The Armored Corps of the People's Liberation Army of China was one of the eight branches of the armed forces when the Army of the Republic of China was awarded the title in 1955. It was established on September 1, 1950 as an independent branch of the Army. When it was established

The Armored Forces of the People's Liberation Army of China was one of the eight branches of the armed forces when the Army of the Republic of China was awarded the title in 1955. It was established on September 1, 1950 as an independent branch of the Army. When it was established, it was called the Motorcycle Armored Forces Command of the People's Liberation Army of China. Commander Xu Guangda, Deputy Commander Nie Heting, Deputy Political Commissar Xiang Zhonghua, Chief of Staff Zhang Wenzhou. On July 16, 1951, the Motorized Armored Corps Command was renamed the Armored Corps Command. By the time the army was awarded the title in September 1955, the Armored Forces of the Republic already had 3 tank divisions, 1 mechanized division, 4 independent tank regiments and 48 tank self-propelled artillery regiments belonging to the infantry division.

On September 23, 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai of the State Council signed an order to confer general officers. The Military Commission Armored Forces System awarded a total of 1 general and 1 lieutenant general. The actual award list of the Armored Forces is quite different from the list of proposed generals and lieutenant generals reported by the Armored Forces system in early 1955. This issue will specifically explain in detail the list of proposed generals and lieutenant generals reported by the Armored Forces Party Committee in early 1955 and the list of proposed generals and lieutenant generals reported by the Armored Forces Party Committee in September. The list of generals and lieutenant generals actually awarded by the system is now detailed as follows:

1. In January and February 1955, the Party Committee of the Armored Forces Command reported the list of generals and lieutenant generals for the preliminary evaluation of the system:

• The list of generals proposed by the Armored Forces Command (1 person ): Xu Guangda
• Armored Corps Headquarters proposed to evaluate Lieutenant General (2 people): Nie Heting, Xiang Zhonghua

On December 22, 1954, the Central Military Commission held a meeting and decided to implement a military rank system in the entire army in 1955. According to the instructions of the Military Commission, the entire army that was suspended last year The military rank evaluation work can be restarted. At the beginning of 1955, the Party Committee of the Armored Forces Headquarters re-appraised, revised and supplemented the 1953 military rank appraisal of cadres in this system, and evaluated the list of generals and lieutenant generals to be evaluated in this system. Later, in early January and early February 1955 Submit the list of candidates to be evaluated to the General Headquarters .

After comprehensive review, there are three people in the list of proposed generals and lieutenant generals reported by the Party Committee of the Armored Forces Command: Armored Forces Commander Xu Guangda, Armored Forces Deputy Commander Nie Heting, and Armored Forces Deputy Political Commissar Xiang Zhonghua. The military levels of the three men are all at the corps level, among which Xu Guangda is at the full corps level, and Nie Heting and Xiang Zhonghua are at the quasi-corps level.

Regarding the evaluation of generals and lieutenant generals, the Central Military Commission issued a ranking standard at that time: the majority at the corps level were evaluated as generals; the majority at the deputy corps and quasi corps levels were evaluated as lieutenant generals. According to the Military Commission's ranking instructions, Xu Guangda met the standard for general, and Nie Xiang met the standard for lieutenant general. Therefore, Xu Guangda presided over the Armored Corps Party Committee's democratic review of the preliminary evaluation of the military ranks of the above three people. Except for Nie Heting, who had reservations about the Party Committee's evaluation of him as a lieutenant general, the other two unanimously approved it. The Armored Forces Party Committee reported in early January 1955 that Xu Guangda was proposed to be promoted to general, and later in February, Nie Heting and Xiang Zhonghua were reported to be initially evaluated as lieutenant general.

Second, in mid-January 1955, the Central Military Commission symposium approved Xu Guangda as the preliminary candidate for general, and the armored force general position was vacant.

