Chapter 16 15. Discussion on Liu Zhidan's United Front Thought in Establishing the Northwest Base Area

Liu Zhidan was an outstanding general of the People's Army who died for the Party and the country in the early years and one of the founders of the Northwest Revolutionary Base Area. He made outstanding contributions to the victory of the Chinese people's liberation cause and is a leader loved by the people of Northwest China.This article briefly discusses his united front thought in the process of establishing the Northwest Revolutionary Base. The Northwest Revolutionary Base was an earlier revolutionary base that was gradually developed in the guerrilla warfare in northern Shaanxi under the leadership of Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang after 1931. It later became the only base that was not lost during the Agrarian Revolutionary War, and it was also the base of the Long March of the Central Red Army. The end point and the starting point of the Anti-Japanese War.To establish a base, it is necessary to establish party organizations and revolutionary armed forces.The Northwest Red Army founded by the leaders of Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, etc., gradually developed and expanded on the basis of guerrillas after the establishment of the party organization in northern Shaanxi.

As early as the period of the Great Revolution, Liu Zhidan was sent to work in Feng Yuxiang's army and had contact with people from all walks of life.Practice made him realize: "The revolution needs to establish a united front. The fewer enemies the better, the more friends the better. If we increase our strength, the enemy will lose one." He believes that the revolution must be victorious. No way.Therefore, on the basis of mobilizing the masses to carry out the agrarian revolution, he organized the Red Guards in the mass struggle, then organized them into guerrillas, and then promoted them to the Red Army of Workers and Peasants.So, where did the source of troops come from?Combining the actual situation in Northwest China, Liu Zhidan not only organized the basic masses to participate in the revolutionary armed forces, but also used various channels to develop the revolutionary armed forces. First, he had been engaged in military transportation work for a long time, and pulled some of the Kuomintang troops to carry out uprisings; second, he incorporated militia groups and the so-called "bandits" at that time, and transformed them into guerrillas; the third was to use the folk elders associations to develop their own revolutionary armed forces.The above-mentioned works all have a distinct united front idea, which is to broadly unite all people who can be united, and he has expanded and developed the Northwest Red Army in this way.

After the Weihua Uprising failed in 1928, Liu Zhidan returned to northern Shaanxi.At that time, the revolutionary situation in Northwest China was at a low ebb. According to the spirit of the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the resolution of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China on carrying out the military movement work, he called on the Communist Party members to go to the barracks to win over the masses and prepare for an uprising.At that time, the organization appointed Liu Zhidan as Secretary of the Military Commission of the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee (later presided over the work of the Special Committee) to lead the military movement in northern Shaanxi.He mobilized party members and revolutionary youths to join the warlord's army, won over the masses of soldiers, and used various social relations to do united front work for the upper class and strive for military power.His proposition was once opposed by the Secretary of the Special Committee at the time, but he repeatedly clarified his views, criticized this "left" ideology, and made the correct decision to carry out the military movement work with the support of the majority of the Special Committee members.From the autumn of 1929 to the autumn of 1930, Liu Zhidan organized and mobilized a large number of party members and progressive youths, and successively attacked Gao Zhiqing and Yang Gengwu in northern Shaanxi, Tan Shilin in Gansu, Su Yusheng in Ningxia and other warlord troops, as well as the team of Huanglongshan "Mountain King" Guo Baoshan. The legal status of the commander, head, and brigade commander, and the development of party members.For example, Han Liancheng and Niu Huadong, who he trained in the old army, later became lieutenant generals and major generals in the people's army respectively.Brigadier Liu Baotang became a loyal friend of the Red Army.Although there were many failures, it finally accumulated strength for the revolution and laid a good foundation for the establishment of the Northwest Red Army and the Northwest Revolutionary Base in the future.

