100 Historical Stories That Unlock Teenage Wisdom

Chapter 58 6 The Zunyi Meeting Changes Military Strategy

Chapter 66 The Zunyi Conference Changes Military Strategy
——The experience and lessons taught by others can help us choose more wisely only when we combine our own situation.

In the early 30s, the failure of the fifth campaign against "encirclement and suppression" and the severe setbacks suffered by the Red Army in the early days of the Long March deepened the misunderstanding of many commanders, fighters and party and government cadres about the central military command. It was held to save the crisis of the Chinese revolution.

From January 1935 to 1, 15, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in Zunyi.Members of the Politburo attending the meeting included Bogu, Zhang Wentian, Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Chen Yun; alternate members of the Politburo Wang Jiaxiang, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Fa, and He Kequan; and the heads of the Red Army headquarters and regiments Liu Bocheng, Li Fuchun, Lin Biao, Nie Rongzhen, and Peng Dehuai , Yang Shangkun, Li Zhuoran; and Deng Xiaoping, Secretary-General of the Central Committee.Li De and translator Wu Xiuquan attended the meeting.

The conference concentrated its efforts on solving the decisive military and organizational problems of the time.At the meeting, Bogu first made a summary report on opposing the fifth "encirclement and suppression".He attributed the failure of the fifth campaign against "encirclement and suppression" to the strength of the enemy and the ineffective construction of the Central Soviet Area, defending wrong military leadership.Then, Zhou Enlai made a report on military issues.Mao Zedong made an important speech at the meeting, analyzing and criticizing Bogu and Li De's mistakes in military command to the point, and expounding the strategic and tactical issues of China's revolutionary war and the policies that should be adopted in the military.In his speech, Wang Jiaxiang also criticized Bogu and Li De, and supported Mao Zedong's correct opinion.Most of the participants including Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Liu Shaoqi also disagreed with Bogu's summary report, and agreed with Mao Zedong, Zhang Wentian, and Wang Jiaxiang.

The meeting elected Mao Zedong as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, canceled Bo Gu and Li De's supreme military command, and decided that Zhou Enlai and Zhu De, the main leaders of the Central Military Commission, would still command the military.Subsequently, according to the spirit of the meeting, the Standing Committee of the Politburo carried out a division of labor, with Zhang Wentian replacing Bo Gu in overall responsibility, and Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in charge of the military.During the march, a three-person military command group with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Wang Jiaxiang was formed to command the military operations of the entire army. This was the most important leading organization of the CPC Central Committee at that time.

Wisdom Interpretation:

No one knows your own situation better than you. Only when you have a clear grasp of your own situation can you make the right choice, make a correct assessment, and walk the right path with bright ambition and success.

(End of this chapter)