The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

Chapter 88, Showdown

Ningbo City Prison.

(Shanghai) Zhang Guotao, member of the Central Bureau and director of the Central Workers and Peasants Department, has been in a cold and damp cell for two days.

Zhang Guotao, well, he wasn't an internationalist. He didn't study abroad.

He even always agreed with the proposition that "China's revolution should be led by the Communist Party of China rather than the Communist International", so when Chen Duxiu was dismissed by the Communist International, he stood on the side of Shanghai.

However, there may be another sentence behind his proposition: In the process of leading the revolution, I must stand in the C position, and anyone who sings against me is my enemy.

Mao Runzhi was squeezed out two years ago in this way, and he became the director of the Central Workers and Peasants Department. So in the first two years, Mao Runzhi was neither a member of the Central Committee nor the head of Hunan Province. Mao Runzhi's main positions at that time were Minister of Propaganda of the Kuomintang and a member of the Kuomintang Peasant Movement Committee.

Then, during a central meeting, Zhang Guotao mocked, "Mao Runzhi might as well just be Wang Jingwei's secretary full-time" (Mao Runzhi was not present at this meeting).

However, after breaking with the Communist International some time ago, when Chen Duxiu counted the party branches across the country and finally found that there were only more than 300 party members (excluding the War Research Society) standing on the side of the Shanghai Central Committee, although Zhang Guotao looked calm in the meeting, he was suffering from a critical blow of 10000+ in his heart.

He felt that the entire party and the entire revolutionary cause were basically over, and the situation developed after years of hard struggle had returned to the pre-liberation era overnight.

No, now is before liberation.

At the end of March, the KMT Supervisory Committee published a list of 197 wanted Communist Party members and those with communist leanings within the KMT. Zhang Guotao initially assumed that this list would only include members of the Wuhan Central Committee, or those recognized by the Communist International, since the Supervisory Committee was targeting Communist Party members who had ties to the Communist International and were treasonous. However, he was mistaken.

The first person on the list selected by Chiang Kai-shek was Borodin, and the second was Chen Duxiu.

The third one is Chen Yannian, and he is the 37th one.

After being arrested in Ningbo, the police announced that as long as you are willing to publish a statement of withdrawal from the party in the newspaper, you will be able to pass. If you are not willing to withdraw from the party, you can go through the formalities. Zhang Guotao immediately raised his hand to indicate that he was withdrawing from the party.

Among the more than 100 people arrested, there were 40 to 50 who had defected from the Party. The police (in order to take credit) first published the information in the newspaper, but the names reported by each person had not been verified, so a call came from Shanghai, asking them to round up these people and not release them until people were sent to verify their identities one by one.

This wait lasted two days.

"Police, police!"

Zhang Guotao shouted: "I have already expressed my intention to leave the Party. Can you please release me from prison first?

"You all have to take off your clothes. Just wait patiently. You can't take off your clothes before your identities are verified. Ah, we can't let you go." The chubby prison guard replied weakly.

Zhang Guotao: "I am a member of the Communist Party Central Committee. I have important information to share with you! I want to see Chiang Kai-shek!"

"I'm still the director of the Central Bureau. You're dreaming. Do you think you can just meet Commander-in-Chief Chiang casually?"

Zhang Guotao:

Shanghai.

"General Chen, I, Ruan Lingyu, greet you.

Ruan Lingyu bowed slightly to Chen Tianheng.

Chen Tianheng:…

Now Chen Tianheng felt very disappointed.

-It's over! My image is ruined!

Chen Tianheng was quite certain that Ruan Lingyu would mentally cross out "Chen Tianheng." She also wrote a note:

Shameless warlord.

Zhang Jingjiang's slightest trickery would have resulted in the film company's boss being held at gunpoint, and then forced to force Ruan Lingyu to accompany him. That was that. Ruan Lingyu already had a boyfriend, but even if she didn't, any independent person wouldn't be infatuated with someone they were forced to accompany in such a forced situation. Even if the person was truly attractive, and their appearance met your standards, you'd still have to steer clear, because you'd met them in this setting; they were human beings, and you weren't; you were a tool.

