Recently, I went back to Guangrao, Shandong Province to visit relatives, and listened to my father tell the story of his hometown, Liuji Village, in his early years of fighting against the enemy. Since this struggle took place in my hometown, most of the people who participated were people I knew, which made me love my hometown even more. It is written down so that it can be remembered in mind, and that the results of our victory today are not easy to come by.
My father said that although he participated in this struggle, he was only an ordinary person at that time, only 21 years old, and it was impossible for him to fully understand the situation. He also hopes that those in the know will add, criticize, and correct.
Liuji Village is a poor village, because it is densely populated and has little land, and most of the families are carpenters. In addition to farming, people mainly make a living by making several wheelbarrows. In the old society, the Kuomintang government's exploitation and oppression of the people was pervasive, and there were many kinds of excesses and miscellaneous taxes. People put a lot of effort into making a small car, and after being taxed by the Kuomintang government, there was not much left. The people are in dire straits. In this area, the three-day temple fair in Hanjiaqiao Village is from September 15th to 17th of the old calendar every year, and people usually make a few pieces of wooden ware, hoping to sell them at this time, in order to earn a few dollars to support their families. If you don't pay, once you find out, you will be beaten and scolded, and even confiscated your things, and people will have to suffer. At that time, there was a man surnamed Han who was very unreasonable, extremely vicious to the masses, and particularly fierce in oppressing the masses. The party branch of Liuji village led the struggle at the request of the carpenters.
The party branch of Liuji Village was established relatively early, and it is said that it was established in 1925, and it is one of the first four branches in rural Shandong Province. She was the first party branch in Guangrao County, and the first branch secretary was Comrade Liu Liangcai (when the first county committee of Guangrao County was established in November 1928, he was the first secretary of the county party committee. He was later arrested and killed by the Kuomintang in Weixian County). In the autumn of 1929, when the annual Hanjiaqiao meeting was coming, the party branch analyzed the situation of the struggle at that time and decided to ignite the flame of struggle and launch the struggle to abolish excesses and miscellaneous taxes.
At that time, the carpentry in Liuji Village was organized by a trade union. I heard that during the first period of cooperation between the KMT and the Communist Party, it was organized in a legal form. Ostensibly government-organized, but in reality led by the Communist Party. The chairman of the Provisional Preparatory Committee of the Wood Trade Union is Comrade Liu Liangcai, and the vice president is Tian Zhile. Liu Kuiyi, Liu Kehe, Liu Xiukun, Liu Changjun, Liu Taishan, Liu Yuxi, Liu Jingming, Liu Shengyuan, Liu Shiliang, Liu Ximeng, Xie Zimin, Liu Xinshan, Liu Longshan, Liu Bailu, Liu Xiqing, Liu Hanshan, Liu Xiuru, Liu Jingzhang, Liu Letu, Tian Zhiyong...... etc. are members.
In order to launch this struggle, the party branch held a secret meeting at Liu Liangcai's house. The resolution was made under the specific leadership of Comrade Liu Liangcai and was organized and implemented. Before the operation, a trade union meeting was held at Liu Zilong's house, which was presided over by Liu Liangcai. He first made a speech, analyzed the enemy's oppression of the timber workers, and everyone's resentment against the Kuomintang government, and then put forward the idea of "smashing timber" for discussion with everyone, with the aim of abolishing the excesses and miscellaneous taxes. During the discussion, they agreed with him that it was necessary to abolish the excesses and miscellaneous taxes, and that those tax dogs who were bullying people should also learn a lesson. However, everyone also felt that the strength of Liuji Village alone was a bit weak, and the scale of the struggle should be made larger. After this fire is lit, the enemy will inevitably counterattack, and if the carpenters from the nearby villages are mobilized to work together, then the enemy's eyes will not be fixed on Liu Ji alone. At that time, in order to achieve the purpose of mobilizing the carpenters in various villages to participate, it was decided to publish a mimeographed tabloid and send people to the homes of carpenters in other villages in the form of leaflets. The slogan was: "Timber workers unite and fight for the abolition of the government's exorbitant taxes!" He also informed all villages to send representatives to Liuji Village for a meeting to discuss the establishment of the trade union and the plan of struggle. At that time, the division of labor: Comrade Liu Liangcai personally went to the villages north of Liuji to distribute it; Tian Zhiyong and Liu Xiukun went to the villages south of Liuji to distribute them. My father said that when they went to Zhongli, Xili, Liujia, Dengjia, Fanjia, Lücun and other villages, the mimeographed tabloids were sent to the carpenter's house (in order to expand his influence, he later had a meeting with Liu Shixian, Xie Wenying, and Jia Juncheng (from Nantun) to Wangzhen, which was farther away). In the case of the event, sympathy was expressed for the activities of the trade unions, but no representatives were sent to the meeting. Probably because of the fear of lawsuits and the fear of taking money, the rush of time may also be the reason why people did not come. It is said that in order to solve the problem of funding, some advocated taking money according to the number of heads, some advocated apportioning the money according to the number of axes, and some did not express their stance and did not unify it, so the trade unions never really succeeded. Under the leadership of the party branch, the carpenters in Liuji Village not only organized the "smashing wood" action, but also raised their emotions. I think that if we don't do it in other villages, we will do it ourselves, and the struggle of "smashing wood" must be carried out. Therefore, on the 15th day of the ninth month of the old calendar, more than 100 carpenters and young students from the slum school in Liuji Village, in the form of the "Red Gun Society" and under the personal leadership of Comrade Liu Liangcai, all of them went out of the north gate of Liuji Village with righteous indignation and marched towards the Hanjiaqiao Society. I remember that at that time, Comrade Liu Liangcai was walking at the forefront of the mass with a ghost-headed knife, Liu Changjun was blowing a foreign trumpet, and everyone was holding a red tassel gun, sticks, and other weapons used in fights.
