Chapter 18 17. On Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang's Military Movement Work

After the failure of the Weihua Uprising, in July and August 1928, Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang returned to the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and were immediately sent to northern Shaanxi.At that time, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee was in a period of depression after Mizhi was destroyed.According to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee, Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang started military activities in northern Shaanxi and the Shaanxi-Gansu border.

In the spring of 1929, Liu Zhidan returned to his hometown of Baoan County (now Zhidan County). The conflict between Lu Yangzhi and the political circle drove Lu Yangzhi away, and Liu Zhidan and Cao Liru became the chief and deputy chiefs respectively.Liu and Cao used their legal identities to try to transform this militia group into a revolutionary armed force.The Party organization of Bao'an County then sent a group of party members into the militia, established a Party branch, and began the transformation of this reactionary armed force.At the same time, they also actively supported the revolutionary struggle of the local people, and once arrested and executed several gentry who were hated by the people.Liu Zhidan's revolutionary activities aroused the panic and counterattack of the enemy.Under the pressure of counter-revolutionaries, Liu Zhidan left the militia.Cao Liru and others continued to lurk in the militia and secretly carried out revolutionary activities.

In the autumn of 1929, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee sent Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang to the 4th Division of the Su Yusheng Cavalry in Ningxia to do troop transportation.Liu and Xie brought dozens of people into Su Yusheng's department under the legal name of leading the troops to vote.Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang not only enjoy high prestige among the people in northern Shaanxi and the border areas of Shaanxi and Gansu, but also enjoy a high reputation in the enemy camp.Su Yusheng used "a small temple to win a great god" and occasionally won the admiration of a hero, so he left Liu and Xie.In order to expand his influence, Su Yusheng organized the troops led by Liu and Xie into a brigade, with Xie Zichang as the brigade commander.At the same time, Liu Zhidan was appointed as the deputy head of the Lieutenant Colonel of Zhang Tingzhi's 16th Regiment, and Xigang used Liu Zhidan to control Zhang Tingzhi (Zhang and Su Yuan are not in the same system).Subsequently, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee successively sent 50 members of the Communist Party, including Zhang Xiushan, Zhang Dongjiao, Wang Shitai, Ma Yunze, Gao Pengfei, Li Shulin, Huang Yuhua, He Jinnian, and Hao Xingmin, into Su Yusheng's department, and established the party's military committee. For Zhang Dongjiao. In the spring of 1930, Su Yusheng failed in Ningxia and fled across the border of Ningxia, Shaanxi and Gansu.At this time, Xie Zichang was transferred back by the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee, while Liu Zhidan was sent back to Northern Shaanxi by Su Yusheng to expand his strength.After Liu Zhidan returned to Baoan, he drew some people from the security militia as the foundation, collected old troops, received civilian armed forces and "poles" (bandits), and soon formed a battalion with Liu Zhidan as the battalion commander.The troops were active in the Daochuan area of ​​Qingyang North.At the same time, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee sent Xie Zichang, Yan Hongyan, Zhao Hongzhi, Zhao Wenwei, Ma Yunze, and Li Weijun to "Houqiutian" in Yichuan to recruit the bandit Yang Gengwu's Zhou Weiqi battalion, and about to pull out more than 300 people from the battalion.Then he went to Sandaochuan and joined Liu Zhidan's troops to form a regiment, with Xie Zichang as the head of the regiment.Later, Zhang Tingzhi used his sister as a bait to buy Zhou Weiqi.Zhou Sui conspired with Zhang to rebel, Xie Zichang and a few cadres escaped from danger, and the troops were all destroyed.Liu Zhidan was in Qingyang at that time. After learning about Zhou Weiwei's rebellion, he immediately returned to Sandaochuan, but was hunted down by Zhang Tingzhi on the way.Liu Zhidan took refuge in the Yongning cottage and escaped under the protection of Cao Liru and Wang Ziyi.Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang's military activities on the Shaanxi-Gansu border were frustrated.

