Chapter 20 farmers' organization

But after the vortex was over, there was peace again.The only peasant organization at that time was created by Peng Pai.Peng Pai, the son of a landlord, changed his side to fight for the poor peasants.He initiated the establishment of peasant associations in eastern Guangdong.The smooth progress of the peasant movement attracted the attention of the Kuomintang. Peng Pai was appointed as the Minister of Farmers of the Kuomintang.Under his guidance, in July 1924, the Peasant Movement Workshop was established in Guangzhou.This was the first school in Chinese history—perhaps in the entire history of mankind—to train farmers for political rebellion.

Peng Pai was the pioneer, but Mao Zedong was the first person Peng Pai sought to work with and could lend a helping hand. In August 1924, at the invitation of Peng Pai, Mao Zedong gave the first lesson at the Peasant Movement Workshop.His passion moved the trainees, and the workshop influenced him even more.His visit brought a new beginning, which has greatly influenced the future of China since then. After returning to Shanghai, Mao Zedong's work was not very smooth.Mao Zedong's cooperation with Peng Pai in Guangzhou made him realize that something was wrong with his actions in Shanghai.

The way things work on a daily basis is an issue.Mao Zedong was not content to learn the world from documents like others, he was unwilling to stick to the rules.Some people often complained about his lack of discipline, and often slipped away alone during the journey.But this is only a symptom. The more serious problem is that Li Lisan and others ridiculed Mao Zedong for being too enthusiastic about the work of the Kuomintang, and they almost became Hu Hanmin's secretary.When Sun Yat-sen was in the late stage of liver cancer, the storm broke out.It is not difficult for a discerning person to see that the Kuomintang members with complex factions and secret suspicions are planning to oppose the Communist Party.

However, Mao Zedong’s eyes were only on the united front, “everything was done under the KMT’s banner” [28].In the summer of 1924 he still persisted.Few in the Communist Party agreed with him. Mao Zedong felt the pressure.He suffered from insomnia--which was rare--and his health declined.His position within the Chinese Communist Party was even more isolated, and by the end of 1924 he had left Communist Party headquarters.At the same time, he is no longer a reliable bridge between the KMT and the Communist Party. After returning to Shanghai in February 1924, Mao Zedong did not publish any articles during the year. In 1925, his articles were mainly published in the Kuomintang's new publication "Politics Weekly", and he was appointed as the editor of this publication at that time.

Although Mao Zedong was in Shanghai, he did not attend the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of China in January 1925.The atmosphere at this meeting was one that tended to focus on urban work and, at the same time, misgivings about the Kuomintang.In the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the word "peasant" was hyphenated with the word "worker" every time it was mentioned, as if the peasant could not exist independently. The outcome of the meeting was routine for Mao, and he was kicked out of the Central Committee. Mao Zedong was exhausted and in trouble.In his autobiography he glosses over this tension, not even mentioning the Fourth Congress.He said to Snow indifferently: "That winter, I went back to Hunan to recuperate——I fell ill in Shanghai." [29]

Mao Zedong was good at adapting to changing circumstances, and this skill benefited him throughout his life.If he could be impulsively driven by a momentary emotion, he also knew how to back off.When it was time to retreat, he would retreat to where there were roots. Unlike some of his colleagues, Mao Zedong retained his own turf.The farmland in Shaoshan belonged to him, and he did not give it up or sell it.The past is not bad. The proceeds from the estate left by my father can be used in many ways.If he wants to leave the party and turn to another life path, he has no shortage of funds.He also had money to treat farmers to dinner and took the opportunity to chat with them. [30]

When in Changsha, Mao Zedong often went back to Shaoshan for a short stay. In the early spring of 1925, he stayed in his hometown for a long time.For nearly half a year, he was separated from the treaty ports, from documents and committees, and from the struggles in the office. Mao Zedong held political meetings in the villages and used some of the land income for the cause of communism.In the eyes of fellow villagers in Shaoshan, Mao Zedong inherited his father's legacy.He is a landowner, even a red landowner.He uses the old for the new. Mao Zedong brought blood ties into political ties, and all his family members threw themselves into the revolution.This was unusual among senior members of the early Chinese Communist Party.

The 27-year-old Mao Zemin, after completing his work in Anyuan, will soon be the manager of the distribution department of the CCP Publishing House in Shanghai. 19-year-old Mao Zetan has just joined the Communist Party of China. He has been busy in Changsha with the student movement that his elder brother was involved in.Step-sister Mao Zejian is engaged in organizational work in Yuebei, Hunan.Yang Kaihui was a member of the Communist Party of China since 1922, and she worked in education and organization in Changsha and Yuebei.She once went to Shanghai to work, but was not with Mao Zedong.

