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After the July 7th Incident and the outbreak of the large-scale Anti Japanese War, the financial difficulties of the Communist Party of China were greatly alleviated.
At that time, the CPC's income mainly came from three aspects:
First, the appropriation of the National Government; First, base area taxation; First, Soviet aid funds.
1. Appropriations from the National Government
The allocation of funds by the National Government had been determined long before the beginning of the War of Resistance against Japan. In June 1937, He Yingqin reported to Chiang Kai shek:
"The third party's fund is 300000 yuan per month. The total budget for military affairs in the 26th year (1937) was not included. In addition to the additional budget, we sent a telegram to the Ministry of Finance, and then allocated it according to the amount on a monthly basis, so that it can be transferred by foreign exchange."
After the Lugouqiao Incident, the funds increased irregularly. According to the report of the National Government in 1940, the regular part of the funds distributed to the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in previous years was:
In 1937, the Eighth Route Army paid 300000 yuan for regular expenses, 200000 yuan for war affairs, 50000 yuan for subsidies, 10000 yuan for medical subsidies, and 70000 yuan for subsidies to Mijin and the Military Station, totaling 630000 yuan per month.
From August 1939, the temporary subsidy for additional military stations was 25000 yuan, totaling 655000 yuan per month.
In January 1938, the New Fourth Army approved a monthly payment of 15000 yuan for each of the four detachments and 6000 yuan for the military headquarters, totaling 66000 yuan.
Since March, an additional 20000 yuan has been issued every month, totaling 86000 yuan. In June, the military budget was re approved at 110000 yuan per month.
In 1939, the temporary war expenses were increased by 22000 yuan per month, or 132000 yuan per month.
In addition, the two armies also have some temporary funds, such as 100000 yuan for demobilizing the old and weak in 1938. In 1939, "100000 yuan was allocated to Zhilu to treat wounded soldiers".
The data of the government and the financial department of the Communist Party of China on the amount of funds distributed to the National Government are not exactly the same.
The specific data of the funds (in French dollars) approved and issued by the National Government from 1937 to 1939 are as follows:
A total of 1.53 million yuan was allocated from July to December 1937, compared with 4.48 million yuan in 1938; 5 million yuan in 1939; From January to October 1940, it was 4.99 million yuan.
The data announced by the National Government is almost times the statistics of the financial department of the Communist Party of China. The reason may be related to the CPC's handling of funds.
Cao Juru, who served as the president of the Border Region Bank at the beginning of the Anti Japanese War, recalled:
"The Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, and the Kuomintang government allocated a certain amount of military pay every month. This money was received by the Eighth Route Army's Xi'an office, half of which was sent to Yan'an, and half of which was bought as commodities, which were purchased as Guanghua stores, and supplied by Guanghua stores to organs, troops, and the masses."
That is to say, half of this fund is probably not included in the financial account.
The CPC's report to the Comintern can confirm this inference.
In February 1938, Zhang Wentian said:
"We get a total of 500000 Mexican dollars from Chiang Kai shek every month. The money is used in this way: 250000 yuan for the needs of the front line, and the rest 250000 yuan for the needs of the rear, party work, newspapers and magazines, and so on."
It is felt that the value of Mexican dollars is slightly higher than that of Chinese silver dollars, and the figure of 500000 Mexican dollars is obviously closer to that of the above-mentioned national government.
In addition, Peng Dehuai also mentioned in his report to Chiang Kai shek at the beginning of 1939 that the Eighth Route Army "temporarily provided 85000 people with 500000 yuan, and the Revolutionary Committee of Mongolia realized the difficulties, so it issued 100000 yuan of Mijin".
This figure is basically consistent with the data in the above-mentioned national government report.
2. Local tax collection
In addition to the salaries and wages paid by the National Government, another source of funding is collection.
At the beginning of the Anti Japanese War, the Communist Party of China implemented the policy of reasonable burden. According to the principle of "rich and powerful", the main target of money and grain collection was the wealthy class.
Chen Geng wrote down the situation of raising supplies after the troops arrived at one place:
"In order to prevent the average apportionment, the village office of the People's Movement Group of 772 was asked to put forward a list. The result was very good. Only the famous rich people were selected, and they got about 20 loads of food. It was very difficult to get food here. Generally, even the well-off families picked leaves and chaff for food, and lived a very hard life."
Relatively speaking, the normalized collection system has not yet been established, and the collection capacity is limited. Taking the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region as an example, the tax revenue in 1939 was only 660000 yuan, accounting for 7.4% of the financial revenue of 8.84 million yuan.
Collection does not constitute an important source of base area finance.
3. Soviet aid
The financial support of the Soviet Union and the Comintern was an important expectation for the CPC to solve financial problems at the beginning of the Anti Japanese War.
At the beginning of 1938, when talking with representatives of the Soviet Union, Kang Sheng stressed that:
"The Executive Committee of the Communist International has promised to allocate US $1.5 million to us, and the International Revolutionary Soldiers Relief Association has also promised us to allocate US $30000 to treat comrades released from prison."
