To the People of the Whole Country, All Newspapers, Various Public Opinion Organizations, Military and Civil Officials of Every Province, Members of Hunan Province in Both Houses of the Guangzhou Military Government, Mr. Tan Yankai of Chenzhou, Mr. Wu Peifu of Hengzhou, Messrs. Xiong Xiling, Fan Yuanlian, and Guo Zongxi of Tianjin, as well as Mr. Zhang Shizhao, Mr. Peng Yunyi, and Mr. Xu Fusuo of the Shanghai Peace Conference:

The chaos engulfing China has persisted for eight or nine consecutive years. Such turmoil is not surprising; what is truly astonishing is that it has yielded absolutely no tangible results. The decay of society and the decline of our nation demand an extraordinary effort—one that uproots the problem at its very root—if we are to achieve genuine reform and cleansing. This responsibility rests with the entire populace, not merely with a handful of bureaucrats, politicians, and military figures. These individuals pursue private interests rather than the public good; they act arbitrarily without sincerity, betray national sovereignty instead of defending it, harm others rather than benefit them, and uphold class distinctions while rejecting equality. The prolonged, devastating upheaval of the past eight to nine years has been orchestrated by this very group through their self-serving machinations.

The Beijing government, utterly corrupt, serves as a den of vice, dominated by the Anfu clique, which willingly engages in wickedness. Railways, mines, forests, and treaty ports have all been sold off, while Japan provides arms, funds, and training officers to perpetrate massacres in the South. As a result, my native Hunan has been plunged into dire suffering. Thirty million people in Hunan have endured brutal killings, rape, imprisonment, exploitation, and plunder; the true number of those who have perished remains unknown. Zhang Jingyao, a minor bandit from Anhui, brought his forces into Hunan, waging war against both citizens and students. He allowed his depraved brothers and adopted sons to run rampant in Changsha, treating assassination and mutilation as commonplace. Until Zhang Jingyao is removed from power, the people of Hunan cannot hope for a new beginning.

Tracing the origins of this calamity back to its source, we find that while the immediate instigators were the warlords, the underlying cause lies with the people themselves. Over these eight or nine years, the chaos in Hunan was engineered by a small coterie of military men, yet the populace remained silent and inert—half-dead, half-alive—refraining from speaking out or resisting. By displaying weakness from the outset, how can we blame others for seizing the opportunity to wreak havoc?

Today, however, we have awakened to a profound realization: Hunan belongs to those who currently reside within its borders and earn an honest living, both now and in the future. The affairs of Hunan must be decided by the people of Hunan themselves. Those who support this self-determination are friends of the people of Hunan; those who obstruct it are their enemies. To expel the forces of rebellion and restore our freedom, we, the people of Hunan, bear a singular, indivisible responsibility. It is also why we earnestly appeal to our fellow countrymen—those with warm hearts and noble aspirations—to rise up and offer their solidarity.