When it comes to General Chen Geng, almost everyone who knows the history of China's modern revolution knows about it.
But when it comes to Chen Geng's past, there is still an anecdote that has not been recorded in history, which outsiders don't know much, but it is widely spread in his hometown of Xiangxiang, Hunan.
That is, he "abducted" his own brother-in-law to participate in the revolution, so that his father Chen Shaochun was angrily approached by his son's in-laws, Tan Runqu, and asked him for a son, and almost fell out because of this.
The year was 1927, and 28 years later, in 1955, in the Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, BeijingChen Geng was awarded the rank of general, and one of the people who was awarded the rank of general at the same time turned out to be his brother-in-law who was "abducted" by him back then.
Why did Chen Geng "abduct" his brother-in-law?And who is his brother-in-law?Did the two parents' families fall out because of this incident?He and his brother-in-law were awarded the rank of general at the same time because of their revolutionary achievements?
Chen Geng, formerly known as Chen Shukang, was born in 1903 in a wealthy family in Xiangxiang, Hunan.
With such a family background, it can be said that there is no need for food and clothing, but how did Chen Geng break through the shackles of his family and embark on the revolutionary road step by step?
First of all, we have to start with the strong martial arts and military traditions in Hunan, especially in Xiangxiang.
Hunan is the birthplace of the Hunan army of the Zeng Kingdom. Not only Zeng Guofan was ranked among the best ministers because of his military exploits in founding and leading the Hunan army to conquer the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom;There were many grassroots soldiers in the Hunan army, and they were also rewarded by the Qing court for their outstanding military achievements.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the Hunan army almost became a powerful military force enough to shake the imperial court, and in order to prevent the Qing Dynasty from thinking that he was self-respecting and plotting against him, Zeng Guofan had to disband the main force of the Hunan army on his own.
However, this period of Hunan army history, which is very short in the long river of history, has a very great impact on Hunan.
This effect is mainly reflected in two aspects:First, among the people of Hunan, a trend of martial arts and military service has been formedSecond, let the people of Hunan have the awareness of not being afraid of risks and serving the country and saving the people.
It is precisely the organic combination of these two concepts that makes young people in Hunan, especially in Xiangxiang, have a strong complex of "joining the army, making meritorious contributions, and serving the country and the people" regardless of their family background.
At the beginning, this complex also carried some feudal imprints of establishing military merits by joining the army, and then returning to their hometowns and honoring their ancestorsHowever, with the introduction of progressive ideas, the old democracy and the new democratic revolution interacted with each other, making Hunan the cradle of the revolution.
As the main body of the Hunan people's ideals and aspirations to join the army, the Hunan Army participated in almost all the epoch-making revolutionary movements in the early period of modern Chinese history, including the republican revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and the national defense movement that overthrew Yuan Shikai's restoration.
Chen Geng was born and grew up in such a place and in such an environment, so to speakFrom an early age, he was deeply influenced by this traditional concept and formed his own most simple worldview.
In addition, his grandfather Chen Yihuai, who relied on the Hunan army of Zeng Guofan, became a famous general of the Hunan army from a young man from a poor background, and was deeply respected and admired by the people of Xiangxiang after being disarmed and returning to his hometown.
As Chen Yihuai's eldest grandson, Chen Geng was influenced by his grandfather's military history and legendary storiesSince childhood, he has set his ambition to join the army.
So, in the process of growing up, in addition to receiving a new cultural education,His favorite was the Xi of martial arts and the art of war, which laid a solid foundation for him to become a Confucian general of the Chinese revolution in the future.
With this ambition and dream, in 1916, Chen Geng, who was not yet 14 years old, joined the Hunan army on his own initiative and became a young soldier in the Hunan army.
With the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Hunan army in Hunan has become a veritable local armed force, and after resisting Yuan Shikai's defense movement as emperor, the subsequent war of this army, whether active or passive, is basically a battle for territory between warlords.
