8 BLOODY PURGE PAVES THE WAY FOR “CHAIRMAN MAO”
8 “ 毛主席”：血染的顶子
(1929–31 AGE 35–37)
1929～1931 年 35～37 岁
IN THE YEAR and a half since leaving the outlaw land at the beginning of 1929, Mao had seized total control over two major Red Armies, the Zhu–Mao Army and Peng De-huai's, as well as one significant Red base, in Fujian. All along, he had also had another sizeable Red Army in his sights, this one in Jiangxi, the province between Fujian and Hunan.
自一九二九年初离开井冈山以后，毛泽东在一年多的时间里完全控制了两支军队：朱毛红军和彭德怀军，以及闽西红区。但他眼睛一直盯着井冈山东边的江西红军和他们的根据地。
Under a charismatic and relatively moderate leader called Lee Wen-lin, the Jiangxi Reds had carved out some quite secure pockets. They had been warm hosts to Mao when he had first descended on them straight from the outlaw land in February 1929. That stay had been brief, with Nationalist troops hot on Mao's heels, but he had nonetheless promptly declared himself their boss, and when he departed had left behind his youngest brother, Tse-tan, as chief of Donggu District, the Jiangxi Reds' center. Neither move was authorized by Shanghai, and the locals were not happy. But they did not resist Mao, as he was leaving.
红色江西* 领袖是颇有魅力而相对温和的李文林，指挥着一支几千人的队伍。毛二月从井冈山来到他们的地盘时，他们曾热情地接待这批“阶级弟兄”。毛呢，马上就宣布自己是他们的上级，派他的么弟泽覃做红色江西首府东固的党委书记。这些都是自我委任，没有中央的授权。江西人心里不舒服，但没有跟毛争执，因为国民党军队追来了，毛得转移。
* 不包括方志敏领导的赣东北。
Mao expected his brother to seize control for him, but Tse-tan lacked Mao's aggressiveness and lust for power. A Party inspector described him as “working like someone suffering from malaria, suddenly hot and suddenly cold … rather childish, and afraid of making decisions.” So three months later Mao sent over a Hunanese crony, Lieu Shi-qi, with authority over his brother.
留下的泽覃没有毛似的权力欲跟争斗的劲头。中央巡视员曾描述说，他干事像害疟疾，“高兴时即努力干，不高兴即不干，有些小孩子气，而且怕负责。”毛只得在三个月后重新派来个得力的亲信作泽覃的上司。此人是毛的湖南老乡，叫刘士奇。
Lieu took away from Tse-tan not just his position but also his girlfriend, whom he himself married. The woman in question, Ho Yi, was the sister of Mao's wife, Gui-yuan, so Lieu became Mao's brother-in-law. Like Mao he was “foul-tempered and foul-mouthed,” according to his comrades, with as much elbow, and as few scruples, as Mao. By the time Mao returned to Red Jiangxi to try to consolidate his hold on it, in February 1930, Lieu had strong-armed himself into several leading posts.
刘士奇一来就把泽覃的女朋友贺怡夺走了。贺怡是贺子珍的妹妹，于是刘跟毛成了连襟。刘和毛在性格上有很多相似之处，他自己在给中央的报告中说，江西共产党人说他“没组织(观念)，脾气太坏，爱骂人，态度不好”。他也像毛一样手很长，会不择手段地抓权，不到半年就抓到好几个重要职务。一九三0年二月古田会议后，朱毛红军成了毛的工具，毛再度来到江西，要一举吞并红色江西。
Mao returned because he now had the military force to make a grab for power in Jiangxi, but once again he did so by chicanery. A grandly termed “joint conference,” supposedly comprising representatives of all the Reds in Jiangxi, was convened at a place called Pitou. Then at the last minute Mao juggled the timetable. Having announced that the conference was to open on the 10th of February, he suddenly advanced it to the 6th, so by the time key delegates arrived, including many locals who had been resisting Lieu's power-grab, the conference was over.
毛宣布在一个叫陂头的地方，召开与红色江西的“联席会议”，时间定在二月十日。一俟通知发出，毛就把开会时间提前到二月六日。等抵制刘士奇抓权的江西代表赶到时，会已经于九日结束了。
The Pitou “joint conference” was in fact little more than a family affair between the two brothers-in-law, and it duly gave Mao the endorsement to be the overlord of Red Jiangxi, with Lieu as his man on the spot. The leader of the Jiangxi Reds, Lee Wen-lin, was demoted to a lowly office job.
这就是史书上的“陂头会议”， 实质上是两连襟唱双簧。一唱一和的结果，“联席会议”授权毛“统一领导”红色江西，作总前委书记，刘土奇作红色江西地方党组织首脑(赣西南特委书记)。江西红军创始人李文林只得到一个低级地方职务：赣西南特委下属的赣西苏维埃政府秘书长。
Most Jiangxi Reds opposed these decisions, and Mao had to resort to terror to silence them. At Pitou he ordered the public execution of four well-known local Communists who were charged with being “counter-revolutionaries.” These were the first Communists murdered by Mao whose names are known.
江西共产党人当然不服。毛于是用恐怖手段来吓唬他们。在陂头，四个有名的江西领导人被打成“四大叛徒”，以“反革命”罪名枪毙。这是第一批有名有姓的被毛为了夺权而杀掉的共产党人。
Mao and Brother-in-law Lieu used executions to scare off potential dissenters. One Party inspector reported at the time that Lieu constantly “burst out with wild abuse … saying things like ‘I'll have you executed!' ” One particular charge used to send victims to their death was a phrase in vogue in Stalin's Russia—that the subject was a “rich peasant,” or “kulak.” Mao claimed that in Jiangxi, “Party organisations on all levels are filled with landlords and kulaks,” on the sole ground that most Jiangxi Red leaders came from affluent families. In fact, Mao himself belonged to a “kulak” family.
从此，毛和刘士奇用杀头来威胁不听话的人。中央巡视员报告上海说，刘“时常有不满的地方即乱骂，在乱骂的言词中带有“枪毙”的话语”， 造成了“党内的赤色恐怖”。连襟们特别爱用的罪名是“反动富农”， 当时正是斯大林斗争富农的时期。毛声称红色江西“地主富农充塞党的各级地方指导机关”，根据是红色江西的领导们都出身地富家庭。其实毛本人出身也是富农。
The Chinese Communists had killed one another before, but hitherto most killings seem to have been settling clan or personal scores, using ideological labels.* Mao's killings were in order to further grander ambitions.
中共那时已有不少人以革命的名义报私仇。*为了权力而杀人，在中共党内，毛似乎是始作俑者。
* 在井冈山宁冈县，抓国民党县长张开阳的第一届共产党政府主席文根宗在就任七个月后被仇杀。
WHILE MAO WAS muscling in on Jiangxi, he did his utmost not to alert Shanghai, which had granted him no mandate to take over the Jiangxi Reds. On the contrary, it gave the Jiangxi Red Army the status of a separate army, on a par with the Zhu–Mao Army, and appointed a man called Cai Shen-xi as its commander.
