In August 1968, Ji Dong, the instructor of the ** Guard Regiment, was transferred to *** to do secretarial work. He was the last secretary to the Prime Minister and served beside the Prime Minister for eight years until his death.
Ji Dong believes that ** is "a person who combines greatness and ordinariness very perfectly". People are proud of his greatness and moved by his ordinariness. People will remember his great achievements through heaven and earth, and they will also remember the bits and pieces of him as an ordinary person.
The prime minister behaved modestly and gently, and although he worked every day, he rarely got angry and never scolded anyone. The heaviest words he criticizes and blames people are usually only two sentences: "Nonsense!"."It's not allowed!”
Ji Dong said that on only one occasion did the prime minister scold a "national curse" when he was extremely angry, which made a deep impression on him.
After the "913" incident, the prime minister seized the opportunity to make an in-depth criticism of the ultra-"leftist" ideological trend and corrected the impact of the "13" incident as much as possible.
As for the premier's approach, ** was supported at first, but with the continuous deepening of the criticism of "leftism", there was a momentum of negating the theory and practice of "**", which made *** vigilant.
It was at this time that on December 5, 1972, Wang Ruoshui, editor of the theoretical group of the People's **, wrote a letter to the chairman, expressing his approval of the idea of criticizing the ultra-"leftist" ideological trend, and reflecting to the chairman the opposition of Yao Wenyuan and others to criticizing the "leftist" movement.
However, the chairman held that Wang Ruoshui's letter was not written correctly, and advocated that there should be less criticism of the ultra-"leftist" ideological trend.
The President's attitude has frustrated the Prime Minister's efforts to resist and criticize ultra-"left" ideas and correct "mistakes". The premier had no choice but to keep the tone down and try his best to reduce the negative influence of ultra-"leftist" ideology in his practical work.
In spite of this, the prime minister's life was not easy, especially from July to December 1973, in less than half a year, the chairman criticized the prime minister three times in a row, which objectively emboldened and emboldened the "Gang of Four" to attack the prime minister.
* and others have been vigorously opposed to criticizing the "left", and they have long held a grudge against the prime minister, and they are constantly looking for opportunities to challenge the prime minister.
In particular, after the 10th National Congress of the Party was held in August 1973, Wang Hongwen became the vice chairman of the party, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, and Yao Wenyuan became a member of the Politburo.
In June 1973, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev visited the United States and signed the Soviet-American Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War with the United States.
In this regard, my country issued a briefing note, arguing"This is cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union, deceiving the world, and vainly trying to dominate the world. ”
The Prime Minister agreed, but the President was negative. He talked to Wang Hongwen, ** and others, and pointed out:
Recently, there have been a number of problems that are not very satisfactory, and I often say that there is a great turmoil, a great division, and a great reorganization, and what kind of great deception and great domination has suddenly come, and in terms of ideology and method, we look at the surface and do not look at the substance. ”
Then the chairman told them to take care of *** business and said:
You are not very old, and it is better for you to learn some foreign languages, lest you fall into the trap of those old men and be deceived by them, and you will fall into their thief ships. ”
You have to follow the line, not the person. ”
In the future, I will engage in revisionism, so don't say that I didn't talk about it in advance. ”
He also said, "The conclusion is four sentences: 'Big things are not discussed, but small things are sent every day.'"If this tone is not corrected, it will inevitably be corrected.'" ”
The chairman did not speak directly to the prime minister about these words, but the prime minister listened to others at the meeting.
Ji Dong noticed that the prime minister looked at the minutes of the meeting and his expression was a little confused. However, the prime minister did not react abnormally, and continued to preside over the meeting of the Politburo, conveyed the criticism at the meeting, took the initiative to take responsibility, and made a review.
Let's talk about Wang Ruoshui's letter.
At that time, after reading the letter and other materials, the prime minister instructed other comrades of the ** Politburo to circulate them, and then the letter and materials were handed over to Ji Dong. Ji Dong put them in a special folder with other documents that had been approved by *** and put them on a coffee table at the head of the single bed in the prime minister's office.
At this time, the prime minister had little time to rest, and his bed was full of papers. Ji Dong put the folder in a single place so that it was not easy to mix with other files and was easy to find.
About half a year later, one day, the prime minister called Ji Dong and asked him for Wang Ruoshui's letter and relevant materials.
Ji Dong found that the prime minister's voice and mood were clearly a little wrong. He quickly found the folder and handed it to the Prime Minister.
The prime minister started from the first page, flipped through the pages and saw it quickly. After a few documents were quickly flipped over, the prime minister slammed it on the desk, and it was so strong that even the teacup on the table jumped. Then he threw the document to the ground and said, "Damn, why is it not the extreme 'left', or the extreme 'left'!".”
The voice was not loud, but Ji Dong could hear every word clearly.
Ji Dong saw that the prime minister frowned, held the back of the chair with both hands, and stared out of the window with his eyes.
Ji Dong hurriedly walked over, picked up the documents from the ground, sorted them out, put them on the left side of the prime minister's office, and then quietly retreated.
Ji Dong thought that the reason why the prime minister asked him to find out the documents from half a year ago must be that the "Gang of Four" brought up the old matter, held a grudge against the premier's criticism of "leftism", and took advantage of the chairman's disagreement with the opinion of the briefing to ask for a meeting of the Politburo to "criticize and help" the prime minister, waiting for an opportunity to retaliate.
The prime minister's "national scolding" was the only time Ji Dong heard it during his eight years of working beside him. It can be seen that the anger in the prime minister's heart at that time has reached the point of being uncontrollable, and it is finally vented.
But Ji Dong felt that even though he was extremely angry, the prime minister was still trying to control his emotions and prevent himself from having more emotional swings. It's not easy to be a prime minister!
Ji Dong knew that the premier's "forbearance" was not weakness, but that he had a strong sense of party spirit and awareness of the overall situation. For the sake of the country and the people, he had to "endure";It was the responsibility on his shoulders that made him grit his teeth and persist in the unbearable situation of ordinary people. Without the word "forbearance", how can he afford the "weight" of "forbearance and humiliation"!