The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

The money that the self-cultivating farmers earned from selling the little surplus grain was definitely not enough to cover daily expenses, let alone unexpected expenses.

In 1925, the Wen family's cow fell down a mountain and died, severely impacting the family's fragile finances. They had to sell two mu of land to buy a new cow. Selling land was a necessity at the time. Without selling land to buy a cow, the 20 mu of land would be too small to grow rice, and by the autumn harvest, the family would be completely bankrupt.

In a word: In this era, for a peasant family that relies on its own labor to support itself, every family member has to work hard to barely survive.

Not only is it almost unimaginable for an only son to serve in the army, but even in a family with many children, if a strong laborer is removed and his efforts in farming, chopping wood, etc. are lost, the family finances may fall into crisis.

This is why there was a huge difference between a soldier receiving 3 silver dollars a month and one silver dollar. Even if the soldier sent all the silver dollar home, it would not make up for the loss of a strong laborer in the family economy.

Guo Liang: "We can collect food supplies for the army, but the base area does not have that much currency. We have already privately minted silver dollars from the silverware in the homes of local tyrants and evil gentry that we seized from them. Therefore, it is difficult for you, Yuan Zhongxian, to increase the soldier's allowance from 1 yuan to 2 yuan.

Chen Tianheng: "Local governments should provide financial compensation to families whose members have enlisted in the military. Even if the base area's currency supply is insufficient and cannot issue large amounts of money, it should be compensated in other forms.

Guo Liang: "You mean...subsidize food? Exempt his family from the public grain tax?"

Chen Tianheng: "Will the economic gap be narrowed after the grain tax is waived?"

Guo Liang: "It depends on how many people and how much land each household has. For a family of ten like the Wen family, it's probably okay, but for smaller families, it's probably still a loss."

Mao Runzhi: "Instead of exempting the public grain tax, it would be better for the farmers' associations and villages to organize people to help farm for families whose children have joined the army.

"Help with the farming?"

"I see," Chen Tianheng said, "It's about the families in the village with more labor than usual helping those families with enlisted members during the busy farming season, so they don't run into problems due to lack of labor."

In Shangli, Chen Tianheng and Yuan Zhongxian took the lead, and after discussion, Guo Liang and Mao Runzhi drafted the revolutionary government's first "Military Family Preferential Treatment Clause".

"What about the old soldiers? Are they still receiving three or four silver dollars a month?" Guo Liang asked.

"Yes, but there's nothing wrong with that," Chen Tianheng said. "Because most of those veterans' hometowns are in Guangdong, and Guangdong hasn't been taken over yet, there's no way to provide preferential treatment for their families. The economic treatment of the two types of soldiers is fair..."

Chapter 102: The Fall of Shanghai

A modern military service system requires the support of a modernized society.

Therefore, the social transformation of the base area is also military.

After occupying Yichun, the First Army stayed in Zhouchun, Yichun for a month. Mao Runzhi, Chen Tianheng, Guo Liang and others trained the First Army and organized the Second Army, while also expanding their investigation in several surrounding counties.

The northernmost point reached Xiushui County, and even passed through the township where the first regiment had made a 9-kilometer forced march at the end of September last year.

The southernmost point reached near Ji'an, bordering the rural areas under the control of the Fourth Army and local peasant leaders such as Xia Minghan.

Wanzai County belonged to Luling Dao in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. In 1915, Jiangxi abolished the Dao and Wanzai County was placed under the Eighth Administrative District. The county has a population of 10.

"As for educational level, 65% are illiterate, while 35% are literate. Oh, the standard for literacy is knowing 200 Chinese characters?"

Chen Tianheng was reading the Wanzai investigation report written by Guo Liang.

Guo Liang: “Yes, I know 200 characters, including my own name.

Chen Tianheng: "...10% can keep accounts, which I think is what we call literate in the true sense. 5% have completed primary school, 500 have a secondary school education, or 0.5%. 30 are university students. There are 310 scholars and one juren, both from the Qing Dynasty."

“Before the land reform, 30 percent of Wanzai’s land was owned by public and Buddhist land, 40 percent of the cultivated land was owned by landlords, and 30 percent was owned by peasants.

Large landowners accounted for 0.045% of the population, medium landowners 0.4%, small landowners 3%, rich peasants 4%, middle peasants 18.25%, poor peasants 70%, manual workers 3%, the unemployed 1%, and domestic servants and hired laborers 0.3%.

