"It's not right for you to call me that. ”
At the beginning of 1946, **, as a representative of our side, went to Jinan to participate in the armistice talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. ”
Unexpectedly, as the top general of the East China Field Army, ** did not agree with this title and said that he was wrong.
The orderly asked confusedly, "You are the commander, how could I be wrong?" ”
Unexpectedly, the explanation of ** made Wang Yaowu, a senior Kuomintang general present, nod and praise.
What's going on here?
In 1945, after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek's ambitions swelled suddenly, and later he even tore up the Double Tenth Agreement and launched an attack on the liberated areas of the Communist Party.
In the face of the intensification of the armed conflict between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the United States adjusted its policy toward China, and under the mediation of Special Envoy Marshall, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party agreed to a temporary truce.
In January 1946, a three-member U.S. military team rushed to various conflict zones to coordinate their work.
At that time, the commander of the ** army also served as the commander of the Shandong Military Region, and the representative of the Kuomintang side was Wang Yaowu, commander of the second appeasement zone of the Kuomintang.
On the night of the flight from Linyi to Jinan, Wang Yaowu set up a banquet to entertain the party.
At this time, an orderly guarding the airport, in order to express his respect, stood up and shouted: "Commander Chen is good!" ”
* But instead of agreeing, he smiled and said, "You called the wrong one, you called one word less." ”
The orderlies were confused, they usually called Wang Yaowu "Commander Wang", is there anything wrong with calling him "Commander Chen"?
When he raised his question, ** said: "Our Communist Party serves the people, just like you are an orderly, as well as cooks, guards, and hygienists, they are all members of the people, you should call me Commander Chen." ”
The Kuomintang orderly suddenly came to his senses, stood up and saluted again, and said, "Hello Commander Chen!" ”
Standing on the side, Wang Yaowu was also shocked in his heart, they all called their military generals "commanders", highlighting an official word.
However, the Communist Party added a "member" after the word "commander", and in contrast, the pattern emerged, which also made him feel that the Communist Party really had something extraordinary.
In fact, adding "member" after the name was the earliest idea of Marshal ***.
In 1930, after returning from the Soviet Union, he served as a member of the Military Commission, and translated and studied the regulations of the Soviet Red Army together with Zuo Quan, ** and others.
On weekdays, he saw that there was no standard and rigorous title for the post in the army.
Everyone is called a man who cooks, a horseman who feeds horses, and a swineherd who feeds pigs, which sounds like a ragtag army and affects the image of the revolutionary contingent.
So, he called all the people in charge together for a meeting to study how to give everyone's position and set a standard.
He said at the meeting that the Kuomintang officers and soldiers had a clear relationship between superiors and subordinates, so they called the leaders commanders, but we could not do that.
He also stressed that we are the people's army, and we no longer rely on beating, scolding, and oppression to maintain relations, and we must embody a sense of equality in terms of titles.
After everyone's research, it was decided to add the word "member" to the back of the type of work, the cook is called the cook, the pig raiser is called the breeder, the guard is called the guard, and the official is called the commander
However, the term "commander" can only be used in operational command, and it is difficult to distinguish between ranks in peacetime, so the titles of company commander, battalion commander, division commander, and army commander are still used.
But when it came to the position of "commander", everyone was a little hesitant and didn't know how to call it more decently.
** Educated in the new ideas of the Soviet Union, he was very disgusted with the old warlords, and he knew that the high-ranking officers of the Kuomintang were called "commanders".
Therefore, in order to demonstrate the equal relationship between superiors and subordinates, he proposed to add the word "member" after the word "commander."
Since then, the standard appellation within our army has been used to this day.
But in the history of our army, there are two people behind the title of commander, who used to have no "member", they are **and**.
During the period of the Red Army, our army had three main forces, which were directly controlled by the first army.
Among them, the commander-in-chief of the Red Army was **, and after it was later reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, ** was known as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Eighth Route Army".
It was not until later that the Eighth Route Army was reorganized into the 18th Group Army, and people still called ** "Commander-in-Chief".
During the War of Liberation, ** became the highest military general of our army and the "commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army", and this title was canceled after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Although "Commander-in-Chief Zhu" does not have the word "member" at the end, it is still a title that is different from the "commander" of the Kuomintang, which is unique to our army and has also become a manifestation of the majesty of President Zhu.
During the Liberation War, ** also briefly served as the commander-in-chief of the Northeast People's Autonomous Army and the Northeast Allied Army, but compared with Mr. Zhu, the time is almost negligible.
In order to show respect and love, our officers and soldiers also like to refer to ** as "Mr. Chen", "Mr. He" and "Mr. Peng", which is more of a compliment for their upright character and courage to take a sword.
But among the old handsome, most of the low-key *** people call their actual positions very respectfully.
After liberation, the responsible persons of the major military regions of our army's navy, land, and air force were called "commanders" in private, except on informal occasions, and the standard title was "commander."
In 2013, our army changed the title of "captain" of the armed police corps to "commander", which not only marks the responsibility of the armed police force to maintain the highest level of responsibility, but also marks the unification of the title of the supreme head of the army.
Looking back at the history of our army, "commander," as a unique title in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, has continued from the war years to the present day, and has always maintained the true colors of the people's army.
It embodies that the officers and men of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will never change their purpose of serving the people only because of the difference in the revolutionary division of labor.
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Author: blank line
Editor: Chi Hong