Chapter 4 Mao Zedong decided to stop the offensive

The Autumn Harvest Rebellion failed to develop completely according to the predetermined ideas of the Central Committee and the Hunan Provincial Party Committee. Mao Zedong returned to Changsha on August 12 after attending the August 7th Conference. Peng Gongda, who participated in the August 7th meeting at the same time as Mao Zedong and was also elected as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, was appointed as the new secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and was responsible for reorganizing the Hunan Provincial Committee.He returned to Changsha one day earlier than Mao Zedong, that is, on August 11.

On August 16, Peng Gongda convened a meeting and elected new members of the Provincial Party Committee.Mao Zedong did not attend this meeting. As soon as he returned to Hunan, he went to Qingtai Township, Changsha County to investigate rural land issues, and drafted the "Land Outline" to prepare for the launch of the Land Revolution. On August 18, the reorganized Hunan Provincial Party Committee held a meeting to formulate a plan for the autumn harvest riots and discuss issues related to land and political power.Mao Zedong attended the meeting. The Hunan Provincial Party Committee actively prepared and organized the autumn harvest riots in Hunan Province.

At this time, the provincial party committee was able to command and mobilize the armed forces that participated in the riots. There were three main groups: in Xiushui, Jiangxi, it was the guard regiment of the former Second Front Army Headquarters of the Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, the Pingjiang Workers and Peasants Volunteer Team, and Tongcheng, Hubei. The peasants' armed forces in Chongyang; in Tonggu, Jiangxi, the Liuyang Workers and Peasants Volunteer Team; The Guard Corps is the backbone of the armed forces.This team was originally stationed in Wuchang and was controlled by the Communist Party.Originally, he went south to participate in the Nanchang Uprising led by Zhu De and Zhou Enlai. On the way, he heard that the uprising troops had withdrawn from Nanchang and headed to Guangdong, so they rested and waited in Xiushui County on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi.The head of the regiment, Lu Deming, was a member of the Communist Party. After he led the team to the Hunan-Jiangxi border, he went to Wuhan with Chief of Staff Han Jun and instructor Xin Huanwen to ask the party organization for instructions on the next step of the troops.After he left, Yu Sadu, the commander of the first battalion, commanded the troops.

Lu Deming made a special trip to Wuhan to ask for instructions on the whereabouts of the troops. Mao Zedong and others, who had always hoped that "one or two regiments" would be the main force of the riot, were delighted when they learned that the guard regiment had reached the border of Hunan and Jiangxi. chips. After contacts and intense preparations by all parties, on August 30, the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting to discuss the final plan for the riot.The meeting decided that "the public will report to the Central Committee on the plan"; while Mao Zedong would "go to the peasant army in Liu and Ping as division commanders and organize the Front Enemy Committee".

According to the division of labor assigned by the Provincial Party Committee, Mao Zedong went to Anyuan immediately after the meeting to deploy the riot in detail.He soon held a military meeting at the Anyuan Workers' Tuition School in Zhangjiawan, Anyuan.As a result, Mao Zedong did not serve as the "division commander" of the uprising troops. The Anyuan Military Conference determined the basic framework for the autumn harvest riots on the Hunan-Jiangxi border as follows: the command organization: the Front Enemy Committee of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, Secretary Mao Zedong; Yu Benmin, deputy commander of the division, and Zhong Wenzhang, chief of staff, had three regiments under their jurisdiction. The first regiment was the troops stationed in Xiushui, headed by Zhong Wenzhang (concurrently), the second regiment was the workers' and peasants' armed forces stationed in Anyuan, headed by Wang Xinya, and the third regiment was the The troops stationed in Tonggu, headed by Su Xianjun; Operational deployment: The troops are divided into three groups, starting from Xiushui, Anyuan, and Tonggu respectively, and attacking Changsha. With the response of the workers in the city, they will attack Changsha.

The Anyuan Military Conference was hosted by Mao Zedong. According to the requirements of the Central Committee and the Provincial Party Committee, the meeting clarified the action plan of dividing the troops into three groups, attacking Changsha, and finally attacking Changsha.Obviously, Mao Zedong also wanted to attack Changsha, the provincial capital, at this time. Mao Zedong decided to go to Tonggu and personally deploy the actions of the three regiments. From Anyuan to Tonggu, there is nearly 200 miles. Mao Zedong, accompanied by Pan Xinyuan, secretary of the Liuyang County Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Yi Ziyi, an official from Anyuan, walked along the rugged mountain road for 3 days.

