A Brief History of the Tujia: Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Feudal Struggles Under CPC Influence and Leadership (Part 4)
IV. Tujia Participation in the War of Resistance and Struggles Against KMT Rule — At a critical moment of national crisis, the Tujia joined the fight against Japanese aggression and KMT oppression. In July 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of North China.
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IV. The Tujia People's Participation in the War of Resistance Against Japan and the Struggle Against Kuomintang Reactionary Rule
At the critical juncture of national crisis, the Tujia people, rich in the tradition of revolutionary struggle, once again threw themselves into the torrent of resistance against Japan and struggle against the Kuomintang.
In July 1937, Japanese imperialism launched a massive invasion of North China and started an aggressive war in a vain attempt to destroy China. Under the situation of extremely grave national crisis and sharply rising national contradictions, the Communist Party of China proposed the establishment of the Anti-Japanese National United Front. Under the leadership and influence of the Party, the Tujia people actively threw themselves into the anti-Japanese struggle and persisted in the struggle against Kuomintang reactionary rule.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the CPC Western Hubei Special Committee and the Southeastern Sichuan Working Committee successively sent Party members to Laifeng, Xianfeng, Enshi, Jianshi, Lichuan and other counties to spread the Party's anti-Japanese propositions and to organize and mobilize the masses to carry out the anti-Japanese national salvation movement. While mobilizing the masses to resist Japan, they actively recruited Party members and built Party organizations. County committees were established one after another in Laifeng, Xianfeng, Enshi, Lichuan and other counties; 57 Party branches were set up in the countryside, and more than 1,000 Party members were recruited. In Laifeng County, in addition to a county committee, two district committees—Sanhu and Jiusi—were also established, and 9 Party branches were set up in Jiguan Town, Laosicheng, Dongliuba, Shuitianba, Chedaping and other places, recruiting 196 Party members. Lichuan County recruited more than 170 Party members. Many Tujia peasants and intellectuals, disregarding the safety of themselves and their families, joined the Party organizations and actively engaged in anti-Japanese national salvation activities. The "February 7th Touring Troupe" and the "Anti-Japanese Wartime Social Education Work Team" led by the Party successively came to Laifeng and other counties to carry out extensive publicity and mobilize the masses to resist Japan. The Western Hubei General Distribution Office of Xinhua Daily held a three-day charity sale of newspapers and donated all the proceeds. Under the leadership of the Party organizations in various counties, various mass organizations and groups—such as the Chinese National Liberation Vanguard, the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Association, national salvation publicity teams, singing teams, and theatrical troupes—sprang up throughout the Tujia areas. Through lectures, street plays, the promotion of progressive newspapers and periodicals, and various other forms, they publicized the Party's anti-Japanese guidelines to the people of all ethnic groups and exposed the Kuomintang diehards' schemes of compromise with and surrender to Japan, as well as their anti-communist and anti-people activities. Anti-Japanese slogans could be seen everywhere on the walls of towns and villages. Revolutionary songs such as the "March of the Volunteers" and the "Yellow River Cantata" resounded through the towns and villages in the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou, greatly arousing the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the Tujia people.
