Read Mao Chronicle (139): Chen Changhao’s tragic life (Part 1): A good hand of cards, played badly
In 1937, Mao Zedong was 44 years old.
On October 30, 1937, Mao Zedong attended a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to discuss the lessons of the failure of the Western Route Army.
Chen Changhao, chairman of the Military and Political Committee of the West Route Army and political commissar of the West Route Army, made a review report.
Mao Zedong pointed out in his speech that the essence of Zhang Guotao's line was escapeism, warlordism, and anti-Party and anti-Central line.
Since then, Chen Changhao has gradually retreated from history, and few people have paid attention to it.
Looking back on his life experiences, it is quite emotional.
In August 1906, Chen Changhao was born in Daijiazhuang, Yong'anbao, Hanyang County, Wuhan City (now Caidian District, Wuhan City). He studied at Wuchang University in his early years. He joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1926, and in May 1927, he was appointed director of the Propaganda Department of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. After the failure of the Great Revolution, Chen Changhao persisted in the underground struggle in the Wuhan area for a period of time.
In September 1927, he was selected by the organization to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, the Soviet Union. When he said goodbye to his wife Liu Xiuzhen, who had been pregnant for several months, and his eldest son Chen Baisheng (Chen Zuze), Chen Changhao named his unborn child "Yangsheng" (Chen Zutao), which means "born when his father went abroad."
Soon after arriving in the Soviet Union, Chen Changhao became a probationary member of the Communist Party of China. He, Wang Ming, Bo Gu, Zhang Wentian and others were called the "Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks".
In October 1930, Chen Changhao returned to Shanghai and became a formal party member of the Communist Party of China in December. He served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League.
In April 1931, dispatched by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and arranged by Zhou Enlai personally entrusted by Gu Shunzhang, Chen Changhao followed Zhang Guotao, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, disguised himself as a businessman and took a boat from Yangshupu Pier in Shanghai to Hubei and Henan. In the Anhui Revolutionary Base Area, he served as a member of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Central Branch of the Communist Party of China and a member of the Revolutionary Military Committee, and secretary of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Central Branch of the Communist Youth League (Young Communist Special Committee).
In late June, at the Party Member Congress of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area held in Xinji, Henan, Chen Changhao was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Central Branch of the Communist Party of China and director of the Political Department of the Revolutionary Military Commission. In mid-September, Chen Changhao was appointed political commissar of the 4th Red Army.
On November 7, 1931, the Fourth Red Front Army was established, with Xu Xiangqian as commander-in-chief and Chen Changhao as political commissar. Chen Changhao became the direct commander of this powerful team when he was only 25 years old.
On the morning of December 22, 1931, Chen Changhao was aboard the first aircraft of our army, the "Lenin" (in February 1930, the plane of Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang made an emergency landing in Hubei, Henan and Anhui due to exhaustion of fuel. The territory of Yihuadian in the Soviet Area was captured by me. The soldiers and civilians of the Soviet Area named it "Lenin" (it was the first aircraft of our army) and dropped bundled mortar shells and a large amount of propaganda materials on the enemy division headquarters in Huang'an City, which exploded. The enemy was so stunned that he psychologically destroyed the enemy's defense line, allowing the Red Army to quickly capture Huang'an City. After that, he participated in commanding famous battles such as Shanghuang, Sujiabu, and Huangguang.
In October 1932, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area failed in its fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign. Zhang Guotao, Chen Changhao, Xu Xiangqian and others were forced to lead the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army into the Qinling and Daba Mountains. After connecting several important towns in the northeast of Kechuan, they established the Sichuan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base.
In June 1933, after successfully smashing the "three-way siege" of Sichuan warlord Tian Songyao's tribe, the Fourth Red Army held a military meeting at Wangcang Mumen and expanded the original 4 divisions to 4 For the individual army, the highest military leadership organization was determined to be the Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission, with Zhang Guotao as chairman, Chen Changhao and Xu Xiang as former vice-chairmen, and Zeng Zhongsheng, a famous general of the Fourth Front Army of the Red Army, as chief of staff.
The Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission consists of the Front Army General Headquarters, the General Political Commissar, and the General Political Department. Xu Xiangqian is the general commander, Wang Shusheng is the deputy commander-in-chief, and Chen Changhao is the general political commissar and director of the General Political Department. After that, he participated in the command of major battles such as the "Six-Route Siege" against the Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang and the Battle of Jialing River.
——This is probably the most glorious time in his life.
In January 1934, at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chen Changhao was co-opted as an alternate member of the Central Committee and elected as an executive member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Soviet Union.
In March 1935, the Fourth Red Army under the direct command of Chen Changhao established the Sichuan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area into the second largest Soviet area in the country after the Central Soviet Area.
In May 1935, due to the enemy's situation, Zhang Guotao, Chen Changhao, Xu Xiangqian and others were also forced to lead the Fourth Red Army in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area to conduct a Long March.
During the Long March, after the First and Fourth Front armies joined forces, Zhang Guotao relied on his strong troops and horses and had the idea of seizing power.
On July 18, 1935, at the behest of Zhang Guotao, Chen Changhao called the central government and suggested that Zhang Guotao be appointed chairman of the Military Commission and Zhu De be appointed commander-in-chief of the former enemy.
