Zhuo Lanfang: Leader of the Peasant Movement, Hero of the Revolution, Defeated and Repeatedly Fought

Zhuo Lanfang (1900-1930)

Zhuo Lanfang, formerly known as Xianghe and Peiqing, was born on March 21, 1900 in Songao Baigu Village, Fenghua County, Zhejiang Province, in the family of a private school teacher. At the age of 7, Zhuo Lanfang studied with his father in the private school and elementary school in his village; at the age of 11, he attended the elementary school of Cixi Jintang Normal; at the age of 14, he was admitted to the Ningbo Provincial No.4 Middle School. He was diligent and hard-working, and excelled in both character and learning. Due to his dissatisfaction with the education system at that time, he was expelled from the school at the age of 18.

After the death of his father, because of the life forced, Zhuo Lanfang embarked on a teaching career, successively in Fenghua Songxi Elementary School, Yinxian Sidu Hall Elementary School, Zhenhai Longshan Elementary School, Ningbo, Ningbo, She Envoy Temple, North corner of the Elementary School and the Yuxiu School for girls to teach. During the period, he further saw many ugly phenomena in the society, and his thoughts were very bitter. Under the influence of the May Fourth Movement and the inspiration and help of Zhuo Kaiser, an early *** member of his hometown, he began to aspire to revolution.

In the spring of 1924, Zhang Qiuren, a member of the *** Party, went to Ningbo to develop the party and group organizations, and successively established the *** Ningbo Group and the Ningbo Branch of the League. Under the education and training of Ningbo Party and League organizations, Zhuo Lanfang gradually accepted the truth of Marxism-Leninism, and was determined to reform the old society. In the second half of the same year, he joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League and soon became a member of the Chinese *** Party. From then on, he changed his negative attitude towards life and devoted himself to revolutionary work.

Ningbo Hefeng Yarn Factory

In the autumn of 1924, Zhuo Lanfang was dispatched by the Party organization in Ningbo to carry out the workers' movement in Ningbo Hefeng Yarn Factory. He often went to a ferry port near the temple of Yu Envoy, and took the opportunity of the workers' commuting to and from work to take the ferry here, to help the old and the young, to approach the workers actively, and to build up feelings with them; and in the interval of talking about family life, he propagandized the revolutionary reasoning to them, and inspired them to be aware of their ideological consciousness. At the same time, in order to expand the educational surface, Zhuo Lanfang also opened a night school for workers in Jigong Temple on the north bank of Yongjiang River, helping workers to learn culture, educating and uniting them, and raising their political consciousness. More and more workers came to listen to the lectures, laying the foundation for the later organization of trade unions. 1925 spring, a group of worker activists joined the regiment, and soon, and Feng yarn factory spinning workshop also set up trade unions to carry out activities.

After the news of the tragedy reached Ningbo, the Ningbo Party organization immediately set up the Ningbo Diplomatic Support Association to mobilize people from all walks of life to show solidarity with the workers' struggle in Shanghai.

In January 1926, Zhuo Lanfang was ordered to return to Songao, Fenghua to engage in the peasant movement. He used the identity of the principal of Songxi Elementary School as a cover to develop party members among elementary school teachers, poor peasants and craftsmen, and established the Songao Party branch. Then, Zhuo Lanfang developed a number of new members in Yangcun, Matou, Qiucun, Wu Jiabu, etc., which prepared the leadership and backbone force for the peasants' movement, and in June, Zhuo Lanfang held the peasants' meeting in Zhuo Family Ancestral Hall and Wang Family Ancestral Hall successively, publicized the idea of ***, and called on the peasants to unite for the revolution. With the establishment of Songao Village Farmers' Association, farmers' associations sprang up in Fenghua East and West Zhongyi District (now Yuanhu District). In order to expand the influence of the Farmers' Association, Zhuo Lanfang led the farmers of Songao Village in a face-to-face reasoning struggle with the landlord Wang Chengren and the bad gentry Zhuo Ci Pei, forcing them not to dare to raise the rent price of the land and forcibly take over the sea coats again. As a result of the victory of these two struggles, greatly enhanced the prestige of the Farmers' Association, so that the rapid development of the membership to more than 10,000 people.

