Red Army "Regular" Military Uniform Was Born: Changting Raises Wages, Manual Sewing.

With the establishment of the Jinggangshan base area and the expansion of the red campaign, the Red Army has expanded rapidly. From the aspects of operations and management, the necessity of uniform clothing has become increasingly evident. In March 1929, after the first battle of the Changling Zhai, the Red Army captured the western Changting town and the surrounding countryside. At that time, Changting had a population of about 20 thousand people, rich in products, merchants gathered, handicraft shops throughout the urban and rural areas, and had a good economic foundation. After the liberation of Changting, the red Fourth Army confiscated the property of more than 10 reactionary gentry and raised wages to businessmen with a capital of more than 1000 yuan, raising a total of over 5 yuan.

Taking into account the establishment of the Red Army since the founding of the people's Republic of China, the "military uniform" is quite diverse, rather dilapidated and urgently needed to be replaced. The front committee decided to make use of these military rates and Changting's fine sewing and dyeing conditions to make up 4000 sets of military uniform. The secret trade union of Changting assists the Logistics Department of the Red Army to purchase cloth. At that time, there was no gray cloth in the shop, and the logistic supply department contacted the dyeing and finishing workshop, dyed the cloth into grey, then organized the individual tailoring workers and a tailoring factory specializing in military uniform, and established the Red Army temporary garment factory in Zhengwu, South Gate Street (later developed into the Chinese Suwei garment factory). Due to tight time and quantity, there were only more than 20 tailors and 12 sewing machines, with fewer workers and less machines. The temporary clothing factory was on shift for 8 hours, working overtime day and night. The military uniform is modeled on the Soviet Union's Red Army uniform (the Chinese tunic style, with two pockets below) and the octagonal hat pattern worn by Lenin, and then sewed two red cloth collar badges and eight star stars on the collar of the military uniform. At this time, coincided with the death of Lenin 5th anniversary, in memory of Lenin's great achievements, the Red Army's Front Committee decided to put the black collar of the 4000 sets of gray military uniform on the red side to mark the memorial. This is the only red collar in the history of the Red Army with a black border military uniform.

American writer Smedley wrote in the Great Road: "when Zhu mentioned these sewing machines, he had a lot of friendly voices. General Zhu De said, "these machines are very important to us, because before that, all my clothes were made by hand. But now we have the first batch of regular Red Army uniform. The color of the new military uniform is grey. Each set has a pair of leggings and a red cap. It is not as beautiful as a foreign military uniform, but it is really excellent for us. The cadres of the red Fourth Army put on the new military uniform and their morale increased greatly. They held a grand parade in the South Village Square, and accepted the leadership of Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi and so on in a neat and powerful military manner. Mao Zedong once made a speech, which said: the red collar of the Red Army uniform collar represents two red flags. Chen Yi explained the colors of military uniform: "gray blue represents mountains, oceans, indigo mountains and vast lands." It was also the first time that the Red Army had uniform clothing within the scope of a military force.