Special Issue on Building the Military Through Politics · Glorious Traditions | 2,930 Silver Dollars: "Red Family Fortune" Reveals Original Aspiration
2,930 Silver Dollars: "Red Family Fortune" Reveals Original Aspiration
■ Zeng Xianglong
Red artifacts on display at the military history museum of a unit under the Xinjiang Military District. Photo by Liu Shuai
In the military history museum of a unit under the Xinjiang Military District, 2,930 silver dollars are on display — a "red family fortune" (红色家底) that every member of the unit holds in memory. Weathered by decades of time, the silver dollars have lost their original luster, yet they carry within them the original aspiration (初心) of generation after generation of officers and soldiers to prepare for and fight in war.
This weighty family fortune traces back to Yanchuan, northern Shaanxi, in 1932. The unit's predecessor was a guerrilla force active in the Yanchuan area. After a victorious battle, they seized a quantity of materiel, including silver dollars. Considering that liaison missions, procurement, and similar tasks required occasional small expenditures, the guerrillas distributed one silver dollar to each cadre to be kept for emergencies.
Before long, the guerrilla force was caught in a fierce battle, suffered heavy casualties, and urgently needed to purchase large quantities of medicine to treat the wounded. Upon learning of the situation, the cadres each produced their silver dollar and turned them all in. It turned out that no one had been willing to spend their coin — each had been saving it for the moment it was truly needed. The silver dollars remaining after the medicine was purchased were kept in reserve.
The Battle of Shenjialing in Lanzhou was the hardest-fought and most glorious battle in the unit's history. At the time, the 4th Company of a certain regiment had fought down to only four survivors. After the battle, the regimental Party committee allocated 100 silver dollars for the company's reconstitution. The then-company commander Wang Ligong and his soldiers revisited the story of the Yanchuan guerrillas donating their silver dollars to save the wounded, and the entire company resolved: guard the "red family fortune" well, and save it for when it is needed most! The officers and soldiers maintained a style of plain living and frugality, unwilling to waste a single fen, and kept a considerable number of silver dollars in reserve.
For a period, the 4th Company was assigned as the vanguard, suffering enormous combat attrition. Sister companies voluntarily contributed their saved silver dollars to the 4th Company. Beyond covering basic expenditures, Wang Ligong solemnly handed the remaining silver dollars over to the higher-level organization. The finance department took this especially seriously, storing these silver dollars separately and keeping them in careful custody.
Later, the unit received orders to carry out a mission in a harsh and remote area. The environment was brutal; hunger, wounds, and illness were constant companions, and the unit fell into serious difficulty for a time. To ensure the force maintained sufficient combat effectiveness, the finance department drew on a portion of the reserve silver dollars to purchase supplies. Once again the unit relied on this "red family fortune" to pull through the crisis, and as conditions improved slightly, the soldiers voluntarily turned over the remaining silver dollars to the finance department.
As the years passed, the unit underwent more than ten garrison rotations. Successive Party committee leaderships strictly enforced management regulations, carefully preserving all 2,930 silver dollars in total, with not a single person taking any for personal use.
As the economy developed, silver dollars passed out of circulation. With approval from higher authorities, this collection of silver dollars was retained by the unit as red artifacts. In 1979, during the unit's final long-distance garrison relocation, logistics cadre Guo Shengliang and his comrades escorted the coins throughout the entire journey, standing watch in shifts, and safely delivered all 2,930 silver dollars to the new station after a lengthy transfer.
Thereafter, every successive Party committee handover has been accompanied by a solemn ceremony for the transfer of red artifacts. What has been passed down alongside them is a plain and pure set of values — the silver dollars have a monetary worth, but the officers' and soldiers' fine conduct of hard struggle and selfless dedication to duty (克己奉公) is a priceless treasure that no sum of money can measure.
"Save It for When It Is Needed Most"
■ Mu Yulong, Cadre of a Unit under the Xinjiang Military District
A few days ago, I walked into the military history museum and stood for a long time before the display case holding the silver dollars. These coins, which circulated during the Land Revolution period and the War of Resistance Against Japan, would have represented no small sum of wealth at any time. Looking at them, I could picture in my mind the scene of revolutionary forebears carefully managing their way through hard times, and I was also reminded of an experience during a plateau field training exercise.
On that occasion, the unit was conducting a medium repair (中修) task on a certain type of equipment in a plateau environment. Because a considerable amount of equipment was required, the higher command decided to procure a batch of construction materials to build a field repair workshop.
When the materials arrived, someone suggested: since the construction materials were fairly plentiful, could a portion be set aside to expand the living quarters, which would make for more comfortable accommodations?
Honestly, in that moment my mind wavered. I thought: plateau field training means heavy wind and sand, and living conditions are simple — diverting a little material for the sake of the officers and soldiers wouldn't really count as misappropriating public resources for private use. But then I turned my thoughts around, and those 2,930 silver dollars appeared in my mind. In those days, the forebears guarded their life-saving savings, willing to go hungry and endure the cold rather than casually divert them. Now, here were dedicated materials right in front of me, and I was already thinking about improving living conditions. Comparing the two, I felt my face flush with heat.
In the end, the cadres and backbone personnel unified their thinking: all construction materials must go into combat readiness facility construction, in service of combat effectiveness. Before long, a fully functional field repair workshop rose from the plateau.
This incident sounded a warning bell for me. Compared with the revolutionary war era, material support today is abundant — but the conduct of frugality and plain living must not be abandoned. If combat readiness materiel is diverted for living support, what is being undermined is the bottom line of maintaining discipline and fighting to win.
Of course, not abandoning the character of hard struggle does not mean pressing materiel and equipment to the bottom of a storage chest. At times, hoarding for its own sake also betrays the original intent and creates another form of "waste."
A few years ago, a certain company was issued a batch of new-model optical sights. Everyone in the company treated them as treasures, afraid that bumps and knocks during training would be hard to account for, so they kept them locked in a cabinet and rarely used them, only occasionally taking them out to "see the light." During one higher-level nighttime shooting assessment, participants were required on short notice to use the new-model sights. The company hurriedly organized study sessions, but because everyone had used them so rarely, they were still unfamiliar with them on the range, and the final shooting results were unsatisfactory.
From this, I truly came to understand what the forebears meant by "save it for when it is needed most." It does not mean disposing of things arbitrarily, nor does it mean locking them away on a shelf. It means adhering to the principle of "everything for the sake of guaranteeing victory in war, everything for the sake of improving combat effectiveness" — not spending a single fen that should not be spent, and not sparing a single fen that must be spent, putting every accumulated resource to use where it counts most, helping the force overcome one difficulty after another and achieve one victory after another.
In recent years, the unit has significantly reduced administrative expenditures and concentrated financial resources to build new training facilities including a comprehensive training ground for reconnaissance soldiers and a light weapons shooting range. Before one long-distance field training deployment, the officers and soldiers of the maintenance company of the service support battalion volunteered to weld and repair hundreds of vehicle-mounted equipment items themselves, saving a considerable sum of funds. I believe the unit's officers and soldiers will not forget where those 2,930 silver dollars came from. Our "red family fortune" will remain substantial forever.
(Compiled by PLA Daily special correspondent Cui Yaqing)