Speech to the Accompanying Troops
(November 5, 1935)
[1]
Counting from Ruijin in Jiangxi Province, we have been on the march for more than a year. Each of us used our own two legs to cover twenty-five thousand li. This was an unprecedented Long March. Although the number of Red Army soldiers is now smaller than before, those who remain are the cream of the revolution—men and women who have undergone severe trials and tests. The comrades left behind must not only be able to stand up to ten enemies with one person’s strength, but even to a hundred or a thousand. In the days ahead, we will unite wholeheartedly with the Shaanxi–Gansu Red Army and the people of northern Shaanxi, setting an example of unity as we jointly fulfill the great mission of the Chinese revolution and usher in a new phase for the revolutionary movement in China.

[1] This is part of a speech delivered by Mao Zedong to the accompanying troops at Xiangbibiwang, south of Ganquan.