In March 1930, ** led the Red Fourth Army to settle in Xingguo County for the second time, and specially met with the secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee in the county. Soon, a childish teenager appeared at the workplace of Weijiang Academy, and the two had an in-depth conversation.
** deeply admired this young man, not only left him for lunch, but also introduced him to *** and said: "This son will become a great man in the future." The 14-year-old secretary of the Youth League Committee is General Xiao Hua, who lived up to the expectations of the first and became the youngest founding general of New China after only 25 years.
General Xiao Hua's acquaintance with *** starts with his life.
Xiao Hua, a child born in 1916 in a mason family in Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province, since the age of six into the Xiao clan primary school, with the reputation of "sensitive and studious" in his hometown, every exam can achieve the first grade of good results, by the villagers affectionately known as "prodigy".
There is an old Chinese saying: "Ambition is not in old age". Xiao Hua is such a young man with great ambitions. Although his family was not wealthy, his daily life was very frugal, and he often wore shabby clothes to school, but his ambition was so high.
His story tells us that as long as we have ambition and perseverance, we can definitely achieve our dreams, no matter how old or what circumstances we were born in.
When Xiao Hua was a child, he once wrote an essay entitled "My Future". Most of the other students wrote that "I want to be promoted to become a rich man and a big official in the future", but Xiao Hua wrote: "The biggest regret in life is to see the country fall apart and the people suffer, but I can't contribute to the country and the people."
The happiest thing in life is to see the prosperity of the motherland and the happiness and well-being of the people. His goal in the future is to "devote himself to the revolution and fight all his life for the peace and prosperity of the country." ”
He said that he wanted to "bring down the great powers and eradicate the warlords." After reading his essay, the teacher appreciated his ambition very much, so he posted his essay on the wall as a typical example for comment.
Later, Xiao Hua joined the revolutionary ranks with his family, joining the local trade unions and peasant associations. Xiao Hua, who is 11 years old, also officially participated in the training course for young cadres and worked hard to achieve peace and prosperity in the country.
However, on April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup in Shanghai, and some people in Xingguo County who were not determined quit the Communist Party and the Communist Youth League one after another.
This made Xiao Hua and his family face an even more severe test.
Faced with the cruel reality of the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup, Xiao Hua's family chose a completely different path. They took the initiative to take on the task of transmitting information to the party organization and became a member of the "underground transportation station".
Xiao Hua was not easy to attract attention because of his young age, so he was selected by the party organization as an "underground traffic officer". On a way to deliver a letter, Xiao Hua was intercepted by a reactionary policeman.
He calmly told the police that he was leaving his relatives, and the police rummaged through his basket but found nothing. This allowed Xiao Hua to successfully complete the mission, and when he arrived at his destination, he immersed his clothes in the water and waited for the sun to dry them, and the secret letter was revealed.
In the face of the curiosity of the answering staff, Xiao Hua said that as long as the letter is not lost, he is fearless. The interviewer admired Xiao Hua's courage and determination, and asked him why he was so determined to work for the welfare of the people at such a young age.
Xiao Hua's answer was deeply moving: "As long as you can seek justice for the people who have suffered for generations, then why die yourself?" After hearing this, the answering staff was deeply moved and sighed that Xiao Hua must have a great future to do.
In April 1928, at the enlarged meeting of the CPC Xingguo District Committee held in Bingxindong, it was officially decided to carry out the "Xingguo Riot" on December 20. This was one of the most important decisions of Xiao Hua's life, and he proved his determination and courage to work for the welfare of the people with his actions.
In the early morning of December 20, Xiao Hua and other members of the Communist Youth League appeared on the streets of Xingguo County, which was covered with dark clouds. In order to avoid injuring innocent people by mistake while fighting local tyrants, they need to investigate the residences of reactionary landlords in advance and mark them at the door.
After full preparation, Xiao Hua and his companions sent a signal, and the riot team instantly rushed into Xingguo County. According to the markings, they accurately wiped out the local tyrants and gentry who did a lot of evil, and at the same time seized their private ***
In the process of cooperating with the rioters to clean up the reactionaries and confiscate the guns, Xiao Hua discovered that the "Fire God Bodhisattva" wearing robes and hats on the shrine of the Huoguan Temple turned out to be Xiao Zheng'an, the county's police chief.
