"I am willing to take the lead, and when the meeting is over, I will be the first to join the company. ”
When General Yang Dezhi learned about the call of the general to go down to the company, he went to the company as a soldier without saying a word, but his performance still aroused the suspicion of the soldiers, and some soldiers asked: "Old Yang, did you make a mistake?" ”
So why is *** so calling? What did Yang Dezhi experience in the army?
The unity of officers and soldiers was established as early as the Jinggangshan period, and this was also a major difference between our army and the warlord troops at that time.
When the production is carried out, the head of the army will also participate in the labor like the soldiers, and the story of the famous "** Biandan" in the Chinese textbook happened at this time, Zhu Lao was always the commander-in-chief of the Red Army and worked personally, not to mention other cadres.
It is precisely in this atmosphere of equality between officers and soldiers and the kinship of the army and the people that our army was able to unite as one, continue to win battles, and finally ushered in the establishment of New China.
However, although this idea of equality between officers and soldiers is good, it does lag behind the needs of the army's modernization in terms of system building, and the military rank system with a clear division of labor has been put on the agenda.
In 1955, the first ceremony of awarding titles in New China was held in Beijing, and the leaders of the troops had military ranks, and the construction of multiple arms was also on the right track, which could have promoted the combat effectiveness of the troops.
But after a long time, Mr. Peng and other leaders of the Military Commission keenly discovered a hidden danger, that is, the military leaders in many places began to shout at their subordinates and the masses, and their military ranks became a reliance on showing off.
If this kind of trend spreads, it will inevitably affect the unity of the army and the people and the political equality between the upper and lower levels of the army, and this will undoubtedly be harmful to the long-term development of the army.
To this end, in August 1958, at the enlarged meeting of the Politburo held in Beidaihe, a call was issued, proposing to establish a system for army cadres to serve as soldiers in the company, he said
"All officers go down to serve in the army for 1 month every year, which is good and can understand the life, thoughts, and psychology of soldiers. As soon as a soldier becomes a soldier, he must conscientiously obey the leadership and command of the company commander, platoon commander, and squad leader. You take care of others for 11 months, and they take care of you for 1 month, and you can taste the taste of being a soldier, so that our troops will become an army ...... that can never be disbanded”
Most of them came from the revolutionary years step by step, and naturally understood the importance of equality between the upper and lower levels of the army.
Soon, the instructions were sent to the whole army, and Yang Dezhi, then the commander of the Jinan Military Region, was the first to respond to the call, and after a brief reading of the work meeting, he took the initiative to go to the sixth company of the second tank division in Xuzhou on September 20 to become an ordinary private.
Yang Dezhi as early as the Red Army period into the revolution, on the Long March, he led the Red Regiment is the pioneer, paving the road in the mountains, building bridges in the water, Yang Dezhi is both civil and military, leading the troops to win one battle after another, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yang Dezhi was awarded the rank of general.
This is the first time that a general has been a private, and other leaders of the military region saw that Yang Dezhi personally took the lead, and they also went to the company to serve as soldiers.
So how does Yang Dezhi's "recruit life" perform?
In order not to receive special care and not to affect the training of the soldiers, Yang Dezhi strictly ordered that all departments on this trip must be kept strictly confidential, and only the company commander and instructor of the sixth company he was going to know his identity.
For the sake of convenience, Yang Dezhi also assumed the pseudonym Yang Shaoqi, which was his name before joining the Red Army, and few people knew it.
After coming to the army, Yang Dezhi was assigned to the 6th company and 4th class, the sixth company is a meritorious company, and was awarded the honorary title of the special meritorious sixth company, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the troops of the surprise attack on the White Tiger Regiment were the sixth company, and when he came here, Yang Dezhi was also determined not to drag the soldiers back.
The reason why I say this is not because Yang Dezhi's military quality and command ability are lower than those of the soldiers, but because of his older age and the fact that he has not undergone systematic training for many years, his physical strength is still far behind that of young soldiers.
Sure enough, on the first day of enlistment, the troops carried out 5000-meter cross-country training, although Yang Dezhi ran down the whole way, but he was still out of breath, he was deeply aware of the foresight of the army, and the army cadres should indeed go down to the company to exercise, otherwise how can they still have the physical strength to command the troops in wartime.
In tidying up the housekeeping, Yang Dezhi was also very attentive and put the backpack neatly, but the squad leader Yin Bihui personally sorted it out for him again, and the squad leader naturally didn't know his identity, so why did he do it?
It turned out that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, General Yang Dezhi became more and more busy with his work as he became more and more general, and he lacked an understanding of the internal affairs of the troops.
