We have an army for fighting as well as an army for labour. For fighting, we have the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies but even they do a dual job, warfare and production. With these two kinds of armies, and with a fighting army skilled in these two tasks and in mass work, we can overcome our difficulties and defeat Japanese imperialism.
“Get Organized!” (November 29,), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 153.
Anyway
Making the low-ranking grunts do menial labor is just a thing in the military. Not even as punishment necessarily but also as busywork.
conditioning too, gotta learn to do anything for as long as told whenever told