In October 1934, due to the failure of the fifth anti-encirclement campaign, the Red Army had to leave the Soviet area and began a long march of 25,000 miles.
This long march is a miracle in the history of human warfare, as an unprecedented army successfully overcame countless difficulties and obstacles along the way without any rear support, escaped the encirclement and interception of a powerful enemy, and finally arrived at its destination in victory.
During this year-long period, one cannot help but ask: How did the Red Army solve the problem of food and clothing?
The Red Army, which was preparing for war, did not hesitate to use all its resources in order to meet the strategic shift. When it comes to the Long March, it is inevitable to sigh that the Red Army has given up the arduous foundation that the Red Army has built in the Soviet area.
In 1927, after our party experienced three failed uprisings, Comrade ** led the remnants of the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops into Jinggangshan, and accurately predicted that the Chinese revolution would only be through the road of encircling the cities through the countryside. Subsequently, ** led the remnants of the Nanchang Uprising to join the army, ** and other leaders of the rebel armies from all over the country to gather in Jinggangshan. Finally, after the third anti-encirclement and suppression, the Red Army established the largest revolutionary base area.
The Red Army struggled to survive under the enemy's blockade and brutal military encirclement, relying not only on battlefield captures, but also on food and clothing. Therefore, the greatness of Comrade ** lies not only in the creation of the people's army, but also in the fact that in the years from Jinggangshan to Ruijin, he and his comrades-in-arms constantly explored the experience of establishing a revolutionary base area, and successfully built the base area into a powerful rear of the Red Army.
However, Chiang Kai-shek's fifth encirclement campaign on an unprecedented scale greatly damaged the vitality of the Red Army. Under the persecution of the Kuomintang army, the **Soviet area could no longer hold out.
**In this emergency, it had to be decided to make a strategic transfer to Xiangxi and Hong.
2. The 6th Army Corps converged. To this end, the ** Soviet districts were ready for the relocation of the Red Army. In order to break through the enemy's encirclement, it was first necessary to strengthen its own forces, so the **Soviet zone carried out the last large-scale expansion of the army.
The people of the Soviet districts once again showed a fearless spirit of sacrifice and sent their sons to the Red Army. According to statistics, the last departure of 8Of the 60,000 Red Army soldiers, nearly half were new recruits after May 1934.
This massive increase in the number of Red Army members made the problem of food and clothing a major problem. Fortunately, before that, Comrade ** had already established effective grassroots organizations in the countryside. Therefore, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission first called on the people in the Soviet area to participate in the "Saving Three Liters of Rice Campaign", and raised a total of 750,000 quintals of millet.
This was followed by a campaign against local tyrants, harvesting about 650,000 quintals of grain. In the end, he also borrowed 100,000 loads of grain from the masses. Thus, as of August 8, the Ministry of Food of the Soviet District announced the completion of the task of 240,000 quintals of grain. However, despite the huge quantity, this food was only enough for the short term needs of the Red Army.
With the gradual shrinking of the territory of the Soviet zone, the transfer of the Red Army became imperative. ** The Military Commissariat decided to carry out the transfer after the autumn harvest of 1934 and prepare it on the eve of the last borrowing of grain from the inhabitants of the Soviet districts.
In extremely difficult circumstances, the inhabitants of the Soviet district again raised 600,000 quintals of grain for the Red Army. By October of that year, the Red Army had raised a total of 12680,000 quintals of grain.
Taking into account the transport capacity of the Red Army, 920,000 quintals of grain were eventually taken away. In addition, the Red Army carried 714 quintals of medicine and 8 cotton clothesMore than 30,000 pieces, 20,000 blankets, and 200,000 pairs of straw sandals. Each food unit carried 1 catty of oil and 1 catty of salt per person, and each soldier carried 4 days' worth of food.
In fact, this food was only enough for the Red Army for a certain period of time, and in order to survive, the Red Army had to rely on money to buy food. Fortunately, ** and other leaders had already accumulated some wealth for the Red Army. In previous victories, the Red Army fought against local tyrants through battlefield seizures and land reforms, obtaining a certain amount of banknotes and ***
By the end of 1931, Mao, the younger brother of **, officially became the president of the ** Bank in the Soviet District. The Soviet districts used these *** as reserves to issue Soviet currency, which enabled the **Soviet districts to survive in the tight blockade of the Kuomintang.
