In the history of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, there used to be two teams called the 13th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (referred to as the 13th Army). They were the 13th Army of the 13th Red Army and the 13th Army of the 1st Red Front Army in southern Zhejiang.
The 13th Red Army in southern Zhejiang is a little-known Red Army force. Founded in the 1930s, it is the only regular Red Army force in Zhejiang, and its predecessor is the Red Army Guerrilla in southern Zhejiang.
Yongjia County, where the Red Thirteenth Army is located, has beautiful scenery. The people here have a glorious revolutionary tradition. Before the establishment of the Red Thirteenth Army, there had been revolutionary fires in southern Zhejiang, including Yongjia County.
At that time, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Zheng Xin, Wang Guozhen, Zhang Peinong and other outstanding party members to set up workers' and peasants' armed forces in southern Zhejiang in order to set up workers' and peasants' armed forces in southern Zhejiang. They set up peasant guerrillas in Wenzhou, Taizhou and other places in Zhejiang, and dealt a heavy blow to the Kuomintang's reactionary rule in Zhejiang.
On November 13, 1929, 84 village peasant riots broke out in the Xinei (today's Xiaoyuan area of Nanxi River) and Zhongshan (today's Xixi, Guxi basin, etc.) areas of Yongjia County, and more than 4000 peasants participated in the riots. The CPC Yongjia Central County Committee sent Lei Gaosheng and Li Zhensheng, members of the Central County Committee, to strengthen leadership and decided to form the Red Army according to the situation of the Xinanxi peasant uprising. On November 19, the Red Army Guerrilla in South Zhejiang was established in Xixia Village, Xinei District, Yongjia, with 4 squadrons totaling 360 people.
The surging armed struggle of farmers in southern Zhejiang has attracted the attention of the CPC Central Committee. In January 1930, the CPC Central Committee sent Jin Guanzhen to visit Wenzhou and Taizhou. In early March, the Central Military Commission also sent Hu Gongmian to southern Zhejiang to take charge of military command. On March 9, the guerrilla headquarters of the Red Army in southern Zhejiang was established, with Hu Gongmian as the commander in chief. Soon, the Central Military Commission sent Chen Wenjie to southern Zhejiang to strengthen the leadership of the Red Army.
On May 9, 1930, according to the instructions of the Central Committee, the guerrilla headquarters of the Red Army in southern Zhejiang announced in Fenglin, Yongjia, that the guerrillas of the Red Army in southern Zhejiang would be unified into the 13th Army of the Red Army of Chinese Workers and Peasants, with the commander Hu Gongmian, the political commissar Jin Guanzhen, the director of the Political Department Chen Wenjie, and the military headquarters located in Wusuniao Village, Yongjia County.
The 13th Red Army is one of the 14 Red Armies listed in the official order by the Central Military Commission. It has three regiments under its jurisdiction. In its heyday, it reached more than 6000 people, covering more than 20 counties belonging to Wenzhou, Taiwan, Chuzhou and Wuzhou. It has fought for more than four years (the rest of the army has been fighting for more than ten years), fought more than 100 times, hit the local Kuomintang and feudal gentry heavily, and sowed the seeds of revolution, It eased the enormous pressure on the eastern part of the Central Soviet Area, and laid the foundation for the later Red Army's advance division to create a revolutionary base in southern Zhejiang.
In the era of the Red Thirteenth Army struggle, more than 1700 Communist Party members and Red Army soldiers in southern Zhejiang gave their precious lives for the revolution. Most of the officers and men above the Red Thirteenth Army Camp died. Only one of the first three military leaders survived, two died heroically, and later political commissars also died heroically.
Hu Gongmian
Hu Gongmian, Commander of the Third Red Army
Hu Gongmian was born in Yongjia, Zhejiang Province. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1921 and was the first member of the Communist Party of China in Yongjia. In his early years, he participated in the 1911 Revolution. When Chen Qimei led a model group to attack Shanghai, Hu Gongmian was his platoon leader. After joining the Communist Party, he also studied in the Soviet Union, and has been engaged in revolutionary activities in Hangzhou Normal School as a teacher for a long time, which has influenced a number of revolutionary scholars.
