Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

The General Training Directorate was gone, key officials at the Nanjing Military Academy were purged, and the General Staff was also being reorganized. Marshals, generals, lieutenant generals, and lieutenant generals were all affected. How would such a large number of officials be handled?

Marshal Ye had just proposed to the Central Military Commission and the Chairman the establishment of an Academy of Military Sciences. This would systematically study Marxist-Leninist military theory and Li Desheng's military thought, summarize war experiences from ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, especially the People's Liberation Army's experience in building and operating, compile regulations for a combined-army force, and explore the laws of armed forces construction and people's war under modern conditions, in order to meet the needs of national defense modernization and future anti-aggression wars.

Therefore, at this enlarged meeting of the Military Commission, the Military Commission decided to establish the Academy of Military Science based on the Military Science and Regulations Department of the General Training Department.

Marshal Ye was appointed as the president and political commissar of the Academy. Former Chief of the General Staff Su Yu and former Director of the General Training Department Zuo Quan were both assigned to the Academy as deputies to Marshal Ye. Many officials from the General Staff and the General Training Department were also assigned to the Academy.

Of course, some cadres were directly transferred out of the army.

In fact, it is still the same truth.

This time, we cut the Gordian knot. The mistakes were made by the General Staff and the General Training Department. Aren’t the other cadres at fault?

of course not.

But this time they have to take the blame.

Furthermore, this "anti-dogmatism" campaign isn't aimed at any particular cadre. For example, Zuo Quan, Director of the General Training Department, has worked with General Peng for over a decade. The two have a rapport and a close personal relationship.

However, General Peng did not let the issue of dogmatism go unpunished, simply because of their past friendship. Instead, he strongly supported Zhang Zhongxun and fiercely criticized the General Training Department. Zuo Quan, the head of the General Training Department, offered several self-criticisms, but General Peng did not let him off lightly.

Zhang Zhongxun and Chen Bojun were both cadres who emerged from the Autumn Harvest Uprising, but during this "anti-dogmatism" movement, Zhang Zhongxun fiercely criticized the Nanjing Military Academy which was under the charge of Liu Shuai and Chen Bojun.

Dogma and anti-dogma, this is an outbreak of contradiction within the party and the army.

It was a conflict about military development, not a personal one. It was just that this work-related conflict escalated into other areas. After Su Yu left the General Staff, everyone assumed Huang Kecheng would become Chief of Staff.

Because Huang Kecheng was the Secretary General of the Military Commission, he would often directly preside over Military Commission meetings on Peng's behalf when Peng was busy. Furthermore, Peng's desire to have Huang Kecheng become Chief of the General Staff was so obvious that many people in the Military Commission knew about it.

As a result, during the group discussions, the Chairman, the Premier, and Wei Hongjun all proposed that Deng Guo be appointed Chief of the General Staff.

The Chairman spoke directly to General Peng, General He, and Marshal Luo. The Premier spoke to officials from various CMC departments, and Wei Hongjun spoke to military and political officials from the major military regions. All three proposed that Deng Guo be appointed Chief of the General Staff. The position was so sensitive that even the Chairman and Premier did not dare to raise it directly at the expanded CMC meeting.

If it is raised at the enlarged meeting of the Military Commission and is ultimately rejected, the matter will be even more serious.

So I still need to communicate with everyone first.

Peng was somewhat angry after being rejected twice in a row for the position of Chief of the General Staff. He therefore directly told the Chairman that the work of the Military Commission required tacit cooperation from top to bottom. Peng had no objection to Deng Xiaoping, but he thought Huang Kecheng was more suitable.

The Chairman also directly informed General Peng that the Central Committee had made a different appointment for Huang Kecheng. The Central Committee was planning to transfer Huang Kecheng from the military to strengthen the Central Supervisory Committee. In reality, the Central Committee had never considered this before.

But General Peng's actions several times made the Chairman a little worried.

That's why the Chairman decided to transfer Huang Kecheng.

Although the conversation between Chairman Mao and General Peng did not end in a quarrel, it did end on a somewhat unhappy note. However, after some preparation, Deng Guo was still chosen as the Chief of the General Staff at the Military Commission meeting.

Deng Guo wasn't without concerns about this appointment. After all, the two previous Chiefs of the General Staff ultimately failed to maintain a good relationship with General Peng and ultimately resigned from the Military Commission. But having been appointed Chief of the General Staff, Deng Guo wasn't one to shy away from anything. He was a military leader who had fought from Northeast China to Hainan and had even taken charge in Korea.

At this meeting, the Chairman, the Premier, and Wei Hongjun adopted the strategy of quick victory.

