Peng was one of the first public figures singled out for persecution in 1966 by the Cultural Revolution Group. The Party Secretariat attempted to shield Peng, but Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, took a personal interest in persecuting Peng and directed Red Guards in Sichuan to find Peng in Chengdu, arrest him, and deliver him to Beijing to be persecuted. Local Red Guards in Chengdu were not enthusiastic to follow the orders. They visited Peng's house on December 22, 1966 and attempted to intimidate him by informing him of the recent arrests of some of his friends and comrades and the imminent arrests of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. Because of local Red Guards' lack of enthusiasm to carry out Jiang Qing's orders, a more radical Red Guard leader, Wang Dabin, arrived in Chengdu on December 24 and denounced his local comrades as "rightists" and "traitors" for delaying Peng's arrest. The Red Guards then abducted Peng in the early morning of December 25, put him in chains, and ransacked his house. Peng's bodyguards arrived to save Peng at around 4:00 a.m. but were already too late.