In January 1929, Chairman Mao and Zhu De led the main force of the Red Fourth Army to leave Jinggangshan and open up the base area in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, which spanned Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces, and became the largest and most important base area of the Red Army during the agrarian revolution.
At that time, this base area was not only known as the Central Soviet District, but also had the most powerful Red Army unit in the country at that time, the Red First Army.
At the same time, however, because of its proximity to Guangdong, Zhejiang, and other provinces with the most economically developed economy at the time, the Central Soviet Region was not only strategically located, but also directly threatened the core ruling areas of Chiang Kai-shek and other Kuomintang reactionaries.
Therefore, from the moment the base area was established, it was encircled and suppressed by Chiang Kai-shek and other Kuomintang warlords who spared no effort.
From the establishment of the Central Soviet Region in 1930 to October 1934, when the Central Red Army was forced to leave the Soviet Zone and begin the Long March, in more than four years, Chiang Kai-shek alone launched as many as five large-scale encirclement and suppression, and mobilized more than one million troops.
In its heyday, the population of the Central Soviet District was only three or four million. Therefore, in order to resist the enemy's encirclement and suppression and develop the red base areas, the Central Soviet District had to maintain more than 100,000 Red Army troops for a long time.
In other words, with the meagre agricultural output and economic income of the Central Soviet District, it is necessary to support 100,000 troops and a considerable number of off-duty cadres, and the economic pressure faced by the Central Soviet District is enormous.
In southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, which are mountainous and poor, and where land is barren, it is impossible to rely solely on agricultural output to support an army of 100,000 people, even if they exhaust their resources and fish.
The reason why the Central Soviet Region was able to maintain an army of 100,000 for a long time and broke the enemy's heavy encirclement and suppression many times, and cooperated with the Guangdong warlord Chen Jitang Chen Jitang in the tungsten ore business can be said to be a great contribution.
Since the moment tungsten was discovered by mankind, it has occupied an extremely important position in human industry. Especially after scientists discovered the effect of tungsten on the properties of steel, it was upgraded to a strategic metal.
Tungsten-added steel exhibits extremely excellent properties, so as an important strategic metal and strategic resource, tungsten ore has always been the focus of imports from major countries.
Especially after Hitler came to power, Nazi Germany has been doing its best to mass-produce weapons and equipment in order to expand its military strength, and tungsten has become a strategic metal that Germany lacks the most.
At that time, the discovery of tungsten ore in southern China made China quickly become the center of the world tungsten market. According to statistics, in the 30s of the 20th century, China's tungsten production has accounted for more than 60% of the world's tungsten production.
At that time, China was in the period of the Republic of China, and the economic development of various warlords was almost withering, and the export of tungsten ore became one of the important incomes of Chiang Kai-shek and the warlords in the mineral-producing areas.
Take Chen Jitang, the king of the Southern Heavens who occupies Guangdong Province, as an example.
In May 1933, Chen Jitang specially invited Hanskland, the representative of the Nazi Wehrmacht in China, to secretly sign a barter agreement in Guangzhou.
At that time, it was agreed that Chen Jitang would exchange Chinese raw materials for German industrial products, and the total amount of the agreement was as high as 200 million marks. In addition, Chen Jitang also signed a series of agreements with Nazi Germany, including the German help him build a series of arsenals in Guangzhou, build railways in Guangdong, and build modern docks. A considerable part of the price paid by Chen Jitang is tungsten sand, which is urgently needed in Germany.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing Nationalist Government also signed a barter agreement with Germany, the "Contract for the Implementation of the Exchange of Chinese Agricultural and Mineral Products with German Industrial Products", which was almost the same as that signed by Chen Jitang.
It can be said that with the discovery of tungsten ore in China and the shortage of tungsten ore by the world powers, China's tungsten ore export has become one of the important sources of income for warlords from all walks of life.
Among the southern provinces of China that produce tungsten ore, especially the southern region of Jiangxi, tungsten ore production is the most abundant. At that time, the Kuomintang had made statistics that the tungsten ore output in southern Jiangxi accounted for as much as seventy percent of the country's total output.
It is also under this background that with Chairman Mao leading the Central Red Army to open up the base areas in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, a considerable part of the tungsten mines in southern Jiangxi were controlled by the Central Red Army.
The export of tungsten ore was a lucrative business at that time, as long as it could be produced, it could not be sold, and the value was high.
However, the Central Soviet District was surrounded on all sides and had neither a port nor a sea. Under such circumstances, how to sell the tungsten sand produced in the Central Soviet District has become a top priority in the Central Soviet District.
Moreover, at that time, due to the enemy's encirclement, suppression, and blockade in all aspects of economic, military, and political aspects, the Central Soviet Region was facing extremely serious economic difficulties.
Other items were tolerable, but for the salt, oil, and other substances necessary for human life, Chiang Kai-shek's strict blockade caused extremely serious difficulties in the base area. At that time, in order to cope with the shortage of this crude oil, the base area had to implement the public sale of salt and oil:
Each person per day, only allowed to buy three yuan, a family of five, can buy one or two five yuan, and so on, but the purchase must be vouchers, and the loss of the certificate is required to be reissued, and the procedures are very complicated. A little far away from the red area, it can be accommodated, and it can be purchased for three days at a time.
If the common people in the base areas were like this, the Red Army would not be much better. At that time, because of the lack of salt in the Red Army troops, the soldiers had to use dried chili peppers and radish water instead of salt to cook vegetables.
