1932: Playing with the Japanese Communist Party with a doll

"Hey! Eat the sugar coating and fire the cannonball back!" Li Desheng was not a pedantic person and immediately laughed:

"Who cares about capitalism or socialism? Whatever can help China stand up is the good ideology! If possible, I think we should send someone to visit President Field in person!"

"Well, let's hold an internal meeting of the Central Committee tomorrow to discuss this matter..."

Thinking of the popular American rumor that "Ms. Field is the world's most beautiful woman," Ma Shiwu's appearance, and the information Chen She had sent back that "Ma Shiling is very beautiful," Wu Hao suddenly had a guess that he didn't quite believe:

Could it be that Ms. Field is also a member of the World Revolutionary Party? Hahahaha... That should be impossible, that should be impossible;

That's capitalist America, not so many revolutionary parties. Never mind, I must be overthinking it.

Thinking that the matter was settled, Li Desheng was about to leave when Wu Hao stopped him again:

"Wait, Runzhi, there's something else. I've thought about it and feel it's necessary to tell you. Let's just talk about it between the two of us, and then we can keep it to ourselves."

"What?"

"Have you noticed that our Red Army is at risk of losing control?" "Hmm?"

371 Farsightedness and Fox-like Cunning

"...risk of losing control?"

"Um??"

As soon as Wu Hao said this, Li Desheng immediately sat back down, his expression extremely serious:

"What? What happened?"

"I'll break it down into two parts. One is that after we occupied Nanchang, we had more and more business matters, and our communication with the outside world became more and more frequent..."

Wu Hao explained in detail how Chen Jiageng and his men had taken refuge:

"...So some comrades have suggested whether we could follow the example of the Kuomintang and allow the military to participate in some commercial operations, thereby reducing departmental staff..."

“Absolutely not! !!”

Wu Hao's words almost made Li Desheng jump up:

"The military is not allowed to engage in business! This is the bottom line of the bottom line, and it cannot be changed at any time!"

What does the military do?

Even for a special organization like the Red Army, which was tasked with the specific tasks of "mobilizing the masses, establishing political power, and organizing production," its fundamental mission was still "armed struggle"!

In other words, it’s still war! War! War!

To fight a war, the army's "interests" must be focused on fighting, which is the only way to ensure that the army has sufficient combat effectiveness.

However, once the army gets involved in business, even if it's the Red Army, their minds will definitely shift from fighting to making money. What's the point of fighting then?

Look at those Kuomintang armies that engaged in business. Which one of them was not rotten to the core?

Aren’t Chen Jitang and others the most typical examples? Especially Yu Hanmou and Li Zhenqiu!

When the Red Army did business with them, including any other forces, it actually had dedicated personnel to do so. The army itself never got involved, and any profits were first handed over to the central government and then distributed to the army, because they wanted to prevent the army from being "contaminated" by business.

But they were different. They were military leaders directly involved in business. Ever since the Red Army started selling them tungsten ore to divide them from Chen Jitang, these two guys didn't even bother to close the gates of Dayu County and Ganzhou!

All troops were sent out as bodyguards to protect their trade routes with the Red Army and prevent their goods from being robbed by bandits or other nationalist troops!

Defending the city?

Guard your dick!

Being a soldier in a war is not as important as making money!

It can be said that even if they were to stop doing business with the Red Army now, their subordinates would rebel in a matter of minutes, kill the two guys who were affecting everyone's profit, and then choose a new agent to continue doing business;

It is no exaggeration to say that there is no need to fight for Ganzhou City, which the Red Army has been longing for for so many years but has been unable to capture no matter how hard they try. They can probably just send people to take it over when the mood strikes.

Li Desheng saw the huge drawbacks of the army engaging in business early on, and also knew that the Red Army was not a selfless and saintly army, so he resolutely did not allow the army to engage in business, regardless of when, under what circumstances, or in what form;

Otherwise, the People's Liberation Army, the Vietnamese Army and the US Army, whose coffee cups cost $1200, would definitely have waved to the Red Army at a certain point in time.

Wu Hao nodded:

"Well, I've already rejected this. But since this trend has appeared, it shows that the military's mentality has indeed been affected. There have also been several very bad cases. If we don't control it, it will definitely get out of control later."

"...Or maybe it's because we weren't mature enough before entering the city..."

Li Desheng knew very well that this was because Nanchang's "glamorous world" had dazzled many "uninformed" Red Army and CCP cadres.

In fact, this is not the first time this has happened.

Whether it was the Nanchang Uprising or the short-term capture of Changsha two years ago, there were cases where the army was attracted by the prosperity of the city and left their posts or even rebelled.

He sighed softly:

"The Central Committee and the Military Commission will hold a meeting later to establish a system for this matter... What about the second thing?"

"The second thing is the current debate about Japan. The military is putting a lot of pressure on me. Many people are clamoring to go north and fight the Japanese. Some even rushed to me and were almost writing a blood oath."

