One day in 1969, I was in Zhanjiang, GuangdongFounding Admiral Chen MingrenSuddenly, he received a telegram from the prime minister, which made his mind calm for a long time.
At this time, Chen Mingren was in chargeCommander of the 55th Army of the People's Liberation ArmyResponsible for the military defense tasks along the coast of Guangdongcan be called a "feudal official".
However, the content of this telegram was to prepare him and hand over the leadership of the army to the deputy commander Ou Zhifu, and soon after the organization general sent someone to send him back to his hometown in Hunan.
At first glance, Chen Mingren thought he was dazzled, but when he read it again word by word, his face was full of sadness.
It seems that I am going home to be a common man, and I am really reluctant to leave the army."
While sighing, Chen Mingren's mind was also recalling the past scene by scene.
Although he was the founding general of New China, he was a "demoted general" who had revolted from the Kuomintang reactionary troops, and he was promoted to many important positions, such as deputy commander of the "suppression of the general" in Central China, commander of the 1st Corps of the Kuomintang reactionaries, and chairman of Hunan Province.
At this time, a thought flashed in Chen Mingren's heart, it must be that his past experience in serving in the reactionaries ** has harmed him.
After all, he has done many wrong things, and these mistakes cannot be washed away by abandoning the dark and leading the troops to revolt.
Thinking of this, Chen Mingren immediately sent a telegram back to ***:Resolutely obey orders!
After the telegram was sent, he hurriedly packed up his military uniform, epaulettes, cockade, and other items and handed them over to the Guangzhou Military Region Headquarters.
However, after Ding Sheng, then commander of the Guangzhou Military Region, handed over these items back to Beijing, ** repeatedly murmured: "Mistake, mistake, my mistake."
Subsequently, ** urgently sent a telegram to Chen Mingren, apologizing for his mistake.
So, why apologize to Chen Mingren? What exactly did he make a mistake in?
In the original telegram, ** asked him to hand over the leadership of the troops, what was the meaning of it? Why did Chen Mingren make such an "oolong"?
If you want to understand this history, you have to start with Chen Mingren's abandonment of darkness and light.
Chen Mingren can be described as a fierce general in the Kuomintang armyHe has outstanding military command ability, but his personality is upright and stubborn, which also made him incompatible with the reactionary warlords for a while.
In 1925, Chen Mingren, who was the first cadet of the Whampoa Military Academy, participated in the crusade against the Guangdong warlord Chen Jiongming twice, and took the lead in the siege of Huizhou.
With this "first achievement", Chen Mingren became famous, and Chiang Kai-shek even ordered all officers and soldiers to raise their guns to salute him at the celebration party, and personally promoted him to battalion commander.
In the years that followed, Chen Mingren served successivelyCommander of the 56th Regiment of the 10th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, Commander of the 3rd Independent Brigade, and Commander of the 88th Division of the National Revolutionary Army.
However, when Chiang Kai-shek ordered him to lead his troops to Hubei, Henan, and Anhui to attack the Red Army units there, Chen Mingren showed strong disgust, and he even sent several telegrams to Chiang Kai-shek, hoping that he would be able to concentrate his forces against the Japanese army.
It was these telegrams that made Chiang Kai-shek extremely dissatisfied, so he simply seized Chen Mingren's military power and arranged for him to study in the Lushan Officer Training Corps.
In the subsequent War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, because it was the time to employ people, Chen Mingren was able to be reactivated, and successively served as the commander of the 71st Army, the deputy commander of the "Suppression Commander" in Central China, the commander of the 29th Army, the commander of the 1st Corps, and the chairman of Hunan Province and the commander-in-chief of the "appeasement".
At the same time that Chen Mingren was rising all the way, the contradictions with Chiang Kai-shek were also becoming increasingly intensified, and he was very dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's vain attempt to establish a gun aimed at his compatriots.
Because of this, he repeatedly contradicted Chiang Kai-shek in public, which greatly annoyed the other party, and even said angrily to the people around him in private: "If the war is not tight now, I will shoot him!" ”
October 1948 was a huge turning point for Chen Mingren.
At that time, Chen Mingren was appointed deputy commander of the "Suppression Chief" in Central China and concurrently served as the commander of the Wuhan garrison. When he learned that his former teacher, Cheng Qian, was now serving as the director of Changsha's "appeasement", he excitedly rushed to Changsha to catch up with the teacher.
