Chapter 17 16. Several understandings of the early military activities of Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang

The early military activities of Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang were mainly to carry out military operations, recruit bandits and accept the recruitment of warlord Chen Silicon.Although they experienced various failures and setbacks during this period, it is still worthy of full affirmation and praise as an important attempt by them to try to establish a revolutionary armed force. Carrying out military transport work was a bold attempt by Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang and others to develop the revolutionary armed forces.As early as the early days of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, due to the failure of several armed struggles in the south, the party had already begun to think about the reasons for this problem. At the August 7th Conference in 1927, Mao Zedong clearly put forward the slogan "Government grows out of the barrel of a gun".At that time, the revolutionary movement in Shaanxi was also at a low ebb. When the spirit of the August 7th Conference spread to Shaanxi, the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Special Committee of Northern Shaanxi called for the transfer of the central task to turning the White Army into the Red Army.Therefore, Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang and others complied with the historical situation at that time, obeyed the instructions of the Provincial Party Committee and the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee, and went to Shaanxi, Gansu Longdong and Ningxia to engage in military movement work for nearly three years.Although it suffered many failures, it laid a good foundation for the establishment of its own revolutionary armed forces and the establishment of the revolutionary base areas in the Shaanxi-Gansu border and northern Shaanxi.First of all, the development of military transport work was forced by the situation after the failure of the Weihua Uprising.After the failure of the Weihua Uprising, the Kuomintang authorities strengthened their reactionary rule in Shaanxi, frantically hunting and killing Communists and revolutionary masses.Due to the objective lack of experience in leading military struggles, the party organization suffered great losses.Therefore, how to establish, develop, and strengthen one's own military armed organization is the key to success or failure in the future.

At that time, the land in Shaanxi-Gansu area was barren, and natural disasters occurred in successive years since 1928. The economy collapsed, and the life of farmers was extremely poor; extremely bad.The warlords competed for territory, there were many conflicts, and they fought each other. Soldiers became tools in the struggle for power and profit. They were beaten, scolded and even killed at will. The relationship between officers and soldiers was tense.Soldiers' discontent was high, and spontaneous mutinies occurred from time to time.Liu and Xie were aware of the situation at the time and took the initiative to accept the dispatch of the party organization to carry out military transport work in the Shaanxi-Gansu area in a timely manner, which met the needs of the work at that time.

In addition, the ruling center of the Kuomintang is far away from the Shaanxi-Gansu region, and the local garrisons are mostly miscellaneous troops and local warlords that the Nanjing government does not pay attention to.After the Central Plains War, Feng Yuxiang's army withdrew from the Shaanxi-Gansu region. At that time, the main force of the Kuomintang army in the area was Yang Hucheng's 17th Route Army and some local warlords.In order to expand their strength, they recruited soldiers everywhere.Realizing these relatively favorable conditions, Liu Zhidan and Wei Zichang attacked the Kuomintang army at the right time, and spread revolutionary ideas among the Kuomintang troops and the people of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia where they were engaged in military transportation, and expanded the political influence of the CCP among them.Niu Huadong, an officer of the Kuomintang who was in contact with Liu Zhidan, also embarked on the road of revolution due to the influence of Liu Zhidan and others' revolutionary ideas.

Secondly, Liu, Xie and others carried out the military movement work in line with the instructions of the Central Committee, the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee at that time. In February 1928, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China analyzed the necessity and possibility of carrying out military movement work in "About Soldiers' Movement Plan", pointing out: "The warlords of the Chinese army are all tools of the Chinese feudal and bourgeoisie, but among them, the soldiers, Most of them are unemployed workers, peasants and a part of the lumpen proletariat. They are employed by warlords for the oppression of life, so they are a kind of blind masses who are under extreme economic oppression and take risks. We use tools, so we have to do activities. . . . So the movement of soldiers is objective and possible.”

