A Journey to Tangjiakua
Heading from Longtan Town in Huayuan toward Minle, after about 10-plus kilometers one reaches Mao'er Township. Inquiring at the township government, we learned that the former residence of Long Ziyong, leader of the Getun Uprising that year, was in Tangjiakua, three kilometers away. A female cook surnamed Yang at the township government was the wife of Long Ziyong's cousin's son. We called her Sister Yang, and she led us along a stream on foot to Tangjiakua. By the time we reached the village, it was already dusk. Although the light was not bright, we could still vaguely make out...
From Longtan Town in Huayuan, head toward Minle, and after about 10 kilometers you will reach Mao'er Township. Inquiring at the township government, we learned that the former residence of Long Ziyong, the leader of the Geyun Uprising, was in Tangjiakua, three kilometers away. A female cook surnamed Yang at the township government was the wife of Long Ziyong's cousin's son. We called her Sister Yang, and she led us along a stream to Tangjiakua on foot.
By the time we arrived at the village, it was already dusk. Though the light was not bright, we could still vaguely make out that Tangjiakua was scattered in a fan shape among several hillsides. Long Ziyong's former residence was on a slope beside a small stream. The house was a row of wooden dwellings, now occupied by Long Ziyong's fourth son, Long Aiwen, and his family. Long Aiwen was working at the manganese mine in the village at the time, so we followed Sister Yang about 20 meters up the slope to her parents-in-law's home. Sister Yang's father-in-law was named Long Bingxian, who served as accountant for the villagers' group. When he heard we had come to gather historical materials about Long Ziyong, he was very enthusiastic. He immediately added firewood to the fire pit, stoked the fire, and brought out tangerines to entertain us. Before long, Long Ziyong's fourth son, Long Aiwen, returned from the mine and also came to Long Bingxian's home. Everyone sat around the fire pit and talked until midnight.
From the accounts of Long Aiwen and Long Bingxian, we learned that several dozen families surnamed Long lived in Tangjiakua. Previously, the Long ancestors had lived in Majing'ao, Jishou, then moved to Yanjing. The ancestors of the Long surname who came to Tangjiakua were two brothers, one named Long Bian and the other Long Xi. Because the Long family was also known as Tang, the village was named Tangjiakua. The Long surname settled in Tangjiakua and has so far passed down only ten generations. The generational poem reads: "Wen Zheng Heng Deng Ting, Cong De Wan Shi Guang." Long Ziyong belonged to the Ting generation; his father was Long Dengjia and his mother Wu Yifeng. Long Dengjia was relatively well-off locally, with over a hundred mu of farmland, but he still had to pay garrison rent to the government. From childhood, Long Ziyong witnessed the Miao people farming and being exploited by the government, paying garrison rent, and he felt deeply aggrieved. He studied hard in primary school and was clever. Later he was admitted to Yali Middle School in the provincial capital. While at school, he participated in student movements and was suspected of joining the Communist Party. During the Ma Ri Incident in 1927, he fled back to his hometown to avoid the turmoil. Soon he was wanted by the provincial government, captured by the county government, and sent to Fenghuang, where he was imprisoned for over a year before being released on bail by Wang Bingcheng, the then county magistrate and his former teacher. On the day he returned home, an elder in the same village, Laye Gonggong, lit a bonfire and urged him to step over the flames to ward off evil. Long Ziyong did not believe in such superstitions; he simply walked around the fire and entered the house.
After Long Ziyong returned home, the villagers all liked him very much because he was amiable and never put on airs even in front of the servants at home. But his third sister-in-law, Shi Jinsong, was a notorious shrew who often ordered servants around, yelling and scolding. Once Long Ziyong advised her: "Everyone is raised by parents; masters and servants are all people and should respect each other. Don't scold and shout randomly, don't just assign work to others—be diligent yourself. Everyone works, everyone eats; sitting idle to eat has no flavor."
Shi Jinsong would have none of it. She pointed at Long Ziyong's nose and cursed: "You're lecturing me? Do you think I'm afraid of you, you Communist brat who hasn't been beheaded yet?" Her words enraged her father-in-law, Long Dengjia, who immediately wanted to send Shi Jinsong back to her parents' home. When Shi Jinsong's parents learned of this, they rushed over to apologize to Long Ziyong and forced their daughter to kneel in the main hall and swear not to call Long Ziyong a Communist brat again. Long Dengjia, thinking that he had spent over a thousand silver dollars to buy back Long Ziyong's life, still wanted to drive Shi Jinsong back to her parents' home. Long Ziyong then pulled his parents aside and reasoned with them: "Just forgive her. Keep her here; she can't escape our grasp, and we can gain a reputation for magnanimity. If you push her out, you won't silence her mouth, and I fear she'll cause more trouble. Besides, it would be awkward among us brothers. Real relatives can't be cut off, and fake ones can't be forced together!"
Hearing this, Long Dengjia suddenly understood and said: "True, you're right. Hard teeth break, soft tongue remains; a soft rope can snare a fierce tiger, and the tiger cannot escape the rope!" So he forgave Shi Jinsong.
