The "August defeat" was a major setback encountered by the Red Army during the Jinggangshan period, the main reason for which was the blind activist line of the Central Committee and the erroneous instructions of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, as well as the imperfection of the internal education system in the early days of the founding of the Red Army.
This defeat caused Mao Zedong and Zhu De to pull up a revolutionary force that had been pulled up so hard to bring up, and especially the sacrifice of the revolutionary pioneer Wang Erzhuo, which made Zhu De, the father of the Red Army, feel bitter and remorseful, and Mao Zedong decided in anger to limit absolute democracy within the Red Army and no longer accept the direct leadership of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee.
In late June 1928, just as the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area was booming, a man named Du Xiujing came to Jinggangshan as a representative of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and conveyed the instructions of the provincial party committee, demanding that the Red Fourth Army immediately develop into Shonan.
Paintings of Mao Zedong during the Red Army
Since the former Jinggangshan Cpc Committee was under the direct leadership of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee at that time, Mao Zedong, as the former secretary of the CPC Committee, was very embarrassed by this instruction from the party committee at a higher level, because at this time the enemy was strong and we were weak, and it was not the best time to take the initiative to attack. Therefore, Mao Zedong suggested that the Hunan Provincial Party Committee re-discuss and persuaded Du Xiujing not to implement this directive for the time being.
Originally, this wrong decision was cleverly bypassed by Mao Zedong, but a military conflict that occurred not long ago completely disrupted Mao Zedong's deployment.
Since two divisions of the Xiang Army suddenly launched an attack on Jinggangshan, Zhu De and Chen Yi immediately led the 28th Regiment and the 29th Regiment down the hill to take the initiative.
This battle was originally very smooth, but just when the class was about to return to the Dynasty, the 29th Regiment had a fork. Because most of the officers and men of this regiment are composed of Yizhang peasants, the local concept is very heavy, and they have long been dissatisfied with the difficult life of Jinggangshan, but now that they have arrived at the doorstep, homesickness has suddenly spread.
The basis of the 28th and 29th Regiments was the Nanchang Uprising, although they all belonged to the Red Fourth Army at that time, but the army was not unified in principle at that time. Mao Zedong emphasized the centralization and unification of the party, so the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd regiments under his direct leadership all built branches on the company. Zhu De emphasized democracy more, so the 28th and 29th regiments under his direct leadership established a more powerful soldiers' committee and granted them absolute democratic power.
It was precisely because of this defect in the system that the 29th Regiment Soldiers Committee secretly decided that the whole regiment would return to Shonan without informing the commanders and party representatives.
Zhu De oil paintings from the Red Army period
When Zhu De and Chen Yi learned of this, they wrote a letter to inform Mao Zedong while going to the 29th Regiment to persuade them. In the case of fruitless persuasion, the soldiers' committee of the 29th Regiment was decisively dissolved and the regiment was forced to return to Jinggangshan.
However, a mistake has been made, where is it said that it can be recovered? Just as Zhu De had feared, less than a day after the troops had gone back, the 29th Regiment was in chaos, grinding and rubbing, and the soldiers began to scurry and pull their fellow villagers, causing great order, and some people had already deserted on the spot.
Zhu De and Chen Yi had no choice but to stop their troops to hold an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission. At the meeting, Du Xiujing, a representative of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee, proposed to carry out the instructions of the provincial party committee to send troops to Shonan, and Gong Chu, a party representative of the 29th Regiment, also agreed, so the two proposed to raise their hands to vote, and as a result, more than 80 of the more than 100 officers and men attending the meeting agreed.
This was the first time since the founding of the Red Army that absolute democracy had defeated centralized leadership. In desperation, Zhu De and others could only swallow the bitter fruit of their own, expressing obedience, writing a letter to report mao zedong while changing the route and marching towards Shonan.
Mao Zedong, who was attacking Chenzhou, was shocked to see the letter, because at this time Jinggangshan was empty and the Kuomintang army was attacking together, so he hurriedly wrote a letter demanding that the 28th and 29th regiments return immediately.
Oil paintings by Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Chen Yi during the Red Army
After zhu de, Chen Yi, and Du Xiu saw the letter, they decided to camp at Shuikou that night and hold a meeting of cadres at and above the company level the next day to re-discuss the question of whether the troops should go to Shonan or return to Yongxin. In the end, it was decided to return to Jinggangshan.
However, on the way back, there were problems that Surprised Zhu De. On July 23, the troops arrived in Chenzhou, where Fan Shisheng's troops were stationed. Originally, Zhu De had been covered and assisted by Fan Shisheng after the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, and the two sides had already made a non-aggression agreement, so Zhu De was unwilling to make enemies with Fan Shisheng.
