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Foreword
When he was awarded the title in 1955, Chen Geng was awarded the rank of general.
However, he did not celebrate with others. Instead, he went directly to the West Flower Hall where Premier Zhou and his wife were, and rummaged through the cabinets to find something. Premier Zhou and his wife laughed and said nothing.
What exactly is Chen Geng looking for? What is his relationship with Premier Zhou? Why did you seek him out as soon as you were awarded the title?
一 Met in Huangpu
Chen Geng and Premier Zhou met in 1924.
At that time, Huangpu Military Academy had just been established. Premier Zhou was invited to become the director of the Political Department, and Chen Geng, together with more than 300 other people, became the first batch of students of the school.
One time, Premier Zhou entered the student dormitory to inspect the work, and unexpectedly found that the students were surrounding a student, and there was constant laughter and laughter inside.
Prime Minister Zhou walked over curiously and discovered that a student was performing a skit "The Shorty Eats Long Noodles" inside.
I saw a vivid expression on the student's face, holding a non-existent bowl in both hands, stretching his neck and pretending to suck the noodles in the bowl.
It’s just that the noodles seemed to be too long, so the students could never finish sucking them. In the end, they could only stand on the bench or table and stroke them with their hands to suck them.
In the end, the student seemed to choke on the noodles and fell to the ground with a thud.
The students all burst out laughing when they saw this, and many of them burst into tears.
Only then did the students surrounding him notice Premier Zhou. They quickly arranged their clothes and stood at attention to salute.
But Premier Zhou didn't care about this. Instead, he said to Chen Geng who had performed before:
"You performed very well. I also acted in Nankai, but it's just not as good as yours. You can join the theater troupe at your level!"
In this way, when the two met for the first time, Chen Geng left a deep impression on Premier Zhou.
Although Chen Geng seemed a bit "naughty" at the time, Premier Zhou liked students with such lively personalities and versatile talents.
Later, under the guidance of Premier Zhou, Chen Geng also established the "Blood Flower Drama Club" with several classmates and became the backbone of the school's art.
The more people come into contact with him, the more Premier Zhou is optimistic about Chen Geng, because he feels that Chen Geng is "not stick to trivial matters" and can do great things.
When rehearsing a play in a drama club, sometimes it cannot be rehearsed due to a lack of actresses.
Others may feel a little embarrassed at this time, but Chen Geng didn't care. He casually put on the female costume and went on stage.
not only wears gorgeous makeup, but also often winks at the audience, making everyone laugh.
After several performances, Chen Geng became famous in school. Coupled with his excellent academic performance and outstanding abilities, he was eventually hailed as one of the Three Heroes of Huangpu.
But even among the "Three Heroes of Huangpu", Chen Geng is the one with a more flexible mind.
He once pretended to be Deng Yinda to check his bed, but he also deceived Jiang Xianyun and others, causing a lot of jokes in the school.
Perhaps it was because he fell in love with Chen Geng's flexible mind that Premier Zhou later put him in charge of the Central Special Branch work.
The famous "Whampoa Military Academy Scud" disappeared. Instead, there was a well-connected "Mr. Wang Yong" in Shanghai. What's going on?
二 Working with Special Branch
It turns out that in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek rebelled against the revolution, causing Shanghai to be shrouded in white terror. Only then did Premier Zhou make up his mind to found the "Central Special Branch".
Its purpose is to establish efficient and strict intelligence protection work, and at the same time eliminate some traitors and traitors who may cause major harm to the revolution.
The Central Special Branch at that time was divided into four parts, namely the Intelligence Section, Operations Section, Transportation Section and General Affairs Section, among which the work of the Intelligence Section was the top priority.
After some thought, Premier Zhou finally decided to hand over the work of the Intelligence Section to Chen Geng and let him use the pseudonym "Wang Yong".
Although Chen Geng was only 25 years old at the time, he had already fully demonstrated his talent in intelligence protection.
In 1925, when Liao Zhongkai died, Chen Geng participated in the arrest of the murderer. In 1926, he went to the Soviet Union for further study and specialized in this aspect of knowledge.
Therefore, Premier Zhou believed that Chen Geng could definitely complete the task, and Chen Geng lived up to his trust. With his makeup skills and fluent Shanghainese, he could often fake the real thing.
Even the people in the patrol room of the concession who were chasing Chen Geng had a hard time seeing through him. Some even asked "Wang Yong" to catch "Chen Geng", and the farce continued for a while.
Thanks to Chen Geng's efforts, the Central Special Branch not only quickly gained a foothold in Shanghai, but also established a huge intelligence network in the Kuomintang government, army and patrol rooms.