The Wanzai County census measured living conditions, including whether people had enough to eat and whether they were in debt. In reality, rich peasants, middle peasants, and some poor peasants also held a certain amount of land. Therefore, poor peasants were further divided into poor self-cultivating peasants and poor hired peasants based on their land ownership. Poor and middle peasant families often struggled to make ends meet, and in addition to cultivating their own land, they also rented land from large landowners or leased public land from village communes.

Gongtian is not state-owned land. Instead, it was created 200 years ago by a high-ranking official in Wanzai County. After his death, he left a will declaring the land under his name public. Following this rule, all those with achievements in the county who died had all or part of their land transferred to the public land.

Farmers also had to pay rent for renting public land. This rent was used to pay for the collective sacrifices to high-ranking officials who had donated public land, to support their descendants, and to distribute public meat during the Lunar New Year. Clearly, the rent primarily benefited the descendants of these officials. Sacrificial offerings were inexpensive, but the amount of public meat distributed at the ancestral hall during the Lunar New Year was arbitrary and opaque. During the Guangxu period, each male adult received 10.8 jin (approximately 1000 catties) of meat, including sacrificial meat, house-raised meat, and old, diced meat. In the two years before land reform, each male adult received only 1.5 jin (approximately 1000 catties) of meat.

After the land reform, the public land system was abolished and all public land was distributed to landless or land-poor farmers, which greatly eased the economic situation of the poor farmers who accounted for 70% of the population.

"Even before the farmers' association arrived, Wanzai's poor peasants were clamoring for a share of the public land, and the demand was quite strong," Guo Liang said. "We divided the public land with the landlords' land, which effectively left the grain that would have gone to the landlords each year in the hands of the poor peasants. But this didn't fundamentally solve Wanzai County's poverty problem. Infant drowning was still widespread in Wanzai. Poor peasant families would have two children, sometimes three, sometimes one. Of course, the only children left were boys, and then we'd reached the upper limit of grain production. Any more children would drown at birth."

Chen Tianheng reviewed the report and concluded, "From the Guangxu period to 1926, Wanzai's cultivated land...did not increase, and in fact decreased by 2%, due to landslides and mudslides. With no increase in land area for decades, the population has clearly reached its growth ceiling."

Guo Liang: "However, Wanzai County's population has increased by 10% over the past 30 years. Some people have fewer children, but others have more. Although the total amount of cultivated land has remained the same, Wanzai County's annual grain exports have decreased. In other words, the amount of silver and money circulating in the county has become increasingly scarce.

Returning to Yichun from Xiushui-Tonggu-Wanzai, Yichun County was still in the hands of the rebels.

To the west of Yichun lay Pingxiang, the terminus of the Zhuping Railway, where the Hunan Army was stationed. To the east lay Xinyu County, where the 30th Army had been decimated. Pursuing troops from Nanchang were still monitoring Xinyu, but the Nationalist troops on both sides were hesitant to attack Yichun.

Chairman Wang is not in a hurry at all.

Wang Jingwei now holds the positions of Chairman of the Kuomintang and Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army. Logically, this should have achieved the so-called "integration of military and politics." However, the reality is that Wang Jingwei still has no control over the army.

"Li Qiang? What's going on? Is there something wrong with the United Reading Group?"

Li Qiang appeared in Yichun.

"There's nothing wrong with the main business of the United Reading Group, but some of its branches have had problems, and now all the business is concentrated in the concession," Li Qiang said. "The main reason is that the workers' organizations in Shanghai have been attacked and destroyed.

Unlike the original history, when Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei were carrying out party purges across the country, the party and workers' organizations in Shanghai did not suffer any damage in the first wave of impact.

Because Shanghai was captured by the Northern Expedition rather than by a workers' uprising, neither Chiang Kai-shek nor Bai Chongxi were particularly wary of or hostile to the armed forces of the Shanghai workers. Of course, in reality, the Shanghai workers' pickets did not possess the vast numbers of men and weapons as historically depicted. After the purge, the Shanghai Party organization went underground, but thanks to the ability to move between the concessions and the surrounding areas, survival was relatively easy.

The change began after Chiang Kai-shek stepped down. On May 27, approximately 5 workers from inside and outside the Shanghai Concession held a demonstration, demanding the withdrawal of the 26th Army from Shanghai and the Nationalist government to try Chiang Kai-shek and his clique, particularly for his actions in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which included destroying Party branches and massacring progressive workers and peasants.

Wang Jingwei did not issue any directives, neither ordering the dispersal or suppression of the demonstrations nor responding to the workers' appeals.