In the autumn of 1929, Liu Zhidan returned to Baoan (now Zhidan County). When summing up the lessons learned from the failure of the Weihua uprising, he said: "Without a strong party organization and mass foundation, pure military operations will definitely not be successful." He pointed out : "Baan'an is located on the border between Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, the place is remote, and the enemy's ruling power is relatively weak. In addition, we have many social relations and familiar geography. This is a smooth condition for carrying out our work. Therefore, we should first develop local party organizations. Carry out mass movements, and at the same time adopt the form of legal struggle to seize the local reactionary armed forces (civilians) as the basis for guerrilla warfare in the future.” According to this policy, he led members of the security party and league members to do united front work for people from all walks of life in security, using legal elections program, was elected as the head of the Baoan County Civic League.After transforming this militia group into a revolutionary force, they united with the county magistrate of Baoan County and remained neutral.He led the militias to wipe out several reactionary militias in the Shaanxi-Gansu border area, and won the support of the majority of the people.During this period, Liu Zhidan also incorporated Zhao Erwa (Zhao Lianbi), Jia Shengcai, Yang Peisheng and other "illegal armed forces" who were active on the Shaanxi-Gansu border, transformed them into guerrillas, and finally formed an independent revolutionary armed force—— Nanliang guerrillas. On October 20, 1931, the Nanliang guerrillas and the Shanxi guerrillas (now changed to the Northern Shaanxi Detachment) joined forces in Nanliang.These guerrillas later developed into the Northwest Red Army.At that time, some people didn't understand and asked him: "You have a bandit team, how can they do it if they don't have good discipline?" He said: "The river is dammed, and there is no way for turtles to go! Some of the bandit army are basic The masses—the poor peasants.” He firmly believed that the party could reform these people well.Practice has proved that his view is correct.Many of the so-called "bandits" at the time mostly became the backbone or leaders of the revolution.For example, Guo Baoshan, the "King of the Mountain" of Huanglong Mountain, fought bravely after joining the Red Army, and was awarded the rank of major general after the founding of New China.

At that time, the Gelaohui in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region was also very powerful and had a wide range of activities. Most of its members were working people, and most of them joined for the protection of life and property.Liu Zhidan adopted the policy of winning over, reforming, and uniting with him. In the spring of 1930, he joined the Gelaohui in Wangzhuang, Yongning Township, Baoan County (now Zhidan County), and was introduced by Ma Haiwang, the leader of the wharf mountain, and others, known as "Uncle Liu of the Northwest Hall".He used his status as an uncle to win over his uncles first, and then his brothers, and educate them to take the revolutionary road.Due to Liu Zhidan's lofty prestige and under his influence, the Gelaohui in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region actively supported the Communist Party's ideas and actively participated in the revolution.Ma Xiwu, the elder of the Gelaohui in Baoan County, brought hundreds of members to participate in the revolution in the spring of 1930; in 1936, Ma Xiwu became the chairman of the Soviet Government of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.Li Zhongying, the leader of the Gelaohui in Zichang County, led his troops to participate in the revolution. In 1936, he became the commander of the 29th Red Army.Zheng Haiwang, the elder of the Gelaohui in Huachi County, Gansu Province, followed the Red Army and participated in the fight against the local tyrants to divide the land.Some members of the Gelaohui volunteered to donate guns and ammunition and raise food and funds when Liu Zhidan established the revolutionary armed forces; some mobilized brothers to join the Red Army guerrillas;The home of Ma Haiwang, the elder of the Gelaohui in Canggou Village, Baoan County, used to be Liu Zhidan's military depot.

Due to Liu Zhidan's influence and hard work, the brothers of the Gelaohui made great contributions to the revolution in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region. On July 15, 1936, Mao Zedong highly praised in the "Manifesto of the Chinese Soviet Central Government to the Gelaohui" issued to the National Gelaohui: "Liu Zhidan and other comrades are not only the leaders of the Red Army, but also models in the Gelaohui." Liu Zhidan's idea of ​​establishing a revolutionary base came about earlier. In the autumn of 1928, after returning to northern Shaanxi, he had the idea of ​​building a revolutionary base in the Shaanxi-Gansu border.He believes that this area is located at the junction of the three provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia, along the Qiaoshan Mountains. develop.He understood that the purpose of the revolutionary armed forces to annihilate the enemy and destroy the reactionary regime is to establish a revolutionary regime and establish a revolutionary base, and only then can it lead the people to engage in various constructions.Therefore, he repeatedly said: "A revolutionary armed force must have a base. It should have a foothold and a field of activity. Without a field, it will not work."