Of course, in order for the Soviet districts to develop, it is far from enough to rely on grain alone. Fortunately, the warlord Chen Jitang of Guangdong has always had a conflict with the Nanjing National**. Therefore, Mao ** sent a representative to secretly contact Chen Jitang to obtain more silver dollars through tungsten sand** and use these silver dollars to promote foreign **.
At the time of abandoning the ** Soviet district, the Soviet district bank naturally had to be transferred as well. In the end, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission decided to disperse some of the gold and silver to be carried by the soldiers, both to buy food and to leave a chance for the soldiers to survive after being dispersed.
The Ministry of Finance of the Soviet District was also required to raise more than 800,000 yuan in September-November. The Ministry of Finance finally raised more than 1.5 million yuan by digging up floating wealth, collecting taxes in advance, and urgently increasing tungsten sand exports.
Thus, the Red Army set out with a total of 20240,000 silver dollars. Of course, the Red Army soldiers also carried Soviet banknotes in case they were forced to trade with the common people.
The Battle of Xiangjiang caused huge material losses, and then the Red Army had to rely on battlefield captures and attacks on the landlords and plutocrats to make ends meet. Since the departure of Ruijin, the Red Army has been marching westward, but there are already four blockade lines set up by the Kuomintang army in front of it. Thanks to a secret agreement with Chen Jitang, the Red Army managed to break through the first three blockade lines without suffering significant losses.
During this time, the Red Army remained self-sufficient. However, when the Red Army reached the fourth blockade line of the Xiangjiang River, it was surrounded by the powerful Kuomintang forces.
The Battle of Xiangjiang became the most harrowing battle of the Red Army's Long March. After the war, the Red Army was reduced from more than 80,000 to less than 30,000, and at the same time lost almost all of its baggage[2].
After crossing the Xiang River, the Red Army had nothing but gold and silver banknotes and a small amount of grain carried by the soldiers.
Fortunately, at this critical moment, Comrade ** pointed out the way for the Red Army, that is, to march to Guizhou, where the enemy's forces were weak.
After entering Guizhou, the Red Army achieved successive victories, especially the two occupations of Zunyi City, which won a rare opportunity for the Red Army to recuperate after the Battle of the Xiangjiang River. Although the warlord Wang Jialie of Guizhou had limited military talents, he managed Guizhou to the point that the people were poor, but he personally accumulated a huge amount of wealth.
The Red Army defeated the Kuomintang troops in Guizhou in succession, capturing not only a large amount of ammunition, but also silver dollars and other valuables as military expenses. In a cave near Tongzi, the Red Army discovered 60,000 silver dollars and a large amount of supplies hidden by the warlords of Guizhou.
Subsequently, the Red Army successfully escaped the encirclement of the Kuomintang army by crossing the Chishui four times[3] and entered Yunnan and then passed through Sichuan.
In fact, there was a paradox in the course of the Red Army's Long March. Because the Red Army had absolutely no rear support, everything had to be taken from the enemy.
If victory could not be achieved in front of the enemy, the Red Army could be in danger of being wiped out and could only quickly break through.
But if you avoid engaging the enemy, the bullets will be reduced and the resources will run out. After the Red Army passed through the Chishui River for the fourth time, it almost did not fight with the ** again, but to solve the problem of food and clothing, the Red Army could only rely on their magic weapon in the Soviet zone - to fight the landlords and plutocrats.
At present, there is a group of mean-language people on the Internet, who are dissatisfied with the local tyrants and inferior gentry of the year.
As a matter of fact, one can understand that the large rural landlords, who seemed to have a low political status, were in fact in league with the oppressors of the Kuomintang reactionaries. Obtaining food and goods from them is not fundamentally different from destroying enemy forces and capturing supplies. The Red Army, on the other hand, was a highly disciplined force, completely different from the historical acts of bandits or routs who looted at will.
On November 7, 1934, the Red Army clearly stipulated that all soldiers were not allowed to fight local tyrants indiscriminately and to seize the property of the masses at will; Those who attack local tyrants without permission must return to the public, compensate for damaged items, return borrowed items, not force the purchase of items, and pay a reasonable fee for the purchase of items.
As early as October 22, the acting director of the Political Department of the Red Army demanded that all units be vigilant in their operations to raise funds and collect supplies from landlords, rich peasants and merchants.
