During the period of the Red Army, the Red First Army was the main force and backbone of the Central Red Army, and occupied a very important position in military history, this Red Army contingent was formed by the combination of Jinggangshan and the Red Army base areas in Gannan and Western Fujian, and was initially called the First Route Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and soon changed to the Red First Army. First, in the successive anti-encirclement and suppression operations in the Soviet zone, he adopted the principle of "luring the enemy deep and waiting for him to be exhausted and annihilated", and then charged into the front, swept through 700 miles in half a month, won consecutive battles, annihilated more than 30,000 enemies, and captured a large number of guns, ammunition, and various materials and equipment. The performance was quite outstanding, and he made great achievements.
In the course of the Red Army's Long March, the Red First Army, as the vanguard of the front line, opened the way for the large troops, and has been rushing to the forefront, passing through the six generals, clearing the front-line obstacles for the large troops, such as the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, the four crossings of the Chishui River, the forced crossing of the Dadu River, the flight to Luding Bridge, the Battle of Lazikou and other battles, forged into a mighty division, becoming a corps with the strongest combat effectiveness during the Red Army period, and at the same time, because of the many hard battles, great merits, outstanding merits, and great sacrifices, naturally a number of generals who can fight good battles are also forged under the command, so After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1955, when the whole army was awarded the title, the Red First Army became a marshal, a general, and a legion with the most generals, of which there were 5 marshals, accounting for half of the total number of marshals, enough cattle, 4 generals, more than 10 generals, and many lieutenant generals and major generals.
Later, the common people of the Central Soviet Region had a saying that in the "Trinity Unit" (that is, the red first army, the red first army, the red first division abbreviation) held the position of regimental cadre or above, as long as they could survive to the founding of the people's republic, in 1955, when the whole army was awarded the title, they could basically become the founding lieutenant general, the lowest was also a major general, and even some people were awarded generals, such as Chen Zhengxiang, the leader of the Red 1 regiment, Liang Xingchu, the leader of the Red 2 regiment, and Zeng Guohua, the leader of the Red 5 regiment. They were all founding lieutenant generals. Luo Huasheng, political commissar of the Red 4 Regiment, was the founding major general, and Su Zhenhua, political commissar of the Red 12 Regiment, was the founding general.
Of course, this is not absolute, there is a political commissar of the Third Regiment of the First Division of the Red First Army, his direct superiors are all well-known founding generals and generals, even the regimental commanders and regimental political commissars of the same level, most of them have become founding major generals, lieutenant generals or even generals, but only in 1955, he only awarded the rank of colonel, his name is Xiao Feng.
So, what exactly would make Xiao Feng's rank lower than that of his colleagues and comrades-in-arms? Let's look at his resume first.
Xiao Feng's hometown of Tai and Wanhe Town Nanxi Village
Xiao Feng, a native of Nanxi Village (present-day Nankeng Village) in Taihe Wanhe Town, Jiangxi, was born into a poor peasant family, he joined the revolutionary work when he was more than ten years old, then joined the regiment, and participated in the Wan'an, Taihe peasant rebellion, and then mobilized 42 teenagers surnamed Taihe Jiudong Eighteen Xiao surnamed Xiao to form the Taihe Ziyaoshan guerrilla group, accompanied by the "Autumn Harvest Uprising" Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army to participate in the siege of Xincheng, when attacking the Hexi Majiazhou Jingwei Regiment, the left side of the head was hit by grenade shrapnel, after being cured, he became the commander of the Taihe Independent Battalion, and later promoted to regiment commander. In coordination with the first, second, and third anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaigns of the main Red Army, he was praised and received by the central leadership for his meritorious service in combat.
During the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign in the Central Soviet Region, Xiao Feng was awarded the Order of the Red Star of the Third Class for his bravery in the defense of Guangchang (this medal was the highest medal of the Red Army period, and according to the sayings of the time and the Liberation War, this medal could be obtained once to avoid death. Xiao Feng was proud of this all his life), served as the political commissar of the field direct subordinate team, and began the twenty-five thousand mile long march with the central organs and the Red Army.
