Admiral Lai Chuanzhu was a native of Lai Village, Dabu Township, Ganxian County, Jiangxi (now part of Ganzhou City), and unlike most of the founding fathers of the people from poor backgrounds, Lai Chuanzhu's family was a well-known wealthy family in the local area, and after several generations of ancestors' accumulation and operation, when his father Lai Jiafang arrived, the family had a large number of fields, good profits and wide houses, which could completely allow him to live the life of a rich family.
At the age of 14, Lai Chuanzhu was admitted to Gannan Middle School, where he came into contact with revolutionary ideas, in order to pursue the bright future of the country and the nation, in 1926, he returned to his hometown to launch an armed uprising, his father Lai Jiafang not only did not oppose, but also donated a large number of guns and ammunition to support the 17-year-old Lai Chuanzhu to form a peasant Red Guard, and soon after, the Gannan uprising was suppressed, Lai Chuanzhu's parents and uncles were killed by the Kuomintang army, his cousin was arrested and sacrificed, his ancestral grave was dug up, and only he survived in the family.
Lai Chuanzhu defected to Jinggangshan, fought in the south and the north for many years, and made many military achievements.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lai Chuanzhu became the specific person in charge of the work of awarding titles to the generals, in order to ensure the fairness of the selection, he exhausted his efforts and often could not sleep at night, but he modestly requested to be demoted to lieutenant general, and later, at the insistence of Luo Ronghuan and other chiefs, in 1955, Lai Chuanzhu was awarded the rank of founding general.
Not for fame, not for profit, only for the pursuit of truth and the future of the nation, Lai Chuanzhu's life is frank, selfless and fearless.
1. In the White Terror, father and son joined the Party, and the whole family was affected
Lai Chuanzhu was born in 1910 in Jiangxi to a peasant family, whose original name was Lai Pengying. His grandfather Lai Liangsu was a poor peasant, forced to make a living, went out to learn the tailoring craft, because of the skill of the people, hard work for many years, had some savings, began to do business, and gradually added houses and land, the family became more prosperous.
When Lai Chuanzhu was young, the extended family had more than 20 acres of land and three pieces of muzi land, and also hired a long-term worker, after Lai Liangsu's death, Lai Chuanzhu's father Lai Jiafang divided three-fifths of the family property, and then engaged in business, opened rice shops and cloth shops in Dabu Township, and constantly bought fields and became a local rich family.
Lai Jiafang suffered from the lack of culture in his ancestors, named his son "Lai Pengying", and sent him to a private school at the age of six, hoping that when he grew up, "Dapeng spread his wings and flew high, leaving a British name", and later changed his name to Lai Chuanzhu. At the age of 11, Lai Chuanzhu entered the primary school he had just opened in the township.
The second left Lai Chuanzhu
In 1924, the 14-year-old Lai Chuanzhu was admitted to Gannan Middle School in Ganzhou City with excellent results, where he was exposed to the new ideas of the May Fourth Revolution, read progressive books and periodicals such as "New Youth", "New Jiangxi", and "Communist ABC", and germinated the ideal of fighting for the country and the nation for a lifetime.
In 1925, the "May Thirtieth" massacre broke out in Shanghai, Lai Chuanzhu saw the photos and leaflets of Shanghai workers being brutally killed by Japanese and British imperialists, filled with righteous indignation, running everywhere to collect donations, march and demonstrate, to support the striking workers in Shanghai, in September 1926, the Fourteenth Army of the National Revolutionary Army captured Ganzhou, Lai Chuanzhu warmly welcomed the Northern Expedition, and joined the Kuomintang, actively publicizing the victory of the Northern Expedition, but in November of that year, he saw Chiang Kai-shek frantically suppressing the masses of workers and peasants, angrily quit the Kuomintang, and joined the Chinese Communist Youth League. He also entered the Ganzhou Federation of Trade Unions under the leadership of the Communist Party.
In March 1927, Chen Zanxian, chairman of the Ganzhou Federation of Trade Unions, was shot dead by the Kuomintang, and Lai Chuanzhu, who was not yet 17 years old, was not frightened by the white terror, and at Chen Zanxian's memorial service, he and two party members took a group photo of the martyr's body, vowing to carry the revolution through to the end.
Lai Chuanzhu and his wife Sun Xiang
In August 1927, at the instructions of the Gannan Special Committee of the COMMUNIST Party of China, Lai Chuanzhu returned to his hometown to form a trade union and prepare to launch an armed uprising, but in the face of bloody rain everywhere, Lai Chuanzhu's father, Lai Jiafang, did not stop his son's bold move, the husband and wife bought a gun for their son, and also donated money to buy a large number of weapons such as bird guns, shuttle darts, spears, and large knives, made more than 30 pine cannons and 1,000 kilograms of earth explosives, and supported Lai Chuanzhu in forming a peasant Red Guard and carrying out the agrarian revolution.
Under the propaganda of Lai Chuanzhu, Lai Jiafang's ideological understanding underwent major changes, and he actively demanded to join the Communist Party.
