Guangzhou Uprising

On December 11, 1927, an armed uprising led by communists Zhang Tailei, Ye Ting, and Ye Jianying in Guangzhou by workers, peasants, and revolutionary soldiers was an active and heroic counterattack against the massacre policy of the KMT reactionaries. Together with the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising held in the same year, they are known as the three major uprisings in the history of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

After Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup, the KMT reactionary forces in the two provinces also launched the April 15 counter-revolutionary coup in Guangzhou. White Terror enveloped the city and countryside of Guangzhou. As the retreating communists from Wuhan and other places gathered in Guangzhou one after another, especially during September 1927. The news came that Peng Pai led the armed peasant uprising in Haifeng and Lufeng and the Nanchang Uprising forces into Guangdong, the people's struggle became more intense.

On December 11, under the leadership of Zhang Tailei, Ye Ting, Yun Daiying, Ye Jianying, Yang Yin, Zhou Wenyong, and Nie Rongzhen, the Guangzhou Uprising was held. Under the unified deployment, the Training Regiment, a part of the Guard Regiment, and the Workers' Red Guards launched a fierce attack on the enemy stationed in various parts of the city. After more than two hours of fierce battles, an infantry regiment, an artillery regiment, a part of the Guard Regiment, and more than 1,000 armed policemen of the enemy were destroyed. Peasants in the countryside and some nearby counties also organized riots in response to the uprising.

On December 12, the Guangzhou Soviet Government was proclaimed, with Su Zhaozheng as the chairman (not in the office due to illness, represented by Zhang Tailei) and Ye Ting as the commander-in-chief of the insurgent army, and the internal and external policies of the Soviet Government were promulgated. The Guangzhou Uprising shocked the Chinese and foreign reactionaries, who immediately collaborated in the attack on Guangzhou.

The American, British, Japanese, and French imperialists openly practiced armed intervention, sending out gunboats to bombard the Guangzhou district and at one point sending marines to land at the Changdi to attack the uprising forces.

On December 12, Zhang Fakui mobilized troops from Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, Shaoguan, and Huangpu and launched an attack on Guangzhou city. That afternoon, the main leader of the uprising, Zhang Tailei, died

In the face of the violent attacks by the Chinese and foreign reactionaries, the uprising forces fought bravely but were forced to evacuate Guangzhou on the 13th due to the overwhelming disparity between Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army and the enemy.

Part of the withdrawn forces integrated into the Fourth Division of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army in Huaxian County, under the leadership of Division Commander Ye Yong and Party Representative Yuan Yu (Yuan Guoping), into the Haifeng and Lufeng areas. They merged with the Second Division and persisted in the revolutionary struggle. Others who broke out went to areas around the river of Guangxi and led the peasants in guerrilla warfare. A few others went near Shaoguan and joined the Nanchang Uprising forces led by Zhu De and Chen Yi.

The Guangzhou Uprising was a large-scale violent revolution led by the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee under the direct guidance of the CPC Central Committee to the workers and peasants and revolutionary soldiers in the Guangzhou area, following the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising at the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region, and was another heroic counterattack against the KMT reactionaries and a bold attempt to establish Soviet power in the city.

Although this uprising failed, the revolutionary spirit of the rebels and the workers and peasants who fought bravely and their heroic attitude gave new inspirations to the Chinese people and wrote a glorious and magnificent chapter in the history of the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people.

The failure of the Guangzhou Uprising proved once again that it was impossible to seize power through armed urban uprisings when the counter-revolutionary forces, aided by imperialism, controlled the national power, who had a strong reactionary military in their hands and occupied the central cities. It is only in the countryside, where the counter-revolutionary rule is weak, that the revolution can gather strength and finally seize the victory of the revolution.