Lin Qianyun, also known as Kunchi and Changwen. Born in a poor family, he went to Hong Kong with his father at the age of 13 to make a living. He became an apprentice at the age of 14, and later became a seaman and a foreign trade worker.

In 1914, he joined the Chinese Revolutionary Party and devoted himself to the democratic revolution movement.

In January 1922, he participated in the Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike.

In June 1925, the Guangdong-Hong Kong Strike broke out and he was elected as a representative of the striking workers. After returning to Guangzhou, he attended the Propaganda School and later served as the leader of the Speech Division of the Propaganda Department of the Strike Committee and went to the countryside for propaganda.

In the summer of 1926, he served as an officer of the Peasant Department of the Nanhai County Party Committee. In September of the same year, he joined the Communist Party of China. In the winter, Jiujiang Town, Nanhai County was established as a city, and he served as the preparatory director of the Jiujiang City Party Committee of the Kuomintang and organized a group of peasant associations.

In December 1927, he participated in the Guangzhou Uprising and did political work in the Workers’ Red Guards. After the uprising failed, he successively served as the secretary of the Hong Kong CCP’s Westernization Branch, the secretary of the Nanhai County Party Committee of the CCP, the Standing Committee of the Foshan Municipal Party Committee, the Minister of the Relief Department of the Hong Kong “Guangdong Provincial Relief Association”, the Party Secretary of the Hong Kong Workers’ Representatives Council, the Secretary of the Kowloon Prefectural Party Committee of the CCP and the Secretary of the Westernization Workers’ Union Branch.

In May 1931, he served as the Special Commissioner of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in Hong Kong and the Special Commissioner of the Seamen’s General Union in Hong Kong. He was arrested and deported by the Hong Kong British authorities due to betrayal by a traitor. He went to Shanghai and was assigned by the Seamen’s General Union to be responsible for the seamen’s work on the Pacific route.

In May 1933, he was betrayed by a traitor and arrested again. He was escorted to Nanjing and tortured severely. He never revealed his identity or leaked the party’s secrets. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and imprisoned in Suzhou Army Prison.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, the National Government was in great disarray. In late November, the Suzhou Military Prison transferred the “important criminals” to the west. On the way, they were bombed by Japanese planes. The guards fled for their lives. Lin Qianyun broke the shackles and escaped.
In January 1938, Lin Qianyun arrived in Wuhan and found the Eighth Route Army Office. He was sent back to Guangdong to work. Before and after the fall of Guangzhou, he served as the deputy director of the Workers’ Department of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, the director of the Workers’ Department of the Nanshun Working Committee, the head of the CPC Shunde Organization, and the secretary of the Nanshun Working Committee. He established party branches in Dalan, Nanhai, Xihai, Shunde, and other places, and organized an anti-Japanese guerrilla team of more than 10 people in Penglai Primary School, Daliang Town, Shunde. Later, it continued to expand and became the backbone of the guerrilla war behind enemy lines in the Pearl River Delta.

In the summer of 1939, he led the guerrillas to attack the Japanese and puppet troops in Daliang, Shunde three times.
In the summer of 1940, Lin Qianyun served as a member of the CPC Nanfan Zhongshun Central County Committee, responsible for the division of labor to grasp the armed forces, and at the same time incorporated the guerrillas he led into the independent first squadron of the second detachment of the Guangzhou urban guerrillas (abbreviated as “Guangyou Second Detachment”), and served as the squadron leader. He skillfully used the guerrilla tactics of “ambush”, “sparrow war” and “night war” to lead the guerrillas to attack the Japanese and puppet troops. In the two battles in Xihai, the army defeated the enemy with fewer troops and repelled the attack of the Japanese and puppet troops, killing Qi Baolin, the “frontline commander” of the puppet army, and killing, wounding and capturing more than 300 Japanese and puppet troops. The prestige of the army was greatly boosted, and the guerrillas expanded to more than 500 people, consolidating the Xihai Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Base.
In May 1942, Wu Qin was murdered, and Lin was appointed to succeed Wu Qin as the commander of the “Guangyou Second Branch”.

In February 1943, the Nanfan Zhongshun Guerrilla Zone Command was established, and he served as the commander. In the autumn of that year, he commanded the guerrillas to smash the ten-way siege of the Wuguishan Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Base by the Japanese and puppet troops.