The Shanghai labor unions and Party organizations, believing the KMT's stance to be weak, staged even larger demonstrations on May 28 and February 29, including placard demonstrations in front of the 26th Army headquarters at the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. Wang Jingwei remained silent, but Chiang Kai-shek, hunkered down in his home in Xikou, Fenghua, denounced Wang Jingwei for dereliction of duty, citing the demonstrations as "clearly organized by the Communist Party."

On May 30, as workers continued their march and gathered in front of the 26th Army headquarters, soldiers suddenly opened fire and stormed out of the barracks, dispersing the protesters. The clashes left 11 workers dead and over 60 injured, and over 400 arrested. The 26th Army and the Kuomintang organized an investigation department to identify and interrogate the captured workers. Zhang Guotao reportedly participated in the interrogation, identifying seven Communist Party members.

Bai Chongxi, the Nationalist Army's Chief of Staff, immediately issued a military order, alleging that the Communists were directing an armed rebellion among Shanghai workers. The 26th Army was dispatched to conduct a sweeping raid on the Chinese-controlled areas of Shanghai. Numerous Kuomintang spies also appeared in the concessions. These agents entered the concessions disguised as civilians, avoiding conflict with foreign military and police forces. Their mission was to spy on suspected Communist and labor leaders, confirm their identities, and then seek an opportunity to kidnap them. If successful, they would be thrown into the river or hauled out of the concessions in the trunk of a car and imprisoned.

"More than a dozen trade unions in Shanghai County were attacked, and their leaders were arrested. Nine union leaders were arrested in Zhabei District, and unions in more than a dozen factories were ordered to disband, with key members expelled. If an armed exchange of fire broke out during the arrests, the 26th Army would immediately unload its guns."

"The Xinyi Weaving Factory actually stopped production and liquidated in April, but the 26th Army still arrested its union members scattered across various neighborhoods. Du Huwen, the leader of the Xinyi Weaving Union, was publicly shot dead on the street by military police," Li Qiang said sadly.

Chen Tianheng: "This account will certainly be settled later, but what we need to do now is to preserve the revolutionary forces. The trade unions and party organizations should not only go underground, but it would be best if some people were to be withdrawn from Shanghai and temporarily transferred to the countryside before finding a new location.

Li Qiang: "After the Nanchang Uprising, did the Central Committee have a plan for the next strategic direction?"

Chen Tianheng: "We do have plans, but we can't reveal too much at the moment.

First Army Headquarters.

"The Fourth Army has been advancing towards Fujian these days, while the Nationalist troops in the Nanjing and Shanghai areas have not moved."

Chen Tianheng: "The Nationalist troops along the coast haven't been mobilized? What did Chief of Staff Liu say about this?"

"Chief of Staff Liu Bocheng said that the Fourth Army had indeed encountered strong resistance from the local Fujian Army in Sanming, but they could take advantage of the situation to stop and create the illusion that the plan to capture Fuzhou had failed, establish a grassroots rural government in the Ninghua area, and then return to southern Jiangxi.

Chen Tianheng: "After returning to southern Jiangxi and entering eastern Fujian, the First Army will simultaneously begin the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Tanzhou Campaign.

Chapter 103: Mao Runzhi said to wait a little longer

Before the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Campaign, the two parts of the rebel army met for a meeting in Shanghu Village near Ji'an.

The Military Commission and military commanders discussed the military developments for the second phase, and the coalition government discussed current base area and urban work.

It was only after arriving at Shanghu Village that I learned that during the period when the Fourth Army was operating in Ji'an and Ganzhou, Chen Duxiu and Deng Yanda held seminars on the peasant movement almost every night. Sometimes Fang Zhimin would also join in the debates.

A fact that may be misplaced:

Chen Duxiu, the founder and current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, came from a family of intellectuals and small landlords; while Deng Yanda, the left-wing leader of the Kuomintang, came from a truly poor peasant background.

The counties in the Ji'an-Ganzhou area are similar to the counties that Chen Tianheng has visited during this period. They are also extremely poor mountainous counties and have not received any benefits from tungsten mines.

After the meeting, Fang Zhimin recounted the story of the recent campaign against local tyrants in Shangyou, near Ganzhou. Part of the Third and Fourth Armies had entered Ganzhou and then advanced to Shangyou, where they had wiped out the four major families.

- A total of 372 silver coins and 7 gold bars were confiscated, 4 of which were not pure gold.

