The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

On the right, Chen Tianheng's annotation reads: The Chicago Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions was a key organizing body in the Chicago General Strike. Other books and materials record this organization as follows...

在抄录1886年5月1日芝加哥工人罢工的报道后，右边陈天衡则总结道：“5月1日和2日，《工人报》、《芝加哥早报》、《警钟》均在第一时间刊发报道，尤其是周刊《警钟》在5月2日上市的刊物就予以报道，说明芝加哥工会早就与杂志社有过协调互动。”

After annotating and summarizing several famous strikes, Chen Tianheng turned to another page and wrote an outline, summarizing several prerequisites for the strike and important nodes in the process.

Mao Runzhi and Li Lisan both flipped through it, looked at each other and exchanged opinions.

Li Lisan: "Runzhi, go for it. If the strike fails once, we can organize a second one in three months."

Mao Runzhi: "Shu Jihuan, Li Yihuan, and other comrades in the branch, what are your opinions?"

Shu Jihuan was the first to express his agreement. Although the "professional team" to organize the strike in the north had not yet arrived, the workers' anger was running high, so this might be an opportune time.

Then Li Yihuan and other worker party members of the Anyuan Railway Mine Branch expressed their support.

Li Lisan: "Then let's begin the preparations."

Mao Runzhi: "First, we need to find people. All comrades who can be mobilized from the Hunan Provincial Committee should come to Anyuan. We need manpower for all aspects of the strike."

……

Chen Tianheng's notebook was like a small weight placed on the originally balanced scale, which finally made the comrades present make up their minds to organize the Anyuan Road mine workers to strike immediately.

The first task was to mobilize the entire Hunan Provincial Party Committee to Anyuan. Actually, at that time, the number of Party members in Hunan was only in the double digits.

The Party organization already had a strong mass base in Anyuan and now needed to leverage its connections with the workers to convey their resolve and determination to strike. For the next few days, Mao Runzhi was in charge of the coal miners, while Li Lisan went to the railway. Li Yihuan, a representative of the railway bureau, not only coordinated the strike but also negotiated with the social organizations and gangs associated with the railway and mines.

In terms of propaganda and public opinion, in addition to the media in Hunan (mainly Changsha), Mao Runzhi also had to contact Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, asking them to contact newspapers and magazines in Beijing and Shanghai to cooperate with Anyuan.

Before they knew it, they were working late into the night. The people present were quickly assigned work for the next few days, except for Jiang Xianyun and Chen Tianheng.

"Secretary Mao, Secretary Li, what is my job?" Chen Tianheng asked.

Li Lisan: "You, and Jiang Xianyun, are teaching the workers to read and write at the Workers' School. I was supposed to be teaching this, but I'm probably too busy to teach the workers."

Chen Tianheng and Jiang Xianyun: "Ah?!"

Li Lisan took Chen Tianheng's workbook from his briefcase and expertly flipped to page 17. "You wrote it yourself: 'A strike doesn't mean workers throw up their hands and go home and quit; it means they occupy the factory. Not only will they not resume work, but they will also prevent the factory owner from recruiting new workers to replace the original workers and resume production. A strike is not a peaceful event, but rather a very violent one, or one that harbors enormous potential for violence.' How could I dare let you two risk something like that?"

Mao Runzhi: "For your own safety, the two of you shouldn't be on the front lines. If the guards or police from the railway and mining companies spot you, how will I explain this to your parents at home?"

……

Anyuan Road Mine Workers' School.

"Ugh!"

evening.

The workers' school was essentially a night school. Workers would come to the workers' club to learn to read after get off work to fill their stomachs. They should have shown up half an hour later. Looking at the empty room, Jiang Xianyun sighed deeply, "Chen Tianheng, we've become idlers."

Chen Tianheng: "Secretary Mao treated us like children and protected us. I don't know how the preparations have been going over the past few days, and whether we've encountered any unexpected situations. It's already been five days."

Many people have come to Anyuan these days.

After Mao Zedong called for help, the first comrades to rush to Anyuan were Yang Kaihui and Mao Runmin. As expected, family members are always the fastest to act.

Then Guo Liang, He Shuheng and several students from the First Normal School arrived.

Then Xia Minghan and Xia Mingzhen arrived in Anyuan with several comrades from Hunan Self-Study University.

