He is one of the longest-serving generals in the army, he participated in 3 of the 5 foreign wars, and walked through his life at the age of 95 with a legend of his life.
He was the 26th commander of the 26th Army, Zhang Gongxiu.
At the age of 22, he became Su Yu's operational staff officer.
Zhang Gongxiu is a native of Hongqiao Village, Huaizhong Township, Yongxin, Jiangxi Province.
Zhang Gongxiu joined the Red Army in his hometown, and later arrived in northern Shaanxi on the Long March.
At the end of November 1937, he was sent to the New Fourth Army, and soon after, the New Fourth Army formed an advance detachment, with Su Yu as the commander and political commissar, and Cao Hongsheng, the adjutant next to him, and Wang Peichen, the surveying and mapping staff officer, were all sent to Su Yu's side to listen to it, and personally named and assigned the 22-year-old Zhang Gongxiu to Su Yu as a reconnaissance staff officer.
Su Yu was very moved at that time, and said with emotion: "Mr. Chen has transferred all the strong soldiers to me!" ”
Su Yu was good at using troops, paying more attention to leading troops, and he had a habit of taking a few staff officers or scouts to the battlefield before the war to personally inspect and record the local terrain and the deployment of the enemy. Zhang Gongxiu became the person who went out to scout the most with Su Yu.
In the process of reconnaissance, Su Yu often threw some questions to Zhang Gongxiu, such as ** suitable for ambush? How long is each road? How many troops can be ambushed? After the end of the battle, the troops from should retreat from **?
By Su Yu's side, Zhang Gongxiu quickly completed a transformation. In his later years, Zhang Gongxiu once recalled: "This period in the advance detachment was an important stage in my growth. ”
On June 17, 1938, the advance detachment ambushed the Japanese army in Weigang, which became the battle of Zhang Gongxiu's apprenticeship. Zhang Gongxiu calmly analyzed the enemy's situation and suggested to Su Yu that he adopt the tactics of "attacking from the east and west, encircling from all sides, and closing the door and fighting dogs" to successfully ambush the Japanese army and win the first victory of the New Fourth Army on the battlefield of resistance against Japan.
The Southern Anhui Incident broke through, and Zhang Gongxiu led his troops to become the only unit to break through in formation.
In 1940, 25-year-old Zhang Gongxiu was transferred to southern Anhui as the head of the new regiment. Here, Zhang Gongxiu experienced a severe test of life and death.
On January 4, 1941, more than 9,000 people of the main force of the New Fourth Army moved from Jing County, Anhui Province to southern Jiangsu.
Zhang Gongxiu led the new regiment to serve as the vanguard of the left column. On the 5th, at the boundary of the woods, Zhang Gongxiu received a report from the outpost: There were vague Kuomintang troops nearby.
Zhang Gongxiu was very witty and reacted quickly, and he immediately sent the reconnaissance detachment on both sides to keep on guard, and the troops accelerated their advance. It was also Zhang Gongxiu's order that saved the new group.
On the 7th, more than 80,000 Kuomintang troops launched a surprise attack on the New Fourth Army, and the Southern Anhui Incident broke out. The new regiment was ordered to act as the rear guard of the whole army and cover the detachment to break through. Zhang Gongxiu responded calmly, led the new regiment after 8 days and 8 nights of fierce fighting, and paid a huge price, at the end of March, he led the whole regiment to complete the breakthrough with only more than 200 people left.
This was the only unit of the New Fourth Army that broke through in formation during the Southern Anhui Incident.
A leader in foreign wars.
In the history of the founding of the Republic, there were five foreign wars, and Zhang Gongxiu participated in three of them.
1.The Anti-Japanese Battlefield Grew Rapidly Zhang Gongxiu came to the New Fourth Army from Yan'an in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, and was tempered on the anti-Japanese battlefield and grew rapidly. From reconnaissance staff officers to battalion commanders to regimental chiefs of staff to regimental commanders.
In September 1944, he served as chief of staff of the 19th Brigade of the 7th Division of the New Fourth Army. In March 1946, he served as the deputy brigade commander and chief of staff of the 19th Brigade of the 7th Division of the Shandong Field Army.
In February 1949, when the 27th Army was established, he served as the first division commander of the 80th Division of the 27th Army.
