The Red Fourth Front Mint in the midst of war

On November 18, 1933, in order to extensively carry out the agrarian revolution and break the enemy's economic blockade, the Red Fourth Front Mint (also known as the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Mint) was established at the West Temple on the outskirts of Tongjiang City, Sichuan Province, and the director of the factory was Zheng Yizhai, then director of the General Manager Department (i.e., Logistics Department) of the Red Fourth Front, and president of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Bank. It was the largest mint among the base areas throughout the country during the period of the agrarian revolutionary war, and it played an important role in unifying the currency system of the base areas, activating the finance of the base areas, stabilizing prices in the base areas, improving the living standards of the people in the base areas, promoting trade in the base areas, developing industrial and agricultural production, and consolidating the power of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviets.

Born in the midst of war

In the early 1930s, the warlords of Sichuan were fighting for many years, with a wide variety of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, large and small warlords dominating one side, setting up factories everywhere to mint coins, and the old government, banks, and chambers of commerce indiscriminately issued paper money for forced use, and the poor people struggled in the depths of the water. When the Red Fourth Front entered Sichuan, it only carried a small amount of one-dollar silver coins and paper money of the Eyu-Anhui Soviet, which were only used within the army. The failure to issue and use the legal tender of Soviet power severely constrained the supply of the Red Army, the revenue and expenditure of the Soviet Government, and the economic development of the base areas.

In order to help the military and people of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area through the difficult years, soon after the capture of Tongjiang, the Red Army began to establish the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Bank and the Mint.

In January 1933, the Red Fourth Front attacked Zhenba County, the "Southern Gate" of Shaanxi, and captured the machines and some copper materials made by Wang Sanchunbu, the guerrilla commander of sichuan and Shaanxi. In August of the same year, he destroyed the Sichuan warlord Yang Sen's mint in Yingshan and transported all the materials, including lithographs, from Luojiangkou to Tongjiang City by boat. Immediately after, it captured the mint built by Li Jiayu, the prince of the Sichuan Army, in Xiejiahe in the southern county. However, due to incomplete minting equipment and a shortage of technical personnel, regular mints could not be established for a while, and only small quantities of paper and cloth coins could be produced in some workshops, which was far from meeting the needs of the growing Red regime.

In February 1933, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Soviet Government promulgated the Organic Law of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Soviets, which determined the establishment of the Workers' and Peasants' Bank, "manufacturing Soviet currency, unifying the currency system, circulating the finance of the Soviet Region, implementing low-interest and interest-free lending to workers and peasants, and helping the development of cooperatives."

From October 17 to 27, 1933, the Red Fourth Front seized the favorable opportunity of the enemy's scattered forces and the emptiness of the rear, secretly gathered more than 10 regiments of the main force to launch the Xuanda Campaign, attacking the 23rd Army of the Kuomintang Army entrenched in Xuanhan, Daxian, Wanyuan, Chengkou and other places, severely damaging the Sichuan warlord Liu Cunhoubu, killing more than 4,000 prisoners, surrendering more than 8,000 guns, 36 artillery pieces, 2 radio stations, more than 5 million rounds of ammunition, more than 1 million silver dollars, 200,000 pieces of cloth, and more than 20,000 sets of cotton clothes. The Soviet zone extended about 150 kilometers to the east, completely connecting the Tunnamba area with the guerrilla base area in eastern Sichuan. The Red Fourth Front expanded from 15,000 men at the time of entering Sichuan to more than 80,000 men.

Liu Cunhou was a native of Jianyang, Sichuan, who graduated from the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School in his early years and successively served as a town guard in Chongqing, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Protectorate Army, and the governor of Sichuan. In 1924, he was appointed by the Beijing government as the Inspector of Border Defense between Sichuan and Shaanxi, and occupied the areas of Daxian, Xuanhan, Wanyuan and Chengkou for 10 years. Liu Cunhou built an arsenal and mint covering an area of about 600 acres in Daxian County, with nearly 1,000 workers and more than 140 machines and equipment, and the scale, equipment, and technical strength of his mint were second to none among the warlord mints.