The local farmers' association melted down the silverware of the four major families and minted it to create over 200 silver coins. The remaining items, such as jade and ruyi pearl necklaces, were taken to Nanchang and secretly pawned at a pawnshop. They hadn't sold all of them yet, so they could probably get 700 to 800 yuan.

In short, the money seized from the confiscation of the four major families wasn't much. Their land was distributed to the peasants; IOUs from the lending families were burned, forgiving the farmers' debts of over 1,000 yuan; and their houses were vacated for 17 households to share. This helped alleviate the widespread bankruptcy of the local poor peasants, but the money—the most crucial asset to the army and the regime—was just that little.

Also, please note that beating the local tyrants is a one-time income. Shangyou is not a game map, and the four major families will not be refreshed regularly every year.

The land revolution and the fight against local tyrants to distribute land alleviated the rural social disasters caused by uneven distribution, but could not change the reality of widespread poverty in rural China.

Therefore, Mao Zedong's land revolution or peasant revolution line was not just about fighting against the landlords and dividing the land. This was only the beginning of the revolution.

"The Shanghai Labor Union's Party organization? Didn't the core members of the Shanghai General Labor Union already evacuate?"

Chen Duxiu was very confused about the Shanghai 26th Army's behavior of arresting workers on a large scale and looking for Communists among them. He believed that the 26th Army was using money from big compradors to regulate workers' organizations.

Li Qiang: "Core members have withdrawn or stopped public activities, but some party members and party organizations still exist in various workers' organizations. Some of the workers participating in the strike and march were organized by party members, but some unions without party organizations also responded and participated.

After the Party Central Committee decided to evacuate Shanghai and become a "mobile center," the backbone of the Shanghai party organization subsequently went to Nanchang. According to the arrangements of the Central Committee, some of the organizations that remained had to transform from "labor movement and riot organizations" to "intelligence and public opinion organizations." Therefore, the top leaders of the Shanghai party organization would not issue instructions for such a city-wide strike, as the risk of organizational losses would be too great.

Chen Duxiu: "Could it be that the Communist International is still issuing orders to certain members of the Shanghai Party organization?"

Li Qiang: "We cannot confirm or deny this with the information we have now, we can only speculate.

Zhou Enlai: "However, the news we know now is that Luo Yi, the latest representative sent by the Communist International to China, arrived in Shanghai some time ago. He was ordered by the International to rescind the instructions to remove General Secretary Chen and re-establish contact with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. However, you were still in Shanghai when he set off, and the Nanchang Uprising had already begun while he was on the road.

Chen Duxiu: "What connections? What connections? The Communist International has yet to respond directly to the appeal in our manifesto. Even if I were in Shanghai now, I wouldn't meet this Luo Yi. ... Are you saying that after Luo Yi arrives in Shanghai, he can arbitrarily organize the scattered party members into an organization and mobilize workers to go on strike?"

Zhou Enlai: “That’s possible.

“Commander Ye, um…Commander Zhu.

Chen Tianheng used to call Zhu De "Zhu Laozong." This wasn't actually a customary honorific for Zhu De, the PLA commander-in-chief, by the People's Army. "Laozong" was a common designation for older military leaders during the Republic of China. Now that Zhu De had expanded the Officer Training Corps into the Third Army, it was more appropriate to call him Army Commander.

"How is the expansion of the Third and Fourth Armies going now?

Zhu De: "We have expanded our army in southern Jiangxi by over 10,000 men, forming the Third Army, which has a total of 11,700 men, three divisions, and nine infantry regiments. This is thanks to you and Commander Ye. Your troops have fought many decisive battles since Nanchang. The Third Army is now fully equipped with rifles, as well as light and heavy machine guns."

Chen Tianheng: "We have the men and the guns, and we can put together a team, but it will take some effort to train them to the point where they can fight on all fronts. A while ago, we were discussing by telegram how to ensure that the new recruits from the farmers' associations stay in the army with peace of mind. Has that been implemented in southern Jiangxi?"

Ye Ting: "Fang Zhimin and Xia Xi adjusted the rural base areas and implemented policies for military families. Soldiers no longer have to worry about their families back home financially. The new recruits joining the 24th and 25th Divisions are much more stable. The Third Army is also implementing the same policy. The troops under Commander Zhu will also be fighting in the next phase of the campaign."

Chen Tianheng: "In addition to this, we must also strengthen the cultural education of soldiers.

We start arranging cultural tutoring almost as soon as the soldiers join the army.

"So do we.