Of course, if certain conditions are met, it can continue in the future, accompany once, twice, N times, accompany to bed, or even accompany to the wedding ceremony, but that is all thanks to the three box guns on the forehead of the movie company boss, and has nothing to do with anything else.

After recognizing his own "social death," Chen Tianheng gave up on treatment. They sat down politely, and Chen Tianheng said to Zhang Jingjiang:

"Inspector Zhang, things haven't been peaceful everywhere lately, including Nanjing. I've been reporting to Shanghai, and I'm worried about the situation back home. I just learned that street protesters in Nanjing are clashing with police again."

"Hey, just call me Uncle Zhang. The Supervisory Commission is just a bunch of paper signs," Zhang Jingjiang said. "When you need us, please come and use us. If you don't need us, just ignore us.

Chen Tianheng said seriously, "The Supervisory Committee's occasional appearance this time has caused a huge uproar."

"I had no choice. Party and government affairs are complex and fraught with peril. It's better to lead troops into battle and settle scores. Miss Ruan has been in Shanghai, but you should have heard about the decisive battle of Xuzhou and Bengbu last month, right?"

Zhang Jingjiang threw the conversation to Ruan Lingyu.

"I was on the set at the time, and many people were talking about it, so I knew about it. The general's troops are the best of a hundred divisions, and the general is the best of a hundred generals, the current Wei Huo.

This is memorizing lines. Memorizing lines. Chen Tianheng recited to himself.

"Miss Ruan was filming on set, but was it 'Yang Xiaozhen'?"

Ruan Lingyu: "Ah, ah, yes. Well, Director Zheng said that the title Yang Xiaozhen was not good, and wanted to change it to "Beijing Yang Guifei" when it was released.

Chen Tianheng: "In fact, in reality, it is not Marshal Zhao who pushes women into desperate situations, but Fang Shaolian, who is not stupid and is full of energy.

Ruan Lingyu: “This, I don’t quite understand.

"Miss Ruan, this may sound a bit harsh, but I have to say it. Love is not religious worship. It's not that you just need to be extremely pious and strictly abide by the precepts, and then the Bodhisattva will be moved by your piety and descend from heaven to bless you."

"Or you can use love as a spiritual umbilical cord, find a strict person who is used to oppressing you, and then desperately cling to him or her. But that person is not actually your father, and he or she cannot replace your father. You will be reshaped and tamed by him or her."

"Outsiders see it as mind control, but for those willing to be controlled, there's a certain self-satisfaction at play. For example, Ms. Ruan, if I picked up an ashtray and hit you on the head, you wouldn't nervously bury your head at my feet in obedience. You'd just feel hatred, right? That's the normal human reaction. People don't want to be slaves to pure violence, unless they convince themselves otherwise."

"Ms. Ruan, you are a rising star in the Shanghai film industry. If you keep up the momentum, your career will surely be bright. Not only will you achieve financial freedom, but you will also be remembered in film history. You are yourself, not someone else's appendage."

After Chen Tianheng finished speaking, Ruan Lingyu did not respond for a long time.

Chen Tianheng: "."

Zhang Jingjiang: "Tianheng, what are you talking about? Actually, this matter is not..."

Ruan Lingyu: "I've made note of it.

Chen Tianheng: “…Okay.”

Regardless of whether it's useful or not, I've said what needs to be said. I hope Ruan Lingyu can break free from her psychological dependence on Zhang Damin. If she can't, then... there's nothing I can do.

Ruan Lingyu half stood up and picked up some food for Chen Tianheng: "Don't just look at me, the food will get cold if you don't eat it."

Chen Tianheng: "I'm sorry. I was wondering if I'd be able to see Miss Ruan again after today. Even if I could, I didn't know how many years it would take, so I just glanced at her a few more times."

Ruan Lingyu: "There is still a long way to go, I think it should be possible.

Chen Tianheng: “I hope so.