What is particularly gratifying is that due to the enemy's hasty escape, Liu Cunhou spent a huge amount of money to build arsenals, clothing factories, and mints all fell into the hands of the Red Army, with a total of 138 machines of various kinds. Among them, the coinage equipment is British, German, Japanese-made large round car, milling machine, printing machine, piping machine, shaking machine, molding machine, silver furnace, polishing tools, etc., and more than 800 copper bricks, each weighing 45-50 kg, miscellaneous copper more than 10,000 kg, concentrated sulfuric acid, nitric acid more than 100 cylinders, each cylinder weighs 50-100 kg, imported steel 5000 kg, coke more than 10,000 kg.

In order to carry these machinery and equipment to the base areas, Zheng Yizhai, then president of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Bank, and Zhang Qinqiu, director of the Political Department of the General Hospital of the Red Fourth Front, mobilized more than 5,000 military and civilians in the base areas to carry them on their shoulders and on land and water, traveling more than 150 kilometers to transport these machinery and equipment back to Tongjiang. Zheng Yizhai personally intervened to mobilize the technicians and workers of the former mint to work in the base area and organize them to be responsible for the dismantling and installation of the equipment.

On November 18, 1933, the Red Fourth Front Mint was established at the West Temple on the outskirts of Tongjiang City, and began to produce and distribute currency from the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area. According to historical records, after the establishment of the Red Fourth Front Army Mint, the daily output of about 700 to 800 yuan of silver dollars and about 5,000 copper dollars; the paper money and cloth coins of the Lithography Bureau were produced, using 3 to 8 lithography machines, and the daily output of each frame was about 9,000 pieces. By August 1935, a total of more than 2 million yuan of currency was issued, of which more than 500,000 yuan of silver dollars and more than 300,000 yuan of copper yuan. The minting and issuance of silver and copper coins ranked first among the base areas during the Second Civil Revolutionary War, and made a great contribution to breaking through the enemy's economic and military blockade.

Grow stronger than in times of crisis

The development and expansion of the Red Fourth Front Military Mint is inseparable from Zheng Yizhai, the main leader of the financial and economic work of the Soviet Government of Sichuan and Shaanxi Province, and an expert in red financial management.

After the establishment of the mint, in order to attract technical forces, Zheng Yizhai decided: Anyone who has served in the warlord mint in the past is welcome as long as they are willing to stay and work. The headquarters of the Red Fourth Front, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, and the Provincial Soviet Government also issued a special announcement: "Doctors, soldiers, technicians, skilled workers, scientists, literary artists, and other specialized personnel, as well as all intellectuals and students, will not only not be killed, but if these people are willing to serve loyally under the Soviet regime, the government will give special preferential treatment." "When the Red Fourth Front Mint was at its peak, there were more than 200 workers, and its scale, complete equipment, and strong technical force were the largest in the Soviet Union. In the spring of 1934, the mint moved with the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Workers' and Peasants' Bank to the Zhangjia Courtyard in Hancheng, Tongjiang Kucaoba.

Zheng Yizhai attaches great importance to talents. He Yangzhou was originally the technical backbone of the Kuomintang Arsenal and was highly skilled. After the enemy arsenal was knocked down by the Red Army, he expressed his willingness to stay and serve the Red Army, and specially designed the "Iron Luohan" press for minting silver and copper coins. Zheng Yizhai appointed him chief technician of the mint and arsenal, and also served as the director of the bullet factory.

The Red Fourth Front Mint consists of production units, mold making units, repair units, management units and other institutions, and is divided into a lithographic bureau and a mint. The Liyin Bureau is located in the Lijia Courtyard of Kucaoba Street, Tongjiang County, with 8 machines and more than 30 workers. In addition to printing cloth money and paper money, it also prints revenue stamps, leaflets, documents, and newspapers. According to the type of work, the mint is divided into melting, rolling, slaughtering, quenching, blanking, piping, printing, pulping, polishing and other workshops, specializing in the minting of Soviet silver coins and copper coins. There are 19 types of mint varieties and shapes in 4 categories. Among them, 15 kinds of paper, cloth, copper and silver are circulated in the Soviet Union. Representative types and forms include one string of banknotes, three strings of banknotes, one-round banknotes, two-string cloth coins, one-round cloth coins, five-cent copper coins, small 200 copper coins, large 200 copper coins, 500 copper coins, one yuan silver coins, etc., and one yuan silver coins are matched with wujiao and two-corner silver auxiliary coins.

