The last founding general was General Xu Guangda, who was awarded the rank of Grand General in September 1955, and although he promptly reflected that his rank had been high, he was still awarded the rank of Grand General in view of his status as commander of the Armored Corps and his status as a representative of the General in the Red Second Front. Chairman Mao praised him as "a mirror for Communists."
On September 27, 1955, Premier Zhou conferred the rank of General on Xu Guangda
At that time, General Xu Guangda's evaluation of the general was quite controversial, and in the end, the great man finally made up his mind and determined that General Xu was the tenth founding general.
In fact, appraisal is a very complicated job, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is engineering. Many people have overlooked an important factor -- the issue of representatives of the base areas of the Soviet Union! As a representative figure in the revolutionary base areas in western Hunan and Hubei, the Honghu base area, and the Red Second Army and the Red Second Front, He Long was the undisputed first person and deserved to be awarded the rank of marshal. What about the candidates for the generals in the revolutionary base areas in western Hunan and Hubei? Only Xu Guangda can represent, which is one of the main reasons why Xu Guangda was awarded the title of general.
General Xu Guangda
General Xu Guangda is relatively low-key, so his fame is not great, not as famous as the previous generals, but he is indeed a representative of the generals in the Xiang'e West Base Area, the Honghu Base Area, the Red Second Army, and the Red Second Front. It can also be understood that among the ten founding generals, there must be a representative of the Red Second Front, that is, General Xu Guangda, and can only be General Xu Guangda.
General Xu Guangda (center).
Then, except for Xu Guangda, is there no one else who can represent the Xiang'e West Base Area and the Red Second Front in participating in the appraisal of the generals? In fact, there is a person whose qualifications, qualifications, and military achievements are older, deeper, and higher than General Xu,but unfortunately, he died in an accident in 1945, and if he is in the 55th year, whether General Xu Guangda can be rated as a general is unknown.
So, who is this person?
Lu Dongsheng
He is Lu Dongsheng! Speaking of him, some people may not be familiar with him, but when it comes to Chen Geng, you definitely know. In fact, Lu Dongsheng's friendship with Chen Geng was very deep, and Chen Geng was Lu Dongsheng's revolutionary guide and introducer to the party. Interestingly, Lu Dongsheng is still a shepherd boy of Chen Geng's family, Chen Geng's family is a large family, and Lu Dongsheng herds cattle for their family. Lu Dongsheng, who was 5 years younger than Chen Geng, became good friends with Chen Geng and Lu Dongsheng also embarked on the revolutionary road under the guidance of Chen Geng.
Among the ten founding generals, Chen Geng was the most famous
Lu Dongsheng is a native of Xiangtan, Hunan, born in 1908, was a cattle herder when he was a child, worked as an apprentice in a factory, joined the Xiang Army in 1925, worked as a soldier in the Fourth Division, participated in the Northern Expedition in 1926, and participated in the Nanchang Uprising with Chen Geng in 1927, responsible for the political defense of the rebel army headquarters. On the way south, Chen Geng was the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 6th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the 20th Army, and Lu Dongsheng was his aide-de-camp. Subsequently, the remnants of the rebel army were blocked by heavy enemy troops in the Huichang, Chaozhou and Shantou areas, and the battle was lost, and Chen Geng was wounded in the lower leg of the battle, losing contact with the main force. Lu Dongsheng escorted Chen Geng first to treat his injured leg at Changting Gospel Hospital, and then from Shantou to Hong Kong and Shanghai, and finally found the party organization after going through hardships. In December of that year, Lu Dongsheng gloriously joined the Communist Party of China.
Lu Dongsheng during his time at Soviet school (right)
At the beginning of 1928, Lu Dongsheng was ordered to escort He Long and Zhou Yiqun back to western Hunan to reorganize the revolutionary armed forces, and in March, Lu Dongsheng participated in the Sangzhi Uprising, and soon after served as a traffic officer, responsible for the liaison between the rebel army and the central government. In 1929, Lu Dongsheng served as the commander of the pistol company of the Red Fourth Army Headquarters, and in 1930 he was the commander of the second battalion of the third regiment of the Red Second Army, the commander of the 20th regiment of the 7th Division of the Red Third Army, and the political commissar and division commander of the Xiang'e West Independent Division.
In 1932, the main force of the Red Army was transferred, and Lu Dongsheng led the rest of the troops to persist in guerrilla warfare in the Area of Jingmen and Yuan'an, pinning down the enemy and covering the transfer of the main force. In 1933, Lu Dongsheng led his troops to join the main force, and he became the head of the Red Third Army's teaching regiment, and soon promoted to the commander of the Seventh Division. In October 1934, Lu Dongsheng was appointed commander of the Fourth Division of the Red Second Army, and led his troops to participate in the struggle to create the qiandong and Xiang'echuanqian base areas.
He Laozong, commander of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army
During the Long March, Lu Dongsheng led his troops to act as a forward, responsible for opening the way for the whole army, he repeatedly shouldered heavy responsibilities, repeatedly made miracles, whether it was attacking or blocking, he completed the task brilliantly.