After the Zunyi Conference, Xiao Feng served as the political commissar of the 1st Division and 3rd Regiment of the 1st Red Army. After the victory of the Long March, Xiao Feng graduated from the first phase of the "Red Army University" in Yan'an and rushed to the front line of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, successively serving as the political commissar of the 3rd Regiment of the First Military Subdistrict of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region and the deputy chief of staff of the Military Subdistrict. The first battle fell at Maguan, broke the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army, participated in the famous PingxingGuan Victory and Chen Zhuang Annihilation Battle, and commanded heavy machine gunners to kill the commander of the water source brigade of the Japanese army known as the "ox knife" expert. He also participated in hundreds of battles and battles such as Ciwu, Shilin and the Hundred Regiments War. In those years, when the Japanese army was constantly ruthlessly sweeping the anti-Japanese battlefield in North China, Xiao Feng and other commanders and fighters took the lead in carrying out "sparrow warfare," "tunnel warfare," and "mine warfare."
During the Liberation War, he successively served as the brigade commander of the Sixth Police Brigade and the commander of the Second Sub-district of the Bohai Naval Region, the deputy commander of the Seventh Division of the Shandong Military Region, the commander of the 11th Division and the 29th Division of the East China Field Army, and the deputy commander and acting commander of the 28th Army of the Third Field Army. Participated in the liberation of Texas and three dozen Zouping. Later, on the battlefields of East China and the Central Plains, he participated in the battles of Laiwu, Menglianggu, Eastern Anhui, Western Anhui, Eastern Henan, Shatuji, Jinan, Huaihai, Dujiang, Shanghai and Jinxia, and was called "the ace of resistance" by his superiors.
It is reasonable to say that Xiao Feng's military merits and resumes would be appropriate when the whole army conferred the title, however, with the basic liberation of the whole country in October 1949, Xiao Feng, who was then the deputy commander of the army, was appointed acting commander, serving as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy in the Battle of Kinmen, responsible for commanding the 28th Army and the 29th Army to liberate Kinmen.
Kinmen Island and Lieyu Island (Little Kinmen) are thirteen large and small islands, the east of the Golden Gate is ten kilometers away from Xiamen, the north is nine kilometers from the mainland, the island is 20 kilometers long, 14 kilometers wide, the area is about 150 square kilometers, shaped like a dumbbell, the east is high mountains, the west is hilly, the north shore qionglin to Housha to the northwest corner of Guningtou are yellow and white sandy hard beaches, there are not many reefs, it is indeed an ideal large-scale landing site. At that time, the Fifth Army under the jurisdiction of the 22nd Corps of the Nationalist Army was garrisoned by Lieutenant General Gaoji to defend Xiaojinmen and Da'er gall Island, with a strength of about 3,000 troops, and the 25th Army was under the command of Commander Shen Xiangkui, with jurisdiction over the 40th Division, the 201st Division of the Youth Army, the Xiamen Fortress Mortar Battalion to defend the Jinxi area, the 45th Division, the Tank Battalion, the 201st Division Artillery Battalion, and the 118th Division to defend the Jindong area, with a total strength of about 17,000 troops, with a total strength of about 20,000 people in Kinmen.
After the Battle of Kinmen, an outpost for the liberation of Taiwan, xiao Feng gave an order, and more than 8,000 commanders and fighters of our People's Liberation Army forcibly crossed the sea with the help of wooden boats, sampans, and other means of crossing the sea. According to the deployment, the landing officers and men were divided into two echelons. The first echelon consisted of 10 battalions, which were divided into four regiments, namely the 244th Regiment, the 251st Regiment, the 253rd Regiment and the 246th Regiment, of which the 246th Regiment sent only one battalion, so it was said that "three and a half regiments".
As soon as our army troops who had invaded Kinmen Island landed, the fleet returned under the organization of the staff officers, but because the enemy had set up obstacles on the coast, the ships could not move, and the Platon Army, which escorted the ships back, had to go into the water and push the ships, at which time the enemy's artillery fire hit the fleet again, and the shipwrights hid everywhere. By the time the boatman was found, the tide had receded. Although some ships had rushed out of the obstacles and encountered interception by enemy naval warships, the ships that had evaded the interception of the enemy ships had strayed into the lurking area of the enemy ships, and had been mistaken by our side as enemy reinforcement convoys, and had been sunk by the artillery in our Xiamen area, resulting in the inability of the second and third echelons to cross the sea.
