner reported that more than 10 officers and men below the squad leader level of the 34th Red Division had recently defected with weapons, but Kuang Zhuquan believed that this incident was caused by the vacillation of the division's political commissar Cai Zhong's position, so he ordered Liu Xiangsan to arrest and bring Cai political commissar to the case for interrogation.
An arrest warrant surprised Liu Xiangsan. Cai Zhong can be described as a revolutionary veteran, he not only participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising with Chairman Mao, but also served as the regimental political commissar of the Red Army during the first anti-encirclement and suppression. Now he is the divisional political commissar of the 34th Red Division, and he has a high prestige in the troops.
As a newly promoted security cadre, although Liu Xiangsan is inconvenient to comment on the decision of his superiors, he still has many doubts in his heart. Political Commissar Cai has always been upright and democratic, will he really waver in his position at a critical moment? Or is someone deliberately framing you? With such a big event, isn't Director Kwong too hasty?
2. Liu Xiangsan secretly launched an investigation and found that Political Commissar Cai was not at fault
In the face of Kuang Zhuquan's decision, although Liu Xiangsan had doubts, he did not rashly comment. As the chief of the pre-trial section, he is well aware of the seriousness of the investigation and must uphold the principle of seeking truth from facts.
So, Liu Xiangsan took three security cadres to the location of the Red 34th Division. They first met with Cai Zhong himself, and Political Commissar Cai was very cooperative, and took the initiative to call for relevant commanders and witnesses to be brought in, so that the security personnel could conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the recent defection.
After repeated verification and verification of the testimony of many parties, Liu Xiangsan gradually grasped the cause and effect of the incident. It turned out that the trigger for this defection incident was actually caused by some of Chiang's prisoners of war who had been captured by the Red Army and were later released and incorporated into the army, and had nothing to do with the work of Political Commissar Cai himself.
In the process of contact, Liu Xiangsan was gradually impressed by Cai Zhong's character. This veteran comrade's style of work is democratic, above board, and his approachable style makes the security cadres feel very cordial.
After the investigation was completed, Liu Xiangsan returned to the corps headquarters with the results of the investigation and submitted the materials to Director Kuang Zhuquan. Unexpectedly, after reading it, Kuang Zhuquan had a blunt attitude, was extremely dissatisfied with the conclusion of the investigation, and thought that it was necessary to verify it with the higher-level security department.
In the face of the doubts of his superiors, although Liu Xiangsan was a little embarrassed, he did not waver in his judgment. He believes that as long as he insists on seeking truth from facts and upholding principles, his superiors will be able to gain insight into the essence of things.
Sure enough, Li Kenong, director of the General Security Bureau of the Red Army, fully recognized Liu Xiangsan's investigation after reviewing it. Later history also proved that during the Xiangjiang Campaign, Political Commissar Cai fought side by side with Chen Shuxiang, commander of the Red 34th Division, and finally died heroically to cover the main force, which shows that he was loyal and would not "shake his position" at all.
3. Liu Xiangsan upholds principles and has the courage to resist authority
Although the higher-level Security Bureau recognized the findings, Kwong Zhuquan still had a lot of criticism about Liu's conclusions. As the highest commander of the Red Army's security department, his authority was unquestionable. Liu Xiangsan, on the other hand, is only a new chief of the pre-trial section, and his position in the system is obviously false.
However, Liu Xiangsan is not a mediocre person. He was born in the Red Army and has been earning a living in the army since the Ningdu uprising. After the training of Ruijin Defense, he has armed himself with the thorough theory of Marxism. In his view, upholding principles is above all else, and even in the face of heavy pressure, there must be no wavering.
In fact, Liu Xiangsan had already discovered that Kuang Zhuquan had a serious deviation in the concept of defense work. The new director of the bureau often blindly confined himself to subjective assumptions, and the arrest of cadres was groundless, which could only lead to unnecessary chaos in the work.
Therefore, when Kwong Zhuquan called him to the case again and questioned the results of the investigation, Liu Xiangsan spoke bluntly and reiterated his conclusion. He even listed the many omissions found in the previous investigations and interrogations, so that Kwong Zhuquan had nowhere to refute.