The squad leader personally demonstrated to him, Yang Dezhi suddenly realized, and immediately sorted out the housekeeping according to the existing standards, and Yin Bihui was also very satisfied with his learning speed.
On the training ground, Yang Dezhi was given an automatic rifle, which he had also seen, but he had never operated it himself, so he still used the action of using the old submachine gun in the past, but although the action was very sharp, he couldn't pull out the gun shuttle.
It turned out that after a long period of development, the equipment has long been updated, and most of the old ones have been eliminated.
What the soldiers didn't expect was that Yang Dezhi was able to complete the decomposition and combination completely easily after watching it once, and the squad leader was even more surprised, feeling that this soldier was not ordinary.
Yang Dezhi looked at everyone's puzzled looks, and said with a smile: "You don't know, I used to be a soldier. ”
At that time, veterans were the soul of the army, and Yang Dezhi soon became an example for everyone to learn.
During the period, Yang Dezhi also showed everyone his unique skills, using six fingers to do push-ups, and the soldiers admired this re-enlisted veteran even more.
In the eyes of everyone, he has become a qualified "private," and everyone affectionately calls him Lao Yang.
However, it was precisely because of his excellent performance that it didn't take long for everyone to doubt Yang Dezhi's identity.
At the end of a training session, a soldier asked Yang Dezhi: "You have such good grades, why are you just an ordinary officer at this age?" (Yang Dezhi said that he was an ordinary officer of the military region).
Yang Dezhi didn't know how to explain, thought about it and said: "I don't know, maybe I'm not as fast as others!" ”
The soldier was stunned for a moment, and continued to whisper: "Old Yang, you tell me the truth, did you make a mistake?" Otherwise, how can you still be an officer! ”
Yang Dezhi laughed, waved his hand and said, "Don't guess, it's nothing, it was *** who asked me to be a soldier in the 6th Company." ”
This statement clearly did not convince the warrior, and soon everyone realized that the veteran was unusual.
It turned out that Yang Dezhi's beard grew quickly, and because he was afraid of delaying time, he developed the habit of not shaving, but this was not allowed in the army, and seeing the old Yang's thick beard, the soldiers naturally felt that he was unusual.
When Yang Dezhi asked the company commander, he realized that the company regarded shaving as a mandatory rule, and he realized that it was the company commander who "opened the net" to himself.
As there were more and more suspicions about Yang Dezhi, the soldiers couldn't help but doubt his identity, at this time, squad leader Yin Bihui suddenly thought of a new report just published in the "Advance Daily" of the military region, saying that the commander General Yang Dezhi had also joined the company, and he suddenly felt that the old Yang in front of him was very likely to be General Yang Dezhi.
Yin Bihui immediately found Yang Dezhi's pictorial and found that the image on it was exactly the same as that of Lao Yang, Yin Bihui, who determined Yang Dezhi's identity, was extremely excited, after all, it is not easy for ordinary soldiers to see the head of the military region on weekdays.
He immediately talked about it with the soldiers, and the soldiers were also very excited, and the chief personally came to his squad to serve as a soldier, and also ate and lived with everyone, which was a great honor in the eyes of the big guys.
Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Yang Dezhi immediately revealed his identity at a summary meeting, and he came to the Sixth Company to serve as a soldier with Major General Li Yaowen, director of the Political Department of the Jinan Military Region, and Major General Chen Meizao, director of the Cadre Department.
Yang Dezhi concluded by saying: "Thank you comrades for welcoming us veterans. We spent almost a month with our comrades, and we saw a lot and learned a lot from them. We want to thank you. ”
I don't know, General Yang Dezhi's life as a private this time made him more clearly realize the greatness of ***, yes, many things can't be discovered without going to the grassroots level in person, and the army cadres will undoubtedly solve some problems caused by the military rank system to a certain extent, and can make the troops more united.
After serving as a private in the 4th squad of the Sixth Company for a month, Yang Dezhi said goodbye to his comrades-in-arms one by one, he saluted everyone seriously, and said with a smile: "We are only temporarily separated, I still have the opportunity to come here to learn about the work, and I will definitely come to visit you at that time." ”
In just one month, Yang Dezhi regarded these young soldiers as his robes, and when he left, he also asked the company commander to include his name in the roster of the sixth company, and he will always be a private in the sixth company.
Under Yang Dezhi's example, leading cadres of various units have gone down to their companies one after another to live with the soldiers, and the unity of officers and men has also become an important guarantee for the combat effectiveness of the troops.