Nixon was unhappy when he saw the "Down with American Imperialism" propaganda poster during his visit to China, but Chairman Mao resolved the embarrassment with three words

In 1969, China's national strength was slightly inferior to that of the United States and the Soviet Union. Chairman Mao said to Premier Zhou: "With the two hegemons of the United States and the Soviet Union, we must always strive for one hegemony and cannot fight on both sides."

So, Chairman Mao gave an order: 68-year-old Chen Yi and Xu Xiangqian, 70-year-old Nie Rongzhen, 72-year-old Ye Jianying, the four veterans worked non-stop, immediately entered the role, and studied and discussed day and night: The international situation and strategy issues, especially China’s strategic orientation toward the United States and the Soviet Union.

After six meetings and 19 hours of discussion, a written opinion "Preliminary Estimate of the War Situation" was formed and reported to Mao Zedong and the Party Central Committee.

The final conclusion of this material is: Strategically, the US card can be played.

The reason why Chairman Mao assigned this special task was that since 1960, Sino-Soviet relations broke down, and the Soviet army continued to create friction and provocations on the Sino-Soviet border. At the same time, while the US military was invading Vietnam, it often took sidesteps and invaded our country's territorial waters and airspace.

Being attacked from both sides, the national security situation has reached the most serious level since the founding of New China.

Especially from January 1967 to February 1969, the situation on the Sino-Soviet border worsened, and the Soviet army invaded Zhenbao Island 16 times.

When Chairman Mao heard the news, he took action: "A small group of war maniacs dare to attack China's strategic base. That is war, that is aggression. The Chinese people will rise up to fight and will use revolutionary war to eliminate aggression. War! "

In March 1969, the Chinese and Soviet armies fought fiercely on Zhenbao Island. The Chinese army destroyed 17 invading Soviet tanks and armored vehicles, killed 58 Soviet soldiers, and injured 94 Soviet soldiers.

Brezhnev was so angry that he deployed 54 divisions with 1.14 million troops on the Sino-Soviet border. He stationed 200,000 troops in Mongolia. He was also equipped with more than 50 long-range bombers and 400 medium bombers that could carry hydrogen bombs.

The Soviet Union was ready and ready to try.

On August 20, 1969, Soviet Ambassador to the United States Dobrynin met with Kissinger and informed him that Soviet Marshal Grechko was preparing to carry out a "surgical nuclear strike" against China to eliminate it once and for all. China threatens.

U.S. President Richard Nixon believed that the existence of a strong China was in line with the strategic interests of the West and that the Soviet conspiracy could not succeed, so he decided to disclose this Soviet intelligence to China.

However, China and the United States have been at odds with each other for 30 years and have deep grievances. China and the United States have no diplomatic relations. Nixon is worried that China may not believe this information if he directly submits this information to China.

After careful consideration, the United States decided to let an obscure American newspaper, the "Washington Star," reveal this information and reveal the Soviet Union's "surgical nuclear strike" plan, focusing on China. Changchun, Anshan, Jiuquan, Xichang and other important locations.

When the intelligence was released, the whole world was in an uproar, and everyone accused the Soviet Union of having such a bad plan.

Brezhnev angrily cursed: Americans are not trustworthy! Americans betrayed us!

Faced with the threat from the Soviet Union, Chairman Mao proposed a nationwide war preparation campaign of "digging holes deeply and accumulating grain widely."

At the same time, Chairman Mao also proposed a famous strategic policy: If the Soviet Union dares to use nuclear weapons against China, the Chinese army will rush into the Soviet Union. All Chinese people will immigrate to the Soviet Union, fight guerrillas in the Soviet Union, and settle down in the Soviet Union.

Chairman Mao also explained: China’s living environment has been destroyed and life is difficult to live by. The Soviet Union is vast, sparsely populated and rich in resources, so it is necessary for the Chinese people to move.

Brezhnev was frightened and did not dare to act rashly for a while.

After Chairman Mao issued the call to "prepare for war" and seeing that the National Day was approaching, Premier Zhou reported: "The four veterans, Ye Jianying, Chen Yi, Xu Xiangqian and Nie Rongzhen, are worried about a Soviet sneak attack on the National Day. This year Should we hold a National Day rally? ”

Chairman Mao laughed heartily: “Why not? Are you afraid of others? I just want to open my eyes and see how powerful the atomic bomb is. ”

The Prime Minister was still uneasy and somewhat hesitant. < /p>

As a result, on September 28 and 29, 1969, our country’s two atomic bombs were successfully exploded in Luobumi.

The Soviet monitoring satellite received a signal and speculated that China's nuclear test was a test method before war.

