In the revolutionary history of our Republic, it can be said that there have been many generals. The most famous ones are the "Ten Marshals and Ten Generals".
These seniors, who are not afraid of life and death for the revolution, are almost the highest goal in the hearts of every PLA soldier.
But how could it be such a coincidence that there are "Top Ten Marshals" such as Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, Liu Bocheng, He Long, Chen Yi, Luo Ronghuan, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, and Ye Jianying?
In fact, when our country assessed military ranks in 1955, not only these ten revolutionary predecessors were rated marshals.
In the military, not to mention Chairman Mao, there are Premier Zhou, Deng Xiaoping, Liu Shaoqi and others, who are also battle-hardened revolutionary veterans.
Based on their qualifications and military achievements, there is no problem in judging a marshal, but why are they not among the marshals?
If Deng Xiaoping, the chief engineer of our country's reform and opening up, rated a marshal, then where should he be rated?
Veteran Qualifications
Speaking of Deng Xiaoping’s qualifications, they are indeed not low, and Deng Xiaoping is still one of the veterans who developed the “overseas power” for our party.
In 1920, Deng Xiaoping, who was only 16 years old, arrived in France and entered the Baye Boys' High School in Normandy. A year later, he joined a steel factory as a worker and began a life of part-time work and study.
In the summer of 1922, Deng Xiaoping joined the "Young Communist Party of China in Europe". A year later, the "Young Communist Party of China in Europe" was renamed the "Youth Chinese Communist Youth League in Europe".
With the intention of doing his part for the Chinese revolution, Deng Xiaoping entered the Youth League branch of the European Communist Youth League, promoted communism, and absorbed many advanced elements, thus starting his revolutionary journey.
In 1924, the young Deng Xiaoping was elected as a member of the Executive Committee Secretariat of the Communist Youth League in Europe. At the same time, he officially joined the Communist Party of China and became a glorious Communist Party member. From then on, Deng Xiaoping worked harder for the communism in his heart. .
In 1928, just one year after returning to China, Deng Xiaoping became the Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
At this time, the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had already broken down. Chiang Kai-shek 's Kuomintang government was frantically "wiping out" the Communist Party. Communist Party members in various places could only wait and develop their own strength.
It happened that Chairman Mao discovered the "bright road" of our Communist Party after going to Jinggangshan , which is to "encircle the cities from the countryside and seize power with arms."
Obviously, our road is not in the cities, not in places where the Kuomintang is strong, but in the vast rural areas, where the Kuomintang's power cannot be found.
Therefore, Chairman Mao encouraged Communist Party cadres to go deep into the countryside to develop revolutionary base areas and develop our own strength.
Deng Xiaoping went to Guangxi with Wei Baqun and other revolutionary seniors. Here he went deep into the countryside, especially established relationships with local ethnic minority compatriots, established a deep mass foundation, and developed the "Left and Right Jiang Revolutionary Base" .
This is one of the earliest revolutionary base areas established by our party during the 10-year Agrarian Revolutionary War from 1927 to 1937. It is also the earliest revolutionary base area in ethnic minority areas. It is an old revolutionary area and is among the "Stars." "Fire" is also considered a very bright one.
After establishing the Zuojiang Revolutionary Base, Deng Xiaoping launched the "Baise Uprising" within only half a year.
The Baise Uprising was another practice of worker-peasant armed separatism after the Nanchang Uprising launched by Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, He Long and Liu Bocheng, the Autumn Harvest Uprising launched by Chairman Mao, and the Guangzhou Uprising launched by Nie Rongzhen and Ye Ting. The first uprising launched by our party in ethnic minority areas.
It was also after the Baise Uprising that the "Seventh Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" was established. Deng Xiaoping was the political commissar and front committee secretary of the "Seventh Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army".
Less than half a year later, Deng Xiaoping arrived at Longzhou and launched the "Longzhou Uprising" with Li Mingrui and others. After this uprising, our Eighth Red Army was established, and Deng Xiaoping once again served as the Red Eighth Army. political commissar.
After experiencing the Long March and arriving in northern Shaanxi, Deng Xiaoping served as the director of the Political Department of the First Red Army Corps.
As you can see from here, Deng Xiaoping participated in the revolution very early, starting in 1923. He joined the party in 1924, and was one of the founders of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Seventh and Eighth Armies. According to this standard, among the "Top Ten Marshals", no matter how senior they are to Deng Xiaoping, they are not that many.
