For a long time thereafter, Sun Jiwu and his team traveled between the dense forest and the railway line. He integrated several teams and formed the Chinese Joint Guerrilla Force. The Japanese-American interventionist posts along the Railway from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok and the White Army stationed at the station were targeted by guerrillas. Under their attack, the enemy is like a frightened bird, and the panic cannot be stopped.
In early 1920, the Red Army achieved a major victory in the European part of Soviet Russia. Under the strong offensive of the Red Army, Kolchak's white army fled from west to east, and he himself was soon captured and executed in Irkutsk. The Japanese Intervention Army in the Far East also suffered a crushing defeat, and the Japanese Intervention Army Command in Vladivostok offered peace negotiations to the Soviet government. In mid-February, the Red Army and some guerrillas entered Khabarovsk, and red flags flew over the city.
The self-appointed "Supreme Consul" Alexander Kolchak inspects the White Army troops
In view of the usual evil deeds of the Japanese, the Soviets deployed some guerrilla units in the villages and towns near Khabarovsk, taking turns to garrison, and Sun Jiwu's troops were also among them.
Sure enough, on the night of April 4 and 5, the Japanese interventionist forces reneged on their promises and tore up the agreement with Soviet Russia, and their command ordered a full-line attack on the guerrillas in Khabarovsk, Sbasque, Nikolsk-Ussuriysk, Vladivostok, and other places, and began bloody massacres everywhere.
The clothing and weapons were varied by the guerrillas of the Amur province
At the time, Sun Jiwu's guerrillas were stationed in a Chinese village near Khabarovsk. At the beginning of the Japanese attack, he realized the seriousness of the situation and decided to lead his troops into the city of Khabarovsk to support another guerrilla force. However, a flour mill building on the side of the road was occupied by Japanese soldiers. They used machine guns to strafe the guerrillas from upstairs, and Sun Jiwu had to lead the fighters to retreat to a road bridge to hide. At this moment, more than forty Japanese cavalrymen, wielding sabers, attacked the guerrillas from a small open space behind them, and their right flank also rushed to a small group of Japanese cavalry.
Sun Jiwu knew that the guerrillas were already under siege, and could only fight hard with the Japanese cavalry attacking them from behind, kill a bloody road, and then use the road embankment as cover to withdraw to the Chinese village garrison. Under his command, the guerrillas first rushed out of the fan-shaped firing line under the Japanese machine guns of the flour mill, then raised their bayonets and unexpectedly charged at the enemy cavalry.
This small japanese cavalry unit did not expect Sun Jiwu's guerrillas to have such a move, and turned around and ran. Taking advantage of the panic of the enemy, Sun Jiwu immediately returned to the Chinese village with the guerrillas.
Soon, half a squadron of Japanese Intervention Cavalry and Japanese troops from the flour mill surrounded the village. Under the harsh situation, Sun Jiwu still calmly commanded. The long struggle against the enemy has made him grow into a good commander. He knew that as long as the correspondents sent out to find another guerrilla group could successfully contact the team and attack the Japanese from the periphery, he would be able to break through. So he ordered the guerrillas to set up a defensive line along the mouth of the village, and he observed it with binoculars from time to time, and did not order shooting until the enemy approached.
Japanese interventionists executed Russian residents in Vladivostok
The fighting was fierce, the Japanese troops rushing from the flour mill broke through the defensive line, one of the guerrilla machine guns fell into the hands of the enemy, and some new soldiers who had recently joined the army began to retreat into the village. Just then the role of the correspondent came out—he found the guerrilla group. In order to cooperate with Sun Jiwu's breakthrough, the guerrilla force launched a fierce attack on the Japanese army opposite the powder factory. Coincidentally, a shell from nowhere landed in a group of Japanese infantry attacking Sun Jiwu, and the enemy was blown up.
Taking advantage of the confusion of the Japanese infantry, Sun Jiwu concentrated two machine guns on the Japanese cavalry, disrupting the enemy's offensive formation. Finally, the front was torn open by the guerrillas. Sun Jiwu then led the warriors out of the encirclement, they fought as they walked, and finally got rid of the enemy.
The Allied Intervention Army invaded the Russian Far East
In June 1920, the Japanese withdrew from Khabarovsk. However, the war was far from over, and the guerrillas were resting in the primeval forest, preparing food, ammunition, etc., in preparation for the final liberation of the Soviet Far East.
At this time, Sun Jiwu began to implement an idea that had been brewing in his mind for a long time. Perhaps many of the Chinese workers in Russia who participated in the defense of Soviet power had the idea that after the re-establishment and restoration of Soviet power, they would be able to return to the motherland to establish workers' and peasants' power. Many of them went to battle with such dreams, and many of them died early. In contrast, Sun Jiwu was lucky. After passing through countless guns and bullets, he took on the wishes of his comrades-in-arms and compatriots and planned to contribute to the creation of the Chinese workers' and peasants' regime under the guidance of the banner of the October Revolution.
