Chinese Mountain Rebels

Flag of the CCP, established in 1927

Commonly referred to as **Chinese Mountain Rebels**, or just Chinese Communist Rebels, are an ongoing movement to establish communist control all over China. Since 1928 and the Nanjing Breakup or Nanjing Split, communists have been fighting all over Northern China as partisans and guerrillas.

## History

### A small movement

The history of the communist rebels dates back to 1921 with the founding of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1st, which claims its origins back in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, during which radical Western ideologies like Marxism and Anarchism gained traction among Chinese intellectuals. At first harboring only 50 members, the CCP grew rapidly but due to harassment by French forces they relocated from Shanghai to Jianxing. The CCP during this time before 1925 viewed the leader of the KMT quite positively, and he is treated as one of the founders of their movement. For the next few years the CCP would see a continual growth in members in the year 1925 alone. With Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek replacing him as leader of the KMT, the communists would see continual repression in Chinese society. On the flip side they were aided by the Germans, as they sent any leftover weapon stocks from the German Civil War. With Germany aiding the CCP, despite being communist the party became more open to unionism and syndicalism, but the ideology would never grow to challenge the CCP in ways that would occur in France or the United States.

With this repression many communists retreated north in secrecy from nationalist Chinese forces into other warlord states and cliques and with this retreat they began planning for a war of sorts, but no official plan had actually been made. Militias began to be organized as early as 1926, but since the CCP had few resources it would be another few years before any sort of fighting could begin. The CCP was currently headed by Chen Duxiu, but 1928 would be a year of opportunity for the communists to finally rise up, albeit not entirely in the way they hoped.

Even before the communists feared their expulsion out of all of China proper in 1927 after a number of victorious military incursions into other cliques allowed the KMT to cement its influence in almost all of China. Only Guizhou, Sichuan, and the Fengtian clique avoided the KMT's forces. For a short while, it seemed like China was finally on the path to unification.

### The Nanjing Split and communist insurgency

With the Great Crash and subsequent worldwide depression, for many Chinese people it was the straw that broke the camels back. More and more people were growing increasingly discontent with the political situation in China. Antimilitarism grew as a movement which also allowed anti-revolutionary movements to increase in presence. Different political groups, from syndicalists to reactionary movements were created and one of which was known as "The Nanjing Royalist Party". Based in the Chinese capital, it was founded in 1924 by disgruntled civilians who wanted the constant war and violence to end, but also establish a new monarchy within all of China as a unifying force for the country. Interestingly enough, they did not actually know what monarchy or who would lead it. They hated the Qing dynasty and blamed their government for the current situation that China was in. Although it was founded by about 1 hundred people the movement began to heighten as the problems in China that had been present for decades were left unsolved. The movement exploded after 1927, especially with the youth of Nanjing who grew up in the warlord era. The party grew in record numbers in part for the warlord era in China unintentially bringing sympathies of monarchism back to the people.

In March of 1928, a student protest broke out in the Nanjing University, calling for the restoration of an absolutist monarchy throughout China. Their rhetoric spread all throughout nationalist China, and KMT forces were sent in to disperse the students. Before engaging, it was unclear of what happened from both accounts, but it seemed like students began throwing rocks and bricks at the soldiers, who, in turn "for their own safety" as they recalled fired on the crowd to disperse the people there. Although the soldiers claimed they did not want any casualties, 3 people, all in the age range of 21-25 died from the fire. The enraged NRP, who saw its members enlarge from a hundred to 50,000 began attacking police stations and army barracks as a result. In the following weeks the KMT began increasingly violent campaigns in Nanjing which only expanded anti-KMT parties and organizations, who teamed up with the NRP, albeit momentarily, for the goal to expell the KMT. Around the same time the Japanese began sending supplies to the monarchists via several ports to weaken the nationalists, as they were the biggest threat to Japanese domination in mainland China.

It became increasingly clear that these people were not just bandits, but powerful rebels. In April, KMT forces were on the full retreat from Nanjing as supplies and volunteers from the Japanese helped the monarchists capture the entire city. The monarchists also were excellent propaganda masters with Japanese help of course. The Nanjing Split is one of the most confusing events in China for many historians, as many people have wondered how the NRP, a political party with 50,000 members were able to cement their status and capture a massive city like Nanjing. Little did they know it was due to Japanese interests. Before they conquered Manchuria, the violence on the coast was an opportunity for them to take. Essentially, the Japanese would continually aid the monarchists until they eventually won their struggle for independence.

With the monarchists being able to asset themselves with Japanese support, the entire fabric of Chinese society was upended and torn apart. The KMT, in the midst of fighting the NRP couldn't pacify other newly conquered territories, and as a result, one by one, Chinese states and warlord cliques declared themselves independent. Shanxi, Guominjun, Ma, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan all at some pointed in April to May declared themselves independent. Fighting between each clique soon would break out as there would be multiple territorial disputes between each clique. In the short time that it seemed like China might be unified, that belief broke down in the short span of a few months which would have irreversible consequences for years to come.

In Xinjiang for example, the new balance of power had dramatically shifted resulting in a very weaken government which paved the way for Uyghur republicans to take power for themselves and expel the Chinese out of the country.

Meanwhile in Northern China, the communists saw this disruption as an opportunity to finally spread communism throughout all of China and in late April began arming themselves for an uprising in Shanxi. In mid-May the uprising began in Gujiao and after 4 days of fighting the town was seized. Many worldwide leftists celebrated this day, and viewed this as the beginning of the rise of a communist China, however history would prove them otherwise. Instead of mutliple insurgencies occurring, resulting in the decimation of the Shanxi government and its collapse which the communists hoped for, they were under supplied and quite disorganized, and on multiple occasions whenever a new uprising occurred it was put down. This went on for some time but after 3 months the government in Taiyun became desperate. They knew that, with each quashing of a new rebellion the rebels only became more experienced and more hardened by war, and the new government became very fragile as a result of the ongoing uprisings. In August, the government reached out to the Kuomintang for support and aid against the communists. As much as the KMT despised the new Shanxi regime, they despised communism even more and agreed to send men and supplies into the country. This would be the base of a military pact formed by all of Northern China against the cliques of the south, the communists, monarchists and Japanese.

Even with supplies and men coming from the nationalists the communists fought to the last man, had greater morale and determination and had improved at their disorganization and became creative with the supplies they had and could get. The communists wouldn't get a lasting victory but neither would the North, and instead for the next half decade the communists fought and fought, but slowly they grew in strength, being able to take land from Shanxi, Guominjun, the Ma Clique and even the nationalists, dangerously bordering Beijing. In 1934 the greatest victory thus far came for the communists, when guerrilla fighters ambushed anti-communist soldiers in the city of Ordos and began a 16 hour battle which the anti-communists were not prepared for. Headed by Zhu De, his forces emerged victorious in the Battle of Ordos. With the capture of the city, which had been the biggest city the communists had taken control, Ordos became the provincial capital for the Reds who then gave Zhu the role of the chairman of the CCP, replacing Bo Gu.