According to Zhang Zhizhong's son Zhang Yichun, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Premier Zhou Enlai came to the Zhang family as a guest and recalled his friendship with Zhang Zhizhong, Zhou Enlai said with emotion: "If your father joined the Communist Party of China at that time, now he will be either our marshal or a revolutionary martyr." ”
Among the Kuomintang generals, Zhang Zhizhong was a very special person, he was listed as one of the "Eight King Kongs", a concubine of Chiang Kai-shek's concubines, and at the same time a "red general", who had a close relationship with Zhou Enlai. In the wind and rain that lasted for half a century, Zhang Zhizhong and Zhou Enlai confronted each other several times at the negotiating table, and under the table were brothers who talked about wine and talked happily and treated each other with each other.
Zhou Enlai and Zhang Zhizhong
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Zhang Zhizhong was born in 1890 to a poor family of craftsmen in Chao County, Anhui Province. The young Zhang Zhizhong was admitted to the Baoding Military Academy to study in sifang and was a disciple of Chiang Kai-shek. Since then, Zhang Zhizhong has begun to cooperate with Chiang Kai-shek for nearly 30 years, which is quite trusted by Chiang Kai-shek.
At the end of 1924, Zhang Zhizhong was appointed as the acting captain of the Huangpu Phase III Enlistment Corps. In February of the following year, Zhang Zhizhong was transferred to participate in the First Crusade as a colonel staff officer at the headquarters of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, against the Cantonese warlord Chen Jiongming. After returning to Guangzhou after the Crusade, the special party group of the Kuomintang Whampoa Military Academy was reorganized, and Zhang Zhizhong held eight positions and was the mainstay of Huangpu. It was also during this period that Zhang Zhizhong became acquainted with Zhou Enlai and other Communist Party members, and the two of them saw each other as they always did, and they talked very happily.
Although Zhang Zhizhong and Zhou Enlai belonged to different camps, they had similar personalities and identical ideals, and "the heroes saw the same things" about the work of military academies and the future of China, which sowed the seeds of their friendship. With a deep understanding of the Chinese Communist Party and trust in Zhou Enlai, Zhang Zhizhong proposed to join the Chinese Communist Party in a meeting and let Zhou Enlai be the introducer to the party.
Soon after, Zhou Enlai relayed the opinion of the CPC Central Committee, holding: "Of course, the Communist Party welcomes your joining, but your goal is too great, and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party have agreed that the Communist Party will not recruit senior Kuomintang generals into the party. ”
Zhang Zhizhong pondered for a moment and said: "The CCP's ideas are far-sighted, so I will continue to work with my Kuomintang." ”
In this way, Zhang Zhizhong's first application to join the party was shelved.
Although Zhang Zhizhong did not join the party, it did not affect his friendship with Zhou Enlai. In 1925, Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao married in Guangzhou, because of financial constraints and busy affairs, they decided to simplify the marriage. Zhang Zhizhong thought it was inappropriate, so he took out his savings, ran two tables of banquets, and informed his friends and confidants of the military academy to come to congratulate him. That night Zhang Zhizhong drank a lot of wine, and zhou Enlai, who had a good amount of alcohol, was drunk.
At that time, the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party at the Whampoa Military Academy was serious, and Zhang Zhizhong's pro-Communist actions aroused Chiang Kai-shek's suspicions, and he asked his close confidant Wang Maogong: "Is Zhang Zhizhong a communist?" Wang Maogong bluntly said that the rumors were not credible, and Chiang Kai-shek was secretly relieved.
Zhang Zhizhong
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In October 1926, the Northern Expeditionary Army captured Wuhan, and Zhang Zhizhong became the chief of education of the Wuhan branch of the Whampoa Military Academy. One day in 1927, Chen Geng, a graduate of the first phase of Huangpu, came to Zhang Zhizhong and needed travel expenses to Go to Shanghai. Zhang Zhizhong learned that Zhou Enlai was also in Shanghai, so he secretly instructed Chen Geng: "The situation is not right, you remind Enlai, you must be careful in your actions." ”
After the outbreak of the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, Zhang Zhizhong avoided war and retreated to the second line to preside over the Military Education of the Kuomintang for ten years. It was not until the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the survival of the nation that Zhang Zhizhong once again led the troops.
