Page 68 - SELECTED WORKS OF CHEN YUN Volume I

64 CHEN YUN

spoke with a Guangxi accent. They confessed that they had been sent by the
Longsheng County government to burn down houses for two silver dollars
per day. The purpose was to deprive the Red Army of places to rest and food,
and also to arouse resentment for the Red Army among the local people.
Having been asked where they had obtained their uniforms, they answered
that the county government had captured some Red Army soldiers who had
fallen behind, taken their uniforms and killed them. These uniforms were
then provided for those who were sent to set fires in order that they might
impersonate Red Army soldiers. The men had already set fires in several
villages and towns. They were pretending to be Red Army troops who had
fallen behind the ranks, trailing behind the Red Army from day to day.
Sometimes they pretended to be Red Army scouts and set fires before the
Red Army arrived.
General Public Health Department Chief He Cheng was very resource-
ful. After hearing what these men said, he ordered his soldiers to extinguish
the fires. When the fires were out, he called together the townspeople and
ordered those who had impersonated Red Army soldiers to confess to the
townspeople what they had been doing. The townspeople began striking these
men. He Cheng stopped them and said, “The Guangxi warlords and
bureaucrats are trying to frame the Red Army, and it is cruel of them to
destroy your home. We Red Army soldiers are very sympathetic and have
helped you with the fires. Moreover, we will provide relief funds which were
confiscated from local tyrants to those whose houses have been destroyed.
You can get the money over there. What are you going to do with these
arsonists?” Following He Cheng’s address hundreds of local people responded
in solidarity that they should be put to death. The arsonists were dragged
outside the town. All of the townspeople went along. They soon returned to
secure their money, which was distributed at a table. Moments later, 50 or
60 young people approached He Cheng and said, “We want to join the Red
Army.” Over 100 persons signed up to join at that time.
From this occurrence I surmised that although the leader of the Guangxi
Army, Bai Chongxi may have been known as “little Zhuge Liang,” the
master mind, he had acted unwisely and cruelly in his effort to discredit the
Red Army by sending these arsonists. What happened in the town of
Guangnanzhai could only cause the people to hate the local authorities all
the more and this would assist the Red Army in gaining support.
The Red Army marched northwestward from Guangnanzhai to
Lianghekou and then to Niupishan. The two columns under the command
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of Xue and Zhou and most of the Hunan Army gathered in Chengbu,
Suining, Jingxian and Huitong counties to prevent the Red Army from