51 A WAR SCARE
51 玩火险些烧身
(1969–71 AGE 75–77)
1969～1971 年 75～77 岁
MAO HAD PRESENTED the Cultural Revolution as a move to rid China of Soviet-style “revisionists.” So, when he was gearing up to declare victory and inaugurate his post-Purge regime at the 9th Congress in April 1969, he looked for a symbol of triumph over the Soviet Union. He set his mind on a small, controlled, armed engagement with Russia, a border clash.
毛泽东声称搞文革是为了阻止苏联式的“修正主义”在中国出现。开“九大”之前，他决定在中苏边境来一场小规模的、可以控制的冲突，打一场胜仗，以体现对苏联的胜利。
There had been many clashes along the 7,000-kilometer Sino-Soviet border. For the site of his battle, Mao chose a small uninhabited island called Zhenbao (Damansky in Russian), in the Ussuri River on the northeast border. This was a clever choice, as Russia's claim to the island was far from established.
中苏边境长达七千公里，自双方交恶后摩擦不断。毛选择打仗的地方是乌苏里江上一个无人居住的小岛，叫珍宝岛。这个地点选得很妙，因为珍宝岛位于乌苏里江主航道中心线靠中国一侧，苏联对该岛的主权要求没什么理由。
On 2 March, using a specially trained and equipped elite unit, the Chinese laid an ambush that left 32 Russians dead and between 50 and 100 Chinese wounded or killed. The Russians brought up heavy artillery and tanks, and on the night of 14–15 March a much bigger encounter ensued, in which the Russians fired missiles 20 kilometers into China. About 60 Russians and at least 800 Chinese were killed. One CIA photo expert said that the Chinese side of the Ussuri was “so pockmarked by Soviet artillery that it looked like a ‘moonscape.' ” The Russians were obviously serious.
一九六九年三月二日，中方用经过专门训练的部队伏击了苏联巡逻队，打死三十二名苏联军人，中方的伤亡也在五十到一百人之间。苏联立即运来重炮和坦克，在十四日深夜打响了一场大得多的战争，苏联导弹射入中国领土二十公里。死亡人数苏联是六十，中国八百。美国中央情报局的照片专家说，乌苏里江的中国一岸“被苏联大炮轰得密密麻麻尽是弹坑，好似月亮的表面”。苏联人显然是认了真了。
The fierceness of the retaliation took Mao aback, and he became worried that the Russians might invade, which he described to his inner circle as a possibility. He urgently ordered his army to stop fighting, and to do nothing even when the Russians continued shelling.
苏联反击之狠使毛泽东吃了一惊。他担心苏联会入侵，在上层内部讲到苏联“打進来”的可能性。他立即下令“不要打了”。就连苏军随后对珍宝岛進行狂轰滥炸，中方也没有反击。
A week later, the old hot line from Moscow unexpectedly came alive. It was the Soviet premier Aleksei Kosygin asking to speak to either Mao or Chou En-lai. By this time, China and Russia had had virtually no diplomatic contacts for some three years. The operator refused to put the call through, saying on the fourth attempt that they could not take a call for Chairman Mao from “that scoundrel revisionist Kosygin.” Next day, the Chinese detected Russian troop movements near the disputed island. Mao at once told the Foreign Ministry to inform Moscow that it was “ready to hold diplomatic negotiations”—meaning he did not want a war. Mao was especially scared that the Russians might target a surprise air strike on the 9th Congress, which was due to open in Peking in ten days' time, and at which he himself had no choice but to make an appearance.