Chen Tianheng: "In recent days, we have summarized new experiences. In addition to literacy, arithmetic, and revolutionary education, geography education has also significantly improved the psychological quality of soldiers.

Ye Ting: "Teach them geography?

"Yes," Chen Tianheng said, "Revolutionary education is to make soldiers understand the significance of what they are doing and to liberate the working people of the country, but the soldiers' previous fear and rejection of the army's expedition still exist. The fear of expedition comes from two aspects. One is that they are worried that they will not be able to make a living without them at home; the other is that many soldiers really have no idea what it is like to be in a place more than 30 miles away from home.

"When teaching them geography, first hang up a map of China and explain to the soldiers: This is China, where Jiangxi is located in China, and where your county is located in Jiangxi. What are the local customs and local practices in each region? What are the local products? What are the mountains and rivers like? How high are the mountains, and how big are the rivers? This will gradually help the soldiers expand their horizons from their immediate surroundings to places farther away. They won't worry about leaving home and being trapped in a completely unfamiliar environment. A sense of unfamiliarity can create unease, and they'll feel surrounded by dangers, and they'll want to go home."

Ye Ting: "Yes, a general knowledge of geography can eliminate soldiers' fear of traveling far away. In fact, if it is done well, some soldiers may even look forward to traveling far away and will be very excited to visit these places."

"China is so beautiful, I want to go and see it." Chen Tianheng said with a smile, "This can be considered a successful psychological construction.

Enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission.

"In the past month, the Fourth Army entered Fujian and established a revolutionary base in eastern Fujian before returning to southern Jiangxi.

"In addition to annihilating the 30th Army in Xinyu, the First Army also repelled the demoralized 10th Army of the Nationalist Army near Shanggao, thus eliminating external threats to the base areas in more than a dozen counties along the Hunan border.

Liu Bocheng gave a report on the overall situation.

"Our army has now established the Second and Third Armies, and strengthened the First Army's 1st Division, the Fourth Army, and the 15th Independent Division. The total strength of the four armies is about 60,000. The First and Fourth Armies are capable of large-scale mobile warfare, while the Second and Third Armies are mainly responsible for defense.

"Although arms could not be imported from outside, each army had a large stockpile of ammunition. After the First Army annihilated two divisions of the 30th Army and seized a large amount of ammunition, it used the captured division commanders Wen Jie and Hao Mengling, along with over 3000 captured Northwest Army officers and soldiers, to exchange a basic amount of ammunition from the 30th Army commander Wei Yisan. Of course, this was done in secret. After we got the ammunition, Wei Yisan could tell his superiors that his two divisions had not been completely wiped out, but only severely damaged. Look, my two division commanders are still here, so neither side publicized it."

"Now, the General Staff can confirm that the basic conditions for implementing the second phase of the revolutionary army's campaign are in place.

"Don't be too hasty in implementing the second phase of the campaign.

Mao Runzhi made a speech.

"After Chiang Kai-shek stepped down, the various factions within the Nationalist army initially lived in peace, but in the past few days, they have begun to stir. As time goes by, the conflicts between the new warlords will intensify.

In Guangdong, the Guangdong and Fujian factions engaged in frequent disputes in eastern Guangdong. In Hunan and Hubei, the struggle between Tang Shengzhi's Hunan faction and Li Zongren's Guangxi faction was even more intense. Li Zongren, with the Seventh Army as his foundation and Chief of the General Staff Zi Chongxi as his backer, expanded his army while simultaneously devouring the forces of other factions to further expand his power. Tang Shengzhi's Hunan troops were the primary targets.

"We have to wait for an opportunity."

Mao Runzhi started the conversation by saying "wait a little longer".

Ye Ting: "The longer we stay in Hunan, Jiangxi and southern Jiangxi, the more scarce our ammunition and supplies other than food become. This is a very unfavorable factor.

Zhu De: "But there are also favorable factors. If we stay longer, my Third Army and Xiao Jinguang's Second Army will have more time to train and reorganize, and their combat effectiveness will be even stronger.

Liu Bocheng: "Waiting for a while may allow us to wait for a period of intense conflict between warlords, but it is also possible that there will not be any intense conflict, so this is a rather risky thing to do."

Everyone in the enlarged meeting finally looked at the members of the Central Military Commission: Chen Duxiu, Mao Runzhi, and Chen Tianheng.

Chen Duxiu waved his hand, indicating that he was not very good at analyzing such things.

Chen Tianheng: "Let me think about it..."

The current historical line has changed a lot from the original history, so it is impossible to use previous knowledge to prepare in advance.