The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

"Comrade General Bubnov."

An advisor spoke up. "Comrade General, if we were to allow them to negotiate with us, the first demand the Kuomintang would probably make would be that the Communist Party suspend the development of party organizations within the army. They've already made this demand several times."

Chapter 85

Borodin asked for leave to return to the Soviet Union to recuperate, but he did not board the ship directly back to Vladivostok, but took the land route.

They reached Beijing and stopped because the Zhili-Fengtian conflict against Feng Yuxiang was in full swing, and the route from Beijing to the Northeast and then to Vladivostok was blocked.

In addition, there was another more important reason. Moscow sent him another instruction, asking him to leave Beijing and go to the northwest to guide Feng Yuxiang's National Army. The National Army was too weak. The Soviet Union had clearly given them tens of thousands of guns, but in the end they were defeated after every battle.

Just as Borodin was looking for a suitable opportunity to set off westward, the latest instructions from Moscow came: return to Guangzhou.

"Comrade Bubnov, I'm not pretending to be sick. I'm really sick. Look," Borodin said, rolling up his sleeves to show Bubnov the scab-covered scab on his arm. "The humid weather in Guangzhou is making me miserable. It's even causing me stomach problems."

Bubnov: "I'm very sorry, but the situation in Guangzhou is very delicate and dangerous. If we don't handle it well, the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Guangzhou government may break down. And you are the only one who can repair this relationship."

Borodin: "Yes, Kishanka's move to take control of the National Revolutionary Army has aroused too much opposition and should be stopped. He should focus more on allocating and distributing weapons and ammunition, and be an indirect influencer rather than a direct controller."

Bubnov: "Kisanga has stopped working. He will return with us the day after tomorrow... to Moscow. Blucher has already left Vladivostok. Your old partner will return to Guangzhou."

"Oh, that's good news. I hope his leprosy is cured in Vladivostok." Borodin was quite satisfied with the news and added a joke.

……

"Du-du"

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Tianheng blew the whistle and the first regiment concluded its drill.

"First Battalion, when switching from marching to attacking, you need to be flexible enough, but you must be quick and resolute enough. When an infantry battalion encounters an attack, the time it takes to switch from marching to attacking and organize the attack must be shortened as much as possible. The faster we are, the more confused the enemy will be."

"Therefore, not only must battalion headquarters quickly deploy based on intelligence from forward reconnaissance, but each infantry company commander must also be proactive and make adjustments and preparations before the attack order arrives."

"The Second Battalion's problem was that when the defensive system at the training ground was modified, they subconsciously abandoned their original pre-planned tactics. This prevented two companies from entering the battlefield immediately. In effect, during the initial and mid-game periods, one company was engaged in the offensive, while the other two served as reserves."

"I know that Commander Chen Geng of the Second Battalion is not here today, but the deputy battalion and company commanders should also possess corresponding tactical qualities. This is a requirement I have mentioned to you before."

"These issues must be resolved by all battalion and company commanders before next week. Next week we'll be conducting a march drill off the island. We'll actually have you marching 15 kilometers and then attacking. You need to have a plan in mind, don't just improvise on your own."

"Add more meat to the canteen tonight. Dismissed!"

Chen Tianheng and Zuo Quan led the team back to the camp. When they were waiting for dinner in front of the canteen, Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng came back.

Chiang Kai-shek summoned both of them today.

"What did the principal talk to you about?"

"He talked to us about quitting the Party," Jiang Xianyun said. "Of course, this wasn't the first time we'd talked, but this time, I felt like the principal was very anxious, as if he was determined to get this done."

Chen Geng: "He wanted us to quit the Communist Party. He told me that all the students in the first class were my good students. If I don't use you, who else can I use? As long as we put aside our ideological differences, the Party and the army will be able to maintain unity and be invincible, and you will have a brighter future."

Chen Tianheng: "This shows that Chiang Kai-shek wants Communist Party members to leave the army. What does Instructor Yun Daiying say?"

Chen Geng: "Instructor Yun's statement has not changed. In fact, no matter what Instructor Yun says, as Party members, Chen Geng and I will definitely not listen to Chiang Kai-shek."

Jiang Xianyun: "What a pity! It would have been better if my party membership could have been kept secret before I entered the school."

