text | Nanbo Qingsi Gu
edit | Nanbo Qingsi Gu
Preface
On February 19, 1997, Comrade Xiaoping, "the chief designer of reform and opening up " passed away in Beijing at the age of 93. The whole country was mourning, and the people took to the streets to bid farewell to this great leader who had a global vision and devoted himself to the founding and construction of the New China.
Deng Xiaoping
At that time, in order to prevent everyone from forgetting Deng Gong, who made great contributions to the New China as time goes by, he decided to collect all information about him from all sides and publish a memoir for Deng Gong . Although he has gone far away from us, his extraordinary life and the hard-working past for the New China can be kept on paper so that future generations can understand and admire this great man.
As the most capable general under Deng Gong's former command, Chen Xilian, who was 82 years old, accepted the invitation from the People's Daily. Although he claimed that he had a poor memory at the time, he had long forgotten many of the past. But when the reporter asked about the past about the old leader Deng Xiaoping, he couldn't finish talking, as if he had endless things to say.
Chen Xilian
This time the conversation, he said to the reporter: "The old leader is gone, I always feel like I have lost something... You want me to tell me some small things about him. I remember before, he refused to shake hands with me twice."
Why is this? Comrade Xiaoping, who has always made us feel friendly and warm, actually refused to shake hands with his former famous generals. What is the purpose of?
01 The first time he met Deng Gong, he boldly interrupted
Chen Xilian and Deng Gong first met in 1938. At that time, he was only in his twenties, but he had been a "veteran" who had been in the army for nearly ten years.
Youth Chen Xilian
Chen Xilian was born in Huang'an, Hubei in 1915. At that time, Yuan Shikai was in power, with the economy withering and people's livelihood being difficult. Chen Xilian's family is also very poor, and his father passed away very early, so he could only live with his mother. In order to relieve his mother's pressure, he went to herd cattle for the local landlord's house just to have a bite of it. But because he is very young, he is often bullied by the landlords, and the food he eats is just leftovers.
Such a hard life Chen Xilian spent many years until he was 14 years old , which was in 1929. The agrarian revolution led by Chairman Mao Zedong was in full swing, and he also encouraged local governments to carry out guerrilla wars. When he saw that the village was also recruiting guerrillas, he decided to join the guerrillas led by the Communist Party of China. thus started his decades of military career, and laid the groundwork for his later encounter, knowing each other and cherishing each other.
Chen Xilian
After joining the army, Chen Xilian showed excellent military talents. Although he was only in his teenage years, he was fearless in the face of a powerful enemy and could fight back bravely every time. When fighting, often faces difficulties and fights the enemy bravely. Even the battalion commander at that time praised him very much, and praised him for "although he is small, he is like a small cannon when fighting." Therefore, the title of "Little Cannon" has followed Chen Xilian for the rest of his life.
He also actively learns cultural knowledge from the team's instructors, constantly enriches his theoretical knowledge, and strives for both theory and practice. is like this. Through his own efforts, Chen Xilian went from a small guerrilla to the commander of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Red Fourth Army at the age of 23. It was also in this year that he met Mr. Deng for the first time.
Chen Xilian
At that time, Dong Gong was appointed by the Party Central Committee to come to Liao County, Shanxi to serve as the political commissar of the 129th Division. Liu Bocheng, as the commander of the 129th Division, held a meeting of leading cadres at all levels for this purpose and formally introduced Mr. Deng to everyone.
At the meeting, Liu Bocheng introduced some basic conditions in the current team. Later, when Deng Gong spoke, he looked at the young and strong comrades below and said with a smile: "You all look young and strong. This is good. You We are all the future and hope of our party and country!"
After hearing this, everyone laughed and applauded. No one spoke. Only Chen Xilian had the courage to say: "Political Commissar Deng is also very young."
It was this bold intervention that impressed Mr. Deng very deeply on Chen Xilian. In addition, after staying in the 129th Division for a long time, Mr. Deng also knew the title of "Little Steel Cannon", and he was even more impressed with Chen Xilian.
When Chen Xilian recalled the scene of his first meeting with Deng Gong, said with emotion: "Although Comrade Xiaoping did not speak much, he was very powerful and left a very deep impression on the comrades present."
