Yang Youlin

Yang Youlin
杨幼麟
Yang Youlin
Born	1899 Hami, Xinjiang, Qing dynasty
Died	1935 (Age 36) Ruijin, Jiangxi Province, Republic of China
Cause of death	Executed by the Nationalist government
Education	Hunan Self-Study University; Moscow Sun Yat-sen University
Alma mater	Moscow Sun Yat-sen University
Occupation	Vice Chairman of the Hunan Hubei Jiangxi Provincial Soviet Government
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Opponent	Nationalist government
Spouse	Li Huaying (李华英)
Children	Yang Yingpeng
Father	Yang Xianglin
Relatives	Yang Zailin - Younger brother Yang Kaihui - 2nd Cousin
Military career
Allegiance	Communist China
Service / branch	Chinese Red Army
Years of service	1925–1935
Commands	16th Red Army
Conflict	Chinese Civil War Attack on Changsha, 1930 1st Encirclement Campaign Encirclement campaign against the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet 4th Encirclement Campaign 5th Encirclement Campaign
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	杨幼麟
Simplified Chinese	杨幼麟
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yáng Yòulín

Yang Youlin (杨幼麟, Youlin Yang, 1899–1935), nickname Shifu (石夫), was a Chinese politician and a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), being the Vice Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Hunan Hubei Jiangxi Soviet Provincial Government before he was captured and executed in 1935 by the Nationalist government. He was formerly a schoolteacher before joining the CCP in 1925. As a member of the CCP, he was responsible for managing education affairs, teaching the ideals of the communist revolution to his fellow Chinese. Youlin was harassed and was forced to flee to the Soviet Union in 1927, returning in 1929 after studying in Moscow. He would be promoted to Vice Chairman of the Hunan Hubei Jiangxi Soviet Provincial Government, ranking above Mao Zedong at that time. He would then assume command of the 16th Army in 1930, and led the Chinese Red Army offensive on Changsha in that year. However, his policies as commander of the army made him unpopular with some in the CCP, leading to him being relinquished of all titles. Near the end of his life, he tried to fight off the KMT during the Fifth Encirclement Offensive by Chiang Kai-Shek and the R.O.C Army, and was as a result, executed in 1935 by the Kuomintang.

Early life

Yang Youlin was born in Hami in the year 1899. His father, Yang Xianglin, was a general in the Qing Army. He was promoted to the garrison commander for his military exploits and died of illness in 1912. Yang Youlin's mother led Yang Youlin and his six siblings back to their hometown in Xiangxiang and continued to send them to school, hoping that they would achieve academic success and serve the country and the nation.

As a part of the Yang Family, a family of revolutionaries, Military Officials and Military Staff, his birth and later life was closely tied to the CCP and the Chinese Communist Revolution. Youlin himself was known and friends with many Generals and Marshals of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), as well as politicians of the CCP, such as Li Lisan and Chen Geng. Since he was from Shaoshan, Hunan, he was also a friend of Mao Zedong. He is also a relative of Yang Kaihui, Mao Zedong's second wife.

In his youth, Yang Youlin was diligent and studious. In 1920, he was admitted to Changsha Yueyun Middle School and met progressive young people such as Chen Zibo and Yi Lirong.

In 1921, he attended the Hunan Self-Study University, where it is said that he was a very astute and devoted student. He often went to the Self-Study University to attend classes, dilligently read books and periodicals that promoted new ideas and new culture, and actively participated in the patriotic struggle of young students against imperialism and feudalism.

He would become a teacher at Changsha Yueyun Middle School, where he was reportedly a very diligent and erudite teacher, being well liked among his students.

Around this time, he wrote a letter to his second brother, writing that now it is necessary to drive away foreign invaders, "the responsibility will fall on our generation without any shirking", expressing a strong sense of mission and responsibility.

He kept his occupation as a schoolteacher before joining the CCP in 1925 after attending the Shaoshan Revenge Meeting, and would serve as Director of School Affairs during the reorganization of the Xiangxi Xiangchengqian District School Affairs Committee. After joining, he used his identity as a schoolteacher to evade Chiang Kai-Shek's National Revolutionary Army to recruit new members for the CCP. He refined elements of his local party committee, recruited 40 members, and established the Chengqian and Fengyin branches of the CCP. In 1926 he was instrumental in the establishment of the Xiangtan West Second District Peasant Association and was elected as the Youth Committee Member of the District Peasant Association.

He had a son, named Yang Yingpeng (杨应鹏), who would later in his life become an officer of the National Revolutionary Army. Yingpeng would decide to stay in the mainland after the defeat of Li Zongren and Chiang Kai Shek, to give a good life to his daughter.

Military and political career

On March 18, 1926, Youlin was instrumental in the organization of peoples in protesting the warlord society of China. Between 1926 and 1927, he continued his work for the CCP in China up until the May 28th Incident, where he organized his party committee in Wuhan and fled to the USSR for refuge against the KMT. His family, which could not flee, was brutally persecuted by the KMT, with many members being executed. In the Soviet Union, he attended the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University until the summer of 1929, when he returned to China.

