16 CHIANG KAI-SHEK KIDNAPPED
16 西安事变之始：张学良欲取蒋而代之
(1935–36 AGE 41–42)
1935-1936 年 41-42 岁
WHEN MAO arrived in the northwest at the end of the Long March in October 1935, his aim, other than sheer survival, was to open up a passage to the border of a Russian-controlled territory so as to receive the arms and other supplies that would enable him to expand. Chiang Kai-shek wanted the Reds kept penned in their corral. The man he assigned to the task was the former warlord of Manchuria, Chang Hsueh-liang, “the Young Marshal,” who had his HQ in the city of Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province. Mao was in the same province, some 300 km to the north.
一九三五年十月毛泽东长征完毕到达陕北时，他的目标除了生存就是打通苏联。蒋介石要的是把红军关在他划定的地方。他把这个任务交给了前东北“少帅”张学良。少帅的司令部在西安，与毛的驻地相距三百公里。
There were two Russian-controlled territories through which arms could be delivered: Xinjiang, over 1,000 km to the west-northwest, and Outer Mongolia, more than 500 km due north. The Young Marshal's vast army of some 300,000 was stationed in the provinces giving access to both of these.
苏联对毛的武器援助可通过两个地方，一个是外蒙古，一个是新疆。少帅的三十万大军驻扎在通向这两个地方的路上。
The Young Marshal's American pilot, Royal Leonard, has left a description of a worldly man: “My first impression … was that here was the president of a Rotary Club: rotund, prosperous, with an easy, affable manner … We were friends in five minutes …”
少帅的飞机驾驶员是美国人利奥纳多(Royal Leonard)。他描述少帅道：我第一眼的印象是他像个扶轮社的总裁，胖胖圆圆的，生活优裕，风度轻松随便，讨人喜欢。五分钟不到我们就成了朋友。”
After inheriting Manchuria when his warlord father (“the Old Marshal”) was assassinated in June 1928,* the Young Marshal placed his domain under Chiang's central government, while remaining its chief until Japan invaded it in 1931. He then retreated into China proper with 200,000 troops, and was subsequently given various important posts by Chiang. He had an apparently intimate relationship with Chiang and his wife. Thirteen years the Generalissimo's junior, he was fond of saying that Chiang was “like a daddy to me.”
张学良的父亲张作霖于一九二八年六月被炸死。* 父亲死后，张学良归顺了蒋介石的中央政府，继续驻扎东北，直到一九三一年日本入侵，他率领二十万东北军退入关内。蒋介石给了他一系列重要职位，他也跟蒋和蒋夫人宋美龄关系亲密，蒋比他大十四岁，张说他把蒋当作父亲。
* 史书上说这是日本人干的事，但最近俄罗斯情报方面称，暗杀是斯大林下令、由后来杀死托洛茨基的爱廷贡(Naum Eitingon)组织的，然后弄得像日本人搞的一样。
But behind the Generalissimo's back, the Young Marshal plotted to supplant him. Having governed a land larger than France and England together, it irked him to be Chiang's subordinate. He aspired to rule all of China. To this end, he had earlier made approaches to the Russians and had tried to visit the Soviet Union when he was in Europe in 1933, but the Russians were very wary and turned him down.
但少帅不甘心久居人下。东北面积是法国和德国的总和，他曾是那里的最高统治者，不惯于听命令。中国当时想取代蒋介石的大有人在，都清楚成功取决于强邻苏联的支持，都在和苏联拉关系。一九三三年，已失去东北的少帅由于失去热河，被迫“引咎辞职”，去了欧洲。在那里他向苏联暗送秋波，竭力要去苏联。但看出他野心的苏联人拒绝他入境。斯大林不喜欢少帅。
Only four years earlier, in 1929, Stalin had invaded Manchuria and fought a brief war against him after he had seized the Russian-controlled railway in Manchuria. Moreover, the Young Marshal had expressed admiration for fascism, and was friendly with Mussolini and his family. In August 1935 a statement put out from Moscow under the name of the CCP called him “scum” and a “traitor.”
几年前少帅曾收复了苏联控制的中东路，斯大林大为恼怒，派兵入侵东北，跟他打了一仗。少帅也对法西斯主义相当倾心，和墨索里尼(Benito Mussolini)一家关系亲近。一九三五年八月，莫斯科通过中共发表《八一宣言》，称少帅为“败类”、“卖国贼”。
But once he was appointed Mao's warden later that year, Moscow performed a U-turn. The Young Marshal had become worth courting. He could make the CCP's life easier and, more importantly, help them link up with Russian supplies.
