Chapter 35 "I'm afraid there are fewer people who are more tolerant than the Fourth Army."

The struggle to create and maintain the Jinggangshan base is more than just a military struggle! Mao Zedong said in the "Report of the Jinggangshan Front Committee to the Central Committee": "Although the winter clothes of 5,000 people in the army have obtained cotton, there is still a shortage of cloth. I don't know when it will be solved. It is so cold that many soldiers still wear Two layers of single clothes. Fortunately, I am used to hardship. And everyone is equally miserable. From the army commander to the cook, they all eat five cents for food in addition to food. For pocket money, two cents are equal to two cents, and four cents are equal to four cents. Everyone understands that it is 'suffering for the proletariat', so they don't resent anyone. Even so, the economic problem is always very serious."

"Fortunately, I'm used to suffering," a few simple words, full of countless hardships in the Jinggangshan struggle; Class suffers", the loud and clear slogan is the best explanation for the reason why the Red Army soldiers can overcome unimaginable difficulties. This is the struggle of Jinggangshan, and this is also the spirit of Jinggangshan. Speaking of suffering, the struggle in Jinggangshan is indeed very difficult. Jinggangshan has a radius of 550 miles, "the population is less than 2,000, and the grain production is less than 10,000 dan." It is basically a self-sufficient natural economy. Although it is an indispensable and important condition for the implementation of armed separatism, it also makes thousands of regular Red Army Supplies were very difficult.

In addition to the strict blockade of the base areas by the enemy in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, agricultural and sideline products such as timber, tea, and tea oil produced in Ningkang, western Yongxin, and northern Suichuan cannot be exported; and it is difficult to import daily necessities for the military and civilians in the base areas.In particular, salt, cloth, and medicines were in short supply. There was even a situation in Yongxin and Ninggang counties where there was no salt to eat, and cloth and medicinal materials were completely cut off. Of course, there are also a small amount of daily necessities smuggled into the base area, but most of these are trafficked by hawkers who risk being beheaded, and the price is therefore extremely expensive.

In the case of lack of supplies and high expenses, one can imagine how difficult the life of the Red Army is. Yang Kaiming, who succeeded Mao Zedong as Secretary of the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Special Committee, described it in his report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: "Life and economy in the Red Army are very difficult. With thousands of people, at least one Fifteen thousand yuan is used for food expenses, and the rice is still organized locally, and the source of income depends entirely on hunting local tyrants... The salary in the Red Army has long been abolished, only food is eaten, and pocket money of one or two yuan is given out when you have money In recent months, no pocket money, no straw sandals, and reduced food expenses. In the past two months, each person has only been given 3 cents per day for food, 4 cents of oil, 4 cents of salt, and rice 1 catty and 4 taels. Three cents a day for side dishes, and I can only buy pumpkins."

Zeng Zhi, a female soldier of the Red Army, said in her article "Reminiscences of the Hard Life in Jinggang Mountains": "The 100 or so people in our rear guards eat soup with dried chili mixed with salt almost every day. When they are good, they can eat pumpkin. Eating pumpkins is like eating meat. So there was a ballad among the Red Army soldiers at that time: "Red rice, pumpkin soup, taste delicious!" This is the Red Army soldiers' praise of delicious pumpkins from the heart. It is more difficult to wear and cover than to eat. In August, Jinggangshan is often drizzled and foggy, and the air is humid and cold....We use the stripped fir bark and spread it on the ground as a bed. Few. I had a quilt at the time, which was pretty good. Some comrades didn’t even have a quilt, so they covered themselves with grass. In order to resist the cold, we took turns to collect firewood on the mountain during the day, and burned a firewood in the middle of the room at night. Build a fire, and everyone sleeps around the fire. We wear all kinds of clothes, and we have everything.”

The sick and wounded suffered even more.Every time the Red Army fought a battle, there would be a group of wounded soldiers. In frequent battles, there were a lot of wounded soldiers. In addition, due to lack of nutrition, exposure to cold and other reasons, there were also many sick people among the officers and soldiers.At the most, there were more than 800 wounded and sick.According to regulations, the food standard for the wounded and sick can be twice as high as that of ordinary soldiers, but due to the difficulty in providing supplies, it is often not fulfilled.In hospitals, there is almost no necessary medical conditions, and doctors, medicines, and medical equipment are extremely scarce.Without anesthesia, the wounded have to endure great pain during the operation.Many wounded and sick who could have been cured became disabled or even died on the sickbed because of lack of medicine.

Faced with such harsh conditions and hard life, the officers and soldiers of the Red Army showed extraordinary endurance and amazing spirit of enduring hardships. Mao Zedong said in the "Report of the Jinggangshan Front Committee to the Central Committee": "The Hunan Provincial Committee wants us to pay attention to the material life of the soldiers, which is at least better than that of ordinary workers and peasants. Now the life in the army is the opposite. I am afraid that someone's life The Red Army is rarely so bad. Due to the lack of foreign resources, it is often difficult to sustain the five cents of food money per person per day (the rice is supplied by the local government). "Down with the capitalists and eat pumpkins every day", a soldier's proverb means After seeing their sufferings, they endured hardships, and I am afraid that there are fewer people who can endure hardships more than the Fourth Army."

