Mention the founding general Han Xianchu, naturally a big name, his "whirlwind troops" are also full of talents, political commissar Luo Shunchu is a founding lieutenant general, and the three masters under him are also founding major generals.
However, among the three division commanders, Deng Yue and Xu Guofu were both awarded major generals in 1955, while Ning Xianwen, who was of higher status, was only promoted to major general in 1962.
Time back to March 1950, the campaign to liberate Hainan Island officially began, however, this "final decisive battle" is far from being as simple as we think, whether from the internal environment or the external environment, the situation facing our army is extremely unfavorable.
Judging from the external environment, the Korean Peninsula was already tense at that time, and once the battle of Hainan Island could not be concluded as scheduled, our army would likely fall into the dilemma of two-front operations.
Judging from the internal environment, our army lacks experience in landing operations, the haze of the previous defeat in the Battle of Kinmen has not yet dissipated, and Xue Yue has relied on a powerful navy and air force to establish a seemingly indestructible three-dimensional defense line, while our army can only use wooden boats and fishing boats to rush to cross, and its difficulty can be imagined!
What is even more fatal is that the Siye 40th Army, which was the main force in the Hainan Island Campaign, fought from the northeast to Guangdong, and many soldiers began to have a passive and sluggish mentality. Because New China was already established at that time, many of the soldiers of the fraternal troops had been demobilized and transferred to other professions, and many people would have died in the first battle of Hainan Island, so many people had a negative psychology.
Among them, Ning Xianwen, who was then the chief of staff of the 40th Army, is an example.
(Photo: Ning Xianwen (left) and Xu Guofu)
One night before the Battle of Hainan Island began, Ning Xianwen was suddenly found lying on the beach, saying that his foot had been injured by Kuomintang agents and he could not walk.
However, surrounded by bare sand, there was nowhere to hide people, plus Ning Xianwen and the guards were protected, how could they be injured by the secret agents?
In the course of the next investigation, Ning Xianwen's guards confided the truth, and it turned out that it was Ning Xianwen who shot and injured his own foot!
However, the words of several guards were also slightly different, some said that Ning Xianwen accidentally went off fire while playing with a small pistol; others said that Ning Xianwen deliberately injured his foot in order not to go to the battlefield.
In any case, at this critical moment, he suddenly could not go to the battlefield, which also became an indelible "stain" on Ning Xianwen's military career.
Thus, by the time the rank was awarded in 1955, Ning Xianwen was only awarded the rank of colonel, and it was not until 1962 that he was promoted to major general.
Of course, this "stain" should not erase General Ning Xianwen's revolutionary merits, and before that, Ning Xianwen's performance was still commendable.
Ning Xianwen, a native of Dawu County, Hubei Province, joined the Red Army in 1930 and rose to the rank of commander of the Special Agent Regiment of the Ji'nan Military Region during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
In 1942, the Japanese Kou launched a major sweep in the southern Hebei area, and in order to cover the transfer of the organs of the military region, Ning Xianwen led his troops to block the Japanese Kou.
In the face of the heavy blockade of the Japanese Kou, Ning Xianwen did not fight hard, but adjusted in time according to the changes in the battle situation, and successively broke through the two blockade lines of the enemy army. When the Japanese sent aircraft to bomb, Ning Xianwen ordered the troops to shoot out all the sun flags that had been captured earlier, so that the Japanese aircraft were also confused, unable to distinguish between the enemy and us, and could only go away in sorrow.
After Ning Xianwen led his troops out of the encirclement, they were told that the organs of the military region had been encircled! Ning Xianwen did not say a word, and then led his troops to re-enter the siege, and successfully rescued the besieged troops.
Next, after fully judging the enemy situation, Ning Xianwen chose to break through to the northwest where the Imperial Allied Forces were located. This time, Ning Xianwen adopted the "offensive tactics", and he shouted at the Imperial Allied forces: "You are also Chinese, I know that you are also for the sake of mixed food, the Japanese Kou will be driven out of China sooner or later, you don't need to fight for their lives, we will meet again in the future and talk..."
Ning Xianwen's words impressed the Imperial Allied Forces, and they only fired a few shots into the air before letting them go.
This battle made Ning Xianwen famous, and Chen Zaidao, commander of the Ji'nan Military Region, and Song Renqiang, political commissar, both praised him as "a general who fights with his brain."
In 1994, General Ning Xianwen died of illness at the age of 81.
——To learn more about the story of the founding generals, you can check out the column of the history inn, a total of 100 founding generals.