Lin Biao asked: How long can the red flag last? Mao Zedong replied: A single spark can start a prairie fire.

Mao Zedong wrote: "You think it is futile to do this hard work of establishing political power in a period far from the climax of the revolution, but you hope to expand political influence with a relatively light mobile guerrilla method." "The work of winning over the masses all over the country has been done, or it has been done to a certain extent, and then a national armed uprising will be launched. At that time, increasing the strength of the Red Army will become a national revolution. Their national theory of winning over the masses before establishing political power is not suitable for the reality of the China revolution. "

Mao Zedong wrote here, stopped writing for a moment, blew hot air, rubbed his frozen hands, and with a stroke of a pen, brilliantly expounded the brilliant thought of the road of "armed separation of workers and peasants" from a theoretical height. He wrote: "The establishment and development of the Red Army, guerrillas and red areas is the highest form of peasant struggle under the leadership of the proletariat in semi-colonial China and the inevitable result of the struggle and development of semi-colonial peasants; And it is undoubtedly the most important factor to promote the climax of the national revolution. Simple mobile guerrilla policy can't accomplish the task of promoting the climax of the national revolution, but Zhu De's Mao Zedong-style and Fang Zhimin-style routes of establishing political power in a planned way, deepening the agrarian revolution and expanding the people's armed forces are undoubtedly correct. Only in this way can the belief of the revolutionary masses throughout the country be established, and only in this way can the climax of the revolution be promoted. " In order to illustrate the inevitability of China's revolutionary climax, Mao Zedong made a scientific analysis of China's revolutionary situation from four aspects, pointing out that with the development of contradictions between international imperialism, contradictions between reactionary rulers in China, contradictions between China people, imperialism and reactionary rulers of various factions, and contradictions between the working class in China and the bourgeoisie in China are also developing day by day. "China is full of dry wood, which will soon burn into a fire. A single spark can start a prairie fire, which aptly describes the development of the current situation. As long as we look at the development of workers' strikes, peasant riots, soldiers mutiny and students' strikes in many places, we will know that this single spark is undoubtedly not far from the period of starting a prairie fire. " Finally, full of lofty sentiments and literary thoughts, Mao Zedong wrote: "Marxists are not fortune tellers. We should only give a general direction to the future development and change, and should not and cannot set the time mechanically. But the climax of the China revolution that I said is coming, is by no means a completely meaningless and unattainable empty thing that some people say. It is a ship standing on the coast, looking at the sea, and can already see the top of the mast; It was standing on the top of the mountain, looking at the sunrise in the east from a distance. It is a mature baby who is restless in the mother's womb. " What a profound vision this is! What a scientific foresight! Starting from criticizing and educating Lin Biao, Mao Zedong wrote a few words earnestly at the end of his reply: "What I disagree with you is that you lack the profound concept of establishing political power, so the task of winning over the masses and promoting the revolutionary climax cannot be successfully completed as you think. This is the main purpose of my letter. "

Mao Zedong's "Reply to Lin Biao" is a masterpiece of his middle age, with ingenious conception, ups and downs, passion and timeliness. This letter combines the reality of the Red Army and the development of the revolution, profoundly analyzes the characteristics and various basic contradictions of semi-colonial China society, and expounds the basic idea that the China Revolution must persist in creating rural revolutionary base areas and use the development of the Red Army and rural revolutionary base areas to promote the climax of the national revolution. History has also proved that this letter is a brilliant embodiment of Mao Zedong's theory that rural areas surrounded cities and eventually won national victory, and it is also Mao Zedong's creative application and development of Marxism-Leninism.