Chapter 19 Section 3 Crying for Revolution and Counter-Revolution

When Chiang Kai-shek refused to attend the 2nd and 3rd Plenary Sessions of the Kuomintang Central Committee, they failed to really solve the problem. They emphasized "restoring the party's power" and tried to use the party to control the guns, but it was empty talk.But at least temporarily concealed the turbulent political tide and the threat of outrageous disobedience by Commander-in-Chief Chiang, and the military operations continued. The National Revolutionary Army continued its military operations and divided its troops into three groups. Tang Shengzhi served as the commander-in-chief on the west route, and Feng Yuxiang, the commander-in-chief of the National Army, attacked Henan. In the middle route, Chiang Kai-shek served as the commander-in-chief. , into Nanjing, Anqing and other places.Donglu Bai Chongxi had already occupied Hangzhou on February 10, and waited for He Yingqin's column to go north from Fujian. After joining forces, he marched towards Songhu and occupied Longhua near Shanghai on March 20.Later, on March 23, Cheng Qianjiang's right army occupied Nanjing. Due to the anti-imperialism of the revolutionary army, the British and American imperialists bombarded the city of Nanjing the next day to demonstrate, killing and injuring about a thousand people.Li Zongren's Jiang Zuo Army reached Anqing in mid-March, and the defender Chen Tiaoyuan "attached justice" to Anhui without bloodshed. The Beiyang Yangtze River Fleet also "uprising" on March 23, and the Beiyang Army then retreated to Xuzhou. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River fell into the hands of the National Revolutionary Army.The seizure of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River was so swift and rarely met with resistance, although due to the turbulent revolution and the support of the people, the enemy had no fighting spirit.Yet there are other mysteries at the same time.According to Marc Kasanin, a Russian sinologist who visited Nanchang at this time, Chiang Kai-shek used coercion and inducement to gradually win the submission of Beijing and Shanghai before launching his offensive in Nanchang, because he was eager to integrate with the bourgeoisie in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. , and parted ways with the revolution. (See her book China in the Twenties, P.196)

At this time, Chiang Kai-shek had colluded with warlords, capitalists, and imperialism to compromise, but he would never cooperate with the leftists of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. He was determined to fight to the end.Before his departure on March 16, he ordered the disbandment of the Nanchang Kuomintang Party Headquarters, directly challenging the petition for "restoration of party power."Arrived in Jiujiang on the 17th, shot four comrades in charge of the municipal party headquarters and trade unions, and destroyed the provincial party headquarters and trade unions in Anqing on the 23rd.

The Central Committee of Wuhan was quite shocked by Chiang Kai-shek's actions against the party with the barrel of a gun.Sun Ke, the son of Sun Yat-sen, said angrily at the eighth meeting of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang: "(Jiang) is getting more and more troublesome now, it seems to be his commander-in-chief's world, doing whatever he wants, and destroying the party's authority. If we don’t make up our minds again, why bother to make revolutions!” However, the central government in Wuhan is like a horse that has run out of control, and it is difficult to do anything.And Chiang Kai-shek played two-sided tactics, insisted on going his own way in his bones, and obeyed the central government on the surface. For example, he sent a telegram on March 30 to ask for military and diplomatic policies, so that even Borodin wanted to "love Comrade Chiang" and help him not be surrounded by counter-revolutionaries. (See "Quick Record of the Fifth Enlarged Meeting of the Second Standing Committee of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang") Of course, the Central Committee of Wuhan also thought of disarming Chiang Kai-shek, not only Borodin and the CCP members, but also important figures in the Kuomintang such as Tan Yan, Xu Qian, Gu Mengyu, Deng Yanda, Zhang Fakui and others had repeatedly persuaded Li Zongren, who had great military exploits, to replace him. (See "Li Zongren's Memoirs", page 289) But Li Zongren refused to agree, taking Hong Yang's same room as a lesson.In late March, the Central Committee of Wuhan also drafted a secret order to arrest Chiang Kai-shek, which was written on the silk by Tan Yankai, acting chairman of the government, and handed over to Cheng Qian in Nanjing for execution. The execution of the secret order led to the split of the Kuomintang, but he did not expect that after Cheng Qian left Ning, the Yang Jie and He Yao groups he entrusted to guard Nanjing would fall to Chiang Kai-shek. It was completely under Jiang's control, and Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo were all made into Jiang's world. (See Yang Tianshi's "Searching for the Mystery of History", pages 526-527; see also Wu T'ien-wei, Chang Kai-shek's April 12th Coup of 1927 P.154)

Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Shanghai from Anqing on March 26. He was surprised and disturbed when he learned about the strength of the CCP and the trade unions.On March 21, Bai Chongxi, the former commander-in-chief of the Eastern Route Army, approached the suburbs of Shanghai. He did not dare to attack suddenly for fear of imperialist military intervention. However, the City Federation of Trade Unions organized a third general strike, mobilizing 500,000 people. , Finally conquered Shanghai.The armed worker pickets under the command of Zhou Enlai and Gu Chengzhang numbered about 2,700.After Jiang arrived in Shanghai, he was immediately surrounded and supported by rightists, compradors, gangs, and imperialists.On March 28, Wu Zhihui submitted a "Please Investigate the Communist Party" report, intending to categorically end Sun Yat-sen's policy of accommodating the Communist Party.

Wu Zhihui is a grandma Liu who entered the Grand View Garden, "always appearing as a buffoon" in order to win the favor of his master.Since the Zhongshan ship incident, he has been cheering for Jiang Kaigong and supporting his bodyguards. At this time, advocating the purge of the party in Shanghai is not only following orders, but also showing respect for the king's will.Chiang Kai-shek had been deliberately purging the party for a long time, and after arriving in Shanghai, he felt that "my way is not alone."However, the clean-up of the party and the division of the communist party involved a change in the fundamental policy of the Kuomintang, which was not only a big deal, but also affected the future of the entire revolution, not to mention the possible serious consequences of the split.

At this critical juncture, the chairman of the government, Wang Jingwei, returned to the country.Wang did not return to China quietly, but returned after the long-awaited calls of the comrades of the Kuomintang, especially because of the internal crisis of the Kuomintang, and hoped that Wang could return to his post and turn things around.Even Chiang Kai-shek, although he did not want Wang Hui in his heart or privately (see Chen Gongbo's "Bitter Laughter Record"), on the surface he still sent letters and telegrams to plead, and even sent Zhang Jingjiang and Li Shizeng to France to meet him, saying that he was "not a brother." Come back quickly, it can't be remedied; I have no reason to express my love for my brother, please use my brother to think about my brother and love my brother, and test how my brother's admiration is like." He even said hypocritically: "If the brother doesn't come, the brother has no choice but to resign. Thank you for all your duties." (Quoted from Cai Suijin's "Wang Jingwei Commentary", p. 115) Wang Jingwei finally detoured from Russia and returned to Shanghai from Vladivostok, which happened to be April Fool's Day in 1927.Wang's experience after returning to China does have a lot of "fools".

Chiang Kai-shek went to the pier to meet Wang in person, moved his bottle to ask for advice, and set up a room for secret talks.Jiang's intention was very clear, that is, to take Wang to join him in purging the party and anti-communism to drive away Borodin and take decisive measures.This is of course also the condition for Chiang to support Wang to "preside over everything".However, Wang Jingwei is the chairman of the government. Although he said he was ill and went abroad, the chairmanship is still performed by others, and the Third Plenary Session will continue to be elected as the top leader of the party. He must not follow a commander-in-chief to make major policy changes without authorization, otherwise it will be different Wu Zhihui's refuge, where will the comrades of the Wuhan Party Central Committee be placed?Even if the policy is to be changed, it should be considered in the long term and decided at the Fourth Plenum of the Party Central Committee. As Wang said in his letter to Li Shizeng, the policy of uniting Russia and allowing the Communist Party "is by no means unchangeable, but changes must be based on party discipline and cannot be changed." Individual freedom of action cannot be compelled by force." ("The Complete Works of Wang Jingwei", p. 184) It was inevitable that Wang Zhi could not respond to Jiang's request and stay in Shanghai to "purge the party".

Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters of the "Qing Party" were clearly counting the "conspiracy" of the Communist Party in front of Wang to overthrow the Kuomintang, the Three People's Principles, create terror, trigger diplomatic conflicts, and so on.If this accusation is true, it would of course violate the original principle of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and undermine the foundation of cooperation. Therefore, Wang visited the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Chen Duxiu twice in Shanghai to find out the truth.Chen Liyan had absolutely nothing to do with this, and wrote a book by himself, and expressed it in the "Wang-Chen Joint Statement" to demonstrate public trust.Since the conspiracy was a rumour, Chiang Kai-shek's idea of ​​using force to "purge the party" has no way to go. Wang Zi always defended the rationale for the policy of the Communist Party of China. Therefore, Wang Chen said in the joint statement:

