Li Tao - National Military Commander

Author: Liu Qingfang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features:
The preface
Generals left Beijing during the turmoil. The wind howled, the earth was frozen, and all things withered. The unprecedented "Cultural Revolution" had entered its fifth winter. Near the eastern entrance of Aowei Hutong in the western district of Beijing, there was an ordinary small siheyuan. The doors and windows facing the street were peeling with paint, and the two door panels were tightly shut. At the corner of the door wall, some ragged pieces of paper were scattered, carried by the wind. The smudged ink on them showed that these had once been large posters spreading the voice of the "Central Cultural Revolution Group" led by Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng (and not long ago, Chen Boda), or scathing denunciations. Now, mixed with yellowing leaves, they made the front of the house messy and dirty. When the wind picked up again, these scraps of paper would fly wildly with the leaves and dust, occasionally hitting the door wall. The place had become an empty house.
More than a year ago—in October 1969, General Lin Biao issued the "" order, and some of the founding marshals and political and party leaders left Beijing. The residents of this small siheyuan were also moved to the Lingnan region at that time. The head of the household was named Li Tao, an elderly revolutionary warrior—a Communist Party member during the second cooperation between the CCP and the KMT, as well as a member of the Kuomintang, and an officer in the Northern Expedition Army. In April 1927, after the counter-revolutionary coup of April 12, he angrily left the KMT and continued the revolutionary struggle. As one of the founding marshals of the new China, he was naturally not unfamiliar with the "Vice Marshal" who issued the "" order. Moreover, the unfortunate fate of Li Tao in his later years was often tied to this "Vice Marshal" and his followers.
Forty years ago, in June 1930, when Lin Biao was the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army of the Central Red Army, Li Tao was the political director of the army. After that, they had many interactions in operations and work. When Lin Biao led his troops to Northeast China and Tianjin, and then advanced southward, Li Tao, as the Minister of Operations of the Central Military Commission, naturally had close ties with Lin Biao and was tasked with handling many operational matters. In September 1959, after Lin Biao took charge of the daily work of the Central Military Commission, he also showed concern and support for the department led by Li Tao. However, Li Tao believed that all of this was for the revolutionary cause and national security, not for personal actions or personal relationships.
Li Tao knew that Lin Biao paid close attention to his subordinates' attitude toward him: whether he was revered, whether he followed closely, whether he was aligned. But he refused to change his own principles because of this. Li Tao once wrote commemorative articles for martyrs Huang Gongluo and Ke Wudong while ill, but he was stingy with words when it came to the "Vice Marshal." At that time, praising the "Vice Marshal" was fashionable. But precisely because of this, he also refused to join the ranks of the praise-singers—even though he admired Lin Biao's military talent and knew well his outstanding achievements, especially in the Northeast theater, the Tianjin theater, and the southward operations during the Liberation War. He believed that no battle victory was the result of one person's efforts, and that leaders, especially those still alive, should not be excessively glorified.