Preface
Photo丨Xu Guangda and Chairman Mao had a cordial conversation
For General Xu Guangda, Chairman Mao once praised him like this: "This is a mirror, a mirror of the Communists' own revolution."
"Enlai take a step back!"
On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao solemnly declared to the world on the Tiananmen Gate Tower in Beijing: "The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China has been established! The Chinese people have stood up from now on!"
At that time, Xu Guangda, then commander of the 2nd Corps of the First Field Army, welcomed this glorious moment in Lanzhou.
He stood on the rostrum of the celebration, looking back on the past, and couldn't help but burst into tears: from the banks of the Liuyang River to the Whampoa Military Academy, from Honghu Soviet Area to northern Shaanxi, from a cattle-herding child to the commander of the Corps, today's victory was through such a arduous struggle, and how many revolutionary comrades exchanged their blood and lives. History will be engraved with their great achievements, and the people will never forget them.
Not long after, Xu Guangda was ordered to come to Beijing to assist Marshal Peng Dehuai in drafting the work report to the Central People's Government. At that time, Xu Guangda lived in Zhongnanhai and was often able to meet Chairman Mao. One day in the winter of 1949, when the central leadership was discussing the founding of the country, Premier Zhou, who was also the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central People's Government, made a request to the two bosses Zhu De and Peng Dehuai: "I want to transfer Xu Guangda to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
Photo |Premier Zhou and Zhu De and Peng Dehuai took a photo together
Hearing this request from Premier Zhou, Marshal Zhu De and Marshal Peng Dehuai looked at each other, and then they took a look. The embarrassing Prime Minister Zhou said: "Prime Minister, we know that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lacks talents, but the army now also needs talents like Xu Guangda!"
At that time, the main direction of my country's diplomatic work was to develop relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries . Xu Guangda happened to return from the Soviet Union to study and return home. He is a very suitable and good candidate and is also very suitable for this job. But at the same time, the new China has just been established, and all departments and industries of the country need talents, and the army also urgently needs modernization and regularization, and even more need military talents with expertise.
Premier Zhou also considered this matter deeply. After nodding, he took the initiative to ask Xu Guangda: "What are your thoughts?"
Xu Guangda saw Premier Zhou asking about his opinion, and quickly stood at Premier Zhou. When he was about to express his thoughts, Chairman Mao walked in from outside the door with a smile and asked, "What are you talking about?"
Being the Mao Master When Xi learned about this, after understanding the thoughts of the two bosses Zhou, Zhu De, Peng Dehuai and Xu Guangda, he nodded slowly, and then said with a smile: "You are all fighting for Xu Guangda! I agree with the bosses, it's better to stay in the army. Let's take a step back!"
pic | Chairman Mao
Just like that, Xu Guangda did not go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and continued to work in the army.
In fact, Chairman Mao asked Premier Zhou to "retreat" and asked Xu Guangda to continue working in the military, but also had his own considerations.
In order to defend the security of the New China and maintain world peace, At the beginning of the founding of New China, Chairman Mao believed that among the national defense forces of New China, armored soldiers must become an irreplaceable elite force of New China. It is an extremely important thing for who will serve as the "head of the Armored Forces of the New China" to be the "head of the Armored Forces of the New China." After careful consideration, Chairman Mao looked at Xu Guangda .
Chairman Mao also knew and valued Xu Guangda very much. As early as Yan'an, many of Xu Guangda's military academic papers published by Xu Guangda have received praise from Chairman Mao.In his article, it is not only unpredictable, but also achieved "implementation", highlighting the "theory is linked to practice" that Chairman Mao has always advocated, and enriching the military theory of liberated areas. In addition to being able to "implement", in Chairman Mao's opinion, Xu Guangda not only had a comprehensive quality, but also went to the Whampoa Military Academy, but also went to the Soviet Union to eat black bread. He also knew the technical expertise. He learned artillery when he was in the Whampoa Military Academy. Later, he went to the Soviet Union to study artillery and tank soldiers. The most important thing was that at that time, such a "born" was rare among the generals of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Whether from the perspective of theoretical knowledge or professional skills, Xu Guangda is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate for the establishment of the armored troops of the New China in Chairman Mao’s mind.
