Order to Mobilize the Troops
to Help the Masses
Plant and Plow the Fields
(May 5, 1931)
I. The enemy has been attacking the soviet areas and the Red Army for quite
a long time. He is using, on a large scale, such despicable and vicious tricks as
taking away the grain and pulling up the rice plants, so that our peasant friends
will, in the immediate future, have nothing to eat, will be unable to plow and
plant, and will have no hope of. any harvest at all in the autumn. We must
mobilize immediately, and smash this policy of theirs, so that every field and
every piece of land in the soviet areas will be plowed and planted in good time.
for this is a necessary condition for the work we must do to secure victory in the
second great campaign. •
2. Most of the masses in the soviet areas are mobilized during the fighting to
perform such tasks as standing sentry, spying, and transportation, and if an their
fields cannot be planted on time, this will certainly have an influence on the
battles and on the food supply from the autumn harvest. When it does not
interfere with our combat and with the maintenance of security, the entire Red
Army should immediately send a large group of comrades who are good at
planting rice and plowing the fields to help our peasant friends with their plant·
ing and plowing wherever they are located. We must finish planting all the fields
in the soviet areas in the shortest possible time, because this will be beneficial for
the fighting and for the food supply in autumn.
3. For the Red Army to help the peasants to plant the rice and plow the fields
is a duty that must absolutely be carried out. Do not eat meals provided by our
peasant friends or accept any kind of reward. Moreover, we should be very polite
and should never treat our peasant friends rudely.
4. If there are places where harassment by the White bandits makes planting
impossible, we should send out some troops on guerrilla missions to guarantee
the completion of the planting.
5. To guard against temporary shortages of food before the harvest, we
should start early to prepare for the planting of all kinds of vegetables, melons,
beans, and so on, in case of famine.
6. Fighters and commanders at every level should regard this job as one of
the important tasks of the campaign. If we can carry out the plowing and planting
in good time, this will be one of the first victories in the second campaign. We
sincerely hope that everyone will be mobilized and devote every effort to this
work. It should, however, never interfere with combat.
7. While helping with this work, we should cooperate and coordinate our
efforts with the township soviets and the village soviets, for only in this way can
we guarantee that we are not helping rich peasant households.
Commander-in-Chief
Zhu De
Political Commissar
Mao Zedong

--- Notes

Our source for this text is the version in Mao Zedong Junshi wenji, Vol. I, pp. 219-20,
which has been reproduced from Junshi wenxilln, distributed in 1942.

I. I.e., in resisting the Second Encirclement and Suppression Campaign.