张学良一朝被蒋委派为看守中共的“典狱长”， 莫斯科对他态度大变。他值钱了。他可以使中共生存得好一些，更可以帮助中共打通苏联。
Within weeks of Mao arriving in the northwest, Russian diplomats were deep in talks with the Young Marshal.
从苏联大使鲍格莫洛夫向莫斯科的报告可以看出，毛泽东到陕北几星期内，苏联外交官就开始跟少帅秘密来往。
He traveled to Shanghai and Nanjing, the capital, to meet the Russians in secret. To cover his tracks, he wove a camouflage of frivolity. He had a reputation as a playboy, and happily played up this image. One day, his American pilot recalled, the Young Marshal got him to “fly the plane in a vertical bank, one wing in the street, past the windows of the Park Hotel where his friends lived. We passed within ten feet of the façade, the noise of the motor rattling the panes like castanets.” This flamboyant show was staged outside the hotel room where one of the Young Marshal's girlfriends was staying. “Perhaps this will make you smile,” the Young Marshal, aged ninety-one in 1993, chuckled to us. “At that time, Tai Li [Chiang's intelligence chief] tried everything he could to find out my whereabouts, and he thought I went to have a good time with my girlfriends. But in fact, I was doing deals …”
那时张学良频频从西安飞上海、南京秘密去见苏联人。表面上，素有“花花公子” 名声的他装作去会女朋友。利奥纳多回忆道，一天，少帅叫他“把飞机竖着飞，一支机翼贴近街上，从他朋友住的饭店窗前飞过。我们飞的地方离饭店正面只有十公尺，马达的轰轰声把窗户震得哗哗地响。” 少帅的一个女朋友住在那里，这是表演给她看的。一九九三年，九十二岁的张学良对我们说：“我这个人，说起来你会笑，我在上海有个女朋友，那个时候，戴笠拚命侦察我的行动，他们都认为我找我女朋友去玩去了。实际上我是到上海谈判去了。”
The Young Marshal made clear to the Russians that he was ready to form an alliance with the Chinese Reds and engage in “decisive struggle against the Japanese”—i.e., declare war on Japan, which Chiang had not done. In return, he wanted Moscow to back him to replace Chiang as the head of the country.
据鲍大使向莫斯科的报告：张学良向苏联人表示，他决心跟中共建立反蒋同盟，与日本决战，他希望莫斯科支持他。反蒋就是要蒋介石下台；与日本决战，只有中国的最高统帅才能做到。这些话表明，张学良想取蒋而代之。
This package contained extremely attractive features for Stalin, including the one thing the Kremlin boss most wanted—for China to wage all-out war against Japan. Japan had been encroaching on China since 1931, and had been nibbling away ever since. After annexing Manchuria, Tokyo set up another puppet regime in part of northern China in November 1935, but Chiang had been avoiding all-out war. Stalin was anxious that Tokyo might turn north and attack the Soviet Union.
少帅也许真想与日本决战。这是斯大林求之不得的事，但蒋介石迄今为止不肯做。少帅是在向斯大林表态：我张学良来做。
Stalin's goal was to use China to steer Tokyo away from the Soviet Union by dragging the Japanese into the vast interior of China and bogging them down there. Moscow worked hard to fan sentiment in China for such an all-out war with Japan, while keeping its own agenda under wraps. It took a hand in major student demonstrations; and its many agents, particularly Mme Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek's sister-in-law, formed pressure groups to lobby Nanjing for action.
Chiang did not want to surrender to Japan, but nor did he want to declare war. He thought that China had no realistic chance of winning, and that taking on Tokyo would lead to his country's destruction. He opted for a very unusual limbo—neither surrendering nor fighting a full-scale war. He was able to hang on in this state thanks to China's size, and the fact that the Japanese were only encroaching gradually. Chiang may even have harbored the hope that Japan would soon turn on Russia and leave the rest of China alone.
蒋介石不是不想打日本。他的心态是自知打不赢，政策是尽量与日本周旋，推迟决战的时间。他完全可能希望日本掉头打宿敌苏联，放过中国，实行蒋介石版本的“以夷治夷”。
The Young Marshal's proposal suited Stalin, but Stalin did not trust him. Nor did he believe that the former Manchurian warlord was capable of holding China together to fight such a war. If China lapsed into internecine strife, it would facilitate the Japanese conquest—and, a fortiori, redouble the Japanese threat to the Soviet Union.
