The cradle of generals during the Anti-Japanese War
When it comes to the leadership of the Communist Party of China during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the first thing that comes to mind may be the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, but in addition, we also have the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Army that bravely resisted between the white mountains and black waters, and the Qiongya Column that fought hard at the ends of the earth.
However, in addition to these four main forces, there is also an armed force that we may not know much about - the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad. At its peak, this team had 50 regiments and 50,000 men, and we will give you a detailed introduction to the birth and growth of this unknown death squad, as well as the high-ranking generals of the Republic it produced.
The origin and background of the armband of the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad must mention a person - * He is a fellow Shanxi villager who is as famous as *** in Yan Xishan's eyes, and he is also a young talent in Shanxi, but because he can't be used by Yan Xishan, he finally chose to part ways with him.
Since Yan Xishan returned to the military and political power in Shanxi in 1932, he was deeply aware that Chiang Kai-shek had always wanted to annex Shanxi. In 1935, the "autonomy movement" in North China planned by Japan clashed with Yan Xishan's concept of monopolizing and developing Shanxi.
Although Yan Xishan had studied at the Japanese non-commissioned officer school and maintained good relations with Japan, in the case of Japan's attempt to occupy Shanxi, he began to reorganize his arms for war out of the dual considerations of national righteousness and personal interests, and repeatedly asked for economic assistance from **.
However, at this time, Chiang Kai-shek was pursuing the policy of "first securing the interior before attacking the outside", and not only ignored Yan's request, but also repeatedly urged him to send troops to exterminate the Red Army. Yan Xishan understood that relying on Jiang would not work.
In order to protect his homeland in Shanxi and consolidate his position in Shanxi, Yan Xishan began to seek cooperation with the Communist Party to jointly defend Shanxi.
In the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the founder of the Shanxi Provincial Open Working Committee of the Communist Party of China successfully established a special form of united front with Yan Xishan, the emperor of Shanxi, through the creative and flexible use of the party's united front thinking.
** put forward the three-sentence policy of "wearing Yan Xishan's 'hat', speaking Shanxi dialect, and doing the anti-Japanese and salvation work of the Communist Party of China", and carried out a series of work effectively.
First of all, he took over and reorganized the existing Shanxi Sacrifice and Salvation League, sent the backbone of Communist Party members to join the Sacrifice League, vigorously mobilized the masses, trained cadres, and made the Sacrifice League develop and grow rapidly, and it grew to 200,000 members in only three months, and by the summer of 1939, the members of the Sacrifice League had grown to about 3 million.
** In the Sacrifice League, military and political training classes were vigorously held to train a large number of anti-Japanese reserve forces, and most of these people later became the backbone of the anti-Japanese war in Shanxi and even the whole country. After Yan Xishan agreed to set up the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad, he immediately made clear our party's proposition, demanding that the new army must implement the new army system and arm the new army with politics, so the political commissar system should be implemented in the new army.
Yan Xishan expressed his support for this and promised, "As long as you can win the war, defeat the Japanese, and defend Shanxi, you will let go of what you do, ask people to give people, and guns to guns, in short, you will be the master to do it!" ”
In the end, the name of the new regiment was determined to be "Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad".
With the permission of Yan Xishan, relying on the resources of the Sacrifice League, the Shanxi Provincial Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad was quickly constructed. On August 1, 1937, the first corps of the death squad was formally established in Taiyuan, and ** served as the political commissar of the corps.
In order to ensure the overall leadership of the death squad, the "Regulations on the Political Commissar System" were innovatively formulated, stipulating that the political commissar is the supreme head of the unit, has the right to remove the commander at the same level, and the unit has the right to refuse to carry out orders without the signature of the political commissar.
Such a stipulation has created favorable conditions for our party to truly control the death squads and ensured the leadership of the Communist Party over the new army.
At the beginning of November 1937, he led the first column of the death squad to the anti-Japanese front line in the southeast of Shanxi, served as the political director of the third administrative region of Shanxi Province, and successfully led the establishment of the Taiyue anti-Japanese base area, providing strong support for the anti-Japanese guerrilla war of the Eighth Route Army.
Under the correct leadership of the Communist Party of China, the death squad grew rapidly, and soon developed from one corps to four columns, with one to twelve corps under its jurisdiction, with a total of 12 regiments, and became an important armed force under the leadership of our party during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
At the end of 1938, the "Death Squad" carried out the "Xilin Rectification", and many senior generals of the Eighth Route Army, such as **, Zuo Quan and others, gave lectures to the cadres of the "Death Squad".
By the first half of 1939, the "death squad" had grown to 50 regiments and more than 50,000 people, accounting for one-third of Yan Xishan's total strength. However, seeing that the ever-growing death squads only obeyed the leadership of the Communist Party, Yan Xishan began to sit still, and continued to create friction in a vain attempt to eliminate the death squads led by the Communist Party.
In June 1938, Yan Xishan's old army officers Lu Yinglin and Jia Yuzhi, taking advantage of the absence of the political commissar of the death squad, privately led the death squad to the Linfen front line to seek to engage the Japanese invaders according to Yan Xishan's instructions, in an attempt to eliminate dissidents by the hands of the Japanese army.
