Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

Last time we spoke about the Sino-Soviet Conflict of 1929. In 1919, Soviet Commissar Lev Karakhan promised China the return of the Chinese Eastern Railway at no cost, aiming to foster good relations amid the Russian Civil War. However, the Soviets retracted the offer, causing tensions. Over the next decade, control of the railway shifted between Chinese and Soviet hands, sparking conflicts. By 1929, Zhang Xueliang, a Chinese warlord, attempted to reclaim the railway, leading to military confrontations. Despite initial diplomatic efforts, the situation escalated into a full-scale war. The Soviets, under General Vasily Blyukher, launched a powerful offensive, using their superior military force to overpower the Chinese defenses. After intense battles, including naval engagements, the Soviets gained the upper hand, leading to heavy Chinese casualties and loss of territory. The conflict ended with the Soviets firmly in control, highlighting the fragile nature of Sino-Soviet relations during this tumultuous period.   #122 The Chiang-Gui War Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. With the reunification of China, China’s Warlord Era was over…but it really wasn't. Chiang Kai-Shek came to Beijing via a trail laid open by Yan Xishan. The Northern Expedition had been completed by August, just as the Generalissimo promised it would. According to previous agreements amongst the KMT, he tendered in his resignation upon completing the Northern Expedition. But the party refused to accept it, instead the Generalissimo was commanded to go visit the tomb of Dr Sun Yat-Sen over in the western Hills. He was accompanied by many of his generals who all oversaw a impressive ceremony, culminating with Chiang Kai-Shek weeping before Dr Sun Yat-Sen’s shrine. Now Beijing was of course a symbol of China’s Manchu past. The KMT and all revolutionaries within China for that matter hated it for that reason. It was seen as suitable enough for the government of North China, but not for the national capital, no this was moved to Nanking. Nanking of course had been seen as the secondary capital for centuries and held ancient history as being the first capital of China. Yet there was a lot of opposition to this. The Northern Chinese of course wanted to retain Beijing as the capital, many Chinese scholars had arguments against it, the foreign legations were annoyed at the idea of moving their residence and staff, so on and so forth. There was a great love for the northern capital, for its wonderful shops, restaurants rich history and such. Many did not believe Nanking could match Beijing’s beauty. But the KMT assured all Nanking would become the gem of China. Beijing, which was actually called Peking at this time, again I just keep using modern terms to not confuse you guys, but Peking was then changed to Peiping translating to “northern peace”. As much as the capital was ruffling feathers, another more pressing issue was the enormous NRA army now that they had no Northern Expedition to run. Armies are not cheap, demobilization obviously needed to be done. However the KMT dragged their feet on the issue. Demobilization is something many governments face, but China’s situation was rather unique. The NRA held many professional armies, made up of men who had never been anything but soldiers with no desire to become civilians. Many of the NRA generals also did not wish to carry on as civilians. Most of these men were doing a career and knew nothing else. In June of 1928, over 2 million men were on military pay roll. The minister of finance, T.V Soong, believed in keeping straight books and protested the enormous military expense. The KMT central committee passed resolutions and formed a plan; the standing army, needed to be cut down to at least 715,00 men. But when it came to deciding who gets disbanded, here lay the troubles.  There was another issue, the mechanics of the new government. In the first days of the peace, Chiang Kai-Shek had proven himself a pretty good manager. He had a lot of help from his political right hand man, Hu Hanmin, and they were on good terms. Chiang Kai-Shek was quite popular in the beginning, many looked up to him. However as the days went by, things started to crumble. The first major conflict occurred when Chiang Kai-Shek attempted to do away with the political subcouncils in Guangzhou and Wuhan. Chiang Kai-Shek argued this new united China did not need any more than a single central federal government office. The regimes in Guangzhou and Wuhan needed to disband and become integrated properly at Nanking. However Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren were the respective governors of the two provinces that held these regimes and they very much liked their current status. They obviously resented what they saw as a slight against them by Chiang Kai-Shek. Both men began using the term “dictator” to describe Chiang Kai-Shek, they said things like he was getting too big for his boots.  Now going back to the roots of the KMT, Dr Sun Yat-Sen had hoped to implement a national constitution. Yet simply flinging out what Sun Yat-Sen had once written down was out of the question, a new constitution needed to be drafted. Thus, basically for the next 5 years, China went through an awkward transformation process, trying to become a real voting republic. But in the meantime the country was controlled by a government of 5 “yuans” (committees). These were the executive, legislative, control, judicial and examination committees. The high officials of these committees were members of the State council, also seen as a cabinet, headed by the President. Chiang Kai-Shek became the first president and was very careful on who he included in his cabinet. Yan Xishan became the Minister of the Interior and Feng Yuxiang Minister of War. Both of these men were still bonafide warlords, but they were the two leaders who helped reunify China with him. He had to keep them happy, they controlled vast private armies, he also knew to keep them close.  Nanking was fraught with activity, but no demobilization. Months went by. Chiang Kai-Shek was happy, it was quite a creative time for him, but the reality was, the government was filled with potential traitors, great amounts of land were not really assimilated, nor were their populations. Nonetheless China had not seen such unity in centuries. Chiang Kai-Shek felt an immense sense of pride, he himself was full of energy and overworking. Chiang Kai-Shek began promising to rebuild Nanking in a fitting style. A magnificent tomb was planned for the slope of Purple Mountain, above the ruins of the old Ming temple, where Sun Yat-Sens remains would be moved. The city was remodeled, its old narrow and messy streets were cleared out. Nanking possessed a certain antiquity look, and many were fond of it and hated the construction efforts. Chiang Kai-Shek envisioned retaining the Chinese style of architecture, with sloping roofs, painted ceilings, tiles and courtyards, but also clean, cool interiors with electrical appliances. He basically wanted to blend the new with the old. Chiang Kai-Shek found an American architect to help rebuild Nanking. He also began hunting down advisors for just about every field. He looked up foreign farmer experts, German military advisors, American educational advisors, medical advisors, highway construction advisors and such. The climax to it all was recognition of the new Nanking government from the great powers. Chiang Kai-Shek found himself stuck in interviews with diplomats nearly every day. It is said the Generalissimo worked from dawn to night, with his wife Meiling as his secretary. Her primary role was translating important work into English, she was also his English interpreter. Meiling pushed Chiang Kai-Shek to try and learn English so he would be less dependent on her. She taught him as best as she could, and he was apparently making good headway until he had a incident. One day he was meeting with the British Minister and tried to practice his english by saying “good morning, Lampson” but instead he said “kiss me, Lampson”. Henceforth he never tried talking in English with foreigners. In May came some excitement with the Sino-Soviet conflict. Zhang Xueliang literally tossed the Soviet ultimatum to Nanking, an unwelcome gift to Chiang Kai-Shek. Ultimately Zhang Xueliang could do nothing against the Soviet power. It was certainly a blow to China, but perhaps in the grand scheme of things, Chiang Kai-Shek’s mind worried more about the Japanese. The Soviets and Japanese were not all Chiang Kai-Shek should have been worried about, there were plenty of internal enemies. Back in July of 1928, it was estimated the NRA held over 2.2 million soldiers within 84 corps and 272 divisions. This accounted for an annual expenditure of over 800 million yuan, when the national fiscal revenue was something like 450 million yuan. Chiang Kai-Shek advocated for demobilization, hoping to bring it down to 1.2 million with 80 divisions, thus reducing expenditures to 60% of the national budget. By January of 1929 the issue came up again, now based on German military advisors advice, Chiang Kai-Shek wanted to reduce the NRA to 50 divisions at around 800,000 troops. His First Army belonging to the central system would be reorganized into 20 divisions, and the remaining army groups would be divided into 10 divisions. Uh huh you see where this is going. Chiang Kai-Shek also proposed establishing a 200,000 man strong military police force. So if you remember from the end of the Northern Expedition, there were 4 NRA collective armies. The 1st was led by Chiang Kai-Shek, the 2nd by Feng Yuxiang, the 3rd by Yan Xishan and the 4th by Li Zongren. Each of these men were warlords in the own right with cliques behind them. For example Li Zongren was the leader of the New Guangxi Clique who controlled Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei and parts of the Shanhai pass connecting Hubei to Tianjin. The NRA 4th army had 16 divisions and 6 independent units, some 200,000 troops. When Wang Jingwei went into exile, Li Zongren inherited his Wuhan regime government. Li Zongren also had the support of Li Jishen who controlled Guangdong. Now Chiang Kai-Shek certainly had the upper hand, his first NRA army was 500,000 strong and he was the President of the nation. Yan Xishan had over 200,000 troops in his 3rd NRA army and controlled the Shanxi clique, Shanxi province, northern Hubei, Beijing and Tianjin. Lastly Feng Yuxiang had 400,000 troops in his 2nd NRA army, was the leader of the Guominjun and controlled a large part of northwest China, alongside Henan. Alone none of the others could challenge Chiang Kai-Shek, but what if they united against him?  The Guangxi clique led by Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren had won a lot from the northern expedition. They controlled Wang Jingwei’s old Wuhan Regime, Guangxi, Hubei, but did not control all of Hunan. They both felt they should control Hunan and its lucrative revenues of course. Yet the governor of Hunan insisted the taxes collected were property of Nanjing. So Bai Chongxi and Li Zongrenplaced him under house arrest. After this Lu Diping was appointed by Li Zongren to preside over Hunan’s civilian government affairs. Lu Diping was forced to work with a bitter rival, He Jian. What the Guangxi Clique members did not know was that Lu Diping had been groomed by Chiang Kai-Shek. Chiang Kai-Shek also began arming Lu Diping’s private army in February of 1928. He Jian found out about this and reported it to the rest of the Guangxi clique. Li Zongren took notice of the situation and immediately had Lu Diping removed from office and deported. He was replaced by He Jian, go figure. Lu Diping then fled to cry to Chiang Kai-Shek. Chiang Kai-Shek was furious his man had been taken out of office and began threatening the Guangxi clique. Li Zongren’s family were living in Nanking at the time and he took them quickly over to the Shanghai concession as he believed a storm was brewing. Li Zongren then met with Chiang Kai-Shek striking a peaceful deal by march 2nd, both agreeing He Jian would temporarily serve as the chairman over Hunan. However back over in Hunan, the situation was quickly deteriorating. Guangxi troops were taking out political opponents in the province and looked to be fomenting a rebellion. Chiang Kai-Shek took decisive action and mobilized his forces to pacify the Guangxi clique. Li Jishen, fearing a war would break out at any moment, sped north to Nanking to mediate, only to be arrested upon arriving by Chiang Kai-Shek. He was charged with treason. With Li Jishen out of Guangdong, the Cantones Generals Chen Jizhen and Chen Mingshu tossed their lot in with Chiang Kai-Shek, thus severing the Guangdong-Guangxi alliance. On March 21st Nanking issued a statement expelling Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and Li Jishen from the KMT, accusing the 3 men of treason.  Now Chiang Kai-Shek actually was dealing with a lot more than insubordination from the Guangxi clique, in fact there was a growing anti-Chiang Kai-Shek coalition forming. I wont get into it here, but Feng Yuxiang was raising hell in the northwest, Yan Xishan was not at all happy with the new Nanking government and even Wang Jingwei over in Europe was tossing public accusations against Chiang Kai-Shek. This led a lot of KMT officials to resign in protest. Chiang Kai-Shek had a serious rebellion, perhaps a civil war on the horizon. He reacted first by bribing key Northern Chinese leaders to be neutral for the time being so he could focus all of his attention on the Guangxi clique menace. Chiang Kai-Shek did another clever thing, he reconciled with the exiled Tang Shengzhi. Many forces under Bai Chongxi were former soldiers under Tang Shengzhi, many of whom were still loyal to him. Chiang Kai-Shek brought Tang Shenzhi back over to China from Japan and dispatched him to Tangshan in Hubei, where he was ordered to steal back two of his old divisions from Bai Chongxi.  Yes Chiang Kai-Shek was playing the divide and conquer strategy. First he bribed as many as he could, so he could focus on the Guangxi clique. Then amongst the Guangxi he tried to bribe some and arrest others, isolating Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren. In the face of the situation, Zhang Xueliang was the first to publicly express his support for Chiang Kai-Shek, he was followed by Liu Wenhui, the warlord over Sichuan, then Yan Xishan and finally a reluctant Feng Yuxiang.  Initially Bai Chongxi was going to lead his troops station in Hubei to march south to Xuzhou to try and link up with other Guangxi clique forces to advance east and attack Nanking. However as he quickly found out, most of his troops were loyal to Tang Shengzhi who purchased their service and stole them from him. Bai Chongxi lost control over a significant part of his army, panicked and fled Hubei by boat. He intended to flee for Hong Kong, but Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the Navy to halt the ship, and if it did not stop to sink it. Li Zongren quickly asked support from Japanese allies to get Bai Chongxi safely to Hong Kong. Meanwhile Li Zongren began mobilizing 3 armies under Guangxi Generals Xia Wei, Tao Wei and Hu Zongqi. These armies were intended to be deployed in Huangpu and Wuxue, however Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi could not physically get over to them to command them. Meanwhile Chiang Kai-Shek appointed General Zhu Peide in command of 5 divisions in Jiujiang and Nanchang. Their job was to occupy the Wuchang-Changsha railway, thus cutting off the withdrawal of any troops from Guangxi. Chiang Kai-Shek also placed General Liu Zhi  in command of 5 divisions over in Anhui and Hubei’s border area with orders to attack Wuhan and General Han Fuju would take 5 divisions from southern Henan to attack Wuhan. On March 31st, Chiang Kai-Shek dispatched his general attack orders. Subsequently He Jian betrayed the Guangxi clique and joined Chiang Kai-Shek. Within the Guangxi clique, the Generals Hu Zongtang, Tao Shu, Li Mingrui and Yu Zuobai all began inhouse fighting over old petty grudges. Chiang Kai-Shek learnt of the situation and bribed Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui to join his side for 400,000 silver dollars. On April 3rd, Li Mingrui’s troops began to defect over in Huayuan and Xiaogan. A bunch of other Guangxi Generals began contacting Chiang Kai-Shek privately, tell him they would not participate in the civil war and asked if they could take their men safely out of the region. So many gaps in the Guangxi cliques defensive lines around Wuhan were exploited by Nankings forces coming from Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan and Yichang. Nearly surrounded at Wuhan, the Guangxi forces fled into western Hubei. At the same time, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi both arrived in Hong Kong and made their way to Guangxi only to find the situation an utter mess.  On April 11th, Nanking issued a message calling upon the Guangxi clique’s soldiers to give up resistance. The demoralized Guangxi troops of Xia Wei, Tao Jun, Hu Zongtang all began surrendering themselves at Shashi, Yichang and other places. On April 25th, Chiang Kai-Shek unleashed an offensive into Guangxi. The response by the surviving Guangxi Clique was to establish an anti-Chiang Kai-Shek coalition on May 5th. They dispatched a telegram calling upon everyone to join them and initiated an offensive first aimed at Guangdong. By the 15th, Feng Yuxiang heeded the call, and began discussing how the Guominjun might send troops to attack Chiang Kai-Shek. However Feng Yuxiangs colleagues, Han Fuyu and Shi Yousan urged Feng Yuxiang not to do so. Then Chiang Kai-Shek offered Feng Yuxiang the position as president of the Executive committee, control over Hubei and Hunan if he continued to support him and send forces against the Guangxi rebels. Feng Yuxiang superficially agreed to Chiang Kai-Sheks request, mobilizing his forces between Henan and Hubei. While this looked like he was helping Chiang Kai-Shek, in reality he was eagerly waiting in the shadows for Chiang Kai-Shek and the Guangxi clique forces to weaken so he might pounce upon Wuhan. By mid May Guangxi’s troops began entering Guangdong from two directions, easily overwhelming he Guangdong Provincial army, and marched into Guangzhou. Chiang Kai-SHek mobilized further armies in Hunan, Yunnan and Guizhou to invade Guangxi. This soon saw major battle break out in the Baimu region, ultimately dislodging the Guangxi troops from Guangdong and back into Guangxi. However, simultaneously, the Guangxi forces advanced on the front lines in Guilin and Liuzhou, defeating the Xiangjun, Qijun, and Qijun troops. In the same month, in Hunan, a significant push was made from Shonan to Guilin; meanwhile, Chen Guangdong's forces attacked Zhaoqing from Wuzhou, He County, and Guizhou's Dushan County, ultimately seizing Liuzhou. Chiang Kai-shek quickly mobilized forces led by Li Mingrui, Yu Zuobai, and the old Guangxi clique army under Yang Tenghui to move south towards Guangdong and west to attack Guangxi. Thanks to the strong efforts of these forces, they swiftly captured Wuzhou and Guiping. Wei Yunwei abandoned the city, and the Guangxi forces were unable to sustain the fight. Guangxi Province was attacked from three fronts, with enemy forces advancing from Longzhou. By June, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaoxiong had fallen. Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and others fled to Hong Kong, Sai Kung, Haiphong, and other locations. On June 27, Li Mingrui and his troops entered Nanning. The new Guangxi clique was defeated, and Chiang appointed Li Mingrui, Yu Zuopeng, and Yang Tenghui to govern Guangxi Province. The war concluded with Chiang's victory. What became known as the Chiang-Gui War had lasted for 3 months and ended in victory for Chiang Kai-Shek. It was a severe blow to the Guangxi Clique, though not a fatal one. The Guangxi clique leaders had lost considerable power, but those like Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi would return to cause further trouble.  Victory would be short lived however. As Feng Yuxiang arrayed his forces between Henan and Hubei hoping to pounce on Wuhan at the right moment, Chiang Kai-Shek defeated the Guangxi clique far too quickly. Feng Yuxiang’s opportunity was lost and he became extremely bitter over this. Knowing full well what Feng Yuxiang had been planning to do, Chiang Kai-Shek mobilized forces in Shandong and Henan to suppress the Guominjun.  Feng Yuxiang then declared himself commander in chief of the Northwest National salvation army, officially joining the anti-Chiang Kai-Shek cause. Chiang Kai-Shek then bribed Generals Han Fuju and Shi Yousan to defect over to his side greatly hurting Feng Yuxiang. Chiang Kai-Shek also unleashed propaganda warfare accusing Feng Yuxiang of sabotaging the revolution, being treasonous, trying to obstruct the unification of China and such. On May 23rd, the KMT central committee removed Feng Yuxiang from all of his posts and permanently expelled him from the party. Two days later Chiang Kai-Shek personally called Feng Yuxiang, asking him to go into exile abroad and hand over his remaining forces. Completely isolated politically and militarily, Feng Yuxiang sent a nationwide telegram on the 27th expressing his resignation. In order to mitigate Chiang Kai-Shek’s advances, and in order to see if he could gain an alliance, Feng Yuxiang took his family to Shanxi on June 21st, claiming to the nation he was about to go abroad. Instead he had Yan Xishan place him under house arrest within the Jinci Temple at Jian’an village.  Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan were not friends by any measure. But they were quick to reach an understanding. The two Warlords made a formidable combination and had similar attributes. Both were strongmen, with firmly loyal and affection forces. Feng Yuxiang had his theatrical Christian values and rustic simplicity. Yan Xishan had this record of being a just man of the people. Both understood their names combined would see many join their cause. They named their coalition the Peoples Army.Yan Xishan then joined Feng Yuxiang to publicly label Chiang Kai-Shek a dictator. Despite the energy and charisma, what the two men lacked as a brilliant political mind, and suddenly Wang Jingwei came out of the woodwork. Wang Jingwei joined their coalition, obviously hoping to get revenge and dethrone Chiang Kai-Shek. He supplied them with loftier motives and more stylish vocabulary. Together they publicly accused Chiang Kai-Shek of departing from the original spirit of the revolution; that he was the scourge of democracy; nothing more than a military man who sought to seize the power of government. Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren bandwagoned and it seemed a large part of China was becoming very anti-Chiang Kai-Shek. After this a “telegraph war: erupted for over a month. Yan Xishan demanded the currently KMT government step down so he and Wang Jingwei could lead a reorganization, implementing proper votes by all party members to determine the party's policies going forward in a more fair manner. Chiang Kai-Shek responded he was willing to step aside for Yan Xishan but not Wang Jingwei. Then Chiang Kai-Shek bribed Yan Xishan with 12.5 million dollars of foreign currency if he backed down. To make matters more complicated, during all of this, Feng Yuxiang sent a secret message with his subordinate Lu Zhonglin to forces in Shaanxi asking them to send people to contact Chiang Kai-Shek. He did this deliberately, making sure Yan Xishan found the note and of course suspected him of being in league with Chiang Kai-Shek. Some real game of thrones shit. It seems Feng Yuxiang pulled a big brain move, because Yan Xishan under the belief Feng Yuxiang was colluding with Chiang Kai-SHek, then publicly claimed he was the commander in chief of the anti-Chiang Kai-Shek coalition and that his deputy commanders were Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Zhang Xueliang. So, it seems Feng Yuxiang had dragged Yan Xishan to be binded to the cause because perhaps he knew Chiang Kai-Shek was trying to bribe and divide them?  On February 23, under the leadership of Yan Xishan, 45 generals including Feng Yuxiang , Li Zongren, Zhang Fakui, He Jian, Han Fuju, Shi Yousan, and Yang Hucheng jointly sent a telegram demanding a "general vote of all party members to establish a unified party." On February 27, 1930, Yan Xishan personally visited Feng Yuxiang in Jian'an Village, where they apparently hugged each other and cried, saying to each other: "We live and die together, share hardships, and fight against Chiang until the end" Then they  pledged their blood to form an alliance. Very theatrical. The next morning Yan Xishan hosted a banquet for Feng Yuxiangs family where 34 representatives joined the anti-chiang kai-shek coalition. This became known as the Taiyuan conference. On March 1st the coalition sent officials into 19 provinces and cities including Peiping, Nanking, Guangzhou and overseas to attack Chiang Kai-Shek. They stated "If Chiang refuses to give up, the revolutionary forces will be increasingly destroyed by him. I sincerely hope that our compatriots and comrades throughout the country will , rise up together and eliminate the thieves together.". That sam month the Nanking government held their third plenary session where they expelled Wang Jingwei officially from the party. Yan Xishan then called Chiang Kai-Shek asking him personally to step down. On March 15th, 57 generals from the former 2nd, 3rd and 4th NRA armies sent representatives to Taiyaun to discuss the anti-chiang movement. There they listed 6 crimes Chiang Kai-Shek had committed and promoted Yan Xishan to officially be the commander in chief of the army, navy and air forces of a new Republic of China. Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Xueliang would be his deputy commanders. Yan Xishan’s army moved into the government offices in Peiping where KMT forces were disarmed. In April 1st, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and Li Zongren announced the inauguration in Taiyuan, Tongguan and Guiping of their anti-chiang army, however one name was not present, that of Zhang Xueliang. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals [http://www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals]. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. After performing the Northern expedition and finally reunifying China it took all but…what just over a year for it to collapse? It really seemed most of China hand banded together against the Generalissimo, but he was no fool and had planned accordingly. The anti-Chiang Kai-shek coalition would find themselves in a war they may very well lose.

Last time we spoke about the Guangzhou, Gansu and Red Spear Uprisings. During China’s Warlord Era, the CCP faced many challenges as they sought to implement land revolutions and armed uprisings. Following the Nanchang and Autumn Harvest uprisings, the CCP held an emergency meeting criticizing Chen Duxiu for his appeasement of the KMT right wing. With strong encouragement from Soviet advisors, the CCP planned a major uprising to seize control of Guangdong province. In November 1927, the CCP saw an opportunity as petty warlords in Guangdong and Guangxi engaged in conflict. Zhang Fakui's troops, vulnerable and demoralized, were targeted by the CCP. Mobilizing workers and peasants, the CCP initiated the Guangzhou Uprising. The uprising was ultimately suppressed by superior NRA troops, resulting in heavy CCP casualties and brutal reprisals. The failed uprisings, though unable to achieve immediate goals, ignited a persistent revolutionary spirit within the CCP, marking the beginning of a prolonged civil conflict that would shape China's future.   #121 The Sino-Soviet Conflict of 1929 Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. All the way back in 1919, the brand new Soviet government’s assistance Commissar of foreign affairs, Lev Karakhan, issued a manifesto to the Beiyang government, promising the return of the Chinese Eastern Railway at zero financial cost. That statement was made in late July and alongside the railway, he also mentioned relinquishing a lot of rights the former Russian Empire had acquired from unequal treaties, such as the Boxer Protocol. This all became known as the Karakhan Manifesto, and it was formed in a time when the Soviets were fighting the Russian Civil War, advancing east into Siberia. In order to secure the war in Siberia the Soviets had to establish good relations with the Chinese. Yet six months after the july manifesto, Karakhan personally handed over a second version of said manifesto, one that did not influence the rather nice deal of handing over the Chinese eastern railway for free. The Soviets official statement was that they had accidentally promised the deal prior. The truth of the matter was some real politik work at play. The Soviets had been trying to secure a Sino-Soviet alliance against the Japanese, but it looked to them it would never come to be so they simply took the deal off the table.  Henceforth the issue cause a lot of friction. In March of 1920 the Fengtian forces disarmed White Russian Troops along the railway and seized control over its operations. In February of 1922 China and the USSR signed a agreement stipulating the Beiyang government would set up a special agency to manage the railway. Then in November the Chinese announced an area within 11 km along the railway would be designated a Eastern Province special district. In December the Soviet Union officially formed and by May the two nations agreed to settle a list of issues. The Soviets agreed to abolish all the unequal treaties formed by the Russian Empire handing over all the leased territories, consular jurisdiction, extraterritoriality, Boxer payments and such, but the Chinese Eastern Railway would be jointly managed by China and the USSR. Now since the railway sat in the area that Zhang Zuolin came to control, in September of 1924 the Soviets signed an agreement with the Fengtian clique. In this agreement, the Soviets lessened the 80 year lease over the railway to 60 years. The Soviets also promised to hand full control to Chinese administrators, but had a trick up their sleeve. The Soviets let the Chinese think they were adding workers and officials loyal to them, in reality the Soviets were creating more jobs on the railway while hiring Soviet workers. In the end the Soviets controlled roughly 67% of the key positions. When Zhang Zuolin went to war with Feng Yuxiang’s Guominjun this changed things considerably. In December of 1925, Zhang Zuolin’s army owed the Chinese eastern railway some 14 million rubles, prompting the Soviet administrator over the railway, Ivanov to prohibit Zhang Zuolin’s army from using it. Fengtian commander Zhang Huanxiang simply arrested Ivanov disregarding his ban. The Soviets then sent an ultimatum to the Beiyang government demanding his release. So Zhang Zuolin ran to the Japanese to mediate. Things smoothed over until 1928 when the Huanggutun incident saw Zhang Zuolin assassinated. As we saw at the end of the northern expedition, his son Zhang Xueliang responded by raising the KMT flag on December 29th of 1928, joining Chiang Kai-Shek. The next day Zhang Xueliang was made commander in chief of the Northeast.  Now Chiang Kai-Shek’s government had broken diplomatic relations with the USSR after the Shanghai massacre purge. Thus Zhang Xueliang felt the old treaties signed by his father with the Soviets were null and void and looked upon the Chinese Eastern Railway enviously. To give some context outside of China. At this point in time, the USSR was implementing rural collectivization, ie; the confiscation of land and foodstuffs. This led to wide scale conflict with peasants, famines broke out, I would say the most well known one being the Holodmor in Ukraine. Hundreds of millions of people starved to death. The USSR was also still not being recognized by many western powers. Thus from the perspective of Zhang Xueliang, it looked like the USSR were fraught with internal and external difficulties, they had pretty much no friends, so taking the railway would probably be a walk in the park.  Zhang Xueliang began diplomatically, but negotiations were going nowhere, so he got tougher. He ordered his officials to take back control over the Chinese Eastern Railway zone police, municipal administration, taxation, land, everything. He instructed Zhang Jinghui, the governor of Harbin’s special administrative zone to dispatch military police to search the Soviet embassy in Harbin and arrest the consul general. Zhang Jinghui did so and closed the Soviet consulates in Harbin, Qiqihar and Hailar. All of this of course pissed off the Soviets who responded by protesting the new Nanjing government, demanding the release of their people, while increasing troops to the border of Manchuria. The Soviets announced they were willing to reduce their control over the railway as a concession. This entire situation became known as the May 27th incident and unleashed a tit for tat situation. On July 13th, the Soviets sent an ultimatum giving three days for a response "If a satisfactory answer is not obtained, the Soviet government will be forced to resort to other means to defend all the rights of the Soviet Union." On the 17th the Soviets recalled their officials, cut off the railway traffic between China and the USSR, ejected Chinese envoys from the USSR and cut off diplomatic relations with China. In the background Joseph Stalin was initially hesitating to perform any military actions, not wanting to antagonize the Japanese in Manchuria. However the Soviet consul in Tokyo, sent back word that Japan was completely willing to stay out of any conflict if the Soviets limited it to just northern Manchuria. Thus Stalin decided to act. On August 6th, Stalin formed the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army under the command of General Vasily Blyukher. It was composed of three infantry divisions; the 1st Pacific Infantry Division, the 2nd Amur Infantry Division, and the 35th Trans-Baikal Infantry Division), one cavalry brigade (the 5th Kuban Cavalry Brigade), and the addition of the Buryat Mongolian Independent Cavalry Battalion. The total force was said to be as many as 30,000 with their headquarters located in Khabarovsk. Blyukher also had the support of the Far Eastern Fleet, roughly 14 shallow water heavy gunboats, a minesweeper detachment, an aviation detachment with 14 aircraft, and a marine battalion commanded by Yakov Ozolin. Blyukher had served during the civil war and was a military advisor in China attached to Chiang Kai-SHek’s HQ. He had a large hand to play in the northern expedition, and was one of the select Soviets Chiang Kai-Shek intentionally made sure got home safe during the purge. Blyukher would exercises a unusual amount of autonomy with his far east command, based out of Khabarovsk. For the upcoming operation a 5th of the entire Red Army was mobilized to assist. On the other side Zhang Xueliang mobilized as many troops as he could, including many White Russians hiding out in Manchuria. His total strength on paper was 270,000, but only 100,000 would be actively facing the Soviets as the rest were needed to maintain public order and to defend southern Manchuria. The person in charge of the Eastern Line of the Chinese Eastern Railway was the brigade commander of the Jilin Army, Ding Chao, and the western line was the brigade commander of the Heilongjiang Army, Liang Zhongjia, and the chief of staff was Zhang Wenqing. Wang Shuchang led the First Army to guard the eastern line, and Hu Yukun led the Second Army to guard the western line. The Soviet army also had a quality advantage in equipment. In terms of artillery, the Soviet army had about 200 artillery pieces, including more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces, while the Chinese army had only 135 infantry artillery pieces and no heavy artillery. At the same time, the Soviet army also had a quality advantage in machine guns because it was equipped with 294 heavy machine guns and 268 highly mobile light machine guns. The Chinese army was equipped with only 99 heavy machine guns. In terms of air force, the Chinese army had 5 aircraft that were combat effective. On July 26th the Soviets bombarded Manzhouli from three directions along the western end of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Two days later a Soviet infantry regiment, 3 armored vehicles and 4 artillery pieces advanced to Shibali station, cutting the lines to Manzhouli. They then ordered the Chinese military and police to withdraw as they captured Manzhouli. Then on the 29th the began bombarding Dangbi. On August 8th, 100 Soviet troops carrying two artillery pieces and 3 machine guns engaged Chinese forces outside the south gate of Oupu County street, casualties were heavy for both sides. 