Chairman Mao’s decision frightened Brezhnev out of fear, and he began to stop talking about launching a nuclear attack on China.

Chairman Mao, who has always been aware of the global situation, keenly captured the Americans' proactive overtures to China through this incident.

Although the United States has always been China’s biggest enemy since the founding of New China, and can even be said to be an irresponsible enemy, countries are different from individuals, and there are no permanent friends between countries. There are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. Since the United States showed goodwill, Chairman Mao believed: We can explore the possibility of China and the United States joining forces to fight against the Soviet Union.

Chairman Mao directly named Chen Yi, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, and Ye Jianying to conduct detailed research on China's strategic orientation towards the Soviet Union and the United States.

The four veterans lived up to expectations and quickly came to the conclusion: China can strategically play the American card.

Ye Jianying also used historical stories to make a vivid analogy: China, the United States and the Soviet Union are equivalent to the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu. China should learn from Zhuge Liang's strategic policy of "alliance with Sun Wu in the east and reject Cao Wei in the north". United States against the Soviet Union.

In August 1970, Edgar Snow, an old friend of the Communist Party of China, visited China. Chairman Mao thought this was a good opportunity to repay Nixon, so he invited Snow to climb the Tiananmen Rostrum on National Day. , the two stood side by side reviewing the National Day parade.

On China’s National Day, Americans are invited to stand on the Tiananmen Rostrum, something that was unimaginable before.

Snow asked: "Chinese leaders never do purposeless things in public. Why is that?"

Chairman Mao said: "I will first put out a test balloon and touch it. The sensory nerve of the United States."

Premier Zhou carefully arranged the photos to only retain Chairman Mao, Mr. and Mrs. Snow, and the translator, while the others were processed technically.

This photo was published on the front page of "People's Daily". It is obvious that China is sending a subtle and meaningful message to the United States.

Surprisingly, this important photo was ignored by Kissinger. Kissinger later wrote in his memoirs: "Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou overestimated our ability to observe things keenly. "Gao, the information they conveyed was so oblique that we careless Westerners did not understand the true meaning of it."

In March 1971, another opportunity came, the 31st World Congress. The table tennis match will be held in Nagoya, Japan. China and Japan have not established diplomatic relations. For security reasons, the Chinese table tennis team delegation is not prepared to participate.

Premier Zhou believed it was necessary to participate and asked Chairman Mao for instructions. Chairman Mao instructed: "Our team should go, even if there are dead people. We must not be afraid of hardship and death."

The Chinese delegation’s attitude of “friendship first, competition second” left a deep impression on athletes from other countries, and they began to compete with Chinese athletes on their skills.

One day, American athlete Glenn Cohen missed the bus and got into the car of a Chinese athlete. Chinese athlete Zhuang Zedong had a warm conversation with him, took photos with him, and exchanged gifts.

Cohen said: If the Chinese delegation invites him, he will visit China.

Zhuang Zedong agreed to ask his superiors for instructions.

Chairman Mao decided to: formally send an invitation to the American table tennis delegation.

On April 10, 1971, the American table tennis delegation came to Beijing for a week-long visit.

The U.S. table tennis delegation received a high-level reception from China and was reported by major media around the world.

Nixon received and accurately understood the signal sent by Chairman Mao this time. He was extremely excited and was about to send an ambassador to France to contact the Chinese ambassador to France. However, Hillary, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, lost no time in giving He brought a message from Premier Zhou.

Premier Zhou said: "There is no need to go around Paris. The Chinese government is willing to openly receive the special envoy of the US President in Beijing."

Nixon was afraid of causing unnecessary trouble and sent Kissinger to South Vietnam. , Thailand, India, and Pakistan for a ten-day visit.

In fact, this was all a cover-up. Kissinger secretly boarded a plane in Pakistan and flew to Beijing on July 9.

Kissinger stayed in Beijing for 48 hours and had 17 hours of secret talks with Premier Zhou, focusing on important matters regarding Nixon's visit to China.

Nixon made full preparations for this visit to China, reading a large number of Chairman Mao's poems unexpectedly, and even practiced hard on how to use chopsticks to eat.

On February 21, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon and his wife successfully arrived at Beijing Airport on the "Air Force One" special plane developed by Boeing Company.

At that time, when meeting foreign heads of state, our country always sent an honor guard of 155 people, but this time there were as many as 360 people. Moreover, Premier Zhou was already standing at the airport waiting.

When Nixon got off the plane and saw this scene, he was very happy and excitedly held Premier Zhou's hand and refused to let go.

