Chapter 6 The lotus came to the revolutionary army

The Battle of Luxi was the heaviest loss suffered by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army since it left Wenjia City. This battle not only reduced the team by more than 300 people, but also lost Lu Deming, a military commander who had a high reputation in the army. .As a result, the mood of the officers and soldiers of the troops was extremely low. The revolutionary army bypassed Pingxiang County, and continued southward after being frustrated in Luxi, and soon entered Lianhua County in Jiangxi Province. Lianhua, located in the west of Jiangxi, belongs to the mountainous and hilly area in the middle of the Luoxiao Mountains. It borders Yongxin and Ninggang in Jiangxi to the southeast, and Chaling and Youxian in Hunan to the southwest.Although it is located in a remote place, during the Great Revolution, the workers' and peasants' movement developed rapidly.There are not only Chinese Communist Party organizations, but also trade unions and peasant associations, and a peasant self-defense army with 60 guns has also been established.After the failure of the Great Revolution, the reactionaries frantically counterattacked and plotted against them, hunting and killing the Communist Party members and the backbone of the workers' and peasants' movement, causing white terror in the urban and rural areas.However, the communists and revolutionary masses in Lianhua did not give in, they persisted in the struggle tenaciously.Not long before the arrival of the revolutionary army, they organized the peasant self-defense army and hundreds of people to attack the county seat on September 18 after they heard the news of the autumn harvest uprising on the Hunan-Jiangxi border.When the attack on the city failed, the reactionaries intensified their efforts to massacre the revolutionaries and recover the guns.As a result, 59 guns were confiscated, and only one gun survived.This is what Mao Zedong later mentioned in his article "The Struggle in Jinggang Mountains" as "a gun in a lotus flower".

The workers' and peasants' revolutionary army led by Mao Zedong came to Lianhua, which had the foundation of the workers' and peasants' movement, and was naturally welcomed and supported by the local party organizations and the revolutionary masses. On September 25, the revolutionary army reached Ganjia Village in Lianhua County.Mao Zedong met with the person in charge of the local party organization here, and learned about the situation in Lianhua and Yongxin.Here, Mao Zedong decided to attack Lianhua County. One is that this is the request of the head of the local party organization in order to repay the blood debt to the reactionaries and rescue the comrades imprisoned in the county prison; the other is that the troops really need to use victory to boost morale, even if it is only a small victory !

Of course, Mao Zedong was confident in making such a decision, because he had already learned from local comrades and the masses that there was no regular Kuomintang army stationed in Lianhua County. In the early morning of the 26th, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army held a brief military-civilian meeting in Ganjia Village, and shot several local tyrants and evil gentry captured from Pingxiang.Afterwards, they launched an attack on Lianhua County in the rain.For a while, the sound of gunfire and siege shouts was deafening.The security team defending the city had never seen such a formation!They quickly abandoned the city and fled.

The revolutionary army captured the captain of the county security team and the secretary-general of the Kuomintang county party branch; destroyed the Kuomintang county party branch and the county magistrate's office; broke open the prison and rescued the imprisoned Communists and revolutionary masses; poor people. The scene of the vigorous worker-peasant revolution during the Great Revolution reappeared in a small county town in the mountainous area of ​​western Ganxi! This was the first county seat that Mao Zedong had captured since retreating from Wenjia City led by the Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants, and the officers and soldiers were in high spirits.

"The lotus flower has come to the revolutionary army", the news spread like wildfire, and the revolutionary masses rejoiced. Zhu Yiyue, Liu Renkan and others who had already "laid an ambush" in Lianhua County's party organization came to the county seat after hearing the news, and Mao Zedong met with them.Through talking with them, Mao Zedong gained a better understanding of the situation in Lianhua and even in western Jiangxi. At this time, someone brought a letter from the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China to Mao Zedong. The name of the person carrying the letter was Song Renqiong, a native of Liuyang, Hunan.He joined the Communist Youth League in 1926, later transferred to the Communist Party, and has been engaged in the peasant movement in his hometown.After the failure of the Great Revolution, he was the party representative of a squadron of the Liuyang Workers and Peasants Volunteer Team.The Liuyang Volunteer Team of Workers and Peasants once went to Nanchang, intending to participate in the Nanchang Uprising.Because the uprising troops had withdrawn, they had to go to Jiangxi Tonggu to stand by.In Tonggu, he was ordered by the Liuyang County Party Committee to contact and report to the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China.When he returned from Nanchang, the Autumn Harvest Uprising had already occurred. He heard that the troops had left Tonggu, so he searched all the way, and finally caught up with the troops in Lianhua.