As he grew older, Chen Geng had changed from an ignorant teenager to a young man with independent thoughts, and he found that if he continued to stay in the Hunan army, he would eventually become cannon fodder for warlord wars.
In 1921, after awakening his consciousness, he resolutely left the Hunan army.
At this time, Chen Geng fell into unprecedented confusion, he had the ambition to serve the country, but he couldn't find the direction.
During this time, he was forced to choose to work as a railway clerk, and when he was ready to live his life in a mess, a ray of dawn came into his heart, that is,He Shuheng, Guo Liang and other earliest Communist Party members transmitted to him the revolutionary ideas of new democracy.
And under the introduction of the two,In 1922, Chen Geng officially joined the Communist Party of China.
In May 1924, under the arrangement of the party organization, he was admitted to the newly established Whampoa Military Academy, became the first batch of cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy, and participated in the Eastern Crusade against the Guangdong warlord Chen Jiongming twice in a row, and in the second Eastern Crusade, he rescued Chiang Kai-shek, who was surrounded by enemy troops and wanted to pull out a gun and commit suicide.
And when Chen Geng continued to experience the baptism of war, and accompanied by the continuous growth and development of the revolutionary causeIn his hometown, Tan Shiming, who was very friendly with him since he was a child and was three years younger than him, has also grown up**.
Tan Shiming is also a native of Xiangxiang, Hunan, but his background and family background are completely different from Chen Geng.
The Tan family has been a scholarly family for generations, and has always been admitted to the office with literary examinations and won fame, but with the demise of the Qing Dynasty, the Tan family also declinedHowever, Tan Runqu, the father of Tan Shiming, is still a well-known local old-school intellectual, who makes a living by running private schools.
Tan Shiming was influenced by Chen Geng since he was a child, coupled with the war-torn social environment, so he couldn't be a rural scholar with peace of mind.
He also has the lofty ambition of serving the country and saving the people, and he also has the ambition of a good man in all directionsHowever, the complex social environment and ecology make him unable to see a way out in the future.
Because the Tan family and the Chen family are world friends, when Tan Shiming was seventeen years old, the Chen family married Chen Geng's fourth sister Chen Okra to him, and after the two got married, Tan Shiming told his wife about his heart knot.
After Chen Qiuhua knew her husband's thoughts, she not only understood, but also supported them very much: "If you really have this idea, you might as well send a letter to your eldest brother and hear what he thinks."”
Tan Shiming knew that Chen Geng had been out there for so many years, and the things he had come into contact with and his cognition of the current society had far surpassed his ownMaybe only this eldest brother can point out a clear path for himselfSo, after calculating with his wife, he sent a letter home to Chen Geng in the name of the husband and wife.
The year the letter was sent was 1926, when Chen Geng, under the arrangement of the party, had gone to the Soviet Union for military Xi and was not in China.
When Chen Geng received this letter, it was already after returning to China in 1927, and the situation at this time was completely different from before, with the continuous rise of Chiang Kai-shek's position in the Kuomintang, he began to gradually deviate from Mr. Sun Yat-sen's concept of "uniting Russia with the Communist Party and helping peasants and workers".
Originally, Chen Geng thought that Tan Shiming would first enter the Whampoa Military Academy to study Xi, and then make arrangements, but considering the complicated situation at the time, he still chose to let him join the special service battalion of the Fourth Front Army of the National Revolutionary Army first and serve as a civilian, which was in February 1927.
With the later Chiang Kai-shek launching the April 12 counter-revolutionary incident, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party officially broke down, and the Kuomintang began to vigorously arrest and kill Communists.
At this time, the top level of the Communist Party of China reached a unanimous understanding that "power comes from the barrel of a gun", so they prepared to carry out uprisings in various places through strict organization and personnel transfer arrangements.
Among them, the most famous is the Nanchang Uprising under the leadership of Comrade *** centered on the city, and the second is the Autumn Harvest Uprising under the leadership of Comrade *** with the countryside as the direction.