Long Ziyong was resourceful and could write and speak well. After being released from prison and returning home, he taught in the village for several years. Soon, Song Lianquan, who controlled the county's armed forces, fell out with the King of Xiangxi, Chen Quzhen, over auditing garrison rent accounts. Chen Quzhen sent troops to Huayuan and met resistance from Song Lianquan's forces. During the fierce battle, Provincial Chairman He Jian instructed Tao Guang, commander of the 28th Army, to intervene and mediate. Song Lianquan took the opportunity to organize a Miao petition group to petition the provincial representative. He then sought out Wu Hengliang and Long Ziyong, asking them to prepare to organize a petition group and form an anti-garrison-rent force as commander and deputy commander. Wu Hengliang was a leader of the Gelaohui, suitable for leading an armed force publicly; Long Ziyong, educated and good at strategizing, was happy to petition for the Miao people to abolish garrison rent and exempt them from it. Both readily agreed. With Song Lianquan's behind-the-scenes support, a county-wide conference was held with over 300 Miao people from various townships to discuss abolishing garrison rent. At the meeting, Long Ziyong presented several well-reasoned arguments for abolishing garrison rent and thoroughly refuted the provincial representative's views defending it. Long Ziyong's speech won enthusiastic applause from all the Miao representatives. After the meeting, the provincial representative had to draft a compromise "Measures for Rehabilitation," deciding to temporarily suspend collection of arrears in garrison rent in the Miao area of Huayuan, pending investigation by dispatched officials. After the "Measures for Rehabilitation" were published, Chen Quzhen felt the provincial government favored Song Lianquan, so he resigned as head of the Garrison Affairs Office and retired to Changsha. Song Lianquan, having achieved his goal of extricating himself, did not genuinely support abolishing garrison rent. At this time, Long Ziyong and Wu Hengliang insisted on abolishing it and organized people to petition the provincial government, hoping it would resolve the issue. But the provincial government ignored them and still insisted on collecting garrison rent. When the petition proved futile, Long Ziyong and Wu Hengliang returned to the countryside to secretly mobilize the Miao people and prepare for an anti-garrison-rent uprising. Soon, Shi Weizhen of Longtan Township led the Miao people in the first uprising, killing the garrison commander Shi Daxuan. Other townships responded one after another, and the flames of the Geyun Uprising blazed fiercely. The uprising's Geyun Army united and successively formed three forces: the Xiangxi Miao Anti-Japanese Geyun Army, the Sichuan-Guizhou-Hunan-Hubei Border Region Anti-Japanese Geyun Army, and the Xiangxi Geyun Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army. The first two were from Huayuan, led by Long Ziyong, Wu Hengliang, Liang Mingyuan, and others; the latter was from Fenghuang, led by Long Yunfei. The three Geyun forces operated for about a year, growing to five or six thousand troops, capturing one county town and over ten townships, and killing or wounding hundreds to thousands of Kuomintang military and political personnel. The Miao people were also brutally suppressed for abolishing garrison rent. Long Ziyong's family paid a bloody price. The Kuomintang sent troops to surround his hometown and shot dead his father and six others. Long Ziyong did not retreat in the bloody encirclement and suppression; he led his troops in continued stubborn resistance. Later, the Kuomintang adopted a policy of pacification and compromise, agreeing to abolish garrison rent in the Miao area and implement "converting garrison rent to regular tax," which basically satisfied the Geyun Army's demands, and agreed to accept reorganization and go to the front to fight the Japanese. Throughout the planning and leadership of the uprising and negotiations to abolish garrison rent, Long Ziyong played a pivotal role. The petition of the Miao petition group and many important documents of the Geyun Army were mostly written by him. After the Huayuan Geyun Army was reorganized, Long Ziyong served as deputy regimental commander. Due to the hardships of military life, Long Ziyong unfortunately contracted lung disease. On May 18, 1942, at only 37 years old, Long Ziyong died at Huijing Hospital in Xiangtan. After death, his body was buried on the side of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha. Long Ziyong had four sons. The eldest, Long Congwen, graduated from the Provincial Eighth Normal School and now lives in Taiwan; the second, Long Shaowen, was a carpenter and has died of illness; the third, Long Bingwen, was a soldier in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea; the fourth, Long Aiwen, now 65, both live in Tangjiakua and both have sons and daughters.
Long Aiwen also told us that a few years ago, Long Congwen returned from Taiwan, and the brothers discussed and moved their father Long Ziyong's grave back to the mountain in their hometown. The next morning, we went together to visit the grave.
Long Ziyong devoted his life to the welfare of the Miao people, made great contributions in leading the anti-garrison-rent uprising and abolishing garrison rent, and many stories about him circulate. Today, the local Miao people still deeply miss him. When we left Tangjiakua, several Miao elders in the village held my hand and said: "Long Ziyong was a remarkable good man. He led the abolition of the Miao people's garrison rent that had lasted over a hundred years, leaving a good name in history. This man deserves to be well written about!"