The later "Xiafei Road Rape Case" was completed against this background.
This time, we are targeting the traitor Bai Xin.
This man was also a revolutionary in the past, and had participated in the Nanchang Uprising. However, his revolutionary will was not firm. Faced with the high-pressure interrogation by the Kuomintang, he finally chose to rebel.
Moreover, he not only betrayed himself and revealed a lot of confidential information, but also cooperated with the Kuomintang secret service agency to "set up a trap" and arrested Peng Pai and other senior leading cadres.
Afterwards, although Premier Zhou, Chen Geng and others actively launched rescue operations, they ultimately failed to rescue Peng Pai and others.
Peng Pai and others would rather die than surrender, but were eventually brutally killed by the enemy. Bai Xin tried to escape from Shanghai to Italy and has been at large ever since.
Premier Zhou and Chen Geng naturally would not give Bai Xin this opportunity. After they confirmed that Bai Xin lived in Hehefang, Xiafei Road, the French Concession, they immediately arranged an anti-rape operation.
As soon as Bai Xin showed up, Chen Geng and others opened fire. Although he escaped, he was eventually shot dead in front of Gate No. 71.
This anti-rape operation had a huge impact. The reactionaries headed by Chiang Kai-shek were furious, while people with lofty ideals applauded.
Later, the traitors no longer dared to be so rampant, and the Central Special Branch led by Premier Zhou and Chen Geng also made outstanding achievements.
It is a pity that Gu Shunzhang, "the biggest traitor in the history of our party", was arrested and rebelled. Our party's intelligence agency in Shanghai faced a huge crisis.
Premier Zhou had to order an emergency transfer. Chen Geng and others also quickly evacuated Shanghai. The Central Special Branch was reorganized to minimize losses as much as possible.
After that, Chen Geng said goodbye to the secret front work, but his contact with Premier Zhou did not break. On the contrary, he gradually became closer.
Especially Chen Geng's "life-saving grace" on the Long March was something that Premier Zhou always cared about and remembered for the rest of his life.
And Chen Geng got the nickname "Fujiang" because of this. What's the secret behind this?
三 A friend in need is a friend indeed
Due to the wrong leadership of Bogu and others, our army's fifth counter-"encirclement and suppression" campaign ended in failure, and the Red Army started the 25,000-mile Long March.
Since the beginning of the Long March, Premier Zhou and others have been working at a high intensity. When the situation is critical, they often stay up all night.
Over time, Premier Zhou finally fell ill, suffered from severe liver abscess and amoebic dysentery, and fell into a high fever coma.
Seeing Premier Zhou fall ill, everyone was anxious, but there was nothing they could do. Chen Geng stood up at the critical moment. He said solemnly:
"In this situation, we must first cool him down and find some snow to apply cold compresses to his forehead and liver area..."
But the problem was that everyone had already walked out of the snow-capped mountains at that time. There were only grasslands and swamps around, and there was no snow for cold compresses at all.
Fortunately, Chen Geng was smart. He remembered that it had snowed not long ago, and according to experience, there should still be snow in the shade of the hill not far away.
So he sewed a few bags with oilcloth, took a few soldiers and ran towards the back of the hill. He came back after a long time, and sure enough he brought snow with him.
Thanks to the efforts of Chen Geng and others, Premier Zhou miraculously reduced his fever and finally woke up.
But at that time, his body was still very weak and he could not bear the bumps on the horse, so Xiao Jinguang ordered people from the mortar company to form a stretcher team.
As for Chen Geng, although he had a leg injury, he also volunteered to join the stretcher team and served as the captain.
Premier Zhou didn't want to tire everyone, so he offered to ride a horse by himself. Chen Geng decisively refused, and even joked:
"Now you are a patient, and I am the captain of the stretcher team. You have to listen to me!"
Premier Zhou couldn't laugh or cry, so he could no longer insist. After walking like this for a while, Premier Zhou's health actually gradually improved.
Later, he couldn't help but sigh: "Chen Geng, you are really a blessed general. You saved Chiang Kai-shek in the past, and now you have saved me..."
Unexpectedly, when Chen Geng heard this, he muttered:
"If I had known that the old boy would become so bad later and commit suicide in the first place, I shouldn't have cared about him!"
These things can be traced back to " Eastern Expedition Chen Jiongming". Chiang Kai-shek personally took command of the battle, but was defeated and returned. He was disheartened and tried to commit suicide on the spot.
