Former Headquarters of the Front Enemy Committee for the Autumn Harvest Uprising — Xiao Clan Ancestral Hall in Tonggu

The Former Site of the Front Enemy Committee for the Autumn Harvest Uprising on the Hunan-Jiangxi Border, namely the Xiao Clan Ancestral Hall in Tonggu County, has been included in the Seventh Batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level approved and announced by the State Council. It is currently the only national key cultural relic protection unit in our county大江网.

In December 1983, the site was designated as one of the first batch of Key Cultural Relics under Protection in Tonggu County. In December 1987, it was listed among the third batch of Key Provincial Cultural Relics under Protection in Jiangxi Province. This promotion to national-level protected status marks an important achievement in our county’s cultural heritage preservation work and carries great significance for the development of red tourism here.

Constructed in the early years of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, the Xiao Clan Ancestral Hall once served as the general headquarters for the Autumn Harvest Uprising on the Hunan-Jiangxi Border. Built with earth and timber, the compound consists of two connected buildings with identical layouts. The central section is a main hall, flanked by two side rooms on each side. Between the front and rear buildings lies a courtyard, with wing rooms on both the left and right sides. The total floor area of the building reaches 1,950 square metres. Comrade Mao Zedong once stayed in the wing room of the rear building during the Autumn Harvest Uprising. Moss has grown on the walls of the courtyard.

In the autumn of 1927, a peasant army from Liuyang led by the Communist Party of China failed to catch up with the Nanchang Uprising. Under the banner of the Independent Regiment of the 20th Army led by He Long, the troops marched into Tonggu County in mid-August to regroup and await further orders, setting up their regimental headquarters inside the Xiao Clan Ancestral Hall.

That same year, entrusted by the Party Central Committee, Comrade Mao Zedong endured countless hardships. He travelled from Anyuan via Liuyang and arrived in Tonggu tired and dusty on September 9 to lead the historically significant Autumn Harvest Uprising on the Hunan-Jiangxi Border. Upon arriving alone in Tonggu, Mao Zedong stayed in an old chamber in the left hall of the ancestral hall.

September 10 coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival on the lunar calendar. To make arrangements for the uprising, Mao Zedong, in his capacity as Secretary of the Front Enemy Committee, convened a meeting for platoon-level and above cadres of the Third Regiment in the main hall. At the meeting, he conveyed the spirit of the August 7th Meeting, the plan for the Autumn Harvest Uprising formulated by the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, and the military deployment decided at the Zhangjiawan Conference in Anyuan. He called on all officers and soldiers to take up arms and launch the armed uprising immediately in response to the Party’s call. He also formally reorganized the Liuyang peasant army into the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Division of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Revolutionary Army.

After the meeting, Mao Zedong shared a feast with the cadres to celebrate the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. The Xiao Clan Ancestral Hall was designated a provincial key cultural relic protection unit in 1987 and later submitted for application as a national key cultural relic protection unit大江网