1932: Playing with the Japanese Communist Party with a doll

After much discussion, the only two broad decisions they made were to "quickly send someone to Shanghai to investigate the situation and rebuild the Party Central Committee" and to "quickly contact the Communist International." The question was, how to rebuild? How to contact?

"Rebuilding the Central Committee of the Party" must be approved by the "Communist International";

If the Communist International wanted to agree, it had to contact the Party Central Committee. However, the Party Central Committee had already disappeared and now had to be "rebuilt" before contact could be made. And "rebuilding the Party Central Committee" had to go through...

Wuhu, this is a vicious circle.

When someone suggested trying to contact the Soviet intelligence agency in Shanghai and ask Moscow to send a few new radios as soon as possible, Wang Jiaxiang finally lost his patience and slammed the table: "Shouldn't we be discussing how to rescue those comrades as soon as possible or get information? What? Without the Soviets, we Chinese can't carry out the revolution or something like that?" Wang Jiaxiang's words were very aggressive and "unapolitical", which immediately aroused the anger of several people in the "Wang Ming faction".

When Ren Bishi accused Wang Jiaxiang of "taking the opportunity to attack the Communist International and the great Soviet Union," Wu Hao stepped in to smooth things over:

"Comrade Jiaxiang is right. No matter what, we can't establish the central government's communication channels under the political security departments of other countries. This isn't an attack; it's the most basic political protocol." Wu Hao said this quite tactfully, missing the obvious point of pointing fingers and scolding someone: "Are you brainless? You actually asked the secret service to help us contact Moscow?"

Even though Wu Hao knew that there was actually a "Ramza Group" in Shanghai that could connect them with Moscow, he had not thought about it for the time being.

It is naturally impossible for those who work in intelligence to completely trust anyone.

Although it was difficult to blame Wang Jiaxiang, Ren Bishi continued to mutter: "What is there to be wary of against the great Soviet Union..."

Gu Zuolin, Deng Fa, and the others nodded in agreement, while the others remained silent. There was no answer to this question, or rather, it was difficult to answer.

If you answer "We must be on guard," you will be accused of "attacking the Communist International, slandering the great Soviet Union, and undermining the friendship between the two countries" in a matter of minutes.

The answer "no need to be on guard" is even more ridiculous - since there is no need to be on guard, why are they unwilling to contact the Soviet Union through the Soviet intelligence agency in Shanghai? This is how it is in politics. Although you are contacting the same group of people and the same thing, the meaning is completely different through different channels.

Wu Hao and the others pretended not to hear Ren Bishi and the others' grumbling, and abruptly changed the topic to how to rescue the four unknown comrades and how to deal with the five traitors. At 3 a.m., a man arrived.

Like a red star shining.

065 Teacher's Counterattack

"President!"

"Runzhi!"

"Comrade Desheng!"

As this slightly thin yet extremely tall figure entered the room, everyone stood up unconsciously to greet him and took the initiative to say hello;

No matter how unpleasant Li Desheng was at this time (his temper was impatient and his style was blunt), no matter how much he was suppressed by the Communist International and the Party Central Committee, he was still the most prestigious person in the entire Soviet area;

Even the "Wang Ming faction" and those who lean towards Wang Ming must admit this and must give Li Desheng the respect he deserves.

"..."

Facing the greetings from everyone, Li Desheng, who looked a little haggard but still had a natural arrogance between his brows, just nodded slightly in response, and then quickly went into

Let’s get to the point:

"What's going on? What happened to the Party Central Committee? Is there any other news? You've been discussing this for so long, have you made any decisions?"

To be fair, Li Desheng himself didn't realize it at all, but his behavior did have a bit of an "arrogant" vibe.

Some people in the room unconsciously frowned, their eyes showing displeasure, but Wu Hao ignored them and quickly repeated all the information he had so far. Li Desheng listened while smoking a cigarette, thought for a while, and quickly made a decision:

"It is right to send people to Shanghai to investigate the situation, but it is not enough! If those five people have indeed betrayed us, we must immediately organize a team to eliminate them. Otherwise, the harm they bring to the party will not be much less than that of Gu Shunzhang!" No one raised any objection to this point.

All nine were high-ranking Party leaders, possessing a wealth of secrets about the Party Central Committee and the Soviet areas. If such individuals betrayed the Party, they would be executed. Not to mention the long-term consequences, the "secret passage" leading into the Soviet areas could be exposed at any moment!