"I am afraid that there are fewer people who are more tolerant than the Fourth Army." This is really the highest evaluation of the spirit of the Fourth Red Army. Even in the face of such a difficult life, the Red Army soldiers have no complaints. They "are very optimistic about this difficult life, and the mood of the troops is particularly high." Almost every Red Army soldier had lice on his head, so there was a popular saying in the army: There is no revolution without "bull heads"; sometimes when camping on the mountain, without a house, they build a hut by themselves. It is a "glass tile house"; it is built with grass and sleeps with grass, and the soldiers call it "golden quilt"; they wear patched and mended rags, which the soldiers call "golden thread clothes". ;Some people make the hard life into a happy song: red rice, pumpkin soup, autumn eggplant, delicious and fragrant, and the meal is well-fed.

The dry straw is soft and yellow, and the gold silk quilt covers the body, warm and falling asleep. Some people also reversed the soldier's proverb "Down with the capitalists and eat pumpkins every day" into a battle cry of "Eat pumpkins every day and beat the capitalists".The meaning is very clear: even if there is no food to eat, wild vegetables can be eaten to satisfy hunger, and the Kuomintang will still be eliminated. The Red Army soldiers can have this kind of spirit of not being afraid of hardships and optimism, thanks to the patient and meticulous ideological and political education work of Mao Zedong, Zhu De and other military leaders, so that they understand that this is suffering for themselves and is "for the sake of the proletariat". bitter".Zeng Zhi said in his reminiscence article: "Although life is very difficult, I seldom hear people complaining about suffering. This is because of the revolutionary belief and revolutionary enthusiasm that inspire everyone."

In addition, there is another more important reason, which is the democracy practiced in the Red Army.Mao Zedong once said with emotion: "The material life of the Red Army is so meager, and the fighting is so frequent, it can still be maintained. In addition to the role of the party, it depends on the implementation of democracy in the army." Equal status in politics, sharing weal and woe in life, democracy in the Red Army has real content. Up to now, on the stone pillar of Longjiang Academy in Ninggang City, there is still a couplet reflecting the equality of life of officers and soldiers of the Red Army: officers and soldiers of the Red Army have the same salary and food as their husbands, while generals and lieutenants of warlords live and eat differently.

Indeed, Zhu De, the commander of the Fourth Red Army, was no different from a "cooker", with ordinary clothes and ragged shoes.Chen Yi mentioned this in "Report on the History and Situation of the Zhu Mao Army": "The officers and soldiers of the Red Army have the same material enjoyment, so there is no difference between the officers and soldiers. The masses and enemy soldiers first saw the famous Fourth Army. The straw sandals and sandals look so ragged, everyone is surprised, if you don’t introduce him, at most you can only guess that he is a cook, and at the same time, the three characters of cook have become the nickname of the commander of the Fourth Army.” Yang Zhicheng also fondly recalled the scene when Mao Zedong led the Red Army soldiers to fight hard in Jinggangshan: "During our years in Jinggangshan, from the representatives of the Maoist Party, the life of officers and soldiers was the same. Every day we ate pumpkin and red rice, and sometimes You can’t even eat red rice, you can only eat pumpkin; each person only has 5 cents a day for oil, salt and vegetables, and sometimes you can’t even eat oil and salt. But comrades have confidence in the hard struggle in Jinggangshan, and we are all in a happy mood .” In Xiaojing Red Army Hospital, there was a story of "Mr. Zhang offering salt". Salt is in great need in the Jinggangshan base area.It goes without saying that it is edible, but for hospitals that lack disinfectants, salt water is the most effective. Salt is extremely precious in the Jinggangshan base area.Not only is it expensive, one silver dollar can buy 50 catties of rice, but only 7 catties of salt, and at the most difficult time, only 4 taels of salt; and it is also very difficult to get. Zhang Ziqing, commander of the 11th Division of the Fourth Red Army (later changed to head of the 31st Red Regiment), was admitted to the Red Army Hospital due to injuries. There was a shortage of medicines in the hospital, and the alcohol for washing the wounds ran out, so they had to use salt water instead.Before long, there wasn't even enough salt water. Zhang Ziqing knew these things, and he began to refuse the doctor to wash his wound with salt water, but insisted on washing with less effective honeysuckle water. One day, comrades from the army came to visit him and specially gave him a bag of salt he had saved to wash his wounds.Seeing that he couldn't refuse, he kept the salt. A few days later, the hospital ran out of salt.Many of the wounded deteriorated because they did not wash their wounds with salt water; some seriously wounded fainted from time to time.Doctors and nurses were in a hurry. When Zhang Ziqing heard about it, he called the head nurse. "I'll give you something, but you must do it according to my opinion!" Zhang Ziqing said solemnly. The nurse platoon leader thought he had something to do, so he promised: "Mr. Zhang, tell me, as long as it can be done, we will definitely do it according to your opinion." Zhang Ziqing calmly took out a small oilcloth bag from under his pillow. When the nurse platoon leader took the packet and opened it layer by layer, he couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise: "Ah! It's salt." Zhang Ziqing explained: "There is not much salt, you must wash the wounds of the seriously wounded, and if possible, wash the wounds of all the wounded." Looking at this small bag of crystal clear and snow-white salt, and thinking of Mr. Zhang who often couldn’t sleep at night because of the pain, but insisted on washing the wound with honeysuckle water, the head nurse was so excited that his eyes filled with tears... The power of role models is infinite of! It is precisely because Mao Zedong, Zhu De and other commanders of the Red Army at all levels practiced themselves, starting from me, that the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Red Army were particularly "endurable to hardship"; The army will not collapse in the face of hardships and hardships, and can always maintain a high revolutionary fighting spirit. This is a huge spiritual force that maintains the consolidation and development of the Jinggangshan base.