In 1937, Zhang Zhizhong was transferred to the chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government, and Zhou Enlai was appointed deputy director of the Political Department of the Kuomintang Military Commission, first stationed in Wuhan, and then retreated to Changsha after the fall of Wuhan, and the two old friends continued the frontier after a gap of ten years.
During the First Battle of Changsha, Zhang Zhizhong carried out Chiang Kai-shek's "scorched earth policy" and set a fire in Changsha in an attempt to burn the entire city before the Arrival of the Japanese Army. Before setting the fire, Zhang Zhizhong called Zhou Enlai and asked him to leave Changsha before 12 o'clock that night. Less than a quarter of an hour after Zhou Enlai left, a fire burned his residence to ashes.
After the fire, the city of Changsha was devastated, and the superiors deliberately put the blame on zhang Zhizhong's head, and Zhang Zhizhong blamed himself and was anxious. Zhou Enlai did not stand idly by; he came to Zhang Zhizhong's side and asked him to "quickly clean up the aftermath and clean up the hearts and minds of the people." At the same time, he conscientiously revised the draft that Zhang Zhizhong was preparing to submit to Chiang Kai-shek, criticized the mistakes of the "scorched earth policy," and made the Kuomintang realize that there was a mistake in the policy and that it was not the reason for Zhang Zhizhong alone.
Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai went to Chongqing for negotiations
In August 1945, at the suggestion of Zhang Zhizhong, the two parties held peace talks in Chongqing. Zhang Zhizhong personally went to Yan'an to greet Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, and other CPC negotiators; after arriving in Chongqing, he lent his official residence, Guiyuan Garden, to the CPC delegation for use, and proposed that his own special agent squad serve as guards to protect the safety of Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai.
On October 10, the Kuomintang and the Communists signed the Double Tenth Agreement. In January of the following year, Zhang Zhizhong rushed to Yan'an for the third time and was warmly welcomed by the CPC Central Committee and the people of the border areas. Zhang Zhizhong said to Chairman Mao: "Peace has been achieved, the CPC Central Committee will go to Nanjing, you will also go to Nanjing, and I will not come to Yan'an again!" A leader of the CPC Central Committee replied: "You have said this very well, and history has said that we have succeeded, not failed." Zhang Zhizhong smiled and said, "I never thought the Communist Party would fail!" ”
Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Zhizhong
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > a confrontation between close friends in Beijing's peace talks</h1>
In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek "went down to the field" for the third time, with Li Zongren as acting president. After Li Zong came to power, he decided to go to Beiping to carry out peace talks on the basis of the eight conditions put forward by Chairman Mao, and asked Zhang Zhizhong to serve as the chief negotiator of the Kuomintang. Before leaving, Zhang Zhizhong went to Visit Chiang Kai-shek at The Mouth of Fenghua Creek in Zhejiang Province, and Chiang Kai-shek said to him: "You are shouldering the most difficult task here, and you must be careful!" ”
On April 1, a special plane carrying the Nanjing delegation landed at Beiping Beiyuan Airport. Zhang Zhizhong walked down the gangway, but there was no sign of Zhou Enlai in the reception crowd, and he couldn't help but be shocked that Zhou Enlai did not personally greet him, which proved that this negotiation was very arduous.
In the negotiations, Zhang Zhizhong said: The dispute between the two parties of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party is like a dispute between brothers, before the brother did not manage the family well, the younger brother was capable, the older brother handed over the key to the younger brother, but the brother is wrong again, and the brothers are also a family.
