Mo Xiong

Mo Xiong, originally from Xiacun Village, Langgu Township, Yingde County (now part of Wangbu Town, Yingde), was born on Zuo Ying Street outside the South Gate of Shaoguan. He was born in 1891 in Wangbu, Yingde, Guangdong, into a very poor family. His mother passed away when he was just six years old. Although his father was quite open-minded and managed to scrape together enough money to send him to school for three years, the family could no longer afford it after that. At the age of 12, Mo Xiong had to drop out of school to make a living. The following year, he made his way to Guangzhou’s Sacred Heart Cathedral Seminary to work as a kitchen helper.

As a young boy, he endured many hardships, but the people at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Seminary were quite kind to him and often bought him books to read. At the time, Guangzhou had a strong revolutionary atmosphere, and Mo Xiong was influenced by it through daily exposure.

At the age of 16, he joined the Tongmenghui (Chinese Revolutionary Alliance) and began his revolutionary career. Because of his young age and unfamiliar face, he was assigned to work on persuading soldiers of the New Army to defect.

Throughout his military career, Mo Xiong fought in various regions including Ningbo, Luzhou, Jiangxi, Fujian, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangdong. He participated in the Huanghuagang Uprising and the National Protection Movement. Due to his repeated meritorious service, he established a solid position within the army.

In June 1922, Chen Jiongming launched a mutiny in Guangzhou. At the time, Mo Xiong was serving as the garrison commander of Wuzhou, Guangxi. Upon hearing the news, he was furious. When Chen Jiongming sent people to try to win him over, Mo Xiong flatly refused. He then secretly contacted Sun Yat-sen and joined forces with Yang Ximin of the Yunnan Army and Liu Zhenhuan of the Guangxi Army to fight against Chen Jiongming.

Because of this timely support, Sun Yat-sen held Mo Xiong in high regard and personally appointed him as the Major General and brigade commander of the Second Independent Brigade of the Second Division of the Guangdong Army. From then on, Mo Xiong remained a guardian by Sun Yat-sen’s side and was known as “Elder Brother Mo” within the Kuomintang.

Moreover, he treated the younger Chiang Kai-shek very well. Initially, the Cantonese generals looked down on Chiang Kai-shek, but only Mo Xiong thought that Chiang was diligent and serious in his work, so he took care of him privately and even once saved Chiang’s life.

In the spring of 1922, Sun Yat-sen ordered the Northern Expedition. Chiang Kai-shek, who was then serving as a military advisor to the Presidential Palace and as Chief of Staff of the Second Army of the Guangdong Army, was responsible for defending Guilin. After the main army set off, local troublemakers and bandits near Guilin saw an opportunity and gathered nearly ten thousand men to attack the city. At the time, Chiang Kai-shek only had one battalion under Ye Ting, which was completely incapable of holding off such a large force.

Chiang Kai-shek immediately sought help from the nearest Fourth Independent Brigade of the Guangdong Army, and it was Mo Xiong who came to the rescue. With the arrival of this fresh force, the siege of Guilin was lifted. Mo Xiong wrote about this incident in his memoirs:

I entered the headquarters to see Chiang Kai-shek. When I went into his bedroom, he was sitting cross-legged on the bed meditating. Seeing me, he said cheerfully, “I never expected you to come so quickly.”

Chiang Kai-shek then called Battalion Commander Ye Ting to the headquarters to discuss the plan to move the camp to Shaoguan with me, and instructed his subordinates to reward my relief troops. When Battalion Commander Ye Ting arrived, he happily shook my hand upon seeing me and said, “You came just in time; otherwise, we would have been in grave danger.”

If Sun Yat-sen had lived, everyone would have united around him. Unfortunately, Sun Yat-sen passed away in March 1925, and no one in the Kuomintang had enough prestige to take control of the situation, leading to a period of power struggles.

Chiang Kai-shek was smarter than the others and knew that to succeed, he had to seize military power. As a result, he began targeting the Guangdong Army—Xu Chongzhi was placed under house arrest, and Mo Xiong was also targeted.

II. The Path of Anti-Chiang and Pro-Communist

In September 1925, Mo Xiong followed Chiang Kai-shek’s orders to disarm the troops of Yang Jinlong and Liang Shifeng of the Guangdong Army. After completing the mission, Chiang Kai-shek turned his back on him, declaring that Mo Xiong’s forces were also a “counter-revolutionary army,” and sent Huangpu Army troops to surround the 11th Division of the 4th Army of the Guangdong Army.

Faced with the dire situation, Mo Xiong did not want to fight against his own comrades, so he handed over his military authority. Even his savior was treated this way, and most other Cantonese generals met with arrest or execution.

