A history of the Red Army's Long March is a history that reflects the deep affection between the army and the people. In Shazhou Village, Rucheng County, Hunan, three female Red Army soldiers stayed at the home of Xu Jiexiu, and when they left, they cut off half of their only quilt and left it for the old man. The old man said, what is the Communist Party? The Communist Party is a person who has a quilt of his own and has to cut half of it for the common people.

——Speech at the Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Red Army's Long March (October 21, 2016)

Further reading:

A quilt, cut in half, never given up, forever connected, records the intimate feelings between the Red Army soldiers and the common people, and symbolizes the inseparable affection between the Communist Party and the people.

This story happened in November 1934, the Central Red Army broke through the second blockade line of the Kuomintang army, and the various corps successively arrived in Wenmingwei, Rucheng County, Hunan, and the Red Army was stationed in Wenming, Xiushui, Hantian, Shazhou and other places, and rested here for a week. It was during this period that the three exhausted female Red Army soldiers lived in a dilapidated thatched hut on the edge of Shazhou Village, owned by Xu Jiexiu and her husband. But Xu Jiexiu's family was destitute, only a bed frame made of bamboo nails, the bed was covered with straw, a broken mat, and a pile of rotten cotton wool, not even a complete quilt. The female Red Army discarded their suits during the rapid march and carried only a quilt, and the hostess and the three female Red Army women covered this quilt and squeezed it into this bed, while the male owner slept on the haystack at the door and guarded them.

The three female Red Army soldiers ate, slept and worked together with Xu Jiexiu, and also helped Xu Jiexiu cook on the fire, and explained revolutionary principles to Xu Jiexiu and his wife in their spare time. A few days later, early in the morning, the female Red Army was about to go on the road, and they decided to leave the only quilt for Xu Jiexiu and his wife, but the couple refused to accept anything. Until it was sent to the entrance of the village, the three female Red Army soldiers and Xu Jiexiu and his wife were still arguing, at this time a female Red Army took out a pair of scissors from her backpack, cut the quilt in half, and she said to Xu Jiexiu: After the revolution is successful, you must give you a complete new quilt. Xu Jiexiu took the half of the quilt, couldn't say a word, and tears flowed down his eyes......

Whether it was the old peasants in the Soviet area who sent all their eight sons to join the Red Army, the boatmen who ferried the Red Army with their lives in the turbulent river, or the Tibetan people who set up three "smallpox" (memorial arches made of pines, cypresses and flowers) to welcome the Red Army, there were relatives of the Red Army everywhere on the Long March, and this was the victory code of the Long March.

At the meeting to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March, Xi Jinping told the story of half a quilt on the Long March to the majority of party members and cadres, in order to illustrate that "being in the same boat with the people, sharing blood and blood, and sharing life and death is the fundamental guarantee for the victory of the Communist Party of China and the Red Army in the Long March"; It is to warn the whole party: carry forward the spirit of the Great Long March and go well today