ABSTRACT
This directive is to be strictly observed. In the past, because the peasant movement developed too rapidly, its organization was not sound. If you add to this the fact that the local bullies and bad gentry have launched a fierce counterattack, thus causing the struggle in the countryside to become more and more intense, and that the leadership from above has often been far from perfect, it was inevitable that some disorganized actions would take place. This committee has already issued clear instructions in orders Nos. 1 and 2 of the provisional series to the peasant associations at all levels urging them to rectify these actions most forcefully, and to ensure that the peasants in every locality are under the command of the peasant associations and are continuing their struggle against all the local bullies and bad gentry, as well as other reactionary feudal forces, in an organized and planned way. Thus our peasants can fulfill their responsibility of overthrowing the economic foundation for imperialist exploitation of the Chinese countryside and the political basis of warlord rule, in the course of the revolutionary process. We have also pointed out that the present goal for the peasants’ struggle everywhere is to fight for the autonomy of the villages. At present, according to reports from various quarters, the local bullies and bad gentry in the three provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei have launched an extremely violent attack on the peasants. In Jiangxi on June 5, after the authorities dismissed the staff involved in political work in party affairs, the local bullies and bad gentry everywhere all seized the opportunity to make trouble. The bad gentry in Jishui, in cahoots with vagabonds, 1 attacked the peasant associations and went into the villages to capture people; in the area of Nanchang, the bad gentry detained executive committee members; in Xinjian, the local bullies and bad gentry placed under arrest members of the peasants’ association 515and took away draft oxen belonging to the peasants; in Tonggu, all revolutionary organizations were destroyed; in Yiyang, the reactionary army carried out an even larger-scale massacre of peasant association staff members; in the fourth district in Taihe, not only was the peasant association destroyed by the reactionaries, but two executive committee members were arrested. In Hunan on the day of the May 21 Incident, 2 Xu Kexiang 3 murdered more than thirty people, including comrades from the provincial peasant association, the provincial labor union, the Workers’ Movement Training Institute, and friends among the workers and peasants. After the incident, troops were sent to attack the masses in the xian of Xiangtan and Changde, and the total number of peasants who were killed or injured was close to 10,000. In addition, they beheaded the chief of the Xiangtan general labor union and kicked his head about with their feet, then filled his belly with kerosene and burned his body. Among the popular masses who watched all of this, there was no one who was not filled with the utmost rage. In Hubei they were particularly vicious. In Hubei the local bullies and bad gentry of the various xian allied themselves not only with local bandits but also with corrupt leaders of the secret societies in brutally murdering the peasants. For example, in Yangxin 4 the local bullies and bad gentry used kerosene to burn nine peasants alive; in Mianyang the bullies and gentry allied themselves with the “Hard Belly Society” and brutally killed more than fifty peasants; in Tianmen the bullies and gentry got together with the local bandits and brutally killed more than twenty peasant friends; in Zhongxiang the local bullies and bad gentry, in league with the “Hard Belly Society,” brutally killed more than ten peasant friends; in Hanchuan the local bullies and bad gentry allied with vagabonds to kill and injure more than ten peasant friends; in Macheng the local bullies and bad gentry, in league with the “Red Spear Society,” the “Black Spear Society,” and the “White Spear Society,” brutally murdered more than a hundred peasant friends and burned down people’s houses to the extent of several dozen villages. Furthermore, they made use of the reactionary army’s forces in an attempt to wipe out the peasant movement completely, and thereby shake the foundations of the revolutionary base area. The traitors Xia [Douyin], Yang [Sen], Xu [Kexiang], Zhang [Liansheng], and Yu [Xuezhong] have defected one after the other, and everywhere they go they release the local bullies and bad gentry who are under detention, using them to lead the renegade troops in committing massacres everywhere. In Jiayu more than thirty peasants were killed; in Xianning and Wuchang, more than fifty people were killed in each place; in Tianmen more 516than 300 peasant houses were burned and over twenty people were killed; in Gongan, several