Deng Xiaoping
From this, the story between Deng Gong and Chen Xilian officially began. However, why did Deng Gong refuse to shake hands with someone he valued very much twice?
02 The first refusal to shake hands
After the first meeting between political commissar Deng and leading cadres at all levels, he officially began to serve as the political commissar of the 129th Division. In order to do a good job, he conducted a "big survey" of leading cadres at all levels. After this careful understanding, Mr. Deng was more certain that Chen Xilian, a young man, would definitely be a strong general in the future.
Not long after, after Chen Xilian learned that his brother's troops had made great contributions, he couldn't help but have some "little complaints" in his heart. He felt that every time his troops fought, they "gnawed only the bones", "didn't eat the meat", and "couldn't grab anything." Deng Gong was very knowledgeable and kind. When he learned about Chen Xilian's idea, he said to him: "Don't be discouraged and don't complain. There will be time for your little steel cannon to fire!"
No, the opportunity came soon. At that time, the 129th Division encountered a fierce counterattack by the Japanese army. In order to complete the counterattack as quickly as possible, Deng Gong He gave the opportunity to fight back to Chen Xilian and said to him: "I know you complain about others eating meat and drinking soup. This is a big piece of fat meat with hard bones attached. Do you dare to chew it?"
"Dare!"
Chen Xilian immediately took the order, led the army to charge into the battle, fought back fiercely against the Japanese army, and fought a very beautiful victory.
Later, with the continuous accumulation of combat experience and the good guidance of Commander Liu Bocheng and Political Commissar Deng, Chen Xilian grew very rapidly, and fought more and more fiercely, winning battles continuously.
This is Deng Gong's wisdom in managing the army, and his "art of military management" is extremely proficient. This is one of the reasons why all the military and political cadres of the 129th Division admire Deng Gong. He did not hesitate to praise his men for winning the battle. But when his subordinates make mistakes, he is also very strict.
According to Chen Xilian’s recollection, one of the most obvious manifestations of Deng Gong’s anger was that he refused to shake hands with everyone before the meeting.
Chen Xilian has encountered this kind of experience twice.
Chen Xilian
In the autumn of 1946, Chen Xilian encountered the "first no-handshake crisis."
On that day, military and political cadres at all levels received a temporary notice to go to the meeting immediately. Generally, meetings of leading cadres at all levels are held to announce very important things. But nothing big happened at that time. However, Chen Xilian and the others had just won the battle of Dingtao at that time.
The fighting was very fierce at that time, and the two sides fought fiercely for three days. However, Chen Xilian finally led the soldiers to annihilate the Kuomintang Third Division and captured the division commander Zhao Xitian. This greatly dampened the morale of the Kuomintang army, because the weapons used by the Kuomintang army at that time were provided by the US military, which were very advanced, and their numbers were very large. In this situation, Chen Xilian and the others fought such a beautiful battle, and he took it for granted that this conference must praise everyone.
After arriving at the venue, when Mr. Deng came in, everyone stood one by one, waiting to shake hands with Mr. Deng. Because this is Mr. Deng’s habit, every time he held a meeting, he would shake hands with everyone one by one, and then start the formal meeting.
This time, Mr. Deng completely ignored everyone's hands and looked very serious.
Chen Xilian and Yang Yong, commander of the 7th Column who was with him at the time, immediately realized that Political Commissar Deng was angry. But why?
It turned out that Political Commissar Deng gradually discovered that some bad trends were beginning to appear in the army. Because several battles were won, many soldiers became proud and proud. However, this attitude is the most unfavorable in the army. As the saying goes: arrogance will be defeated! As a very strategic military manager, Mr. Deng knew very well that if this atmosphere was allowed to continue to let go, there would definitely be big problems.
Therefore, he severely criticized all the cadres participating in the meeting and sounded the alarm bell for them. Chen Xilian, Yang Yong and others gradually realized their problems and reflected deeply.
is Deng Gong’s "beat" this time, which made Chen Xilian treat him with peace of mind no matter how many battles he won or how many combat preparations he seized from then on. These are all Deng Gong’s “military governance” strategy!
