In 1955, many officers were promoted, but only three divisional cadres during the Red Army period were awarded the rank of colonel. At that time, there were three kinds of medals, namely the August 1 Medal, the Medal of Independence and Freedom, and the Liberation Medal, which represented the Agrarian Revolution (Red Army period), the Anti-Japanese War period, and the Liberation War period. Each medal has three levels. Among the 640,000 non-commissioned officers who participated in the assessment, 178 were awarded the first-class eighty-one medal, of which only 3 were colonels: Luo Houfu, Xin Shixiu and Zhou Shiyuan;There are 313 people who have received the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, of which only 5 are colonels: Wang Zuoyao, Yin Xianbing, Zhang Weihan, Luo Houfu and Fang Ziyi;There are 993 people who received the first-class Liberation Medal, including colonels among the 100 people Luo Houfu, Yin Mingliang, and Lu Liping. Only 144 people received these three first-class medals at the same time, including 10 marshals, 10 generals, 47 generals, 59 lieutenant generals, 15 major generals, and 1 founding colonel, Luo Houfu. In addition, there are 2 transferred to the local area without military ranks, namely Feng Baiju of Hainan and Zhou Baozhong of the Anti-Japanese Federation. According to common sense, the veteran Red Army, who was awarded the Order of August 1, the first class, deserved the rank of general after more than 20 years of revolutionary struggle.
However, although Luo Houfu, Xin Shixiu and Zhou Shiyuan received the first-class eighty-one medal, they were only awarded the rank of colonel, and Luo Houfu was still only a colonel despite receiving three first-class medalsOrder of Eighty-One of the First Class. Luo Houfu went from level to level and then to level 1. According to the regulations of the Grand Awards, the recognition conditions for obtaining the three first-class medals are: 1. The first-class eighty-one medal, which is applicable to cadres at or above the division level of the Red Army and equivalent to the divisional level;2. The First Class Independent Freedom Medal is applicable to cadres at or above the brigade level of the Eighth Route Army (New Fourth Army) and equivalent to the brigade level3. The first-class liberation medal is applicable to cadres at or above the military level of the People's Liberation Army and equivalent to the military level. And Luo Houfu's highest position during the Red Army period was the commander of a guerrilla division. Luo Houfu was born in Hong'an, Hubei, "the first general county", which produced 62 founding generals, including Xie Fuzhi, Han Xianchu, Guo Tianmin, Zhou Chunquan, Wang Jian'an and other 6 founding generals, Wang Jinshan, Liu Changyi, Qin Jiwei, Zhang Renchu and other 12 founding lieutenant generals, as well as 44 founding major generals. There are also 230 generals who did not participate in the assessment of military ranks, including Dong Biwu and Division Commander Li.
Under the influence of the Jute Uprising, the 20-year-old Luo Houfu joined the Red Guards in northeastern Hubei and joined the Red Army the following year, rising from a guerrilla division fighter, company commander, and battalion commissar to guerrilla division commander. After the main force of the Red Army completed the Long March, Luo Houfu led a guerrilla force of about 1,000 people to carry out a guerrilla war for three years, so he was praised as "a banner of Dabie Mountain" by Commander Li of the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army. During the Anti-Japanese War, Luo Houfu served as the commander of the 14th Brigade of the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army and the commander of the 1st Division. During the liberation period, he served as the second deputy commander of the Northwest Hubei Military Region, and the commander of the military region was the founding general Wang Shusheng, the first deputy commander was the founding lieutenant general Liu Changyi, and the third deputy commander was the founding lieutenant general Zhang Caiqian. The Hubei Military Region, which was established after the liberation of Wuhan, is different from the "Hubei Provincial Military Region" established in 1957. At that time, the Hubei Military Region was equivalent to the level of the "Corps," and the commander of the Military Region was Division Commander Li at the rank of general, and the deputy commanders included Wang Shusheng, the later founding general, and Wang Hongkun, the founding general, while Luo Houfu, as the deputy chief of staff and deputy director of the Political Department of the Military Region, sat firmly at the rank of a regular army. According to this classification, in September 1955, Luo Houfu should have been awarded at least the rank of major general.
However, according to the military rank rating that began in 1952, Luo Houfu was given the rank of full division and was awarded the rank of colonel. In just over a year, what happened that caused a cadre at the regular army level to be demoted to the rank of a regular division and passed by the general?There is an argument that military merit is not enough. During the period of the Red Army, Luo Houfu was mainly engaged in the work of partial division containment. During the Anti-Japanese War, he was transferred to the local military district soon after serving as the commander of the 14th Brigade. During the liberation period, he served as deputy chief of staff and deputy director of the Political Department of the Hubei Military Region, which was actually the rank of deputy army. Another theory is that in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Luo Houfu "illegally raised funds" to generate income for the unit, and accepted a local chief as a worker, so he was demoted by the organization. There is also a theory that Luo Houfu used his position to help his father-in-law sell tobacco, so he was punished by the organization. If it weren't for the old leader Li Shichang to clarify the facts, Luo Houfu's qualification to confer the title would also be cancelled. Either way, in the end, Luo Houfu was awarded the rank of colonel. It was not until 1961 that he was promoted to major general. Founding Colonel Luo Houfu. In addition, Koshishu has undergone a promotion from the first level to the second level and then to the second level. As the second founding colonel to receive the Order of Eighty-One of the First Class, Xing Shixiu was seriously injured many times.
