Former Site of the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment Headquarters

Former Site of the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment

The former site of the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment is a classic red tourism destination.

The former site of the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment is located in Shejiaoli Natural Village, Duli Village, Dulai Township, Chengxiang District, Putian City.

In October 1933, Zheng Jinzhao, captain of the Putian Workers' and Peasants' Red Guerrilla Detachment, was appointed Secretary of the CPC Changtai District Committee and sent back to Changtai to carry out work. He mobilized peasant associations in various villages to organize farmers in resisting rent exploitation, while also spreading revolutionary ideas among the peasants in villages such as Waikeng and cultivating activist elements. He recruited Chen Wentong, Lei Jintong, and Hua Jinque from Waikeng Dacuo and Shejiaoli to join the revolutionary cause, laying the foundation for establishing the Minzhong guerrilla zone. In September 1934, after the CPC Putian Central County Committee was re-established in Xicuo Village, Lingchuan, it decided to develop new activity bases in the relatively weakly controlled Changtai mountainous areas under Kuomintang rule. In October of the same year, Zheng Jinzhao, Chen Jianxin, Weng Hongtang, and others were ordered to open up new territory in Changtai. Upon learning that Lei Guangxi, the son of a former militia battalion commander in Waikeng who sought to avenge his father, possessed firearms, they visited Lei Jintong’s home in Shejiaoli, Waikeng, under the pretext of visiting relatives and friends, and together persuaded his cousin Lei Guangxi to join the revolutionary movement. After being persuaded, Lei Guangxi resolutely contributed a stash of firearms from his home and joined the revolutionary forces. Subsequently, the CPC Putian Central County Committee used these weapons to form a peasant militia of over ten members in Changtai. From then on, Waikeng became a major base for the Minzhong Party organization and guerrilla detachment. The area was remote with strong popular support, making it one of the three main base villages of the Putian-Xianyou border guerrilla stronghold during the three-year guerrilla war in Minzhong. The guerrillas could operate openly in the village and used it as a base to frequently launch attacks, targeting local tyrants and evil gentry, mobilizing the masses to resist rent and tax oppression, achieving a series of guerrilla warfare successes, and gradually expanding the guerrilla zone to the Guangye area of Putian and the Xingtai mountainous region of Xianyou.

The guerrilla struggle of the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment in Changtai alarmed the local Kuomintang authorities, who repeatedly sent troops to “suppress” revolutionary base villages such as Waikeng, Jinzhukeng, and Jichuan. Thanks to intelligence provided by the Changtai Red Guards, the guerrillas were able to promptly organize the evacuation of the masses to hide in the mountains, using the deep forests to evade the enemy. The Kuomintang forces lamented helplessly: “With the mountains so deep and forests so dense, as soon as we suppress them here, they flee there… The villagers seem completely banditized.” In April 1936, the Kuomintang forces organized more than 500 troops to launch a four-pronged “encirclement” against the guerrilla base, attempting to annihilate the guerrillas in one fell swoop. With the help of the masses, the guerrillas fought fiercely against the enemy but eventually, as night fell, the Kuomintang troops dared not prolong the battle and hastily retreated. Thereafter, the Kuomintang forces shifted from “suppression” to “stationed suppression,” maintaining a permanent presence around Fengyetang and the ferry area, and frequently harassing and plundering revolutionary base villages such as Waikeng, Jinzhukeng, and Jichuan, causing great suffering to the local people. In late July of the same year, the Kuomintang forces again organized over 700 troops, led by the Changtai Militia Team, to attack the Putian-Xianyou border guerrilla stronghold from both sides of Putian and Xianyou. They employed a “village sweeping” method to carry out the suppression and set up camp in Waikeng, determined to eradicate the guerrillas. The guerrillas and the masses were besieged in the mountains, living in makeshift huts and caves, subsisting on wild vegetables and fruits. To break the deadlock, the Minzhong Special Committee held a meeting at Chen Wentong’s home in Waikeng to plan the retreat, deciding that the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment would lead the masses from the base villages with no relatives to turn to to relocate to the Bai Sha and Zhuangbian areas in the northern Guangye District of Changtai, where they would establish a new guerrilla stronghold. As a result, the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment voluntarily withdrew from base villages such as Waikeng.

The former site of the Minzhong Workers' and Peasants' Guerrilla Detachment is located in the northern part of Duli Village, bordered by Songpingyang in Youyang Town, Xianyou County to the northwest, connected to Hou Mountain and Xiashan Village in Chengtai Town to the east, adjacent to Jinchuan Village to the west, covering an area of approximately 5,000 mu. The CPC Putian Municipal Committee Party History Research Office erected a memorial stele for its protection in December 2011.

Source: CPC Putian Municipal Committee Party History Research Office

Changtai Town: A town under the jurisdiction of Putian County. Established as the Changtai Commune in 1958, reorganized as a township in 1984, and upgraded to a town in 1992. Located in the northwestern part of the county, it covers an area of 201 square kilometers with a population of 40,000. It has road access. The town administers 28 village committees including Changtai, Songfeng, Zhauche, Liche, Dongtai, Dongqing, Shanmen, Tingyang, Houshan, Kangyang, Xiashan, Dulai, Jinchuan, Manyuan, Dangcheng, Dingkeng, Neidongping, Waidongping, Guoxi, Xiaju, Putou, Xinan, Xibei, Shankeng, Nanchuan, Yangbian, Changji, and Lingxia. The main agricultural products are rice, fruit, and edible fungi, and it is the largest loquat production base in Putian. … Detailed information about Changtai Town ++