5 Soviet aircraft circled over Suifenhe City firing 200 rounds and dropping bombs over the Dongshan Army defense post and Sandaodongzi. The next day 40 Soviet soldiers established two checkpoints at Guzhan blocking traffic and they even began kidnapping civilians. That same day 300 Soviet soldiers and two gunboats occupied the Hujiazhao factory. On the 12th, Sanjianfang, Zhongxing and Lijia’s Oil Mill were occupied by over 2000 Soviet troops. Meanwhile 80 Soviets amphibiously assaulted Liuhetun using 8 small boats, killing its defenders before returning to the other side. The next day two Soviet gunboats, 300 marines and 2 aircraft attacked Suidong county in Heilongjiang province while another force attacked Oupu county with artillery. On the morning of the 14th both counties fell. In response the Nanjing government dispatched Liu Guang, the chief of the military department to inspect the Northeast front. On the 15th Zhang Xueliang issued mobilization orders against the USSR, seeing his standing front line forces bolstered to 100,000. On the 15th the foreign minister of the Nanjing government, Wang Zhengting reported to Chiang Kai-Shek negotiations were going nowhere, the Soviets were adamant about getting their rights returned over the Chinese Eastern Railways. The next day, Wang Zhenting told reporters that if the Soviets attacked anymore China would declare war. The next day Zhang Xueliang was interviewed by the Chicago Daily News and had this to say. "The Soviet Union disregarded international trust, trampled on the non-war pact, and rashly sent troops to invade our country. We respect the non-war pact and have repeatedly made concessions to show our responsibility for provoking the provocation. If the Russian side continues to advance, we will be willing to be the leader of the war, so we have prepared everything and will do our best to fight to the death."  On the 16th two Soviet infantry companies and one cavalry company attacked Zhalannur from Abagaitu along the border. The two sides fought for 2 hours until the Soviets stormed the Zhalannur station. After another 5 hours of combat the Soviets pulled back over the border. By this point enough was enough. China declared war on August 17th escalating what was an incident around the Chinese Eastern Railway zone into a full blown war.  Blyukher had developed a plan for an offensive consisting of two rapid operations. The first would be against the Chinese naval forces and the second against the ground forces via a large encirclement. After the war was declared on the 17th, the Soviet Army advanced into Manchuria from the western end of the Chinese Eastern Railway. The Red Banner Special Far Eastern Army initially dispatched a total of 6,091 infantrymen and 1,599 artillerymen in front of Manchuria, equipped with 88 artillery pieces of 76.2 mm or above, excluding artillery belonging to infantry regiments, 32 combat aircraft, 3 armored trains, and 9 T-18 light tanks . The army units included: the 35th and 36th Infantry Divisions of the 18th Infantry Army; the 5th Cavalry Brigade; the Buryat Mongolian Cavalry Battalion; an independent tank company equipped with T-18 tanks, the 6th Aviation Detachment, the 25th Aviation Detachment, the 26th Bomber Squadron, the 18th Army Artillery Battalion, the 18th Engineering Battalion, and a Railway Battalion.  The first battle broke out around Manzhouli. Liang Zhongjia, the brigade commander stationed in Manzhouli, reported this to his superiors of the engagement “of the battle situation, the 38th and 43rd regiments under my command fought with a regiment of Soviet infantry and cavalry for 4 hours in the afternoon and are still in a standoff. The Soviet army has more than one division of troops near Abagaitu”. At 10:30 p.m. on the 18th, the Soviets began to attack the positions of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 43rd Regiment of the Northeastern Army in Zhalannur. At 1 p.m. on August 19, the Soviets added about 600 to 700 troops opposite the positions of the 43rd Regiment of Zhalannur. At 5 a.m the Soviets dispatched five aircraft from Abagaitu to Shibali Station. On the 19th, the Soviets captured Suibin County with ease. At 6 a.m. on the 20th, the Soviets used armored trains to transport more than 200 troops to attack the 10th Cavalry Regiment of Liang Zhongjia's troops. After fighting for about an hour, the Soviets retreated. On the 23rd a battle broke out in Mishan and on the 25th 400 Soviet cavalry began building fortifications roughly a kilometer near the Chinese 43rd regiment at Zhalannur. Zhang Xueliang spoke again to the Chinese and foreign press on the 25th stating this. "Foreigners have many misunderstandings about the Eastern Province's actions this time, thinking that it is to take back the Eastern Route and violate the treaty. In fact, we have no intention of violating the 1924 Sino-Russian Agreement or the Agreement with Russia, because China has signed it and has no intention of violating it. China has no intention of taking back the route at all. What it wants is to remove the Russian personnel who are involved in the communist movement. Moreover, in this matter, the Eastern Route is a very small issue. The real point is that the Russians use China as a base for communism, and we have to take measures in self-defense." Between the 28th to the 30th an intense battle broke out at Wangqing.  On the 31st, Soviet gunboats bombarded three garrisons around  Heihe. On September 4th, the Soviet army bombarded the right wing of the 43rd and 38th Regiments stationed in Lannur. At 4 pm on the 9th, a single regiment of the Soviet army, under the cover of artillery, launched a fierce attack on the Chinese army at Manzhouli Station from the Shibali Station, but by 8:30 pm, they pulled back. At 4 pm, 8 Soviet aircraft bombed Suifenhe Station, causing over 50 Chinese casualties and injured a regimental commander. On the night of the 16th, more than 100 Soviet troops attacked the Kukdoboka checkpoint in Lubin County and burned down the checkpoint. On the 18th, the Soviet government announced to the ambassadors of various countries that they had always advocated for a peaceful solution to the issue of the Chinese Eastern Railway, while China's attitude was hypocritical and insincere. It was believed that future negotiations were hopeless, and all previous negotiations mediated by Germany were terminated. From now on, they stated quote “the Soviet Union would not bear any responsibility for any ominous incidents caused on the Sino-Russian border”. With negotiations completely broken down, Blyukher was given the greenlight to launch a fatal blow.  On October 2, more than a thousand Soviet infantryman, supported by aircraft and artillery stormed the positions of the 3rd Battalion of the 38th Regiment in Manzhouli. The two sides fought until the morning of the 3rd. On the 4th Zhang Xueiliang drafted the “national volunteer army organization regulations letter” trying to embolden the population stating "when the foreigners invade the border, the first thing to do is to resist. All citizens or groups who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the country on the battlefield will be volunteers or volunteer soldiers." The new regulations stipulated that volunteers of this new group would be named as the National Volunteer Army. On October the 10th, 30,000 Soviet forces on the Baikal side advanced through the northeastern border of China. At this time, the brigade responsible for defending Liang Zhongjia had been fighting with the Soviet troops for dozens of days. There was no backup and they were in urgent need of help. According to Chinese observations, the Soviets deployed nearly 80,000 troops by land, sea and air on the Sino-Soviet border. Along the eastern front, the Soviets capture in succession Sanjiangkou, Tongjiang and Fujin. Meanwhile at 5am on the 12th the Far Eastern Fleet commanded engaged in a firefight with the Songhua River Defense Fleet, near Sanjiangkou. According to Chinese reconnaissance, the Soviet warships participating in the battle included: the flagship "Sverdlov" a shallow-water heavy gunboat led by Sgassk, the shallow-water heavy gunboat "Sun Yat-sen", the shallow-water heavy gunboat "Red East", the shallow-water heavy gunboat "Lenin", the inland gunboat "Red Flag", and the inland gunboat "Proletariat", with a total of 4 152mm cannons, 26 120mm cannons, 6 85mm anti-aircraft guns, 8 37mm anti-aircraft guns, and more than ten aircraft for support. The Chinese forces were led by Yin Zuogan who commanded six shallow-water gunboats, including the "Lijie" (flagship), "Lisui", "Jiangping", "Jiang'an", and "Jiangtai", and the "Dongyi" armed barge as a towed artillery platform. Except for the "Jiangheng" of 550 tons and the "Liji" of 360 tons, the rest were all below 200 tons, and the entire fleet had 5 120mm guns. In the ensuing battle the Jiangping, Jiang'an, Jiangtai, Lijie, and Dongyi, were sunk, and the Lisui ship was seriously injured and forced to flee back to Fujin.The Chinese side claimed that they damaged two Soviet ships, sunk one, and shot down two fighter planes; but according to Soviet records, five Soviet soldiers were killed and 24 were injured.  At the same time as the naval battle around Sanjiangkou, two Soviet gunboats covered four armed ships, the Labor, Karl Marx, Mark Varyakin, and Pavel Zhuravlev, carrying a battalion of more than 400 people from the 2nd Infantry Division Volochaev Regiment, landing about 5 kilometers east of Tongjiang County and attacking the Chinese military station there. The Northeast Marine Battalion guarding the area and the Meng Zhaolin Battalion of the 9th Army Brigade jointly resisted and repelled the Soviet’s initial attack. The Chinese suffered heavy losses, with more than 500 officers and soldiers killed and wounded, and more than 70 people including the Marine Battalion Captain Li Runqing captured.  On the 14th, the Chinese sank 6 tugboats, 2 merchant ships and 2 warships in the waterway 14 kilometers downstream of Fujin, forming a blockade line; and set up solid artillery positions and a 13-kilometer-long bunker line nearby, destroying all bridges on the road from Tongjiang to Fujin. A battle broke out at Tongjiang and according to the the report of Shen Honglie “the Northeast Navy suffered more than 500 casualties (including marines), 4 warships were sunk, 1 was seriously damaged, and the "Haijun" gunboat (45 tons) was captured by the Soviet army and renamed "Pobieda"; 17 officers including the battalion commander Meng Zhaolin and 350 soldiers of the army were killed; the Chinese side announced that 2 Soviet planes were shot down (some sources say 1), 3 Soviet warships were sunk, 4 were damaged, and more than 300 casualties”. On the 18th, the Soviets completely withdrew from the Tongjiang, allowing the two regiments of Lu Yongcai and Zhang Zuochen of the 9th Brigade to recapture it. On the 30th, Admiral Ozolin led some Soviet land forces in a major attack in the Fujian area. He organized the troops under his jurisdiction into two groups. He led the first group personally, who were supported by heavy gunboats Red East, Sun Yat-Sen and gunboats Red Flag, Proletarian, Buryat, minelayer Powerful and the armored boat Bars. Their mission was to annihilate the remnants of the river defense fleet anchored in Fujin. The second group was commanded by Onufryev, the commander of the Soviet 2nd infantry division. His group consisted of the shallow-water heavy gunboat Serdlov, gunboat Pauper and the transport fleets steam carrying the Volochaev Regiment and the 5th Amur regiment who landed at Fujin.  On the other side the Chinese had concentrated two infantry brigades, 3 cavalry regiments and a team of police with the support of the gunboats Jiangheng,  Lisui, Liji and the tugboat Lichuan. At 9 am on the 31st, the 7 Soviet ships suddenly destroyed the river blocking ropes and entered the Fujin River bank, bombarding the Chinese army, as cavalry landed. The Chinese ships "Lisui" and "Lichuan" sank successively, and only the "Jiangheng" managed to participate in the battle, but soon sank after firing only three shots. At 7 pm 21 Soviet ships sailed up the Songhua River, as part of the cavalry landed at Tuziyuan, advancing step by step towards Fujin. At 9 pm 7 Soviet ships approached the Fujin River bank, with roughly 700 infantry, cavalry and artillery soldiers of the 2nd Amur Infantry Division landed. The Chinese army collapsed without a fight, retreating to Huachuan, and by11am, Fujin county was occupied. Chinese sources reported “the Soviet army burned down the civil and military institutions separately and destroyed all the communication institutions. They distributed all the flour from the Jinchang Fire Mill to the poor, and plundered all the weapons, ammunition and military supplies." On the evening of November 1, the Soviet infantry, cavalry and artillery withdrew from the east gate. On the morning of the 2nd, the Soviet ships withdrew one after another. According to Soviet records, nearly 300 Chinese soldiers were killed in this battle, with thousands captured, while the Soviet army only lost 3 people and injured 11 people . The Chinese Songhua River fleet was completely destroyed, and 9 merchant ships were captured. In early November, the weather in the north became freezing cold, leading the rivers to freeze. Soviet warships retreated back to Khabarovsk, and their infantry and cavalry also returned by land. The war on the Eastern Front was basically over.  As for the western front, the main battlefields revolved around Manzhouli and Zhalannur. Since August 1929, conflicts here continued, a lot of back and forth stuff. The soviets would storm the areas and pull out. Yet in November, the war in the west escalated.  The commander of the Soviet Trans-Baikal Group, was Stepan Vostrezov, wielding the 21st, 35th and 36th infantry divisions, the 5th Cavalry Brigade, 331 heavy machine guns, 166 light machine guns, 32 combat aircraft, 3 armored trains, 58 light artillery, 30 heavy artillery, 9 T-18 ultra-light tanks, amongst other tanks. The Chinese side had about 16,000 people. There would be three major battles : the Battle of Zhallanur, the Battle of Manzhouli, and the Battle of Hailar. On November the 16th, the Soviets unleashed a large-scale offensive, tossing  nearly 40,000 troops, 400 artillery pieces, 40 tanks and 30 aircraft against the western front. At 11pm the Soviets crossed over the border. At 3am on the 17th the 5th Kuban Cavalry Brigade set out from Abagaitui, followed by the 35th Infantry Division who crossed the frozen surface of the Argun River, hooking around the rear of the Chinese garrison in Zhalannur along the east bank of the Argun River. At 7am Soviet aircraft began bombing the western front. The Chinese garrison headquarters, tram house, 38th Regiment building, and military police station were all bombed, and the radio station was also damaged. At noon, the Binzhou Railway was cut off 10-12 kilometers east of the city, and Zhalannur was attacked. Supported by 8 T-18 tanks and fighter planes, they attacked Zhalannur several times. On the morning of the 18th, the Soviet 5th Cavalry Brigade launched an attack against the 7,000-man 17th Brigade of the Chinese Army guarding Zhalannur. At 1pm on the 18th the Zhalannur Station and the Coal Mine was occupied by the Soviet army. The Chinese defenders, Brigadier Han Guangdi and Commander Zhang Linyu, were killed in action. More than half of the brigade officers and soldiers were killed and more than a thousand were captured. After capturing Zhalannur the Soviets concentrated their forces against Manzhouli. On the 19th, 7 T-18s supported the 108th Infantry Regiment of the Soviet 36th Division to attack Manzhouli from the east and west. Artillery pounded the city, before it was stormed. The 15th Brigade of the Chinese Army guarding the area was quickly surrounded by the Soviet army. Brigade Commander Liang Zhongjia and Chief of Staff Zhang Wenqing, alongside nearly 250 officers, fled to the Japanese consulate and surrendered to the Soviet army on the 20th. According to Soviet records, in the battles of Zhalannur and Manzhouli, over 1,500 Chinese soldiers were killed and more than 9,000 were captured, while the Soviet side lost 143 people, 665 were wounded and 4 were missing. Additionally 30 Chinese artillery pieces and 2 armored trains were captured by the Soviet army. The Soviets claimed that Chinese troops from Lake Khinkai were attacking Iman, modern day Dalnerechensk. In the name of self-defense, the Soviets began bombing Mishan on November 17 and mobilized  the Soviet Primorsky State Army and the 1st Pacific Rifle Infantry Division. The 1st Pacific Division and the 9th Independent Cavalry Brigade advanced towards Mishan, 40 kilometers from the border. Soviet records showed that during this battle the Chinese army suffered more than 1,500 casualties and 135 prisoners. The Soviets seized 6 machine guns, 6 mortars, 500 horses, 6 mortars, 200 horses and a large number of confidential documents. On November 23rd, 12 Soviet aircraft bombed Hailar, before capturing the city the next day.  By late November the Chinese had suffered something in the ballpark of 10,000 casualties along various fronts and an enormous amount of their equipment was taken by the Soviets. The Chinese officially reported 2000 deaths, 1000 wounded with more than 8000 captured. The Soviets reported 812 deaths, 665 wounded with under 100 missing. The Japanese had actually been quite the thorn for the Chinese during the war. They had intentionally barred Chinese forces from advancing north through their South Manchurian Railway zone, a large hindrance. Likewise the Kwantung army stationed in Liaoning were mobilizing, giving the impression they would exploit the situation at any moment.  In the face of quite a catastrophic and clear defeat, Nanjing’s ministry of foreign affairs tossed a cease fire demand asking for foreign mediation. By December 3rd, Britain, France and the US asked both sides to stop the war so they could mediate a peace. The USSR rejected the participation of a third nation and suggested they could negotiate with China mono e mono. Zhang Xueliang accepted the proposal, dispatching Cai Yunsheng quickly to Shuangchengzi who signed an armistice with the Soviet representative Smanovsky. On the 16th real negotiations began and on the 22nd a draft agreement was signed. The draft stipulated both nations would re-cooperate over the Chinese Eastern Railway and that the Red Army would pull out of Manchuria as soon as both sides exchanged prisoners and officials. Thus the entire incident was resolved after humiliating China. While this all seemed completely needless, perhaps not significant, don’t forget, the Japanese were watching it all happen in real time, taking notes, because they had their own ideas about Manchuria.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals [http://www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals]. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so the Soviets and brand new Nationalist Republic of China went to war over, honestly a petty squabble involving railway rights and earnings. It was a drop in the bucket for such a war torn nation and only further embarrassed it on the world stage. Yet the Soviets might not be the foreign nation China should be looking out for.