The cooperation between the two parties has different methods and important points. Only when the majority of the members of the two parties resolve this issue in good faith can the fundamental spirit of cooperation not be violated.Most comrades of the Chinese Kuomintang, who understand the revolutionary theory of the Chinese Communist Party and the true attitude towards the Kuomintang, will not doubt Premier Sun's policy of alliance with the Communist Party. (April 5, 1927, published in "Current Affairs News") If you have good intentions and face this public declaration, you should try your best to eliminate misunderstandings and seek cooperation to complete the revolution that has not yet succeeded.Unexpectedly, after the announcement of the joint statement, Wu Zhihui immediately made trouble for no reason, cursed, and even ridiculed Chen as the general secretary of the CCP.It can be seen that Jiang and others "purged the party" purely for the purpose of anti-communism and "purging the party" for the purpose of consolidating their own power.The matter has come to this point, if Wang Jingwei stays in Shanghai and does not obey Jiang's will, he will inevitably become entangled, and the only way to solve the problem rationally is to return to Wuhan Central Committee for processing.Wang wrote a letter to Jiang's confidant Zhang Jingjiang before his departure, expressly stating that it was necessary to go to Han, if he said:

At this point in the affairs of the party, Ming Ming's foolishness had no choice but to propose four meetings in Nanjing to resolve disputes.To achieve this goal, I had to go to Wuhan. (Wang Jingwei's letter to Zhang Jingjiang on April 5, 1927) The next morning, Wang went up the river by boat and arrived in Hankou on the 10th. To solve the problem, on the 13th, the third day after arriving in Hankou, he sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek to inform him that "the central government has decided to move the capital to Nanjing, and they will come to Nanjing for a meeting in a few days", asking Jiang to wait patiently.How did they know that Chiang launched a bloody crackdown in Shanghai on April 12, known as the April 12 Incident in history.Jiang Xian was so ashamed and angry because Wang left Shanghai for Han, he went it alone to show his breakup. Although he was a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, he neither paid attention to Wang Jingwei, nor the Central Committee of the Kuomintang and the National Government, nor participated in the Fourth Central Committee. The sincerity of the plenum to resolve disputes peacefully.

