During the Long March in 1934, Red Army troops passing through Guanheng Village in Rucheng County, Hunan Province, faced a severe food shortage.

Villager Hu Side organized the entire community to gather grain as support. The Red Army's Third Army Corps quartermaster, Ye Zuling, wrote out an IOU for 105 dan of rice, three pigs, and twelve chickens before he later died on the march.

In 1996, Hu Side's grandson, Hu Yunhai, accidentally discovered this yellowed receipt hidden inside a wall crevice while building a new kitchen stove. The following year, the local government redeemed the debt in full, calculating the value at current market prices.

Where the story leads

This remarkable repayment proves that while paper may age, a promise never fades. The receipt records a shared hardship between soldiers and citizens. Its redemption honors both Ye Zuling's sacrifice and Hu Side's generosity.

The IOU now stands as a powerful reminder of the trust between the Red Army and the people they protected. The local government's willingness to settle a debt from the 1930s, without hesitation, demonstrates that historical commitments still hold weight today. For Hu Yunhai, finding this artifact was more than discovering a family heirloom; it was reuniting with a piece of his grandfather's legacy and a moment in revolutionary history. The story serves as a touching reminder that acts of kindness, however distant in time, are never forgotten.