A Speech Addressed by Xi Yuanping on the Symposium on
Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of Mr. Xi Zhongxiong′s
Birthday and the Historical Position of the Armed Uprising in Liangdan County
in Gansu Province in 1932On the occasion of people just enjoying the
long holidays during the National Day and celebrating the 64th
anniversary of the founding of the People′s Republic of China, we come to the
beautiful Liangdan County with a mood of immerse respect and attend the
symposium on the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Mr. Xi
Zhongxiong′s birthday and the historical position of the incident. As one of
the successors of revolutionary predecessors, firstly, I show my gratitude to
Gansu Provincial Party Committee and the Government of Gansu Province for their
well-considered arrangement and organization, and I also show my greatest
respect to the individuals and senior comrades of the Old Red Army who once
experienced the incident and the military struggle in Shanxi, Gansu and Ningxia
Province, and to the people who make great contribution to our revolutionary
course in the revolutionary base areas as well. Meanwhile, on behalf of Mrs. Qi
Xin, my beloved mother, I take my sincere greetings to the relevant Central
Ministries, the PLA General Political Department, Lanzhou Military Region and
Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, members of Shanxi Provincial Party
Committee, and experts and scholars and staffs in the field of news media from
the whole country.
Overthrowing the “the Three Big Mountains” and founding the PRC are the
fruit of the successive and bitter struggles hundreds of revolutionary
predecessors has undergone with sacrificing their lives. Both Shanxi
and Gansu are
the earliest provinces where the Chinese Communist Party established its own organization
in Northwestern area, of which both have a correlated integrity in the history
of revolutionary struggles. During the time from the Great Revolutionary War
(1924-1927) to the Agrarian Revolutionary War (1927-1937), in the area filled
with revolutionary struggles, revolutionary pioneers like Liu Zhidan , Xie
Zichang and Xi Zhongxiong didn′t fear the White terror facing death with
equanimity, responded to the call of the Party, mobilized the mass further,
conducted armed struggles actively, which shocked the rule of the Kuomintang
reactionaries in both provinces. Particularly, the incident in 1932 was a
fundamental military struggle.
The incident embodies the fighting spirit
that revolutionary pioneers risked their lives. My father, Xi Zhongxiong,
bravely participated in the revolutionary fighting emerging vigorously in
Weibei area in Shanxi
province when he was a student. He joined the Communist Youth League of China
at the age of 12, and became a member of the Communist in his 14 at the prison.
Very young as he was then, he devoted his life to the revolutionary course,
therefore, he was known as one of “the Three Young Revolutionary Fighters in
the Villages”. In the February 1930, he was only 16, regardless of the great
grief for losing his parents and danger of approaching close to the enemy′s
camp, accredited by the Party Organization, went to Changwu
County in Shanxi Province
for plotting the soldier movement in the Kuomintang Army. Owing to his vigilance,
competence and strategy-oriented, he established secretly the Party
Organization, developed the Party members together with other members join the
army before him. And later, he was appointed as secretary of the Party Committee
in that battalion and undertook the major task of the soldier movement. On
April 2nd 1932, while the troop relieved a garrison within the Gansu
and Shanxi, with the help of Liu Linpu, a Commissioner of Shanxi provincial
Party Committee, the Party Committee of the battalion made a decisive decision
to launch the armed uprising in Liangdan County of Gansu province, and then,
adapted the troop after the armed uprising into the 5th detachment
of the guerilla of both provinces of the Chinese Workers′ and Peasants′ Red
Army (1928-1937). At the time, he was accredited as secretary of the guerilla
Committee. The 5th detachment of the guerilla transferred to other
places for thousands of miles in order to meet with the troop commanded by Liu
Zhidan. But when moving forward the eastern area, the guerilla found itself
besieged by the enemies. Over several bitter fighting, the guerilla suffered a
severe loss, as a result, it was scattered by overwhelming enemies. After that,
my father has talked of the incident one more time after the several decades. He
once said that the incident was a revolutionary uprising characterized by its
political and military importance. Long before that, we had conducted the
complete preparations for the soldier movement, which turned out very
corrective. Despite failure of the Armed Uprising in Liangdan County,
it is also fundamental.
The incident arouses the political awakening
that people in Gansu
Province should launch
armed struggles. It is also a military struggle that the Chinese Communist
Party initiated with a clear plan and purpose for Kuomintang Army in Gansu Province.
Take this incident as a start point, from April 1932 to April 1933, more than
ten armed uprising were launched successively at Jingyuan
County and Xihuachi
Town in Gansu
Province, which ignited the
revolutionary storms in Gansu.
Those troops that have participated in the armed uprising, of which some were
adapted into “the detachment of the guerilla in Shanxi
and Gansu of
the Chinese Workers′ and Peasants′ Red Army”, some were adapted into “People′s
Revolutionary Army”, and some were “the Anti Japanese volunteers in the
northwestern area” etc. These troops made greatly contributions to the
establishment and development of the revolutionary bases in Shanxi
and Gansu,
and aggregation of the revolutionary forces.