Premier Zhou said wittily: "Mr. President, your hand has stretched across the vastest Pacific Ocean, and welcomes you."

Later, Nixon and Premier Zhou took the same bus A "Hongqi" brand car arrived at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

When Nixon entered the room to rest, he saw a propaganda poster on the wall that said "Down with American imperialism!"

Nixon thought, this is intentional, he is angry. He was so angry that he didn't rest at all, and wanted to find out more about Chairman Mao.

According to convention, Chairman Mao usually receives foreign heads of state the day before they return to China. Out of the importance of Sino-US relations, Chairman Mao decided to meet with Nixon at 3 p.m. that day.

Nixon was still unhappy about the promotional posters on the hotel walls. After shaking hands with Chairman Mao, the disgruntled Nixon took the lead and asked Chairman Mao: "Mr. Chairman, may I ask about the walls of your hotel?" Why are there slogans that say "knock us down" on the street? Is it because they hate us so much?"

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere immediately became tense. No one expected that the conversation between the two heads of state would actually happen. Start with a question.

Premier Zhou personally arranged all the entertainment matters for Nixon, but he did not expect such mistakes to occur. Premier Zhou looked at Chairman Mao and felt deeply guilty.

Unexpectedly, Chairman Mao burst out laughing, and then calmly said three words to Nixon: "Lay off cannon"!

"Air cannon"? Nixon was puzzled after hearing this. He didn't understand what firing cannons meant.

Premier Zhou instantly understood Chairman Mao’s intention and immediately added: “What the Chairman means is that just like you shout every day to eliminate socialism, we also shout every day to knock down U.S. imperialism. There is no action, this is a cannon fire.”

Nixon also laughed after hearing this. He did not expect Chairman Mao to be so humorous.

In order to avoid embarrassment as much as possible, Chairman Mao and Nixon first talked about philosophy. Every word and deed showed Chairman Mao's extremely high political wisdom.

Compared with Chairman Mao's ease and ease, Nixon completely lacked the talkativeness that dominated American politics. Instead, he was constantly excited by Chairman Mao's humor and was speechless. He tried his best to stay calm. , but always fall behind inadvertently.

According to Chairman Mao’s physical condition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs arranged the time for this conversation to be about 15 minutes in advance.

However, for the sake of the overall situation of Sino-US relations and the future of New China, Chairman Mao still gritted his teeth and insisted on having a 65-minute exchange with Nixon.

Chairman Mao conquered Nixon with his wisdom, astuteness, humor and philosophical thinking, allowing Nixon to see a unique Chinese leader.

During Nixon’s visit to China, he carefully prepared three gifts:

First, two American fir trees

One of them had just arrived in China and was withered by insects. , another one is cultivated in Hangzhou and has been growing vigorously.

The second is a pair of musk oxen

The musk oxen were sent to the Beijing Zoo for breeding. Due to the acclimatization, one died of illness in 1975 and the other lived until 1980.

The third is the detailed longitude and latitude map of the sinking of Japan's "Awa Maru" and the list of treasures on board.

The contents on the list are jaw-dropping: 40 tons of gold, 12 tons of silver, 40 boxes of cultural relics and works of art, 150,000 carats of diamonds, 10,000 tons of rubber, as well as tin ingots, rice and 2,009 corpses.

The Awa Maru is more than 150 meters long, more than 20 meters wide, 12.6 meters deep, and has a total tonnage of about 11,250 tons.

When the Awa returned from Indonesia, 2,009 Japanese military and political dignitaries stationed in Southeast Asia, diplomatic officers and military family members boarded the ship carrying nearly 10,000 tons of belongings.

On April 1, 1945, the Awa Maru sailed to the Niushan waters of the Taiwan Strait and was sunk by the US military with 4 torpedoes.

From 1977 to 1980, more than 600 Chinese divers made 3,600 dives in three years. 5,418 tons of materials were salvaged, worth more than 50 million yuan, and 368 Japanese remains were recovered.

Nixon also gave Chairman Mao four personal gifts: a porcelain swan, a crystal glass vase, Nixon's business card and a goblet.

The porcelain swan

was fired by the Bohm Ceramic Art Center in New Jersey, USA. It is very beautiful. Unfortunately, during transportation, the fifth feather of the swan was broken. It was attached well with glue, but the flaws were obvious.

Nixon awkwardly apologized to Chairman Mao.

Chairman Mao resolved Nixon's embarrassment with a double entendre: "Didn't you also pick up the relationship between China and the United States?"

Chairman Mao would naturally not be disrespectful. I want to reciprocate the gift and give back 4 taels of "Big Red Robe" to Nixon.

