Volunteer Army Commander Peng Dehuai North Korean leader Kim Il-sung
A piece of fat meat caused trouble - President Peng was furious, and the little soldier was full of grievances.
After the third battle to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, General Peng returned to Beijing from North Korea. When he passed by Andong, General Peng walked into a logistics supply transfer station in the Northeast Military Region . In the courtyard of the
Transfer Station, several young PLA soldiers were sitting together for lunch.
A young soldier who was eating stood up. He held a piece of fat meat and poured the fat meat into the bucket while complaining: "It's such fat meat again. Who can eat fat meat every day?"
General Peng was suddenly red from anger. He rushed over, grabbed the neckline of the little soldier, and cursed with gritting teeth:
"A bastard, the soldiers in front of him can't eat a piece of meat for a month. How dare you throw the meat into the bucket!"
This is the second time in decades that Mr. Peng was furious at an ordinary soldier.
President Peng has a bad temper and is impatient. There are many people who have been scolded by President Peng. However, as General Zhang Aiping said, President Peng scolds people "it's high or low". The older the official, the more fierce the scolding is.
In most cases, General Peng will not lose his temper with ordinary soldiers. In the words of General Peng, "There are no bad soldiers, only bad generals. If the soldier does something wrong, he should punish and scold his leader." On the way to the Long March , he gave the mule to the sick soldier cavalry;
When he crossed the grassland, the soldiers were hungry and could not walk. General Peng made a cruel decision and slaughtered his beloved mule to fill the hunger and rescue the soldiers;
On the cold winter night, General Peng gave his cotton coat to the soldiers standing guard.
Often times, General Peng "receives soldiers as beloved sons", protects soldiers, and even "favors" soldiers.
According to the staff around Mr. Peng, in the past ten years he has been with Mr. Peng, many cadres have been scolded by Mr. Peng, including the young soldier at the Transportation Station. There are only two ordinary soldiers who have been scolded by Mr. Peng in total.
last time was in Taihang Mountains , which was the most difficult and difficult year for the Eighth Route Army. At that time, the Eighth Route Army was seriously short of food. Because they were so hungry, General Peng's groom picked two persimmons from ordinary people's trees.
This is not counting. Then, the groom had an argument with the squad leader who came to stop him after hearing the news. During the push and shoving, the groom broke two more branches. After the incident of
, the squad leader reported the situation to General Peng.
That time, General Peng was furious and in a rage, General Peng scolded angrily: "Bastard, the common people are pointing at the persimmon tree to save their lives!" At the same time, he slapped the groom twice.
President Peng during the War of Resistance Against Japan
This time,President Peng also "has been angry and has full firepower", scaring the several soldiers who were eating, throwing their jobs and running away.
The little soldier who threw away the fat meat and caused a big disaster was so scared that he trembled all over. Although he was full of grievances, he did not dare to say a word.
General Peng yelled at the young soldier, "Go, let the ones in charge get out!"
After a while, the cadre in charge of the transfer station ran over panting. Seeing General Peng with an angry face, the cadre asked bluntly: "Who is here to be wild? Where did it come from?"
"I am Peng Dehuai!" General Peng replied angrily: "It comes from the front line of North Korea!"
Hearing the three words "Peng Dehuai", the cadre was frightened. He stood in front of General Peng tremblingly, stood attentively and saluted, and then waited for General Peng's speech with fear.
Peng Dehuai scolded him fiercely: "The soldiers on the front line are fighting hard when they are hungry. You are eating large pieces of meat and picking on weight. Have you been fed to the dogs with your conscience?"
The more you scolded, the more you became more and more excited, the more you cursed, the more you looked ashen, and tears oozed from the corners of your eyes.
The cadre was scolded so hard that he didn't even dare to lift his head. After President Peng had scolded him enough, he murmured back: "President Peng, I know I'm wrong. I promise that this kind of thing will never happen again."
General Peng's "fire" slowed down, but he still did not plan to let go of the "throw fat meat".
The responsible comrade did not rush to explain this matter, but brought Mr. Peng to a place.
