I - NEW LIFE UNDER THE REVOLUTIONARY AND FAVORABLE GOVERNMENT AFTER THE AUGUST REVOLUTION (FROM AUGUST 1945 TO DECEMBER 1946)

In September 1945, the revolutionary system of government from provincial and municipal levels to districts and communes was quickly formed and put into operation. The administrative units were rearranged, abolished the general level and established new communes. The whole province includes Thuan Hoa town and 6 districts: Phong Dien (8 communes), Quang Dien (13 communes), Huong Tra (20 communes), Phu Vang (21 communes), Huong Thuy (over 20 communes) and Phu Loc (15 communes).

At the end of 1945, implementing President Ho Chi Minh's decree on the organization of the people's government and administrative committees at all levels, the provincial People's Committee of the Provisional Revolution was changed to the Provisional Administrative Committee of the province, chaired by Comrade Hoang Anh.

The newly formed revolutionary government faced many difficulties and challenges. Throughout the province, the 1945 famine caused by the French Empire and the Japanese Fascists threatened to continue, and the economy was exhausted. In addition, the evils of a slave education are heavy with more than 85% of the population illiterate, social evils are also common. The ethnic groups in the western mountainous region have extremely poor and backward lives.

While socio-economic difficulties are still fierce, the enemy within and foreign seriously threatens the existence of the new regime. In the name of the Allies, twenty thousand Chiang troops entered the North. In early September, 1945, 5.000 Chiang troops arrived in Hue. Besides Chiang, 4.500 fully armed Japanese troops were still in Hue, awaiting the day when the Allied armies would be disarmed. In March 1946, the Chiang army withdrew completely according to France - China Treaty on February 28, 1946, then there were 850 French armed troops present in Hue.

Immediately after the victory of the revolution, in the first meeting of the Government Council (September 3, 1945), President Ho Chi Minh raised three major guidelines: against hungry, ignorant and invading enemies.

In Thua Thien Hue, in October 10 the Provincial Cadres' Meeting met to implement the new guidelines and policies of the Party Central Committee and the Government. After the conference a series of work was carried out.

On the hunger relief front, the Thua Thien Hue revolutionary government, along with the Viet Minh Front and national rescue organizations, mobilized the people to respond to Ho Chi Minh president's call. A movement to donate, organize "concentric day", "rice jar to save hunger"... is vigorously launched. In the spirit of "neighborliness", the tribulation has each other, after only a short time the hunger food is obtained quite a lot, not only to help poor people but also to send aid to people in the North who are seriously hungry. In parallel with the work of raising donations to save hunger, the revolutionary government also launched a movement to increase production to solve hunger at its root.

Along with the work against hunger is to fight illiteracy, the whole province of Thua Thien Hue into the campaign with a lively and exciting atmosphere from the province and district to the villages, all established the People's Committee to study and eliminate illiteracy for the people. In national salvation organizations, youth are the core of the movement, working days, increasing production, learning to read, learning to write, learning to count. Almost everywhere there are classes. From old to young all are eager to go to the class.

To solve the difficulties of the country's finance, in Thua Thien Hue, people, civil servants, soldiers, workers... actively participate in “Golden Week”, “Bronze Week”. In just under a week with the enthusiasm of the public, Hue City has collected 945 gold coins, three northern districts contributed 10kg of gold, Phu Vang district 25 gold coins, a village of Cu Lai (Phu Vang) contributed over 5 quintals of copper.

The provincial revolutionary government exercised the freedoms of democracy, equality of men and women, freedom of belief, abolition of colonial-feudal taxes, redistribution of fields, and advocacy for building a new lifestyle among the people.

The first victories in the fight against hunger, illiteracy, and the construction of a financial foundation... across the province have facilitated the consolidation of the political system of the new regime.

In order to carry out the main task of maintaining the revolutionary government, the general election for the National Assembly and the formation of a formal government were carried out in a timely manner. On January 6, 1946, together with the people of the whole country, Thua Thien Hue people went to vote for the National Assembly. The percentage of people voting reached 90%, with communes of 100%, all candidates introduced by the Viet Minh Front were elected with a high number of votes. Doan Trong Truyen, Hoang Anh, Tran Dang Khoa, Nguyen Kinh Chi, Thich Mat The... elected a member of the National Assembly of Thua Thien Hue province. After the election of the National Assembly,  thua Thien Hue province elected People's Councils at all levels and from there elected Administrative Committees at all levels.

