The brutal rule of the warlords inspired armed resistance among the peasantry
At that time, henan was stationed in the two lakes of Zhilu and Yu to tour Wu Peifu's army of more than 100,000 people, all grain and wages were collected on the spot, and all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes were evenly apportioned, and Henan peasants had to bear more than 3 yuan per person. In order to resist the donation and anti-riot and the harassment of bandits and scattered soldiers, the vast rural areas spontaneously formed various self-defense groups, of which the Red Gun Society is the most common and the strongest. Li Dazhao and the Northern Region sent people to Xinyang, Qixian, Xingyang and other places to win over the Red Gun Society, and on this basis, they formed the YuWei Army.
Li Dazhao personally guided the deployment of the Henan peasant movement
On March 3, 1926, Wu Peifu announced the disbandment of the Red Gun Society and the YuWei Army in Henan Province. On April 3, Wu issued another order to suppress the Red Gun Society, which was not disbanded quickly. In May, Wu Peifu sent a brigade to encircle and suppress the Red Gun Society in Qixian County and Tongxu Area, slaughtering as many as 5,000 people, burning more than 30 villages, and looting other villages related to the Red Gun Society.
This series of riots against the Local Red Gun Society completely broke with the wu Peifu warlord forces. Li Dazhao promptly analyzed the changes in the attitude of the Red Gun Society, formulated opinions on using the Red Gun Society to attack Wu Peifu's rear, and a large number of revolutionary soldiers who were inclined to revolution and had actual combat experience were assigned to various areas for activities, and Special personnel were arranged for Wu Peifu's old lair, Luoyang, and Zhengzhou, Changge, Xinxiang, Xuchang, Zhumadian, and other places on both sides of the Jinghan Road where the heavy troops were stationed.
Henan peasant armed forces disrupted the rear of Wu Peifu's army
On August 23, Wu Peifu urgently mobilized troops to the south to reinforce Hubei, but the Beijing-Hankou Railway was blown up by peasants 50 kilometers south of the Yellow River to Xinyang at the junction of Yu'e and Hubei. Wu Bu had no choice but to go south on foot, grabbing cars, grabbing men, and grain along the way, and the Red Gun Society and other armed forces joined forces with local militia groups to block and recapture a large amount of grain and other materials, which also slowed down the speed of Wu Peifu's troops going south.
With the collapse of Wu Peifu's power, Wei Yisan and other troops stationed in Henan joined Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist Army or National Revolutionary Army. The Northern District Committee headed by Li Dazhao accelerated the reorganization and integration of peasant armed forces throughout Henan. On September 18, representatives of various localities held a meeting and established the headquarters of the Provincial Peasant Self-Defense League. After the start of the Second Northern Expedition against the Feng forces, peasant representatives from all over Henan Province and the Provincial Armed Peasants' Congress were held in Wuchang from March 15 to 21, 1927.
Henan peasants armed against the Warlords of the Feng clan
In May 1927, after the Wuhan National Revolutionary Army opened up the Henan Battlefield, the armed peasants of Henan rose up one after another in response to the Northern Expeditionary Army's battle against Feng, "picking up tea and carrying rice, and rescuing the wounded soldiers", using ox carts and trolleys to transport luggage and bullets to the revolutionary army, carrying the door leaf in the house to build a bridge for the Northern Expeditionary Army, destroying the railways and transportation arteries of the Feng Army to transport officers and soldiers, and helping the Northern Expeditionary Army quickly occupy Shangcai, Xiping, Luohe, Chencheng, Linying and other places.
When the Feng army retreated from the Luohe area, the Xuchang Red Gun Society gathered more than 100,000 people and intercepted along the way, causing the Feng army to "flee in a daze and abandon the guns along the way." When the Northern Expeditionary Army fought fiercely with the Feng army in the area of Yucheng, the peasant armed forces in the nearby Qixian and Suixian counties took advantage of the opportunity to riot and quickly captured the towns of Tongxu and Chenliu, threatening the rear security of the Fengjun flank. Feng Yuxiang's troops from Shanxi, with the assistance of local peasant armed forces, also quickly won the battles of Xin'an and Luoyang, and advanced to Zhengzhou, the railway transportation hub of Beijing-Han and Longhai.