On July 9, 1928, at the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the "Resolution on Military Work" was passed, which established the policy of military transportation work; on November 11 of the same year.In the "Message to All Compatriots", the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clarified the active role of Kuomintang soldiers in the Chinese revolution and the importance of carrying out military movement work. On June 22, 1929, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China passed the "Resolution on the Shaanxi Question", stating that the current task of the Shaanxi Party is to "intensify the work among the soldiers, actively do the work among the soldiers, actively launch the daily struggles among the soldiers, and expand the party's political propaganda in order to capture the vast masses of soldiers and bring them together with the struggle of the workers and peasants".

From November 7, 1929 to January 7, 1930, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China successively issued Circular No. 56 on "The Current Situation of Chinese Soldiers and Our Party's Military Movement Strategy and Work Line" and "The Line and Tactics on Organizing Mutiny" Circular No. 64 repeatedly expounded the strategic guidelines and specific requirements of the troop movement work, and stipulated the slogans for propaganda and agitation work to the enemy. Liu and Xie strictly followed the spirit of the central government's instructions and actively participated in the work of military movement, paving the way for the disintegration of the enemy's army and the establishment of their own armed forces.

The activities of the two coincided with the instructions of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Special Committee of Northern Shaanxi.As early as September 1927, the first enlarged meeting of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward slogans such as "the party goes to the army" and "cultivating the military foundation of the revolution". In the army of warlords. In February 1929, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward the current work of the party at the enlarged meeting: strengthen the peasant movement, consolidate the school positions, actively carry out military movement work, send party members to the White Army to fight for armed forces, and welcome the revolutionary climax.Later, at the enlarged meeting of Yulin Hongshixia in April and May of the same year, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee proposed the form of armed struggle of "three colors-white, gray, and red", and the "white" was to carry out military movements. work, and decided to focus on "white jobs".As a result, military movement became the main form of armed struggle in the Shaanxi-Gansu region.

It can be seen from this that the military movement activities that Liu and Xie engaged in (by no means their personal "kingdom" mentality) adapted to the requirements of the CCP organization at that time, and also conformed to the central task of the party organization in the Shaanxi-Gansu area at that time.It is precisely because of their military movement work that the Kuomintang troops and officers and soldiers deepened their understanding of the Red Army, began to sympathize with the revolution, or gradually embarked on the road of revolution.This also laid the foundation for the future development of the CCP's military united front work in the northwest region.At the same time, through Liu and Xie's military movement work, the mutiny of the Kuomintang army was like a spark, which effectively dealt a blow to the Kuomintang's rule in the Shaanxi-Gansu region.

Through the military movement work, a group of military cadres were trained for the party, the number of party members was increased, and the party's strength was developed.After three years of military movement, Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang and others attacked the enemy's interior many times, killed people, and worked actively. Although most of them suffered failures, they strongly promoted the development of armed struggles in the northwest region and contributed to the Communist Party of China. A group of military and political backbones were trained and brought up, which laid a solid foundation for the establishment of the Northwest Red Army and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Base Area.Many Communist Party members who participated in the military movement, such as Xi Zhongxun and Ma Wenrui, later became the leaders of the Northwest Red Army.They were responsible for the establishment of the 26th Red Army, the 27th Red Army and the Northwest Revolutionary Base, as well as the future revolutionary war and people.He has made outstanding contributions to the construction of the People's Army.

On the other hand, they made friends with the soldiers in various ways in the warlord army, attracted and united the soldiers to the Communist Party organizations, and even absorbed them.Progressives joined the party organization, cultivated a group of revolutionary forces, and developed the party organization.As Wang Shitai recalled, when Su Yusheng was recruiting regiments, Liu Zhidan instructed them to take advantage of the temporary stability, do a good job in the ideological work of the soldiers, discover activists, and recruit party members.At that time, our party's activities were secret, and the main leaders were all party members. Although the identities of party members were not disclosed, the activities were still very impressive. After a period of work, the soldiers' mood was relatively stable, and they absorbed several party members.Wang Shitai remembered that there were more than 20 party members including Liu Zhidan at that time.Twenty or so party members were quite a revolutionary force at the time, and they were scattered in various companies and squads to take the lead.

