The Fourth Outstanding Person of Huangpu Military Academy

After listening to Chen Tianheng's proposal, Chen Wangdao did not directly reject it, but said this.

"Secretary Chen, can I contact Mao Runzhi and ask him to come forward?"

In 1923, the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China was the provincial committee with the largest number of party members, and the Hunan Provincial Committee was only second.

But there are only a few dozen party members, close to but less than three digits.

Therefore, this is not a case of a municipality/provincial party secretary being demoted and transferred to another province. It is not a big deal. It is just equivalent to a mid-level department leader of a state-owned enterprise moving to another location.

In 1923, also in Hunan, there will be another big event like the Anyuan Railway Mine.

……

"Tianheng, Xianyun, and Sun Wen-Joffe issued a statement. The content shocked me greatly."

Chen Tianheng and Jiang Xianyun still lived in Chen Duxiu's house, saving them the trouble of looking for a house. At the dinner table, Chen Duxiu said this.

"Secretary Chen, didn't the Central Committee know in advance that representatives of the Soviet Union and the Communist International met with Sun Yat-sen and issued a statement?"

Jiang Xianyun was slightly surprised.

Chen Tianheng knew that the Sun Yue Declaration was released at about the same time as in history.

In 1922, Marin and Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Adolf Joffe began formal contact and discussions on cooperation between the Soviet Union and the Kuomintang, as well as cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

Sun Yat-sen needed external support to launch the Northern Expedition to unify China. The Soviet Union felt that China's Beiyang government was very hostile to it and wanted to replace it with a pro-Soviet government. The two sides had a basis for cooperation.

The first meeting went quite far, including discussions on the Soviet Union's willingness to provide the Kuomintang with arms, military advisory support, and assistance in establishing a party army. Sun Yat-sen suggested that if the Soviet Union were to provide military aid to the Kuomintang, the best place to do so would be Kulun (Ulaanbaatar). He suggested establishing a military academy in Kulun, where Soviet officers would train student soldiers recruited by the Kuomintang. These would then be used to form a party army, using Soviet-aided weapons to defeat the warlords and unify China.

The cunning of Sun Yat-sen lies in the fact that the unspoken premise behind his suggestion is that "Outer Mongolia belongs to China". If the military academy is established and the Kuomintang army is born here, there will be no doubt that Outer Mongolia belongs to China. The Soviet occupation of Kulun in July 1921 can be interpreted as the preliminary preparation for the Soviet Union/the Soviet Union to assist the Kuomintang.

Joffe and Marin were immediately stuck. From August 1933 to January 1934, the two sides engaged in intermittent contact and negotiations, ultimately reaching a compromise and reaching an agreement, which became the Sun Yat-sen-Joffe Manifesto.

1. Sun Yat-sen believed that the Soviet communist system was not suitable for China. Joffe fully agreed. Both sides believed that China's most pressing problem was the successful unification of the country, and the Soviet Union was willing to support the Kuomintang to this end.

2. The Soviet Union was willing to abandon the Tsarist-era treaties with China and sign a series of new Sino-Soviet treaties.

3. Regarding the Chinese Eastern Railway, Joffe said that the ownership of the Chinese Eastern Railway could be gradually reorganized without damaging the rights and interests of both parties. Sun Yat-sen added that this point should also be discussed with Zhang Zuolin.

4. The Soviet Union had no intention of annexing Outer Mongolia or promoting its independence.

What shocked Chen Duxiu most about Sun Yue's declaration published in the newspaper was the first point, especially "Yoffe expressed full agreement."

In addition, during the entire process of Sun Yat-sen's contact with the Soviet Union, the leaders of the Communist Party of China, including Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, had no decision-making power. Not only did they not have the right to veto, they also did not have the right to know in advance that Adolf Joffe would meet with Sun Yat-sen on behalf of the Soviet Union.

However, this declaration is closely related to the Communist Party of China. The Sun Yue Declaration marks the Soviet Union's formal and comprehensive support for the Kuomintang and the official start of the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

"The Communist International raised this issue in 1922, and I also discussed it at the Second National Congress. However, in the end, the Communist International rejected the resolution reached at the Second National Congress and instead negotiated with the Kuomintang according to their own ideas and line. Because this idea was different from what I proposed, they didn't even share the information with me."

"I have always advocated that the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang should cooperate in the form of a party alliance, an inter-party alliance, rather than the current situation where all Communist Party members join the Kuomintang in their individual capacity. However, the Communist International has already made this decision, so I have no say. Fortunately, although we have all joined the Kuomintang, according to the cooperation agreement between the two parties, we can still carry out independent organizational activities, of course, this may be within the Kuomintang in the future."