In October 1930, Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang returned to the special committee to attend the third enlarged meeting.Soon after the meeting, Liu Zhidan was sent to the security team, and Xie Zichang was transferred to the Shanghai Central Special Section for training.Liu and Xie then split up. Liu Zhidan returned to Baoan again, and with the help of the Baoan Party organization, formed an armed force of more than ten people. In early September, Liu Zhidan led this unit under the designation of the Sixth Battalion of the Longdong Militia Army to attack Taibai Town, killed Huang Yulin, the head of the town's militia regiment, and seized more than 60 long and short guns and dozens of mules and horses.Afterwards, guerrilla attacks took place in Baoan, Ganquan, and Heshui areas, and developed into more than 200 people within two or three months.A battalion of Gaoshuangcheng, the 256th Brigade of Houjing Yuexiu Division, was stationed in the security guards to carry out "encirclement and suppression".Liu Zhidan led his troops to fight the enemy.The battle failed many times, and more than half of the troops were lost, and they were forced to retreat to the Ziwuling Mountains in the Xiaoshiya area of ​​Yijun County.Liu Zhidan's military activities on the Shaanxi-Gansu border suffered another setback.

At the beginning of 1931, Liu Zhidan sent Yang Shurong, secretary of the guerrilla branch, to contact the provincial party committee.The Provincial Party Committee instructed to cooperate with Su Yusheng again to accumulate strength and wait for the uprising. In the winter of 1930, after Su Yusheng failed in Ningxia, he accepted Yang Hucheng's adaptation and became the brigade commander, stationed in Bin County.When Liu Zhidan led his troops to join again, Su Yusheng reorganized Liu Zhidan's troops into a supplementary regiment, with Liu Zhidan as the regiment leader, stationed in Zhitian Town, Xunyi County.Liu Zhidan took advantage of this opportunity to collect the dispersed troops and recruit revolutionary youths to actively expand the troops and prepare for the uprising.At this time, the landlords and tyrants secretly colluded with the Kuomintang Shaanxi Provincial Government to conspire to arrest and kill Liu Zhidan.Su Yusheng conspired with the reactionary authorities to lure Liu Zhidan to Bin County under the guise of holding a meeting, arrest Liu, and put him in Bin County Prison.At the same time, he also mobilized two regiments to besiege the field.The troops fought bloody battles with the enemy for two days and nights, and then released from prison to rescue Liu Zhidan. After a meeting of company platoon leaders, the entire army laid down their weapons.After the troops were disarmed, they were organized into an unarmed transportation company and stationed in Niangniang Temple, Dongguan Village, Bin County.On the eighth day of Liu Zhidan's imprisonment, he happened to meet Du Bincheng, who was passing by Bin County because of his business affairs.After being rescued by Mr. Du, Liu Zhidan was released.The third uprising failed again.

After Liu Zhidan was released from prison, he happened to meet Li Qinfu from his hometown.Li was the deputy division chief of Chen Lianzhang, commander of the 13th Longdong Temporary Division. He bought two dozen pistols for Chen in Tianjin, and was detained by Su Yusheng when he traveled to Bin County.The contradiction between Chen and Su suddenly intensified.Li Qinfu and Liu Zhidan went to Pingliang to meet Chen Qizhang.Chen knew that Liu Zhidan was a member of the Communist Party, but he admired him very much. In view of the sharp contradictions between Chen and Su, Chen was willing to join forces with Liu to resist the Soviet Union, and appointed Liu Zhidan as the brigade commander of the 11th Brigade directly under the 13th Division of Longdong, and the defense area was designated as Ning County , Zhengning two places.At this time, Yang Hucheng had ordered Su Yusheng to be eliminated, and Chen Siliconzhang was ordered to execute it.So the battle plan to eliminate Su Yusheng's troops came into being: the Longdong Thirteenth Division stationed in Zaosheng Town directly controlled the Gao Guangren Cavalry Brigade, the Longdong Thirteenth Division stationed in Ning County and Zhengning directly controlled the Eleventh Brigade Liu Zhidan's troops; The Liu Baotang Brigade of the Thirteenth Division was the chasing and annihilating force.Unexpectedly, Gao Guangren colluded with Su Yusheng and Zhang Tingzhi for a long time, and Gao, Su, and Zhang planned to retreat to Ningxia to dominate.Under this conspiracy, on June 29, 1931, Gao Guangren acted suddenly and defeated Liu Zhidan's brigade. At the same time, Liu Baotang's brigade was also disarmed by Gao Jun, and cadres above the platoon leader were kidnapped and fled north.But when Gao Jun marched to Qingyang, he was broken up by Chen Qizhang's Jiang Yuntai Brigade of Xifeng Town Garrison, and two brigades of Chen Fazhang's department were rescued.After Gao Guangren's remnant army retreated to Ningxia, it failed completely.At this time, Jiang Yuntai wanted to arrest Liu Zhidan.In this situation, Liu Zhidan left Zhang Xiushan, Wang Shitai, Zhang Jingru, Zhang Erkai, Liu Yuesan and others in the Chen Department, and continued to hide, waiting for the opportunity.He and Ma Xiwu left the team and entered the Nanliang area.Liu Zhidan suffered another defeat for the fourth time.