So, how to establish and where is the most appropriate base area?Liu Zhidan explored a set of relatively successful experiences in the practice of revolutionary struggle.According to Comrade Xi Zhongxun's recollection, Liu Zhidan traveled all over the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region in the past few years, determined to establish a base area.Due to the wrong leadership of "Left" opportunism, this wish has never been realized. In the autumn of 1932, when he reported to Liu Zhidan at the Jingang Temple in the north of Zhaojin, Liu Zhidan said: "You are from Guanzhong, and you have planted crops. If you can get along well with the farmers, you must do a good job in developing the base area. The team left. You will encounter great difficulties, but as long as the policies are correct and you rely closely on the masses, the difficulties can be overcome.” Xi Zhongxun said with deep emotion, we followed Zhidan’s instructions, and I led the special service team that Zhidan left behind when he left. , to carry out guerrilla campaigns, conduct investigations and researches one by one, and do mass work one by one, and successively organize peasant associations, poor peasant regiments, red guards and guerrillas.On the basis of mobilizing the masses to fight for food distribution, the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base centered on Zhaojin was established, which can be said to be an earlier revolutionary base in Northwest China.Liu Zhidan chose Zhaojin as his base because he had some considerations, because under the jurisdiction of Yaoxian County, it is a small mountain village in the southern section of Qiaoshan. The county seat is about 30 kilometers away.It is connected to Ziwu Ridge in the middle section of Qiaoshan Mountain in the north, Weibei Plain in the south, and Cheng (Yang) Yu (Lin) Highway in the east. It is a gap, and the enemy's strength is relatively weak.Most of the land in the Zhaojin area was occupied by several big landlords in Yaoxian County and Xiangshan Temple. 60% of the landless peasants had strong revolutionary demands.The terrain here is complex, with many mountains and ravines, and it is the place where the Red Army's Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas and Weibei guerrillas were active.Judging from various conditions, it is the best place to establish a base.With the approval of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, it is advisable to use the Zhaojin area as the general rear of guerrilla warfare, and use the southern section of Qiaoshan as a strategic support to develop to Weibei and West Roads.In order to consolidate this base area, Liu Zhidan summed up the experience and lessons of many years of revolutionary struggles. According to Mao Zedong's theory on launching guerrilla warfare and establishing base areas, at the beginning of 1933, he led the Second Red Regiment to actively carry out struggles against the enemy, and pulled out the enemy strongholds in the Zhaojin area. Made a major contribution to consolidating the democratic regime of Zhaojin workers and peasants.However, at this time, Du Heng, a "Left" opportunist, pushed Liu Zhidan out of his leadership position, and proposed to "concentrate forces and wipe out the armed forces of the gentry and landlords around the base area in one go", and strongly advocated that the Red Second Regiment attack the Miaowan militia.Liu Zhidan advocated not fighting Miaowan for the time being, and put forward two reasons: First, Miaowan is the command and headquarters of the Xia Yushan militia. Powerless to eat him.The second is that Xia Yushan had contacts with us in the past, maintained certain contact with the guerrillas, and bought us supplies and ammunition.If it is fought hard, it will inevitably destroy this united front relationship, bring difficulties to the activities of the Red Army, and bring harm to the people in the base areas.But Du Heng went his own way and acted recklessly. He first beat the Xia Yushan militia in Miaowan, causing the nearby militias to unite to fight the Red Army;The enemy fought more and more, and the territory became smaller and smaller. There was only Xuejiazhai left, surrounded by the enemy on all sides. The wounded of the Red Army had nowhere to settle, and no food was supplied.Du Heng also proposed that the Red Army go south to the Weihua area to establish a new base.Liu Zhidan resolutely opposed going south at the time. He said: "After the failure of the Weihua uprising, the masses there were greatly devastated and felt defeated. We worked hard to set up this base area. How can we give up easily! As long as we persist in creating and With the development of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Soviet Area, the situation will improve! The Red Army will destroy itself if it breaks away from the base areas." Du Heng not only refused to listen, but instead slandered Liu Zhidan as "rightist opportunism", which eventually led to the failure of the southward movement and the annihilation of the entire army.

