Chairman Mao Zedong once said, "A single spark can start a prairie fire." Revolutionary martyr Li Zizhou was a sower of revolutionary kindling in northern Shaanxi and the founder of the Northwest Revolution. Next, I will talk about Li Zizhou's revolutionary history and influence.
1、 Devote oneself to revolution
Li Zizhou was named Dengying, and his pen name was Yimin. He was born on December 23, 1892 in Chengguan Town, Suide County, a poor small handicraft family. Both his grandfather and father were silversmiths. Until the age of 15 or 16, Li Zizhou was admitted to Xi'an Sanqin Public School. The famous school of Sanqin Public School has cultivated a group of young students who are energetic and full of revolutionary spirit, such as Li Zizhou, Liu Tianzhang, Yang Xiaochu, Yang Zhongjian and Yang Mingxuan. Many of them have become famous revolutionaries in the northwest. During the period of Sanqin Public School, Li Zizhou returned to Suide as an inspector of the Quanxue Institute due to his poor family. Later, he was admitted to Peking University in the summer of 1917 with local public funds.
Before and after the May 4th Movement, Li Dazhao, the founder of the CPC, often went to the Red Chamber to study the situation and discuss the principles and strategies of the struggle with the heads of patriotic groups and progressive youth. Li Zizhou is an officer of the Student Union of Peking University. He is an outstanding, active and influential figure in Peking University and the whole student community in Beijing. He is also the leader of the student movement in Shaanxi. He and Comrade Mao Zedong, the student leader of Hunan, are good friends. Mao Zedong called them "strong in the south" and Li Zizhou "strong in the north". Therefore, Li Zizhou and Mao Zedong naturally became regular guests of Li Dazhao's Red Mansion gathering. They often discuss the current situation, China's destiny, future and life. They live very close to each other. As soon as the Beijing University Student Union or the Beijing Students' Federation gives orders, they will be moved by the news and join in the struggle.
During the May 4th Movement, Li Zizhou rushed to the forefront of the parade in the famous battle of burning Zhao Jialou. On the afternoon of May 4, when the parade team came to Cao Rulin's residence in Zhaojialou, they saw that the gate was closed and the people inside refused to show up. So Li Zizhou, after discussing with several students, decided to use the method of "stepping on the ladder", first climbed the windowsill into the courtyard, and then opened the gate from inside. When they opened the gate of Lizizhou, the marching students rushed into the courtyard like a tide. Then came the incident of "beating Zhang Zongxiang and burning Zhao's house", which shocked China and foreign countries.
In the fight with the reactionary military police, Li Zizhou was also very brave. He was beaten black and blue by the military police, his head bled, and his arm was seriously injured.
In this struggle, 32 people were arrested. In order to persevere in the struggle and push it to a climax, the Assembly decided to establish the Executive Committee of the Student Union of Peking University. Li Zizhou was elected as an official of the Student Union by the General Assembly with his usual reputation and his heroic behavior in "burning Zhao's House". Li Dazhao, as the representative of the Peking University Staff Federation, also ran to rescue the arrested students together with the Student Federation. Under the strong pressure of public opinion, the warlord government released all the arrested students nearly on May 7.
2、 Sow revolutionary kindling
At the beginning of 1923, Li Zizhou was introduced by Li Dazhao and Liu Tianzhang and joined the CPC. In the summer of the same year, he graduated from Peking University and returned to Shaanxi upon invitation. He successively transferred to Weibei Middle School, Yulin Middle School and Suide Provincial No. 4 Normal School in Sanyuan County. He insisted on reforming the old education system and devoted himself to the propaganda of anti imperialism, anti feudalism and Marxism Leninism. When Suide Fourth Division was the principal, he hired progressive intellectuals to serve as teachers, recommended revolutionary books and magazines such as "Progress Together" and "Guide" to students, advocated the establishment of student union, speech club and Shaanbei Youth Society, actively developed the members of "Progress Together", and spread Marxism Leninism. At the beginning of 1925, under his guidance, the Fourth Suide Division established a special branch of the Socialist Youth League, which absorbed a group of young people who were enthusiastic about entering Japan, such as Liu Zhidan, Bai Leting, Huo Shijie and Wang Zhaoqing. Later, the Youth League Branch and Party Branch of Yulin Middle School, the Party Branch of Yan'an Provincial Fourth Central Committee and the Youth League Branch were established. By the winter of 1926, 80% of the students in Suide Fourth Division had become party members. Like a fire sower in the wilderness, Li Zizhou sowed a spark in the barren and closed northern Shaanxi Plateau, and turned many schools into a cradle for cultivating revolutionaries.