In mid-July 1931, after Liu Zhidan and Ma Xiwu entered the Nanliang area, they quickly launched activities, and soon incorporated three armed forces, Zhao Lianbi, Yang Peisheng, and Jia Shengcai, and awarded the designations of the three battalions respectively: the first battalion of Zhao Lianbi's Ministry Office, Battalion Commander Zhao Lianbi; Yang Peisheng's Division is the Second Battalion, and the Battalion Commander is Yang Peisheng; Jia Shengcai's Division is the Third Battalion, and the battalion commander is Jia Shengcai.At this point, Liu Zhidan finally formed a revolutionary armed force independently led by the Communists—the Nanliang guerrillas.Soon, the guerrilla team joined forces with the Shanxi army who had moved to northern Shaanxi, and joined forces to form the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army, with Xie Zichang and Liu Zhidan as the chief and deputy commanders. In February 1932, the Northwest Anti-Imperialist Allied Army was reorganized into the Shaanxi-Gansu Guerrillas of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. It officially raised the red flag and became the predecessor of the Northwest Red Army.

After the uprisings centered on Weihua failed, the Kuomintang authorities strengthened their reactionary rule in Shaanxi, frantically hunted and killed Communists and revolutionary masses, and the party organization was severely damaged.How to establish, develop, and strengthen one's own military armed organization is a key problem that needs to be solved urgently. At that time, the land in the Shaanxi-Gansu area was barren, and natural disasters occurred in successive years since 1928. In addition, the warlords continued to fight each other, the economy collapsed sharply, and the peasants lived in extreme poverty; Layers of exploitation, soldiers' life is 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, and were beaten, scolded and even killed at will.The relationship between officers and soldiers was tense, the soldiers were very dissatisfied, and spontaneous mutinies occurred from time to time.

In addition, Nanjing, 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 enough 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. They recruited troops everywhere to expand their strength.These all show that the military movement work was not only forced by the situation, but also that there were relatively favorable conditions for carrying out the military movement work at that time.

In February 1928, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China analyzed the necessity and possibility of carrying out military transport work, and believed that the warlords of the Chinese army were tools of the Chinese feudal bourgeoisie, but most of the soldiers were unemployed workers, farmers and some hooligans proletariat.They are oppressed by warlords in order to live, so they are a kind of blind masses who are economically oppressed to the extreme and take risks. We want to prevent this part of the masses from becoming a tool used by the hostile class, so we have to carry out activities. ...Soldier movement is objective and possible.On March 6 of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China mentioned in the "Decision on the Revolutionary Situation and Struggle Tactics" that the party's strategy should be "...to organize revolutionary soldiers, to instigate mutiny, and to carry out the affairs generally."