And Chen Geng and Tan Shiming were arranged to be the locations of the two major uprisings respectivelyChen Geng went to Nanchang and became a cadre under ***;Tan Shiming came to Xiangxi and became the confidential secretary of ***.
In this way, Chen Geng and Tan Shiming (renamed Tan Zheng) participated in and witnessed the founding of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in Nanchang and Xiangxi respectively during the most critical period of the Chinese Revolution.
Because Tan Zheng left home to defect to Chen Geng, there was also an anecdote that was widely circulated in Xiangxiang, that isWhen Tan Zheng's father, Tan Runqu, heard that his son was "abducted" by Chen Geng, he angrily went to Chen Geng's father, Chen Shaochun, to discuss the matter.
Of course, as a world friend with a good relationship, coupled with the relationship between relatives and relatives, Tan Runqu also knows very well that his son left home to participate in the revolution and has little to do with Chen Geng, it is completely his own choice, no wonder others, and can only complain a few words stupidly.
With the meeting of the two armies of the Nanchang Uprising led by *** and the Autumn Harvest Uprising led by *** in Jinggangshan, the Chinese Revolution opened a new prelude.
Since then, under the guidance of the same revolutionary beliefs and directions, the two revolutionaries who came out of Xiangxiang, Hunan Province, have started a vigorous revolutionary career in different revolutionary posts.
During the agrarian revolution, Chen Geng mainly worked in the special branch of the Communist Party of China led by the Communist Party of China, and then transferred to Hubei, Henan and Anhui to participate in the construction of the base area and the anti-encirclement campaignAnd Tan Zheng is in the ** Soviet area of western Fujian and southern Jiangxi,From the former secretary of the CPC Committee, he has grown all the way to the director of the political department of the division, regiment and front army, and has become an excellent political work cadre.
In 1934, Chen Geng and Tan Zheng met again on the road of the Long March.
During the Long March, Chen Geng served as the head of the cadre regiment and was the vanguard of the Red Army's Long MarchTan Zheng, then director of the Political Department of the First Division of the Red First Army, commanded and participated in many battles against the encirclement and interception of the Kuomintang army, and wrote a large number of guiding articles on the political work of the army.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Chen Geng served as the commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division, and later served as the commander of the Taiyue ColumnFor a time, the Japanese army was afraid of Chen Geng's troops.
Tan Zheng mainly stayed in the rear and served as deputy director of the General Political Department of the Revolutionary Committee of the Communist Party of ChinaResponsible for the political work of the whole armyIn it, he published important guiding articles on political work, such as "On the Political Work of the Revolutionary Army" and "The Cadre Policy of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army".
Tan Zheng is an important military political cadre who cooperates with Comrade *** and Comrade ***Not only has a complete political work system of the army been built theoretically, but the purity of the army has also been ensured through the rectification movement of cadres and the army.
In the War of Liberation, Chen Geng led his troops to participate in the famous Shangdang Campaign, and in the subsequent Jinnan Campaign, he wiped out the Kuomintang army, including the first brigade under Hu Zongnan, with a total of more than 30,000 people.
And through lightning and roundabout tactics, in the movement, the Kuomintang troops in the Jinji area were annihilated, and then forcibly crossed the Yellow RiverWithin a year, the liberated areas of Henan, Shaanxi, and Hubei were created, and the strategic rear of our army was greatly expandedIt laid a solid rear foundation for Comrade ***'s army and Comrade Su Yu's field army to advance into the Central Plains.
Subsequently, in the Huaihai Campaign, he led the fourth column and participated in the battle of comprehensively encircling and annihilating the Huang Wei CorpsIt also achieved brilliant achievements and made important contributions to the overall victory of the Liberation War.
At the same time, Tan Zheng, as a political cadre of the army, comprehensively led the creation and consolidation of the Northeast Liberated Area, and participated in the command of the famous Liaoshen Campaign and the Pingjin CampaignIn the comprehensive liberation of Northeast China and North China, it played a key role in leadership and command.
