They then established the West Hunan-Hupeh (Hsiang-O-Hsi) Special Committee and a little later transformed it into a soviet government. Party membership figures as of 1932 for a dozen counties in the area were estimated at 18,034, with the largest number, 4,468, working in Chienli County, then headquarters of the soviet.
1972, James Pinckney Harrison, “Growth of the Rural Soviets”, in The Long March to Power: A History of the Chinese Communist Party, 1921-72 (Praeger University Series), Praeger Publishers, pages 194–195