First of all, the incorporation of banditry is consistent with the "grey" revolutionary theory in the spirit of the Hongshixia Conference of the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee.At the Hongshixia Conference, Yang Guodong was criticized for his right-leaning mistakes, and his position as acting secretary of the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee was revoked. Liu Zhidan took over as secretary of the Military Commission of the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee and presided over the work of the special committee. The "three-color revolution theory" proposed at the meeting ", where "gray" is the work of recruiting bandit forces.Therefore, the incorporation of the bandit armed forces in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region was the behavior of Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang and others strictly implementing the spirit of the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee meeting at that time. The incorporation of bandits and green forest armed forces led to the birth and growth of the Nanliang guerrillas, which laid the foundation for the establishment of the base area in the future.As mentioned above, we know that at the Hongshixia Conference in 1929, Liu Zhidan and others put forward the important idea of ​​turning the enemy's armed forces into revolutionary armed forces, and the meeting decided to win over, educate and transform the bandit and green forest armed forces to prepare the mass base for the establishment of the people's army This is another successful practice of Liu, Xie and others in developing revolutionary armed forces.At the same time, also because of the "Sandaochuan Incident" in August 1930 and the "Early Victory Incident" in August 1931, Shaanxi's military movement work suffered major setbacks in a year. Actively explore and use the method of transforming the green forest armed forces to create revolutionary armed forces. Therefore, in September 1931, Liu Zhidan came to Daoshuiwan, Pingdingchuan, Heshui County, and armed the three peasant armies led by the party in Nanliang area, Zhao Lianbi, Yang Peisheng, and Jia Shengcai, together with other peasants scattered in Heshui and Qingyang. The civilian armed forces in the mountainous areas and the lost backbone of our party's military movement work were reorganized.The reorganized army has a total of more than 400 people and has three brigades under its jurisdiction. Zhao Lianbi, Yang Peisheng, and Jia Shengcai are the captains of the first, second, and third brigades respectively.After the transformation of the civilian bandits and green forest armed forces, an independent revolutionary armed force led by our party-Nanliang guerrillas was born. Liu Zhidan and others correctly analyzed the characteristics of the bandit green forest armed forces and the reasons why they became bandit green forest armed forces. That is, many of the green forest armed forces in Ziwuling on the Shaanxi-Gansu border and Huanglong Mountain in Shaanxi Province were forced to live in poverty and could not bear the oppression. Forced to go up the mountain as a "bandit".There are essential differences and sharp and complicated contradictions between them and bureaucratic warlords and powerful landlords.As long as they have the leadership of the Communist Party and education reform, they may embark on the road of revolution.And the facts also proved this point. Some "kings of the mountain" later became generals of the people's army and important cadres of the people's government.This method is not only a powerful supplement to the military movement work, but also the implementation and implementation of the "grey" revolutionary spirit.Liu Zhidan and others established the CCP team committee in the Nanliang guerrillas. In accordance with the spirit of the Gutian Conference, they carried out arduous and meticulous education and transformation of the troops, so that they continued to grow and grow into an active revolutionary armed force. The regular Red Army and the opening up of base areas created conditions. First, Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang and other leaders proceeded from the actual situation faced by the army at that time, and accepted the recruitment of Longdong warlord Chen Lianzhang, which solved the urgent need of the army-military supplies, which was a kind of "borrowing water to raise fish". The strategy played an important role in the recuperation of the Red Army guerrillas. In October 1931, after the Nanliang guerrillas joined the Shanxi (northern Shaanxi) guerrillas, the troops faced serious economic difficulties.Under such circumstances, the team committee led by Xie Zichang and Liu Zhidan believed that the most urgent task is to solve the military needs, stabilize the troops, and at the same time step up internal rectification to create conditions for the formal establishment of the Red Army.In order to solve the food and lodging of the army and get rid of the bandits, they decided to transfer the troops to Qingyang and temporarily stationed in the area of ​​Xinbao.At this time, Chen Lianzhang tried his best to expand his strength in order to fight against the Shaanxi army, and sent people to contact the guerrillas.Considering the current situation and actual needs of the guerrillas, Liu, Xie and others believed that they could take advantage of the enemy's contradictions