Mentioning premier Zhou Enlai's admiration and deep popularity is inevitably indispensable to his excellent political and diplomatic ability and negotiation wisdom. However, Premier Zhou, who has always been cautious and careful in handling intelligence work, also almost leaked our party's top-secret documents due to his own negligence, and fortunately, with the wisdom of the premier, the crisis was resolved...
So, who is the matter related to, and why is the document classified as a top secret document? How did Premier Zhou skillfully defuse this crisis?
It turned out that after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, US President Truman specially sent five-star General Marshall as a special envoy to China to reconcile the military conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in December 1945. Shortly after coming to China, Marshall had a plan, and he decided to set up a three-member committee, composed of himself and two senior leaders of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party (Marshall, Zhang Qun, and Zhou Enlai), to operate on the basis of agreements reached by all three parties.
After the establishment of the three-member commission, a provisional agreement was reached on the parties to the ceasefire agreement. Despite some brief victories, Marshall soon realized that the integration of the military must be established as soon as possible, and he was even more eager to reach an agreement for the benefit of the United States.
In January 1946, Marshall submitted his own proposal to Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, the main content of which was to stop all military movements and movements, but to allow the Kuomintang troops to have the initiative in the northeast. Subsequently, the trio held further consultations on the issue, and after a long and repeated communication, on the issue of the armistice in the northeast region, the representatives of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party signed the "Co-ceremony on stopping the internal military conflict".
It was this trip that allowed Zhou Enlai to accidentally leave behind information about an important intelligence officer installed by the CCP in the Kuomintang army on Marshall's plane. This Communist was Xiong Xianghui, a high-ranking spy arranged by our Party at the side of Hu Zongnan, Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted general. This chess piece must not be used until the critical moment, because he can contact the decision-making information of senior management at the first time, and it must not be exposed.
Premier Zhou immediately sent someone to secretly invite Xiong Xianghui and send him to the Zhou Mansion, and after meeting him, he truthfully said:
I accidentally made a mistake, and I took Marshall's plane to Yan'an to study the armistice. When I returned from Yan'an, I was extremely tired due to a one-night meeting the day before. Slept very deeply on the plane. After getting off the plane, I found that the small book in the underwear was missing. The rest doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is that the book has information about your address and information.
He also indicated to Xiong Xianghui that Marshall sent his cronies to return a confidential document, and that the small sealed box contained the missing notebook, which was likely to have been photographed and preserved. Zhou Enlai's frank apology was due to a serious accident caused by his failure to pay attention to the inspection and hastily disembarking the plane. He indicated that he had reported to the Central Committee, made a preliminary review, and requested punishment.
Zhou Enlai solemnly said to him: "Every Communist Party member should be ready to sacrifice at any time, and the Party organization should not let Party members sacrifice in vain." I caused this accident, I have to take responsibility, I have to do everything I can to save it, and I can't make a mistake again and again. ”
Premier Zhou's attitude really touched Xiong Xianghui, who did not expect that a senior leader would apologize to himself in person and take the initiative to ask for punishment. He did not understand that the exposure of his identity was a mortal threat to undercover, and how to deal with it was a severe test of his professional qualities. Adhering to a high degree of loyalty to our party, he said: "In case of problems, there is nothing, I am ready to die at any time from the time I was sworn into the party." ”
Zhou Enlai advised Xiong Xianghui that things had not reached a point where they could not do anything, and that some remedies could be made. Through an analysis of the efficiency of the Kuomintang's work, Zhou Enlai asked Xiong Xianghui to first use the excuse of living in Shanghai for half a month to ensure that he would return after the incident. Soon Zhou Enlai learned through insiders that Marshall had met Chiang Kai-shek, but judging by the reaction of the Kuomintang, the information was not leaked.
The next plan truly reflected Zhou Enlai's superb strategy. Premier Zhou first found Fu Jingbo, the secretary of Ambassador to China Stuart Redden, met him in the name of a good friend, and gave him a few tickets for Peking Opera. Zhou Enlai calculated that this extra ticket would be transferred to Situ Leiden by Fu Jingbo, and Situ Leiden was bound to bring Marshall, who was also in Nanjing.
Marshall, like Stuart, was interested in Chinese culture and naturally would not refuse the opportunity to play the show. So what exactly is this scene? Why did Zhou Enlai arrange this scene? It turned out that what their group was watching was the Peking Opera "Qunying Society", which cleverly had a section of "Jiang Gan's Book Of Theft", in which Jiang Gan infiltrated the Eastern Wu military camp as a detailed work, was recognized by Zhou Yu, and set up a plan to let Cao Cao kill Cai Mao and Zhang Yun by mistake.
Isn't this plot similar to Zhou Enlai's loss of his notebook? Marshall thought about it in a cold sweat, and with his understanding of Zhou Enlai, he couldn't figure out how such a cautious and strict person could make such a low-level mistake, and would it be deliberately designed like this play? Marshall thought about it and finally destroyed the document.
This incident can make us see the personality charm of Premier Zhou, whether it is frankness and responsibility in the face of his own mistakes, or calm and clever in dealing with critical issues. It also makes us understand how he made countless politicians remember his personal charm on the world political stage, and also remember the big country behind him!