A Crucial Step in Veteran’s Revolutionary Career

I met Admiral Xiao Ke (1907-2008) sixteen years ago. It was the only time we met, but the red-army veteran gave me a deep impression. The other day I was sorting through my documents and books while packing my things for moving to a new home, I saw a book he gave me at the meeting 16 years ago. He autographed a copy of “Sidelights on Red Army under Zhu De and Mao Zedong” and gave it to me. Thumbing through the book, I had the memory flashing back about the meeting.

On September 29, 1994, my colleague and I arrived at a courtyard dwelling in Beijing at the appointed time 2:30 in the afternoon. It was Admiral Xiao Ke and his wife’s residence in Beijing. We brought flowers and a book entitled “Jinhua, a City Notable for History and Culture”.

The admiral was dressed in a faded Chinese tunic suit. He looked fine. We presented the book. Noticing his attention to the pictures of Jinhua, I mentioned that I had heard of his stay in Jinhua during the Northern Expedition (1926-1927). He paused for a while and then began to tell us his story of that time.

He was born into a family of farmers in Hunan Province and he was one of the five siblings. His forefathers were scholars. Of his father and four uncles, three were scholars. In the spring of 1923, his elder brother was set up and was arrested on a false accusation by the local militia and executed on the same day. Xiao Ke got the idea of revenge. He graduated from the county normal school in January, 1926 and went to Guangzhou to join the revolution army. He walked nine days to reach Shaoguan and then traveled by train to Guangzhou. The 19-year-old arrived in Guangzhou in February, 1926 with the intention to get himself enrolled into the Huangpu Military Academy, but he was too late for the fourth enrollment. He found the Military Police Academy under the KMT Central Military Committee was recruiting new cadets. He signed up for the 4-month military course.

The course ran to five months. Xiao learned a lot. In July he graduated and was assigned as a sergeant to the Military Police Regiment under the Supreme Command. At this time the Northern Expedition had started. Xiao watched the progress attentively. His cousin Xiao Wuhui came to said goodbye to him before setting out with the Fourth Army to Hunan Province. His elder brother Xiao Keyun left with the Second Army to the frontier.

At this time, Xiao Ke left with home leave and visited his parents in Hunan. He actually intended to take the advantage of the home leave to catch up with the Northern Expedition forces. In October he joined a supply regiment as a weapon technician. A few days after his signup, the regiment moved. At this time, the expedition army was in fierce battles as it moved forward. Xiao’s regiment moved into Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province. After about a week, the regiment moved eastward to Zhejiang Province. It stayed in Jinhua in central Zhejiang for about 20 days, spending the Spring Festival there. Xiao Ke was not sure what was taking place on the national scale, but he soon received a letter from his cousin Xiao Wuhui from Wuchang, asking him to join him in Wuchang. Xiao Ke asked for another home leave and went to Wuchang.

His cousin Xiao Wuhui informed him that Chiang Kai-shek was going to betray the revolution and it was important that he not follow Chiang. With the arrangements of his cousin, Xiao Ke met with Chen Xingling, the director of the political department of the 24th division of the 11th Army, a new army organized on the basis of part of the Fourth Army. After two interviews with Chen Xingling, Xiao Ke was appointed to the post of a company political instructor. The division commander was Ye Ting, a communist who was arrested after the Southern Anhui Incident 1941 and died in an airplane crash on his way to Yan’an in 1946 after he was released from jail.

Chiang Kai-shek broke the CPC-KMT united front in April, 1927 and betrayed the revolution. He started coups in various cities and slaughtered communists. It was during this time that Xiao Ke joined the Communist Party of China. He was with the military units which started the Nanchang Uprising on August 1, 1927, a milestone of the CPC’s armed struggle against the KTM which led to the birth of the new China in 1949.

Xiao Ke was made an admiral in 1955 when the system of military ranks was inaugurated in the People’s Republic.

At the meeting on the afternoon of September 24, 1994, we learned about this part of the career of Xiao Ke. He said that Jinhua witnessed his crucial step in his lifetime. After about an hour, we waved good-bye and left.