Northwest Revolutionary Base: Writing Epic with Blood and Life

In the middle of winter, Yan'an, northern Shaanxi. In the brief history showroom of the former site of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government, old photos of Yan'an in the 1940 s made reporters excited. At that time, Yan'an was a rural landscape in a remote area, with bare loess, skewed buildings and dilapidated cave dwellings. Back to reality, the old ruins, is a forest of tall buildings, noisy traffic, trance has long been changed to the world.
 

On October 18, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly pointed out in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that the original intention and mission of the Chinese Communists is to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation. And isn't this prosperous and developing new Yan'an exactly the ideal and goal that the Chinese Communists have been striving to pursue since their inception?
 

The foothold of the Long March and the starting point of the Anti-Japanese War

Recently, in the memorial hall of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in the old city of Yan'an City, college students who had just had a holiday came here for social practice to investigate and study the red history more than 80 years ago. In this memorial hall with an exhibition area of 4000 square meters and a total length of more than 1000 meters, the reporter saw that through a variety of modern display methods, it truly demonstrated the fighting process of the establishment, development and growth of the Northwest Revolutionary Base Area. The Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee led the people of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region to create a model anti-Japanese democratic base area, and its historic contribution in leading the people of the Border Region to support the War of Liberation.
 

Walking into the spacious hall of the memorial hall, Comrade Mao Zedong's incisive exposition was engraved head-on: "I said that northern Shaanxi is two points, a foothold, a starting point ...... Northern Shaanxi has become a test area for all our work."
 

The foothold is not easy to come. During the Long March of the Red Army, northern Shaanxi was a "red island". The Communists, represented by the older generation of revolutionaries such as Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, and Xi Zhongxun, led the masses to persist in armed struggle, and then established the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base and the northern Shaanxi revolutionary base, and established the Soviet regime. The strong revolutionary atmosphere and the deep mass foundation have strengthened the soil for the arrival of the Red Army. After searching hard, the Red Army finally found its own "home", and northern Shaanxi set up a road sign for the Red Army on the Long March. Just as the Red Army's favorite song "Go to Northern Shaanxi" sang at that time: "Quickly advance northward... destroy the enemy and win over the masses, consolidate and develop the Northern Shaanxi Red Zone, and establish base areas."
 

Starting point, start a new journey. Following the footprints of the Long March on the yellow land, a far-reaching decision was made in the cave dwellings in northern Shaanxi. In the face of national survival and national crisis, the Communist Party of China held high the bright red banner of Anti Japanese war and became the mainstay of the whole nation's Anti Japanese war. The Long March went north to resist Japan and save the country. The Red Army settled in northern Shaanxi and set out from northern Shaanxi. "As soon as the Long March is over, a new situation will begin".
 

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The victory of the Long March not only preserved the revolutionary forces, but also enabled our party to find a new foothold for the survival and development of the Chinese revolutionary forces, and found a new starting point for the victory of the Chinese revolutionary cause."

After the victory of the Long March, with the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Revolutionary Base as the center, a large number of revolutionary bases have sprung up and developed. "The Nanliang area is the junction of the two provinces and three counties of Shaanxi and Gansu. It is a place where the Kuomintang's rule is particularly weak. It is located in the Ziwuling forest area, with deep mountains and ditches, dense forests, offensive and defensive, and large room for maneuver. It is a good place to fight guerrilla warfare." Liu Yuhao, former curator of Nanliang Revolutionary Memorial Hall, said.
 

In the vast northwest region, the communists, represented by Liu Zhidan, Xie Zhicang and Xi Zhongxun, led the army and people in the base areas to open up the revolutionary base areas in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border region one after another. In just a few years, they have launched mutinies and uprisings more than 70 times. There are more than 600 martyrs with surnames engraved on the Martyrs Monument of the Nanliang Revolutionary Memorial Hall alone, as well as countless revolutionary martyrs. They buried their loyal bones in Qingshan and failed to leave their names.
 

"The lofty and firm belief of the Shaanxi Communists, the heroic struggle without fear of sacrifice, and the strong leadership of the party are the most direct reasons why the Northwest Revolutionary Base eventually became the only complete revolutionary base in the country." Ding Deke, vice chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Association for Science and Technology and former party secretary of Weinan Normal University, said.
 

Practicing the Mass Line and Promoting the Development of the Border Region
 

Talking about the development of the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base, Xia Shipeng, curator of the Nanliang Revolutionary Memorial Hall, said: "in early July 1927, the Shaanxi Provincial CPC Committee was established. After that, the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China and local party organizations successively led and planned to launch major armed struggles such as the Qingjian Uprising, the Weihua Uprising and the Xunyi Uprising, which were called the three major peasant uprisings in Shaanxi. In particular, the Qingjian uprising, which broke out in October 1927, fired the first shot of the armed forces in the northwest against the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang. The Weihua Uprising is the largest and most far-reaching armed uprising in Shaanxi. In mid-April 1928, the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee of the Communist Party of China was formally established to lead the party organizations and the Communist Youth League in northern Shaanxi."
 

