At 12 noon, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Chi (67 years old, from Ben Tre) returned to a shack in Vinh Loc B commune (Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City). Due to the complicated epidemic situation, her business of selling lottery tickets has been severely affected. Going all morning, she has not sold more than half of the lottery tickets received from last night. “Selling too slow, I’m worried this month I won’t be able to pay for the room. Fortunately, the landlord has announced that he will cut my rent by half,” said Ms. Chi, adding that she would tighten spending. To save money, every day, she eats only white rice and dried fish that was given to her by a neighbor. Living in a difficult situation, she was very happy when she heard that her rent was reduced. This joy also comes to more than 300 people who are renting at Residence No. 1 (Hoc Mon district, Ho Chi Minh City). Mr. Pham Trung Hieu, the owner of the accommodation, said that during the recent Covid-19 epidemics, the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Worker Support Center and the accommodation have implemented many programs to support tenants. Currently, many motel owners have exempted or reduced rent for employees. During this epidemic, he also reduced the rent for more than 300 people staying here. “We give gifts to workers who are renting and reduce the room rate by 50%. The accommodation is supported by a sponsor of the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Worker Support Center. We will organize people to come and receive free rice next Saturday,” he said. Meanwhile, in a row of more than 20 rooms for rent on Nguyen Cong Hoan Street (Ward 7, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City), Mr. Ho De is free of charge for some tenants here. This is the fourth time that Mr. De has exempted or reduced the rent. He said: “Three previous epidemics, I also exempted and reduced rent. Poor families rent here for many years, I reduce the money. For students, students with difficulties, I always free rent.” Ms. Only received a reduction in the rent of the room from the lessor. To save money, she only eats white rice with the dried fish given to her. Local people said that Mr. De’s exemption and reduction of rent is not uncommon. Because more than 40 years ago, he had taken care of, even for people with difficult circumstances, poor students to stay in free accommodation. Leave a house of tens of billions, treat tenants like family In particular, recently, he completed a will with the content of leaving 2 houses worth tens of billions of dong for the lonely elderly and poor students – free of charge. Ho Thi Nhu Quynh, a student at the University of Industry 4, who is renting here, said: “Every epidemic, Mr. De also visits and asks for the innkeepers”. “He put up a notice to give everyone a 50% discount on rent. However, when he knew which families were too difficult, he reduced them from 60-70% of the rent. Some people are completely exempted from rent by him,” Nhu Quynh said. Similar to Mr. De, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (owner of a motel room in Tan Quy Ward, Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City) also reduced the rent and space for the poor from last May. This is the fourth time that Mr. Ho De has exempted or reduced the rent. However, until this June, the epidemic situation in Ho Chi Minh City was still complicated, so she continued to reduce the rent. She even actively reduced the rent of her already very low business premises. Mr. Nguyen Van Tai, the tenant of Ms. Thuy’s premises, said that he and his wife rented the business front in front of Ms. Thuy’s inn to sell soft drinks. Although located in a large street frontage, crowded with people, convenient for business, Ms. Thuy rented it to him at a very cheap price. “In this epidemic, Ho Chi Minh City was separated for a long time, so I sold very little. One day, we barely sold anything, it was very difficult. Fortunately, Ms. Thuy actively reduced the rent. This has helped our family a lot during this tight time,” said Mr. Tai. Thuy shared, most of the tenants here have been with her for many years. According to each person’s circumstances, Ms. Thuy will reduce the rent differently. She said: “In the epidemic, people who work are unemployed, business people are sluggish… Therefore, their income has also decreased a lot. How can I collect enough rent? I try to reduce the rent, rent the premises so that they can help some or that part. Right now, I just want to help workers overcome the pandemic so that they can stabilize their lives and send money back to their hometowns.” Like Mrs. Thuy, Mr. Hieu said, he always considers the people who are renting with him as “family members”. When his “family” was severely affected by the epidemic, he could not sit still. Therefore, even though he knew that he would lose a large amount of income when reducing the rent by 50% for more than 300 people, he still tried to do it.