On the evening of April 11th, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the surrendered warlord Zhou Fengqi to send troops to guard Zhabei strictly. That night, Du Yuesheng tricked Wang Shouhua, the president of the Federation of Trade Unions, into his home, and then killed him.At 5:20 a.m. the next morning, the Chinese Communist Party controlled by the underworld began to attack the workers' pickets at the Commercial Press. By 10:00 a.m., 350 pickets were disarmed.The pickets in Pudong resisted the most and suffered many casualties.On the afternoon of the same day, a crowd gathered at the City Stadium to protest against the attack on workers. Half a million people gathered in Nanshi City, and the seamen's union announced a strike.But the Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai sent telegrams to celebrate the suppression, and praised the three hooligan leaders Du Yuesheng, Huang Jinrong, and Zhang Xiaolin for destroying the Federation of Trade Unions and the pickets. (See "The First Civil Revolutionary War", p. 528) The foreign forces in the concession also cooperated quite a bit, arresting more than a thousand Communist Party members and workers and handing them over to Chiang Kai-shek.However, the workers in Shanghai still did not know that Chiang was behind the scenes. On the same day, they called Commander-in-Chief Jiang in Nanjing, and the telegram said: Commander-in-Chief Chiang’s Award: At 4 o’clock in the morning on the 12th of this month, the firearms of the workers’ pickets in Zhabei, Nanshi, Pudong, and Wusong were all recovered by the 26th Army dispatched brigade ordered by Commander-in-Chief Bai at the same time. Many people were killed or injured.The Zha Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions led all the workers in Shanghai. They have been fighting against the imperialists and warlords for several years. Recently, they did not hesitate to make great sacrifices.It has the status it has today, and it has been exchanged for countless blood and heads.Therefore, Junzuo awarded the banner with the title "Working Together".Since the recovery of Shanghai, they have cooperated with the military and police to maintain order without any extraneous actions.Although the imperialists and reactionaries do everything possible to provoke and slander, there is no room for pawns to take advantage of them.Unexpectedly, those under the banner of Qingtian Bairi committed wanton destruction. The former Prime Minister was born and died, and the revolutionaries were all to liberate the oppressed nations, and the dying will never forget to arouse the people.Jun Zuo is a loyal believer of the Prime Minister, who is organized, disciplined, full of sacrificial revolutionary spirit, and has made great contributions to the masses of workers. Only then can they protect and reward them, and they have no intention of inflicting destruction. , to return all the firearms that were confiscated, and to guarantee that such incidents will not happen again in the future. I will not be ashamed of the former Prime Minister’s spirit in heaven, and there will be self-disciplined people all over the world, and the joint front of the revolutionary army and the people will not be broken. for imperialism.The future of the party and the country depends on its strength.Imminently waiting for orders. (Quoted from Sima Lu's "The History of the Communist Party of China and Selected Documents", Volume 5, page 28) As late as the end of April and the beginning of May, Jiang still publicly said: "The pickets should have been armed, and there is absolutely no reason to disarm them." He even presented a "Work Together" banner to the Federation of Trade Unions on April 6. (See Shanghai "Shenbao" March 29 and April 6, 1927) We can only say that the working people are too vigilant enough not to know that Chiang Kai-shek had already issued a secret order in Nanjing on April 11 to "recover the All provinces, unanimously carry out "cleaning the party" and suppress mass movements.If you want him to "investigate thoroughly", what's the difference between seeking skin from a tiger?Not to mention this, on April 13th, the workers went to Zhou Fengqi's headquarters to petition more innocently, but when the petition team arrived at Baoshan Road, they were shot by machine guns, and it rained heavily from time to time, blood and rainwater flowing together.At the same time, the marching workers in Nanshi were also shot.About 66 people were killed and 316 were injured that day.Seven celebrities from Zhabei wrote to Cai Yuanpei, Wu Zhihui, and Li Shizeng on the same day, condemning the massacre of citizens. (See "The First Civil Revolutionary War", pp. 521-522) Cai, Wu, and Li have long attached themselves to the "Qing Party", and they can only laugh inwardly The "Qing Party" pre-conference was held in Shanghai. The attendees included Cai Yuanpei, Wu Zhihui, Zhang Renjie, Gu Yingfen, Li Shizeng, and Cai was the chairman. See "Preliminary Compilation of Important Historical Materials of the Republic of China" - the continuation of the period of the War of Resistance against Japan [2 ], pp. 37-38), until April 15th, more than 300 people died, more than 500 people were arrested, and more than 5,000 people fled and disappeared.The Federation of Trade Unions succumbed to the coercion and called off the strike, only to report Chiang Kai-shek's crimes to the Central Committee of Wuhan.After Jiang launched the April 12 campaign, within two months he declared that he must use "determinate means" against the Communist Party, and hunted and killed the Communist Party on a large scale. Shanghai became a world of terror. .The massacre spread from Shanghai to other cities under Chiang Kai-shek's control.On September 27, 1927, when the fourth meeting of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang was held in Nanjing, it still required the local Party headquarters to continue to "(1) strictly implement the purge of the party and (2) re-register". (See the original record, page 6) Although Chen Duxiu's son Yannian was arrested and killed, Li Zongren's cousin Li Zhenfeng was also arrested and killed.According to Edgar Snow, a reporter from China Weekly Review at the time, it was estimated that more than 5,000 "leftist" elements were killed. (See Powell, My Twentyfive Years in China p.157) Later, the CCP said that Chiang Kai-shek's hands were covered with the blood of the revolutionary people, which should be the biggest blood debt.However, historian Huang