Mr. Peng was surprised to see that it was filled with war materials that were urgently needed in front of him, and the packages of grain were stacked like hills, as well as ammunition boxes, medical supplies, cold-proof clothes and quilts, bundles and boxes, and there were too many things to count.
In a corner of the warehouse, a large amount of slaughtered pork and mutton were piled there. Many of the meat had begun to deteriorate, and the blood flowed out all over the ground, and the air was filled with an unpleasant sour smell.
Which cadre said: "We really have no way, Mr. Peng, we can't send so much meat here."
"If you put it like this, the meat will rot. If you can't send it out, and you're afraid that it will be broken, we have to eat as much as possible. It's better than rotting and throwing it away."
General Peng said: "Then increase your transportation capacity and find a way to send it to North Korea!"
"We have already driven up our horsepower and try our best to give it to you and try our best to give it to you quickly, regardless of day and night. We can give as much as we can. "The cadre said:
"But, 30 cars were sent last night. Just after Yalu River , the Americans' plane exploded, and only 3 cars drove over."
General Peng said: "It's better to have it than not, so let's continue to send it!"
The cadre shook his head and said: "We don't have many trucks at first, and we lose more than half of the time we send it. Now there is no car in the station..."
"Oh!" Peng Dehuai sighed to the sky, unable to say a word.
came out of the transfer station, and General Peng couldn't wait for a moment. He didn't bother to eat and rushed to the airport without stopping, and boarded the plane to Beijing angrily.
General Peng made a big fuss Zhongnanhai
After arriving in Beijing, General Peng first found General Sharkov, the general adviser of the Soviet military to China.
When General Sharkov met, General Peng did not take any turns and explained his purpose directly.
General Peng told Shaharov that without the cover of the air force, it is difficult to transport domestic war materials to the North Korean front, and hopes that the Soviet Union can provide air support to the logistics supply line of the volunteer army.
What is disappointing is that Shaharov "watches his left and right" and is always evading the main topic. He was forced by General Peng. Shaharov kicked the "ball" to Moscow on the grounds that he "has limited power".
President Peng left with hope, but ended up feeling disappointed and disappointed, and was filled with anger.
Two days later, in Zhongnanhai, President Peng could no longer hold back his anger.
In order to discuss how to effectively support the Volunteer Army, Premier Zhou presided over an enlarged meeting of the Military Commission, and leaders from all headquarters, military branches and relevant departments of the State Council attended the meeting.
General Peng first reported on the battle situation on the North Korean front, and then focused on introducing the shortage of materials on the front line and the lack of food and clothing for soldiers.
has arrived at the "statement" stage, and the speeches of some department leaders made General Peng very uncomfortable.
The leaders expressed their understanding of the difficulties on the front line and promised to "try to support them as much as possible."
However, without exception, leaders emphasized the difficulties of their own departments.
"Logistics support costs money, where do we have so much money";
"The war needs to be fought, and domestic construction must not be ignored";
"New China has just been established, and money is spent everywhere, and the existing financial resources are already in short supply."
is just a sentence, understanding, sympathy, but there is no real support.
President Peng was furious and slapped the table: "This is difficult, that is difficult, what are you doing all day long? Do you know patriotism, don't hundreds of thousands of volunteer soldiers know patriotism?"
"You go to the front line of North Korea to see where our soldiers live, what they eat, what they wear!"
President Peng said in a heavy mood: "After minus 40 degrees Celsius, American soldiers were lying on the blanket and shooting, but our soldiers were wearing single clothes and barefoot. Many soldiers' feet were frozen and black, and they exposed their bones when they were pulled with their hands. Aren't they trying to defend the country?"
General Peng's words made the audience solemn. Finally, General Peng said with a sob, "The front-line troops are generally short of food, clothing, medicine, and ammunition, and the difficulty is even greater than that of the Red Army during the Long March..."
"In addition to dying on the battlefield, many of our soldiers were starved to death and frozen to death. They are all young babies! Can't China overcome difficulties?"
General Peng's words finally touched everyone. Under the coordination of Premier Zhou, a vigorous "support campaign" was launched nationwide, and the domestic support for the front line gradually began to get on the right track.
old photos of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (I)
The gap between "modern" and "original"
In fact, before deciding to send troops to North Korea, General Peng knew under what material conditions our army would fight this war. After three battles of
, the volunteers experienced the "what is a modern war" at close range, and General Peng personally experienced the huge gap in material conditions between the two armies of China and the United States.