Under the strong attack of my landing troops, the enemy also blushed sharply and constantly strengthened its troop assistance. With the original garrison on Kinmen Island and the heavy reinforcement of the Hu Lian Corps in the early morning, the flagship of the enemy navy, the "Taiping," also sailed to Kinmen for reinforcements, encircling our landing force and cutting off the rear road of our landing troops. In the end, our army fought against an enemy seven times that of us and its backup could not reach, and under the attack of the enemy's joint operations of the navy, land, and air force, we fought bitterly for a day, and by the night of the 26th, we ran out of ammunition and food, and most of them were sacrificed.
Of the 13 regimental leaders of our army who landed on the island, except for 2 who were captured and repatriated, the remaining 11 were either killed in battle or killed after being captured. The specific list is as follows:
Xing Yongsheng, commander and political commissar of the 244th Regiment, was captured during the battle, taken to Taipei, disappeared in a prisoner-of-war camp, and is generally believed to have been secretly killed.
Zhu Feiran, chief of staff of the 244th Regiment, was seriously wounded in battle and was captured and killed.
Sun Shuliang, director of the political department of the 244th Regiment, was captured during the battle and taken to Taipei, where he was later repatriated to the mainland. After returning to the mainland, he was expelled from the party and the military and sentenced to five years in prison.
Liu Tianxiang, the commander of the 251st Regiment, was wounded and captured at the Guningtou position, and was later taken to Taipei, where he disappeared in a prisoner-of-war camp and is generally believed to have been secretly killed.
Tian Zhichun, political commissar of the 251st Regiment, was surrounded by the enemy after breaking through from Guningtou, was captured after running out of ammunition, and was later taken to Taipei, where he disappeared in a prisoner-of-war camp and was generally believed to have been secretly killed.
Hao Yuesan, chief of staff of the 251st Regiment, was killed in battle.
Wang Xueyuan, director of the political department of the 251st Regiment, was killed in battle.
Ma Shaotang, deputy commander of the 251st Regiment, also broke out from Guningtou, but was captured due to wounds and taken to Taipei, where he was later repatriated to the mainland. After returning to the mainland, he was expelled from the party and the military and sentenced to five years in prison.
Xu Bo, commander of the 253rd Regiment. After the battle was lost, he lurked in the mountains, and was discovered once when he went down the mountain to steal sweet potatoes from the field, and at this time he had been circling with the enemy for nearly a hundred days. After his arrest, he was taken to Taipei, where he disappeared in a prisoner-of-war camp and is generally believed to have been secretly killed.
Chen Lihua, political commissar of the 253rd Regiment, was captured during the battle, lurked under the pseudonym "Chen Kaizhong", and later served as a colonel in the Secrecy Bureau of Taiwan's "Ministry of National Defense". In 1981, he was denounced and killed. However, there is also another theory that Chen Lihua disappeared after the breakthrough of Guningtou.
Wang Jianqiu, chief of staff of the 253rd Regiment, was wounded and captured in battle, and was later taken to Taipei, where he disappeared in a prisoner-of-war camp and is generally believed to have been secretly killed.
Sun Yunxiu, commander of the 246th Regiment, served as the commander-in-chief of the reinforcements, fought until the last moment, and committed suicide by drinking bullets.
Liu Hanbin, deputy regimental commander and chief of staff of the 246th Regiment, was killed in battle.
After the war, Xiao Feng came to the sea in Xiamen, climbed the Yunding Rock in Xiamen, looked at the Golden Gate, suddenly it rained, he refused his family's request to let him avoid the rain, stood on the top of the mountain, let the rain pour him wet, he brought wine, looked at the Golden Gate, and spilled wine into the sea three times. Subsequently, a profound reflection and review of this defeat was made, and self-criticism mainly involved:
First, the light enemy, up to the Tenth Corps, down to the front-line command, subjectively all of them light on the enemy, resulting in improper strategic and tactical deployment; second, there was a shortage of ships crossing the sea, and the civilian ships were unreliable and uncooperative; third, the Kuomintang, which had no way to retreat, put it to death and was born and fought in a trapped beast fight; fourth, Hu Lianbu was confused and the Twelfth Corps was unexpectedly successful in reinforcements; fifth, the Platon's Liberation Army, which was good at land warfare, had a serious lack of understanding of naval warfare and island landing battles; sixth, a series of accidental factors made the Nationalist army discover the enemy's smuggling in advance that night. Super luck.
Subsequently, Xiao Feng was transferred away from the 28th Army, demoted 3 ranks in a company, demoted to deputy division commander, and later awarded the rank of colonel only when the rank was awarded.