Chapter 37 Memories of activities in Midong Soviet Area

From October 1933 to January 1934, in the Midongsu District (several villages in the eastern part of Mizhi County), a vigorous struggle was carried out to combat the rural local tyrants, evil gentry and bullies, and to destroy the authority and power of the old ruling regime, and repeated public riots , thus shaking the ruling foundation of the reactionaries and arousing the infinite revolutionary enthusiasm of the peasants. Comrade Ma Mingfang directly led us to do these things on behalf of the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee. It started like this. In early October of the ancient calendar in 1933, I heard people say that Guo Hongtao had returned from prison in Shanxi. People in front of and behind the village went to see him, and I also went to his house to see him.At his house, everyone said a few common words, and he talked to us endlessly.He said that there is now a Red Army of Workers and Peasants under the leadership of Mao Zedong and Zhu De in the Jiangxi Soviet Area.The illiterate peasants who turned over were elected by everyone as the chairman of the county Soviet to discipline the local tyrants and evil gentry, preside over lawsuits among them, and manage state affairs.Women and children have been liberated, and like men and adults, they have risen to make revolutions, punish local tyrants and evil gentry, and punish powerful bullies. This has completely become the world of our peasants, poor people, and ordinary people.When you go back, try to contact as many people as possible. We have contacted a lot of people, and we will also rise up for the revolution.He came back to live for a few days, but he didn't know where he went.

After hearing these words, my ideological struggle was very intense.There are seven people in my family who eat, and I am the only labor force and person involved. What should I do?At home, the government asks my family for more than three yuan a month, and each bucket of wheat only sells a few cents of Baiyang. The whole family can only collect two stones of wheat a year. Not enough to pay half of the official.If I can't pay the official donation in full, I will go to jail; if I resist and refuse to pay the official, I won't be able to stay here any longer.Regardless of the outcome, there is no good end.Compared with going out to make a revolution, of course going out to make a revolution is ten thousand times better than this.So I made the greatest determination, risked my life, went out resolutely, fought desperately to make revolution, and never became a bull, horse or slave in the enemy's prison.In addition, I joined the Communist Youth League in Taozhen High School since I was a child (1927), dropped out of school due to the disaster and returned home, and persisted in the Communist Youth League activities in the countryside for two years. After 1930, the Mizhi County Committee was destroyed by the enemy and stopped its activities. In 1933, he joined the Communist Party.So I am very motivated to join the revolution.At that time, Comrade Ma Mingfang was directly under the leadership. Ai Chunan told me that I should develop Communist Party members. From now on, I will be in charge of the village, try my best to carry out liaison activities, organize the establishment of branches, and actively expand the revolutionary forces.After I went back, I was so happy that I couldn’t even sleep. I spent day and night thinking about how to promote, contact, and introduce the party to the poorest, most reliable, honest, most secretive, and most practical farmers in my village; Those who love and sympathize with the revolution and those who can keep secrets will propagate and ask them to join revolutionary mass organizations.Because of this kind of relationship with relatives, classmates with classmates, in less than two months, seven or eight core party organizations were established, and there will be more and more in the future.Comrade Ma Mingfang often visits these bases to conduct inspections, encourage education, raise their awareness, and inspire their enthusiasm.Later, he believed that the consciousness of the masses had risen, and the peasants could be organized to carry out open riots.For the first time, in Sanggouzi Village, a place more than ten miles away from our village, a group of elite special agents were first sent under the banner of the Red Army to publicly confiscate a large amount of goods belonging to a big bully landlord, and some general property was distributed to For the local people, some high-value property was reserved as a fund for revolutionary activities.

This first event attracted great attention from the officials: "Why is it strange that the Red Army is here?"So they did everything possible to solve this "big case of the Red Army". The Kuomintang barracks in Mizhi City specially dispatched two soldiers, pretending to be deserters, to come out for reconnaissance. One soldier was named Ai Suo, who lived at his sister’s house in our village. He lived at his sister's house in my village, and after they smoked enough opium, they came out to show their prestige in the village.At this time, Comrade Ma Mingfang was discovered by them. They believed that Ma Mingfang was a member of the Red Army and the Communist Party, so they publicly criticized him.According to this situation, Comrade Ma Mingfang immediately convened a branch meeting, personally mobilized and arranged, and asked us to gather all the people in the village, bring iron milling heads, and surround them. In less than two hours, these two scourges were eliminated. buried.If they were let go, the lives of the whole village would be lost.