On September 9, they came to the Zhangjiafang area of ​​Liuyang County. Unfortunately, they were caught by the local door-to-door regiment and were escorted to the regiment defense bureau. Regarding this distress experience, Mao Zedong described it in this way in his conversation with American journalist Edgar Snow about 10 years later in Yan'an: At that time, the terror of the Kuomintang reached its peak, and hundreds of suspected Communists were shot to death.Those militias were ordered to take me to the headquarters of the militia to be executed.But I borrowed dozens of dollars from a comrade, intending to bribe the escort to release me.Ordinary soldiers are mercenaries. I was shot, and it was of no particular benefit to them. They agreed to release me, but the captain in charge did not allow it.So I decided to run away.But it wasn't until about two hundred yards from vigilante headquarters that I got my chance.I broke free there and ran out into the fields.

I ran to a plateau with a pool of tall grass growing around it, and there I hid until the sun went down. The soldiers hunted me down and forced some farmers to help them search.There were times when they got so close that once or twice I could almost touch them.Although five or six times I had given up hope that I would be caught again, I was still not caught. Finally, when it was dark, they gave up their search.I immediately traveled across the mountains and ridges, and traveled all night.I have no shoes and my feet hurt badly.On the way I met a farmer who made friends with me, gave me a place to live, and led me to the next township.I had seven yuan with me, and I bought a pair of shoes, an umbrella and some food.When I finally reached the Peasant Red Guard safely, I had only two copper coins in my pocket.

On the day Mao Zedong was in danger, that is, on September 9, the First Regiment of the First Division of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army officially unfurled a red flag with the pattern of a sickle and an ax and the words of the First Division of the First Army of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army in Xiushui. The officers and soldiers in gray uniforms all wore red ties.They publicly showed the "Communist Party's flag", announced the uprising, and immediately followed the instructions of the Provincial Party Committee and the Front Committee, marched towards Pingjiang in Hunan Province, and prepared to attack Changsha.

At this time, the third regiment stationed in Tonggu was anxious about Mao Zedong's delay in arriving and not being able to get instructions from his superiors. On September 10, Mao Zedong, who escaped from danger, finally came to Tonggu and found the regiment headquarters of the third regiment. The leaders of the third regiment suddenly felt that they had a backbone. On this day, it happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mao Zedong and the officers and soldiers of the third regiment had dinner together, celebrating the festival and celebrating the uprising. On the 11th, the three regiments attacked Baisha Town, Liuyang, and there were not many enemies defending. After an hour of fighting, the enemy was about to be defeated. On the 12th, the troops took advantage of the victory to capture another small town, Dongmen City.But just when the third regiment entered Dongmen City to mobilize the masses and restore the peasant association, the Kuomintang army was mobilizing troops and generals to counterattack. On the 14th, the enemy attacked Dongmen City in two ways.Due to insufficient estimation of the enemy's situation and no preparations for the enemy's counterattack, when the third regiment exchanged fire with the enemy, the enemy had basically formed an encirclement of the third regiment.Fortunately, the Second Battalion seized Ma'anshan one step ahead of the enemy, allowing the troops to rely on this commanding height to resist the enemy's attack.

