Go up the mountain to fight guerrillas.
Under the leadership of Comrade ** and Comrade **, our unit immediately began to explore a new revolutionary road. In early November, we left Dayu County and came to Shangbao, Wenying, and Guting areas west of Chongyi County at the junction of Hunan, Guangdong, and Jiangxi provinces. During the period of the Great Revolution, the peasant movement was upsurged, the influence of the revolution was deep, the mass foundation was better, and it was a continuous mountainous area, which was convenient for the concealed activities of the troops. At this time, the warlords were in full swing, and the warlords of Hunan, Guangdong, and Jiangxi were all involved in this war. Seizing this favorable opportunity, Comrade ** and Comrade ** decided to move the troops into the mountains, mobilize the masses, and launch guerrilla warfare. First of all, we defeated the bandits who occupied the mountain as king, killed people and set fires, and did many evils, and collected the landlords' arms, and took control of this mountainous area. At the same time, the original checkpoints were rectified, some taxes were collected, and the supply of the troops was solved.
In addition to conducting exercises and conducting political and military training, the troops also dispersed their activities in companies and platoons to help the peasants produce and labor, and preached to the masses the revolutionary truth that the Communist Party is for the interests of the poor, that we are fighting for the poor, that there are many poor people, and that the revolution will surely win. Before that, our army only knew how to fight, but now it is also engaged in mass work, and this is a great advance. The activity time in the Chongyi area is not long, about 20 days, and the significance is significant. For the first time, we combined the armed struggle with the peasant movement, although this was still a preliminary attempt.
In early December, we moved to Renhua and got in touch with the Beijiang Special Committee of the Communist Party of China in Guangdong. Here, I learned that our party was going to hold an uprising in Guangzhou, and at the same time received a letter from Comrade **, instructing Comrade ** and Comrade ** to lead troops to Guangzhou on 15 December to participate in the Guangzhou uprising. So, we also traveled south, but as soon as we arrived on the outskirts of Shaoguan, we learned that the Guangzhou uprising had failed.
At this time, the atmosphere in Shaoguan City was very tense, and shops, banks, and money banks closed one after another. The Shaoguan merchant group had seven or eight hundred guns, and they were like a great enemy to prevent us from entering the city. We drove to Xiheba, on the southwestern outskirts of Shaoguan, and planned to live in a Catholic church. But the French priest of the Catholic Church would not let us stay, and "wah-wow-wow" was arguing at us. We don't know foreign languages and can't reason with this priest. When the dispute was over, Comrade ** came over and talked with the priest in person for a while, and the priest was honest. At this time, we learned that Comrade ** was a work-study student studying in France, spoke fluent French, and could be regarded as a great intellectual. However, he was able to share life and death with us, and everyone was even more convinced and admired Comrade **.
The failure of the Canton Uprising further aroused our incomparable hatred of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang. When we were in Xiheba, every day the team gathered to sing the Internationale and shout slogans to defeat the Kuomintang. The failure of the Canton Uprising also further encouraged us to go to the countryside to carry out the revolutionary struggle. Soon after we were stationed at Xiheba, Comrade ** and Comrade ** led us to move to the plough shop about 60 miles northwest of Shaoguan. This is a rural market town, and it is easier to work in this area. We recuperate during the day, conserve strength, and train troops;At night, they were still scattered to the countryside in companies and platoons, propagandizing the masses, mobilizing the masses, and starting to fight local tyrants. At this time, the troops also sheltered some comrades who had fled to this area after the failure of the Canton Uprising. Our ranks began to expand somewhat, and our ideology, mood, and class consciousness continued to grow.
Comrade ** attaches great importance to the practice of this period of struggle. He once recalled: "In the past, when I was a revolutionary, I only knew how to carry out uprisings in the cities, and then I realized that I could still go up to the mountains to fight guerrillas. He added: "At that time, the policy of *** did not want to fight guerrillas, but to engage in urban uprisings. "We didn't know how to go up the mountain, so we started to go up the mountain for a month, and we felt that there was a way out of the mountain. "The Nanchang Uprising opened up a new era in which our party independently led the revolutionary war, but at that time there was still a lack of practical experience and the need to combine armed struggle with peasant movement. It was in the practice of the struggle to advance westward after the defeat of the uprising that Comrade ** constantly explored a new revolutionary road, thus leading us to begin to realize the major strategic transformation from the cities to the countryside and from regular warfare to guerrilla warfare.
During this period, we were able to obtain a temporarily stable environment after a long period of war, to reorganize our troops, and to carry out mass work in the rural areas, which was inseparable from the fact that comrades took advantage of the contradictions within the enemy camp and correctly applied revolutionary tactics in light of the actual situation at that time. At that time, stationed near our unit was the 16th Army of Fan Shisheng of the Dian Army. Fan Shisheng was a classmate of Comrade ** in the Yunnan Jiangwutang, and he had contradictions with the warlords of the Chiang and Gui factions, and was especially excluded by the warlords of the Chiang faction. ** Comrades analyzed this situation and held that although the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had broken down nationwide, it was still possible to carry out short-term "cooperation" with Fan Shisheng under specific circumstances.
