Site of Zhu De’s Important Military Meeting with the Red Army

Site of Zhu De’s Important Military Meeting with the Red Army

The Site of Zhu De’s Important Military Meeting with the Red Army is a classic red tourism attraction.

The Confucius Temple where Zhu De held an important military meeting with the Red Army is located within the current Experimental Primary School in Shan Cheng Town, Taining County.

In the summer of 1933, after failing in his fourth military “encirclement and suppression” campaign against the Central Soviet Area, Chiang Kai-shek, regardless of Japanese imperialism’s invasion of China, continued to pursue his policy of “pacifying the domestic front before resisting foreign aggression.” With the support of the United States, Britain, Germany, and Italy, he launched the fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign against the Central Soviet Area. The Jian (Ning), Li (Chuan), and Tai (Ning) Soviet Areas became a strategic battleground contested by both sides. In March 1934, Tang Enbo’s 10th Column of the Nationalist Party’s Eastern Route Army approached Taining. Commander-in-Chief Zhu De made multiple trips between Jianning and Taining, holding important military meetings at the Confucius Temple to plan the defense of Taining County and to organize battles along the Jian–Tai–Jian transportation lines to block the Nationalist troops. On March 19, the battle to defend Taining County officially began. The defending Red Army forces numbered just over 5,000, while the Nationalist forces consisted of two full divisions of the 10th Column—the 88th and 89th Divisions—totaling more than 20,000 troops. Facing a formidable enemy, the Red Army soldiers and the people of Taining fearlessly cooperated, built fortifications, and fought bravely. However, due to the temporary central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party implementing Wang Ming’s “Left” adventurist errors, the fifth counter-“encirclement and suppression” campaign ended in failure. The Red 1st Army Corps and Red 3rd Army Corps, which were supposed to reinforce Taining, did not arrive in time, and the county fell once again.

The Confucius Temple where Zhu De held an important military meeting with the Red Army is located in the center of the campus of Taining County Experimental Primary School. It was completely demolished around 1975 during campus renovation and construction.

Source: Party History Research Office of the Sanming Municipal Committee