Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying were both resourceful and unhindered in their eloquence, so they often cooperated together and participated in many major events.
What is less known is that Ye Jianying applied to join the party twice, both of which were handled by Zhou Enlai.
The two first met in 1924 at the Whampoa Military Academy.
In early 1924, Ye Jianying came to the Whampoa Military Academy to serve as the deputy director of the professorial department and taught ordnance.
In July of the same year, Zhou Enlai returned from France and first served as a political instructor at the Whampoa Military Academy and later as director of the political department.
It is also worth mentioning that both were invited by the same person, that is, Liao Zhongkai, the elder of the Kuomintang, who was the party representative of the Whampoa Military Academy at that time.
Ye Jianying pursued revolution in his early years and was determined to save the people from fire and water, which was completely consistent with the goals of the Chinese Communists, so when he was at the Whampoa Military Academy, Ye Jianying and Zhou Enlai slowly became acquainted and admired each other.
Ye Jianying was erudite and talented, and he was born in a scientific class, which was an outstanding instructor of the Whampoa Military Academy, and Zhou Enlai's character style and innovative and realistic work also deeply infected Ye Jianying, and the two gradually became like-minded close friends.
Zhou Enlai often taught Ye Jianying Marxism-Leninism, incisively analyzed the current situation of the Chinese revolution, and held that in order to save the toiling masses from fire and water, Marxism must be practiced. Ye Jianying agreed with Zhou Enlai's views, believing that China's decades of poverty and weakness meant that it had not found the truth to save the country and the people, and had not found the correct path, and he increasingly agreed with the ideas of the Communist Party of China.
In 1925, after careful consideration, Ye Jianying decided to join the Chinese Communist Party and formally talked to Zhou Enlai about his ideas.
Through his dealings with Ye Jianying, Zhou Enlai had long believed that he was a rare talent, and that it was our party's honor to be able to join the Communist Party of China, so Zhou Enlai agreed and reported to the organization.
But what I didn't expect was that Ye Jianying's application to join the party was not approved, what was the reason?
Originally, when discussing the matter, some comrades in the Party believed that Ye Jianying was now a high-ranking official of the Kuomintang and that the recruitment of him to the Communist Party would require serious examination and a decision not to be made so easily. Although Zhou Enlai vigorously introduced Ye Jianying's situation and told everyone that our party needed such a talent and that he would be able to shoulder great responsibilities in the future, the opinions of the majority of the people still needed to be seriously examined.
There was no way, Zhou Enlai had to tell Ye Jianying about this decision of the organization, and Ye Jianying expressed understanding, after all, he was still a senior general of the Kuomintang, and he had only gotten along with Zhou Enlai alone, and the organization still did not know enough about himself, so Ye Jianying was not in a hurry.
Fast forward to 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup, raised the butcher knife to the revolutionary aspirants and progressive masses, completely deviated from the revolutionary ideals left by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Ye Jianying was extremely disappointed in Chiang Kai-shek, immediately telegraphed against Chiang Kai-shek, left Chiang Kai-shek's troops, and defected to the Wuhan National Government.
However, soon after, Ye Jianying was hit again. It turned out that wang jingwei and others were also becoming more and more reactionary, and it seemed that it would not work in the Kuomintang to realize the ideal of saving the people, so he decided to apply again to join the Communist Party of China.
This time, Ye Jianying found his compatriot Li Shi'an, an underground party member, and expressed his desire to join the Chinese Communist Party. Li Shi'an felt that the stakes were high, and Ye Jianying was after all a very influential and important person, so he went to find Zhou Enlai and report on the matter.
After Zhou Enlai heard about it, he was also very happy, and Ye Jianying once again proposed to join the Communist Party, which cannot be missed by our party. Therefore, after Zhou Enlai's strong recommendation and application to the organization for approval, Ye Jianying officially joined the Communist Party of China.
However, in view of the severe situation of the struggle at that time, Zhou Enlai specifically instructed Ye Jianying not to contact any Communists for the time being and continue to serve in the Kuomintang army.
History proves that Zhou Enlai's decision was very wise.
Before the Nanchang Uprising in 1927, Ye Jianying received a definite message: Wang Jingwei had secretly ordered Zhang Fakui to arrest Ye Ting and He Long and release them from their military powers.
At that time, Ye Ting and He Long were in Zhang Fakui's troops, and if they were arrested, it would be a heavy loss to our party, so Ye Jianying used his position in the Kuomintang army to invite Ye Ting and He Long to visit Gantang Lake.
After arriving at the lake, Ye Jianying told the two of them about this matter, and after Ye Ting and He Long returned, they immediately fled with their troops and participated in the famous Nanchang Uprising.
Therefore, it can be said that although Ye Jianying did not personally participate in the Nanchang Uprising, he also made a great contribution to the initiation of the Nanchang Uprising.
Before the Guangzhou uprising, Ye Jianying once again played a key role, because he was also the head of the officers' teaching regiment in Zhang Fakui's troops, secretly developed a large number of party members and activists, fully grasped this revolutionary force, and used his relationship with Zhang Fakui to win a large number of advanced weapons for the teaching regiment.
Later, the teaching group became the main force of the Guangzhou Uprising, and Ye Shuai once again made a great contribution.
(References: "Biography of Ye Jianying", "Anecdotes of the Ten Marshals", "Fujian Party History Monthly")
——To learn more about the story of the founding generals, you can check out the column of the history inn, a total of 100 founding generals.