He immediately notified the rioters and shot Xiao Zhengan to death, making a great contribution to the successful completion of the riot. In this campaign, the riot squad successfully defeated the Kuomintang police brigade and the Jingwei regiment, and the Kuomintang Xingguo county magistrate fled in disarray.
In total, the riot squad seized more than 100 enemy guns, executed 13 heinous reactionaries, and successfully rescued more than 200 so-called "political prisoners" arrested by Kuomintang reactionaries.
However, soon after the end of the uprising, it was counterattacked by the enemy, so our party organized a second uprising in February 1929 and succeeded in occupying the county town of Heungguk.
Two months later, the party representative of the Red Fourth Army and the former secretary of the enemy committee led the third column of the Red Fourth Army to Xingguo County and lived in the Wenchang Palace of Weijiang Academy. **After the news of the arrival spread, it quickly caused a sensation in Heungguo County.
The old watches in Jiangxi went to Wenchang Palace one after another, wanting to see the best side. Seeing that there were more and more people outside the Wenchang Palace, the Xingguo County Party Committee decided to convene a mass meeting to invite *** to meet with the people.
** At the 5,000-person meeting held on Jixinling, he walked on the rostrum with other cadres of the Third Column. When the old watches in Jiangxi witnessed this scene, they burst into tears and applauded continuously.
Xiao Hua squeezed into the front row with his small man and applauded desperately. ** The speech on the "Workers' and Peasants' Revolution" was delivered in vivid language, which aroused bursts of laughter from the audience.
Suddenly, it rained in the sky, ** looked up at the sky, and then waved his arm and said: "This rain is so good, as soon as the revolution comes, the year has changed, and it has become smooth." ”
**The humorous speech impressed Xiao Hua and others. Later, ** drafted and formulated the "Land Law" of Xingguo County in Weijiang Academy, in order to better implement the "Land Law", he opened a training class for agrarian revolutionary cadres, and Xiao Hua became the youngest student because of his firm revolutionary beliefs and outstanding contributions.
Under the teachings of ***, Xiao Hua has a deeper understanding of the revolutionary situation and a stronger revolutionary will. After Xiao Hua graduated, Xingguo County established the Communist Youth League County Committee, he was appointed as an organizing member, and in December he was elected secretary of the Xingguo County Committee of the Communist Youth League of the Young Communist Party, when he was only 13 years old.
Are you the very capable Xiao Hua? After Xiao Hua took office, he ran across the country, and his unremitting efforts made all districts in Xingguo County set up Youth League committees, and all townships also set up Youth League branches, and even formed a youth pioneer team.
In April 1930, ** came to Xingguo County again, and the leaders of the local county party committee praised him and believed that his future was limitless. ** Curious about this, although he had given lessons to Xiao Hua, he was not impressed by Xiao Hua because he had to take care of more than 40 students.
After listening to the report of the leaders of the local county party committee, he ordered the guard Xiao Wang to invite Xiao Hua to the Wenchang Palace of Weijiang Academy to meet.
**Initial conversation with Xiao Hua. Xiao Hua was a little nervous, and when he arrived at the academy tremblingly, he saw that ***, who he had admired for a long time, was sitting on a chair with a back reading a book.
**I don't care that the book has turned yellow because of its age, and I still read it with relish. After Xiao Hua took a deep breath, he shouted at ***: "Report!" ”
**Put down the book in his hand, then walked up to Xiao Hua, and said with a smile: "Oh, you are the very capable Xiao Hua?" Before Xiao Hua could react, ** then asked, "How old are you this year?" ”
Xiao Hua hurriedly replied: "15 years old (imaginary)!" He nodded and asked, "Then how many years have you been reading?" Xiao Hua then replied: "7 years!" ”
**Seeing that Xiao Hua was a little nervous, he pulled him to find a place and asked, "Do you know that you have a song in Xingguo?" Then without waiting for Xiao Hua to react, he recited a song about the little son-in-law who sang the country locally.
Seeing that Xiao Hua was a little confused, he picked up the yellowed book that was put aside and said to him: "I know this song from this book." Only then did Xiao Hua see the name of the book he read: "Xingguo County Chronicles".
Later, *** told Xiao Hua that this kind of county chronicle that records the history of a county has a great effect, whether it is the officials and political leaders recorded in the book, or the folk customs in it are very useful for the development of our revolutionary work.
