A copper witnesses a good relationship between the Red Army and the people
2022-06-24
Xinchang was a small and undeveloped town, where only several senior residents lived here to watch the houses because the Kuomintang had made a great deal of disinformation and slander before the Red Army arrived.
Ling Guiyin, 42 years old at that time, was concerned about the house and went back home with her son. By seeing the village in harmony where the Red Army were painting the walls, carrying water and feeding ducks for the villagers, Ling Guiyin was not afraid of the army anymore.
Shortly after she returned home, 3 soldiers at their thirties came to borrow a room from Ling Guiyin. Reviewing what she had heard along the way, she agreed to provide accommodation for these modest men and gave them the main bedroom. In addition, knowing that dozens of soldiers were still sleeping in the rice field, she took them to the senior head of the village to let them stay in the Luo Ancestral Temple next to her house.
That night, the head-like comrades spent a whole night in the main bedroom with map spreading out and the radio ticking for all night long. Ling barely slept as well. It was then that Ling began to realized that these people in her house were not bandits or robber-like soldiers, but kind-hearted people.
Ling got up at dawn to made breakfast for the soldiers and mended the worn clothes for them. The head of the army together with other soldiers put new slates on the broken windows in Ling’s house and chopped a large pile of firewood for her. Ling also called other women in the village to use the bed sheets and clothes to bandage the wounded and made rice cakes for them. The relationship between the army and the people was getting closer.
The head of the army said to Ling before leaving, “thank you so much for your caring these days. Now we are leaving and these two silver dollars are for our food and accommodation and this copper is a gift for your son.” “I didn’t do anything so I can’t take your money,” said Ling. “We are indeed poor, but we can’t take anything free from the public. We have to follow the discipline strictly. So you have to accept them,” insisted the soldier. Ling resisted repeatedly but finally accepted them.
The two silver dollars helped Ling and her family to go through the hardest days later on. The copper, which was supposed to be sewn onto the child’s hat, had been treasured by Ling. She feared that it might be lost and then sewed it inside her small lapel where it had been kept for 40 years. Later, in the collection of historical materials for the battle in Xinchang Town, Ling recognized the head of the Red Army who gave her the copper through his portrait, and she knew the soldier was the famous General Xiao Ke.
The small copper has witnessed the close relationship between the army and the people as well as the public support for the army. It has also fully demonstrated the original belief that the Red Army should be well disciplined and devote itself to the well-being of the people. In those hard and difficult times, it was by being with the people through thick and thin that the Communist Party of China and the Red Army achieved the great victory of the Long March.