Chen Tianheng: "You accompanied Secretary Chen Duxiu to Guangzhou for the KMT-CPC meeting. There's really no other way. ... Chiang Kai-shek's character is very clear. First, he's determined to rise up, no matter what. Second, he's determined to eliminate all potential competitors. Of course, I'm not saying you two are potential competition to him. He sees people like Director Zhou and Instructor Yun as threats. Therefore, if the Whampoa Party Group fails to react quickly and issue new instructions, you should also consider this perspective and make your decision."

……

"The principal is here!"

Chiang Kai-shek came with the first group.

In fact, Chiang Kai-shek visited the 1st Regiment quite frequently, inspecting it every two weeks or twenty days. The 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of the 1st Army was undoubtedly of extraordinary significance, and the 1st Regiment's meticulous military appearance and meticulous housekeeping, from the barracks to the training grounds to the mess hall, were impeccable, which was exactly what Chiang Kai-shek wanted.

He came here today after meeting with Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng. Of course, Chen Tianheng could guess what he wanted to do.

"The Whampoa Military Academy was founded by the late Premier at the lowest point of the revolution. My Party comrades and I have carefully managed it, facing countless hardships and dangers. Today, the academy has grown to a full scale, and the Party army has also been established. The Northern Expedition is now upon us. Tianheng, do you think the time has come for the revolutionary army to launch the Northern Expedition?"

Chen Tianheng: "The Beiyang regime's core is weakening, national sovereignty is increasingly being eroded and encroached upon, and governance is becoming perverse. Ending the Beiyang regime's rule as soon as possible is the greatest consensus and shared interest of all Chinese people. I believe that the sooner the Northern Expedition is launched, the better. As soon as the time is right, we should march north."

Chiang Kai-shek: "The National Revolutionary Army currently has 20 troops. If the Northern Expedition begins, Guangzhou can send 10 troops north. In the north, the Zhili and Fengtian factions have been fighting Feng Yuxiang for a month. Although Feng is at a disadvantage on the battlefield, he controls a vast territory and has Soviet military support. The outcome of the war will be difficult to determine within a few months. I have already presented this to General Counsel Borodin, and he said that the Northern Expedition is feasible."

Chen Tianheng: "This is the result of the Soviet Union's change of course after revoking Kisanjia's position as Chief Advisor. Our regiment is ready to go at any time."

"However, before the Northern Expedition, our National Revolutionary Army still needs to achieve final unification," Chiang Kai-shek brought the conversation back to the point he wanted to make. "In the 1st Regiment, the Party representative Jiang Xianyun and the 2nd Battalion Commander Chen Geng are Communists. I have always believed that while the government can have both state and communism, the army cannot have two ideologies."

Chen Tianheng: "Jiang Xianyun, Chen Geng, as well as Staff Officers Zuo Quan and Yan Kuiyao are all Communists. However, from the First and Second Eastern Expeditions to the present day, they have always fulfilled their duties, performed excellently, and cooperated with me in my work very well."

"I know all this. But the CCP is under the command of the Communist International. The Communist International's instructions are their highest instructions, and their Shanghai Central Committee can only obey them. These party members, these Huangpu Party League branches, are different from the military orders of the party army. If there are two military orders on the battlefield, what should be done? Who should the officers and soldiers obey?"

Chen Tianheng: "If it is in the First Regiment, then it is to obey the military orders issued by me and my staff."

Chiang Kai-shek shook his head. "I still want them to withdraw from the Communist Party. At least Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng should do so. Tianheng, you have a good relationship with them. I hope you can persuade them."

Chen Tianheng: "I understand. I will find time to persuade them. However, I have also heard about the Communist Party's organizational discipline. It is not so easy to leave the party. Of course, I will still discuss this matter with them both."

"If they can change their minds, the positions of regimental commander and deputy commander won't be a problem," Chiang Kai-shek added. "Also, the commander of the First Division, Xue Yue, is an outsider. As I told you, he's only obeying political appointments. Xue Yue will be assigned elsewhere in the future."

……

Chen Tianheng agreed to Chiang Kai-shek to "persuade" Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng.

Then two days later, the three of them went to Guangzhou City for a meal, and when they came back they said that they had persuaded Chiang Kai-shek and asked him to reimburse the meal expenses.

Now, in the First Regiment, besides Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng, Zuo Quan's Communist Party membership was also public, having revealed his political leanings while at the Hunan Army Military Academy. Yan Kuiyao, upon entering the academy, had quickly submitted his application to Yun Daiying to join the Party.

