In 1955, in order to commend generals who made outstanding contributions during the revolutionary period, the People's Liberation Army held its first rank award ceremony. This year, our army served as a total of 802 founding major generals. It is worth mentioning that among these 802 founding major generals, the youngest one was named Wu Zhong . He was only 36 years old when he was awarded major general.
Speaking of this, some people will raise objections, saying that the youngest major general was a man named Margov. This is actually questionable. Mainly, Margov later came to the Soviet Union, but also had problems with his age. Therefore, the youngest major general recognized in military history is Wu Zhong. Today we will talk about his story.
Wu Zhong was born in 1919 in Cangxi County, Sichuan Province. He was born in an ordinary farmer family. The Red Fourth Front Army left the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base and entered the junction of Sichuan-Shaanxi border, and successively opened up the Sichuan-Shaanxi base. In 1933, the Fourth Red Army began to expand its army after gaining a foothold in the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area. The 11th Red Army was reorganized into Red 30th Army . Wu Zhong also joined the newly established Red 30th Army this year.
After this, Wu Zhong followed the Red Fourth Front Army to participate in the battle to consolidate the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, as well as the anti-"three-way siege" and the anti-"six-way siege" and other battles, and followed the Red Fourth Front Army to through grassland three times, and finally arrived in northern Shaanxi in 1936, achieving the victory of Long March . After that, Wu Zhong participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation, and under the leadership of our party, he won the victory of the new democratic revolution in .
After the founding of New China, Wu Zhong worked tirelessly and participated in Resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, making great contributions to defending his country. In 1954, Wu Zhong returned from North Korea. When he was awarded the title in 1955, Wu Zhong, who was only 36 years old, was awarded the rank of major general and became the founding major general. He thus became the youngest founding major general in New China. After being awarded the title, Wu Zhong took on the position of commander of the Mechanization Division and continued to participate in guiding the modernization of our army.
Wu Zhong was truly reused during the special period of ten years. In 1968, Wu Zhong was appointed as the first deputy commander of the Beijing Garrison District. It should be noted that Wen Yucheng was the commander of the garrison at that time. Wen Yucheng also served as the deputy chief of staff and was busy with work. Therefore, although Wu Zhong was the deputy commander, he was in charge of his daily work and was responsible for guarding the capital and important areas of the capital, and had a heavy responsibility.
After the "Ninth National Congress", Lin Biao's successor was determined. After that, Lin Biao, Huang Yongsheng, Wu Faxian, Qiu Huizuo, Li Zuopeng and others stepped up their pace of usurping power. They formed a faction and persecuted many cadres. Against this background, Chairman Mao also adopted three strategies, namely "swinging stones" (seeking someone to talk), "adding sand" (arrange personnel to enter the Military Commission's service group), and "poaching the wall" (reorganizing the Beijing Military Region and the Beijing Garrison District) to restrain Lin Biao's power.
And Wu Zhong is the new commander appointed after reorganizing the Beijing Garrison District. His predecessor Wen Yucheng was Lin Biao's direct descendant. In 1970, Wen Yucheng was transferred to Chengdu Military Region , and Wu Zhong took over his position and became the new commander of the Beijing Garrison District. Wu Zhong was also deeply trusted by Chairman Mao. In 1971, Chairman Mao returned to Beijing during the southern tour. Wu Zhong was one of the people who went to the station to welcome him back to Beijing, which shows how trust Chairman Mao trusted him. In addition, after the September 13th incident, Wu Zhong also commanded the relevant personnel of the garrison area to quickly stabilize the situation in Beijing, maintain social stability, and make great contributions. Chairman Mao also praised Wu Zhong and said, "Wu Zhong has Zhong."
In addition, in 1976, when the "Gang of Four" was smashed, Hua Guofeng also received Wu Zhong's support, and Wu Zhong also did his best to smash the "Gang of Four". After smashing the "Gang of Four", Wu Zhong was transferred to Guangzhou Military Region and served as deputy commander of the Guangzhou Military Region. In 1979, when self-defense counterattack against Vietnam broke out, Wu Zhong participated in command of the battle of the Guangzhou Military Region and made great contributions to safeguarding national sovereignty.
However, in 1980, Wu Zhong was removed from his post and returned to Beijing for review.Wu Zhong was investigated because he was suspected of participating in the activities of the "Gang of Four". After that, Wu Zhong was under review for eight years. On June 18, 1987, the Central Military Commission announced the conclusion of the review of Wu Zhong: Wu Zhong did not participate in the counter-revolutionary incident planned by Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four".
Wu Zhong's health was already in poor health at that time. In 1988, Wu Zhong resigned and recuperated. In his later years, he was committed to writing memoirs from the revolutionary period. Unfortunately, in 1990, Wu Zhong died in a car accident at the age of 71.
