History of the Long March -- Page 10

Those left Behind

What of General Chen Yi who had remained back in Jiangxi with the old and wounded? When the Red Army moved out in October 16, 1934, Chen Yi had about 30,000 men of which 10,000 were wounded including Chen Yi. A KMT force of 100,000 inexorably moved in on them. By February, 1935 they had about 2,000 troops and 2,000 wounded. Chen Yi summoned a meeting of the area leaders. He spoke with great emotion. Yi said, " Take these wounded men into your homes. They are our sons. They are very young. They can make good sons and good sons-in-law for you. They can marry your daughters. They can work for you and you will have one more pair of hands in your family. You will have their labor and perhaps someone to take revenge for you."

Before Chen Yi had finished, tears had come to the eyes of the peasants and of the wounded, and to those of Chen Yi as well. Within half a day, every wounded man had been placed with a peasant family, dispersed invisibly in the countryside; each equipped with several silver dollars, medicine for treating their wounds, and 3 pounds of salt, a priceless gift in this region of a KMT blockade. The remainder of the men moved off on the morning of March 4, 1935. Chiang offered 50,000 Yuan for the capture of the leaders. By March 9, after fearsome losses they had only about 80 men left. Living off the land, never sleeping in the same place twice they would spend the next two years making their way to join Mao. It would be 1937 before they would be able to join Mao.

The Aftermath

In the Great Cultural Revolution, Mao would turn on his old comrades who had brought him to power. With the help of Lin Biao, a number of the Long March survivors became "enemies of the people." Accused, Peng Dehuai was beaten to death by young Red Guards. He was 76 when the end came. He was knocked to the floor and kicked until his lungs were perforated and his ribs broken. When he could no longer rise from his bed, he was deprived of the right to drink water, go to the toilet, or turn over in bed. He died on November 29th 1974. He Long, Lin decided, would be too strong to struggle. He Long had suffered from diabetes and was on insulin. They took He Long to the hospital and gave him glucose injections, a sure case of medical murder. Zhu De found himself accused of being a traitor. Liu Shaoqi, was taken to a prison in Kaifeng where suffering from pneumonia, he was thrown on the cement floor and left to die. Deng Xiaoping was paraded in a dunce cap and sent off to Sichuan for labor. No one knows why Mao did these things. It was blamed all on his wife Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four. Some Chinese hold up five fingers when they speak of the "Gang of Four."