Portrait of Deng Ping
"I have a close comrade-in-arms who is from here, but unfortunately he has already died in the Long March." Peng Dehuai looked at the scenery in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.
In 1966, Peng Dehuai drove to Yibin to inspect the work, when the car arrived in Fushun County, the driver was urgently ordered to stop, and the people accompanying him did not know what was happening, Peng Dehuai got out of the car, stood by the side of the highway and looked far away, stopping at the place where his old comrade-in-arms Deng Ping was born. Peng Dehuai stressed many times before his death:
"Deng Ping is a person worth remembering."
In 1927, Deng Ping was assigned by the organization to go to the first regiment of the Hunan Independent Fifth Division of the National Revolutionary Army, where Peng Dehuai belonged, to do military movement work, and before leaving, Deng Ping gave a brief understanding of Peng Dehuai, who was just thirty years old at the time, and after Chiang Kai-shek's defection to the revolution, resolutely submitted an application to our party to join the party, and the purpose of Deng Ping's visit this time was to help Peng Dehuai establish a leadership core in the ranks and make the first regiment the main force in the revolutionary contingent.
Photo of Peng Dehuai during the Red Army
Peng Dehuai was very happy to hear that the organization was going to send Deng Ping over, and decided to arrange him by his side, so that it would be convenient for communication and discussion. In Peng Dehuai's eyes, Deng Ping was not a subordinate, but came to care about himself on behalf of the Party Central Committee, so after Deng Ping arrived, the two of them saw each other as usual and talked very speculatively.
Peng Dehuai learned from Deng Ping's mouth that his hometown was located in Fushun County, Sichuan, and it was only after listening to Yun Daiying's speech that he made up his mind to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy. Yun Daiying is also a figure respected by Peng Dehuai, so the relationship between the two is closer.
Three years later, Deng Ping received a secret notice that the organization had approved Peng Dehuai's application to join the party. On the same night, Deng Ping held an oath-taking ceremony for Peng Dehuai to join the party, and as an oath-taker, in front of the portraits of Marx and Engels painted by Deng Ping himself, Peng Dehuai gloriously swore an oath to join the Communist Party and became the secretary of the newly established league party committee. In order to protect Peng Dehuai's safety, Deng Ping immediately made suggestions:
"In the future, when people from higher levels come, I will first pick them up, and then introduce them to Colonel Peng after discernment, so as to avoid increasing the danger of Commander Peng."
Pictured: Peng Dehuai and his comrades-in-arms in northern Shaanxi
In the same year, the organization instructed Peng Dehuai to plan an uprising as soon as possible to meet the needs of armed struggle. When Teng Daiyuan arrived at the first regiment, he discussed the uprising with Peng Dehuai and Deng Ping. When studying military deployments, Deng Ping conducted a detailed analysis with a military map, considering in great detail the situations that the uprising might encounter and countermeasures. Peng Dehuai admired this adjutant who was more than ten years younger than himself:
"Comrade Deng Ping is worthy of being from Huangpu and is much stronger than me!"
After the victory of the Pingjiang Uprising on July 22, according to organizational instructions, the rebel troops were reorganized into the Fifth Army of the Red Army, with Peng Dehuai as its commander. At Peng Dehuai's suggestion, Deng Ping was appointed chief of staff of the Fifth Army and has since become Peng Dehuai's right-hand man. After withdrawing from the county seat and rendezvousing with chairman Mao's Fourth Army, the Red Fifth Army was decided to remain at Jinggangshan, and the Red Fourth Army continued to attack the enemy.
On the third day after Chairman Mao led the Red Fourth Army to leave Jinggangshan, the enemy concentrated 10 regiments of troops to launch an attack on Jinggangshan, Peng Dehuai specially asked Deng Ping to make a breakthrough deployment, Deng Ping proposed to lead a team to fight the forward, Peng Dehuai shook his head after listening:
"No, I'm better suited to playing as a striker than you."
Figure 丨 Pingjiang Uprising Headquarters
"You are the commander of the Fifth Army, and the development of the Fifth Army will depend on you in the future, remembering the tasks entrusted to you by Zhu and Mao." Deng Ping replied firmly.
Peng Dehuai saw that Deng Ping was so resolute, and it was not good to say anything more, so he could only nod his head in agreement. After the breakthrough battle began, Deng Ping led his army to quickly open the enemy's encirclement and cover the Red Fifth Army to break through the siege. During the battle, Deng Ping was unfortunately wounded and could no longer continue to move forward with the army, so Peng Dehuai left some medicines and weapons for the local party organization and gave several instructions to the person in charge:
"We must take good care of Comrade Deng Ping."