However, the Party membership of the First Battalion Commander Xu Xiangqian was not made public. The same was true for the Third Battalion Commander Du Yuming. Their organizational affiliation was not with the Huangpu Party League branch, but with the People's Armed Forces Department of the Hunan Provincial Committee.

Chiang Kai-shek once again solemnly persuaded Jiang Xianyun and Chen Geng to quit the party because the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee had recently launched a new round of proposals to reorganize party affairs.

After this proposal was put forward, Borodin could no longer sit still and discussed it with the Kuomintang leaders, but what he did not expect was that the Kuomintang leftist Wang Jingwei also expressed his neutrality on this matter.

"I hope to continue the cooperation between the Communist International and the Kuomintang, but when the cooperation began, the two sides had a basic text, the Sun Yue Manifesto."

Wang Jingwei told Borodin, "I hope the Soviet Union will make it clear that it will abide by the four propositions of the Sun Yue Declaration."

Borodin: "Of course the Soviet Union and the Communist International will strictly adhere to the Sun-Yue Declaration, which is the cornerstone of our cooperation. But things never change unilaterally. We support Guo Songling in his opposition to Zhang Zuolin, but your party comrades oppose this."

Wang Jingwei: "The Sun-Yue Declaration did not mention this matter. It only stated that the Kuomintang would adopt a gentle attitude and take a relatively long time to complete the transition of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Moreover, this occurred after the National Revolutionary Army unified China. Guo Songling's rebellion against Zhang Zuolin was not outside the scope of the Sun-Yue Declaration."

Borodin: "So the Soviet Union must support your proposal and pass it?"

Wang Jingwei: "The Kuomintang's party affairs must be sorted out. If the organization is not reorganized, there will be unpredictable consequences. Mr. Borodin, you know what kind of military leaders China is like."

……

By April 1926, the biggest difference in the Guangzhou National Government was that Wang Jingwei was still the Chairman of the Kuomintang and President of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee. Instead of going abroad for inspection because of the Zhongshan Ship Incident, he hurriedly returned to China only after the Northern Expedition reached Wuhan.

After Wang Jingwei realized that he needed to unite the KMT's political/civilian officials to curb Chiang Kai-shek, he chose to compromise. The KMT's left, center, and right factions reached a consensus and jointly launched a plan to reorganize party affairs.

Chapter 86

This round of party affairs reorganization became extremely chaotic because there was no Zhongshan Ship Incident and Wang Jingwei did not resign and go abroad because of it.

The KMT Central Committee was forced to ask Tan Pingshan and Mao Runzhi to sort out the positions and speaking tendencies of the Central Executive Committee members and alternate members, and to categorize and compile statistics. Otherwise, the meeting would be too chaotic. Some of the committee members were face-blind, forgetting who stood up to speak the next moment and then talking nonsense when it was their turn.

(An important reason is that the members have different accents and many of them cannot speak fluent Mandarin.)

Tan Pingshan is now a member of the Communist Party of China and also the Minister of the Organization Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee.

If we peel away the superficial confusion, the essence of this party affairs reorganization is:

On the one hand, the right wing of the Kuomintang wanted to fight for power, and the left wing represented by Wang Jingwei naturally disagreed. Then the right wing of the Kuomintang used Sun Yue's Declaration to attack Wang Jingwei.

On the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek. Well, Chiang Kai-shek was a KMT reactionary, not a rightist. Borodin's current political profile was actually quite left-leaning within the KMT. Now, this "military leftist" had jumped out to attack the "Wang Jingwei leftists," arguing that the Northern Expedition was necessary, that the KMT's leadership structure was no longer suited to the current military situation and must be reformed (by giving him real power as commander-in-chief). It was as if the "loyal leftists were on the verge of internal division because of Wang Jingwei's incorrect decisions."

The debate meetings for sorting out party affairs were all meetings of the KMT Central Executive Committee, not the Central Plenary Sessions. Ordinary KMT representatives like Chen Tianheng did not attend, so they could only inquire about some information indirectly.

"The proposal was put forward by Gu Yingfen, but it should have been discussed and coordinated with the right wing. It mainly includes the following five points."

"The first rule is that Communist Party members cannot make up more than one-third of the executive committee members of the KMT Central Committee, provincial committees, or special municipal committees. This has always been the standard for the KMT Central Executive Committee. Now they are requiring that no more than one-third of the members of each branch organization be included. This will primarily affect Hunan, where 60% of the KMT provincial committee members are Communist Party members."