(In fact, they have already confessed, but Mark did not allow them to release it)

Wu Hao has already started thinking about how to adjust the original layout of the passages along the way. The so-called "getting information" is just the last bit of luck in his heart. Although everyone knows what to do is right, before this, no one is willing to make such a decision that seems too "cold and hard".

Everyone, including Wu Hao, was waiting for Li Desheng to speak up.

After all, it was he who personally issued the "kill order" for Gu Shunzhang!

"Second, we must quickly find the remaining four comrades. If they are still being detained and tortured, we must rescue them immediately. But I estimate..."

Li Desheng shook his head, and everyone's faces looked gloomy.

Since those five had become traitors, the remaining four would have suffered a similar fate even if they hadn't. If they didn't betray, they would have surely died.

No matter how many conflicts there were at work, they were all comrades after all, and seeing a comrade suffer this fate would be hard for anyone to bear. Thinking of this, everyone hated Lu Futan and Kang Sheng even more.

Only their two "confession letters" revealed the true information about other leading comrades! Especially Kang Sheng!

Must die!!

Li Desheng's first two "decisions" were fine, but his third suggestion was met with widespread opposition. "No! The Ganzhou Campaign must not stop!"

When Li Desheng suggested that the Red Army must immediately halt its attack on Ganzhou and quickly withdraw to its defense zone, Ren Bishi retorted, "The frontline troops are already deployed and ready to launch a general offensive! How can we just stop at that!"

The reason is exactly the same as not calling Peng Dehuai back for the meeting.

The "Wang Ming line" must not suffer any setbacks.

"cough cough..."

Gu Zuolin also coughed and said:

"We've wasted... ahem... so much manpower and resources. If we stop all of a sudden, won't all the previous investment be wasted? Our Soviet finances are already..." "If we don't stop now, it will be too late!"

Li Desheng stared and said:

Think about it yourself! If you were Chiang Kai-shek, after you had taken down the enemy's central government and arrested so many senior leaders, what would you do next? "Uh..."

Everyone cursed in their hearts.

This guy always speaks so harshly.

"I'm sure the Kuomintang troops coming to rescue Ganzhou are definitely on their way!" Li Desheng strode to the map, pointed at several locations with his stick, and said confidently:

"Here...here...here...If I were Chiang Kai-shek, I would definitely mobilize Chen Cheng's troops north of Ganzhou to move south quickly. They would reach Ganzhou in five or six days at most and hold on to the Red Third Army! We should strive to destroy them in one battle!" In fact, the teacher's assessment of the situation was absolutely correct.

On the evening of February 3, the Red Army's vanguard arrived in Ganzhou. Ma Kun, commander of the 34th Brigade of the enemy's 12th Division, immediately telegraphed Zhu Shaoliang, director of the pacification office in Ganzhou, requesting assistance.

On February 4, Zhu Shaoliang conveyed the matter to He Yingqin, the commander-in-chief of the "anti-communist" campaign in the Hunan-Jiangxi-Guangdong-Fujian border area, and reported it to Chiang Kai-shek all the way.

Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered Chen Cheng in Ji'an to rush to the rescue. Chen Cheng then assembled his own 11th and 14th Divisions, along with two independent brigades, totaling approximately 30,000 men, to form the "Jiangxi Anti-Red Offensive Army." Upon learning that the Party Affairs Investigation Section had heroically "annihilated" the CCP Provisional Central Committee and captured five of its senior officials (though their deaths were a pity), Chiang Kai-shek was ecstatic. He judged that the Red Army must be in deep chaos and morale was unstable, making it a perfect time to attack. He telegraphed Chen Cheng:

"The vanguard must move south quickly and advance rapidly. We must reach Ganzhou before February 13th and annihilate the Red Army!"

Chen Cheng also learned the news from Shanghai and, not wanting to delay, ordered the already assembled 11th Division, approximately 10,000 men, to rush towards Ganzhou without even taking all their equipment and supplies. And today, it was already February 10th.

In other words, in three days at most, the Red Army would be caught and surrounded; and they would definitely not be a match for Chen Cheng's troops.

However, except for General Zhu, no one else believed Li Desheng's accurate judgment.

Let's not talk about the issue of "whether Chiang Kai-shek would come to Ganzhou's aid" that has been debated countless times before. Li Desheng may know something about the situation, but even if he knows more, can he know more than Peng Dehuai on the front line? As long as Ganzhou is captured, everything will be fine!