斯大林就怕这一点。他希望日本陷在中国，用莫斯科在中国的代理人极力鼓动对日决战。但是，斯大林不信任少帅，尤其不相信少帅有能力统率全中国来打一场对日大战。一旦中国陷入内战，只会加速日本征服中国，对苏联更危险。
Moscow was too canny to reject the Young Marshal's offer outright. The Russians led him on, deluding him that they were considering it—so that he would help the Chinese Reds. Russian diplomats told him to establish direct contact with the CCP in secret. The first talks between a CCP negotiator and the Young Marshal took place on 20 January 1936.
莫斯科没有直截了当拒绝张学良。相反地，它给张学良一个它在慎重考虑的假象，目的是利用张帮助中共。苏联外交官要张学良直接跟中共建立联系，让张学良感到，这是因为他们是驻南京使节，不便同他谈这样的事。少帅与中共之间的秘密会谈于一九三六年一月二十日首次开场。
WHILE THE RUSSIANS were merely stringing the Young Marshal along, Mao was happy to support him to replace Chiang, and wanted a real alliance with him. This was an ideal scenario for Mao. As the Young Marshal would be dependent on the Soviet Union, the CCP would have a pivotal role, and Mao might even become the power behind the throne for the whole of China. He instructed his negotiator, Li Ke-nong, to propose an anti-Chiang alliance with the Young Marshal, and to promise to back him as head of a new national government in place of Chiang. The negotiator was told to “hint” that the offer had Moscow's authorization, by suggesting that funds and arms would be no problem.
苏联人只是拉住张学良，毛泽东却真想跟他建立同盟，拉蒋下台。依赖苏联的张学良替代蒋，对毛是理想的出路，中共一下子就会成为举足轻重的力量，毛甚至还可能幕后操纵张学良。毛指示谈判代表李克农向张学良表示支持他取代蒋介石：在“反蒋的基础上，我方愿与东北军联合，倒蒋后成立新的政府和军队：“国防政府抗日联军”。毛叫李克农“暗示”：“国防政府首席及抗日联军总司令可推张汉卿[张学良]担任。”毛还叫李表示：“军饷、械弹我方亦有办法助其解决。”毛有什么能力给少帅军饷、械弹呢？这自然是暗示莫斯科支持少帅。
The Young Marshal naturally wanted to have Mao's promises nailed down by the Russians themselves. And it seemed this was very much on the cards when a scheme was soon put to him to get a senior envoy of his to Moscow. In January, a certain “Pastor Dong” arrived at the Young Marshal's HQ from Shanghai. Dong, who had once been a pastor at St. Peter's in Shanghai in the 1920s, was a Communist intelligence operative. The lapsed Pastor told the Young Marshal that Mao's sons were secretly in his care in Shanghai, and that there was a plan to send them to Russia, to the special school for the children of foreign Communist leaders run by the Comintern. He proposed that the Young Marshal assign an envoy to accompany them there.
对这样一件大事，张学良希望跟莫斯科直接谈判。一月，他看到一直对他关闭的苏联大门打开了。宋庆龄与中共特科之间的联络员董健吾从上海来到张学良的西安总部。董告诉张学良，毛的儿子正秘密住在他家，现在有计划把他们送去苏联，请张学良派人护送他们去。
Mao had three sons by his second wife, Kai-hui, who had been executed by the Nationalists in 1930. After their mother's death, the boys had been taken to Shanghai and looked after by the Communist underground.
杨开慧在一九三0年被国民党枪杀后，她跟毛生的三个儿子被送往上海。
The children had been having a tough time. The youngest, An-long, died at the age of four soon after he came to Shanghai. The other two, An-ying and An-ching, had to live a secret life, unable to go to school or to make friends outside the Dong family, where there was constant tension. Dong had deposited them with his ex-wife, whose life was thrown into danger and upheaval by their arrival, and who had no particular affection for these boys anyway. Sometimes they would run away and live as street urchins. Years later, watching a film about an orphan in Shanghai, An-ying became very emotional and told his wife that his brother and he had led a similar life, sleeping on the pavements and scavenging through rubbish dumps for food and cigarette stubs. During all these years, Mao had never sent a word to them.
