1931 was a turbulent year in the history of the Communist Party of China. Walking into history, we will find that a lot happened during the year. For example, the anti-"encirclement and suppression" war in which the Red Army in the central base area has been victorious day by day, and the "Left" dogmatism represented by Wang Ming has ruled the CPC Central Committee. Of course, the most representative major event of the year was the September 18 Incident.
(i)
Shortly after the victory of the Red Army broke the first "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army, in early 1931, Chiang Kai-shek, with He Yingqin, minister of the Ministry of Military Affairs, concurrently serving as the director of the Nanchang Xingying Camp, commander-in-chief of the army, navy and air force, commanded 200,000 troops and prepared to launch a second "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the central base areas. On March 28, the Kuomintang Nanchang battalion issued a general attack order, restricting the various units to start attacking the Soviet zone on April 1. The Red Army still adheres to the principle of "enticing the enemy to go deeper." From May 16 to 31, 1931, the Red Army, starting from Tomita, fought five consecutive victorious battles: swept 700 miles, from the banks of the Ganjiang River to Jianning, Fujian Province, annihilating more than 30,000 enemy troops, successfully breaking the second "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army and further expanding the central base area.
Seeing the failure of the second "encirclement and suppression, Chiang Kai-shek refused to give up and launched a third "encirclement and suppression" on a larger scale. On June 1, Chiang Kai-shek and He Yingqin sat in Nanchang, commanding the 23rd Division and three brigades with a total strength of 300,000 troops, and launched the third "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Central Revolutionary Base Area and the Red Army. Chiang Kai-shek hired military advisers from Germany, Japan, Britain, and other countries, with the five divisions of the Yan army as the main force, adopted the tactics of "long drive straight in" and "divided into combined attacks," and launched a pincer offensive in two ways to attack the Red Army base areas in southern Gannan and western Fujian in an attempt to wipe out the Red Army on the east bank of the Ganjiang River. On September 2, 1931, the Kuomintang army that carried out the third "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Soviet Region withdrew under the continuous blows of the military and civilians in the base area. The Red Army took the opportunity to pursue and intercept the retreating enemy and further expand the results of the battle. On the 15th, the main force of the Red Army completely annihilated the 52nd Division, the Ninth Division Artillery Regiment and an infantry battalion of the Kuomintang Army in the Fangshiling area of Xingguo County, Jiangxi, capturing more than 5,000 enemy soldiers, surrendering more than 4,500 guns of various kinds, and more than 1.2 million rounds of ammunition. At this point, after three months of fighting, six battles and six victories, the Red Army annihilated more than 30,000 people in 17 regiments of the enemy, surrendered more than 10,000 guns, and once again smashed the third "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army commanded by Chiang Kai-shek himself. After the "encirclement and suppression" was crushed, the two base areas in gannan and western Fujian were basically connected and expanded to a vast area spanning more than 20 counties.
The Red Army's three consecutive victories against "encirclement and suppression" dealt a major blow to the Kuomintang troops. Driven by the red army's victory against "encirclement and suppression" and the nationwide anti-Japanese anti-Chiang wave, the 26th Route Army of the Kuomintang Army revolted in Ningdu, Jiangxi on December 14 and was reorganized into the Fifth Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The Ningdu Uprising was a very successful and important armed uprising led by the Party. Regular Kuomintang troops with strong combat effectiveness, such as the Twenty-sixth Route Army, revolted on the battlefield and threw themselves into the Red Army, thus strengthening the strength of the Red Army and causing great shock in the Kuomintang army.
At this time, the anti-"encirclement and suppression" struggle in other base areas also won victories, and in Eyuwan, from the winter of 1930 to the summer of 1931, the Red Army broke the "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army twice. On November 7, 1931, according to the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Red Fourth Army and the Red Twenty-fifth Army in the Eyu-Anhui base area were merged into the Red Fourth Front, with Xu Qian as the former commander-in-chief and Chen Changhao as the political commissar, with nearly 30,000 people in the whole army. This is another important unit with combat capability after the Red Army. In the base areas of western Hunan and hubei, northeastern Jiangxi, xianggan, and xiang'egan, they also won victories against "encirclement and suppression," and the Red Army and the base areas developed to varying degrees. Around the same time and later, the Red Army guerrillas led by Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, Xi Zhongxun, and others created the Shaanxi-Gansu border base area and the northern Shaanxi base area after arduous struggle; after smashing the Kuomintang army for the first time to "encircle and suppress," the Shaanxi-Gansu-Gansu border and northern Shaanxi base areas developed into Shaanxi-Gansu base areas, which changed the layout of China's revolutionary base areas, not only in the south but also in the north. This had an important impact on the later development of the Chinese revolution.