Chen Duxiu was shocked and dissatisfied with Sun Yue's declaration, but he also expressed his obedience to the Communist International's decision. Chen Tianheng felt that Chen Duxiu was now in the third step of his "five-step acceptance" strategy: compromise, and would soon become "depressed and accept."

"Secretary Chen, Sun Yat-sen is in Shanghai right now. Why don't you just arrange a meeting with him?"

Chen Tianheng asked a question.

"Meet? What will we talk about?"

Chen Duxiu shook his head.

"We are indeed weak now. The Kuomintang has a broad base in the south, especially in Guangdong, which is almost considered Sun Yat-sen's base. Although Chen Jiongming drove Sun Yat-sen out last year, the southerners still recognize him and agree with his ideas. There are also some military generals who listen to Sun Yat-sen, including a few warships in the navy. When I talk to him, it's not even equal."

Chen Tianheng: "Secretary Chen, when you talk to Sun Yat-sen, tell him directly that in a few months, we will also have a base in Hunan, a rural base covering approximately one-third of Hunan, composed of our party organizations and peasant associations. Also, tell him that when the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party begins, it will not be just Guangdong Province as a base, but at least Guangdong and part of Hunan will be included from the beginning."

"Ah?! Oh, is this the peasant movement in southern and northern Yue that Mao Zedong mentioned last time? Are you going to establish a base? No, no, no, even if you do, you haven't done anything about it yet! How can I negotiate with Sun Yat-sen about something that hasn't even begun?"

Chen Tianheng: "Not yet, that's okay, there will be in the future. Secretary Chen, in 1895, Sun Yat-sen raised funds in the United States, Japan, and Southeast Asia. At the time, he was penniless, had no army, and no base, but through lobbying, he gained the support of overseas Chinese and a large amount of financial support. Lobbying and negotiation are all like this. Maybe Sun Yat-sen will become a close friend because you used similar tactics as him."

Chapter 13

It's time to set off.

During his more than half a year in Shanghai, Chen Tianheng's main job was to help Chen Duxiu develop an industry.

Although this industry is not included in the work scope of the Party Central Committee and is not considered "party assets", it will absorb or train a group of economic management cadres. After they are incorporated into the party as a whole in the future, they will "dilute" the personnel composition of the central government.

In addition, the two men's achievements were the two suitcases in their hands. These were the special party dues of Chen Tianheng and Jiang Xianyun, which they took back and handed over to the Hunan Provincial Party Committee. Funds were needed for the next stage of the peasant movement.

"Look, the third issue of Story Club has just been released."

Jiang Xianyun found the "Story Club" of the United Reading Group at the entrance of the bookstore. Chen Tianheng picked up a copy. The cover had a striking large font, the second line of which read:

The three-year period has expired, the Dragon King has returned, no longer forbearing! — Ding Ling

hiss……

This Ding Ling didn't even choose a pen name for herself...

Ding Ling was not her real name. Her original name was Jiang Wei. Her father was a scholar in the Qing Dynasty. Although the family fell into poverty, they still wanted to raise her according to the Three Obediences and Four Virtues.

As a result, when Ding Ling was studying at the Women's Normal School, she became increasingly rebellious under the influence of the school and her classmate Xiang Jingyu. She not only ran away from home, but also changed her name.

"I heard from Editor-in-Chief Shen that Ding Ling is the best writer among the magazine's contracted writers. Not only does she have the best writing skills, but she also produces work very quickly," said Jiang Xianyun.

"Before she took the job, she said that at the rate of 50 cents per thousand words, she could write until the magazine went bankrupt," said Chen Tianheng.

"This girl is from Hunan. She said she's had no further contact with her family and now has to rely on herself for all her living expenses, so she's naturally very motivated to do this. Oh, and she was a classmate of Yang Kaihui at Yueyun Middle School."

hiss……

Chen Tianheng was stunned. Because when Jiang Xianyun talked about Ding Ling, she revealed an important piece of information - she and Ding Ling had also chatted alone, and her eyes were not right.

"Jiang Xianyun, no, Brother Jiang, be careful."

……

"Secretary Mao."

"Oh, Tianheng, Xianyun, you two have grown a lot taller."

Back in the First Division, Chen Tianheng discovered he had grown taller. He used to be under 170cm tall, but now he was at least 175cm, almost as tall as Mao Runzhi. Jiang Xianyun had also grown a bit taller.

Chen Tianheng: "So I'm considered an adult now, eighteen years old. Secretary He, you're here too. ...Sister Kaihui. Oh my!"

Yang Kaihui walked out of the room to say hello, holding the baby.

"This is... Mao Anying, right?"

"Yes, I thought of a name for him before he was born."

