Where is the Monument to the Seventy-seven Martyrs of Ziqiu?

The Ziqiu Seventy-seven Martyrs Monument is a cultural relic protection unit in Yichang City, a classic red tourism scenic spot, and a patriotism education base.

The Ziqiu Seventy-seven Martyrs Monument is located in Group 5, Ziqiu Village, Ziqiu Town, Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, Yichang.

From May to July 1929, under the instruction of He Long, Secretary of the Front Committee of Western Hunan and Hubei, Li Xun, Chen Shoushan, Chen Zenan, Li Buyun and others led the people of all ethnic groups in Changyang to form armed forces, captured the county seat, and held the Xiwan Uprising Uprising, the 6th Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was founded. After the establishment of the Red Army, it launched a revolutionary armed struggle throughout Changyang to combat local tyrants and evil gentry and open warehouses to help the poor, transform the old regime and establish a Soviet government. The reactionary Kuomintang government in Nanjing was shocked by this and urgently ordered the brigade commander Huang Zhenqiu and regiment commander Chen Feng of Zhang Fakui's garrison in Yichang to send out heavy troops for "encirclement and suppression". At the end of July, in order to avoid the enemy's edge, the 6th Red Army decided to move to Sangzhi and join forces with the 4th Red Army led by the Western Hunan-Hubei Front Committee.

On August 5, when the 6th Red Army arrived at Ziqiu Town, Changyang County, it was surrounded by the enemy Chen Fengzhao Regiment in three directions. The Red Army was surrounded by enemies on three sides and faced water on one side. After fierce fighting, the Red Army suffered heavy casualties. Chief of Staff Li Zijun led more than a hundred warriors in a bloody battle and died heroically while covering the main force's breakout. More than 80 people, including the former enemy commander and director of the Military Law Department Chen Zenan and division commander Xiang Quanshan, were eventually outnumbered and ran out of ammunition and were captured. They were massacred by the enemy in a lime kiln under the Yandun platform in Ziqiu.

In order to commemorate the revolutionary martyrs, in August 1957, the Ziqiu District Office organized forces to excavate 77 loyal bones at the Ziqiu Yanduntai Lime Kiln, and built the Ziqiu Martyrs Memorial in the Ziqiu Old Cemetery. The pavilion is a wooden hexagonal pavilion. Under the pavilion are buried the bones of 77 soldiers of the Red Army. The wooden pavilion was in decay for a long time. In May 1968, the Seventy-Seven Martyrs Monument was rebuilt in Yanduntai, Ziqiu. In April 1992, the Geheyan water conservancy project was constructed, and the monument was moved to Heiyantou, Taoshan, Ziqiu Town for reconstruction. The monument is 29.11 meters high. On both sides of the monument are engraved inscriptions by He Long and Liao Hansheng: "The achievements of the revolutionary martyrs." Inspiring us to move forward forever" and "carry forward the revolutionary spirit of the martyrs and revitalize Changyang's construction cause."

The Ziqiu Seventy-seven Martyrs Monument was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Yichang City by the Yichang Municipal People's Government in December 1993, and as a patriotic education base in Hubei Province by the Hubei Provincial People's Government in February 1999.

Ziqiu Village: Ziqiu Village