Chapter 30 Why didn't Lei Gong hack Mao Zedong to death?

It happened in the midsummer of 1941. Midsummer is the rainy season in northern Shaanxi.One day, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government was holding a joint meeting of county magistrates in the small auditorium in Yan'an.Suddenly, the sky was covered with dark clouds, followed by lightning and thunder, and heavy rain.A flash of lightning penetrated into the auditorium, followed by a loud noise, and a wooden pillar was cut off. Li Cairong, acting magistrate of Yanchuan County, who was sitting beside the pillar was knocked to the ground and died on the spot. When the news came out, people in the streets and alleys and ditch head plains talked a lot.A farmer said angrily:

"God is not open, lightning struck a county magistrate, why didn't he strike Mao Zedong to death!" Cursing Mao Zedong to be struck to death by lightning, is that okay? The security department in Yan'an got a report and was going to arrest the farmer, but Mao Zedong stopped him after he knew about it.Mao Zedong believed that there must be a reason for a farmer to say such a thing, and it shows that there are problems in our work. Mao Zedong, who paid attention to investigation and research, knew the situation in the border areas: The border area is located on the Loess Plateau, with undulating hills, criss-cross gullies, and serious soil erosion. The area of ​​soil erosion is as high as 67%, and most of them are barren mountains and ridges. There were only 100 employees in workshops and shops in 1936, and the annual industrial output value was only 2,500 yuan.Because of this, after the Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, it not only found a way out for the resistance against Japan, but also to solve the problem of supporting the army, that is, it carried out the Eastern Expedition.

In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, after the KMT and the Communist Party cooperated, the KMT government allocated 600,000 yuan a month to the Eighth Route Army in accordance with the agreement negotiated between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.Although these payments are not large, they can maintain a minimum standard of living. However, starting in 1939, the Japanese army "mopped up" the anti-Japanese base areas on a large scale and imposed an economic blockade.In conjunction with this, when political negotiations and military anti-communism failed to achieve their goals, Chiang Kai-shek also used economic means to impose an economic blockade on the base areas, in an attempt to trap the Chinese Communist Party and the army headed by Mao Zedong in the barren land of the Northwest.Since the failure of the first anti-communist upsurge, Chiang Kai-shek spent huge sums of money to build five blockades stretching across several provinces, starting from Ningxia in the west, along the Jing River in the south, and ending at the riverside in the east.It is said that 11,000 blockhouses were built on the first blockade line, and more than 200,000 troops were stationed along the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border area.By the time of the second anti-communist upsurge in 1941, the number of troops surrounding the border area had reached 400,000.At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek also withheld the salary of the Eighth Route Army.

Under such circumstances, by 1942, the number of the Eighth Route Army had decreased, the base areas had shrunk, the total population had decreased, and financial and economic difficulties had reached extremes.The life of the cadres in the border area and the officers and soldiers of the left-behind corps is extremely difficult: each person only gets 5 cents a day for food, only 1 yuan a month in allowances, even Mao Zedong only 5 yuan a month, and Lin Boqu, chairman of the border region government, 4 yuan a month , while the monthly allowance of senior KMT generals is 800 yuan. Due to the blockade by the Japanese army and Chiang Kai-shek, local products in the border area could not be exported in large quantities, and military equipment and medical supplies could not enter the border area.Commander-in-Chief Zhu De described the situation of the Eighth Route Army in 1941 as follows:

"There is only four or five bullets left in one shot, and one wound is only applied once or twice. Therefore, in combat, you only rely on hand-to-hand combat, and when you are injured, let it happen." There is also a shortage of paper, and the anti-university students often have to use 4 to 6 times a piece of paper.When the paper is tight, even the printing of the "Liberation Daily" is also a problem. What is the specific situation of the peasant masses in the border areas?Mao Zedong commissioned the Northwest Bureau to send an investigation team. In September 1941, Li Zhuoran led Ke Hua, Qin Chuan, Shi Jun, Wei Xiaotian, Wu Wenlin and others to Gulin County.

Two months later, the "Gu Lin Investigation" material was placed on Mao Zedong's desk, reflecting the situation that the number of off-duty workers increased sharply, fiscal revenue dropped sharply, and the burden on the people increased.What caught Mao Zedong's eyes was a series of shocking figures: In 1937, 14,000 off-duty workers collected 14,000 shi (150 kg per shi) of public grain, and the per capita burden was 1 liter; in 1938, there were more than 16,000 off-duty people, levying 15,900 shi of public grain, with a per capita burden of 12 liters; in 1939, more than 49,000 off-duty people In 1940, 61,000 off-duty workers collected more than 97,000 shi of public grain, with an average of 7 liters per capita. In 1941, 73,000 off-duty workers collected 200,000 shi of public grain, with an average of 1 bucket and 5 liters per person. , accounting for 1276% of the annual harvest of the masses.

