Pingjiang, Hunan Province, is known as "General County". This county has produced 63 generals, ranking fourth in the country in terms of the number of generals, second only to Hong'an in Hubei, Jinzhai in Anhui, and Xingguo in Jiangxi. According to the county's annals, after the founding of the CCP, there were a total of 230,000 martyrs in the county.
It can be seen how "red" Pingjiang County is!
How powerful is the "red" in Pingjiang County? All the Kuomintang troops stationed in this county are likely to revolt and throw themselves into the CCP.
The most famous was the Pingjiang Uprising led by Peng Dehuai in 1928.
How fast was this uprising? Peng Dehuai later said:
"In just three or four hours, Pingjiang changed, and I felt that the power of the revolution was really infinite."
This uprising created the famous Red Fifth Army, the predecessor of the Red Third Army.
Peng Dehuai staged the uprising in July.
He was the second Kuomintang army stationed in Pingjiang County. Before Peng Dehuai, he was stationed on Changshou Street in Pingjiang and was the special battalion of the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the 8th Army of the Hunan Army. The battalion commander's name is Bi Zhanyun, and he is from Sichuan. It is worth mentioning that less than three months after Peng Dehuai's uprising, in October, Bi Zhanyun led his troops to revolt in Jiangxi and also threw himself into the CCP.
When Peng Dehuai rebelled in Pingjiang, he was already a member of the Communist Party of China, and Bi Zhanyun was not even a member of the Communist Party of China!
Why did he revolt?
Bi Zhanyun is a native of Guang'an County, Sichuan, and his family has been very poor since he was a child, so he has no choice but to join the army. The unit he joined the army was the mixed brigade of the Fan Shaozeng Department of the Sichuan Army.
In the spring of 1927, Bi Zhanyun went out to fight in Sichuan with his troops. As a result, Fan Shaozeng lost the battle and hurriedly returned to his hometown in Sichuan. At this time, Bi Zhanyun was sick in Yichang, Hubei, and he was left behind when the main force ran. After recovering from his illness, Bi Zhanyun went to the independent regiment of Xiang Chengjie's department, which was also part of the Sichuan army, and became a platoon commander. Soon, the regiment was reorganized into a special service battalion, and Bi Zhanyun was promoted to company commander. Subsequently, the special service battalion entered Hunan to fight, and was controlled by the Yan Zhongru Brigade of the Tang Shengzhi Department of the Hunan Army. Not long after, Tang Shengzhi defected to Jiang, the special battalion was organized into the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the 8th Army of the Hunan Army, and Bi Zhanyun was promoted to the commander of the 2nd Battalion, stationed in Changshou Street, Pingjiang, Hunan.
Before Peng Dehuai's arrival, Bi Zhanyunbu was ordered to go to Jiangxi to "suppress the Communists" and first stationed in Guidong. As a result, Bi Zhanyun's department also "joined the Communist Party". Bi Zhanyun recalled in December 1968:
"At this time, the adjutant of the Eighth Regiment Headquarters (a member of the Communist Party) came to talk to me, and he had long been affected by the revolution, and later when he came to Anren, he told the regiment commander that I would quit and go to the revolution. Later, Zhongru wanted to hand over our guns.
At this time, after the defeat in August, Zhu De's troops and our troops met when they were 60 miles away from Guidong, and the two armies were only more than 100 meters apart and clashed. I didn't even make up my mind to fight, and as a result, Zhu Debu left safely. Later, at the junction of Guidong and Yuxian, he fought with the Red Army. At this time, I convened a meeting and decided to defect to the Red Army and join the revolution.
Sending personnel to contact the units of the Red Army in the line of fire. As a result, Comrade Chen Yi came to pick up our troops near Dafen in Suichuan, and at that time he sent party representative Chen ×× to our department to carry out political work. Chairman Mao organized our unit into a special service battalion, which was directly under the leadership of the Red Army Military Department. ”
Bi Zhanyun led his troops to revolt and join the Communist Party, although the number was small, but the first unit of the Kuomintang army to form a formation uprising shocked the whole country. He Jian, chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Kuomintang, checked that Bi Zhanyun had also been stationed in Pingjiang County, and exclaimed: Pingjiang County is a big "bandit's nest", and whoever goes will "dye it red"! Fearing that the garrison there would revolt, the Kuomintang Hunan Provincial Government no longer dared to send regular troops to Pingjiang County.
The story is described in the book "The Great River Goes East: Why They Rallied Under the Mao Zedong Banner" by Chen Guanren and published by the Communist Party History Publishing House, which is a sequel to the best-selling book "The Great River Goes East: Why They Follow Mao Zedong." Both books are the Society's annual bestsellers, with over a million copies sold, and are excellent historical bestsellers loved by readers.