Scenes 1 to 10

Scenes of war are commented by a speaker stressing the totally new quality Chinese history has achieved with the year 1949 and „the people’s victory“ “under the guidance of Mao Zedong“. Over masses of dead comrades a crippled soldier is walking towards the sun.

The president of the Republic and supreme leader of the Nationalist Party, Jiang Jieshi (将介石) (= Chiang Kai-shek), followed by several members of his government, walks out of his residence and is about to step in a car. The committee to see the leaving president off includes vice president Li Zongren (李宗仁) who obviously now is in charge.

Some leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are joining the peasants celebrating and dancing. The chairman of the CCP Central Committee, Mao Zedong (毛泽东), chief commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Zhu De (朱德), chief secretary of the CCP Central Committee, Ren Bishi (任弼时), vice chairmen of the CCP Central Committee, Zhou Enlai (周恩来) and Liu Shaoqi (刘少奇), head of bureau Yang Shangkun (杨尚昆), and Mao’s son, Mao Anying (毛岸英), are introduced and identified. [Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and their daughter Li Na are shown but not identified].

Jiang Jieshi is holding a meeting. In the background, a Christmas tree is blinking. The meeting is joined by: the head of the Executive Yuan, Sun Ke (孙科, son of Sun Yat-sen); members of the GMD (=Guomindang) Central Committee Zhang Qun (张群), Zhu Jiahua (朱家骅) and Zhang Zhizhong (张治中); head of the Control Yuan, Yu Youren (于右任), and other important GMD figures like Gu Zhenggang (谷正纲), Zhang Daofan (张道藩), Gu Zhengding (谷正鼎) und Shao Lizi (邵力子). All of them are listening to the reading-out of Jiang Jieshi’s draft of his New year’s declaration on the country’s miserable situation and the Civil War. The speech mentions the bad conditions China has to deal with at the moment and that Jiang feels responsible for this. He therefore is ready to step down from his position as President for the benefit of his country. Afterwards, Jiang asks Li Zongren, who sits next to him, for his opinion, and the latter (now going to move into the position of President as acting vice president) simply agrees to everything. Other GMD members, though, are against Jiang’s retirement, above all Gu Zhenggang and Zhang Daofan, and ask Jiang not to step down. Jiang then makes clear that he is forced by the party’s inner struggles and frictions to do so and that he actually did not want it himself.

Mao Zedong waits for Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and Ren Bishi to finish reading his own draft of a New year’s declaration on the Civil War [“Carry on the revolution to the end”]. They all agree and Zhou Enlai asks a secretary to get it published immediately. They talk about overthrowing the GMD and how to win the Civil War when Zhu De joins them. They all take up a cup of tea and toast to their generals pushing forward against the GMD and the most recent advances toward Beiping (=the name of Peking at the time), where the Nationalist general Fu Zuoyi (傅作义) is severely threatened by the CCP troupes. Being isolated, Fu is said to feel depressed already.

Commander-in-chief of the North China Army and the “Extermination of the Bandits” [i.e. Communists] campaign, Fu Zuoyi, and his old teacher and advisor Liu Houtong (刘厚同), are having a conversation. Fu Zuoyi’s daughter Fu Dongju (傅冬菊), who is a journalist of the newspaper “Dagong Bao”, joins them. Fu Zuoyi expresses his concern about the situation. He doubts whether he would be really allowed to retreat to the South with his troupes as Jiang Jieshi had indicated, and his daughter warns him he would end up like Zhang Xueliang [who believed in Jiang in 1936 during the Xi’an incident, freeing the latter en parole to stop fighting the Communists and instead fighting the Japanese; he then accompanied Jiang back but was held in custody ever since]. Fu Zuoyi hesitates to negotiate with the Communists for moral scruples, but Liu Houtong, who obviously had tried to convince him to take up negotiations already several times, walks away, tired by Fu’s continuous hesitating.

Mao and some other CCP members are sitting together. Zhou Enlai is speaking about important intellectuals and figures of the democrats [a political “third force”] that have been convinced to leave Hong Kong to join the CCP side, when the head of the confidential office, Ye Zilong (叶子龙) enters the room. Ye reports about the CCP’s military success in central China. [The scene switches to battles and dead soldiers].

Jiang Jieshi drives up to Li Zongren’s residence. They both have a walk through the park. Jiang asks Li [to sound out his reaction] whether he knew that general Bai Chongxi (白崇禧) in central China had asked again for Jiang’s retirement and wanted to reorganise Nanjing with the help of democrat people from Hong Kong, but adds that these unfortunately have already joined the CCP. Li states he did not know anything and obviously feels rather uneasy. – Outside of Li’s residence, opposite to the entrance, stand the director of secret service, Mao Renfeng (毛人风), and the leading military of Yunnan, Shen Zui (沈醉), who was supposed to have an eye on Li. But Mao tells Shen on behalf of Jiang Jieshi, that for now no action should be taken against Li Zongren.

Jiang Jieshi is telling Li Zongren that he is going to retire from office and that he wants Li to take over after his resignation. Jiang advises him to enter into peace negotiations with the CCP. Li hesitates but Jiang explains that these negotiations should last three to six months, so that the GMD would have enough time to train more military and figure out a plan against the CCP. Furthermore, Li is esteemed by the American ambassador which would be helpful for the GMD side.

The ambassador of the United States, John Leighton Stuart, and his secretary Fu Jingbo (傅泾波) are having a conversation. The ambassador wants his secretary to inform Li Zongren about the American intention to support a divided China with the Yangzi as a separation line, citing the Northern and Southern dynasties as a historic example. This plan would be agreeable also to the Soviet Union who does not wish a united China for her own reasons. The secretary, though, doubts whether Mao will listen to Stalin [and stop at the Yangzi], and Stuart argues that in fact the CCP “listens to no one”. He asks the secretary back whether Mao is more of a Communist or more of a Chinese [personally obviously thinking the latter], and the secretary responds he really does not know, but that he has heard that Mao is really more of a gentle teacher from the countryside!

A secretary is combing Mao’s hair. Mao is shown reading, eating and smoking [like an intellectual – cf. teacher – in his past-time].

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