"Brothers of the Nationalist Army come and surrender, we have big white-noodle steamed buns, meat buns, and pork stew noodles here" In December 1948, the People's Liberation Army outside Chen Guanzhuang raised a loudspeaker and kept shouting to the besieged Kuomintang legions. Every time there is a meal, the sound of chopsticks in the PLA position, and the smell of food wafting past with the cold wind, makes the Kuomintang soldiers on the opposite side salivate.
At the end of the Huaihai Campaign, the Kuomintang Du Yuming clique was besieged by the People's Liberation Army regiment, the supply was almost cut off, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers relied on a small number of airdrops to survive, and the situation was very tragic. Later, their formed soldiers surrendered to the People's Liberation Army, and the commander of the regiment, Li Mi, even begged the soldiers to "run over, but please leave your weapons behind." On the other hand, the People's Liberation Army, on the other hand, was at this time full of food, food and clothing. Under the supply of the masses of the people, meat buns are eaten every day. The two armies, which once had a huge disparity in economic strength, are now completely reversed!
In the long history of military struggle, our army's material supplies have always been very scarce. On August 1, 1927, our army fired the first shot in Nanchang, and the Nanchang Uprising officially began. Subsequently, it experienced military operations such as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, the Guangzhou Uprising, and the Jute Uprising, which created a world on the land of China, and the name of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was officially established. However, after all, the red army is too weak, the economic strength is seriously insufficient, and the materials and weapons must be planned for use.
This phenomenon continued until 1937. At that time, in order to jointly resist Japan, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party once again cooperated, and after the July 7 Incident, they began to fight against Japan on a large scale. As a result of our Party's struggle, the Red Army north of the Yangtze River was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, and the Red Army south of the Yangtze River was reorganized into the New Fourth Army, officially joining the sequence of regular armies.
However, at this time, the material problems of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were still unresolved. In order to restrict the development of our army, the Kuomintang government has been embarrassed by many aspects in the supply of weapons and grain. The Eighth Route Army received very little supply at the beginning of its establishment, and the New Fourth Army had almost no supply at all. However, under such circumstances, they are still actively establishing base areas and continue to grow and develop.
At the beginning of the eighth route army, there were only more than 45,000 regular troops. By the time of the victory of the War of Resistance, the main force of the Eighth Route Army had reached 960,000; at the beginning of the establishment of the New Fourth Army, it was a regular unit of only more than 10,000 people. However, by the time of the victory of the War of Resistance, the new main force had also grown to more than 310,000 people. Coupled with the militia and self-defense forces in various places, the number is even larger.
So here's the problem. Originally, the Kuomintang government did not support the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in terms of materials, but now the size of the army is growing rapidly, and the demand for materials is even more urgent. An army of millions of people, food alone is not a small number! Coupled with clothing, weapons and equipment, the consumption of materials is simply astronomical. Moreover, the overall strategy of the people's army has always been to "encircle the cities from the countryside," and the base areas where the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army are located are mostly economically underdeveloped areas. Coupled with the years of the War of Resistance, natural disasters were also very serious, such as the continuous drought from 1941 to 1943. So, what do such huge units as the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army rely on to feed themselves?
Develop agriculture, reclaim land to grow grain and vegetables, and carry out large-scale production
The base areas, as the name suggests, are the foundation of the people's army. This foundation, in addition to the training and supply of soldiers, is more important to provide economic support. China is a big agricultural country, and the development of agricultural production is naturally the largest economic form in the base areas. Therefore, when the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army established base areas, they almost immediately began the development and production of local agriculture.
The first is reclamation. The base areas are often sparsely populated, and there are many wastelands. As soon as the people's army moved in, a large number of task forces were dispatched to mobilize the masses and soldiers to work together to reclaim a large amount of cultivated land. In order to cooperate with the reclamation movement, the soldiers also built various water conservancy facilities, dug canals to divert water, fertilized and nourished the soil, and made the cultivation of the land more convenient. When everything was ready, the soldiers engaged in agricultural production with the local people. When the grain is eaten, the masses of the people leave enough rations and seeds, while the rest is left to the troops for military food. In this way, not only has the food of the troops been freed, but the living conditions of the people have also been greatly improved.
