Chapter 24 Hard work style

Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: "A firm and correct political direction is inseparable from the work style of hard work. Without a firm and correct political direction, the work style of hard work cannot be inspired; without the work style of hard work, it is impossible to implement the firm The correct political direction.” (New China News, May 10, 1939) This exposition brilliantly and thoroughly clarified the relationship between the two. Since its inception, the Anti-Japanese University has followed the teachings of Comrade Mao Zedong and inherited and carried forward the fine tradition of our army's hard work and plain living.The majority of teaching staff and students regard cultivating a hard and simple work style as an important lesson for learning, and as an important standard for testing the achievements of each comrade in integrating theory with practice and transforming the world outlook.The students in the first section of the first phase of the Anti-Japanese University were all senior cadres above the Red Army.When they moved from Wayaobao to Baoan County, there was no school building, so they cleared cow dung, horse manure, garbage and weeds by themselves, built walls and filled holes, cleaned and cleaned the broken stone kilns that ordinary people used as cattle pens and stables, and built them with stones. The wind-shielding walls, weaving straw curtains as doors and windows, and transforming them into simple school buildings and classrooms have set an example of hard work for the students in the future.After the third semester started, educated youths from all over the country continued to come in batches.In order to solve the problem of overcrowded school buildings, the head of the school called on the faculty and students of the school to dig caves and build new school buildings by themselves.On October 22, more than 1,000 people, from the head of the school to all the teaching staff and students, mobilized, carrying shovels and round shovels, marched to the Fenghuang Mountain construction site, and worked together to excavate the cave dwelling. After half a month 175 new-style cave dwellings were dug along the hillside, and the task was completed by 25 more than the quota.The cave dwellings are well-built, with earth kangs, writing desks, and doors and windows at the Dong entrance. The wooden lattices of the windows are pasted with white paper, and the walls are painted with white ash.After the cave dwellings were completed, everyone built a more than 3,000-meter-long "Kangda Highway" to make it easier to go up and down the mountain.At that time, we stood at the bottom of the mountain and looked up. Along the hillside, there were rows of cave dwellings neatly, like buildings rising from the ground, reaching the clouds; The jade belt is entangled in it; at night, the lights flicker in the Phoenix Mountains, interspersed with the stars in the night sky, as if the Milky Way has fallen into the world, decorating the ancient Yan'an city more colorfully and full of vitality.

Comrade Mao Zedong appreciated the pioneering work of resisting the large-scale digging of cave dwellings to build school buildings. When the teachers and students of the resistance began to dig cave dwellings, he wrote to encourage everyone: "I heard that your enthusiasm for building school buildings is very high, and you have begun to show results. This is very good. This will give us a proof: in the face of the Communist Party and the Red Army, all so-called difficulties do not exist, the most serious difficulties can be overcome, and the Red Army is invincible in the world." On the afternoon of November 14, the Anti-Japanese War was held I held a grand inauguration ceremony for the new school building, summed up the experience, and rewarded more than one hundred comrades who performed outstandingly in labor, and I also received material rewards.Comrade Mao Zedong personally attended the inauguration ceremony and delivered a speech. He pointed out: "The reason for the success in this great cause, to sum it up, is to be able to overcome difficulties and connect with the masses." At the same time, he encouraged everyone to say: " You now have the spirit of overcoming difficulties and connecting with the masses, as long as you continue to develop and develop it with your genius on this basis, it is entirely possible to expel Japan from China." ("Our Greatness" edited by the Political Department of the Anti-Japanese University "Career" No. 21) Facts have proved that anti-teaching teachers and students dig caves by themselves, which not only solves the urgent need for lack of school buildings, but also is a traditional education and practical labor of hard work and overcoming difficulties for all teachers and students, especially for educated youth. Exercise has far-reaching effects.