Therefore, in the face of the extremely severe economic difficulties of the Red Army, when the military breakthrough could not be achieved immediately, the Central Soviet District decided to cooperate with some merchants in the Kuomintang-ruled areas who came for high profits, and the largest customer of cooperation was Chen Jitang, the king of the Southern Heavens.
Chen Jitang was one of the veterans of the Kuomintang, and after the Central Plains War, he had de facto seized Guangdong and became the king of the Southern Heavens who held military and political power.
Therefore, in order to maintain his power and territory, Chen Jitang and Chiang Kai-shek had a natural contradiction.
It was against this background that although parts of the Central Soviet Region were located in Guangdong under Chen Jitang's rule, Chen Jitang did not care about the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army repeatedly urged by Chiang Kai-shek.
Because Chen Jitang believed that Guangdong was close to the sea, and although the Red Army was terrible, the possibility of a large-scale attack on Guangdong was not great. Therefore, although Chen Jitang never showed the slightest softness to the Communists in the area under his rule, he was very passive about attacking the central Soviet area.
Especially when Chen Jitang realized that the existence of the Central Soviet Region objectively blocked the way for Chiang Kai-shek's main force to enter Guangdong, and he was able to cooperate with the Central Soviet Region to make money, Chen Jitang was even less concerned about suppressing the Communists.
Guangdong, controlled by Chen Jitang, also produces tungsten sand, but the output is far from that of southern Gansu. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry of the Kuomintang government, the output of tungsten ore in Guangdong was 3,582 tons in 1929 and 2,433 tons in 1930.
With the output of tungsten ore in Guangdong, it is simply impossible to supply the tungsten ore export contract signed by Chen Jitang and the Germans. Therefore, tungsten ore in southern Gannan has always been the most important source of tungsten ore for Chen Jitang, and this has not changed since the Red Army occupied southern Gansu.
After the establishment of the Central Soviet District, the Soviet District faced extremely severe economic difficulties, and Chen Jitang also urgently needed tungsten ore export to make money in order to complete his separation, so the two sides hit it off.
Of course, it is worth mentioning that Chen Jitang has never been a good man and a woman, although he urgently needs tungsten ore in southern Gansu, but if he can directly occupy southern Gansu, wouldn't he earn more?
Therefore, for the Central Red Army, Chen Jitang also sent the Guangdong Army to participate in the encirclement and suppression, trying to defeat the Red Army and occupy southern Jiangnan. It was only defeated by the Central Red Army. After discovering that force could not realize his wishes, Chen Jitang was forced to retreat and choose to cooperate with the Red Army.
As early as 1932, the Central Soviet District set up the China Soviet Tungsten Sand Company, and its purpose was extremely clear:
The establishment of the tungsten sand company was to lead the production of tungsten sand in the central Soviet area, produce more tungsten sand, and crush Chiang Kai-shek's economic blockade.
After the mining, production, and transportation of tungsten ore in the base area are completed, sales become the last and most important link.
At that time, the Central Soviet Region established trade sub-bureaus in Jiangxi, Fujian and other provinces and regions, among them, the Jiangkou Foreign Trade Sub-bureau located at the mouth of the Jiangkou in Ganxian County, due to the garrison of the Guangdong army in southern Jiangxi at this time, quickly became the most important foreign trade sub-bureau in the Central Soviet Region.
The most important trade material of the Jiangkou Branch is tungsten ore.
So, how much tungsten sand was produced in the base area during the more than 4 years of the Central Soviet District, and how much was the tungsten sand trade in cooperation with Chen Jitang sold?
Due to the frequent wars at that time, the Central Soviet Region was lost due to the failure of the Fifth Anti-Encirclement and Suppression, and the Central Red Army on the Long March suffered heavy losses, so there is very little information on the specific data on the output and trade value of tungsten ore in the Central Soviet Area.
However, according to Zeng Hongyi, who was the supreme leader of the Soviet region in northeastern Jiangxi at that time, it can be glimpsed in an article published at the time. In his article "Some Opinions on Economic Construction" (Struggle, No. 42, January 12, 1934), he wrote:
In 1933, "according to the revenue statistics of the Central Ministry of Finance, the income of state-run enterprises from January to August of this year was only 107,188 yuan (including the profits from various productions)."
According to the research of many scholars, during the period of the Central Soviet District, there were two or three views on the output and trade amount of tungsten ore sold in the base areas.
The first view is that after its establishment until the Central Red Army's Long March left the base area, China Tungsten Sand Company produced a total of 4,193 tons of tungsten sand, accounting for 18% of the tungsten production in Jiangxi Province at that time, and the export value was 4.3 million silver dollars.
The second view is that a total of 7,890 tons of tungsten sand were produced during the period of the Central Soviet District, which brought 6.2 million silver dollars to the Central Soviet District. And the third point of view is that tungsten sand produced a total of 4,020 tons.
However, regardless of the point of view, there is no doubt that the output of tungsten sand during the Central Soviet period exceeded 4,000 tons, and the ocean obtained was between 4 million and 6 million yuan.
Such a huge amount of income accounted for almost 70% of the total financial revenue of the Central Soviet District, and it is conceivable that tungsten sand was of great importance to the Central Soviet District at that time.
The Red Army made a lot of money, and Chen Jitang, who mastered the path and contract, naturally earned more, probably because of this, on the eve of the Red Army's Long March, in the face of the Red Army's request to borrow the road, Chen Jitang finally chose to agree. As a result, the Central Red Army successfully broke through the blockade and embarked on the road of the Long March, and the Chinese revolution opened a new page.