In 1924, Sun Yat sen founded the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, and Hu Gongmian was recommended by Shao Lizi and others. He left Zhejiang to Guangdong to participate in the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy and served as the head of the guard. From 1925, he served as the battalion leader of the Military Academy's teaching regiment and personally led his troops to participate in the first Eastern Expedition against Chen Jiongming.
In July 1926, he became the leader of the propaganda team of the General Political Department of the Northern Expedition Army and led the team to participate in the propaganda work along the Northern Expedition War. In October, he was appointed as the Deputy Chief of the General Headquarters of the Northern Expedition Army, and in November, he was appointed as the Director of the Political Department of the former enemy General Headquarters of the Eastern Route Army of the Northern Expedition Army.
In 1927, after the 412 counter revolutionary coup, he moved to Wuhan, served as the head of the 77th Regiment of the 25th Division of the 11th Army, and continued to participate in the Northern Expedition into Henan. After the failure of the first Great Revolution, he once lived in seclusion in Shanghai.
In October 1929, he was sent back to Nanxi, Yongjia, Zhejiang Province by the CPC Central Committee to secretly organize the armed struggle of farmers.
After the establishment of the 13th Red Army, Jin Guanzhen, a political commissar, led the whole army to launch an offensive, successively occupied Pingyang, Jinyun and other counties, established guerrilla bases in southern Zhejiang, and expanded the political influence of the Party and the Red Army.
In December 1931, Hu Gongmian went to Shanghai to report to the CPC Central Committee. In April 1932, he was arrested and jailed in Shanghai, and lost contact with the CPC organization since then.
After Hu Gongmian was arrested, the Kuomintang did not dare to kill him because of his identity. It was not until 1936 that he was released from prison with the help of Shao Lizi, the then chairman of the Kuomintang in Shaanxi Province.
After being released from prison, Hu Gongmian was appointed as the Commissioner of the Pingliang Special Administration of Gansu Province of the Kuomintang Government, committed to the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to fight against Japan. In the early days of the Anti Japanese War, he served as the commissioner of Lintao Special Administration of Gansu Province, and then went to Xi'an to live in leisure. He once went to Yan'an to visit the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region. During the War of Liberation, he lived in Shanghai, kept in touch with the underground party organizations of the Communist Party of China, actively engaged in secret military operations, and instigated the Kuomintang military uprising.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hu Gongmian served as a counselor in the Counsellor's Office of the State Council. In June 1979, he died of illness in Beijing at the age of 93.
Jin Guanzhen
Jin Guanzhen, Political Commissar of the Third Red Army
Jin Guanzhen was also a native of Yongjia, Zhejiang Province. In February 1919, he was admitted to the 10th Normal School of Zhejiang Province.
In his early years, he participated in the May 4th Movement and was a leading figure in Zhejiang's academic tide and youth movement. During his study in Zhejiang Normal University, he organized a progressive organization, Xishan Alumni Association, and became a major member of the independent branch of Wenzhou, the earliest party organization in southern Zhejiang.
After the failure of the Great Revolution, Jin Guanzhen was sent by the Party to study at Sun Yat sen University in Moscow. In August 1929, he returned to China and attended a special training class held by the CPC Central Committee in Shanghai.
In January 1930, Jin Guanzhen was ordered to arrive in southern Zhejiang. He is not afraid of hardships and dangers, and works selflessly. He goes to Xianju and Huangyan in the north, and patrols Rui'an and Pingyang in the south. He makes full use of the slack time of the New Year and the Spring Festival to go to Wenzhou and Taizhou for inspection and investigation, investigate and study the social situation in Wenzhou, Taizhou and other urban and rural areas, and give many important instructions to the work of the Party and the armed struggle of farmers in Wenzhou and Taizhou.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 1930, comrades advised him: "You have been away from home for more than five years, and you have been running around. This time, after returning from the Soviet Union, it is time to go home for a reunion holiday.". He said: "The enemy spends the New Year feasting, which is a good time for us to work."
Later, his wife Zheng Yuchai arrived in Wenzhou on the second day of the first lunar month. They told each other about their leaving. Later that night, Jin Guanzhen heard a gentle knock on the door and said to his wife, "I have something to go. When Wenzhou is liberated, I will pick you up! Go home first tomorrow!"
With these words, he got up, opened the door and went out. Facing the cold wind and stepping on the snow, he was again engaged in the intense revolutionary struggle. Who would have expected that this breakup, which was based on a successful meeting, would become a farewell for this young couple.