最小的四岁的岸龙来后不久就病死了。岸英、岸青因为生活在秘密环境中，不能上学或在董家之外交朋友，身边充满压力与紧张关系。负责照顾他们的董的前妻对这两个男孩不能算好。孩子们有时候偷跑出去，在街头流浪。多年以后，看电影《三毛流浪记》时，岸英情绪非常激动，对妻子说他当年曾过过这样的生活，在人行道上睡觉，在垃圾堆里翻找食物和烟头。
Moscow now decided to bring Mao's sons to Russia, where they could be looked after and put through school. As in the case of Chiang Kai-shek's son when Chiang was rising to the top, the aim was also to keep the boys as hostages. Stalin was personally involved with this decision. Mao had no objection.
在这些年中，毛泽东对儿子们不闻不问。莫斯科如今决定把他们接来苏联，去专为外国共产党领袖子女办的学校上学。斯大林亲自过问毛的儿子来苏联一事，毛没什么意见。
Moscow's offer to the Young Marshal to have an envoy of his escort the boys to Soviet Russia thus killed two birds with one stone. This way, the Young Marshal would guarantee the boys' safety during the journey and look after all the logistics, as well as footing the considerable bill for an entourage, which included a nanny. And, most important, the Young Marshal would see the invitation to send an envoy as a sign that Moscow was seriously interested in doing a deal, which could not be done under Chiang Kai-shek's surveillance in China.
张学良把这一建议，看作是苏联人同意跟他的人在莫斯科谈判。他立刻派一直代表他同苏联人打交道的李杜做使者，以护送毛的儿子的名义去苏联。这一行九人的整个行程安排全由他包了，不仅为莫斯科省了一大堆麻烦和一大笔旅费，还保障了毛的儿子一路的安全。一九三六年六月二十六日，李杜带上毛的儿子、保姆等乘船离开中国，前往法国海港马赛。莫斯科告诉少帅，他们可以在巴黎取得签证。少帅有所不知的是，莫斯科压根就无意让他的代表入境。
The Young Marshal was delighted, and quickly made all the arrangements. His representative and the boys sailed from China for Marseille on 26 June. Moscow had told the Young Marshal they could collect their Russian visas in Paris.
THAT JUNE, two provinces in southern China, Guangdong and Guangxi, formed an alliance and rebelled against Chiang's government. Mao tried to persuade the Young Marshal to seize this opportunity to do likewise and turn the northwest into a breakaway state in alliance with the Reds. His aim, he told his Politburo, was to create an entity “like Outer Mongolia”—i.e., a Russian satellite.
同月，广东、广西两省联手发动了一场战争，以抗日名义倒蒋。毛劝张学良抓住这个机会，跟红军联合，也像两广一样，分裂出去独立，成立“西北国防政府”。毛要把大西北从中国分出去，变成又一个外蒙古。他对中共政治局说：“三月间订立的苏蒙条约，就是告诉中国革命者，你们可以如此做，我们[苏联人]可以同你联盟”。
But the Young Marshal was not keen. He wanted to run the whole of China, not just part of it. And Moscow was downright hostile to the plan. At this time, in late June, the CCP's radio links with Moscow were reestablished after a gap of twenty months. In the first telegram to the Comintern after the break, Mao requested endorsement for a breakaway northwest state. The plan was sent to Stalin, who was not pleased. He wanted a united China that would drag the Japanese into an all-out war, not a dismembered China.
张学良不感兴趣。莫斯科也一样。六月下旬，中共跟莫斯科之间的电台联系在中断二十个月后重新建立起来。在给共产国际的第一封电报中，毛要求莫斯科支持西北独立，向莫斯科要“每月三百万美金的资助”。毛的计划递到斯大林手里，斯大林很不高兴。他需要能对日全面开战、拖住日本的中国，不要一个四分五裂、使日本有机可乘的中国。
Within days of Mao sending his telegram, the rebellion by Guangdong and Guangxi collapsed, ignominiously, not least because popular opinion was vehemently against any separatist movement. Stalin was confirmed in his belief that Chiang was the only person who could hold China together. On 15 August Moscow sent the CCP a milestone order, telling them to stop treating Chiang as an enemy, and count him as an ally. “It is incorrect to treat Chiang Kai-shek the same as the Japanese … You must work for the cessation of hostilities between the Red Army and Chiang Kai-shek's army, and for an agreement … to struggle jointly against the Japanese …”; “everything must be subordinated to the anti-Japanese cause.” Stalin now wanted the CCP to support Chiang as the head of an undivided China, at least for the time being.
