He was a second-class general in the Nationalist Army, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was ranked alongside the Ten Marshals and became the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission
It was 1914, and our protagonist had just graduated from the Yunnan Army's DaowuTang, and he heard that a French Hercules had come to Kunming, arrogantly found Tang Jiyao, the governor of Yunnan, and proposed to set up a ring in the Daowutang, saying: If no one defeats him within three days, he will open a museum in Kunming to teach martial arts; if someone defeats him, he will never set foot in Kunming.
Tang Jiyao then posted a notice in the Dian Army and the Lecture Hall: Whoever can defeat the French boxers will be given another heavy reward for the officers and men of the Dian Army who have been promoted to the third level in a row.
The French boxer was very arrogant, hanging a sign in the ring that read, "Fight the invincible hand all over the world."
On the first day of the fight, the people of Kunming rushed to the martial arts hall to watch, but the martial arts enthusiasts on the stage were beaten to the nose and blue face. The next day, no one dared to go on stage to compete.
On the last day of the swing, no one was on stage until the afternoon, and just as the French boxer was about to triumphantly declare his victory, a dark-skinned young man stepped into the ring and beat him to the ground, unable to move.
This person is Long Yun.
The veritable "King of Yunnan"
Long Yun was born in 1884, a native of Zhaotong, Yunnan, and soon after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, he joined the Dian Army and went into Sichuan with the troops to support. After returning to Dian, he was sent to the fourth phase of the Army Lecture Hall to study, and after graduation, he was recommended as Tang Jiyao's aide-de-camp, which became the starting point of Long Yun's development.
In 1922, Long Yun began to grasp the real power of the Dian Army and became an important figure in the Dian Army.
In 1927, he overthrew Tang Jiyao's rule, established contact with Chiang Kai-shek, became chairman of the Yunnan government, and was dismissed by force in 1945, ruling Yunnan for 18 years, a veritable "King of Yunnan", with the highest rank of second-class general in the Nationalist Army.
Long Yun can be considered a well-deserved anti-Japanese hero because of two things:
First, in response to the dialogue between Tang shan and Zhu Laozong, 250,000 Dian troops were organized to support the anti-Japanese front, and at the same time actively supported the Western Yunnan War of Resistance;
The second is to seize the opportunity, open up the Yunnan Burma Highway, and open up the international channel for anti-Japanese aid to China, which is known as the "anti-Japanese blood vessel."
"Tangshan Dialogue"
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression on July 7, 1937, Chiang Kai-shek scheduled to hold a national defense work conference in Nanjing in mid-August, and Long Yun received a notice. On the other hand, the CCP sent three people, Zhu Laozong, Zhou, and Ye Shuai, to attend the meeting.
Coincidentally, Zhu, Ye, and Long were alumni of the Yunnan Army's Wushu Hall.
One night, in Tangshan, Nanjing, the three people took a walk together and reviewed the contributions made by the students of Yunnan Daowutang in the War of Defending the Yuan Dynasty and the Northern Expedition.
As soon as the conversation turned sharply, the three of them also had quite the same views on the issue of fighting against Japan, and Long Yun also very much agreed with the CPC's determination to uphold the anti-Japanese national united front and unite with the imperial insults.
Long Yun once said with emotion: "Talking with Jun Yi is better than reading books for ten years." ”
Therefore, he later made a generous statement: "Bring the patriotic enthusiasm of the 13 million people of Yunnan and all the spiritual and material strength ... Ready to die for the motherland. ”
On October 5, 1937, the officers and men of the 60th Army held a grand oath-taking meeting in Wujiaba, Kunming, and Long Yun reviewed the soldiers who were about to go out on the expedition, and Kunming was full of people in the alleys, warmly bidding farewell to the 60th Army.
From April 22 to May 18, 1938, the 60th Army fought a bloody battle against the Japanese army for 27 days in the area around Yuwang Mountain around Taierzhuang, severely damaging the Japanese 5th and 10th Divisions.
At a huge cost of nearly 20,000 casualties, the 60th Army defended the dignity of the Chinese nation with its lives and blood, and composed a magnificent epic poem of not being afraid of sacrifice, not afraid of strong enemies, and resisting foreign insults.
During the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, under the leadership of Long Yun, the army of Yunnan's Anti-Japanese War reached more than 400,000 people and suffered nearly 100,000 casualties, making great contributions to the victory of the final War of Resistance.
"Three chicken feathers to build the Burma Highway"
Since the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Long Yun has repeatedly taken the initiative to ask Chiang Kai-shek for orders to build the Burma Road, saying that if this railway and highway are built, it will be able to reach the Indian Ocean by land transport, and he is not afraid of the Japanese army blocking the southeast coast of our country. Chiang Kai-shek agreed.
Long Yun invited American engineers to come to explore and design, after several months of field surveys, American engineers proposed to use the American road construction machine, both ends of the construction, it takes 3 years to open to traffic.
The road construction plan was sent to Long Yun's hand, and he shook his head straight, waved his hand, and said, "We will get on the horse and do it ourselves." I just can't believe it can't be done! ”
In the case that almost no funds, manpower, technology, equipment, etc. were available, Long Yun issued a road construction order with three chicken feathers and a pair of handcuffs.
Therefore, the Chinese government hired Chinese technicians to explore and design this line, and finally determined the method of "building the whole line".
In order to resist Japan and save the country, the people of Yunnan, men, women and children, traveled long distances to the road construction site, dispatching an average of 115,000 people every day, reaching more than 200,000 at the most.
The migrant workers not only did not have wages, but also had to ensure the quality of construction and the time to complete, and built 927 kilometers of pavement in only 8 months.
In May 1938, the British newspaper The Times published pictures for three consecutive days reporting on the construction of the Burma Highway, praising that "only Chinese can do it in such a short period of time."
After seeing the Burma Highway, the U.S. ambassador also exclaimed: "This project is very remarkable, there is no machinery, it is all done by hand, and it is really comparable to the Panama Canal."
"A lifetime for the country and the people, bright and upright"
During the Liberation War, Long Yun had close ties with our underground party organization, longed for the road of light, and repeatedly opposed Chiang Kai-shek, and Long Yun was eventually deprived of his military rights, left Kunming, and was placed under house arrest in Chongqing. With the covert help of my underground party, he fled to Hong Kong alone. Later, he returned to Beijing and became the chairman's guest of honor.
In September 1954, the National Defense Commission of the People's Republic of China was established, which was similar to the Central Military Commission, and in addition to the ten marshals, there were four former Kuomintang generals, and Long Yun was one of them.
In June 1962, Long Yun died of illness in Beijing at the age of 78, and his "life for the country and the people, bright and upright", is admirable!