Travel Notes of South China Part 10: Ganzhou Yudu, the starting point of the Red Army

Visited the Ganzhou Museum on the morning of November 28, 2020, then set off for Yudu County, Ganzhou City at 10:20, and arrived at the Memorial Park where the Red Army Long March started in Yudu County at 11:25 noon. Since then, we started a two-day "red tour". We will visit the Memorial Park where the Red Army Long March started, Ruijin Historical Memorial Park of the Soviet Republic of China, Ruijin Red Well Scenic Area, Yeping Scenic Area, and the Longyan Gutian Conference Site in Fujian.

1. Itinerary for November 28

2. Return to the Long March

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2019, red tides are surging across the country, with red songs, red dances and red stories. Infected by the red tide, I joined the red tide by watching red dramas, and successively watched TV dramas that showed the history of the founding of the Party and the country: "Cradle of the Republic", "Jinggangshan", "Red Star Shines on China", "Four Crosses of Chishui", "The Great Turning" , "Autumn Harvest Uprising", "Founding Father Zhu De", etc. Watching these TV series has greatly enriched the history of the Party and the founding of the People's Republic of China. The story in the play tells the story of how the founding fathers founded the Chinese Soviets, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and the 25,000-mile Long March.

After watching the TV series, my husband and I resonated - to return to the path of the Red Army! In September 2020, we embarked on the journey to start the red journey. Due to time constraints, we mainly visited the Jinggang Mountains in Jiangxi, and the places and museums passed by the "Four Crosses of Chishui" in Guizhou, including the Zunyi Xishui in Guizhou Tucheng County Ancient Town, Taiping Ancient Town in Gulin County, Sichuan, Renhuai Maotai Town in Zunyi City, Guizhou Province, and the Zunyi Conference Site in Zunyi, Guizhou Province, etc., and visited exhibition halls that introduced historical stories of the year.

The route of this trip to South China is: Guizhou, Jiangxi, and Fujian. We followed this route for a "red tour". The order of visits is as follows: On the afternoon of the 28th, the starting point of the Red Army's Long March in Yudu County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Ruijin Historical Memorial Park of the Soviet Republic of China, Ruijin Historical Memorial Park of the Chinese Soviet Republic; Ruijin Hongjing Scenic Area and Yeping Scenic Area in the morning of the 29th, and the Longyan Gutian Conference Site in Fujian Province in the afternoon. This travelogue introduces the starting point of the Red Army’s Long March in Du County.

3. Visit the starting point of the Red Army’s Long March

1. The background of the Long March of the Central Red Army

In January 1929, the Fourth Red Army led by Mao Zedong, Zhu De and others set out from Jinggangshan and marched into southern Jiangxi and western Fujian. He successively established the Red Front Army and the Central Soviet Area, and successively achieved four great victories against "encirclement and suppression" campaigns. In September 1933, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized heavy troops to launch the fifth large-scale military "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Central Soviet Area. Under the leadership of the party and the Soviet government, the soldiers and civilians in the Soviet area fought bloody battles against the attacking Kuomintang troops. However, due to the "Left" wrong leadership, the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" war failed to win.

2. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China secretly prepares strategic shifts

The fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign had no hope of victory. Bogu was forced to convene a meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in late May 1934 to discuss the anti-"encirclement and suppression" situation and put forward two plans for future anti-"encirclement and suppression" combat policies: First, the main force of the Red Army "Stay in the Central Soviet Area and turn to guerrilla warfare"; the second is to resolutely "defend the Central Soviet Area to the end while preparing to transfer our main force to another battlefield." On June 16, 1934, the Communist International telegraphed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to agree to implement the second plan. The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China immediately decided to establish the top "three-person group" of the Central Committee composed of Bogu, Li De and Zhou Enlai, which was responsible for secretly planning and leading all matters related to the strategic transfer of the main Red Army.

3. On October 16, 1934, the 25,000-mile Long March of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army set out from Yudu, Ganzhou

Yudu is an all-red county in the Central Soviet Area and a solid rear base. It is the gathering place for the Central Red Army's Long March. The people of Yudu have made significant contributions and great sacrifices to the Chinese revolution. The planning, secret preparation, and assembly and departure of the Central Red Army's Long March are important stages in the entire process of the Red Army's Long March. The revolutionary spirit displayed by the soldiers and civilians in the Soviet area during this period was to take the overall situation into consideration, strictly observe discipline, share weal and woe, make selfless contributions, and continue to march forward bravely. This is an important part of the spirit of the great Long March.

4. Excerpts from the Long March Diary

Day 1: Tuesday, October 16th, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month

October 16, 1934 was a Tuesday, the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, the Double Ninth Festival. According to Chinese tradition, this day is a day for climbing mountains together, admiring chrysanthemums, drinking wine, and composing poems.

...At about 8 o'clock that evening, bustling audiences poured into the National Center for the Performing Arts, preparing to watch the film "The Secret of the Wax Museum" performed by Leon Yardway and Fei Lei, thousands of miles away in Nanjing. Yudu River in southern Jiangxi Province is far away, and tens of thousands of people are gathering here to cross the river one after another. A blockbuster "The Long March" that will shock the world and shake human history will be staged here. Where the 80,000-strong army is going is a real secret. The enemy does not know, and neither does the Red Army itself.

On the 10th, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Red Army Headquarters set out from Ruijin. Other main forces of the Red Army also set off from their respective stations and assembled in the Yudu area.

