Nowadays, in some film and television works, it is often seen that the hats worn by the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army have two buttons, which makes people wonder, why do the hats of the Eighth Route Army have to be made with two buttons? What exactly are they for?
Adaptation at a critical juncture
The Kuomintang and the Communist Party once jointly promoted the revolutionary cause, but unfortunately, after the death of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, the right-wing forces of the Kuomintang represented by Chiang Kai-shek turned their guns on their former allies, and the vigorous revolutionary movement failed.
Since the Nanchang Uprising, our Party has begun to have its own independent contingent, and the name of this contingent is the "Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army."
Since then, the agrarian revolutionary war has been waged between our Party and the Kuomintang for 10 years.
At that time, there was a five-pointed star on the cockade of our soldiers.
This is not only an ideal symbol, but also the best way to distinguish between friend and foe on the battlefield.
With this five-pointed star, the Red Army completed the Long March, which attracted worldwide attention.
Therefore, the officers and men of our army have a lot of affection for the pentagram.
However, in 1937, the Japanese invaders began to carry out a full-scale invasion of China, and the Chinese nation faced an unprecedented crisis.
Under such circumstances, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party decided to jointly resist Japan after negotiations.
According to the agreement reached between the two sides, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army, which meant that our army needed to complete the formal redress.
Of course, as you can see, nominally the Red Army took off its hat and changed its clothes, but in essence it was still a people's army under the leadership of the Party, but in order to facilitate negotiations with the Kuomintang side, some changes had to be made.
Originally, the first soldiers have their own cockades, which is the so-called "blue sky and white sun" However, for our army, both high-level commanders and ordinary soldiers are extremely disgusted with the blue sky and white sun, so except for some particularly important occasions, our army generally does not force soldiers to wear hat badges.
In addition, the Kuomintang side is also sharpening its knives, and the reason why Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the reorganization of our army was that on the one hand, because the Japanese offensive momentum was too fierce, and he wanted our army to suffer great losses in the process of resisting the Japanese invaders, so that he could act in secret.
In addition, according to the standard, the people should have provided materials and salaries for our army, but Chiang Kai-shek wished that the Eighth Route Army would be left to fend for itself, so how could he provide supplies?
This has brought about a problem: The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border region under the leadership of our party is facing a double blockade by the Japanese and the Kuomintang diehards, and its economy is very difficult.
In such a situation, survival becomes the number one priority.
Multi-purpose
Every winter, how to keep out the cold often becomes a major problem for our army, and at this time the two buttons show the first effect.
Due to the existence of the hat buckle, the ear protectors are fixed, which can give our soldiers the effect of keeping out the cold, which can even save their lives in some difficult moments.
If the hat buckle only has this layer of function, it is nothing, and its core function is actually one word: province.
Due to the extreme shortage of materials, at that time, all the materials of our army were scarce, so they must be cherished.
As an example, when the Eighth Route Army fights the enemy, it often uses a "composite bullet".
The so-called composite bullet is actually to re-polish the gunpowder in the bullet casing that has already been used and use it again.
The shortcomings of this bullet are obvious, due to the insufficient power of gunpowder, the lethality is often not enough, so our army even stipulates that the enemy must be placed at a certain distance before it can be **.
In wartime, gunpowder is the most important existence, and even gunpowder is so scarce that other aspects can be imagined.
Specific to the hat buckle, the main function of the two buttons is actually a spare item, if the buttons in other parts are broken, the soldiers can take a hat buckle to replace it.
This situation was alleviated in the later stages of the war, mainly because our army gradually expanded its strength in the struggle against the Japanese invaders, and the economic situation also improved to a certain extent.
According to Marxist theory, the economic base determines the superstructure, so at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and even in the era of the War of Liberation, our army actually had the ability to produce uniform clothing and military hats.
Finally, it must be mentioned that the use of cap buckles by the Eighth Route Army was itself a blow to the Kuomintang authorities.
As mentioned above, during the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the armed forces led by our party included a New Fourth Army in addition to the Eighth Route Army.
Like the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army also made outstanding achievements, and made the Japanese invaders fearful in the area south of the Yangtze River, however, this was hated by Chiang Kai-shek.
He ordered Shangguan Yunxiang and others to impose on the New Fourth Army in the name of "rebels", mobilized heavy troops to surround and intercept them, and instructed that Commander Ye Ting was captured and Deputy Commander Xiang Ying was killed.
When the news reached Yan'an, it can be said that the crowd was excited, and many soldiers of the Eighth Route Army took off their cockades and put on their hat buckles.
As the saying goes, those who have attained the Tao have much help, and those who have lost the Tao have little help, and it is completely reasonable for our army to denounce Chiang Kai-shek's behavior from top to bottom.
Today, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is already a powerful force composed of multiple arms, and the harsh environment of the past is gone forever, but under the new historical conditions, the fine traditions of our army must be carried forward, and as a person living in an era of peace, remembering history is the best way to cherish the memory of those years.