"Article 2: Those who were members of the Kuomintang before the KMT-CCP ​​cooperation are not allowed to join the Communist Party."

"The third clause is that Communist Party members may not serve as ministers of the Kuomintang central departments. If this clause is passed, Minister Mao will no longer be Minister of Propaganda."

"Article 4: Any instructions from the Communist Party to Communist Party members who have joined the Kuomintang must be submitted to a joint meeting of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party for approval before they can be issued."

"The fifth one, I think it was the principal who proposed it, is that Communist Party members in the Party and the military must either quit the Party or quit the military."

Jiang Xianyun received the latest developments of the conference from the Huangpu Party League branch.

Chen Tianheng: "Wang Jingwei would definitely vehemently oppose the third option. This is because the two ministers in his team who are most useful to him and who can provide him the greatest support, Minister Mao and Tan Pingshan, are both Communist Party members. So we don't need to influence this option; the Kuomintang can kill them themselves."

"There are ways to circumvent the first and second ones."

"Now the key is the last two, which must be dealt with properly."

Chen Geng: "By the way, in addition to sorting out party affairs, someone at the meeting also proposed that Chiang Kai-shek be the chairman of the Military Commission, and Wang Jingwei be the president of the Kuomintang and the chairman of the Guangzhou National Government."

Chen Tianheng: "Isn't Borodin in favor of this?"

Chen Geng: "You guessed right."

Jiang Xianyun: "Minister Mao's speech expressed opposition to this, but when it came to the final vote, the Communist Party members on the Central Executive Committee could only have one unified attitude, so it was hard to say."

Chen Tianheng: "Damn it! There are so many things going on, and none of them are easy. It seems we need to hold a small meeting here and use our Hunan District methods to find a solution. Then, Jiang Xianyun will go to the Guangdong District Committee."

……

"Whoever controls the gun controls the party. As long as the gun is in Chiang Kai-shek's hands, Wang Jingwei's presidency is fake. Mao Zedong said so at the meeting, but so what?"

Zhang Tailei said.

The first secretary of the Guangdong District Committee was Chen Yannian, who was attending an emergency meeting of the Central Committee in Shanghai at the time. Zhang Tailei, as a member of the District Committee Standing Committee, was now temporarily in charge of the work.

It was Jiang Xianyun and Yun Daiying who went to see Zhang Tailei. Seeing Zhang Tailei's doubts, Jiang Xianyun added, "If the KMT president and the chairman of the Military Commission were split between two people, it would inevitably lead to a struggle for military and party power. Given that the KMT hasn't yet established a mature governing structure, military power could easily trump party power. This is definitely not a good thing for the KMT or our party."

Zhang Tailei: "Chiang Kai-shek is a revolutionary. Of course, I know he's rising rapidly, and I also know he's quite conceited and likes to build a cult of his own within the military. But his power comes from the military, while the KMT's military strength comes from Soviet support. We're not worried about him. Of course, the Party will oppose him when necessary."

Jiang Xianyun: "This is related to another proposal for reorganizing party affairs. They demanded that the Communist Party withdraw from the party army. In this way, the army would be without our party members and party organization, and the gun would belong entirely to Chiang Kai-shek."

"Why are we still debating the power of the gun versus the pen? Hey," Zhang Tailei shook his head. "Is Mao Runzhi's influence on you really that great? Comrade Jiang Xianyun, let me remind you that although Mao Runzhi was once the Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and a member of the Central Committee, he is now neither. He holds no substantial position within the Party. He is merely a minister of the Kuomintang Central Committee and director of the Kuomintang Peasant Movement Training Institute."

Yun Daiying: "Secretary Zhang, what is the final attitude of the district committee and the central government towards the proposal to reorganize party affairs? How should we respond to the points raised by Gu Yingfen, especially the fifth point? Jiang Xianyun and I were both in Huangpu and the Party Army, and this fifth point is closely related to our current work."

"General Advisor Borodin told me that he would amend Article 5 to require Communist Party members to withdraw only from the First Army, but that Party organizations could still exist in other armies of the National Revolutionary Army. This was because the First Army was a brand-new revolutionary army formed by Whampoa Military Academy, unlike the old warlord armies. The other National Revolutionary Armies were mostly redesignated warlord units, requiring a large number of cadres, especially Party representatives, to ensure the loyalty of these warlord units. If Borodin had proposed this amendment to Chiang Kai-shek, he would have been unable to refuse it."