Under the propaganda of the Lai family's father and son, Lai Chuanzhu's other uncles and elders have also donated money and materials, and although the Lai family's life has improved in recent years due to business, their roots have been farmers for generations, and they have been fed up with the bullying and exploitation of local tycoons and inferior gentry and magnates, and long for a just and equal world.
The second right Lai Chuanzhu
On February 18, 1928, Lai Chuanzhu organized a peasant rebellion in his hometown of Dabu, and the Red Guards wore red cloth marks, armed with darts, large knives, and loaded with earthen guns and cannons, and occupied Lai Village and Pengwu in only one hour, captured the local powerful landlords, and established the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Committee of the Southern District of Ganxian County.
The armed rebellion of the peasants in Dabu, Ganxian County, was the most influential uprising in Gannan and lasted for a month, but was suppressed by the Kuomintang army due to lack of experience and lack of foreign aid.
Afterwards, more than 900 Members of the Red Guards and their families were brutally killed, Lai Village was almost washed in blood, Lai Chuanzhu's family property was robbed, the house was burned, and his ancestral grave was planed; his father Lai Jiafang escaped and hid in the countryside of Xinfeng, arrested in 1931, imprisoned in Gannan Prison and shot, his mother was tortured, thrown into the rain for three days, no one dared to rescue and take him in, starved to death, Lai Chuanzhu's uncles and cousins dozens of people were beaten to death or imprisoned, and only Lai Chuanzhu survived in the family.
Later, Lai Chuanzhu was very kind to his generals and comrades in the army, and his reputation and reputation were excellent. His wife, Sun Xiang, said that it was precisely because he had lost all his relatives in the early revolution that he cherished his family and comrades-in-arms and valued family and friendship.
2. He has made many achievements in battle, but he asked himself to be demoted to the rank of lieutenant general
In March 1928, Lai Chuanzhu, whose family was destroyed, went to Ganzhou in disguise to find an organization, but the organs of the special committee and the county party committee had been destroyed by the Kuomintang, and almost all the responsible persons were imprisoned, so he decided to go to Jinggangshan to defect to Mao Zedong's autumn harvest uprising team, became the representative of the special agent company, and then participated in the Long March as the political commissar of the Red Second Division of the First Front Army.
The right one is Lai Chuanzhu
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Lai Chuanzhu participated in the creation of the New Fourth Army, and after the Anhui Incident, he served as the chief of staff of the New Fourth Army; in the great counteroffensive in 1945, he led the troops to completely annihilate 28,000 Japanese puppet troops in only 20 days, liberated 32 county towns, and quickly connected the base areas of central Jiangsu, northern Jiangsu, Huainan, and Huaibei, which occupied a favorable situation for our army.
Soon, the warlike Lai Chuanzhu was transferred to the Northeast War, in 1948, Lai Chuanzhu, who was the political commissar of the 6th Column of the Northeast Field Army, and the commander Huang Yongsheng led his troops to participate in the siege and annihilation of western Liaoning, marching for 250 miles in 30 hours, setting a record for the highest record of the northeast field army's rapid march, thus successfully intercepting Liao Yaoxiang's corps.
Lai Chuanzhu family portrait
In 1950, Lai Chuanzhu and commander Deng Hua commanded the 15th Corps to cross the Qiongzhou Strait, and with the cooperation of the Qiongya Column, they broke through the "Boling Defense Line" of the three so-called "copper walls and iron walls" set up by the famous Kuomintang general Xue Yue, annihilated more than 30,000 enemy troops, and liberated Hainan Island.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lai Chuanzhu became an assistant to Marshal Luo Ronghuan, served as deputy director of the General Cadre Management Department of the Central Military Commission, was responsible for establishing an organizational system for the whole army, and was specifically in charge of conferring titles for officers on active duty in the army.
From the party representatives of the grass-roots companies to the chief of staff of the New Fourth Army, the deputy commander of the military region, and the political commissar of the corps, commanding thousands of troops and horses, from east to north and from north to south, participating in countless major wars and vicious battles, whether it is seniority or battle merit, Lai Chuanzhu is worthy of the selection of generals, but in the 1955 award, Lai Chuanzhu, who was the person in charge of specific work, modestly asked for demotion and asked to be rated as "lieutenant general."
Admiral Lai Chuanzhu
His immediate boss, Luo Ronghuan, said: "I disagree. ”
However, Lai Chuanzhu insisted on evaluating lieutenant generals, and later, the matter was taken to the meeting of the Central Military Commission to be studied and discussed, and everyone decided to award him the rank of general according to Lai Chuanzhu's qualifications and merits.
In November 1959, Lai Chuanzhu was transferred from the political commissar of the Beijing Military Region to the political commissar of the Shenyang Military Region, and during his term of office, he set up a model of selfless communist fighters, Lei Feng, which brought far-reaching spiritual influence to the whole army and even the people of the whole country.
In December 1965, Lai Chuanzhu died of overwork, ending his legendary life of unremitting struggle for faith.