As a result, the people in our villages openly followed the Red Army, which caused a catastrophe for the people in our villages.A large number of white troops were soon dispatched from Mizhi City to wipe out the people in several of our villages, leaving no blade of grass behind.But before they came, people from several villages ran away, and they didn't catch anyone after they came, and it was completely peaceful after a month.Not long after, in order to further expand the territory of the Soviet area, the special committee held a large public rally in Tao Town, held a huge riot and demonstration, and publicly arrested two counter-revolutionaries who committed the most crimes at the big rally. One was Li from the main street of Tao Town. One was Li from Deng Qinfeng Village, more than ten miles away from Tao Town. He was dragged to Shuangmiao, Tao Town and killed. He also arrested two sons of two big landlords at a big rally and asked them to pay a high price. Redeem people to raise money for the revolution.

In order to solve this earth-shattering case of the Red Army, the enemies in Jizhen used their relatives to send people to conduct reconnaissance. One was Feng Mou (my aunt and brother-in-law) from Fengjiagou Village who came to live in my house for reconnaissance, and the other was Feng Jiacha. Mr. Gao from the village lived in a relative's house in Geta Village to conduct reconnaissance.Before the arrival of these two detectives, the underground party in Jizhen sent us chicken feather letters, telling us that these two were detectives sent by the enemy, so we made preparations.When they arrived at the village, let them smoke and eat first, and stabilize them.The two of them had just finished their meal when our special agent team, which had been prepared for a long time, suddenly appeared, dragged them to a ravine, killed them and buried them.

This has awakened the hearts of the entire Midong district.Wealthy landlords and local tyrants.I searched everywhere for people who knew the way of the Red Army, and they all said that they really voluntarily donated money to the Red Army. They only hoped that their family would not be in danger or disaster, and they absolutely guaranteed not to ventilate to the Kuomintang. As a guarantee. At this time, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee arranged again to mobilize 800 Red Guards to attack Dazhaizi, a landlord in Puniugou Village, Jia County. Because the enemy's defense force was too strong and our attacking force was too weak, we did not open the village and only attacked two villages. The troops were evacuated within an hour, fearing that the identities of the local Red Guards would be exposed by dawn, and they would be persecuted by the enemy later.

Although the red guards withdrew, they frightened the big and small landlords and local tyrants in the village and the surrounding villages, making them restless day and night.The village was fortified with troops day and night, and those around the village were moved into the county overnight.Then, we sent Red Guards to open up the landlord village in Gaojiazhai, Jia County, and arrested two big landlords, demanding that their family pay a high price to redeem them, otherwise they would have to pay the price with the lives of the two landlords.Then they sent a special task force to confiscate the property of a landlord in Qianjiahe Village, Mizhi, and distributed part of the property to the local people.This alarmed the enemies in Mizhi City even more, because Qianhe Village was closer to Mizhi City.Then they killed Yang, an evil gentry from Yangjiaya Village, more than ten miles away from Tao Town, and Zhang, an evil gentry in Lingpingshang Village.Then in Renyi Village came two second-landlord scoundrels who were collecting debts from the landlords of Yangjiagou Village. Pay off the old rent and old debt, how many lives do you poor boys have?The Red Army will never save you. In the future, the Red Army will definitely eradicate the roots, so be careful of your poor boys' heads.What the two landlords did angered the people in the village, and the whole village was full of hatred, so they got rid of the two scourges that night.In some other places, officials and family members were also killed.

After these things happened, the enemies in Tao Town knew that the entire Midong District was turned upside down, chaotic, and red, and they were terrified.So they bought two farmers at a high price and came here to spy on the situation of the Red Army in the name of chopping firewood.As soon as they arrived, Tao Town's underground party sent a letter saying that the two farmers used to chop firewood for spying, and they must not be released back.The farmer was very angry when he heard this, and said that you two wanted to kill the lives of the whole village in order to make some bad money, so you must kill these two here.The two also confessed their crimes truthfully and confided the truth, but they were still killed.In Jingjiaya Village, which is very close to our village, there was a bully named Jing, who yelled all day long, publicly cursed the Red Army, and threatened that he would report to the Kuomintang to kill the Red Army.After hearing this, the people in the front and back villages couldn't bear resentment, so they killed him that night.Because the peasants want to live a good life to stand up and vent their anger, and the heart of this bully is completely opposite to the heart of the revolutionary peasants.The peasants at this time were desperately supporting the revolution, hating anyone who said "no" to the revolution, and killing anyone who said "anti" or "hate". White opposites, water and fire are incompatible, even his biological parents and brothers, he will never show mercy.This is the mentality of the peasants who have risen and love the revolution extremely.

