On June 16, 1935, Chairman Mao met with Li Xiannian, then political commissar of the 30th Red Army, and explained the relevant matters related to the cooperation between the two Red Armies.
Chairman Mao
This was the first time the two of them had met, but there was not a trace of anger, and Chairman Mao even went straight forward to shake Li Xiannian's hand, and his mouth was full of praise: If it is really a heroic teenager, we will see each other and hate each other late.
In February 1941, Li Xiannian, then commander of the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army and political commissar, commanded a force of 15,000 men, and adopted a jumping and circling combat method, and in the attack on the Japanese puppet army and the Kuomintang stubborn army, he not only repeatedly saw through the enemy's ruse and defeated it, but also in December 1941, he prepared to launch the Battle of Jurong Mountain, annihilating more than 5,000 enemy troops while successfully liberating the Sichuan-Hanyuan region.
Li Xiannian
However, at a meeting of the Politburo in 1969, Li Xiannian used an elaborate cigar to play a "conspiracy" with Chairman Mao, and when he learned the truth, Chairman Mao did not laugh in anger.
What's going on here?
A genuine "old smoker"
"What's wrong with you lately, your brow hasn't been stretched?" This thing gives you, maybe it can make you relax a bit."
Looking at the cigarette handed over by the classmate, although Chairman Mao had never smoked it, because his heart was too bored, Chairman Mao still took it and put it in his mouth like the classmate.
Chairman Mao
The choking smell of the entrance made Chairman Mao a little unacceptable for a while, but after adapting, Chairman Mao was pleasantly surprised to find that his melancholy mood had subsided, and the major events in his mind had gradually become eyebrows.
Chairman Mao was born in 1893 in an ordinary peasant family in Shaoshan, Hunan Province, but Chairman Mao, unlike many ordinary children, accepted the fate inherited by his ancestors, but had his own thinking about society.
Chairman Mao
He was well aware of the importance of knowledge to become a talented person, so Chairman Mao always worked extra hard when studying, and successfully came to Hunan First Normal School in 1914 to study.
The four-year study experience has increased the insight of Chairman Mao's thought and strengthened his determination to change the social system and save the country from danger.
However, Chairman Mao's personal strength is really limited, and in the face of heavy reality, he only feels that he is exceptionally small, and it is at this time that he began to smoke because he was confused and anxious.
Chairman Mao
Although smoking is harmful to physical health, it is true, but in the era of social turmoil and unknown fate, smoking has become an effective way for Chairman Mao to relieve stress, although cigarettes can not solve the problem for Chairman Mao, but also provide him with a moment of peace and emptiness.
Gradually, cigarettes became an indispensable item in Chairman Mao's life, and Chairman Mao also clarified the direction of his future life in the process.
On May 4, 1919, a thorough anti-imperialist and anti-feudal May Fourth Movement broke out in Beijing, and the slogans of "China's land can be conquered but not destroyed" and "China's people can kill but cannot bow their heads" also made patriots from all walks of life from all walks of life voluntarily join this huge movement, which caused a great sensation in society.
The May Fourth Movement
Chairman Mao, who identified with Marxism, founded a communist organization in Hunan shortly after the May Fourth Movement and opened his own revolutionary road to save the world.
The grim situation of the revolution did not allow Chairman Mao to relax in the slightest, and in order to liberate the suffering Chinese compatriots as soon as possible, the heavy burden on Chairman Mao can be imagined.
In order to think about the countermeasures in the battle, Chairman Mao always forgot to sleep and forgot to eat, and poured all his attention on the rapidly changing war situation, but the spirit of the people is limited, in order to refresh the mind, Chairman Mao smoked more frequently, and the sleeping quarters were also often smoked.
Chairman Mao
But the dedicated Chairman Mao did not know all this, and all he cared about was the progress of the revolution and the safety of ordinary Chinese people.
In the revolutionary years, poverty was a common phenomenon in every household, especially for revolutionaries who joined the army.
Therefore, most of the cigarettes smoked by Chairman Mao, who has always been frugal, were cheap local tobacco made in the border areas.
Chairman Mao
Although Chairman Mao often smoked in daily life, when the pressure was greater, the number of cigarettes smoked by Chairman Mao would reach a peak, which was deeply reflected in the three major battles.
