The 1955 award was the first relatively comprehensive award in the history of our army, and in this award, many people who made outstanding contributions to the revolution received the honor they deserved.
General Tan Youlin is one of them, Tan Youlin became the political commissar of the division at the age of 20, and later served as the deputy commander of the main army of the four fields, according to his qualifications, he should at least be a lieutenant general, but in the end, he was rated as a major general, for this, the marshal in charge of the evaluation personally apologized to him.
In 1916, Tan Youlin was born in Jiangling County, Hubei, he joined the Red Army at the age of 15, served as the chief of the guard in the Honghu Soviet District, and later when the Honghu Soviet District was suppressed, Tan Youlin was wrongly imprisoned, ** Seeing this, he saved Tan Youlin's life, and since then, every time the Red Army fights, Tan Youlin is full of energy, and he rushes forward without dying, because he is more brave, he has also been wounded many times.
* Tan Youlin is very optimistic, Tan Youlin did not disappoint him, has relied on his outstanding performance as the Red Army independent battalion political commissar, the Red Army political commissar and other positions, in October 1935, ** Red Army came to northern Shaanxi, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 130 regiments of troops to encircle and suppress Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou base areas, the Red Second Front Army decided to break through, in order to strengthen the main force, the formation of the Red Fifth Division, He Bingyan was appointed as the division commander.
At that time, Ren Bi Shi and ** were very fond of Tan Youlin, thinking that he had the ability to be the political commissar of the division, so he recommended him to become the political commissar, this year, Tan Youlin was only 20 years old, in our army, Tan Youlin can be described as a "doll political commissar", although he is young, but Tan Youlin's ability is extremely strong, and he has successfully completed the task in many battles since then.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Tan Youlin went to work in western Hubei, and soon, he received a notice that Peng Xuefeng hoped that he could go to Henan with him to fight guerrillas.
In October, the Eastern Henan Guerrilla Detachment of the New Fourth Army was established, with Peng Xuefeng as commander and Tan Youlin appointed deputy director of the Political Department.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, it was decided to transfer a group of cadres and troops to seize the Northeast, Tan Youlin came to the Northeast and was appointed as the commander of the 4th Army Division of the Songjiang Military Region, and not long after, he was appointed as the deputy commander of the 359 Brigade.
At that time, there were many bandits in Hejiang Province, so the development of the organization here was extremely unsmooth, and He Jinnian, then commander of the Hejiang Military Region, proposed to the secretary of the North Manchurian Branch of the Communist Party of China to suppress the bandits, and immediately agreed and immediately asked the troops to carry out their work.
He Jinnian came to the 359 Brigade and transferred an infantry regiment and a cavalry regiment, in order to facilitate the command, he also borrowed Tan Youlin and asked him to serve as the deputy commander-in-chief of the bandits, and Tan Youlin was invited.
With the cooperation of He Jinnian and Tan Youlin, the troops eliminated the four flagpole bandits in the Hejiang area in just half a year, Xie Wendong, Li Huatang, Zhang Yuxin, Sun Rongjiu, and after the four people were eliminated, the other small bandits either chose to surrender or choose to surrender.
The success of suppressing bandits in the Hejiang area was so great that the headquarters of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army sent a commendation telegram to the two men.
Soon after, Tan Youlin was transferred to the political commissar of the Second Independent Division, and the commander of the Second Independent Division was Wen Yucheng, who later started the first war to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
After the establishment of the 12th Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, the 2nd Independent Division was reorganized into the 145th Division, Tan Youlin continued to serve as the division commander, he led his troops to participate in the Liaoshen Campaign, the Yisha Campaign, etc., in 1949, Tan Youlin was appointed as the deputy commander of the 39th Army.
The 39th Army is the main force in the Siye Army, and its first commander is the famous Liu Zhen, and Tan Youlin can serve as the deputy commander of the Siye Main Army, which shows that his ability is recognized by his superiors.
After the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the 39th Army became the first batch of combat troops to enter Korea.
After the 39th Army entered the DPRK, the first task it received was to conquer Unsan, the transportation hub in the north of Korea, Tan Youlin was promoted to deputy commander, he believed that the 39th Army could only win the first battle and not be defeated, so he personally went to the forward position to inspect.
Four hours before the scheduled time of the general attack, the enemy had traces of retreat, Tan Youlin and the army commander Wu Xinquan consulted, and decided to launch an attack immediately, and when the battle began, Tan Youlin was surprised to find that our army's opponent was not the first division of South Korea as mentioned in intelligence, but the first cavalry division of the United States army, which was known as the "trump card unit."
The 39th Army was caught off guard and launched an attack on the American army, they suffered some losses, and soon stabilized their positions and counterattacked our army, Tan Youlin proposed that we should use the advantage of our army's close combat and night battle to fight the enemy, and the army commander Wu Xinquan agreed.
At night, the 39th Army launched an attack on the American army, and in the end, after a day of fierce fighting, our army captured more than 2,000 enemies.
The Battle of Yunshan, our army defeated the strongest American ** team in the world at that time with inferior equipment, as soon as the results came out, the volunteer soldiers were enthusiastic, and immediately sent a commendation order to the 39th Army, after that, Tan Youlin led his troops to participate in the second, third, and fourth battles, and made outstanding achievements, and after the war, he was awarded the first-class Medal of Independence and Freedom by North Korea.
In 1951, Tan Youlin was transferred back to China and successively served as deputy commander of the public security forces of the Northeast Military Region, deputy commander of the engineering corps, etc., and when he was awarded the title in 1955, he was awarded the rank of major general and won three first-class medals.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Tan Youlin was awarded the rank of major general, which is indeed low, so the old comrades-in-arms of the Red Second Front Army, Li Da, Xiao Ke and others jointly reported to the General Political Department, thinking that the title of Tan Youlin was low. Hence the story at the beginning of the article.
Later, ** proposed to award him the rank of lieutenant general, Tan Youlin politely refused, and the old general said: "Many comrades-in-arms who participated in the revolution at the same time as me have already sacrificed their lives for the revolution, and now that I have a home and become a general, what is there not to be satisfied with?"”
In 2006, the general completed his legendary life at the age of 91.