General Chen Geng (middle)
After the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, the Red Second Front was reorganized into the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, with General He Lao as the division commander, the 358th Brigade and the 359th Brigade under its jurisdiction, Lu Dongsheng as the commander of the 358th Brigade, and Wang Zhen later as the commander of the 359th Brigade. Lu Dongsheng and Wang Zhen are still the two generals under General He, and they are also the two trump cards of the 120th Division. At that time, Chen Geng was the brigade commander of the 386 brigade of the 129th Division, and Lu Dongsheng's position was on a par with Chen Geng's.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many of the founding generals were regimental leaders at that time, such as Chen Xilian, Yang Dezhi, Li Tianyou, Yang Chengwu, Xu Shiyou and other famous generals. Lu Dongsheng's starting point during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was also very high, and the six brigade commanders of the Eighth Route Army were either generals or admirals after the founding of the People's Republic of China (except for Chen Guang, commander of the 343rd Brigade), such as General Xu Haidong, who was then the commander of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division; General Chen Geng, who was then the commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division; General Chen Bojun, who was the first brigade commander of the 359th Brigade; and General Wang Hongkun, who was then the commander of the 385th Brigade. General Wang Zhen, the second brigade commander of the 359th Brigade, was also awarded the rank of general after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The first person on the right in the back row is Lu Dongsheng, who is standing behind Boss He, who was the guard of Boss He at that time
It can be seen that Lu Dongsheng's starting point is not low, his seniority is very deep, and his military achievements are outstanding. The brigade commander of the Eighth Route Army was only 6 in total, and Lu Dongsheng was one of them. Unfortunately, he did not actually arrive at that time, but participated in the study in Yan'an to enrich his cultural knowledge.
In 1939, Lu Dongsheng was sent to the Soviet Union to study military affairs and entered the famous Frunze Military Academy. He participated in the Great Patriotic War of the SOVIET Union and earned the rank of major. Lu Dongsheng studied Russian assiduously in the Soviet Union and could speak fluent Russian.
In 1942, Lu Dongsheng went to the Far East of the Soviet Union and served in the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition Teaching Brigade. In August 1945, the Soviet Union sent troops to northeast China to strike a final blow at the Japanese Kwantung Army entrenched in the northeast region, and Lu Dongsheng marched into the northeast with the Soviet army. After the surrender of Japan, Lu Dongsheng was ordered to serve as commander of the Songjiang Military Subdistrict of the Northeast Military Region and commander of the Harbin Garrison District.
From left: Yang Zhicheng, Sun Weishi, Li Tianyou, Lin Li, Lu Dongsheng
On the night of December 14, 1945, Lu Dongsheng encountered two Soviet soldiers blocking the road and robbing on the street in Harbin, Lu Dongsheng was very angry, and he reprimanded them in Russian with his mouth open, and the two Soviet soldiers were shocked, not knowing what this Chinese soldier was really coming from, how could he speak such fluent Russian! Lu Dongsheng made his identity clear and righteously said: "I am the commander of the Songjiang Military Region, I participated in your Patriotic War, and most of the leaders of the Soviet army I know, which unit are you?" I will go to your leaders and accuse you. ”
The two Soviet soldiers were not lightly frightened and left, but when Lu Dongsheng and the guards got on the carriage and turned to leave, they were shot by these two Soviet soldiers from behind, Lu Dongsheng was shot and killed on the spot, and the guards escaped the disaster.
General Chen Geng
It turned out that these two Soviet soldiers were afraid that Lu Dongsheng would go to the top level of the Soviet army to report them, so they started to kill and did the shameless act of killing people and killing mouths. In fact, if Lu Dongsheng had not been so righteous and did not speak Russian at that time, he would certainly not have sacrificed. At that time, the security in the northeast region was very chaotic, Japan had just surrendered, the Soviet army was again a victor, a hero posture, the Soviet army's military discipline was very bad, often killing, robbery, rape, in that case, Lu Dongsheng went out at night, but also brought only a guard, the danger is self-evident.
What is even more infuriating is that after the incident, the Soviets have been prevaricating, even pretending to be deaf and dumb, protecting the two murderers. The Chinese side made solemn representations and argued on the basis of reason, and the matter finally reached Stalin, who, although he immediately straightened out the military discipline of the Soviet army in northeast China, still did not punish the two soldiers, and the incident was finally resolved. Due to the relatively special situation at that time, our army did not pursue the matter further, and the matter was thus settled.
Tomb of General Lu Dongsheng
The Lu Dongsheng incident is very regrettable, the commander of the Tangtang Military Sub-district did not sacrifice himself during the agrarian revolutionary war, did not sacrifice on the anti-Japanese battlefield, nor did he die of illness, but was killed by two Soviet soldiers, which really made people sad. If Lu Dongsheng had not sacrificed, then in the War of Liberation, he would have certainly shown his skills, shined his glory, and made outstanding achievements. By the time he was awarded the title in 1955, Lu Dongsheng would probably be rated as a general, and if so, General Xu Guangda might be a general!