Mao Zedong soon met with Song Renqiong.After briefly reporting on his contact with the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and the chasing troops, Song Renqiong handed Mao Zedong a letter. This is a letter written secretly with potion. Mao Zedong put it in the water, and the handwriting appeared clearly.He quickly read the contents of the letter, and saw that the letter was signed by Wang Zekai. Wang Zekai was the Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China at that time. He was also from Hunan.Of course Mao Zedong knew him. "Did Comrade Wang Zekai say anything else?" Mao Zedong asked Song Renqiong after reading the letter.

Song Renqiong replied: "He told me that you can take action in Lianhua County. Ninggang County has our party's armed forces, with dozens of guns. Other things are written in the letter." Song Renqiong didn't know what was written in the letter, and Mao Zedong didn't say anything, so we still don't know.However, Song Renqiong conveyed a few words to Wang Zekai, which made us understand that the letter from the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and the introduction to the situation in Ninggang must have played a certain role in Mao Zedong's determination of the direction of the next move.

Mao Zedong decided not to stay in Lianhua for a long time, but continued south to Ninggang.For this reason, Mao Zedong and Yu Sadu had a conflict. That night, Yu Sadu notified some people to hold a meeting in a room of the county office.Soon, Mao Zedong came to the venue.After greeting everyone, Mao Zedong asked Yu Sadu: "I heard that the county party secretary of the Kuomintang has been captured. Where is he?" Yu Sadu hesitated for a moment and replied, "I've handed it over to the luggage team as a porter." As soon as Mao Zedong heard it, he realized that it was not good, and said immediately: "How can we let him be a porter? He should be guarded."

Someone interrupted: "I heard that he has escaped from the baggage train." "Is it true?" Mao Zedong stared at Yu Sadu and asked. Yu Sadu faltered and couldn't answer. "What, let him run away? The enemy is not too far away from us, how dangerous it is! Our lives are in your hands, what kind of meeting are you holding?" Mao Zedong was very annoyed. Yu Sadu was not originally a leader of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, but was under the control of Mao Zedong because he participated in the Autumn Harvest Riot.When Lu Deming was alive, he saw that Lu Deming respected Mao Zedong's opinions very much, and he did not dare to disrespect Mao Zedong.Now that Lu Deming is gone, he gradually raised his tail in front of Mao Zedong.He was not happy about Mao Zedong's questioning at first, but after hearing Mao Zedong's accusation, he became even angrier, and replied in a contemptuous tone: "Ah! So you are afraid of death!"

Mao Zedong ignored his sarcasm and proposed to order the troops to prepare to withdraw from the city. Yu Sadu couldn't listen to Mao Zedong's words at all. He patted his chest and continued: "I promise! If you die, I will pay you my life!" Mao Zedong was very angry. He said loudly: "Can you afford to pay for the lives of more than a thousand people? At this moment, what's the use of meeting? The retreat should be organized immediately." Yu Sadu was still saying some unpleasant words: "If you are afraid of death, I will send troops to protect you and live in the mountains tonight. I can guarantee that nothing will happen!"

Seeing Yu Sadu's attitude, Mao Zedong knew that it was not easy to persuade him, so he threw down a hard sentence: "I order, we must retreat!" The meeting broke up badly. Although Yu Sadu did not accept Mao Zedong's opinion at the time, Mao Zedong's firm attitude also forced Yu Sadu to take it seriously, because Mao Zedong was the former secretary of the party committee after all.Yu Sadu and several military cadres once wanted to rest in the city for a few days, but when Mao Zedong criticized them, they had to arrange troops to set off early the next morning. On the 27th, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, which stayed in Lianhua County for only one night, bid farewell to the people of Lianhua and marched towards Ninggang.