After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, the Communist Party of China held the Luochuan Conference from August 22 to 25, at which it was proposed that after the main force of the Red Army went to the anti-Japanese front, it was necessary to leave a force to consolidate the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo base area and make it the base camp of the national revolution. But some people objected, they thought that northern Shaanxi was too poor and not suitable as a base camp, and they should follow the main force.
At this time, Xiao Jinguang, chief of staff of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, stood up and said:
The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region has its advantages; in terms of geographical conditions, it is inconvenient to communicate and is blocked by the Yellow River, so it is a weak link in the enemy's offensive, and it is not far from the North China front, so it is convenient to command. Besides, the local masses have a high level of consciousness, and we have another two years of work foundation, and the main force going to the front line is a great threat and containment to the enemy. It is quite possible for us to leave one more force and gain a foothold in the northwest.
Xiao Jinguang. Xiao Jinguang's words were very reasonable, and everyone was convinced after listening to them, so they all agreed to continue to stay in Yan'an.
In October 1937, the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, and Xiao Jinguang was appointed as the commander of the Eighth Route Army's left-behind corps, leading a unit to stay in northern Shaanxi. **Before leading the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army to set off, he told Xiao Jinguang: "Jinguang, guard the base camp of Yan'an, the burden is not light!" ”
At this time, *** also patted Xiao Jinguang's shoulder and said: "Comrades, I am in Yan'an, I rely on this brother to eat, and you stay in the corps to eat!" Xiao Jinguang, I'm going to die in Yan'an and be buried in Qingliang Mountain, you have to make this preparation! ”
Xiao Jinguang knew that he was shouldering the mission of defending the first and had a heavy responsibility, so he decided to first completely eliminate the bandits in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border area. At that time, there were more than 40 large bandit gangs in the border area that could be named by the names of the bandits, with more than 4,000 people, and more than 2,000 guns.
After analyzing and studying, Xiao Jinguang and other leaders of the XPCC unanimously agreed: At present, the XPCC has limited strength, and it still has to undertake the task of guarding the river, defending the river defense, and it is not enough to rely on the main force alone to suppress bandits, and it is necessary to obtain the support and cooperation of local party and government organs. It is necessary to extensively mobilize the masses to participate in the battle, and combine the main force with the local self-defense forces to fight in a coordinated manner.
Xiao Jinguang (right).
In November 1937, the battle against bandits was fought in various counties in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Border Region, and under the cooperation of the army, the crackdown on bandits progressed rapidly, and by the end of 1938, the left-behind corps had basically eliminated the bandits in various places after dozens of battles.
In 1939, the 359 Brigade of the Eighth Route Army took over part of the river defense tasks of the left-behind corps, and the tension in Yan'an was alleviated, but the next thing happened made Xiao Jinguang very sad. It turned out that there was a female student in Yan'an Women's University who was washing clothes under the stone ridge by the Yan River, and a soldier of the left-behind corps kicked the stone on the road while walking, but a stone happened to hit the female student's head, and the two sides argued, the female student said that the soldier was intentional, and the soldier said that he was unintentional, and the two quarreled, and then the matter was actually caused there.
**After learning what happened, he said very angrily: "In the future, we must set up a rule, if there is a problem in the army and the locality, the army must first make a review." If there is a conflict between the army and the localities, the army must first make self-criticism, and things will be easier to handle. This is the case when dealing with internal solidarity issues. ”
**。Xiao Jinguang thought that ***'s words were very reasonable, and he immediately set up this "rule" for the left-behind corps, which also established the principle for the left-behind corps to handle the relationship between the military and the people.
However, in 1942, the left-behind corps had some disputes with the Northwest Bureau of the Communist Party of China, which was directly related to the contradictions between the main leaders of the two sides, Xiao Jinguang and Gao Gang.