Last time we spoke about the Nanchang and Autumn Harvest Uprisings. On August 1st, during the Nanchang Uprising, the CCP's 2nd Front Army inflicted heavy casualties and seized substantial weaponry. Reorganized under He Long and Ye Ting, the army, then 20,000 strong, celebrated in Nanchang, attracting new recruits. However, faced with an imminent counterattack, they retreated south in what became known as the "little long march." Despite initial successes, like capturing Huichang County, internal strife and harsh conditions reduced their numbers significantly. By the end of August, they reached Guangdong, but relentless opposition from Nationalist forces led to severe losses. The remaining forces retreated east, encountering brutal battles and a final, devastating defeat. Scattered, the remnants sought refuge and eventually regrouped, with leaders like Zhou Enlai and He Long navigating exile and adversity. The uprising marked the CCP's first armed resistance against the KMT, a prelude to continued revolutionary efforts, notably the Autumn Harvest Uprising, amid widespread, strategic shifts in CCP policy and leadership, including Mao Zedong's influential role.   #120 The Guangzhou, Gansu and Red Spear Uprisings Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Last we left off the Nanchang and Autumn Harvest uprisings saw mixed to….lets be honest kind of lackluster results. Both certainly saw their hardships for the passionate people involved. Countless gave their lives for a cause they truly believed in. This was China’s warlord era, so many differing groups made grand promises for bright futures, such as warlords, the KMT and of course the CCP. The CCP having undergone the White Terror, now sought to unleash their own independent revolution, now released by the shackles of the KMT.  On the 7th the CCP Central Committee held an emergency meeting, where Chen Duxiu was criticized for his appeasement of the KMT right wing. It was also during this meeting, the CCP formalized how they would go about implementing a land revolution and armed uprisings. The CCP then received strong suggestions from Joseph Stalin, that they should unleash a major uprising to seize control over a province, hinting at performing such a deed in Guangzhou in the hopes of taking Guangdong. In accordance the head of the CCP Qu Qiubai decided they needed to persuade soldiers to their cause to perform such a thing. Many within the CCP leadership did not support such plans, deeming the chance of winning control over a province to be highly unlikely, but their Soviet advisors were strongly pushing for it.   On the 20th Zhang Tailei, the secretary of the Guangdong CCP provincial committee, discussed plans for a provincial wide uprising. They would mobilize the workers and peasants to hold riots in key locations within Guangdong, particularly Guangzhou. The ultimate plan was to seize Guangdong by establishing uprising committees in Beijiang, Xijiang and Guangzhou. In early October the Nanchang uprising suffered tremendous losses at Chao’an and Shantou. This setback changed the minds of those seeking to seize all of Guangdong and instead they directed their efforts to mobilizing workers in Guangzhou to carry out political and economic struggles. On November 17th within Guangdong and Guangxi, petty warlords began a little war. This was between the KMT aligned warlords Zhang Fakui and Li Jishen. The CCP Central Committee believed this little war was a major opportunity and jumped to exploit it.  Zhang Fakui was vulnerable in particular. He was colluding with Wang Jingwei at the time, his primary job was to eliminate the pervading influence of the CCP in the Guangzhou area. Zhang Fakui’s troops continuously rounded up suspected communists and kept a close eye on the Soviet consulate at all times. Zhang Fakui’s troops were more or less brutalizing the common people, not a tasteful job by any means and one that demoralized them. It was because of this the CCP knew they might be able to win over some of his troops to their side. The CCP played upon the low standard of living and economic instability of warlord era China, hoping to appeal to the masses for a Soviet communist style system rather than what the KMT proposed. Here is a taste of some of the slogans they wrote on placards and proclaimed in major city centers: Raise the Soldiers’ Pay to 20 Silver Dollars! Food for the Workers! Land to the Tillers! Knock Down the KMT and the Warlords! Kill All the Country Bullies and the Evil Landlords! Confiscate the Capitalists’ Homes and Give Them to the Rebel Masses! All Authority to the Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers! They passed the “resolution of the Guangdong work plan”, this would require the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee to expand some riots using workers and peasants within the cities and villages; incite soldiers to mutiny and resist the war and hopefully direct all said into a general riot to seize power. They would first begin by mobilizing farmers to refuse to pay winter rent and riot if they could. On November 26th, Zhang Tailei went to Guangzhou from Hong Kong covertly and convened a secret meeting with CPP members there. During these meetings it was decided they would take advantage of Zhang Fakui troops, who were currently very demoralized from fighting battles they honestly wanted nothing to do with. Within Guangzhou was the 4th army teaching corps and part of the guards corps amongst smaller CCP militia groups. Zhang Tailei would act as chairman, Huang Ping and Zhou Wenyong would all lead the uprising. After the meeting Zhang Tailei and the others went to the Teaching Corps and Guards Corps to mobilize them, as well as begin training some worker Red Guards who formed into 7 regiments and 2 death squads with Zhou Wengyong as their commander in chief. The Fourth army teaching corps was reorganized from a KMT political school with Ye Jianying as their leader. In early December, Comintern agent Heinz Neumann arrived in Guangdong, to add the uprising. Its said he had a large influence on the committee and took a leading role in what happened. Ye Jianying formed a communist infiltrated cadet regiment roughly 1200 men strong, that would form the core of their army. Added to this was an ad-hoc Red Guard of about 2000 armed workers. On December 6th the Guangdong Provincial Committee chaired by Zhang Tailei approved a declaration and letter to the people as well as made arrangements for the establishment of a Soviet government in Guangzhou. They had decided to enact the uprising on December 12th. In the meantime the headquarters and staff for the uprising were established, Ye Ting would be commander in chief and Ye Jianying would be his deputy. On the eve of the uprising, Wang Jingwei and Zhang Fakui both became aware of the impending uprising so they immediately began disbanding the teaching units, imposed martial law in Guangzhou and transferred their main forces back to Guangzhou. The CCP found out the jig was up so they unleashed the uprising ahead of schedule on the morning of the 11th.  At 3:30am under the leadership of Zhang Tailei, Ye Ting, Huang Ping, Zhou Wenyong, Ye Jianying and Yang Yin, the entire teaching regiment, part of the guard regiment and the armed worker Red Guards totaling about 5000 people, 2000 of which were the Red Guards, launched a surprise attack upon key points in Guangzhou from several directions. Some Soviets, Koreans and Vietnamese in Guangzhou also were said to participate in the uprising. I read that last one from a single source and I kinda doubt it. In fact evidence suggests the CCP leadership was extremely mixed on this uprising. Commanders Ye Ting, Ye Jiangying and Xu Xiangqian strongly suggested against going through with it, arguing they were too badly armed to have any success, only 2000 of them even had rifles. The CCP began by first seducing troops of Zhang Fakui. The first units to enter the city were the infamous dare-to-die units. As the name suggests, these men were like a suicidal vanguard stormed police stations, seizing their weapons and cars. They also took control over city buses and trucks to spread the incoming Red army units throughout the city as fast as possible. Along the eastern route, under the direct command of Ye Ting the main force quickly defeated an infantry regiment stationed in Shahe, capturing 600 prisoners, numerous small firearms and eliminated an artillery regiment stationed at Yantang. On the middle route, part of the teaching regiment and Red Guards captured the KMT Guangdong Provincial government building sitting on the commanding heights of Guangyin Mountain, known today as Yuexiu Mountain. On the southern route, the 3rd battalion of the Guards regiment and Red Guards attacked the headquarters of the 4th army and their arsenal, but encountered stiff resistance and were unable to capture them. Meanwhile peasants in Fangcun, Xicun and suburbs of Guangzhou launched uprisings with some gaining urban worker cooperation. Within 4 hours of battle the uprising was providing results, excluding the headquarters of the 4th army. The armory, rear office of the 12th division of the 4th army, the police forces and urban area north of the Pearl River was secured. They took control over government buildings, the central bank which at that time had a very large silver reserve and numerous barracks. To suppress any resistance they began grabbing KMT troops who refused to comply and executed them in the streets. They also marked and burnt down the residences of KMT officials. They had eliminated numerous enemies and captured 20 artillery pieces and 1000 small arms. That same day members the new Soviet government of Guangzhou was formed with Su Zhaozheng becoming its chairman. Upon its establishment the Guangzhou Soviet declared a “letter to the people” with decrees.  Meanwhile during the outbreak of hostilities, Chen Gongbo, the chairman of the KMT Guangdong provincial government, Zhang Fakui, Huang Qixiang the commander of the 4th Army and other KMT officials hastily fled to the headquarters of Li Fulin’s 5th army stationed over at the Haizhong temple on the south bank of the pearl river. There they ordered the 12th division, the 78th rgiment of the 26th division, the 25th division in Dongjiang and the 1st and 2nd regiment of the 1st training division in Shunde to march upon Gaungzhou. This saw roughly 15,000 NRA troops converging upon the city. On the 12th more than 3 of Zhang Fakui’s divisions and part of Li Fulin’s 5th army assembled along the south bank of the pearl river with the support of British, American, French and Japanese warships and marines. They prepared a counterattack from the east, west and south. The communists fought desperately against much superior forces in terms of numbers, training and equipment. They suffered heavy losses, including the death of Zhang Tailei. Zhang Fakui’s troops arrived one after another gradually surrounding the city. At a critical moment the CCP leadership called for a retreat from the city to preserve the forces they had left. The surviving 1000 Reds fled Guangzhou in the early hours of the 13th whereupon they were reorganized into the 4th Red division. They fled to Huaxian, then Haifeng and Lufegen counties where they joined others performing uprisings in the Dongjiang and Youjiang areas. A few survivors went to Shaoguan, joining survivors of the Nanchang uprising led by Zhu De and Chen Yi. After the KMT secured Guangzhou they carried out a bloody suppression of anyone suspecting of being a communist or sympathetic to the cause. The CCP estimated that perhaps more than 5700 people were killed. The Soviet consulate in Guangzhou was also attacked around 8pm on the 13th. All of its personnel were arrested and according to the testimony of Soviet Consul Pokhvalinsky, diplomats Ukolov and Ivanov “Each of them had a sign tied to their body that read: ‘Russian Communist, anyone can punish him at will.’ … Along the way, people threw things at them, hit them, stabbed them with knives, and spit on them.” They both would later be shot, alongside the deputy consul named Hasis. Ye Ting, was scapegoated, purged and blamed for the failure of the Guangzhou uprising, despite the fact he was one of the commanders arguing it should have been called off in the first place. Enraged by how he was treated, Ye Ting fled China and went into exile in Europe. Although the Nanchang, Autumn Harvest and Guangzhou uprisings had all failed to achieve their primary objectives, they did kindle a fire within China. Rather then become demoralized and whither away, the communists pushed even more uprisings and would grow each year. This began what the CCP refers to as the “ten year civil war”, a period that will end in 1936. Now we are going to take a little break from the Chinese Civil War until we hit the early 1930’s, but there have been quite a lot of events overshadowed by the Northern Expedition. I of course can’t get into everything that was going on in China during the late 1920’s, but I thought it be a good idea to at least tackle some of the big ones. If you remember all the way back when I was listing the different warlord cliques, one of them was the Ma clique. Feng Yuxiang’s Guominjun had been shoved into the northwest after the Anti-Fengtian war and one province his men began to oversee was Gansu. At the time famine, natural disasters and the forced seizure of farming land for opium cultivation drove the people of Gansu to rebellion. Two Hui Muslim Generals, Ma Zhongying and Ma Tingxiang exploited the situation to perform a revolt against the Guominjun in 1928.  Prior to this, there had been a lot of ethnic/religious fighting within the province of Gansu. An American botanist named James Rock wrote accounts of how he saw fighting between the Hui Muslims ld by the warlord Ma Qi and Tibetan Buddhists at the Labrang Monastery. Back in 1917, Tibetans in Xunhua had rebelled against Ma Anliang because of over taxation. Ma Anliang did not report this to the Beiyang government and was reprimanded for it, seeing Ma Qi sent by the Beiyang government to investigate and suppress the rebellion. Ma Qi commanded the Ninghai Army in Qinghai and used his forces to seize the Labrang Monastery in 1917. This was the first time non-Tibetans had taken the monastery. Because of this ethnic/religious riots broke out between Muslims and Tibetans seeing Ma Qi defeat the Tibetans. Afterwards he heavily taxed the town of Labrang for over 8 years and repeatedly quelled uprisings. In 1921 he crushed Tibetan Monks trying to retake the monastery. In 1925 a full blown Tibetan rebellion broke out, seeing thousands attacking Hui Muslims. Ma Qi responded by deploying 3000 troops who quickly retook Labrang and machine gunned thousands of Tibetans trying to flee. Ma Qi would besiege Labrang numerous times seeing Hui Muslims, Mongols and Tibetans all fighting for control over Labrang, but by 1927 Ma Qi gave it all up. Ma Qi became the governor of Qinghai and moved on. However, that was not the last Labrang would see of General Ma Qi. The Hui forces looted and ravaged the monastery again and in revenge Tibetans skinned alive many Hui soldiers. One of the most common practices was to slice open the stomach of a living soldier and then put hot rocks inside the stomach. Many Hui women were sold to the ethnic Han and Kazakhs. Children were adopted by the Tibetans. Now come 1927, Feng Yuxiang became the governor of Gansu. To control the region, Feng Yuxiang incorporated and promoted Hui Muslim Generals within his Guominjun. Feng Yuxiang placed Liu Yufen with 15,000 troops to act as governor while he jumped into the northern expedition. There was a particularly nasty earthquake that year, followed by drought and famine. Liu Yufen responded to the situation by overtaxing the populace. During the later half of the northern expedition, Zhang Zuolin fomented any rebellious fires he could amongst his enemies and he could see within Gansu there was an opportunity to exploit. He began sending shipments of weapons to the son of Ma Anliang, Ma Tingxiang who unleashed a revolt against Liu Yufen in Liangzhou. The revolt soon spread and this saw Ma Tingxiang unleash a siege against Hezhou in the spring of 1928. To support the siege, Ma Zhongying recruited Hui, Dongxiang and Salar Muslims, forming an army nearly 10,000 strong. By November, the Hezhou besiegers numbered 25,000 and were beginning to starve. So the men were directed towards the Tao River Valley in the south where they began slaughtering Tibetan monks. They burned the place of the Tibetan Tusi Chief King Yang Jiqing after defeating his 3000 man strong army and sacked the Tibetan city of Chone. The Tibetan areas south of Gansu were laid to waste. At Taozhou Tibetan militias tried to fight off the force of Ma Tingxiang but were defeated. However they did inflict severe casualties upon Ma Tingxiang’s forces. This only emboldened more atrocities, seeing muslim forces burn printing presses and temples of the Tibetan Buddhists in Chone. The muslims then looted the Gompa (for those who don’t know a Gompa is a sacred Buddhist spiritual compound, sort of like a buddhist university) and massacred the Tibetan Buddhist monks of the Labrang monastery.  