For example, with the care and strong support of President Li Zizhou and the careful management of Mr. Zhou Wenzhi, Zhoujiajian became the cradle of the Red Revolution. At that time, Ma Wenrui, Liu Jingyi, Zhao Gongbi, Gao Xuekong, Ma Wende, Xu Dengtai and a large number of Communists and revolutionary students made great contributions to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese nation by fighting bravely for the liberation of the people in northern Shaanxi. Some even gave their precious lives to the revolution.
During the Great Revolution, Li Zizhou led the students in northern Shaanxi to participate in the campaign of supporting Xi'an students to expel the reactionary warlord Wu Xintian, mobilized the society to collect money from the victims of the May 30th Massacre, denounced the crimes of imperialism and reactionary warlords, sent Hu Yonghua, Bai Mingshan, Ma Wenrui and other students to Suide Yihe and Xichuan to fight against taxes and taxes, organized the handicraft workers' union, the salt workers' union The trade unions of the foot households who drive cattle and transport goods protect their rights and interests, and support the extension of the strike of oil workers and Yulin carpet workers.
Li Zizhou paid attention to military struggle very early. In the spring of 1925, he made friends with Yang Hucheng, a patriotic general, and mobilized a group of students and party members to study military affairs at Yang Hucheng's military academy; Liu Zhidan, a middle school student in Yulin and a Communist Party member, applied for the Huangpu Military Academy; He also sent a group of party and league members into the Shiqian Regiment of Jingyuexiu Army, a warlord in northern Shaanxi, to help Li Xiangjiu and Xie Zichang, Communists who were company commanders of the Ministry, establish a party and league organization and engage in the soldier movement. In just a few months, the number of Party members has grown to more than 100, and all five company commanders are Communists.
In the middle of February 1927, the CPC Shaanxi Gansu District Committee was established, and Li Zizhou was responsible for the organization. At the first representative of the District Committee, he and other leaders of the District Committee loudly shouted the slogans of "the Party goes to the peasants", "the Party goes to the army" and "carrying out the peasant association movement". Encouraged by the leadership of the Party organization, the Shaanxi Farmers Association was established. The farmers' association movement was in full swing in more than 60 counties, with more than 410000 members and more than 100000 armed farmers. The landlord class and rural feudal forces were severely hit.
In the autumn of 1927, Li Zizhou, who presided over the work of the Military Commission, seized the opportunity to prepare for the establishment of the Northern Shaanxi Military Commission, the leading organ of the uprising. Tang Shu was appointed Secretary of the Military Commission, and Bai Mingshan, Li Xiangjiu, Xie Zichang and others were members. On the evening of October 12, a military riot was launched in Qingjian County. Because of the enemy's heavy siege, the insurgent troops broke up into parts and fought guerrillas in Qingjian, Anding and the Shaanxi Gansu border. Later, they were chased by the enemy and finally failed. This uprising opened the prelude to the armed uprising independently led by the CPC in Shaanxi.
Li Zizhou was not discouraged by the failure of the Qingjian Uprising. He and the provincial party committee continued to plan new riots in Weinan and Huaxian, which had a good basis for mass movements. In February 1928, Li Zizhou acted as the deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China in Shaanxi Province. Under his leadership, from May 1, farmers in Weihua region began to riot one after another, fighting local tyrants, dividing land, and establishing the Soviet regime. On May 10, the Xuquan Chinese Brigade rose in Huaxian County and established the Northwest Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army, which, together with the peasants' armed forces, separated the 200 square kilometers of red area. As Weihua is located in the Guanzhong Plain, adjacent to the ruling center of the enemy Shaanxi, Xi'an, causing great fear to the enemy. Song Zheyuan, the chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Government of the Kuomintang, personally led the troops of the three divisions, which were divided into three ways of "encirclement and suppression". The insurgents fought with blood spilling and suffered heavy losses. The rest of them moved to the Shangluo Mountains. In the battle, Tang Shu, Lian Yimin, Wu Haoran and other leaders of the Northwest Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army died one after another, and the Weihua Uprising finally failed in July.
Although the two major uprisings in Shaanxi, which Li Zizhou participated in and organized and led, failed, they sowed the seeds of revolution among the laboring masses of workers and peasants across the province, and cultivated a group of backbone of armed struggle, laying a solid foundation for Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, Gao Gang, Xi Zhongxun, and others to establish revolutionary bases in the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region and carry out armed struggle.