The fierce battle went on for several hours, and the enemy army gathered more and more, coupled with sophisticated weapons, the firepower became more and more fierce.The third regiment newly formed by the peasant army lacked combat experience, and their weapons were also very poor. Except for some "Made in Hanyang" and "Nine Ring Spears", most of the soldiers carried spears and broadswords. The outcome of this contest of disparity in power is not difficult to predict. Mao Zedong decisively decided that the troops would break out from the bottom of Ma'anshan in three routes and move towards Shangping.As it was getting late, the enemy did not pursue with all their strength. The third regiment that retreated to Shangping was no longer a regiment.Before the battle, there were only 400 people left in the team of 1,500 people. But at this time the traffic officer brought another shocking news: a regiment lost in the battle of Pingjiang Jinping! One regiment was the most powerful unit in the uprising army, and Mao Zedong and other uprising leaders placed the greatest hopes on it. It was defeated in the first battle, which was indeed somewhat unexpected. The failure of Yituan was caused by the mistake of the division commander Yu Sadu. When Lu Deming, the head of the guard regiment, went to Wuhan to ask for instructions, the troops were handed over to Yu Sadu, the commander of the first battalion. In the first division, Yu Sadu immediately became the division commander.The Anyuan Military Conference decided to form the First Division of the First Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army on the basis of the provisional First Division, with Yu Sadu still serving as the division commander.On September 10, the second day after a regiment announced the uprising in Xiushui, the former regiment leader Lu Deming rushed back to the troops.At this time, it was inconvenient to erase Yu Sadu's position as division commander, so he had to give Lu Deming the title of "commander in chief" above the division commander. In order to expand his strength, Yu Sadu incorporated the Guizhou warlord Wang Tianpei's remnant Qiu Guoxuan regiment on the eve of the uprising. First, he was given the designation of the second regiment of the first division. The workers' and peasants' armed forces were formed into the second regiment, and Qiu Guoxuan's regiment had to be changed into the fourth regiment. It was this fourth regiment, which no one knew the details of, who stabbed Yituan fatally in the back. It was on the third day of the uprising, that is, on September 11, Zhong Wenzhang, chief of staff of the division and head of the first regiment, commanded the first and fourth regiments to plan to attack Pingjiang City via Changshou Street.When the troops arrived at Jinping, 15 miles away from Changshou Street, Qiu Guoxuan, head of the Fourth Regiment, reported that the enemy was found ahead.Zhong Wenzhang immediately ordered the four regiments walking in front to spread out to the left and right wings. He took the lead and led the two battalions of the first regiment to rush forward from the center.Unexpectedly, the second battalion rushing behind was suddenly attacked by fire from both sides.It turned out that Qiu Guoxuan had already secretly colluded with the enemy, and had made an appointment to defect before the battle.A regiment of officers and soldiers who were unprepared had no choice but to rush to the battle, and fought fiercely for two hours. Under the attack of the enemy and rebels, the troops suffered heavy losses.After retreating, it was discovered that not only the number of personnel had been reduced from nearly 2,000 to more than 1,000, but also the whereabouts of Zhong Wenzhang, chief of staff of the division and head of the first regiment, were also missing. He was frustrated in the first battle, and suffered such an unexplained defeat, which made the division commander Yu Sadu very angry.He insisted on reorganizing the troops and attacking Changshou Street again to take Pingjiang City and save the defeat.Fortunately, Lu Deming firmly disagreed with the reckless fight and led the troops to retreat. And sent a traffic officer to the third regiment to report to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong lamented the defeat of Yituan, because Yituan was, after all, the only regular army in this uprising.At the same time, Mao Zedong also deeply felt the seriousness of the problem.The three regiments lost, and even the strongest regiment was defeated.Although the situation of the Second Regiment is still unclear, after all, it is a newly organized army with Anyuan miners as the main body, so it must be difficult to do anything.Therefore, Mao Zedong immediately convened a meeting of the three regiment cadres. "Stop the attack and give up the plan to attack Changsha!" This is the decision Mao Zedong made at the meeting.After the meeting, Mao Zedong wrote to the Provincial Party Committee overnight, suggesting that "immediately stop the implementation of the Changsha riot plan." When the enemy was strong and we were weak, Mao Zedong resolutely made the decision to abandon the original military plan to attack Changsha and let the troops "retreat to Pingxiang first before talking about it", and notified the first regiment of this decision. According to this decision, the first and third regiments withdrew from the battle and moved quickly. On the 17th, the two regiments finally joined forces in the Jiangbu River area.Former committee members Mao Zedong, Su Xianjun, Lu Deming, Yu Sadu, and Yu Benmin gathered together for the first time. At this moment, news came that the second regiment had defeated Liuyang City. The Second Regiment gave the order to attack Pingxiang on September 10, the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. They fought for a day on the 11th, but failed to take it. In order to attack Changsha as soon as possible, the troops gave up attacking Pingxiang and went straight to Liling by train. On the afternoon of the 12th, the Second Regiment and Liling's uprising peasant army attacked in three directions, and quickly occupied Liling City.The uprising troops did several things lively in Liling City: established the Hunan Liling Branch of the Chinese Revolutionary Committee; restored the County Federation of Trade Unions and the County Farmers Association; opened warehouses to help the poor. The loss of a county town shocked the enemy and attracted the attention of the enemy.The enemy troops in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces surrounded them from all sides.The Second Regiment had no choice but to withdraw from Liling City and march towards Liuyang in two routes. On the 16th, they took advantage of the situation and occupied Liuyang County. However, the heel was not yet firmly established. On the morning of the 17th, the heavy enemy troops chasing after them surrounded Liuyang City.After a fierce battle, the Second Regiment lost two-thirds of its troops.Some of the troops that broke out were also dispersed later.The head of the regiment, Wang Xinya, dragged his gun and ran away after breaking out of the siege. His whereabouts are unknown.The Second Regiment can be said to have been completely defeated. The offensives of the three armies were all severely frustrated, and the troops also suffered great losses. In just a few battles, only 1,500 of the 5,000-man team were left. In this case, can we continue to attack, can we still attack Changsha? Obviously, continuing to attack will inevitably lead to a complete failure of the uprising, and the remaining revolutionary power will also be lost!And if you retreat in time, you can still save this revolutionary armed force and have a chance to make a comeback! Mao Zedong strengthened his determination. Thus, there was Wenjiashi joining forces; there was Wenjiashi turning troops!