The Storms of Longtan
Longtan is a township in Huayuan County, located more than 30 kilometers from Huayuan County seat. More than sixty years ago, the famous movement to abolish the garrison farms erupted in the Miao area of Xiangxi, and the place where it first rose was in this township. One day in the winter of 2001, I came to Longtan attracted by its reputation, and saw that the township market had a cement main street, with shops lining both sides and a considerable flow of people. The whole of Longtan lies beside a long, narrow flat area, through the middle of which a small river runs across the entire area...
Longtan is a township in Huayuan County, located about 30 kilometers from the county seat. More than sixty years ago, the famous Getun Uprising broke out in the Miao region of Xiangxi, and the place where it first started was right within this township.
One day in the winter of 2001, I came to Longtan, drawn by its fame. I saw a cement-paved main street in the township market, with shops lining both sides and quite a few people coming and going. The whole of Longtan sits at the edge of a long, narrow flatland, through the middle of which a small river runs across the entire area, and around the flatland stretch unbroken chains of mountains. Not far from the market, across the river, is the seat of the township government, in a small place called Mahuangtang. The former residence of Shi Weizhen, the leader of the Longtan Uprising, is in a village next to the township government. Shi Weizhen's old house still has family members living in it today. According to the recollections of the village elders, Shi Weizhen loved to fight against injustice when he was young. His family was relatively poor, and from childhood he harbored a hatred for the government. Especially after Miao people such as Long Ziyong launched petition campaigns against the garrison tax in the county seat, he grew even more dissatisfied with the oppression and plundering by township officials. At the end of 1936, Shi Daxuan, the garrison commander of Longtan Township, directed several of his subordinates to secretly murder Shi Chunlu, a Miao representative who had filed appeals demanding the abolition of the garrison tax exploitation. This aroused enormous public outrage. The garrison taxpayers Shi Qiyun and Zhang Bazhu invited Shi Weizhen to rise up, and Shi Weizhen immediately agreed.
On January 26, 1937, about thirty or forty representatives of garrison households from Wotuo Village and other villages in Longtan gathered on Xiagong Slope, about five kilometers from Longtan Township. They killed a cat and drank blood wine, swore an oath of alliance, and agreed on the date of the uprising, deciding to rise up at the opportune moment after the New Year. At the same time, they elected Shi Weizhen as their leader. By the time the meeting ended, it was already noon, and the group came down the mountain. Shi Sheng, Shi Laobao, and others arrived at Gulao Bridge, where they happened to run into Qianzong Shi Jinfu with three granary soldiers, holding iron chains and forcing two old women to pay the garrison tax. Shi Laobao and the others flew into a rage, immediately went home to fetch their spears, and rushed forward together shouting, chasing down and killing Qianzong Shi Jinfu and the three granary soldiers, finishing every one of them. Shi Weizhen, coming up behind, heard the news and went straight to find garrison commander Shi Daxuan, pursuing him to Qinglong Slope, where he was found hiding in Rao Laoman's house and hacked into several pieces. Shi Daxuan's two sons were also chased down and killed by the Miao people one after another.
From that day on, the flames of the Getun Uprising were fiercely ignited. Not long afterward, Liang Mingyuan, Long Ziyong, Wu Hengliang, and others also rose up one after another, launching a large-scale armed uprising. The county officials of Huayuan County were terrified out of their wits. The Kuomintang quickly dispatched regular troops to suppress them, while the Miao rebel army, relying on the mountains, waged a desperate guerrilla war against the encircling Kuomintang forces. As the momentum of the Getun Army continued to grow, Long Yunfei in Fenghuang also organized a Getun force and captured Qiancheng. Seeing that the Miao rebel army could not easily be suppressed, the Kuomintang transferred Provincial Chairman He Jian out of Hunan and put Zhang Zhizhong in charge of Hunan's administration. After taking office, Zhang Zhizhong both invited the King of Xiangxi, Chen Qüzhen, who had been idle in Changsha, to return to service, and entered into compromise negotiations with the Miao representatives of the Getun Uprising. Only after the provincial government representatives agreed to “abolish the garrison tax and convert it to regular taxation” did the Miao representatives agree to reorganize their troops and send them to the front lines to resist the Japanese.
In March 1938, the Getun Army of Huayuan assembled at Chadong and accepted reorganization by Kuomintang forces. Wu Hengliang, commander-in-chief of the Getun Army, became commander of the Newly Organized First Regiment, Long Ziyong became deputy commander, Liang Mingyuan became lieutenant colonel and deputy commander concurrently serving as commander of the First Battalion, and Shi Weizhen became commander of the Third Battalion. In June 1939, the Newly Organized First Regiment was incorporated into the Provisional Fifth Division of the New Sixth Army at Taoyuan. Shi Weizhen was squeezed out during this reorganization, so he returned to his hometown of Yongshui. Not long afterward he was arrested by the Yongshui County government and assassinated on the way to the Kuomintang's Sichuan-Guizhou-Hunan-Hubei Four-Province Border Pacification Office in Youyang. Other leaders of the Getun Army, such as Liang Mingyuan, Dong Ping, Yang Juting, Hong Yuanrun, Shi Xingshun, and Shi Baqi, were all lured into capture and killed by the Kuomintang one after another.
Although the Yongshui Getun Uprising was ultimately put down by the Kuomintang government, its profound influence can never be erased. And Longtan, as the place where the Miao people's Getun movement first rose up, has written an important chapter in the history of the Miao people of Xiangxi resisting government authority, and so it will never be forgotten by later generations.