Gao Gang is one of the main leaders of the Red Army in northern Shaanxi, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he has always paid attention to the overall situation and the unity of cadres from all sides, transferred him to Yan'an, and made him the commander of the border security command, subordinate to the left-behind corps. After Xiao Jinguang contacted Gao Gang for a period of time, he thought that he had a low political level, cared about personal gains and losses, and his quality was not good, so he looked down on him a little. Once, Yan'an Airport was going to be repaired, Xiao Jinguang sent Gao Gang to supervise, but Gao Gang failed to complete the task on time, Xiao Jinguang was angry with him, and Gao Gang secretly wrote down the account in his heart.
Later, after Gao Gang was promoted to secretary of the Northwest Bureau, although his position was above Xiao Jinguang, the left-behind corps was directly under the leadership of the ** and had no subordinate relationship with the Northwest Bureau, so Xiao Jinguang did not often report to Gao Gang. After a long time, Gao Gang was dissatisfied, he thought that Xiao Jinguang did not respect him, and reflected these situations to ***.
Gao Gang. **After learning about this, he specially called Xiao Jinguang over and criticized him
The army cannot do without local support. When the troops are stationed, they must respect the place; If there is a problem in the relationship between the military and the localities, the army must first conduct a review; If there are contradictions between the military and the localities, the military should make more self-criticism. This is a principle, one that must be adhered to at all times. Now that our ** organ is stationed here, even the things decided by ** have to go through the Northwest Bureau, how can you not go through the Northwest Bureau for the things decided by the Corps that you stay behind?In the end, *** said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "Xiao Jinguang, you are a big intellectual!" ”
Xiao Jinguang didn't understand the meaning of *** at first, but after careful aftertaste, he figured it out, and it turned out that ***'s words were a pun: one is that people like himself who have gone to senior high schools, studied abroad, and eaten foreign bread should be regarded as intellectuals because there were very few troops at that time; On the other hand, it is to remind yourself not to be too angry, to pay attention to flexibility in handling things, and to learn to coordinate and dredge relationships.
Soon after, Xiao Jinguang not only made a serious review to ***, but also took the initiative to self-criticize Gao Gang.
** and Xiao Jinguang.
A few days later, ** called Xiao Jinguang to his residence again, Xiao Jinguang saw *** lying on the kang and working, thinking he was sick, so he asked him if he was ** uncomfortable.
**Pointing to the wet cotton pants that were being baked by the fire, he said to Xiao Jinguang humorously: "* Love clean, wash my only pair of cotton pants, I** can get out of bed, I will have a bare ass when I get up!" ”
Xiao Jinguang's nose was sore, and he immediately asked the guards to get a new set of cotton clothes and a quilt for ***.
**But said: "Jinguang, don't you know, I was born a rural baby, what hardships have I not suffered?" I wasn't raised on foreign bread, so why should I be special? I hope you remember my words, I don't engage in specialization, and you can't engage in it. Some people don't understand this, he gets more oil today, more eggs tomorrow, and two more sets of clothes the day after tomorrow, and over time it becomes a habit. The masses have their own accounts, and if they continue like this, they will destroy themselves sooner or later! ”
At this time, *** introduced the topic to the topic: "The work of the left-behind corps is good, but we can't be satisfied with this." In the past few days, I have read some military pamphlets issued by the Kuomintang to the troops, and the contents of them are all feudal and fascist, and none of them will work. You're going to have to make a set of your own in our troops. ”
**。Subsequently, he handed over the "Infantry Drill Code", "Field Service", "Operational Guidelines" and other booklets issued by the Kuomintang to Xiao Jinguang, and after Xiao Jinguang went back, after a period of overtime, he sorted out a new booklet. Under the leadership of Xiao Jinguang, the left-behind corps also began training activities, and the military technology of the troops has been greatly improved. Taking rifle shooting in a recumbent position as an example, in 1937, the 100-meter ring target shooting had a unit hit rate of only 47, while in 1938, the 200-meter ring target shooting had an increase in hit rate to 87. By 1939, the top shooters had a 250-meter shooting rate of 94, and each class had at least three top shooters.
After Japan's surrender in 1945, Xiao Jinguang was appointed deputy commander and chief of staff of the Shandong Military Region, and since then, he has left Yan'an, which he has defended for 8 years, and has started a new journey.
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