August 7th Conference and Armed Uprising in Various Regions
Nanchang Uprising
Under the extremely severe situation that the revolution suffered serious failure, should we persist in the revolution? How to persist in the revolution? These are two fundamental issues before the Communist Party of China (CPC). The party gave a preliminary and clear answer to this with the actual action of armed uprising.
In order to revive the revolution, the party led the people in an arduous struggle. In mid-July, 1927, the Standing Committee of the Provisional Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Li Lisan, Deng Zhongxia, Tan Pingshan and Yun Daiying to Jiujiang, Jiangxi, to organize some forces of the National Revolutionary Army controlled and influenced by the Communist Party of China (CPC), and to unite with the commander-in-chief of the Second Army, Zhang Fakui, to return to Guangdong, so as to establish a new revolutionary base and carry out the agrarian revolution. On July 20th, when Zhang Fakui was found to be on Wang Ching-wei’s side, Li Lisan and others immediately abandoned the plan of relying on Zhang Fakui and proposed to launch an independent military action against the Kuomintang governments in Nanjing and Wuhan, namely the Nanchang Uprising. After learning the proposal of Li Lisan and others, the Standing Committee of the Provisional Political Bureau of the Central Committee formally confirmed the deployment of an armed uprising in Nanchang. Subsequently, the plan of the uprising was reported to the Communist International.
At this time, the 24th Division of the 11th Army under the jurisdiction of the Second Front Army of the National Revolutionary Army was commanded by communist party Ye Ting. The 73rd and 75th regiments of the 25th Division of the Fourth Army were organized by the Ye Ting Independent Regiment during the Northern Expedition, and the 30th Regiment of the 10th Division was held by communist party. The 20th Army was commanded by He Long (who joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) on the way south after the uprising) who was close to communist party. These troops have been transferred from Wuhan to Jiujiang in the name of "East Conquest against Chiang Kai-shek". In late July, Wang Ching-wei and Zhang Fakui felt that He Long and Ye Ting’s troops were "unstable" and tried to call He and Ye to Lushan in the name of a meeting to relieve them of their military power. Ye Jianying, the chief of staff of the Fourth Army, secretly rushed to Jiujiang from Lushan to discuss countermeasures with Ye Ting and He Long, and decided not to carry out the order of concentrating the troops under his jurisdiction in De ‘an, but to drive the troops to Nanchang and its nearby areas. In Nanchang, there are the Education Corps of the Third Army Officers of the Fifth Army and the Security Team of Nanchang Public Security Bureau, which were originally commanded by Zhu De and influenced by communist party. These troops are the main part of the regular revolutionary armed forces cultivated and exerted great influence by the Party during the Great Revolution, and they are also the main military forces that held the Nanchang Uprising.
On July 27th, Zhou Enlai arrived in Nanchang from Wuhan via Jiujiang. According to the decision of the Central Committee, the Front Committee of the Communist Party of China was established, consisting of Zhou Enlai, Li Lisan, Hui Daiying and Peng Pai, with Zhou Enlai as the secretary. The front Committee immediately decided to revolt on July 30.
While the preparations for the uprising were tense, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China received a telegram from the Communist International according to the decision of the Communist Party of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. The telegram pointed out: "If we are sure of success, we think your plan is feasible." After analyzing the situation, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China believed that the Nanchang Uprising was sure of success, and decided to send Zhang Guotao, member of the Standing Committee of the Provisional Political Bureau of the Central Committee, to Nanchang as a representative of the Central Committee to convey the instructions of the Comintern and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. On the morning of July 30th, Zhang Guotao arrived in Nanchang. Because he still has illusions about Zhang Fakui, he advocates that Zhang Fakui’s consent must be obtained before an uprising can be held. This opinion was rejected by the front Committee. On July 31st, the Front Committee decided to hold an uprising in the early morning of August 1st.
In the early morning of August 1st, under the leadership of the Front Committee headed by Zhou Enlai, He Long, Ye Ting, Zhu De and Liu Bocheng led more than 20,000 troops under the direct control and influence of the Party to hold the Nanchang Uprising. After more than four hours of fierce fighting, the insurgents wiped out more than 3,000 people on the defensive and occupied Nanchang City. Nie Rongzhen and Zhou Shidi pulled out most of the troops of the 25th Division to take part in the uprising in Mahuiling, near Nanchang, and arrived in Nanchang on August 2nd.