The Austrian-American botanist Joseph Rock witnessed much of the carnage and even found himself stuck in a battle in 1929. He described seeing Muslim armies leaving behind Tibetan skeletons over wide areas and decorated the Labrang Monastery with severed Tibetan heads. During the 1929 battle of Xiahe near Labrang, severed Tibetan heads were apparently used as ornaments by Hui Muslim troops within their camps. Rock stated “how the heads of young girls and children were staked around the encampment. Ten to fifteen heads were fastened to the saddle of every Muslim cavalryman. The heads were "strung about the walls of the Moslem garrison like a garland of flowers" The blood flowed until 1929 whence Liu Yufen with support of Feng Yuxiang finally drove off their forces. Its estimated up to 2 million died in the war across Gansu. Ma Tingxiang tried to defect to Chiang Kai-Shek, but would find himself captured later by Feng Yuxiang who executed him. Another notable rebellion occurred in the good old province of Shandong, because where else right?  You may remember me talking about a small group known as the Red Spear Society. They were a movement made up of peasants, who formed self-defense militias during China’s Warlord Era. There were numerous branches, but the largest one was in Shandong, particularly within Laiyang county. They of course were so numerous in Shandong because of our old friend the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. Zhang Zongchang notoriously abused the populace of Shandong with gross mismanagement, over taxation and pure brutality. Lets also be honest, Shandong just keeps rearing its head through this podcast series, its basically the melting pot for uprisings. In the fall of 1928, banditry rose exponentially across the Shandong Peninsula, leading more and more villages to join the Red Spear Society trying to defend themselves. Meanwhile with Zhang Zongchang defeated and tossed into exile in Dalian, his subordinate, Liu Zhennian became the new ruler of the province. Liu Zhennian had defected to the KMT at the very last moment, betraying his master so he could steal his fiefdom. Liu Zhennians rule was just as bad if not worse than the Dogmeat General. He overtaxed the population, though a little less than Zhang Zongchang mind you. He used his personal army to brutalize the population, many of his troops simply became bandits looting and pillaging the countryside. All of this further antagonized the Red Spear Society.  In 1928 the Red Spear Society organized a militant tax resistance, causing Liu Zhennians officials to fear even going near a village, particularly at Laiyang and Zhaoyuan where large concentrations of Red Spears were. Now the Red Spears were not the only problem that would hit Shandong in the late 1920’s. Our good friend, Zhang Zongchang, exiled in Dalian could not take it anymore and wanted to seize back his power base from his former subordinate. He formed a plot to perform an uprising in Shandong with the help of Chu Yupu and Huang Fengqi. Zhang Zongchang first enlisted the help of one of his former White Russian Commanders, Generals Grigory Semyonov and Konstantin Petrovich Nechaev. Zhang Zongchangs plan to recapture Shandong rested upon the tens of thousands of his former soldiers still within the province. Many of them had not joined the NRA and instead tossed their lot in as bandits. Within quite a precarious economic situation without a real leader, many of them were willing to come back to Zhang Zongchang. These men were certainly not in the best shape. They were demoralized, lacked weapons and training, but they did have one thing going for them. Their war was to be against Liu Zhennians forces and not the crack NRA. Liu Zhennians forces were technically part of the NRA, but in reality they were just a bunch of under trained Fengtian troops who had no real allegiance to the new Nationalist government. They had zero support from the population of Shandong, whom they terrorized. Zhang Zongchang would also have the financial backing of Japan for his little venture.  When Zhang Zongchang came over to Shandong, this caused Liu Zhennians garrison units at Longkou and Huangxian to mutiny in late January of 1929. The local commanders, Liu Kaitai, Xu Tienpin, Li Xutung and Kao Pengqi all began working to overthrow Liu Zhennian. They renounced their allegiance to the KMT and began a revolt. Roughly 3000 men strong consisting of Zhang ZOngchangs former Shandong troops and some Ex-Zhili forces they began to loot and pillage Longkou, Huangxian and Dengzhou. The foreign communities in these parts fled to two Japanese warships at harbor. The Imperial Japanese Navy then sent a squadron to protect their citizens in the area. This was soon followed up by 20,000 troops of Liu Zhennian. However instead of facing Liu Zhennian’s men, the mutineers fled into areas defended by the Red Spears. The mutineers and Red Spears formed an alliance, and they prepared an offensive against Longkou. In February the rebels gained the upper hand and pushed Liu Zhennian into the Zhifu area in northeastern Shandong. On February 19th, Zhang Zongchang, Chu Yupu and Huang Fengqi landed at Longkou with a small detachment. The mutineers promptly joined their old master and as he set up a new HQ at Dengzhou. From there they marched upon Zhifu. 15 miles short of Zhifu Zhang Zongchang’s now 5000 man strong army ran into Liu Zhennians near Fushan. Zhang Zongchang was hopelessly outnumbered, but luckily Huang Fengqi had spent most of February recruiting their old comrades and managed to assemble 26,000 troops. Meanwhile, Liu Zhennian now had fewer troops than Zhang Zongchang and his KMT backers did not support him very much. What he did receive from the KMT was 200,000 rounds of ammunition, and roughly 50,000 yuan for military funds. Furthermore he was impaired by the presence of the IJN who were secretly supporting Zhang Zongchang by not allowing NRA reinforcements into the area. After a series of skirmishes, Zhang Zongchang arrived at Zhifu with a force nearly 25,000 strong, while Liu Zhennian only had 7000 men left to defend the town. On february 21st the two sides clashed and surprisingly it was Zhang Zongchang who lost. Despite their numbers, they simply were not armed well enough to fight an army who enjoyed fortifications. Another issue they faced was the fact, Zhang Zongchang was not even present during the battle. Zhang Zongchang suffered 500 casualties, roughly 200 deaths and 300 captured, perhaps worse he lost nearly 3000 rifles and 15 machine guns. He pulled back his army to Dengzhou, undaunted by the defeat. Zhang Zongchang’s troops then began pillaging the local population. Zhang Zongchang began negotiations with Liu Zhennian trying to convince him to surrender. Certainly Liu Zhennian was not in a good state, by February 25th roughly 15,000 of his troops near the area of Weihaiwei had defected to Zhang Zongchang. By the end of the month Zhang Zongchang effectively controlled eastern Shandong. It was around early March when Zhang Zongchang announced a new warlord coalition, consisting of himself, Chu Yupu, Qi Xieyuan, Wu Peifu, Bai Chongxi, Yan Xishan and countless Fengtian commanders who would soon launch a campaign to defeat the KMT. You are probably thinking to yourself, some of those names don’t make any sense, why would they join old Dogmeat? They didn’t, he simply made the entire thing up, because he had something cooking in Beijing. Zhang Zongchang sought to foment an anti-KMT movement in north China. On March 2nd, 20 armed men wearing civilian clothing suddenly disarmed the Shanxi Army guards at the Yonghe Temple. These men then fired into the air signaling a regiment loyal to Zhang Zongchang to perform a mutiny. The mutineers quickly manned the temple walls, barricaded themselves in and seized control over nearby fortifications. From their vantage points they began shooting at the local populace causing panic and disorder. Then at lightning speed the KMT forces in Beijing surrounded the Yonghe Temple and forced the mutineers to surrender. Only 2 mutineers were killed, 35 were wounded, but a lot of civilians had been hurt. Despite being a bit comical if you think about it, the Beijing Revolt as it became known received a lot of press. The Nanjing government then took some steps to prevent any more Shandong NRA troops from joining the rebels. Meanwhile back over in eastern Shandong, Zhang Zongchangs troops had literally razed 6 large towns and 50 villages to the ground, apparently in retaliation because someone tried to assassinate Zhang Zongchang. It would not take much for those back under the Dogmeat Generals rule to want to kill him. He was back to his old brutal ways, going even above and beyond. It is said captured women were being sold as slaves at Huangxian for 10-20 mexican dollars. One of Zhang Zongchangs commanders, General Li Xudong had his forces plunder Laizhou before returning to the frontlines around Zhifu. Liu Zhennians forces were likewise looting, albeit on a smaller scale. Liu Zhennian was also ignoring orders from Chiang Kai-Shek to control his men and act in accordance with NRA protocols, IE: no raping, looting and such. The civilian population of Zhifu were so brutalized many simply fled for Dalian. There emerged a growing international concern for the foreign community in eastern Shandong. Several foreign warships began to anchor there. Meanwhile the Red Spear Society was occupying parts of Shandongs hinterland, expanding their influence as countless villages and towns joined them for protection. The Red Spear Society were not the only ones forming localize self defense forces. Being Shandong, the act of doing so had been as ancient as time it self, a lot of irregular armed groups rose up such as the one 2000 man strong army led by Wang Zucheng known as the “southern army” and another force calling themselves the White Spear Society. This group was explicitly raised to defend local villages from Zhang Zongchangs men, but quickly found themselves under attack from local armed groups as well. The White Spears, like the Red Spears, formed a powerbase in Shandongs hinterland.  By early March, Zhang Zongchang and Liu Zhennian agreed to a 5 day ceasefire. Zhang Zongchang followed this up by trying to bribe Liu Zhennian to defect back to him. He offered him 100,000 yuan but in Liu Zhennians words "I thought my loyalty was worth at least 500,000 yuan". Zhang Zongchang was unwilling to pay that much, so Liu Zhennian remained on the side of the KMT. Thus both parties gathered more troops to do battle, once the 5 days were over Zhang Zongchang attacked Zhifu. While under siege, Liu Zhennian received 7000 reinforcements from a local warlord named Sun Dianying. Unfortunately soon after, one of Liu Zhennians regimental commanders, Colonel Liang defected to Zhang Zongchang, opening the gates of the city. Liu Zhennians forces managed to retreat in good order eastwards as Zhang Zongchang began brutalizing the local population. A 6 day long spree of rape, murder and looting devestated Zhifu. By March 28th the Japanese and KMT government signed an agreement resulting in the departure of Japanese forces from Shandong. Meanwhile Liu Zhennian’s army had fled to Muping where they found themselves yet again under siege. Liu Zhennian sortied to attack his assailants, inflicting 2000 casualties. As the siege progressed, Liu Zhennian offered to surrender on April 4th, but Zhang Zongchang refused, thinking he had the win in the bag. Unfortunately for Zhang Zongchang, his men gradually sought to plunder the undefended countryside rather than maintain the siege, greatly reducing his strength. During a final attempt to take Muping on April 22nd, Zhang Zongchang’s army was routed. Liu Zhennian launched a counter offensive forcing most of Zhang Zongchangs men into the countryside. Countless simply became bandits again, Zhang Zongchangs big attempt to retake the province had crumbled.  Zhang Zongchang yet again fled to Dalian, leaving Chu Yupu with just under 5000 men. Chu Yupu fled to Fushan where he took its 20,000 inhabitants hostage. For 13 days Chu Yupu was besieged by NRA forces. During those 13 days, Chu Yupu’s men raped, murdered and looted. Apparently they tied up over 400 women and children to be used as human shields during the siege as well. Chu Yufu eventually surrendered, whereupon numerous women and girls committed suicide having become raped and pregnant. Over 1500 NRA and 2000 rebels were reportedly killed during the siege of Fushan. The city that had been plundered heavily for 13 days, was then plundered by the besiegers. Chu Yupu had secured a deal with the KMT to be allowed to go into exile in Korea with 400,000$ worth of silver. Now again back to those Red Spears. By the summer of 1929 they had ballooned into what was effectively a proto-state around Dengzhou. They had established a magistrate, taken over all the local administration and introduced land and head taxes to fund themselves…which is ironic. Within their territory they refused to pay governmental taxes. They introduced a forced conscription of at least one member of each family. The taxes collected funded buying arms and ammunition and any NRA or KMT officials who came near were shot on sight. It got to the point if anyone was caught speaking without the local dialect they were turned away. By august they were roughly 60,000 strong and were too large for Liu Zhennian not to deal with any longer. On September 23rd Liu Zhennien unleashed an encirclement campaign between Dengzhou and Huangxian, performing a scorched earth policy. His troops destroyed 18 villages and largely burned down another 60 killing everyone they encountered, whether man, woman or child. By November the Red Spears in the area ceased to exist. It was just another sunny day in Shandong province.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals [http://www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals]. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Guangzhou uprisings was another testament to the lengths the CCP would go to try and carve out a new communist China. The Gansu and Red Spear uprisings were just a few amongst countless tales of the absolute mayhem and chaos that was China’s warlord era, when the real victims were always the same, the common people of China.