It was early afternoon in the midst of the murky rocky mountains. The moon of January 13 has appeared at the top of the mountain. Uncle returned to border marker 108, in Cao Bang territory. Before Uncle was Mr. Le Quang Ba. Behind Uncle was Mr. Phung Chi Kien. Mr. Vu Anh went to the place to welcome Uncle. “It seems that Uncle had a lot of self-restraint – Mr. Vu Anh recounted – to keep his appearance calm. Whatever you see, Uncle always looks passionately.” Here, new corn fields sprout. Here, the rice field harvested during the year, is burning stubble. White bougainvillea flowers, looking like clusters of chili peppers, radiate fragrance. In the evening, when you reach Coc Bo cave, you have to go upstream to near the source, cross the other side, then climb up the rocky mountain to have a way to climb up the cave. The path is narrow, with many thorns, crisscrossing vines, and old reeds with white and silver flags cover the path. When I got there, I sat down to rest and found that Uncle’s luggage was empty. Only a small suitcase, no more than three gangs long, containing documents and a Baby typewriter, sent to Uncle Ho from Hanoi when he was still in Kunming. “The Flame of Pac Bo” by artist Nguyen Nghia Duyen. Photo: Vietnam Photo Newspaper. At the foot of the mountain is Pac Bo village, lying in the middle of rocks and mountains. In the past, usually at night, parents had to carry their children to sleep in a cave, to avoid bandits coming to rob and the West station to patrol. From 1937, there were brothers Le Quang Ba, Hoang Sam and Quoc Van to start the first phase. Through blood injection and swearing, knowing exactly who you are, the movement gradually spread. The village organizes a meeting for mutual aid and good solidarity. Every month, wherever you go, you will be on time for the Association’s activities. Since mid-1940, for some reason, those good cadres have gone, no one knows. The old man, surnamed Duong, from Nung Giang, remembers that night well, there are two more nights until the Lunar New Year. The Duong family is sitting around the fire on stilts. Out there, border night, full of secrets. Gusty. There was the sound of gunfire from the West station in Soc Giang. Suddenly there was the sound of someone rustling leaves around the house, the sound of rattling up the ladder: – Where is Dai Lam? Out to welcome guests – the stranger spoke up. Dai Lam stood up. Two silhouettes of men appeared in front of the oil lamp. It turned out to be two brothers Le Quang Ba and Hoang Sam. The whole family rejoiced. Wine and meat served. After chatting for a long time, Le Quang Ba called Dai Lam to the corner of the house and whispered: – Dai Lam, where can I borrow some clothes, a mat, a few bowls, a pair of chopsticks and pots and pans to bring to the cave. Because he was not the head of the family, Dai Lam had to tell his father the truth. The old man dismissed: – It can not be. For Tet, why go to the cave to stay. It was freezing cold, I slept in a cave, I couldn’t stand it. The two comrades insisted on asking permission to return to the cave. The old man, surnamed Duong, gently asked: – Or if you have something you don’t like with the villagers, just tell me. Mr. Le Quang Ba had to tell the old man that he had a strange comrade who came back, had to keep it a secret, and it was not convenient to go down to the village. Mr. Duong took things on loan, but kept muttering all night: “It’s so cold to go to the cave to suffer. It is clear: Good people have many misfortunes”. That was the first night Uncle Ho slept in a cave. The next morning, it was cold and rainy, the wild chickens had not yet woken up, Uncle got up, went out to practice climbing, walking, then went down to the stream to bathe. Then Uncle Uncle entered the cave, gathered the brothers, assigned tasks, chose a corner of the cave by himself, brought documents and typewriters to work. Mr. Vu Anh recounted: “The first day he returned home, Uncle immediately started working in a normal way. We thought that Uncle had been in this cave for a long time.” That day, Dai Lam’s father and son went to the fields to cultivate spring corn to the wild Lung Min upland. There, luxuriant rocky mountains, large gnawed forests have not been discovered by axes. A gentle old man came over: – Happy New Year, good luck. Wishing you all a very happy new year. Dai Lam’s father and son saw the old man for the