to aid in military supplies and generate strength.So Ma Yunze, Liu Yuesan and others were sent to Pingliang to negotiate with Chen Silicon, and a series of agreements were reached.Chen agreed to allocate 15 ()0 sets of winter clothes to the guerrillas, 3,000 yuan in military pay, 15 packs of firearms and tools for repair, 1 pack of western medicine, and sent more than 20 workers, 2 military doctors and nurses, etc.This is undoubtedly a timely help for the guerrillas who are facing severe economic difficulties.It can be said that accepting the inclusion was a wise choice under the special circumstances at that time. Second, although the guerrillas were incorporated, the institutional system after the incorporation still maintained its independence.According to the agreement reached with Chen Qizhang, the number of the unit after the incorporation is the Second Brigade of the 13th Division of Longdong Temporary Guard Cavalry, temporarily stationed in the Xinbao area of ​​Qingyang, Xie Zichang is the brigade commander, Liu Zhidan is the deputy brigade commander and chief of staff, Yang Chongyuan He is the chief of staff, and Ma Xiwu is the chief of military supplies.This kind of establishment and leadership structure maintains independence.Moreover, the army can also use the name and defense area given by Chen Qizhang to recruit troops to preserve and expand their own armed forces.Of course, in this process, some criticisms were received from the provincial party committee.But from the perspective of developing and strengthening its own team, some criticisms from the provincial party committee are a bit extreme. In mid-December 1931, when the guerrillas were stationed in Newcastle, the Provincial Party Committee sent Rong Ziqing and others to the troops to convey instructions on reorganizing the troops, and severely criticized the troops for recruiting bandits and accepting Chen Lianzhang's recruitment. The army "has been incorporated by small warlords in Gansu", "is purely military speculation", "mixed with other bandits", "bandit-style burning and looting", etc. The criticism from the Provincial Party Committee should be viewed objectively and dialectically.On the one hand, as mentioned earlier, recruiting bandits and accepting Chen Qizhang’s incorporation cannot be regarded as “incorporation by small warlords in Gansu” and “pure military speculation” and “mixing with other bandits.” The provincial party committee’s criticism is a bit too much Absolute and extreme; on the other hand, it must be admitted that due to the complex composition of the army at that time, there were indeed situations and facts of poor discipline, but the team committee headed by Xie Zishang Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, and Liu Zhidan had long been aware of this problem and gave some serious consideration. great concern and various efforts have been made to address it.Therefore, this point of criticism from the Provincial Party Committee is reasonable.However, banditry should be distinguished from poor discipline in the troops.At the same time, it is precisely to deal with poor discipline and completely solve the formal reorganization of the troops, and to create a red army. Following the instructions of the provincial party committee, the team committee decided to reorganize the troops. In late October 1931, under the leadership of Yan Hongyan and others, the Shanxi guerrillas arrived at Nanliang, Qingyang, Gansu, and joined the Nanliang guerrillas led by Liu Zhidan.In the same month, Xie Zichang also came to Nanliang according to the instructions of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.Under the guidance of the Provincial Party Committee, the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army was established in February 1932 with Xie Zichang and Liu Zhidan as the chief and deputy commanders.After the tortuous practice of building the army, the practice of the party directly leading the army has finally become a reality here. This is a great practice and contribution to the "red" revolutionary theory. On February 12, 1932, under the instructions of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army was officially reorganized into the Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrilla Force of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army in Sanjiayuan, Zhengning County, Qingyang, with Xie Zichang as the commander-in-chief.The establishment of the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas unfurled the banner of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army for the first time in the Shaanxi-Gansu border area.At the same time, under the leadership of Xie and Liu, the team actively carried out military training, established a political work system, and established a team committee as the highest leadership organization of the guerrillas. .Soldiers Committee, Propaganda Team and Lenin Room were also established.This not only made the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas a real people's army led by the party, but also laid the foundation for the later political work of the Northwest Red Army, and established the absolute leadership of the party over the army from the organization. As for the "Sanjiayuan handover incident" that occurred in the Shaanxi-Gansu border base area, we need to review some historical situations at that time to explain. In late October 1931, after the reunion of