Two days ago, we analyzed why Chiang Kai-shek lost through the TV series "Armageddon", and today, the China Europe Business Review specially invited Professor Gong Yuzhen of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University to explain to us in detail why the Communist army was able to win.
When we look back at the history of the people's army, we will find that compared with the Kuomintang, the early people's army was absolutely inferior at the level of military strength, but from the very beginning it had an absolute advantage at the level of political ideas.
In the course of the kuomintang-communist game, this political superiority of the people's army was gradually transformed into a military superiority. This is the key factor in the dissipation of power on both sides. The history of the people's army proves a basic management principle, that is, for the organization, long-term success must be the success of values.
Written by | Gong Yuzhen is a professor at the National Institute of Development Studies at Peking University
Responsible for the | Shi Yang
On August 1, 1927, the Communist Party of China launched the Nanchang Uprising, firing the first shot of armed resistance against the Kuomintang reactionaries and opening the prelude to the building of the people's army. After 22 years of bloody struggle, the people's army gradually changed from weak to strong, and finally defeated the Kuomintang army in the Liberation War. This army, which started from the Nanchang Uprising, eventually became a world-famous victorious division and repeatedly defeated strong enemies, where is the mystery?
The biggest loss of the organization is the loss of the original intention
Why did the Kuomintang lose the mainland? Why did the Communist Party win the world? After Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Taiwan, he made a lot of reflections. Because he must explain why in just three years, 4.3 million Kuomintang troops were defeated by 1.2 million Communist troops.
Around 1950 and 1951, Chiang Kai-shek made many speeches. One of the central conclusions was that the Kuomintang army had lost its soul, and the army without a soul could not win the battle.
This sentence should be said to be very painful. What is the name of the Kuomintang army? "National Revolutionary Army". In the beginning it was revolutionary. At the Whampoa Military Academy, which trained officers of the National Revolutionary Army, there was a couplet at the door: "If you are promoted and get rich, please take a different path; greed for life and fear of death, do not enter this door." Lin Biao was a student of the Huangpu Ivy, and when he entered the school, Chiang Kai-shek, as the principal, gave them a lecture: Why did you people come here? Two points: one is the spirit of revolution, and the other is the spirit of sacrifice.
As we see today, the cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy received very limited training in military command. In the war years, when employing people, it is not at all like we have four years to go to military school like we have today. In four months, six months, in a hurry to learn some of the fur of command, I will lead the troops to the battlefield.
Therefore, the command base of these cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy is actually not very solid. Why are the Whampoa Military Academy famous? Because of the spirit of not being afraid of death. During the Eastern Crusade and the Northern Expedition, the casualty rate of officers graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy was very high.
During the Northern Expedition, the National Revolutionary Army was 100,000 and swept through 700,000 Beiyang warlords. At that time, the three major warlords of the direct, Anhui, and Feng clans, any one of the warlords' teams alone, were more than 200,000. Why did 100,000 people beat 700,000? Behind it is the spirit of not being afraid of death.
However, the Kuomintang encountered great challenges in the course of the Northern Expedition. Many small and medium-sized warlords saw that the general trend had gone, and they all defected to the Kuomintang and reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army. None of these warlords' ranks have been remodeled. The size of the National Revolutionary Army was rapidly expanding, but its core values were rapidly diluted.
This is also a challenge that is often encountered in organizational development: when the organization is expanding rapidly, the core value is often diluted.
Another, greater challenge to the KMT was that the KMT later nominally unified the world and became the ruling party. The ruling party is not the same as the revolutionary party. It is simply impossible for a revolutionary party to throw its head and shed its blood without firm beliefs and ideas.
The ruling party is different. The ruling party has mastered the country's resources, one is beneficial, the other is not risky. Therefore, at this time, many people came for profit, and the Kuomintang and its army became more and more a group that relied on interests and cohesion, and more and more diluted the values and pursuits of that year.
