Memorial Hall of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Advance Detachment

Memorial Hall of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Advance Detachment

The Memorial Hall of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Advance Detachment is a classic red tourism attraction.

The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Advance Detachment (hereinafter referred to as the "Red Army Advance Detachment") was formed in February 1935 in northeastern Jiangxi on the basis of the vanguard and breakout forces of the Red Army’s Northern Expeditionary Force to Resist Japan. At the time of its formation, the entire detachment had just over 500 members, with Commander Su Yu and Political Commissar Liu Ying. After entering Zhejiang, in the summer of the same year, they established a guerrilla base in southwestern Zhejiang centered around the Xianxia Ridge. The force quickly grew to nearly 1,000 men. However, during the massive “encirclement and suppression” campaign launched by the Kuomintang army, the southwestern Zhejiang base suffered severe damage, and the force dwindled to just over 300. In October of the same year, Su Yu and Liu Ying led the main force of the troops to move to the border area between Fujian and Zhejiang, where they carried out armed struggle in areas such as Taishun, Fuding, Pingyang (now part of present-day Cangnan), and Wencheng, establishing the southern Zhejiang guerrilla base. With the support of the CPC Mindong Special Committee and local party organizations in southern Zhejiang, by the end of 1936, the detachment’s strength had grown to over 1,500. But starting in February 1937, the Kuomintang army launched a large-scale “mopping-up” operation against the southern Zhejiang guerrilla base, and the military and civilians in the central area of the base once again paid a huge price. In August 1937, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in southern Zhejiang reached an agreement to cooperate in resisting Japan. In October, more than 400 soldiers of the Advance Detachment gathered at Shanmen in Pingyang. In March 1938, following instructions from the Party Central Committee, Su Yu led the main force of the southern Zhejiang Red Army to southern Anhui to be incorporated into the New Fourth Army, while a group of cadres including Liu Ying remained behind to hold the revolutionary position in southern Zhejiang.

The Memorial Hall of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Advance Detachment is located in Baikewan Village, Jiufeng Township, Taishun County. The hall was initially built in 2001 and completed and opened to the public in August 2003. In front of the over 2,000-square-meter memorial square stands a horizontal plaque bearing the name of the hall, which was inscribed by the then Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Behind the square is the memorial hall building, covering a construction area of over 900 square meters. The first floor of the hall houses reception rooms, offices, and other facilities; the second floor contains an exhibition hall for photos and documents, as well as a cultural relics exhibition hall, displaying over 400 precious photos, documents, and cultural relics from the three-year guerrilla warfare period of the Red Army Advance Detachment in southern Zhejiang.

The Memorial Hall of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Advance Detachment is a Zhejiang Provincial National Defense Education Base.

Source: History Research Office of the CPC Wenzhou Municipal Committee