History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
During the Long March of the Red Army, the lack of food was the greatest difficulty, and many officers and men starved to death and sacrificed because they did not have food. In fact, not only did the Red Army lack food, but even the Kuomintang army that pursued them also encountered the same problem.
Why?
The Songpan area has been short of food since ancient times, and with the addition of snow-capped mountains and dangerous roads, it is very difficult to transport grain. During the Qing Dynasty, Nian Tang Yao Tun Bing Song Pan encountered a shortage of food, and then had to retreat. After this time, after the Red Army, The Hu Zongnan army that was pursuing behind was not much better than that of the Red Army because of its larger number and greater shortage of grain.
What should I do if I am seriously short of food?
The grain needed by the nationalist army can only be transported by hand from Jiangyou, Qingping, Pingwu and other places in Sichuan, which are four or five hundred miles away from Songpan, but after deducting the consumption of the porters themselves along the way for more than ten days, the grain that a porter sends to Songpan at a time is only seventy or eighty kilograms on average, which is simply not enough to maintain the needs of so many officers and soldiers.
The Officers and Men of the Kuomintang were also generally in a state of semi-starvation, and many of them were dying of hunger, let alone fighting wars.
Hu Zongnan could not get any grain, so he had to play a trick to deceive the officers and men and issued an order:
"In times of national calamity, we must strictly practice economy, from the commander down to the soldiers, eat only one meal a day, and put out lunch cannons to eat."
In this way, more people starved to death.
Hungry and panicked, the officers and men began to think of their own ways. Extraordinary times have their own extraordinary means. Among them, Zhang Lingfu, the head of the regiment, was the most creative in his method of engaging in grain.
The Aba area, not far from where they are stationed, is relatively wealthy. Zhang Lingfu then sent the battalion commander Xie Yifeng to buy grain from the local toastmaster. He is Zhang Lingfu's Huangpu ivy classmate, tall and handsome, good at riding and shooting, and different from zhang Lingfu, who is not sociable: he can dance, he can please women, and he is the Prince Charming in the hearts of most girls.
Xie Yifeng came to Aba to buy grain and ate the closed door soup of toast.
In order to complete the task of collecting grain, he had to follow Zhang Lingfu's prior explanation, and actually used a beautiful boy plan to seduce the feelings of the daughter of the local toastmaster and talk about love with her. So Toshi's daughter enthusiastically pointed out to him how to open up the joints and buy food.
With the help of his girlfriend, Xie Yifeng finally successfully completed the heavy task of purchasing grain.
Soon, Aba Tusi personally came to Songpan to meet Hu Zongnan and relieve the grain shortage in southern Hu zong.
It was precisely because of this merit that Zhang Lingfu was soon dismissed for killing his wife, and Xie Yifeng was promoted by Hu Zongnan to the position of regimental commander and took over Zhang Lingfu's position.