The promulgation of the Confiscation Rules has detailed provisions on the means of collection for different targets. All the property of the stubborn big landlords and reactionaries should be confiscated.
For small landlords, rich peasants, etc., they can be asked to donate grain, foreign oil, and military supplies. In addition, all actions must be posted in advance in order to reassure people and gain the support of the people.
During the Long March, the Red Army was strictly disciplined, and the reconnaissance work contributed a lot, and most of the time it successfully avoided the encirclement of the first country. While the main forces of the Red Army were advancing, the capable reconnaissance personnel of the detachment were responsible for opening the way ahead.
These scouts were not only responsible for finding the way, but also paying close attention to the villages and towns ahead to see if there were any local tyrants to fight. By climbing the hill to overlook the village and town, find out the family with the most houses and the largest yard, and then observe its style up close through makeup, and chat with the villagers to inquire about its background.
Once it is determined that it can be collected, our army's "confiscation committee" will use force to expropriate a certain amount of property as it passes by. However, the Red Army would never take it all away, and a considerable part of the property would be distributed to the local poor.
For example, during the Zunyi period, the Red Army defeated a total of 153 local tyrants, and in addition to the Red Army's own use of grain, money, and goods, it also distributed 900,000 catties of grain, 500 quintals of salt, and more than 50,000 pieces of clothing to the poor people.
Because these people who were attacked by the Red Army caused huge resentment in the local area, every time they beat the local tyrants, they were cheered by the surrounding people. The Red Army always took the opportunity to promote its policy and even recruited some people into the Red Army.
When conditions permitted, the Red Army traded with ordinary people, both for its own convenience and for the benefit of the people. Although the Red Army showed no mercy to the Kuomintang reactionaries and local tyrants and gentry, its relationship with the common people was like a family.
When the Red Army entered Zunyi, it confiscated the salt store opened by Wang Jialie and the platinum dragon cigarettes worth 50,000 yuan that he was going to reward the ** army. Obviously, the Red Army could not fully consume these items, so most of the table salt was traded with the common people.
Considering that many Red Army soldiers only held Soviet district tickets, the Red Army issued a notice to use the cheap ** salt, but hoped that the common people would use Soviet district tickets to buy. Therefore, in order to buy salt, the common people of Zunyi actively accepted Soviet district tickets in the hands of Red Army soldiers. This not only enabled the masses to buy cheap salt, but also allowed the Red Army soldiers to exchange their Soviet zone tickets for much-needed items.
When the Red Army left Guizhou, it found that many ordinary people in Zunyi still had Soviet tickets in their hands, so they urgently set up an exchange office to exchange the silver dollars seized from the enemy for the Soviet tickets in the hands of the common people.
In fact, in the course of the Long March, the Red Army formulated such a rule: If the rear troops found that the front troops were forced to use Soviet zone tickets to trade with the common people, they had the responsibility to exchange the silver dollars in their hands with the people for Soviet zone tickets, so as to avoid unnecessary losses for the people.
Not only in Guizhou, but also in other places, as long as the Red Army could stop and recuperate, it would trade as fairly with the local people as possible. For example, the Red Army soldiers were already extremely weak after climbing snowy mountains and crossing meadows. After the Battle of Lazikou, the Red Army captured hundreds of thousands of catties of grain and 2,000 catties of salt.
At Hatapu, the Red Army traded with the local people with the captured salt in exchange for much-needed silver dollars. Then the Red Army issued a silver dollar to each fighter, allowing them to improve their food. The dinner in Hadapu can be said to be the most memorable meal in the lives of these Red Army soldiers.
Respect ethnic minorities and do their best to raise food for the grasslands. Although for most of the time, the Red Army was not worried about food, the Long March is often associated with the scene of foraging wild vegetables and digging grass roots in the field.
These most arduous years usually revolve around climbing snow-capped mountains and crossing meadows, which is also the story of the Long March that we hear in textbooks. In fact, many veterans of the Long March recall that the grasslands were even more difficult than the snow-capped mountains.
In June 1935, the Red First Army and the Red Fourth Front Army prepared to go north after the Maogong Division. However, for various reasons, the Red Front Army was first forced to wait for the Red Fourth Front Army in the south of the meadow, which senselessly wasted their only rations.