“Stop, stop.

Zhang Jingjiang called a timeout.

"It shouldn't be like this. Chen Tianheng, Ruan Lingyu, shouldn't you two act like a twenty-one-year-old boy and a seventeen-year-old girl? When you meet, shouldn't you talk about youthful topics? Youth knows not the taste of sorrow. Apricot blossoms blow all over the head, and who is the young man on the street, so romantic? How wonderful is that? Now I feel like, haha, I'm having dinner with two centenarians."

Chen Tianheng also smiled helplessly and turned to Zhang Jingjiang:

"Uncle Zhang, I still have to say thank you for the hospitality. It's just that I've been very worried lately, and this is a time of great turmoil for the people, so I've suddenly become old-fashioned. I believe Uncle Zhang has been like this lately.

"Yes," Zhang Jingjiang nodded. "Yes, I've given it a lot of thought. The people are in turmoil, the political arena is turbulent, and leaders are either fighting for power or coveting the throne. How can I explain it in a few words?

Chen Tianheng: "If you only seek promotion and high rank, you don't need to worry about it so much. In my opinion, you only worry about it when you put yourself on the side of 450 million people.

Zhang Jingjiang: "No, no, no, Uncle Zhang is just worried about mundane matters. Tianheng, there was a civil uprising in Chenzhou yesterday, and more than a dozen people died."

Chen Tianheng: "Uncle Zhang, the armed conflict between farmers and rural areas is not a private matter."

Zhang Jingjiang: "In Hunan and Hubei, people are killing each other everywhere. Landlords are killing peasants, peasants are killing landlords, and peasants are killing each other. Sometimes it gives me a headache just watching. The Communist Party has made things like this.

Chen Tianheng: "Uncle Zhang, what I worry about most is exactly the opposite. In fact, the purge, the suppression of the peasant associations, and the massacre of workers and peasants will plunge the country into irreparable ruin, and the Kuomintang will also be in irreparable ruin. The realization of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People will be a distant prospect, and the leader and his subordinates will be blacklisted in history books.

Zhang Jingjiang: "It's not that the countryside doesn't need reform, but the Communist Party has gone too far. Just like yesterday in Chenzhou, the Communists incited the peasants to riot. Then, snap, they hacked the village's largest landlord to death. Then, snap, they hacked the second-largest landlord to death. They divided up the property, and that was all? Not enough. Then, snap. At the end, the peasants suddenly got scared, and snap, they hacked off the Communist Party leaders. When the military and police arrived, there were a dozen freshly killed people lying on the ground, and dozens more buried in the soil."

Chen Tianheng: "If this is as you say, the Communist Party's policies were indeed radical, and we need to find out who was responsible. The Kuomintang also bears responsibility. The central government and the Nationalist government failed to fulfill their responsibilities and roles."

Zhang Jingjiang: "When peasants rise up to riot, it's an extremely disorderly and destructive thing. For the past several thousand years, whenever a great turmoil broke out, it was the peasants who started it all. They killed each other, and whoever killed the most became king. Then the great kings and the small kings of the country would fight it out. The winner would become emperor, and the others, whether killed or not, would still be peasants."

Chen Tianheng: "This was indeed the biggest problem of the old peasant revolution. But we must also see that every time the peasants revolted at the end of a dynasty, they shook and overthrew the old dynasty. China's peasants possessed immense power, and the rulers were unable to resist the power of the peasants.

Zhang Jingjiang: "Yes, the dynasty collapsed at its end, and the peasants overturned everything. After a few decades of chaos, it was nothing more than a change of dynasties. What's the point of the cycle of dynasties? Human society is first and foremost based on order. Without order, both sides lose: the old dynasty loses, the peasants lose, and China remains stagnant. The Communist Party incited the peasants to revolt, and in the end, the result was the same: stagnant, a lose-lose situation for both sides.

A black car slowly stopped outside the window. Guo Rugui was driving, and Cai Qingchuan was in the passenger seat. Cai Qingchuan extended his right fist and gestured towards this side.