Mao Anying, who was only a few months old, twisted and turned in his quilt. Chen Tianheng carefully took Mao Anying from Yang Kaihui's hands, pretended to examine him carefully and appraise him, then said with certainty:

"The Force is strong with this one."

swoosh...

Jiang Xianyun: "The pee is strong with this one. Hey, it seems like you've finished peeing? Let me come, let me hold it and play with it too."

……

Two days later, Chen Wangdao and Shi Yang also arrived in Changsha.

The two left Shanghai earlier than Chen Tianheng and arrived in Changsha later than Chen Tianheng because they took a detour to Guangzhou, which added 11 days to their journey.

"Comrades."

The Hunan Provincial Party Committee gathered more than 30 comrades at this meeting, which is almost half of the current Hunan Party members.

Before the peasant movement in Hunan was about to accelerate in full swing, Mao Runzhi gave a speech, which started with the infighting among warlords in Hunan.

"On April 6, Zhao Hengxi was elected as the interim governor of Hunan Province."

"The dispute between Tan and Zhao in Hunan Province lasted for several years. Tan Yankai resigned in 1920 and left Hunan for Shanghai, giving way to Zhao Hengti. However, Tan Yankai never gave up his plan to retake Hunan."

"Tan Yankai had many former subordinates in Hunan, and it was impossible for Zhao Hengxi to lay off all of them. During his time in Shanghai after resigning, Tan Yankai struck deals with many major businessmen and negotiated with Sun Yat-sen, earning him the respect of supporters of the Three Principles of the People and gaining a certain reputation."

"The time for Tan Yankai to make a comeback is not far away, and the peasant movement in Hunan is taking advantage of the Tan-Zhao dispute to flourish in the countryside!"

……

In the past few months, the Hunan Provincial Party Committee has also done something significant: it successfully organized a strike at the Shuikoushan Lead and Zinc Mine.

The Shuikoushan Lead and Zinc Mine was the second largest industrial mine in Hunan Province after the Anyuan Railway Mine. The successful strike by these thousands of people not only restored the depressed atmosphere of the workers' movement after the Beijing-Hankou Railway strike, but also strengthened the workers' and peasants' power in Hunan.

There are more party members and activists in the workers' movement. Now, according to Mao Runzhi's request, some of the worker activists are drawn out to participate in and guide the peasant movement.

Because the activists of the workers' movement recruited this time mainly came from Shuikoushan Town, Hengyang, the location of the peasant movement was chosen to be Hengshan and Changning near Hengyang.

Among them, Hengshan will establish the Yuebei Farmers and Workers Association, and Changning will establish the Changning Farmers and Workers Association.

"Chen Tianheng, it's Chen Tianheng! Our military advisor in Anyuan!"

In Hengshan (Yuebei area), Chen Tianheng met Chen Geng, who had already mobilized the peasants there.

"Yan Jing, you have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, right?" Jiang Xianyun said.

"The only one who can succeed in targeting foreigners is Chen Tianheng!"

Chen Tianheng: "That's not the case now. Jiang Xianyun can now speak English. Hey, Glasses, what's going on with Yue Bei now? Tell me."

Chen Geng: "Xiang Qi will be here soon. Wait for him to come and talk to everyone."

Xiangqi, whose original name was Xie Huaide, entered the Anyuan Coal Mine as a fitter in the spring of 1908. He also participated in the Anyuan Railway Mine strike. Chen Tianheng had never met him, but Jiang Xianyun had gone down into the mine and would have seen him.

After the Anyuan Railway Mine strike ended, Xie Huaide was assigned by the party organization to rush to Shuikoushan and participate in organizing the Shuikoushan Lead and Zinc Mine strike. Xie Huaide played a significant role in this strike and was called "Xie Mengzi".

Less than a month after Shuikoushan, he took a group of Shuikoushan miners to Yuebei to organize a peasant movement.

Hunan, once known as the "Land of Fish and Rice," experienced a rapid population growth during the Ming and Qing dynasties, leading to a rapid saturation of land and population in rural Hunan. While Hunan continues to export rice annually, this export is predicated on the fact that local farmers are struggling to get by. Even in the rice-producing plains of Hunan, farmers still rely on supplementary crops like sweet potatoes and corn to survive the year. Consequently, the sayings "sweet potatoes provide half a year's food" and "melons and vegetables provide half a year's food" are common in many areas.

Of course, farmers wouldn't sell rice to Shanghai or Guangzhou even if they had no rice to eat themselves. This brings us to the second problem in rural Hunan: land consolidation. A small number of landlords controlled the majority of the land, and the saturated population-land ratio left farmers with no bargaining power over rent. The extremely high proportion of in-kind rents concentrated almost all rice production in the hands of the landlords, who then transported the rice to other places for sale.

