Chapter 61 Farmers with land and farmers with arms

Generally speaking, farmers are closely related to the land.In the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area, due to the field division movement, the peasants really became farmers with their own land. At the same time, the peasants in the Jinggangshan base area are still closely connected with weapons. They either defended the land they were allocated during the agrarian revolution, or they became a group of peasants who took up arms in order to fight for a share of the land on which they lived. . This is the characteristic of the Jinggangshan base area, and it is also the characteristic of the farmers in the Jinggangshan base area.

Mao Zedong introduced such farmers in "The Struggle in Jinggang Mountains": "The local area is armed with red guards and workers' and peasants' riot teams. The riot teams use spears and shotguns as weapons, and each township has one team. The number of people is proportional to the size of the township. The job is to suppress counter-revolutionaries and defend the township government, and help the Red Army or Red Guards fight when the enemy comes. "The insurrection team started in Yongxin. It was originally a secret. After capturing the whole county, it was made public. This system has now been implemented in the border counties, and the name has not been changed. The weapons of the Red Guards are mainly five-shot guns, and there are also nine-shot guns and Single-shot guns. Number of guns in each county: 140 in Ningkang, 220 in Yongxin, 43 in Lianhua, 50 in Chaling, 90 in Lingxian, 130 in Suichuan, 10 in Wan'an, a total of 600 83. Most of them were distributed by the Red Army, and a small part was captured from the enemy. Most of the Red Guards in the counties regularly fought against the security forces of the noble gentry and the house-to-house regiments, and their combat effectiveness was increasing day by day. Peasant Self-Defense Army. Number of guns: 300 in Youhsien, 300 in Chaling, 60 in Linghsien, 50 in Suichuan, 80 in Yongxin, 60 in Lianhua, 60 in Ningkang (by Yuan Wencai), 60 in Jinggangshan (by Wang Zuo) ) sixty, a total of nine hundred and seventy. After the Ma-Ri Incident, apart from the fact that Yuan and Wang had no losses, only Suichuan kept six, Lianhua kept one, and the rest were confiscated by the noble gentry. The Peasant Self-Defense Forces are so uncertain The ability of the guns is the result of the opportunistic line. At present, the Red Guards in the counties still have not enough guns, not as many as the guns of the landlords. The Red Army must continue to help the Red Guards with weapons.

"Under the condition of not reducing the combat effectiveness of the Red Army, we must help the people to arm themselves as much as possible... The guns captured in the battle should be used to arm the localities as much as possible. The commanders of the Red Guards are trained by the teaching teams organized by the Red Army sent by the counties. The number and combat effectiveness of the gentry armed forces in the border counties are quite considerable. The expansion of our red local armed forces , even more urgently.” In the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area, the Peasant Self-Defense Forces, Red Guards, and Riot Squads were local armed forces defending the base area, and they were also armed organizations for the peasants themselves to defend the fruits of victory such as dividing their fields.Although it is not an army like the Red Army, it also has age requirements. Generally speaking, Red Guard members are mostly male young adults aged 25 to 35, while those aged 35 to 45 will be incorporated into the riot team.

These peasants who took up arms were farmers in peacetime and soldiers in wartime. Their main opponents were the security forces, the Jingwei regiment, and the house-to-door regiment controlled by the local local tyrants and evil gentry.Of course, they often cooperate with the Red Army to defend the Jinggangshan base. The Xincheng victory in February 1928 was the first glorious victory after the base was established.In this battle, the local armed forces in Ninggang County actively participated in the battle and harassed the enemy.Wen Genzong, captain of the Riot Team along the Dajiang River in the ancient city, personally captured the reactionary county magistrate Zhang Kaiyang alive.

In July 1928, the enemy forces from the two provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi jointly carried out the first "meeting and suppression" against the Jinggangshan base area. However, the 28th and 29th regiments of the Red Army rushed into southern Hunan. At that time, the main Red Army was only the Red Thirty One regiment was one regiment, and Yongxin had 23 red guards and riot teams, and tens of thousands of revolutionary masses, and was able to besiege the enemies of 11 regiments near Yongxin City for 25 days. At the end of August 1928, during the defense of Huangyangjie, the red guards from Wujing and Wujing were among those who cooperated with the two companies of the Red Thirty-one Regiment to defend and repel the attack of the three enemy regiments.

Armed peasants are indeed an important force in defending and building the Jinggangshan base.Mao Zedong once vividly said: "Guerrilla warfare with only the main Red Army but no people is like a one-armed general." Therefore, Mao Zedong and party organizations at all levels on the border have always attached great importance to armed peasants. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lieutenant General Tan Jiashu, who served as the deputy commander of the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, was the captain of the Chaling guerrillas during the struggle in Jinggangshan. At first, it was Mao Zedong who gave the Chaling guerrillas 5 guns, which made the local armed forces develop.

That was in October and November 1927. Mao Zedong's Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants attacked Chaling twice and established the Chaling County Government of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers. The workers', peasants' and soldiers' government formed its own revolutionary armed peasant self-defense army. The Peasant Self-Defense Army has more than 80 people, and the weapons are not only broadswords, but spears. This makes Tan Jiashu, the head of the Self-Defense Army, feel worried. Tan Jiashu was wounded during the Nanchang Uprising, and then returned to his hometown of Chaling. He knows how important a gun is to an armed force!