The Red Fourth Front Mint has strict rules and regulations. All personnel entering and leaving the factory must be inspected and wear a pass. The factory implements an attendance system, working 6 to 8 hours per shift, rewarding diligence and punishing laziness. Rewards are given for high production and good quality, and wages for absenteeism, lateness and poor work are deducted. Those who are absent or sick due to events must take leave, and can only leave their posts after approval by the factory director, and leave the factory in the morning and return to the factory on time in the afternoon. Employees are generally not allowed to have contact with people outside, and even if they meet with relatives and friends, there is a time limit. Workers are paid according to the level of technology and the quality of production products, as low as 3 yuan, up to 40 yuan, and in case of overtime, they will be paid another incentive wage. The factory has also established trade unions and Communist Youth League organizations, and the cultural study, sports and entertainment activities of the staff and workers have been vigorously developed.

In addition to minting Soviet coins, the Red Fourth Front Mint also copied a large number of Kuomintang Yuan Datou, Sun Xiaotou, and Sichuan Chinese character silver coins, and used the silver, copper dollars, and imitation silver coins to purchase a large number of urgently needed military materials from Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan, and other places, so as to enrich and strengthen the Red Army troops.

So, where did the raw materials for the mint come from? According to relevant data, there are three main sources of raw materials for coinage: first, silver bricks, silver ingots, jewelry, utensils, etc. for capturing the enemy and confiscating local tycoons and inferior gentry; second, copper plates, copper bowls, copper pots, copper basins, copper box buckles, and copper door locks donated by the masses in the base areas; and third, some were purchased from the white area. From raw materials to finished products, there are 8 casting processes before they can be put into storage or issued. At that time, the silver coins minted by the Red Fourth Front Military Mint were exquisite in craftsmanship and excellent in texture, and the silver content and weight were higher than those of the white silver dollars, so they had to exchange a string more than the silver dollars in the white area.

In order to prevent the enemy from counterfeiting imitation cloth coins and paper money, the Red Fourth Front Mint also took many anti-counterfeiting measures, that is, adding dark notes to the patterns and characters on the banknotes, using 5 colors of overprinting, and using variant art characters and more artistic pictures, portraits and other patterns. On the second and third strings of cloth coins, each is printed with 4 seals of square, oval and rectangular size, some of which are special seals for banknotes, some of which are the private seals of the financial leaders, and some of which are the official seals of the government or banks. In addition, the color and layout of the ticket will be changed from time to time.

Transfer before the Long March

In November 1934, the Red Fourth Front held a meeting on Qingjiangdu and formulated the "Sichuan-Shaanxi-Gansu Plan" for the development of new areas to Gannan relying on the old areas. The main force of the Red Fourth Front immediately moved westward, and 15 regiments of 10,000 Red Army troops gathered near Wangcang City. The Northwest Revolutionary Military Commission, the head organ of the party, government, and army in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area, the General Headquarters of the Red Fourth Front, the Cpc Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Cpc Committee, and the Sichuan-Shaanxi Provincial Soviet Government, were stationed in Wangcang. For a time, Wangcangba became the political, military, and economic center of the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base area. The leaders of the Red Fourth Front deployed here to command the three major battles of Guangzhao, southern Shaanxi, and qiangdu Jialing River. The little ancient town was full of red songs and red flags, becoming a veritable Red Army city.

The Red Fourth Front Mint was also moved to the town of Wangcang Huangyang.

After the Red Army mint was moved from Tongjiang, the workers installed and produced, and continued to mint silver and copper coins, print paper money and a small amount of cloth coins. The silver and copper coin workshop and storage office are located in the Courtyard of the Yang Family in the Rotten Groove Ditch, and the paper money and cloth money workshop is located in the Zhangjia Courtyard. The production units, mold making units, repair units and life management units under the Mint are also located in the Zhangjia compound and in several adjacent courtyards. Due to the urgent war situation at that time, the factory implemented three shifts per day for 8 hours in shifts and an overproduction award system. In just 4 months, more than 20,000 silver dollars and more than 10,000 copper dollars were created, as well as a large number of paper and cloth coins. A considerable number of Yuan Datou, Sun Xiaotou and Sichuan Chinese character silver coins were also copied, which were widely circulated in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Su District, completely changing the local self-sufficient "physical economy". (Source| Reader's Daily Source: "Overview of Party History" He Guanghua He Mingyuan / Text)