An old man from Wubao County came to Gaojia Gu Village in Mizhi. He publicly announced to the masses that he was a former soldier sent by the Red Army. Come, we will use it as soon as the brigade arrives tomorrow.The crowd quickly told me the situation, and I went to meet and ask him, but he was speechless, panicked, and immediately tried to make an excuse to escape.When the masses saw that this was a fake Red Army who was here to damage the good reputation of the Red Army, they were very angry and immediately dragged him out and killed him. The masses at this time often report to us every day good news about good people and good news, bad news about bad people, fake news about fake people, and real news about real people and real events.The main reason is that we are completely dependent on the poor and lower-middle peasants, so we are often in a state of sobriety.For bad people and bad things, we take immediate measures to prevent them and eliminate them; for good people and good things, we take immediate measures to try to protect them; for fake people and fake news, we will not be fooled, nor will good people be wronged.Therefore, we can win the love of the people, and the people wholeheartedly support us and sacrifice their lives to protect us.Therefore, without any foreign guns and cannons, we can have a relatively fixed territory, openly and destructively attack the old enemy regime, making them restless day and night.

We have such a relatively stable territory, and the key to open struggle against the enemy is to maintain a close and flesh-and-blood relationship with the peasants.This is a basic condition.Without this condition, it is completely unthinkable.Furthermore, we have strict discipline, and we publicize the iron discipline of the Red Army everywhere: 1. Corruption must be punished with death; 2. Leaking secrets must be punished with death;Anyone who breaks the discipline is the same, and will never leave any personal affection.Because we have iron discipline, everyone has a high sense of consciousness and a strong sense of responsibility for the revolution.The local situation at that time was: the middle peasants no longer paid taxes, the poor no longer paid rent, some bullies no longer dared to bully others, and some dubious people no longer dared to do anything wrong.The enemies inside didn't dare to come out casually anymore, and the enemies outside didn't dare to crawl out of their nests either, but the barracks in the county town came out to harass them in case of a major situation, and reported to the top: "I haven't seen a single Red Army", That's it.Therefore, during this period of time, farmers lived a relatively peaceful and peaceful life.

In this short period of nearly four months, every revolutionary worker has been given an extremely profound education in the open and vigorous struggle to destroy the old regime of the enemy.Our revolution depends on thousands of hard-working, kind, loyal, honest, resolute and reliable farmers who are willing to sacrifice, who love us, love us, support us, protect us, and love the revolutionary cause. Only they are our only ones. We must take up weapons, even the most primitive weapons such as broadswords, when we are making revolution. Only in this way can we resist the enemy's attack and suppress and eliminate counter-revolutionaries.Without the backing and strength of these two revolutions, we would not be able to stand for a day in a small place, let alone carry out the struggle to destroy the enemy's regime.Although the struggle in the Midong Soviet Area was over in just a few months, it still had a great impact on educating the people and raising their awareness, and it created the momentum and influence of the Red Army in the entire Mizhi County; it destroyed the foundation of the old regime , destruction, influence, and shaken effects are still very large.Punishment to the wicked deters them mentally, and they have to take care of them no matter how bad they do; it will also play a certain role in promoting those who are willing to change from evil to good. In the final stage, mainly due to the excessive increase of the enemy's troops, they viciously and brutally massacred men, women, old and children, and suppressed them. To gain a foothold, they had to withdraw to the old Soviet area, where only a few gray party members and activists were left to carry out extremely difficult work. The struggle in the Midong Soviet Area in the past few months helped us to drive out the old regime of He Shaonan in 1939 and formally establish the new regime of the people of Suimijia and Wuqing, laying the best mass foundation, and we hardly fired a single shot With one bomb, our goal was achieved very successfully, smoothly, and satisfactorily, and our task of seizing power was completed.In this regard, the establishment and activities of the Midong Soviet Area played a certain role and made certain contributions.