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Chinese Civil War. By early 1927, Chiang Kai-Shek had assembled a team of right-wing KMT members and anti-communist allies like Dai Jitao and Wu Tiecheng, strategizing to sever ties with the Soviet Union and garner support from local gentry, merchants, and international diplomats. Despite publicly maintaining a façade of supporting the Soviet alliance, Chiang Kai-Shek was secretly preparing an anti-communist campaign. The turning point came on April 12, 1927, when Chiang’s forces, with the help of the Green Gang, launched a brutal attack on CCP members and workers in Shanghai, marking the beginning of the Shanghai Massacre. This violent crackdown spread across the country, leading to the collapse of the first united front between the KMT and CCP. In the aftermath, the CCP called for mobilization against the KMT, sparking further conflicts such as the Wuhan-Nanjing war and the Nanchang Uprising. Key CCP leaders like He Long and Zhou Enlai emerged during this period, setting the stage for the next phase of the Chinese Civil War.   #119 The Nanchang & Autumn Harvest Uprisings Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. We left off in the midst of the Nanchang uprising. On August the 1st the CCP 2nd front army had successfully inflicted 3000 casualties and captured more than 5000 small arms of various types, 700,000 rounds of ammunition and a few cannons. With more and more CCP aligned units arriving the army needed to be reorganized. It was decided the uprising army would continue to use the designation of 2nd front army of the NRA with He Long serving as its commander in chief and Ye Ting as his deputy. Ye Ting would also command the 11th army consisting of the 24th, 25th and 10th divisions, Nie Rongzhen would be his CCP party representative; He Long would command the 20th Army consisting of the 1st and 2nd divisions with Liao Qianwu as his CCP party representative. Zhou Enlai with Zhu De as his deputy would lead the 9th army with Zhu Kejing as his CCP party representative. Altogether they were 20,000 strong and now very well armed.  On August 2nd, tens of thousands of people gathered in Nanchang to celebrate the great victory and the establishment of the revolutionary committee. This drew a large number of new recruits, particularly young students. Upon hearing the news of the uprising, Wang Jingwei urgently dispatched Zhang Fakui and Zhu Peide to quell the uprisers. On August the 3rd in accordance with orders from the CCP Central Committee the 2nd front army withdrew from Nanchang heading south along the Fu River. This withdrawal became known as the “little long march”. They planned to enter Guangdong province via Ruijin and Xunwu where they would first occupy Dongjiang. They hoped there they could develop further forces, perhaps gain foreign aid and if all went spectacularly capture Guangzhou. Upon entering Jinxian county, the commander of the 10th Division, Cai Tingkai expelled the communists from his ranks and instead took his division northeast into Jiangxi leaving the movement. A large reason he was able to pull this off was because the 2nd front army had been too hastily reorganized. The troops rushed into new formations and left Nanchang far too fast. The conditions of their march were also rough, it was a scorching hot week. By the time they made it to Linchuan on August 7th, they now numbered 13,000.  They rested in Linchuan for 3 days then continued advancing southwards. On August 25th, their vanguard reach Rentian of Ruijin county. Li Jishen the commander of the NRA 8th route army was stationed in Guangdong. Li Jishen dispatched 9000 troops led by Qian Dajun from Ganzhou over to Huichang and around Ruijin to block the advance of the Reds. He also transferred 9000 troops led by Huang Shaohongs army based in Nanxiong and Dayu over to Yudu to support Qian Dajun. The CCP Front Committee took advantage of the fact Qian and Huang’s armies were not yet fully concentrated in the area, unleashing a one by one attack. On the 26th the Red’s attacked Rentians defenders, routing them and capturing Ruijin county. They then concentrated their forces to attack the main portion of Qian Dajun’s army in Huichang. After a fierce 4 day battle they managed to capture Huichang county. The Red’s reported inflicting over 6000 casualties upon Qian Dajun’s army and capturing over 2500 guns while suffering 2000 casualties. Then in early September the Reds repelled an attack by Huang Shaohongs forces near Luokou just due northwest of Huichang. Having survived the encounter, the Reds withdrew to Ruijin, one unit after another, then they changed their route to head east, passing through Changting and Shanghang in Fujian province. From there they headed south along the Tingjiang River and Hanjiang river. On the 22nd, the 25th Division of the 11th Army occupied Sanheba in Dapu county of Guangdong province. Meanwhile the main force continued southwards and occupied Chao’an and Shantou by the 23rd. During this period Li Jishen ordered the remnants of Qian Dajun’s army to try and contain the 25th Division and Huang Shaohongs army to attack Chao’an via Fengshun. He also dispatched Chen Jitang and Xue Yue with 3 divisions, roughly 15,000 men from the East Route to advance eastwards from Heyuan hoping to force a decisive battle. By the way for Pacific War fans, Xue Yue will become one of China’s greatest Generals. Just a little bit about him. He was born to a peasant family in Xiaopingshi village of Guangdong in 1896. In 1907 he entered the Huangpu military primary school and two years later he joined the Tongmenghui. In 1917 he was admitted to the 6th class of the Baoding Military academy. The next year however he departed in July to join Dr Sun Yat-Sen and Chen Jiongming’s new army in Guangzhou. He entered their army as a captain following the army into Fujian where he helped capture over 20 counties centered around Zhangzhou. In 1920 he help attack the Guangxi army of Cen Chunxuan where the commander of the 1st division, Deng Keng, appointed him as a major commanding a machine gun company. The following year the machine gun company expanded into a battalion. In 1921 Deng Keng ordered a personal guard to be formed to protect Dr Sun Yat-Sen, with Xue Yue, Ye Ting and Zhang Fakui as the commanders of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions.  In March of 1922 when Chen Jiongming went to war with Dr Sun Yat-Sen, Xue Yue escorted his family to Guangzhou. There he defended the presidential palace where a 10 hour battle emerged nearly seeing Dr Sun Yat-Sen killed. Xue Yue and some of his men got Dr Sun Yat-Sen and his family away to safety as he led a campaign to quell Chen Jiongmings rebellion. As Chiang Kai-Shek led troops to attack Chen Jiongming, Xue Yue was appointed major general adjutant and chief of staff of the 1st division of the Guangdong army. In 1925 he served as deputy commander of the 14th division of the 1st NRA Army. During the campaign heading east, Xue Yue proved himself a brilliant commander, enough so to receive personal praise from Chiang Kai-Shek via telegram. During the Northern Expedition Xue Yue helped capture Jiangxi, Changsha, Liuyang and Nanchang. He was promoted to commander of the 1st division as the NRA invaded Zhejiang and led men to capture Hangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai. However after the Shanghai massacre, Xue Yue made the rather poor decision of publicly calling for Chiang Kai-Shek to be arrested for being a counterrevolutionary. He was quickly purged from the 1st Army, fled for Guangdong where he found a new post as a divisional commander under Li Jishen. Back to our story, the CCP Front Committee decided to establish a 3rd division of the 20th army and stationed them at Chaoshan. Thus there 6500 men were positioned to meet the enemy's advance. On September 28th the main bulk of the Red army encountered the East Route Army near Shanhu in Jieyang county. The Reds managed to defeat them and marched upon Tangkeng where they fought a fierce battle near Fenshui village, a monument to that battle exists there to this day. By the 30th, the Reds had suffered another 2000 casualties and were unable to put up much of a fight so they pulled back to Jieyang. That night Huang Shaohongs men recaptured Chao’an.  On October 3rd the Red army evacuated Chaoshan and advanced to Haifeng, passing through the Lianhua Mountain. However enroute they were intercepted by the East Route Army, leading to a bloody battle where they were broken badly. Units and commanders dispersed, with one large force of 1300 making it to Haifeng. The Reds had suffered a disastrous and decisive defeat with only over a 1000 troops remaining as a complete unit, who would later reform into a regiment. Zhu De and Chen Yi faked their names and sought refuge amongst a local Hunanese warlord. Starting basically from scratch they turned their little force into a 10,000 strong army who would go on to fight in the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hunan, managing to save 800 Reds who were simultaneously performing an uprising in southern Hunan.  Countless were arrested, deserted or went into exile. Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying and Ye Ting lost contact with the others and fled to British Hong Kong, with Zhou Enlai becoming seriously ill. The three had two pistols with them and were successful in reaching Hong Kong. Nie Rongzhen, the other communist leader, also successfully escaped to Hong Kong. He Long who had strongly opposed the little long march plan, accurately pointed out that marching 1000 miles in the blazing heat of summer would put too much strain on the troops and that the Hunan would have been a better place to set up shop rather than Guangdong. He Long simply took up and went home, demoted from his position as commander. It is said he became a beggar and was not well received by his family. Yet he would rise back up and lead a 3000 man strong Red Force who would later be wiped out by the KMT. By April of 1928 these forces would contribute to the Autumn Harvest Uprising, something we will talk about later. The Nanchang Uprising saw the first shots in armed resistance against the KMT. It was also when the CCP officially declared their firm stance against the KMT and marked the beginning of their journey to create their own military. Within the vacuum of hundreds of smaller uprisings, the Nanchang Uprising alongside two other events we will talk about, the Guangzhou Uprising and Autumn Harvest Uprising are the three more important uprisings during this period of time.  Back on August 7th, the CCP Central Committee held an emergency meeting in Hankou known as the “August 7th Meeting”. Here they abandoned Chen Duxiu’s right-wing appeasement strategy and determined a new policy that would involve implementing land revolution and armed uprisings. They called upon the entire party and people of China to resist the KMT. This saw widespread uprisings spring up all over the place. One of their largest campaigns was referred to as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, which would be performed in Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong and Jiangxi where the foundation of the workers and peasants movement was the highest. A lot was debated about how to perform such a campaign. Many called for making the peasant association the center of it by declaring them a type of local government, whence they the CCP would seize all of the power from them. In addition to seizing rural power, they needed the backing of urban workers and the poor. Many pointed out the Autumn Harvest Uprising like the Nanchang Uprising should have the main purpose of launching a land revolution. It would be optimal of it was launched simultaneously in Hunan centered around Hengyang, Changsha and if possible at Baoqing.  After their August 7th conference the CCP Central Committee sent one Mao Zedong and Peng Gongda, at the time alternate members of the Provisional Political Bureau to Hunan to reorganize the Hunan Provincial committee. For the Autumn Harvest Uprising Mao Zedong was appointed the Central Special Commissioner with Peng Gongda as Secretary of the Provincial Committee. Now we haven't spoken about Mao Zedong in some time. I think the last time we left off about him was with the founding of the CCP party. In 1921 alongside those like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, he too was a founder and he began setting up a branch of the CCP in Changsha. Within Hunan he also established a branch of the Socialist Youth Corps and Cultural Book Society, who opened a bookstore to spread communist literature throughout the province. During the warlord era, Mao Zedong was involved in the struggle for Hunan autonomy. Mao Zedong hoped a Hunanese constitution might increase civil liberties, thus making his work to cause a communist revolution easier. The movement was successful at establishing a provincial autonomy under a Hunanese warlord, but Mao Zedong would find that not quite optimal. By that same year of 1921, communist groups had sprung up in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Jinan and Changsha, and on July 23rd it was decided to form a central meeting. The first session of the national congress of the CCP was in Shanghai, attended by 13 delegates, one being Mao Zedong. However, undercover police infiltrated the congress, forcing the delegates to hop on a boat near Jiaxing in Zhejiang to escape. Although Soviet and CCP delegates attended the first congress pretty much ignored Lenin’s advice to temporarily accept an alliance between them and the bourgeois democrats who were also espousing a national revolution, ie: the KMT. Instead many in the CCP sought to stick strictly to the Marxist belief only an urban proletariat could cause a real communist revolution. At that point Mao Zedong was the party secretary for Hunan, working out of Changsha. In August he founded the “self study university” where readers could gain access to revolutionary literature. He also joined the YMCA Mass Education Movement to combat illiteracy, though it should be noted he had a huge habit of editing textbooks to fit his communist ideals.  He continuously organized worker strikes, particularly against the warlord governor of Hunan, Zhao Hengti. Some of these successful strikes were the Anyuan coal mine strikes, which saw both bourgeois and proletarian methodology incorporated. Mao Zedong had mobilized many walks of life, miners, gentry, military officials, merchants, Triads and even members of the Church. His work in the Anyuan mines also involved his wife Yang Kaihui who was fighting for women's rights. She sought to increase women’s literacy, education and political power within peasant communities. Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui were not irregular in advocating for women's rights amongst the communist leaders, but they would be some of the most effective. Because of Mao Zedong's success in the Anyuan mines, Chen Duxiu invited him to become a member of the CCP Central Committee. Mao Zedong failed to make it to the second congress of the CCP in Shanghai, held in July of 1922, with the excuse he lost the address. There the CCP delegates agreed to forming the first united front. Mao Zedong enthusiastically agreed to this decision, arguing for an alliance across China’s socio-economic classes. Mao Zedong’s work in the first united front would see him become the chief of propaganda for the KMT. Mao Zedong was a vocal anti-imperialist with a lot of his writing directed against the governments of the UK, US and Japan. At the third congress of the CCP in Shanghai in June of 1923, the delegates reaffirmed their commitment to the first united front. Here Mao Zedong was elected to the Party Committee and took up residence in Shanghai. At the first KMT congress held in Guangzhou in 1924, Mao Zedong was elected as an alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee where he would put forward resolutions to decentralize power to the urban and rural bureaus. His enthusiastic support for the KMT would earn him suspicion from colleagues such as Li Lisan who had worked closely with him in Hunan. After the KMT congress he went to Shaoshan where he found the peasants were becoming increasingly restless. Many had seized land and wealth from local landowners. This convinced Mao Zedong that peasants were an effective revolutionary force, something the KMT leftists were proposing, but not the CCP at the time. Later Mao Zedong would be one of many in the CCP calling for an end to the first united front in the face of major grievances. However Borodin continuously advised not to break off with the KMT. In the winter of 1925, Mao Zedong fled for Guangzhou after receiving a lot of heat for revolutionary activities. He led the 6th term of the KMT’s peasant movement training institute, the first government sponsored training institute for rural political activities. Here Mao Zedong was secretly training and preparing militants while also teaching them basic socialist theory. When Sun Yat-Sen died and Chiang Kai-Shek rose to power, Mao Zedong supported his NRA and their northern expedition. Yet in the wake of the northern expedition Mao Zedong was helping the peasants rise up and seize the land of wealthy landowners, in many cases with violence. It was this type of behavior that began to really ruffle the feathers of the KMT leaders who of course were landowners themselves. In March of 1927 Mao appeared at the 3rd Plenum of the KMT central executive committee in Wuhan, who were actively trying to strip Chiang Kai-Shek of his power and bolster Wang Jingwei in his stead. Mao Zedong played an active role, pushing peasant issues, arguing for the death penalty to be exacted on those found guilty of counter revolutionary activity, justifying it by simply stating “peaceful methods cannot suffice”. In April Mao Zedong was appointed to the KMT’s 5 member central land committee where he urged peasants to stop paying rent. He then put into motion a draft resolution for land acquisition calling for the confiscation of land belonging to "local bullies and bad gentry, corrupt officials, militarists and all counter-revolutionary elements in the villages". Mao Zedong then carried out a "Land Survey", stating that anyone owning over 30 mou (four and a half acres), which constituted 13% of the population at the time, were uniformly counter-revolutionary. Many of his colleagues thought he was going too far, some not far enough. In the end only some of his suggestions were partially implemented.  