Chiang Kai-shek was actually very anxious in his heart, he knew that this would not work, and there was a Communist Party next to him who was aggressive. Chiang Kai-shek wanted to reform the Kuomintang several times, and even wanted to rename the Kuomintang as the "Working Kuomintang," because he could not always separate himself from the working people, but he was no longer able to return to heaven.
In a competitive environment, it's easy for people and organizations to lose themselves. The biggest loss of the organization is the loss of the original intention. Countless organizations have gone to mediocrity and failure because of this.
The advantage of values is the real advantage
Let's look back at the Communist Party. People who know the history of the party and the military know that many of the founders of the people's army in those years actually had very superior family backgrounds. Some are landlords, some are rich peasants, and some are capitalists. Only in this way can we get a good education, even study abroad, accept Marxism-Leninism, and accept the belief in communism.
Since the Opium War of 1840, almost all Western powers have invaded China, and every Chinese with a conscience wants to find a way out for China. These people sincerely believe that the road of Soviet Russia is the road to saving China. So their choice at that time, we all seem to be a little incredible today.
Ye Jianying was the chief of staff of the Fourth Army of the Guangdong Army. When Ye Jianying commanded the battle in the Cantonese army, he was sitting in a palanquin, and there were people next to him who were carrying brandy and wanted to drink brandy at any time. But Ye Jianying changed out of his leather shoes and put on straw shoes.
Zhu De was a brigade commander of the Dian Army, a major general, and lived a life of glory and wealth, but he thought that these things had no meaning, gave up all of them, and went to Europe.
Liu Bocheng was a famous general in the Sichuan Army. Liu Bocheng wanted to mix in the Sichuan Army, which was very easy. However, the Luzhou Uprising was launched, and since then it has been displaced without complaint or regret.
It's all such a group of people. Therefore, we have seen how many setbacks, how many failures, and how many blows the people's army has experienced in the process of starting a business. However, her core team never disintegrated. She has a power to come back from the dead, to scatter and reunite.
The defeats experienced by the people's army are really too many. The Nanchang Uprising failed, the Autumn Harvest Uprising failed, and the Guangzhou Uprising failed. All three uprisings failed. Mao Zedong led more than 700 remnants of the Autumn Harvest Uprising to Jinggangshan. Zhu De led more than 1,000 remnants of the Nanchang Uprising to Jinggangshan. Add up to this is the foundation on which the people's army started.
Later, it continued to develop, but it suffered repeated failures, including the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign. After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Red Army was forced to march. At the time of the Long March, the Central Red Army, that is, the Red Army, had 86,000 people. But how many people were left after the Long March to northern Shaanxi? Less than 8,000 people. Less than 10 out of 100 people can make it to the end alive.
But the people's army has a characteristic: as soon as there is an opportunity, it will immediately spark a spark and can burn the plains. As the Japanese invaded North China, the call for resistance against Japan was high, and ethnic contradictions replaced domestic contradictions as the main contradictions. Then came the Xi'an Incident, where the Communist Party gained legitimacy. The main force of the Red Army in the north was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, and the Red Army guerrillas in the south were reorganized into the New Fourth Army, adding up to a total of 40,000 people.
At that time, the Kuomintang was fighting a frontal war of resistance, but it could not withstand the continuous defeat of the Japanese offensive, and the Kuomintang regime in the occupied areas also continued to collapse. The Japanese army is making rapid progress. However, the Japanese army was small and could only control some large cities and major transportation routes. Today, we can only control points and lines, a large number of surfaces, which the Japanese cannot control.
By this time, the Kuomintang regime had collapsed and the Japanese could not control it. There was a large number of blank spaces behind enemy lines. The Communist Party quickly seized this opportunity, quickly developed behind enemy lines, and soon grew up. At the beginning of the War of Resistance, the regular army of the Communist Party was 40,000 people, and by the end of the War of Resistance, it had reached 1.2 million. At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the population of the Communist Party's base areas was 1.3 million, and by the end of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression it had reached 100 million. This has become a force that you can hardly beat her down.
