Natural Calamity, Political Struggle And Subei People's Life

Natural and man-made calamities have taken place many times in mordern history of Subei. Especially during the period after Anti-Japanese War, another massive war broke out between the KMT and CCP since the Kuomintang army attacked Subei Liberation Areas in June, 1946. In the next three years, flames of the war and natural calamities spread all over Subei areas, which resulted in social unrest and economic depression. The people had to exile and lived in destitution. At the same time, the two parties paid great attention to relief facilities in order to capture local strategic materials and pacify their own rear bases. Except for a variety of drawbacks, these relief measures had yielded some positive achievements. The condition of calamity was partly alleviated through handing out relief goods, treating refugees and launching labour relief, etc. However, the CCP army controlled the whole Subei in 1949 because of their brilliant tactics and complete land reform. But the relief activities were subordinate to specific political purposes and very unstable under the serious influence of ruthless political struggle. Peasant burdens, which were aggravated by military combats, also limited relief effects and worsen local people's existence situation. So there were peculiar relations among natural calamity, political struggle and people's life from 1946 to 1949 in Subei areas.