When the title was awarded in 1955, the Eighth Route Army produced nine marshals and the New Fourth Army produced one, representing the two major hills during the War of Resistance.
In fact, in addition to the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, there was another important hill during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, that is, the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance.
Let's first look at the number of people in the three major mountains. After the reorganization in 1937, the Eighth Route Army had a total of 46,000 people, the New Fourth Army had just passed 10,000, and the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition was more than 30,000 people, far more than the New Fourth Army.
Looking at the battles experienced, according to the statistics of the Heilongjiang Anti-Japanese War Research Association, the Number of Operations against Japan by the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition reached 100,000 times, and a total of 186,000 Japanese puppet troops were annihilated. This data is not much different even compared with the Eighth Route Army.
Therefore, it is indeed a pity that the Northeast Anti-Japanese Coalition did not produce a marshal.
So, if you want to evaluate the marshal, who is the most suitable for the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance? Or who is an important representative of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance? There are probably several: Yang Jingyu, Wang Detai, Zhao Shangzhi, Zhou Baozhong, etc., but unfortunately, the first three were all sacrificed in the War of Resistance, and only Zhou Baozhong survived to the founding of the People's Republic.
Therefore, if you want to evaluate a marshal from the Northeast Anti-Japanese League, Zhou Baozhong should be the most suitable candidate.
Chairman Mao once said:
Comrade Baozhong wrote poems that can be sung and wept during the fourteen-year struggle to resist Japan and save the country in northeast China.
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Let's take a look at his important experience —
Although Zhou Baozhong had been fighting in the northeast for a long time, he was not from the northeast, but from Dali, Yunnan. Zhou Baozhong participated in the Jingguo Protector War at the age of 15, and he was definitely an old qualification, with hundreds of founding generals, and not many people had participated in the Jingguo Protector War.
After the September 18 Incident, Zhou Baozhong was sent to the northeast to form the Northeast Anti-Japanese League, serving as the secretary of the Military Commission of the Manchurian Provincial Party Committee and becoming an important founder of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance.
Zhou Baozhong made a name for himself in the Northeast Anti-Japanese League, but it was not blown out. In October 1932, Zhou Baozhong led his army to fight three times in Ning'an, only to be hit in the left leg by a bullet from the enemy, bleeding profusely. What's worse, the bullet is stuck in the bone and is difficult to remove. What's more, there was no anesthetic at that time, what to do? Zhou Baozhong was full of pride, saying that guan Yunchang scraped his bones to cure poison, why couldn't I? Let the comrades dig out the bullets hard with a knife.
There was another battle, zhou Baozhong, who personally fought the charge, was shot again, this time in the stomach, and even the intestines were punched out. Zhou Baozhong looked at it, did not feel anything unusual, found a piece of chicken skin to paste his stomach, and continued to lead the troops to charge.
The Japanese army suffered a lot of Zhou Baozhong and offered a reward of 100,000 yuan to buy Zhou Baozhong's head. Later, the Japanese army raised the price, claiming that as long as it could cut one or two pieces of meat on Zhou Baozhong's body, it would reward one or two gold. In other words, if you can catch Zhou Baozhong, more than a hundred pounds of weight, at least a thousand or two gold!
Where can I go to catch Zhou Baozhong? It's completely coming and going without a trace.
In 1938, the Second Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance was established, with Zhou Baozhong as the commander-in-chief and political commissar, and the deputy commander-in-chief was the famous Zhao Shangzhi. In addition, the commander-in-chief of the First Route Army was Yang Jingyu, who was also famous.
Later, Yang Jingyu and Zhao Shangzhi died one after another, and Zhou Baozhong completely assumed the leadership of the Northeast Anti-Japanese League, made contact with the Soviet Union, and became a brigade commander of the Soviet Red Army.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chairman Mao, in order to make all-out efforts to compete for the northeast, mobilized a large number of elite troops from the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army to rush to the northeast and joined forces with the Northeast Resistance Army to form the Northeast Democratic United Army, which was the predecessor of the Fourth Field Army, with Lin Biao as the commander-in-chief, and Zhou Baozhong, Xiao Jinguang, and Lü Zhengcao as deputy commanders-in-chief.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Baozhong left the northeast and was transferred to Yunnan as the vice chairman of Yunnan Province, and the chairman was the famous Chen Geng.
Looking at Zhou Baozhong's resume, what rank do you think should be awarded? From the perspective of the Northeast Anti-Japanese League, it is also possible to confer the title of marshal (of course, if Yang Jingyu is not dead, he is more suitable). Even if you don't award the marshal, at least the general will not be able to run, and should be in the top few.
But in fact, Zhou Baozhong did not get the rank of marshal, not even a general. What's going on?
In fact, it is not so complicated, because Zhou Baozhong has been tired for many years, and he has suffered from serious illness in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, as early as 1952, when our army evaluated the rank of cadre, he did not participate, and by the time of the award of the title in 1955, he had already left the army, and naturally there was no title.
However, this is the reason, but in fact, several people also left the army at that time, and still gave military ranks, such as Marshal Chen Yi, General Yan Hongyan, etc., although they all transferred to local work, but because they represented an important branch, they were also awarded military ranks.
Therefore, Zhou Baozhong can actually be evaluated completely, mainly because there are too few big people in the Northeast Anti-Japanese League who can speak, plus Zhou Baozhong is too low-key, so he simply does not argue.
Of course, no one can forget Zhou Baozhong's contribution, and at the same time as the title was awarded, our army also awarded the medal, and Zhou Baozhong received three first-class medals. Among all those who received these three first-class medals, only Zhou Baozhong and Feng Baiju had no military ranks.