中央没有授权毛管辖江西红军，把江西红军编为十三个军之一，跟朱毛红军平行，连军长都物色好了：蔡申熙。
When Cai arrived in Jiangxi, Mao refused to let him take up his post, and simply appointed his own brother-in-law Lieu to head the Jiangxi Army. Mao was able to conceal this from Shanghai because there was no telephone, radio or telegraph communication at the time. The only links were couriers, who took several weeks each way between Shanghai and the base. We have reason to believe that he and his brother-in-law Lieu murdered one uncooperative Party inspector called Jiang Han-bo, and then faked a report to Shanghai in Jiang's name spouting Mao's line.
据江西的报告，蔡到江西后，毛“用手段打击蔡申熙同志”， 不准蔡就职，而是派一个听他话的人任军长，连襟刘士奇当政委。江西跟上海之间没有电讯联系，全靠巡视员、汇报人在几百公里的长途上，凭两条腿传书带信。毛竭力封锁与上海的联系，很可能还跟刘士奇谋杀了反对他们抓权的巡视员江汉波，后来冒用江的名字写了一份支持抓权的报告给上海。
Mao's plan was to create a fait accompli. Till now he had been writing regular servile letters to Shanghai. Now he stopped completely, and he ignored repeated summonses to go to Shanghai. To get Shanghai off his back it seems he even went so far as to spread a rumor that he had died of an illness. As Mao was a famous “bandit chief,” the news received wide coverage in the Nationalist press, which was a convenient way to float a story for which he could plausibly disown responsibility.
毛对付中央的另一个办法是不再积极给上海写报告。他打算先夺权，再迫中央承认既成事实。中央不断给他写信，催他去上海参加全国苏维埃大会，他置之不理。这时一条消息在报上广为传播，说毛病死了。
The ploy was a success, in the short term. On 20 March an obituary framed in black appeared in Moscow in the Comintern magazine International Press Correspondence: “News has arrived from China that Comrade Mau Tze Dung … the founder of the Red Army, has died at the front in Fukien as a result of long-standing disease of the lungs.”
上海跟莫斯科久不闻毛的音信，真以为毛死了。三月二十日，共产国际的杂志发表了一篇镶着黑框的讣告：“中国消息：毛泽东……红军的创始人，在长期肺病后逝世于福建前线。”
But within a fortnight, Moscow and Shanghai discovered that Mao was alive and kicking, and furthermore had seized control of the Jiangxi Army. On 3 April, Shanghai issued a sharp circular to all Red Armies telling them that they must obey no one but Shanghai. The circular made a point of criticizing Mao (without naming him) for taking over the Jiangxi Red Army without authorization.
但不到两个星期，中央就发现毛原来还活着，活得很带劲，而且抓了江西红军的权。中央急了，四月三日发通知给全国红军，措辞严峻地命令他们不要服从任何人，只服从中央：“各地已组织的正式红军，一切指挥权完全统一于中央军委。”通知特别不点名地批评毛擅自编管江西红军。
When Shanghai's document reached Jiangxi, the local Reds rose up against Mao in May. In some areas, cadres encouraged revolts by the peasants against the Mao–Lieu regime. Before Mao came, the Jiangxi Reds had paid attention to issues such as welfare and production, building a factory to make farm implements and household utensils. Mao and Lieu condemned these programs as “constructionism.” Lieu wrote that: “for the need of struggle, reducing production is unavoidable.” Deprived of the chance to raise output, and squeezed dry by taxes (which Lieu claimed they “jumped up with joy to pay”), the peasants rebelled in district after district, raising slogans like “Give us a quiet life and quiet work!” Lieu crushed the revolts mercilessly: “As soon as anyone is spotted wavering or misbehaving, they are to be arrested,” he ordered. “There must be no feelings for relatives or friends. Anyone who comes to your home or anywhere else who does not behave correctly … you must report … to the authorities so they can be seized and punished …”
红色江西人有了中央指示，五月份就反了，有的地区的干部甚至鼓励农民起来反对毛跟刘士奇的统治。毛来了以后，把江西共产党人的注重生产谴责为“建设主义” 不断逼迫农民开大会，严重影响生产，农民不胜其扰。刘士奇实行严酷的高压控制，他的命令包括要老百姓“不要顾至亲戚朋友关系，凡是来到自己家里或发现其他地方有行动不对的人不论亲戚朋友，应报告苏维埃拿办……”
Lieu claimed that the revolts were led by “AB elements [who] have become Party branch secretaries.” “AB,” standing for Anti-Bolshevik, was the name of a defunct Nationalist group, which Lieu spuriously resuscitated to condemn local dissenters. Within a month, thousands of peasants and Communists had been killed.
一区又一区农民起来反抗。刘士奇宣布反抗是由所谓AB团领导的。AB是“反布尔什维克”(Anti-Boksgevuik)的英文缩写，过去江西有过这么一个反共组织，现在早巳没有活动了。刘上奇借用AB加罪于反对他的红色江西人，一个月不到，几千“地主富农”、“AB团”就死在他的屠刀下。
At this moment, an opportunity opened up for the Jiangxi Reds. At the beginning of August 1930, Mao and his army were hundreds of kilometers away, near Changsha, trying to take over Peng De-huai's army. The Jiangxi Reds, led by their old chief Lee Wen-lin, seized the chance, convened a meeting and fired Lieu.
八月初，毛泽东带着部队北上长沙去吞并彭德怀了。江西共产党人抓住这个机会，在老领导李文林的主持下召开代表大会，把刘士奇选掉了。
A boisterous audience booed and barracked Lieu—and through him Mao—for “only thinking about power,” as Lieu later admitted to Shanghai, “becoming warlords” and “putting the Party in great danger.” Lieu was denounced for executing “too many” of their comrades, and for creating “an immense Red terror.”
开会时群情激愤，人们不断站起来指斥刘，矛头同时指向毛。据刘士奇后来自己给中央的报告，人们针对他和毛说：“我们党内危险，负责人好当官，会变成军阀。” 说他们俩“不许别人发言，任意加入机会主义的名词”，“枪毙”了太多人，“逼成了党内浓厚的赤色恐怖”。
The locals called on Shanghai to expel Lieu from the Party. But, lacking killer instinct, they let him go to Shanghai, which gave him a post in another Red base. There he met his match. The boss there, Chang Kuo-tao, was as baleful as Mao himself, and did his own slaughtering, during which Lieu was killed. After Lieu left, his wife, Mao's sister-in-law Ho Yi, went back to Mao's brother Tse-tan.