The reason why the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was able to crush the "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army, which was several times or even ten times larger than itself, was due to the fact that the vast number of poor peasants in the base areas had gained a share of the land in the agrarian revolution, enthusiastically joined the army, and supported the revolutionary war in many ways. Without the full support of the broad masses of poor peasants, the victory of the Red Army in the war against "encirclement and suppression" would have been impossible. These victories are inseparable from the correct strategic and tactical guidance of Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and other Leaders of the Red Army. The principles of the Red Army's operations are mainly: Take the anti-"encirclement and suppression" as the main form and rely on the base areas to fight; practice strategic retreat and lure the enemy to go deep; concentrate the forces to carry out mobile warfare, "fight if you can win, and leave if you can't win," discover the enemy's weaknesses in the course of the movement, fight a quick decisive battle, and annihilate the war; and lose no time in carrying out the offensive and expanding the results of the battle. In this process, the combination of the regular army, the guerrillas and the Red Guards was carried out, so that the war of the main Red Army and the guerrilla war of the people were each other's right and left. These strategic and tactical ideas are based on people's wars, solve the problem of how the Red Army can defeat the powerful enemy with inferior troops and backward equipment, and are an outstanding contribution to Marxist-Leninist military doctrine. These ideas were gradually formed in accordance with the specific characteristics of China's revolutionary war and in practice, and it was only after the third "encirclement and suppression" of the enemy that the principle of the Red Army's operations was formed.
(ii)
The September 18 Incident was not an accidental event, and Japan's plan of aggression against the three eastern provinces had been planned for a long time. As early as March 1931, Itagaki Seishiro, a senior staff officer of the Japanese Kwantung Army, spoke at the Japanese Army School and preached the great significance of the occupation of Manchuria and Mongolia (northeast China) in determining the "fate of the Japanese nation." He believed that Manchuria and Mongolia are rich in resources, have all the resources necessary as national defense resources, and are an area that is absolutely necessary for Japan's self-sufficiency. Moreover, there is a lot of room for development in the future, and it can be said that the value of Manchuria lies in the future... Judging from the current attitude of the Chinese side, if we use diplomatic and peaceful means alone, we will not be able to achieve the goal of resolving the Manchu-Mongolian issue. In the war against Russia, Manchuria and Mongolia are the main battlefield; in the war against the United States, Manchuria and Mongolia are the source of supplies. Thus, in fact, Manchuria and Mongolia have the most important relations in their operations against the United States, Russia, and China.
On the evening of September 18, 1931, on the railway from Fengtian (now Shenyang) to Changchun (that is, the South Manchuria Railway, which was then controlled by Japan), the Second Brigade of the Independent Garrison of the Japanese Kwantung Army came to Wicker Lake, 700 meters from Shenyang's Beidaying, and installed several packets of small explosives on the tracks. At 10:20, the Japanese soldiers detonated the explosives. About 1.5 meters of rail at the east side rail joint was bent and two sleepers were damaged. A fake scene was also set up near South Wicker Lake in Shenyang's Beidaying, where 3 corpses dressed in Chinese soldiers' uniforms were placed, accusing the Chinese army of sabotaging the railway. With an explosion, the smoke of gunfire rose, and the usually inconspicuous wicker lake suddenly transformed into a huge shadow, enveloping the entire Shenyang. At the same time as the explosion, Kawashima Squadron Leader of Kawashima, who was about 4 kilometers north of the railway blast site, led his troops south and began to attack the North Camp. After the explosion, the Japanese troops stationed in Beidaying and Shenyang City divided into north and south roads and attacked the Chinese army garrison, Beidaying. Since the northeast region of China was called Manchuria at that time, the Japanese side called this incident the "Manchuria Incident", and later also known as the September 18 Incident.
The Japanese army used this as an excuse to shell the North Camp in Shenyang, and the Japanese army set out from the Japanese-controlled area and attacked under the cover of armored vehicles, completely occupying the entire city. The Japanese attacked along the railway and effectively occupied all chinese cities along the 693-mile stretch of the South Manchuria Railway.