Due to the frequent "mopping up" of the Japanese army and the economic blockade of the Kuomintang diehards, our anti-Japanese base areas suffered serious economic difficulties, and our material life was very difficult.But the teachers and students of the Anti-Japanese War all inspired themselves with the spirit of the Red Army's Long March, took joy in suffering, and took pride in suffering.Many educated youths among them voluntarily gave up the comfortable environment of the city and their affluent family life, and came to the base areas where wars were everywhere and the mountains were barren.They took off their leather shoes and put on straw sandals, changed their suits and wore military uniforms, and ate millet, sorghum, and black beans like everyone else; when it was most difficult to fight against "mopping up", they even ate wild vegetables, wild fruits, and elm bark to satisfy their hunger, and they were still willing.When the main school and our second branch school and the sixth and seventh branch schools were running in the enemy's rear, in order to solve the food problem, they all carried out food-carrying campaigns. Go through the enemy's blockade to the guerrilla zone to carry food.When starting out, each person had to carry backpacks, weapons, and three or four days' rations to eat on the way.When they arrived at the destination, they used their trousers as food bags, tied up the legs of the trousers, filled them with food, tied the waist of the trousers tightly, and carried them back on their shoulders.Young and strong comrades can carry 30 to 40 kilograms at a time, while weak comrades can only carry 20 to 30 kilograms.Sometimes they encountered the enemy on the way to carry the food, and they had to fight. Some comrades died heroically to cover the food carrying team;It was so difficult to carry the food, but the faculty and students of the Anti-Japanese University, regardless of gender, age, or position, participated enthusiastically, competing with each other and helping each other along the way.Sometimes when encountering heavy rain, wind and snow, and muddy mountain roads, one by one stumbled, and some even rolled down the hillside with food, and turned into mud monkeys when they got home. They were still cheerful, like triumphant soldiers.

From 1939 to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the main school of the Anti-Japanese University and some branch schools with conditions had to conduct production every year, and included production labor in the teaching plan, so that education and production labor were combined.In the spring of 1939, the headquarter launched a land reclamation assault campaign. More than 5,000 faculty members and students from the whole school mobilized to march towards the barren hills and ridges, launching a labor competition in full swing.Especially admirable in this land reclamation army are the comrades of the girls' team.Although their physical strength cannot keep up with the boys' team, they all have a stubborn temper and refuse to lag behind in everything. When they finish work every evening, although their progress is slower than that of the boys' team, the next day, they go up the mountain ahead of dawn. , Make up the progress that has been pulled down, and sometimes surpass the boys' team.Therefore, everyone gave them a thumbs up and praised them as "heroines".At that time, Comrade Li Fuchun wrote an article in the "New China News" praising this revolutionary spirit.He wrote: "The laborers who are now engaged in labor, before January, were either weak scholars who had never picked up a hoe, or young men and women students who had just left the rich families and comfortable schools in the big cities and came to Yan'an, or They have always been literary and artistic talents who only know "pen farming". They have made up their minds to consciously change their habits, life and consciousness. They pick up hoes and climb up the hills, not afraid of dust, blood, and disease. He worked hard to open up wasteland with heroic interests and singing songs, and opened up a new life of his own with hoes and blood and sweat! Make labor and study, work, and battle link up from their own practice, so that everyone can experience and practice by themselves. The glory of 'sanctification of labor'!" This vivid description is indeed a true portrayal of our land reclamation assault movement back then.

In 1940, our second branch school responded to the call of the Party Central Committee and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region to carry out a mass production campaign, planting more than 1,500 acres of vegetables, raising 300 pigs, 600 sheep, and planting trees Fifteen thousand three hundred and ninety-five trees have improved life and reduced the burden on the people.In the spring of 1944, in response to the call of the Party Central Committee to "do it yourself and have enough food and clothing", the main school of the Anti-Japanese University reclaimed 7,431 mu of wasteland. They grow melons and vegetables, and raise pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens and other livestock and poultry. The number of pigs alone reaches 1,174, with an average of five people per pig. They are basically self-sufficient in vegetables and meat.In addition, the school also opened alcohol factories, livestock farms, tofu workshops, iron and wood factories, sewing factories, printing factories, organized the excavation of small coal wells, and carried out spinning and weaving, twisting wool, knitting sweaters, knitting gloves, wool socks , Making chalk, soap, weaving baskets, making straw sandals and other handicraft production. According to statistics, the whole school created a wealth of more than 76 million yuan (border currency) in ten months of labor, and truly achieved "abundant food and clothing".The masters and students of the Anti-Japanese War not only overcame difficulties and won victories while studying and working, but also honed their revolutionary will and cultivated a good style of hard work and plain living in the struggle.