03. The second handshake
The second handshake incident occurred in 1949, when it was , the founding of New China and the early stages of . At the end of this year, Liu and Deng commanded the army to enter the southwest area of and liberated Chongqing.
who to manage Chongqing was a difficult question facing Liu and Deng at that time. During the consideration, both of them thought of the same person.
Who is it?
That is "little steel cannon" Chen Xilian.
Why choose him?
Think about it carefully, Chen Xilian was a "shepherd boy" before, but with his own efforts, he stepped down to the position of senior military leader step by step. This courage and the hardships in it are unbearable for ordinary people. , and he is diligent and studious. Although he couldn't read a word at the beginning, he always liked to follow the instructor to learn, and his cultural knowledge was not lost.
So the two decided to let Chen Xilian take over Chongqing .
When they talked to Chen Xilian and told him about this decision, Chen Xilian also refused, feeling that he was not capable enough and could not be competent. But the decision of Liu and Deng was decided, and Deng Gong said , "If you don't know how to learn, if you don't have enough abilities, just improve your skills. Just pretend that you are chewing another tough bone." The sentence
made Chen Xilian work hard again, so why? There is nothing to be afraid of! In this way, Chen Xilian immediately took office as the manager of Chongqing.
Chen Xilian
Chongqing was the main work place of the Kuomintang reactionaries at that time. Although our party successfully took over, there were also many spies, ruffians, illegal gangs, and bandits left by Chiang Kai-shek . In addition to dealing with various daily affairs, Chen Xilian also has to be distracted from whether these people initiated the assassination of him.
When Chen Xilian was gradually getting started with management of Chongqing, he suddenly received a notice from Liu and Deng to convene their senior cadres to hold a meeting together. , but the meeting was not in the conference room, but asked them to go to Mr. Deng’s house for a meeting.
Deng Xiaoping and Liu Bocheng
This makes them confused when walking on the road, and they don’t know what’s going on. Until he went to Mr. Deng's house, Mr. Deng did not shake hands with them again. Chen Xilian suddenly realized that this was going to be criticized again.
Sure enough, Mr. Deng said to them very seriously: "I learned that some comrades have actually started to grab houses from each other. This matter is very bad. Our current focus is on building a new China, and we must solve the problems of the people. How can we take care of ourselves first and make ourselves comfortable first? How can this kind of thought exist in our army! I will notify you today, just tell you that whoever complains about where they live in the future will bring this place and come to my house to see!"
Why did the house grabbing happen? It turned out that Chongqing was the capital of the Kuomintang at that time, and the houses that the leading cadres lived in were very good, with small foreign buildings and villas everywhere. After the soldiers liberated Chongqing, they were in the countryside for a long time and had never seen and lived in such a good house. They were inevitably jealous and rushed to grab houses.
And what house do Liu and Deng live in? At that time, the two of them lived in an abandoned government building of the Kuomintang. They were very dilapidated and leaked in the house when they were raining. The living environment was very poor.
Mr. Deng asked military and political cadres at all levels to see where they live in person, which would also make his subordinates no longer complain about the bad house they live in. This is another great thing about Deng Gong’s management. Set an example and set a good example for everyone!
04. Conclusion
Chen Xilian recalled the experience of Mr. Deng not shaking hands with him. He was very moved, but at the same time he also said : "Comrade Xiaoping criticized once, let us make progress once."
"Comrade Xiaoping, as our old leader, is in the military governance. It is extremely strict and equal. We will not be open-minded just because we are senior cadres. Especially on major issues of principle, Comrade Xiaoping will never accommodate and is just as selfless."
chen Xilian
In such war years, it is a blessing for the country to have a strategic, courageous and wise general like Comrade Xiaoping.
He experienced three ups and downs in his life, and he did not recover in the most difficult days of his life. He still did not forget to improve himself continuously. He left us with the path of innovation of "reform and opening up", the supreme maxim of " practice is the only standard for testing truth ", and the great idea of " One country, Two Systems ".
Deng Xiaoping
He once said: "I am the son of the Chinese people. I love my motherland and people affectionately."
We also want to say: "We also love you affectionately and love the land you have made great contributions to. We will also miss you forever, inherit your will, continue to contribute to the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and work tirelessly!"
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