Fujian man, 99, recalls Red Army's lasting impact

At 99, Cao Dengxin can no longer remember every detail of his childhood, but he still remembers a song the Red Army taught him when he was six.

The song told of the hardships endured by poor people and urged them to awaken and support the Red Army, "Only then can we poor people rise up," it goes.

It is one fragment of Cao's childhood in Xiacao village in Ninghua county, Fujian province, which became an important base for the Red Army ahead of the Long March.

"I was only six when the Red Army came to our village in 1933," Cao recalled.

He remembers streets filled with Red Army soldiers dressed in gray cloth uniforms and straw sandals. They carried rifles and grenades, rolled thin quilts on their backs and wore bamboo hats. Life was very hard. When there was no grain, the soldiers mixed rice husks with food, Cao said.