The peasant knife brigade of Tongxin Township in the northern district of Yulin County rioted against the Kuomintang's capture of Zhuangding

During the 26th year of the Republic of China (1937 AD) in May. The peasant masses in Tongxin Township, Northern District of Yulin County (formerly Shangfukang District), in view of the fact that the warlords were exhausted and armed, arrested Ding for extortion, could not be disturbed, and were indignant, they once used a vigorous force to oppose the Guangxi warlords at that time to seize Zhuangding, and the momentum was huge, which dealt a heavy blow to the Guangxi warlord clique. In order to let more people understand the local cultural history of Yulin, Xiaobian has compiled relevant materials and paraphrased them for readers.

[A Chronicle of the Peasants' Opposition to the Kuomintang's Arrest of Ding] ---- Chen Yanying

During the 26th year of the Republic of China (1937 AD) in May. The peasant masses in Tongxin Township, Northern District of Yulin County (formerly Shangfukang District), in view of the fact that the warlords were exhausted and armed, arrested Ding for extortion, could not be disturbed, and were indignant, they once used a vigorous force to oppose the Guangxi warlords at that time to seize Zhuangding, and the momentum was huge, which dealt a heavy blow to the Guangxi warlord clique. Now, according to the author's personal recollection, the general situation of the peasant knife brigade riot is as follows:

First, the reasons for the outbreak of the peasant knife brigade

Beginning in the second half of the nineteenth year of the Republic of China (that is, the second half of 1930), the Guangxi warlords Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Huang Xuchu and other new Gui clans gradually unified Guangxi, and after the twenty-second year of the Republic of China (1933), the so-called three-self policy (that is, self-defense, autonomy, and self-sufficiency) and the three-yu policy (that is, the yu will study, the soldiers in the regiment, and the enlistment in the recruitment) were implemented. At first, it was also claimed that three dings would be drawn out of one, but later, in order to compete with Chiang Kai-shek who was entrenched in Nanjing, and seize power, the Gui army actively expanded their military strength and vigorously recruited troops, which aroused the strong opposition of the peasant masses in the northern district of Yulin, and after many mass secret meetings, finally on the morning of the twenty-fifth day of May 25, 1937 (May 25, 1937), the peasant masses in Tongxin Township, Fukang District at that time, each carried a large knife, known as the "Big Knife Team". The mighty marched towards the Tongxin Township Office, which was then located in Guiertang Village. A peasant revolt that vigorously opposed the Guangxi warlord clique's forced conquest of Zhuangding broke out!

Second, the development of the peasant knife brigade rebellion

On the morning of May 25, 1937, the "big knife team" of the peasant masses marched towards the Tongxin Township Office. Along the way, the procession chanted majestic and strong slogans such as "Down with the township chief", "Oppose conscription", "We are determined to burn the household register", and so on, until about 8 a.m. More than a thousand people from the "big knife team" had gathered in front of the tongxin office at that time, and shouted loudly for the township mayor Zhao Lie to release all the arrested Zhuang Ding, and to hand over and burn all the household registration books (because the soldiers who arrested Zhuang Ding at that time were forcibly recruited according to the men who had registered the household registration). The big knife team was not allowed to enter the door, and it was precisely when "the warriors were entangled and waiting to attack the city" that some brave and fearless "big knife team" warriors bravely climbed up the roof and jumped into the township office. At that time, the township chief Zhao Lie absconded from the private door, and Su Lemin, a section officer sent by the county government to the township governor Zhuangding, was beheaded by the big knife team and shown to the public, and then all the household registration books in the township office were taken out and burned in public.

At about one o'clock in the afternoon, the peasant knife team turned to the Tongde Township Office in Longtangji Village, and along the way still shouted slogans opposing the arrest of Zhuang Ding as a soldier; in the villages they passed on the road, the peasant masses also took a large knife one after another and joined the "big knife team." When they reached the border of Tongde Township, the peasant knife team already had three or four thousand people, and the staff of the township office had already heard the wind and fled, and the peasant knife team effortlessly occupied the pseudo-Tongde Township Office. Then, all the household registers were burned down.

On this day, after the peasant knife team captured the two township offices, it was already dark, and the crowd returned to the team.

The next morning, as the sun began to rise, large knife teams from all directions continued to concentrate and sent people out to publicize and call on the masses in the nearby villages to participate in the battle. So Putang Township, Yuanzhi Township, Beishi Township in Upper Fukang District, and Zhengxin Township, Xiangping Township, Sande Township in Lower Fukang District... Successively, the peasants formed and occupied the townships one after another, and all the household registration books were burned down.

Although the duration of this battle was short, the majestic momentum of the peasant knife brigade and the surging tide strongly impacted the reactionary ruling class at that time and ignited the flames of the peasant revolution.

Third, the agitated peasant revolt was stifled

This peasant revolt, the impact on the reactionary ruling class, is like a sharp knife piercing straight into their hearts, and naturally they will not be willing to endure it, but they are bound to fight back. At that time, the Guangxi warlord clique set up a security headquarters and a special office in the Yulin area, and sent the reactionary minion Huang Qi as the commissioner and security commander to carry out the so-called "village clearance work" and wantonly search and arrest the leaders of the peasant rebellion in various villages.

At this time, the peasant masses in the northern district of Yulin County, in the midst of the Guangxi warlord clique's sword and gun "clearing the countryside," were in a state of panic, and the plight of everyone's self-danger was imminent; therefore, the reactionaries took the opportunity to seize more than fifty people, including Mo Neng'an, a peasant warrior in Zhengxin Township, to become soldiers, and called them "automatically asking to kill the enemy" and "collectively conscripting as soldiers" to cover people's eyes and ears. At this point, a vigorous peasant knife brigade riot was snuffed out.

Excerpt from "Yulin County Literature and History Materials"

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