Zhang Liang

Qu Qiubai was appointed as the Propaganda Minister of the Central Bureau during the Long March of the central Red Army in October 1934, and remained in the Soviet areas to wage guerrilla warfare. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang moved large forces to launch an all-out suppression of the Central Soviet Area, creating an atmosphere of White Terror in the Soviet base. In early February 1935, the Central Bureau decided to send Qu Qiubai and other key cadres to Hong Kong or Shanghai to continue underground work in order to preserve the cadres. On the 11th, the Chinese Soviet Republic’s Provisional Central Government Office dispatched dozens of armed personnel to escort Qu Qiubai, He Shuheng, Zhang Liang (Xiang Ying’s wife), Zhou Yuelin (Liang Botai’s wife), and Deng Zihui, among others, from Xiaomi Village in Huichang County toward Yongding County in Fujian.

In the early morning of February 24, 1935, Qu Qiubai and the others crossed the Ting River and arrived at Xiaojing Village in Shuikou Township. Exhausted from the journey and caught in heavy rain, they rested at local villagers’ homes, cooked porridge to satisfy their hunger, and then camped on the mountains. They were soon discovered by Zhong Shaokui’s forces; the escort was dispersed and the group came under siege. Deng Zihui, familiar with the terrain of western Fujian, managed to break through and escape; He Shuheng rolled off a cliff, fainted in a barren field, and was shot by the local militia. Qu Qiubai, Zhang Liang, and Zhou Yuelin hid in the mountains among rocky cliffs and shrubs; when the enemy searched the mountains, they were captured and brought back to the enemy camp in Shuikou Township.

That night, the camp commander Li Yu interrogated them for more than two hours. After Qu Qiubai’s identity was exposed, he was sent to the Tingzhou Kuomintang 36th Division Headquarters for detention. Zhang Liang and Zhou Yuelin were also re-imprisoned and sent to the Kuomintang’s Second Pacification Command in Longyan, where they were sentenced to 10 years in prison; they were released when the Kuomintang–Communist cooperation led to the release of political prisoners in 1937. Zhang Liang was pregnant and used the alias Zhou Lianyu; Zhou Yuelin initially used the name Chen Xiuying and later used Huang Xiuying; both were associated with the Red Army.

Regarding Qu Qiubai’s death, a 1998 article in China’s Elderly Daily titled “Who Betrayed Qu Qiubai” stated that Zhang Liang, after locating Xiang Ying, was suspected of betraying Qu Qiubai, and Xiang Ying allegedly executed Zhang Liang. This claim was denied by Xiang Ying’s daughter, Xiang Suyun. Wang Fuyi of the Military Academy, drawing on the recollections of Xiang Ying’s guard Li Dehe, wrote that when the New Fourth Army was formed in Nanchang in 1938, Zhang Liang brought a two- to three-year-old child to meet with the Southeast Bureau; the conversation did not mention any execution.