毛的电报发出后不久，七月，两广的倒蒋战争失败。公众舆论激烈地反对任何分裂中国的举动。斯大林再次看到：蒋介石是唯一能团结全国抗日的人。八月十五日，莫斯科给中共发出具有转折意义的电报，命令中共停止把蒋介石当作敌人，跟蒋合作。电报说：“把蒋介石跟日本人同样看待是不正确的。你们必须努力停止红军跟蒋军之间的敌对行为”， “共同進行反对日本的斗争”。 “一切服从于抗日事业”， 斯大林要中共支持蒋介石做中国领袖。
Moscow brusquely ordered the CCP to enter serious negotiations with Chiang for an alliance. Mao had to accede, and talks about a “United Front” began in September between the CCP and Chiang's representatives. Chiang had initiated the rapprochement. At the time the Long March ended, he had made overtures to Moscow, but the Russians told him he had to talk “directly with the Chinese [CP],” as a way of promoting the CCP.
莫斯科命令中共马上跟蒋谈判合作，毛不得不接受。中共与蒋的代表在九月初开始谈判。蒋介石在长征一结束就同莫斯科谈起与中共改善关系。莫斯科要他直接跟中共谈，意在提高中共的地位。
Both Moscow and Mao kept the Young Marshal in the dark about this policy shift, and continued to mislead him on the issue that most concerned him—replacing Chiang. When the Young Marshal told Soviet ambassador Bogomolov in late July that he “hoped” that his “bloc with the [CCP], directed against Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese, would be supported by the USSR,” the ambassador said absolutely nothing to suggest that Moscow was dead set against this notion. For his part, Mao encouraged the Young Marshal to go on thinking that Moscow might back him.
张学良完全被蒙在鼓里，仍然以为莫斯科支持他取代蒋。当他对苏联大使鲍格莫洛夫说他“希望与中共的倒蒋抗日联盟会得到苏联的支持时，”大使跟他哼哼哈哈，助长他的幻觉。毛泽东呢，收到莫斯科八月十五日转折性的电报后，立即派叶剑英去长住西安，让少帅放心，不要因为中共跟蒋介石谈判就以为政策改变，中共和莫斯科扶张倒蒋政策不变。
ALTHOUGH HE HAD decided to back Chiang as the head of China, Stalin was in no way cutting back on his clandestine efforts to build up the Chinese Red Army. In early September 1936 he endorsed a plan to ship a large cargo of arms to the CCP through Outer Mongolia. Mao's wish list had included “monthly aid of 3 million dollars,” as well as “planes, heavy artillery, shells, infantry rifles, anti-aircraft machine-guns, pontoons,” together with Soviet personnel to fly the planes and operate the artillery. On 18 October he heard from the Comintern that “The goods are not as many as you requested in your cable of the 2nd [October] … and there are no planes or heavy artillery …” Still, the “foreign company” handling the shipment, a GRU dummy, would “supply 150 vehicles and provide drivers and gasoline; they can make two return trips … with about 550 tons to 600 tons” each trip. The number of rifles was almost exactly the same as the Russians sent to Spain, where the civil war had just broken out.
斯大林一方面支持蒋介石做领袖，一方面壮大红军。一九三六年九月初，苏联开始经外蒙古运军火给中共。毛的货单包括“飞机、大炮、炮弹、步枪、对空机关枪、浮桥等等”和苏联飞行员、炮手。共产国际十月十八日电告：“货物没有你们二号来电所要的那么多，没有飞机大炮。尽管如此，苏军情报局管辖的“一家外国公司”“将供给一百五十辆汽车，提供司机和汽油，来回两次给你们运货”，每次“五百五十吨至六百吨”。苏联准备供给中共的步枪数目与供给刚爆发内战的西班牙一样多。
In October the Chinese Red Army began its operation to smash through to a delivery point in the desert near the Outer Mongolian border. At this stage, Mao had 20,000 troops in the base, and the other Red Army branches were about to converge there in response to his summons to join him. They included the troops led by his now disabled rival Chang Kuo-tao, who had spent the winter on the Tibetan border, at the mercy of Nationalist bombing. Thousands froze to death, and many others developed snow blindness. During the previous year, Kuo-tao had lost half the 80,000 troops he had commanded when he met up with Mao in June 1935.
