On October 26 Juche 21 (1932), Ri Ung Gol, head of the organizational department of the district No. 1 Party committee of Wangqing County, was assigned a task by a cadre of the county Party committee, who said:
“You have to go to Xiaobeigou right now to guide the commanding officers of the guerrilla army here. I am sending you because they hold very important posts in the guerrilla army.”
Ri rushed to Xiaobeigou on a horse.
As he just arrived at a house, a young man in khaki uniform and wearing a wooden pistol case came out of it smiling.
“I am Ri Ung Gol, head of the organizational department of the district No. 1 Party committee of Wangqing.”
“Oh, is that so! Glad to meet you. Call me Kim Il Sung from now on, please.”
Ri was surprised.
When he had been working in Ri Kwang’s special detachment in Wangqing, he had heard countless legends about Commander Kim Il Sung and admired him, but he had never thought he had been that young.
He later learned that the Commander arrived in Xiaobeigou of Wangqing a day earlier after making a long arduous journey in northern Manchuria by leading the main force of the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army.
Ri hesitated for a moment before asking the Commander to ride his horse.
The Commander looked at the horse carefully and said it seemed to be a fast runner, and then told the eldest guerrilla among his entourage to ride it.
But the man declined, asking him to ride the horse repeatedly.
Then the Commander gave up and said to Ri to walk together chatting.
He asked him how many farming households there were in Dabeigou.
After hearing that there were about 200 Korean households and some Chinese households, he asked again:
“Have all the peasants got ready soybean paste and soy sauce this year?”
“？！…”
Ri hesitated for a moment before frankly saying that he failed to pay attention to such a matter.
The Commander smiled generously and told him to the following effect: You should have been aware of such a basic matter as the organizational department head of a district Party committee. As we carry on revolution to make people well off, revolutionaries should, above all, be familiar with the living of the people in the guerrilla zone just as they are with the palms of their hands. Particularly, you should pay due attention to such condiments as soybean paste and soy sauce.
The organizational department head was deeply impressed by his popular traits.
The Commander humbly said to him to call him Kim Il Sung at their first meeting, declined to ride the horse caring about the elderly soldier and asked about the people’s living before anything else.
(I’ve lived for nothing. How can I call myself a cadre?)
That day he reprimanded himself time and again.