大会作出决议，要求中央开除刘士奇。但这些红色江西人不像毛、刘那么心狠手辣，他们没杀刘，让刘去了上海。中央把刘派到另一块红色根据地鄂豫皖。在那里他遇上了一样嗜权奸杀的张国焘，他也就做了刀下鬼。他走后，妻子贺怡跟毛泽覃结了婚。
With the sacking of Lieu, Mao had lost his man in Jiangxi. After he wound up the siege of Changsha, he returned to Jiangxi to reassert control—and take revenge. En route, on 14 October, he denounced the Jiangxi Reds to Shanghai: “The entire Party [there] is under the leadership of kulaks … filled with AB … Without a thorough purge of the kulak leaders and of AB … there is no way the Party can be saved …”
刘士奇既被解职，毛泽东便失去了掌握红色江西的手。二打长沙后，他打马回头，要重新控制江西。他也是回来报仇的。十月十四日，他在归途中给上海写信说，江西共产党“呈一非常严重的危机，全党完全是富农路线领导”，“为AB团富农所充塞”，“非来一番彻底改進，决不能挽救这一危机”。
It was just at this time that Mao learned that Moscow had given him the ultimate promotion—making him head of the future state. His aggressive pursuit of power had won him appreciation. Now that he had Moscow's blessing, Mao decided to embark on a large-scale purge, get rid of all who had opposed him, and in the process generate such terror that no one would dare disobey him from now on. Shanghai was in no position to restrain him, as in mid-November a fierce power struggle broke out there among the leadership, brought about by a relative unknown called Wang Ming, who in future years would be a major challenger of Mao's.
就是在这时，毛得知莫斯科内定他为即将成立的红色政权首脑。既然莫斯科宠他，他不妨杀掉那些反对过他的人，制造大恐怖，使将来没人再敢反对他。
IN LATE NOVEMBER, Mao started his slaughter. He ordered all the troops to gather in the center of the Red territory, where it was hard to escape. There, he claimed that an AB League had been uncovered in the branch under Peng De-huai—which in fact contained people who had resisted being taken over by Mao. Arrests and executions began. One interrogator wrote in his unpublished memoirs how an officer who had led an attempt to leave Mao's fold was tortured: “the wounds on his back were like scales on a fish.”
十一月下旬，毛从红军开刀。他把部队集中到红色江西的中心，以便没人能逃。他宣布彭德怀军里发现了AB团组织，首领叫甘隶臣，罪名是“煽动官兵脱离前委领导”，也就是说，企图摆脱毛的兼并。逮捕和处决就此开端。
Mao had a score to settle with the Zhu–Mao Army too, since it had voted him out as its chief the year before. Quite a lot of Red Army officers had reservations about Mao, evinced in what an officer called Liou Di wrote to Shanghai on 11 January 1931: “I never trusted Mao,” he wrote. After one battle, “I met many officers in different army units … They were all very uneasy, and looked dejected. They said they did not know working in the Communist Party required them to learn sycophancy, and that it was really not worth it. I felt the same, and considered that the Bolshevik spirit of the Party was being sapped day by day …” Mao was accused of “the crime of framing and persecuting comrades,” and of “being a wicked schemer,” as he admitted to Shanghai on 20 December 1930.
朱毛红军里，毛也有不少的帐要算。一年多以前，这支红军曾把他选下了台。一个名叫刘敌的军官给上海写信说：“我对毛素来是不太信仰的……中央八月一日来信宣布，中国临时政府的主席是向忠发同志，而毛总是用中国工农革命委员会主席毛泽东出布告，尤其是打开吉安以后，会到各军素识的各级干部，都感觉得非常不安，带着灰心的样子，觉得在共产党里面做工作还要学会溜勾子，真划不来。那时我也同情，感觉得党的布尔什维克精神一天一天的削弱……” 毛知道人们厌恶他，自己在一九三0年十二月二十日给上海的“答辩”信中，承认人们说他是“阴谋家” ， 喜欢用政治手段“拉一个打一个””，“陷害同志”。
To run the purge, Mao used a crony called Lie Shau-joe, deemed by his comrades to be “vicious and dirty.” “Lie is disliked by most of the troops,” one Party inspector had written, “because he is all bravado haranguing the men before a battle, but cowardly in battle.” People working under him had been begging the Party to “fire him and punish him.”
毛打AB团，主要用的人叫李韶九。此人被不少人认为“素来卑鄙龌龊”。一个巡视员写道：“李在一纵大部分人不满意他，因李只于未出发前的训话非常的勇敢，作战则畏惧怕死”。
Lie proceeded by first arresting a few people, and then using torture to get them to name others; then came more arrests, more torture, and more of Mao's foes scooped up. According to a senior officer, Lie and his men would “simply announce ‘You have AB among you,' and would name people … no other evidence at all; these people … were tortured and forced to admit [they were AB], and also to give the names of a dozen or so other people. So those other people were arrested and tortured and they gave scores more names …”
在李韶九具体主持下，“首先是总政治部，接着就在各军、各师开始了。”朱毛红军的萧克将军回忆道：“军政治部告诉我们，你们那里有AB团，并具体指出几个人……就凭这一句话，根本没有别的材料，就把他[们]抓起来了。提审他们时都不承认，一打，一审，他[们]承认了，还供出十几个人的名字，又把那十几个人抓起，再打，再审又供出几十个”。朱毛红军“共打了一千三四百人”。
Mao wrote to Shanghai himself on 20 December that in the space of one month “over 4,400 AB have been uncovered in the Red Army.” Most were killed—and all were tortured, Mao acknowledged. He argued that if victims were unable to stand torture and made false confessions, that itself proved they were guilty. “How could loyal revolutionaries possibly make false confessions to incriminate other comrades?” he asked.
毛给上海的信中自己说，一个月的工夫，在他管辖下的整个“红军中破获AB团四千四百以上”。大多数被杀，所有的都受到严刑拷打。毛说刑讯是天经地义，受刑不过乱供本身就有罪：“是忠实的革命同志，纵令其一时受屈，总有洗冤的一天，为什么要乱供，陷害其他的同志呢？”
Once he had tightened his grip on the army, Mao turned his attention to the Jiangxi Communists. On 3 December he sent Lie with a list of his foes to the town of Futian, where the Jiangxi leaders were living. Mao condemned the meeting in August which had expelled his ally Lieu as an “AB meeting” which “opposed Mao Tse-tung.” “Put them all down,” he ordered, and then “slaughter en masse in all counties and all districts.” “Any place that does not arrest and slaughter, members of the Party and government of that area must be AB, and you can simply seize and deal with them [xun-ban, implying torture and/or liquidation].”
一旦把红军中曾经反对他的人杀得差不多了，毛就着手对付江西共产党人。十二月三日，他派李韶九去江西领导人所在地富田，给了李一张单子，单子上都是那些夏天开会把刘士奇选下台的人。毛说那个会是“反对毛泽东”的“AB团取消派的会议”。他下令“来一个大的破获，给以全部扑灭”。他下令：“各县各区须大捉富农流氓动摇分子，并大批把他们杀戮。凡那些不捉不杀的区域，那个区域的党和政府必是AB团，就可以把那地方的负责人捉了讯办。”
Lie arrived at Futian on 7 December, arrested the men on Mao's list and tortured them through the night. One method was called “striking landmines,” which slowly broke the thumb with excruciating pain. Another technique, also slow, so as to maximize the pain, was to burn victims with flaming wicks. Lie was particularly vicious towards the wives of the Jiangxi leaders. They were stripped naked and, according to a protest written immediately afterwards, “their bodies, particularly their vaginas, were burned with flaming wicks, and their breasts were cut with small knives.”
