Chapter 14 Forward Zhu De's comment to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China[1]

(January 31, 1948) Commander-in-Chief Zhu raised two important questions in his gray letter.The first problem is to mobilize the masses of soldiers to discuss how to conquer the enemy's position, annihilate the enemy, and complete combat tasks before, during, and after the battle in a democratic discussion method.Especially in combat, free-handedly mobilize company branches, squad platoon groups, and repeatedly discuss how to conquer the enemy's position, which has achieved great results.The same is true of the experience of conquering Panlong[2] in the 167th Brigade of the 1st Division in northern Shaanxi.At that time, a regiment fought for a few days. The higher-ups thought it was impossible to fight and ordered to retreat.But the company thought it could be fought and refused to withdraw.The soldiers of the company discussed in groups, found a way, continued to fight, and won the victory.In northern Shaanxi, this situation is called military democracy, and the complaining movement, three investigations and three rectifications[3] are called political democracy and economic democracy.Democratic life in these armies is beneficial and harmless, and should be practiced by all armies.The second problem is that the living conditions of the workers, shop assistants and staff in the factories and shops should not be too high.The task of our party's industrial and commercial policies is to develop production, prosper the economy, give consideration to both public and private interests, and benefit both labor and capital.If our party is not good at leading the working class to carry out this task, raises excessively high labor conditions, repeats the mistakes made in the past, resulting in lower production, economic decline, inability to balance public and private interests, and inability to benefit both labor and capital, it will be a huge disaster. fail.This matter must be brought to the attention of the whole party, and we must not only see the one-sided so-called welfare of laborers in front of us, but forget the great interests of the working class.The central government has already issued instructions on this matter.However, it has not attracted attention in many places. Many central bureaus and sub-bureaus failed to issue instructions based on this, failed to give correct explanations to trade union comrades and workers, and accommodated the isolated, one-sided and narrow thinking of the party and workers. , Still implementing the wrong policy that has caused our party to suffer serious setbacks in history.Party committees at all levels below the Central Bureau must deal with this issue with a serious attitude and immediately correct the wrong thinking and wrong policies existing in the party on this issue.

Mao Zedong's son Printed from originals kept at the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Refers to the letter Zhu De wrote to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong on December 10, 1947 (Hai) after he inspected the Jinchaji Field Army and Jizhong. The letter introduced the Jinchaji Army In the battle against Shijiazhuang and other places, the officers and soldiers were mobilized to fight while working together to learn the experience of mobile warfare, annihilation warfare, and tough battle tactics to win victory.At the same time, it reflects the problem of excessive wages for some urban workers. It is believed that this will cause most public and private factories to close, workers will lose their jobs, and damage the fundamental interests of the working class. This is actually a "suicide" policy.

[2] Refers to the battle in May 1947 when the Northwest Field Force of the People's Liberation Army wiped out more than 6,700 Kuomintang defenders in the south of Hu Zong in Panlong Town, northeast of Yan'an. [3] Three inspections and three rectifications are the party and army campaigns carried out by the Communist Party of China in conjunction with land reform during the People's Liberation War.Three investigations: at the local level, class, ideology, and style of work are investigated; in the army, class, work, and fighting spirit are investigated.Three rectifications refer to rectifying organization, rectifying thinking and rectifying style.