Picture丨General Xu Guangda
Of course, in the years that followed, Xu Guangda's contribution to the armored troops of the New China also confirmed the cleverness of Chairman Mao's decision!
Establishment of Armored Forces
On May 14, 1950, Chairman Mao personally ordered and appointed Xu Guangda to start the construction of a modern new soldier in the history of our army - the armored soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China.
One month later, Chairman Mao signed an order from the Central Military Commission to appoint Xu Guangda as the first armored soldier commander and political commissar of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Facing Chairman Mao’s important task, Xu Guangda immediately said: "Don’t worry, the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission asked me to build armored soldiers. I will definitely do it well until I go to see Marx!"
Hearing Xu Guangda’s words, Chairman Mao nodded with satisfaction.
At that time, Xu Guangda was facing a very difficult task. first, tanks in the People's Liberation Army were all seized from the Kuomintang army. Except for some American amphibious tanks , most of the rest were already ragged and difficult to move; followed by , and the PLA army lacked corresponding talents; finally , at that time, Korean War broke out, directly threatening the security of New China, which also made the formation of armored soldiers imminent.
Based on the situation of the Korean War, Mr. Peng took the lead in finding Xu Guangda to explain the mission and said earnestly: "The earth guns we used in the past, earth cannons , it's time to enter the museum! We now have to build planes, warships, , and tanks, and realize the modernization of national defense. You should take the lead first, build the armored soldiers, and make a breakthrough for the modernization of the army."
Xu Guangda knew that his shoulders were incomparable. Huge and important, but he did not retreat:
"The Party handed over the armored troops to me to form. Please rest assured, bosses, I will not let down the trust of the Party. I will hand over the armored troops in the second half of my life."
pic丨Xu Guangda inspected the work
Several days later, according to the decision of the Central Military Commission, Xu Guangda transferred 22 people from the 2nd Corps of the First Field Army of , formed an armored troops preparatory group, and began to work nervously and busyly.
On September 1, 1950, the Armored Soldier Command of the People's Liberation Army was officially established in Beijing, and a brand new technical armour of the People's Liberation Army, the Armored Soldier, was born!
But everything was difficult at the beginning. At that time, Xu Guangda, as the commander and political commissar, had to plan many things himself. From the moment he received the order, the tank occupied his entire mind, and even when he went home, he always had to speak without the tank.
For this reason, Xu Guangda said to people around him more than once: "We must establish the idea of serving the construction of armored troops for life and devote our intelligence to the cause of armored troops."
As the Korean War expands, the armored troops that just were born in New China, , from top to bottom, handed letters of request to commander Xu Guangda, and they demanded to go to the front line of North Korea to defend their country.
Faced with the soldiers' request for battle, Xu Guangda pondered for a long time. Why didn't he want to pull the armored troops to North Korea and severely attack the American invaders? But the troops have just been formed, and their equipment is simple and their technology is still very weak.
At this critical moment, Chairman Mao ordered: "When participating in the war, the cubs hiding in my mother's arms are useless, and we must build armored soldiers in the battle."
pic | Chairman Mao
With Chairman Mao's order, the Armored Soldier Party Committee made a decision after discussion:
requires the troops to quickly master the basic training tasks for one year within 3 months and be ready to enter North Korea at any time.
Although it is not easy to complete one year's training task within 3 months, in the face of Chairman Mao's order, Xu Guangda still had no choice but to lead the staff of the agency to go deep into the grassroots level and carefully help the troops formulate training plans.
Finally, with the efforts of Xu Guangda and his troops, the newly born armored troops sent a regiment to North Korea to participate in the war, and this regiment also played an important and even indispensable role in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
In this way, under the correct leadership of the Central Military Commission and Chairman Mao, and with Xu Guangda's efforts and continuous improvement, the People's Liberation Army finally had a relatively powerful armored army, and had the first-generation domestic tanks.
1959, during the tenth anniversary ceremony of the National Day, Xu Guangda personally accompanied Chairman Mao to stand on the Tiananmen Gate Tower and inspect the tank convoy composed of domestic tanks.
