In chairman Mao's life, he had two unforgettable enemies: Chiang Kai-shek, who wanted to put the Communist Party to death, and Zhang Guotao, who almost pushed the Communist Party into division. People are familiar with Chiang Kai-shek, but for Zhang Guotao, his name appears only once in history textbooks, and there is no more follow-up.
Creators and betrayers
Figure 1 Zhang Guotao
In the "Groundbreaking" section of the history textbook, one can see Zhang Guotao's name. He was a major participant in the CCP and one of the earliest people in China to come into contact with communism. He was a student leader at Peking University and had close ties with Li Dazhao and others.
Peking University is the home of the New Culture Movement, and many young people devote themselves to the student movement in addition to their studies. Zhang Guotao has outstanding achievements, loves to speak, and is deeply trusted by his classmates. He was good at eloquence, always at the forefront of the student movement, and was a well-known progressive youth at that time.
In 1920, Zhang Guotao followed Li Dazhao to Shanghai to establish the Communist Group, the predecessor of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1921, on the red boat in Jiaxing, Zhang Guotao, Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others jointly planned for the founding of the Communist Party of China, and was an important backbone of the early Communist Party.
Figure 2 The "Red Boat" in Jiaxing South Lake
However, the reason why Zhang Guotao, a graduate of Peking University, went to Shanghai to develop was not to plan a communist group. Beijing has always been under the control of warlords, one warlord has just left, another warlord has come. These warlords, who represented the old forces, each conceived a ghost, some wanted to be "restored" and some wanted to claim the throne, and they were very repulsive to the progressive movement organized by the student organization. Peking University's student movement was vigorous, but it did not go well, many students were killed and arrested, and Zhang Guotao once went to the warlord's prison.
This made Zhang Guotao feel that there was no future in staying in Beijing to carry out the new cultural movement, and perhaps he would bury himself. After being released by the warlord, Zhang Guotao found an excuse to go to Shanghai to avoid the warlord's arrest.
When he was at Peking University, many of his friends came from big cities and had superior family conditions, so Zhang Guotao was very concerned about comfort and pleasure when he went to school. He looked down on Mao Zedong, a librarian from the countryside, and felt that Mao Zedong, who spoke his hometown dialect, had no insight or agreed with some of his views. This laid the groundwork for the future confrontation between the two men.
In 1931, Zhang Guotao, as a representative of the Chinese Communist delegation to the Communist International, returned to China from the Soviet Union and began to run the Red Fourth Front. Seeing that the Red Fourth Front was getting stronger and stronger, Zhang Guotao was uneasy. He was worried that he would not be able to maintain his position in the Red Fourth Army, and he would engage in "purges" at every turn, which greatly damaged the strength of the Red Army.
Figure 3 Wuqi Town Will BeShi
At that time, Zhang Guotao had not yet confronted Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and others. In 1935, Zhang Guotao led the Red Fourth Army to meet Mao and Zhou in the Sichuan area. The soldiers of the Red Army thought that this meeting had brought new hope to the party, but they did not expect it to become a dangerous beginning.
According to the decision of the Zunyi Conference, the Red Army, under the leadership of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, continued to march north to reach the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia revolutionary base area, and operated there as the "base camp" of the Red Army, and then sought further development.
Figure 4 Zhang Guotao and Mao Zedong
Zhang Guotao, on the other hand, without the knowledge of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, held the so-called enlarged meeting without authorization, criticized Mao and Zhou's policies, and questioned the legitimacy of the Zunyi conference. He said that when the Zunyi Conference was held, less than half of the delegates attended the meeting, so Mao and Zhou should be deprived of their power, and he should lead the Red Army south to establish a base area in the Sichuan area. Later, he even set up a separate central committee, announcing that Mao, Zhou, and others had been expelled from the party.
Chairman Mao saw Zhang Guotao's series of moves in his eyes and already knew his thoughts in his heart. When meeting Zhang Guotao, even the soldiers of the Red Army felt very strange. It is rumored that the Red Fourth Front is the "Central Red Army," and the conditions in all respects should be better than those of them who have only experienced the Encirclement and Interception of the Kuomintang. However, the "Central Red Army" who came from afar was dressed in rags and full of sadness.
Even stranger is Zhang Guotao's attitude towards them. Every day, Zhang Guotao looked at them with a fierce look, and often asked Zhou Enlai for news of the Red First Army. The day after the meeting, he quietly asked Zhou Enlai how many people there were in the Red Army. Zhou Enlai saw through his thoughts and deliberately said, "We have tens of thousands of people now." Zhang Guotao listened, and sure enough, he frowned.
He could see that Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai were both talented and strategic people, and he was worried that his power in the party would be seized by the two, so he tried everything to target them and seize power for himself.