In October, under the situation of the victory of the Northern Expeditionary Army, the *** Ningbo local committee instructed the party organizations at all levels to take advantage of this favorable opportunity to strengthen the guidance of the mass movement of workers and peasants, and to support and promote the war of Northern Expedition. And decided to set up *** Post Feng District Committee, Zhuo Lanfang as secretary, unified leadership of the region's peasant movement. in early November, attacked Xianghe Tan Salt Bureau, tax customs, seized more than ten rifles and short guns, the establishment of the farmers' armed forces; New Year's Day, 1927, beat up and drove away the Fenghua County Governor Shen Bingcheng, the great growth of the masses of the workers and peasants; with the situation of the struggle and the development of party organizations, Zhuo Lanfang on behalf of the Ningbo Party Committee to prepare for the construction of *** Fenghua County Committee, unified leadership of the masses of workers and peasants, and to support and promote the war of Northern Expedition. Fenghua County Committee, unified leadership of the party branches and peasant associations, mobilizing the masses, fighting the tycoons, knocking the Bodhisattva, sealing the church, breaking the superstition, the peasant movement is booming, the tycoons and the shady gentry are scared to death.

In mid-January 1927, Zhuo Lanfang was assigned by the local party committee to guide the peasant movement in Cixi and Yuyao. on February 14, Zhuo Lanfang went to the Central Party School in Shanghai (the second phase) to study for about a month, and participated in the meeting of the Shanghai District Committee's Agricultural Committee to report on the situation of the agricultural movement in Fengdong. After returning to Ningbo, he and Zhu Qingdan went to Yuyao Aandong Salt Farm to carry out work, inspire the salt people to realize, and prepare for the establishment of the Salt People's Association. on March 22nd, Yuyao Salt People's Association was established, and more than 20,000 people participated in the Salt People's Association of Aandong Salt Farm, which had 100,000 salt people.

In March 1927, farmers and salt people's associations were established in various counties. The picture shows the Yuyao Salt People's Association

Just when the mass movement of workers and peasants was in full swing, the counter-revolutionary coup of "April 12th" took place. *** Wang Jun, the commander of the Ningtai-Wenwei defense, sent soldiers around to search for *** people and revolutionary masses, Zhuo Lanfang rushed back to Fenghua, informing party members and cadres to evacuate and hide, so that Fenghua's party organizations and farmers' associations to reduce losses.

From the end of April to the beginning of May, Zhuo Lanfang attended the Fifth National Congress of the Party in Wuhan as a delegate of Zhejiang Province. in June, the *** Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee was established, and he was elected as a member of the Provincial Party Committee and the director of the Peasant Department, and then he went to Zhuji, Fuyang, and Hangxian to restore and develop the Party organizations. on September 27th, the Provincial Party Committee was reorganized, and Zhuo Lanfang became the member of the Standing Committee and the director of the Peasant Department. in the morning of September 29th, Zhang Qiuqi, the secretary of the new *** Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, was arrested by the Party.

In order to implement the spirit of the "87" meeting of the Party, the *** Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee formulated a huge "Zhedong riot plan" from Hangzhou Bay to Wenzhou, and Zhuo Lanfang was designated as the person in charge of the riot point in Fengdong Zhongyi District.

On November 12, the *** Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee was suddenly sabotaged. The Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee was sabotaged, and Wang Jiamu, the main leading member of the Provincial Party Committee, was arrested, and the Zhedong riot plan was aborted.

In January 1928, the provincial party committee modified the insurrection plan, moved the focus to Fenghua, and decided to set up the Fenghua District Committee, with Sha Wenhan as the secretary, and Zhuo Lanfang as the provincial party committee's special commissioner in charge of command. However, due to the objective reason that the enemy is strong and we are weak, this riot was aborted again.

The old site of peasant riot in Xizhen, Hang County

From March 14 to 16, 1928, Zhuo Lanfang participated in the enlarged meeting of the *** Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee in Shanghai (i.e., the enlarged meeting in March), and Zhou Enlai attended the meeting on behalf of the Central Committee of the CPC to guide the meeting. The meeting summarized the lessons learned from the failure of the Fenghua riot, discussed and adopted the "Resolution on the Current Political Tasks of the Zhejiang Party Committee", and on April 1, the provincial party committee moved back to Hangzhou from Ningbo, and on April 22, Zhuo Lanfang presided over a meeting of representatives of the party in western Zhejiang in his capacity as a commissioner of the provincial party committee, conveyed the spirit of the March enlarged meeting of the provincial party committee, and set up the *** Special Committee of Western Zhejiang. In May, the Party Central Committee decided that Zhuo Lanfang should be the secretary of the Provincial Party Committee. During this period of time, he drew lessons from the failure of Fenghua riot, and correctly carried out the spirit of "March Expanded Meeting" of the Provincial Party Committee with high revolutionary ***. Under his participation and chairmanship, he successively issued the "Provincial Party Committee Fangzhi Circulars" No. 1 to No. 11, deploying the province's anti-imperialist struggles, propaganda and education, workers' movement, autumn harvest and rent resistance, etc.; and issued circulars in the name of the Provincial Party Committee, which were widely publicized in the province. He also issued letters of instruction in the name of the Provincial Party Committee to correct the "leftist" tendency of the Party organizations in the counties in western Zhejiang. He also went to western Zhejiang many times to strengthen the construction of the Party, helping to set up county committees in Longyou, Fuyang and Yiwu; to carry out the spirit of the Sixth National Congress of the CPC, and to help the grass-roots cadres make clear the long-term nature of the Chinese revolution. Thus, the revolutionary struggle in all parts of the province had a new beginning.