Nicoson weighed four taels of tea and felt it was too little. He thought that Chairman Mao was looking down on him. He felt uncomfortable and looked strange.

Premier Zhou saw that Nixon was unhappy and explained: "This is not enough for you. This is half of the country given to you by Chairman Mao."

Nixon was puzzled. 4 How can two taels of tea be linked to half of the country?

Premier Zhou knew that Nicoson could not understand, so he continued to explain: There are only 3 Dahongpao mother trees, and the output is extremely limited. Chairman Mao only has 8 taels. I will give you 4 taels with just one word. Isn’t that half of the country? .

Rare things are more valuable, so Nixon suddenly had the idea and collected 4 taels of tea.

Before leaving, Nixon asked Chairman Mao for calligraphy. Chairman Mao readily agreed and wrote 12 words with a splash of ink:

The old man is sitting on the board, Chang'e is flying to the moon, and he is watching the flowers. .

Seeing these 12 words, Nixon was as confused as seeing flowers in a fog.

No one in the entourage could understand its meaning. Experts from the CIA had studied it carefully but could not figure out the mystery.

Until nearly half a century, there was no definite conclusion about the meaning of this word.

Compared with Chairman Mao’s previous solemn, majestic and majestic poems, these 12 words are really not ordinary mysterious and profound, but "mysterious and mysterious, the door to all mysteries".

Chairman Mao never explained the true meaning of these 12 characters. These 12 characters have become an unsolved mystery. There have been different opinions for a long time. He has written and published "The Biography of Mao Zedong" and "The Second Half of Mao Zedong's Life". Ross Terrill, an American who wrote the book, gave this explanation:

"Old Man Sitting on a Stool" is about an old man sitting on a stool, which is a metaphor that the old man refers to the United States and is looking at the whole world arrogantly. , but little do they know that the world is already changing quietly, and the US imperialism can no longer keep up with the situation, and is suspected of sitting in a well and looking at the sky.

"Chang'e flies to the moon" is an ancient legend. It tells the story of a woman who became an immortal and flew to the moon. It is a metaphor for the artificial satellite "Dongfanghong No. 1" launched by China, which shows China's scientific and technological strength. powerful.

The original meaning of "taking a quick look at things" is to take a cursory glance at things. Mao Zedong used this idiom to imply that Nixon's visit to China was very brief, just like taking a quick look at things.

Ross Trier’s explanation of these 12 words seems very reasonable, but it is always a bit far-fetched upon careful analysis.

So, what is the true connotation of the 12 words Chairman Mao gave to Nixon?

The author believes:

The "old man" in "the old man sitting on the stool" does not refer to Nixon, but to Chairman Mao himself.

First of all, when Chairman Mao met with Nixon, Chairman Mao was 79 years old, so calling himself an "old man" was in line with his age profile, while Nixon was 59 years old and not suitable to be called an "old man."

Secondly, when Nixon visited China, the international situation was turbulent and the world was very unstable. Chairman Mao used "old man sitting on a stool" to show that he was sitting on the stool, watching the clouds rolling and relaxing, and listening to the flowers. The flowers bloom and fall, no matter how the tide rises and falls, no matter the wind blows or the waves hit, I remain unmoved.

This is the Chairman Mao we are familiar with. He is self-esteem and self-confidence, calm and calm, arrogant and extraordinary in bearing.

Chairman Mao quoted the allusion "Chang'e flies to the moon", firstly to affirm the American Apollo 11 moon landing, and secondly to tell Nixon that China has had moon landings in ancient times. In the near future, The Chinese will definitely be able to land on the moon.

Sincerely proud, full of self-confidence, humorous yet romantic, this is the Chairman Mao we admire.

Chairman San Mao quoted the idiom "watching the flowers on horseback", which actually meant to tell Nixon:

He came in a hurry and left in a hurry, without truly understanding China, China and the United States. Only through long-term and in-depth contact, mutual understanding, and mutual respect can the two countries establish a stable, harmonious, and win-win relationship.

This was a signal from Chairman Mao to Nixon: Sino-US relations should be further developed.

In the 1970s, Chairman Mao attached great importance to Sino-US relations and hoped that China and the United States could establish good diplomatic relations. This was an important strategic decision made by Chairman Mao under the historical background of that time.

Chairman Mao's 12 words "The old man sat on the stool, Chang'e flew to the moon, and walked around watching the flowers" reflect Chairman Mao's broad mind, rich experience and profound education, and there is no lack of the poet's free and easy romance between the lines. , the talents and strategies of politicians, and the majesty of leaders of great powers.