After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, but why did the Eighth Route Army grow stronger and stronger later? The main reasons are: First, the people's armed forces under the leadership of our party are the contingent of genuine anti-Japanese resistance; second, the Eighth Route Army is a contingent representing the interests of the people and is deeply loved by the people; and third, our party has advanced ideological concepts and can attract outstanding talents from all over the country to defect to Yan'an and join our ranks.
For example, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many junior and middle-ranking officers of the Nationalist Army who graduated from such as the Whampoa Military Academy defected to Yan'an, joined the Eighth Route Army, and devoted themselves to the Anti-Japanese Resistance. Today, I will tell you the story of this former Whampoa Military Academy artillery captain training officer who defected to Yan'an.
His name is Zheng Xinchao.
Zheng Xinchao is a native of Xinmin, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, born in 1913. After the "918 Incident", in order to refuse enslavement education, Zheng Xinchao, who graduated from Fengtian Normal School, resolutely gave up his job as a Chinese teacher and took his wife Shao Qinglian to Beiping Furen College to study. As the situation deteriorated, Zheng Xinchao decided to throw in his pen, so in 1935 he joined the Anti-Japanese Patriotic Youth Army Training Corps of the Kuomintang 29th Army, determined to defend the motherland by force.
After the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", especially after the fall of Peiping, he had to go south to Nanjing and was admitted to the Huangpu 11th Infantry Section to study, and before graduation, he was selected to be admitted to the Guantong Department of the 5th Lieutenant Corps of the Advanced Artillery School, and when he graduated, he became an artillery scientist of the 14th Phase I Corps, and he became an outstanding cadet who was trained by the Whampoa Military Academy for two periods.
After graduating from the military academy, Zheng Xinchao, who was originally determined to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, was assigned to the Sixth Brigade of the Whampoa Military Academy's Senior Artillery Academy as a captain training officer. Once, he met with The Then President of the Whampoa Military Academy, Principal Jiang, and asked to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy and defend the country, but the old Jiang refused Zheng Xinchao's request on the grounds that he was not willing to sacrifice talents.
In 1938, Zheng Xinchao moved with the Kuomintang Huangpu Senior Artillery School (Nanjing Senior Artillery School) to Duyun, Guizhou to continue running the school. Unable to go to the front to kill the enemy, he began to secretly read progressive books and articles in his free time, such as "Capital", "On Protracted War", and "On the Tactics of Opposing Japanese Imperialism", and his spirit was greatly encouraged.
At this time, our underground party organization and the Northeast Anti-Japanese Salvation Association also saw Zheng Xinchao's progressive requirements, so they actively fought for Zheng Xinchao. Under the struggle of the underground party organization, Zheng Xinchao was determined to defect to the Eighth Road and follow our party to resist Japan and save the country.
In 1939, Zheng Xinchao escaped the assassination of the Kuomintang secret service organization, led Lu Qi, Yin Hong, and six other students from Duyun, Guizhou, passing through Chongqing, Baoji, Luoyang, and finally arrived in Xi'an, where they arrived at the First Garrison Brigade of the Guanzhong Military Sub-district in Shaanxi Province, first helping the First Garrison Brigade to carry out military training activities, and then arriving at Yan'an, the revolutionary holy place they longed for, under the arrangement and recommendation of the political commissar of the First Police Brigade.
After arriving in Yan'an, Zheng Xinchao and other Huangpu students were warmly received by the chairman and Zhu Laozong, and when they learned that Zheng Xinchao was a graduate of the Huangpu Infantry Section and the Artillery Section, the chairman said excitedly and humorously: Good, good, old Jiang sent us Huangpu talents this time!
After that, Zheng Xinchao, who devoted himself to the Eighth Route Army in Yan'an, was arranged to serve as the chief artillery science instructor at the Yan'an Military Academy, and engaged in the preliminary preparation of the Yan'an Artillery School, so he became one of the important founders of the Yan'an Artillery School of the Eighth Route Army. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he successively participated in the establishment of Xuanhua Artillery School and Shenyang Artillery School.
In addition to being the founder of our military artillery school, Zheng Xinchao is also the founder of our military horse farm.
It was at the beginning of 1947, when Zhu Rui, commander of artillery and principal of the artillery school of the Northeast Military Region, talked to Zheng Xinchao, and President Zhu told him that military horses and artillery are inseparable, that throughout the history of the development of Artillery at home and abroad, that military horses are the feet of artillery, that the artillery party committee has studied and decided to formally establish the Mudanjiang Military Horse Farm, that you and Qinglian are both proficient in artillery and know how to raise horses, and that the task of establishing a military horse farm must be entrusted to you.
Therefore, Zheng Xinchao and his wife Shao Qinglian, with 5 wounded and sick soldiers and their 3 children, found a donkey and a mill, camped on the ruins of the Japanese secret service after being bombed by the Soviet army, and began the creation of a military horse farm.
Later, Zheng Xinchao participated in the creation of the BaichengZijun Horse Farm, the Zalantun Military Horse Farm and the Zhaodong Military Horse Farm. Mudanjiang Military Horse Farm and other military horse farms provided tens of thousands of military horses for China's Liberation War and Korean War, and made tremendous contributions to the founding of New China and the cause of socialist construction.
Zheng Xinchao, an artillery technician and an expert in military and horse research, did not participate in the military conferring titles in 1955, but was awarded the technical title of chief researcher by the Artillery Department of the Central Military Commission (ministerial and military civilian positions).
Zheng Xinchao died in January 1986 at the age of 73.