This founding general was not only good at fighting but also understanding the economy, and the tobacco factory that was run during the War of Resistance is still in place today
Zhang Yunyi, the founding general of the People's Republic of China, not only had outstanding military achievements, but also had considerable economic vision and strategic foresight, and was called "an economist who understands the military."
For example, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he helped the Second Division of the New Fourth Army to establish a joint-stock cooperative company, the Xinqun Tobacco Company.
In the Huainan Anti-Japanese Base Area at that time, soldiers often used leaves and hemp leaves instead of cigarettes because they did not smoke.
When Zhang Yunyi, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army and commander of the Second Division, held a meeting, he also saw some soldiers picking up cigarette butts from the ground and smoking, which was greatly touched.
He consulted with Hu Biliang, director of the Supply Department of the Second Division, and said: "Can we set up a tobacco factory to solve this problem?" ”
After investigation, the Supply Department of the Second Division proposed to join the Huainan Mass Tobacco Co., Ltd. for joint venture and joint management, one to solve the shortage of funds, and the other to support this enterprise on the verge of bankruptcy.
In March 1943, the Second Division's Supply Department began to produce cigarettes, Zhang Yunyi first sent people to revitalize the bankrupt tobacco factory, and then specially found experts from Shanghai, sent people to follow suit, and then established another tobacco factory, and then expanded production, and finally merged the two tobacco factories, completely turning it into a joint-stock company.
"Mass Tobacco Co., Ltd." was thus renamed "Xinqun Tobacco Company", and the original "Shenlong" cigarette was renamed "Pegasus" and produced the famous "Pegasus Brand" cigarette.
The output of "Pegasus brand" cigarettes at that time was about 2,000 boxes per day, and every day there were horse-drawn carriages parked outside the factory, waiting in line for the loading of boxes and goods, which were sold all over the country, and were red all over the country, and were also called "patriotic cigarettes".
In this way, the New Fourth Army raised a large amount of funds for medicines, steel and other materials urgently needed by our army.
It is worth mentioning that the tobacco factory founded at that time is still there today, that is, the current Shandong Qingzhou Cigarette Factory, which is one of the production and processing enterprises of Shandong China Tobacco Industry Company, with fixed assets of 13.3 billion yuan.
If it can be said that Zhang Yunyi's establishment of a tobacco factory during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was a manifestation of his economic acumen, then after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he had great wisdom in governing Guangxi.
In September 1949, the central government appointed Zhang Yunyi as the second secretary of the South China Branch and served as the secretary of the Guangxi Provincial Party Committee and the chairman of the government.
At that time, Guangxi's poor people were surrounded by walls, and the industrial base was almost equal to zero, and even the most basic candles and nails could not be produced.
Therefore, Zhang Yunyi, who had just arrived in Guangxi, wrote a letter to Mr. Chen, relocated a number of industries and enterprises from Shanghai to Guangxi, and the overall "uprooting" of technology, equipment, and personnel management was to quickly lay up the industrial foundation, not from scratch, step by step development, he believed that after the overall relocation of the enterprise, the supporting things would come over. As a result, a large number of Shanghainese people have also made their homes in Guangxi.
So far, every spring festival, there are always a group of Guangxi people to Shanghai for the New Year, these people are the "Guangxi Shanghainese" who once moved their families from Shanghai to Guangxi and participated in the construction of Guangxi in New China.
For Guangxi, the most important thing Zhang Yunyi did was to get to the sea.
If you compare the territory of China's provinces and regions before liberation with the current map, it is obvious that guangxi did not have a kilometer of coastline before liberation, that is, an inland province and region. After liberation, Zhang Yunyi asked Ye Shuai for a sea from Guangdong, that is, the Beibu Gulf area.
At that time, Guangxi wanted a belt from Guangdong Province from the North Sea to Dongxing, as the coastline of Guangxi, and now as a link for cooperation with ASEAN, the Beibu Gulf Economic Circle where the coastline is located, the sea left by Zhang Yunyi to Guangxi laid the groundwork for Guangxi's economic development.
Zhang Yunyi does a lot of things and always has his own ideas.
Today, many of China's infrastructure repaired in the 1950s and 1960s has been demolished or rebuilt, but in Guangxi, the Guangxi airport built by Zhang Yunyi is still in use, he said: "To build this airport, we must have a far-sighted vision, not only to have but also to be a large international airport, to face the world." ”
General Zhang Yunyi worked with illness after the founding of the People's Republic of China, worked hard, bowed down, and died in 1974 at the age of 82.