The Kuomintang government adopted a policy of compromise and concession to Japan's invasion of Northeast China. In order to concentrate his forces on "encircling and suppressing" the Red Army, Chiang Kai-shek put forward the principle of "taking out the outside world before going inside the country" in July 1931. When the September 18 Incident occurred, the Kuomintang government sent a telegram to the Northeast Army: "The Japanese army's move is just a common provocative nature, and in order to avoid the expansion of the incident, it absolutely does not hold resistance." "It pins all its hopes on the mediation of the League of Nations in stopping Japanese aggression." However, the League of Nations, under the control of Britain and France, did not impose any strong sanctions on Japan. Japan refused to accept the deadline resolution of the League of Nations, and the League of Nations was helpless.
The Kuomintang government's policy of non-resistance to Japanese aggression allowed the Japanese to quickly occupy the entire city of Shenyang. The Northeast Army withdrew to Jinzhou. Chinese forces throughout the northeast continued to practice Chiang Kai-shek's non-resistance doctrine, and within 24 hours, Japan had effective control of all of southern Manchuria, and warships were fully loaded with troops landing at Qingdao on the Shandong Peninsula. The next day, the Japanese army invaded and occupied Shenyang, and four months later, more than 1 million square kilometers of rivers and mountains in Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces became Occupied by Japan.
At that time, there was a song that was widely circulated: "My home is on the Songhua River in the northeast, where there are forest coal mines and soybean sorghum all over the mountains." My home is on the Songhua River in the northeast, where there are my compatriots and the aging father. 918, 918! From that miserable time, out of my hometown, abandoning the endless treasure, wandering! Wandering..." This song sings about the people of Northeast China who were forced to leave their hometowns and live a life of displacement after the September 18 Incident in 1931.
The September 18 Incident was the inevitable result of the japanese imperialists' long-term policy of aggression and expansion toward China, and it was also an important step in its attempt to turn China into its exclusive colony. Since then, the Sino-Japanese national contradictions have gradually risen to the main position, which has brought about major changes in class relations in China, and under the call of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people have set off an anti-Japanese salvation movement.
(iii)
After the September 18 Incident, the national contradictions between China and Japan gradually rose to become the main contradictions, and major changes occurred in class relations in China. The people's resolute demand to resist Japanese aggression, and the Kuomintang's policy of non-resistance led to the rapid fall of the three northeastern provinces also aroused strong protests from the people.
On September 21 and 24, 1931, 35,000 dock workers in Shanghai went on strike against Japan. Workers and other working people in Nanjing, Tianjin, Beiping, Hankou and other cities set off an upsurge of anti-Japanese patriotic movements in the form of petitions, fundraising, and bans on the sale of Japanese goods. Young students and the urban petty bourgeoisie, after more than 4 years of depression, also took active action to demand resistance against Japan. The long-dormant city boiled back up. On September 28, students in Shanghai and Nanjing went to the Nationalist government and the Kuomintang Central Party Department to demand a declaration of war on Japan, beating up Foreign Minister Wang Zhengting. At the end of November, the Nationalist government proposed to the League of Nations that Jinzhou be designated as a "neutral zone" and handed over to international condominiums, and the students were even more angry when they heard the news.
On December 17, more than 30,000 students from all over Nanjing held a joint demonstration, but they were blocked by a large number of Kuomintang military and police forces. The national bourgeoisie, the upper petty bourgeoisie and the upper echelons of the intellectual circles have issued a call for the Kuomintang authorities to "change course" politically, resist Japan, and practice democracy. The Shanghai "Declaration" and "News Daily" published the students' anti-Japanese declaration. Ethnic industrialists and businessmen in Shanghai and other places carried out boycotts of Japanese goods and demanded that the Japanese economy be cut off. Overseas Chinese groups also called the National Government one after another, demanding that they unanimously resist Japan and swear to back them up. In the northeast occupied by the Japanese army, a large number of anti-Japanese volunteer armies have arisen one after another, opening the prelude to the anti-Japanese guerrilla war in the northeast. The people of the whole country gave warm support to the volunteer army's anti-Japanese struggle that persisted in the White Mountains and Black Waters.
At the critical juncture of the national crisis, the Communist Party of China took the lead in holding high the banner of armed resistance against Japan. On September 20, 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Declaration on the Incident of the Communist Party of China's Violent Occupation of the Three Eastern Provinces for Japanese Imperialism", which resoundingly put forward: "Oppose the Japanese imperialists' forcible occupation of the three eastern provinces!" On 27 November, the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic issued a declaration calling on the people of the whole country to mobilize and arm themselves against Japanese aggression and the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang. The Manchurian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China instructed party organizations in various localities to carry out the anti-Japanese struggle. The CPC Central Committee successively sent Zhou Baozhong and Zhao Yiman to the northeast to strengthen the strength of party organizations, organize the establishment of anti-Japanese guerrillas, and gradually become the main anti-Japanese armed force in the northeast.