Judging from the time of joining the party, only Zhu Dezhu, who joined the party in 1922, and Nie Rongzhen, Chen Yi, and Lin Biao, who joined the party in 1923, joined the party earlier than Deng Xiaoping.
From the perspective of military construction, there are Zhu De, He Long, Liu Bocheng who launched the Nanchang Uprising and established our Red Army, and Nie Rongzhen during the Guangzhou Uprising.
These four marshals, plus the two marshals Peng Dehuai who led the army to Jinggangshan very early, and Luo Rongheng who has been following Chairman Mao, there are only six people ahead of Deng Xiaoping.
So in terms of seniority, Deng Xiaoping’s marshals should be among the fifth or sixth.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Deng Xiaoping served as the political commissar of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. He and Marshal Liu Bocheng opened the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Anti-Japanese Base Area in the Taihang Mountains, which expanded the mass base of our Eighth Route Army.
In 1940, he followed Marshal Peng Dehuai to launch and command the Hundred Regiments War .
The Hundred Regiment War was during the stalemate stage of the Anti-Japanese War. Our Eighth Route Army mobilized the largest number of people in North China, lasted the longest, and dealt the greatest blow to the Japanese invaders. It had a profound impact on the entire Anti-Japanese War and was very able to promote our army. A battle of military might.
From August 1940 to January 1941, during these five months, our Eighth Route Army mobilized 105 regiments of more than 200,000 troops, causing the Japanese and puppet troops to lose more than 50,000 troops. Nearly 500 kilometers of railways and 1,500 kilometers of roads were demolished, which devastated the Japanese invaders. At the same time, it also discredited the Kuomintang's rumor that our army was "traveling but not attacking".
During the War of Liberation, Deng Xiaoping served as the political commissar of many legions of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the secretary of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Central Bureau, and together with Liu Bocheng led the Handan Campaign and many other battles.
Finally in June 1946, Chiang Kai-shek blatantly tore up the "Double Ten Agreement", ignored the voice of peace at home and abroad, and launched a massive attack on the Central Plains Liberated Areas.
In order to disrupt the enemy's offensive momentum, Marshals Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng organized battles in Longhai, Dingtao and other areas to fight against the Kuomintang, and finally blocked the Kuomintang's offensive momentum.
In May 1947, Marshal Deng Xiaoping and Marshal Liu Bocheng led the main force of the Shanxi-Hebei-Luyu Field Army across the Yellow River and attacked the areas ruled by the Kuomintang. They eliminated a large number of enemy troops in southwestern Shandong. Later, "Liu and Deng's Army" Advancing Thousands of Miles into Dabie Mountains ”.
The war started in the enemy's ruled area. Our firepower directly threatened the Kuomintang strongholds along the Yangtze River. It could even hit Nanjing directly along the Yangtze River. It completely opened the prelude to our army's strategic counterattack, and the balance of victory also increased. It's leaning more and more toward us.
In November 1948, the Central Military Commission decided to form a General Front Committee with Deng Xiaoping as secretary, and launched the Huaihai Campaign with Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi and others as commanders.
In the Battle of Huaihai, our army annihilated the Kuomintang's 550,000-strong army. It was the battle with the largest number of casualties among our army. It was also the battle with the largest number of enemies annihilated and the greatest impact on the outcome of the Liberation War.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Deng Xiaoping served as the political commissar of the Southwest Military Region and presided over the work of liberating Tibet. In 1951, Deng Xiaoping led his troops into Tibet. After an arduous battle, the entire territory of Tibet was finally peacefully liberated.
Judging from these military achievements, Deng Xiaoping’s military achievements are indeed not small.
Among the top ten marshals, first of all, Zhu De and Peng Dehuai were ranked first for their military exploits. Then there were Lin Biao who was in charge of the Northeast War, Chen Yi who was in charge of the Shandong War, military god Liu Bocheng, and He Longneng who were in front of Deng Xiaoping. From this From a perspective, Deng Xiaoping's "marshal ranking" should be sixth or seventh.
"Top Ten Marshals"
In fact, in 1955, in the list of our military's major awards, Deng Xiaoping did have Deng Xiaoping as marshal, and he was ranked 7th. And it turned out that it was not "Top Ten Marshals", but "Top Ten Marshals". Fourteenth Marshal".
In addition to Deng Xiaoping, Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and Liu Shaoqi were also selected as marshals, and Chairman Mao was awarded the title of "Generalissimo".