When the Wuhan-Nanjing war broke out, Chiang Kai-Shek performed the Shanghai Massacre, beginning the White Terror. The CCP state more than 5000 communists were killed by the hands of the Green Gang in Shanghai. Over in Beijing Zhang Zuolin performed his own little white terror taking the life of those like Li Dazhao. In May the CCP claim tens of thousands of communists and their suspected allies were murdered, perhaps up to 25,000. The CCP contuined to support the Wuhan government, somthing Mao Zedong supported initially. Yet by the time of the CCP’s 5th Congress he had changed his mind and was staking all of his revolutionary hope of peasant militias. It really did not matter as the Wuhan government performed its own white terror, albeit less violent in july. The CCP then founded the Workers and Peasants Red Army of China to go to war with Chiang Kai-Shek. Thus this brings us back to our story about the Autumn harvest uprising. In mid August, Mao Zedong and Peng Gongda arrived in Changsha. For the later half of August they helped reorganize the Hunan Provincial Committee where the issue of how to launch the Autumn harvest uprising was discussed. Mao Zedong proposed narrowing the scope of the uprising after the results of the Nanchang uprising. Regarding the area for the uprising, it was agreed it should not be too large, and should be concentrated around 7 counties. They needed to rely solely upon the power of the peasants, with roughly 1-2 regiments as a military backbone. They would no longer fly the KMT banner, now it would be the Red flag of the CCP. During the meeting a firm agreement was made regarding land distribution: "The current land revolution has reached the stage of fundamentally abolishing the land rent system and overthrowing the landlord regime. At this time, the party's policy towards farmers should be that the poor peasants lead the middle peasants, capture the rich peasants, and overthrow the landlord system. This is the land revolution." Mao Zedong emphasized at the meeting: “Our party's previous mistake was to ignore the military. Now we should seize power and build power on the barrel of a gun." To usher in the Autumn Harvest uprising the Hunan Provincial Party Committee decided to establish two leading organizations: the first was the Front Committee composed of various troops with Mao Zedong leading them, the other was the Action Committee composed of county committees, their leadership and Yi Lirong would lead them. The uprising was scheduled to begin on September 9th, with the destruction of a railway. On the 11th all counties would revolut simultaneously. On the 15th Changsha would revolt and on the 16th Changsha would be captured. At that time Red Army forces were stationed in Xiushui, Tonggu, Anyuan and along the border area of Hunan and Jiangxi. In early September Mao Zedong arrived in Anyuan and Tonggu preparing the military leaders. It was decided the forces in Xiushui, Tonggu, Anyuan and a few local counties would unify into the 1st Division of the 1st Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army. The division was roughly 5000 men, with Lu Deming as its commander in chief and Yu Shadu as the 1st division's commander. The 1st division held 3 regiments; the 1st regiment at Xiushui composed of the former National Revolutionary Army Second Front Army Headquarters Guard Regiment, Pingjiang Workers and Peasants Volunteer Corps and the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Chongyang and Tongcheng Counties in Hubei Province; the 2nd regiment located in Anyuan, was composed of the Anyuan Workers' Picket Team, Anyuan Mine Police Team and some Peasant Self-Defense Forces in Anfu, Yongxin, Lianhua, Pingxiang and Liling Counties; the 3rd Regiment, located in Tonggu, was composed of the Liuyang Workers and Peasants Volunteer Corps and the Guard Regiment, and part of the Pingjiang Workers and Peasants Volunteer Corps.  The plan was for the 1st Regiment to capture Pingjiang; the 2nd regiment would capture Pingxiang and Liling and the 3rd regiment would capture Liuyang. Afterwards the regiments would simultaneously march upon Changsha, hopefully with the full cooperation of peasant armies who were performing uprisings in various counties as well as the urban workers in Changsha would perform their own uprising. On September 9th, 60 railway workers in Changsha began destroying the railway lines from the city to Yueyang and Zhuzhou. On the 11th the 1st Red division launched the uprising. The 1st regiment departed Xiushui and Zhajin advancing to Changshou street via Longmen. Their main bulk entered Jinping when they were suddenly attacked by the Qiu Guoxuan regiment, this was the remnants of the Guizhou warlord Wang Tianpei. The troops were scattered after losing 200 men and their weapons. The forces then moved quickly towards Pingjiang and Liuyang counties, trying to get closer to the 3rd regiment. The 3rd regiment at this time was under the direct command of Mao Zedong who managed to capture Baisha in Liuyang county during the afternoon. On the 12th he captured Dongmen City, annihilated a great part of the warlord forces there. On the 14th two KMT battalions counterattack Dongmen City. The 3rd regiment fought them for several hours before moving to Shangping. Meanwhile the 2nd regiment departed Anyuan and attacked Pingxiang, failing to take it. On the 12th they turned to Laoguan due west of Pingxiang. With cooperation from a peasant uprising they managed to capture Liling county where they also defeated one KMT battalion, capturing a lot of weapons and rescued 300 communist prisoners. On the 14th another two KMT battalions from Changsha, another from Pingxiang all counterattacked Liling. The 2nd regiment immediately turned north to attack Liuyang county on the 15th, but the KMT forces caught up to them inflicted severe casualties. By the 17th Mao Zedng ordered all the regiments to concentrate in Wenjia city due southeast of Liuyang city. At this point the Red Army broke into separate offensives. Workers and peasants were performing uprisings in Pingjiang, Liuyang, Liling, Zhuzhou, Anyuan and other places. Their successes were of varying scales. Some of these peasant and worker armies were armed with nothing more than spears, broadswords, some had small arms. They resorted to house to house warfare, storming buildings, trying to capture guns. They massacred the gentry and landowning classes as they found them hiding in their homes. Red army forces aided those in Liling and Liuyang, managing to capture the county seats, establishing revolutionary regimes. The uprising in Zhuzhou saw its railway station captured, disrupting a lot of transportation. The uprisings in Pingjiang failed to gain the cooperation of the workers and peasants, so three guerilla units were formed who raided the local area. Overall however, the peasant and worker leaders were being arrested en masse by KMT officials. The peasants and workers became afraid they would be caught up in the White Terror slaughter, thus the uprising ultimately failed. The large workers uprising that was supposed to break out in Changsha never formed.  On the 19th the entire 3rd regiment, the remnants of the 1st regiment and scattered members of the 2nd regiment arrived in Wenjia city one after another. That night Mao Zedong presided over a CCP Front Committee meeting, to analyze the situation and figure out what to do with their forces. They quickly decided to abandon attempts to capture Changsha. Their remaining forces at Pingjiang and Liuyang departed as the KMT were hunting them down, pushing them south along the Luoxiao Mountains. On the 20th the departed Wenjia city heading towards Shangli city. It was there they learned there were KMT troops assembling in Pingxiang, so they turned towards Luxi on the 24th. They then continued south, but were soon ambushed by KMT forces. Lu Deming was killed during the battle leaving the army leaderless, seeing heavy casualties. On the 26th the Red forces attacked and occupied Lianhua and by the 29th entered Sanwan Village in Yongxin COunty. This time they were down to less than 1000 men, morale had collapsed. Their leadership began reorganizing at Sanwan, they referred to their surviving force as the 1st regiment of the 1st Division of the 1st Red Army. In reality they only had two battalions in strength. However their reorganization efforts at least saw them form proper companies and the implementation of a more democratic system. Afterwards they continued south arriving at Gucheng in Ninggang county on October 3rd. There Mao Zedong presided over another CCP Front Committee meeting. They studied everything that had gone wrong with the Autumn Harvest Uprising. They made plans for establishing bases of operations for the two battalions then led by Yuan Wencai and Wang Zuo. After the meeting, Mao Zedong led the forces to Maoping on the 7th. From there they moved to Suichuan county in Jiangxi. Then they moved a great distance through Hunan province to Ciping sitting in Jinggang Mountain, the middle section of the Luoxiao Mountain Range by the 27th. From here onwards their force under the leadership of Mao Zedong would establish a revolutionary base of operations. The Autumn Harvest Uprising was the first time the CCP flag was publicly raised in an armed struggle. It was done to showcase to the people of China the determination of the CCP to independently lead a revolutionary war. After the failed uprising, Mao Zedong really began to take charge of the situation. He ditched the original central committee’s plan to capture Changsha and instead marched a great distance into the deep rural areas where the KMT were at their weakest. He sought to embark on a guerilla warfare campaign within the countryside. Here in these remote places they would establish revolutionary bases, preserving and developing Red Armies.The cost of the failure is honestly very difficult to estimate. There are claims the anti-communist mass killings in Hunan alone saw 80,000 killed in Liling alone, and perhaps up to 300,000 in areas like Chaling, LEiyang, Liuyang and Pingjiang.  Meanwhile going back in time a bit to August of 1927. The failed Nanchang uprising gradually spilt southwards to the Dongjiang area of Guangdong. On the 7th the CCP Central Committee held an emergency meeting, where Chen Duxiu was criticized for his appeasement of the KMT right wing. It was also during this meeting, the CCP formalized how they would go about implementing a land revolution and armed uprisings. On the 20th Zhang Tailei, the secretary of the Guangdong CCP provincial committee, discussed plans for a provincial wide uprising. They would mobilize the workers and peasants to hold riots in key locations within Guangdong, particularly Guangzhou. Thus another major uprising was about to be unleashed. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals [http://www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals]. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Autumn Harvest Uprising was a bold move by the CCP. As the Wuhan and Nanjing KMT government unleashed their separate white terrors, the CCP were trying to not only survive the onslaught, but to formulate their own revolutionary movement. Within the emerging communist vacuum it seemed Mao Zedong had found his calling and was striving to reach the top.

Last time we spoke about the finale of the Northern Expedition, the reunification of China. In May the NRA advanced from the Yellow River bridgehead despite losing access to the Tianjin-Pukou railway, forcing a 60-mile march. General Chen Tiaoyuan captured Tehzhou on the 13th, as the NRA cleared northern Shandong. They then converged on Beijing, with Feng Yuxiang’s 2nd Collective Army and Yan Xishan’s 3rd Collective Army advancing from different directions. Yan Xishan fought the NPA, recapturing territories and capturing Nankou, which led to speculation he would enter Beijing first. Despite NPA counterattacks, the NRA forces continued their advance. By late May, the NRA's combined efforts and internal NPA issues led to a general retreat of the NPA forces. On June 6, Yan Xishan’s troops entered Beijing. The NPA's Zhang Zuolin was assassinated by Japanese officers, leading to a power shift to his son Zhang Xueliang, who later aligned with Chiang Kai-Shek. By December 1928, China was unified under the KMT.   #118 The Chinese Civil War Draws First Blood Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So I said a few times during the northern expedition that I wanted to push aside the emerging Chinese civil war. Although we loosely covered a lot of the major events, this episode is going to try and narrow and focus it down. Now please note, up until this point I have to admit I had been using sources that were either skewed towards the Chinese nationalist views or were trying to be non biased. For some of these episodes I intentionally am using some CCP aligned sources, I will try my best to balance things out. Also a large part of this is going to be a retelling of the Shanghai Massacre, but more from the point of view of the CCP. All the way back in 1926, Chiang Kai-Shek had managed to seize power over the Kuomintang. He exerted control over the party and army as he unleashed the Northern Expedition. By November 9th Chiang Kai-Shek set up a new headquarters in Nanchang. Chiang Kai-Shek was determined to purge the party of communists and began to do so here. He began by recruiting a large number of right-wing Kuomintang members such as Dai Jitao and Wu Tiecheng. Dai Jitao was a member of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee and had served as the Minister of the KMT’s propaganda department. After the death of Sun Yat-Sen, Dai Jitao had actively promoted an anti-communist movement, drawing support from warlords, right wingers and those the CCP would describe as “imperialists”. In May of 1925 with the support of Chiang Kai-Shek, Dai Jitao began an anti-communist campaign in Shanghai. He ran two successful pamphlets loosely translated in English as "The Philosophical Foundation of Sun Yat-senism" and "National Revolution and the Chinese Kuomintang”. Both worked to promote the teachings of Confucius and Mencius while distorting Sun Yat-sen's thoughts. Dai Jitao was arguing that Sun Yat-Sen’s ideology chiefly came from Confucianism instead of western philosophy and that in fact the man was a traditionalist. He twisted Sun Yat-Sen’s three principles, castrating them of revolutionary content. All of this quickly became a "banner" for the Kuomintang right-winger to carry out anti-communist activities. After Chiang Kai-Shek arrived in Nanchang, he immediately invited him to go north to jointly plan the purge of the party and anti-communism. Wu Tiecheng joined Dai Jitao, he was the director of the Guangzhou Public security Bureau and a well known KMT right-winger. Prior to the Zhongshan ship incident, Wu Tiecheng stated he had suggested to Chiang Kai-Shek that they impose sanctions on the CCP. In his words “with the registration materials of the special household registration of our Public Security Bureau, we can immediately arrest a dozen of the main Communist Party members, and then use a ship to transport them to a small island near Zhongshan County , or send them to Shanghai. As for the minor members, they will be temporarily detained." Chiang Kai-Shek said "I will think about it first." After the Zhongshan incident, Chiang Kai-Shek pretended to dismiss him from his post, but specially invited him later to Nanchang and dispatched him to Japan as a liaison. Another large figure who was invited over was Huang Fu, who had served as the Minister of Foreign affairs and Education for the Beiyang Government and as its Prime Minister. When Chiang Kai-Shek came to Nanchang he wrote to Huang Fu twice inviting him to come south. On December 31st, Zhang Jingjiang and Chen Guofu were also invited to Nanchang. Zhang Jingjiang was a member of the KMT’s Central Supervisory Committee. After the secondary Plenary session of the second central committee, he became chairman of it. He used his authority and colluded with Chen Guofu, the Minister of Organization to dissolve the Guangzhou Municipal Party committee, which at the time was being led by left winger KMT. They did this by placing confidants in various positions to steal power. Simultaneously, they suppressed worker and peasant movements in Guangdong, even dispatching gangsters to kill their leaders and burn down the provincial and Hong Kong strike committee HQ. All of these people gathered at Nanchang formed a anti-communist cabal backing Chiang Kai-Shek. In January of 1927 these men went up Mount Lushan to a famous hotel called Xianyan where they plotted. After several days of meetings, as my source argues, mostly based on the advice of Huang Fu, these following decisions were obtained. Number 1, they would enact a policy of separating from the USSR and purging the party of CCP. Number 2, the NRA must settle the southeast by forming an alliance with the gentry and merchant class there. Number 3 in their diplomatic efforts they had to abandon the USSR and ally themselves to Japan. Number 4, to increase their military power they had to unite with Feng Yuxiangs Guominjun and Yan Xishan.   Upon returning to Nanchang, Chiang Kai-Shek took action, first by attacking Borodin. He sent a telegram to Xu Qian, the chairman of the Wuhan joint conference, stating Borodin had insulted him in public at Wuhan and demanded he be removed from his advisory position. He also recomended expell Borodin back to the USSR. The source I am reading states Chiang Kai-Shek had two rationales for going after Borodin. "Chiang Kai-Shek felt that except for Borodin, the Kuomintang leaders in Wuhan were all politically incompetent. ... As long as Borodin was there, he could not gain a dominant position. Secondly, he was using Borodin like a scape goat to hide his real anti-Soviet purpose’. At this time Chiang Kai-Shek was being labeled a USSR stooge by the NPA and a Japanese stooge by the CCP. In response, Chiang Kai-Shek stated publicly "Our alliance with Russia was left by the Prime Minister. Although its representatives have been arrogant for a long time and oppressed our party leaders in many ways, I believe that this has nothing to do with the Soviet Union's spirit of treating us equally. No matter what their personal attitudes are, we will never change our relationship with the Soviet Union towards Japan. Why should we unite with the Soviet Union? It is because the Soviet Union can treat China equally. Since the Soviet Union has not given up treating us equally, how can we give up the policy of alliance with Russia. ... Not only Japan, but any country, if it can treat China equally, then we will treat them the same way as we treat the Soviet Union. It is not impossible to unite with them. We unite with the Soviet Union to seek freedom and equality for China. It is completely based on the meaning of treating our nation equally, so we must unite with the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union does not treat us equally and oppresses us in the same way, we will also oppose them in the same way. I have said for a long time." In regards to the CCP Chiang Kai-Shek stated to his close confidants “When I was in Guangzhou, I was always paying attention to the actions of the CCP. I wanted to implement my proposal to overthrow the CCP in Guangzhou, however I did not do so. I was unable to do so because it could mean the end of the Kuomintang”. After the success of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-Shek lamented to his confidants “although our army has won a great victory, I still worry the enemy is not at our front but at our rear. The CCP is causing much trouble within, we must make sure it does not split out party or even collapse our army. There are thorns everywhere”. Publically Chiang Kai-Shek stated "Now there is a rumor that I distrust and alienate my Communist comrades and have a tendency to oppose them. In fact, it cannot be said that I will not oppose the Communist Party. I has always supported the Communist Party... But that is to say, if the Communist Party becomes strong in the future and its members are arrogant and tyrannical, I will definitely correct them and punish them. ... Now many Communist Party members are actually oppressing the Kuomintang members, showing an overbearing attitude, and tend to exclude Kuomintang members, making Kuomintang members embarrassed. In this way, I can no longer treat Communist Party members with the same preferential treatment as before. If I still have the same attitude as before, then I am not in the position of a Kuomintang member, and I cannot be a Kuomintang member. Although I am not a Communist Party member, from a revolutionary perspective, I have to take some responsibility for the success or failure of the Communist Party! I am the leader of the Chinese revolution, not just the leader of the Kuomintang. The Communist Party is a part of the Chinese revolutionary forces. Therefore, if Communist Party members do something wrong or act tyrannically, I have the responsibility and power to intervene and punish them." As you can see, publicly Chiang Kai-Shek was always walking on eggshells when attacking the CCP. If you know the old boiling frog analogy, it's more or less like Chiang Kai-Shek gradually getting the public to attack the CCP. At the ceremony where Li Liejun was appointed chairman of Jiangxi, Chiang Kai-shek once again gave a speech, saying that communism was only a method of economic development, which might be applicable in some countries, but if China adopted communism, it would be a great harm and would only lead to the overthrow and revolution of China. In late January, Chiang Kai-Shek met with Momuro Keijiro, a representative sent by Japan’s minister of Finance and Navy at Lushan. Chiang Kai-Shek explained to Keijiro that he understood the importance of the political and economic relationship between Manchuria and Japan. He understood the Japanese had spilt a lot of blood there during the Russo-Japanese War. He believed Manchuria required special consideration and hoped the Japanese would correctly evaluate the KMT’s struggle to reunify China. Chiang Kai-Shek then met with the Japanese consul General in Jiujiang, Edo Sentaro, explaining he did not only intend to abolish the unequal treaties but would try to respect the existing conditions as much as possible, such as guaranteeing the recognition of foreign loans and repayments and respecting foreign owned enterprises.  