Therefore, Comrade ** took advantage of his old relationship and reached an agreement with Fan Shisheng under the condition that he accepted the principle of "the establishment and organization of the troops will not move, and they will leave at any time if they want to." We changed our name to the 14O Regiment of the 47th Division of the 16th Army, and Comrade ** (still known as Wang Kai) served as the deputy commander of the 47th Division and the commander of the 14O Regiment. We obtained a batch of foreign and military supplies from Fan Shisheng, replenished the troops, and solved the difficulties in supplying ammunition, winter clothes, and bedding at that time.
At the beginning of January 1928, Chiang Kai-shek discovered that our insurrectionary troops were hidden in Fan Shisheng's department, and ordered Fang Dingying to lead his troops from Hunan to northern Guangdong, planning to garrison Shaoguan with four regiments and four regiments to stay at Lechang, north of Liputou, so as to form a north-south attack on us. And ask Fan Shisheng to disarm us and arrest Comrade **. Fan Shisheng immediately and secretly informed Comrade **. We were prepared for such a situation. Under the leadership of Comrade **, the troops immediately set out overnight, crossed Wushui from a place more than ten miles south of Lechang, and marched to Hunan to create a greater situation of rural revolution.
Shonan Uprising. After nearly four months of arduous struggle in Chaoshan, Comrade ** and Comrade ** led the rebel army to fully realize that the Kuomintang has incorrigibly become a loyal instrument of the imperialist and feudal forces and has been completely transformed into a fierce enemy of the democratic revolution, and thus cannot but give up all hope of cooperating with the KuomintangOn the other hand, we have begun to explore new revolutionary ways to go to the mountains to fight guerrillas and carry out the rural revolution. Through positive and negative experiences, we finally decided to throw away the banner of the national revolution, and then raise the red flag of the workers' and peasants' revolution to wage an armed struggle against the Kuomintang for the seizure of power. On or about January 20, 1928, Comrade ** led us to march to the border of Yizhang County in southern Hunan, where the red flag was officially waved and a vigorous southern Hunan uprising was held.
Shonan was an area where the peasant movement flourished during the First Civil Revolutionary War, and after Chiang Kai-shek's "April 12" rebellion and revolution, the White Terror enveloped Shonan. However, the party and people of southern Shonan stubbornly and tactfully persisted in the secret struggle. When warlord fighting broke out in the winter of 1927, they seized the opportunity to restore the party and revolutionary mass organizations in various localities and establish the Red Guards. The Nanchang Uprising, the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the Guangzhou Uprising, and especially the news that Comrade *** led the troops of the Autumn Harvest Uprising to Jinggangshan gave great encouragement to the party and people in southern Hunan, and the revolutionary enthusiasm was even higher.
At the time of the ploughing, Comrade ** and Comrade ** had already begun to select areas with better political, topographical, and mass conditions in order to launch and advance the rural revolution. After the troops entered Yizhang County and got in touch with the Xiangnan Special Committee and the Yizhang County Party Committee, they made a comprehensive analysis of the situation in Xiangnan and decided to hold an uprising in Xiangnan.
At noon on January 22, 1928, the day before the Lunar New Year Pass, our troops, under the banner of the Kuomintang army and in the name of Hu Shaohai, smoothly marched into Yizhang County and immediately took control of the whole city under the unsuspecting condition of the enemy.
It turned out that Comrade Hu Shaohai was born in a powerful big landlord family in Yizhang City, and he was an intellectual, dissatisfied with the status quo, betrayed the landlord family, and participated in the revolution, but his identity was not revealed. As soon as our army entered the city, people talked about it that this army was led by Hu Shaohai, the son of the city's great gentry, and Hu Shaohai became the regiment commander in the 16th Kuomintang Army. On the night when we were stationed in the county seat, the Kuomintang Yizhang County and the landlords and gentry held a banquet to welcome the officers of our army. Soon after the banquet began, my comrades attending the banquet quickly arrested the enemy county government and the gentry according to the predetermined plan, and announced: We are an army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and Yizhang has been liberated.
At the same time, the reactionary groups inside and outside the county yamen were also disarmed by our army. Then, we smashed open the prison and released the Communists and revolutionariesThe granaries and storehouses of the landlords and gentry were opened, and grain and goods were distributed to the urban poor and poor peasants. In the jubilation of the military and civilians of the whole city, the Kuomintang blue sky and white sun flag in front of the puppet county ** gate was torn down, marking the red flag of the workers' and peasants' revolution raised high. Our troops also officially unfurled the red military flag of the "First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army," and all the commanders and fighters tore off the Kuomintang cockades from their military caps, and each of them wore red belts around their necks. The commander of the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army is Comrade **, the party representative is Comrade **, and the chief of staff is Comrade Wang Erzhuo. At the same time, a part of the peasants who participated in the uprising formed the Yizhang Peasant Army.
