The revolutionary war has reached an extremely critical stage. Imperialist forces and the Kuomintang are launching a massive offensive against the Central Soviet Area with their utmost strength in a desperate bid to salvage their dying regime. This brutal class struggle is now raging with great intensity. This campaign represents the enemy’s all-out, last-ditch effort; it is even fiercer and more protracted than the previous one or two offensives. In order to completely smash the enemy’s attack and secure an even greater victory, we must mobilize the broad masses of workers and peasants and devote every possible resource to waging a resolute, sustained, and arduous struggle against the enemy.  However, spring plowing is now drawing near, and it will coincide with the most intense phase of the fighting. Therefore, in order to ensure the safe cultivation of the land by the broad masses of workers and peasants, to expedite the completion of spring plowing without hindrance, and to enable them to concentrate all their efforts on annihilating the attacking enemy, the Central Government has decided to advance the start of spring plowing throughout the entire Soviet Area and to make every effort to increase production and accelerate work, so as to achieve a substantial rise in grain yields within the shortest possible time. This will strengthen the Red Army’s supply lines, improve the daily lives of the working and peasant masses, and provide a solid guarantee for the complete victory of the revolutionary war.  Accordingly, this decision is of paramount importance. Governments at all levels must work in close coordination with various mass organizations—such as the Tenant Farmers’ Union and the Poor Peasants’ League—to exert their utmost efforts in mobilizing the entire population and implementing the following measures in a thorough and effective manner:

1. By the middle of the first lunar month, all land must be thoroughly plowed, and all irrigation channels repaired.

2. Sowing and transplanting should begin at least one month earlier than in previous years.

3. Every household must immediately make adequate preparations of fertilizer and select the finest seeds. This will not only greatly increase production but also facilitate rapid sowing and transplanting.

4. The masses in all localities must organize mutual assistance in farming, sharing labor, seeds, draft animals, and farm implements, so as to carry out spring plowing swiftly.

5. Public fields belonging to the Red Army and plots cultivated by Red Army families must be prioritized for cultivation by mass mobilization; not a single inch of such land may be left fallow.

With regard to these measures, governments at all levels are required to formulate more specific plans according to local conditions, convene meetings of the Tenant Farmers’ Union, the Poor Peasants’ League, and general assemblies of voters to conduct extensive propaganda and agitation, and establish mechanisms for revolutionary competition and rewards. Whoever completes plowing his or her land first, repairs the irrigation channels first, prepares fertilizer and seeds first, and begins sowing or transplanting first shall be rewarded by the county or district government. In particular, in areas where land distribution has not yet been fully resolved, immediate allocation must be carried out to avoid impeding spring plowing.

Issued hereby.  Chairman Mao Zedong Vice Chairmen Xiang Ying and Zhang Guotao November 11, 1931, the eighteenth day