The soldiers on the front line fought with the enemy on the battlefield, and Chairman Mao in the command room could not have a moment of peace, but repeatedly paced in front of the battle map, analyzing the enemy's combat strategy with others from time to time, and anxiously waiting for the good news from the front line.
And between his hand slits, there are always cigarettes.
No one can accurately predict the situation of the war, a momentary gap may also directly affect the success or failure of the war, the soldiers who fought in bloody battles did not dare to relax in the slightest for the victory of the battle, and Chairman Mao, who was worried about the safety of the soldiers, could not sleep peacefully, and smoking became a way for him to force himself to be sober.
Fortunately, the winning side of the three major battles was the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Lessons from "Stalin"
In the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin that broke out from September 12, 1948 to January 31, 1949, PLA fighters under the command of Chairman Mao broke through the enemy's road defense line and annihilated more than 1.54 million Kuomintang troops.
Three major battles
On top of this unprecedented grand battle, the main military strength of the defeated Kuomintang army was basically destroyed, which increased the confidence of the PLA fighters in winning the revolutionary victory and also consolidated the foundation for the revolutionary victory.
Chairman Mao was very happy, and so were the mood of the Chinese compatriots.
When he commanded the three major battles, it was the peak period of Chairman Mao's smoking, but it is said that when he wrote "On Protracted War" in the Yan'an cave dwellings, Chairman Mao," who was stuck in thought, smoked fifty or sixty cigarettes a day, with carefully thoughts of words of strategic guiding significance on the table, and cigarette butts scattered under his feet and dusted off the ground.
Chairman Mao's "On Protracted War"
"Chairman, excessive smoking is not good for the body, for the sake of your own body, this cigarette is still not smoked for the time being," the health doctor dissuaded.
Although I knew that the health doctor had made this appeal for his own sake, Chairman Mao only smiled and waved his hand and said: "Wait until the revolution is successful, I really smoke not much smoke in my lungs, most of the time it burns in my hands, I will pay attention to my body, rest assured."
On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded, Chairman Mao was elected chairman of the Central People's Government, became the supreme leader of the country, and the revolution won the expected victory, but Chairman Mao's addiction to smoking had become a habit, and it was impossible to completely give up for a while and a half.
October 1, 1949
Chairman Mao, who has a smoking experience of more than sixty years, in his later years when he talked to others about his experience of loving smoking, he would always say with a smile: Others eat a hundred meals, but I am different from others, I eat both a hundred meals and smoke a hundred cigarettes.
It turned out that in the early days of the development of the revolution, when Chairman Mao inspected the Hunan people's movement in 1927, in order to understand the real people's living conditions, he lived in the homes of local peasants, ate and slept with his fellow Hunan compatriots, and did farm work in a similar way.
Chairman Mao (right)
In the moment when he was resting from work, in the face of the soil leaf smoke handed over by the fellow peasants, Chairman Mao also did not hesitate to take it, and did not have the slightest leadership shelf.
With this mentality and practice, Chairman Mao quickly won the support of the local people and played a great role in promoting the smooth development of the revolution in the peasant movement.
Even after becoming the president of the country, Chairman Mao did not have any official shelf, and all aspects of life were also pursued to simplicity, and even meat dishes rarely appeared on the table. Although his own smoking addiction has not been successfully quit for the time being, Chairman Mao has always called on those around him not to imitate himself, and smoking is indeed harmful to the body.
But Stalin's death sounded a wake-up call in Chairman Mao's mind about good health.
Stalin
Stalin, who had assisted Lenin in leading the October Revolution, had been the supreme leader of the Soviet Union for 29 years and had an irreplaceable and far-reaching influence on the development of the Soviet Union, but on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74, Stalin died in Moscow due to cerebral hemorrhage.
Life, old age, illness and death are normal human feelings and uncontrollable things, but when the Soviet delegation visited China in 1957, Marshal Voroshilov told Chairman Mao a "secret" about Stalin's death.
"Deliberate" inadvertently
"Medical experts repeatedly advised Comrade Stalin to quit smoking, but he chose to turn a deaf ear, and this may have been a major factor in hastening his death."
Stalin
Listening to Marshal Voroshilov's words, Chairman Mao's heart was also shocked, but on the surface it was still calm and calm, and he only secretly made a decision to quit smoking in his heart.
