In 1940, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered a phase of stalemate, and the Japanese army blockaded our army's anti-Japanese base areas, which caused the Eighth Route Army to fall into serious economic difficulties. At the same time, problems have arisen between the cadres and the masses in some liberated areas that cannot be ignored. The root cause lies in the fact that the Eighth Route Army is fighting at the front, because of the blockade of the Japanese army, many materials, especially food, need to be continuously raised by the people in the rear, so the burden on the people is becoming heavier and heavier. In the process of requisitioning grain, some local cadres were faced with fewer methods of raising grain, but instead intensified the collection of grain, resulting in complaints from the common people, abuse of cadres by the masses, and accusations by cadres of ignoring the overall situation. Mr. He of the Northwest Military Region of Shanxi Province also encountered this problem. He knew very well that on the surface it was caused by the blockade of the Japanese army and the shortage of materials, but in essence, the reason was that some cadres were divorced from the masses and did not think about problems from the perspective of the common people. If this continues, the mass base will be lost, so we must attach great importance to it. One day, Mr. He said to the people around him, "I want to give a lecture, you can prepare."
As much as possible, all party members and cadres of the military region should participate, and the scope should be expanded as much as possible. If someone can't come, I'll go to each area and talk about it. "The staff set the time for the lecture according to the arrangement and sent the notice out. In order to be able to give a good lesson and inspire the majority of party members and cadres, Mr. He is thinking about what to talk about and how to tell it whenever he has free time. At the same time, the people in the Political Department were also busy, and everyone drew up an outline, divided the work and took charge of their own parts, and soon completed a speech. When the speech was sent to Mr. He, Mr. He read it, expressed his great satisfaction, and asked for class on time. However, on the day of class, when the Political Department mimeographed the speech and put it on the podium, Mr. He said to them: "You prepare three things for me, a bowl of millet, a pair of cloth shoes, and a water bowl with a small fish." "The staff were a little puzzled and didn't understand why they were preparing these things, and since they were going to give a lecture, why were they preparing these items
So they asked Mr. He, who smiled and said, "I'm going to use them for lectures!"Everyone was even more confused, but they still prepared these items as ordered. When Mr. He saw that everything was ready, he began to give a lecture and said to everyone: "At present, we are facing the blockade of the enemy and are in serious economic difficulties. The problem of taxation and grain requisition has led to a crisis in the relationship between cadres and the masses, and how can this difficult problem be resolved?**Always brought three items, starting from these three items, with everyone** this question. He picked up a bowl of millet and asked, "What is this?"Everyone replied: "Millet." * He continued: "What we eat now is millet, comrades, people are iron, rice is steel, if we don't eat a meal, we will be hungry, not to mention that we are an army, if we don't have enough food, we won't have the strength to fight!".If they get angry and don't grow grain anymore, or there are no more grain seeds, what will our Eighth Route Army do?How to win the battle?Hearing this, the people on the field fell silent.
Then, ** picked up a pair of cloth shoes and told everyone: "This pair of shoes has 16 layers of cloth on the sole, which is soft and comfortable to wear, this is a mille-feuille sole." It can be said that these cloth shoes are not only shoes, but also a piece of affection!In order for our Eighth Route Army to have shoes to wear, some ordinary people even cut off their own clothes and sewed them out stitch by stitch. Their purpose in doing this is so that our Eighth Route Army can wear such cloth shoes to the battlefield. This is a kindness that is higher than the sky and deeper than the sea!However, in the process of requisitioning grain, some of our comrades are very impatient with the common people, which should not be, right?"Everyone said they shouldn't. Finally, ** picked up the last thing and asked a comrade: "What do you think I want to express with this thing?"The comrade quickly replied: "Commander, do you want to say that the military and the people have a deep love for fish and water?"
* Nodding his head with a smile, he said to everyone: "Comrades, the reason why we can gain a foothold behind enemy lines is because of the support of the masses of the people, just like a fish cannot do without water, without the support of the people, we cannot win the war, therefore, we must not be out of touch with the masses!".This lesson is not lengthy, and it vividly illustrates the relationship between the Eighth Route Army and the common people with three simple items, making it easy for everyone to understand and accept.