"This... can only be considered a disagreement between comrades, right?" Li Desheng shook his head, not thinking that being rejected was a big deal.

"The Party commands the guns. As long as this iron discipline remains unchanged, general arguments are nothing. You said it yourself, it's the comrades who are eager to fight."

"Yes, that's the case at the moment. The general principle of the Party commanding the gun hasn't changed, but whether it was the previous Ganzhou Campaign or the current issue with Japan, we've already seen this trend..."

The failure of the Ganzhou Campaign was almost exactly as Li Desheng had predicted. If the Shanghai Provisional Central Committee had not been overthrown by the World Revolutionary Party and provided valuable intelligence, who knows how many casualties this campaign would have caused.

Do you think this battle happened only because the Provisional Central Committee insisted on fighting it? Yes, but not entirely.

The main senior generals of the Red Army, including General Zhu, as well as grassroots cadres and soldiers, were actually responsible;

Because they wanted to fight, they "instigated" the war in various ways and to some extent.

And now, the same is true in the war against Japan.

Seeing Li Desheng leading the Northward Corps to achieve one great victory after another, and seeing young combat heroes like Wen Yucheng emerge one after another, many people could no longer sit still.

To describe it with the "complaint" Wu Hao heard once, "If we don't go over and fight, we won't even be able to eat hot shit."

how to say?

It's a good thing and a bad thing.

The political reform work such as the "grievance conference" completely unleashed the Red Army's fighting desire and will, turning it into a brave army that was always eager to fight, eager to bite anyone it caught, and not afraid of death at all;

This is undoubtedly a great thing worthy of joy for combating reactionaries, resisting foreign enemies, and liberating all of China and even the world.

Everyone knows that it is not a bad thing for the army to want to fight. As long as the Party can control them, there will be no problem. But it is fatal if the army does not want to fight.

It can't be like what happened later with the US military, where the military leaders bypassed the government and took the initiative to call the PLA leaders and said, "If we want to launch an attack, we will notify you in advance. We hope you don't misjudge it."

But the problem was that after being given the mission of "liberating all of China and the world," the Red Army's desire to fight was a bit too strong, so strong that they consciously or unconsciously, actively or passively interfered with the decisions of the Party Central Committee;

This is something that "the Party commands the gun" cannot tolerate. An army should not have its own independent will! Especially not its own political will!

In other words, their political will should always be consistent with that of the Party Central Committee!

If the Party says to fight, we fight; if the Party says to stop, we stop; if the Party says to charge, we charge; if the Party says to endure, we endure!

Otherwise, the Red Army will sooner or later follow the same path as the Japanese army!

Both Li Desheng and Wu Hao were already very keenly aware of these issues, and the active performance of the military cadres at today's meeting was proof of this.

Of course, this does not mean that these people have already developed the idea of ​​"gun commanding the party", but that this tendency has already shown signs of being bad.

However, Wu Hao takes the problem more seriously.

"...So, Runzhi, I think it's time for us to seriously consider strengthening the Red Army's organizational design and nip this tendency in the bud before it's noticed!"

After confirming once again that Li Desheng's thoughts were consistent with his own, and that they only had different understandings of the severity of the problem, Wu Hao, who had been calm until then, became slightly agitated.

"We must ensure that no army can act alone at any time, and even the highest-ranking generals cannot interfere with the decisions of the Party Central Committee! The incidents involving Yu Sadu and Su Xianjun must never happen again!"

There was another sentence that Wu Hao did not say, which was more sensitive to Li Desheng at the moment. It was:

Even if a high-ranking military officer or a local military leader suddenly rebelled one day, let alone taking his army with him like the warlords in Chiang Kai-shek's "Silver Bullet Offensive," he wouldn't even be able to take his own guard platoon with him!

In any case, there must not be another Zhang Guotao! After thinking for a while, Li Desheng still shook his head:

"The Party branch is established at the company level. We have the political commissar system, we have soldiers' committees, we have democratic centralism, we have grievance meetings, we have revolutionary ideals, we have... The current Red Army will not be separated from the leadership of the Party."

"But.…."

"Overly balanced designs could potentially undermine the army's combat effectiveness. This is wartime, after all, and we can't restrict the army too much... However, now that you mention it, I've thought of another issue."

"What?"

"There's something wrong with our political commissar system." "Huh? What's the problem?"

Wu Hao was confused.

The political commissar system is such a good system, what could go wrong? He thought carefully and asked:

"Does the final decision-making power lie with the commissar staff themselves?"

The Red Army's political commissar system was borrowed from the Soviet Red Army. The Central Revolutionary Military Commission's "Draft Provisional Regulations on Political Work in the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" clearly stipulated:

No matter how many decisions the military commander makes, it will be useless as long as the political commissar says no. Before receiving instructions from superiors, the army must follow the political commissar's opinions.

