Compared with the Nationalist army, most of the generals of our army have not received formal military education, but after eight years of war of resistance and four years of liberation war, those young Red Army soldiers, after more than ten years of baptism of fire, have become founding generals with brilliant achievements, so it is said that these generals were either the Eighth Route Army or the New Fourth Army during the War of Resistance.
However, there are exceptions, the founding lieutenant general Zhuang Tian did not belong to the Eighth Route Army nor to the New Fourth Army, because he came from a special team, the Qiongya Detachment, but when he checked General Zhuang's resume, he found that he was an old Red Army soldier and had participated in the Long March.
At this time, the question came: after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red Army was either reorganized into the Eighth Route Army or formed the New Fourth Army, and why Zhuang Tian went to the Qiongya Column in Hainan.
Born in 1906 in a poor peasant family in Wanning, Hainan, Zhuang Tian went to Singapore with his fellow countrymen as a teenager to work as a boilermaker on a freighter belonging to the Netherlands.
He did not think that there was also a party branch on the freighter, but under the influence of secretary Huang Yidun, he became a party member, and later he was sent to the British freighter "Fengping" by the organization to develop the party organization as a worker, unite the shipwrights to fight against the capitalists, and strive for reasonable interests.
In order to train him, in 1929, Zhuang Tian was sent to the Soviet Union to study, and studied at the Red Army Infantry School for two full years.
In 1931, zhuang Tian returned to China and went to the Central Soviet Region, he who had studied in the Soviet Union could not be placed casually, he began to work as a military cadre in the Red Army school, and later transferred to the front line as the political commissar of the 65th Regiment of the Independent 22nd Division, and he led the army to participate in the fourth and fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations in the Soviet Union.
Because of the defeat of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Red Army had to start a strategic shift, and Zhuang Tian also embarked on the long march with the large troops, and after the Zunyi Conference, the troops were reorganized and reduced, and he was transferred to the 65th Regiment of the Fifth Red Army as the political commissar of the regiment, which was regarded as a level adjustment.
In a battle, Zhuang Tian was seriously wounded, according to the custom, the wounded with limited mobility should be placed on the spot, but if they stayed, they might be caught and killed by the enemy who caught up with them, but in order to add trouble to the large troops, Zhuang Tian took the initiative to ask to stay in his hometown to recuperate, but the regimental commander Dong Zhentang heard about this matter and sent special personnel to carry him away on a stretcher, for this excellent cadre, he did not want to give up.
With Dong Zhentang's arrangement, Zhuang Tian escaped the misfortune of being caught and killed by the enemy, and he was grateful to this good superior from the bottom of his heart, but unfortunately, just over a year later, Dong Zhentang died in the operation of the Western Road Army and did not give Zhuang Tian the opportunity to repay.
Arriving in northern Shaanxi, until the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhuang Tian worked at the Yan'an Red Army University, successively serving as the captain of the first team of the Kang Da and the captain of the first branch of the Kang Da, and he also served as the head of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Inspection Regiment.
In 1940, the opportunity finally waited, and his superiors sent him back to his hometown of Hainan to assist Feng Baiju in leading the Qiongya Independent Brigade to resist the enemy's "encroachment" and "sweeping", under the leadership of the two of them, the team expanded rapidly, and later established the Qiongya Independent Column, with Feng Baiju as the commander of the column and Zhuang Tian as the deputy commander, at that time the Qiongya Independent Column became another important revolutionary force outside the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in our party.
In 1947, Zhuang Tian left the Qiongya Column and was sent to the Guidian Border Column as a commander, in the Liberation War, he led the army to participate in the Battle of Southern Yunnan, after the liberation of Yunnan, he served as the deputy commander of the Yunnan Military Region, in 1955, Zhuang Tian was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.