After receiving Peng Dehuai's reply, saying, "Our army will launch a general offensive as scheduled to teach the enemy a lesson," Li Desheng became completely furious and cursed: "Is there a maggot in Peng Dehuai's head?! If Ganzhou was so easy to capture, we would have taken it long ago!"

Wu Hao frowned and said softly, "Comrade Runzhi, please stop swearing."

"Why wouldn't I curse him? If this continues, the Red Third Army will be completely wiped out! Then he'll be the biggest sinner in the Red Army!"

(Think this is exaggerated and unbelievable? But this was the teacher before the Zunyi Conference. His temper and words were so foul that even General Zhu couldn't stand it. So even if there were no interests involved, he offended many people.) "It's not necessarily..."

Just as everyone was trying to prove their correctness by citing reasons like "Chen Cheng in the north won't come south" and "Chiang Kai-shek wants to use this opportunity to weaken local forces," Wang Zheng from the radio brigade hurried in: "Report! Comrade Chen Yi has an urgent message!"

The room suddenly fell silent. Li Desheng rushed forward, snatched the telegram, and threw it to Wu Hao in a rage, "See for yourselves! Am I right?"

".…"

No one cared about this kind of meddling and hurried over to see the following words written on the paper:

"Chen Cheng's army of over 10,000 men has broken through our blocking forces and is heading towards Ganzhou!"

Although it was news of failure, no one thought of blaming Chen Yi.

Everyone knows that north of Ganzhou, there are only a few "local divisions," most of whose personnel lack proper firearms. It's normal for them to be defeated, but it would be surprising if they could stop Chen Cheng's central divisions in the north! At this rate, Chen Cheng's army will reach northwest Ganzhou by dawn on the 13th at the latest and connect with Ma Kun's brigade inside the city!

This is great. With over 10,000 people heading south, not only will Ganzhou be impossible to capture, but the Red Third Army, which is currently attacking the city, will also be at risk of being attacked from both inside and outside! Ren Bishi and others murmured:

"How could it be? It shouldn't be! Why would Chiang Kai-shek help the local army..." Li Desheng heard these incredible voices and immediately mocked:

"Why not?! Ganzhou is the center of southern Jiangxi and the location of tungsten mines. If Chiang Kai-shek wasn't stupid, he wouldn't just ignore it!"

"Also! For Jiang, the biggest enemy right now is none other than us! Now that we have such a good opportunity to annihilate our main force, how could he let it go!"

Everyone was silent and embarrassed.

Li Desheng had repeated these reasons many times between November last year and January this year, but no one listened. Now that Li Desheng had proven that he was right, some people were embarrassed and dared not say anything.

Moreover, seeing his beloved Red Army about to be annihilated, the furious Li Desheng was still adding fuel to the fire.

"The pre-war planning was completely presumptuous! We were pinning our hopes on the Kuomintang's Central Army not joining the war, but how could they possibly listen to you?" "We kept the elite Red 4th Army in the south to guard against the Guangdong Army, while we didn't even have a proper regiment in the north! I don't know what you were thinking!"

Is Li Desheng's criticism justified?

Yes, very much.

During the historical Battle of Ganzhou, the Red Army's chaotic fighting resulted from the rear headquarters' failure to clearly prioritize attacking the reinforcements or siege the city. They sought to attack both, euphemistically calling it "adapting to circumstances." The bodies of the Red Army officers and soldiers who perished beneath the walls of Ganzhou speak for themselves. Later, Li Desheng criticized the Ganzhou Campaign and certain planners and commanders, particularly Peng Dehuai, who refused to retreat despite clearly seeing the battle was unfavorable: "...strategically, they were complacent, tactically, they neglected the enemy, and their deployments were riddled with errors, resulting in the wasted lives of Red Army soldiers. This is a battle the Red Army could not have fought. While this is perfectly accurate, how could the average person, especially one who held high positions at such a young age, accept this?

The group of people who had insisted on attacking Ganzhou before the war immediately flushed red when they heard Li Desheng's words and lowered their heads, not knowing what they were thinking. Wu Hao was the same. A complex emotion of embarrassment, heartache, and worry flashed across his face. After a long while, he frowned and asked:

"Comrade Runzhi, is there any way to save the situation now?"

Although he had suffered a great deal of injustice before, and although he was still very unhappy at the moment, once he entered the working state, Li Desheng immediately put those emotions behind him and said decisively:

"Yes! As long as Peng Dehuai gathers his troops now and withdraws quickly, and doesn't insist on attacking Ganzhou, everything is still in time!"