3、 Unfortunately, he was arrested and died bravely
At midnight on February 2, 1929, Li Zizhou was drafting documents in the secret room of the provincial party committee. Because of the traitor's betrayal, he was suddenly arrested by the Kuomintang military police who broke into the door and imprisoned the detention center of the Xihuamen Military Adjudication Office in Xi'an.
On February 3, Director Xiao of the enemy military tribunal brought Li Zizhou to trial. Li Zizhou stood up to each other calmly, contradicting Director Xiao to the point that he could not understand. The embarrassed and angry enemy beat Li Zizhou unconscious with a whip and a stick and dragged him back to his cell.
After Li Zizhou woke up, according to the enemy's interrogation, he had a premonition that there were traitors among the important members of the party. On the one hand, he secretly held a series of arrested comrades to discuss countermeasures and encourage morale, on the other hand, he was determined to sacrifice himself to keep the Party's secrets.
After being arrested for more than a month, he was tortured many times and the enemy got nothing. When the enemy sees hard things, he will not be able to do so. The usual "soft policy" follows one after another. The political prisoners got rid of their shackles, and white rice and "foreign noodles" were sent to prison. Each person had a copy of the Three People's Principles booklet, and asked Li Zizhou to be a teacher to explain to the "prisoners" in the "penitentiary room". Li Zizhou agreed. He left his book on the desk and talked eloquently about the history of the founding of the Kuomintang and the true meaning of Sun Yat sen's Three People's Principles, about the heroic act of Kuomintang Communist cooperation with the Northern Warlords, and the shameless act of Chiang Kai shek, Wang Ching wei and others who betrayed Sun Yat sen's Three People's Principles and turned to reaction. Comrades and some prison guards were fascinated by the news, but the enemy commander was red in the face and ordered to be dismissed.
Later, the prison handed out papers and ordered political prisoners to write "loyalty letters" and "autobiographies" to Chiang Kai shek. Li Zizhou united his comrades in prison to ignore them, which made the enemy unable to stop. Therefore, the enemy replaced the soft ones with the hard ones, and put on the shackles and handcuffs together. They were not allowed to visit the prison or let them go free, and they inflicted a lasting spiritual and physical devastation on revolutionary heroes. Li Zizhou, who had been working hard for the revolution all the year round, suffered from severe stomach disease and severe torture. He got typhoid fever and tuberculosis in the dark and damp cell and became thinner and thinner. In the summer, he was dying and struggling.
When he was dying, he struggled to write a suicide note to his sister who was far away in Suide's hometown. The letter wrote: "... Although I am dead, more people are alive, and the future society will be full of light. Don't cry for me!" On June 18, 1929, Li Zizhou died of illness in prison at the age of 37.
In 1942, Li Zizhou's coffin was moved back to Suide from Xi'an and buried beside the road under the North Gate. A monument stood in front of the tomb. Zhu De inscribed the name: Li Zizhou Martyrs' Tomb; Mao Zedong inscribed on the tombstone: Founder of the Communist Party of Northern Shaanxi. On December 25, 1943, with the approval of the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region Government, Suixi Office was renamed Zizhou County to commemorate the revolutionary martyr.
4、 Revolutionary achievements and influence
Li Zizhou's life is a short and brilliant life, a life of perseverance and heroic struggle, a noble and great life. He was not only the sower of the revolution in Northern Shaanxi, but also the founder and founder of the Communist Party of Northern Shaanxi. He trained a large number of military talents and revolutionaries, such as Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang, for the Northwest Revolution. He sacrificed his precious life and made outstanding contributions to the liberation cause of the Chinese people. His slogans of "the Party goes to the peasants", "the Party goes to the army" and "carrying out the peasant movement" coincided with Mao Zedong's proposition of "encircling the cities from the countryside" and "seizing power by armed forces", which came down in one continuous line. Historical experience has fully proved that they are completely correct. Therefore, Li Zizhou's wise judgments and practical actions have greatly influenced and promoted the vigorous development of the revolutionary cause in northern Shaanxi, which is still in the northwest, and become the spiritual wealth of the Chinese revolution. His heroic deeds and revolutionary spirit, handed down from generation to generation, will be the best red teaching material and revolutionary magic weapon to enlighten future generations.
This is really: Li Zizhou, a revolutionary martyr, sows kindling to write about the Spring and Autumn Period. The founder of the revolution in northern Shaanxi is immortal.