Along with the construction of the revolutionary government, mass organizations such as Viet Minh Front, National Salvation Youth, National Salvation Women, and National Salvation Workers... is also growing and developing.

In addition to the issues of government building, and social security, Thua Thien Hue province also builds the main force and police force to maintain social order and security.

After the incident on September 23, 1945, the French colonialists invaded Saigon, the army and people of Thua Thien Hue also had the task of actively supporting the resistance in the South, and at the same time had to deal with the enemy forces in the enemy, the Chiang army, the French army and their henchmen in the homeland.

In July 1946, the Congress of Party cadres of Thua Thien province opened with the value of a congress. The Executive Committee of the Provincial Party Committee was consolidated, the strength of the Party Committee was increased, promptly responding to the leadership work to prepare for the resistance war in Thua Thien Hue. After the Conference, the preparation of the resistance was more urgent.

In early December 1946, the will to invade the entire country of the French colonialists was clear. The preparation for the resistance war in Thua Thien Hue was promoted more than ever. The people of Thua Thien Hue are ready to fight.

II - THE FIRST YEAR OF RESISTANCE (FROM DECEMBER 1946 TO DECEMBER 1947)

In Thua Thien Hue on the historic night of December 19, 1946, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee met to expand and thoroughly grasp the policy of the Central Party and Ho Chi Minh, and at the same time approved the battle plan according to the policy of the Central Party Committee and the Central Administrative Resistance Committee.

At exactly 2:30 pm, on December 20, 1946, the Hue campaign began. Our people surrounded the enemy for 50 days and nights in Hue city. 50 days and nights, the army and the people of Thua Thien Hue fought bravely and tenaciously, killing 250 enemies, collecting and destroying many weapons of them. Twice the enemy had to airdrop reinforcements and supply food and weapons to their troops in Hue. That speaks of the enemy's perilous situation and the attrition and annihilation results caused by our people and army. Along with the people of the whole country, the army and people of Thua Thien Hue under the leadership of the Party have written a heroic history of courage, resilience, and solidarity of the people, cadres, party members and soldiers of the armed forces in the early days of the resistance war against the French colonialists.

In early February 1947, the resistance of our army and people faced many difficulties and challenges. After capturing Hue, the French colonialists quickly deployed forces to occupy important points, spread to the outskirts, then spilled across the plains of Huong Thuy, Huong Tra, Phu Vang and Phu Loc districts.

On March 12, 1947, the Provincial Party Standing Committee met for the first time after the French colonialists invaded the whole province. In March 1947, Provincial Party Standing Committee held a meeting of Party cadres in Nam Duong village, Quang Dien district under the chairmanship of comrade Nguyen Chi Thanh (Secretary of Provincial Party Committee). The conference reviewed the resistance situation, learning from failures, issued a resolution emphasizing the need to stabilize the mass revolutionary movement, launched the guerrilla war movement, and instructed cadres to stubbornly cling to the people's land. The conference also decided to build a war zone in Hoa My (Phong Dien).

On April 15, 1947, France established a puppet government called the Provisional Consul of Central based in Hue led by Tran Van Ly as President.

Since the Nam Duong Conference (March (1947), the resistance movement of the army and people of Thua Thien Hue gradually came into order and stabilized. Party facilities in localities and districts in the province were gradually restored, as the core for guerrilla warfare.

On March 24, 1947, our main regiment, Tran Cao Van, fought against the successful Ho Thanh garrison, then continued to raid the Dat Do garrison (March 29, 1947). In the south of the province, suicide teams from Huong Thuy and Phu Vang districts attacked the Su Lo garrison to win victory in the middle of the plain. On July 5, 1947, the Huong Thuy armed forces in collaboration with the 18th battalion of Tran Cao Van regiment ambushed the enemy in Vo Xa, killed 33 people, captured 16 people, and collected many weapons. On July 15, 1947, our troops continued to win the My Chanh battle.