January 16, 1929, *** Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee held an enlarged meeting to reorganize the provincial party committee, Zhuo Lanfang was elected as the provincial party committee, Secretary General, insisted on secret activities in Hangzhou. April, the Party Central Committee held a meeting in Shanghai, Zhejiang, decided to temporarily cancel the provincial party committee establishment, to strengthen the direct local inspections. Zhuo Lanfang was appointed as the central inspector, and went to east Zhejiang, north Zhejiang and west Zhejiang to inspect and guide the work. in May, he went to Ningbo to restore the party organization, and helped to establish the *** Ningbo Special Branch. from July to August, he went to Huzhou, Changxing, Deqing, Shaoxing, Fuyang, Hangzhou and other cities and towns to inspect and guide the work. on November 19th, he submitted to the Party Central Committee the "report on inspection of west Zhejiang", which was more than 10,000 words long, pointing out some problems existed within the party and the work, and proposing opinions for improvement.

The report was submitted to the Party Central Committee on November 19, which is more than 10,000 words long.

In 1930, there was a resurgence of "left" leaning in the Party, and at the beginning of April, Zhuo Lanfang, under the pseudonym of Li Pinsan, was instructed to return to Zhejiang from Shanghai to organize the Zhuji riot as an inspector of the Central Committee, accompanied by the Central Committee Circular No. 70, which was a major step in the development of the Party's political system and the development of its political system. The riot was a failure due to the disparity of power between the enemy and us and the lack of combat experience.

After the failure of the Zhuji riot, they should have summed up the lessons learned and adjusted their strategy, but the higher-ups still ordered Zhuo Lanfang to continue organizing armed riots. He came to Hangzhou and, on behalf of the higher party organizations, instructed the prison special branch to launch prison struggles and prison break struggles to complement the land revolution and armed riots outside.

On April 30th, the *** Hangzhou Municipal Committee was changed into the Hangzhou Municipal Action Committee, which unified the leadership of the struggles in Hangzhou, Hangxian, Deqing and other places. In the evening of the same day, Zhuo Lanfang personally involved in commanding Fuyang County, four-way peasant army of more than 2,000 people ready to attack the county town, due to the leakage of the plan was unsuccessful.

In May, Zhuo Lanfang arrived in Jiande, according to the spirit of the instructions from the higher level, decided to implement the west Zhejiang riots centered on Jiande. July 6, Jiande peasants took up the banner of the thirteenth army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and initiated a riot. After the riots in other counties in western Zhejiang have lost, *** authorities urgently deployed Lanxi, Pujiang and other places of the military police reinforcement, Jiande peasant army on three sides of the enemy, and poor weapons, but also finally failed.

After the failure of the riot in western Zhejiang, the white terror in the province was even more serious, and Hangzhou was even more densely covered with enemy spies, but Zhuo Lanfang still insisted on secret activities in Hangzhou, and on August 15, he attended a joint meeting of the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, which decided to prepare for the organization of a general riot in the south of the Yangtze River with Nanjing as the center. After returning to Hangzhou, Zhuo Lanfang set up a general action committee in northern Zhejiang and became the secretary of the committee. in September, the Third Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Party put an end to the "left"-tilted erroneous line, and the general action committee in northern Zhejiang was withdrawn. on September 7, Zhuo Lanfang went to the Jianggan District to attend a secret meeting held in the Shipailou Wenhua Teahouse, which was detected by the enemy. *** The Hangzhou Neihe Police Department immediately sent scouts disguised as police officers to keep watch. The following afternoon, Zhuo Lanfang after the meeting walked to the Ban'er Lane neighborhood, suddenly remembered that there is a house for rent in the company, the underground party organization intends to set up a liaison station there, so he decided to stop by to look at the house.

In order not to expose his identity, he assumed the name of Li Ande, and vigilantly squatted in the cage all day long, and did not even go out when he was "released". The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers," he said. He was soon transferred to Zhejiang Army Prison. In the cage, he also continued to publicize the revolutionary situation, to encourage the refugees to struggle to the end.

Zhuo Lanfang Memorial Museum

October 5, 1930, Zhuo Lanfang in the Army Prison, 30 years old.

Ningbo(3)Riot(2)Fenghua(1)