Ji Zhentong: "The rise and fall of the country, the pifu has the responsibility"

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Ji Zhentong, born in March 1901 in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, joined Feng Yuxiang's army in 1919 and later graduated from the Baoding Army Officer School. In October 1924, Ji Zhentong followed Feng Yuxiang in the Beijing coup d'état that overthrew the bribery of president Cao Kun and expelled the Manchu Qing deposed Emperor Puyi from the palace. In September 1926, he joined feng Yuxiang's Wuyuan Oath Division and served as the commander of the 14th Division of the Nationalist Coalition Army, participating in the Northern Expedition.

In 1931, Ji Zhentong was appointed brigade commander of the 74th Brigade of the Kuomintang 26th Route Army, and was subsequently transferred to Jiangxi to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army. After the "918" incident, Ji Zhentong explicitly opposed the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek's policy of non-resistance to Japan and the policy of "suppressing the Communists." He repeatedly addressed the officers and men of the 74th Brigade, saying: "It is the responsibility of the country to rise and fall. We should not be slaves to the country, we should not be colonies! We must strengthen ourselves, snow the country to shame, and recover the land and sovereignty! "We must have the courage to go back to the north and resolutely resist the Japanese army!" He took the lead in sending a joint telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, asking to return to the north to fight the Japanese army. Chiang Kai-shek strictly ordered the Twenty-sixth Route Army to continue to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army and "talk about the anti-Japanese killing without forgiveness." This further aroused the dissatisfaction of Ji Zhen and the officers and men of the Twenty-sixth Route Army with the reactionary policies of Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang.

With the leadership of the Party Central Committee and the help of the Party Organization, on December 14, 1931, Ji Zhentong, together with Zhao Bosheng, Dong Zhentang, Huang Zhongyue, and others, launched the famous Ningdu Uprising, leading more than 17,000 officers and men of the 26th Route Army to resolutely abandon the dark and join the Red Army, which was reorganized into the Fifth Army of the Red Army, and the Central Military Commission appointed Ji Zhentong as the commander-in-chief of the Red Fifth Army and Xiao Jinguang as the political commissar of the Red Fifth Army.

Shortly after the uprising, Ji Zhentong submitted a request to the Party Central Committee to join the Communist Party of China. In January 1932, introduced by Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, and approved by the Party Central Committee, Ji Zhentong joined the Communist Party of China. After the uprising, Ji Zhentong led the Fifth Red Army into the anti-"encirclement and suppression" operation and became a strong force in the Central Red Army.

In October 1934, on the eve of the Long March of the Central Red Army, Ji Zhentong was killed at the age of 33.