In October 1956, a car that came from China Friendship Pass suddenly stopped as soon as it entered Hanoi, Vietnam. A middle-aged man in Chinese military uniform slowly got out of the car, squatted down, held up a handful of dirt with his yellow hands, and put it into his shoulder bag.
The man slowly stood up, his eyes filled with tears. He looked at the familiar and unfamiliar scenery in front of him and sighed affectionately: "It's been decades, and I finally returned to my motherland, my hometown!"
Why does this Vietnamese man wear Chinese military uniform? What exactly has he experienced in China in the past few decades?
1. From "Hongxiu" to "Flood"
In fact, this man with a special identity, named Wu Yuanbo, is a pure Vietnamese. His hometown is Hanoi . He was once a top student at Hanoi Normal University.
1923, Wu Yuanbo took advantage of his holiday to come to France with the educational inspection team organized by the school, and this trip to France completely changed his destiny.
During his inspection and study in France, Wu Yuanbo met with the head of the Vietnamese Communist Revolutionary Group - Ho Chi Minh . The name Ho Chi Minh was well-known in Vietnam at that time. Many mysterious stories about him circulated among the people made Wu Yuanbo admire Ho Chi Minh. Now, being able to have the honor to meet a revolutionary leader like Ho Chi Minh has made Wu Yuanbo more determined to participate in the revolutionary cause. So, after returning to Vietnam, Wu Yuanbo immediately participated in the organization of a student movement.
At the end of 1924, Wu Yuanbo came from Vietnam to Guangzhou, China as a Russian translator of Borotin , and since then he has formed an indissoluble bond with China.
During this period, Wu Yuanbo was introduced by Ho Chi Minh and met many famous Chinese Communists. We were familiar with Wu Yuanbo at that time. Since then, Ho Chi Minh established the earliest "Communist Party Organization" in Guangzhou - the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Comrades Association in Vietnam.
After that, with the help of Communists such as Cai Chang, Wu Yuanbo and several other progressive young people from Vietnam entered Whampoa Military Academy to learn military knowledge. When he entered school, Wu Yuanbo changed his name to "Wu Hongxiu", using this to spur himself to become the backbone and hero of the Vietnamese people's revolutionary struggle against French colonists and feudal rulers like "Hongling".
At this time, Mr. Sun Yat-sen implemented the three major policies of "alliance with Russia, alliance with the Communist Party, and assistance to farmers and workers" within the party. Wu Hongxiu also successfully joined the Kuomintang at the Whampoa Military Academy.
1927 After the outbreak of the April 12th coup, many Vietnamese young people who were Communists also died tragically under the butcher knife of Chiang Kai-shek. This made Wu Hongxiu finally see Chiang Kai-shek's character clearly. Therefore, despite the dissuasion of his comrades and classmates, he angrily withdrew from the Kuomintang and joined the camp of the Communist Party of China.
1928, Wu Hongxiu returned to China to participate in the armed revolution in accordance with Nie Rongzhen's instructions. At that time, Wu Hongxiu was sent by his superiors to the Dongjiang Guerrillas as the company instructor. It was during this period that Wu Hongxiu changed his name to "Floodshui" and continued to use it.
In the pronunciation of southern China's dialect, "Hongxiu" is very similar to "Hongshui". It happened that the Kuomintang reactionaries at this time described the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army as "Hongshui beast". He was upright and simply changed his name to "Hongshui", which meant to be incompatible with the Kuomintang reactionaries and confrontation with tit-for-tat. At the same time, he also expressed his determination to fight to the end.
In 1930, Hongshui was transferred to the Central Soviet Area by the Party Central Committee. Since Hongshui studied at Normal College and had the experience of studying in France, he was proficient in five languages, including Russian, Vietnam, French, English and Chinese. At that time, there were few cadres with culture. There were only a handful of talents like Hongshui who were both cultured and proficient in so many languages, and who had studied in normal schools. Therefore, the Party Central Committee directly asked Hongshui to go to the propaganda department, and the section chief and teacher took one shoulder to spread revolutionary ideas to the people in cultural form.
Hongshui has a very strong speaking ability. He always needs drafts when he goes to the podium. After a class, Hongshui almost doesn’t have to rest, and he completed the teaching task like a flowing cloud, so many students joked that Hongshui’s mouth is like an machine gun that is not stuck.
Under Hongshui's easy-to-understand education, the people of the Central Soviet Area were all influenced by revolutionary ideas. Many people even praised: "Even ants love to listen to the lessons taught by Hongshui." What the people of the Jiangsu Area could not have imagined that the "Hong" teacher they praised would be a foreigner.