Now, the marriage relationship between Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui is no longer as close as it was in 1921 and 1922. "Knowledge and misunderstand the words of the former fan book", there was such a line in Mao Zedong's poem to Yang Kaihui at the end of 1923. [31] In addition to family members, Mao Zedong also mobilized many of his relatives.In the memoirs of Mao Zedong's return to Shaoshan, we can see many people with the surname "Mao".Mao Zedong mobilized Mao Fuxuan, Mao Xinmei, Mao Yuanyao, Mao Yueqiu and many others.The family relationship brought convenience to Mao Zedong.

In the Spring Festival of 1925, Mao Zedong and his family were reunited.Yang Kaihui and her two sons were there, and Mao Zemin was also home, possibly with Mao Zejian.Family ties and like-mindedness in their careers must have given them strength. However, they will not be superhuman, without contradictions.Under Mao Zedong, there were also differences among them.But they did not simply despise life before they joined the cause of communism. They seemed to feel that Shaoshan, a place of reunion, could prepare them for the heavy revolutionary work that would soon come. For weeks, Mao roamed along farmlands and valleys.He talked with his neighbors, and went to the fields to plow with his hired hands.

By February, Mao Zedong was in action.He left Shaoshan and went to several counties, and some farther places, where he lived in the peasants' homes, inspected the rural conditions, and listened to the opinions of the peasants. His notebook is full of memories. This is the first-hand information obtained from the investigation, and Mao Zedong is very happy about it.He walked among the green mountains and green waters, and the troubles in Shanghai seemed to be swept away. His mood at this time was completely different from that of his youth.Hunan's suffering farmers have mobilized and are on the road to liberation, and public grievances have turned into rebellion.The peasants refused to pay the land rent, and these poor peasants in rags broke into the feast of the ancestral hall, and the gentry had to bow their heads to the peasant association. Mao Zedong quickly turned from investigation to organization activities.He was not the initiator of the peasant organization in Hunan, and to the peasants he was not a hero like Peng Pai.When Peng Pai appeared, peasant women in Guangdong would always hold their sons high and let them take a look at the "king of the peasant movement." [32] But when Mao Zedong visited, he always put his stamp on the peasant associations, and he even established a party group among the peasants—Shanghai definitely opposed this.He talked about communism to the peasants in the mountains, forests, fields, and huts. He tried his best to connect with the majority of China who were no longer silent.By the end of 1926, mainly because of Mao Zedong's activities, more than half of Hunan's 75 counties had peasant associations, with 2 million members. In Xiangtan County, Mao Zedong established more than 20 night schools.The purpose of running a school is to educate the common people (the Chinese call it raising the cultural level) and to disseminate political ideas at the same time.He likes to use the words "hand" and "foot" as an example to start teaching Chinese lessons.What nature bestows on everyone is a pair of hands and a pair of feet, and all wealth must be created with both hands, but why are landlords and rich people lazy... As far as personal experience is concerned, Mao Zedong made a big circle, walked out of the land and returned to the land. In 1910, he left Shaoshan as a rebel, but the purpose of his rebellion was not clear at that time. In his childish mind, he just felt that there was inequality in life. In 1925, Mao Zedong recognized that rebellion was not just a refusal of wounded souls to obey, but an entire people looking for a new future.He should have laughed at his previous harsh treatment of his father.The real problem goes far beyond emotion. It's not just psychological, it's political as well.Now it seems that his father no longer looks like a devil, but a relic of history, a symbol of an old age. Mao Zedong finally woke up from his education and returned to Shaoshan, which gave him a deeper understanding of the urban education he had received for more than ten years.He corrected his attitude towards "foreign schools". Before going home for vacation, he always stood on the side of the school, Dongshan Primary School and the First Normal School, and was dissatisfied with the criticisms of fellow villagers.But by 1925 Mao had changed his mind. "I realized that I was wrong and the peasants were right." [33] He now prefers the old Chinese schools to the foreign ones, he no longer opposes his father, and his vision is broader.He quietly changed his mind. In August 1925, in the attic of the bedroom where Mao Zedong's parents once lived, the Shaoshan branch of the Communist Party of China was established.There were 32 peasant party members in the first batch.It is not known what attitude the Shanghai headquarters took toward this method of agitating for revolution.