Xing Shixiu is a native of Nankang, Jiangxi, joined the Red Army at the age of 15 and successively served as a communicator, squad leader and platoon leader. After graduating from the Red Army University, he was promoted to the political commissar of the 3rd Regiment of the 8th Division of the Red Ninth Army Corps, and held the position of regimental political commissar after the Battle of the Xiangjiang River. A series of important events occurred in the history of the Red Army, among which the Red Ninth Army went south with the main force of the Red Fourth, and was later reorganized into the Red 94th Division, with Xing Shixiu as the political commissar, and the division commander was the founding lieutenant general Xiao Xinhuai. Xin Shixiu's experience in the process of the Red Ninth Army following the Red Fourth to the south had a certain impact on his future evaluation. During the all-out Anti-Japanese War, he served as the director of the inspection group and the chief of the cadre section of the 718th Regiment of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army. Xin Shixiu participated in the battle of Qihui and served as the deputy political commissar of the 1st Brigade of the Independent Brigade and was seriously wounded in the battle, and later served as the acting political commissar of the 1st Independent Brigade. In May 1946, in the Battle of Gushan in the Jireliao Military Region, Xin Shixiu was seriously wounded again. During the liberation period, he was injured many times so that Xin Shixiu lost the opportunity to return to the front line, and then transferred to the chief of staff of the Siye Railway Corps, and then changed to the deputy director of the administrative department of the training management department, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he went to the Military Medical University as the director of the material support department. In 1952, he was graded to full division, and in 1955 he was promoted to colonel.
Xin Shixiu was a deputy soldier during the Red Army, but injuries affected his performance during the War of Resistance and Liberation. Founding Lieutenant General Wen Niansheng. On the other hand, Zhou Shiyuan has been stable from the first level to the second level and then to the **, while Xin Shixiu's performance during the Anti-Japanese War and the Liberation Period was unsatisfactory. Zhou Shiyuan, who won the third class 81 medal, showed a significant decline in his performance during the Anti-Japanese War and the Liberation Period, from the first-class 81 Medal to the second-class Independent Freedom Medal during the Anti-Japanese War, and then to the ** Liberation Medal during the Liberation War, obvious differences can be seen. Xin Shixiu is the general of the Red One, while Zhou Shiyuan and Luo Houfu are both generals from the Red Four. Luo Houfu appeared most of the time as a partial division and a local unit, and belonged to the "green leaf" category of cadres. Like Zhou Shiyuan, the fourth general of the Red Army, he was born in Jinzhai, Anhui Province, joined the Red Army at the age of 15 and was soon promoted to the commander of the Red Army battalion. In August 1934, in the battle of Qinglongguan, Zhou Shiyuan and the 2nd Battalion cooperated with the brother troops to destroy 1 brigade of the enemy, and after the war, the 2nd Battalion was awarded a medal flag by the headquarters of the "Night Attack Winning Army", and Zhou Shiyuan was also promoted to regiment commander. Red.
After the first and fourth divisions, Zhou Shiyuan served as the political commissar of the 11th Division of the Red 4th Army, and the division commander was ***
During the Anti-Japanese War, Zhou Shiyuan served as the head of the 3rd Regiment of the 6th Detachment of the New Fourth Army, returned to Kang Da to study in 1942, and served as the magistrate of Qian'an County, Jilin after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. In July 1946, Zhou Shiyuan was transferred to the commander of the 1st Brigade and 3rd Regiment of the Western Liaoning Military Region, and participated in the Battle of Siping, the Battle of Songhua River, the Battle of Jinzhou and the Battle of Tianjin. Due to his special job duties, he held the position of regimental commander throughout the Anti-Japanese War. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Shiyuan served as the commander of the Xijiang Military Region and was still a regimental-level officer. However, in 1952, Zhou Shiyuan's promotion to the military rank was hindered by the "good mother-in-law" director of the General Political Department, and in the end he was only awarded the rank of colonel, which became a compromise between major general and colonel. However, Zhou Shiyuan's military rank was not due to his ability, but mainly due to the influence of organizational arrangements and long-term work in local troops, which led to difficulties in his subsequent promotion. Soon after receiving the rank, Zhou Shiyuan was promoted to deputy commander of the 28th Army and in 1964 to major general. In general, the military ranks of Luo Houfu, Xin Shixiu and Zhou Shiyuan were not awarded because of the problem of "low award", only Luo Houfu was temporarily demoted because he made a mistake and changed from major general to colonel.
The reason why Xin Shixiu and Zhou Shiyuan were not promoted to generals was because of their physical and work transfers, which led to the "high and low" military ranks. After the military rank was awarded, Xin Shixiu left the military system, while Luo Houfu and Zhou Shiyuan were successively promoted to major generals. From 1961 to 1965, a total of 554 colonels were promoted to major general or directly awarded the rank of major general. Therefore, it can be seen that it is reasonable that three people who have been awarded the Order of August 1 of the first class have been awarded the rank of colonel.