K. This is the 1st working draft of vol. VI. It still ... - From Marx to Mao

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE ANTI-JAPONESE WAR
work responsibly (they did not inspect carefully), were prepared
to cover-up things that were wrong (village and township
heads could send poor animals and were not investigated),
were corrupt (used poor kaoliang instead of beans),
and had become tails following behind the masses.
(v) The cadres played a decisive role. Deputy District
Head Lu Zhongcai was experienced, lively and responsible.
Each time we reached a place or something happened, he held
a discussion meeting of the porters — he even discussed how
much salt each donkey should carry. As a result, neither men
nor animals came to any harm and on the contrary ended up
stronger and in better spirits than when they set out.
Lessons:
FROM MARX
TO MAO
(i) The district
⋆
and township cadres did not pay attention
to and investigate at the right time the troublemaker from
Fourth Township, Yang Wanbao who skulked off home and
created rumours. They did not talk to him and did not report
to higher levels. As a result a rumour spread among the
people of the district that two people had died — deputy district
head Lu and somebody Wang — and that three donkeys
had died. This made people very uneasy.
(ii) There were NOT problems FOR along the way (some stages
were hard going, one or two had many locusts, and two had
little water) but they could be overcome. On bad roads we
had to be COMMERCIAL
more careful. Where there were locusts we travelled
in the evening. Where there was little water we drank
more on getting up in the morning and carried water with us.
With patience all difficulties could be overcome.
(iii) The DISTRIBUTION
better the donkeys, the more we can earn. If we
could earn 75 yuan for each donkey that carried 130 jin this
time, we can earn 115 yuan for donkeys carrying 150 jin, The
worse the donkeys the less we can earn, and we can even
make a loss. For example, Chengguan District sent three poor
donkeys (one with bad loins, one with bad legs, and one was
exhausted). As a result they did not carry salt. Each donkey
wasted 165 yuan in travailing expenses and the total loss including
porters was over 1,000 yuan. At the same time this
showed that work must be done carefully and you cannot
muddle through. If the district and township had carefully
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