In October 1944, Lin was appointed commander of the Central District Column, leading the main force of nearly 500 people, crossing the Xijiang River from Wuguishan via Zhongshan Xinhui, advancing into central Guangdong, and establishing the Xinhe Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Base behind enemy lines.
In January 1945, Lin was appointed commander of the Pearl River Column of the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrillas. In July of the same year, he attended the Guangdong Party Congress held in Luofu Mountain and was elected as a member of the Guangdong District Party Committee of the Communist Party of China. After the meeting, he was ordered to lead his troops to Nanxiong to open up a base in northern Guangdong.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Lin Qianyun’s troops were ordered to withdraw north to Yantai. Later, he went to the East China Military Region, was transferred to the Central Urban Work Department and served as deputy political commissar of the Guangdong-Guangxi Column.

In August 1948, Lin Qianyun participated in the Sixth National Labor Congress held in Harbin and was elected as a standing member of the Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and Minister of Organization. In April of the following year, he attended the World Federation of Trade Unions Representative Conference and the Asia-Australia Trade Union Conference held in Italy.

In October 1949, Guangzhou was liberated. Lin Qiangyun was transferred back to Guangdong at the end of the year. He served as a member of the Standing Committee of the South China Branch of the CPC Central Committee, the second secretary of the South China Branch Workers’ Committee, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, the Director of the Guangdong Provincial Labor Bureau, the Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Federation of Trade Unions, and the Deputy Director and Director of the Provincial Old Base Area Construction Committee.

In September 1958, he was appointed as the Vice Governor of Guangdong Province, in charge of civil affairs. He was successively elected as a representative of the First, Second and Third National People’s Congress and a member of the Standing Committee of the Third National People’s Congress. He was a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee.

Lin Qiangyun fought for the cause of the Party all his life, but during the “Cultural Revolution”, he was brutally persecuted by the Lin Biao anti-Party group. On November 22, 1967, he was “isolated for investigation” and his wife Zhang Shi’e was also arrested. During his detention, he always explained and refuted the charges and false accusations imposed on him, adhered to the party’s principles, and insisted on seeking truth from facts. He died unjustly on October 2, 1970 due to severe physical and mental damage. On December 12, 1979, the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Guangdong Provincial People’s Government held a grand memorial service in Guangzhou and made a correct evaluation of his revolutionary life.

Revolutionary experience

Guangdong-Hong Kong General Strike
In 1907, 13-year-old Lin Qianyun dropped out of school due to family difficulties and went to Hong Kong with his father to make a living. He worked as a seaman and foreign-funded worker for 18 years. After 1922, he successively participated in the world-famous Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike and the Guangdong-Hong Kong General Strike, served as a member of the Guangdong-Hong Kong General Strike Committee, and came into contact with labor movement leaders such as Su Zhaozheng, Deng Zhongxia, Deng Fa, and Gong Changrong, and his ideological awareness was rapidly improved.

In 1926, he was assigned to serve as an officer of the Peasant Department of the Nanhai County Party Committee of the Kuomintang, and was subsequently introduced to the Communist Party of China by Deng Fa and Gong Changrong. The following year, he participated in the Guangzhou Uprising and did political agitation work in the Workers’ Red Guards. After the uprising failed, he was transferred to Hong Kong and served as the branch secretary of the Westernization Workers’ Union.

In April 1928, he was ordered to sneak back to Nanhai County and served as the county party secretary, committed to restoring party organizations at all levels, but due to the severe white terror, he was unable to carry out his work and immediately withdrew to Hong Kong. In the following years, he served as the party group secretary of the Hong Kong Workers’ Representatives Conference, the secretary of the Kowloon Prefectural Committee, the special commissioner of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in Hong Kong and the special commissioner of the Seamen’s General Union in Hong Kong. In the winter of 1931, he was imprisoned for 50 days and expelled from the country because of betrayal by a traitor. Afterwards, he disguised himself and went to Shanghai to find the General Union of Seamen, and was assigned to be responsible for the political work of seamen on the Pacific route.

A year later, he was again betrayed by a traitor and escorted to Nanjing, sentenced to life imprisonment, and imprisoned in Suzhou Prison. After more than four years behind bars, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in full swing, and the National Government was defeated. Suzhou Prison transferred a group of “important prisoners” to the mainland. They were bombed by Japanese planes on the way. The escort personnel abandoned the “prisoners” and fled in embarrassment. Uncle Lin and his fellow prisoners broke the shackles and regained their freedom. After going through hardships, they arrived at the Eighth Route Army Office in Wuhan and returned to the embrace of the Party.

