Chapter 48 Persist in serving the people [1]

(September 18, 1944) Comrades! You were elected from the army. You represent the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. At the same time, you also represent the 90 million people in our anti-Japanese base areas and the 450 million people in all of China.Although you were not directly elected by the people of the whole country, in fact the program and tasks you implemented represented the demands of the entire Chinese people—to overthrow Japanese imperialism and liberate the Chinese nation. Since the fall of Wuhan, especially in the past two years, the situation of China's war of resistance has undergone significant and huge changes.Now the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the South China People's Anti-Japanese Army have fought back five-sixths of the enemy and puppet troops in China, while the Kuomintang has fought back only one-sixth.In the Battle of Henan and Hunan[2], the enemy seemed to be in an uninhabited territory, and the situation was extremely serious.China survived because of our Communist Party, the Eighth Route Army, and the New Fourth Army, mainly because we supported the war of resistance.This is the situation of the War of Resistance in China today.

Whether fighting the enemy in the front or defending the Shensi-Gansu-Ningxia border region in the rear, our troops have made great progress in production or training, in military-civilian relations, and in relations between officers and soldiers; however, we still have shortcomings, which we must correct and further improve. Own.During last year's movement to support the government and love the people, we used the method of self-criticism, and we could criticize each other if we had shortcomings.The army must have unified leadership and discipline in order to defeat the enemy; correct self-criticism will not weaken leadership and discipline, but will only strengthen them.Of course, this kind of self-criticism can only be found in our troops, and it is impossible in the Kuomintang army.Because our army is truly the people's army, every one of our commanders and fighters, as well as every cook and breeder, serve the people.Our troops must become one with the people, and our cadres must be one with the soldiers.We must persist in what is in line with the interests of the people, and we must work hard to change what is in conflict with the interests of the people, so that we can be invincible in the world.Our army has always had two policies: the first is to be ruthless with the enemy, to overwhelm it and eliminate it;This is the policy of the Party Central Committee and the Northwest Bureau, and it is also the policy demanded by all the people.

According to the "Liberation Daily" published on September 23, 1944. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to welcome all the model study representatives of the Eighth Route Army's left-behind corps and the combat heroes of each unit who returned from the enemy's rear to participate in the training. [2] The Battle of Henan and Hunan refers to the first and second phases of the battle launched by the Japanese invading army to open up the communication lines in the mainland.In mid-April 1944, the Japanese army first launched the Battle of Henan with 140,000 troops. The Kuomintang defenders Jiang Dingwen, Tang Enbo, and Hu Zongnan continued to retreat in the face of the Japanese attack. By May 25, Zhengzhou, Luoyang and other three Eighteen counties and cities fell one after another.On May 27, the Japanese army launched a campaign in northern Hunan and occupied Changsha on June 18.On June 22, the attack on Hengyang, an important military site, was launched. The Chinese defenders resisted stubbornly. After 47 days of fierce fighting, most of the defenders were killed or injured. On August 8, the Japanese army occupied Hengyang.