Zhang Wentian reminded Zhang Guotao: "Comrade Guotao, we have established the Chinese Soviet Republic, and if another federal government appears, it seems a little unreasonable. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Zhang Guotao said confidently: "After the Red Army left Jiangxi, the central government of the Chinese Soviet Republic was actually no longer able to exercise its functions and powers. Now we are forming the Northwest Federal Government, which is also based on actual needs. ”

Zhang Wentian said: "At present, the armies of the First and Fourth Fronts urgently need to act in unison, and it is not appropriate to discuss these issues that have caused disputes. ”

When Mao Weiren heard about this, he criticized Kaifeng angrily: "Don't look at what time it is, and add to the chaos?!" ”

Mao wanted to calm things down, but Zhang Guotao continued to escalate the incident.

On 8 July, Zhang Guotao presided over a meeting of senior cadres of the Red Fourth Front Army, and he once again cited Kaifeng's article as an example to tell the central authorities' attacks on him and his criticism of the policies of the Red Fourth Front Army, and to spread dissatisfaction with the Central Committee.

Zhang Guotao gave a speech on four issues on the topic of "Whether the leadership and organization of the Red Fourth Front Army were correct in the past":

"First, it was correct for the Red Fourth Front Army to leave Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, and there was no mistake in principle, and it was also right to withdraw from the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area later.

Second, the anti-rebellion line is also correct.

Third, the policy of leading the party and promoting the cadres of the workers and peasants of the Red Fourth Front was also correct.

Fourth, the Northwest Special Commission's understanding of the question of political power is Leninist, and the establishment of the Northwest Federal Government is correct. ”

Then, Zhang Guotao said: "There is a tendency to praise the heroic combat of the Red Fourth Front Army on the one hand, and criticize the incorrect leadership of the Red Fourth Front Army on the other hand. ”

Finally, Zhang Guotao concluded: "The Politburo of the Central Committee should oppose such attempts with ulterior motives and crack down on such erroneous words and deeds that belittle the Red Fourth Front Army. ”

Zhang Guotao's remarks aroused the anger of some cadres of the Red Fourth Front Army, and they emotionally demanded that the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee convene a meeting to listen to the opinions of the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army and unify their understanding.

On this day, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee sent a telegram to the Central Committee, not only directly criticizing Kaifeng's article, but also demanding that a "struggle against tendencies within the Party" be launched and that "the activities of the Red Army be investigated."

Without waiting for the central authorities to react, the next day, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee sent another telegram on "Proposal to Strengthen the General Headquarters and the Military Commission to Establish Standing Committee Members," which read:

"In the light of the present situation, the provincial party committee has the following proposals: for the sake of unity of command, rapid action, and attack the enemy, it is necessary to strengthen the general headquarters. Comrade Xiang was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and Comrade Chang Hao was appointed General Political Commissar......"

This telegram set an unprecedented record in the history of our party, that is, the party organizations at the provincial level demanded that the central authorities reshuffle the leadership, directly draw up specific candidates, and demanded a quick decision and an immediate reply.

The Politburo of the Central Committee was very angry: "They are too bold to dare to force the palace?!" ”

The tolerant and generous Commander-in-Chief Zhu was also surprised: "How did the special do it? Play Warlord! ”

The central authorities adopted a cold approach and did not reply to the telegram.

At the same time, between the officers and men of the two sides, some small things suddenly became very sensitive after the joy of the meeting of the two armies disappeared.

Once, Bogu's guards approached Zhang Guotao's guards with a piece of beef, hoping to exchange some bullets, but Zhang Guotao's guards disagreed, and the two sides quarreled.

On another occasion, when the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Front Army saw the soldiers of the First Front Army shooting and killing cattle, they not only felt that the bullets were wasted, but also doubted whether they were killing the cattle of the local tyrants.

At the same time, Zhang Guotao raised a question that was much more sensitive than killing cattle: "The setback suffered by the Central Red Army was not because of the power of Chiang Kai-shek's aircraft and artillery, as Lao Mao said, but because there was a problem with the line of the Central Army. ”

At this time, among the troops heading north on the three routes, the Left Route Army, which was mainly composed of the Red Front Army, made the fastest progress and had already occupied Luhua and other places as planned, while the Central Route Army and the Right Route Army, which were mainly held by the Red Fourth Front Army, were still making slow progress.

On July 10, the central government sent a telegram urging Zhang Guotao to go north, mentioning that "the principle of rapid northward division has already been determined" and should not be repeatedly delayed.

With regard to the personnel issues repeatedly mentioned by Zhang Guotao, the telegram only mentions in principle:

"Anxious Brother and Xu Chen quickly concentrated command."