In the face of Liu Xiangsan's resolute attitude, although Kuang Zhuquan was dissatisfied, he was helpless. As a veteran revolutionary cadre, he was well aware that there was indeed a problem of work style, and he did not want to turn against his fellow travelers in the army because of his temporary stubbornness.
As a result, Kuang Zhuquan could only report the matter again to the General Security Bureau of the Red Army. And Li Kenong and other superior leaders have already supported Liu Xiangsan's views before, so naturally they will not change their views. In this way, Liu Xiangsan survived this contest with firm principles and excellent work style.
Fourth, the superiors were open to Liu Xiangsan's judgment
Although Kuang Zhuquan, director of the Security Bureau of the Red Fifth Army, complained about Liu Xiangsan's investigation results, the practice of the General Security Bureau of the Red Army was impressive.
As a higher-level leading department, Li Kenong and others did not adopt a simple command-like management of the investigation work of their subordinates, but adopted an open and tolerant attitude. After receiving Kuang Zhuquan's report again, Li Kenong did not directly follow Kuang Zhuquan's opinion to make a decision, but personally re-examined all the investigation materials submitted by Liu Xiangsan.
For Liu Xiangsan's conclusion, Li Kenong spoke highly and appreciated. He believes that Liu Xiangsan took a clear-cut stand in the course of the investigation, seemed to have adhered to the principle of seeking truth from facts, and achieved comprehensiveness, objectivity, and fairness, and there was no problem with his conclusions.
It can be said that Li Kenong's practice embodies the consistent style of the communists, that is, "no matter whose opinion is put forward, it should be seriously studied by the organization." The higher-level leaders did not blindly obey Kwong's personal views, but proceeded from the overall situation, upheld an open-minded and realistic attitude, and cautiously treated the materials submitted by the subordinates.
This style of work has also made it inevitable that some controversies and differences will arise in the local security departments. In the final analysis, however, it is precisely because of this insistence on democratic centralism at the central and higher levels that the party has been able to effectively control the armed forces for a long time and avoid the serious mistakes caused by individual arbitrariness.
It is not difficult to see that the internal work system and operational mechanism of the Red Army at that time were quite sound, and this was one of the important reasons why it was able to defeat the Kuomintang reactionaries and win the final victory.
5. Liu Xiangsan's decision was proved to be correct after the fact
Time soon proved that Liu Xiangsan's judgment of Cai Zhong was correct.
At the beginning of 1934, the Kuomintang army launched the fifth "encirclement and suppression" offensive. In order to get out of the encirclement, the Central Red Army was forced to carry out a strategic shift to the west. In this famous "25,000-mile Long March", the Red 34th Division played an important role.
In May of that year, the main force of the Red Army had broken through the border of Guangxi and transferred to the western Hunan region. In order to cover the safe transfer of the main force, Cai Zhong led the Red 34th Division to hold its position in the area of the Xiangjiang River and launch a stubborn delay battle with the Kuomintang army.
In this battle of the Xiangjiang River, Political Commissar Cai and division commander Chen Shuxiang personally supervised the battle, took the lead, and generously went to the cause of the party and the people. In the end, both died heroically and were immortalized.
It was precisely because of the heroic struggle of Cai Zhong and other comrades that the Red Army was given precious time, so that the main force of the Long March was finally able to reverse the passive situation and continue to fight after moving to northern Shaanxi. It can be said that the loyalty of Political Commissar Cai was one of the key factors that enabled the great revolutionary contingent of the Central Red Army to carry forward the indomitable spirit in difficult times.
In contrast, Kuang Zhuquan, who issued an unwarranted arrest warrant to Cai Zhong at the beginning, did have a serious error in judgment. Fortunately, under the correct guidance of the central and higher-level leading departments, as well as the adherence to principles and truthfulness of Liu Xiangsan and other grassroots cadres, this crisis was finally resolved.
This experience once again shows how important the political line and organizational principles of the Communist Party are. Only by persisting in seeking truth from facts and democratic centralism can we effectively avoid major mistakes by the leaders at the upper levels and fully arouse the enthusiasm of the broad masses of cadres and the masses. This is also the fundamental reason why the Red Army was finally able to win the great victory of the Long March and the national victory of the new democratic revolution.