Second and third expelled from the party
In October 1934, the Red Army was forced to start a strategic transfer, and at such a critical moment, Hongshui was expelled from the party by the Party Central Committee.
It turns out that because of his straightforward personality, Hongshui often contradicted people who had different political views with Mao Zedong and Commander-in-Chief Zhu in public, which aroused the disgust of these central leaders. Shortly afterwards, the central leader who had a political disagreement with Mao Zedong provoked trouble on the grounds that the club charter failed to implement the thoughts and spirit of Bo Gu and others" drafted by Hongshui, and also used the excuse of 20 yuan silver dollars in the account to put Hongshui's big hats such as "senior spy", and expelled Hongshui's party membership on this grounds.
Logically speaking, the flood, which has been expelled from the party, cannot be transferred with the large army. However, with the strong help of Zhou Enlai and other central leaders, the flood was incorporated into the Military Commission cadre regiment led by Chen Geng, and then he boarded the last bus of " Long March " and started the transfer road with the large army.
In early 1935, the Zunyi Conference determined Mao Zedong's leadership position in the Party Central Committee and the Red Army, and Hongshui's party membership was finally restored thereafter.
In June of the same year, the Hongyi side would meet successfully with the Red Fourth Front Army. Soon after that, the central government decided to mix the two Front Army into the left and right Army. The flood that was originally the Red First Front Army was transferred to the left Army by its superiors to join the work.
At this time, the Nominal Commander-in-Chief of the Left Route Army was Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, but the actual person in power was Zhang Guotao, the General Political Commissar. Zhang Guotao covered the sky with his hands in the left army and tried his best to exclude Zhu De, Liu Bocheng and others in the army. Hongshui, who was upright, strongly supported the two leaders, and even confronted Zhang Guotao, who had the highest authority in the left army, in public, thus breaking apart.
The "belower offender" of the flood made Zhang Guotao angry. So he was furious and put the hat of "international spy" on the flood. He used his rights in the left army to put the flood on the list of hunting and killing, and was about to remove the flood quickly. Fortunately, General Zhu and Liu Bocheng tried their best to protect the flood at this moment, which allowed the flood to survive. However, according to Zhang Guotao's meaning: "The crime of death in the flood can be avoided, but the crime of living cannot be escaped." Therefore, he was expelled from the Party Central Committee for the second time.
In October 1936, the first, second and fourth fronts of the Red Army met successfully, and the arduous Long March ended successfully. After that, the Party Central Committee listed Zhang Guotao's crimes in Yan'an for criticism and liquidation. His punishment of expelling Hongshui from the Party was also revoked, and Hongshui regained his party membership again.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Hongshui followed the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and the Eighth Route Army headquarters to Wutai County, Shanxi to open an anti-Japanese base. Hongshui's public identity was the director of the mobilization committee of Wutai County, and was mainly responsible for the anti-Japanese mobilization movement among the people.
As mentioned above, Hongshui's propaganda ability is very outstanding. Every time he mobilizes the people to fight against Japan, Hongshui will talk about some great principles of "save the country and save the people" and convey it to the local people in the most understandable language. Under the agitation of Hongshui, the local people's enthusiasm for anti-Japanese war is very high. Everyone advocates: In order to support the anti-Japanese war, the rich have to pay, the food has to pay, and the gun has to pay.
Thanks to the propaganda of the flood, the local people actively participated in the anti-Japanese and national salvation movement. But at this moment, a large local family's "indifference" to the anti-Japanese movement attracted everyone's dissatisfaction, and this family is the hometown of the commander-in-chief of the Second War Zone - Yan Xishan .
Yan Xishan's hometown basically controlled the economic lifeline of Wutai County at that time. However, such a wealthy family shouted the slogan of "anti-Japanese and national salvation", without even having any substantial actions. The people of Wutai County were very dissatisfied with this, so they spontaneously gathered together and came to the "Yan Mansion" uninvited, "borrowing money" from Yan Xishan's father, "borrowing grain" from Yan Xishan's father-in-law, and "borrowing guns" from Yan Xishan's brother-in-law.
In this way, the local people "borrowed" all the Yan Mansion. Yan Xishan was furious when he learned about this and immediately raised a serious protest to the Eighth Route Army headquarters, saying: The Eighth Route Army confiscated his hometown, and it seems that the Anti-Japanese War cannot be unified.
