Minshan Revolutionary Base

Minshan Revolutionary Base

The Minshan Revolutionary Base is a classic red tourism destination.

Jiujiang County in Jiangxi Province is located in the northern part of Jiangxi, on the southern bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, backed by Mount Lu to the south and adjacent to the Yangtze River. It lies at the crossroads of the 6,300-kilometer-long Yangtze River and the 2,500-kilometer-long Beijing-Kowloon Railway, making it one of Jiangxi’s revolutionary base areas. Minshan Township in Jiujiang County is situated in the southwest of the county, at the junction of three northern Jiangxi counties — Jiujiang, Dean, and Ruichang. It covers a total area of 120 square kilometers, with a population of 31,000, and is classified as a township in a revolutionary base area. The Minshan mountainous region within the township borders Mount Lu to the east, connects to Jiugong Mountain to the northwest and extends to the Mufu Mountain Range, faces the Yangtze River to the north, and lies near Poyang Lake to the northeast. With undulating peaks and continuous ranges stretching over 80 kilometers, this area links the Yangtze River, Dean County, and Ruichang closely. It is the birthplace of the Northern Jiangxi Guerrilla Unit. In October 1927, revolutionary masses who had participated in uprisings in Xingzi, Dean, and Ruichang gathered successively in Minshan and joined forces with local comrades engaged in revolutionary activities. Together, they established the Northern Jiangxi Guerrilla Unit. Centered around Minshan, the guerrillas operated across hundreds of square kilometers — from Poyang Lake in the east, to the Wuning Mufu mountainous region in the west, to Huangmei County in Hubei in the north, and to the foothills of Yunju Mountain in Yongxiu in the south. This formed the Northern Jiangxi Soviet regime, encompassing five counties including Jiujiang, Dean, Ruichang, and Xingzi, establishing an armed stronghold. At its peak, the revolutionary base covered an area of 1,500 square kilometers with a population of about 300,000.

The Minshan Revolutionary Base in Northern Jiangxi was a stronghold under the leadership of our Party during the Second Revolutionary Civil War and the Anti-Japanese War, serving to mobilize the people of Northern Jiangxi against reactionary forces and resist imperialist aggression. From October 1927 to February 1939, over a decade of arduous revolutionary struggle, the Northern Jiangxi Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army Guerrilla Unit and the people of the base, under Party leadership, carried out heroic and moving resistance. They severely weakened local reactionary armed forces and gained control of the Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway — the vital transportation artery of Northern Jiangxi. They also diverted enemy forces that were being used to “encircle and suppress” the Central Revolutionary Base and the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Base, effectively protecting the Central Soviet Area while also supplying a number of key personnel to the Central Red Army. After the Northern Jiangxi Red Army Guerrilla Unit moved northward, the remaining comrades formed the Southern Guerrilla Unit, which carried on the fight through three years of guerrilla warfare. Later, it was reorganized into the New Fourth Army and deployed to the front lines of the Anti-Japanese War. In the face of the bloody aggression of Japanese imperialism, the Northern Jiangxi Guerrilla Unit was reorganized into the Northern Jiangxi Red Army Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Unit, continuing the struggle for national salvation. The Minshan Revolutionary Base in Northern Jiangxi is the longest-lasting base in Northern Jiangxi to have upheld revolutionary struggle from the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War to the Anti-Japanese War. It developed primarily with the mission of controlling the Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway, intercepting enemies, and safeguarding the Central Soviet Area. Situated deep in enemy territory and facing repeated enemy offensives in an extremely perilous environment, this red base never ceased its struggle. The fight in the Minshan Base went through three phases: the establishment of the armed stronghold, the development of the base, and the persistence in anti-Japanese struggle. A number of notable figures emerged during this time, such as Liu Weisi, Tian Wenjiao, and Xin Zhongjin.