At that time, the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated in resisting Japan, and Chiang Kai-shek especially wanted to use the high-ranking official Houlu to pull some elites of the CPC over. Zhou Enlai was his colleague in Huangpu, and Lin Biao was his student in Huangpu, but he was not at all moved. Among the elite figures of the Communist Party, only one person defected to the Kuomintang, and that was Zhang Guotao.
Chiang Kai-shek was very happy: Who is Zhang Guotao? The leader of the Four Fronts Army, and the Four Fronts Army was the largest force of the Chinese Communist Army. According to the logic of the Kuomintang army or any warlord army, how many people can be pulled over at this moment? But he didn't expect that even Zhang Guotao's guards wouldn't go with him. Eventually, Zhang Guotao's guards became deputy commanders of the Hubei Provincial Military Region after the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the rank of major general. After Zhang Guotao defected to the Kuomintang, he thought of many ways to disintegrate the CCP organization, but he achieved nothing and was finally abandoned by the Kuomintang.
At that time, the Red Army was an army that many people today could not understand: clothed, uneaten, extremely poorly equipped, displaced, and faced with hardship and death every day. If this had been a Kuomintang army, or any warlord's army, it would have been dispersed long after it had left the Soviet zone. So, why did the Red Army's Long March achieve its final victory? Because it's a force of faith.
The Communist Party's organization may seem so insignificant at first compared to any of the warlords, let alone the more powerful Kuomintang, but it is an organization with ideas, and it is the real advantage of the Communist Party and her army.
Values that cannot influence human behavior are worthless
Of course, there is a problem here: these elite figures of the people's army are well educated and have firm beliefs. For the sake of communism and for the sake of New China, they can throw their heads and spill their blood at all costs. What about those ordinary soldiers? Those ordinary soldiers were just a bunch of peasants, and they didn't know a few in big characters. When you tell him about communism and New China, where can he understand it? How do you let these people live and die with you without fear of danger?
At this time, the real strength of the Communist Party was revealed. The Communist Party put forward a very famous slogan: "Fight the local tyrants and divide the land."
For thousands of years China was an agrarian society. What is the biggest need for farmers? land. Whoever can meet their need for land will follow you to the ground. "Fighting the local tyrants and dividing up the land" has made all the soldiers understand a truth: they are fighting for a great ideal: building a new China; they are also fighting for their own vital interests: fighting the local tyrants and dividing up the land.
The great vision of "building a new China" and the specific program of "cracking down on local tycoons and dividing up the land" are perfectly integrated. Including in the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, why did the common people side with the Communist Party? During the Liberation War, there was a famous battle: the Battle of Menglianggu. At that time, Chen Yi and Su Yu's East China Field Army was 270,000. The nationalist offensive force was 450,000. The ratio of troop strength is almost one to two. However, there are 910,000 people in front of the Yimeng Mountain Branch. A Communist soldier was fighting on the front line, and there were more than three ordinary people behind him to do logistical support: carrying stretchers, transporting ammunition, and delivering water and food. For the Kuomintang, how can such a battle be won?
The people of the Yimeng Mountains even raised a slogan called "Destroying the Family Front." Even if my home is destroyed, I will help you win the battle. The reason is simple: the Communist Party has divided my land. The Kuomintang came back to take back the land. My interests are already tied to you, and I must help you win the battle.
Also, why were those Kuomintang soldiers who had been captured by the Communists willing to stay in the Communist army? During the War of Liberation, the consumption of soldiers was very large. Especially in the later period, the army has been far away from the base area, and it is impossible to replenish troops from the rear. The replenishment of soldiers depends mainly on the front line, that is, on prisoners.
The ninth of Mao Zedong's Ten Military Principles is: "Supplement yourself by capturing all the enemy's weapons and most of its personnel." The source of our military manpower and material resources is mainly on the front line. So at that time there was a special term called "liberation fighter." As the name suggests, it is the liberated warrior, which means the captive soldier.
