🇨🇳 | The last believed survivor of the “Long March” during the Chinese Civil War celebrated her 105th birthday.
Her name is Wang Quanying, she joined the Red Army as a medic when she was only 14 years old.
Born into a Tibetan family in 1921, Sichuan province, she lost both parents by age one. From age five, she was forced into harsh labor.
When the Red Army entered her hometown, Wang was attracted by their policy of protecting the poor and joined the Women’s Independent Regiment.
The one-year-long march starting in 1934 under the leadership of Mao Zedong is viewed as one of the most daring military manoeuvres in modern history.
The Chinese Communist Party defied all odds, including total defeat, by what is often described as sheer revolutionary willpower.
Starting with about 100,000 people, only around 8,000 survivors eventually made it to their destination in Yan’an.
>During battles with the Nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Quanying was cut off from her unit and went into hiding in 1936. Authorities verified her as a veteran in 1984.
Also a testament to their likability and overall ability to connect with the people. They strictly enforced not stealing or ‘commandeering’ things from the locals as they went through. Instead, they sent people ahead of the main group to tell them they were coming, explain the situation, tell them about what they were fighting for if they didn’t know already. They even picked up more recruits along the way and people gave them supplies and housing willingly because they had already established a huge support base around the country.
Part of the reason the nationalists kept malding was because the communists were better at getting factory workers and large groups to join them, so the nationalists just killed communists at every opportunity since they couldn’t compete.