Students in Hunan responded positively to the May 4th Movement. Influenced by the student movement, federations from all walks of life and other organizations have been established one after another, forming a huge patriotic movement.

Zhang Jingyao hates to death and is scared to death. At first, he tried to control the situation closely, and then he violently suppressed it. He brazenly ordered the dissolution of the student union and closed Xiangjiang Review. In this case, Mao Zedong led the closed and reorganized Hunan Students' Union to persist in the anti-Japanese patriotic movement and confront Zhang Jingyao by inspecting Japanese goods. On December 2, 1919, students held a demonstration of more than 5, people and held a meeting to burn Japanese goods futures from several foreign firms. There were more than 1, students and onlookers at the meeting. Just as student representatives were giving a speech on the significance of burning Japanese goods at the meeting, Zhang Jingtang led more than 1, military and police officers to surround the meeting. Zhang Jingyao rode a horse and led a company of broadsword teams to rush into the meeting, obstructing the burning, forcibly dispersing the participants, insulting and beating students, and wounding several people on the spot.

Mao Zedong, with the members of Xinmin Society as the backbone, led the students in a tit-for-tat struggle against Zhang Jingyao, who was rebellious and arrogant. Publicly play the banner of "driving Zhang", contact all walks of life, launch students' strike, teachers' strike, workers' strike and businessmen's strike in the whole province, and decide to send representatives to Beijing, Hengyang, Changde and Chenzhou. Guangzhou, Shanghai and other places have publicly exposed Zhang Jingyao's crimes of harming Hunan and abusing the people, and won the support and sympathy of public opinion in the whole country, resulting in a huge momentum of national unity. A delegation of 4 people from Mao Zedong arrived in Beijing on December 18th.