Zhou Enlai, who has always been gentle and elegant, immediately took up the case and reprimanded Zhang Zhizhong: "Do you treat us like brothers?" Since April 12, you have killed thousands of Communists, and you have launched an all-out civil war, but have you not taken care of this family? The struggle between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang is by no means a fraternal struggle, but a struggle between revolution and counter-revolution! ”
Peking Peace Talks Venue
During the negotiations, Chairman Mao invited the negotiators and asked Zhang Zhizhong: "How have we been talking these past few days?" ”
Zhang Zhizhong replied: "I have talked a lot with Enlai, involving various aspects, there are some differences, and we need to talk about them slowly. ”
Zhang Zhizhong went on to say: "The Kuomintang has been in power for more than 20 years, and it has not followed the construction of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's legacy, and it is ashamed of the country and the people, and it will depend on you from now on." ”
"No, no, it's all of us who do it, and all those who advocate true peace are the ones we cooperate with." Chairman Mao replied sincerely.
On 15 April, representatives of the Kuomintang and the Communists drafted the Internal Peace Agreement (Final Amendment), which they agreed to sign on 20 April. Regarding the agreement, the Nanjing side said that it was difficult for the People's Liberation Army to cross the river, and Chiang Kai-shek scolded the case: "Wen Bai is incompetent, and he loses his power and humiliates the country!" "The Kuomintang-Communist negotiations broke down completely. On April 21, the People's Liberation Army launched a campaign to cross the river to accelerate the pace of liberating all of China.
After the negotiations broke down, the issue of the delegation's whereabouts and retention was in front of them, and most of the negotiators believed that they should stay in Peiping, wait for the situation to develop, and restart the negotiations again. Zhang Zhizhong believed that he was the chief representative, the negotiations had broken down, and there was no need to stay in Beiping, so he insisted on returning to Nanjing. Knowing that Zhang Zhizhong was leaving, Zhou Enlai said sincerely: "When the Xi'an Incident occurred, we could not stand a friend surnamed Zhang, and we can no longer be sorry for you today!" ”
In order to let Zhang Zhizhong stay in Beiping with peace of mind, Zhou Enlai contacted the underground party in Nanjing, sent Zhang Zhizhong's wife and children to a train to Shanghai, and then took a plane to Beiping with the help of the Shanghai underground party. After the group arrived in Beiping, Zhang Zhizhong excitedly said to Zhou En: "You really will stay as a guest!" ”
Former residence of Zhang Zhizhong
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Zhang Yichun said: "In his later years, it was the prime minister who protected his father many times. ”
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai, who was full of opportunities, always had to squeeze out some time to sit at Zhang Zhizhong's house and reminisce with old friends. Zhou Enlai knew that Zhang Zhizhong suffered from a leg disease, and when he was old, he had to bring back some precious medicines every time he went abroad and send them to Zhang Zhizhong. Zhang Yichun wanted to be a power plant worker, and Zhou Enlai said to Chen Yun, who was in charge of power: "Wen Bai's son wants to engage in power technology, so you let him go." Chen Yun nodded in agreement.
Under the leadership of the Communist Party, New China has been changing with each passing day, and Zhang Zhizhong deeply admired it, and he had the idea of joining the party, hoping that Zhou Enlai could help recommend it. However, Zhou Enlai believed that Zhang Zhizhong had a special influence and played a greater role outside the party than within the party, and once again rejected Zhang Zhizhong's application.
In 1959, Zhang Zhizhong sympathized with Peng Dehuai's plight and wrote a letter of tens of thousands of words to Chairman Mao. Zhou Enlai intercepted the letter and asked his secretary to relay it to Zhang Zhizhong: "I have received your letter, please rest assured, your task now is to recuperate." Zhang Yichun recalled: "One of the prime ministers' actions was actually to protect his father. ”
During the special period that began in 1966, Zhou Enlai did his best to protect Zhang Zhizhong despite his own impact, saying that he had been to Yan'an three times and was a good friend of the party to avoid Zhang Zhizhong being affected more.
On April 6, 1969, Zhang Zhizhong died of illness in Beijing. Ignoring the opposition of the leaders of the United Front Work Department, Zhou Enlai insisted on a farewell ceremony. At the farewell ceremony, Zhou Enlai bowed deeply to this close friend who had known him for half a century, and the loneliness in his eyes was full of expression.