However, the refusal of the death squad to carry out the order without the signature of the commissar saved them from destruction. On December 1, 1939, Yan Xishan again ordered the second column of the death squad to attack the Japanese army, which would put the second column in a situation of being caught between the Japanese and the stubborn, so the second column refused to carry out the order under the leadership of the Communist Party.
Yan Xishan declared the second column a "rebel" under the pretext of calling it a "rebel" and ordered a "crusade". Subsequently, with the strength of the 6 armies of the Jin Sui Army, they launched an attack on the death squad in the 1st belt of Xi County and Xiaoyi County in Shanxi Province.
After the death squad fought hard and broke through, part of the army was transferred to the northwest of Shanxi Province to officially join the Eighth Route Army, of which the first column was directly led by the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the second and fourth columns were led by the 120th Division, and the third column was led by the 129th Division.
Despite Yan Xishan's obstruction and attack, the death squad always adhered to the leadership of the Communist Party and made great contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japan.
The formation and development of the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad is inseparable from the leadership of the Communist Party. The Communist Party sent a large number of middle and high-ranking cadres to the death squads, which allowed the death squads to grow and eventually join the people's army.
In a series of battles to establish New China, the death squad made great contributions. However, a strange phenomenon is that most of the main leaders of the death squads and the main generals of the four columns were transferred to local work after the founding of the People's Republic of China and were not awarded titles.
For example, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the political commissar of the 1st column served as the first secretary of the North China Bureau, the deputy director of the ** Financial and Economic Committee, and the minister of finance of the Government Council. Niu Peicong, director of the political department of the column, served as the vice chairman of Henan Province.
And the chief of staff, Yan Tianming, became the secretary of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and the secretary of the general branch of the "Workers" Socialist Party.
** and his wife decided to sacrifice their lives, the first political commissar of the 2nd column, Zhang Wenang, served as the director of the General Office of the Ministry of Communications and deputy secretary of the party group after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Han Jun, director of the Political Department, served as a member of the Beiping Municipal Party Committee, Secretary General of the Municipal Party Committee and Secretary-General of the Beiping Military Management Commission in 1949, and the second political commissar Wang Fengyuan served as the deputy director of the State Administration of Materials at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Rong Zihe, the commander of the 3rd Column, served as the vice minister of finance after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and Dong Tianzhi, the political commissar of the column, died in 1940. Lei Renmin, commander and political commissar of the 4th Column, served as the deputy director of the ** Department after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li Liguo, director of the political department of the column, served as deputy secretary of the Shenyang Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Tangshan City Party Committee after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and Liu Yuheng, the successor director, served as the deputy director of the ** Department of the Party Committee of the North Sichuan Branch after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Although the main leaders of the four columns of the death squad were transferred to local work after the founding of the People's Republic of China and were unable to obtain military ranks, there were still many high-ranking generals from the death squad who became the founding generals of New China.
These people included six lieutenant generals, including General Li Jukui, Liu Changyi, Li Chengfang, Li Shouxuan, Xiao Xinhuai, Kuang Fuzhao, and Zhou Biao, as well as more than 70 major generals such as Wang Zhan, Wang Ping, Li Jue, Gu Jingsheng, Su Lu, and Sun Chaoqun.
Li Jukui served as deputy commander of the 1st Column of the Decisive Death, commander of the 1st Brigade of the Decisive Brigade, and commander of the 1st Army Division of the Taiyue Military Region, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the Minister of Petroleum. In 1958, when he was transferred from Minister of Petroleum to Political Commissar of the General Logistics Department, he was awarded the rank of General.
Admiral Li Jukui served as chief of staff of the 3rd Column of Decisive Death, and later served as the first deputy commander of the Navy's Lushun Base, and received the rank of lieutenant general in 1955. Li Chengfang served as deputy commander of the 1st Brigade and deputy commander of the 1st Army Division of the Taiyue Military Region, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the second deputy chief of staff of the Southwest Military Region, and obtained the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
Li Shouxuan served as the deputy commander of the 3rd Column and the deputy commander of the 3rd Army Division of the Taihang Military Region, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the deputy commander of the Railway Corps, and obtained the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
Xiao Xinhuai once served as the head of the training department of the 4th Column of the Decisive Death, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the commander of the 66th Army, and obtained the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
Lieutenant General Xiao Xinhuai served as the deputy head of the second detachment of the Shanxi Field Mobilization Committee, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department of the 19th Corps of the Chinese People's Volunteers, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
Lieutenant General Zhou Biao, who served as the chief of the first section of the Second Regiment in the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Death Squad, and later served as a political commissar in the Air Defense Force of the Shenyang Military Region, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
As a special contingent under the leadership of the Communist Party, this unit has made tremendous contributions to the independence and freedom of the nation and to the country's democracy and prosperity. They were valiant warriors, and their stories deserve to be remembered forever.
If you have any understanding of this unit, welcome to leave a message to discuss, let us miss this heroic and special team together.