Hanjiaqiao is located in the north and west of Liuji Village, about nine miles away, and the team will arrive in a while. According to the pre-division of labor, Liu Kuiwen first went to the wood market to stand on the carts sold by the carpenters, greeted the masses in a loud voice, and then made an enthusiastic speech. The center of the speech was to call on everyone to unite to fight against taxes and miscellaneous taxes imposed by the Kuomintang. At the same time, Comrade Liu Liangcai surrounded the Taxation Bureau with a contingent of wood workers. In the temporary tax shed, he started a reasoning struggle with the man surnamed Han. This surnamed Han, relying on the power of the Kuomintang at that time, blew his beard and stared at him very viciously. At this time, everyone was angry, and they smashed the tax table and tax shed in an instant. Comrade Liu Liangcai went up and stabbed him, he originally wanted to make this surnamed Han suffer a little, but he didn't expect to hit too hard, and he fell to the ground in an instant, bleeding like an infusion, and died after a while.
The so-called "smashing wood" is generally believed to be to smash the tables and sheds of the tax bureau and drive them away, so that they cannot force the carpenters to pay taxes, even if the goal is achieved. Suddenly beating someone to death is unexpected by everyone. The motives of the masses who participated in the struggle were also different, some were angry to take revenge on the enemy, some were to sell wood without paying taxes, and some came to watch the excitement. Once someone died, it caused a great shock among the masses. The vast majority of people were scared, so many sneaked home. People know that the enemy will not give up and will definitely go to Liuji Village to arrest people and take revenge. All those who participated in this struggle were afraid of being arrested and brought to court. Some people sleep at night and don't even dare to sleep in the village. Fortunately, Liuji Village is a revolutionary village, and despite the vigorous activities in the village, the Kuomintang still knew nothing about it for a long time, and the bad guys did not dare to talk and move here. Therefore, the Kuomintang has a lot to do with arresting people, and it is impossible to start it for a while.
There is a man named Liu Hanmin in Liuji Village, because his brother is ranked nineth, and people call him Lao Jiu. He was a member of the Kuomintang, and at that time he was working in the yamen of Guangrao City, mainly in charge of handling cases. This person has a great sense of justice, can speak well, and is very good at reasoning in front of the public, and the county magistrate of the Kuomintang is also afraid of him. I heard that once in handling a case, a county magistrate surnamed Wang was unreasonable, and Liu Hanmin caught him unreasonably and drove him away. Since then, Hermes-Epitek's reputation has grown. After the "smashing wood" incident, he suddenly returned home from Guangrao City. After living at home for a few days, he suddenly announced that he was also going to set up a wood trade union in Liuji, and the preparatory meeting was initially held in Liu Fushou's south house, where the carpenters were named, but later when the list was announced at the Northwest Gate Higher Primary School, the names of Liu Liangcai, Tian Zhile, Liu Kuiwen, Tian Zhiyong, Liu Changjun, Liu Xiukun and others were gone. At that time, he was asked, "Why don't you let them participate?" He said: "Our union is different from theirs, I am organized according to the government's charter, and several of them are suspected of communism." Liu Hanmin just took a false shot, but in fact, there was no activity at all afterwards. But after hearing this, my father and others were indeed a little worried, and they were worried every day, fearing that the Kuomintang would come to arrest people. Therefore, he went to consult his teacher Xie Zigan. Xie Zigan was a teacher at a higher school and had a deep level of learning, and Li Yannian, the commander of the Kuomintang Corps, was also his student. Xie Zigan said to my father: "Tian Zhiyong, don't be afraid, the Communist Party member in our village is Liu Juncai alone, and there is no second one." ”
Two years later, in 1931, the Kuomintang suddenly arrested Liu Kaowen and Liu Letu in Guangrao City (soon released home), and the names of Liu Liangcai, Liu Xiaoni (Liu Changjun), Tian Zhiyong and others were still on the list of those who were arrested, so at this time my father also went to Qingdao to hide. It took a long time for the government to stop pursuing the matter, and people began to return home. This is how the "smashing wood" incident happened.
It has been 55 years since 1929. Since then, the party branch in Liuji Village has deepened the struggle against the enemy step by step, and finally won today's victory under the leadership of the party. As far as this struggle itself is concerned, although it failed, it dealt a severe blow to the enemy, tempered the masses, and accumulated experience in the struggle. In this sense, "failure is the mother of success", "a lesson from the past, and a teacher from the future". Besides, the problem occurred in the early days of our party's founding, when our party was still in its infancy, lacked experience in struggle, and its defeat was understandable. Remembering the scene of the struggle in those years, especially when I think of Liu Liangcai and other martyrs who sacrificed their precious lives for the cause of our party, I am even more in awe and filled with emotion.
The author of this article: Tian Qi
Content source: "Guangrao Literature and History Collection"