Chen Geng finally stopped him and carried him for hundreds of miles before he was out of danger.
Premier Zhou has always kept this life-saving kindness in his heart.
Of course, Premier Zhou also rescued Chen Geng many times. When Zhang Guotao wanted to persecute Chen Geng, he escaped thanks to Premier Zhou's advance notice;
Chen Geng was also arrested, and it was Premier Zhou who ran around and actively rescued him, which finally made Chiang Kai-shek have to let him go.
Therefore, Premier Zhou and Chen Geng had a mutual affection, or it would be more appropriate to say "a friend in need is a friend indeed". Their revolutionary friendship gradually deepened while helping each other.
With this relationship, it is not difficult to understand why Chen Geng is so "free and easy" in front of Premier Zhou.
After being awarded the title in 1955, he went to Premier Zhou and his wife to "rummage through boxes and cabinets", which was actually a sign of close relationship.
四 The friendship will never end
Before being awarded the title in 1955, Chen Geng actually never thought of rating him as a "general" because he felt that he was not qualified enough and "had never been a division commander during the Red Army period."
However, Chen Geng was free and easy by nature and didn't care about military rank, so he even had the mood to joke with Li Jukui:
"If you ask me about it when the rank is evaluated, just say that I was a division commander and succeeded you..."
He was just joking, but Li Jukui had an upright personality and admired Chen Geng from the bottom of his heart, and felt that he should be awarded the rank of general.
So when Xu Liqing asked, he really said that. Xu Liqing was a little stunned after hearing it.
Because he didn't remember such a thing, and the general political leaders knew as soon as they heard that Chen Geng was joking and deceiving Li Jukui into bragging, so they didn't take it seriously.
In fact, Chen Geng actually served as a division commander during the Red Army, but he did not succeed Li Jukui, but served in the Red 12th Division of the Red Fourth Front Army.
The reason why Chen Geng said that to Li Jukui was firstly a joke, and secondly it showed that he really didn't care about his military rank and never thought of using it as an issue.
However, Li Jukui's uprightness still moved Chen Geng a little. Later, when he was awarded the title, he even made a joke with Chairman Mao about it.
At that time, Chairman Mao first joked with Chen Geng: "How about it? Are you more promising than Chiang Kai-shek with me? I'll give you the rank of general!"
Chen Geng also replied humorously: "I My military rank was not given by you, but by Li Jukui!"
After a while of joking, Chen Geng did not celebrate with everyone. Instead, he ran directly to the West Flower Hall where Premier Zhou and his wife were.
He first took out his camera and took a photo of Premier Zhou and his wife, and then ran to the side to rummage through the boxes.
While flipping through the pages, he said to Deng Yingchao: "Sister, where has all the food gone..."
Premier Zhou and his wife looked at each other and smiled, both of them unable to do anything about the "naughty" Chen Geng. Deng Yingchao also brought out a plate of candies and celebrated him.
After the title conferment was over, everyone went home. Chen Geng didn't take the rank of general seriously at all and didn't say anything to anyone when he got home.
When his son asked him what general he had been awarded, he casually replied "Sesame General".
As a result, the children were young at the time and they really believed Chen Geng’s words.
Later, a group of veterans and coaches came to visit. During the dinner, they teased Chen Geng's son and asked him what general his father had been awarded.
As a result, the child put his hands on his hips and said with his head held high: "Sesame General!"
All the veterans and coaches laughed and said that Chen Geng is like a child who has not grown up and always has a pure heart.
In fact, Chen Geng's innocent heart is rare, and it can be regarded as a secret to his getting along well with everyone.
Although the veterans and coaches each have their own personalities, some are a little stubborn and some are a little impatient, but they all have a good relationship with Chen Geng.
Unfortunately, General Chen Geng died of illness in Shanghai in 1961.
After learning of his death, Premier Zhou was very sad and rushed back to preside over his funeral in person.
Other veterans and marshals also attended the funeral. Although they were deeply saddened, they also spoke highly of Chen Geng. For example, Marshal Chen Yi said:
"He is like a glass that is clear and transparent inside and outside. He is a cannon of our party!"
Although Chen Geng passed away, the friendship between the comrades of our party and him has never been severed.
Everyone is remembering Chen Geng, especially Premier Zhou, who later took great care of Chen Geng’s family.
Throughout Chen Geng’s glorious life, we sincerely admire him and hope to learn from him.
We should be as upright and indifferent as him, and most importantly, have an "innocent heart" like him.
is committed to building the motherland, serving the people, blooming our glory, and building a beautiful homeland that belongs to us.