After the Japanese invading army occupied Wuhan, Changsha and other places, it dispatched aircraft to carry out frenzied bombing of Badong, Laifeng, Enshi, Longshan, Luxi and other counties, causing heavy losses to the people of all ethnic groups in the Tujia areas. In mid-July 1939 alone, Japanese planes bombed Badong twice, destroying several hundred houses and killing or wounding more than 20,000 people. The atrocities of the Japanese aggressors further aroused the anti-Japanese fervor of the Tujia people. Eight Tujia youths from Shangchen Township in Longshan County, "seeing the national crisis deepening day by day and grieving over the Japanese bandits' rampage, out of patriotic fervor, voluntarily applied to go to the front to kill the enemy." Peasants in Heshun Township voluntarily seized traitors who had been sent by the Japanese bandits and were hiding in the rear to spy for intelligence. In Lichuan County alone, more than 700 Tujia and Han youths joined the army at one time and set off for the anti-Japanese front. In Zhongxiao Township of Wufeng County, a peasant sent his son to join the army and, at parting, instructed him: "Don't come home until the devils are all killed," encouraging his son to fight the enemy bravely. To transport military rice and support the front, the people of all ethnic groups in Wufeng County mobilized more than 1,500 people during the busy farming season and, in just twenty days, carrying loads on their shoulders and backs, traveled long distances to transport more than 15,000 bags of military rice. The elderly and women organized production teams to rush through the harvest and planting and to "plow on behalf of the laborers who had gone out to transport supplies." Even primary school students showed extremely high anti-Japanese enthusiasm: more than 300 upper-grade students of the Central School in Zhongxiao Township of the county, shouting slogans along the way such as "The front bleeds, the rear sweats" and "Everyone hurry and do your part—hauling rice is equal to killing the enemy," actively transported military rice over a round trip of more than seventy li. When the Japanese invading army occupied Changyang County town and Duzhenwan and other places, it met with fierce counterattacks from the local Tujia and Han people.
Just as the anti-Japanese national salvation movement was developing vigorously in the Tujia areas, in October 1940 the Kuomintang launched its second anti-communist high tide. Party organizations in Laifeng, Xianfeng, Enshi and other counties were severely damaged; more than 400 Communist Party members were arrested and imprisoned, many were brutally killed, and other Party members withdrew and relocated.
The Kuomintang's hideous features of passively resisting Japan and actively opposing communism were fully exposed, thus arousing the indignation of the people of all ethnic groups across the country. While persisting in the anti-Japanese struggle, the Tujia people, deeply educated and influenced by the Party, also continuously and spontaneously launched struggles against the Kuomintang's exorbitant taxes and ruthless extortion. In November 1937, poor peasants in Baxi Creek of Xianfeng County, led by Xiong Shutang, opposed exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous levies and killed 3 tax collectors. In just over ten days, more than 2,000 poor Tujia and Han peasants joined the ranks of the struggle, rushed into the district office, and advanced all the way to Xianfeng County town. In July 1941, more than 60 poor peasants in Baxiba of the county who had been forcibly conscripted for labor by the Kuomintang secretly discussed rising in resistance; they rushed into the bao chief's office and killed 4 puppet bao guards. In 1942, Laifeng County suffered natural disasters, and the people's lives were unbearably miserable. Yet the Kuomintang, disregarding the people's very survival, continued to impose levies and taxes on a large scale. More than 600 poor peasants of the Tujia, Miao and Han ethnic groups in the Shiziping area, under the leadership of Yang Yudian, took advantage of a market day to rush into the county town and surround the county government; for several consecutive days they beat up evil gentry and ate at the homes of the rich. These scattered and spontaneous mass struggles were all brutally suppressed by the Kuomintang one after another, and most of their leaders were killed.
In 1943, large-scale mass struggles against corrupt officials and against exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous levies broke out in Yongshun, Dayong, Sangzhi, Longshan and other counties. The leader of this resistance struggle was Peng Chunrong, a Tujia from Shitixi in Yongshun County, and most of those who took part were poor peasants of the Tujia and some Han and Miao ethnic groups. Peng Chunrong once put forward the propositions of "resist grain levies, resist conscription, resist Japan" in order to mobilize and organize the masses for struggle. To enforce strict discipline, Peng Chunrong issued three prohibitions: no raping women, no seizing and slaughtering farm cattle, and no arbitrarily seizing civilian laborers; he also stipulated that no robbing of the poor and itinerant merchants was allowed, and no killing or burning without cause, and so on. Wherever they went, they posted slogans such as "Down with corrupt officials and the harmful township, bao and jia heads" and "Down with the township, bao and jia heads who apportion levies and taxes." Therefore they won the support of the poor peasants, more and more people joined the struggle, and at one point they attacked Yongshun County town. The outbreak of this mass struggle greatly threatened Kuomintang rule in western Hunan, and it urgently ordered Fu Zhongfang to lead the forces of 3 divisions, in coordination with the security teams of various counties, to carry out suppression. The Kuomintang adopted a policy of both suppression and pacification—if suppression failed, they pacified; if pacification failed, they suppressed again—alternating the two methods. After fierce fighting in the border area between Yongshun and Dayong, Peng Chunrong's forces suffered heavy losses. Facing an overwhelming disparity in strength, Peng Chunrong was unable to persist in the struggle and was forced to accept incorporation by the Kuomintang.