The model of the reclamation troops was naturally the 359 Brigade led by Wang Zhen. From 1940, they entered the desolate Nanniwan, actively developed production, and rebuilt local agriculture, making Nanniwan a "good Jiangnan in northern Shaanxi", and could hand over millions of catties of public grain every year!
According to incomplete statistics, the base areas of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region alone have reclaimed more than 1.2 million mu of wasteland in the 8 years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression! The repair of tidal flats and terraces and the transformation of saline-alkali land have increased the cultivated land by more than 2 million mu. In the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the total area of arable land in 1937 was only 8.43 million mu, and by 1945, it had also grown to 15.21 million mu, an increase of nearly double! These new fields are all the result of the joint labor of soldiers and the masses, providing strong support for the front-line combat troops. After liberation, all this land was given to the people.
Friends who are interested in learning about the Eighth Route Army can purchase the book "History of the Eighth Route Army" through the link issued. This book is informative and a good book.
The development of animal husbandry, from the effort to eat well, the supply of meat, eggs and milk has increased
With grains and vegetables alone, nutrition is unbalanced. The protein that people need every day can only be provided through meat and soy products. Meat, on the other hand, is even more satisfying. In rural China, most families raise poultry and livestock, a phenomenon known as the "small-scale peasant economy" and the most simple source of meat in Chinese. When a large amount of wasteland in the base area is reclaimed, the field and feed for raising poultry and livestock are increased accordingly.
The soldiers of our army have also engaged in breeding together with the people in the base areas. At that time, the method adopted was to send most of the young livestock to the people for captivity after collective introduction, and to assign professional animal husbandry experts to guide them. When the breeding has borne fruit, it is shared by the army and the people. In this way, productivity is raised and both the people and the army benefit.
Let's take the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region as an example. Before 1937, the cattle and donkeys in the entire border area combined were more than 100,000 heads; sheep, that is, more than 500,000 sheep. In just two years, the total number of cattle and donkeys has increased to 160,000, and the number of sheep has increased to 1.2 million, more than doubling the overall number! The Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region later developed to an average of one pig per 5 people, and each person raised a chicken. This was unimaginable before the War of Resistance.
Develop industry, industry and commerce, and upgrade the economic structure
Basically solve the problem of eating, the next natural is to develop industry. At that time, there were some developments in the base areas, from the heavy industry of ironmaking and weapons to the light industry of textiles and daily necessities. This not only effectively supported the battlefield consumption of the troops, but also improved the quality of life of the people in the base areas.
By the time of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, a number of iron smelting plants had been built in the base area. There are even some production machines, arsenals, and high-resistance glass factories. Many of these products, even the Kuomintang government that received global aid, were difficult to produce. In the 8-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the total output of iron smelting in each base area reached more than 1.1 million kilograms, which greatly supplemented the ammunition consumption of the front-line troops.
At the same time, the progress of light industry can also be described as rapid. Under the personal leadership of Premier Zhou, various base areas carried out the campaign of spinning and weaving. In the Jinsui base area alone, the total annual production of cloth can reach more than 300,000 horses, and the clothing problem of the local military and civilians has basically been solved. In the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, in 1945, the total amount of cloth produced reached 9.076 million horses!
The production of industry has also led to the development of industry and commerce. At that time, many base areas built their own cigarette factories and other daily necessities factories, and actively traded with merchants in the Kuomintang area. Since there was no exploitation, the transaction between merchants and base areas was far smoother than in the national unification area, so more people came here to do business. At a time when the economy of the Kuomintang areas is becoming more and more difficult, the economy of the base areas is in full swing. Even the most stable currency in China at that time was the "border area ticket" issued uniformly by the base areas! More efficient economic activities have also brought a lot of wealth to the people's army. And this wealth feeds back into the economy of the base areas, so that a virtuous circle is gradually established.
epilogue
In this way, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army relied on the mutual promotion of commerce, industry, and agriculture to greatly improve the productive forces in the base areas, which not only ensured the normal operation of the troops, but also improved the living standards of the local people. And because of the economic stability, it has also brought many employment opportunities and trained many technical talents. These are valuable assets for sustainable development. In the future armed struggle, the economy and talent of the base areas provided an effective guarantee for the final victory of the PLA.