"Wenshi" young Red Army guerrilla commander Cai Huiwen

Cai Huiwen, a young guerrilla commander of the Red Army

Cai Huiwen, known as Chichao, was born in 1908 in Shantian Village, Liangjiang Township, Youxian County. Cai Huiwen organized a progressive society when he was a student at Changsha Changjun Middle School, and joined the Communist Youth League in March of the 15th year of the Republic of China (1926). In the same year, he used the summer vacation to return to his hometown to mobilize the masses, organize peasant associations, and carry out peasant movements. He joined the Communist Party after returning to school.

In February of the 16th year of the Republic of China (1927), Cai Huiwen entered the Hunan Peasant Self-Defense Army Cadre Training Corps established by the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, serving as a squad leader and party group leader, and later promoted to platoon leader. During the "Ma-Ri Incident", the cadre training team was attacked. Cai Huiwen returned to Youxian County and was hunted down by the reactionary authorities, Cai ran to Wuhan, and the party organization sent him to Lu Deming's guard regiment as a party representative of the first company of the first battalion. In August, he went to Liuyang with his troops and participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising. Later, he followed Mao Zedong to March to Jinggangshan and made many military achievements. The following year, he was transferred to the teaching team of the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army as a party representative.

At the beginning of the 18th of the Republic of China (1929), the Red Fourth Army broke through from Jinggangshan to the Central Soviet District of Ruijin, and Cai Huiwen served as the political commissar of the detachment and attended the Gutian Conference at the end of the year. In the following year, the Red Army was formed, with Huang Gongluo as the commander and Cai Huiwen as the political commissar, and he made outstanding achievements in the first, second, and third anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaigns. During the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Cai Huiwen served as the commander-in-chief and political commissar of the Xianggan Provincial Military Region, and also the political commissar of the Eighth Red Army, and was commended by the central authorities for his outstanding military achievements. After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Cai Huiwen was dismissed from his post and sent to the Central Party School to study.

After the Long March of the main Red Army, Cai Huiwen was appointed commander of the Gannan Provincial Military Region and fought against Chen Yi, Xiang Ying, and others who insisted on the central base areas. In the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935), when the Red Army broke through in the central base area, it suffered heavy losses in ambush. Cai Huiwen led a Red Army to Guidong, Rucheng, and other places to open up new base areas, and joined forces with the guerrillas led by Fang Weixia and Zhou Li to form the CPC Xiangyue-Guangdong-Gansu Border Guerrilla Detachment, with Cai serving as the detachment leader and political commissar.

As a result of Cai Huiwen's fruitful work, the guerrilla base areas in Xiangdong, Guangdong, and Gansu have developed rapidly, spanning hundreds of miles, and the guerrilla detachment has also grown to more than 1,000 people. Although the enemy gathered the strength of three divisions to tightly seal the guerrilla base areas and frantically "encircle and suppress", the Xiangyue-Guangdong-Gansu border guerrilla detachment, with the support of the people in the base areas, still fought on the border of the three provinces.

As the war became more and more brutal and life became more and more difficult, the guerrilla base areas were shrinking. Cai Huiwen organized the guerrilla detachment into small detachments of several dozen people and implemented the policy of "preserving strength and waiting for the opportunity." In the early spring of the 25th year of the Republic of China (1936), the detachment led by Cai Huiwen encountered the Yu Han Moubu, and due to the disparity in strength between the enemy and us, the guerrillas were scattered, and only 9 fighters were left around Cai Huiwen. In order to cover the breakthrough of other comrades, Cai Huiwen led two guards to break off the rear. In the battle, 1 guard was killed, Cai Huiwen was also injured in many places, the remaining fighters wanted to evacuate behind him, he did not agree, crouched on the ground and raised his gun to return fire, covering the soldiers to break through, and was shot again and fainted in a pool of blood, captured by the enemy. When the enemy knew that he was Cai Huiwen, the guerrilla commander of the Red Army, he immediately prepared a bamboo chair and carried it back to ask for credit. After Cai Huiwen woke up, he jumped from the bamboo chair several times to prevent the enemy from carrying him away. The enemy was so angry that he cruelly cut off his neck with a bayonet. Cai Huiwen was only 28 years old when he died.