李韶九在十二月七日到富田，当晚便抓人用刑。一种刑法叫“打地雷公”，把竹签从手指头与指甲盖之间的缝里打下去，一锤锤钻心的痛。另一种刑法，用香火烧，也是慢慢地折磨，教你生不如死。李韶九还为江西领导人的妻子备有专门的刑法。据受害者事后的控诉，他“将女子衣服裤子脱下无片纱，用地雷公打手，线香烧身，烧阴户，用小刀割乳。
These atrocities ignited a mutiny, the first ever openly to challenge Mao. It was led by the above-mentioned senior officer, Liou Di, who actually came from Hunan and had known Mao for some years. Because of his Hunan origins, Mao had earlier wanted to enlist him on his side to help control part of the Jiangxi Army. Mao's man Lie summoned Liou Di on 9 December, first claiming that he had been identified as AB, then promising to let him off the hook if he would collaborate.
暴行激发了一场兵变--第一场直接地公开地反对毛泽东的兵变。领导人是刘敌，并不是江西人，而是毛的湖南老乡。毛曾派他去江西红军中作军官，想用他协助掌握江西红军。李韶九一到富田就把他找来，先对他说有人咬他是AB团，吓唬他，然后跟他说只要他合作就没事儿，还能升官。
In a letter to Shanghai after the revolt, Liou Di described what happened. He saw the torturers tucking in at a banquet of “drinks, meats and hams,” with their victims laid out at their feet, and heard Lie brag about his torturing “cheerfully, in high spirits,” to flattering noises from the others. Carried away, Lie let slip that the whole thing “was not a question of AB, but all politics.” “I arrived at the firm conclusion that all this had nothing to do with AB,” Liou wrote. “It must be Mao Tse-tung playing base tricks and sending his running dog Lie Shau-joe here to slaughter the Jiangxi comrades.”
在兵变后给中央的报告中，刘敌写出是什么促使他挥戈而起。他看见李韶九的屋里“酒肉火腿摆着桌上，大喝大吃”， 而脚边是受刑的同志。他听见李韶九“非常起劲高兴”地讲他怎样刑讯，周围的人又怎样恭维他。“尤其是李韶九说不是AB团问题，全是政治问题，更使我怀疑而肯定这里面一定有鬼”，“一定是毛泽东弄鬼派走狗李韶九来屠杀江西党的干部”。
Liou Di decided to try to stop Mao, but he had to employ subterfuge: “if I were to act as a Communist and deal with them honestly, only death would await me. So I shed my integrity … and switched to a Changsha accent [to assert his non-Jiangxi identity], and told Lie: ‘I'm an old subordinate of Your Honor … I will do my best to obey your political instructions.' ” He also pledged allegiance to Mao. “After I said this,” he wrote, “their attitude changed straight away … They told me to wait in a small room next door …” Lying there in bed that night, with the screams of a tortured comrade coming through the wall, Liou Di planned his moves.
刘敌决心拯救他的同志。他先假装顺从，对李韶九说：“我是你老人家的老部下，我的政治水平非常低，你老人家是完全知道的，现在幸喜你老人家来了，我只有尽量的接受政治教育，承认错误，我相信毛泽东同志总不是AB团，你老人家总不是AB团，军长总不是AB团，我总为你们三位是追是随”。这样一来，李“便安慰我不要恐慌，因为他们又要审人了，要我到小屋子里去坐，门口一条[原文不清]守着，听到李韶九审政治部政务科长尚子龙同志，被地雷公打得呼天喊地，我便在屋子里铺上睡着打主意。
Next morning, he stepped up his flattery of Lie, and managed to gain his freedom. Lie told him to go back and “eliminate all the AB in your regiment at once.” When he got back, Liou Di told his fellow officers what he had seen and heard, and obtained their support. On the morning of the 12th, he gathered his troops, raided the prison at Futian and released the victims. Not being a killer, he did not pursue Mao's cronies, all of whom, including Lie, got away. Lie, though, was later killed by an avenger.
第二天一早，刘敌继续装作讨好李韶九：“用足踢李一下子，眼睛睬他一下子，李又随我出另到一间房子，那时我又横竖是不要脸，同他大排谈一番，专门讲小话，这样一来他相信了我。”李韶九要他“用快刀斩乱麻的手法将你这团的AB团马上肃清”，告诉他AB团就是那些毛“调不动”、“靠不住”的部队。
刘敌回到部队，同志们“都非常稀奇，同时喜欢”，“那时党内一般干部都感觉得同志之生命毫无保障，非常恐怖”。他讲了他的所见所闻，大家都愿意随他行动。十二日，刘敌集合起部队，直奔富田，“救出一大批被陷同志”。他没有想要加害毛的走卒，李韶九跟其他人都安然逃走。(后来，李死在复仇者手上。)
That night, posters went up in Futian saying “Down with Mao Tse-tung!,” and the next morning an anti-Mao rally was held. In the afternoon the Jiangxi men left town and moved across the River Gan to put themselves out of Mao's reach. They sent out a circular with this description of Mao:
当晚富田出现了“打倒毛泽东”的大标语。第二天上午在富田广场召开了反毛的士兵大会。下午，江西党组织离城退到六十公里外的赣江以东。他们散发通告，这样描述毛：
He is extremely devious and sly, selfish, and full of megalomania. To his comrades, he orders them around, frightens them with charges of crimes, and victimises them. He rarely holds discussions about Party matters … Whenever he expresses a view, everyone must agree, otherwise he uses the Party organisation to clamp down on you, or invents some trumped-up theories to make life absolutely dreadful for you … Mao always uses political accusations to strike at comrades. His customary method regarding cadres is to … use them as his personal tools. To sum up … not only is he not a revolutionary leader, he is not a … Bolshevik.
“毛泽东为人谁都晓得，是极其奸猾，个人意识非常浓厚，英雄思想充满了脑筋，对同志素来是命令主义恐吓手段，惩办制度，对党一切问题素来是少有会议讨论解决，无论在某一问题只要他发表意见，便谁都要赞成，否则他即藉组织来对付及拟造新的谬误理论来为难。”“毛还经常惯用政治手段来打击同志”， 把党组织作为个人系统，做他个人工具利用。总之，毛泽东他平日的一切言论行动工作的表现，已经不仅不是一个革命领袖，而且不是一个无产阶级战斗者——布尔什维克党员。”
Mao's goal, they said, was to “become Party Emperor.”
通告称毛想做“党皇帝”。
However, an envoy from Shanghai happened to be present, and told them to stop denouncing Mao in public, on the grounds that Mao had “an international reputation.” They obeyed at once, and entrusted their fate to Shanghai: “We must report Mao Tse-tung's evil designs and his slaughter of the Jiangxi Party to the Centre, for the Centre to resolve it,” they told their troops.