At this time, the Party Central Committee was doing its best to carry out Yan Xishan's united front work. For the sake of the overall situation, the Party Central Committee finally expelled Hongshui, the chief leader of Wutai County, from the Party. Hongshui himself knew that his subordinates had violated the United Front policy. The Party Central Committee needed to give Yan Xishan an "explanation", so he had no complaints about this punishment and wrote a profound review thereafter.
According to the meeting of Hongshui's son Chen Hanfeng's , after his father was expelled from the party for the third time, he did not really leave the party organization, but was transferred to the " Anti-Enemy Report" " in the Jin-Cha-Hebei Anti-Japanese Base Area as deputy director, continuing to work for the party.
3. Major General of the Two Countries
1955, the Central Military Commission prepared to hold a rank ceremony to award commanders who performed outstandingly in the revolutionary war. At that time, according to the Central Military Commission's intention, he was preparing to award the rank of Lieutenant General of the Hongshui. After reading the drafting of the plan, Chairman Mao took into account the nationality of the Hongshui, so he handed the draft to Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh to listen to his opinions.
At that time, Hongshui's rank in the Vietnamese army was a major general, and the general evaluation criteria of the Vietnamese People's Army did not follow military merits, but based on the opponent.
Since the French commander facing the war zone where Hongshui was stationed at that time was a major general, Hongshui was also awarded the rank of major general of the Vietnam People's Army. When China drafted the plan to "should be awarded the rank of Lieutenant General of the People's Liberation Army in Hongshui ", Ho Chi Minh believed that this plan could be a bit inappropriate. After all, at that time, the entire Vietnamese army was in the same place as that of one lieutenant general. Although Hongshui made outstanding achievements in military achievements, it had not yet reached the level of "below one person". Therefore, Ho Chi Minh's advice to China was: the rank of (Fongshui) was the best that the rank of the rank of the Vietnamese People's Army was the best.
So, at that grand rank in 1955, Hongshui was awarded the rank of major general by the Central Military Commission and enjoyed the treatment of a regular division. At this point, Hongshui became the only foreign general in the Chinese People's Liberation Army at that time, and at the same time, he also became a senior commander with the ranks of generals of the military countries of China and Vietnam.
1955 National Day, at that time, all generals in Beijing were basically invited to attend the National Day ceremony that day. When the generals followed Chairman Mao to the Tiananmen Gate Tower in public, Chairman Mao carefully found the inconspicuous flood in the crowd, so Chairman Mao asked him affectionately: "Xiao Hong, how about it? What level has he set for you?"
Hongshui was embarrassed to answer at first, and after the Chairman's repeated questions, he had to answer truthfully.
Chairman Mao immediately called a head of the Military Commission and said to him: "This is not appropriate. Hongshui joined the army during the Huangpu period, and was also a general who went out of the front army. At least he should be at the level of the army. It is recommended to be changed to the level of the army."
Chairman Mao's suggestion was quickly implemented by the General Cadre Department of . Shortly after that, Hongshui's rank was changed to the level of the army.
In early 1956, General Hongshui's cough suddenly worsened, and his family immediately took him to see a doctor, and the hospital's examination results made General Hongshui's relatives and friends feel as if they were struck by lightning.
After a comprehensive and meticulous examination, General Hongshui was finally diagnosed with lung cancer, and the cancer cells had spread. At that time, the first-class domestic experts had personally performed General Hongshui, but when they opened the abdominal cavity, they found that the cancer cells had spread to the point where they could not be removed, so they could only suture the blade to try to extend the general's lifespan in a conservative treatment manner.
The physical condition is getting worse day by day, which makes the flood feel that his deadline is approaching. Therefore, he requested to the leaders of the Party Central Committee to return to the roots of Vietnam.
After soliciting Ho Chi Minh's consent, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China agreed to Hongshui's request.
In late September 2019, central leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, Huang Kecheng and other central leaders personally saw off for General Hongshui. Everyone present knew that this time, the farewell to Hongshui was likely to be a farewell forever, so the mood of all central leaders was very heavy. From another perspective, we can also see that General Hongshui's position in the minds of the Party Central Committee leaders was that in the central leadership at that time, no foreigner could have such a close relationship with so many central leaders. Before leaving, Chairman Mao held Hongshui's hands and said meaningfully:
"Comrade Hongshui, you must treat your illness well after you go back. After you get better, we welcome you back at any time!"
That day, the corners of the Chairman's eyes were filled with tears, and he said goodbye to Hongshui very reluctantly. Less than a month after reaching Vietnam, General Hongshui passed away at the age of 48.
