Wang Jiaxiang was elected vice chairman of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission at the age of 25 and made great contributions to the country's revolutionary cause, but he died regrettably.
A crucial vote
Chairman Mao said more than once, "Wang Jiaxiang has merit in the history of the party, and he cast a 'key vote' at the Zunyi meeting", what is going on?
In 1925, at the age of 19, Wang Jiaxiang led the students of St. Accord Middle School in Wuhu, Anhui Province to participate in the anti-imperialist patriotic movement, and then entered the middle school attached to Shanghai University to study.
Soon after, he went to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, the Soviet Union, and only returned to China in 1930 to Shanghai as an officer of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 1931, he was assigned to work in the Central Soviet District.
At that time, Lao Chiang had already launched an "encirclement and suppression campaign" against the central Soviet area, and hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops surrounded the Red Army in an attempt to eliminate our army. And our army suffered heavy losses under the command of Fu Gu and Li De, and our army came to the point of life and death.
During his work in the Soviet area, Wang Jiaxiang discovered many problems. The command method of Li De and others was simple and direct, and it was carried out in accordance with the October Revolution in Russia, advocating the road of "urban insurrection". However, this road is not suitable for our army, and he believes that the road of "encircling the city from the countryside" proposed by Chairman Mao is feasible.
At the Ningdu Conference in 1932, Wang Jiaxiang openly supported Chairman Mao and insisted that Chairman Mao continue to command the Red Army to fight. ”
After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Wang Jiaxiang was very angry, and he accused Li De, Bogu and others of not knowing how to command. Faced with a formidable enemy, the Red Army could only choose the Long March and retain the revolutionary fire.
Wang Jiaxiang had an in-depth exchange with Chairman Mao during the Long March. Wang Jiaxiang frankly told Chairman Mao his views on the war situation, and also said that Li De and others did not have a specific grasp of the domestic situation, which led to the successive defeats of our army.
Chairman Mao coincided with Wang Jiaxiang, he said, "Lao Jiang has already laid a trap, just waiting for us to drill it, but our commanders can't see this danger, or they see it but don't make changes, they have to get into Lao Jiang's trap."
Chairman Mao also expressed his views on Li De and others, although Li De had extremely strong military talents, he did not understand the national conditions of the mainland, and although he had the intention to help the revolution on the mainland, he was self-defeating.
Wang Jiaxiang thought that Chairman Mao was right, and both of them thought that they could not continue to be wrong, and then the two exchanged ideas with others separately, wanting to remove Li De and Bogu from military command.
In 1934, after the defeat in the Battle of Xiangjiang, Wang Jiaxiang became even more determined in this idea. He found Zhang Wentian and Huang Ping, and bluntly said, "Only by asking Mao Zedong to go out of the mountain can the Red Army be saved from the crisis."
In addition to Wang Jiaxiang and others, many Red Army leaders such as Liu Bocheng and Mr. Peng also agreed with this idea, and Chairman Mao also received the support of Mr. Zhu and Zhou Enlai.
In 1935, when the Zunyi Conference was held, Chairman Mao pointed out that "the failure of the fifth anti-'encirclement and suppression' was a mistake in military command and strategy and tactics", and he believed that it was necessary to change the Red Army's combat methods.
At the critical moment, Wang Jiaxiang stood up and said, "China's Red Army and China's revolutionary war should and must be led by a Chinese revolutionary with practical experience like Mao Zedong in order to achieve victory." The meeting successfully affirmed the correct military thinking and strategic and tactical principles represented by Chairman Mao.
Chairman Mao said many times later that "Wang Jiaxiang cast a crucial vote at the Zunyi Conference." Wang Jiaxiang has made great contributions to the development of our army and our party.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wang Jiaxiang was appointed Chinese ambassador plenipotentiary to the Soviet Union to prepare for Chairman Mao's visit to the Soviet Union.
In the exchanges between China and the Soviet Union, Wang Jiaxiang made important contributions, not only brilliantly completing the work of Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai's visits to the Soviet Union, but also reviewing the "Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance" word by word to protect the interests of the mainland.
In addition, Wang Jiaxiang also held talks on economic cooperation and other issues on behalf of the mainland and the Soviet Union, thus winning favorable conditions for the mainland's economic development.
In 1951, Wang Jiaxiang returned to China and served as the head of the mainland's foreign liaison department, which put forward many good policies for the mainland's diplomatic undertakings. But what people didn't expect was that Wang Jiaxiang would regret recuperating in the end, why is this?
Regret to recuperate
In 1962, Wang Jiaxiang wrote a letter to Zhou Enlai and others, in which he put forward his views on international relations between China and the Soviet Union, China and the United States, etc.
In July of that year, the World Peace Council held a peace conference in Moscow on the theme of "general disarmament". Wang Jiaxiang held that the speech at the current meeting should be biased towards peace, that the issue of peace should be thoroughly explained, and that forces advocating peace and disarmament should be enlisted.
Unexpectedly, this peace-oriented speech was considered by some Asian and African delegations to be "not a good performance, no anti-US imperialism, and no struggle," and they thought that the mainland had ignored them.
The four people used this incident as an excuse to think that Wang Jiaxiang had also taken the diplomatic line of "three harmony and one less". After the Tenth Plenary Session, Wang Jiaxiang was recuperated at home.
In 1970, Wang Jiaxiang returned to Beijing for treatment due to illness, and two years later, he wrote a letter to Chairman Mao, asking Chairman Mao to assign him a job, and he wanted to continue to contribute to the construction of the country.
In 1973, Wang Jiaxiang was elected as a member of the Central Committee and continued to work hard at his post, but Wang Jiaxiang's physical condition became worse and worse.
In the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Wang Jiaxiang was once blown through the intestines by an enemy shell, and he survived after nine deaths, but the shrapnel remained in his body.
Due to the instability of the war situation, Wang Jiaxiang was worried that during the war on the front line, his injuries would not heal, so he followed the long march of the large team.
When crossing the Jiajin Mountain, because the stretcher could not be lifted, Wang Jiaxiang endured the pain and climbed to the top of the mountain step by step, sweating his clothes. The stretcher men advised him to lie down on the stretcher, and they carried him down the mountain with care. But Wang Jiaxiang refused, he didn't want to increase everyone's burden, so he gritted his teeth and turned over the Jiajin Mountain.
When crossing the snowy mountains and meadows, Wang Jiaxiang's intestines suppurated, and even roundworms crawled out, which caused infectious peritonitis. He walked with the army for 7 days and 7 nights before he walked out of the meadow.
After arriving in Shaanxi, Chairman Mao and others tried their best to persuade Wang Jiaxiang to secretly go to Shanghai for medical treatment, and then come back to continue to participate in the revolution when he recovered. Wang Jiaxiang had no choice but to agree, and only returned to Yan'an in 1938. But Wang Jiaxiang's body has the root of the disease.
On January 25, 1974, 68-year-old Wang Jiaxiang unfortunately passed away suddenly. In 1979, after the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee, he was rehabilitated.
Resources:
[1] Workers' Daily, "New Chinese Things|Wang Jiaxiang, the First Ambassador of New China to Foreign Countries", 20231107
[2] Communist Party of China News Network, "Wang Jiaxiang Who Made Major Contributions to the Party at a Critical Moment", 20170320
[3] Phoenix.com, "In 62, Wang Jiaxiang left his post to recuperate because of why he was criticized for international events? 》 20160114