Seeing that Xiao Hua was no longer so nervous, ** chatted with him about business, asked him about the work of the Communist Youth League of Xingguo County, and after Xiao Hua finished his serious report, ** recognized his work very much, applauded repeatedly, and instructed Xiao Hua to focus on mobilizing young people to participate in the work of fighting local tyrants and dividing land, and at the same time pay attention to strengthening the propaganda and education work of young people.
**The appreciation and cultivation of Xiao Hua made Xiao Hua emerge as an outstanding Red Army general at a young age. Xiao Hua performed well in the work of expanding the Red Army in Xingguo County, attracting more than 10,000 young people to join the Red Army in the first expansion alone, and he made great contributions to this end.
** Spoke highly of Xiao Hua's work and praised his achievements in several conversations. With the trust and support of ***, Xiao Hua gradually emerged and was transferred to the Military Commission of the Red Fourth Army as a youth commissar, and was promoted to battalion political commissar, regimental political commissar, youth director of the Political Department of the Red First Army and youth director of the General Political Department of the Red Army in just two years.
Xiao Hua's work ability was widely recognized, and his proposal to create an "International Division of the Young Communist Party" was quickly adopted and realized. Because of his outstanding performance in revolutionary work, Xiao Hua was appointed political commissar of the "International Division of the Young Communist Party" in November 1933.
He was only 17 years old, but he was already a highly regarded young leader.
Xiao Hua, in September 1933, led the soldiers with an average age of less than 18 years old in the battle of Lichuan, successfully annihilated an entire company of the enemy, captured a large amount of ammunition, and achieved "self-sufficiency".
In October 1934, the Red Army had to withdraw from the ** Soviet area and embark on the journey of the Long March, in the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, he commanded the International Division of the Young Communist Party to successfully block the enemy's attack.
In January 1935, after the successful convening of the Zunyi Conference, he was appointed head of the Organization Department of the Political Department of the First Red Army at the age of 19. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was appointed as the commander and political commissar of the Eighth Route Army's eastward anti-Japanese advance column in June 1938, and went to the Jilu Plain for development.
It soon became a local sensation, and people called him "Commander Doll". * He also personally arranged for him to reunite with Wang Xinlan, a female newspaper operator who interned at the Yan'an Xinhua News Agency News Channel.
Xiao Hua and Wang Xinlan*** In addition to caring about Xiao Hua's "personal growth", they are also very concerned about Xiao Hua's work in consolidating and developing the anti-Japanese base in Shandong on the front line.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in August 1945, after conducting an in-depth analysis of the current situation, our party formally formulated the strategic policy of "developing to the north and defending to the south", and decided to transfer four divisions from the liberated area of Shandong to cross the Bohai Sea to the northeast.
After the establishment of the Liaodong Military Region (South Manchurian Military Region) in 1946, Xiao Hua was appointed as the political commissar of the military region, commanding the troops to fight many battles with the Kuomintang army, and on May 27, 1946, Xiao Hua successfully forced the Kuomintang 184th Division commander Pan Shuoduan to revolt and surrender, and Pan Shuoduan also became the first ** general to revolt and surrender to the city during the Liberation War.
After that, Xiao Hua commanded the troops to annihilate the 25th Kuomintang Division with more than 8,000 troops in the Xinkailing area, creating a glorious record of the Northeast Coalition Army annihilating the enemy's integrated division.
Therefore, when *** met with Xiao Hua and other cadres of the Fourth Field Army and division level in Xiangshan, Beiping on March 31, 1949, he deliberately said to Xiao Hua, the political commissar of the 13th Corps of the Fourth Field Army, who had not seen him for nearly 12 years: "Xiao Hua, you and I haven't seen each other for many years, but my ears are very long, you are a political commissar, a commander, a Shandong, a northeast, and you have a great future!" ”
General Xiao Hua, former political commissar of the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and deputy director of the General Political Department, was awarded the rank of general in 1955, becoming the youngest founding general of New China, ranking 17th among the 57 founding generals.
** The chairman's prophecy that "this son will become a great thing" was fulfilled 25 years later. General Xiao Hua deeply felt the grace of the education and cultivation of the party and the chairman, and said in his memoirs in his later years: "I, Xiao Hua, can have today, thanks to the teachings and cultivation of the party and the party..."