Later, Mo Xiong met Xu Chongzhi—who had retired to civilian life—in Shanghai, and only then did he learn that it had all been Chiang Kai-shek’s scheme. This made him especially resentful toward Chiang, who had betrayed Sun Yat-sen. He participated in two anti-Chiang movements, but unfortunately, both ended in failure. Disheartened, he took up a sinecure in the Ministry of Finance through an introduction by T. V. Soong.

In 1930, Mo Xiong偶然 encountered Liu Yafu, the former political director of the 11th Division of the 4th Army of the Guangdong Army. Naturally, the old comrades had endless topics to discuss. When talking about the loss of his military authority, Mo Xiong expressed strong dissatisfaction with Chiang Kai-shek.

Liu Yafu actually had another identity—he was a member of the Communist Party. Seeing Mo Xiong’s attitude, he revealed his identity and then introduced Yan Xichun, Xiang Yunian, Hua Kezhi, and other communists to Mo Xiong.

Through interactions with these individuals, Mo Xiong felt that the Communist Party’s principles were more in line with the ideas of Sun Yat-sen, so he proposed joining the Communist Party.

This information reached Li Kenong, who first expressed welcome and then said, “It’s not difficult to become a Communist Party member. What’s rare for our Party is to have a comrade and friend who is not a member but wholeheartedly works for the Party.” Thus, Mo Xiong became an underground member working outside the Party, and because of this, only a few top officials knew his true identity.

In March 1934, Mo Xiong was recommended by Yang Yongtai to become the Administrative Inspector of Jiangxi Province’s Fourth District and Commander of the Pacification Security Headquarters. Yang Yongtai was Chiang Kai-shek’s chief strategist and also a close friend of Mo Xiong. This recommendation later proved to be a great help to our Party.

After taking office, the first thing Mo Xiong did was to transfer Communist Party members such as Lu Zhizhong, Xiang Yunian, and Liu Yafu into his “Pacification Headquarters.” The Red Army also cooperated by “fighting a few battles” with him and then “retreating” to other defensive zones.

When Chiang Kai-shek saw the frequent “victories” reported by Mo Xiong, he was very pleased and announced these achievements to the entire army: “Order a commendation, top performance!”

At the end of September 1934, Chiang Kai-shek gathered more than 200 senior generals at Guling, Mount Lu, for a top-secret military meeting. Mo Xiong, as a “model anti-communist,” was also present. When a copy of the “Iron Bucket Encirclement Plan” was handed to Mo Xiong, he knew something terrible was coming.

As the name suggests, the plan aimed to completely encircle the Red Army. Chiang Kai-shek had originally thought that the fifth “encirclement and suppression” campaign would only take three months, but it ended up lasting a full year. Unwilling to wait any longer, he followed the advice of German military advisors and decided to use a chain of fortifications to seal off the Red Army, aiming to achieve total victory in one decisive blow.

The specific method involved using 12 divisions to distract the Red Army, preventing them from considering a breakout. Once 1.5 million troops were in place, they would simultaneously surround the Red-controlled area at a designated time. Each unit would advance only about one kilometer per day, laying a layer of barbed wire every 500 meters of advance and constructing a line of fortifications every 5 kilometers.

The distance advanced each month was not much, just about 25 kilometers, which meant it would take six months to complete the encirclement of Ruijin. By then, there would be at least 300 layers of barbed wire and 30 lines of fortifications surrounding Ruijin.

Although it was costly, Chiang Kai-shek believed it was worth it as long as the goal could be achieved. This strategy of building strong fortifications and fighting a war of attrition was something the Red Army simply could not afford.

III. Obtaining Top-Secret Intelligence to Save the Central Red Army

Chiang Kai-shek compiled the specific deployment of 1.5 million troops, the attack routes of each combat unit, the schedule, the battle order, and more into a booklet. Each document handed out weighed three to four kilograms.

To prevent leaks, Chiang marked each document with a blue "Top Secret" stamp and assigned serial numbers. All of this shows that Chiang put quite some thought into it.

However, he did not expect that as soon as the meeting ended, Mo Xiong would hand over these documents to the Communists. After reading them, Lu Zhizhong, Xiang Yunnian, and Liu Yefo were also deeply alarmed, but they hesitated because reporting it might put Mo Xiong in danger.

Mo Xiong, on the other hand, didn’t mind at all. He said, "The situation is so critical, you must deliver these documents to the Party Central Committee immediately. If anything happens, I will take the responsibility!"

The other three no longer hesitated and immediately re-encoded and copied the documents into four large dictionaries. Early the next morning, Xiang Yunnian disguised himself as a schoolteacher and set off for Ruijin. To avoid detection by the Nationalist forces, he mostly traveled at night. The first few days went smoothly, but as he got closer to Ruijin, the Nationalist defenses became tighter, with more checkpoints even at night, making passage difficult.

