The Provisional Supreme Court requested approval for the execution by firing squad of eight individuals—Ji Zhentong, Huang Zhongyue, Xiao Shijun, Zhang Shaoyi, Zhu Guanfu, Gao Dafu, Li Pinqing, and Liu Zuohua—who had been convicted of counterrevolutionary activities between August 3 and 4, 1931, as well as for a five-year prison sentence, with an additional five years’ deprivation of civil rights upon completion of the term, to be imposed on Cai Peiyu. The Central Executive Committee held that, in upholding the victory of the Soviet revolution, strengthening Red Army discipline, and maintaining the revolutionary front, the Provisional Supreme Court’s judgment sentencing these eight counterrevolutionaries to death was necessary.  At a time when class struggle was intensifying, the revolutionary movement was gaining momentum, the national Red Army continued to achieve great victories, and the imperialist Kuomintang, in a last-ditch effort to preserve its dying regime, was launching all-out attacks against the revolution, particularly against the Soviets and the Red Army, the reactionary rule of the landlord and capitalist classes, under the direction of imperialism, not only deployed the largest concentration of counterrevolutionary forces ever assembled to mount a full-scale offensive against the Soviet Red Army but also sought to organize all counterrevolutionary elements within the Soviet areas to undermine the Soviets and the Red Army from within. Moreover, precisely because the current stage of class struggle had reached a life-and-death juncture, class-alien elements within the revolutionary ranks, driven by their class interests, were shifting from wavering to open, overt betrayal of the revolution. Given that Ji, Huang, and their associates came from landlord and capitalist backgrounds, it was hardly surprising that, once the class struggle entered a life-or-death phase, they should turn traitors. Based on their counterrevolutionary activities, they properly deserved the death penalty. However, since all eight had participated in the Ningdu Uprising and had rendered certain services to the revolution, the Central Executive Committee decided that, although Ji Zhentong was the principal instigator of this conspiracy, having also served as one of the leaders who guided the Ningdu Uprising, his sentence should be commuted from death to ten years’ imprisonment, to be calculated from May 8, 1931. Similarly, Huang Zhongyue was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment instead of execution, with the term beginning on May 5, 1932; Zhu Guanfu, Gao Dafu, and Zhang Shaoyi, who had taken part in the Ningdu Military Mutiny and were not the main organizers of this plot, were likewise given eight-year prison sentences, to be counted from May 19, 1931, May 8, 1931, and May 17, 1931, respectively. Upon completion of their respective prison terms, each of these three would further be deprived of civil rights for five years. As for the remaining defendants—Liu Zuohua, Li Pinqing, Xiao Shijun, and Cai Peiyu—the original judgments were to stand.

Chairman Mao Zedong, Vice Chairmen Xiang Ying and Zhang Guotao, Gregorian calendar date: August 10, 1931.