Wu Hao felt that this perfectly guaranteed the principle of "the party commands the gun." The only concern was whether the political commissar, who had the power to decide on everything, would cause any problems himself.

especially...

"Yes, that is the final decision."

"But according to regulations, when the political commissar and the military commander disagree, the political commissar has the final say, but he must report the details of the dispute, right? Even if there's a problem, this should..."

"That being said, in actual combat, it's easy to miss opportunities to destroy the enemy or even put troops in danger due to indecision, especially when the military commander is right;"

"Our corps was expanding along the way north and was severely short of manpower. We temporarily selected a number of cultural cadres who lacked sufficient military experience to serve as political commissars for the various regiments, battalions, and companies. As a result, I found that they caused a lot of problems:"

"There have been several instances where the military commander's opinion was clearly correct, but it was overruled by the political commissar because he disagreed with them. Or, even the most trivial matters were brought to my attention for decision..."

Speaking of this, Li Desheng smiled bitterly and said:

"This is all 'blame' on the World Revolutionary Party. In the Northbound Corps, a large number of radios were distributed to battalions and even companies. They can now report their work quite easily, and I allowed them to send messages directly to me, so they noticed this trend very quickly."

"This trend isn't obvious right now because most of our political cadres are military veterans and understand military matters. So even if we disagree, we're usually not too far off the mark."

"However, if the army expands rapidly and we need a large number of military commanders, and the new political commissars are all cadres with no military combat experience, then big problems will arise..."

This was another problem that was only discovered after several major incidents with disastrous losses.

This is the case with the "Southern Anhui Incident" and the "Hebei Central Incident".

During the Southern Anhui Incident, although the New Fourth Army suffered heavy losses mainly due to Ye Ting's fault, the long-standing dispute between Xiang Ying and him over the direction and timing of the operation, which led to the missed opportunity to break out, was also an important factor;

During the Jizhong Incident, the military sub-district commander, Chang Deshan, had sensed the danger early on and requested a quick evacuation, but his request was overruled by political commissar Wang Yuanyin. As a result, the troops remained in place and were surrounded and annihilated.

It is certainly fatal for the army to act alone, but the consequences of intellectuals who do not understand military affairs, are unwilling to listen to others' opinions, and have the "final say" intervening in the correct command are also very fatal;

But the problem is that it is impossible for the Communist Party of China or the Red Army not to accept intellectuals to improve the knowledge and cultural level of the entire army. In the foreseeable future, the addition of a large number of intellectuals who lack military experience is inevitable.

(This doesn't mean Wang Yuanyin was a bastard. He believed that the remaining people and the rearguard troops in the base area could not be abandoned. After Chang Deshan's death, he was shot in the leg and committed suicide to avoid being captured.)

(This shows how tight the CCP's control over the military was at the time. The political commissar disagreed, and he, a battle-hardened and highly respected commander, couldn't take a single soldier with him, nor did he go alone, but died with them.)

After listening to Li Desheng's explanation, Wu Hao was silent for a long moment before he slowly said, "Runzhi, are you planning to expand the power of military cadres again? We've worked so hard to establish the current relatively stable power structure of the Party, government, and military. It's easy to give power away, but it's hard to take it back."

"When it's time to change, we have to change. Now that the problems aren't obvious, there's still time to make changes. At least we don't have to sacrifice the blood and lives of our comrades."

"How about giving intellectual political commissars the opportunity to develop military skills and gain more military experience?"

"This is something that must be done, but the power of the political commissar to make the final decision probably needs to be changed."

Wu Hao thought about it for about a minute and asked, "So how do you plan to change it?"

After hearing this, Li Desheng knew that Wu Hao had actually been persuaded by him, so he quickly explained:

"I've had a preliminary discussion with Comrade Ma Shiwu about this. Military matters are left to the military, and political matters are left to the political. The Party Committee will lead the charge. Major matters must be decided collectively, but in normal times, we will still divide the work and cooperate to fulfill our respective responsibilities."

"If a conflict arises between a military commander and a political commissar, the chief military officer will still make the final decision on actual combat matters. All other matters will be decided by the political commissar, who will report to his superiors and accept review."

"This not only ensures the fundamental principle of the Party commanding the armed forces remains unchanged, but also allows the initiative and professionalism of military commanders to be fully utilized, thus preventing correct military decisions from being erroneously interfered with."

Wu Hao pondered the pros and cons of this idea, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it made sense. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

Yes, this matter can be discussed with General Zhu, Peng Dehuai and others. Since the central government has released some power, the Red Army must make concessions in certain areas, right?

"Runzhi! Then, how about we...what do you think?"

“No, I think it should be like this… like this… and then like this…” “Then it should be like this… like this and like this…”

Soon, Wu Hao and Li Desheng, who had finished discussing the matter, began to act separately, knocking on the doors of Central Committee members one after another throughout the night.