Dear diary, October
21, 1935
It has been 2
years that I have written. I now have a chance because we have finally marched
our way to our destination, the Shaanxi Revolutionary Base. I cannot begin to
describe the fatigue and obstacles we went through.
This Long March,
as Mao Zedong calls it, started when the Guomindang trapped us in Jiangxi with
lines of blockhouses. The German general, Otto Braun, lead us crashing straight
through the lines of blockhouses and marching straight on forward. Breaking
through those lines of blockhouses was our first difficult task. Otto Braun’s
military tactic of marching forward made it so easy for the Guomindang to
predict our movements! At each line of blockhouses we fought a battle against
Chiang Kaishek’s army. At this early stage of our march, we had already lost
many men.
From then on,
Mao Zedong and Zhu De lead us forward. The 2 years of marching was difficult,
we were always tired, sick, hungry and cold. We encountered dozens of
obstacles. The one that made us heroes was when we swung across the Dadu River
using suspension bridge chains. The Nationalists took many of the wooden boards
off and therefore we courageously swung across, one by one. Then immediately
after that complication, we trekked through the 4000 feet tall snowy mountains.
It was here that the inadequate food supplies affected us most. We walked
through the cold and we walked for almost 50 miles a day. All we saw was white
all around and we really had no idea where we were heading. I passed by many
dead men lying in the snow, a result of bitter coldness and extreme hunger.
From the snowy mountains we marched through swampland, large areas of mud and
water. By then our First Red Army had trickled down to a small number of men.
Those who survived the obstacles still had the will to proceed through the
difficulties because Mao Zedong, our great leader, encouraged us. When times could not seem worse, he
would proclaim: “Comrades! Look ahead! Keep on marching!” He reminded us of
what we were marching for, revolution, freedom and equality. I, coming from a poor peasant family, persisted
because I truly believe in Communism; I believe that that is the only fair
system there is.
And now I am at
the base, we are waiting for the other Red Armies to join us. All of us are
resting, even though we know there will never be enough rest to replace our
fatigue. We have now finished the Long March. Hopefully this will change the
course of history and may this be a reminder to the people in the future that
long struggle can achieve greatness.
王國維
wang guo wei
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