Why did the Red Army invade Fujian?

On March 11, 1929, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi and others led the main force of the Fourth Red Army of more than 3,000 people from Ruijin, along the Mingou at the southern end of Wuyi Mountain, passing through Mushan Ridge, Niuduping and Anziqian , Huang Eukou advanced into western Fujian for the first time and arrived at Louziba in Changting (Tingzhou) County. On the 12th, they entered Sidu Town, Changting County.

In the early morning of March 13, the Fourth Red Army took the initiative to attack the Second Mixed Brigade of the Fujian Provincial Defense Force entrenched in Changting City. The enemy retreated across the board. The brigade commander Guo Fengming was shot dead by Red Army soldiers while fleeing in embarrassment. In this battle, more than 2,000 enemies were killed, more than 500 guns, several machine guns, countless ammunition, 3 mortars, and more than 100 artillery shells were surrendered. The victory at Changlingzhai was the Red Army's biggest victory since its march to Jinggangshan, and it was also the Red Army's first major victory in entering Fujian.

After the Fourth Red Army captured Changting, they carried out fruitful work in Ting under the leadership of Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Chen Yi in just 17 days.

Extensive publicity to the masses

On the morning of March 15, the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army held a mass meeting of 10,000 people in Nanzhai Square on the outskirts of the city. The meeting was chaired by Commander Zhu De, and a representative of Mao Zedong Party gave an inspiring speech at the meeting. At the meeting, Zhu De announced Guo Fengming's ten crimes of oppressing the people. After the meeting, the Red Army carried the property and belongings of Guo Fengming and more than 10 major landowners and gentry to the venue and distributed them to the working people in attendance. The Red Army propaganda team took to the streets in a timely manner and publicized the masses by posting the "Announcement from the Fourth Red Army Headquarters", writing slogans on walls, and making political reports. Mao Zedong personally drafted the "Letter to Businessmen and Intellectuals" to clarify the various policies of the Communist Party, and printed and distributed it in large quantities and publicized it extensively to expand the political influence of the Red Army.

Carry out investigation and research

Tingzhou has been the seat of state, county, road and government throughout the ages. It is the largest city liberated since the founding of the Fourth Red Army. In order to find out the local political and economic situation, investigation and research must be carried out. On the night when he entered Tingzhou, Mao Zedong consulted the "Tingzhou Prefecture Chronicle" and "Changting County Chronicle", and through social surveys, he found out the economy, politics, and folk customs of Changting, and formulated various city plans accordingly. The policy severely dealt a blow to the reactionaries and united the broad masses of the people.

The Political Department of the Fourth Red Army was restored

The Political Department of the Fourth Red Army was originally established in Jinggangshan in May 1928, with Chen Yi as its director. In January 1929, when the Fourth Red Army broke out from the Jinggang Mountains to guerrilla in southern Jiangxi, the Political Department stopped working and Chen Yi was appointed director of the Army Soldiers Committee. After the capture of Changting City on March 14, due to the development of the struggle situation, the Front Committee decided to reinstate the Political Department of the Fourth Red Army, with Mao Zedong as director. In May of the same year, it was changed to Chen Yi.

Establishing organizations at all levels in Changting County

During the period in Ting, the Fourth Red Army worked with the masses to fight against local tyrants, raise funds, organize and expand trade unions and farmers' associations, and provided the basis for the establishment of the Red regime. condition. The Changting local party organization, under the guidance and help of the Fourth Red Army Front Committee, formally established the Changting County Committee of the Communist Party of China on the basis of the temporary county committee. Then, 20 secret agricultural cooperatives, 5 secret trade unions, and the Federation of Trade Unions were quickly formed. The party organization has grown twice as much as before. The county's political power organ was initially the Provisional Revolutionary Committee appointed by the Military Political Department. Later, a meeting of representatives of workers and peasant organizations was convened to formally elect the Changting County Revolutionary Committee.

After the Changting County Revolutionary Committee was established, it immediately announced the abolition of all donations, confiscated the land and property of the landlords and gentry, and resolutely eliminated counterrevolutionaries. The establishment of Changting County Revolutionary Committee has profound historical significance. It is the first county-level red regime in the history of western Fujian under the leadership of the Communist Party that the working people are the masters of the country.

As the Fourth Red Army won the hearts of the people, many young people in Changting asked to join the army. In half a month, more than 300 people enlisted. The Fourth Red Army also helped the local government establish a county Red Guard of more than 60 people and allocated more than 20 guns to protect the local political power and the victory of the agrarian revolution.