Ascension through the CCP

Upon his return, he advocated for an armed uprising against the nationalist government, and in 1930 he participated in the Red Army attack on Changsha.

In order to persist in the border struggle, Yang Youlin and Wang Shoudao and others took many important measures at the Executive Committee of the Special Committee held in Chenkeng, Wanzai on December 10, on the issues of using democratic methods to re-elect Soviet organizations at all levels, expand the border Red Guard armed forces, organize the year-end struggle, establish the central work area, and strengthen ideological education. He and the Special Committee adhered to some correct policies and strategies for the border struggle, which greatly improved the border situation.

On September 2 of that year, at the large meeting of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Special Committee of the CCP in Pingjiang, he put forward his views on various issues in preparation for the armed uprising at that time. He believed that the enemy's attack could not destroy the revolution, but it could still damage the revolution and delay the arrival of the revolutionary climax. Therefore, in the struggle, he stated that the revolutionaries must not only learn to attack directly or indirectly, but also learn to retreat; not only learn to strike the enemy, but also learn to avoid the enemy's attack. The kind of blind activism and desperate military adventure, the indiscriminate killing and burning away from the masses, and the attempt to engage in armed confrontation with the "arrogant enemy" will not only fail to strike the enemy, but will inevitably lead to huge losses. He advocated that the CCP should first start to develop and consolidate the revolutionary base areas, closely combine the restoration of the Soviet organization with the restoration, improvement and development of the organization of the party, and then mobilize the masses and peasants, develop armed struggle, and effectively strike the enemy. His opinions were agreed by the participants, and new decisions were made according to the new situation.

At this meeting, he and Wang Shoudao, Yuan Guoping, Liu Jianzhong, Li Zongbai and five other people were elected as standing members of the second executive committee of the special committee and became important leaders in the border area.

In June 1930, when the Border Special Committee held the first congress of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Party in Dongxiang West District, Pingjiang County, it made a general summary of the changes in the situation and lessons learned, and made corresponding resolutions. When electing the third committee of the Border Special Committee, he was elected as a standing member of the Executive Committee, in charge of propaganda work.

The Front Committee of the Red Third Army and the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Border Special Committee followed the order of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and attacked Changsha in July 1930. The Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Special Committee also organized a work group with the army, which was led by Yang Youlin and Wang Shoudao. He would later participate in the command of the 16th Red Army from 1930 onwards. He participated in the struggle to consolidate and develop the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Revolutionary Base Area and unified the command of the Red 16th Army and the independent divisions of the Red Army to fight against the "encirclement and suppression". For his actions there, was promoted to Vice Chairman of the Hunan Hubei Jiangxi Soviet Provincial Government. Under his chairmanship, the provincial Soviet government formulated a policy program and promulgated the "Provisional Labor Law" and the "Provisional Land Law".

In December of 1930, the KMT would begin their Encirclement of the Hunan-Hubei-Soviet government, a part of the First Encirclement Campaign against the CCP. Yang Youlin took charge against the Armies of Chiang Kai Shek, as vice chairman and commander of the 16th Red Army. He would effectively lead the 16th against the Encirclement campaign against the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet, forcing the KMT to give up the offensive as of then.

Later, the CCP abandoned Changsha in 1931, and Youlin participated in the First Congress of Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers.

Fall from Grace

Yang Youlin would continue his work as the Vice Chairman of the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi Soviet Government’s Acting Chairman and Vice Chairman. Still in control of the 16th Red Army, Yang Youlin saw massive success at the beginning of the encirclement campaigns, but would begin to see more defeats as the years passed by.

In October 1933, the KMT began the 5th Encirclement Offensive, trapping most of the Red Army. Whilst he and his unit tried to fight their way out of the nationalist advance, the efforts proved futile. Upon him barely escaping with mere scraps of his unit, he reorganized the structure of the Army, which included getting rid of warlords, which was an unpopular decision which he received much vitriol for, with some claiming that he was an agent of "right-wing opportunism". Though the army would be successfully bolstered from 2500 men before he assumed command to 15000 afterwards, the criticism stuck with him. He was removed from his position as Vice Chairman, and he moved to the Central Soviet Area in that year. Reportedly he was in good spirits, writing in a letter, "I think the situation may be better in the future, let's wait for the future!"

In 1934, he would attempt to participate in the Long March North, but due to pneumonia, he suffered greatly, and was unable to join the CCP in the Long March North. He stayed in Tingzhou Gospel Hospital, to treat his pneumonia. It was decided then that he would continue work as a member of the CCP underground in the Central Revolutionary Base to persist in the struggle, where he would be vulnerable to capture.

Death

In 1935, during the final phase of the 5th Encirclement Campaign, he was caught by KMT authorities and arrested. He was captured alongside his wife, and were held captive in prision until they were both executed in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province. Before Youlin was shot, he stated, "The path we have taken is not wrong. We can be beheaded, but our determination cannot be changed. It is an honor to die!" Youlin died at age 36.