Chen Tianheng: "Uncle Zhang, have you ever considered that even without the Communist Party 'inciting' the peasants, the peasants in China would soon erupt on their own and smash everything to pieces?"

Chapter 89: The First Division goes to suppress the Communists!

"Even without the Communist Party, wouldn't China's peasants automatically rise up and smash everything to pieces in no time?"

Chen Tianheng had met with Zhang Jingjiang quite a few times in recent years. Zhang Jingjiang was a benefactor of Chiang Kai-shek, so Chiang Kai-shek was confident in letting him see his troops and meet his generals, which also meant, "See, your investment in me was not a bad one."

Now, Chen Tianheng, who used to be very enthusiastic when talking about military affairs but lost interest when talking about politics, has started to play politics.

"China is an agricultural country. Ninety percent of its people live in rural areas, and 80 percent of them work in agriculture. Farmers are the largest class in China, five times the size of all other classes combined."

Since the Qing Dynasty, China has been impoverished overall due to a population explosion and years of war, with rural areas even more impoverished than urban areas. Land annexation has been severe, and China did not restructure land ownership with the fall of the Qing Dynasty. In other words, from the perspective of ancient Chinese history, we are still in the chaotic last years of a dynasty, and the conditions for transitioning from chaos to order are not yet in place.

"The peasants live in extreme hardship and suffer immense oppression, possessing a strong drive to rebel. As China's social contradictions, productivity, and environment continue to deteriorate, the accumulated energy among the peasantry will only grow. As an agricultural nation, a government that controls only the cities has no equipment advantage in military struggles. The government's weapons come from abroad, and the warlords' weapons come from abroad, leading to endless wars among the warlords. In reality, once the peasant army grows in size, it will also be able to purchase weapons from abroad, putting all forces in China on the same level of weaponry."

"It's not just about weapons. China's farmers and rural areas also have superb fighting skills and military capabilities, which is probably unique in the world.

"Five thousand years of civilization and two thousand years of dynasties have produced a unique phenomenon in China: the sinking of military and political knowledge.

"The military and political knowledge that court officials understand is also shared by people in the countryside. Even if no one in this village understands it, there are certainly people in the neighboring villages who do. The old man at the village entrance can teach children about Sun Tzu's Art of War and Han Xin's selection of troops, and even half-grown children can recite the Thirty-Six Stratagems by heart. A fight between two villages can involve the combined use of swords, shields, and bows, employing a dozen different formations. Decades ago, a poor scholar and a few miners from farming backgrounds were able to command a battle of 100,000 men and dispatch the corresponding food and logistics. The army that suppressed them, including the generals, also came from the countryside. China is a country where knowledge of classical military systems, military tactics, military strategies, and military logistics is extremely widespread and accessible. Perhaps this is a source of pride, but now is not the time for the Winning Scholars to come out and revel. This matter is serious, and the situation is dire."

"What you said does make sense. Peasant uprisings in Chinese history always ended with the change of dynasties and the birth of a new emperor. But today, their blood cannot be shed in vain, and their lives cannot be in vain. We must lead the peasants to use their strength in the right places, completely destroy those indestructible obstacles, and usher in a new era for China.

"This is also a very urgent matter, because in today's world, the time left for the Chinese nation is running out.

Shanghai-Nanjing.

Driving at night wasn't a good idea. The car was already shaking violently just above 40 km/h. If it weren't for the fact that there were almost no cars on the road at night, Chen Tianheng wouldn't even dare let Guo Rugui drive at 40 km/h.

"Li Jishen came to Shanghai some time ago, and after returning to Guangzhou, he began to arrest Communist Party members on a large scale," Cai Qingchuan said. "It is said that he even attacked Changzhou Island and tried to enter the Whampoa Military Academy to arrest people. Fortunately, Instructor Ye led the 20th Division to stop him.

Chen Tianheng: "I also saw this in the evening paper. Chiang Kai-shek asked him to eliminate the Communists in Guangdong, but he didn't say that this included the Whampoa Military Academy. Instructor Ye's obstruction was also on Chiang Kai-shek's orders.