In April 1934, the enemy concentrated a large number of troops to launch an attack on Guangchang, as the northern gate of the Central Soviet Area, Guangchang would be greatly threatened once it fell. The Central Military Commission immediately ordered Peng Dehuai to lead troops to defend Guangchang and resolutely not allow an enemy to be released. The military order was like a mountain, and Peng Dehuai and Deng Ping immediately organized the officers and men of the whole army to build fortifications day and night.
After analyzing the enemy situation, Peng Dehuai and Deng Ping believed that it was more difficult to hold Guangchang, after all, the enemy concentrated a large number of heavy weapons, and suggested changing it to mobile defense. However, Li De and Bogu did not agree, and in order to better persuade the two, Peng Dehuai took out the map that Deng Ping had drawn overnight.
Picture 丨 Peng Dehuai and Zhu De in northern Shaanxi
Li De took the map drawn by Deng Ping and looked at it for a while, and suddenly a contemptuous smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, saying that although Deng Ping was a graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, he saw a lot of common sense errors on the map, and he felt that Deng Ping's Whampoa Military Academy was white. After Peng Dehuai listened to Li De's slander against Deng Ping, he angrily pointed at Li De and yelled:
"Comrade Deng Ping has been with me for six years, how many good ideas have been given to me, do you know?" Today, the army has grown from 2,000 to tens of thousands, and comrade Deng Ping is inseparable. Is his military talent comparable to that of your Li De? ”
After listening to Peng Dehuai's words, Li De was also very angry, and yelled at Peng Dehuai that he must carry out the orders of the Central Military Commission and must not be changed, otherwise he will bear the consequences. In the end, the two broke up in the quarrel. Under the strong orders of Li De and Bogu, Peng Dehuai could only lead the army against the enemy who had absolute superiority, and as a result, he suffered heavy casualties and had to withdraw from the battle.
After Peng Dehuai returned to the regimental headquarters in anger, Deng Ping asked him with concern how he had talked, and Peng Dehuai recounted the process of his quarrel with Li De, and said that Li De would enforce military discipline on himself because he "retreated without authorization" and put the enemy into the Soviet zone. Deng Ping comforted Peng Dehuai and said:
"Li De doesn't know how to fight in hilly areas at all, and this kind of flying and stumbling person you scolded well, and you also got out of this evil breath in my heart!"
Figure 丨 Bogu, Li De
Deng Ping's support and understanding gave Peng Dehuai, who was depressed in his heart, a great comfort, and also made the relationship between these two close comrades on the battlefield closer.
Due to the wrong command of Li De and others, the Fifth Anti-"Encirclement and Suppression" campaign of the Red Army failed and had to carry out the Long March. After the Red Army occupied Zunyi, the Zunyi Conference re-established Chairman Mao's leadership position and moved to Guizhou and Sichuan under the command of Chairman Mao. On January 19, 1935, Peng Dehuai and Deng Ping led an army to cross Chishui into southern Sichuan, and a month later, the Central Military Commission sent a telegram ordering Peng Dehuai to cross Chishui again and retake Zunyi before the end of the month to drive the enemy back to the south.
When Peng Dehuai and Deng Ping led their army to Loushan Pass, they found that the northern gate of Zunyi had already been occupied by the Qian army, and Peng Dehuai consulted with Yang Shangkun and Deng Ping that this battle would not only take Loushan Pass, but also eliminate all the enemies, otherwise it would increase the difficulties in our army's next plan, and Yang Shangkun also agreed with Peng Dehuai's idea.
Picture 丨 Oil painting "Battle of Loushan Pass"
At the request of the two chiefs, Deng Ping personally went into battle to deploy and command the battle, not only forming a closed encirclement of the enemy, but also concentrating all the mortars in the regiment and firing a salvo at the enemy's positions. The vanguard troops took advantage of the victory to capture zunyi new city, and when they reached the gate of the old city, the team was cut off by the river, and the enemy gates defending the city were closed tightly and stubbornly resisted.
The area of Zunyi City is relatively large, there is a river between the old city and the new city, and the Red Army occupied all the urban areas of Zunyi New City in the afternoon of the same day, and surrounded the old city. In the evening, Deng Ping summoned Zhang Aiping and others to discuss the siege plan, and prepared to go to the forward position together to inspect the enemy's situation and then determine the siege deployment.