He also said:
"We need funds to expand our army, purchase weapons and equipment, build our national defense industry, pay for government and central government expenditures, and run newspapers."
Kangsheng specially mentioned:
"In the areas where the Eighth Route Army operates and the areas half occupied by the Japanese, the people have enough weapons, and they are willing to sell these weapons at a low price. Anyway, we do know and have verified that we can quickly buy the weapons we need as long as we have money."
The clues of these subsidies that Kang Sheng asked the Soviet Union can be found in Dimitrov's diary. On February 17, 1938, he wrote: "aid the Chinese Communist Party 500000 dollars."
This should be part of the promise of the Soviet Union and the Communist International.
In addition, Cao Juru once reported on the process of handling the special funds of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: "I started to manage the revenue and expenditure accounts of special funds in December 1938. Before that, several hundred thousand yuan had come from outside."
Such a huge amount may have something to do with the Soviet Union's financial support.
At the beginning of 1939, the Communist Party of China continued to request financial assistance in its report to the Comintern:
"All the money you raised for us has been used up. There is no difficulty or doubt in the exchange.... A lot of work has been carried out in various parts of China, which requires a lot of expenses... We will solve some of the above difficulties by ourselves. Please provide financial assistance."
In July, the CPC Central Committee specified the amount of this assistance request:
"Please help us financially as soon as possible. We hope to get more than once a large amount of financial assistance - $5 million."
Of course, such figures do not seem to be recognized by the Communist International. Dimitrov mentioned in his report to Stalin:
"It is appropriate to provide 350000 dollars of assistance to the Communist Party of China in 1940."
Later, the CPC Central Committee said in a report on the money received:
"We should get from you the 300000 US dollars stipulated for our Party".
Due to the fragmentary data, it is difficult to give an accurate figure of the annual amount of aid. However, according to a series of messages about aid from the Communist International and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of China receives aid from the Communist International every year. The 500000 US dollars received at the beginning of 1938 is about 2 million French dollars based on the ratio at that time. In addition, the Soviet Union intermittently provided material assistance to the CPC.
When the Communist Party of China (CPC) was still in the initial stage of development and its territory and armed forces were limited, the financial assistance of the Soviet Union was a timely help.
Taking the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region as an example, in 1937, the fiscal revenue was 526302.45 yuan, and the fiscal expenditure was 497882.74 yuan; In 1938, the fiscal revenue was 907943.31 yuan, and the fiscal expenditure was 814563.49 yuan; When two years are added together, the income and expenditure are 1434245.76 yuan and 1312446.23 yuan respectively.
In contrast, the Soviet Union's financial aid of several million yuan exceeded the financial expenditure of the entire border region, and the weight of the aid can be seen.
5. The role of foreign aid
During the Anti Japanese War, all kinds of assistance was the main force to support the CPC's finance, which can be seen directly from the foreign aid income paid by the CPC Central Committee to the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region.
From 1937 to 1940, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China allocated the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region from foreign aid funds as follows:
From October to December 1937, it was 406391.01 yuan, 468500 yuan in 1938, 5666667.34 yuan in 1939, and 7550855.04 yuan in 1940.
The proportion of foreign aid income in the border region's fiscal revenue is:
77.2% in 1937, 51.6% in 1938, 85.8% in 1939, and 74.7% in 1940.
Foreign aid became the main financial object of the border area in the early days of the Anti Japanese War.
At that time, the CPC document clearly wrote:
"The CPC Central Committee and the Border Region Party tried their best to win foreign aid and reduce the burden of the people. Foreign aid has played a great role."
Foreign aid gave the CPC a chance to recuperate. The burden of public grain in the border area showed that 14197 stones of public grain were collected in 1938, accounting for 1.32% of the harvest; 15955 stone in 1939, accounting for 2.98%; In 1940, due to inflation and the depreciation of foreign aid income, the amount of levy increased significantly, accounting for 6.37%. After 1941, it continued to rise to about 10%.
In the early years of the War of Resistance against Japan, the food shortage was purchased by the financial allocation, which amounted to about 10% of the total financial expenditure.
At the beginning of 1939, Yan Xishan reported in a letter to Chiang Kai shek that the National Government had supplemented the Shanxi army with 1.6 million yuan a month. Shanxi troops include 88 regiments that have been reorganized, 12 regiments that are being reorganized, 30 regiments of security forces, 191 squadrons of guerrillas, and the Second Headquarters. The number of troops in Shanxi is five or six times that of the reorganized CPC troops, and the funding is more than twice that of the reorganized CPC troops. From this perspective, the funding for the CPC troops is indeed not small.
It can be said that the generous military pay, Soviet aid and donations at home and abroad made the financial resources of the Communist Party of China sufficient at the beginning of the War of Resistance against Japan, and the financial burden was not heavy. In the early years of the war, the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region was always in surplus.
6. Financial revenue after 1940
However, the good times did not last long. After 1940, the Kuomintang Communist relationship was tense, and the National Government stopped paying salaries. In addition, after the outbreak of the Patriotic War, the Soviet Union was too busy to provide financial support to the Communist Party of China, and the finance of the base area suddenly became difficult.