In 1937, the Central Committee held a meeting in Yan'an, and particularly criticized Zhang Guotao's erroneous ideas during the Long March. Who knows, Zhang Guotao did not admit his mistake, and also proposed to promote several people in the party, and handed the list directly to Zhang Wentian.
Figure 5 In Yan'an in 1938, (from left) Zhang Wentian, Kang Sheng, Zhou Enlai, Kaifeng, Wang Ming, Mao Zedong, Ren Bishi and Zhang Guotao took a group photo
The leaders in the party could see that Zhang Guotao was planning to directly seize power. The men he promoted were not loyal to the Party, but to him personally. Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai always maintained great tolerance for his behavior, hoping to win him over through consultation on the basis of maintaining the party line.
Figure 6 In June 1936, Zhang Guotao abolished the "Second Central Committee"
In May 1938, Zhang Guotao's wife, Yang Zilie, was called to the Central Organization Department and said that she had something important to do. Before that, Yang Zilie had not contacted Zhang Guotao for two months, and she thought that her husband was on a secret mission. However, when she arrived at the Central Organization Department, she knew that Zhang Guotao had actually defected!
Figure 7 Zhang Guotao's wife Yang Zilie
Chen Yun pitied her for being pregnant with Liujia and took out the letter left to her by the traitor Zhang Guotao. Zhang Guotao said in his letter that he was not happy in Yan'an and had already turned to Chiang Kai-shek, hoping that Yang Zilie would come to him. Yang Zilie never dreamed that her husband, whom he had always respected and trusted, had become a traitor.
Insiders and outsiders
After Zhang Guotao defected to Chiang Kai-shek, he did not receive special attention from Chiang Kai-shek. Because he had more contact with the Comintern and less contact with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he was of little political value. In addition, Chiang Kai-shek was more defensive about him and did not "entrust him with heavy responsibilities."
As the saying goes, "there is no turning back arrow when opening the bow", and Zhang Guotao, who has defected, cannot return to Yan'an. Zhang Guotao, who defected to Chiang Kai-shek, did not live an ideal life, and the intrigue within the Kuomintang made him even more depressed. The reason why Zhang Guotao said that he was "confused" in Yan'an was actually the arrogance of many readers in it. He felt that Mao Zedong's set was peasant communism, which was far from the communism he thought it was.
Figure 8 Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Mei-ling and Chiang Ching-kuo
But he did not support the Kuomintang's policy in his heart. Many kuomintang officials were not from peasant backgrounds; some of them were warlords or secret agents, and Zhang Guotao, who was a scholar, could not resist the factional tilting within the Kuomintang at all. Coupled with his former background as the founder of the Communist Party, this made it easier for him to be caught by the people in the Kuomintang.
To survive, he started a magazine that focused on the political situation in the country and published some reviews on it. Zhang Guotao, who thought that he would be regarded by Chiang Kai-shek as a "guest of honor," became an "idle man" of the country at this time.
In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek was beaten by the People's Liberation Army and had to flee to Taiwan. Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Guotao hurriedly suspended the magazine and fled to Taiwan with his family. He had thought that Chiang Kai-shek, who had fled to Taiwan, would make a comeback and that he would start a new life in Taiwan. But all this was just his delusion.
After coming to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek was busy cleaning up the mess and wanted to gain a firm foothold in Taiwan, and he had no time to take care of this "old friend" who defected from Yan'an. Zhang Guotao hoped that Chiang Kai-shek would arrange a place for him to live, but he asked many times and no one responded to him. Helplessly, he had to find a house to live in by himself.
Zhang Guotao, who was not familiar with the land of life, searched for a long time and finally found a cheap rental house in Taipei. However, before he could move in for a year, the house was forcibly expropriated by the Kuomintang and changed into the Southeast Chief Executive's Office. Zhang Guotao, who had no place to stand, also pinned his hopes on the Kuomintang to arrange work for him, but the Kuomintang had long forgotten him.
Taipei could not stay any longer, and Zhang Guotao moved to Hong Kong with his family in order to live. He returned to his old business in Hong Kong and started a magazine. Under the banner of "both anti-communist and anti-Chiang Kai-shek," he hoped that his magazine would attract people's attention. In addition, he also writes some comments and posts them in tabloids to earn some pocket money.
With his income, Mr. Zhang knew that his only way to live now was to keep his distance from both the Kuomintang and the Communists. Therefore, when he was in Hong Kong, he did not associate with the Kuomintang people, but specially befriended many democrats to express his attitude. Those who used to be bent on "seizing power" and influencing the domestic political situation have now become "outsiders" completely.