With the founding of New China in 1949, Chen Geng and Tan Zheng, who had been fighting against the enemy on their respective battlefields, got together again in Beijing, and the two recalled that more than 30 years have passed since they parted from Xiangxiang when they were young, and it has been 28 years since Tan Zheng was "abducted" by Chen Geng to participate in the revolution.
In the 28 years of the common revolution, Chen Geng and Tan Zheng only had a few opportunities to meetAnd every time they met, it was a milestone turning point in the Chinese revolution.
The first is the red base during the agrarian revolution, the second is on the Long March, and the third is Yan'an, the holy land of the revolutionThis rendezvous ushered in the final result of the Chinese revolution, that is, the birth of New China.
In 1955, in the Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, the award ceremony was presided over by *** himselfIn addition to the top ten marshals, Chen Geng, Tan Zheng and other ten people were respectively awarded the rank of "general" second only to the rank of marshal.
Both of them came out of Xiangxiang, Hunan, they are not only friends with their childhood, but also the relationship between their brother-in-law and brother-in-law, and they are a real family.
As Chen Geng's father, Chen Shaochun, he may not have expected that his son, who gave him a headache, would become a general who has been passed down through the agesAnd when Tan Zheng's father ran to the Chen family in anger to ask for someone, he never thought that the son who was "abducted" by Chen Geng would also become a generation of famous generals.
It's a pity that because Chen Geng and Tan Zheng participated in the revolution, the two families were also implicated, and the Kuomintang's local ** attack on the revolutionary family not only led to the sharp decline of the Chen family and the Tan family, which were originally famous families in Xiangxiang, but also caused the two old gentlemen to die one after another in the family changes.
They did not live to see the new China created by their son, did not see their son become a generation of generals, and did not hear the legends about their son's brilliant achievements and immortality.
The most distressing thing is that Chen Geng's most beloved fourth sister, who is also Tan Zheng's childhood sweetheart and wife Chen Okra, after Tan Zheng participated in the revolution, because of his weak body, coupled with his thoughts and worries about her husband, she soon fell ill and died.
When Tan Zheng's sister later said that Chen Okra hugged Tan Zheng's ** tightly to her chest before she died, Tan Zheng's tears couldn't stop flowing.
However, both Chen Geng and Tan Zheng knew very well that they sometimes had to give up their families for the sake of the revolution, and there were far more than the two of them in the entire revolutionary ranks. Isn't the founding of New China exactly what countless revolutionaries gave up their small families in exchange?
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the two did not have time to share the joy of the success of the revolution and the grief of losing their relatives for the revolutionary struggle, so they immediately went to their respective posts.
Chen Geng successively served as the chairman of the Yunnan Provincial People's ** and the commander of the Yunnan Provincial Military Region, and participated in the war to aid Vietnam to resist France and resist US aggression and aid Korea, and at the same time participated in the creation of the military education system such as Harbin Institute of Technology, and served as the vice minister of defense in 1959, and died of illness in 1961 at the age of 58.
Tan Zheng, who successively served as Vice Minister of National Defense, Vice Governor of Fujian Province, and Adviser to the First Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, died in Beijing in November 1988 at the age of 83.
Chen Geng and Tan Zheng, their lives have almost condensed the entire history of China's modern revolution and development, they are not only the trendsetters of the tide of the times, but also a member of ordinary people.
Under the influence of the old culture and traditions, both of them have gradually walked to the road of serving the country and the people from the old ideas of personal struggle, and have changed from the pursuit of personal ideals to the pursuit of the progress and development of the country and society.
The lives of the two continue to intersect because of common beliefs, and they are scattered and gathered more and less because of the common cause, and even can only give up their small family to take great righteousness, and the guilt of their family and relatives is a pain hidden in the hearts of the two that can never be erased.
They are not swept up by the tide of history, but have taken the initiative to plunge into the revolutionary wave of saving the country and the people in a prescient way, and have closely linked their personal ideals and aspirations with the general interests of the country and the nation.
Chen Geng and Tan Zheng, with half a life of bloody horses and a lifetime of struggle, have written their lives into a real legend.