(Excerpt) It is our misfortune that Hunan has repeatedly suffered the ravages of war, year after year, leaving nothing but devastation. Since last year, when Zhang Jingyao entered Hunan, he has unleashed a horde of starving troops to rape, burn, loot, and kill; imposed a tyrannical regime to extort and fraudulently collect funds; and sold off public lands, lakefront fields, mines, and textile mills—leaving state property all but exhausted. He has piled on new levies: a rice tax, a salt tax, a paper tax, and an additional land tax, draining the very lifeblood of the people until they are left with nothing. Today, the rich have become poor, and the poor are dying; the misery and displacement are so unbearable that one can scarcely bear to hear about it. Yet the Zhang brothers, each already amassing tens of millions, remain insatiable. Even this meager remaining fund for rice and salt, which belongs to the entire populace, they now seek to seize for their own enrichment—to their heart’s content.

Last year, Zhang instigated local thugs like Li Mingjiu to telegraph Beijing, pretending to investigate the whereabouts of these funds, and set up a “Rice and Salt Public Fund Liquidation Office” in Changsha. More recently, he is said to have bribed Guo Renzhang and others to approach Mr. Xiong Bingsan, under the guise of the Hunan Affairs Maintenance Association in Beijing, demanding an accounting of the fund—an utterly unreasonable and vexatious act. The true purpose behind all this is none other than to strip Hunan of every last asset and suck dry the lives of its people, merely to satisfy their boundless greed.

After such a catastrophic blow as Hunan has endured, we are left but a pitiful remnant. Without substantial resources, how can we possibly address the aftermath? The rice and salt fund was painstakingly saved by our thirty million fellow provincials through privation and frugality; it was hard-earned and must be used wisely. If it is swallowed whole, there will be no recovery from this calamity. The Zhangs’ brutal and merciless oppression of the people of Hunan has long been their modus operandi. It remains baffling that there should be among us those who, though sharing the same soil and sustenance, would betray their own homeland, willingly becoming lackeys of their enemies. Such utter moral depravity is beyond comprehension. We, the citizens of Hunan, hereby declare that we will never recognize any such despicable conduct as that perpetrated by Guo Renzhang and his ilk.

In short, as long as the Zhangs remain in power and turmoil continues in Hunan, this fund may only be temporarily entrusted to the care of local notables; no changes or disbursements are permitted. Once peace is restored throughout the province, its use shall be decided by a province-wide referendum reflecting the will of the people. Anyone who, out of shamelessness, attempts to sabotage this arrangement shall be regarded as an enemy of the public. All our fellow provincials must understand that the time for action is now—momentum once lost will never return; let us not neglect this critical opportunity.

Signed jointly by: Representatives of the citizenry: Luo Zonghan, Mao Zedong, Peng Huang, Zhang Huai, He Shuheng, Kuang Rixiu; representatives of the teaching staff: Luo Jiaoduo, Zhang Jinyun, Yang Yufu, Jiang Yuhuan, Xiong Mengfei; student representatives: Liu Min, Gao Biao, Xiong Kexian, Li Simi, Ouyang Jiaorou, Li Sian, Peng Xianze, Gao Yeru, Li Zhenpian, Li Qihan, Li Guojun, Li Gongjia, Huang Ying, Hu Weiyin, Li Cai Gui, Wang Guolin, He Yuanpei, Zhang Xinmin, Chen Zonghan, Liu Zuozhou, Chen Chunchui, Mao Douwen, Yi Xun, Yi Ke □, Yi Jieyi, Liao Ruixiang, Liang Chaogan, Miao Kunshan, Jiang Zhuru, Xiong Keqi, Xiong Zhuowu, Wei Xianlie, Li Zonglie, Qiu Weiqin, Lin Yunyuan, Xu Qingyu, Zhang Shusheng, Fu Diliang, Zhong Xiu, Xu Ying, Cao Yangli, Wu Junchen, Chen Shiquan, Peng Guangqiu, and others.