Chapter 24 "March Fails"

The party's August 7th meeting ended Chen Duxiu's right-leaning capitulationist line, but it was followed by Qu Qiubai's "left" putschist line of rule over the central government. From November 9 to 10, 1927, the Provisional Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting and passed two resolutions that had a major impact on the party's actions. One is the "Resolution on the Status Quo of China and the Tasks of the Communist Party".The resolution characterized the Chinese revolution as an "uninterrupted revolution"; exaggerated the revolutionary situation at a low ebb as a "direct revolutionary situation"; thieves and all counter-revolutionaries, we should adopt a policy of annihilation without any hesitation."

The second is the Political Disciplinary Resolution.The resolution punished leaders who failed in the uprising before and after the party's August 7th meeting. In addition to Mao Zedong, there were also some other leaders of the party. The direct consequence of the two resolutions was the spread of "Left" putschism within the party. On December 31, 1927, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an instruction letter to the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, and stipulated that "this letter should be transferred to the party branches at all levels." In it, the practice of Mao Zedong's leadership in establishing the Jinggangshan base area was viewed as follows: "About Mao Zedong The work of Comrade's workers' and peasants' army, the central government believes that the party's new policy has not been realized, and it has indeed made a very serious political mistake. The resolution and various recent strategic decisions and materials send a responsible comrade to convene comrades in the army to discuss and reform the party organization at the congress. When necessary, send a brave and clear worker comrade to serve as a party representative. The Ministry should create a separatist regime in the Hunan-Jiangxi border or in southern Hunan that will deepen the agrarian revolution—Hai Lu Feng No. 2, and this can be regarded as fulfilling the Ministry’s revolutionary mission.”

For the time being, the Hunan Provincial Party Committee did not "send a brave and understanding worker comrade" to Mao Zedong as a party representative. Instead, the Hunan Provincial Committee appointed a special commissioner, Zhou Lu. When Mao Zedong led the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops to the border of Hunan and Jiangxi and settled in Jinggangshan, due to the loss of contact with the Central Committee and the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, many spirits of "Left" putschism could not affect the actions of the troops.However, when Zhou Lu, a special commissioner of the Southern Hunan Special Committee, came to Jinggangshan, the connection with the Central Committee and the Hunan Provincial Party Committee was connected. Many documents and instructions formed under the guidance of Qu Qiubai's "Left" blind activism were also passed on to Jinggangshan, and followed. It had a direct impact on the establishment of the Jinggangshan base.

Mao Zedong was dismissed and punished, which naturally bore the brunt; what followed was the first fall of the Jinggangshan base area, and the lunatic counter-offensive of the Kuomintang reactionaries and the Landlords Returning Home Mission. In mid-March 1928, according to the instructions of the Hunan Special Committee, two regiments of the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army assembled in Longshi.After conveying the order to go to southern Shonan and respond to the Shonan uprising, they marched to southern Shonan in three routes. Inspired by the new spirit brought by Zhou Lu to the Central Committee, perhaps to express its "resoluteness" in implementing the instructions of the Central Committee and the Provincial Party Committee, this attack by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army is contrary to the previous practice of keeping troops to stick to the base area, but almost Bring out the main force.

Mao Zedong and He Tingying led the first regiment from Long City to Ling County, Hunan; Yuan Wencai and He Changgong led the second regiment and the first battalion from Dalong to southern Hunan; Under the leadership of Wang Zuo, they started from Dajing and moved towards the south of Shonan. On March 18, the troops came to Zhongcun, Lingxian County and stopped temporarily. At this time, Ling County can be said to be "the mountains and rains are about to come and the wind is full of buildings".Under the influence of the Shonan Uprising, the party organization in Ling County led the people to launch the "March Riot".Mao Zedong saw that the revolutionary situation in eastern Hunan was also developing, so he proposed to go to Chaling to connect the revolution in eastern Hunan with that in southern Hunan.Maybe this kind of thinking is in line with the new spirit of the central government, and Zhou Lu agreed.

As a result, the troops concentrated in Nakamura on standby.In addition to sending people to southern Hunan to contact Zhu De’s troops, Mao Zedong led the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army to do two important things here: one was to use the opportunity of the troops to rest and reorganize to conduct a systematic ideological and political education, and Mao Zedong personally taught the troops; One is to mobilize the masses in the local area and carry out the field distribution campaign. Mao Zedong personally measured the land and inserted the book cards for the farmers who were allocated the land.

In the last ten days of the month, news came that the Shonan uprising troops were in danger.Mao Zedong and He Tingying resolutely decided to go to southern Shonan to meet them.The first regiment was the left wing, led by Mao Zedong, He Tingying, Zhang Ziqing, etc., wedged between Rucheng; the second regiment was the right wing, led by He Changgong and Yuan Wencai, and marched towards Zixing Penggong Temple. The main force of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army rushed to aid southern Hunan with all its strength, and it was getting farther and farther away from the Jinggangshan area.

Taking advantage of the emptiness of the border troops, the Kuomintang army made a comeback and easily occupied Ninggang, the base camp of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. With the help of the KMT army, the Landlords and Gentlemen Returning Home Mission returned to Jinggang Mountains and frantically counterattacked and reckoned with the people on the border: the people of Ninggang were the first to bear the brunt.The wife of the reactionary county magistrate Zhang Kaiyang invited a battalion of soldiers and returned to Ninggang aggressively.In Xincheng, she ordered the original county government office where the Communist Party’s Xincheng District Committee and District Government were located to be burned down; in Maoping, she commanded the Kuomintang army not only to burn more than 30 houses, but also brutally opened the chest and abdomen of the Communist Party member Xie Jia. Cut open, dig out the heart and lungs, dismember the body into five pieces, and throw it into the river.At the same time, the door-to-door regiments from Ling County and Chaling also took the opportunity to enter Ninggang, burning, killing and looting in Mu Village and Jiulong Mountain area respectively, and burning down the houses of the people in Shangzhai Village and Caijiatian.

In Suichuan, Xiao Jiabi, the deadly enemy of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, has always held a grudge since Dakeng was severely injured by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. . In Yongxin, Yin Haomin, the son of Yin Daoyi, the head of the reactionary militia, organized a reactionary armed force to "revenge his father" to hunt down peasant association cadres and plunder and kill innocent people. In Lingxian County, the land allocated by Zhongcun had not yet been plowed and returned to the landlords; the enemy also killed Zhou Jiefu, a member of the Zhongcun District Committee, and cut off his head, and hung it in the county town for several days.

... After the fall, the Jinggangshan base area was shrouded in white terror.The burning, killing and looting of the Kuomintang troops, the counterattack and recklessness of the Landlords Returning to the Homeland Group, and the "rebellion" of many peasants caused by the landlords and gentry provoking the contradiction between the natives and the peasants, severely damaged the border party organizations and the red regime.For a period of time, except for Maoping, Dalong, Ciping, Xiaowujing, Jiulongshan and other mountainous areas in the red areas of the Jinggangshan revolutionary base, which were still in the hands of the party's local armed forces, other places were occupied by the enemy. The two counties also fell into the enemy's hands.

Jinggangshan suffered the first total fall since the establishment of the base area, and the people in the base area also paid a great sacrifice.People call this catastrophe in the Jinggangshan base area the "March failure".