Xia Xi was on his own. A few months earlier, as a youth representative, he had attended the First Congress of the Far Eastern Revolutionary Group in Moscow, also commemorating the 104th anniversary of Marx's birth. Having just returned from China, he learned from Chen Duxiu that the Anyuan Railway and Mining Company was about to stir up trouble, and immediately set out from Shanghai for Anyuan. He was still on his way.

Jiang Xianyun: "Everyone is busy, but we two are idle... Hey, Chen Tianheng, what are you writing down on paper again?"

During the time Jiang Xianyun met Chen Tianheng, whenever he had some free time, Chen Tianheng would take out his notebook to write and draw. What made Jiang Xianyun curious was that sometimes Chen Tianheng would suddenly frown while writing and tear off the paper with a "swish".

He didn't throw the torn paper into the trash or tear it into pieces, but burned it!

This time Jiang Xianyun leaned over to see what Chen Tianheng had written, but Chen Tianheng immediately closed the notebook and said, "This is private information. It cannot be made public."

Jiang Xianyun: "It's definitely not personal information. I guess the next time there's a meeting about a major event, you'll pull out another lucky charm from your pocket. This lucky charm is just like this, written down bit by bit in your daily life."

Chen Tianheng shook his head: "No. ...It is indeed a plan, but I haven't figured it out yet."

……

It was completely dark. Workers, their families, and their children began arriving in groups of two or three. Jiang Xianyun and Chen Tianheng saw that it was almost time and lit the oil lamps on either side of the blackboard. Lamp oil was not cheap, so they had to light them before class.

"Jiang Xianyun!"

Guo Liang came jogging from a distance.

"Brother Guo! What's the matter?"

Guo Liang: "The strike propaganda team is overwhelmed. We need to send people to all four mines to talk to the workers. I'm still short of one person. Runzhi and I have agreed that you will join my side. After all, you are 18 years old this year, right?"

"Okay!" Jiang Xianyun almost jumped up in excitement, "I'll be right there!"

Jiang Xianyun quickly packed his small schoolbag and was about to leave.

Chen Tianheng: "Brother Guo, what about me? How about I go to the mine too?"

Guo Liang: "No, you can't go. You have to go down to the mine. Stay here and take classes."

Chen Tianheng: ...

Jiang Xianyun happily followed Guo Liang to do the work.

"Excuse me, Mr. Chen, one of the teachers has left. Does this mean we will only have one of the two classes tonight?"

In the open-air classroom of the night school, a child who looked about 10 or 11 years old raised his hand and asked.

"Don't even think about skipping class, Yang Dezhi!" Chen Tianheng pointed at Yang Dezhi and said, "Teacher Jiang has left for something, so I'll take his math class! Today we're going to talk about systems of linear equations in two variables!"

……

Because he was in a bad mood, Chen Tianheng made the first math class difficult, which made the workers and their families suffer.

After talking for more than half an hour, a figure came running from a distance, banging into the club door, and then rushed out again in a moment:

"What? You're the only one left in the club? Something big has happened!"

Chen Tianheng: "Chen Geng, what's the big deal?"

Chen Geng adjusted his black-framed glasses and panted, "Mao Runzhi was beaten! It seems to be a foreigner named Otto!"

Chapter 4

Chen Geng and Chen Tianheng led more than 40 workers who did not want to attend class and rushed away.

The incident occurred at the south entrance of Anyuan Workers' Village. Mao Runzhi had finished his errands outside and was on his way back to the Workers' Club when a tall, foreigner suddenly stumbled out of the darkness, mumbling something incomprehensible in a foreign language and reaching for Mao Runzhi's umbrella. Mao Runzhi pushed the drunken foreigner away, but he pushed back, and a fight ensued.

The foreigner was lying on the ground, unconscious, with a large bump on his head. Mao Runzhi's arm was also scraped.

"It's okay, it's okay, just an alcoholic foreign technician from the Communications Bureau."

Chen Tianheng felt relieved, it was not a big deal.

Article 4 of the Strike Organizing Rules states: During the preparations for and during a strike, the safety of the strike leaders must be ensured. If possible, the identities of the core strike leaders must be concealed from the factory.

Chen Tianheng was worried that the railway and mining authorities would discover the workers were planning a strike and send in military police, security guards, or gangsters to attack the strike leaders. But the drunken Otto Scholes lying on the ground was clearly not a thug.

