you must learn to be a military man, study military affairs, study strategy and
tactics-flexible strategy and tactics. Our strategy and tactics here are not rigid;
instead they are flexible, that is, no matter what kind of method the enemy uses for
attack, we will always have a way to deal with it. If the enemy attacks us using one
method, we will fight back with another method. If we bring to bear flexible strategy and tactics, and wait until the enemy has exhausted his tricks, then we will be
able to defeat him. In sum, you must learn here a firm and correct political orientation, the work-style of arduous struggle, plus flexible strategy and tactics. With
these three things, we will be able to defeat the enemy in the end. This is the first
point.

Second, you must learn to be cadres here. Cadres alone cannot defeat the enemy, but without cadres we cannot defeat the enemy either. We need cadres to
arouse and organize the broad masses, to turn the thousands and tens of thousands
of people into organized contingents. Without organization there is no power; it is
impossible to defeat Japanese imperialism without such widespread, organized
contingents. No matter whether you are at the front or in the rear, you must all
arouse the popular masses, organize the popular masses, organize them politically
and militarily. Japan's population is small and China's population is large, but the
reason Japan is able to bully us is that the broad masses of our people do not have
very good organization; to this day we are still very inadequately organized. You
must keep a tight grip on this correct political orientation; it is through you that
this political orientation will be transmitted to the broad masses, through you that
they will be educated and organized. This is because in reality it is not possible for
the people of the whole country to come here to study, but we can rely on you to
inform the people of the entire country regarding this political orientation in the
course of your work, so that they will all understand how China is to (and surely
will be able to) defeat the enemy, so that this political orientation will become the
political orientation of the people of the whole country. At the same time, you
should also spread the work-style of arduous struggle, so that the broad popular
masses will be able to struggle hard against all difficulties, firmly and unshakably.
It is just like the way you eat millet here and climb Qingliang mountain. This can
also be called a kind of hard struggle, this is to make you change the soft and weak
style of being incapable of arduous struggle, to make you a little bit tough. For
instance, if you fall while out running and break a tooth, you still come to your feet
and march forward. It is not sufficient for you alone to have this work-style; you
must make the people of the whole country all have this work-style. One thing lies
in our path, and it goes by the name of "hardship." We tell it: we have been steeled
at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University; we are not afraid of you! It
says that it has great capacities. It can deny us clothes to wear, but we are not
afraid; it can deny us food to eat, but we are not afraid. It says that it also has
planes, cannons, and tanks, but we are not afraid of any of them. When we have
overcome all the hardships, we ask it again whether it has any left. It says that it
does not, and finally it has no alternative but to lay down its arms. This is the way

we can definitely defeat Japanese imperialism! You must, moreover, educate the
broad popular masses of the whole country so that none of them fears hardship,
and, moreover, so they will be able to overcome hardship; in this way, we will
certainly be able to defeat Japanese imperialism. Furthermore, you should use
flexible strategy and tactics to teach the broad popular masses, so that they all
know they must fight Japan, and they all know how to do it. We depend on you
cadres to organize the people of the whole country, to train the people of the whole
country. Therefore, the second point is that you must learn to be cadres.

Third, you must also be resolute. Since you came to Yan'an from faraway places
to study, going through trials and tribulations, I believe that you already are resolute. What kind of resolution, then? There are no opportunities for promotion to
high office and getting rich in Yan'an. You came here, number one, not for promotion to high office, and, number two, not to get rich. So why in the end did you
come such a long way to be here? Undoubtedly, you came here for the purpose of
resisting Japan and saving the country, and so you are resolved to resist Japan and
save the country. You want to learn how to resist Japan and save the country, and we
want to help you to accomplish this. But some people only have a "general" resolution. By "general," I mean that it might be a bit vague, not completely firm and
thorough. Among them there are inevitably some people who came here simply
because they saw others going and went along with them, and do not have thorough understanding and resolve. What I mean is that their resolution does not derive from a firm political direction; they did not come here after careful consideration.
Today we climb mountains and eat millet here. These are not terrible hardships;
there are much greater hardships at the front. You must know that airplanes and
cannons do not have eyes. Now, though the Japanese army of invasion suffered a
defeat in southern Shandong, it will probably come back again. They seized our
Shanghai and Nanjing, and are attempting to capture our Tongguan and even Wuhan;
now the enemy army in Shanxi has taken Linfen and arrived at Fenglingdu. If we
say that Japanese imperialism is a wild bull, then our big army of several tens of
thousands of Chinese troops in Shanxi is pulling the bull's tail from behind its
back, trying to stop it from moving south. Or if our Eighth Route Army is in the
enemy's rear area, having difficulties in getting supplies, with airplanes in the sky
and artillery on the ground, but even in this kind of environment of hardship, it still
has to pull the wild bull's tail, continually striking at the enemy. When you set out
from those many places, some of you imagined the difficulties in Yan'an, but I am
afraid that some other people did not imagine the hardships in Yan'an at all. In
other places there are fish, there is meat, and there is rice, but here there is only
millet, and you have to climb Qingliang mountain, too. Now you have the resolve
to eat millet and climb Qingliang mountain, but in the future you will also have to
"pull the wild bull's tail." There are still many hardships along the way of the War
of Resistance against Japan, and you must make an even greater resolution-the
resolution to march forward without fear of any adversity! The War of Resistance
against Japan is a protracted war, it is not something that can be resolved in six six months or a year, and moreover we must build a new China in the future.

I see that all of you are without beards. Those without beards are called youth. Young people have courage, but you must reach the age when you grow a beard (of course, women comrades will not grow beards), and remain unshaken and unflinching to old age and to death.

The course of revolution is like sailing a boat on a stormy river; the timid often waver and do not know what to do. There have been people in history who wavered and retreated when they encountered difficulties in the great tide of revolution. I hope there will be no such people among you. You must never retreat but march forward courageously for the liberation of the Chinese nation and for the building of a new China. You must resolutely fight for the sake of the four hundred and fifty million people of the whole country to the very end! Not for yourselves, but for the sake of the four hundred and fifty million people of the whole country; not for your own families, but for the sake of the families of the four hundred and fifty million people of the whole country — sacrifice everything.

So the first resolution is to sacrifice the chance of official advancement, the second resolution is to sacrifice the chance of getting rich, and the third is the ultimate resolution — to sacrifice one's very life! Now you have the preliminary resolution to sacrifice official advancement and wealth, to eat millet and climb Qingliang mountain, but without the ultimate resolution it is not enough. You must also have the resolution to sacrifice your lives for the sake of the four hundred and fifty million people of the whole country!

(Printed according to the transcript of the speech preserved in the Central Archives.)

NOTES
[1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the opening ceremony of the third battalion of the fourth session of the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political University in Yan'an.