Again:

As long as the Communist International and the Shanghai Central Committee did not intervene, there would be very few people who could stop Li Desheng. Soon, after some discussion, the Central Bureau of the Soviet Area made a decision:

Order Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao and others to withdraw their troops quickly;

The Red Fifth Army, which was still in the process of reorganization, immediately marched out to support the retreating Red Third Army.

Chen Yi's several local divisions were divided into small groups and continued to harass the supply lines of Chen Cheng's troops to delay the enemy's actions... Almost all of the above suggestions came from Li Desheng.

It seemed as if his former status had returned, as if he had once again become the "Commissioner Mao" who rode a white horse and had the final say. However, Wu Hao secretly observed the expressions of the people present, especially the faces of several of the "Soviet-educated" faction, and sighed inwardly. Runzhi, Runzhi, when will you change your temper?

Otherwise, when the Communist International contacts us again, your life will only get worse...

066 Soviets attacked

Xiafei Villa, No. 333 Wukang Road, Shanghai.

From the outside, this three-story house nestled among lush greenery looked like any other in the townhouse complex. But once you stepped inside, you'd discover a far more complex interior. Inside, a dozen blond, brown, and black-haired staff members were busy, each with a pistol strapped to their waist. Several large boxes in the corner were filled with weapons and ammunition.

From their appearance, one can tell at a glance that they are not simple people.

There is no way. Recently, the Sino-Japanese war broke out in Shanghai, and the situation is very tense. Everyone must be extremely careful and be prepared to sacrifice at any time.

Because if what they did were exposed, not only would the Japanese and Germans never let them go, but even the Kuomintang would want to make trouble for them. The second floor of the villa was quiet, with several staff members such as translators, typists, and secretaries working together, but there was almost no sound.

Everyone silently awaited the decision of a foreigner on the third floor, a handsome man in a suit and tie, but missing three fingers on his left hand. "Comrade Ramza, can't we send the message yet?"

A middle-aged woman about 30 years old said softly:

"Moscow has sent several telegrams asking why we stopped reporting. If we don't reply, I'm afraid they will think we have rebelled or been captured.

Some poor decisions were made.”

"...No, wait a moment."

Sitting in a corner, flipping through various intelligence reports, a blue-eyed, curly-haired man frowned, constantly wondering what had gone wrong to lead to the entire Central Committee of the Communist Party of China being wiped out without warning. Five people had publicly surrendered, four were missing, the entire party organization was almost completely paralyzed, and all the radio stations were nowhere to be found...

This news was a bolt from the blue for the Ramza Group, which had always maintained limited cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party. It shouldn't have happened...

Comrade Wu Hao's arrangements for the Central Special Branch were spot on. Even he himself admired his intelligence talent and meticulous thinking. How could he have been dealt such a terrible blow by a mere Kuomintang Party Affairs Investigation Section? Nine high-ranking leaders were all arrested overnight, and no leads have been found to this day, nor is anyone's whereabouts known. It's truly bizarre.

Even if Gu Shunzhang, the head of the Central Security Department, had defected without the CCP receiving any warning, it would not have led to such serious consequences. Therefore, "Ramza" urgently halted all activities of the "Ramza Group" he led in Shanghai, even stopping the transmission of telegrams to the outside world.

If you don't understand what's going on, you won't be able to do anything...

Soon after, the first floor door opened, and a small Chinese man entered after receiving a code. He then went up to the third floor and reported his investigation. "...What? Not the Party Affairs Investigation Section?"

"I'm very sure it's not. No one inside knows how those nine people were arrested, and no one knows where they are. I don't think their ability to keep secrets is that strong."

"You mean... the Party Affairs Investigation Division is taking credit for something?"

"Well, I suspect that's the case. It's an old tradition of theirs." "...Could it be...the newly formed Renaissance Society that did it?"

"Probably not. I even heard some uncertain news." "What?"

"People from the Renaissance Society are having a fierce conflict with people from the Party Affairs Investigation Section because they say their people died in one of the Party Affairs Investigation Section's bases." "How many people died?"

"Almost all elite members." "Hiss..."

Ramza gasped. No wonder the scholar said that.

If that's the case, and it's neither the Party Affairs Investigation Section nor the Renaissance Society, could it be some foreign force? It can't be the Japanese, right?

I don't smell that at all...