Proclamation of the Headquarters
of the First Front Army of the
Chinese Workers' and Peasants'
Red Army: Execute Huang Meizhuang
(June 1931)
The warlords and the Guomindang have on two separate occasions dispatched a total of 400,000 troops and made every possible use of all counterrevolutionary forces in society (for example, organizing the AB Corps, the
Social Democratic Party, and other reactionary groups) in an attempt to destroy the soviet areas and the Red Army. But they have all been utterly routed
by the First Front Army of the Red Army, which has. defeated and dispersed
more than 200,000 White Army soldiers. Zhang Huizan and Hu Zuyu were,
respectively, beheaded and shot to death by the Red Army. This great revolutionary victory has struck terror into the hearts of the warlords and imperialists
throughout the country. In an attempt to rescue the Guomindang from its demise,
Chiang Kaishek recently sent a batch of his running dogs to the Red areas and,
using customary warlord tricks, tried to come to an understanding with the main
responsible officers of the Red Army and undermine the unity of the Red
Army. The running dogs sent by Chiang Kaishek have all been arrested and
executed. A few days ago he sent Huang Meizhuang over, hoping to use
feudal relationships to dismantle the Red Army's battle formations. Now the
said renegade Huang has already been captured, openly tried, and sentenced
to death2 by execution. In view of the fact that the said renegade Huang
Meizhuang is a willing reactionary, who has gone so far as to take orders
from Chiang Kaishek to come and sabotage the Red Army, he is indeed guilty of
the most heinous crimes. Now, having by due means been found guilty, the
criminal Huang Meizhuang will be bound and taken to the execution ground for
Our source for this text is Mao Zetlong ji. lhl}llfln, Vol. 3, pp. 291-92, w~ it is
I. Huang Meizhuang a native ofXiaap:iang in Hunan, was the half-brother of Third
Army Group commaoder Huang Goqlue.
2. It is indicated in the available Chinese tex.t lha1 tweaty-oae characters an: missinJ
""'·

decapitation, in order to eliminate counterrevolution and make the bandits tremble with fear. It is so proclaimed.
Commander-in-Chief
Zhu De
General Political Commissar
Mao Zedong
Posted on June [X],1 1931 by the Western
cai...W)
3. The Chinese text shows one cbuac1er missios here, indicatins • date between the
first lllld the tenth of the month.

reproduced from a contemporary document to be found in the Chen Cheng Collection.