A Hakka established the first Chinese Soviet Government in Hailufeng

[CHUNG Yoon-Ngan <chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au>]

   A Hakka established the first Chinese Soviet Government 
   in Hailufeng.     

  The cradle of the modern Chinese peasant associations were in the two 
counties of Haifeng and Lufeng, in the East River districts of Guangdong 
province, where majority of the residents there were and still are Hakka. 
The pioneer of the peasant movement was Peng Pai who was born into a wealthy 
Haifeng landlord Hakka family. He became a school teacher in his native 
village. He was one of the first in the district to join the Chinese 
Communist Party. He soon engaged in trying to organize the peasants. 
Peng Pai led his students to stage the 1921 May Day demonstration. For 
this he was dismissed by his school principal. 

   After the dismissal Peng Pai went out into the country side devoting 
himself entirely to the business of rousing the peasants. As the son of a 
landlord he was first received with mistrust and hostility. He used 
gramophone to play music and songs to attract the villagers to his 
meetings. Peng Pai told the village audiences to form peasant  
organization to fight for their own interest. Soon they were convinced 
and the first Peasant Association was formed in 1922. More organizations 
were established and they spread rapidly to neighbouring districts and 
a Guangdong Provincial Peasant association was founded.

 At the high of this movement the peasant organizations contained 
more than 200,000 members in these two counties of Hailu and Haifeng. 
Thus they became the model and the bastion for the peasant movement in 
China especially in Guangdong province.
 
  In Febuary 1924 the Kuomintang established a Peasant Department in 
the city of Guangzhou and Peng Pai became the first secretary of the 
Department. In July 1924 Peng Pai4 set up the Peasant Movement Training 
Institute and became its first director. Mao Ze-dong (Mao Tse-tung) and 
Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai) also gave lectures in this Institute. 
 
  In 1925 Peng Pai left Guangzhou  to resume his work to organize peasants 
to form Peasant Associations in Guangdong province. Mao Ze-dong took over 
from Peng Pai and became the second director of the Institute. Mao's 
brother Mao Zemin (Mao Tse-min) was one his students, who included a large 
percentage of Hunanese probably recruited by Mao's provincial Party 
committee. In September 1925 Mao Zedong took the whole student body of the 
Peasant Movement Training Institute on a two-week visit to Haifeng, where 
they were given lectures by Peng Pai and shown an agrarian revolution in 
action.

   In July 1926 the Northern Expedition got under way with Jiang Jieshi 
(Chiang Kai-shek) as commander-in-chief selected jointly by the 
Kuomintung and the Communists. Peng Pai took part in the expedition and 
was ordered to arouse the peasants to help the expedition forces.

  To cut the story short; on 12 April 1927 the KMT and CCP coalition 
abruply ended and on 1 August 1927 the Communists staged a uprising 
in the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi province, later it was called the 
Nanchang Uprising .    

   After the collapse of the Uprising the Communist, including Peng Pai, 
retreated to Shantou (Swatow) in Guangdong province where they held for 
ten days against assaults from both the foreign gunboats and native 
troops of militarists. The Communists, later, withdrew to Hunan. 

  In October 1927 Peng Pai went bck to his hometown and staged an 
insurrection during which a Soviet Government was established in 
Hailufeng (Hailu and Haifeng). The following month in November 1927 Mao
Ze-dong set up a Soviet Government in Jing Gang Shan in the border
between the tow provinces of Hunan and jiangxi. A peasant army was
organized, and it was announced that land would be taken from the
landlords and distributed to the peasants. The peasant army took the
neighbouring counties of Jieshi (Chiehshih) and Jiecheng (Chiencheng).
     
   The warlord of Guangdong province Chen Jiong-min (Chen Chiung-ming)
sent troops to encircle the counties under the control of the Soviet 
Government. The warlord troops constantly attacked the Peasant Soviet.     
Eventually the peasant movement in Hailufeng was destroyed by the 
warlord Chen Jiong-min.

  Peng Pai escaped to Guangzhou and joined up with Zhang Da-lei, another 
Hakka, to stage the Guangzhou (Canton) insurrection on 11 December 1927. 
After the failure of the insurrection Zhang Dalei was killed and Peng  
Pai was captured by the warlord soldiers and was executed in 1929.......

The Canton insurrection is another story to be told later..........

Sources:
 
Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow
Wo3 Di2 Hui2 Yi4 by Zhang Guo2 Tao
Leon Trotsky on China introduction by Peng Shu-tse
The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution by Harold R. Isaacs
Gong Chu3 Jiang4 Jun Hui2 Yi4 Lu4
Mao Tse-tung by Stuart Schram
Mao Tse-tung Selected Works volume 1 

CHUNG Yoon-Ngan  chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au