When I saw the tank convoy rumble past Tiananmen Square , Chairman Mao held Xu Guangda's hand tightly with great excitement: "Thank you for all these years, you have made great contributions to the development of the armored troops to this day!"
Listening to Chairman Mao's words and looking at the tank convoy under the Tiananmen Gate Tower, Xu Guangda was full of pride at that moment!
Picture丨Xu Guangda (second from left)
In the following years, Xu Guangda fought for nearly 20 years in the position of armored soldiers commander. In these 20 years, he was the new armed soldiers in the People's Liberation Army sequence, from nothing to something, from small to large, from backward to advanced, and equipment from import to domestic production. In the past 20 years, he has never disappointed Chairman Mao's instructions and expectations for him!
requested a reduction in rank was denied
On August 1, 1955, to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army of China, the Ministry of National Defense held a grand banquet to entertain military officers from all countries in China. Xu Guangda also attended the banquet. At this banquet, Xu Guangda learned that Chairman Mao personally proposed to award his rank of general. After the banquet ended, Xu Guangda didn't say a word, and his family greeted him, as if he didn't hear it. He crawled into the study until very late to rest. He did this for several days in a row, and his family didn't understand what was going on.
Later, after repeated questioning by Xu Guangda's wife Zou Jinghua, Xu Guangda felt deeply uneasy after hearing the news that he would be awarded the rank of general. He said: "Decades of ups and downs, how many comrades who have fought side by side with me: Liu Keming, Duan Dechang , Zhou Yiqun, Sun Yizhong ... and more young people who cannot be named after their names. The soldiers sprinkled their blood on the sacred land. My 'black hat' was built on the bloody sacrifice of many of my comrades and subordinates. They were buried in the place where we fought together. I, a survivor, have received a high honor today, 'one general succeeded and ten thousand bones were thawed'! '
After thinking for a few years, Xu Guangda finally wrote a "applicant to demote the title" to Chairman Mao and the leaders of the Central Military Commission.
In the meeting room of the Central Military Commission, Chairman Mao raised Xu Guangda's application for general rank, and said loudly to Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, He Long and other leaders in front of him:
"Five hundred years ago, General Xu Da , second time to pacify the West, and his wise and bravery were the best in Zhongzhou; five hundred years later, General Xu Guangda gave up his title several times and became famous all over the world."
Although Chairman Mao and the Central Military Commission knew that this was Xu Guangda's wish, they did not approve Xu Guangda's application in the end, but still awarded him the rank of general based on his contribution.
pic丨Premier Zhou awarded Xu Guangda the title
Faced with the decision made by Chairman Mao and the Central Military Commission, Xu Guangda finally had to choose to accept it. But soon after, he sent a report to Chairman Mao and the Central Military Commission. In the report, Xu Guangda asked for a downgrade of the administrative level. Regarding Xu Guangda's persistence, Chairman Mao finally ordered: Agree.
Just like that, among the top ten founding generals, only General Xu Guangda’s administrative level is level 5, and the other generals are level 4. In the years since
, Xu Guangda has always been committed to the modernization of armored troops to contribute his own strength to the national defense of the New China. However, what is unexpected is that General Xu Guangda passed away on June 3, 1969, and the general was only 61 years old this year.
When Premier Zhou learned that Xu Guangda had passed away, he was very sad. He immediately told Chairman Mao the news. After hearing the news, Chairman Mao showed an unbelievable expression on his face. After a long time, Chairman Mao nodded slowly. At that moment, Chairman Mao seemed to see the scene where General Xu Guangda, who was energetic, talked with him again... ..
Picture丨Xu Guangda, Xiao Jinguang, Liu Ya Lou and Chairman Mao took a photo
After General Xu Guangda's death, his wife Zou Jinghua found that on the title page of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" when sorting out the relics, General Xu Guangda wrote a poem in a strong way:
"Hundred battles drive away tigers and leopards on the battlefield, and the hardships are not cold. Just seeking liberation for the people, it is as if it is easy to break into pieces."
Looking at her husband's last writing during his lifetime, Zou Jinghua burst into tears.
Looking at General Xu Guangda’s life, isn’t this poem a portrayal of his life in the military? It is also an old Communist Party member dedicated to the Party and the people a sincere heart...
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