In September 1947, at the Hoa My war zone, the Thua Thien Hue Party cadres' meeting discussed the construction of the Party base. The main content was to review the situation of Party affairs after the Conference on March 3, 1947, discuss directives and resolutions of the Central Committee and the Party Committee, determine the action program and re-elect the Provincial Party Committee.

On the battlefields of the country in general and Thua Thien Hue in particular, since the end of 1947, the resistance movement has gradually stabilized, the Party base has been strengthened, guerrilla warfare and the armed forces have actively attacked the enemy and stopped their advance.

III - THE ENTIRE PEOPLE, COMPREHENSIVE RESISTANCE (1948 – 1949)

In early 1948, the battlefield of Thua Thien Hue began to form areas: free zones, guerrilla base areas, guerrilla areas and temporarily occupied areas. In each zone, the enemy has different tactics to deal with. They concentrated very fierce attacks on the guerrilla areas and guerrilla bases. In the temporarily occupied area, they set up associations to strictly control all activities of the people. By May 5/1948, in Thua Thien Hue, the enemy had established 462 assemblies out of 548 villages and stationed at 48 garrisons.

In order to bring the cadres back quickly to the land of the people, we have the policy of putting our people into meetings and widely developing secret tunnels.

On the military field, in early 1948, there were some battles of our troops such as the destruction of the Cau Nhi Fortress on the National Road I on January 23, the anti-French battle to rise up the Hoa My war zone from March 7 to March 23, 1948.

Facing the positive change and development of the situation, it requires direct strengthening of the direction of the Provincial Party Committee to closely follow the area of operation. In May 1948, the Provincial Party Committee and the resistance steering agencies moved from the Hoa My war zone to Duong Hoa base 12 km west of Hue.

Entering the autumn and winter of 1948, the forces of Thua Thien Hue Party Committee had a significant development. The total number of members of the province reached 1.547 comrades, increasing the quality of resistance leaders, especially at the grassroots level.

On the economic front, in the liberated areas, the fields are divided according to the principle of equal rights of men and women, production is thriving, resistance markets are established in the base areas, and Vietnamese banknotes are widely issued. Resistance bonds issued only for a short time were purchased by the people for over 5 million VND. Not only the people in the free zone but also the people in the temporarily occupied enemy zone actively bought resistance bonds.

During this time, in addition to large-scale battles such as the attack to destroy My Loi garrison (July 26, 1948), Ha Thanh garrison (July 8, 1948), there were also resistance activities in Hue City conducted by the Honorary Police Team of the province and Thuan Hoa Resistance Student Council.

By 1949, in order to cope with the development of the resistance forces, the enemy aggressively swept, rebuilt the guilds and rectified the fortresses.

On our side, by combining military, political and military struggle, our resistance war has gained new victories. In the first months of 1949, we failed the attack of 2,000 enemy soldiers with aircraft cover to Duong Hoa war zone, attacked Vy Da garrison, destroyed Van Trinh garrison (March 18), broke up the battle to Khe Tre mountain, Nam Dong (April 1949), won the battle of Hoi Mit, Phu Loc (January 12, 1949).

On April 16, 1949, at Duong Hoa War Zone, the Provincial Party Congress was convened. The conference resolved important issues to advance the cause of resistance and national construction of the province. The resolution of the Conference stated: "Promoting all the forces of the people, hitting the enemy hard in all political, military, economic and cultural aspects; making us strong and weak quickly", "Party development is strong and everywhere, consolidation must go hand in hand with development"; "People's Council elections at all levels", "strengthening national salvation organizations and the Viet Minh Front to be the core of the Lien Viet Association", "expanding guerrilla warfare,... moving on to war... expanding our control ", "encircling, sabotaging the enemy economy, leaving the Indochinese currency on our market "...

Through May 1949, Vietnam began to build up its military forces at battalion and regiment levels so that we could attack a large scale.

Other areas serving the resistance also went up such as the election of commune and provincial People's Councils; opening schools, holding examinations; raising the exchange rate of the Ho Chi Minh dollar against the Indochinese currency.

The grassroots organization of the Party grew, and in 1949 the province had 9.578 members.

With those victories, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Dong sent a message of praise: "Binh Tri Thien resistance is getting stronger and stronger, the enemy must also recognize. That is commendable. ”
(To be continued)