Forming a guerrilla team

In the summer of 1938, Uncle Lin was transferred back to Guangdong to join the leadership team of the Nan (Hai) Shun (De) Working Committee stationed in Lijiao, Shunde. In order to facilitate his work, he lived in the home of Chen Jiu, a comrade-in-arms during the Great Revolution and a farmer in Xihai, in the winter of that year. With the full assistance of the grassroots masses, he found the Communist Party members who had lost contact after the Great Revolution in Daliang, Longyan, Xinlong, Laocun, Xihailuweiwei and other places according to the organizational materials of the Provincial Committee, re-established the Daliang, Longyan and Xinlong branches, and actively prepared for armed struggle behind enemy lines.

Around the Spring Festival of 1939, he obtained the number of “Special Agent Squadron” from his uncle Luo Bing, the captain of a brigade of the Second Detachment of the First Guerrilla Zone of Guangdong of the Kuomintang, through Luo Yongji, a teacher at Penglai Primary School in the north gate of Daliang. Then he found more than ten people in Luweiwei and Longyan Village, and Deng Guilin, an old Red Army soldier sent by the Nanshun Working Committee, served as the commander to establish the first anti-Japanese armed force of the Communist Party in Shunde. Soon, the Japanese invaders occupied Daliang for the second time, and the “Special Agent Squadron” retreated to Longyan and changed its name to “Shunde People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force”. It attacked Daliang twice, intercepted Japanese military vehicles, and killed a sergeant. At this time, Uncle Lin took over the position of Fan Zhiyuan, the secretary of the Nanshun Working Committee, who was transferred to Dongjiang. In September of the same year, Deng Guilin split up and formed a new team with the bandit Lu Sijin. Uncle Lin’s persuasion was ineffective, so he had to lead the team to leave Longyan and move to Luweiwei. After Deng left the team, his lifestyle became increasingly corrupt and he finally died in an internal conflict.

In January 1940, the Japanese invaders withdrew from Daliang for the second time. Uncle Lin ordered the Shunde guerrillas to enter the city and jointly maintain order in the county with Wu Qin’s Guangyou Second Detachment. Soon, the Japanese invaders came again. After fighting side by side, the two guerrillas immediately withdrew. In mid-March, the Shunde guerrillas moved from Luweiwei to Yugnan Dashi Township and carried out anti-Japanese activities in the name of the “Junjie Society Basic Team”. The team grew to more than 20 people. In the summer of the same year, the Nanshun Working Committee was abolished, and the CPC Nan, Fan, Zhong, and Shun Central County Committees were formally established in Xihai to unify the leadership of the party organizations of the local and military units in the Pearl River Delta. The secretary of the Central County Committee was Luo Fanqun, and Lin Shu, Liu Xiangdong, Chen Xiangnan, Yan Shangmin, Xie Liquan, and Xie Bin were elected as members. In order to create an anti-Japanese armed force under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party, the Central County Committee decided after discussion to form the Independent First Squadron of the Guangyou Second Detachment based on the Shunde Guerrillas and a group of party members and progressive youth drawn from Zhongshan and Panyu.

In October, the squadron was established in Shiyong, Panyu, with more than 50 people. Lin Shu served as the squadron leader, Huang Youya served as the branch secretary, Huang Liuyan served as the instructor, and Long March cadres Xie Liquan and Xie Bin were responsible for military training and command. At the end of the year, they moved to Xihai and started to build the Xihai Anti-Japanese Base.

Xihai Victory

The actions of the independent squadron quickly attracted the attention of the enemy, who wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. In March 1941, more than 300 Japanese guards stationed in Rongqi launched the first attack on the Xihai base. With the assistance of Xie Liquan, who was rich in combat experience, Lin Shu mobilized the army and civilians to fight back. The enemy suffered heavy casualties and retreated in a panic. But not long after, the Kuomintang’s anti-communist countercurrent was set off. Liu Deng, the main battalion leader of the Guangyou Second Detachment, was lured to join the “Tingsan” column National Militia Corps.

The Central County Party Committee discovered it in time and ordered Wu Qin and the party members and cadres of the main battalion Feng Yangwu and Lin Feng to take decisive measures to pull the two main squadrons back to Xihai. As a result, Lin Shu’s independent first squadron was expanded to more than 200 people, and its combat effectiveness was greatly enhanced. In mid-July, they attacked the puppet army of He Jian in Shawan, Panyu, annihilated a company of the enemy, and took down the puppet police station. The enemy was furious and determined to retaliate.