Jiang Xianyun: "I served in the First Army."

Zhang Tailei: "If this resolution is passed, the Party members of the First Army will probably be diverted to the Fourth Army, especially the 34th Regiment of the 12th Division, where we have more comrades."

Yun Daiying: "Secretary Zhang, let's put aside the briefings and the tone given to us by our superiors and think for ourselves: Are the responses and conditions we have proposed too compromising?"

Zhang Tailei: "Sometimes politics requires compromise. Indeed, I admit that this was a big concession, but General Counsel Borodin represented the Communist International, which considered issues from the perspective of the global revolution. China was only one component of the global revolution."

……

Shanghai.

Chen Yannian rushed from Guangzhou to Shanghai to discuss with Chen Duxiu how to deal with the case of reorganizing party affairs.

"At the beginning of this year, at a special meeting of the Political Bureau held in the north, Shou Chang and I agreed that the time had come for the National Revolutionary Army to launch a Northern Expedition. Therefore, that meeting issued a declaration calling for the Northern Expedition."

"But at the end of January, beginning of February, I received a notice from Ji Shanjia that the Northern Expedition was temporarily suspended. At the time, I was completely devastated and depressed, and I didn't want to talk to anyone. However, while I was away, the Guide published an article saying that the time was not yet ripe for the Northern Expedition."

"Things are finally better now. General Counsel Borodin says we should still launch the Northern Expedition. So the decision of the special Politburo meeting at the beginning of the year is still correct."

Chen Duxiu told Chen Yannian about his repeated boomerangs and great ups and downs since the beginning of this year.

"But things are different now. Reorganizing Party affairs isn't the same as the temple calculations we had before the Northern Expedition. Temple calculations were just discussions, but reorganizing Party affairs is a direct decision. Once we make the wrong decision, there's no going back."

Chen Yannian: "Some comrades in the Guangdong District Committee now support a tough response, while others believe that everything should be carried out according to Borodin's overall direction. No matter what response strategy we ultimately adopt, the comrades will probably have serious differences."

Chen Duxiu: "When I founded this party in 1921, I had no experience, no experienced party-building practitioners to guide me, and no money. The last one was especially important. From the First to the Second Congress, in the year between them, I remember the Party Central Committee's expenditures were 17,000 yuan, of which 16,000 came from the Communist International, and comrades raised only 1,000 yuan in party dues. I alone donated 350 yuan of this."

"So at the First Congress, we accepted technical guidance from the Soviet Union, and at the Second Congress, we formally joined the Communist International."

"But since 1922 or 23, we seem to have been able to make some money. Now my comrades in Shanghai and I are running some businesses. Mao Runmin, in particular, is very good at business. Last year, the funds for the activities of the Party Central Committee were entirely raised by ourselves. Yes, Dad is rich now."

Chen Duxiu looked at Chen Yannian with the loving eyes he would use to look at a rich second-generation man, and continued:

"The Communist International, in theory, was supposed to be the organization leading the proletarian revolution worldwide. But in reality, it was an organization founded in Moscow, and its operations relied on the support of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which in turn used the Soviet Union's national wealth to support the Communist International. Therefore, it must be said that some of its decisions were not simply aimed at promoting the liberation of the world proletariat. At times, its purpose could be quite impure."

"Especially in recent times, the Soviet General Advisor has given some instructions to the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government and our Party. This is also the main reason for the doubts and even disagreements among the comrades of the Guangdong District Committee."

"Chen Yannian, I have an idea. What do you think about us withdrawing from the Communist International?"

Chapter 87

The conversation between Chen Duxiu and Chen Yannian was not a conversation between father and son, but a serious debate between the general secretary and the first secretary of the Guangdong District Committee.

The most important thing Chen Yannian reminded Chen Duxiu of was the current composition of the Guangdong District Party Committee. Almost all Party members holding leadership positions above the Party group level in Guangdong were those who had studied abroad.

The overseas students mentioned here are not those who have returned from studying abroad in a broad sense, but in a narrow sense, those young people who were taken abroad by the Communist International after the founding of the Communist Party of China in 1921 and studied in party and government training schools such as the Moscow Oriental University.