first time, but they were like themselves. The two old people got to know each other, the story was awkward at first, because the one who spoke Nung Giang and the other spoke Kinh, were not fluent in each other’s languages. Finally, use Cantonese, speak fluently, occasionally write Chinese characters, draw words on the ground with a stick. The story is more and more bold and intimate, the new old friend named Thu Son – Gia Thu. The next day, when he went to the countryside, Mr. Duong told his eldest daughter-in-law to arrange a basket full of wine, meat, banh chung, and tea. The daughter-in-law understood, and asked her father-in-law to go to the cave to see the old man’s face. Arriving in Lung Min, he told Dai Lam and his eldest daughter-in-law to bring Tet gifts to Coc Bo cave. In the distance, behind the thorns growing in the rocks, many people are sitting and working with two black bearded old men (Uncle and comrade Cap). The older man, whom I met yesterday, was agile, wearing wide-sleeved indigo clothes, and came out smiling and greeting. The eldest daughter-in-law put down the gift basket in front of Gia Thu, then raised her head to say hello, asking permission to come down to work as a farm. Mr. Duong and Dai Lam who stayed were invited to have lunch with their comrades. In addition to the food provided by the house, there was also cabbage soup and salty fried meat with fish sauce. Spring wine meal, several times Mr. Duong begged: – Inviting you and your comrades to come down to celebrate Tet for fun. It’s strange, just go down, there are locals to worry about. Old Thu said: – I still want to, but I can’t get down yet, old man. The eyes and ears of the empire are many. The secret revolution is to keep the people alive. Then Gia Thu turned the story in another direction: – I’m old and still working for the revolution. He’s old, but he can still do revolutionary work. Uncle Duong struggled: – I can’t do it as a revolutionary. – The revolution is a lot of work, old man. Depending on talent, according to strength, whoever can do what can do it. They kept secrets for the revolution, helped protect cadres passing by in their villages, took care of the family work so that their children and grandchildren could be free to go to revolutionary activities and support the revolution. But these are the jobs you are doing. Uncle Duong was so happy to hear that, he nodded. – Well, what do you think, I can do it like that. At that time, on the cave was opening the first military cadre training class – attended by Mr. Dam Quang Trung – in order to foster a higher level of leadership and command for the key comrades in the region, to serve as a framework for military personnel. later part of the guerrilla movement. Anthropology about bases, a student asked: – Dear comrade, in the mountains, the mountains and forests are used as a base. What about in plains without rough terrain? Old Thu laughed and said: – If there is a mountain, rely on the mountain. If there is a river, it depends on the river. If there is no mountain, if there is a river, people will be the mountain river Gia Thu again mentioned four Chinese characters: “Human mountain, human sea”. And further explain that wherever there are people, there are mountains, forests, and seas. We must organize and mobilize the people’s strength into forests and seas to rely on. Knowing that Uncle had to live in a cave, the grassroots families in Pac Bo village loved him more and more, in their hearts of unease. One day, the old people – including Mr. Duong and his father-in-law Le Quang Ba – invited each other to bring wine and snacks to invite Uncle. Then borrow a cup of joy, express the wishes of the villagers, invite Uncle Uncle to come down to the village, when they search, hide in the forest. Uncle said goodbye and said: “Now that the revolutionary movement has developed well, everyone in the country loves cadres and is ready to help and protect them. Loving each other, helping each other make a revolution like that is good, not just staying together. Besides, each person has a job: People work in the fields, we do other jobs, I’m afraid it’s not convenient to go down to the village. Moreover, in this position, it is better to keep it a secret.” From that drink, Gia Thu mobilized the elders to establish the old patriarch to save the country. The old ancestor soon expanded rapidly into the surrounding areas.