On July 9, 1928, the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China passed the "Military Work Resolution (Draft)", which established the policy of military transport work; on November 11 of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clarified in the "Message to All Compatriots" The active role of Kuomintang soldiers in the Chinese revolution and the importance of carrying out military movement work. On June 22, 1929, the "Resolution on the Shaanxi Issue" passed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out.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, expand the party's political propaganda, so as to win over the vast masses of soldiers and integrate them with the struggles of the workers and peasants." On November 7, 1929, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the Circular No. 56 of "The Current Situation of Chinese Soldiers and Our Party's Military Movement Strategy and Work Route", which expounded the strategic guidelines and specific requirements of the military movement work, and stipulated Slogans for propaganda and agitation work. On June 19, 1930, in the special notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China "On the Issue of Organizing Soldiers' Riots", detailed details were given on how to realize the highest form of soldiers' struggle, valuable experience and lessons from the past, and the work route for organizing soldiers' riots. illustrate. On March 14, 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out in the "Resolution on the Current Work of Military Movement": "In this period of civil war, our party will not only lead the Red Army to disarm the Kuomintang army heroically, but also the party and all The revolutionary organization must carry out the work of sabotage and disintegration in the enemy's army, and politically win the soldiers and masses to the revolutionary side. Only the joint action of these two parties can win the victory over the enemy." According to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in February 1929, the Special Committee of the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed at the enlarged meeting that the party's current work is to strengthen the peasant movement, consolidate the school positions, actively carry out military movement work, and send party members to the White Army to fight for Armed forces, meet 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" in it was the development of 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. 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.Most of the Communist Party members who participated in the military movement later became the leaders of the Northwest Red Army.Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, Xi Zhongxun, Ma Wenrui, Wang Shitai, Zhang Xiushan, He Jinnian, etc., were the foundation for the establishment of the Red Twenty-sixth Army and the Red Twenty-seventh Army and the establishment of the Northwest Revolutionary Base Area, as well as the future revolutionary war and the construction of the people's army. Made an outstanding contribution. On the other hand, they used various methods in the warlord army to make friends with the Seventh Army, attract and unite the soldiers around the Communist Party organization, and also absorbed progressive soldiers to join the Party organization, cultivating a group of revolutionary forces, making the Party Organizations are developed.As Wang Shitai recalled, when Su Yusheng was recruiting regiments, Zhidan instructed us 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 are not disclosed, it is precisely because of their military movement work that the Kuomintang troops and officers and soldiers have a deeper understanding of the Red Army, and they begin to sympathize with the revolution, or gradually embark on the road of revolution. The development of united front work in Northwest China laid the foundation.The Kuomintang officers Han Liancheng, Niu Huadong, Cao Youshen, Zuo Xiezhong, Liu Baotang, etc. who had been in contact with Liu Zhidan successively were all influenced by Liu Zhidan's political thought and embarked on the road of revolution.All these created favorable conditions for the subsequent revolutionary struggle.Moreover, in order to unite all revolutionary forces to participate in the struggle, Xie Zichang and Liu Zhidan also fought for the transformation of the gang organization Gelaohui in northern Shaanxi, and gradually led a group of Gelaohui members to the revolutionary road. As mentioned above, the military movement work carried out by Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang not only conforms to the spirit of the party's instructions, but also provides training for the development of the party's military work in the future.Raised a large number of backbone.However, the work of military transportation failed to achieve complete victory in the end.This made them gradually realize the importance of combining the military movement with the peasant movement to establish a revolutionary base.Liu Zhidan and others realized that the first thing to do is to have a gun. This is a simple concept.Where did the barrel of the gun come from?The gun is in the hands of the enemy, in the counter-revolutionary army, where to seize it is another simple concept.After taking a detour and suffering great losses, they realized that the proletarian revolution cannot use ready-made old-style armed forces, and all old-style armed forces cannot form a revolutionary army.And this is precisely the theoretical principle of Leninism about smashing the old state apparatus.Proceeding from this principle, it is undoubtedly correct to take advantage of the contradictions among the warlords and strive for some conditions in the process of building a revolutionary army.But this is only a temporary factor, and the fundamental way is to go to the people and create a people's army among the people.Just as Liu Zhidan said when summarizing the experience of this historical period: "The use of warlords is temporary, and the name of warlords cannot be used. We will go out alone when we prepare the conditions." "In recent years, the Shaanxi-Gansu region has successively More than 70 mutinies have been held, all of which have failed. The most fundamental reason is that the military movement has not been combined with the peasant movement, and a revolutionary base has not been established. If we rely on Jinggang Mountains as Comrade Mao Zedong did, we will carry out armed separatism , establish a base area, and gradually develop and expand the guerrilla zone. Even if the severe situation comes, we still have a place to stand and room for maneuver. The most fundamental thing now is to have a base area." Xie Zichang also realized that "to engage in revolutionary armed forces, rely on The old army's legal status is not enough to recruit troops... We still have to follow the road of Jinggangshan, mobilize the masses, carry out agrarian revolution, establish a workers' and peasants' regime, arm workers and peasants with weapons taken from the enemy, establish and gradually strengthen the Communist Party's absolute leadership The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army...Only such an army is the people's own army, connected with the people by flesh and blood, and will never be defeated by the enemy." Since then, they have thrown off the warlord army and looked for another way. To sum up, although Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang’s military movement activities have experienced various failures and setbacks, at the same time, these failures have also enabled the Communists to grow their talents and accumulate experience and lessons in conducting military struggles. For the subsequent Northwest Red Army, it trained and cultivated a group of important military backbone forces, attacked the rule of the Kuomintang, and expanded the influence of the Communist Party in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region.Their revolutionary spirit of not being afraid of hardships and daring to explore is worth learning from.As Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang's early attempt to establish a revolutionary armed force, the military movement work is worthy of full recognition and praise.