In the Battle of Huaihai, the Communists had 600,000 troops and defeated the Kuomintang's 800,000. The casualties of war are always very large, but when the battle is over, the army is stronger. Because the captives were replenished. What was the proportion of liberation fighters in the East China Field Army, that is, the Third Field Army, during the Battle of Huaihai? In many companies, the proportion of liberation fighters has reached 80%. Zhou Enlai had a uniform figure at the time: in the entire People's Liberation Army, the proportion of liberation fighters was 64.7%.
You might say: That's a terrible number. Such a large proportion of captives is dangerous. Why are these liberation fighters unwilling to fight in the Kuomintang army, but they are willing to fight when they reach the Communist army? Quite simply, they are farmers too. After the captives were captured, the Communist Party first carried out grievance education, class hatred and national hatred, and awakened class consciousness. Then tell him: Your family has divided the land. He immediately understood a truth: It turned out that I was with you, not with him.
Most of the Kuomintang soldiers were formally trained, and once they recognized the Communist Party's organization and the values behind it, when they started a war, their combat effectiveness was often beyond imagination. This was an important factor in the people's army being able to defeat the Kuomintang army in just three years.
So we see that a great organization must have great value pursuits. But this value pursuit must be implemented. It must be made clear to all that he is fighting for both the good of the organization and his own personal interests. Only such visions and values can be truly implemented.
It is necessary to create a spiritual core that can make the organization strong
Like war, the core question of management since ancient times has been for whom and why.
Businesses are, of course, driven by profit, but even in a utilitarian world characterized by business, companies that lack a sense of ethics cannot go far. Enterprises that rely solely on interests can only be warlords, mercenaries, and even bandits. There is no vision, no right and wrong. The advantage comes, and the benefit is scattered.
No team of warlords or bandits has ever been able to do anything, even in the midst of chaos. When the dust settles, people will find that the last winner must be the force with a clear idea.
If on the battlefield, what really makes people transcend the stakes of life and death, especially what can help you get through the darkest moments, is the deep belief and pursuit of the organization. Then in the business world, a clear mission, vision, and values are the real core competitiveness of a successful enterprise, which constitutes a unique resource and competitive advantage that is different from the opponent, and is the most difficult to be copied and surpassed by the opponent.
So good businesses will definitely establish a clear value proposition. Excellent vision, mission, values, can really form a strong incentive for excellent employees, let employees feel the meaning of their work, so that employees are willing to go all out. One of the main tasks of leaders is to find such a reason for every member of the organization to devote themselves to it from the beginning, and to find a strong self-motivation of the members of the organization. With such a reason, with such a self-drive, the members of the organization will give whatever it takes.
However, just like the Communist Party's "fight the local tycoons and divide the land", in enterprise management, a good mission, vision and values must also be understood and seen by every member of the organization, and from the bottom of their hearts that they are related to themselves. Good missions, visions and values must be derived from the deepest needs of the members of the organization and extracted from the bottom up, rather than simply instilled in the members of the organization from top to bottom.
From the members, to the members. The mission, vision and values formed in this way will truly have the power to touch people's hearts. The few see because they believe, and the majority believe because they see. This is especially true for businesses.
For most people, behind the vision, mission, and values of the organization, it must contain specific material connotations, and the employees of the company must be able to truly see their true future. This is why Huawei's values of "hard work" must contain the connotation of "maximizing the interests of strivers".
Such a vision, value, goal, and pursuit is truly credible, and can be recognized and accepted by every member of the organization, so as to become the common vision, common value, common goal, and common pursuit of the members of the organization.
Such a mission, vision and values are no longer just grand ideals, no longer just the self-expectations of management elites, but become something closely related to the interests of each employee, so that the overall goals of the organization are highly consistent with the individual goals of employees, so that the long-term development of the enterprise and the personal growth of employees are organically integrated.
In this way, it is possible for every employee to understand that they are fighting for a lofty ideal and for personal interests, so that they can truly be inspired from the depths of their hearts, so as to devote themselves to the cause of the organization and promote the completion of the cause of the organization.