The victory of the Yizhang Nianguan Rebellion shook the reactionary rule in southern Hunan and northern Guangdong. Chiang Kai-shek panicked and hurriedly sent Xu Kexiang with five regiments of men and horses from Shaoguan, Guangdong, straight to Yizhang, in a vain attempt to extinguish the revolutionary fire that had just ignited in the Yizhang uprising.
When it comes to Xu Kexiang, the executioner whose hands were stained with the blood of the Hunan people in the "Ma-Ri Incident," the vast number of soldiers and civilians all grit their teeth and hate him bitterly, and are filled with righteous indignation. Now that he's here again, it's really an enemy to see each other, and he's very red-eyed. Faced with an enemy army with superiority, what kind of tactics should be used to fight it?Based on the experience and experience of the battles since the Nanchang Uprising, comrades believe that it is necessary to fight guerrilla warfare and movement warfare instead of opening up a position to fight a tough battle. Therefore, Comrade ** commanded the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army and the Yizhang Peasant Army, resolutely withdrew from Yizhang County, and secretly assembled in the mountains around Huangsha Fort, Fence Fort, and Shenggong Altar in the southwest of Yizhang City. Xu Kexiang's troops immediately occupied Yizhang and chased them out of the city, in a vain attempt to destroy us. The next day, on the way to transfer, our army encountered Xu Kexiang's vanguard in the area of Yanquan and Liyuan. With the cooperation of the peasant army, we quickly seized the advantageous terrain and launched a fierce attack on the enemy in motion.
At that time, although our troops were still less than 1,000 people, they were the essence of the Nanchang Uprising, and their combat effectiveness was very strong. A charge disrupted the enemy, annihilated one of them, and the remaining enemy fled in confusion, and our army pursued the victory until it reached Bangshi Town, where Xu Kexiang's headquarters was located. At this time, the enemy had become frightened birds, scrambling for their lives, and our army soon crushed all five enemy regiments. Xu Kexiang didn't even have time to eat the food on the table, so he threw away the sedan chair, threw away the fur coat, and escaped the dog's life with a few horses. Bang Stone Town is littered with ** ammunition and munitions discarded by enemy troops. In this battle, we captured a mountain gun, many mortars, a large number of rifles and machine guns, and more than 200 loads of ammunition. After defeating Xu Kexiang, we reoccupied Yizhang County. This was the first time that our army changed its combat methods after the defeat in Chaoshan, achieved major successes, and created an excellent example of winning more with less.
After the victory of the Yizhang uprising, the workers' and peasants' revolutionary regime was established. This is another development of great significance in the transition of our insurrectionary forces into the rural struggle. At the end of January, Yizhang County held a grand meeting of workers, peasants and soldiers, and officially established the county workers, peasants and soldiers. The workers' and peasants' and soldiers' political regimes in various districts and townships were also established one after another, and at this time, the Yizhang Peasant Army had been officially reorganized into the Third Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, with Comrade Hu Shaohai (who later died in western Fujian) as the division commander. Mass organizations such as trade unions, peasant associations, women's unions, student unions, and children's leagues have also been established. The early red regime already had a certain scale. At the same time, the slogan of "fighting local tyrants and dividing the land" was also put forward here. Although due to time constraints, there was no time to formulate and promulgate the land law and formally launch the agrarian revolution, under the leadership of the party and the workers, peasants, and soldiers at all levels, the struggle against local tyrants began. The broad masses of the people enthusiastically joined the army, and as soon as we went out in a squad, we brought back a long column of new soldiers. The revolution in Yizhang County entered a climax.
The victory of the Yizhang Uprising opened the prelude to the Shonan Uprising. The victory of the Bangshi battle caused a sensation throughout Hunan. After the end of the Lunar New Year, the masses of workers and peasants in other counties in southern Hunan rose up one after another under the leadership of the party, and the flames of armed uprising became more and more vigorous. In order to support the uprisings in various places, Comrade ** led the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to the north and advanced to Chenzhou first. We encountered two battalions of Zhou Nan (division commander) of the enemy He Jian's descendant Zhou Nan (division commander) at Huangni'ao, and we broke them down and occupied the city of Chenzhou. The military victory gave further impetus to the struggle for the seizure of power, and at this time we could liberate a county town with the support of a platoon and the support of the local party and peasant armies.
In less than half a month, Yongxing, Leiyang, Zixing and other county towns were liberated successively, workers' and peasants' soldiers were established, the Red Guards, the Self-Defense Army and revolutionary mass organizations were established, and on this basis, the Seventh Division, the Fourth Division and several independent regiments of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were formed. Under the influence of the victory of the struggle in the above-mentioned five counties, the flames of the uprising quickly burned in most areas of Guiyang, Anren, Changning, Guidong, Rucheng, Hengyang and other counties, as well as some areas of Chaling, Youxian, Yuxian, Linwu, Jiahe and other counties.
The Shonan Uprising, initiated and led by Comrade *, was one of the glorious examples of the armed uprising of the peasants led by our Party. Under the historical conditions of that time, it correctly guided the broad masses of peasants in southern Hunan to embark on the road of armed seizure of political power and opened up a new situation of the revolution.