(iv)
On January 7, 1931, with the direct intervention of Miff, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Enlarged Sixth Central Committee of the Party was held in Shanghai. The Fourth Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee aimed to criticize the so-called "conciliatory doctrine" of the Third Plenum of the Central Committee of the Central Committee of the CPC Central Committee, stressed the opposition to the "rightist tendency" that "is still the main danger within the Party at present," and decided to "transform and enrich the leading organs at all levels." Qu Qiubai, Zhou Enlai, and others were severely criticized at the meeting. Wang Ming, a 26-year-old who was not a member of the CPC Central Committee and lacked practical struggle experience, was not only elected as a member of the CPC Central Committee, but also became a member of the Politburo. After the enlarged Fourth Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee, the leadership of the CENTRAL Committee was effectively manipulated by Wang Ming, who had the full support of Miff. From this time on, the "Left" dogmatic error represented by Wang Ming began a four-year rule within the party's leading organs.
Wang Ming further promoted "Left" dogmatism by waging the so-called "anti-Rightist" struggle and "transforming the leadership of the party in all groups." Soon after Li Lisan's mistake of "Left" adventurism was corrected, Wang Ming's "Left" dogmatic mistakes again dominated the CPC Central Committee, which was caused by many factors and was inseparable from the direct intervention of the Communist International. Since the Eighty-Seventh Congress, there have been strong "Left" sentiments in the Party, and although it has been criticized several times, it has never been able to seriously clean up the guiding ideology. Many party cadres were full of enthusiasm for the revolution, but their theoretical preparation and practical experience were insufficient, and when Wang Ming and others used Marxist words and phrases to argue their views in isolation from reality and received the full support of the deputies of the Communist International, many of them lost a sober understanding and ability to resist their erroneous ideas. This situation reflects some of the characteristics of the party in its infancy.
The views of Wang Ming and others on the basic issues of the Chinese revolution, such as opposing the kuomintang's reactionary rule and advocating the struggle of the agrarian revolution and the Red Army, are consistent with the Party's program. But the political, military and cadre policies they have adopted are all wrong in the main respects. Wang Ming held that the mistake of the "three lines" was not "left" but "right," which "denied the possibility of a province or provinces winning the first victory, and advocated "truly realizing the first victory of one or several provinces in Xiang'e," and then advancing and striving for victory nationwide" in the provinces of Xiang'e, Hubei, and Gansu, demanding that the central camps continue to be attacked and emphasizing the implementation of the "offensive line." On the whole, Wang Ming's "Left" dogmatic mistakes are more resolute than Li Lisan's "Left" adventurous mistakes, more complete in form, and more "theoretical" in color, thus causing greater harm.
After the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a series of extraordinary situations arose in the work of the Party in the areas ruled by the Kuomintang. He Mengxiong, Lin Yunan, Li Qiushi, and a number of other important party cadres who opposed Wang Ming's "Left" dogmatism and mistakes were arrested and sacrificed because of traitors' whistleblowing. Luo Zhanglong and others set up the "Central Extraordinary Committee" in the name of opposing the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee to carry out activities to split the party and were expelled from the party. In the second half of September of the same year, since there were less than half of the members of the Central Committee and the Politburo in Shanghai, according to the proposal of the Far East Bureau of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, the Provisional Politburo of the CPC Central Committee (i.e., the Provisional Central Committee) was established, with Bogu (Qin Bangxian), Zhang Wentian (Luo Fu), and Lu Futan as the Standing Committee members, and Bogu was responsible for the overall responsibility, which was subsequently approved by the Comintern. In October, Wang Ming left Shanghai for Moscow. In early December, Zhou Enlai went to the Central Revolutionary Base Area.
On the one hand, after the outbreak of the September 18 Incident, the Kuomintang adopted a policy of non-resistance, and in less than half a year, all the three northeastern provinces fell and the people of the three eastern provinces were displaced. On the other hand, the national contradiction between China and Japan gradually rose to become the main contradiction, and the Kuomintang's passive policy of non-resistance aroused strong protests from the masses; at the time of the life and death of the Chinese nation, the Communist Party of China bravely stood up and led the masses of the people to launch a 14-year-long anti-Japanese salvation movement, and gradually led China to independence, democracy, prosperity and strength.