After these meetings Chiang Kai-Shek met with representatives of the Imperial Japanese Military such as Nagami Masuki and Matsumuro Takayoshi. It was Dai Jitao who set up these meetings. Chiang Kai-Shek began the talks by making it clear the KMT would not work with the CCP and was willing to work with Japan to prevent the spread of Communism in China. Chiang Kai-Shek also met with the Japanese politician Yamamoto Jotario who would go on to say in Beijing that he believed the Generalissimo was an outstanding military leader. Needless to say, as my source would put it “Chiang Kai-Shek was closely colluding with Japanese imperialism”. He was also establishing contacts with the US. He dispatched Wang Zhengting to Shanghai to meet the American consul general there. Wang Zhengting told him the KMT had washed their hands of the communists and that there would be nor more incidents such as the one that befell Hankou. The American consul general in Guangzhou was likewise contacted through the finance minister of Guangdong, Kong Xiangxi. What the American consuls told their government was “if the powers want to drive the Soviets out of China, they should establish direct contact with Chiang Kai-Shek”. Chiang Kai-Shek also publicly expressed regret to numerous nations for incidents such as the one in Nanjing. He was gaining a reputation as being the only leader in China capable of restoring order amongst the chaos. Many of these foreign diplomats privately told Chiang Kai-Shek that if he wanted to really brush shoulders with them he had to purge the communists and soon. To truly purge the communists Chiang Kai-Shek reaches a deal with the bourgeoisie of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They will support him economically if he helps suppress the worker movements in Shanghai. They fund Chiang Kai-Shek some 500,000 Yuan in early March, then on the 29th the Shanghai Commercial Federation pledges 5 million Yuan, with another 3 million on April 1st. Around this time Chiang Kai-Shek secretly send Wang Boling, the deputy commander of the 1st army; Yang Hu, chief of the special affairs department of the general HQ and Chen Qun the director of the political department of the eastern route army to Shanghai in disguise to meet Huang Jinrong. Huang Jinrong was a chief detective working in the French concession of Shanghai. He also happened to be one of the top three gangsters working under Du Yuesheng of the Green Gang. Huang Jinrong summoned Du Yuesheng and the other Green Gang leader Zhang Xiaolin, as they all discussed how to purge the communists. The Green Gang leaders seized the opportunity to help the KMT. They began monitoring the CCP, armed their gang members and began to attack anyone who was picketing. They formed the “China Progress Association”, which in reality was just Green Gang members. This association proceeded to attack the Shanghai General Labor Union, providing the perfect pretext for Chiang Kai-Shek to act.  On April 1st Wang Jingwei returns to Shanghai from aboard. By the 3rd Chiang Kai-Shek telegrams that Wang Jingwei is reinstated and holds secret talks with him. On the 8th Chiang Kai-Shek organizes a Shanghai Provisional Political Committee, stipulating it will decide all military, political and financial decisions and will replace the Shanghai special municipality provincial government that was established after the third Shanghai worker uprising. On the 9th he unleashes martial law prohibiting assemblies, strikes and marches, and established the Songhu Martial Law Command, with Bai Chongxi and Zhou Fengqi as the commander and deputy commander. Chiang Kai-Shek then takes his leave for Nanjing, leaving the job to Bai Chongxi who will supervise a coup in Shanghai. In a vain attempt Chen Duxiu tells the CCP to ease up on the Anti-Chiang Kai-Shek stuff. Then its announced to them that Chen Duxiu had managed to form a deal with Wang Jingwei. Chiang Kai-Shek send word from Nanjing to carry out the purge, in a very “execute order 66 fashion”.  April the 12th takes a wild turn in Shanghai. In the early morning a signal is raised over a warship anchored near the Gaochang temple. Hundreds of well armed Green Gang, Triads and some secret agents wearing blue shorts and white cloth  armbands with a black gongs on them, dispersed from the French concession in several cars. From 1 to 5am they attacked the picketing workers in Zhabei, Nanshi, Huxi, Wusong, Hongkou and other districts. The workers resisted immediately causing fierce street battles to break out. The 26th Army of the NRA, an old Sun Chuanfang unit that recently defected, came to forcibly confiscate guns while stating they were “mediating an internal strife amongst the workers”. Over 2700 armed workers in Shanghai were disarmed. More than 120 were killed with another 180 injured. The Shanghai General Labor Union club and all their associated pickets in the districts were occupied. Within the foreign concessions, foreign military and police forces arrested more than 1000 CCP members and workers who were immediately handed over to Chiang Kai-Shek's men. On the morning of the 13th, the workers from Shanghai’s tobacco, silk factories, trams, municipal administration, postal services, sailors and various other industries went on strike. Over 200,000 workers took to the streets and the Shanghai General Labor Union held a mass rally in Qingyun Road Square in Zhabei with over 100,000 participants. They held a quick conference calling for resolutions. The first resolution was to hand over their weapons. Secondly those who destroyed their unions should be severely punished. Third the families of those killed needed to be compensated. Fourth protests should be made against the imperialists within the concessions. Fifth a telegram needed to be sent to the central government, then whole nation and world to demand assistance. Lastly the military authorities should be responsible for protecting the Shanghai trade unions. After the conference, the masses marched upon the headquarters of the 2nd division of the 26th army along Baoshan road to petition for the release of their comrades and for their weapons to be returned to them. They marched for a kilometer and upon reaching the Sandeli area of Baoshan road, soldiers of the 2nd division rushed out and opened fire upon them killing more than 100 on the spot. It was said Baoshan road was flooded with blood. That afternoon Chiang Kai-Sheks forces occupied the Shanghai General Labor Union and General Command of the Shanghai workers. They closed down and disbanded numerous revolutionary organizations and carried out searches and murders. Within 3 days after the Shanghai incident, more than 300 Shanghai CCP members were killed, another 500 were arrested and 5000 went “missing”. Like I said in the previous podcast on this very subject, I will leave it to you as to what missing meant. On the 15th of april the Kuomintang in Guangzhou launched their own coup. On that day more than 2000 CCP members and their supporters were arrested, 200 trade unions were closed. This all would b followed by similar activities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Guangxi where CCP members were purged. The NPA in the north would likewise crack down on communists. Li Dazhao had been placed on the Beiyang governments list of most wanted back in 1926 following the March 18th massacre. Since then he was hiding in the Soviet Embassy in Beijing, continuing to lead political maneuvers against the warlords. When the first united front collapsed as a result of Chiang Kai-Sheks purges, Zhang Zuolin ordered troops to raid the Soviet embassy. Li Dazhao, his wife and daughter were all arrested. Among 19 other communists, Li Dazhao was executed on April 28th of 1927 by strangulation. One of the behemoths who ushered in the New Culture Movement and was a founder of the CCP had become one of its greatest martyrs. The first united front was no more and in response to this the CCP declared "Chiang Kai-shek has become an open enemy of the national revolution, a tool of imperialism, and the culprit of the white terror of massacring workers, peasants and revolutionary masses”. This was followed by a call to mobilize, unite and form a solid front to fight the warlords and KMT. In May of 1927 the Communist International issued “the May Emergency Directive” to the CCP. (1) Without land revolution, victory is impossible; without land revolution, the Kuomintang Central Committee will become a pitiful plaything in the hands of unreliable generals. Excessive behavior must be opposed, but not by the army, but through the peasant associations. (2) It is necessary to make concessions to artisans, merchants and small landowners, and to unite with these strata. Only the land of large and medium-sized landowners should be confiscated; the land of officers and soldiers should not be touched. (3) Some old leaders of the KMT Central Committee will waver and compromise. We should recruit more new leaders of workers and peasants from below to join the KMT Central Committee and renew the KMT’s upper echelons. (4) Mobilize 20,000 Communist Party members and 50,000 revolutionary workers and peasants in Hunan and Hubei to form several new armies and build our own reliable army. (5) A revolutionary military tribunal headed by prominent Kuomintang and non-Communists should be established to punish those officers who persecute workers and peasants.  Wang Jingwei obtained this document from Luo Yi, the representative of the Communist International. The high-ranking officials of the Kuomintang believed that this was the Communist International's armed seizure of power and they were determined to purge the party. Thus began the Wuhan-Nanjing war. However as we saw, Wang Jingwei would perform his own purge of the communists on May 21st as he found out the Soviets were pushing the CCP to seize control over his regime. In order to resist the KMT’s massacres, or as the CCP put it “the white terror”, the CCP Central Committee reorganized itself on July 12th of 1927. Chen Duxiu and other early CCP leaders who had insisted on compromising with the KMT were dismissed from their posts and labeled right-wing capitulationists. The CCP formed an alliance with left wing KMT members forming a quasi second front where they planned an armed uprising in Nanchang hoping it would spark a large peasant uprising. They were led by He Long and Zhou Enlai. He Long a ethnic Tujia and Hunanese native was born to a poor peasant family. He received no formal education and worked as a cowherder during his youth. When he was 20 he killed a local Qing tax assessor who had killed his uncle for defaulting on his taxes. From this point he fled and became an outlaw, apparently his signature weapon was a butcher knife. In 1918 he raised a volunteer revolutionary army aligned with an emerging Hunanese warlord. By 1920 he joined the NRA and began brushing shoulders with CCP members. During the northern expedition he commanded the 1st division, 9th corps and served under Zhang Fakui. By late 1926 he joined the CCP. When the first united front collapsed he joined up with the CCP and took command of the 20th corps, 1st column of the Red Army. Zhou Enlai was born in Huai’an of Jiangsu in 1898. He was born to a scholarly family, many of them officials, but like many during the late 19th century in China suffered tremendously. Zhou Enlai was adopted by his fathers youngest brother Zhou Yigan who was also ill with tuberculosis. The adoption was more of a way to cover Zhou Yigans lack of an heir. Zhou Yigan died soon after and Zhou Enlai was raised by his widow Chen. He received a traditional literacy education. Zhou Enlai’s biological mother died when he was 9 and Chen when he was 10. He then fell into the care of his uncle Zho Yigeng in Fengtian. Zhou Enlai continued his education at Nankai Middle School who were adopting an educational model used at the Philipps academy in the US. Zhou Enlai excelled at debate, acting, drama the sort of skill sets needed for public service. Like many students of his day he went to Japan in 1917 for further studies. He tried to learn Japanese to enter Japanese schools but failed to do so. He also faced a lot of racism in Japan, prompting him to become quite anti japanese. While in Japan he became very interested in news about the Russian Revolution. This led him to read works from Chen Duxiu.  In 1919 he returned to Tianjin where it is said he led student protests during the May Fourth movement, though a lot of modern scholars don’t believe he did. Zhou Enlai then became a university student at Nankai and an activist. He led the Awakening Society and would find himself arrested. During this time he became familiar with Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu. Then in 1920 he went to study in Marseille. In 1921 he joined a Chinese Communist Cell while in Paris. By 1922 he helped found a European branch of the CCP. When the first United Front began he joined the KMT and in 1924 was summoned back to China. He joined the Political department of the Whampoa military academy. He was made Whampoa’s chief political officer, but he also took the post as secretary of the CCP of Guangdong, Guangxi and served as a Major-General. Soon he became the secretary of the CCP’s Guangdong Provincial committee. In 1925 he got his first taste of military command against Chen Jiongming, accompanying the Whampoa cadets as a political officer. When Chen Jiongming regrouped and attacked Guangzhou again that year, Chiang Kai-Shek personally appointed Zhou Enlai as director of the 1st corps political department. Soon after he was appointed a KMT party representative as chief commissar of the 1st corps. With the newfound position he began appointing communists as commissars in 4 out of the 5 corps divisions. However his work at Whampoa came to an end during the Zhongshan Warship incident as Chiang Kai-Shek began purging communists from high ranking positions. Whampoa was a significant part of his career providing him with skills and a network. Until the first united fronts collapse he worked to form numerous armed CPP groups. He was sent to Shanghai where he was part of the effort to stage an uprising there. During the massacre he was arrested and nearly killed if not for the work of Zhao Shu, a representative of the 26th army who released him. From there he fled to Hankou where he participated in the CCP’s 5th national congress. When Wang Jingwei unleashed his purge, Zhou Enlai went into hiding. When the CCP called for an uprising in Nanchang, Zhou Enlai as a CCP secretary was in a unique position to lead it. The CCP designated Zhou Enlai, Li Lisan, Yun Daiying and Peng Pai to form a Front Committee. The troops available to them were the 24th and 10th divisions of the 11th army of the 2nd front army, the entire 20th army, 73rd and 75th regiment of the 25th division of the 4th army and part of the officer training corps of the 3rd army of the 5th front army led by Zhu De. He Long was the commander in chief of the 2nd front army, Ye Ting was his deputy and acting front line commander. Zhou Enlai was the chief of staff with Liu Bocheng as director of the political directorate. At this time, the main force of the 3rd Army of the 5th Front Army of the Kuomintang Wuhan Government was located in Zhangshu, Ji'an; the main force of the 9th Army was located in Jinxian and Linchuan; and the main force of the 6th Army was advancing to Nanchang via Pingxiang; the rest of the 2md Front Army was located in Jiujiang; only the 5th Front Army Guard Regiment and parts of the 3rd, 6th, and 9th Armies, totaling more than 3,000 people, were stationed in Nanchang and its suburbs. The CCP Front Committee decided to launch an uprising on August 1 before the arrival of reinforcements. At 2:00am on August 1st the Nanchang uprising began. The 1st and 2nd division of the 20th army launched attacks against the defenders of the Old Fantai Yamen, Dashiyuan street and the  Niuxing railway station. Meanwhile the 24th division of the 11th army attacked the Songbaixiang catholic church, Xinyingfang and Baihuazhou. The bloody battle lasted until dawn inflicting 3000 casualties and capturing more than 5000 small arms of various types, 700,000 rounds of ammunition and a few cannons. During the afternoon the 73rd regiment of the 25th division station at Mahuiling, 3 battalions of the 75th regiment and a machine gun company of the 74th regiment led by Nie Rongzhen and Zhou Shidi revolted and came to Nanchang by the 2nd of august.  For the moment it seemed the CCP had achieved a grand success at Nanchang. The CCP then began proclaiming Chiang Kai-Shek and Wang Jingwei had betrayed the revolution and that of Sun Yat-Sens three principles by choosing to side with the imperialists and warlords. Meanwhile the CCP aligned military units began to gather in Nanchang requiring a reorganization. It was decided the uprising army would continue to use the designation of 2nd front army of the NRA with He Long serving as its commander in chief and Ye Ting as his deputy. Ye Ting would also command the 11th army consisting of the 24th, 25th and 10th divisions, Nie Rongzhen would be his CCP party representative; He Long would command the 20th Army consisting of the 1st and 2nd divisions with Liao Qianwu as his CCP party representative. Zhou Enlai with Zhu De as his deputy would lead the 9th army with Zhu Kejing as his CCP party representative. Altogether they were 20,000 strong and now very well armed. There was to be a great celebration, it seemed this was the grand moment the CCP would take the center stage. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals [http://www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals]. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Chinese Civil War had officially just begun. Chiang Kai-Shek and Wang Jingwei purged their respective regimes of communists unleashing a white terror. In a scramble to survive the CCP reorganized itself and sought revenge with their first target being Nanchang. From here until 1949, the CCP and KMT would fight for the future of China.