In the spring of 1945, about ten thousand poor peasants of the Tujia, Miao and Han ethnic groups in the three counties of Yongshun, Longshan and Sangzhi formed the "Divine Soldiers Big Sword Team" and put forward the slogan "resist grain levies, resist conscription, resist taxes" to oppose the Kuomintang's reactionary rule. They "wrapped red cloth around their heads, wore divine talismans on their bodies, and used big swords as weapons." They successively destroyed 7 Kuomintang township offices and attacked to the outskirts of Yongshun town. The Kuomintang quickly concentrated a large number of troops to suppress them. After more than a month of fierce fighting, the "Divine Soldiers Big Sword Team" suffered casualties of several thousand and finally failed because they were outnumbered.
When the "Divine Soldiers Big Sword Team" launched its resistance struggle, Peng Chunrong escaped from the Kuomintang army, again gathered followers, and rose in resistance, echoing the "Divine Soldiers Big Sword Team." Faced with the mighty mass resistance struggle, the Kuomintang deeply felt that relying on force alone was "hard to accomplish the task," so it adopted the so-called policy of "three parts military, seven parts political," combining soft and hard tactics, using the collective punishment method of "each clan purifying its own clan, each bao purifying its own bao" to control the masses, and using various deceptive methods to divide and disintegrate Peng Chunrong's followers, then using a large number of troops to encircle and suppress them. In July 1946, while Peng Chunrong was leading his troops in transfer, he was attacked by a security battalion and unfortunately sacrificed his life.
In the course of leading the masses in struggle against the Kuomintang reactionaries, Peng Chunrong once formed an alliance with the great bandit Qu Bojie of Longshan County in order to escape the predicament of heavy Kuomintang encirclement and suppression. After his sacrifice, some of his followers were brutally killed by the Kuomintang, most scattered, and some drifted into banditry.
Under the bloody rule of the Kuomintang, the deeply suffering Tujia people constantly cherished the Party and the Red Army in their hearts, and day and night longed for early liberation. They buried revolutionary books and land reform documents underground or hid them in tree hollows. Many revolutionary songs continued to circulate widely among the masses, such as:
High on the mountain, clouds pile on clouds,
The stars follow the moon as it goes,
Year after year in debt, with no money,
When will we wait for the Red Army to return,
The poor of the world are linked heart to heart.
Not a day passes without longing for the old Red Army.
At every meal there is no salt to eat,
To restore heaven and earth for ten thousand years!
How ardent is the mood of the Tujia people longing for liberation reflected in this folk song!
In February 1947, a part of the Third Sub-district of the Jianghan Military District, under the leadership of Comrades Zhang Caigan and Li Renlin, crossed the Yangtze River and attacked into the Laifeng and Hefeng area, carrying out guerrilla warfare along the Hunan-Hubei border. They received strong support from the local Tujia and other ethnic peoples and wiped out part of the Kuomintang army and local reactionary armed forces. The Tujia people, who had longed for liberation day and night, saw the dawn of victory, took active action, and prepared to welcome liberation.
Around October 1949, the 47th Army of the People's Liberation Army, with the force of sweeping away all obstacles, rapidly advanced into the border area of Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan, overthrew the Kuomintang's reactionary rule, and the Tujia people sang and danced, joyfully celebrating their own liberation.