在场的中央巡视员不准公开抨击毛，说毛“与国际革命都有影响”。江西共产党人服从了命令，把自己的命运交给中央。
The delegates they sent to Shanghai were all people who had been tortured by Mao's men. There they presented the Party leadership with evidence hard to impugn—their torture scars. Moreover, they said, Mao “did not carry out the [leadership's repeated] instructions. He … has ignored comrades sent by the Centre and deliberately created problems for them … The Centre wrote several times to try to transfer Mao Tse-tung, but he simply ignored the letters.”
他们派刑讯受害者去上海汇报，给中央看他们的遍体鳞伤，说毛“阴谋屠杀江西党的干部，破坏江西党的组织”，说“毛泽东素来是反对中央的。中央屡次对前委工作指示，他屡次以个人拿些无谓的实际问题来驳批，故意不执行，中央来的通告少翻印传达下级去，中央派来的同志不理，并故意为难。……中央曾屡次来信调动毛泽东工作，然而他终置之不理”。
But Moscow's envoys and the Shanghai leadership, headed by Chou En-lai, backed Mao, even though they knew the charges against him were true, and had seen the marks of torture at first hand. Chou himself told Moscow's man, the Pole Rylsky, that “the arrests and torture of members of our Party … did in fact take place.” But in the Stalinist world, a purger was always the victor,* as Moscow was looking out for the hardest people. The Jiangxi Reds, though loyal to the Party, were labeled “counter-revolutionaries” and ordered to submit to Mao or face “ruthless armed struggle,” i.e., annihilation. Mao was “fundamentally correct,” Moscow said, adding that “this line of ruthless struggle against the enemies of the revolution must [be continued].”
但是，从苏联回国后主事的周恩来遵循莫斯科的指示，完全给毛泽东撑腰--哪怕他亲眼看到忠诚党员的刑伤，还对“波兰毛子”瑞尔斯基说：“逮捕刑讯我党党员的事确实是事实。”在斯大林主义的世界里，整人的人总是占上风，莫斯科要的是最狠、最下得了手的人，非这种人不能成事。江西共产党人虽然忠于党，但是可以被牺牲掉。中央叫他们“毫无抵抗的执行”毛的命令，否则就要“无情的与他作武装斗争”， 也就是说被消灭。莫斯科下结论说，毛“根本上是正确的”。
This was another milestone for Mao: he had won backing from Moscow for murdering his fellow Party members, who had done absolutely nothing wrong vis-à-vis their Party. They had not killed or wounded a single Party member, while Mao had trampled all over the Party's rules.
对毛来说，这又是一个里程碑。莫斯科支持他屠杀对党忠心耿耿、没有给党造成任何危害的共产党人。
Shanghai even sent the victims' appeals against Mao back to him—a signal to Mao that he was at liberty to punish them in whatever way he desired. On these heart-rending reports, a spidery hand minuted the words: “After translation [into Russian], return to Mao.” Or, simply: “To Mao.” These words were in the hand of the head of the Organization Department, Kang Sheng. A lean, mustachioed man with gold-rimmed spectacles, a connoisseur of Chinese art and erotica, with an equally discerning eye for the range of pain produced by torture and torment, Kang was later to achieve infamy as Mao's persecutor designate. Now, with these indifferent yet sinister words, he consigned the victims to Mao—and certain death.
莫斯科还下令把江西共产党人的申诉转交给毛，示意毛可以随意处置。在那些血泪凝成的信件顶上，是几个瘦骨嶙嶙的大字：“译后退还交毛”。意思是，翻译成俄文呈莫斯科后，交给毛。这是康生的笔迹，笔迹好像反映出他那小胡子和金丝眼镜组成的瘦削面庞。康生是中国艺术、特别是春宫艺术的监赏家，对怎样用肉体和精神刑法折磨人，也有胜人一筹的见地。他时任中共组织部部长，跟毛没什么个人关系，只是仰承莫斯科的鼻息。未来，他将成为毛迫害干部的左右手，并因此臭名昭彰。眼下，他大笔一挥，那一行冷漠的字便置无数人于死地。
With this encouragement from Shanghai, Mao had Liou Di and his fellow mutineers “tried” and executed. Before they died, they were paraded round the Red area as a deterrent to the locals. Representatives from all over the base were brought to watch the executions as a lesson.
毛审讯、处决了刘敌和其他仗义救人的官兵。行刑前，他们被押着在红区巡回示众。行刑时，基层干部一律组织观看。
Red Jiangxi was ravaged, as a later secret report revealed: “All work was stopped in order to slaughter AB.” “Everyone lived in fear … At the fiercest, two people talking together would be suspected of being AB … All those who were not demonic in striking AB were treated as AB …” Appalling torture was commonplace: “There were so many kinds … with strange names like … ‘sitting in a pleasure chair,' ‘toads drinking,' ‘monkeys holding a rope.' Some had a red-hot gun-rod rammed into the anus … In Victory County alone, there were 120 kinds of torture.” In one, termed with sick inventiveness “angel plucking zither,” a wire was run through the penis and hung on the ear of the victim, and the torturer then plucked at the wire. There were also horrible forms of killing. “In all counties,” the report said, “there were cases of cutting open the stomach and scooping out the heart.”
红色江西卷起杀人的狂潮。据一九三二年五月的一份秘密报告，当时“一切工作停顿起来，用全力去打AB团”。“弄得人人自危，噤若寒蝉，在打AB团最激烈的时候，两人谈话，都可被疑为AB团……凡打AB团不毒辣的，都认为与AB团有关系。”审讯时，“有用洋钉将手钉在桌上，用篾片插人手指甲内，在各县的刑法种类，无奇不有……坐轿子，坐飞机(各县皆然)坐快活椅子，虾蟆喝水，猴子牵缰，用枪通条烧红捅肛门(胜利县)……等。就胜利说，刑法计有一百二十种之多。”有一种想像丰富的刑法叫“仙人弹琴”， 用铁丝从睾丸穿过，吊在受刑人的耳朵上，然后用手拨拉，像弹琴一样。杀人的办法也多种多样，“剖腹剜心”是常见的。
Altogether, tens of thousands died in Jiangxi. In the army alone, there were about 10,000 deaths—about a quarter of the entire Red Army under Mao at the time—as revealed by the secret report immediately afterwards. It was the first large-scale purge in the Party, and took place well before Stalin's Great Purge. This critical episode—in many ways the formative moment of Maoism—is still covered up to this day. Mao's personal responsibility and motives, and his extreme brutality, remain a taboo.
数万人就这样死去，仅红军就有一万人死亡，是所有毛管辖下红军的四分之一。这是中共党内第一次大规模清洗，远远早于斯大林的大清洗。这场屠杀今天还被重重遮掩，毛的直接责任与动机，他的残忍，更是禁区。
Next door in Fujian, the local Reds had also rebelled against Mao, voting out his followers in July 1930 while he and his army were away. Many thousands were now executed; the figure, just taking those whose names are known and who were later officially cleared, is 6,352. In one county the victims were hauled through the streets to their execution with rusty wires through their testicles. Frightened and thoroughly disillusioned, the head of Red Fujian fled at the first opportunity, when he was sent to Hong Kong to buy medicine. He was only one of many senior Communists who deserted. Another was Peng De-huai's de facto adopted son.