Our army has four standards for evaluating marshals.
The first is that during the initial establishment period of our Chinese People's Liberation Army, it basically developed from various armed uprisings. The leaders or participants during these armed uprisings can be evaluated as marshals.
Secondly, he was a relatively important leader in each period of development that our Chinese People's Liberation Army experienced, that is, the Red Army period, the Eighth Route Army period of the Anti-Japanese War, and the People's Liberation Army period of the Liberation War.
The third one is to look at military merit. It requires someone who has led or commanded important battles and large army operations of our Chinese People's Liberation Army. The military merits achieved do have a significant impact, and even played a decisive role in the development of the situation.
The fourth one is that he already has a very high rank in the People's Liberation Army of China. After all, it is impossible to recruit a recruit who has just joined the army for two days and make him a marshal.
According to this standard, the original "Top Ten Marshals", Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, and of course Chairman Mao, can all be rated as marshals. Even Chairman Mao's Grand Marshal uniform has been completed.
Premier Zhou Enlai was one of the leaders of the "Nanchang Uprising" and one of the founders of our People's Liberation Army. He was an indispensable and important figure in various periods of our country's revolution, and assisted Chairman Mao to formulate correct war plans many times.
At the Zunyi Conference , he opposed all opinions and supported Chairman Mao's re-emergence, guiding our revolution on the right path, and being able to be both literary and military, he was a comprehensive talent.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Liu Shaoqi led the creation of the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines in North China. After the Wannan Incident, the situation of our New Fourth Army was critical for a time. He and Chen Yi stepped forward to lead our New Fourth Army out of the way.
During the negotiations between Chairman Mao and Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing, in order to prevent Chiang Kai-shek from directly killing him unreasonably, he even acted as Chairman Mao's position as Chairman of the Central Committee. He is a very important figure in our party.
They can all be awarded the title of marshal.
But before the investiture ceremony, Chairman Mao finally gave up his rank of Generalissimo after much thought.
Because Chairman Mao feels that he is already the chairman of our People's Republic of China . In the future, he will have to go deep into the masses and the grassroots to preside over daily work. It is very likely that he will have fewer opportunities to join the army.
After all, "you cannot conquer the world immediately, but you cannot rule the world immediately." After establishing a country, if you want to develop and govern the country well, you still need civilian work such as economic development, science and technology development, and ideological stability.
If he no longer joins the army and instead holds the rank of "First Marshal", wouldn't that be "emptying the throne"?
Moreover, most of the marshals' military uniforms are solemn and solemn. Wearing these military uniforms and letting the common people see them will create a sense of distance, which will make it difficult to help Chairman Mao continue to go deep into the grassroots and talk to the common people as cordially as his family. Communicate and understand the real life conditions of ordinary people.
Therefore, Chairman Mao rejected the military title of Generalissimo and suggested that comrades who were already in charge of daily administrative work at the local level should not participate in the ceremony.
At the call of Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, who has become our Premier of the State Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deng Xiaoping, who has served as Minister of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council, and Liu Shaoqi, who has served as Vice Chairman of the National Government, all voluntarily withdrew from the investiture ceremony.
In fact, the original "Top Ten Generals" are not the "Top Ten Generals". In addition to the existing "Top Ten Generals" such as Su Yu and Xu Haidong, there are also five revolutionary predecessors such as Tan Zhenlin and Li Xiannian who will also be named General's.
But it was under Chairman Mao's encouragement and call that these five seniors also participated in the conferment ceremony, and this was how the "Ten Marshals and Ten Generals" came into being.
But really speaking, no matter whether these revolutionary seniors rated the military rank or not, or what military rank they rated, these things are not important to them.
Because these revolutionary seniors have sacrificed their lives and shed their blood, fought through life and death, and fought arduously for decades. What they do is not for glory and wealth, not for status, and not for being able to be superior. They do not do it for glory. For a new China that is equal and fair, for every working person to no longer be bullied, and for our Chinese nation to stand at the top of the world.
Marshals and ordinary soldiers, they are all people who have contributed to our New China, they are the most lovable people in our New China, and they are the backbone of our Chinese nation.
To this day, we have not forgotten the achievements and contributions of each of them. When we look back at that period of history, we see the backs of great figures. Their positions, military ranks, and other external things are somewhat blurred, but they The light of selfless dedication for New China radiated from his body is still shining brightly.