十月，中国红军开始行动，要打到邻近外蒙边境的一个沙漠据点去接收苏联军火。这时毛在陕北的军队刚增加了两支队伍，一支是张国焘率领的红四方面军，一年前毛巧施计谋迫使他们待在川藏高原过冬。病死、冻死、战死，八万大军折损了一半。*
* 据二00五年解密的俄罗斯档案，毛在一九四九年二月三日对斯大林的使者米高扬说：遵义会议后，他处于极端不利的地位，因为拥有数万大军的张国焘正前来吃掉他，但他保持冷静，转危为安，反而“歼灭了三万多”张国焘的部队。毛泽东的这番话也清楚地表明遵义会议后他为什么死活不進四川。
Although he still had twice as many men, Kuo-tao now came as a junior partner. Sensing that he was done for, he became “very emotional,” as his colleagues witnessed. “He even shed tears. He said: ‘I'm finished. When we get to North Shaanxi, I'm going to prison …' ” Though Kuo-tao was not exactly imprisoned, Mao was eventually to wreck his army further—and then purge him. But for now, Mao needed Kuo-tao's large and efficient force to fight to the Outer Mongolia border.
尽管张国焘的人马仍是毛的一倍，但他的“中央”已经垮台，他深知自己处在毛的刀俎之间。徐向前回忆说，张“情绪很激动，还掉了泪。他说：“我是不行了，到陕北准备坐监狱”。”张国焘没有進监狱，但在未来的日子里，毛将再次削弱他的部队，然后收拾他。
The other branch of the Red Army that came to Mao now was headed by Ho Lung, a tough former outlaw. He had been herded to North Shaanxi by Chiang Kai-shek from his base on the Hunan–Hubei border.* The three branches of the Red Army joined hands on 9 October 1936, making Mao the chief of an army of almost 80,000 men, twenty times the number he had fielded just a year before.
另一支前来会师的是红二方面军，由“两把菜刀闹革命”的贺龙率领，被蒋介石从湘鄂边界根据地赶到陕北。这块根据地在一九三二到一九三四年间也经过血腥的清洗，贺龙后来说：“洪湖的区县干部在“肃反”中是杀完了。”只在一次肃反中“就杀了一万多人。现在活着的几个女同志，是因为那时杀人先杀男的，后杀女的，敌人来了，女的杀不到才活下来的”。
“洪湖到现在还一坑一坑地挖出白骨”。幸存者回忆说，有的来不及杀，“用麻包装起来，系上大石头抛入洪湖活活淹死了，吓得农民不敢出湖打鱼，因为打捞上来的多是死尸，湖水都变了颜色。”
This was a formidable force, but in order to get to the Russian arms the Reds had to break through a powerful Nationalist army, and Chiang was determined to stop them. On 22 October he flew to Xian to take personal command, and this put the Young Marshal in a jam. The Young Marshal duly alerted the Reds about Chiang's plans, as well as giving them cash and winter clothes, but that was his limit: he could not defy Chiang's orders openly. So his men ended up fighting the Reds. Within a week, Mao's push for the Russian supplies had been thwarted. A contingent 21,800 strong that had crossed the Yellow River was stranded on the other side. The main body of the Red Army pulled back to its corral in North Shaanxi, and was hemmed in again.
三支红军会师后，毛有了八万人马，是他一年前的二十倍。但靠这支军队打到外蒙边境并非易事，国民党重兵挡在前面。蒋介石无论如何也不会让苏联武器落到中共手中。十月二十二日，他飞来西安亲自督战。
张学良处在两难地位。他把蒋的作战计划偷偷告诉红军，也给红军现金和冬衣，但无法帮更多的忙，他不能不执行蒋的命令。一个星期不到，红军大部被国民党军队压回陕北根据地，“打通苏联”计划告吹。
Mao asked Moscow for money urgently: “Be quick,” he cabled. The Comintern immediately sent US$550,000,* but it could not solve the long-term problems. For food, there was just coarse black beans. Housing in this region was mainly yao-dong, quarters dug into hills, like grander caves, and many of the troops lacked even these. It had started to snow, and the soldiers had threadbare clothes and straw sandals. At the front, Peng De-huai, the chief commander, was living in a shepherd's shelter, a hole in the ground one meter deep and two meters wide, on the edge of the desert, battered by furious sandstorms. Even Mao was enduring discomfort, as the Party Center had been forced into the small town of Baoan, where he and his heavily pregnant wife were living in a dank cave, with water dripping from the roof. Once, when a bodyguard tried to push the door open, he was stung by an outsize scorpion. Plague-bearing rats abounded, half the size of house cats, and so bold that they would sit on people's chests while they slept and flick their tails across their faces, waking them up with a start.
