Source: JUN Zhengping Studio, PEOPLE's Liberation Army News and Communication Center
Author: Liu Shuoyi
"Don't be bitter, think about the Long March of twenty-five thousand."
This well-known lyric in "Soldier's Little Song" carries the simple emotional identification with the Red Army's Long March, and has become a common memory and spiritual signpost that inspires generations of Chinese to overcome difficulties and struggle hard. In the midst of extreme difficulties, the officers and men of the Red Army overcame hardships, fought bravely, braved sacrifices, faced difficulties, broke through the enemy's blockade, and wrote a heroic epic that dared to struggle, was good at fighting, was strong in mountains and rivers, and swung back to the intestines.
85 years have passed, the red ribbon of the Long March has lasted for a long time, and the great fighting spirit of the Red Army has shone brightly in the long river of years.
What is the spirit of struggle?
It was in the face of the grim situation of the Kuomintang's hundreds of thousands of heavy troops being encircled, pursued, and intercepted, and the disparity between the forces of the enemy and ourselves, that our party and our army had the courage to correct their left-leaning mistakes, dared to struggle against erroneous ideas, established Comrade Mao Zedong's leading position in the Party Central Committee and the Red Army, and turned our party and revolutionary cause into safety.
It was during the "Four Crossings of Red Water" campaign that the Red Army promptly adjusted the direction of operations in light of changes in the enemy's situation, skillfully used mobile and flexible combat methods such as showing shapes to lure the enemy and attacking the west with sound, created a "model of mobile warfare" in which less victories were won and more, and seized the initiative in strategic transfer.
It was on the banks of the Dadu River in the "natural danger" that the Red Army officers and men marched 240 miles a day and a night, and 22 brave soldiers flew to seize the Luding Bridge, paving the way north of the river with their flesh and blood, and smashing Chiang Kai-shek's dream of "making Zhu Mao the second in Shi Dakai."
It was the officers and men of the Red Army who, faced with one forbidden area after another of life and dangers, used the revolutionary pride of fighting against the heavens and the earth to turn the "dead end" in the eyes of the Kuomintang into a way for the revolution to march toward victory.
It was by relying on the conviction of the struggle that "the wind and rain soaked the bones harder, and the wild vegetables became more and more hungry", the thinly dressed Red Army soldiers ate bark, boiled belts, tried hundreds of grasses, completed the march across the grass for hundreds of miles, and let the revolution emerge into the sun in the cold "death trap".
It was more than 700 days and nights that the officers and men of the Red Army overcame all odds and dangers, made great sacrifices, and conquered the limits of human existence with extraordinary wisdom and fearless heroism.
In the fierce Battle of Xiangjiang, Chen Shuxiang, commander of the Red Thirty-fourth Division, led the whole division to fight a fierce battle with an enemy who was more than a dozen times his own, and after being wounded in the abdomen during the breakthrough battle, he preferred to die rather than be a prisoner, and cut off the intestines that flowed out and sacrificed heroically.
It was in the fierce battle that the officers and men of the Red Fourth Front engaged in a bloody and bitter battle with the enemy, and when the bullets ran out, they repeatedly fought with the enemy with white blades. Some warriors broke their arms and used their teeth to pull grenades and die with the enemy.
When the Battle of Tucheng was lost, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De personally took command of the front. When the shell exploded around him, causing him to fall to the ground, he shook the dirt on his body and rushed to the enemy position with a machine gun with ordinary soldiers...
Long March, every step is thrilling. According to statistics, during the entire Long March, the Red Army climbed more than 40 high mountains and dangerous peaks, of which more than 20 snow mountains above 4,000 meters above sea level crossed nearly 100 rivers. He participated in more than 600 important battles, almost every day there was an encounter, and more than 100,000 Red Army soldiers were sacrificed or scattered in the Long March.
Behind these figures, the Red Army is engraved with the brand of daring to struggle and being good at struggle. It is precisely because they dare to struggle and are good at struggle that the officers and men of the Red Army can overwhelm all enemies without being overwhelmed by any enemy, conquer all difficulties without being conquered by any difficulties, accomplish the feats in the history of world wars and even in the history of human civilization, and create a miracle on earth that swallows mountains and rivers.
The spirit is eternal in the inheritance of the geng, and history advances in the continuous struggle. It can be said that every step we take to the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is accompanied by the great practice of daring to struggle and being good at struggle, and it is condensed with the spirit of struggle and the wisdom of struggle of the Chinese people. Without struggle, there would be no victory, and there would be nothing today.
Because we dared to struggle and were good at struggle, from the 25,000-mile Long March of "Thousands of Rivers and Mountains Just Waiting for Idleness" to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in which "the Blood of The Willing Will Enrich China," from the War of Liberation, which "swept through a thousand armies like a blanket," to the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, in which "unique heroes drove the tiger and the leopard," we were able to fight against the wind and waves and climb over the obstacles, so that we could constantly move from victory to victory.
Because we dare to struggle and are good at fighting, in the face of the trade war banner raised by the United States, we have defended national interests and national dignity with reasonable, well-founded and restrained countermeasures.
Because we dare to struggle and are good at fighting, we have launched a people's war, an overall war and an obstruction war for epidemic prevention and control, and withstood the arduous epidemic test.
Because we dare to struggle and are good at struggle, we have struggled to win a comprehensive victory in the great struggle against poverty, completed the arduous task of eliminating absolute poverty, and created another miracle on earth that will stand in the annals of history...
Only by committing the most difficult mistakes can we try to go farther. On the new Long March Road, we still have many "snowy mountains" and "meadows" to cross, and many "Loushan Pass" and "Lazikou" to conquer.
Looking around the world, hegemonism and power politics still exist, and the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game have a tendency to rebound. Some countries cannot tolerate the peaceful rise of socialist China, cannot see Chinese the people to live a good life, deliberately give us "eye drops," "throw dirty water," and "trip up," vigorously engage in "small circles" and "small alliances," and do their utmost to spread rumors to smear and suppress and contain the power of the people. In the face of the "law of the jungle" of bullying, there is no way out of retreating and compromise, and struggle is the only choice.
Looking at the country, there are still more difficult tasks and more severe challenges before us. From making overall plans to effectively link poverty alleviation and rural revitalization, to answering the issues of the era of common prosperity; from preventing and resolving systemic financial risks, to achieving high-quality development in building a new development pattern; from fighting the battle against pollution in depth, to achieving carbon peak carbon neutrality in promoting green development... To gnaw down these "hard bones," we need to carry forward the spirit of struggle of daring to be the first, daring to take on heavy responsibilities, and daring to fight a hard battle, immerse ourselves in hard work, really do solid work, and push forward all undertakings steadily in the course of struggle.
"Committed to extraordinary causes, there will be extraordinary spirits, extraordinary responsibilities." History and reality tell us that we cannot bend our knees to seek national prosperity and strength, we cannot beat gongs and drums to welcome national rejuvenation, and we cannot exchange empty talk for the happiness of the people. To realize great dreams, we must carry out great struggles. Standing at a new historical starting point, as long as we dare to struggle, are good at struggle, and inherit and carry forward the spirit of struggle of the Red Army's Long March of "the more difficult and dangerous the more we move forward," the will to struggle to "smooth the rough and tumble into the road," and the ability to "calmly cross the stormy waves," the great victory of the new Long March will certainly belong to the heroic Chinese people!
(Produced by Jun Zhengping Studio, PEOPLE's Liberation Army News and Communication Center)