Located at the junction of Hunan and Jiangxi, Jinggangshan is known as the cradle of the Chinese Revolution.
The first revolutionary base area established under the leadership of our party was the Jinggangshan base area.
When it comes to the Jinggangshan base area, in many people's minds, the first thing that appears must be Chairman Mao, Mr. Zhu and other founders of these base areas, but what we want to introduce to you today is a "green forest hero" Yuan Wencai, who occupied the mountains in the Jinggangshan area long before Zhu and Mao Ting entered Jinggangshan, specializing in fighting local tyrants and inferior gentry, robbing the rich and helping the poor!
When it comes to Yuan Wencai, many people are not familiar with this person's name. He came from a poor background, but his family frugalized enough to provide for him to study for a few years and attend secondary school.
In his twenties, in order to resist the oppression of local tyrants and inferior gentry, Yuan Wencai joined a sabre team on Jinggang Mountain. The so-called sabre team is actually a bandit team composed of poor people who have been forced to fall into the grass. Because of his knowledge after reading books, Yuan Wencai soon became the chief of staff of the saber team.
In the autumn of 1926, the sabre team was organized by the Kuomintang as the Ninggang County Security Regiment, and Yuan Wencai served as the head of the regiment. In September of the same year, under the influence of the Hunan peasant movement, under the leadership of the Ninggang County Branch of the Communist Party of China, Yuan Wencai, as the commander-in-chief, led the defense regiment to hold the Ninggang Riot. In November 1926, under the introduction of He Zizhen and others, Yuan Wencai joined our party.
After the defeat of the Great Revolution in 1927, in the face of the pursuit and suppression of the Kuomintang army, Yuan Wencai led his brothers to adhere to the guerrilla warfare method in the Jinggangshan area, repelled several encirclements and suppressions by the Kuomintang regular army, and established their own territory in the area of Ciping in Jinggangshan.
In September 1927, after the Autumn Harvest Uprising led by Chairman Mao suffered a heavy setback, he led the remaining troops to retreat and transfer. Because he had heard that there were peasant armed forces under the leadership of our party in the Jinggangshan area, he decided to lead the rest of the revolutionary army to move to the Jinggangshan area.
At the end of September, Chairman Mao led the troops to Sanwan Village, Yongxin County. At the same time, after Yuan Wencai learned the news, he was a little confused. Although he was a member of the Communist Party of China, in the face of the disorderly situation of the grassroots organizations after the defeat of the Great Revolution, and at the same time did not understand Mao Zedong and the armed forces he led, he did not know whether Mao Zedong led the troops to pass by or stay permanently. It's okay to pass by, but what should he do if he is stationary?
Soon after Chairman Mao arrived in Sanwan Village, he sent someone to deliver a letter to Yuan Wencai. The letter briefly expounded the current situation, and expressed his willingness to cooperate with Yuan Wencai and other heroes in Jinggangshan to jointly build Jinggangshan into a red base for the peasant uprising.
After Yuan Wencai received the letter, he immediately convened his brothers to discuss. After discussion, everyone still felt that it was better to be careful, after all, everyone did not know Mao Zedong and the troops he led.
Therefore, after some deliberation, Yuan Wencai wrote a tactfully worded letter of rejection: Commissar Mao, the people of our land are poor and barren, the Juwang Pond cannot tolerate giant whales, the forests do not inhabit Dapeng, and your army is galloping through the revolution, so you should choose another smooth road. Salute, Yuan Wencai knocked! Then let the clerk Chen Muping take a few people down the mountain to deliver the letter, and by the way, probe Mao Zedong's bottom.
After Yuan Wencai's letter was transferred to Chairman Mao, Chairman Mao, who had read the letter, remained silent and had a warm conversation with Chen Muping and others, explaining to them the intention of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and hoping that Yuan Wencai would cooperate with the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to jointly carry out the revolutionary struggle and establish the Jinggangshan Red Base Area together. In order to show his sincerity, Mao Zedong also took out the best short guns in the team at that time and gave them to Chen Muping and others.
After sending Chen Muping away, Mao Zedong convened a meeting of the backbone of the army to discuss how to make the team smoothly stationed in Jinggangshan. At the meeting, someone proposed to simply rush to Jinggangshan and let Yuan Wencai disarm. However, Mao Zedong was not in favor of solving the problem by force, he believed that everyone was the armed force of the peasants, and if they could unite peacefully, they would be a big team.
So Chairman Mao sent a letter to Yuan Wencai again, expressing his willingness to interview Yuan Wencai in person, in order to reassure Yuan Wencai, the interview location was selected in Okura Village, Yuan Wencai's own house. Because Chen Muping had previously talked with Chairman Mao, he suggested that Yuan Wencai could consider cooperating with Chairman Mao, and after receiving Mao Zedong's letter requesting an interview, Yuan Wencai agreed to meet with Mao Zedong.
On October 6, 1927, Chairman Mao came to Okura Village, Ciping, to meet Yuan Wencai as agreed. The two had a very speculative conversation, and their conversation lasted from the morning until the sun was about to set in the afternoon.
During the conversation, Mao Zedong analyzed the political situation and the future of the revolution after the defeat of the Great Revolution to Yuan Wencai, praised Yuan Wencai for saving guns and troops for the revolution under difficult and complicated conditions, and encouraged him to do more work for the revolution in the future.
In addition, Chairman Mao also made it clear to Yuan Wencai that he would lead his troops to Guangdong to join the troops led by He Long and Ye Ting, and would not stay in Jinggangshan for a long time, but would still leave some people to run the Jinggangshan base area with Yuan Wencai, so that there would be a response in the future. At the same time, in order to help Yuan Wencai develop his team, Chairman Mao also took out 100 guns and gave them to Yuan Wencai.
Chairman Mao's heart-to-heart words and the act of sending the gun made Yuan Wencai completely let go of the doubts in his heart. He immediately welcomed Mao Zedong to lead the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to settle down in his territory, and his troops were also willing to accept the reorganization and establish the Jinggangshan base area together, and at the same time, he was also willing to assist Mao Zedong in contacting other armed forces in Jinggangshan to join the revolutionary ranks.
After the talks, when parting, Yuan Wencai also asked people to take out 1,000 oceans and give them to Chairman Mao to show his sincerity.
In this way, the day after the meeting with Chairman Mao, Yuan Wencai personally led the troops to welcome Mao Zedong and the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army into Ciping.
After that, Yuan Wencai also organized personnel to raise tens of thousands of catties of grain and a batch of cloth, helped solve the problem of food and clothing for the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, and also assisted the Revolutionary Army in establishing a hospital and a place to stay in Jinggangshan. At this point, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army led by Chairman Mao had settled down on Jinggang Mountain.
Soon, Yuan Wencai acted as a lobbyist and persuaded Wang Zuo, another green forest hero on Jinggang Mountain, to join the revolutionary ranks with his team, and the strength of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was further strengthened, and the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area was initially built.