Zhang Guotao was not satisfied with this kind of perfunctory on paper, and continued to stand still.

At this time, the Central Security Bureau received information that Hu Zongnan's troops occupied Songpan.

Songpan is an important strategic point on the Chuangan Avenue in northwest Sichuan.

The reason why the Red Army formulated the Songpan Battle Plan was that according to the information provided by Beiping Tekko, they wanted to occupy Songpan before Hu Zongnan in order to open the road to Gannan in the north, however, Hu Zongnan's troops occupied the Songpan line before the Red Army.

The 27 regiments of the Kuomintang army blocked the Red Army's northward march north to Shaanxi and Gansu, with a total strength of 300,000 troops.

In early August, the Red Army arrived at a place called Shawo.

Due to the intensification of internal contradictions in the Red First and Fourth Front armies, the troops had no choice but to stop going north again and continue their meetings.

The trigger for the outbreak of the contradiction was an article by Zhang Wentian, because Zhang Guotao was still trying to push the Red Army from the north to the west into Chuankang, which triggered all kinds of speculation between the two front armies.

Out of concern for the future of the Red Army, Zhang Wentian wrote an article entitled "The Struggle of Two Lines in the North and the South", which he did not expect would cause Chen Changhao to lose his temper.

Chen Changhao said: "It is right to hope that the Red Army will unanimously go north, why bother to criticize it from the south?" The real intention of elevating the struggle between the north and the south to the level of the line struggle can only be to reorganize the army on the four fronts. ”

When Mao Weiren heard about it, he told Zhang Wentian: "Comrade Luopu, it is useless to write such an article now, Zhang Guotao will not listen to it because of the many people and guns." ”

Zhang Wentian asked worriedly: "Old Mao, what if Zhang Guotao insists on going south?" ”

"Don't rush it, it's better to go north together." Mao Weiren replied.

The Shawo Conference was held in a lamastic monastery and adopted the "Resolution on the Political Situation and Tasks after the Convergence of the First and Fourth Front Armies."

The resolution admonished all the Red Army:

"The fraternal unity of the First and Fourth Front Armies is a necessary condition for accomplishing the historical task of establishing the Sichuan-Shaanxi-Gansu Region and the establishment of the Chinese Soviet Republic. All sabotage, intentional or unintentional, is harmful to the Red Army and beneficial to the enemy. ”

At the meeting, the Central Committee made some concessions to Zhang Guotao, but Mao Weiren insisted that the Politburo should not have too many people, because "there are still secret party organizations in the Second Front Army and the white areas of the country."

The day before the Shawo Conference, in view of the loss of the fighter plane to attack Songpan, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission formulated the "Xiatao Campaign Plan", the central intention of the plan was:

"The Red Army continued northward, crossed the Songpan Meadow, and entered Gannan through Aba, forming a development trend in the vast basins of the Tao River and the Xia River."

After the meeting, Zhang Guotao left the sand nest, and Mao Weiren watched his figure gradually disappear.

Bidding farewell to Mao Weiren was also Commander-in-Chief Zhu.

According to the "Xia Tao Battle Plan", Commander-in-Chief Zhu and Zhang Guotao will command the Left Route Army together, and at the moment of separation from Zhu De, Mao Weiren never expected that the two of them would meet again a year later.

……

Not long after Song Lin of the Beiping Special Branch returned to Beiping with secret documents, the organs of the underground municipal party committee of the Communist Party of China in Beiping were devastatingly destroyed by the Third Military Police Regiment stationed in Beiping, and 20 members of the Special Branch were arrested.

When the Third Military Police Regiment arrested He Shanpei, a member of the Special Branch, he searched his home at No. 15 Qianzhang Hutong, Xicheng, Beiping, and found a large amount of intelligence materials.

Among them, there is an intelligence material, which is the original copy of the number, strength, and location of the unit to which the Wuhan "General Suppression" belongs, as well as the names of the principal officers at and above the regimental level, provided by Pan Wuyang.

The document was first handed over to Jiang Xiaoxian, commander of the Third Regiment of the Military Police, and Chiang quickly reported it to Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing.

Chiang Kai-shek was puzzled that the original document, which should have been in the filing cabinet of the confidential group that Pan Wuyang was responsible for keeping, ran into the hands of the members of the Beiping Special Branch.

Pan Wuyang, who is next to Zhang Xueliang, is likely to be a Communist Party spy agent.

Chiang Kai-shek was extremely angry!

At the same time, he sent the secret documents seized from Beiping to Zhang Xueliang as conclusive evidence, asking Zhang Xueliang to escort the communist spy Pan Wuyang to Nanjing.