一个星期后，中苏间从前的热线出乎意外地响了，苏联总理柯西金(A1eksei Kosygin)要找毛或周恩来讲话。这时的中、苏两国已经有三年几乎连外交关系也没有，接线员不知所措，只能拒绝接通。柯西金的翻译试了三次，第四次被接线员臭骂一顿。毛考虑到此举会進一步激怒克里姆林宫，第二天，当中方发现苏军往珍宝岛方面移动时，他立刻要外交部通报苏联，中方“准备進行外交谈判”，言外之意就是中国不想打仗。毛最怕的是苏联在他开“九大”时来个突然袭击，“九大”还有十天就要在北京开幕了，他不能不出席。
So the congress met in conditions of secrecy extraordinary even by the regime's ultra-secretive standards. The event was not announced until it was already over, and the 2,000 delegates and staff were imprisoned in their hotels with the curtains closed, and banned from opening windows facing the streets. Instead of being driven direct from their hotel to the venue, the Great Hall of the People, delegates were bused by circuitous routes round Peking before being delivered to the Hall surreptitiously, at intervals.
“九大”直到结束才对外宣布，其保密状态前所未有。一千五百名代表和几百名工作人员就像被监禁在住地，大门紧闭，一律不许外出，电话全部撤销，临街的窗户不得打开，还要拉上窗帘。去人民大会堂会场时，代表们坐的车在市区里先兜一个大圈子，再从侧门分散开進院内，人隐蔽地从便门進入会场。
On the day of the opening, 1 April, when Mao was scheduled to attend, the Hall was made to look as if nothing was happening there at all. Thick curtains concealed the fact that the lights were on (the session did not open until 5:00 PM) and that the building was full of people.
四月一日开幕那天，天安门广场上人民大会堂的正门，像平常一样空空荡荡，好像没事一般。会堂向外的门窗被厚厚的窗帘遮得严严实实，使人影，灯光透不出去。
Mao had grounds for alarm. A few months later, on 13 August 1969, the Russians attacked thousands of miles to the west, on the Kazakhstan–Xinjiang border, where they had overwhelming logistical advantages. Scores of Russian tanks and armored vehicles drove deep inside China, surrounding and destroying Chinese troops.
毛的提防不是没有道理。几个月后的八月十三日，苏联选择了对它有利的新疆铁列克提地区，派大批坦克、装甲车深入到中国境内，把一支中国边防部队包围起来后全部歼灭。
Mao had no effective defense against Soviet tanks, if they chose to target Peking. He had always banked on the size of China and its population as insurance against anyone wanting to invade. But ever since Malinovsky had sounded his close colleagues out about getting rid of him in late 1964, the idea of a quick Soviet thrust at his capital in coordination with his opponents had preyed on Mao's mind. He had issued an order: “Pile up some mountains if there aren't any,” and spent a fortune in money and labor building “mountains” to block Russian tanks. Each of these was designed to be 20–40 meters high, 250–400 meters wide, and 120–220 meters deep. Earth and rocks were moved from far away, and elaborate defense works were constructed inside, before the project was abandoned some years later. All who saw these “mountains” (among them former US defense secretary and ex-CIA chief James Schlesinger) concluded that they were completely useless.
Mao was also worried about a nuclear strike against his atomic installations. In fact, Moscow did envisage such an operation, and went as far as sounding out Washington. Mao got so nervous that he broke his rule about shunning all contact with the Kremlin, and agreed to Kosygin stopping over in Peking in September 1969 on his way back from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. The Soviet premier was confined to the airport, where Chou En-lai met him in the lounge. The first point Chou raised was a Russian strike, but he failed to extract a commitment from Kosygin that Russia would not attack China. A week later, when Chou wrote asking Kosygin to confirm that both sides had agreed that neither would launch a nuclear attack on the other, Moscow declined to confirm Chou's “understanding.”
莫斯科也还考虑过用原子弹袭击中国的核设施，为此探询了美国政府的态度。忧心忡忡的毛打破自己定的不同苏联高层来往的方针，同意柯西金一九六九年九月在河内参加完胡志明的葬礼后，归国途中来北京。苏联总理被限于待在飞机场。去机场跟他会面的周恩来开门见山就提苏联对中国核基地施行核打击的问题。但他没能从柯西金那里得到苏联不会动手的保证。一周后，周再次给柯西金写信，请他确认中苏双方同意互不使用核力量進攻对方。苏联总理的回信有意不确认周所说的“默契”。
In the meantime, an article was published in a London newspaper by a KGB-linked Russian journalist called Victor Louis (who had recently acted as Moscow's first known emissary to Taiwan). Louis said the Kremlin was discussing bombing Mao's nuclear test site, and planning to set up an “alternative leadership” for the CCP.