In less than a week, all necessary actions were taken. Because the process was so swift, quite a few officials were affected. But it was already July, not long before the Second National People's Congress.

The central government needs to prepare for this meeting.

1021

The enlarged military meeting acted too hastily and left many issues unresolved.

Especially those cadre issues.

The most important point is to reorganize the General Staff.

This time, not only Chief of General Staff Su Yu left the General Staff, but also some other deputy chiefs of general staff were affected. Therefore, the Military Commission reorganized the entire General Staff.

After Deng Guo took office as Chief of the General Staff, the Military Commission assigned him twelve deputy chiefs of the general staff.

Zhang Zhongxun, former commander of the Lanzhou Military Region, returned to the CMC General Staff Headquarters as first deputy chief of staff, assisting Deng Guo in managing the General Staff Headquarters. Zhang Zhongxun also became the most valued cadre in the military following the "anti-dogmatism" movement.

General Peng was very satisfied with Zhang Zhongxun's first shot.

Furthermore, General Peng and Zhang Zhongxun had worked together for many years in the Northwest. While their collaboration wasn't perfect, it was quite good. General Peng was very satisfied with Zhang Zhongxun's work ability. Furthermore, Deng Guo wasn't General Peng's first choice for Chief of the General Staff, so when Zhang Zhongxun returned to the General Staff, General Peng proposed that he serve as First Deputy Chief of the General Staff. General He and Zhang Zhongxun had also worked together for many years during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, so he also supported Zhang Zhongxun's return to the General Staff.

It is difficult for others to object to this.

After all, the proposal of General Peng as Chief of the General Staff had already been rejected, so it would be difficult to reject his proposal for the first deputy chief of the general staff.

Wang Qiuyun serves as Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Commander of the Wuhan Military Region, He Bingyan serves as Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Commander of the Chengdu Military Region, and Zhang Aiping serves as Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Deputy Director of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

These three people all hold honorary positions in the General Staff, and their work is not in the General Staff.

In addition to them, Chen Geng and Li Kenong also served as deputy chiefs of the general staff. However, due to health reasons, they usually rested and did not participate in the daily work of the general staff. They would handle specific matters when they were better.

Overall, the appointment of Chen Geng and Li Kenong as deputy chiefs of the general staff has greater symbolic significance.

Also, after this "anti-dogmatism" campaign, the General Training Headquarters was abolished and incorporated into the General Staff Headquarters.

Therefore, three officers from the General Training Department were transferred to the General Staff Headquarters as deputy chiefs of staff: Zuo Quan, Peng Shaohui, and Chen Zhonghe. However, despite being deputy chiefs of staff, these three officers were only designated deputy chiefs of staff because they were the main targets of criticism during the "anti-dogmatism" campaign. It was difficult for them to secure a significant role in such a short period of time.

Then comes the Deputy Chief of General Staff who actually does the work.

The three people who will be appointed as deputy chiefs of the general staff are Li Tianyou, deputy commander of the Guangzhou Military Region, Wei Guoqing who returned from Vietnam, and Yang Yong, currently deputy commander of the Volunteer Army. These three people will be deputy chiefs of the general staff with actual important divisions of labor.

After the reorganization of the General Staff, Deng Guo, the Chief of General Staff, looked very calm, but his heart was not so calm. When Deng Guo accepted the order from the Chief of General Staff, he already knew that his work in the General Staff would be difficult.

But who could have imagined the General Staff would be so complex? Among the deputy chiefs of the general staff this time was Zhang Zhongxun, who had made significant contributions to the "anti-dogmatism" campaign. He had worked with General Peng and General He for many years in the northwest, and he and General Luo were both part of the Autumn Harvest Uprising.

Zhang Zhongxun possessed extensive experience, high rank, and a close relationship with the vice chairmen who presided over the CMC. Seeing Zhang Zhongxun, Deng Guo immediately thought of Huang Kecheng. Huang Kecheng was the Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Secretary-General of the CMC. Because of General Peng's trust, the CMC's Chief of General Staff, Su Yu, previously reported to Huang Kecheng. Now, Zhang Zhongxun was acting in the same way.

If General Peng, General He, and General Luo trusted Zhang Zhongxun more, Deng Guo's work in the General Staff would be very difficult. How to deal with Zhang Zhongxun was already a headache for Deng Guo.

The same is true for Zuo Quan and Peng Shaohui below.

Zuo Quan served as General Peng's Chief of Staff for over a decade. Whether during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression or the Liberation War, the two men worked seamlessly together, a true duo. As for Peng Shaohui, he was a member of General Peng's Pingjiang Uprising, and after the war, he was transferred to the 120th Division and worked alongside General He for many years. While this "anti-dogmatism" campaign may have hindered their proper division of labor within the General Staff, once this incident is over, they will undoubtedly be highly valued by Generals Peng and He.

