In October 1934, the Kuomintang army mobilized a million troops to carry out the fifth military encirclement and suppression of the central Soviet region.
From then on, in order to preserve the flame of revolution, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was forced to abandon the base areas in the central Soviet area and began a strategic shift, and the 25,000-mile Long March began.
So, during the Long March of the Red Army, where did the money come from to maintain the survival of the troops?
You must know that in the central Soviet area of southern Jiangxi, but there is a large amount of tungsten ore, before the Red Army was relying on the Guangdong warlord Chen Jitang, tungsten sand trade to supplement military spending, and after leaving the central Soviet area, there is naturally no tungsten sand bulk military income, so where does the military expenditure come from?
In fact, with the previous tungsten sand trade and other income, the Red Army's family resources before the Long March in the Central Soviet Region included more than 80 million funds, more than 90 million stone of grain, and each Red Army soldier would also carry about 7 days of food and activity funds (for the purchase of materials during the Long March).
Before the departure of the Long March, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De personally wrote to Chen Jitang, hoping that the Guangdong army would stop fighting before the free trade in tungsten sand could be resumed.
In fact, Chen Jitang naturally understood the intentions of the Red Army. Therefore, Chen Jitang ordered the front-line troops to retreat, and informed the Red Army that any military action should be notified in advance to avoid unnecessary armed conflict.
At the same time, Chen Jitang also demanded that the Red Army only borrow Guangdong, and not go deep into the hinterland of Guangdong. Of course, Chen Jitang, as a warlord, did not give way to the Red Army with great mercy, but took a fancy to the tungsten sand in southern Jiangnan, and once the Red Army left, he waved his troops north to occupy southern Jiangnan.
Of course, no matter what Chen Jitang's purpose was, as long as the Cantonese army was willing to give way, it would be beneficial to the Red Army. Therefore, in the early days of the Red Army's Long March, funds and food were relatively sufficient, and the transfer environment was relatively stable.
It was not until the outbreak of the Battle of Xiangjiang that the Red Army really entered a critical moment of life and death.
Of course, even if the materials of the Central Red Army were sufficient in the early stage, if they did not expand other income channels, it would be easy to sit on the empty side.
Therefore, during the Long March, the most direct way to seize weapons, ammunition, and daily necessities from the enemy was to seize them.
As the saying goes: There are no guns, no cannons, the enemy makes us, there is no food, there is no clothing, there is no enemy to send forward!
In the Battle of Sidu Chishui, our army not only got rid of the enemy's pursuit force with superb command skills and maneuverability, but also captured a large amount of food and clothing.
These trophies provided the necessary support for the combat survival of the Red Army units and strengthened the determination of our Red Army officers and men to resist the enemy.
Of course, our army is not satisfied with relying only on combat captures to obtain supplies, but vigorously exerts the capabilities of intelligence warfare and confiscates the property of the enemy everywhere.
Therefore, during a large period of the Long March, the Red Army had an obvious way to increase economic income, that is, to fight local tyrants.
Here is a brief popularization of science, and the identification method of "local tyrants" at that time is as follows:
- In the poultry pen, if there are a lot of livestock, it is a local tyrant.
- Look at the stove, if there is a thick oil stain, it is a local tyrant (at that time, only the local tyrant's family had a high quality of life and was willing to use a lot of oil when they often ate meat)
- Look at the farm tools, if there are many farm tools, the variety is complete is the local tyrant (the poor people use very few farm tools, and the door of many farm tools should be used by subordinates and tenants, and there are many farm tools used)
At that time, after the Red Army troops entered various places, they began to vigorously carry out land campaigns in the countryside and other places, confiscating the land, real estate and other property of the landlord class, liberating the local poor people, and redistributing land and grain.
At the same time, the property of hostile forces such as local bureaucratic capital, comprador bourgeoisie, and reactionary elements was confiscated to carry out the revolutionary cause of the Long March.
Of course, the discipline of the Red Army was quite strict, and the fight against local tyrants was not a random fight, and not every unit could fight against local tyrants, but a special "confiscation committee" was set up to be responsible for raising grain and fighting local tyrants.
The confiscated materials and money are then kept on a full-time basis by the "Confiscation Committee" and then distributed to the units as needed.
On October 20, 1934, the Central Red Army confiscated the property of 15 landlords, raised more than 30,000 yuan, more than 1,200 pieces of clothing and quilts, and raised a lot of food, which greatly alleviated the material dilemma of the troops.
In January 1935, the Central Red Army won the battle in Tongzi, Guizhou, and found 60,000 silver dollars hidden by the Guizhou warlords, as well as a large amount of food and other daily necessities in a nearby cave.
At that time, during the Long March, the Red Second Front Army raised a total of 210,000 silver dollars for the revolution, as well as food to support the troops to march to northern Shaanxi (among them, the most famous is that 16,000 silver dollars and more than 3,000 quintals of grain were found in the mine tyrant's house).
Then, these confiscated enemy property was used to buy daily necessities in various places and maintain military supplies. For example, after the Red Army entered Zunyi City, it emptied the city's towels and rain boots, and even the goods in the warehouses were emptied.
In this way, relying on the funds confiscated by the Red Army to fight local tyrants all the way, as well as the logistical supply of the "transport captain" all the way, this material provided important support for the Red Army in the later stage of the Long March.
In fact, before the Red Army crossed the grassland, it always had a stable economic source, and the large-scale food shortage famine occurred during the crossing of the grassland, and many heroic Red Army officers and soldiers died on the way across the grassland.
In 1936, at the end of the Red Army's Long March, when Mr. Soong Ching Ling learned of the difficult situation of the Red Army, he directly took out the pension left to Sun Yat-sen when he died, and then mortgaged his house in Shanghai, and finally raised 50,000 silver dollars, and hurriedly remitted it to the Central Red Army.
This 50,000 silver dollars greatly alleviated the problems of food and clothing for the Central Red Army troops at that time, and also laid the foundation for the three main forces of the Red Army on the Long March.
In October 1936, the Red 1st, 2nd and 4th Red Front Armies successfully joined forces in the Huining area of Gansu Province, and after more than 2 years, more than 25,000 miles, more than 600 battles, and the Long March with a loss of more than 90,000 people finally came to an end!