As an armed force under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Red Army was seriously deficient in personnel and equipment at the beginning.
Although the Red Army developed on the basis of the contingents of uprisings in various places, in the process of counter-encirclement and suppression, the original troops suffered heavy losses. In order to expand their strength, some rebel forces developed mobilization in the occupied base areas.
Lacking the necessary living materials and money, the people's financial support has played a great help. The Red Army has always been strictly disciplined, and naturally it is impossible to directly collect materials funded by the people. Thus came the situation in which the Red Army made IOUs to the people who were sponsoring them.
The Red Army believed what it said, borrowed from the people, and then returned everything. However, sometimes there was a situation in which there was no time to repay, the troops were urgently transferred, and the money or materials borrowed by the Red Army did not have the opportunity to be repaid.
Over time, I forgot about making IOUs. The masses of the people who helped the Red Army did not demand that the Red Army repay it, but there were always exceptions.
After many years, a descendant of the people who had lent money to the Red Army took the IOU and asked the government to repay the money. In the end, the government kept its promise and returned the money that the Red Army had borrowed.
In 2015, an old man found the Xiaogan Municipal Government in Hubei Province, and after the staff inquired, the old man took out a cloth bag. Opening a yellowed piece of paper inside, the old man showed the paper to the staff and asked, "Do you still recognize this?" ”。
The staff was stunned, this piece of paper was an IOU, which said that the Red First Army borrowed 400 yuan from the elderly Yang Changgen. The time of the record is 85 years ago, and the authenticity of the IOU is still to be verified after so many years.
The staff had to ask the superior for instructions, and when the leader came, he asked about the IOU.
The old man said that Yang Changgen on the IOU was his grandfather, when a force came to the vicinity of his grandfather's village, which had strict discipline and helped the villagers work. Over time, the villagers became acquainted with the soldiers.
Subsequently, the troops were expanded, and the number of troops was increased and supplies required funds. The commanders of this unit had no choice but to borrow money from the common people.
Yang Changgen was very generous about this, and lent his savings of four hundred oceans to this Red Army unit for many years, and the other side gave him an IOU. After that, before the Red Army could return the money, it was ordered to move away.
After that, the matter of the IOU has been shelved, and Yang Changgen has no intention of returning the 400 oceans lent back to the Red Army, keeping this IOU just for a souvenir.
After many years, Yang Laohan was also old, and because he needed money because of his poor life, he took this IOU to see if he could still count. For this repayment, the leaders of Xiaogan City said that they need to verify the authenticity first, and if it is true, they will definitely repay the money.
To check the events of 85 years ago, it is really difficult. The Xiaogan municipal government sent someone to look up information to verify whether the Red Army had borrowed money during that time period.
According to the borrower information on the IOU, it can be seen from the records of the "History of the Party" that the Red First Army to which this unit belonged was established in 1927 and later merged into the Red Fourth Front.
The time of existence coincides with the time of borrowing, and the scope of the borrower's activities at that time is another reference evidence to verify the authenticity of this IOU. According to records, the Red First Army was active in the Eyu-Anhui base area, including Hubei.
The recorded Base Area of the Red First Army in Eyu-Anhui has indeed been greatly expanded. There are multiple pieces of evidence to verify that this IOU has enough credibility, and the Xiaogan Municipal Government repaid Yang Laohan with 40,000 yuan according to the equivalent of one ocean to one hundred yuan.
This amount of money may seem insignificant today, but it was a considerable amount at the time. Yang Changgen's willingness to lend all his savings to the Red Army when it was difficult also reflected in the relationship between the Red Army and the people, and it was precisely because of the support of the people that the Red Army was able to retain the fire, and later defeated the Kuomintang and established a new China. The common people trust the Red Army and the Communist Party of China. The repayment of the original debt by the Xiaogan government is a manifestation of the trust of the people.