Mao Zendong was a Brilliant Military Leader (School Work)

    

 Whatever you may believe about his political beliefs, Mao Zedong must be respected for his courage, perseverance, and skill as a military leader. When he was called to start an army in the Jinggangshan Mountains in 1927, he rose to the occasion. He arrived at Jinggangshan with 1000 men; a meager force. Mao used simple rules of discipline, and used equal rights among officers and soldiers. This was what held his army together. Over time, he gained the trust of a local bandit leader, who gave him information in exchange for guns. Later, the bandits joined him; adding 600 to his force. Over the months, other groups joined him consisting of peasants, bandits, deserters, coal miners, vagabonds, and others.

     They relied entirely on the peasants for food. When they did descend to the plains for food and recruits, they were attacked by warlords and the Nationalist Army. In the battles that he fought up in the mountains against the Nationalist Army, his strategy was: “The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.” Mao called this “protracted war”. In 1928, Mao’s “Fourth Front Army” was joined by Communist Zhu De, and several thousand men. The new army was called the Mao-Zhu Army, with Zhu as the military leader, and Mao as the political agent. In one year, Mao Zedong’s starting force of 1,000 multiplied to over 10,000 men; amazingly, the army was as disciplined as before!

      At the end of 1928, and after mounting casualties, Mao decided that the army must move out of the Jinggangshan Mountains, or eventually be destroyed by lack of food. So, he undertook “The Long March” with the majority of the remainder of the Red Army: 3,500 men. Along the march, they suffered battles with appalling losses, but finally reached their destination of Jiangxi. In Jiangxi, the army numbered 3,600 men with new recruits. The problem was the shortage of guns: one for every three men. The advantage was the abundance of food and materials and peasants willing to join the Mao-Zhu Army. As a result, the Army grew to a force of 40,000 by early 1930! This amazing recovery was made possible by a number of Mao’s ideas; (1) Discipline must prevail, or the army will fall apart. (2) “Party controls the gun, but the gun must never control the Party.” (3) Spiritual factors are as important as physical ones. Using these concepts, Mao Zedong prevailed, going on to fight in many more battles against different armies, and in the end, becoming ruler of Communist China.