On October 16, a total of more than 86,000 people from the five legions of the main force of the Red Army and two columns of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission who participated in the Long March were assembled and began to cross the Dudu River that day, officially kicking off the Long March. According to the memory of Yang Chengwu, political commissar of the Fourth Regiment of the Second Division of the First Red Army, they set out in the evening. “A neat team stood on the lawn on the other side of the river, with a steady flow of people coming from all directions. The old and young came to the bank of the Yudu River. Some of the villagers pushed hard-boiled eggs into our hands, some put handfuls of fried beans into our pockets, and some held the hands of our soldiers and asked. "When will you be back?" Some of them couldn't stop crying. "The landlady where Yang Chengwu lived roasted two sweet potatoes and gave them to him. All three of Yang Chengwu's sons became Red Army soldiers, and two of them became Red Army soldiers. sacrificed. She took Yang Chengwu's hand and said: "Fight well, I'll wait for you to come back." "The bugle sounded, and the Fourth Red Regiment and I took the first step in strategic transfer. This was October 16, 1934. "This reluctant scene, this Double Ninth Festival dusk that is always worth remembering, is imprinted in the hearts of many Red Army commanders and soldiers.

Day 2: Wednesday, October 17, the tenth day of the ninth lunar month

On that day, when the First Red Army Corps, as the advance force, all crossed the Duhe River, the Fifth Red Army Corps, as the rear guard, had not yet set off, and the central agency, which was the military commission's column, had just started on the road that day. Thousands of porters carried a large amount of property from the Soviet area, such as printing presses, banknote engraving plates, bullet-making machines, X optical machines, boxes full of documents, reserves of silver coins, gold bars, rice, medicines, spare guns, Transceivers, telephone equipment, large coils of telephone wire, etc., moved slowly along the line. Mao Zedong later compared this to "like a big move." ... Xiao Feng, who was then the General Branch Secretary of the Third Regiment of the First Division of the Red Army, wrote in his diary that day: "We set off at four o'clock on the New Year's Eve and traveled seventy miles. When we passed Guajiang River, Captain Liu of the Red Guard held our hands. Asking, 'Where are you going?' The soldiers also kept asking me: "Secretary of the General Branch, where are the troops going? I have only heard that they are moving to the south. Anyway, where can we easily eliminate Chiang Kai-shek and break the enemy's 'encirclement and suppression'?" Where to hit. "Although the Red Army commanders and fighters did not know where they were going, they were still walking in the Soviet area at this moment, and they were in a calm mood. Especially marching at night was not boring. A Red Army cadre later told Smedelai: "If The bright moon is in the sky, the breeze is blowing, and it is very pleasant to march at night. If there are no enemy troops nearby, the companies will have to sing songs among themselves." "Who dares to invade the sacred free land? Who dares to ravage the red regime? Ah! The iron fist is waiting for the Fascist Imperial Party, we are red soldiers, fight! Until the last person!" The singing gradually faded away, and people realized that the Red Army was really gone.

Day 3: Thursday, October 18th, the 10th day of the 9th month of the lunar calendar

"It has been two days since we set off. Because we are still walking in our hometown - the base area, everyone is used to it and don't feel anything. However, starting today makes me feel a little different, because starting from today, we will leave our hometown." , this is a passage from the memoirs written by Tong Xiaopeng, then secretary of the Political Security Bureau of the First Army Corps. Tong Xiaopeng also wrote in his memoirs that an instructor said in a mobilization speech: "The road today is not far. Although there is no moon, it doesn't matter as long as you keep up one by one and don't fall behind. The place we arrived today is our guerrilla zone. There are The "Eradication of Communists" organization, so everyone should not fall behind to avoid losing contact and being attacked by the "Eradication of Communists".

When Mao Zedong spoke to the party cadres who stayed in Yudu three days ago, he tried his best to sound confident: "Don't be afraid. Don't think that the revolution has failed when the main force of the Red Army has left. You can't just see temporary difficulties. There is hope for the revolution, and the Red Army will definitely come back. "As Mao Zedong walked on the pontoon bridge over the Yudu River, his biggest hope was that Chiang Kai-shek's planes would not discover and bomb this meandering bridge that was hundreds of miles in length. A huge and disorganized team.

The 15th is the 48th birthday of Chairman Chiang, who was born in the year of the dog, which is exactly the year of his birth. The Kuomintang's "Central Daily News" reported: At 3:30 pm on the 18th, Chairman Chiang went to a local weaving factory to inspect machinery and went to Xiaoxi Lake in the western suburbs to inspect rural conditions. The report also mentioned that when Chairman Chiang arrived in Lanzhou, " Wearing a brown robe and a black mandarin jacket, he was in high spirits, nodding and smiling at the greeters. "The "Central Daily News" that day even said with unbearable joy under the headline "Details of the Third Route Army's Recapture of Fuxinguo County". : "The Red Suppression Army has been unstoppable in recent times. It is invincible in all battles and invincible in every attack." "The first and fifth puppet armies suffered extremely heavy casualties and retreated in disgrace."

5. The Eternal Long March

The Long March is a magnificent epic of the heroic revolution of the Chinese people led by the Communist Party of China. The great spirit of the Long March has always been a powerful spiritual force that promotes the development of revolutionary construction and reform. The people at the starting point of the Long March will always miss those unforgettable and prosperous years, and will always miss the people's soldiers who set out from here. Today, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all ethnic groups are embarking on a new long march at a new historical starting point. The spirit of the Long March will surely inspire us to move from victory to new victory.

The Communist Party of China led the Red Army. With extraordinary wisdom and fearless heroism, it overcame numerous difficulties and dangers, made huge sacrifices, and successfully completed the Long March that shocked the world and made its mark in history. It used its life and blood to forge the great Long March spirit and realize the goals of the Communist Party of China. and the great turning point of China's revolutionary cause from setbacks to victory, which opened a new great march for the Chinese Communist Party to fight for national independence and people's liberation. The Long March was a great expedition of ideals and beliefs, a great expedition to test the truth, a great expedition to awaken the people, and a great expedition to create a new situation.