Seeing that he couldn’t enter the Soviet area, Xiang Yunnian picked up a stone and smashed it hard against his own face, knocking out all four front teeth and injuring other parts of his face, making him look grotesque. Coupled with days of travel, his disheveled hair and clothes made him look like a beggar.

The Nationalists didn’t even bother to check someone who looked like that, so on October 7, Xiang Yunnian entered the Soviet area and delivered the intelligence to Zhou Enlai. Zhou Enlai and other central leaders held an emergency meeting and decided to break through before the enemy’s iron ring was fully formed. This explains why the Central Red Army acted so hastily at the beginning of the Long March.

Fortunately, since no one was exposed, Chiang Kai-shek didn’t know that someone within his ranks had leaked the information, so Mo Xiong was not suspected.

After the Red Army began its arduous Long March, Mo Xiong continued to provide help using his position. In March 1935, Mo Xiong was tasked with attacking the thousands of wounded and sick Communists stranded in the Bijie area.

Traveling with him was Chen Guangzhong, commander of the 63rd Division of the Central Army. To save those Communists, Mo Xiong decided to distract Chen Guangzhong first. After investigating, he learned that Chen Guangzhong was lecherous, so upon arriving in Bijie, he arranged for several courtesans to attend to him.

For Chen Guangzhong, enjoyment was obviously more important than fighting. As a division commander of the Central Army, he had long heard that Mo Xiong had a special relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, so he was happy to let Mo Xiong handle the "Communist suppression." After all the wounded Red Army soldiers were evacuated, Mo Xiong reported that "the fleeing remnants of the bandits have been cleared," and no one doubted him.

In February 1936, when the Second and Sixth Red Armies led by He Long and Ren Bishi moved to the Bijie area, Mo Xiong falsely reported military intelligence to draw Chen Guangzhong away, and then personally led his troops out of the city to "suppress the bandits."

As a result, Bijie became an empty city. The Red Army entered with almost no effort and stayed there for more than half a month, setting up temporary offices. In that short time, more than 5,000 people in Bijie joined the Red Army, greatly strengthening the revolutionary forces.

From all these aspects, it is clear that Mo Xiong made tremendous contributions to the Red Army. Even Chairman Mao commented during the Long March: "Those of us who managed to survive in the end had comrades in intelligence to thank for their efforts."

IV. Ever-Changing Circumstances, Unwavering Loyalty

Despite all Mo Xiong had done for the Red Army, Chiang Kai-shek eventually found out. In a rage, Chiang arrested Mo Xiong on charges of "suspected collaboration with the Communists" and took him to the Nanjing Military Affairs Office.

Fortunately, Mo Xiong was well-liked, and influential figures such as Cantonese clique leaders Chen Jitang and Zhang Fakui, as well as Chiang’s close aide Chen Cheng, spoke up for him. After nearly six months of detention, Mo Xiong was released.

Since Chiang was still angry, Mo Xiong was sidelined for a while until August 1938, when he was appointed as the guerrilla commander of Guangdong’s 23rd District and the county magistrate of Nanxiong. Once in office, he began helping our Party again.

Mo Xiong was well-respected in northern Guangdong, where people respectfully called him "Elder Brother Mo." In the early hours of October 22, 1938, Japanese invaders occupied Guangzhou. To maintain stability in the anti-Japanese rear of northern Guangdong, Mo Xiong was appointed commander of the Northern River Advance Detachment of the Fourth War Zone (referred to as the "North Advance"). After taking office, he quickly reached an agreement with the Northern River Special Committee of the CCP to resist Japan together.

"In early 1940, the Northern River Special Committee organized over 40 party members and progressive youth, who came to the 'North Advance' through various channels (over 100 party members were sent to Mo Xiong’s forces and developed there over the years), and established a special party branch..." Mo Xiong’s comrade at the time, Zhu Xiao Zhong, who later served as vice-chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Association for Science and Technology after the founding of New China, mentioned this experience in his memoir article "Such a Valuable Old Friend—Recalling General Mo Xiong’s United Efforts with Our Party During the War of Resistance." Along with Zhu Xiao Zhong, several other CCP members, including Rao Hua, Kuang Da, Huang Tonghua, He Juncai, and Lin Mingxun, were all undercover in Mo Xiong’s forces.

Later, the "North Advance" was renamed the "Northern River Advance Detachment Cadre Training Institute" (referred to as the "Training Institute"). Observing their conduct, Mo Xiong sensed that Huang Tonghua and others were likely Commun

After Japan's surrender, most of the personnel at Commander Mo Xiong's headquarters followed Huang Tonghua, He Juncai, and others up into the mountains, raising the banner of the Communist Party. As Guangzhou was about to be liberated in 1949, Mo Xiong, suspected of being "pro-Communist," was hunted down by the Kuomintang and was forced to flee alone to Hong Kong for safety. In October, after the liberation of Guangzhou, Ye Jianying, First Secretary of the CPC Central Committee's South China Bureau, repeatedly inquired about Mo Xiong's whereabouts. Upon learning that he was taking refuge in Hong Kong, Ye immediately sent someone with a personal letter to invite him back to Guangdong.