Braving the rain and cold wind, Deng Ping and Zhang Aiping hid in the grass while carefully observing the enemy's situation while discussing the attack plan. After Deng Ping observed, he gave orders to Zhang Aiping, who stared intently at the terrain in front of him and the enemy troops, and constantly responded to Deng Ping's deployment. Suddenly Deng Ping's head fell on Zhang Aiping's right arm at once, and Zhang Aiping looked down and deng Ping's head was hit by a bullet and killed on the spot.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Aiping inspected the work
After Peng Dehuai heard the news of Deng Ping's sacrifice, he scolded Zhang Aiping on the phone on the spot, Zhang Aiping knew that Peng Dehuai would only scold people when he was extremely angry, and from Peng Dehuai's words, Zhang Aiping also felt Peng Dehuai's sadness about the loss of his comrades-in-arms, and at the same time worried that they would take similar dangers again. Later, after Peng Dehuai calmed down, he once said a word to Zhang Aiping, which made him unforgettable:
"The road of revolution is still long, and you must not make fearless sacrifices!"
Peng Dehuai and Yang Shangkun then rushed to Deng Ping's body, personally wiped the blood and dirt off Deng Ping's face, and changed into a new military uniform for him. Looking at Deng Ping lying there as if asleep, Peng Dehuai couldn't help but burst into tears, although they had only been together for seven years, but they left him with many precious memories.
Late at night, Liu Shaoqi rushed to the regimental headquarters, clasped Peng Dehuai's hands tightly, and instructed him to command the battle with confidence, and Deng Ping's affairs were handed over to the Political Department to handle. Liu Shaoqi also assured Peng Dehuai that he would definitely take care of the aftermath to his satisfaction and would certainly be worthy of the martyr Deng Ping. Peng Dehuai nodded, silently picked up the telescope, pistol and other relics left by Deng Ping, stared at them one by one and handed them to Liu Shaoqi.
Picture 丨 Zunyi City old photo
When the time for the general offensive came that night, Peng Dehuai picked up the telephone and issued an order to the troops to attack the general attack: "I order, launch an attack!" Take Zunyi and avenge the Chief of Staff! With a feeling of grief and indignation, the generals of the whole army attacked and attacked the enemy fiercely, and soon they entered Zunyi City and completely annihilated the enemy who was defending the city.
In the more than twenty years of Deng Ping's sacrifice, Peng Dehuai has been worried about finding the burial place of Deng Ping's body, and due to the tension of the war, everyone hastily buried Deng Ping without leaving any marks, and no one remembers the specific burial site of Deng Ping's body. In 1957, Peng Dehuai instructed zunyi to help find Deng Ping's remains and properly bury the martyrs.
Peng Dehuai also provided some valuable clues to the local leaders, and after Deng Ping's sacrifice that year, he bought a coffin in the local area and buried it on the hillside north of the city early the next morning, but there was no monument. Zhu Zhenmin, who was ordered to find Deng Ping's remains, learned of these important clues and began a meticulous investigation.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Peng Dehuai and Chairman Mao
After many days of visits, Zhu Zhenmin and others finally found an old worker Wang Huaxuan in an oil mill in Zunyi City, and the old man Wang Huaxuan recalled the situation when the Red Army hit Zunyi City, and according to the old man Wang Huaxuan, when he saw the body of a dead Red Army being carried to Luozhuang in the new city, the next morning the Red Army carried out a coffin from Luozhuang and buried it on the grave hill of the Luohui Five Families.
Under the leadership of the old man Wang Huaxuan, Zhu Zhenmin and others came to the tomb hill of the Luohui Wujia family, and the old man pointed to one of the small graves and said that this was the grave pile buried by the Red Army that year, and the old man also provided Zhu Zhenmin with an important clue, that is, the place where the Red Army bought the coffin that year.
Zhu Zhenmin found an old lady of sixty or seventy years old according to the clues, according to the old lady's recollection, when the Red Army entered the city, she hesitated and was afraid to go home at night, and when she arrived home, there were several Red Army soldiers who wanted to buy coffins, and the next day she heard that the coffin was buried by the Red Army that was carried to Luozhuang and buried in the grave hill of the Luohui Five Families.
Picture 丨 Zhang Aiping's remains burial place
The old lady also recalled that after the Red Army left, Luo Huiwu once dug up the grave and looked at it, and buried inside it was a Red Army commander, wearing a black tweed coat and blood on his face. Luo Huiwu saw that there was nothing valuable to bury, so he buried it again. According to these circumstances, Zhu Zhenmin can basically determine that the small grave pile on the luohui wujia tomb hill is buried below the red army martyrs.