Unexpectedly, Du Xiujing was forced by party discipline, and Zhu De had to command his troops to attack Binzhou. Binzhou was Fan Shisheng's rear base, with a large amount of materials, and the Red Army troops who had not seen supplies for a long time saw so many gold and silver treasures, and suddenly there was a great chaos in military discipline, and they began to fish for "foreign wealth."
After Fan Shisheng learned that Binzhou had been captured by the Red Army, he immediately organized his troops to launch a counterattack.
Zhu De ordered the two regiments to retreat to Zixing as soon as possible, but the officers and men of the 29th Regiment, who had already made enough money in Chenzhou, were now worried about their wives and children in Yizhang, where they were still willing to retreat. Not long after leaving Chenzhou, the 29th Regiment dispersed, shouting "Go, go back to Yizhang!" "Go home, go home!" They fled in the direction of Yizhang.
Hu Shaohai, the leader of the 29th Regiment, and Gong Chu, a party representative, tried their best to stop it, but to no avail. In the end, only one company led by deputy battalion commander Xiao Ke was complete, adding up to a total of more than 200 people.
At this time, what was even more serious was that this defection had triggered a chain reaction, and bad news also came from the 28th Regiment, and the commander of the 2nd Battalion, Yuan Chongquan, defected and pulled away 6 companies at once.
Wang Erzhuo
Wang Erzhuo, chief of staff of the Red 4th Army and commander of the 28th Regiment, led the 1st battalion to pursue Yuan Chongquan. When it was almost dawn, Lin Biao's 1st Battalion surrounded the rebels, and Wang Erzhu shouted at the rebels: "I am your regimental commander, come and pick you up, the past is not to blame!" Unwillingly, Yuan Chongquan suddenly rushed out from the shadows and fired several shots in a row, causing Wang Erzhuo to be shot and killed.
Too many people lament wang erzhuo's sacrifice, because it is widely believed that if wang erzhu can live until the liberation of the whole country, he will certainly become a marshal of the republic.
After the 29th Regiment broke away from the troops, most of them were intercepted and killed by the Kuomintang troops on the way, and one regiment was lost in this way, and the 28th Regiment lost a wang Erzhuo, who had great influence.
Faced with such a great setback, Jude held Wang Erzhuo's long-bearded and fluttering corpse in tears, and he regretted it. When Mao Zedong learned of Zhu Debu's defeat, he hurriedly led his troops down the mountain to meet him, and appeased this old comrade-in-arms with his generous hands.
Mao Zedong and Zhu De met at Jinggangshan to paint oil
After Mao Zedong picked up Zhu De and arrived in Guidong County, he immediately presided over a meeting of cadres of the Red Fourth Army, at which the decision to abolish the front committee and establish a committee was adopted. It is worth noting that the cancellation of the front committee here actually means the cancellation of the direct leadership of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee over the Jinggangshan Front Committee.
At this time, the greater losses faced by the Red Fourth Army continued, and after the main force of the Red Army was far away from the base area, the enemy army took the opportunity to invade, Yongxin, Lotus, and Ninggang were successively occupied by the enemy, and the border counties and plains were also reduced to enemy positions, and the people killed in the base areas were burned and the houses were burned, which caused the famous "August defeat" in the history of the Red Army.
After the "August defeat", the parties Du Xiujing and Gong Chu all broke away from the revolutionary ranks, and Gong Chu became a famous rebel general of the Red Army, and the Red Fourth Army was once again severely damaged, making the crisis at Jinggangshan even deeper.
Mao Zedong made a comprehensive and objective analysis of the reasons for his defeat, holding that the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee's erroneous assessment of the objective situation and blind activism toward military action were the main causes, while the erroneous instructions issued by the deputies of the Hunan Provincial CPC Committee were the direct causes.
Mao Zedong and Zhu De in Jinggangshan oil painting
From then on, Mao Zedong and Zhu De began to review some mistakes in the principles of the Red Army's army building, which immediately limited the power of the soldiers' committee and the absolute democracy in the Red Fourth Army. Four months later, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the Red 4th Army to attack Gannan and leave Jinggangshan, completely breaking away from the leadership of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee.
Bloody lessons have also poured the cornerstone of victory.
By constantly summing up the lessons of past successes and failures, Mao Zedong took a clear-cut stand at the Gutian Conference to put forward "the party's absolute leadership over the army." This marked the reshaping of the people's army and marked that the Red Army had truly become a pure revolutionary army under the leadership of the party, and had officially entered the historical stage as a mighty division, a civilized division, and a victorious division.
There are currently more than 100 articles of the same kind in this issue, if you like my article, please pay attention to it so that you can continue to read and review it.
If you disagree with the point of view of this article, we look forward to seeing your insights in the comments section!