The weather is clear, the pale hills of Shaanxi North, Mao Zedong on horseback looks at himself with his coat open and his hat tilts back to reveal a wide forehead. The accompanying guards are smiling and marching freely. Clearly, this is no longer a tense wartime state.
In front of the horses: Wang Zhenhai; Mao Zedong on the left: Shi Guorui; Mao Zedong on the right: Sun Zhenguo; behind Mao Zedong in turn: Yan Changlin (guard platoon), Zhang Tianyi (wearing straw hat) and Jiang Qing. Behind him is Zhou Enlai, who also rode a horse, but did not shoot in, but he could see his guard, King Wang, still alive.
In October 1967, this photo first appeared in People's Illustrated. For a time, it was recognized as the most representative of Mao Zedong's revolutionary achievements.In order to find out where this photograph was taken, Joseph W. Esherick, a prominent American historian, has returned three times since 2012.
Left to right: Zhou Xirui, Shi Yaojiang, Bai Ben Dynasty and Shi Xiaoqing (June 2014)
Mr. Zhou Xirui, accompanied by Professor Shi Yaojiang of Shaanxi Normal University, trekked hard, compared with the documents of the survey, pisha gold, and crocheted hidden, but always had little success. As soon as he was trying to find a writer who studied Mao Zedong's war in North Shaanxi for many years, I also helped him contact Shi Xiaoqing, son of Shi Guorui, Chairman Mao's guard, with the assistance of Mr. Shi Xiaoqing. Shi Xiaoqing, with his father's account in his 90s and his father's old notes, locked this photo on the way to Shenquan Fort in Zhuguanzhai.On August 23, 1947, after the victory of the Battle of Shajiadian, the liberation war shifted from strategic defense to offensive, coupled with Chen Geng's intense offensive in Shaanxi and Yudong, forced Hu Zongnan troops to evacuate from Shaanxi North. This finally gave Mao Zedong and the former Central Committee a chance to breathe, even celebrate, and also allowed the party organization to send a film team to Shaanxi North to take documentary images for the chief.After the battle of Shajiadian, Mao Zedong led the Central Committee to settle in Zhuguanzhai. After 29 days in Zhuguanzhai, he moved to Shenquan fort near Jiaxian county commissioners on September 21st.On the way to Zhangjiaguanzhai, the weather was gloomy and the sunshine in the photo was good. It can be judged that the photograph should have been on the road to Shenquan fort. According to Shi Guorui and Zhangjiazui villagers recalled that Mao Zedong left Zhangjiazui at about 2:30 p.m. on September 23, 1947. The road to Shenquan fort is roughly from north to south, meaning that the sun was right on Mao's right side, which coincided with the light shown in the photo.When Mao Zedong passed through the Baijia canal in 1947, his father was working in a vegetable garden. He did not know that it was Mao, but only knew that he was an important leader who was closely guarded. Although the road had been abandoned, they climbed to the top of the mountain along the way.In order to further compare the evidence, Zhou Xirui rotated the angle of the original photo by 2° clockwise, and at the same time the group photo with Shi Xiaoqing and others in the same place by 1° counterclockwise.The photo was taken on the afternoon of September 23, 1947, by Chen Mo, at the "horseback beam" of Baijiaqu village in Jiaxian County, the exact coordinates are 38°2'44" north latitude and 110°22'16" east longitude.