After the establishment of the 13th Red Army, Jin Guanzhen trained the army. Under his guidance, the 13th Red Army grew stronger in a short time and became the core force of our army in southern Zhejiang.
In May 1930, Jin Guanzhen returned to Wenzhou after assigning a mission from Pingyang. He was surrounded by spies at the contact point of Wenzhou Yushili, was injured and arrested, and was killed that night. He was only 28 years old.
Jin Guanzhen was an outstanding revolutionary soldier in southern Zhejiang during the Second Civil Revolutionary War and made outstanding contributions to the establishment of the 13th Red Army.
Chen Wenjie
Chen Wenjie, Director of the Political Department of the Third Red Army
Chen Wenjie, a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, worked as a factory employee in his early years and participated in the anti imperialist patriotic movement. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1926. He was once a member of the Workers' Movement Committee of the CPC Ningbo Local Committee and chairman of the Handicraft Trade Union of the Ningbo Federation of Trade Unions, and engaged in the workers' movement.
After the failure of the Great Revolution, Chen Wenjie went to Wuhan to join the Nanchang Uprising with the Helong Department. Later, he returned to Ningbo and served as Secretary of the CPC Ningbo Municipal Committee, continuing to lead the labor movement.
In November 1927, Chen Wenjie was arrested by the Kuomintang authorities to cover the safe retreat of other comrades. After being released on bail in 1929, he went to Shanghai to work in southern Zhejiang according to the instructions of the Party. In October of the same year, he came to Yongjia County in southern Zhejiang Province to organize peasant Red Guards to carry out guerrilla struggle.
During Chen Wenjie's tenure as Director of the Political Department of the 13th Red Army, the military's political work was very impressive. Vigorously carry out political education to encourage the morale of the troops; Strict military discipline and strict implementation of the Party's policies; Everywhere the army went, Chen Wenjie did mass work in person, which expanded the political influence of the Red Army and the army grew stronger and stronger. When Jin Guanzhen died and Hu Gongmian went to Shanghai to report to the Central Committee, Chen Wenjie led his army and government to Wenzhou to command the attack of Jinyun, Ouqu and other battles.
As the leader of the 13th Red Army, Chen Wenjie has always maintained the nature of an ordinary soldier. When the troops have dinner, he always stands guard for the sentry, and lets the sentry eat after dinner; On the way to march, he often gave straw sandals to soldiers. He walked barefoot on the hot mountain road, and his feet were blistered. Soldiers affectionately called him "barefoot fairy"; When camping, he always goes to inspect several times; When the army was launched, he personally inspected the discipline of the masses.
Chen Wenjie fell ill due to overwork. When he was recuperating from illness in September 1930, he was unfortunately arrested because of a traitor's informant. The enemy used both hard and soft methods to torture him. Chen Wenjie looked at death as if he were going home. He was strong and unyielding, and did not make any statement. On the 21st, he died in Songtai Mountain, a suburb of Wenzhou, at the age of 27.
Among the first military leaders of the Red Army in southern Zhejiang, except for Hu Gongmian, who lived to liberation, the other two were all arrested and killed during the Red Army period, and they were only twenty-seven or eight years old.
The sacrifice of Jin Guanzhen and Chen Wenjie made the military headquarters of the 13th Red Army live in name only. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent Yan Pu, Pan Xinyuan and Li overtime to southern Zhejiang to try to fully recover the 13th Red Army, but they failed. In December 1930, Pan Xinyuan, the political commissar of the Third Red Army in the late period, was arrested in Yuhuan County, Zhejiang Province because of the betrayal of a traitor. He was only 27 years old and died bravely.
It is regrettable that the struggles of the 10th and 3rd Red Armies have been extremely tortuous, and that the leaders of the 10th and 3rd Red Armies have had a bumpy fate. However, this heroic army did not collapse because of this. After the "Yantou Dongzong Incident" in 1932, the 13th Red Army entered a period of hard struggle. In October 1935, Su Yu and Liu Ying led the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Forward Division to move to the Fujian Zhejiang border. More than ten Red Army units joined the Red Army Forward Division to participate in the three-year guerrilla war of the Red Army, and became an important part of the New Fourth Army three years later.
