General Yang Yong was the best person after stepping down as chief of the General Staff in 1979, and he had rich political and military experience and was recognized by veteran comrades in the party and the army. In order to allow him to take office smoothly, Zhang Zhen, director of the General Logistics Department, was transferred to serve as the first deputy director to assist him in his work.
However, Yang Yong's official appointment was delayed because he had angered some people by implementing reforms during the military reorganization, which led to anonymous letters written against him. This made it necessary to reconsider the candidate for the Chief of the General Staff.
At that time, the deputy commanders were Yang Chengwu, Wang Shangrong, Wu Xiuquan, Zhang Zhen, ** and others. Although Yang Chengwu once served as the commander-in-chief, he has already served as the commander of the Fuzhou Military Region, and there are some controversies in the world, so he was excluded.
Chief of the General Staff is an important position that requires a person of high moral character, seniority, and ability to unite people's hearts, and there can be no controversy. Among the chief officers of the major military regions and branches of the armed forces, there are three people who meet these conditions, and they are Yang Dezhi, Xu Shiyou, and Han Xianchu. They are all generals who have fought big battles, but Xu Shiyou and Han Xianchu are not in good health. Yang Dezhi, on the other hand, is a man who is good at uniting comrades, and he once served as the commander of three military regions for 25 years.
In the end, Yang Dezhi was transferred from the Kunming Military Region to the post of chief of the General Staff, Yang Yong was still the first deputy chief of the General Staff, and Zhang Zhen fell in the rank of the General Staff.
Zhang Zhen is a veteran chief of staff who came out of the war years, and he assisted Peng Xuefeng, Su Yu and other famous generals in commanding operations in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation. His ability was so good that in 1947, many commanders wanted him to stay by his side, such as Xu Shiyou, Wei Guoqing, Su Yu and others. However, because of the importance of the Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi battlefields, he was sent to the Central Plains by the General Headquarters and participated in the war of annihilation.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he worked in the Operations Department of the General Staff Department, the Military Academy, the Wuhan Military Region, the General Logistics Department, and other departments, involving operations, education, logistics, and other aspects, and he had a very good understanding of the situation in the army.
He worked in the General Staff for 5 years, assisting Yang Dezhi and Yang Yong until he left in 1985.