After obtaining the approval of the local leaders, Zhu Zhenmin invited Kong Xianquan, who had worked next to Deng Ping, to open the grave together for identification. Uncovering the coffin, Zhu Zhenmin and Kong Xianquan found that the deceased was wearing a tweed coat, the buttons of which had rusted, and the feet were wearing shoes with rubber soles, and other places had been completely decayed. In order to confirm the identity of the deceased, the local leaders protected the scene and asked Shi Xin'an, an old Red Army soldier who had worked with Deng Ping for many years, to come and identify it.
The old man Shi Xin'an has been working under the leadership of Deng Ping since the Jinggangshan period, and is very familiar with Deng Ping, after coming to Zunyi, the old man Shi Xin'an carefully examined the remains in the coffin, and listened to the burial process that year, asked about the appearance and characteristics of the victims, and then the old man revealed four characteristics of Deng Ping's body:
The hair is long, there is a scar on the back of the head, the teeth are intact, and the sleeve buttons are made of metal
Picture 丨 Fragments of sweaters in Deng Ping's coffin
Through the comprehensive comparison of these information, coupled with the careful identification of the old man Shi Xin'an, it was confirmed that this remain was the remains of Deng Ping, and the old man Shi Xin'an held the skull of the old comrade-in-arms, and the tears could not stop flowing. On that day, the doctor cleaned up the remains, wrapped them in silk wool and white silk, placed them in a newly made coffin, and waited for the Red Army cemetery to be repaired before moving the coffin to be moved to the burial.
The day after the identity of the remains was confirmed, the local leaders in Zunyi sent a detailed situation report to Beijing, and Peng Dehuai was so excited that he burst into tears after receiving it, and a large stone that had been pressed in Peng Dehuai's heart for more than twenty years could finally be put down.
In the summer of 1957, under the care of Peng Dehuai and the Central Military Commission, the local government of Zunyi decided to build the tomb of Deng Ping martyrs at the place where Deng Ping was killed, and the tomb was completed two years later. In 1959, the Qingming Festival, a grand burial ceremony for Deng Ping's remains was held locally. Peng Dehuai personally wrote a biographical resume for Deng Ping.
When Peng Dehuai was writing Deng Ping's resume, General Huang Kecheng, who was present, kindly reminded Peng Dehuai to write less, in case he said more, he would lose more, but Peng Dehuai did not listen to this suggestion, still went his own way, and used words to express his remembrance of Deng Ping, a close comrade-in-arms, and also personally inscribed the tomb name: The tomb of Comrade Deng Ping, chief of staff of the Third Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. (Deng Ping's "Ping" and "Ping" were mixed before her death)
The stone carving next to Deng Ping's tomb
Part of Deng Ping's relics are preserved in the exhibition hall of the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, and the other part is displayed in the exhibition room of the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall. For Deng Ping, who was buried in Zunyi, Peng Dehuai once made a high evaluation of him and stressed many times:
Peng Dehuai once went to Zunyi to personally visit Deng Ping's grave, but due to weather reasons before departure, the plane could not take off, and finally could only postpone. After that, Peng Dehuai's wish has never been fulfilled. In April 1966, when Peng Dehuai was passing through Deng Ping's hometown of Fushun County, Sichuan Province, during his inspection trip to Yibin, Peng Dehuai urgently ordered the driver to stop and get out of the car to look out.
When he saw the land of Guangmao in Fushun County, Peng Dehuai couldn't help but sigh that it was really a brilliant spirit, no wonder there were many talents, more than thirty years ago, he had a close comrade-in-arms who was a person here, but unfortunately he had already died in the Long March. This "close comrade-in-arms" in Peng Dehuai's mouth is Deng Ping, who died unexpectedly that year.
Figure 丨 Tomb of Comrade Deng Ping
In October 1979, Zhang Aiping specially inscribed "Tomb of Comrade Deng Ping", sent it from Beijing to Zunyi, and entrusted local leaders to change it again. In 1984, in order to build the Monument to the Red Army Martyrs, Deng Ping's tomb was moved to the Red Army Martyrs Cemetery, and there is a stone carving next to the tomb, reproducing the situation when Deng Ping was sacrificed. On the base of the stone statue, there are several large characters engraved with "Comrade Deng Ping through the Ages", and at the same time, Zhang Aiping's memories of the situation when Deng Ping died were also engraved on it.