This shows that since 1939, the burden of the masses has increased exponentially!Moreover, the natural disasters in the border area have not stopped in recent years: Hailstorms occurred in Bao'an, and plague occurred in Yan'an and other places. More than 500 people died in the Panlong area alone. Hurricanes in Yanchi and Jingbian blocked out the sun for several months, destroying thousands of houses, livestock and almost all crops. After reading the materials, Mao Zedong felt very heavy: In the barren northern Shaanxi, the common people rarely had a good harvest, but they were overburdened.

The Communist Party is the backbone and savior of the people, and has no right to exploit the people.So how to reduce the burden on the people and tide over the difficulties? The answer of the communists is: Do it yourself and rely on your own efforts. As early as the first half of 1939, Mao Zedong said to his comrades: "What did we come to northern Shaanxi to do? We were engaged in revolution. Now the Japanese imperialists and the die-hards of the Kuomintang are going to starve us to death. What should we do? I think there are three ways: the first is that the revolution cannot go on, Then there will be no revolution, and everyone will disband and go home. The second is that we don’t want to disband, and we have no choice but to wait to starve to death. The third is to rely on our own hands, rely on our own efforts, develop production, and overcome difficulties together. We use Which way?"

The comrades replied: "We are in favor of the third method." Mao Zedong laughed: "Now it seems that there is only this way. This is our only way out." "We have a lot of wasteland here. As long as the Jade Emperor sends a little rain, we can cultivate and produce, so we work part-time and study. We farm, Those who produce food are farmers; those who make tables and houses are workers; those who run cooperatives are businessmen; those who study and study knowledge are students; those who understand military affairs and know how to fight are soldiers. "We in Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia have no more than 30,000 to 50,000 people out of production. In the future, we will mobilize and expand this production movement. Airplanes will be ahead and turtles will be behind. We can overcome any difficulties. If we cannot defeat Japan, I will Do not believe."

On February 2, 1939, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a production mobilization meeting.Mao Zedong pointed out sharply: "Starve to death? Disband? Or do it yourself? No one agrees to starve to death, and no one agrees to disband. You should do it yourself!" He mobilized with vivid words and proposed to the people " Opening up wasteland and farming, overcoming difficulties" task. However, two years later, due to the small scale of the production movement, its income was only used as a supplement to the financial supply. Apart from the production of a small amount of food for self-sufficiency, it was mainly engaged in agricultural and sideline production. The principle was to improve life, and the effect was not great.However, the military encirclement and economic blockade by the Japanese army and the Kuomintang diehards caused unprecedented difficulties in the border area. There was an extreme shortage of supplies, almost no clothes to wear, no oil to eat, no paper, no vegetables, soldiers had no shoes and socks, and the staff were in winter. Not covered... What's more serious is that due to the expansion of fiscal expenditures, the burden on the people continues to increase.The thunder in northern Shaanxi sounded the alarm for the Communist Party.

Mao Zedong and other CCP leaders felt the seriousness and urgency of the financial and economic problems, and actively planned countermeasures. They believed that only by developing the economy of the border areas can they fundamentally overcome the huge difficulties they are currently facing, avoid public and private difficulties, compete with the people, and improve people's livelihood. Stabilize the rear and achieve the goal of long-term resistance.Therefore, Mao Zedong once again issued an appeal to the soldiers and civilians of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region: "living comfortably without anybody's help!" He pointed out: "All leaders of the party, government, military, and schools at all levels must learn a set of skills to lead the production of the masses. Anyone who does not pay attention to research and production is not a good leader. All military and civilian people who do not pay attention to production will be lazy. They are not good soldiers or good citizens. All rural party members who have not divorced from production should take the development of production as one of the conditions for themselves to be a model for the masses.” The government of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region has come up with a plan to reclaim 600,000 mu of land each year.The report was sent to Mao Zedong, who changed 600,000 mu to 1 million mu with a stroke of a pen. Since then, a large-scale production movement aimed at production and self-rescue among the military and civilians in the border areas has been vigorously launched.