Speaking of taking off horse brand cigarettes, I believe many people have not heard of this name. This cigarette was produced during the Anti-Japanese Liberation War, due to its low price and smooth taste, it is not choking the throat, and the tobacco is tightly wrapped, and once it was born, it was immediately praised by everyone.
The advent of Pegasus brand cigarettes not only solved the problem of smoking by soldiers of our army, but also the local people rushed to buy them, and even the Japanese puppet army exchanged information for cigarettes in order to get cigarettes, which shows the charm of Pegasus brand cigarettes.
In 1941, China entered the most difficult moment of the War of Resistance. With the blockade of the Japanese army outside the base areas and the resistance of Chiang Kai-shek's government inside the base areas, our party has reached the most difficult moment.
In the face of the increasingly powerful New Fourth Army, Chiang Kai-shek saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. In order to suppress the New Fourth Army, the "Anhui Southern Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries was created, in which thousands of soldiers were killed.
Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek's government not only did not reflect, but also took a bite and revoked the name of the New Fourth Army on trumped-up charges, and at the same time occupied the base areas of our army and cut off the supply of money, food, and ammunition to the New Fourth Army.
The New Fourth Army, which has lost its assistance, has reached the cusp of the storm. How to ensure the normal supply of money, food, and ammunition to the New Fourth Army and maintain the daily expenditure of the army has become a top priority that needs to be solved urgently.
In order to solve the problem once and for all, Chen Yi, Zhang Yunyi, Luo Binghui and others held a meeting on this matter and launched a fierce discussion during the meeting. Some people advocate more reclamation of fields, some advocate setting up more ambushes for the enemy to capture materials, and discussing and talking about them, these methods cannot directly solve the difficulties faced by the New Fourth Army.
From an agricultural perspective, a massive increase in land reclamation is not a short-term benefit, and troops are mobile and do not stay in the same area for long.
If we rely on more ambushes to obtain supplies, it is bound to increase the vigilance of the enemy. Originally, the enemy's weapons and equipment were superior to those of the New Fourth Army, and the ambush would cause a large number of casualties, and in the long run, it would be retaliated by the Japanese army.
After heated discussions, the previously mentioned initiatives were rejected. Had to rethink new initiatives, open source to increase revenue.
Once, when Zhang Yunyi was inspecting the troops, he saw some soldiers picking up cigarette butts on the ground and smoking. This scene stabbed Zhang Yunyi's heart fiercely, and at this moment he suddenly wondered, why can't the New Fourth Army open its own cigarette factory? This will not only meet the smoking needs of soldiers, but also increase taxes, which is a good way to do more in one fell swoop.
At that time, whether it was inside or outside the base area, cigarettes were a popular commodity and had many loyal fans. To a certain extent, cigarettes have the function of money, when paper money is printed and money is depreciated, cigarettes are the ideal money substitute in the hearts of the people, belonging to hard currency.
So Zhang Yunyi held a meeting to explain his ideas to everyone. During the meeting, it was unanimously approved by everyone.
Well, the idea is there, how to operate it is still a difficult problem. The machines, sites, skilled workers needed to start a cigarette factory also needed a lot of money, which was a big expense overall. In peacetime, the New Fourth Army's company's most basic expenses are very difficult, and it is more important to fund the construction of tobacco factories.
Hu Biliang is a famous financier of the New Fourth Army, an expert in financial management, in order to create a cigarette factory, he exhausted all kinds of contacts to ask around, and finally there was news.
It just so happened that there was a businessman in the local Tongcheng Town of Tianchang County who was preparing to set up a cigarette factory, and Hu Biliang immediately reported after receiving the news. After everyone understood this, they were worried about this matter, believing that once a private enterprise changed, the losses suffered were small, which might ruin the reputation of the New Fourth Army.
In fact, as early as before the meeting, the news of the establishment of the tobacco factory had spread within the New Fourth Army, and everyone was very much looking forward to it, in order not to disappoint everyone, the leaders decided to participate in the preparation of the tobacco factory.
