……Alas, our Hunan has been repeatedly ravaged by war for several years running, leaving nothing but devastation and misery. Since General Zhang Jingyao entered Hunan last year, he has unleashed a horde of starving troops to rape, burn, loot, and murder, while imposing a tyrannical regime that extorts and squeezes every last penny from the people. Public lands, lakefront fields, mines, and textile mills have all been sold off, exhausting the state’s resources; taxes on rice, salt, paper, and land have been relentlessly increased, draining the very lifeblood of the populace. Today, the rich have become poor, and the poor are dying. The widespread suffering and displacement are too harrowing to bear. Even after having already amassed thousands upon thousands through their depredations, the Zhang brothers show no sign of satiety. Now they seek to seize what little remains of the public funds earmarked for rice and salt, intending to pocket them for their own gain. Last year, General Zhang instigated local thugs like Li Mingjiu to cable Beijing, demanding an inquiry into these funds and even to set up a special office in Changsha to investigate and liquidate the rice-and-salt trust. More recently, it is reported that he bribed Guo Renzhang and others to pose as representatives of the Hunan Affairs Maintenance Association in Beijing and to harass Mr. Xiong Bingsan with baseless questions about the same funds—an outrageous act of bullying. The true purpose behind this is clear: to plunder every last asset of Hunan and to exploit its people to the utmost, thereby satisfying their insatiable greed. At a time when our province lies in such dire straits, with its people reduced to wretchedness and destitution, how can we possibly provide for reconstruction without any substantial reserves? The rice-and-salt public fund represents the meager savings of our thirty million fellow provincials, who have endured hunger and frugal living to amass it. It must be safeguarded jealously and used with the utmost prudence. Should it be swallowed whole, there would be no recovery from this calamity. The Zhang gang’s brutal and vicious exploitation of the people of Hunan has long been their modus operandi. Yet we cannot allow such scoundrels—those who betray their own soil and people, willingly serving as lackeys to our enemies—to continue their self-destructive course. The moral depravity of these individuals has reached an intolerable extreme! We, the citizens of Hunan, hereby declare that we will never recognize the despicable actions of Guo Renzhang and his ilk. In short, until General Zhang leaves Hunan and order is restored, this fund should remain under the temporary custody of Hunan notables, untouched and unaltered. Once peace and stability have been secured throughout the province, its use shall be decided by a province-wide referendum reflecting the will of the people. Anyone who dares to come forward at this juncture with the intent to sabotage shall be regarded as an enemy of the public. All our fellow provincials must understand that we stand at a critical moment for self-defense; if we let this opportunity slip, it will be lost forever. Let us not neglect our duty.  Fifty-five representatives of the citizens of Hunan, including Mao Zedong (details omitted)   (Copied from the Museum of Chinese Revolutionary History)