这时一家伦敦报纸刊登了有克格勃背景的苏联记者维克多·路易斯(Victor Louis)的文章。路易斯前不久刚访问了台湾，是人们所知道的第一个苏联派赴台湾的使者。路易斯文章里说克里姆林宫讨论了空袭中国核基地的问题，同时还有计划帮中共换领导人。
Mao was seriously unnerved. He had agreed to a Russian delegation coming to Peking for negotiations on the border dispute. This itself now became a source of anxiety. The delegation was due to fly in on 18 October. Mao and his cabal feared that the aircraft might be carrying atomic bombs rather than negotiators, so he and Lin Biao both left Peking for the south: Mao to Wuhan on the 15th, and Lin for Suzhou on the 17th. On the 18th the marshal forwent his regular siesta to follow the Russian plane's flight path, and only went to lie down after the Russians had alighted from the plane.
毛紧张万分。十月十八日，苏联边界谈判代表团要来北京進行边界谈判。毛和中共核心怕飞机载来的不是谈判者，而是往下扔的原子弹。毛跟林彪在苏联飞机到来前便远走高飞。毛十五日去了武汉，林十七日去了苏州。十八日那天，林彪平常的午休也不休了，自始至终跟踪苏联飞机的航程，直到北京报告看到苏联人从飞机上走下来，他才放心地去睡午觉。
Just before the Russians arrived, Chou En-lai decamped from his residence in Zhongnanhai and moved into the nuclear bunkers in the Western Hills, where he stayed until February 1970. Mme Mao holed up there too, most likely to keep an eye on Chou.
周恩来留在北京坚守阵地，搬進了市郊西山防原子弹的军事指挥中心。他在那里待到一九七0年二月。江青也待在西山，也许是监视周吧。
This war scare lasted nearly four months. The entire army was put on red alert, which involved moving 4,100 planes, 600 ships and 940,000 troops. The army now resumed serious military training, which had largely fallen into abeyance since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
在这一场持续近四个月的战争风险中，整个中国军队進入紧急战备状态，疏散了九十四万多人、四千一百架飞机和六百多艘舰艇。全军重新开始了自文革以来处于停滞状况的军事训练。
Zhongnanhai was dug up in order to build a giant underground shelter, linked by tunnels wide enough for four cars abreast, running to Tiananmen, the Great Hall of the People, a major hospital (Hospital 305, specially built for Mao and the top leaders, with all his security requirements, although he never set foot in it), Lin Biao's residence, and the secret underground military HQ in the Western Hills. Tens of millions of civilians were corvéed to build underground shelters and tunnels in every city, at punishing expense. This whole scare, started by Mao's miscalculation, cost China dearly.
中南海被挖了个底朝天，建造了一个巨大的可防原子弹的防空洞，这个洞由一条可并行四辆汽车的绝密通道跟天安门、人民大会堂、林彪住宅毛家湾、专为毛和其他领导人设立的三0五医院(尽管毛一次也没進去过)连接起来，一直通往西山的秘密军事中心。全国老百姓也被组织起来在城市里大挖防空洞，耗资之巨，就不必说了。毛因打错算盘带来的这场战争风险，让中国人又一次大受折腾。
In the end, the scare remained only a scare, which restored Mao's confidence in his old belief that no country, Russia included, would really want to invade China. To make doubly sure, he set out to mollify the Russians. On May Day 1970 he made a point of greeting the deputy chief Soviet delegate to the border talks, who was present on Tiananmen Gate, and told him he wanted to be a “friendly neighbor” with Russia, and did not want war. Relations were restored to ambassadorial level, with a new Russian ambassador arriving in Peking in October, making a Soviet strike still more unlikely.
