Former Site of the General Front Committee and Headquarters of the First Front Red Army and Former Residences of Mao Zedong and Zhu De

The Former Site of the General Front Committee and Headquarters of the First Front Red Army and Former Residences of Mao Zedong and Zhu De

The Former Site of the General Front Committee and Headquarters of the First Front Red Army and Former Residences of Mao Zedong and Zhu De is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit, a classic red tourism destination, and a patriotic education base.

The Former Site of the General Front Committee and Headquarters of the First Front Red Army and Former Residences of Mao Zedong and Zhu De is located at No. 49, Xikou Street, Xikou Community, Xikou Town, Jianning County.

From May 16 to 31, 1931, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the First Front Red Army, adopting the strategy of “luring the enemy deep” and “avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, annihilating the enemy in mobile warfare.” They swept 700 li eastward from Futian, Jiangxi to Jianning, Fujian, achieving five consecutive victories in the battles of Baiyun Mountain, Baisha, Zhongcun, Guangchang, and Jianning, annihilating over 30,000 enemy troops and capturing more than 20,000 weapons. They thoroughly crushed the Kuomintang army’s second “encirclement and suppression” campaign in a resounding victory.

On May 31, 1931, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the First Front Red Army in defeating over 7,000 troops of the 56th Division of the Liu Heding forces defending Jianning, liberating the city of Jianning and completely shattering Chiang Kai-shek’s second “encirclement and suppression” campaign against the Central Soviet Area. That evening, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and General Political Commissar Mao Zedong led the First Front Red Army’s General Headquarters and General Front Committee to take up residence in the Xikou Catholic Church. Here, they carried out many important revolutionary activities, established the Jianning-Lichuan-Taining Revolutionary Base Area; Mao Zedong passionately wrote the poem “Yu Jia Ao · Against the Second ‘Encirclement and Suppression’ Campaign,” vividly reflecting the glorious victory of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army—“driving seven hundred li in fifteen days, with the muddy Gan River and blue Min Mountains, sweeping thousands of troops like a mat.” Mao Zedong also presided over multiple meetings of the General Front Committee here and issued three important directive letters respectively to the Fujian–Jiangxi Border Work Committee, the 12th Red Army, and the 35th Red Army. Additionally, he summarized the experience of victory in the first two anti-“encirclement and suppression” campaigns here and formulated the strategic decision for the third campaign — a thousand-li strategic retreat to southern Jiangxi. He personally drafted the mobilization order for the resistance against the third large-scale “encirclement and suppression.” On July 11, Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the General Front Committee and General Headquarters of the First Front Red Army to evacuate Jianning and return to southern Jiangxi to participate in the third anti-“encirclement and suppression” campaign. On October 16, 1932, under the leadership of Acting General Political Commissar Zhou Enlai and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, the First Front Red Army launched the Jianning-Lichuan-Taining Campaign from Guangchang, successively capturing the three county towns of Jianning, Lichuan, and Taining on the 18th and 19th. After capturing Jianning County on October 18, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Wang Jiaxiang led the General Political Department, General Headquarters, and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission to establish their headquarters here. Soon after, to facilitate work, Zhou Enlai and the General Political Department, as well as Wang Jiaxiang and the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, moved into the urban area of Jianning, while Zhu De and the General Headquarters remained stationed here.

The Former Site of the General Front Committee and Headquarters of the First Front Red Army and Former Residences of Mao Zedong and Zhu De was originally a Catholic church. It was converted from a civilian house purchased by German missionaries in the late 1920s. The site is a brick-and-wood structure, facing east with its back to the west, and consists of two parts: the front is a two-story building, and the rear is an auditorium. There is an air-raid shelter and a well to the north of the auditorium, covering a total area of 1,500 square meters.

The Former Site of the General Front Committee and Headquarters of the First Front Red Army and Former Residences of Mao Zedong and Zhu De was designated as a Cultural Relics Protection Unit of Fujian Province by the People’s Government of Fujian Province in October 1985, a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the State Council in May 2006, a Patriotic Education Base of Fujian Province by the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee and the People’s Government of Fujian Province in June 1997, a National Patriotic Education Demonstration Base by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee in May 2009, a Fujian Provincial Party History Education Base by the Party History Research Office of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee in September 2009.

Source: Party History Research Office of the Sanming Municipal Committee

Xikou Town: Xikou Town is located in the northern suburbs of Jianning County, covering an area of 222 square kilometers. It administers 13 administrative villages and 142 villager groups, with a total population of over 20,000. It is a suburban agricultural town characterized mainly by the production of seeds, lotus seeds, and fruit. Since the beginning of last year, in order to implement the spirit of the Central Document No. 1, promote the development of the town’s economy, and increase farmers’ income, the entire town has carried out the “Increase Farmers’ Income, Reduce Farmers’ Burden, Sincerely Make Friends with Farmers, Eliminate Doubts Between Cadres and Masses” campaign (abbreviated as the “Add, Subtract, Sincerity, Remove” campaign). Through the in-depth development of the campaign... Detailed information about Xikou Town++