Renyu said: "An explanation in the name of morality is not enough to answer such a historical question." But this move shocked the Central Committee of the Wuhan Kuomintang Party. After the meeting of the Political Committee in the afternoon of April 13, they called Chiang Kai-shek to question: Now our party’s army stationed in Shanghai actually used force to disarm the Shanghai picket team. This is obviously a violation of orders and a willingness to be a counter-revolutionary. In terms of party discipline, it is impossible to forgive. I hope that the army officers who dared to violate party discipline this time will be suspended and arrested immediately. If the National Government finds out the facts and punishes them according to law, the commander-in-chief and the commander-in-chief should also be severely punished according to the law if they failed to take precautions in advance, and should order the handed-in firearms to be returned to the picket team. ("Hankou Republic Daily", April 14, 1927) On the 15th, the Central Committee of the KMT held its seventh enlarged meeting to discuss the issue of punishing Chiang, and finally unanimously resolved: "Jiang Zhongzheng massacred the people, destroyed the party headquarters, was willing to be a reactionary, and his crimes are obvious. This book holds various positions, and it is written by soldiers and revolutionary groups throughout the country to take over the Central Committee and punish them according to the anti-revolutionary crimes." ("Revolutionary Life" fifty-eighth issue, published on April 19, 1927) But Chiang Kai-shek's feathers have already disappeared Feng, simply did not do anything, and set up a separate central government in Nanjing on April 18, creating one party and two governments, which led to the split between Ning and Han.On the 21st, forty people including Wang Jingwei, Tan Yan, Sun Ke, and Song Ziwen jointly issued a telegram, condemning Chiang Kai-shek's behavior of going from rebelling against the central government to self-establishing the central government. "Thieves". (See "Hankou Republic Daily", April 22, 1927) Although the electrification is solemn, verbal and written criticism will not help the truth.Although Wuhan has an army, the northern warlords have not been eliminated, and most of them are inclined to the Northern Expedition.Xu Qian even said: "The counter-revolutionary Chiang Kai-shek does not need to be condemned by troops, but is sanctioned by the party, expelled from the party, and dismissed from military posts. The revolutionary forces in the southeast will soon send the rebellious Chiang Kai-shek to the central government for punishment." (Quoted From Yang Tianshi's "Searching for the Mystery of History", pages 535 to 536) was too naive, and ended up being "sanctioned" by "traitors".However, due to the eagerness of the Wuhan Central Committee to defeat the enemy in the north first, the battle against Jiang in the east was avoided.After Chiang Kai-shek broke into the misfortune of breaking up, he was spared the tragedy of the Kuomintang's own fighting. It is true that the Wuhan Central Committee denounced Chiang Kai-shek as a counter-revolutionary traitor. "Counter-revolution" seems to be an empty political crime, but the so-called "revolution" at that time had its specific content.The origin of that revolution was Sun Yat-sen's reorganization of the Kuomintang in 1924. The spirit was to unite with Russia and embrace the Communist Party.However, after Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Shanghai, he immediately cleared the party and opposed the Communist Party to drive Russia away, which was obviously against the "spirit of revolution": suppressing workers was obviously against the "strategy of revolution".According to British records, Chiang's audacity in eradicating the Communist Party and workers in Shanghai far exceeded that of the warlords in the north (quoted from Lsaacs, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, P.181), so in April 1927, Wang Jiang's Shanghai During the secret talks, Wang persuaded him with the spirit of not sacrificing the revolution, strategies, and discipline, but Jiang ignored it and insisted on going his own way.Later historians of the Kuomintang often used the Communist Party’s riots and Chiang Kai-shek’s contribution to the Red Army (such as Li Yunhan’s "Calmly Communism to the Qing Party"), but they did not know that the Beiyang warlords such as Sun Chuanfang claimed to be the Red Army, and Jiang was the leader of the Red Army in the Northern Expedition. commander.Isn't it the greatest irony of the revolution that the commander-in-chief of the Red Army has become the leader of the Red Army?Isn't that enough to be called a "counter-revolutionary"?As for colluding with warlords and imperialism, it is even more against the "goal of the revolution."Chiang Kai-shek combined with capitalists, compradors, landlords, etc. in Shanghai, which was not compatible with revolution.Secretly informing gang leaders such as Du Yuesheng, Huang Jinrong, Zhang Xiaolin, etc., and using them as internal help, is even more irrelevant to the revolution.Chiang Kai-shek claimed to be revolutionary all his life, but in fact he provided the best example of calling for revolution and counter-revolution. The gangsters in Shanghai were originally related to the Communist Party, so Wang Shouhua was fooled.But Chiang Kai-shek has a deeper relationship with them, and he has a mentor-student friendship with Huang Jinrong.Jiang also used 600,000 yuan to buy gangsters and went to various places to fight the Federation of Trade Unions. (Refer to "Shanghai District Party Committee Secretary Organization Meeting of Various Ministries and Commissions" on April 1, 1927) Jiang even promised Zhang Xiaolin and Du Yuesheng to be the chief and deputy directors of the Jiangsu Water Police Department. (See April 1927 "Shanghai Public Concession Industry Bureau Police Daily") Since the gangsters in Shanghai have contributed to the anti-Communist purge, they naturally became Chiang Kai-shek's party-state upstarts and local politicians. Later, Du Yuesheng became a major general of the Nanjing Army, Navy and Air Force Headquarters It is not surprising that the Senate. (See Su Zhiliang's "Shanghai Hooligan Forces and the April 12 Coup", "Modern History Research" No. 2, 1988, pp. 212-225) Li Zongren also mentioned Shanghai hooligans in his memoirs. It is quite disapproving to board the Hall of Elegance with the help of others.