Mr. Peng clearly realized that human spirit is important, high fighting spirit is valuable, and clever strategies and tactics are indispensable, but these are difficult to completely make up for the huge gap in material power between the two sides.
The deputy commander of the Volunteer Army, , Han Xianchu, also has a deep understanding of this issue. As the deputy commander of the Volunteer Army who has been commanding operations on the front line, in some aspects, Han Xianchu knows more and more specific than General Peng.
At the summary meeting held after the end of the "Three Battles", when some senior commanders celebrated the victory happily, Han Xianchu "sprayed a basin of cold water" to everyone.
Han Xianchu pointed out truthfully, "In the first two battles, we won because the enemy did not know our reality and underestimated the enemy's advance. However, from the perspective of the "three battles", the enemy has begun to become cautious, and our weaknesses have begun to gradually emerge. "
Han Xianchu said: "We must not be overly optimistic, have a hot mind, underestimate the enemy, and overestimate ourselves. We will suffer. "
Han Xianchu talked about the firepower and material supply of the US military:
Volunteers fought on hungry days, chasing the enemy in the snow barefoot, and gnawing frozen potatoes to defend in the cold trenches.
Look at the US military, from time to time, there are helicopters shuttle back and forth between the front positions and the rear bases. They unload ammunition, food, sleeping bags, medicines, and then pick up the wounded and sick people.
Look at the Volunteers again. The long rice bags that the soldiers carried were the only "life-saving food", and there was often not much food in the rice bags, and they were even "empty".
A 5-kilogram iron box in the US military not only contains sufficient nutritious food and a large portion, which can serve a squad of soldiers to have a full meal. There are cigarettes, matches, and even coffee and toilet paper in the iron box.
US military logistics support (I)
In terms of equipment, the US military has 7,000 cars in one army, and hundreds of large ships shuttle between the United States, Japan and North Korea at sea. Although
is far away from the local area, because a huge support base was established in Japan, the US military has no risk of shortage of supplies, and even drinking water is transported from Japan to North Korea.
Let’s look at the Volunteer Army. There are more than 400 tanks in one US army, but there are no tanks in the six volunteer army.
An infantry division of the US military has more than 400 large-caliber howitzers and cannons , while a division of the Volunteer Army has only one mountain artillery battalion, and is equipped with 12 "old" medium-caliber mountain cannons.
A division of the US military has 1,600 radio stations, and radio communication can directly reach squad and platoon-level units. Each army of the Volunteer Army is equipped with only dozens of radio stations, which can barely be equipped to battalion-level units.
battalion level unit, the communication of the Volunteer Army can only rely on two legs, plus whistles, military signals and signal flares. Even signal flares are scarce materials and are reluctant to use them normally.
Finally, let’s talk about the infantry troops that the Volunteer Army is proud of. The guns in the hands of the soldiers are known as “0,000-country ”. In the early days of the war, the same was true for the main ace forces like “Long Live Army”. The most advantageous weapon of the soldiers was actually the “ 38-large ” designed and finalized by the Japanese in 1905.
At that time, we had no idea of "comprehensive national strength", and Han Xianchu himself created a word - "overall national strength".
It can be said that in the Korean battlefield, every Chinese soldier felt the importance of "overall national strength".
As the comrade at the Anton Material Transfer Station said, it is extremely difficult to transport materials to North Korea in China. Just transporting dozens of kilometers ahead from the Yalu River will cost our army a huge price.
Can't walk during the day because there are US planes in the sky constantly raiding; it is difficult to walk at night because of air defense attacks, cars can only turn off the lights and drive. As a result, many trucks filled with supplies fell into the valley.
dare not walk on the road, and the railway was broken, but the supplies still had to be delivered. Therefore, the volunteers could only transport supplies by relying on the original method of "manpower to carry the supplies".
old photos of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (II)
During the first two battles, among the three volunteer army of the "East Front", the personnel who transported supplies from the commanders and division commanders to the sings and dancers, the cooks who boiled water and cooked rice, and even the minor wounded were mobilized.