这番虚惊之后，毛回到他根深柢固的信念：没有哪个国家，包括苏联，真会发疯到想侵略中国。为了保险，毛跟苏联人拉关系。一九七0年五一劳动节在天安门城楼上，他特意跟苏联的边界谈判代表打招呼，说他希望跟苏联做“友好的邻邦”。很快，大使级关系恢复了，新的苏联大使几个月后来到北京，苏联袭击的可能性更加遥远。
THOUGH CONFIDENT THAT there would not be a war, Mao continued scare propaganda inside China, judging that a war atmosphere was advantageous to the Superpower Program.
仗打不起来，但毛继续在国内大搞“备战”，原因是备战的空气有利于加紧搞军事工业。
Becoming a superpower had remained Mao's dearest dream. This was partly why he had carried out the Purge—to install new enforcers who were more in tune with his demands. After this process was complete, he started to accelerate the Program. To this end, in August 1970 he opened a plenum in Lushan, the mountain of volatile clouds, where the Central Committee had met twice before, in 1959 and 1961, both times for the same goal of pushing the Program ahead, resulting in nearly 38 million deaths from starvation and overwork.
当军事大国称霸世界仍然是毛念念不忘的梦。文革大换班后，他强调“以战备为纲”， 高速发展军工。仅核工业建设一项，一九七一到一九七五年的投资总数，就规定为前十五年投资的总和。而这时中国人均收入比贫困不堪的索马里(Somalia)还低，中国人均热卡消耗量比三十年代还少。林彪等人顺着毛的意思提出大增军工投资，“什么比例不比例”，要“比洋人还要洋”。那时中国在進口粮食。江西的新掌权者程世清将军，知道毛希望把这笔钱花在军工上，就提出不用進口粮食了，每年需要的粮食由江西包下来。这意味着江西上交的粮食将增加六倍。江西老百姓已经是喘息在生存线上了，这样一来他们怎么活呢？只要能讨毛的好，新掌权者是什么也不顾的。
On both those occasions Mao had met with considerable resistance. This time his new enforcers showed few qualms about obliging him, even though his latest plans involved investing as much in the nuclear program for the five years 1971–75 as had been expended in all the previous fifteen years. This was at a time when per capita income in China was lower than in dirt-poor Somalia, and calorie intake less than it had been under the Nationalists in 1930. But Mao met no opposition. Lin Biao and his coterie actually advocated that the question of whether or not the country could afford this level of spending should not matter. The new boss of Jiangxi, General Cheng Shi-qing, offered to cough up more than seven times as much food annually to the central government as the province was currently contributing—when the people of Jiangxi were already on the margin of survival. The new slave-drivers were willing to dragoon the population more harshly then ever before.
Mao was in a satisfied mood. As he drove up the mountain from the steaming plain, he itched for a swim. As soon as he arrived, he tore off his clothes and dived into the reservoir, ignoring the bodyguards who cautioned that the water was too cold, and that he had sweated too much. Laughing and joking, he swam for nearly an hour in water that made the young men around him shiver. At seventy-six, he was in excellent shape. His appetite impressed his chef and his housekeeper. He still had boundless energy.
政治基础巩固了，军事工业可以腾飞了，毛心情舒畅。一九七0年八月，他第三次上庐山，开九届二中全会，为下一届“全国人大”作准备，制定经济计划。从闷热的平原躯车上山后，他迫不及待地想游泳。一到住地就脱下衣服一头扎進水库。警卫劝他说水太凉，他出汗太多，他也不听。在年轻人都起鸡皮疙瘩的冰冷的水里，他一连游了半个多小时，有说有笑，连说：“好舒服啊！”毛七十六岁了，身体是出奇的健壮，胃口好得令厨师和管家惊服。他还能继续倒海翻江。
But at this point, events took an unexpected turn. Mao and Lin Biao fell out. The post-Purge set-up began to unravel.
但就在这时，一件出乎意料的事发生了：毛泽东和林彪闹翻了。