Nanliang, the two armies formed the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army, the northern Shaanxi guerrillas formed the first detachment, and the Nanliang guerrillas formed the second detachment. In January 1932, Zhao Lianbi, the captain of the first brigade of the second detachment, took some people out to fight local tyrants because of the difficulty in providing supplies for the troops.Because the scope of attack was too wide, and things from the masses were robbed in the market, which caused adverse effects.Therefore, a small number of leaders believed that the composition of the second detachment was impure and the troops were unstable, so they handed over the guns of the second detachment on February 6, 1932, and killed Zhao Lianbi on the spot, which led to the "Sanjiayuan incident of handing over guns".In fact, the impure composition of the army is a serious problem in the army itself, which must be faced squarely.However, since the Nanliang reunion, Xie, Liu and other major leaders have always adhered to the policy of unity and transformation.However, when Liu Xie and Xie had different opinions on how to reform, Liu Zhidan and others did not understand the sudden attack.However, Liu Zhidan and others were able to proceed from the interests of the overall situation, maintained the unity of the newly formed team, stopped the further development of the situation, and went to Xi'an to report to the provincial party committee.It should be said that the incident of handing over guns was caused by some people's lack of understanding of the characteristics of the army itself and the failure to recognize the special stage the army is in. After the Nanliang rendezvous, the Provincial Party Committee asked the team committee to quickly form a formal Red Army.Considering the specific situation at that time, Liu Zhidan proposed not to rush to set up the banner of the Red Army, so as to create better conditions and gradually reform.However, most comrades in the team committee believe that a formal Red Army should be formed immediately.On the one hand, Xie Zichang conscientiously implemented the instructions of the provincial party committee, on the other hand he listened carefully to the opinions of all parties, and carefully chose the opportunity.On the other hand, the team committee also felt that the team was impure and disciplined, and the reorganization could not be named after the Red Army.Because there was disagreement among the leading cadres, the differences were reported to the provincial party committee, and the troops moved to the Newcastle area. In February 1932, the Provincial Party Committee decided to establish the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army.From what we see today, the establishment of the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army was not only a good choice and a transitional method for the establishment and formation of a formal Red Army when opinions were not unified at that time, but also served as a basis for the reorganization of Sanjiayuan on February 12, 1932 and the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrilla The official establishment of the team has made a good foundation.Although the "gun handing over incident" occurred during the development of the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Forces to the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas, this was only a twist in the process of creating a formal Red Army and the "red" revolution, and should be viewed rationally. On May 21, 1985, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a very appropriate characterization of this matter, that is, "the composition of the team is not pure, the work style and discipline are not good, and it is necessary to rectify according to the party's army building principles. However, under normal circumstances, the The method of some people handing over the guns of others, especially when the two main leaders Liu and Xie did not reach a consensus, adopted the method of handing over their guns, and even killed people. No matter whose decision it is, it is It is wrong, let alone completely correct. Fortunately, many comrades in this team put the overall situation first, persisted in revolution, and made important contributions to the Northwest Revolution and the development of the Red Army. Comrade Liu Zhidan is an outstanding representative among them.” To sum up, the revolutionary spirit of Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang and their early military activities created conditions and laid a solid foundation for the development of revolutionary armed forces, armed struggle and the establishment of revolutionary bases.At the same time, the organizational principles they implemented in the troops they led laid the foundation for the later political work of the Northwest Red Army.It was also under their leadership that the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army were formally established, and for the first time unfurled the banner of the Red Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu border area, developing and strengthening the revolutionary forces. "Under the leadership of Comrades Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang, the party, revolutionary armed forces, and people in northern Shaanxi and the Shaanxi-Gansu border have made great achievements, which should be recorded in the glorious history."