In many film and television dramas that reflect Anti-Japanese War , we can always see the Eighth Route Army generals wearing Kuomintang military uniforms and wearing military ranks.
So during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which generals in our Eighth Route Army had obtained the ranks awarded by by the National Government ? Who are they? What interesting stories have happened around these military ranks?
In this article, please follow Wen Shijun's footsteps and walk into that little-known history together!
readers who are familiar with the history of our army know that as early as the Great Revolution, some senior generals in our army were awarded military ranks, and their ranks were not low.
For example, Marshal Zhu De, the leader of the "Top Ten Marshals" of New China and the father of the Red Army, followed General Cai E, in his early years to participate in the National Protection War, made great achievements, and was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General of the Beiyang Army.
During the Great Revolution, Zhu De was awarded the title of lieutenant general and general in the National Revolutionary Army.
Marshal Liu Bocheng and Marshal He Long have also been awarded the title of lieutenant general and general in the National Revolutionary Army.
In addition, Zhou Enlai, Guo Moruo , Ye Jianying, Ye Ting, Lin Boqu and others have all been awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
So you see, in fact, many generals of our army were awarded military ranks a long time ago, but the subject of the award was not our People's Army.
1937 After the full outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party began their second cooperation and formed the " Anti-Japanese National United Front ".
During this period, I Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was adapted into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which was under the jurisdiction of the 15th Division, , 120th Division and 129th Division. Zhu De and Peng Dehuai were appointed as chief and deputy commanders respectively.
Then, the Red Army guerrillas distributed in thirteen regions in the south were reorganized into the new Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, namely " New Fourth Army ", with Ye Ting as the commander, Xiang Ying as the deputy commander, and Zhang Yunyi as the chief of staff.
Speaking of the origin of the Eighth Route Army and these three division numbers, Chiang Kai-shek is a terrible idea!
The Eighth Route Army was originally the army of Li Jishen, Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Government.
On March 15, 1929, Chiang Kai-shek detained Li Jishen on charges of colluding with Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi "dividing his hair into trouble and treasoning the party and the country", and deprived him of his military and political power.
After Li Jishen was under house arrest, the Eighth Route Army had frequent internal strife, and was eventually ordered to be revoked by Chiang Kai-shek.
, and the 115th Division, 120th Division, and 129th Division were originally all the numbers of Northeast Army . Because of their repeated defeats, and the leader of the Northeast Army, Zhang Xueliang , colluded with Yang Hucheng to launch the " Xi'an Incident ". Therefore, in order to split the Northeast Army, Chiang Kai-shek also revoked the numbers of these three divisions one after another.
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek's move was to make our army lose consecutively on the battlefield like these three "failed troops", and he naturally revoked the number.
But it turns out that the Eighth Route Army under the leadership of the Communist Party will not repeat the mistakes of the old army.
As soon as our Eighth Route Army debuted, we successively won three great victories in Pingxingguan ambush, Yanmenguan ambush, and night attacks Yangmingbao Airport.
From then on, our Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army advanced east and west, fought south and north on the battlefield of the Anti-Japanese War, eliminating a large number of Japanese and puppet troops, and making indelible contributions to the final victory of the Eight-year War of Resistance Against Japan.
Since then, the three glorious numbers of the 115th Division, the 120th Division and the 129th Division have been forever recorded in the history of the Republic.
Similarly, after the reorganization of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, generals at all levels of the Red Army were successively awarded corresponding military ranks by the National Government in accordance with the organizational principles of the National Revolutionary Army.
Of course, in many film and television dramas today, except for the military uniforms of some senior generals, the other middle and lower-level officers and soldiers are not worn.
According to relevant historical records: at that time, only one of our Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army was awarded the rank of general, namely the Commander-in-Chief Zhu De.
There are 10 people awarded the rank of lieutenant general, namely: Deputy Director of the Political Department of the Military Commission, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Peng Dehuai, Chief of Staff of the 18th Army, Ye Jianying, Commander of the 115th Division, Lin Biao, Commander of the 120th Division, Liu Bocheng, Commander of the 129th Division, Ye Ting, Commander of the New Fourth Army, Xiao Ke, Deputy Commander of the 120th Division, Guo Moruo, Director of the Third Department of the Political Department of the Military Commission, and Xuan Xiafu, General Senator of the 18th Army.
