Of the six brigades of the Eighth Route Army, two brigade commanders became founding generals, Chen Bojun and Wang Hongkun. Under the brigade, a few regimental commanders with outstanding achievements later became founding generals. Who are they? Let's take a brief look at it today.
The first is Yang Dezhi.
Yang Dezhi was a native of Liling, Hunan, and during the Red Army's Long March, he was the leader of the famous Red Regiment. After the Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, Yang Dezhi was promoted to deputy commander of the Red First Division, and soon became the commander of the Red Second Division. The Eighth Route Army was established, and Yang Dezhi became the commander of the 685 Regiment.
Yang Dezhi participated in the Ping-type Guan Dajie. By 1938, he had been promoted to deputy brigade commander of the 344th Brigade. After the brigade commander Xu Haidong left the army due to illness, Yang Dezhi acted as brigade commander.
The second is Li Tianyou.
Li Tianyou was a general of the Red Seventh Army, who traveled thousands of miles from the Baise region of Guangxi to the Central Soviet Region, and during the Long March of the Red Army, he was one of the youngest division commanders. When the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Li Tianyou was still the commander of the division, and his partner, Huang Kecheng, the political commissar of the division, was 12 years older than him.
It can be seen that Li Tianyou is young and promising. Li Tianyou sang the protagonist, he led the 686 Regiment to be responsible for the middle breakthrough, gnawing the hardest bones, and facing the most elite troops of the Japanese army. After fighting this hard battle, in the next year, that is, in 1938, Li Tianyou was promoted to acting brigade commander.
Not long after, Li Tianyou went to the Soviet Union because of his injuries, and while treating his illness, he studied for further study, and did not return to China until the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
The third is Yang Chengwu.
Like Yang Dezhi, Yang Chengwu was the pioneer of the Long March of the Central Red Army. After the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Yang Chengwu was promoted to the commander of the Red First Division. The Eighth Route Army was founded, and he was the commander of the Independent Regiment of the 115th Division. In just two months, the independent regiment quickly grew to more than 7,000 people, expanded into an independent division, and Yang Chengwu became the fourth division commander of the Eighth Route Army.
The fourth place is the Song Chron.
Song Shilun is Yang Dezhi's hometown, and they are all from Liling, Hunan. Liling also produced a deputy chief of general staff of the Eighth Route Army, Zuo Quan. Whether it was Yang Dezhi, Yang Chengwu Li Tianyou, and later Peng Shaohui Chen Xilian, they were all at the level of the main division during the Red Army period, and the Song Shilun was higher than their rank.
He was a commander of the Red Army. Song Shilun served as the commander of the Red Thirty Army and also served as the commander of the Red Twenty-eighth Army. The Eighth Route Army was formed, and he changed from a commander to a regimental commander. Song Shilun's regimental commander had only been in office for a month, and he was promoted to commander. He was ordered to advance into the Yanbei area and establish the Yanbei detachment, and he was the commander of the detachment.
The fifth is Peng Shaohui.
During the Red Army period, Peng Shaohui was also a division commander, and he was wounded in battle many times, unfortunately broke his left arm and became a one-armed general. The Red Army's Long March reached northern Shaanxi, and Peng Shaohui was the commander of the Red Second Front's teaching regiment. The Eighth Route Army was established, and his position remained unchanged, and he remained the head of the teaching regiment.
By the following year, Peng Shaohui had been promoted to brigadier general of the new 358 brigade.
The sixth is Chen Xilian.
The Famous Generals of the Red Fourth Front are full of fierce generals, and Chen Xilian is an outstanding representative of them. He served as the political commissar and division commander of the division in the Red Fourth Front. The Eighth Route Army was established, and Chen Xilian's 769th Regiment followed Commander Liu out to resist Japan, and the 769th Regiment was a trump card in the hands of Commander Liu.
Master Liu even personally taught Commander Chen Xilian how to use communication equipment and gas masks, and how to carry out sand table operations. Commander Liu also taught Chen Xilian that he must be good at finding fighters, and if he finds them, he must strike decisively. It was under the personal education of Master Liu that Chen Xilian launched the Battle of Yangmingbao and won the opening of the 129th Division's resistance to Japan.
Because of his outstanding achievements, Chen Xilian was promoted to brigade commander in the following year, that is, in 1938, and continued to run to the forefront of the anti-Japanese resistance.
The six regimental commanders of the Eighth Route Army at the beginning were all able to fight good battles and were invincible, and they all became the brigade commanders of the Eighth Route Army in the second year, of which Yang Chengwu was directly promoted to division commander. They all ended up well-deservedly becoming founding generals.