不仅是江西，红色闽西也笼罩在血雨腥风中。一九三0年七月，那里的共产党人像江西一样，趁毛率朱毛红军北上长沙时，起来把毛控制他们的人选下了台。如今，成千上万的人被害，仅八十年代官方平反的有名有姓的就有六千三百五十二人。有一个县，锈迹斑斑的铁丝穿过即将被杀的人的睾丸，牵成一串游街示众。恐惧、失望、厌憎，使中共福建省委书记在被派去香港买药时逃亡。他只是众多共产党高级干部中叛逃的人之一，另一个是彭德怀视为亲儿子的郭炳生。
JUST AFTER THE mutiny against Mao, the Jiangxi Communists had appealed for support to Zhu De and Peng. “Comrades,” they pleaded, “is our Party going to be for ever so black and lightless?” These two had no love for Mao. One night after a good deal of rice wine, Zhu remarked to an old friend: “Many old comrades … have been killed in the purge. The man behind their killing is you know who.” The friend knew he meant Mao and said so in his memoirs. Then he quoted Zhu saying: “The Futian incident was also entirely caused by old Mao slaughtering AB. So many comrades have been killed …” Zhu “looked immensely sad.”
富田事变发生时，江西共产党人曾向朱德、彭德怀寻求支持。“同志们，”他们痛苦地呼吁：“党内永远永远就这样暗无天日吗？”朱、彭并不是不反感毛。朱德在事变后的一天晚上，喝了很多酒，向重逢的老战友龚楚吐露心曲，说他们的好多朋友都被害了，“这个幕后主使人，你是会知道的(意思是指毛泽东--原注)……杀AB团引起的富田事变，也完全是老毛一个人所弄出来的。许多同志全给自家人杀害了！”
However, he and Peng stuck with Mao. Shanghai and Moscow were behind Mao, and siding with the Jiangxi Reds would mean cutting themselves off from the Party. Mao had laid the groundwork for framing Zhu and Peng. He had been purging Zhu De's staff, and had had two of Zhu's five aides-de-camp executed. Nor would it be difficult for Mao to coerce some torture victim to make accusations against Zhu—and Peng. One message had reached Russia's military intelligence chief in China suggesting that “Peng might be mixed up” in AB.
但朱、彭没有支持江西共产党人。毛的背后站着中央，站着莫斯科，跟江西共产党人联合就意味着自绝于党。毛也已做好准备，随时可以让朱、彭做刀下鬼。朱德的总司令部就大肃AB团，五个副官杀了三个。毛随便可以叫某个受刑的人咬朱德。至于彭德怀，连苏军情报局都风闻传言，“彭可能跟AB团有关系。”
Not only did Mao blackmail the military commanders, he made sure they had the blood of their comrades on their hands. He ordered Zhu to sit on the panel that sentenced Liou Di to death.
毛不仅要挟朱、彭，他还让他们手上也沾染战友的鲜血。判处刘敌死刑的“审判官”里就有朱德。
Zhu and Peng did not stand up to Mao for another reason. At this time, in December 1930, Chiang Kai-shek had just won the war against his Nationalist rivals, and was launching an “annihilation expedition” against the Communists. Zhu and Peng cared about the Red Army, and feared that a split would doom it. Their attitude differed from Mao's. During this and subsequent attacks by Chiang in 1931, Mao never halted the purge, and when the Generalissimo paused, Mao redoubled his internecine killings—even though the people he was killing had just been fighting Chiang at the front.
朱、彭没有起来反对毛还有另一层原因。一九三0年十二月富田事变时，打败了国民党内对手的蒋介石，正要对红军進行第一次“围剿”。朱，彭关心红军的命运，担心同毛对着干可能毁掉红军。而毛，在这次跟后来的围剿中，都没有停止过打AB团。在战争的间隙中，毛打得更凶狠，到了党内报告称为“无以复加”的地步。刚刚在战场上跟国民党军队作战的人，有的一下战场就被毛的刽子手处死。
MAO'S RUTHLESSNESS PRODUCED an effective policy against Chiang. This was to “lure the enemy deep into the Red area and strike when it is exhausted.” Mao argued that as the Nationalists were not familiar with the terrain, the conditions must favor the Reds. Because there were so few roads, Nationalist troops would have to rely on local supplies, and since the Reds could control the population they could deprive the enemy of food and water. Mao's plan was to force the entire population to bury their food and household goods, block every well with huge stones, and evacuate to the mountains so that Chiang's army could not find water or food, or laborers and guides. The strategy turned the Reds' base into a battlefield, imposing colossal hardships on the entire population, whom Mao forced into harm's way.
毛的铁石心肠使他发明了一个抵抗蒋介石的有效战略：“诱敌深入赤色区域，待其疲惫而歼灭之。”毛的理由是国民党军队不熟悉地形，因为交通不便，得依赖当地给养，中共可以通过控制老百姓使国民党军队断水断粮。毛命令所有老百姓“坚壁清野”将粮食炊具藏起来，用大石头把井填死，然后藏身到山里去，让国民党军队没有粮食、水源、劳工和向导。这个战略给红区老百姓带来极大困苦，把他们的家乡变成战场。
Few Red leaders agreed with Mao, but his strategy worked. A Nationalist commander later lamented that everywhere “we saw no people, the houses were cleaned out as if by floods, there was no food, no woks, no pots … We couldn't get any military information.” Chiang reflected in his diary: “The difficulty of annihilating the [Communist] bandits is greater than a big war, because they fight in their territory and can get the population to do what they want.”
毛的策略不得人心，但它行之有效。一名国民党指挥官后来说他的部队经过的地方“看不见人民，房屋一空如洗，没有粮食，没有锅碗瓢杓……军事情报一点也得不到”。蒋介石也在日记里写道：“剿匪之难甚于大战，盖彼利用地形之熟识与胁从之民众，避实击虚，随所欲为。”
Yet it was not Mao's brutal strategy that clinched the Reds' victory. What really tipped the scale was Russian assistance—though this remains virtually unknown. Moscow set up a top-level Military Advisory Group in the Soviet Union to plan strategy, and a military committee in Shanghai, staffed by Russian and other (especially German) advisers. The critical help came from Soviet military intelligence, the GRU, which had a network of more than 100 agents in China, mostly Chinese operating in Nationalist offices near the Red Army, whose main job was to provide information to the Chinese Communists. In early 1930, Moscow had dispatched a star officer, the half-German, half-Russian Richard Sorge,* to Shanghai.
