Sarah Paine

and spoken word, but also the dramatic arts in order to get the message out.

And he also used an institutional medium of education.

And here is Mao the primary school teacher in his element.

Most of the people in his armies were illiterate, but Mao knew all about how to reach them.

There are a lot of political commissars.

What are they?

Political and military commissars come in a pair.

Military commissar is the military professional who actually knows about the fighting.

The political commissar is the one with the direct line to the secret police who will cap the military commissar if there are any problems whatsoever.

So Mao has got an elaborate network to get the message out.

offering all kinds of social services to people, not only medical, but also education for peasant children.

And he also educated their parents.

This is for the first time in Chinese history.

He did it during the winter slack season.

Now, the nationalists had also tried to improve education.

But once the Japanese invaded full bore,

they had to drop it because the nationalist conventional armies are the ones that are fighting off the Japanese conventional armies.

The communists are a guerrilla movement and they're operating behind enemy lines.

So as the nationalists are dragooning people into their armies, the communists are busy offering social services and I'll get to land reform.

And so for the peasants before too long, it becomes a no brainer whom they're gonna support.