Even so, there are still countless steel warriors who have not died on the battlefield, and many of them have been frozen to death, starved to death, or sacrificed to the road to transport supplies.
On the Western Front, a squad of the 42nd Army of the Volunteer Army only received a pair of cotton shoes. What should I do if I can’t separate it? Finally, this pair of shoes became a cold-proof material for the soldiers to "share" and only soldiers standing guard can wear these precious cotton shoes.
What is sad is that a whole winter has passed, and the 42nd Army fought from Yalu River to the south of 38th parallel . The cotton shoes were intact and finally handed over to the brothers who came to take over the defense. How can such an original and backward situation support a modern large-scale war?
"take it from the people and from the enemy", this old method will not work in North Korea.
In the domestic battlefield, the People's Army has its own base and the people who mobilize and organize them. The military supplies of our People's Army can be "taken from the people".
During the War of Resistance Against Japan (especially the War of Liberation), a large number of weapons and equipment of our army could be "taken from the enemy".
When it reaches the unfamiliar Korean battlefield, this method will not work.
First of all, for a long time after the war began, the North Korean governments at all levels were in a state of collapse, the North Korean People's Army was unable to take care of itself, and North Korea basically had no hope for the support of the volunteer army.
Secondly, North Korea's airspace is completely controlled by the US military, and the US military is also accustomed to (preferred) to use their air superiority to bombard the targets they are interested in.
The first batch of volunteer troops entering North Korea to participate in the war had a total of 1,300 vehicles of various types. After a month, there were less than 300 vehicles left. On average, more than 30 motor vehicles were destroyed by US aircraft every day.
After the end of the "one battle", the volunteer army participated in the war reported to the "Zhishi": "We seized more than 60 American cars."
At that time, General Peng was worried about the lack of cars and not enough. Upon hearing this news, General Peng was overjoyed and immediately ordered the participating troops to "bring back many cars to me."
The soldiers drove back some cars. Because of the lack of drivers, more than 30 cars could not be driven back for the time being.
In order not to be discovered by the US military's reconnaissance plane , smart soldiers piled up thatch on these cars.
Unexpectedly, a US reconnaissance aircraft suddenly flew over at a very low altitude, and the strong airflow lifted off the thatch, and more than 30 cars were exposed.
More than ten minutes later, the US military flew in one go to bombers . After a burst of bombing, more than 30 cars were all turned into ashes.
news came, and Mr. Peng was so angry that he slapped the table.
"Second Battle" was even worse than the last time. The volunteer army seized more than 2,000 U.S. cars at one time.
Seeing a dark car, many volunteer soldiers ran around and told me: "We have made a fortune!"
learned from the lessons of the last time, and the participating troops organized the soldiers who could drive cars urgently, mobilized many American and Korean prisoners of war, and hurriedly drove away more than 200 cars.
However, before the soldiers had time to cover the remaining cars with branches and thatch, nearly a hundred enemy planes flew over the sky.
enemy planes destroyed all the remaining 1,000 cars. Seeing so many treasures destroyed, the soldiers hidden in the woods were bleeding in their hearts, but there was no way.
Old photos of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea (III)
In addition, a warehouse of the Volunteer Army was bombarded by the US military. 2.87 million jin of grain, 330,000 jin of soybean oil, more than 400,000 sets of single-clothed shirts, 190,000 pairs of military shoes, and countless other materials were stored here.
US military aircraft dropped dozens of napalm bombs, and all supplies were burned.
In a word, the US military has absolute air supremacy, and even "Shisi" was bombed by US military aircraft every few days. Chairman Mao's eldest son Mao Anying died in an enemy aircraft bombing "Shisi".
The transformation of the world and the beginning of the transformation.
The logistics supply line of the Volunteer Army was bombed by the US military again and again. General Peng was furious and his heart was shattered.
"Our warriors are completely exchanging their lives for victory." Mr. Peng has said similar things more than once.
Mr. Peng felt more and more that in war, it was the wisdom, courage and physical strength of soldiers, but also steel, explosives and various materials. However, in a war, the shortcomings of the Volunteer Army in terms of logistics support have been exposed.
