In 1955, when our army was first awarded the rank, Xu Guangda, who was then the commander of the armored corps, learned that he would be awarded the rank of general, and his heart was not only not happy, but deeply uneasy. After repeatedly taking the "back door" and looking for leaders, he applied for demotion, but he did not get consent. In desperation, he directly wrote an application for demotion to the chairman and the vice-chairmen.
He said in his application: "I ask myself: On virtue, talent, capital, and merit, do I wear four stars and have a calm mind?" This time, he was awarded the title according to the merits of the new democratic revolution. Looking back at his own history, he joined the revolution in 1925 and achieved mediocre results. From 1932 to 1937, he studied in the Soviet Union and made no contribution to the Chinese revolution. This period was the most difficult and difficult period of the Chinese revolution: Chiang Kai-shek's army was forced to make strategic moves after several bloody "encirclements and suppressions" by the Chiang Kai-shek army. Surrounded by layers of enemies, comrades-in-arms fought hard, ate bark and grass roots, and sacrificed their blood and lives. I sat in a room with a few windows and ate milk and bread. After the return of the Soviet Union, there were several years in the rear. Finally, he demanded that the general be conferred on another "meritorious person" and demoted himself to the rank of general.
When the application was delivered, the chairman took the "application for demotion" and said to the other leaders of the Central Military Commission: "This is a mirror, a mirror of the Communists themselves!" ”
Mr. He, the veteran leader of Xu Guangda, said: "Comrade Guangda has experience in the Great Revolution, the civil war, the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation, and the Experience of the Red Army of the Soviet Union. ”
Xu Guangda was a native of Changsha, Hunan Province, born in 1908, joined the Party in 1925, was admitted to the Fifth Phase of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1926, and was ordered to rush to Nanchang in 1927 to participate in the uprising, but by the time of Nanchang, the rebel army had already withdrawn, and only then did he catch up with the rebel troops in Ningdu, Jiangxi Province, and served as a platoon commander and acting company commander of the 11th Company of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Regiment, 25th Division, 11th Army.
In early October 1927, at Sanheba, he led dozens of fighters to rush into the Kuomintang army, killing a bloody road, and then after three days and three nights of fierce fighting, repelled the repeated attacks of the Kuomintang army and covered the transfer of the 25th Division. This battle made the fledgling Xu Guangda show his sharp edge for the first time, and Mr. Zhu said, "This doll company commander has played a good job!" But during this battle, Xu Guangda was injured by a shell and lost contact with the troops.
After finding the organization, Xu Guangda reached Shanghai, participated in the military training class of our party, was sent to the Honghu area in 1929, followed General He to open up the Honghu revolutionary base area, and successively served as the chief of staff of the 6th Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the commander and political commissar of the 17th Division of the Second Red Army. He commanded the officers and men of the 17th Division to engage in several fierce battles with the "encircled and suppressed" Kuomintang troops, counterattacked the attacking enemy, and ensured the safe transfer of the headquarters of the Second Army.
In January 1932, Xu Guangda, then commander of the 8th Division of the Red 3rd Army, was seriously wounded in the Battle of Yingcheng, due to poor medical conditions in the Soviet area and bullets were not removed, and was sent to the Soviet Union for treatment.
In November 1937, Xu Guangda served as the director of the Anti-Japanese War Training Department and the chief of education, and trained a large number of cadres for our party and our army. At that time, he was known as one of the "Four Masters of resistance". Later, he served as the head of the General Staff Department of the Central Military Commission and the commander of yan'an transportation, the commander of air defense, the commander of the garrison, and the commander of the independent 2nd Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and participated in the battle against the Japanese army.
After entering the Liberation War, Xu Guangda successively served as the commander of the 3rd Column of the Jinsui Field Army, the commander of the Third Army of the Northwest Field Army (Ichiye), and the commander of the Second Corps. Under the direct command of Mr. Peng and Mr. He, he led his troops to defend Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, turned to the great northwest, and made great achievements along the way, and Zhou Gong'enlai once summed up his outstanding merits with four big words: "Merit is indispensable."
Xu Guangda's merits are just like Mr. He's evaluation of him, and he has the experience of the "five majors", which is exactly what everyone can see.
Although Xu Guangda was humble and humble, he took the initiative to apply for demotion, but he still could not get the consent of the head of the Central Military Commission, and on September 27, 1955, Xu Guangda was still awarded the rank of general. Later, when the military rank system was abolished and the administrative level was adopted, Xu Guangda, who could have enjoyed the administrative fourth level, applied for demotion, and this time the organization met his requirements and was set as the fifth administrative level, which was the only general of the five administrative levels among the ten generals.
Xu Guangda is worthy of being the "mirror of communists": humble, open-minded, and does not care about personal interests.
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