dozen people were killed by branding; in Zaoyang, over 500 people were brutally murdered; in Mianyang, more than twenty people were murdered; in Xuandu, several dozen people were killed; in Macheng and Yanxiang, with arrests and killings, burning of houses, and raping of women, a total of more than 500 people were killed; in Sui xian at various times over 1,000 people were killed; in Lutian more than sixty people were brutally murdered; in Huang’an over 100 people were murdered; in Zhongxiang Wang Rutang, a member of the bad gentry, actually occupied the xian town, went from door to door, and cruelly massacred more than 200 people. Elsewhere in various xian including Xiakou, Huanggang, Yingshan, Yingcheng, Qichun, and Jianglin, the despotic gentry have without exception launched attacks on the peasants. The brutal punishments inflicted on the revolutionary peasants by the despotic gentry includes such things as gouging out eyes and ripping out tongues, disembowelment and decapitation, slashing with knives and grinding with sand, burning with kerosene, and branding with red-hot irons. In the case of women, they would run string through their breasts and parade them around naked in public, or simply hack them to pieces. Already four or five thousand peasants have been killed or injured, and the massacre continues in xian such as Xingmen, Songzi, and Xuanchang. In Wuhan, the capital of the nationalist government, only a dozen or so li from the xian town of Hanyang, there inevitably broke out an incident of the local bullies and bad gentry surrounding and killing peasants. The entire province of Hubei is completely enshrouded in white terror. In the three provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hubei, the total of party members, peasants, and workers who have sacrificed their lives is well over 10,000. They [i.e., the local bullies and bad gentry] are actively pursuing venomous schemes for driving an emotional wedge between the revolutionary soldiers and the peasants. Frequently, they make up stories, or call a stag a horse, or exaggerate the seriousness of a matter, in an attempt to bring about severe clashes between the soldiers and the mass organizations, set the soldiers against the people, break up the united front, sabotage the three great policies, and overthrow the party and the state. They do not scruple to do these evil things even though they know quite well that what they are trying to do will cause sufferings for the people and bring about the loss of our country and the extinction of our nation. At the same time, corrupt officials have arisen to work in concert with the local bullies and bad gentry, and together they cook up rumors to smear the peasants and attempt to sow discord in the relationship between the government and the people. For instance, the peasant association in Huanggang was not engaged in digging soft coal at all, but still the corrupt officials there filed a misleading report to the central government demanding an explanation. Now, having learned of the vicious plot whereby the imperialists, the warlords, the corrupt officials, the local bullies and bad gentry, the compradors, and other slaves of the foreigners, and all the reactionaries will launch a joint attack on the national government at the time when we are fully 517engaged in the Northern Expedition and in the fierce battle against the Fengtian Army, the Military Committee of the national government hereby orders all comrades in the armed forces to investigate all the misrepresentations and exaggerated rumors, and not to fall victim to the plots of the reactionaries. In recent days, however, the trend according to which the local bullies and bad gentry in various places collude with bandits and stragglers from disbanded armies to massacre the peasants is becoming even worse. Plots by corrupt officials to sow dissension between the government and the people are also constantly emerging. Recently, every organ has received at least several slanderous plaints against the peasants every day. Under such grave circumstances, the peasant associations at all levels should all unanimously urge the national government to do the following: (1) Issue explicit orders to protect the workers’ and peasants’ organizations, the workers’ pickets, and the peasants’ self-defense army, and also punish all reactionaries who murder workers and peasants and disrupt the rear area; allow labor unions, peasant associations, the Communist Party, and other revolutionary organizations complete freedom to unite the revolutionary forces and carry out a punitive expedition against Chiang Kaishek. (2) Eliminate the local bullies and bad gentry in various xian of Hubei who collude with rebel armies and bandits to massacre the peasants and workers, and punish severely Chiang Kaishek’s agents and all other reactionaries who fabricate rumors and sow dissension, so as to consolidate Wuhan.