The Red Second Regiment failed to go south, and the number of troops decreased, causing Zhaojin to fall.Faced with this situation, Liu Zhidan carefully analyzed the revolutionary situation on the Shaanxi-Gansu border at that time, and believed that Zhaojin as a base had both advantages and disadvantages. Narrow and small, not much room for maneuver.So, where is the best place to build the center of the base?At this time, after careful consideration, Liu Zhidan carefully analyzed the revolutionary situation in the Shaanxi-Gansu border, and planned a new blueprint for the future development of the Red Army.Under his suggestion, on November 3, 1933, the Red Army Provisional Headquarters and the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee held a joint meeting of great historical significance in Baojiazhai, Heshui County, Gansu.The meeting lasted for three days. According to Liu Zhidan's opinion, the Red Twenty-Sixth Army was restored, the Red Forty-two Division was established, and the previous combat experience was carefully summarized, especially the experience and lessons learned from the failure of the Red Second Regiment to go south and the loss of the Zhaojin Base. , It is proposed to rely on the broad masses of the people to carry out extensive guerrilla warfare in the Qiaoshan area where the enemy's rule is weak; open up the Shaanxi-Gansu border base area centered on Qingyang Nanliang; establish three guerrilla zones.

Practice has proved that the decision of the Baojiazhai meeting is completely correct, and its general concept itself fully reflects Liu Zhidan's high ideological principles of the united front in establishing the base area. The revolutionary base area can continue to develop, consolidate and grow in the guerrilla warfare and the struggle against "encirclement and suppression", which fully demonstrates Liu Zhidan's military talent and the strategy of the united front.Comrade Cai Ziwei said: "The Special Committee of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Area and the Border Region Government attach great importance to the work of the united front, especially Comrade Liu Zhidan's meticulous attention to this work, which is indeed a good example for us to learn from." From the Shaanxi-Gansu border and northern Shaanxi The process of establishing and consolidating the two bases until they were unified fully demonstrated Liu Zhidan's military talent, especially the strategy of the united front throughout.Liu Zhidan himself once said: "War must be flexible, not forceful. Fight if you can destroy the enemy, and don't fight if you can't. Guerrillas must be good at concealment. Usually they are peasants. When they gather, they are guerrillas. They fight as soldiers, and they don't fight. They are farmers, so the enemy can’t understand them.” For example, when the Nanliang base area was established, the victorious development of the Red Army caused great panic among the enemies. At the beginning of December 1933, when the Xi'an Appeasement Administration mobilized four battalions of the regular army stationed in Baoan, Heshui, Qingyang and other counties and more than 5,000 local militia groups, and divided them into nine groups to launch the first "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Shaanxi-Gansu base areas, Liu Zhidan decided to red The 42nd Division went south to fight, using part of the second guerrilla unit to attack the enemies who invaded the Nanliang base area. In February 1934, the Kuomintang army launched an offensive again. The Red Army cooperated with local guerrillas and the enemy to fight nine consecutive battles, all of which were victorious.Especially in the battle of Xihuachi, one regiment headquarters and two entire battalions of the enemy were wiped out.Afterwards, Liu Zhidan led his troops south to Sanyuan, Chunhua, and Yaoxian to help the Three Routes Guerrilla Headquarters carry out their work. In May, the Kuomintang army mobilized troops to "encircle and suppress", and Zhidan led his troops back to Nanliang. After one or two months of fighting, the first "encirclement and suppression" was crushed.From the winter of 1933 to the summer of 1934, under the leadership of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee, Liu Zhidan led the main force of the 26th Red Army to cooperate with the guerrillas. From south to north, he fought more than 30 times, annihilating more than 3,000 enemies, and liberated Overwhelmed the vast rural areas of more than ten counties in the Shaanxi-Gansu region, pulled out hundreds of enemy strongholds, and established a democratic government of workers, peasants and soldiers and 10 guerrilla groups in a large area.In the autumn of the same year, the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Soviet Government and the Revolutionary Military Committee were formally established in Liyuanbao.