"I must clarify that this was a personal act, and there was a huge misunderstanding. It's not a conflict between the Railways, Mining and Communications Bureau and the Chinese. I hope we can resolve this peacefully."

Two foreigners were present to deal with the dispute, led by Andrews White, the chief engineer of the Communications Bureau. Otto was his subordinate, and most of the dozen or so employees of the Communications Bureau (telegraph bureau) were foreigners.

Because Chen Tianheng and more than 40 workers were standing in a crowd, forming an absolute numerical advantage, White had to be very humble and spoke softly.

Mao Runzhi: "He hit me twice, I hit him twice, and we'll be even. You foreign engineers like to drink, and once you drink, you get drunk, and when you're drunk you start making trouble. Originally, Chinese and foreign workers didn't interact with each other and lived in peace, but this drunk has caused everyone to get angry. Mr. White, can you please control your men?"

"No, no, no, most of my employees follow the rules and don't drink on the street," White explained. "It's just Otto's problem. He's a well-known alcoholic in the Communications Bureau."

"Mr. White, this Otto, he's not Belgian, is he?"

Chen Tianheng had just heard Otto mumble something in a daze. It sounded like German. To be more precise, it sounded like an Austrian accent, like Schwarzenegger's.

Andrews White: "Otto is Austrian. I met him when I was recruiting in Shanghai. He happened to be a graduate of an electrical engineering school and had work experience in China, so I hired him."

"In fact, Otto fled to the East because he got drunk and got into trouble in Vienna, right? Otto?" A foreign engineer next to White interrupted.

Otto, who was lying on the ground, had been woken up by the workers. He staggered to his feet and, when asked by his colleagues, replied awkwardly, "I'm not wanted. I just got into a fight."

"In 1913, he got into a fight in a Vienna bar and got hit by a guy with a big beard and small glasses."

"Otto, you think you're just causing trouble now, but in a few years, you'll be in even bigger trouble." Chen Tianheng was shocked after hearing the foreign engineer's explanation. Were the two he beat up Stalin and Trotsky?

After a brief negotiation, the situation was resolved. The Chinese workers dispersed, and White and the others dragged Otto back.

"Secretary Mao, Secretary Li, I think it's necessary to consult with the foreign employees of the Communications Bureau as well."

Mao Runzhi: "You spoke to White in English just now. What did you talk about?"

Chen Tianheng: "I asked him if the Railway, Mining and Communications Bureau had a union, and White said no. I then asked if they weren't planning to organize one, but White didn't give me a direct answer. I then asked if I could come to discuss it in detail, and White said it wouldn't be best to do it in the office. However, we agreed that we could discuss this matter."

……

The next night.

Chen Tianheng first arrived at the meeting place, a noodle shop on Lukuang South Street. He secretly observed the surroundings for any abnormalities, then pushed the door open and went in.

"I never eat here. If you Chinese unions have anything to say, please finish it as soon as possible. I still have to go to dinner."

After a while, Andrews White came and said something impatiently after sitting down.

White knew Chinese fluently, but as soon as he sat down he spoke in English, implicitly stating his intention—he didn't want anyone to overhear what was going on in this meeting.

"Mr. White, it seems you have guessed that we have organized a union,"

"I and the employees of the Communications Bureau will not join your Chinese union."

"Mr. White, this is not what I want to discuss with you today," Chen Tianheng said seriously. "Let me assume that the foreign employees of the railway mine already have a union, and you are the leader of it. Then, can the Chinese union and the foreign employee union unite and launch a joint strike?"

"Joint strike?" White looked at Chen Tianheng with an incredulous expression, his eyes wide open. "Are you telling a fairy tale? You and I are not of the same kind."

"We are all workers working for the Anyuan Railway Mine."

"I'm Belgian, and my employees are British, German, Dutch, and Austrian, and you are Chinese. Regardless of nationality, our salaries are based on British standards," White said. "I know your Chinese workers' wages have been cut, but we haven't. Even if your wages weren't cut, your income is very meager and it's difficult to maintain a decent life, but we are not."

Chen Tianheng: "In March of this year, rail workers on three British railway lines went on strike. Also in March, postal and telecommunications workers in Belgium went on strike. As for Germany, strikes have been occurring one after another since 1919, and have never stopped. If the so-called British standard salary is high enough, why are British workers still striking?"

