Zhang Wentian in two major historic turns

Zhang Wentian is an important leader in the history of our party. He made unique contributions to two major historical turns in the history of the Party: first, in a turning point that concerned the life and death of the Party, he promoted the successful convening of the Zunyi Conference; second, in the transition from the civil revolutionary war to the War of Resistance Against Japan, he promoted the strategic transformation from civil war to all-round war of resistance.

Deeply reflect on and understand the erroneous thinking of the "Left" leaning. Zhang Wentian has always made no secret of his mistakes and resolutely corrected them, and in his analysis, he seriously examined his work in the Central Soviet Region: "The line at that time was wrong" "I was one of the main responsible persons, and I should admit my mistakes", especially in publicizing the wrong policies. He believes that his lack of practical experience needs to make up lessons, and he is determined to do it.

In 1931, Zhang Wentian, who had returned from his studies in the Soviet Union, successively served as the director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, a member of the Provisional Politburo of the Central Committee, and a member of the Standing Committee, and gradually realized the problem of "Left" errors in his specific work. Faced with the situation that Bogu and Li De's adventurist military line led the Red Army to a passive situation, Zhang Wentian began to question the correctness of this line and had ideological differences with it. In particular, after the defeat at the Battle of Guangchang in April 1934, Zhang Wentian criticized Bogu and others at the meeting of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, clearly pointing out that this was a wrong practice of fighting a war of attrition.

In view of the repeated setbacks of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign and the fact that the Red Army had to shift strategically, Zhang Wentian observed the current situation and sought solutions from the major changes in the international and domestic situations. On September 29, 1934, Zhang Wentian published an editorial entitled "Everything for the Defense of the Soviets" in the newspaper "Red China". Proceeding from the reality of the struggle, he summed up the experience of flexibly applying various methods of struggle to defend the Soviet zone and smash the five "encirclement and suppression" campaigns, put forward the importance of "maintaining the living force of the main force of the Red Army," and foreshadowed the intention of the Central Red Army to carry out strategic transfer. In view of the differences in the forces of the enemy and ourselves on the various fronts, he raised the long-term question of the revolution. At the same time, it was pointed out that in order to achieve the final victory in the war, it was necessary to adopt flexible tactics of struggle, and to decide to adopt the mode of struggle of offensive, counter-offensive, defensive and even retreat in accordance with the specific circumstances at that time. These views show that he has realized that there is a "Left" error in the military line and wants to change it, and provides useful ideas for our Party to later put forward correct war tactics.

Adhere to the truth and promote the successful convening of the Zunyi Conference. Zhang Wentian insisted that "the truth is in whose hands, follow whom", and gradually realized mao zedong's correctness during the long march, so he accepted Mao Zedong's opinions and fought against the erroneous leaders of Li De and Bogu in the Politburo, playing a crucial role in the victory of the Zunyi Conference.

At the critical juncture when the Central Red Army suffered heavy losses in the Xiangjiang Campaign and Bogu and Li De still had to adhere to the wrong line of action, Zhang Wentian took the lead in supporting Mao Zedong's proposal to transfer troops to Guizhou, which was approved by the majority at the emergency meeting of the Central Committee on December 12, 1934, thus laying the foundation for the successful convening of the Zunyi Conference. From January 15 to 17, 1935, the Politburo convened an enlarged meeting in Zunyi to focus on the then decisive military and organizational issues. On January 17, Zhang Wentian made a "counter-report" criticizing the "Left" military line, which formed a correct orientation for the Zunyi conference before making a resolution and provided an important guarantee for the meeting to accomplish its expected goals. Zhang Wentian was entrusted by the meeting to draft the "Summary Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Opposing the Enemy's Five "Encirclement and Suppression," and it was in the process that Zhang Wentian realized a complete change in his personal thinking from abandoning the "Left" leaning to opposing the "Left" leaning.

After the Zunyi Conference, Zhang Wentian was elected as the general responsibility of the Party Central Committee, and not only supported Mao Zedong and guaranteed Mao Zedong's military command, but also publicized the content of the resolution and the spirit of the meeting in close connection with the reality of the struggle at that time and the ideological situation of the vast number of commanders and fighters, conducted ideological education for the troops, and safeguarded the victorious results of the Zunyi Conference. Mao Zedong pointed out in a speech at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China that without comrades Luo Fu (that is, Zhang Wentian) and Wang Jiaxiang splitting off from the third "Left" line, it would have been impossible to hold the Zunyi Conference well.

Judge the hour and size up the situation, and promote the strategic transformation from civil war to all-out war of resistance. In the process of building the anti-Japanese national united front, Zhang Wentian, as the general responsibility of the cpc Central Committee, together with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and other leaders, made important contributions to realizing the strategic transformation from civil war to all-out war of resistance.

After the Arrival of the Central Red Army in Northern Shaanxi, Zhang Wentian made an in-depth analysis of the new revolutionary situation at that time and intensively put forward new strategic tasks and tactics through reports and speeches. At the Wayaobao Conference, Zhang Wentian presided over the meeting and drafted the "Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Current Political Situation and the Party's Tasks," which clearly pointed out that the tactics of the broad united front should be correctly and boldly applied to all work. After the resolution, Mao Zedong's "On the Tactics of Opposing Japanese Imperialism" systematically expounded the tactical principles of the party's anti-Japanese national united front, thus completing the fundamental turning point of the party's political line.

In March 1936, Zhang Wentian studied and judged the domestic situation and the united front at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, analyzed the performance of different forces, factions or strata, and clearly pointed out that the establishment of an anti-Japanese people's united front is the key at present. In September, Zhang Wentian drafted the "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Question of Forcing Chiang Kai-shek to Resist Japan," holding that the main enemy of the current Chinese people is Japanese imperialism, and therefore it is wrong to treat Japanese imperialism and Chiang Kai-shek as equal, the slogan of "resisting Japan and opposing Chiang Kai-shek" is inappropriate, and all or most of Chiang Kai-shek's army may participate in the anti-Japanese resistance. As a result, our party formulated the policy of forcing Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan, which played an important role in promoting the establishment of the anti-Japanese national united front.

On December 13, 1936, at the enlarged meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee held the day after the outbreak of the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Wentian clearly pointed out in response to the proposal of "removing Chiang Kai-shek" and "examining Chiang Kai-shek" put forward by most comrades at that time: Our policy is to transfer the partial anti-Japanese united front to the nationwide anti-Japanese united front. We should try our best to win, divide, and isolate the compromisers, and refrain from adopting a policy and method that is opposed to the Nanjing government. On December 19, at an enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, Zhang Wentian supported Mao Zedong's idea of "turning a civil war into a war of resistance against Japan" and pointed out the policy of stopping the civil war and unanimously resisting Japan; he calmly analyzed the current situation and put forward the strategy of "trying to buy time and carry out peaceful mediation". The meeting adopted two documents drafted by Mao Zedong and Zhang Wentian, namely , "The Central Government of the Chinese Soviet and the CPC Central Committee Electrify the Xi'an Incident" and "Instructions of the CPC Central Committee on the Xi'an Incident and Our Tasks." Later, through a year and a half of negotiations on anti-Japanese cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was finally reached, which realized the transformation of the domestic revolutionary war into a comprehensive war of resistance against Japan and opened up a new situation in the Chinese revolution and the anti-Japanese struggle.