To this end, Chairman Mao began to break the cigarette in half, reduce the number of times he smoked, and after gradually adapting, he began to try to sniff the cigarette with his nose when he was eager to smoke, but he would not light it and send it into his mouth.
In this process, although Chairman Mao did not cut off his addiction to smoking, the number of cigarettes smoked was much less than before.
Chairman Mao
Li Xiannian was very happy to know from the mouths of others that Chairman Mao had begun to quit smoking, but he also knew that quitting smoking was not an overnight thing, and the tobacco ingested in the process would still cause irreversible damage to Chairman Mao's body.
Although the ammonia content of cigars is indeed far more than that of ordinary cigarettes, it has an advantage that ordinary cigarettes cannot match: cigars do not enter the lungs, so the damage to human lungs is minimal.
Images are from the web
What's more, the tobacco leaves used by Li Xiannian to make cigars have also been repeatedly selected, and Chinese herbs for coughing and phlegm have been added to the cigarettes, which has achieved the goal of minimizing physical damage while also meeting Chairman Mao's needs for smoking.
But how do you get this elaborate cigar out?
Chairman Mao has always been frugal, and even less will he hastily accept gifts from others, and if Li Xiannian directly sends them to him, then Chairman Mao will certainly refuse.
Chairman Mao (left) and Li Xiannian (right)
Although Li Xiannian's painstaking behavior did not have any intention, he only hoped that Chairman Mao could take good care of his body while worrying about the affairs of the world, but he still decided to let Chairman Mao discover this cigar at an appropriate time and turn the initiative into passivity.
At a politburo meeting in 1969, Li Xiannian noticed chairman Mao's brow furrowing and he began rummaging through his pockets.
Chairman Mao
Li Xiannian felt that the opportunity had come, so he took out the prepared cigar and smoked it, and chairman Mao here was about to light the cigarette he found in his pocket, but he was attracted by a strange smell.
"The tobacco smoked by Comrade Xiannian has a very unique taste and an unusual shape, what is a good thing?"
Hearing Chairman Mao's joking words among his friends, Li Xiannian took one out of the box and handed it to the chairman, and he also gave one to all the smokers present.
Li Xiannian
The novelty of the taste made Chairman Mao very fond of it, but even so, in order not to deprive others of their love, Chairman Mao did not ask for it again, but asked Wu Liandeng after the meeting to ask Li Xiannian about the cigar's sales address.
Wu Liandeng
Only then did Li Xiannian tell Chairman Mao the truth, and repeatedly said that he did not ask for anything else, but hoped to do his part for the chairman's physical health.
"For the sake of the country's grand plan, for the sake of China's better development, and for the sake of the broad masses of the people, the chairman must take good care of his body."
Hearing Li Xiannian's remarks, Chairman Mao, who was quite touched, did not push back any longer and accepted the kindness of his friends.
Li Xiannian
Because the chairman has begun to quit smoking, even though he knows that the harm of cigars to the body has been greatly reduced, Chairman Mao still strictly controls the number and frequency of smoking.
Chairman Mao's spirit of restraint is evident, but in the Chongqing negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communists in 1945, Chairman Mao's actions were already ashamed of Chiang Kai-shek.
Chairman Mao (right), Chiang Kai-shek (left)
Because Chiang Kai-shek did not smoke and always disliked the smell of tobacco, and in line with the principle of respecting the opponents of the negotiations, during the conversation with Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman Mao did not smoke a single cigarette, and showed the great national righteousness and his spirit of restraint to the fullest.
On the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek's self-esteemed posture during the negotiations showed his narrow-mindedness and short-sightedness.
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek's mind about not viewing this negotiation with a normal heart is clear, but on issues involving domestic peace, Chairman Mao did not give in at all and made his greatest efforts for the safety of the people's livelihood.
The American writer Trier said: "The political leaders of any country may not be as good as the number of cigarettes smoked by Chairman Mao", but it is rare for the president of a country to put the interests of the masses of the people as the primary consideration of all actions as Chairman Mao did.
Chairman Mao loved to smoke, but on special occasions, he was able to exercise absolute restraint, show absolute professionalism, and never delay the progress of the incident for his own reasons.
Chairman Mao
Chairman Mao used his life to contribute to China's development, the Sri Lankan people have passed away, but the spirit is eternal, my generation is forever remembered, and should follow the actions of the ancestors and contribute their own strength to building a better China.