In order to maintain the unity of the two armies and stabilize Zhang Guotao, the Central Military Commission appointed Zhang as the General Political Commissar of the Red Army. At the same time, the Military Commission decided to establish the former enemy headquarters, with Xu Xiang as commander-in-chief and Chen Changhao as political commissar. Chen and Xu were awarded gold Red Star medals.
On August 4, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a Shawo meeting, co-elected Chen Changhao and Xu Xiangqian as members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and appointed Chen as director of the General Political Department of the Red Army.
After the meeting, the mixed group of the First and Fourth Red Front Army was organized into the Left and Right Route Army: the Left Route Army was led by Zhang Guotao, Zhu De, and Liu Bocheng; the Right Route Army was led by Chen Changhao and Xu Xiangqian, with central agencies and Mao Zedong Waiting for action with the right army.
At the end of August, the Right Route Army successfully passed through the grassland and successfully fought the Battle of Baozuo, dominated by the Red Fourth Front Army controlled by Chen Changhao, laying the foundation for the Left Route Army to move north.
On the night of September 9, the situation was urgent. After Mao Zedong made a final attempt to win over Chen Changhao, he led the Red Army to leave overnight.
At the critical moment, Ye Jianying not only sent a secret message to Mao Zedong, but also resolutely followed Mao Zedong to the northeast. Xu Xiangqian said the famous saying "The Red Army will not fight the Red Army" at the critical moment.
Chen Changhao led the main force of the right route army to follow Zhang Guotao south. Zhang Guotao established a separate "central government", and Chen Changhao actually agreed with Zhang's behavior.
Due to fundamental errors in its route and policy, the Red Fourth Front Army's "large-scale southward advance" quickly failed, and its total strength dropped sharply from 80,000 to 40,000. Under the in-depth and meticulous work of He Long, Ren Bishi, Zhu De, and Liu Bocheng, Chen Changhao, who experienced the painful lesson of failure in going south, changed his attitude towards Zhang Guotao and urged Zhang Guotao to go north again.
In October 1936, after the three main forces of the Red Army successfully joined forces, the Central Committee decided to implement the Ningxia campaign plan. Later, the Ningxia Campaign was changed to the Western Expedition. In November 1936, the West Route Army divided into three columns and marched westward to Gulang, Yongchang, and Shandan.
The first battle was successful, but under the siege of the Ma Jiajun's superior force, the West Route Army suffered successive defeats. By February 1937, the total number of troops in the West Route Army was less than 10,000, and 1/3 were sick and wounded. The situation was very critical. On the 13th, the Military and Political Committee of the West Route Army called the Central Committee and said: "After careful consideration and based on the lessons learned from more than a hundred days of hard fighting, we believe that the Fourth Army and the 31st Army cannot return their organic formations to attack the two horses at this time, and the West Route Army will not be able to complete its westward advance. Mission. Determined to seize the opportunity to attack the enemy in the Ganzhou and Fugao areas, and then move to the Xining and Datong areas as soon as the weather gets warmer. If we cannot fundamentally defeat the enemy due to hard fighting, it is really disadvantageous to spend a long time."
On the 17th, the central government sent a reply to Chen Xu, agreeing with the idea of finding opportunities to defeat (the enemy) in the neighboring areas, and disagreeing with the West Route Army's departure from Qinghai Datong, and pointed out: "To what extent are the political mistakes you have made in the past? What degree of self-criticism and transformation do we think is related to the correct understanding and complete transformation of past political mistakes? Do you think this is the case? /p>
This telegram closely tied the issue of the course of action at that time with the issue of historical political line. It is conceivable the political pressure it put on the military and political committee members of the West Route Army, especially Chairman Chen Changhao. On the evening of February 21, under Chen Changhao's stubborn persistence, the West Route Army that had broken through returned to Nijia Camp, causing the troops to suffer heavy losses under the siege of the horse bandits.
On the 24th, Chen Changhao and Xu Xiangqian sent an emergency message to report the dangerous situation. While expressing their determination to "fight to the last drop of blood", they also requested the central government to dispatch "eight regiments and one or two thousand cavalry" to rush to the rescue; On the 26th, the Presidium of the Central Military Commission called back and asked them to "stick to it for fifty days."
After running out of ammunition and food, suffering heavy casualties, and with the Ma Jiajun killed, they were finally forced to break out of the encirclement. On March 14, only more than 3,000 troops of the West Route Army withdrew into Shiwo Mountain in Sunan County. The last meeting of the Military and Political Committee of the West Route Army was held here, and it was decided to organize the remaining troops into three detachments and disperse their operations.
In June 1937, Chen Changhao went through ups and downs and came to Yingshan County, Hubei Province, an old revolutionary area, intending to raise the flag of righteousness and establish an anti-Japanese armed force here. However, the local reactionary armed forces were very arrogant and it was difficult for Chen Changhao to realize his wish.
In desperation, Chen Changhao returned to Hankou, met with his mother, wife and children after 10 years of separation, and then rushed to northern Shaanxi to accept the organization's arrangements.
References:
"Chronicles of Mao Zedong"
Song Fengying: "The Emotional World of Chen Changhao, General Political Commissar of the Fourth Red Army"
Luo Xuepeng : "The tumultuous life of Chen Changhao, the general political commissar of the Fourth Red Army"