Most people are familiar with the titles awarded by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1955, which was awarded the titles by the Founding Congress of the People's Republic of China, which rated ten marshals and ten major generals, as well as more than a thousand generals, lieutenant generals and major generals. In fact, in the history of our army, this work has been tried as early as the war years.
The earliest conferments began in 1939.
In the early days of the founding of the people's army (the Red Army period), there were frequent wars, the conditions were harsh, and there was basically no difference in the treatment of officers and men. Later, with the change of conditions, the army's living conditions were treated differently according to their positions, but until the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the difference in the treatment of officers and men was not much different, so it was impossible to talk about the implementation of the rank system.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated again. Because the Kuomintang army at that time had military ranks, for the sake of cooperation between the two parties, the issue of the ranks of our army was put on the agenda.
The rank system of the Kuomintang army began in April 1931, using the ranks of the Beiyang period, but the work of awarding titles at that time was quite chaotic, and there were even many jokes. For example, the northwest warlord Ma Bufang awarded his son Ma Jiyuan, who was only 12 years old and still in elementary school, the rank of colonel. To this end, in 1935, the National Government re-promulgated the military rank list. On March 31, 1935, the Nationalist government conferred on Chiang Kai-shek the rank of "Special General"; on April 1, it awarded Feng Yufan, Xishan, Zhang Xueliang and eight others the rank of "First Class General"; later, Li Jishen, Cheng Qian, Bai Chongxi, and Chen Cheng were awarded the rank of First Class General.
In this way, by the time of the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists, the rank system of the Kuomintang army was relatively complete, while the troops led by the Kuomintang at that time did not have corresponding ranks. On August 1, 1937, the General Political Department of the Red Army put forward the idea that our army would "adopt the system of official ranks." After the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, and the guerrillas of the eight southern provinces were reorganized into the New Fourth Army and marched to the anti-Japanese front, they continued to grow in the war, so they began to brew and implement the rank system.
On May 30, 1939, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army issued the "Instructions for Establishing a Hierarchy System" and promulgated the "Eighth Route Army Establishment Table", which clearly stipulated the benchmark ranks of posts at all levels, which were basically set according to the ranks of the Kuomintang army at that time, which also took into account the comparison with the Kuomintang troops.
At this time, some of the generals of our army had already been awarded military ranks. Taking the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army as an example, Division Commander He Laozong and Deputy Division Commander Xiao Ke were lieutenant generals; Division Chief of Staff Zhou Shidi, several brigade commanders, and deputy brigade commanders Lu Dongsheng, Zhang Zongxun, Chen Bojun, Wang Zhen, Wang Hongkun, and Wang Weizhou were major generals; and several regimental commanders wang Shangrong, He Bingyan, and Zhang Caiqian were colonels.
Most of the commanders of the Eighth Route Army who have been awarded titles are generals who need to deal with the Kuomintang frequently or engage in united front work. However, this time the title work has not been fully carried out. In 1940, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had entered a rather difficult moment and serious problems had arisen in cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists, the Party Central Committee made a decision on April 24, 1942, that "ranks should not be prescribed in the army for the time being." Our army's first attempt at conferring titles came to an end after three years.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and before the outbreak of the Civil War, our army had two temporary titles
The first time was in September 1945, because our army was going to send personnel to Shenyang to cooperate with the operations of the Red Army in the Far East of the Soviet Union. The rank system of the Soviet army is very complete, and the Party Central Committee, taking into account the convenience of work, temporarily awarded military ranks to 6 cadres sent by our army, such as Ye Jizhuang was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and Wu Xiuquan was awarded the title of major general.
The second time was in 1946, and provisional titles were also awarded in order to facilitate the equal work between the representatives of the military mediation offices sent by our army to various places and the representatives of the Kuomintang. For example, Rao Shushi stationed in Shenyang was awarded the rank of lieutenant general; Geng Biao in Siping, Xu Guangda in Benxi, Chen Zhen in Taiyuan, and Wei Guoqing in Xuzhou were all awarded the rank of major general.
When a full-scale civil war broke out, the ranks of these generals were automatically abolished.
In early 1946, the work of conferring titles was formally introduced as a system
On January 10, 1946, the Kuomintang and the Communists signed the "Armistice Agreement", in which the two sides promised to stop the war and jointly build a peaceful country. On January 31, 1946, a political consultative conference was convened with the participation of representatives of the two parties and other party members and non-party personages, and a "CPPCC resolution" was adopted, and the Kuomintang ostensibly accepted the BASIC policy of peaceful nation-building proposed by the CCP.
In the "CPPCC Resolution," it stipulates the contents of the reorganization of the armies of the two parties. Thus, the work of military ranks in our army was once again formally proposed as a system.
On February 24, 1946, the Party Central Committee issued the Instruction on Several Issues Concerning the Reorganization of the Armed Forces. Subsequently, the Political Department of the New Fourth Army and the Shandong Military Region clearly stipulated the ranks of posts at all levels, such as: the commander and political commissar of the New Fourth Army are generals; the deputy commanders and deputy political commissars are generals or lieutenant generals; and the chief of staff is lieutenant generals.
However, a few months later, in June 1946, the Kuomintang's 300,000-strong army besieged the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains, and the War of Liberation broke out, and the awarding of military titles was once again shelved.
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