Solving the problem of supplies for the Red Army

During the period in Ting, the Fourth Red Army also worked hard to raise military pay and solve supplies. The Fourth Red Army lost no time in raising funds, imposing fines, cracking down on local tyrants, confiscating property, etc. In less than 10 days, they confiscated the property of more than 10 reactionary tycoons, fined them more than 20,000 yuan, and imposed penalties on businessmen with capital of more than 1,000 yuan. Raised and borrowed 30,000 yuan for military pay.

Due to the improvement of the economy, the Fourth Red Army gave each person 4 yuan in pocket money. Officers, soldiers, and captured soldiers were all treated equally. At the same time, the seized sewing machine factory was used to rush to manufacture 4,000 sets of military uniforms. Each Red Army soldier received a set of gray military uniforms with red collar badges, a military cap with red five stars, and a pair of gaiters. This is the first time that the Fourth Red Army has unified its uniforms since its creation.

The Fourth Red Army was reorganized in Tingzhou

In mid-March, while the Fourth Red Army was in Tingzhou, the entire army was reorganized in accordance with the decision of the former Soviet Union’s Luofu Summit Meeting. The regiment's organizational system was changed to a column system, and it was organized into three columns. Each column had two detachments (equivalent to battalions), and each detachment had three brigades (equivalent to companies). Zhu De remains the commander of the army, and former Party Secretary Mao Zedong also serves as party representative and director of the military political department.

An enlarged meeting of the Front Committee was held

The first enlarged meeting of the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army in Changting was held on March 20, 1929 at the "Xingeng Villa" in Changting County. The meeting was chaired by Mao Zedong. The meeting analyzed in detail the political, military, economic and natural conditions of the three provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, especially the party organization, mass movements, revolutionary armed forces in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, and the comparison of forces between the enemy and ourselves, and made a decision. In order to take advantage of the favorable opportunity of the melee between the Jiangxi and Gui factions, the major decision was made to establish separate armed separatist areas in more than 20 counties in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, which laid a blueprint for the future development of central revolutionary base areas.

In mid-March 1929, the Fifth Red Army, which was guerrilla in southern Jiangxi, led by Peng Dehuai, attacked Anyuan County and learned that the Fourth Red Army had captured Changting. So the Fifth Red Army decided to leave Anyuan for Ruijin and sent representatives to send letters to the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army. The Fourth Red Army learned that the Fifth Red Army had arrived in Ruijin, so it returned to southern Gansu from Changting on April 1 and met up with the Fifth Red Army, which had arrived earlier, on the outskirts of Ruijin.

On April 11, 1929, the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army, the Central Jiangxi Special Committee for Southern Jiangxi and Luo Shounan sent by the Central Military Department held a joint meeting of the Front Committee in the capital, and further decided to Time was spent to establish a revolutionary regime in Jiangxi Province, and specific implementation plans were made: it was decided that Peng Dehuai and Teng Daiyuan would lead the Fifth Red Army to return to Jinggangshan to restore and develop the Soviet areas on the Hunan-Jiangxi border; the main force of the Fourth Red Army and the Second Jiangxi Red Army were located in Du, Xingguo, and Ningdu , Ruijin, Ganxian and other counties mobilized the masses and established red political power. On May 18 of the same year, the Front Committee of the Fourth Red Army held an enlarged meeting of the Front Committee in Yeping, Ruijin. At the meeting, the current situation and the action plan of the Fourth Red Army were discussed, and Lin Biao's right-leaning pessimism and errors of banditry were criticized. According to Western Fujian At the request of the local party organization, the Fourth Red Army decided to enter Fujian for the second time and formulated an action plan. The next day after the meeting, the Fourth Red Army left Ruijin and entered Fujian again. "The red flag jumped over the Tingjiang River and went straight down Longyan to Shanghang."

The Fourth Red Army entered Fujian for the first time and attacked western Fujian and Fujian Province at that time. revolutionary struggle is of great significance. At that time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was extremely concerned about the Fourth Red Army's first military operation into Fujian and fully affirmed it. The Fourth Red Army's first entry into Fujian reawakened the struggle consciousness of workers and peasants in western Fujian, thus making the struggle in western Fujian echo the struggle in the rural areas on the border of Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi; it protected and assisted the revolutionary struggle in southern Jiangxi and laid the foundation for the creation of southern Jiangxi and Fujian. It laid the foundation for the Western Revolutionary Base Area and the Central Revolutionary Base Area, thereby writing a glorious page in the history of the Chinese revolution.