"…Tsk. British Rail. They have their problems."

"Mr. White, unions and strikes are about fighting for workers' rights and interests. As long as there's an employer-employee relationship... it's necessary for the employed to unite and achieve a balance of power with the employer. You're the highest-ranking employee at the Anyuan Railway and Mine Communications Bureau, but I haven't heard you own a stake in the Anyuan Railway and Mine. Of course, your salary is high compared to Chinese workers, but you're still just a senior employee employed by your boss, aren't you?"

"Not only is my salary high, but I am also very satisfied with it. The same goes for my employees. Therefore, we don't need to go on strike to fight for anything now." White still denied it, but his attitude was not so resolute.

"No, you've been treated unfairly." Chen Tianheng caught White's subtle expression instantly, and he seized on this opportunity to pursue his position relentlessly. "You're a company controlled by Belgian capital, and your salaries are settled in Belgian francs. But I noticed that the Belgian franc's exchange rate against the British pound fell significantly in April and May of this year. If calculated in pounds, your salaries have actually decreased. Furthermore, Mr. White, since you came from Europe to work in China, your contracts entitle you to three weeks of additional vacation each year. Yet, you and the foreign employees of the Railway, Mining, and Communications Bureau have never enjoyed this vacation, right?"

……

"Chen Tianheng, what does this gesture mean?"

After the meeting with White, Chen Tianheng returned to the Workers' Club. Jiang Xianyun and Guo Liang came up to ask about the meeting, and Chen Tianheng made an "OK" gesture.

"Ah, these are two English letters. This one is 'O', and these three fingers represent 'K', which means everything is settled." Chen Tianheng quickly patched up his inadvertently out-of-date words and deeds.

Fortunately, “ojbk” didn’t come out of my mouth directly.

00:00 on June 22nd.

The bells in all the mines of the coal mine are rung simultaneously.

The railway locomotive whistles blew.

After receiving the signal, the underground workers lined up to leave the mine like a tide. Of course, when leaving, they still shut down the machines according to the procedures and took safety measures.

At 3:00 AM, all workers working underground emerged from the mine. After repeated inspections, the mine's power was disconnected and locked. A picket team guarded the mine entrance, forbidding anyone from working below. This massive mine, which produced over 2000 tons of raw coal daily, officially came to a halt.

A few hours earlier, on the evening of the 21st, under the coordination of the Anyuan Party branch, restaurants, taverns, and entertainment venues controlled by social organizations and secret societies around the Anyuan workers' village also collectively closed to prevent the railway and mining authorities from taking advantage of this loophole to infiltrate, threaten, or even disintegrate the workers.

On the morning of the 22nd, the Workers' Club sent letters to the Pingxiang County Governor's Office and the Ganxi Garrison Office, explaining the reasons for the strike. They also sent letters to the Railway and Mining Bureaus, outlining the strike's reasons and 17 demands, informing them, "If you wish to negotiate, please send an official representative, introduced by the Chamber of Commerce, to contact the club's representative, Li Nengzhi (Li Lisan's pseudonym)."

Anyuan Road Mine Workers' Strike Begins!

At 10 a.m. on the 22nd, the railway and mining authorities responded and asked for help from the Anyuan Railway and Mining Garrison Office.

The garrison commanded a brigade under the command of Li Hongcheng, commander of the Gan army. It had a regiment and a cavalry company stationed near Anyuan, totaling over 1,100 men. As soon as Li's cavalry arrived, everything would be fine.

"What?! The foreigners in the telegraph room are on strike too?!"

Wang Hongqing, the chief engineer of Anyuan Mining Bureau, was panicked.

After Wang Hongqing learned that the workers were on strike, he immediately asked his men to send a telegram for help. As a result, he learned from the telegraph room of the Communications Bureau that the Anyuan Railway and Mine Communications Bureau was also on strike.

The leading foreigner, Chief Engineer Andrews White, told the railway and mining authorities that they would not accept any telegraph business at the moment. All telegrams received in the telegraph room would be copied without missing a single one, but whether the message would be delivered to the recipient depended on the mood of the communications bureau.

In other words, the railway and mining authorities would not be able to obtain any information from the telegraph office that was unfavorable to the strike.