Why did Zeng Kelin, who was the first to advance into the northeast, later hold a lower and lower position, and only awarded the rank of major general?
Some people say that without the victory in the Liaoshen Campaign, there would have been no success in the Pingjin Campaign, no triumph in the Huaihai Campaign, and even the complete liberation of the entire Chinese mainland. In the Liberation War, the first person to open the gate of Shanhaiguan and lead the army into the northeast was General Zeng Kelin, the former commander of the Naval Aviation Corps, who was the "vanguard officer" who seized the northeast.
Zeng Kelin, a native of Xingguo County, Jiangxi, joined the Red Army in 1929, joined the Party in 1931, and served as a political instructor of the 12th Regiment Company of the 4th Division of the Red Third Army and a deputy political instructor of the 21st Regiment of the 7th Division of the Third Army during the Second Civil Revolutionary War.
In October 1934, he participated in the Long March and participated in the battles of breaking through the four blockade lines, crossing the Chishui River, rushing to cross the Jinsha River, and dadu River. After the Long March to northern Shaanxi, he served as the chief of staff of the Third Regiment of the Red Twenty-eighth Army.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the Third Civil Revolutionary War, he served as the commander of the 16th Military Subdistrict of the Jireliao Military Region and the deputy commander of the 44th Army of the Fourth Field Army.
On August 9, 1945, under the call of "The Last Battle Against the Japanese Kou", the Jiliaore Military Region established the "Northeast Forward Committee" and decided that more than 4,000 people from the 12th Regiment and the 18th Regiment of the 16th Military Sub-district would form the Eighth Route Army advance into the Northeast Advance Column, and Zeng Kelin served as the party secretary and commander of the advance column.
Zeng Kelin set out from Funing County and advanced in the direction of Jinzhou and Shenyang, successfully recaptured Shanhaiguan on August 30, opened the gate to the northeast, and then took over Suizhong and Xingcheng, and arrived on the outskirts of Shenyang on September 5.
At that time, there were still many Soviet troops stationed in Shenyang, and because there was no note on the realization, when they saw Zeng Kelin's troops, they doubted his identity.
Zeng Kelin went to the Soviet headquarters in Shenyang to argue on the basis of reason, and finally accepted the proposal, changed its name to the "Northeast People's Autonomous Army", and took over the defense of Shenyang City in an all-round way.
In addition to being the first to lead the army into the northeast, General Zeng Kelin's military career also created many "firsts" in the history of our army: the commander of the first tank division of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the first mixed aviation brigade of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force, and the first fighter division of the Navy. He is known as the "Almighty General".
After the Battle of Pingjin, Zeng Kelin's Seventh Column was organized into the 44th Army, and he was appointed deputy commander. After participating in the Beiping military parade, Lin Zong, commander of the Northeast Field Army, talked to him, saying that the field army should form a chariot division, and he should serve as the commander of the division and retain the treatment of military cadres.
In this regard, Zeng Kelin did not complain at all, saying that everything was subject to organizational arrangements. So why is his position getting lower and lower?
The majority view is that The level and ability of Zengklin to command troops to fight wars is average, which can be described as decent.
After the appointment was made, Zeng Kelin came to the tank division at the Ying-leased racecourse in Tianjin to report that he had organized the troops he had transferred into two armored regiments, a chariot regiment and an anti-air artillery regiment.
A few months later, Zeng Kelin received a new task, bid farewell to the army, was appointed as a military representative, and on behalf of the air force party committee immediately went south to form the first aviation mixed brigade, and later in order to improve his command art, he was transferred to the aviation school to learn flight.
After graduating in March 1952 and returning to Beijing, he was transferred from the Air Force to the Navy, where he worked for more than 30 years.
The "Almighty General" has left a string of war legends in each service, of which land wars have the most stories.
In the town of Wuqi in northern Shaanxi, in the last battle on the way to the Long March, Zeng Kelin attracted the attention of the chairman.
In the early hours of that day, Ma Hongkui's cavalry chased after him, and at this time, the only person in the town who served as the chairman of the defense and the task of the Party Central Committee was the guard communication battalion of Zeng Kelin as an instructor.
Zeng Kelin sent people to cover the retreat of the central leaders, while leading 3 companies of fighters to meet Ma Hongkui's more than a thousand cavalry.
Zeng Kelin commanded the troops to defeat the strong with weakness, shooting people first and shooting horses, knocking down more than 300 at once, and the enemy was defeated.
On the hillside more than a mile away, the chairman witnessed the battle with a telescope and even boasted: "Well fought, well fought!" ”
In the years that followed, Zeng Kelin participated in the anti-"sweeping" operation, the Dongda Bandits, the Benxi Defense War, the Siping Defense War, the Linjiang Defense War, the Liaoshen Campaign, the Pingjin Campaign, etc., among which the "Four Bao Linjiang" was his most memorable battle.
Even years later, he still remembers it vividly: "When the temperature dropped to more than minus 40 degrees, the soldiers ate the frozen nests and drank snow water. Sometimes for more than ten days in a row, climbing the ice and lying in the snow, the troops suffered a lot of frostbite and reduced personnel. Due to the strange cold. Some guns can't make a sound, and some can't even pull the bolt. ”
It was under such a sinister situation that the "Four Guarantees Linjiang" campaign was launched.
After more than 100 days of arduous fighting, the "Four Guarantees linjiang" campaign ended in victory, killing more than 40,000 enemies, causing a fundamental change in the balance of forces between the enemy and us, and fundamentally reversing the war situation in the northeast.
In 1955, Zeng Kelin was awarded the rank of major general, and wrote memoirs such as "Memories of his Horse Career", and died in Beijing in 2007 at the age of 94.