In order to consolidate the political power, Liu Zhidan proposed to restore and build bazaar trade, invite industrialists and merchants from the White Area to do business in the Soviet Area, and protect them; restore and establish the Lenin Primary School, and invite intellectuals to come out to teach; he also suggested that among the representatives of the Soviet Area, There are women, and several lesbians also participated in the work of the Soviet area government and served as committee members. At the same time, the revolutionary struggle in northern Shaanxi has also made great progress. In July 1934, Xie Zichang led the northern Shaanxi guerrillas to the Shaanxi-Gansu base area and participated in a joint meeting held in Yanjiawazi.After the meeting, Xie Zichang led the three regiments of the Red 26th Army back to northern Shaanxi, and successively won consecutive battles in Anding, Suide Qingjian, Hengshan and other places, smashing Jing Yuexiu's "encirclement and suppression" of the northern Shaanxi base.This operation was actually Liu Zhidan's strategic consideration, to make the Shaanxi-Gansu border and northern Shaanxi base areas support and coordinate with each other, and jointly counterattack the enemies in the "encirclement and suppression" base areas.

At the end of December 1934, Liu Zhidan led the Second Red Regiment to Anding in person to discuss with Xie Zichang the unified leadership of the two base areas. In February 1935, the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee and the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee held a joint meeting in Zhoujiajian, Zizhou County, formally unified the leadership of the party and the army in the two regions, and decided to establish the Northwest Working Committee and the Northwest Military Commission of the Communist Party of China. Liu Zhidan served as the chairman of the Northwest Military Commission (One said Xie Zichang).At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was extremely disturbed by the development of the revolutionary situation in the Northwest. The 84th Division of the Gaoguizi Division stationed in Henan and the 50,000 troops of the warlord troops in the four provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Shanxi launched the second "simultaneous attack" on northern Shaanxi and the border areas of Shaanxi and Gansu. Suppress".At that time, the main force of the Northwest Red Army had only about 4.00 people, and the guerrillas had no more than 3.00 people.Faced with this situation, how to smash the enemy's attack?At that time, there were two opinions among the leaders of the Northwest Working Committee and the Red Army: Liu Zhidan advocated developing southward and attacking Yanchang, Yanchuan, Baoan, and Ansai to open up with the Shaanxi-Gansu Soviet Area; the other opinion advocated attacking the enemy's stronghold Suide , Mizhi, Jiaxian, and Wubao to open up with the Shenfu Soviet Area.Most comrades support Liu Zhidan's opinion.Liu Zhidan analyzed the situation between the enemy and ourselves, and personally drafted a mobilization order for the Northwest Military Commission to smash the second "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army. Ministry, and then developed southward and westward, connecting the Shaanxi-Gansu and Northern Shaanxi base areas into one piece.After the counter-campaign against "encirclement and suppression" began, from April 22 to late June in Liankeyanchang, Yanchuan, Ansai, Anding, Baoan, and Jingbian, six counties captured more than 2,000 enemies, handed in more than 3,000 long guns, and light and heavy machine guns. More than 200 branches have established a worker-peasant democratic regime in more than 20 counties, and expanded the guerrilla zone to more than 30 counties.The Northwest Base officially formed a vast area stretching from the Great Wall in the north, to Chunyao in the south, to Huanxian County in the west, and to the Yellow River in the east. The main Red Army had grown to about 5,000 people, and the guerrillas had grown to more than 4,000 people. The situation was very good. In August 1935, Chiang Kai-shek attempted to prevent the Central Red Army from having a third "encirclement and suppression".According to the characteristics of the enemy's strength and our weakness, Liu Zhidan formulated the combat policy of concentrating the main force of the Red Army to defeat the enemy one by one. Before the Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi in October, it won a major victory in the Battle of Laoshan.However, because the "Left" opportunists carried out the wrong "elimination of counter-revolutionaries", they imposed trumped-up charges on Liu Zhidan and arrested him in prison, which put the Northwest base area in a serious crisis.Thanks to the timely arrival of the Party Central Committee, a large number of leaders such as Liu Zhidan were released from prison, and the Northwest Revolutionary Base was also saved.Later, Xi Zhongxun said with deep understanding: "I paid attention to listening to different opinions all my life, listened to the opinions of democrats, and paid attention to doing a good job in the united front work. I followed Comrade Zhidan's teachings and learned from the actual experience at that time." An important reason why the Northwest Revolutionary Bases did not fail is that Liu Zhidan and others have conscientiously implemented the policies and strategies of the united front.