The farmers of Yuebei are naturally dissatisfied. Even more discontent than the farmers are the local non-farmers. The population of Yuebei engaged in crafts and small-scale commerce (including their families) accounts for approximately 16% of the total population. In addition, many families work as laborers in Shuikoushan and Anyuan. The young and middle-aged members of these families have gone to work in the mines, leaving the elderly, children, and women unable to farm. They rely on their husbands' wages to support their families.

This means that approximately 20% of Yuebei's population, while living in rural areas, must buy their own food from the market. Landlords are now hoarding grain and shipping it elsewhere for sale, driving up grain prices in Yuebei, a rice-producing region, to the point where many families can barely afford porridge, relying instead on sweet potato porridge.

These situations and data were recorded in an investigation report in Chen Tianheng's hand.

考察报告的作者是毛润之。1921年11月、1922年3月、1922年10月，毛润之来过三次岳北地区，写了详尽的岳北地区农村考察报告。

Chen Tianheng noticed that this investigation report was not included in Mao Zedong's later collected works, and it must have been lost during the war years.

"Equal grain sales and prohibitions. This is an effective way to mobilize the peasants and unite them with the workers."

"To block the rice, the farmers' association organized itself, blocking trucks and boats, forbidding the export of local rice. They sold the intercepted rice locally at a fair price, selling it to the poorest farmers and workers at a minimal price. Each household was issued a rice selling license based on the number of people in the household. This month, the price of rice has risen to 3.60 yuan per dan. The farmers' association will sell the intercepted rice to the farmers at 3 yuan per dan."

"The poorest farmers don't want the money. They'll just owe it to them first, and they'll agree to pay it back in the autumn."

What Xie Huaide said was also the main strategy that Mao Runzhi told everyone at the party meeting in Changsha.

Chen Tianheng: "Stopping carts and boats, and halting the export of grain, will inevitably provoke fierce resistance from the landlords. Everyone should be prepared for violence during the blockade of the equal grain sale. In addition, we must also be prepared to face the subsequent suppression of the peasant movement in Yuebei by troops sent from Hengyang or even from Changsha by Zhao Xiheng."

Chen Geng: "I served as a private in the Hunan Army for several years. I will train the peasants to protect the grain. Old Xie, will you select suitable members for the farmers' association?"

"We are already selecting candidates."

Chen Tianheng: "I also joined the working group to train the farmers' grain protection team."

Chen Geng: "Ah, you?"

Chen Tianheng smiled and said, "Yes. Just wait for another surprise."

Chapter 14

"When you hear the command to march, the first foot to step out is your left foot. Left, right, left! Left, right, left!"

On the hard ground outside the ancestral hall, Chen Geng shouted loudly and trained the peasant guards.

"Thrust! Control the direction of the spear with your left hand. As your hand moves, push the ground with your right foot and use your waist to exert force! Push the spear towards the target with both hands! Yes, push! Look at my gestures! Ready—kill!"

"Hahey! Kill!!"

Chen Tianheng seemed to be back to the time when he had just graduated from military academy and was training a row of new recruits in the army.

Under the mobilization of the party organization and Xiang Qi, more than 200 farmers from more than 30 natural villages in Yuebei area were mobilized to join the peasant guard team. After Chen Tianheng, Jiang Xianyun and his party joined, more than 80 young, strong and smart team members were selected from these more than 200 farmers and divided into two teams. The instructors were Chen Geng and Chen Tianheng.

The standard weapon of the peasant guards was a javelin (a short spear), forged by a local blacksmith, and each soldier was given one. Chen Tianheng's training method for this was simply to adapt the stabbing technique. In fact, javelins were more convenient for stabbing than rifles with bayonets.

The "higher-end" weapons are bird guns. The Farmers' Association has scoured the homes of hunters in rural areas of Yuebei, selecting small guns suitable for one-man shoulder shooting (some Hengshan mountain dwellers use large muskets for hunting). Currently, there are seven usable ones. Chen Geng and Chen Tianheng are diligently repairing several damaged ones, and it is estimated that the number of firearms will reach more than a dozen by next week.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, hey!"

One child was particularly engrossed and made an exaggerated lunge.

This boy is actually only 14 years old this year, but he has grown very fast and has some brute force. He worked as a child laborer in the mines in Shuikoushan and participated in the Shuikoushan lead and zinc mine strike. This time he also joined the peasant movement.

"Geng Biao!" Chen Tianheng shouted, "When thrusting, you don't use your hands to generate power, you use your whole body! That way, the thrust will be powerful! Pay attention to using force from your waist as well! Take two steps back and try again!"