In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and the guerrilla units in the eight southern provinces were reorganized into the New Fourth Army, while the main force of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army.
In order to strengthen the construction of the New Fourth Army, Yan'an sent many cadres, including a man named Chen Kang.
During the Red Army, Chen Kang was already an excellent regiment commander. However, when he was transferred to the New Fourth Army, he was not promoted, but was demoted to battalion commander.
This treatment made Chen Kang feel dissatisfied, and even triggered his decision to leave the New Fourth Army and rejoin the Eighth Route Army. So, what are the other stories about Chen Kang?
Born in 1910, he joined the Red Army at the age of 20 and became a Red Army soldier in the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet region. During the anti-"encirclement and suppression" period, he performed heroically and gradually became a member of the Red Fourth Front Army.
He also actively participated in and played an important role in the establishment of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area and in the anti-"three-way siege" and the "six-way siege".
Chen Kang was a brave and fearless general of the Red Fourth Front Army, and he showed great determination and courage in battle. Among them, in the anti-"siege" battle in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Region, he led his troops to successfully seize the Jianmen Pass, which the Kuomintang regarded as impregnable, smashed the enemy's conspiracy in one fell swoop, and made great contributions to the smooth transfer of the Red Fourth Front Army.
Subsequently, Chen Kang followed the Red Fourth Front Army to participate in the arduous Long March, and finally successfully arrived in northern Shaanxi. During the Long March, he was already the commander of the Red 31st Army.
In northern Shaanxi, he entered the third phase of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, and after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was sent to the New Fourth Army to carry out anti-Japanese activities in the south with the New Fourth Army.
Chen Kang only served as a battalion commander in the New Fourth Army, and his position was reduced, which made him dissatisfied. On July 31, 1938, he and Ye Daozhi, who had worked together in the Red Fourth Front Army, left with ** without permission on the pretext of checking the terrain, and were intercepted by personnel of the New Fourth Army in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi.
Ye Daozhi was shot on the spot, and Chen Kang, after realizing his mistake, finally returned to the Eighth Route Army.
After Chen Kang returned to the Eighth Route Army, he was quickly promoted by virtue of his outstanding military talents. Soon after, he became a powerful regimental commander in the 129th Division.
In the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chen Kang fought side by side with the Eighth Route Army and finally won the victory. During the Liberation War, Chen Kang served as the commander of the 13th Brigade in the Fourth Column of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, and in 1949, after the establishment of the Second Field Army, he successfully entered the 13th Army and became the deputy commander.
General Chen Kang threw himself into the battle to liberate the southwest in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and stayed in the southwest region after the victory. In 1952, he served as the commander of the 13th Army and was stationed in Yunnan with his troops.
After that, he also served as deputy commander of the Kunming Military Region and commander of the Yunnan Provincial Military Region, of which the Kunming Military Region was one of the important military regions of our army at that time, and General Chen Kang was also promoted to deputy commander of the large military region shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
In 1955, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and became the founding lieutenant general of New China. After that, he worked in Yunnan for a long time, serving as the secretary of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee (with the first secretary at that time) and the deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Revolutionary Committee, making significant contributions to stabilizing the social order in Yunnan during the ten-year special period.
In 1977, he left Yunnan and returned to the army as deputy commander of the Lanzhou Military Region.
In 1981, General Chen Kang chose to live out his old age in peace, and he has lived in Beijing ever since. In his later years, he devoted himself to writing many memoirs about the revolutionary period, such as the "Military History of the 15th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", which are valuable spiritual treasures that are still praised by us today.
In 2002, General Chen Kang died of illness at the age of 92.