2 When the Ninth Corps of the Korean Battlefield to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea entered Korea, Zhang Gongxiu had already received an order to serve as the deputy commander of the 26th Army when he was concentrated in Qufu, Shandong, but the head of the Corps did not agree to his immediate appointment.
After the Battle of Changjin Lake began, Zhang Gongxiu rushed to the 26th Army, where there was a serious shortage of military-level cadres, to serve as deputy commander.
The fourth battle began, and he cooperated with army commander Zhang Renchu and political commissar Li Yaowen to command the 26th Army to fight a very beautiful defensive operation.
The 26th Army launched three defensive lines on the front south of the 38th parallel, stubbornly resisting the repeated attacks of more than 80,000 US troops, more than 400 artillery pieces, and more than 300 tanks, and dealt a fierce blow to the "joint **".
In this blocking battle, the 26th Army held out until the beginning of the fifth battle on April 22, killing and wounding about 1 enemy in total580,000 people, 76 enemy tanks destroyed.
In the fifth campaign and the defensive operation in the autumn of 1951, the 26th Army fought very well, and the number of enemies destroyed ranked in the forefront of all the armies participating in the battle, and it played the prestige of the old Eighth Column.
In September 1954, the old army commander Zhang Renchu resigned due to illness to recuperate, Zhang Gongxiu served as the commander of the 26th Army, and in September 1955, he served as the commander of the 26th Army, and was awarded the rank of major general in the same year.
3 Defend southern Xinjiang and continue to write legends.
Zhang Gongxiu served in the 26th Army for two years, when the military organs were moved from Laiyang to Yantai, the Weihai garrison was formed, and the military rank was assessed, and the work tasks were very heavy, all of which were successfully completed under the leadership of Zhang Gongxiu.
Since then, Zhang Gongxiu has served as the commander of the 28th Army and the deputy commander of the Jinan Military Region.
In 1975, he was transferred to the deputy commander of the Kunming Military Region. During his time in the Kunming Military Region, he organized and commanded the operation against Vietnam and Weizhen in southern Xinjiang.
In 1979, shortly after the start of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, Yang Dezhi, then commander of the Kunming Military Region, left due to illness, and Zhang Gongxiu was responsible for commanding the Western Front campaign. The troops fought continuously for 17 days, broke through the Vietnamese army's defense depth of more than 40 kilometers, annihilated more than 12,300 Vietnamese troops, and caused a trend of threatening An Bai and Hanoi from all sides.
The elite 316th Infantry Division, known as the "White-cheeked Bird Division" of the Vietnamese Army, was almost completely wiped out by Zhang Gongxiu.
After the war, in 1980, he was promoted to commander of the Kunming Military Region.
On April 28, the Kunming Military Region launched a large-scale battle against the Vietnamese army on the front line of Laoshan in Yunnan Province, and it took only five hours to conquer the main peak of Laoshan. On April 30, at the cost of less than 100 casualties, the entire line of Yinshan was recovered.
A bright and upright life.
Zhang Gongxiu's life was bright and upright, leaving many good memories.
In 1934, when the Red Army began the Long March, Zhang Gongxiu, who had already served as a company commander, received from the regiment commander the 200 silver dollars that were dispersed to the company for safekeeping as military expenses.
Zhang Gongxiu knew that this was life-saving money for the survival of the Red Army on the Long March, so he packed it in a package and carried it on his back: a gun, a bag of food and ammunition, and this heavy silver dollar. Zhang Gongxiu fought while marching, carrying a heavy silver dollar on his back, walking through the Long March, and finally handed over 200 silver dollars, one by one, to his superiors.
In 1985, the armed forces were reformed, the large military regions were abolished, and the Kunming Military Region, which had just finished the war against Vietnam, was included in the list of disarmament, which was unacceptable to many subordinates.
As a commander, Zhang Gongxiu resolutely carried out the orders of his superiors, took the lead in doing the ideological work of his subordinates, and finally refused the arrangement of his superiors and took the initiative to retire from his leadership post.
There is a small story circulating on the Internet that Zhang Gongxiu was temporarily embarrassed due to funding others and had no choice but to borrow money from the nanny, which shows the noble quality of the old general.
On August 14, 2009, he passed away in Beijing at the age of 95.