Chapter 35 Production of shells sent to the front

The main body of the large-scale production movement was the development of agriculture, but strenuous efforts were also made to develop industry at that time. The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is historically known as a region where the land is barren and the people are poor. The agriculture is backward and the industry is even blank. Except for a few handicraft workshops, carpenters, blacksmiths and farm textiles, all kinds of daily necessities are mainly sourced from other places. enter. In 1935, when the Soviet regime in northern Shaanxi was established, there was only one machine repair factory with more than 40 workers.After the Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi on the Long March, all the paper, military supplies, and daily necessities needed were purchased from the Kuomintang-controlled areas. In 1938, the border area government began to establish a small number of public industries, such as textile factories, paper factories, clothing factories, agricultural tool factories, and the Eighth Route Army pharmaceutical factory.

The blockade, which began in 1939, forced the Border Region to turn to its own production of necessities.Due to the lack of local industrial traditions, and the lack of local technology and entrepreneurial skills, private industry is still limited despite the policies of the border government to encourage capitalist development. The party mainly relies on government initiatives and financing to start industries. For example, cotton yarn and cloth were mainly imported from other places in the past. After the border area was blocked, the border area decided to be self-sufficient, grow cotton, and develop the local textile industry.Mao Zedong announced that three years later, half of the cotton needed in the border areas would be produced by itself.The government also increased its total investment in the industrial sector. By the end of 1941, there were nearly 4,000 "industrial workers" working in factories in the border area.Among them, more than 1,800 workers in a public factory are engaged in cloth production.

The policy put forward by the Party in large-scale production is: "Centralize leadership and decentralize management." This is because the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy lines are mainly in the vast rural areas behind the enemy lines. Some of them are agricultural products, while others mainly use agricultural products as raw materials; moreover, in a rural environment, manpower and material resources are scattered. suitable.Therefore, the Party Central Committee in Yan'an at that time unified the economic plan with the main economic goals, and linked it with the decentralized production and management of the border area. The government relied on public and private factories, cooperatives, and families throughout the border area to complete production tasks.

At that time the development of home production became an important part of decentralized production.In the border area, not only the land is barren and the people are poor, but also the population is sparse and there is a shortage of labor force.During the mass production movement, all mobilizable non-producers were mobilized, and party and government cadres, students, and troops all participated in economic activities.In terms of the textile industry, the Communist Party further tapped the potential, mobilized, trained and organized people in the border areas, especially housewives to engage in production, relying heavily on the tradition of family weaving, and starting from this tradition, coupled with mutual aid groups, using this expertise to develop textiles industry.

In 1938, before the government started the textile industry, it was estimated that 5,000 women were engaged in home weaving, producing about 5,000 bolts of cloth. By the end of 1943, the number had risen to 41,540, and its output reached 450,000 horses, which greatly exceeded the production of 3.29 million horses in public factories during the same period (at that time, the output of cooperatives was 0.6 million horses and that of private factories was 190,000 horses). Although measured by the output per loom, the output of household looms is low (1 cloth per year, compared with 80 for private factories, 73 for public factories, and 33 for cooperatives), but because household looms utilize The former "non-producers" and other people in the slack season, and home textiles do not have the cost of transportation and factories, so it is still effective.

In 1943, the textile industry produced 1.04 million bolts of cloth, a self-sufficiency rate of 32%, which is a good record.44% of this cloth production was woven on home looms, and this proportion has continued to rise since then. Household handicrafts also include oil extraction, boiling salt and other production.This not only contributed to the construction of the border area, but also made farmers profit from it.Linked with the promotion of cooperative agriculture, the adoption of cottage industry further puts farmers on the road to transforming rural life, and is of great significance to rural women in China.Their participation in cottage industries on a large scale has brought into play their economic role and changed their status, which has contributed to the emancipation of women.During the Anti-Japanese War, Chinese rural women went out of their homes and devoted themselves to the torrent of Chinese society, making great contributions to the political, economic and military life of the base areas.During the Anti-Japanese War, women's political, educational and economic rights were greatly improved, and their contributions were indelible.

At this time, an important aspect of industrial development in the border area was military industry, and coal mines and iron mines were opened accordingly. In 1941, iron ore and coal were mined in the border area for the first time, and crude pig iron was smelted.In the absence of experienced technicians and modern equipment, "earth blast furnaces" produced much-needed iron for weapons and tools. Gunther Stein once vividly described a very simple arsenal in the border area: "This small arsenal of 330 people has a dozen low houses and the strangest variety of machinery I've ever seen: old lathes, planers, drills, rolling mills, and punches, both made in China and in the U.S. These machines were bought in Xi'an two or three times, or maybe 10 times before the Kuomintang blockade; Simple new machines. All in good condition. The machines are run by an old truck engine and an attached homemade charcoal-burning unit."

The arsenal produced bullets, mortars, bayonets, and explosives, which were continuously shipped to the front lines. By 1943, there were 82 public factories in the border area, more than 200 cooperative factories, with nearly 10,000 employees, and 10,000 employees in 1944, producing coal, shoes, tong stoves, iron, agricultural tools, soap, cigarettes, paper, and clothing , bricks and tiles, food, matches, traditional Chinese medicine, etc., have achieved self-sufficiency and most of the general daily necessities. In May 1944, Mao Zedong reviewed the industrial development of the border area at the factory workers' congress in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Area, and said with deep emotion:

"Its number is small, but its meaning is very large. Whoever does not know this most developed, most productive, and capable of causing all changes will be confused and ignorant. . . . But economic work, especially It is industry, which we don’t quite understand yet, but this branch determines everything, including military affairs, politics, culture, ideology, morality, and religion, and determines social changes. Therefore, all Communists must We should study economic work, and many of them should study industrial technology.... If we Communists don't care about industry, don't care about economics, and don't know about other useful jobs, we will know nothing about these things and be able to do nothing. , will only do a kind of abstract 'revolutionary work', such revolutionaries are worthless, we should oppose such empty revolutionaries, and learn all kinds of technical knowledge to industrialize China."

During the factory workers' congress in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.Mao Zedong, Chen Yun, and Lin Boqu visited the Production Exhibition in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. In the 1940s, Yan'an studied economic work and carried out industrial construction. The results ensured the basic needs of the military and civilian life and work, and learned modern production and management knowledge. A large number of cadres in production management and economic construction were recruited.This prepared the communists for driving the Japanese out of the cities to do economic work in the future.