Cheng Qian was keen on peace, and he was also extremely disgusted with Chiang Kai-shek, so after seeing Chen Mingren, he immediately took his hand and said in his heart: "You are finally here......There is one thing that I have been thinking about for a long time and plan to cooperate with the Communist Party, what do you think? ”
This sentence simply spoke to Chen Mingren's heart, but he still had some worries in his heart.
After all, in the recent Battle of Siping, Chen Mingren had led the 71st Army to resist fiercely, and he was worried that he would be embarrassed because of this matter, so he did not rush to answer.
Seeing that the other party was silent, Cheng Qian decisively got up and walked into the back room, and walked out with an envelope after a while: "Take a look."
This is a letter sent by ***, although it is short, but it reveals his big heart.
"As long as you can stand on the side of the people and oppose Chiang Kai-shek's establishment, everything can be forgiven."Later, ** also specially asked someone to find Chen Mingren, and his open-minded remarks finally made him completely firm in the idea of uprising.
** It is said like this: "At that time, Chen Mingren was in their boat, and we can understand that they rowed their own boats. You are a great general, as long as you can stand up, we will definitely use it again."
Finally, on August 4, 1949, Chen Mingren and Cheng Qian telegraphed the uprising, and the troops under his command were also reorganized into the First Corps of the People's Liberation Army, and he served as the commander of the corps and the temporary chairman of Hunan Province.
On September 19, 1949, the war of liberation was coming to an endIn order to express his gratitude to General Chen Mingren for choosing a peaceful uprising and saving Hunan from the baptism of war, ** specially invited him to have a luncheon with Cheng Qian.
That morning, Chen Mingren had just walked into the banquet hall and found itSu YuThe others had been waiting here for a long time, and they couldn't help but sigh with heartfelt emotion: "In the past, when I went to report to Chiang Kai-shek, I often had to wait for a long time, but now you are waiting for me here, without putting on a show, this is one of the reasons why you can win."
After the banquet began, ** frequently got up to toast Chen Mingren, which made Chen Mingren even more flattered.
During the banquet, ** also highly praised him and Cheng Qian's righteous deeds, peacefully liberating Hunan and saving the people from the suffering of war, which is really a great achievement, and history will not forget the two.
After the banquet, ** also invited everyone to Ditan Park for a round.
When they walked leisurely to the prayer hall, ** stretched out his hand to Chen Mingren and invited: "General Chen, let's take a group photo as a souvenir."
Chen Mingren was a little embarrassed by the personal invitation, after all, New China will be announced soon, and as the founder of New China, its status is absolutely lofty. And he is just a defeated general, how can he be embarrassed to take a photo with a great man?
The ** on the side saw Chen Mingren's worries, and hurriedly pushed him to ***'s side, and didn't forget to joke: "* and you are a fellow countryman, what's so embarrassing about taking pictures with fellow villagers."
After taking the photo, Chen Mingren was so excited that early the next morning, he couldn't wait to run to the photo studio with the film, and washed out nearly 100 ** in a row.
Why did he wash so many **?
It turned out that Chen Mingren had long heard some rumors, and many reactionaries lurking in the shadows had been making **, claiming that General Chen Mingren had been placed under house arrest, and there were even rumors that he had been sentenced.
Chen Mingren has been arguing with this nonsense, but his voice is too small, and many people don't believe it.
And now, that intimate photo with *** is the best proof, he wants to wash out more, and send a copy to the former Whampoa Military Academy classmates, as well as relatives and friends, so that they can see if they have been under house arrest or sentenced!
October 1, 1949, the founding ceremonyAt the official beginning, Chen Mingren climbed the Tiananmen Tower under the personal arrangement of ***, a grand ceremony.
When the national anthem was played in the square and the five-star red flag was raised, the veteran general of his life burst into tears.
Chen Mingren is sincerely grateful in his heart*** It is precisely because of his open-mindedness and tolerance that he has a new life.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Mingren successively served as deputy commander of the Hunan Military Region, commander of the 21st Corps of the Fourth Field Army, and member of the Central and Southern Military and Political Commission. He also led his troops to participate in the suppression of bandits in the southwest, attacking and annihilating more than 30,000 bandits and enemy special elements, and once again made great contributions.