Just when he wanted to have a few guns very much, the First Battalion of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army sent him five rifles, saying that they were sent under the instructions of Committee Member Mao. Tan Jiashu was ecstatic. Hai Yan, the wife of General Tan Jiashu, once described Tan Jiashu's mood at that time in a poem "Meng Jiangnan": Hello, Chairman, send me five guns.Hold tightly to the silent rain of tears, the sparks of the prairie fire shine brightly, and the Big Dipper guides the night. These five guns became the "old foundation" of the Chaling guerrillas. On this basis, they continued to grow and develop. Later, based on the Chaling guerrillas and the first Liubei detachment, the first independent division of the Red Army was formed. Three or two regiments, this is the fire of the Red Sixth Army.

The establishment of the Red Guard Brigade in Suichuan County is also inseparable from Mao Zedong's care. It was after the Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants captured Suichuan City, and three comrades including Xizhuang farmer Wang Cizhu came to see Mao Zedong. When Mao Zedong saw a gun on Wang Cizhen's body, he said happily, "It's not bad, you also brought a weapon." Seeing Chairman Mao praise him, Wang Cichen proudly said, "I handed over this gun from Bai Gouzi in Daxi last night." Mao Zedong nodded approvingly, and asked again: "How many weapons do you have?"

"There are 6 more guns." Then, Wang Cizhen and others explained to Mao Zedong the process of preserving the six guns in detail.The more Mao Zedong listened, the more interested he became. "Very good! Then bring back those 6 guns tomorrow and let me have a look." Mao Zedong finally asked. The next day, six farmers from Xizhuang came to see Mao Zedong again, each carrying a shiny steel gun. Mao Zedong came to the side of the armed peasants carrying steel guns on their shoulders and was full of energy. He carefully inspected the polished guns and was very happy. He asked them to use these guns as a basis to organize the masses in the county to fight the local tyrants and divide the fields.

Soon, the Suichuan County Red Guard Brigade was formally established. Mao Zedong participated in the founding meeting, personally announced Wang Cizhen as the brigade captain, and appointed his own brother Mao Zetan as the party representative. The peasants who have weapons use the weapons in their hands to bravely defend the allocated land and the fruits of victory. In July 1928, it was the harvest season of early rice. Before the sickle started, the enemy launched another attack on the base area. As the main force of the Red Army rushed into southern Hunan, the enemy quickly occupied a large area of ​​the base area.In many places, the land allocated to the farmers was once again lost, and even the rice that the farmers had worked so hard was taken away by the landlords. In Yongxin, under the leadership of Li Yiran, a Kuomintang security group stationed in the pictographic area.The local big landlord He Yuanting suddenly became proud. He immediately bought dozens of guns and organized a Jingwei regiment. The pictographic party organizations and the revolutionary masses are not afraid, because they have guns in their hands and have their own armed forces.They decided to teach He Yuanting a lesson. One night, it was dark and dark, and I couldn't see my fingers. He Shuguang, secretary of the Pictograph Branch, led a group of rioters to sneak back to the village from the mountain where they were hiding. With their familiarity with the terrain, they quickly and quietly touched the Jingwei regiment's station.With lightning-fast movements, the rioters killed the enemy sentries, broke into a room, captured several regiments, and seized 7 rifles and a batch of bullets. Immediately afterwards, the rioters ambushed He Yuanting who was returning from drinking outside, and seized 6 guns in one fell swoop. As the main force of the Red Army returned to Jinggangshan, Li Yiran, who originally wanted to lead the security regiment back to Yongxin City, heard that the Jingwei regiment had been confiscated, and He Yuanting's whereabouts were also missing. He was terrified and ran away. The land returned to the peasants, and the fruits of victory were not taken away by the enemy. Due to the strategic policy of Mao Zedong and the border special committee to "vigorously manage Yongxin", the local armed forces in Yongxin County have developed rapidly. The county red guard brigade alone has more than 1,000 people and more than 200 guns. The strongest team in the armed forces. And the most dramatic is the story of Lotus developing from a gun to a red independent group. During the Great Revolution, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, Lianhua County established a peasant self-defense army with 60 guns.After the failure of the Great Revolution, He Guoqing, a member of the Communist Party, risked his life to save a gun. It is strange to say that He Guoqing hid the gun in a rotten plaque in the He Family Ancestral Hall in Jiudu Village when the reactionaries searched him the most. This is the "one lotus gun" mentioned by Mao Zedong in his article "The Struggle in Jinggangshan". With this gun, when Mao Zedong led the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army to Jinggangshan, the Lotus Party organization organized the Lotus Red Team in February 1928. The newly formed red team, in addition to the only steel gun, is spears and broadswords, as well as some earthen guns and bird guns.Although the weapons are not good, the red team is not ambiguous. They continue to attack the Jingwei regiment and seize guns from the enemy time and time again. After several victories, the team grew to more than 130 people. In April, the red team expanded into the red independent regiment.After that, the Red Independence Regiment became stronger and stronger, winning one battle after another. Later, the Lotus Red Independent Regiment grew to 300 people and had 220 guns. In the Jinggangshan base area, farmers cannot do without land, and likewise, they cannot do without weapons.Only by mastering weapons can we protect our own land. This is what the Jinggangshan struggle told Chinese farmers.