然而对红军打胜仗起关键作用的，还不是毛的无情战略，而是苏联人的帮助。第一次围剿刚开始，莫斯科就建立了军事顾问组，在苏联制定战略战术。在上海另设军事委员会，由苏联人跟其他国籍的人，特别是德国人组成。苏军情报局派头等情报人员、俄德混血儿左尔格(Richard Sorge)来上海，接管有一百多名工作人员的谍报网，任务是向红军提供情报。左尔格的助手之一是毛未来的亲家张文秋，他们之间的介绍人是共产国际的间谍史沫特莱(Agnes Smedley)。左尔格后来扬名世界，因为他准确地向斯大林提供了日本在德国侵苏后，不会在远东乘机進攻的情报。他死在日本人的绞刑架下。
Sorge's main coup was to infiltrate the German military advisers' group at Chiang's forward intelligence HQ, where he worked on the disgruntled wife of one of the advisers, Stölzner, to steal the Nationalist codes, including those used for communications between the General Staff and units in the field. This information from Russian spies gave Mao an incalculable advantage. The CCP also had its own agents working in the heart of Nationalist intelligence. One, Qian Zhuang-fei, became the confidential secretary of the Nationalist intelligence chief U. T. Hsu, and played a big role in Mao's success.
左尔格在中国的主要功劳，是打入了蒋介石南昌行营的德国顾问团。一名叫斯多兹勒(Erich Stolzner)的顾问的太太满腹牢骚，左尔格就利用她偷出了国民党的密码，包括行营与作战部队联系的密码。中共本身在国民党情报部门也有杰出的间谍，为毛的成功作出了贡献，钱壮飞就是其中一位。
These intelligence networks provided Mao with precise information about the movements of Chiang's army. Two weeks into the expedition, on 30 December 1930, Mao used 40,000 troops and civilians to lay an ambush against 9,000 Nationalist troops. The previous day he had learned exactly which units were coming, and when. Mao waited from dawn on a distant peak, while fog and mist shrouded the mountains, and then watched the action amidst maple leaves, some still blazing red on the trees and others fallen on the frosty ground. In the afternoon sunshine, excited cries from below announced victory. Most of the Nationalist troops had simply put up their hands, and the Nationalist commander was captured. The general was exhibited at a mass rally, which Mao addressed, and at which, under guidance, the crowd yelled: “Chop his head off! Eat his flesh!” His head was then sliced off, and sent down the river attached to a door, with a little white flag saying it was “a gift” for his superiors.
这层层情报网使毛准确地获知国民党军队的行动。一九三0年十二月三十日，毛用四万军民设下了埋伏圈，专等九千国民党军队入套。毛在前一天就得知哪支部队要来、什么时候来。拂晓，他在远处的山上等待，心里寻着诗意。晨雾未散，满山都还隐隐约约，“雾满龙岗千嶂暗”。太阳升起来了，“万木霜天红烂漫”， 遍野枫树，像血一样地红。埋伏战也在这血样的山上打响。到下午结束，国民党军队大部分投降，指挥官张辉瓒做了俘虏。毛召开群众大会，会上拿张辉瓒示众，口号包括：“杀张辉瓒的头！吃张辉瓒的肉！”张辉瓒的头真的被割了下来，钉在一块门板上，放進江里，顺江流到国民党的行营南昌，一面小白旗宣告这是给他上司的礼物。
This ambush ended Chiang's first expedition, from which the Red Army gained both arms and prisoners, as well as radios and radio operators. Mao's prestige rose. Few had any idea about the critical role played by Russian intelligence, as well as by Russian money, medicine and arms. Mao had even asked for poison gas.
这场埋伏战的胜利使蒋介石的第一次围剿以失败告终。毛的声望大增。人们只知道毛的“诱敌深入”，但光是“诱敌深入”是赶不走進攻之敌的。打胜仗靠埋伏战，而埋伏战成功的关键是准确的情报。苏联人在反围剿中起的决定性作用鲜为人知。当时毛和他们的关系到什么程度呢？毛甚至要求莫斯科给他毒瓦斯！
In April 1931, Nationalist troops came back for a second “annihilation expedition.” Again they were thwarted by the tactic of “luring the enemy deep into the Red area,” and again Moscow provided critical aid and intelligence, this time including a high-powered two-way radio acquired from Hong Kong, and Russian-trained radio technicians. For this campaign, Mao was able to intercept enemy communications.
一九三一年四月，国民党军队卷土重来，進行第二次围剿。毛使用同样的“诱敌深入”战略，加上同样的苏联情报和援助，又胜了。
But at the beginning of July Chiang Kai-shek himself led a vastly expanded force of 300,000 men for a third expedition, and modified his tactics so that it was much harder for Mao to use his intelligence advantage to lay ambushes. Moreover, this time the Generalissimo's forces were ten times the size of Mao's, and were able to stay and occupy the areas they were “lured” into. The Red Army found itself unable to return. Within two months the Red base had been reduced to a mere several dozen square kilometers, and Mao's men were on the verge of collapse.
但七月初，蒋介石亲自率领三十万大军前来進行第三次围剿，毛就没那么幸运了。蒋军是毛的十倍，蒋又改变了战术，使红军无法打依赖情报的埋伏战。红军被逼得一退再退，两个月后，红区只剩下几十平方公里。
But Chiang did not press on. Mao was saved by the most unlikely actor—fascist Japan.
就在这个关头，毛得救了：蒋介石突然停止了穷追猛打 -- “九一八”事变爆发。
IN 1931, Japan stepped up its encroachment on Manchuria in northeast China. Faced with threats at opposite ends of his vast country, Chiang decided on a policy of “Domestic Stability First”—sort out the Reds before tackling Japan. But Tokyo torpedoed his timing. On 18 September Chiang boarded a ship from Nanjing to Jiangxi to give a big push to his drive against Mao's shrunken base. That very night, at 10:00 PM, Japan invaded Manchuria, in effect starting the Pacific—and Second World—War. The Nationalist commander in Manchuria, Chang Hsueh-liang, known as the Young Marshal, did not fight back. Over sixty years later, he told us why: resistance would have been futile. “There was no way we could win,” he said. “We could only fight a guerrilla war, or have a shambolic go at it … The quality of the Chinese army could not compare with the Japanese … The Japanese army was really brilliant … ‘Non-resistance' … was the only feasible policy.”
一九三一年，日本不断在它早已觊觎的中国东北制造事端。蒋介石的政策是：“攘外应先安内”， 先扫平红军，再对付日本。九月十八日，蒋从首都南京登舰去南昌行营，要给毛日益缩小的根据地致命一击，但就在那天晚上十点钟，日本入侵东北。东北的长官张学良，人称“少帅”没有抵抗。六十多年后，他告诉我们为什么不抵抗：“我们没法打胜。日本出一师人，我们就完蛋了。我们军队的能力也没人家的强，我们军队的一切都不如，哪里能打胜？只能说是游击战，混战。我们可以出这种野蛮的行动，这种可以，要说真正的，一个对一个打，那是没法打。中国军队的素质，那跟日本是没法子比，日本的军队我佩服得很。日本军队实在是好。”“《大公报》的一个记者叫王芸生，他说了一句话，我很佩服他。他说在任何人也出不了第二个政策，也只能是这个政策。”
By the time Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Jiangxi next day, 19 September, Japan had already occupied the capital of Manchuria, Shenyang (aka Mukden), and other major cities, and he had to rush back to Nanjing on the 20th to cope with the crisis. He did not declare war on Japan, reasoning, like the Young Marshal, that armed resistance would be futile, given Japan's overwhelming military power. Chiang's tactic was to use China's huge space, manpower and daunting terrain to buy time, knowing that it was virtually impossible for Japan to occupy and garrison the whole of China. For now, he sought intervention from the League of Nations. His long-term plan was to modernize his army, build up the economy, and fight Japan when there was some chance of winning.