Just look at Su Yu and you will know.

After leaving the General Staff, he held no other positions besides being a member of the Central Military Commission and Vice President of the Academy of Military Sciences, effectively becoming completely unemployed. However, Zuo Quan, the head of the General Training Department, who was the subject of the most severe criticism, was transferred to the Academy of Military Sciences and also served as Deputy Chief of the General Staff. The treatment of the two groups was completely different.

And there is Chen Zhonghe.

Despite being the youngest in the Red Army, he joined the Red Army as a common soldier in late 1933. Originally a member of the Fourth Front Army, he was assigned to the 115th Division during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, participating in the Jin-Cha-Ji Revolution. From the Jin-Cha-Ji Third Division, he moved to Cha'nan, where he served under Wang Qiuyun and Wei Hongjun, achieving notable feats. During the Korean War, Wei Hongjun recruited him to serve as Chief of Staff in the Volunteer Army. His close relationship with Wei Hongjun was profound.

So it’s not easy to deal with it casually.

As a result, the General Training Department had one director and four deputy directors. Li Da and Xiao Zijing were both transferred from the military to local governments, receiving harsh punishments. However, Zuo Quan, Peng Shaohui, and Chen Zhonghe, despite being criticized, were all incorporated into the General Staff Headquarters as deputy chiefs of staff. Although their deputy chiefs of staff had limited responsibilities and authority, they still retained the possibility of reinstatement.

This is the different result when someone from the central government speaks up or no one speaks up during a political movement.

These three individuals seemed down and out now, but they might be re-employed in a few years. How to divide the work among them was also a headache for Deng Guo. As cadres under criticism, they couldn't be given too important tasks, but they couldn't be completely ignored either.

Deng Guo understood that all the cadres' back-end relationships were complex after he arrived at the Central Committee. But looking at his deputy chiefs of general staff, he couldn't help but shake his head. Sorting out the relationships within the General Staff was already difficult enough. And the thought of working with a cadre as charismatic as General Peng was a real headache.

After Zhang Zhongxun was promoted to the central government, the Military Commission appointed Guo Tianmin as the commander of the Lanzhou Military Region.

When it comes to cadre placement in the Northwest, General Peng and General He will undoubtedly prioritize those from the former Northwest Field Army. However, the former Northwest Field Army was short in manpower, weak in strength, and short of cadres, especially high-ranking ones. Among those who left the former Northwest Field Army, or the 120th Division, are Zhang Zhongxun, serving as First Deputy Chief of the General Staff; Wang Zhen, who was transferred from the army, serving as Minister of Agricultural Reclamation; Xu Guangda, Commander of the Armored Forces; Huang Xinting, Commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; Liao Hansheng, President of the Nanjing Military Academy; Yao Zhe, Deputy Commander of the Inner Mongolia Military Region; and Li Jingquan, First Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee.

After the former Northwest Field Army cadres, they became cadres of the First Field Army.

The corps led by Guo Tianmin was directly incorporated into the First Field Army. So, while Guo Tianmin wasn't a cadre of the original Northwest Field Army, he was still a cadre of the First Field Army. After Zhang Zhongxun left the Lanzhou Military Region, the Military Commission had limited candidates for the Lanzhou Military Region commander position.

Then came the commander of the Shenyang Military Region.

Yang Dezhi, who is still in North Korea, has been appointed by the Central Military Commission as the commander of the Shenyang Military Region.

Another major change within the CMC is the transfer of its Secretary-General, Huang Kecheng. The Politburo held a meeting and concluded that the Central Supervisory Commission was still severely underpowered.

Tan Zhenlin needs help.

Therefore, the Politburo decided to transfer Huang Kecheng, Secretary-General of the Central Military Commission, to join the Central Supervisory Committee as Deputy Secretary.

After Huang Kecheng left the CMC, Wang Xinting, then Political Commissar of the Jinan Military Region, was transferred to serve as CMC Secretary-General. The position of CMC Secretary-General has always been crucial, and it was even more so during Huang Kecheng's tenure. It could be argued that during Huang Kecheng's tenure, the CMC Secretary-General's power reached its peak. Huang Kecheng often presided over CMC meetings and issued CMC orders directly on behalf of General Peng. All eight CMC departments and commissions regularly reported to Huang Kecheng.

General Peng also trusts Huang Kecheng very much.

General Peng was very dissatisfied with the transfer of Huang Kecheng.