At the time, hundreds of Chinese Communists and progressive individuals were imprisoned within Nanxiong County. Shortly after taking office, Mo Xiong had them all released. Later, Mo Xiong also got acquainted with Gu Dacun, head of the United Front Work Department of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and strongly recommended the latter to become the chief of staff of his unit. Through their joint efforts, the unit gradually became tinged with red.

During the Liberation War, Mo Xiong also secretly provided the underground party with a lot of medicine, intelligence, guns, and ammunition. As a result, he was once again targeted—this time, by Xue Yue, who wanted to kill him.

As Guangdong was on the verge of liberation, Xue Yue, then Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Government under the Kuomintang, wielded the butcher’s knife against Communists and progressives. He believed Mo Xiong was highly suspicious as well, so he said to the provincial government adviser Guan Yi: "Mo Xiong is very likely a Communist, he must be detained and dealt with by law."

Fortunately, Guan Yi was on very good personal terms with Mo Xiong. Knowing that those words were essentially a death sentence for Mo Xiong, he simultaneously ordered Li Jilan, commander of the Guangzhou Garrison Command, to arrest Mo Xiong, while himself notifying Mo Xiong to flee for his life ahead of time.

Thanks to Guan Yi’s tip-off, Mo Xiong fled to Hong Kong with his entire family and narrowly escaped disaster. However, he was deeply unsettled, unsure of what the future held or whether he could ever return to his hometown.

What Mo Xiong didn't know was that Chairman Mao had been thinking about him not long before. When Ye Jianying was heading south, Mao specifically instructed: “Do you still remember there’s a Mo Xiong in Guangdong? He’s an old friend and comrade of our Party. You must find him. No matter what mistakes he may have made in the past, you must arrange work for him.”

After arriving in Guangzhou, Ye Jianying learned that Mo Xiong had gone to Hong Kong, so he wrote him a letter relaying Chairman Mao’s exact words. Upon learning that Chairman Mao referred to him as an “old friend and comrade,” Mo Xiong was deeply moved and immediately returned to Guangzhou with his family.

Soon after, Mo Xiong was appointed as the director of the Beijiang Public Security Committee. However, at that time, his identity had not yet been made public. People only knew he was a former high-ranking Nationalist official but were unaware of his experience working on the covert front. As a result, in 1951, local residents petitioned the provincial committee, calling for Mo Xiong to be executed.

The office of the South China Bureau also didn’t know about Mo Xiong’s past, so they approved the petition. Gu Dacun, who was then the head of the United Front Work Department of the South China Bureau, immediately sent a telegram to Ye Jianying upon hearing the news. Ye Jianying, equally alarmed, directly contacted Tao Zhu, the fourth secretary of the South China Bureau, which ultimately saved Mo Xiong.

In 1956, Li Kenong and Xiang Yunian learned of Mo Xiong’s situation and personally went to Guangzhou to bring him to Beijing to attend the National Day ceremony. Upon meeting, Li Kenong embraced Mo Xiong tightly and said, “Comrade, we finally meet. I’m so happy.”

That one word — “comrade” — brought tears to Mo Xiong’s eyes.

V. This Heart Is Bright — What More Could One Ask For

Afterward, Mo Xiong served as deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Advisory Office, a member of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), vice-chairman of the CPPCC, and a member of the Fifth National Committee of the CPPCC. In 1976, though his health was very poor, he mustered the strength to tell his sons:

“I plan to write my memoirs. I’ll speak, and you write it down. We must let people understand the true history. Don’t let them curse me as a blood-stained executioner after I’m gone. Here”—Mo Xiong pointed to his chest—“I have a clear conscience before the people, before the Communist Party, and before our ancestors.”

For some reason, this act reminded me of Wang Yangming’s dying words: “This heart is bright — what more could one ask for?” Mo Xiong, too, knew he was serving the people and knew what he was doing, so his heart was bright as well.

In 1980, Mo Xiong passed away in Guangdong at the age of 89, but his legendary deeds only became widely known more than 30 years later.

In 2011, Mo Xiong’s son, Mo Dongliang, and Xiang Yunian’s grandson, Xiang Xiaomi, jointly published an article titled “The Inside Story of Chiang Kai-shek’s ‘Iron Bucket Encirclement’ Leak” in the People’s Political Consultative Daily, finally bringing that long-buried story to light.

These individuals on the covert front were truly great. Though they didn’t fight on the battlefield, the challenges they faced were no less difficult than those of any soldier, and the information they conveyed often influenced the outcome of entire campaigns.

Therefore, while we remember the heroes who fought on the front lines, let us not forget these unsung heroes behind the scenes.