毛紧急向莫斯科要钱，“不论五万十万都要快”。共产国际马上寄来五十五万美金，通过美国经宋庆龄转交。但这无法解决长期问题。吃的只有黑豆，天开始下雪了，士兵们还穿着破烂的单衣草鞋，窑洞也不够住。前方指挥员彭德怀住的是一个一公尺高、二公尺宽的牧羊人的土洞，在沙漠边上，外面狂风乱吹，飞沙一阵阵扑進来。就连毛本人也无法享受舒适。党中央搬到了小城保安，在那里他和怀孕的妻子住在一间阴冷潮湿的窑洞里，洞顶往下滴水。有次一个警卫员推门進去，被大蝎子咬了一口。带着传染病的耗子到处乱窜，有的大得像猫，人睡觉时它们大大咧咧地坐在人胸脯上，长尾巴在脸上扫来扫去。
BY THE END OF October 1936, the Reds were desperate. The Young Marshal saw an opportunity to rescue them, and gain favor with Moscow. His plan was simple, and extreme: to kidnap Chiang, who was about to step onto his turf. Even though the Young Marshal had not received the explicit commitment from Moscow that he had been seeking (his envoy had been given the runaround about his Russian visa), he calculated that saving the Chinese Red Army and having Chiang in his custody would change the whole equation for Stalin. This was a gamble, but the Young Marshal was a gambler. “My philosophy is gamble,” he had once said to his inner circle. “I might lose once or twice, but as long as the game goes on, the time will come when I get all my stakes back.” Having Chiang on his own turf was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
这时张学良看到了一个取代蒋的机会。眼下蒋介石在西安来来去去，张可以劫持蒋。蒋介石既成了他的阶下囚，他又拯救了中共，斯大林极可能会把筹码押到他身上。这是场赌博，但张学良肯赌。他曾对身边人说过：“谁都有哲学，这个哲学，那个哲学，我有“赌”的哲学，虽然输一次两次，但只要不散局，总有一次，我要把老本都捞回来的。”
The Young Marshal discussed his plan with Mao's secret liaison, Yeh Jian-ying, telling Yeh he intended to stage a “coup d'état,” using this term (which in Chinese is transliterated as ku-die-da). On 29 October, Yeh cabled Mao, using veiled language, that “there is a proposal to stay Chiang.” On 5 November, Yeh left for Mao's place, carrying the coup plan.
张学良告诉毛的代表叶剑英他准备发动“苦跌打”，法文“政变”的音译。十月二十九日，叶剑英用隐讳的语言打电报给毛：“有主驻蒋说，”苏军情报局知情人季托夫(Aleksandr Titov)披露档案材料说：“叶剑英跟张学良在一九三六年十一月讨论过捉蒋的问题。”那个月，叶离开西安回保安见毛，揣着少帅的“苦跌打”计划。
The idea of kidnapping Chiang was the Young Marshal's—but it was undoubtedly spurred on by Mao through his envoy, Yeh. The Soviet intelligence insider Aleksandr Titov records that “the question of arresting Chiang Kai-shek was discussed by … Yeh Jian-ying and Chang Hsueh-liang in November 1936.” And Mao very deliberately concealed the plan from Moscow, knowing that Stalin would be dead set against it. Mao was now acting directly contrary to Stalin's interests. Chiang was more crucial to Stalin than ever. On 25 November Germany and Japan had signed a treaty known as the Anti-Comintern Pact, confronting the USSR with its worst nightmare—belligerent enemies on both flanks in an alliance, with Japanese-backed forces on the move westward along the southern flank of Mongolia, towards Soviet Central Asia. The very day the pact was announced, Stalin urgently ordered the Comintern chief Georgi Dimitrov to impress yet more strongly on the CCP that it had to abandon its anti-Chiang position and support a united government: “We need … a government of national defence” in China, Stalin told Dimitrov. “Work out a plan …”
毛向莫斯科隐瞒了这一计划。他知道斯大林不会喜欢。斯大林现在比任何时间都需要蒋介石。十一月二十五日，德国跟日本签订了反共产国际条约，使苏联面临东西两面受敌的局面，日本正从外蒙古南边向苏联中亚地区移动。条约宣布的当天，斯大林紧急命令共产国际总书记季米特洛夫(Georgi Dimitrov)严厉告诫中共放弃反蒋政策，拥护统一的中央政府，我们需要一个可以领导全民族的政府。赶快做出方案来！”
Mao was running a considerable risk of infuriating Stalin by endangering Chiang. He tried to play safe by keeping his distance from the kidnap. Before taking the plunge, the Young Marshal cabled Yeh to return: “Vital thing to discuss. Please come instantly.” Mao held Yeh back, while pretending to the Young Marshal that Yeh was on his way. Then he spurred the Young Marshal on by wiring him that there was no prospect of the Communists reaching any compromise with Chiang, and saying the Reds were determined to continue their war against the Generalissimo. Mao gave the Young Marshal the impression that he, the Young Marshal, was their only possible partner, implying that Moscow would accept this.