The Armed Uprising in 1932 accumulated the
precious experience that soldiers and civilians of both provinces should
conduct military struggles. Just by the fighting of the Armed Uprising, Liu
Zhidan, Xie Zichang and Xi Zhongxiong came to realize that if we wanted to win
the armed struggle, we had no alternatives but to go Jinggangshan Road, combine military
actions with peasants movements, and build the armed workers and peasants force
and establish the revolutionary bases in the countryside. The incident also was
a beginning that my father led the armed struggles independently. Marked with
the incident, he changed himself a Party activist into a grass-root
organization leader of the Party and a military commander. In the following
revolutionary road, my father, with his insistent faith and strong revolutionary
willing, established and developed the revolutionary bases in both provinces
together with Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang, and was elected by chairman of the
Soviet government of Shanxi and Gansu in Liyuan Village of Nanliang Town. He
constantly summed up experience and lessons that is to remove interferences in
armed struggles, stick to the path of independence, put the tactic known as” a
cunning rabbit has three holes” into practice, depend on three guerilla zones
each other, which shaped the flexible guerilla tactics and the survival ways of
both withdraw and defense. As to the construction of the bases, we must
consider the situation of the region, the inhabitant and the military, combine
the construction of the Party, military army, political power and economy with
the united front and the mass work, try to find out a whole set of efficient
measures including establishment of the Party, starting of the political power,
strengthening of military army and stabilization of the mass. In the
construction of the political power, we should carry out “Ten Major Policies”,
coordinated the relations among the Party and the mass, military and politics,
and military army and the mass, mobilize the initiative in all directions. As a
result, such aspects kept the Red base surviving in the complicated fighting
situations, which provided a shelter to the Party Central Committee and the Red
Army′s Long March, and made it possible for the strategic focus of the Chinese
revolution to transfer from the Southern areas to the Northwest ones. After the
victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, in accordance with the
strategic deployment from the Party Central Committee, my father commanded the
battle for defending the Party Central Committee, Chairman Mao and Shanxi,
Gansu and Ningxia regions, working in coordination with Peng Dehuai and He
Long, and turned to the Northwest battlefield, which made a brilliant
contribution to liberation of the Northwest area.
During the incident, many intellectual staffs
of the Party were developed and trained. From 1929 to 1931, Shanxi Provincial
Committee of the CCP successively assigned Li Binrong, Li Tesheng, Xi
Zhongxiong, Lv Jianren and Liu Shulin etc to plot the soldier movement in the1st
battalion of the2nd regiment of the3rd Guard brigade. These
pioneers, based on the circumstance of the troops, carried out the propaganda
in a scrupulous way, enlightened the soldiers′ awareness. They successively
developed about 30 members of the Party like Zuo Wenhui and Xu Tianjie etc,
established three Party underground branches in the company, and recommended
the members and soldiers who had the revolutionary progressive thoughts to get
the post in companies and platoons in the White Army. Not only did these staffs
play a critical role in pressing boldly forward in the incident, but showed the
perseverant fighting spirit in the following revolutionary actions. After Mr.
Liu Linpu was arrested in Xi′an
province and died a glorious death, Liu Zhidan inscribed for him a elegiac
couplet “too much greater ambition he has, the most glorious death he dies”. After
that, Li Tesheng, under the arrangement of the Party organization, came to Lanzhou to go on the
underground work. And when Xu Tianjie and Lv Jianren were put into prison, they
still kept perseverance. Until when Xi′an Incident ended, they were rescued by
the Party organization. More staffs like Zuo Wenhui and Shi Wenjie etc
respectively found the Party organization and rejoined ranks of the Red Army,
striving to the liberation course of the Chinese nations and Chinese people. In
my memory, there was a brief interlude: one year, my father met Zhang Bangying,
my father′s colleague, he said with a witty tone “Bangying, both you and I then
plotted the soldier movement in the White Army, and we had fought several
times, after that, we came to realize that there were two battles that we had
fought each other leading the soldiers of the White Army respectively, finally,
neither we took each other into death. Now, we are in our 80. That is
absolutely fortunate.”
Revolutionary fighters died in a right path
and they believed that the light would come soon. The Armed Uprising in Liangdan County
awakened the revolutionary awareness of people in Gansu
province, and brought an unceasing power of the revolutionary fighting launched
by people in Gansu
province. Gansu
province is one of birthplaces of the Chinese nation and Chinese culture. The
humane primogenitor, Fu Hsi, Nu-kua and Yellow Emperor, was born in Gansu province according
to the legend. The Silk Road, with its profound influence on home and abroad,
runs through the whole Gansu province, and creates the brilliant history as”
the abundance of the heaven is not as comparable as that of Gansu area ”. Under
the leadership of the CCP, people in Gansu established the bases in Shanxi and
Gansu centered in Nanliang Town, met the encounter of the Red Army, and
composed many splendid sons expressing the sense of supporting the army and
cherishing the people, sang aloud the song of loving the Party, which finally
experienced the liberation of our country, made excellent achievements in
revolution, construction and reform of the Chinese socialism. We are delight to
see: since the Reform and Opening up, under the correct leadership of the CCP,
previous provincial committee and provincial governments have unified and led
people to carry forward with great burdens and work hard and perseveringly. Remarkable
achievements are made in Reform and Opening up and socialist modernization, and
on the Old Longyuan soil witness the prosperity and development as well as the vigor
looks. If my father′s ghost sees it, he would be gratified that this soil which
once left his efforts and perspiration has taken place tremendously. Today, we
commemorate the Armed Uprising so that we should learn and promote the
revolutionary spirit that our pioneers risked their lives and advanced bravely,
the scientific attitude towards seeking truth in practical ways and pursuit of
truth, and the style of work that all for people and all by people. In this
sense, we can continuously push forward the course of socialism with Chinese
characteristics, and make due contributions to building a moderately prosperous
society and realizing the dream of the great Rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!
May the future of Liangdan
County more promising and life of
people in Gansu
province happier!