Chairman Mao died in 1976. Someone interviewed Zhang Guotao and asked him what he thought of Chairman Mao's death. His expression did not show sadness and joy, but he said lightly: "Our time has passed." ”
Smart people and confused people
Zhang Guotao, who was a traitor in the name of a traitor, had a miserable end, and the history textbook did not write his following, or disdained to waste pen and ink on the second half of his ridiculous and sad life.
Figure 9 Elderly Zhang Guotao
In Hong Kong, his magazine survived with the support of a group of democrats, but by 1952 there was a split within these people and the magazine was forced to cease. Zhang Guotao lost his source of livelihood again. Looking at the world, Zhang Guotao, who was struggling, had the idea of returning to the mainland.
He immediately wrote a letter to the leaders of the central government, and the trustees were sent to Beijing. The letter basically means that I see that the mainland is developing very well, and I want to go back and contribute to the development of the mainland. However, Chairman Mao, who had worked with him for many years, immediately saw through his ideas.
Figure 10 Zhang Guotao when he was in Yan'an
Zhang Guotao came to the door at this time, certainly not because he sincerely wanted to make contributions to the country, but because he was "not well mixed" in Taiwan or Hong Kong and wanted to return to the mainland when he was cornered. In order to test him, Liu Shaoqi wrote back: "If you are willing to come back, the central authorities are welcome." But you must openly admit the mistakes made that year and sincerely apologize for the mistakes of that year. ”
Sure enough, Zhang Guotao hesitated after receiving the reply. History has proved that his ideas were wrong at that time, and defecting to the Kuomintang was even more wrong. However, the cowardly Zhang Guotao was still unwilling to admit the mistakes he had committed that year, and he gave up the last chance given to him by the central government.
Rejecting the opportunity given to him by the mainland, Zhang Guotao's life fell into difficulties again. This matter reached the ears of the Americans, who were formulating policies against the mainland at that time, so they asked people to find Zhang Guotao and hoped that he could "help."
Figure 11 Zhang Guotao's family
Zhang Guotao, who was worried about his livelihood, immediately agreed. The Americans promised him a monthly sum of money to provide him with intelligence on the central leadership and to write reports on the central leaders. He provided the CIA with a lot of information about the personality, habits, behavior, and ideology of the central leaders, some of which may even directly threaten the personal safety of the central leaders.
Zhang Guotao, who has always been selfish, can't take care of so much, he only hopes that he will find a "backer" as soon as possible and not live such a poor life again.
Figure 12 Zhang Guotao's memoir "My Memories"
This life lasted for several years, and although Zhang Guotao no longer worried about his livelihood, the Americans used it to control him, which made him feel very distressed. In 1958, when the "Great Leap Forward" began, Zhang Guotao felt that he was valuable to the mainland again, so he once again put forward the idea of returning to China.
At that time, the United States regarded New China as a mortal enemy, and the central authorities knew about Zhang Guotao's close relationship with the Americans. Even so, Chairman Mao instructed: "If Zhang Guotao can give up his ties with the Americans and sincerely admit his mistakes, you can consider providing him with some subsidies." ”
Zhang Guotao could not give up his immediate interests and did not follow Chairman Mao's instructions. He still chose to go to the United States and earn money by writing memoirs. The United States gave him a pitifully small fee, only enough to maintain his daily expenses, and he could not save any savings.
In 1968, the wave of the Cultural Revolution swept through Hong Kong, and fearing that he would be implicated, he hurried to Canada with his wife and children to join his eldest son. However, his eldest son did not have a good income, and it was difficult to support such a large family. In desperation, Zhang Guotao and his wife could only move into a nearby free nursing home and live on receiving relief money every month.
Figure 13 Yang Zilie during his student years (front row, first from the left)
By the age of 79, Zhang Guotao was partially paralyzed by a stroke and had to move out of the nursing home and live in a public hospital for the elderly. Zhang Guotao had no savings, no way to heal, and no way to ask someone to take care of himself. In a wheelchair, he asked his wife Yang Zilie to contact Chiang Ching-kuo, hoping to impress him with "old grace" and give him some financial support.
Figure 14 Zhang Guotao in his later years
The conditions in the hospital for the elderly are very poor, with neither responsible caregivers nor good living facilities. In November 1979, Zhang Guotao celebrated his 82nd birthday at home, and he had to return to the hospital for the elderly. Before leaving, Yang Zilie brought him several blankets.
In early December, Zhang Guotao died in a hospital bed for the elderly, completing a lamentable life. When he turned over, the blanket and quilt fell to the ground, and he was unable to pick it up by himself, and he cried for a long time without anyone responding, so he froze to death.
Figure 15 Tombs of Zhang Guotao and Yang Zilie
This corresponds to the saying that good and evil will eventually be rewarded, and only sooner or later will come.