In fact, after Li Jishen returned, he first found Hu Hanmin and asked Hu Hanmin to stand up for the anti-communist movement before he dared to take action.

In 1925, when Liao Zhongkai was assassinated, Hu Hanmin was forced to go abroad for inspection because his cousin was one of the funders/planners of the bounty. However, when he was inspecting the Soviet Union, he was praised by the Communist International and Stalin as "the leftist in the Kuomintang."

Hu Hanmin returned to China from the Soviet Union after his fame faded, but he has kept a low profile for the past six months. Now, as one of the three pillars of government entrusted by Sun Yat-sen, he has been tapped by Chiang Kai-shek and Li Jishen to serve as a key player in the confrontation with the Wang Jingwei clique.

…Our purge this time is to further return the Communist Party’s ashes to Russia and not allow it to remain in China.”

"To put it bluntly, this purge is to eliminate the Chinese Communist Party.

--Another lamp went out in the eighteen provinces of mainland China.

Hu Hanmin made a harsh statement, but the specific work was left to Li Jishen and the New Fourth Army, because Hu Hanmin was not a general who led troops.

Guo Rugui: "Commander, is this Li Jishen...

Chen Tianheng: "Don't talk, just look at the road and drive!"

Cai Qingchuan: "Commander, does Li Jishen feel that the emperor is far away and that neither the Central Army nor the Hunan Army can enter the Guangdong clique's territory, so he can do whatever he wants in his own territory?"

Chen Tianheng: "If the First Division wants to go, it's actually not difficult.

Nanjing, headquarters of the 1st Division.

Chen Tianheng observed from the car that the security outside the military camp was at the highest level.

When entering the military camp, the sentries also checked the identities of each person.

"Okay, we've indeed carried out Order No. 66," Chen Tianheng asked. "Is Yuan Zhongxian mobilizing the troops?"

Chen Mingren: "Yes, last night we held a meeting of the Party representatives of each regiment and battalion, and the regiment also held a meeting of the Party representatives of the company. Today, the entire divisional political department went to the grassroots level of the troops.

Chen Mingren: "How are the supplies and ammunition prepared?"

Huang Wei: "Between last night and this morning, sufficient food and other supplies have been deposited into the First Division's inventory, but we still need to get more ammunition. The current supply of ammunition on hand is not enough to support continuous combat.

Chen Tianheng: "We asked the Logistics Department for it in the name of preparing to suppress the rebellion. We said that the 25th Division of the Fourth Army had rebelled.

Huang Wei: “Ah?”

Chen Mingren: "Commander, the letter from the Central Committee was delivered by Qian Zhuangfei yesterday.

Chen Duxiu's letter first clarified that the armed uprising must be carried out in conjunction with the 25th Division. Otherwise, the 1st and 2nd Divisions would be too weak to fight. However, he needed a response from the 2nd Division before he could proceed with the next stage of the plan.

As for the uprising route, although some rural organizations in the south were destroyed and the mass base of the "central axis" was lost, the southward route was still relatively advantageous.

Moreover, Chen Duxiu mentioned that Mao Runzhi insisted that those devastated rural areas still had the possibility of recovery, but party members, cadres and armed work teams needed to be sent to these areas to first resolve the hidden dangers left by the Communist International faction, reaffirm the current party's alliance policy, and then restore the farmers' union/farmers' cooperative system.

Chen Tianheng: "When General Secretary Chen wrote this letter, he had not yet grasped the situation. The 25th Division, under the orders of the Communist International, had left the Fourth Army and marched independently, reaching Huangshi. We must bring Ye Ting back. The best place for the two armies to meet is Jiujiang."

陈明仁:“现在武汉中央很可能发指令让叶挺的25师打到武汉，诛杀何键。因为何键在武汉城外捕杀了大批工农武装队。可在25师前面有35军、第9军、第10军、第11军，很难冲得过去。