Since then, on March 8, 1933, in order to strengthen the party's leadership over the establishment of the army and the Soviet area, in accordance with the instructions of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Special Committee of the Communist Party of China was established to lead the development of the revolutionary armed forces, and successively established, expanded and developed Zhaojin., Nanliang as the center of the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base. Xia Shipeng said that from November 1 to 6, 1934, the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Congress of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region was held in Liyuanbao, Nanliang, Huachi County, and elected members of the Soviet government of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region.
 

"In the process of representative election, representatives were elected according to the proportion of the number of elected areas and units, and took care of workers, peasants, soldiers, women and other aspects. More than 100 representatives of workers, peasants and soldiers were elected democratically, which ensured the grass-roots mass character of the representatives. Because many of the elected representatives were illiterate, in order to ensure their right to vote, the method of" voting beans "was adopted in the election of members of the Soviet government in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border region." Qi Yongjin, director of the Huachi County Party History Office, explained that the "voting beans" election is to put a bowl behind the elected person, and everyone sends a bean. Whoever you trust, put the bean in the bowl, and finally appoint who is elected according to the number of beans in the bowl.
 

The "vote" election, a seemingly simple but politically profound election method, enables the poor to elect people they can trust to form a grassroots regime. The ballad of the common people sang well in those days: "Golden Doudou, Silver Doudou and Doudou cannot be cast casually; Choose good people, do good things, and throw them into the bowl of good people." It is the active exploration of China's unique grass-roots democratic model by the revolutionary base area of Shaanxi Gansu border region that the broad masses of people "vote for cadres" and they elect people they can trust as cadres.
 

After six days of meetings and elections, Liu Zhidan continued to serve as the chairman of the Military Commission, and Xi Zhongxun was elected as the chairman of the government. On November 7, 1934, the inaugural meeting of the Soviet government in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region was held, and based on the actual conditions of the base area, it was formulated and promulgated. Ten major policies on land, economy, military culture, etc., established Nanliang Bazaar, encouraged trade, promoted the development, and consolidated the Soviet regime.
 

In 1935, the Kuomintang launched the second large-scale "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Shaanxi-Gansu border and northern Shaanxi base areas. Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang and Xi Zhongxun repelled the enemy's attack through armed struggle, and the revolutionary base areas were further strengthened.
 

In the process of smashing the "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang reactionaries in the revolutionary base areas, the Shaanxi-Gansu border revolutionary base area with Nanliang as the center and the northern Shaanxi revolutionary base area with Wayaobao as the center were connected, forming a population of millions in 23 counties. The northwest revolutionary base area laid the foundation for the Red Army's Long March here.
 

In September 1935, the Central Red Army arrived in Hadapu, Gansu Province on the Long March. It saw reports on the Northwest Revolutionary Base in the newspaper and learned about the revolutionary activities in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Finally, at the Bangluo Town meeting, it was decided to put the foothold of the Long March in northern Shaanxi.
 

Inheriting the Red Gene and Condensing Endeavour Strength
 

More than 80 years ago, the Communists represented by Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, and Xi Zhongxun explored the ruling experience in the northwest corner of China, and took the happiness of the people as the starting point of all work, and gradually formed the "facing the masses, adhering to beliefs, and taking into account the overall situation." The Nanliang spirit with the main content of seeking truth and pioneering.
 

"The reason why the Northwest Revolutionary Base has been able to survive hardships and setbacks is that in addition to the correct path, it has always maintained flesh-and-blood ties with the people and has always received the sincere support of the people. This is an important reason." Lu Jianrong, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Northwestern University and dean of the School of Marxism, said that the older generation of proletarian revolutionaries such as Liu Zhidan, Xie Zichang, and Xi Zhongxun are all great pioneers and firm practitioners of the party's mass viewpoint and mass line.
 

In the Shaanxi-Gansu border region, Xi Zhongxun took the mass line as the code of action for every cadre. In order to let the people in the border areas understand the party's principles and policies, he took the lead in mobilizing the masses from village to house, mingled with and integrated with the masses, and formed a vivid situation of "seeing only public servants but not officials. "Everything about our Party is the people's business" "The country is the people, the people are the country" "When we abandon the mass line, when we break away from the masses, when our cause will fail", and being with the masses "is like a fish back in the water" ...... It is the deep affection between the party and the masses that has made the CPC Central Committee and the Red Army's Long March settle in the Shaanxi-Gansu Revolutionary Base, extremely favorable conditions for the masses have been provided.
 

By the end of 2020, all 610500 poor people in 570 poor villages in Qingyang, Gansu, where Nanliang is located, have been lifted out of poverty. At that time, because it was located on the Loess Plateau and had deep mountains and ditches, it was a favorable condition for the revolutionary base to carry out guerrilla warfare. But such a geographical environment is now restricting the development of the old bottleneck. On December 26, 2020, the Yinxi high-speed railway was officially opened, ending the history of no high-speed rail in Qingyang City, the old revolutionary base area where Nanliang is located. Qingyang's infrastructure is constantly improving, and the railway and highway network has developed rapidly. The old revolutionary base areas are on the fast track of high-quality development.

Reprinted from: Guangming Daily