However, after two consecutive Chiefs of the General Staff were "forced to leave," some leaders in both the Central Committee and the Military Commission began to feel a sense of fear towards General Peng. That is why the Central Committee transferred Huang Kecheng.

After receiving the order, Wang Xinting couldn't decide whether to be happy or wry. He had been the deputy political commissar of the Jinan Military Region. He became the political commissar because the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China stipulated that provincial Party committee first secretaries no longer serve as political commissars of military regions. He had been in the position for less than six months when he was unexpectedly transferred to the Central Military Commission as secretary-general.

The CMC Secretary-General is a crucial position connecting the CMC Vice Chairman and all the CMC departments. While I know several CMC Vice Chairmen, my relationships with them are limited, and we've only worked together a few times before.

Moreover, the position he was replacing was Huang Kecheng's. How could he be worthy of taking Huang Kecheng's place?

Just thinking about it made him not know what to do.

Soon, the Chairman issued a notice in the name of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Secretary-General of the Central Military Commission divided the matters to be handled by the Central Military Commission into several levels according to their importance. For the most basic matters, the various departments of the Central Military Commission discussed and decided on their own. For more important matters involving various departments, the signatures of General Peng and the heads of the various departments were required for them to be valid.

Then, regarding the daily meetings of the Military Commission, including the appointment of cadres at the regimental level and below, the signatures of General Peng, General He, and Marshal Luo were required for the appointment to be valid. Finally, regarding important meetings of the Military Commission, the appointment of cadres at the regimental level and above required the signatures of the Chairman, General Peng, General He, Marshal Luo, and Wei Hongjun for the appointment to be valid.

In fact, it is the beginning of further promoting democratic centralism within the Central Military Commission.

Later, some cadres of the Military Commission were transferred, and Wei Hongjun did not participate in the whole process. However, although Wei Hongjun did not participate, many things still had to be found and Wei Hongjun's opinions were heard.

Just like what happened to Chen Zhonghe.

Wei Hongjun did not express his opinion, but naturally someone would come to ask Wei Hongjun's opinion.

Wei Hongjun, of course, wouldn't say how Chen Zhonghe should be assigned. He simply stated that Chen Zhonghe had made some mistakes at the General Training Headquarters, but he had, after all, participated in commanding a million-strong volunteer army and had actually fought against imperialist forces. He possessed a certain understanding of modern warfare, which was extremely rare and valuable in the current PLA.

If Chen Zhonghe can recognize his mistakes and actively review them, he can still be used.

With Wei Hongjun's words, Chen Zhonghe would not have left the army and gone to the local government like Xiao Zijing and Li Da.

However, the Military Commission's affairs were not Wei Hongjun's main job after all. His main job was still in the Secretariat. Ma Mingfang and his team had been investigating the "Huxi Sutuo" for more than three months.

Come and report to the Secretariat.

"Of the seven 'Trotskyists' initially identified, five were killed immediately, leaving two alive. We have carefully investigated the original report that convicted the 'Trotskyists' and have located leading comrades at the time, including Comrade Guo Hongtao, Comrade Bai Ziming, and Comrade Liu Juying, as well as those from the Shandong branch who accompanied Comrade Liu Juying in the investigation. After more than three months of investigation, our investigation team has concluded that the Shandong branch's initial designation of seven 'Trotskyists' was without any basis."

There is a lot of information.

These are all part of this investigation.

Again, what is the basis for labeling these seven people as "Trotskyists"?

At that time, Liu Juying was investigating the "Huxi Suppression of Trustees" incident under the order of Guo Hongtao's Shandong Branch. They had already had their own ideas when they arrived, and the investigation was based on their ideas, not the actual situation of the "Huxi Suppression of Trustees."

So after looking around, I couldn't find any so-called "Trotskyists".

What should I do?

We can't say the "Huxi Trotskyist Suppression" was a mistake from the start. Even the Shandong Branch itself would feel bad if that were the case. If there weren't even a single "Trotskyist," how could they explain to everyone why the Huxi Party Committee had gone through so much trouble, so long, and so intensely? They couldn't explain it to the Huxi Party, government, and military, nor to the people of Huxi, let alone the Party Central Committee. So they forcibly created the so-called "Trotskyists," believing there had to be "Trotskyists" in Huxi. But the "Huxi Trotskyist Suppression" was ultimately wrong, so they concluded that the "Trotskyist Suppression" was correct, while the expansion of the campaign was wrong.

But this kind of thing simply cannot withstand investigation.

The investigation team went down and conducted a thorough investigation, easily uncovering a wealth of information. Even though twenty years have passed, the CCP still prioritizes archival management. Much of the information from that time still exists, as do the individuals involved.