The 1955 award ceremony was the first in the history of the People's Liberation Army, and a total of 175 outstanding generals were awarded the rank of founding lieutenant general. In 1988, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) implemented a new military rank system and awarded corresponding medals to many revolutionary cadres.
Of the 175 founding lieutenant generals, most of them were awarded the highest honor, the Order of Merit of the Red Star, the highest honor, if they had not made a mistake or been punished. However, there were also some founding lieutenant generals who were awarded the Order of Merit of the Red Star of the Second Class for their mistakes.
Huang Zhiyong, the founding lieutenant general, was awarded the Order of Merit of the Red Star, 2nd class, for his mistakes. Although there is a lot of information on the Internet that falsely portrays him as receiving the "Order of Merit of the Red Star of the First Degree", this is not the case.
The author has done a special research on this, if you are interested, you can flip through the previous article. Huang Zhiyong was born in 1914 in Gaokun Village, Guobu Township, Chongyi County, Jiangxi Province, and his family conditions were quite good in the local area, so he was able to be exposed to progressive ideas in the process of studying, and joined the Communist Youth League in 1929 to receive a full eight years of education.
Huang Zhiyong was a revolutionary with firm beliefs, after he joined the Communist Party in 1930, he began to actively propagate the party's revolutionary ideas in his hometown, and then became a member of the Red Army, participating in the anti-"encirclement and suppression" battles and the Long March in the ** base area.
He was active in the base area under the leadership of the Red Third Army Corps, and won a series of battles. After the Red Front Army and the Red Fourth Front Army joined forces, Huang Zhiyong was transferred to the Red Fourth Front Army, followed the troops to participate in the Long March, and won the victory of the Long March in 1936.
Later, he entered the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University to study, and began to stay in the rear to engage in political propaganda work. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he went to the northeast and devoted himself to fighting, participated in and commanded important battles such as the Tashan Resistance Battle and the Hengbao Battle, and made great achievements for the establishment of New China.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Huang Zhiyong successively served as deputy political commissar of the Hunan Military Region, deputy political commissar of the engineering corps, and political commissar, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955 by virtue of his past military exploits, becoming the founding lieutenant general.
Later, in 1965, he was appointed deputy political commissar of the armored corps, and in 1969 he was transferred to the General Political Department, where he served as deputy head of the General Political Department.
Huang Zhiyong, during the special period of 10 years, actively participated in the work of the General Political Department, and presided over the affairs of the General Political Department for a period of time because of his outstanding performance. However, during this period, he also participated in many rectification incidents, and although there were elements of the times, he did make mistakes.
As a result, he was removed from his post in 1972. After that, Huang Zhiyong lived in Beijing in a low-key manner, living an ordinary life. Since he had fought in the Red Fourth Front, the relevant departments would ask for his opinion when compiling the history of the Red Fourth Front.
In 1988, when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) introduced a new military rank, Huang Zhiyong should have been awarded the Order of Merit of the Red Star, First Class, taking into account his status as the founding lieutenant general and his qualifications to participate in the revolution before 1937.
However, as a result of his dismissal, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Red Star, 2nd degree.
Although he was punished, it is undeniable that Huang Zhiyong also made admirable military exploits during the revolutionary period. Therefore, the organization made proper arrangements for Huang Zhiyong's life in his later years, so that he could live a worry-free life.
In 2011, Huang Zhiyong died of illness in Beijing at the age of 97.