A Brief History of the Tujia: Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Feudal Struggles Under CPC Influence and Leadership (Part 2)
II. The Tujia During the First Revolutionary Civil War — After the CPC's founding in 1921, it led all ethnic groups in thorough anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles. The Tujia, like other ethnic groups, tied their fate to the Party from its birth.
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II. The Tujia People During the First Revolutionary Civil War
In 1921, after the founding of the Communist Party of China, it began to lead the people of all ethnic groups in a thorough anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle, and from then on the Chinese revolution entered a brand-new historical period. Like the people of all other ethnic groups in the country, from the very day the Party was born, the Tujia people placed their destiny and their hope for liberation in the Party. Outstanding sons and daughters of the Tujia who studied in Wuhan, Changsha, and other places pursued truth, accepted Marxism-Leninism, joined the Party organizations, and heroically devoted themselves to the liberation cause of all ethnic groups in China.
In 1926, the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee established the Xiangxi Special Committee in Changde, propagating revolution among workers, peasants, and students and building organizations. Under the direct leadership and influence of the Party, the peasant movement in Tujia areas flourished. In November of the same year, three districts and 17 townships in Luxi County established peasant associations with 1,306 members; by April 1927, the number of members joining peasant associations rapidly increased to more than ten thousand. Besides poor peasants, hired peasants, and middle peasants, those joining peasant associations also included handicraftsmen and primary school teachers. The peasant associations led the vast poor peasants in concentrating attacks on local tyrants and evil gentry, lawless landlords, and corrupt officials, and supported the Northern Expeditionary Army. Communist Party members Gu Jifeng, Peng Yushan, and others, who had originally studied in Changsha and Changde, returned to their hometown of Sangzhi County, mobilized peasants, organized county and township peasant associations, struck at feudal forces, and executed the great local tyrant Zhu Yunong who had harmed the people. The vast poor peasants were all delighted, while other despotic landlords were terrified and fled one after another. Echoing the vigorous Hunan peasant movement, the storm of peasant revolution in the Enshi region also rose rapidly. After the Northern Expeditionary Army captured Wuhan, Zhang Changqi, Liu Yuesheng, and Yang Weifan of Laifeng County, who had studied in Wuhan and joined Party organizations, Huang Xingwu and Huang Ziquan of the Tujia ethnic group in Xianfeng County, Chen Zijie of Hefeng County, Huang Dapeng and Zhang Huafu of Badong County, and Tian Jinwu and Chen Cenan of Changyang County, under orders from the Hubei Provincial Committee, returned to their hometowns to mobilize peasant struggles. They went deep among the masses, carried out propaganda and agitation, put forward revolutionary slogans such as "Down with imperialism," "Down with local tyrants and evil gentry," and "Eradicate corrupt officials," and called on the masses to organize. Thus revolutionary mass organizations such as peasant associations, trade unions, and chambers of commerce were successively established in Laifeng, Xianfeng, Badong, Changyang, Wufeng, and other counties. In Tubao of Laifeng County, a peasant night school was also set up to organize peasants to read and write, explain revolutionary principles, and establish peasant self-defense forces. The vigorous rise of the peasant movement forced the Beiyang Army to withdraw from Laifeng County. At the same time, according to the principles determined by Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, they established Kuomintang county headquarters in Laifeng, Hefeng, Xianfeng, Badong, Xuan'en, Enshi, Wufeng, Changyang, and other counties with Communist Party members as the backbone, engaging in revolutionary activities under legal status. In February 1927, Zhang Changqi held a meeting of more than 3,000 people in Laifeng to celebrate the victory of the Northern Expeditionary Army, followed by a massive demonstration. Soon after, the great evil gentry Zhang Youxin, who had preyed on the countryside, was publicly tried and executed. Peasant association members also arrested the puppet county magistrate Xiang Bingkun.
After Chiang Kai-shek launched the counter-revolutionary coup of "April 12" in 1927, the Kuomintang massacred large numbers of Communists and revolutionary masses, dissolved peasant associations, trade unions, and other revolutionary mass organizations, and imposed white terror. The peasant movement that was vigorously rising in Tujia areas was bloodily suppressed by the Kuomintang reactionaries.
However, the Tujia people, tempered by revolutionary struggle, were not intimidated by the Kuomintang reactionaries' brutal massacres. Under the leadership of the Party, they summed up experience, shifted from open struggle to secret struggle, accumulated revolutionary forces, and used every possible opportunity to catch the enemy off guard and strike at them. At the end of the same year, Communist Party members Huang Xingwu and Huang Ziquan of Xianfeng County, Yang Weifan and Liu Lesheng of Laifeng County, Zheng Lianjiao and Jin Yuhan (later defected) of Enshi County, and Nie Dongqing and Zhang Xuebing of Jianshi County established the CPC Shihe Prefectural Party Committee in Longtansi, Xianfeng County, continuing to lead the revolutionary struggle. They reorganized peasant armed forces in Xianfeng and Laifeng counties and established organizations such as the Communist Youth League, Young Pioneers, and peasant associations. Party members Xu Xiru, Wang Yifu, Li Liangyao, and others organized communist training classes in Hefeng. Scattered peasant armed forces in Sangzhi, Dayong, Wufeng, and other counties still persisted in struggle. Several peasant armed forces led by Comrade He Long's elder sister He Ying, younger sister He Mangu, and brother-in-law Xiang Shenghui (Tujia) fought tenaciously on the border of Sangzhi and Hefeng. He Mangu established a peasant association with Tujia members as the backbone in the Sangzhi-Hefeng area, continuing to strike at local tyrants and evil gentry. In February 1928, two to three hundred peasant armed forces in Xianfeng County held a pledge meeting at Longtan, preparing to attack Xianfeng and Enshi county towns. They raised red flags, held spears and native guns, and marched toward Xianfeng County town, but were blocked by the enemy en route and defeated. At the same time, the puppet government of Badong County, under the pretext of raising military funds, took the opportunity to extort and blackmail, arousing public indignation. Communist Party members Huang Dapeng and Zhang Huafu stepped forward, organized the Big Sword Society in Ganping, Pingyangba, Sanxiawan, and other places, attacked the county town, killed the puppet county magistrate, militia commander, and other officials, established the Badong County People's Committee, publicly announced the abolition of all exorbitant taxes and levies, and occupied the county town for more than two months. Later, under enemy siege, they were forced to withdraw. Although these successive struggles were scattered, they accumulated revolutionary forces for the establishment of the Xiang-E-Xi base area.