Chapter 43 Grasp the future (5)

In his personal little bag there is always an umbrella and books.The contents inside were constantly being replaced, but it was always with him.There is no evidence that Mao brought works by Marx or Lenin with him on the Long March. He often works through the night, but sometimes breaks the norm and sleeps until noon in his hammock.He has always regarded several young people around him as his assistants. These young people include secretaries, health workers and guards who double as orders. Chen Changfeng, a twenty-year-old guard, slowly learned about Mao's strict requirements and his solitary lifestyle.As soon as the team stopped for the night, Mao would immediately boil water, and if the situation was urgent, he would work all night without sleep.Every time he stopped, Chen had to quickly arrange a place for Mao to work—a small cave or a clean stone. ⑧

Sometimes Mao could enjoy a little bit, and his staff was more than happy to arrange for him to rest or work for a night or two in a landlord's home with a yard, a straw bed, and a desk for stationery and a telephone. If cigarettes could be found, Mao could cheer up even the worst of days.Some sources say that when the troops were about to start fighting, his soldiers even exchanged opium with each other for cigarettes.When there was no tobacco, Mao showed his flexibility and wit. He used various irritating leaves as tobacco substitutes.Otto Braun also has this hobby. The search for good tobacco is perhaps a passion shared by the fussy German and the steady Chinese, and they sometimes carry out some adventurous experiments together.

The last rays of the setting sun dyed the sky red, and Mao's gray military uniform turned withered yellow.Under the bright moon, the messy rocks suddenly looked like dragons fighting.In the dark night, the troops lit pine torches to illuminate the way forward, and the cliffs and cliffs seemed to be looking for opportunities to swallow this ghostly team. Whenever this happened, Mao would write down a few poems.He feels that he is "three feet and three feet away from the sky"; he sees goose feathers and heavy snow as "flying three million jade dragons"; "Original Chi Wax Figure".

Mao truly discovered himself on the Long March.Despite the hardships of life, with geographical challenges unfamiliar to him, threats of death, factional struggles within the party, and several times when the Red Army was nearly wiped out.But the 10-month, 6,000-mile trek fully demonstrated Mao's normally difficult genius. Paradoxically, Mao was not constrained by his personal life, but began a period of great excellence and talent.He is alone but always thinks about the collective mission.Although He Zizhen also participated in the Long March, she may not have been with Mao during the ten months.She is not even mentioned in the memoirs written by several people close to Mao's service at the time.Mao was also not closely related to his surviving brother Zemin, who was in charge of finance, archives and material supplies.

On the other hand, the period of the Long March may be the period when Mao wrote the most poetry.Twenty years later, he said with some nostalgia: "On horseback, people have plenty of time to find words and rhymes, and to think."⑨Poems integrate nature and history, and this fusion eventually became Mao's The secret of success of the first revolutionary and the first Marxist theorist in the East. He sees the mountains as part of the order of battle: Mountain, There was a huge billow. Pentium anxious, Thousands of horses are still fighting. Mountain, Piercing Qingtian E is not damaged.

Heaven wants to fall, Rely on it. ⑩