Subsequently, due to the change of enemy situation, the Red Army had to cross the meadows to continue north, and had to raise food from local Tibetans.
The Kuomintang reactionaries were known to be not only cruel and ruthless to the common people, but also to promote Han nationalism. Sichuan warlords brutally oppressed and struck against ethnic minorities such as Yi and Tibetans.
In the face of the Red Army, which was also Han Chinese, the minorities showed strong hostility at first. However, our army resolutely practiced ethnic equality and won the support of the locals through practical actions. **The alliance between the marshal and the Yi is a good story of the Red Army when it crossed the Great and Small Liang Mountains.
Before crossing the meadows, the Red Army was located in the Maoergai region, which was sparsely populated and had limited arable land. Many Tibetan compatriots who did not know the truth were driven out by the Kuomintang authorities, creating an almost uninhabited area. In order to ensure that there was enough food when crossing the meadows, the Red Army had to wait until August when the local barley was ripe.
In the process, the Red Army adopted a variety of ways to raise food. First, they strive to build good relations with local religious leaders and temples, exchanging silver dollars or even precious *** with them. Fortunately, most of the local monasteries learned about the policies of our party and our army, and they generously donated their limited surplus food.
More food needs to be collected from the masses. To ensure discipline, the higher authorities prescribed that grain be taken from the houses of the common people or that silver dollars or other items be left behind when harvesting crops.
If you do not have any exchangeable items on hand, you must leave an IOU. According to statistics, the Red Army raised a total of 1.15 million catties of grain in the process, which provided a guarantee for crossing the grassland.
Later, in an interview, we mentioned that we only owe foreign debts once during the revolution, that is, we took the barley from the fields of the local people in Sichuan and did not pay enough, and we must compensate for it in the future.
Sadly, although the Red Army had made every effort to obtain much-needed food for the meadows at this stage, the results were not satisfactory due to the tight time and the lack of suitable tools at hand.
Barley is mainly grown in the area, which must be threshed after harvesting, stir-fried, and finally ground into barley fried noodles. Due to the very rudimentary tools of the Red Army, everyone tried their best, but still failed to reach the goal of making 15 catties of dry food per person. In the end, many people carried only three to five catties of barley into the grassland.
Due to food shortages, such a small amount of dry food left many people without food after three days. Then we heard the tragic and touching stories of the Red Army as they crossed the meadows. Some lucky fighters were able to catch fish, but many more had to feed on wild vegetables and grass roots, and some even had to eat their own leashes.
The different stages of the Red Army's Long March showed the same glorious revolutionary spirit. It is said that when the Red Army came out of the meadow and defeated the encounter, Chiang Kai-shek developed trust in this army and considered it an invincible army. After the Red Army completed its Long March, the other three Red Army units began their own Long March.
In particular, the Red 25th Army set out from Dabie Mountain and arrived in northern Shaanxi in advance to meet the ** Red Army that had fallen into a desperate situation.
November 1935, Red.
The 2nd and 6th Army Corps began the Long March, and the superiors asked the soldiers to bring 3 days of food, a set of clothes, 3 to 5 pairs of straw sandals, and as many silver dollars and valuables as possible, except for the necessary ** ammunition. On the Long March, they relied on battlefield captures and local tyrants to get what they needed.
The Red Fourth Front Army began its Long March after abandoning the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Region, and its preparations were more adequate than those of the Red First Army.
At the end of March 1935, when the Red Fourth Front Army crossed the Jialing River to the west, it required every soldier and civilian worker accompanying the army to bring their own dry food for 3 to 6 days and food for 3 to 5 days. In the battle with the Sichuan army, they received abundant captured supplies. Therefore, before the convergence with the ** Red Army, their living conditions were relatively good.
However, after the Red Fourth Front Army moved south alone, it failed to defeat the Sichuan warlords at the Battle of Baizhang Pass, and once experienced a period of starvation and freezing in the western Sichuan Plateau.
The Red Army's Long March was a great feat in history, which vividly proved that the Red Army was not only good at fighting, but also able to survive in harsh environments. After the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, it faced the encirclement and annihilation of the Kuomintang army, but the Red Army won many battles.
After the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance, the Red Army not only had to fight the Japanese army, but also establish a base behind enemy lines. They fought both in battle and in production, and eventually achieved their own development while defeating the enemy. Therefore, the spirit of the Long March has become our eternal wealth.