In 1955, the work of awarding titles for the founding of the People's Republic of China was officially launched, and as the head of the General Cadre Management Department, he was responsible for assessing the military ranks of revolutionary generals.
After all, throughout the revolutionary years, Chen Mingren has been serving in Chiang's army, what kind of military rank should he be given?
In desperation, the helpless *** found ***
After listening to the report, he pondered for a moment and said: "General Chen Mingren has made meritorious contributions to the resistance against Japan, and even more meritorious to the peaceful liberation of Hunan, and I propose that he be awarded the rank of general."
At the suggestion of ***, Chen Mingren was finally awarded the rank of founding general and was awarded the Order of Liberation of the First Class.
As early as 1924, Chen Mingren met Prime Minister ***.
At that time, Chen Mingren was admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy and became the first batch of cadets. And *** had just returned from studying in Europe, and it was the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, so he entered the Whampoa Military Academy as the director of the Political Department.
Because Chen Mingren was diligent and studious, and his grades were among the best, he soon attracted the attention of ***, and he began to provide a lot of care and care for Chen Mingren's life and study, and even saved his life many times in the following days.
During the 1925 crusade against Chen Jiongming, Chen Mingren was initially only a captain and company commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Army.
When the troops arrived in Huizhou, Chiang Kai-shek, as the commander-in-chief, disregarded the safety of the soldiers and could not wait to order the infantry to charge before the artillery units reached the front line.
The walls of Huizhou are strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there are still a large number of troops stationed in the city, coupled with Chiang Kai-shek's erroneous command, which led to the great battle of the city.
Chen Mingren also realized that the military order for this strong attack was wrong, so he took the initiative to find the regiment commander Liu Yaochen and asked to temporarily stop the charge and wait for the support of the follow-up artillery unit.
However, Liu Yaochen said with a sad face: "Do you think I can bear to watch the brothers die? This is an order from the commander-in-chief, what can we do? ”
In the following battle, Liu Yaochen personally led the charge and was unfortunately killed by a stray bullet.
Upon learning this news, Chen Mingren was extremely disappointed with Chiang Kai-shek's command ability, but he also understood that the other party was high above and would definitely not follow his advice, so after thinking hard and meditating, he decided to find another way and wrote a letter to ***, who was the military minister of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, hoping that he could persuade Chiang Kai-shek to change his strategy.
Sure enough, this method worked, and Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly ordered a halt to the charge, waited for the artillery troops to arrive, and then sent troops to charge after bombarding the heavy ** fire points of the defenders in the city.
Chen Mingren once sighed in his later years: "When I fought Huizhou, if I hadn't spoken up, I am afraid I would have died at the foot of the city wall."
In 1969, General Chen Mingren, who was already 66 years old, was in poor health and fell ill due to years of war. At that time, he served as the commander of the 55th Army, and he was tasked with defending the southeast coast.
** I couldn't bear to watch this old general endure the torture of illness, in order to let Chen Mingren recuperate well, he immediately sent a telegram to the military headquarters of the 55th Army in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, hoping that General Chen Mingren would temporarily transfer the leadership of the army to Ou Zhifu, the deputy commander, and return to his hometown in Hunan to rest.
The original intention of ** is good, only in this way can Chen Mingren have more time to accept**, recuperate, and wait until his body is almost recovered, and then go back to lead the troops.
However, this telegram caused Chen Mingren's misunderstanding, he thought that he was going to be relieved of his duties, so he packed up his military uniform and other items with a heart full of loss and handed them over to the Guangzhou Military Region Headquarters.
When *** learned of this situation, he hurriedly sent him a telegram to explain, and sincerely apologized, all because he did not explain it, which caused the other party to have a misunderstanding.
In this telegram, ** also specially confessed that the organization had already greeted Hunan Province**, and allocated a two-story house in Mayuanling, Changsha to him for temporary residence, and his living treatment was all the same, and he wanted to recuperate with peace of mind.
After learning the truth, Chen Mingren was both happy and moved, and soon returned to Changsha, Hunan Province with his family.
However, unfortunately, General Chen Mingren's illness has accumulated and it is difficult to return, although he has sent medical teams for him many times, and later specially sent him to Beijing for treatment, but he can do nothing.
On May 21, 1974, the veteran general died of illness in Beijing at the age of 71.