In order to win over and unite some people in the Kuomintang who are willing to continue the revolution and expose Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Ching-wei’s betrayal of Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary spirit, this uprising still uses the banner of the Kuomintang left. After the victory of the uprising, the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Nationalist Party was established, and 25 members including Soong Ching Ling, Deng Yanda (the above two have not been to Nanchang), He Long and Zhou Enlai were elected, and the presidium consisted of seven members including Soong Ching Ling and Deng Yanda. At the same time, in the name of Soong Ching Ling and others, he published the Declaration of the Central Committee, pointing out that Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing and Wang Jingwei in Wuhan misinterpreted the Three People’s Principles, betrayed the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and abandoned the three major policies of uniting Russia, uniting the Communist Party and helping the peasants and workers, which have become sinners of Sun Yat-sen’s cause; Call on all revolutionaries to unite, inherit Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary legacy, and "continue to fight against imperialism and solve the land problem". Uprising troops used the designation of the Second Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and had three armies under their jurisdiction: the ninth, eleventh and twentieth armies. (Wei Chu, commander of the Ninth Army (not yet in position), Zhu De, deputy commander (soon to take over as commander), and Zhu Kejing, the party representative. Ye Ting, commander of the 11th Army, represented Nie Rongzhen. He Long, commander of the 20th Army, and Liao Ganwu, the representative of the Party —— Author’s Note) The Revolutionary Committee appointed He Long as the commander-in-chief of the Second Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and Ye Ting as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy.
On August 3rd, according to the decision made by the Central Committee before the uprising, the insurgents began to leave Nanchang, passing Linchuan (Fuzhou), Yihuang and Guangchang, and went south to Guangdong, with a view to restoring the revolutionary base areas in Guangdong, occupying the seaport, obtaining international assistance, and then resuming the Northern Expedition. But by this time, most of the National Revolutionary Army had turned to counter-revolution, and the Nanchang Uprising Force led by communist party was weak, so it was impossible to carry out a revolutionary war with the occupation of cities as the central goal, like the Northern Expedition during the Great Revolution. After withdrawing from Nanchang, the rebel army did not realize that it should go to the vast rural areas of Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei nearby to combine with the peasant movement that has not been completely suppressed by counter-revolutionary forces, so as to gradually accumulate and expand revolutionary forces. Instead, it was busy going south to Guangdong to make expeditions and compete for cities and seaports. In this way, we will put ourselves in a disadvantageous position.
On the way to Guangdong, due to the weak leadership and political work of the Party and the hot weather, many soldiers fled and fell ill, and the number of troops was seriously reduced. Cai Tingkai, the commander of the 10th Division of the 11th Army, who was wavering during the uprising, led his troops to leave the revolutionary ranks when he arrived in Jiangxi to become a sage. On the way to the south, the rebels fought fiercely with the Kuomintang troops who came to intercept them. Although they won some victories, they also suffered great casualties. After the capture of Chao ‘an and Shantou in Guangdong in late September, the main troops marched westward to Tangkeng (now Fengshun County) via Jieyang, and a few troops stayed in Chao ‘an and Shantou. At the beginning of October, under the siege of the superior enemy forces, these troops all suffered serious failures. Only a small part of the 24 th Division of the Eleventh Army, led by Dong Lang and others, was transferred to Haifeng and Lufeng to join the local agricultural army. Nearly 800 insurgents stationed in Sanheba, led by Zhu De and Chen Yi, moved to the border areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hunan to carry out guerrilla warfare. After the failure of the uprising, Zhou Enlai and other leaders arrived in Hongkong. After summing up the lessons, they decided that the rest of the insurgents should combine with the peasants on the spot and carry out armed struggle in the countryside.
The Nanchang Uprising fired the first shot of armed resistance against the Kuomintang reactionaries, and in the language of blood and fire, it declared the strong determination of the Communist Party of China (CPC) people to persist in the revolution without fear of violence. It set up a banner of revolutionary armed struggle in front of the whole party and the people of the whole country, marking the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s independent leadership of the revolutionary war and the creation of the people’s army (in July 1933, the provisional central government of chinese soviet republic passed a resolution, pointing out that the Chinese Red Army of Workers and Peasants was formed by the Nanchang Uprising, so it "approved the proposal of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission and stipulated that" August 1st "should be the anniversary of the Chinese Red Army of Workers and Peasants every year". This is the origin that August 1st became the Army Day of China People’s Liberation Army (the author’s note) and the beginning of the armed seizure of political power, so it is of great historical significance.