Former Site of the Headquarters of the 1st Division of the 1st Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army (Zhou Family Ancestral Hall)

Former Site of the Headquarters of the 1st Division of the 1st Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army (Zhou Family Ancestral Hall)

The Former Site of the Headquarters of the 1st Division of the 1st Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army (Zhou Family Ancestral Hall) is a cultural heritage site protected by Hunan Province, a classic red tourism destination, and a patriotic education base.

The Former Site of the Headquarters of the 1st Division of the 1st Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army (Zhou Family Ancestral Hall) is located in Zhongcun Village, Zhongcun Township, Yanling County, Zhuzhou City.

In early March 1928, Zhou Lu, a special envoy of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and head of the military department of the Southern Hunan Special Committee, came to Jinggangshan. He criticized Mao Zedong for hiding in Jinggangshan with no prospects for development, and conveyed the decisions of the Central Committee and the Hunan Provincial Committee: to give Mao Zedong the punishment of “expulsion

On March 18, 1928, Mao Zedong led the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to Zhongcun, where the division headquarters was set up at the Zhou Family Ancestral Hall. Around the time the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army arrived in Zhongcun, many comrades within the army and the Party were dissatisfied and resentful about the accusations and orders from the Hunan-South Special Committee, which had compelled the troops to march toward southern Hunan, as well as the dismissal of the former Front Committee and Mao Zedong’s position as its secretary. There were even rumors that Mao had been expelled from the Party, sparking widespread discussion. In order to inform the troops of the facts and unify their thinking and actions, on the evening of March 19, Mao Zedong and He Tingying presided over a joint meeting of the 1st Regiment's Regimental Committee and the Special District Committee of the Communist Party of China in Liling at Zhounan School.

Mao Zedong said: “In early March, the Hunan-South Special Committee sent Zhou Lu to Ninggang to convey instructions from the Central Committee and the Hunan Provincial Committee. They criticized us for being ‘too right-wing’ in our actions and ‘too lenient in burning and killing,’ and decided to dismiss the Front Committee, reorganizing it as the Regimental Committee. He Tingying was appointed as the secretary, and I became the regimental commander. At the time, I refuted their 'leftist' errors. As for the reorganization, it was an order from the Central Committee and the Provincial Committee, and we had no choice but to comply.”

In order to connect eastern Hunan, southern Hunan, and Jinggangshan, Mao Zedong proposed dividing the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army into two routes. On the 20th, He Changgong and Yuan Wencai led the 2nd Regiment to Zixing to support the uprising in southern Hunan. He himself led the 1st Regiment to remain in Zhongcun, where he carried out political education within the troops, mobilized the masses extensively, and launched a land redistribution movement. This approach achieved both goals—complying with the orders from superiors while also advancing the revolutionary situation.

To strengthen the construction of local Party organizations in Liling, and in accordance with the needs of the revolutionary struggle there, the meeting also made three decisions: to establish the Liling County Committee of the Communist Party of China on the basis of the Special District Committee, with Liu Yinsheng as secretary, Kuang Guangqian as head of the Organization Department, and Zhou Li as head of the Propaganda Department; to form the Liling County Committee of the Communist Youth League, with Wanda Cai as secretary; and to establish the Zhongcun District Committee and the Zhongcun District Workers-Peasants-Soldiers Government, with He Jianshu as district committee secretary and Pan Huakun (of the Yao ethnic group) as chairman of the government.

After the establishment of the Liling County Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Shizhou District Committee and the Banxi District Committee of the Party were also successively formed, with Zhang Pinghua serving as secretary of the Shizhou District Committee and Liu Pingzhang as secretary of the Banxi District Committee. The establishment of the Liling County Committee of the Communist Party of China marked a new historical period in the political, ideological, and organizational development of the Party at all levels in Liling.

The former site of the 1st Regiment Headquarters of the 1st Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army (Zhou Family Ancestral Hall) was designated as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit by the People's Government of Hunan Province in May 2006, and was announced as a municipal-level patriotic education base by the Propaganda Department of the Zhuzhou Municipal Committee in November 2011.

Zhongcun Village: Zhongcun Village…… Detailed information on Zhongcun Village++

Further reading:

· Eighth Batch of Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units