Baotou figure: Li Yuzhi, the first secretary of the Baotou Working Committee of the CPC, the commander-in-chief of the Inner Mongolia People's Revolutionary Army

Li Yuzhi (1901-1927), also known as Batur, was a Mongolian from Tokto County, Inner Mongolia, and a member of the Communist Party of China.

Since childhood, he has a strong personality, is eager to learn and dares to do things, and is deeply loved by his parents. At the age of 10, he entered the private school of the village, and in the middle of the year, he went to yucai primary school in Hekou Town. In the 7th year of the Republic of China (1918), he was admitted to the Tumut Higher Primary School in Guisui (present-day Hohhot). Because of his brilliant talent, excellent grades, and the best in the same window, his classmates gave him the nickname "Tagore". In the 8th year of the Republic of China (1919), the "May Fourth" Movement broke out, and the Guisui students were moved by the wind, and Li Yuzhi first responded, organized and launched a strike by tu primary school students, and led the crowd to write slogans, distribute leaflets, and give speeches in the streets. The following year, after graduating from high school, he was admitted to Guisui Middle School. During his time at the school, Li Yuzhi organized the Tuoxian Lusui Alumni Association and was promoted as an officer. At this time, The Tianjin businessman Shen Wenbing colluded with the Japanese businessmen to monopolize the Guisui Electric Industry, arousing public indignation, and the Guisui students brewed an anti-Shen campaign, and he actively organized the guissed middle school students and students from various schools to carry out the struggle to "boycott Japanese capital" together, and destroyed the telephone bureau, office, and some factory facilities of the comprador businessman Shen Wenbing, forcing him to stop running the electric light company. With the support of the citizens, the anti-Shen struggle was victorious. In May of the 12th year of the Republic of China (1923), Li Yuzhi participated in organizing and leading the Guisui Student Federation to commemorate the "May Fourth" Movement and the "May 7" National Shame Day, and led the students to smash the "Shengji" trading house that sold foreign goods. Then, he launched and led the "Gui Sui Student Tide" against the school authorities' favoritism and oppression of the poor and weak. As a result, he was expelled from school.

In the mid-autumn of that year, he went to the Peking Mongolian-Tibetan School to study and began to accept Marxism. In the spring of the 13th year of the Republic of China (1924), under the cultivation of Deng Zhongxia, Zhao Shiyan and others, he joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League, and in the same year, he joined the Communist Party of China.

At the beginning of the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925), he was dispatched by the Northern District Committee of the Communist Party of China to return to Inner Mongolia to carry out revolutionary work and served as the secretary of the Baotou Working Committee of the Communist Party of China. After Li Yuzhi arrived in Baotou, he stayed at Fuzheng Temple, using this as a base to actively carry out revolutionary activities. In May of the same year, during his reporting in Beiping, the Inner Mongolia People's Revolutionary Youth League was established at the Mongolian and Tibetan School, and he joined this organization according to the instructions of the party organization and was elected as a member of the league branch. At the end of the month, he returned to Guisui and organized and led the struggle in suiyuan with Yunze (i.e., Ulanfu), Ji Yatai and others in solidarity with the "May Thirtieth" movement. Later, he returned to Baotou, raised funds in many ways, opened the Mingde Photo Studio, organized study groups, publicized Marxism to the party activists, introduced the experience of the Russian revolution, explained Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles, and cultivated a number of anti-imperialist and anti-feudal backbone forces for the party. In September, Li Yuzhi went alone to the Shiqiu Coal Mine in the northern suburbs of Baotou to carry out labor movement work, digging coal with the workers during the day and inspecting the working conditions of the workers on the spot; at night, he went deep into the caves to understand the living conditions of the miners, and inspired the workers to unite against exploitation and oppression and fight against the mine owners. After in-depth and meticulous ideological education, the miners began to become enlightened. Soon, under the leadership of Li Yuzhi's organization, a general strike of coal miners in Shiqiu was held. The struggle was won, forcing the mine owners to accede to the workers' demands for better treatment and higher wages.

In October, Li Yuzhi went to Zhangjiakou to attend the First Congress of the Inner Mongolia People's Revolutionary Party. At the meeting, in accordance with the instructions of the Party, he actively supported the revolutionary program of "anti-imperialism, anti-feudalism, and opposition to reactionary feudal princes and nobles" put forward by the Inner People's Party, and joined the Party, where he was elected as a member of the Central Committee and an alternate member of the Central Executive Committee. After returning to the bag, the sign "Baotou City Party Department of the Inner Mongolia Province Party Department of the Chinese Kuomintang" was hung up at Fuzheng Temple to carry out party work in an open capacity.

In the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925), Li Dazhao established the "Great Alliance of Peasants, Workers and Soldiers" in Zhangjiakou, and Li Yuzhi participated in the inaugural meeting and was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee. In January of the 15th year of the Republic of China (1926), Li Yuzhi attended the Second National Congress of the Chinese Kuomintang in favor of the Chinese Communist Party. After returning to Baotou, he did a lot of work in the National Revolutionary Army of Feng Yuxiang, who was stationed in Baotou, and at the same time actively assisted in the formation of the Inner Mongolia People's Revolutionary Army, and was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Army and the commander of the First Route Army.

Since then, Li Yuzhi has devoted his main energy to the formation of this people's armed force, mobilized workers and peasants to join the army, and risked his life to win over and transform Bai Congxi, the "head of the Brotherhood of the Elders" in the Baotou area, and others and their armed congregations, so that the Inner Mongolia People's Revolutionary Army will continue to grow and develop. In order to improve the quality and combat effectiveness of the troops, he actively participated in the establishment of the "Inner Mongolia Officer School" to train military cadres; advocated the "military training campaign" to conduct military training, and personally went to the barracks for specific guidance. Officers and men admired Li Yuzhi for ruling the army with leniency and severity, and for paying attention to ideological work. The troops he led, with strict discipline and bravery in battle, once crossed the Yellow River in the south and cooperated with the "Duguilong" department to carry out armed struggle.

In September of the 16th year of the Republic of China (1927), Bai Yunti, chairman of the Central Committee of the Inner People's Party, openly rebelled against the revolution, purging and slaughtering Communists in the Inner Mongolia People's Party and the Inner Mongolia People's Revolutionary Army. On October 8 of the same year, Li Yuzhi was brutally killed at the age of 26 at The Age of 26 in Mao Wusu, a Ikezhao League.

Source: Baotou City Chronicle (Volume 1), June 2007