Since taking leadership of the CPC in the mid-1930s, Mao Zedong excelled in his role, implementing strategies like the ‘United Front’ with Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japanese imperialism. Despite criticism from all sides, Mao rose as the definitive communist leader.

"a land of the blind, where a one-eyed man was made king."

On May 30, 1941, news of the NRA's defeat at Zhongtiao Mountain led Mao to lose his temper for the first time in a decade. The worsening KMT-CPC relations and the 8th Route Army’s refusal to aid in defending the Yellow River deepened his distress. Mao’s frustration was evident in his outburst: “Terrible! Impossible! Inconsolable! Is this how we are brought to heel? Have we truly become backward people?”

Unable to control his outburst, Mao cursed Chiang for his lack of success and failure to provide China with military superiority. The Soviet defeat in the Soviet-German War, just a month later, made the future of the Chinese Revolution increasingly bleak. Mao's eyes lost their shine of hope, dimming with approaching dread. The day the remaining United Front coalition government was forced to sign the Treaty of Chongqing with Japan remains the darkest day of Mao's life.

In the 1950s, Mao's impatience with rural economic plans for the rural outskirts under the NNDF's control, driven by a sense that Free China's remaining soil would perish, led to the disastrous "Great Leap Forward," causing significant damage and eroding his prestige. Thus began the 'Long Slumber,' with red flags rolled up and China's battle hymn fading to murmurs. Mao watched as his men licked their wounds. Isolated and troubled, Mao watched as his men licked their wounds. Isolated and troubled, Mao orchestrated from hiding, seeing China’s fragmentation and distant reunification. A tear fell as he wrote a Tang Dynasty poem. "When dark clouds appeared in the sky, we pointed out that they were only temporary, that the darkness would soon pass, and the sun would break through."