First of all, the logistics support mechanism of the Volunteer Army has lagged far behind the needs of modern warfare, and the "easy" mechanism in the past is no longer applicable.
The Volunteer Army does not have a special logistics force, and the Volunteer Army Command only has one logistics department with more than a dozen people. The logistics support for hundreds of thousands of troops of the Volunteer Army is mainly responsible for the logistics department of the Northeast Military Region far away in Shenyang.
In other words, more than a dozen people in the Logistics Department of the "Zhisi" are responsible for scheduling the logistics support of hundreds of thousands of troops such as food, housing, clothing, and other logistics support.
At the same time, there were 13 logistics soldiers behind an American soldier to provide various support, while a Volunteer Army had to support hundreds of soldiers.
Faced with the dilemma of our army in logistics support, General Peng and Hong Xuezhi and other senior generals began to consider establishing the "Volunteer Army Logistics Command" and planned a fundamental solution to the logistics support problem of the Volunteer Army.
This is the first time that the Chinese army has established a special theater logistics command organization. It is a major event in the history of our army's modernization construction. It marks that the Chinese army has placed logistics to an equally important position as combat.
US Army Logistics Support (II)
"Six-Star General"
On May 19, 1951, the "Volunteer Army Rear Service Command" was officially established. With the strong recommendation of General Peng, Deputy Commander of the Volunteer Army Hong Xuezhi immediately "taken on his post" and became the first commander.
Volunteer Army Logistics Forces include engineers, anti-aircraft artillery, public security, communications, highway (railway) transportation and other corpses. The troops are unified by the leadership and command of the rear service headquarters.
In October of that year, the Volunteer Army’s logistics troops and their subordinate troops reached more than 180,000.
Build bridges, build roads, build warehouses, transport materials, and air defense. In a short time, the logistics forces of the Volunteer Army have built a crisscrossing and interconnected railway and road transport network, and various types of support entities and cover troops have also been in place one after another.
Our army's logistics support system has thus "from nothing to something", and has quickly "become stronger" in war practice. The entire war zone can transport, store, supply, repair and medical treatment, both fighting and preventing.
During the war to resist the U.S. aggression and aid Korea, the logistics of the Volunteer Army carried a total of more than 2.6 million tons of war materials, replenished more than 480,000 guns, more than 613,000 artillery, and 21,000 cars;
had more than 830,000 casualties in the Volunteer Army and were treated in a timely manner, and tens of thousands of weapons were repaired in a timely manner. In addition, the Volunteer Army Logistics Force also built more than 2,500 kilometers of new highways, built more than 15,000 warehouses, more than 6,900 wards, and more than 15,000 simple barracks.
Logistics troops have completed heavy logistics support tasks with more than 48,000 people and 766 units awarded military achievements.
Under the uninterrupted bombing of US military aircraft, Hong Xuezhi forced to build a steel transportation line that "can't be beaten, can't be blown up, can't be washed away, can't be washed down"! After the end of the war, Hong Xuezhi was appointed as the deputy director of the General Logistics Department and was promoted to the Minister of the General Logistics Department and Party Secretary two years later.
After more than 20 years, Hong Xuezhi once again served as the Minister of General Logistics Department in January 1980.
Interestingly, Hong Xuezhi is known as the only "six-star general" in our army.
Everyone knows that there is no such thing as "Six-Star General" in the military rank series of our army. So, where does General Hong Xuezhi's "Six-Star General" come from?
General Hong Xuezhi in North Korea
It turned out that when our army first awarded the rank in 1955, Hong Xuezhi was awarded the rank of general. In 1988, Hong Xuezhi was awarded the rank of general again, so Hong Xuezhi became the only general in our army to be awarded the rank of general twice.
Because the rank of general is "three stars", people add up the two "three stars", and General Hong Xuezhi has become known as "six-star general".
Conclusion
Our army's modern logistics support system was born in the great and heroic War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, and was gradually improved and improved in the days that followed.
"The troops and horses should not move, food and grass should go first." Without strong support, there will be no strong combat power. Strong logistical support capabilities are an important guarantee for winning the war.
Behind the strong logistics support capabilities, there must be a strong country!
