ABSTRACT
The secret move of the 1st and 3rd Army Corps from Baxi on September 11, 1935 naturally caused a commotion in the Left Route Army at Aba. Chen Changhao and Xu Xiangquan's telegrams duly arrived to report and protest Mao's secret escape; officers and men of the Fourth Front Army competed with one another in expressing their contempt for the Central Red Army and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Center; in a much cooler manner, Zhang Guotao also expressed anger at Mao for his disobedience to the General Headquarters and for his selfishness in the northern flight. Communist leaders and historians now face a dilemma regarding the Zhuomubao Conference. The temporary truce with Liu Xiang in southwest Sichuan gave Zhang Guotao the illusion that a new military base could be or had already been opened at the Sichuan-Xikang border, where the Fourth Front Army was presently located. Xue Yue led his troops to Chengdu in late November 1935.