In early July 1921, Sun Jiwu bid farewell to Kovari and sailed up the Songhua River from the mouth of the Songhua River to the borders of Jilin in China, near Binhai Province, for half a year. During this period, he established a revolutionary regime in several areas, and was later surrounded and suppressed by the forces of the Warlord Zhang Zuolin. At the end of September, Sun Jiwu was trapped in a small town, and he sent someone to tell his comrades in Soviet Russia about the dangerous situation of the guerrillas. With their help, Sun Jiwu led the fighters back to Soviet Russia on November 10.
Oil on canvas: The Decisive Battle of Volochayevka
At the end of 1921, in order to assemble a large number of Red Army troops in the area between Ian and Volochaevka for a decisive battle with the enemy, the headquarters of the People's Revolutionary Army of the "Far Eastern Republic" instructed the guerrillas of the Coast Province to drag the White Army as long as possible and disrupt the enemy's lines of communication. Sun Jiwu was tasked with intercepting a white cavalry battalion near the village of Budakovo while holding the enemy hostage for as long as possible. At this time, the command assigned Kovari's guerrillas to Sun Jiwu's command.
The two old comrades-in-arms cooperated again. With tacit understanding, they successfully pinned down the enemy in the village of Budakovo for two whole days. Their heroic battle bought valuable time for the consolidation of the Volochaevka front and for the arrival of the People's Revolutionary Army led by General Vasily Bryucher from Chita.
The famous general of the Russian Civil War and the recipient of the first Red Banner Medal, Bryukhel
On February 10, 1922, the Battle of Volochaevka began. Red Army fighters fought in tandem with various guerrilla units in Coastal Province. On 14 February, Khabarovsk was liberated. On 25 October, Vladivostok was liberated, and the War of resistance to imperialist armed intervention and the White Bandit Army in the Far East was finally won.
Vladivostok in the 1920s
After the liberation of Khabarovsk, Sun Jiwu was dispatched by the Federation of Chinese Workers of Amur Province on March 18, 1922, to return to the northeast of the motherland again, and made contact with the Guangdong revolutionary government led by Sun Yat-sen. With the consent of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary struggle was waged in the northeast. With the joint efforts of him and some like-minded comrades-in-arms, several guerrilla groups were united into a brigade (four regiments) with 3,300 men. This detachment is sometimes referred to as the "First Division of the Chinese Revolution in Jilin Province." In the Russian version of "Zhihu", I saw a brief introduction to Sun Jiwu that he had served as a brigade commander of the guerrillas in Jilin Province (China), which should refer to this experience.
Li Qichang's "Chinese Workers in Russia and the Chinese Revolution" said that Sun Jiwu was very effective in the northeast. By May 1922, forty-three guerrilla units in Jilin Province had been integrated, totaling 21,500 men, including 12,500 infantry and 9,000 cavalry, with nine artillery of various calibers, sixteen machine guns, and countless rifles. In addition, the unarmed ten thousand men were organized into "guerrilla reserve divisions". The headquarters of the People's Revolutionary Army of the "Far Eastern Republic" is responsible for providing this force with weapons, food and munitions.
This force is scattered throughout the fighting and is often present in the territory of the "Far Eastern Republic". In the battle to liberate Muravyov-Amursky in May 1922, Chinese guerrillas sent in to blow up several enemy carriages full of weapons and ammunition.
Shortly thereafter, Sun Jiwu himself had to completely retreat to the Soviet Far East. This was because the warlords of the Feng clan at that time were terrified of the revolutionary activities of the guerrillas led by Sun Jiwu and offered him a reward of 60,000 rubles for his head.
Foreign interventionist forces withdrew from the Soviet Russia timetable
Sun Jiwu died of illness at the age of forty-eight. He left peacefully, but with some regret. After peaceful life in the Far East began in October 1922, he worked as a propaganda instructor in a Chinese neighbourhood in Khabarovsk. Until his death, he never returned to his motherland to fight for the creation of the Chinese workers' and peasants' regime.
Compared with Ren Fuchen, Bao Qisan, Sun Fuyuan and other famous Chinese in the Soviet-Russian civil war, there is not much information about Sun Jiwu. After reading a lot, I still couldn't find a single photo of him. Therefore, I would like to give special thanks to his comrade-in-arms Kovari, it is precisely because of his description that I have a vague outline of Sun Jiwu -
He was a big man, and a pair of shrewd eyes made his already vibrant face even more dazzling. His face was wrinkled, he looked weathered, and his black beard was mixed with a few strands of white whiskers. He always spoke slowly and logically, as if he were thinking about every word. Although his facial expression was always so serious, there was always a smile on the corner of his mouth.
Sun Jiwu is the epitome of countless Chinese Red guerrillas fighting in Siberia and the Far East. As the Soviet historian Nipopov put it, "The guerrilla struggle in which Chinese volunteers defended Soviet Russia occupies a special place. In this struggle, the Chinese guerrillas have made many heroic achievements, and the names of many glorious Chinese partisan comrades are remembered and respected by the Soviet people."
(Text/Han Xianyang, Material Source/Han Xianyang, Editor-in-Charge/Lin Feng, Editor/Qianli, Haizhe, Illustration/Qianli, Co-ordinator/Nanke)
Related articles
Source: "Broken Circle" WeChat public account