Everyone mainly participated in the preparation of the tobacco factory under the shareholding system, and in the preparatory work, they received strong support from the New Fourth Army, and many soldiers and leaders of the New Fourth Army donated money. After all the problems were resolved, the leaders of the New Fourth Army immediately reported to the Party Central Committee, and the Party Central Committee affirmed the new Fourth Army's approach, which greatly increased the confidence of all the officers and men of the whole army.
After some preparations, the preparation work before production begins. In order to give the cigarette factory a resounding name, the leaders once again held a meeting, and after some discussion, finally named the company "Xinqun Tobacco Company".
In March 1943, cigarettes were officially produced, in order to ensure the quality of cigarettes, the tobacco factory asked a large number of tobacco masters, and at the same time a group of soldiers were drawn as workers, who were personally taught by the masters.
After the cigarette was produced, Chen Yi officially named the cigarette brand and positioned the "Pegasus" brand, and since then Pegasus brand cigarettes have entered people's vision.
In order to ensure the quality of cigarettes, cigarettes have extremely strict requirements from leaf selection, shredding to packaging. The tobacco leaves selected by Pegasus cigarettes are the best quality of all tobacco leaves, and after layers of screening, the tobacco leaves that do not meet the quality requirements are selected. In the process of rolling tobacco, the tobacco is required to be compact.
Soon the first batch of cigarettes came out, soon distributed to the troops, after some evaluation, the leaders believe that the cigarette taste smooth, strong, not choking throat, won the unanimous praise of many people, after Chen Yi instructed the relevant personnel to immediately put the cigarette into the private market.
As soon as pegasus brand cigarettes came out, they were immediately robbed by the broad masses of people, businessmen, and soldiers, and not only did the common people like to smoke them, but the Japanese puppet army in the enemy-occupied areas favored it even more. For a time, pegasus brand cigarettes became famous, attracting dealers from all over the country to buy them.
In addition to a part of the cigarette supply to the troops every month, there are hundreds of thousands of oceans of income.
A year later, the financial situation of the New Fourth Army was effectively alleviated. At that time, there was a serious drought in North China, and the New Fourth Army did not hesitate to allocate 16 million yuan to support the disaster areas.
In addition, Pegasus cigarettes have also become a stepping stone for the New Fourth Army to obtain intelligence.
Once, when Ju Changyu, a reconnaissance officer of the Second Division of the New Fourth Army, went to Jiashan to investigate, he became acquainted with the local pseudo-army commander. When Ju Changyu learned that the captain was a true smoker, he decided to use cigarettes to get information.
At the beginning, Ju Changyu said to the puppet army commander that I had a drama class that needed to get a set of military uniforms, and proposed to exchange cigarettes for cigarettes, and the puppet army commander immediately agreed without thinking. Later, Ju Changyu offered to exchange a box of cigarettes for two pistols, and the puppet army commander was overjoyed and immediately gave two pistols.
In this way, Ju Changyu constantly used cigarettes to get information from the mouth of the puppet army commander. Once the commander of the puppet army told Ju Changyu that there was a group of Japanese puppet troops who wanted to go to Xuyi Longshan to grab grain, and after hearing the news, Ju Changyu immediately reported the intelligence to his superiors, and after receiving the information, the New Fourth Army set up an ambush and fought a beautiful ambush battle.
Later, after the founding of New China, the tobacco factory became a state-owned enterprise, and the company name was changed to Lihua Tobacco Company. For a long time after the founding of new China, Pegasus cigarettes were widely sold in various parts of China, especially for people in the 500s and 60s. Pegasus cigarettes were produced until the 90s of the last century, and I believe many elderly people have a deep impression of this brand.
Although Pegasus cigarettes have long since withdrawn from the market with the passage of time, as a memory of generations, its taste remains in the tide of history.