On October 17, ten days after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the commander of the 43rd Division of the puppet army, “Emperor of Shiqiao” Li Langji (Fuqun), dispatched three regiments, plus a supplementary battalion, a sand protection brigade, and eight gunboats, a total of 3,000 troops, to attack Xihai from Dayongkou, Luweiwei, and Bijiang in five directions. The independent first squadron and the local basic militia totaled only more than 300 people, only one-tenth of the enemy’s number, but Uncle Lin was not afraid. Together with comrades such as Xie Liquan, he calmly commanded the troops and used the complex terrain of rivers, fish ponds, sugarcane forests, and mulberry bases to fight against the invading enemy separately.

Wu Qin’s battalion stationed in Chencun and the united front armed forces, such as the Kuomintang’s “Tingsan” troops, He Cheng’s battalion under the Guangyou Second Detachment, and Zeng Yue’s troops, also sent personnel to participate in the battle, attacking the enemy from the flank and periphery. After a day of fierce fighting, more than 500 puppet soldiers were killed or wounded, more than 300 were captured, and even Qi Baolin, the puppet commander-in-chief, was killed in the battle. In the evening, the rest of the troops fled back to Panyu in a panic. This battle, known as the “Xihai Victory”, is an outstanding example of the anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare in South China. Because the Independent First Squadron played a leading role in the battle and performed particularly bravely and tenaciously, even Lin Xiaoya, the deputy commander of the “Tingsan” who insisted on anti-communism, had to personally go to Xihai to express his condolences and praise the Second Detachment for its “merits in the war of resistance.”

Expanding the Armed Forces

After the Xihai Victory, the Independent First Squadron attacked the puppet army stronghold of Weiyong in Panyu during the Spring Festival of 1942 at night, killing more than 90 enemies. The successive victories greatly enhanced the prestige of the First Independent Squadron. Some united front armed forces, such as He Cheng of Shawan, Panyu, Yang Zhong of Lanhe, and Zeng Yue of Shunde District 5, took the initiative to approach the Communist guerrillas and asked to send people to help them train personnel to improve the combat effectiveness of the team.

The development and growth of the Communist armed forces aroused suspicion from the Kuomintang. After the Southern Anhui Incident, a second anti-communist climax was launched across the country. The Second Detachment also faced severe tests. First, Commander Wu Qin was assassinated. Then, the enemy and the puppet forces joined forces tacitly and gathered more than 5,000 troops in Lintou, Xihai, and Guangjiao to prepare for a decisive battle with the Communist guerrillas. Under such circumstances, Lin Shu decided to take the initiative to withdraw from the Xihai base in accordance with the instructions of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China that “under the new situation, our struggle policy is to persist in long-term dispersed guerrilla warfare” and disperse personnel to Zhongshan, Yu’nan, Nanhai, and Sanshui to open up new guerrillas. The superior party committee approved this action and ordered the establishment of the Nanfanshun guerrilla zone command in Lanhe, and appointed Lin Shu as the commander. After that, under his leadership, two revolutionary bases were established in Zhongshan Wuguishan and Panyu Daguwei. The team continued to grow and develop, clearing the way for the democratic construction of the Pearl River Delta guerrilla zone, and victories were reported frequently. In the Fan and Shun areas alone, in March 1944, the traitors “Eight Tigers” and “Five Jackals” were wiped out in Lijiao, a suburb of Guangzhou; in May, Xinzao was attacked and the pseudo district chief Xian Yaofu was captured alive; in June, Shiqiao was attacked and Li Langji’s old nest was attacked at night. Subsequently, the Shunde detachment, with the cooperation of the brother troops, took advantage of the victory to return to the division, annihilated the Wuzhou pseudo joint defense brigade, captured the brigade leader Hu Xukui (Liang Kui) alive, and divided troops to station in Jiuzhai, District 1 and Maicun, District 8.

At the same time, democratic regimes at all levels in Zhongshan, Panyu, and Shunde began to be established. In the autumn of the same year, the superior party committee abolished the Nanfanshun guerrilla zone command and established the Guangdong Central District Guerrilla Column Command, with Lin Shu still as the commander. He drew the main force to advance into central Guangdong and join forces with the brother troops in Xinhui, Heshan and Gaoming, pushing the guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in the area to a climax.

In early 1945, the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Pearl River Column was publicly announced to be established. Lin Shu was transferred back from central Guangdong and served as the commander. Afterwards, he waved and advanced into the Xijiang River and went north to Wuling to clear obstacles for the Eighth Route Army’s southward detachment. In August, Japan surrendered unconditionally, and Lin Shu was ordered to lead his troops north to Yantai, Shandong. During the War of Liberation, he served as the deputy political commissar of the Guangdong-Guangxi Column, and together with other leaders, he led his troops south to cooperate with the field army to liberate South China.