The CPC concluded afterwards that in 1941, there was serious financial chaos:
Armed smuggling by the armed forces has seriously damaged the prestige of the government. The government has denied the budget and final accounts system for its own use. Life is uneven, and it can earn money in some ways. In counties where there is no way, each cadre will only send two jin of cotton instead of a single coat. The cutting down of public trees, the demolition of temples, the destruction of bells and the digging of tombs by government agencies and troops have become a temporary wave in various counties. As for illegal activities such as selling special goods by liquor sellers, they are more common.
In order to maintain basic survival, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted measures such as developing production, coordinating expenditures, streamlining and economizing to increase income and reduce expenditure.
The various base areas helped each other out of difficulties. The report of the Communist Party of China wrote that in 1943, the Shanxi Suiyuan Border Region gave great help to the Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia Border Region, "delivering 700000 taels of Shaanxi special goods, and selling Shanxi Suiyuan special goods on behalf of Shaanxi Gansu Ningxia, drawing 20% of the trade tax... This established a strong household.".
At the same time, strengthening the ability to draw resources is also easy for a party with high control and efficiency. In this way, the burden of the people in the base areas is "not light, and there is no denying it".
The burden of the people in Pingxi base area "exceeds 10% of the gross national economic income in most areas, and even 30% in some villages".
In 1941 and 1942, the national burden in the Taihang base area accounted for 17.29% and 16.96% of the income respectively, which was a relatively high level.
In addition to the daily burden, during the war, the combat service burden was more. According to the survey of Juede Village, Linzhen District, Ganquan in 1941, the total burden of the whole village included 123 days of preferential treatment for anti industrial workers (alternative farming), artificial livestock workers, 245 days of road construction, 83 days of trench digging, 3 days of sentry duty, 7 days of stretchers, 27 pairs of comfort shoes, and 64 days of sending letters to the army. There are 137 people in the village, including 29 young men aged 15 to 45.
Most of the above burdens should be borne by the villagers and shared equally, which is not a small amount.
In some villages, a receptionist is specially appointed to "be responsible for the payment of food and forage for sporadic passers-by". The life of the receptionist is shared by the villagers.
In armed guerrilla warfare, the Communist Party of China often goes on a large scale of guerrilla warfare. There is a folk song in Ningjin, Hebei Province, which says, "Eight route gods, eight route immortals, one can walk a thousand times a day."
The constant long distance march consumes a lot of shoes. "Each pair of straw sandals of the action force can not last for ten days, and each pair of cloth shoes can not last for a month.".
And the cold environment in the north can not be barefoot for a long time. When Tie Chong, a cadre of the Eighth Route Army, wrote about the situation that his shoes were broken when he went down:
"It was so easy for me to walk to Nanzhuang. One sole broke three petals, and the other disconnected two pieces. I couldn't sleep at night. How can I deal with the shoe problem? I wanted to ask for it from others, but I was afraid that they would be embarrassed when they didn't have time. I had no choice but to think about it later, but I said I would have to go barefoot immediately."
In order to ensure the supply of military shoes, the local government has made a lot of efforts. "The rich produce materials, while the poor produce manpower. Some people are very poor and have no cloth, so they tear off their own mats to make shoes".
Everywhere in the base area, we can see the scenes of people rushing to control military shoes. A simple pair of military shoes, a needle and a thread, also has the efforts of the people.
Both financial and burden problems are related to the staggering cost of war. The total expenditure of Shandong base areas in 1942 was 10070.93 million yuan, of which 497.7 million yuan was spent on party affairs, accounting for 4.96%; The government expenditure was 2105.73 million yuan, accounting for 20.89%; Military expenditure was 7467.5 million yuan, accounting for 74.15%.
Military expenses account for almost three quarters.
The proportion of the Shanxi Chahar Hebei Border Region was even more astonishing, with the military expenditure accounting for 88.06% of the total expenditure in 1942.
The following report shows the daily expenses:
The average army soldier is 4.16 yuan per month, the party and government officials are 4.5 yuan per month, and the school (Anti Japanese University) is 6.25 yuan per month. This year, the two colors of single clothes will cost 6 yuan per set (including hat, bandage and bullet belt), the winter clothes will cost about 38 yuan per person, the cotton padded clothes will cost one set per person, the overcoat will cost one piece per officer above platoon level, and the quilt will cost two soldiers a bed. The average soldier shoots 20 bullets every six months, which costs 15 yuan; The average soldier plays 8 grenades every six months, and the price is 12 yuan. The temporary fee for each other is 1 yuan every six months. Each soldier spends about 129 yuan every year.
It can be seen from this material that if a soldier shoots 20 bullets and 8 grenades every six months, it costs 27 yuan, which is exactly equivalent to the expenditure of a party and government official for six months. The battle cost of 20 bullets and 8 grenades is almost the minimum. The war is about money, and we can get a deep feeling from this material.
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