What of General Chen Yi who had remained back in Jiangxi with the old and wounded? When the Red Army moved out in October 16, 1934 , Chen Yi had about 30,000 men of which 10,000 were wounded including Chen Yi. A KMT force of 100,000 inexorably moved in on them. By February, 1935 they had about 2,000 troops and 2,000 wounded. Chen Yi summoned a meeting of the area leaders. He spoke with great emotion. Yi said, " Take these wounded men into your homes. They are our sons. They are very young. They can make good sons and good sons-in-law for you. They can marry your daughters. They can work for you and you will have one more pair of hands in your family. You will have their labor and perhaps someone to take revenge for you."
Before Chen Yi had finished, tears had come to the eyes of the peasants and of the wounded, and to those of Chen Yi as well. Within half a day, every wounded man had been placed with a peasant family, dispersed invisibly in the countryside; each equipped with several silver dollars, medicine for treating their wounds, and 3 pounds of salt, a priceless gift in this region of a KMT blockade. The remainder of the men moved off on the morning of March 4, 1935. Chiang offered 50,000 Yuan for the capture of the leaders. By March 9, after fearsome losses they had only about 80 men left. Living off the land, never sleeping in the same place twice they would spend the next two years making their way to join Mao. It would be 1937 before they would be able to join Mao.
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