The first railway minister of New China was Teng Daiyuan. His early years of military and political qualifications exceeded most founding generals and was called "a general who did not receive titles." After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he became the head of the Ministry of Railways and no longer participated in military affairs, so he did not attend the rank ceremony in 1955. But the military and civilians knew very well that Teng Daiyuan had a very high status and prestige within the army. In 1949, he served as the commander of the Railway Corps, and at this time he still belonged to the military system. This corps developed from the railway corps column of the Northeast Field Army , and in 1949, he was directly under the jurisdiction of the Military Commission . Later, Teng Daiyuan, who was familiar with railway work, was appointed by the Chairman as the first Minister of Railways in New China.
Teng Daiyuan's position as Minister of Railways was in office until 1965, lasting for 16 years, and is very rare among provincial and ministerial officials. But in fact, in 1958, his work focus was no longer on the railways, and the former Vice Minister General Lu Zhengcao was presided over and served as acting minister. In 1965, Lu Zhengcao became the Minister of Railways. In fact, the relationship between Lu Zhengcao and Teng Daiyuan is not particularly harmonious. Teng Daiyuan was born in Central Red Army and has a high qualification and prestige, but Lu Zhengcao is not inferior. He once served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army and the deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region .
1945 , when the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Teng Daiyuan was already a member of the Central Committee, and Lu Zhengcao served as an alternate member of the Central Committee. The gap between the two was not big. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the two often had different opinions on some daily work and construction plans of the Ministry of Railways, and both parties were very straightforward and could not hide them, and they often quarreled. But this is all at the normal working level. Both of them are very open-minded. As a superior leader, Teng Daiyuan never gave Lu Zhengcao a small shoe because of differences of opinion. The two of them have a good evaluation of each other.
Because Lu Zhengcao worked in the Fourth Field system during the war, he had many conflicts with the commander of the Fourth Field 1 at that time, such as different views on the Siping Battle and the revolutionary situation in the Northeast during the War of Liberation. The Chairman supported Lu Zhengcao, which made the commander of the Fourth Field Army dissatisfied. He kept saving up a lot of money and frequently asked Lu Zhengcao for trouble since the 1960s. Lu Zhengcao suffered a lot of unreasonable criticism for this and was in a very unfavorable situation. Lu Zhengcao was a general of the national army's uprising in his early years, and this kind of background left some people with excuses.
ulterior motives want to beat Lu Zhengcao, so he remembered his ex-leader Teng Daiyuan. These people moved out the old news in the Ministry of Railways and said to Teng Daiyuan: Lu Zhengcao often opposes you. Please prove it and talk about Lu Zhengcao’s problem! But after hearing this topic, Teng Daiyuan immediately changed his face and began to angrily scold people for being inappropriate.
Teng Daiyuan said: Comrade Lu Zhengcao has made some different opinions, but your statement is completely wrong. We are partners at work, and it is normal to argue. Only by explaining the issues clearly can we do a good job in the Ministry of Railways. It is unfair that you now put all these charges on him in order to attack him. And you want to criticize Lu Zhengcao. He was just an acting minister at that time. If there was a problem, I would be the primary responsibility as the minister! I think I'd better criticize it together.
Teng Daiyuan's straightforward personality once put him in danger. However, due to the protection of the Prime Minister and others, although Lu Zhengcao and Teng Daiyuan were greatly impacted, they eventually resolved the crisis. From this incident, we can also see that Teng Daiyuan's open-minded style as an older generation revolutionary is worthy of being an "uncrowned general" and has been respected by the military and civilians. General Lu Zhengcao, who had received support from Teng Daiyuan, was officially rehabilitated by the organization in 1980. Three years later, he became the vice-president of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He has always been very grateful to his old boss for his outstanding moral character and righteousness. Later, Lu Zhengcao became the longest-lived founding general and died at the age of 105 in 2009.