From January 14 to 15, 1955, Defense Minister Peng Dehuai presided over a Central Military Commission symposium to discuss the above list of generals. After two days of careful discussion, a consensus was reached. Among them, when discussing the preliminary selection of generals, the Central Military Commission symposium approved two plans for the preliminary evaluation of generals. The first plan was for 15 people, and the second plan was for 22 people. Among the two preliminary evaluation general plans, Xu Guangda, who was originally reported as a general by the armored force system, was included in the list of generals as the representative of the Red Second Front Army and the Red Second Army. Among the 15 people who initially evaluated the first plan of the General, there were three representatives of the Second Red Army. Among them, Xiao Ke and Wang Zhen represented the Red Sixth Army, and Xu Guangda was shortlisted as the only representative of the Second Red Army. Since Xu Guangda was nominated as a general candidate by the Military Commission, there was no place for armored generals in the list of 58 people to be evaluated as generals approved by the Central Military Commission symposium. The candidate for armored generals was vacant. Xu Guangda, who was originally reported as a general, was re-rated. general. On January 16, 1955, Peng Dehuai and Luo Ronghuan jointly signed the preliminary evaluation passed by the General Affairs Commission symposium and reported the above list to Chairman Mao. Later, after comprehensive balancing, the Central Committee determined that Xu Guangda was the only representative of the Second Front Army of the Central and Red Army, and his original reported rank of general was changed to that of general.

Third, Nie Heting was dissatisfied with his rating as lieutenant general and reported it to Luo Ronghuan. As a result, the army failed to pass the examination and was excluded from the list of rankings. Only Xiang Zhonghua was left on the list of armored force lieutenant generals.

In March 1955, after the dust settled on the list of generals, , the Central Military Commission began a review of the general. At this time, Xu Guangda had been confirmed as a general candidate, so the armored force general position was vacant. During the review of generals by the Central Military Commission, Nie Heting, who was dissatisfied with the report that he was promoted to lieutenant general, reported to the director of the General Cadre Department who was in charge of the evaluation process. Luo Ronghuan reflected that as a general who participated in the Nanchang Uprising, he served as the chief of staff of the Red Army during the Red Army period, and is now the deputy commander of the armored forces. He should be awarded the vacant armored force system general rank. Luo Ronghuan, who was still ill, was very angry about Nie Heting's behavior of competing for the title. In fact, Nie Heting should have been rated at the deputy corps level in the 1952 rating. However, due to his serious mistakes in his life style during the Three Antis Movement, he was downgraded to the quasi-corps level. The low military level directly caused Nie Heting to be rated at the 1955 rating. At the beginning of the title, he had no chance to be evaluated as a general, and was initially evaluated as a lieutenant general. Even after being severely criticized by Luo Ronghuan, Nie Heting still did not repent and showed dissatisfaction with the evaluation of lieutenant general from time to time. When Luo Ronghuan's Post-Military Commission reported Nie Heting's behavior of competing for titles, the Central Military Commission was shocked by Nie Heting's arrogant, complacent, self-regarding, and post-organization struggle for titles. During the concurrent military cadre review campaign, Nie Heting was re-examined politically. As a result of the review, Nie Heting and Wang Jian'an were excluded from the army's first military rank conferment because they failed to pass the military's political review. Their military ranks were suspended, and Nie Heting was removed from the list of lieutenant generals reported for the initial evaluation. Because Nie Heting was excluded from the first award, in April 1955, during the armored force system evaluation, the list of two originally reported preliminary evaluation officers was replaced by Xiang Zhonghua. As Nie Heting was excluded from the first list of awards, the candidate for the Armored Corps Lieutenant General was determined to be Xiang Zhonghua. On September 23, 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai signed the order of conferment. Xu Guangda, Commander of the Armored Forces, awarded the rank of General of the Armored Forces, and Deputy Political Commissar of the Armored Forces awarded Zhong Hua the rank of Lieutenant General of the Armored Forces. After Nie Heting, the deputy commander of the Armored Forces, was removed from the rank for the first time in 1955, he corrected his mistakes and had a good attitude towards admitting his mistakes. On January 26, 1956, he was re-rated as a Lieutenant General by the Military Commission and was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General of the Armored Forces.