毛明知自己是在跟斯大林对着干，于是小心翼翼地与捉蒋行动保持距离。捉蒋前张学良打电报要叶剑英回西安：“有要事待商，盼兄即日来址此。”毛留住叶剑英不放，一面对张学良称叶“已动身”。同时，毛怂恿张学良捉蒋，打电报表示中共跟蒋介石的谈判谈不出名堂，因为蒋要价太苛，“我们决心以战争求和平，绝对不做无原则让步。”毛给张学良的印象是，红军只可能跟少帅合作，莫斯科迟早会支持少帅。
WHEN HE GOT to Xian on 4 December, Chiang made no exceptional arrangements for his personal security. His immediate quarters were guarded by several dozen of his own staff, but the gate and outer perimeter of the residence were patrolled by the Young Marshal's men. The Young Marshal was even able to bring the kidnappers to reconnoiter Chiang's residence, at a hot spring on the outskirts of town, and to check out the Generalissimo's bedroom.
十二月四日，蒋介石再次到达西安。对自己的安全，他没有作任何特别的布置。他住在西安郊外的华清池，身边有几十个自己的卫兵，但大门跟院子都是张学良的人把守。少帅甚至还把他指派捉蒋的人带進去到处看一番，连蒋介石的卧室都看了。
At dawn on 12 December, Chiang was kidnapped. He had just finished his morning exercises, part of his strict routine, and was getting dressed when he heard gunfire. His quarters were attacked by some 400 of the Young Marshal's men. Chiang's guards resisted, and many were shot dead, including his chief of security. Chiang managed to escape into the hills behind, where he was found hours later hiding in a crevasse, clad only in his nightshirt, barefoot and covered with dust, and with an injured back.
十二月十二日凌晨，蒋介右被劫持。他刚做完每天必做的早操，正穿衣服，听见枪声连续不断。张学良派了四百多人進攻他的住地，蒋的卫兵奋起抵抗，死伤枕藉。蒋跑進后山，最后在一个荆棘丛生的岩穴里被抓住，身上只穿着睡衣，鞋丢了，背受了伤。跟蒋一道越墙而逃的随从被打死。蒋介石能活下来，实在是很幸运。
捉蒋行动开始时，少帅给毛泽东发了份电报，告诉毛他已经动手了。开头第一句话就是：“蒋之反革命面目已毕现”，接着说他要“改组联合政府”。这两句话再明白不过地说明张学良要把蒋介石当反革命置于死地，自己在毛和莫斯科支持下坐上“联合政府”第一把交椅。捉蒋不是什么迫蒋抗日的“兵谏”，更有人认为这损害了抗日。胡适当时指出：捉蒋时，绥远抗战已经开始，“绥远的作战是第一次由统一的中央政府主持领导的战争。”这时把蒋介石抓起来，“把前一天受命指挥绥东国军的陈诚次长和别的几位重要官吏与将领也拘留了！说这是为了要“抗日”，这岂不是把天下人都当作瞎子傻瓜！”少帅本人直到死都坚持说他劫持蒋介石“动机纯洁”。
Just beforehand, the Young Marshal had informed Mao that he was about to act. When Mao received the cable from his secretary, he beamed: “Go back to bed. There will be good news in the morning!”
毛接到少帅电报时，笑呵呵地对秘书说：“喔，去睡吧，明天有好消息！”
*This assassination is generally attributed to the Japanese, but Russian intelligence sources have recently claimed that it was in fact organized, on Stalin's orders, by the man later responsible for the death of Trotsky, Naum Eitingon, and dressed up as the work of the Japanese.
*This base also went through bloody purges conducted by the Reds between 1932 and 1934. Ho Lung himself said later: “in this one purge alone, over 10,000 were killed. Now [1961] there are only a few women comrades alive, and this is because men were killed first … and then the enemy came before [the purgers] got around to the women …” “Even today in the area … they dig out bones from one big pit after another.” Survivors recalled that many had been “put in jute sacks and thrown into Lake Hong with big stones tied to them. Fishermen did not dare to go fishing in the lake, because so many corpses came up, and the color of the lake changed.”
*These funds, as well as some further transfers, were sent through Mme Sun Yat-sen, from America.