九月十九日，蒋介石到达南昌时，日本已经占领了东北的首府沈阳和其他主要城市。他只得匆匆于二十日折返南京，处理危机。他没有向日本宣战，原因跟张学良差不多：打，不啻以卵击石。日本也没有向中国宣战，它没有足够兵力把中国全部吞掉，于是采取“蚕食”政策。蒋的策略是利用中国辽阔的疆土，众多的人口以及不易侵占的山川与日本周旋，争取时间。蒋寻求国际联盟的干预，同时尽快使军队现代化，希望在有可能获胜的情况下同日本作战。
“This misfortune might even turn out to be a blessing in disguise,” Chiang wrote in his diary, “if it gets the country united.” Nanjing immediately decided to “suspend the plan of … annihilating the Communists,” and proposed a United Front against Japan. The CCP spurned the idea, saying that any suggestion that it was willing to join a United Front was “ridiculous in the extreme.” The Communists' attitude was that the Nationalists, not the Japanese, were their chief enemy, and their slogans made this pointedly clear, ordaining “Down with the Nationalists,” but merely “Oppose Japanese imperialists.” The Party's “central task” was described as “defending the Soviet Union with arms” (following Moscow's line that the Japanese invasion of Manchuria was a prelude to attacking the Soviet Union).
蒋提出“团结国内，共赴国难”的政策。二十日他在日记中写道：“如我国内果能从此团结一致，未始非转祸为福之机也。”二十一日，南京作出决定：“剿共计划，悉予停缓。”号召全国搞“民族统一战线”，“一致对外”。但是中共一口回绝。九月三十日中共发表声明说，任何外面传的朱、毛愿意一致对外的说法都是“可笑到万分的谣言”， 称蒋是“最不能调和的死敌”。中共的口号是：“打倒国民党！”而对日本仅是：“反对日本帝国主义”。党的中心任务是“武装拥护苏联”--这个提法的原因在于莫斯科认为日本侵犯东北是進攻苏联的前奏。
Since then, history has been completely rewritten, and the world has come to believe that the CCP was more patriotic and keener to fight Japan than the Nationalists were—and that the CCP, not the Nationalists, was the party that proposed the United Front. All this is untrue.
历史后来被改写，把中共表现得比蒋介石更积极抗战，称“统一战线”、“一致对外”是中共的要求，为蒋介石所拒绝。这不是事实。
When he came up with the idea of a United Front against Japan, Chiang pulled his troops out of the war zone in Jiangxi. The Reds at once exploited this opportunity to recover lost territory, expand, and establish their own state.
正是为了向中共表示他希望建立“民族统一战线”，蒋介石在红军岌岌可危之际，停止了第三次围剿，调走了军队。中共于是得以乘民族之危扩张，建立了一个国中之国：中华苏维埃共和国，于十一月七日，俄国“十月革命”十四周年纪念日正式成立。虽然没有任何国家承认这个“共和国”，连它的孕育人苏联也不承认，但这毕竟是全世界除苏联和蒙古以外的唯一共产党“国家”。
On 7 November 1931, the fourteenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, this state was proclaimed. Although it was not recognized by any other country, not even its sponsor, the Soviet Union, it was the only Communist regime in the world outside the Communist bloc, which then consisted only of Russia and Mongolia.
This state was made up of several Red regions dotted around the heartland of the country, in the provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang. At its maximum, the total territory covered some 150,000–160,000 square km, with a population of over 10 million.* At the time of its founding the largest enclave was the “Central Base Area,” the region where Mao was operating, which consisted of Red Jiangxi and Red Fujian, covering some 50,000 sq. km, with a population of 3.5 million. Moscow had designated it as the seat of the Red government over a year before, with the town of Ruijin as its capital.
这个国中之国由几块散落在中国腹心地带的红色区域组成，包括中央苏区、鄂豫皖、湘鄂西等，鼎盛时面积达十五、六万平方公里，人口一千来万。国中之国成立时，最大的红区是赣南、闽西组成的中央苏区，有五万平方公里，三百五十多万人口，瑞金为首都。
Moscow also appointed Mao head of the state, with the very un-Chinese title of chairman of the Central Executive Committee. He was “prime minister” as well, being chairman of the body called the People's Committee. On the evening the posts were announced, a crony came to see Mao. This man had personally tortured Lee Wen-lin, the Jiangxi Red leader Mao most hated, and afterwards had reported the details to Mao. He now came to offer congratulations. “Mao Zhu-xi—Chairman Mao!” he called out. “You learn really fast,” Mao replied. “You are the first person.” This torturer was the first person to use the title that was to become part of the world's vocabulary: “Chairman Mao.”
莫斯科指定毛泽东为这个国中之国的首脑，相当于“总统”，按苏联规矩给他戴上一顶非中国习惯的头衔：中央执行委员会主席。毛同时又是“总理”：人民委员会主席。在这些职务宣布的当晚，一个亲信来看毛。此人曾被毛派去监督拷问红色江西领袖李文林，因为他深知毛的意图，而毛又最恨李文林。拷问后他总是向毛汇报。这晚他是来向毛道喜的，一進门他就喊：“毛主席！”毛说：“你改口真快，是第一个。” 就是从这个人的嘴里，第一次吐出了今天世界语汇中一个尽人皆知的词：毛主席。
*In the outlaw land, the first Communist county chief of Ninggang was killed, in September 1928, by his fellow-Communists, seven months after he had been installed at a rally where his Nationalist predecessor was speared to death. The man Mao left in charge of the area was also killed in a bloody vendetta nine months after Mao's departure. He had apparently had the beautiful young wife of a Party official tortured and executed on the charge of being an enemy agent. He was then killed on the same charge.
*Even when the purge had counterproductive effects. A 1932 report by the (Communist) Federation of Labor said workers were “simply scared” to join Communist unions: “They have seen that the majority [sic] of the workers [who were] members of the trade union were executed [i.e., by their own comrades] on the charge of belonging to ‘AB.' ”
*Subsequently famous as the spy who in 1941 provided Stalin with the vital intelligence that Japan was not going to attack the Soviet Far East when Hitler invaded European Russia. One of Sorge's assistants was a woman called Zhang Wen-qiu, whose two daughters later married Mao's two surviving sons. She had come to Sorge's attention through Agnes Smedley, an American agent for the Comintern.
*Thanks to the control of the Red territories, Party membership rose to 120,000 in 1931, from 18,000 at the end of 1926.