"Reading the Long March", edited by the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, Jiangsu People's Publishing House, October 2016
Long March "Four Elders"
Xu Teli, Xie Jueya, Dong Biwu and Lin Boqu were the four older revolutionaries in the Long March, known as the "Four Elders" of the Long March. Among them, Xu Teli, born in 1877, served as the deputy head of the Central Working Group during the Long March. Xie Jueya, born in 1884, was then the Secretary-General of the Central People's Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic. Dong Biwu and Lin Boqu were born in 1886, but Dong Biwu was a few months older. Among the four, Dong Biwu had the longest revolutionary experience, was one of the 12 official deputies of the CPC, and was then the head of the Central Working Group. Lin Boqu was the busiest of the "four elders" because he was the head of the General Supply Department of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission.
They were all well-known scholars, and two of them had studied and had their own stable and prosperous lives. For the sake of their belief in communism, they came to the impoverished Soviet region; for tomorrow's victory, they resolutely embarked on a long journey. On the Long March, they marched together and took care of each other. After arriving at the camp, they also gathered under the lights to write poems and essays, lyrically narrating their aspirations and encouraging each other. Xu Teli was the oldest old comrade in the Long March procession, but the horses assigned to him in the organization were always given to the frail and sick comrades, and he took a cane and walked forward. Whenever he went to the camp, he took the initiative to fetch water, cook, wash clothes, and check the layout. Clothes torn to make up for themselves, shoes broken to sew their own. When Xie Jueya crossed the meadow, he ran out of food, and Xu Teli stuffed all the remaining two or three kilograms of wheat into Xie Jueya's arms. This gift is not only grain, it is simply a gift of life. Elder Xie has a verse that recites the Long March: "The revolution is as long as the road." "We still feel meaningful when we read it today.
In the most difficult days of the Red Army when crossing the meadow, whenever the troops rested, the soldiers loved to sit around the four elders. The four elders always tried to tell stories and riddles to the soldiers, and infected the soldiers with their revolutionary optimism. For example, they made up riddles such as "slow down" and "I don't know which one is a peasant", and hit the names of people in the Red Army team. The soldiers could not guess, so they told Xu Xiangqian, commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, and "I don't know which one is a peasant", referring to He Changgong, president of the Red Army University. It made the warriors laugh. These riddles quickly spread throughout the army. In October 1935, when the Red Army arrived in Wuqi Town, there was not enough cave dwelling, so Xu Teli and Xie Jueya slept in the wheat field with the soldiers. When he woke up in the morning, he found that his clothes and quilts were covered with white frost, and the second elder actually composed a poem with great interest: "The open-air wheat field is covered with cotton clothes, and the iron rod is tied to the bridle of the horse." Sleeping soundly is just like the warmth of spring nights, and the dawn begins to be full of frost. This spirit of revolutionary optimism deeply touched everyone who knew them.
Female Red Army in the Long March
How many female Red Army soldiers participated in the Long March? According to statistics, there are 32 red troops, including 30 cadres and 2 soldiers, of which 27 cadres and 2 soldiers have completed the 25,000-mile long march. Famous female revolutionaries such as Kang Keqing, Deng Yingchao, He Zizhen, Cai Chang, etc. are all in this rank. At least 18 female Red Army members of the Second Red Front participated in the Long March, among which Li Zhen, the first female general of the Republic, was among them. At the beginning of the Long March of the Red Fourth Front, there was a women's independent division, with a maximum number of 2500 people, and the division commander was Zhang Qinqiu. The Red 25th Army participated in the Long March with 7 female nurses, who were known as the "Seven Fairies" at that time.
The main theme of the life of the female Red Army is the same as that of male soldiers, that is, fighting while marching, marching in battle, and fighting in march. Kang Keqing often carried three or four rifles on his shoulders during the march to help the tired soldiers. She personally commanded a battle of the Red Army, annihilating more than 20 enemy troops. During the Long March, He Zizhen braved enemy planes to bomb and rescue the wounded, and was shot 17 times in his body. Yang Houzhen is a pair of small feet, resolutely not sitting on a stretcher, and carrying two sticks across thousands of rivers and mountains, from Ruijin to northern Shaanxi. The Women's Independent Division of the Red Fourth Front, which was even more outstanding in battle, participated in the capture of the Chengguan of Jianmen Pass and excavated the "Heavenly Ladder" for the follow-up troops to climb the snowy mountain; later, it participated in the 100 days and nights of the Bloody Battle of the West Road Army in the Hexi Corridor.
Many female Red Army soldiers were also known as "battlefield larks" and "angels dressed in white". Li Bozhao was an artist in the Red Army, and the Red Star Drama Society she led often performed wonderful literary and artistic programs for the Red Army soldiers between battles. Cai Chang, who was slender in stature, often told the soldiers about her experience of studying abroad, sang "Marseillaise", and was praised by the American writer Salisbury as a "saint in the Long March". When fighting broke out, the female Red Army carried stretchers and braved artillery fire to rescue the wounded, and they also took on the responsibility of "washing wounds, cleaning blood clothes, drinking water, and feeding food."
The female Red Army, which has gone through the Long March, is a precious asset of the Party and the state, and is a pioneer and example for Chinese women.
A small warrior in the Long March
The young soldiers of the Red Army refer to young pioneers and children under the age of 15. Before the start of the Long March, some of the backbone of the Children's Regiment and the Young Pioneers joined the Red Army and embarked on a long journey. They work primarily in hospitals and advocacy teams. Xu Teli wrote in his memoirs: "Most of the caregivers in the hospital are children... Every day when they arrived at the camp, the caretaker immediately threw his bags, dry food bags, and umbrellas to the ground, or quickly hung them on the wall, flew to find the door panels, looked for grass, and opened the shop for the wounded. Although the caregivers are children, their feet are particularly long, their running is particularly fast, and because they are slow to work, they will fail. The eyes are also particularly sharp, and will go to the camp, the eyes are scattered, and the grass door panels that pass by on the road, one by one, are reflected in their eyes. "Spread out, the little soldiers help the wounded to boil water, wash their feet, change their medicine, cook, and wash their bandages. When they encounter mountains or difficult roads, they run to the front of the line with the propaganda team, singing or shouting slogans to encourage everyone to continue to move forward. The young soldiers of the Red Army left many touching stories during the Long March.
——Excerpted from "Reading the Long March", published by Jiangsu People's Publishing House, with abridgements
Edit: Wang Bumi