Scenes 41 to 50
1949/4/6: He Yingqin (何应钦), Minister of Defence, is reading out loud the names of the officers who are going to lead the single divisions that have been enlarged, restructured and assigned the task to resist the CCP at the Yangzi. In all, there are fourteen divisions.
Zhou Enlai and Zhang Zhizhong are holding negotiations on the basis of Mao Zedong’s eight demands. Zhou insists on Mao’s first point to define who was responsible for the Civil War, this being a question of historical judgement. But Zhang tries to deflect this demand. The subtitle adds: 1949/4/13: During the peace negotiations between Zhou Enlai and Zhang Zhizhong, Zhou argued very eloquently, but Zhang did not give in. Thus little progress was made and the negotiations dragged on for a long time.
Mao and Zhang Shizhao (章士钊), advisor of the GMD negotiators and well-known intellectual, are taking a walk through the park. First they talk about the possibility of a divided rule in China. Then Mao reminds Zhang of their first encounter and tells him that the money Zhang had given him back in 1920 for his intended travel to France to study, had been used by him in reality for financing the CCP!
Zhou Enlai hands to Zhang Zhizhong the amended and for the CCP side final version of the proposed peace treaty. Zhang, knowing there is no chance to negotiate any further, states that although the GMD has lost the Civil War clearly, it nevertheless will revive. Zhou remarks that the future will show whether the GMD will be able to regenerate, but that for now the ultimatum for the treaty to be signed in any case is April 20!
The delegate for the negotiations Huang Shaohong (黄绍竑) has come to Li Zongren to tell him about the negotiations and that Zhou Enlai has offered to protect Li (from Jiang) on the condition that Li signs the contract. Even the GMD generals defending the Yangzi like Bai Chongxi could be accommodated, should they give up their resistance. Li, though, is sceptical. In this moment, the commanding generals of the Huazhong Army, Bai Chongxi and Cheng Siyuan (程思远), enter the room. They propose Li to force Jiang Jieshi to go abroad and to order all of the money and arms, transferred to Taiwan by the latter, to be brought back to finance the determined resistance to the CCP.
Jiang Jieshi is furious about Zhang Zhizhong’s performance during the negotiations and that he had declared the GMD of having lost. Jiang Jingguo therefore orders to publish a declaration that they are not going to sign the agreement.
Zhang Zhizhong, Zhang Shizhao and the rest of the GMD delegation are awaiting the government’s answer to the proposed peace treaty. Finally, a telegram is received: the signing of the agreement is refused! The comment adds: Because of the refusal on behalf of the GMD side to sign the peace treaty, Zhu De orders the attack on the Yangzi River to “liberate” Nanjing and the South of China.
A fierce battle is underway. Men and women fight desperately on junk boats. Short shots show the GMD generals in distress. The music shifts to an optimistic and heroic stance, signalling the victory of the CCP.
Mao sleeps in his office. A secretary comes in and wants to hand him a telegram. Even though the secretary addresses Mao, the latter does not awake; thus the secretary leaves the telegram on the table in front of Mao. The subtitle adds: the telegram states the success of the first CCP troupes in crossing the Yangzi, opening up the way for more troupes to do the same.
The Communist soldiers heroically fight and reach the southern bank of the Yangzi River in great masses. They run over the battlefield and the enemy’s given-up defence lines with red flags and roar loudly. [Then the music turns into minor, getting dangerous, and the screen light is dimmed]. GMD general Li Xiangnan (李襄南) is stumbling in the mud with ragged cloths and a gun in his hand. He desperately looks at all his dead men lying around and decides to shoot himself.
| previous next | back to top |