(June 26,1916)
For the perusal of my elder brother Sheng:
I reached the riverbank at nine o’clock this morning. I walked seventy li and stayed at
Yintian Temple. As I was previously acquainted with the host, I feel quite comfortable
here. Although my limbs really ache, my spirit is full of joy. I washed off the dust,
shook out my clothes, and grasped a brush to write this letter. Thinking back to last
night and this morning, the scenes, still vivid in my mind, evoke such feelings! I may
decide to relate something of what I saw and heard on my journey. The Guangxi
army is stationed outside of the city, where they swagger down the road, looking
askance at those around them, gathering and gambling with other good-for-nothings
in the big intersections. The patrolmen see them often, but dare not question them.
This corroborates what we have heard at school. I am now convinced that gambling
is rampant in Guangdong and Guangxi. In the region of Qilipu and Jiangche there
are two divisions of the so-called National Protection Army.5 One division, under Su
Minghu, has approximately twelve hundred men. The other, under a certain Zhao,
is about the same size. Having combined their forces, they are living in the hotels
and eating without paying for it, and everyone complains. After questioning the men
closely, I feel they are rather pitiful. They are hoping that they will get paid and
discharged, but quite in vain. Their officers live in the hotels too; they put name cards
on their doors saying “such-and-such official,” but the placards they post verge on
5 The Huguo jun or National Protection Army was founded in Yunnan in late 1915 by Cai E as
an instrument for struggle against Yuan Shikai’s attempt at monarchical restoration. On Cai see note
5 to Mao’s letter of July 25, 1916.