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Wuhan Incident (July, 1968)
Wuhan Incident
And in July 1968, a battle involving many soldiers and people occurred in Wuhan. In Wuhan the authority of the Party Committee had already been lost through the downfall of official leaders in January. Consequently the military authority became a core of authority at Wuhan. The Cultural Revolution Authority considered this a plot, and so didn't trust them.
The Cultural Revolution Authority encouraged the people to fight the military authority of Wuhan. The people of Wuhan divided into one group supporting the military authority, called "Million Heroes", and rebels supported by the Cultural Revolution Authority, called "the Wuhan Worker's General Headquarters", and the battle got more and more violent. Party and governmental organisations stopped functioning, and almost all factories stopped their work, dropping the social life into chaos. To deal with such a condition, past officials of Wuhan, Mao, Zhou, and members of the Cultural Revolution Authority came forward. But at the same time past officials and the Cultural Revolution Authority supported "the Wuhan Worker's General Headquarters".
The "Million Heroes" grew angry and feelings exploded on 20 July. The people of the "Million Heroes" and some of the military authorities took one of the past officials, interrogated him and rebuked him sharply. And more than several hundred thousand people marched on the city and criticised the policies of the Cultural Revolution Authority.
Lin Biao and Jiang Qing viewed this as a "completely anti-revolutionary incident", and removed the person who had led the incident and brought him to trial. Soldiers and the people at Wuhan were prosecuted. On the other hand, the honour of "the Wuhan Worker's General Headquarters" was restored, thus increasing the momentum of the Cultural Revolution.
The Aftermath
After this incident, Lin Biao and Jiang Qing stirred all the Chinese people into battle. They took advantage of this incident to advertise a slogan, "Beat the capital roaders in the Military Hierarchy" in the media, and consequently many incidents occurred during which military targets all over China were attacked. Even the police and courts that should have stopped the confusion were criticised for having oppressed the people and were driven into a corner. They no longer had any power to stop the confusion. Besides, an address by Lin Biao made the situation worse, and in a lot of regions, vicious incidents like bank robberies and attacks occurred.
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