There are relatively many people who have been awarded the rank of major general, with a total of 28 people, including Zuo Quan, deputy chief of staff of the 18th Army, Xu Xiangqian, deputy commander of the 129th Division, Nie Rongzhen, deputy commander of the 115th Division, Xu Haidong, brigade commander of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division, Huang Kecheng, deputy commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division, Chen Geng, deputy commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division, and Chen Zaidao, deputy commander of the brigade commander.
But then again, although Chiang Kai-shek was not friendly enough to our Eighth Route Army, his qualifications and military rank were fully considered for the awarding of senior generals of our army. Overall, it was quite reasonable.
As the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army (the 18th Army), Zhu De was awarded the rank of general, which is understandable. After all, as early as the Great Revolution, Zhu De had already been the rank of lieutenant general and general.
Although Lin Biao, He Long, and Liu Bocheng were nominally only division commanders, they were still awarded the rank of lieutenant general. This is the case with Ye Jianying, Ye Ting and others.
In addition, there is another person worth noting, that is, Zhou Enlai. During the Anti-Japanese War , he was invited by Chiang Kai-shek to serve as deputy director of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, but he was allowed to enjoy the treatment of a general.
You should know that according to the level standards at that time, the monthly salary of an officer with the rank of lieutenant general was 160 yuan ocean , and the general could receive 240 yuan per month. This was definitely a "huge sum" at that time.
But whether it was Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng and others, they all didn't care about this "huge sum of money".
Zhou Enlai, who is generous and strict in self-discipline, even paid the "huge sum" he received every month as party dues, and he always lived a dull life.
Among the Eighth Route Army generals awarded by the National Government during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the positions of brigade commander were basically only awarded the rank of major general, except for one person. He was Chen Geng, the founding general of the New China later.
According to the recollection of Zhang Yunyu, my country's "first nuclear commander", he saw that when he met Chen Geng in a military and political school in Taihang , he saw that the rank he wore was lieutenant general, while the other Eighth Route Army brigade commanders had the rank of major general.
After learning about it, I realized that Chen Geng was a student of the first phase of Huangpu . He and Jiang Xianyun and He Zhonghan are known as the "Three Heroes of Huangpu". They are one of Chiang Kai-shek's "popular disciples". They also saved Chiang Kai-shek's life. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek took special care of him and then won him over.
But no matter how Chiang Kai-shek wins over, Chen Geng, who had a firm belief, was always unmoved and became an important general of our army to defeat the Chiang Dynasty in the future.
Although the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were in a state of cooperation during the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek never regarded us as his "ally". He not only constrained us everywhere, but also instructed his subordinates to do some infuriating things.
1938, Peng Dehuai was ordered to go to Luoyang to attend the meeting of generals of the first and second war zones convened by Chiang Kai-shek.
During this period, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Peng Dehuai alone and expressed deep sympathy for He Jian's digging of the Peng family's ancestral tomb. He immediately instructed the Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government Zhang Zhizhong to give him special care and signed a check of 50,000 yuan to Peng Dehuai in person.
Faced with such a "huge sum of money", Peng Dehuai didn't even look at it. He said: The Eighth Route Army soldiers were fighting bloody on the front line. Now they are trapped and lack of food and ammunition. Chairman Jiang should not take care of him alone, but should distribute military pay and supplement food and ammunition to all the Eighth Route Army soldiers.
Result, Chiang Kai-shek said: This 50,000 yuan is for Peng Dehuai, and it is different from paying military pay to the Eighth Route Army.
The righteous Peng Dehuai refused to accept the check and left angrily!
During the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, due to the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, many generals of our army, including people from the cultural circles, such as Guo Moruo, Tian Han , were awarded different military ranks.
, and Zhang Aiping, Li Tao, Bian Zhangwu, Luo Binghui, etc. who work in the Eighth Route Army Office of the Kuomintang-controlled District have all been awarded the rank of major general.
In addition to generals, he served as a first-level cadres at the Eighth Route Army Corps. For example, Tan Zheng, Yang Dezhi, Yang Yong, He Bingyan, Song Shilun, Luo Ruiqing, etc. have all been awarded the rank of colonel.
Even the German female warrior Wang Anna who supported China's War of Resistance Against Japan was appointed as the major of the Eighth Route Army by Zhou Enlai.
However, as Chiang Kai-shek went further and further on the road of betraying the revolution, our Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army generals were never awarded or promoted to the ranks.
In the later War of Liberation and the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, our army had not awarded military rank, so some problems arose on the battlefield of resisting U.S. aggression and aid Korea.
It was not until 1955 that our army began to implement the first rank award in history. Later, after many adjustments, the very perfect military rank system was formed today.
