The Eighth Route Army marched forward in Jirecha, which was a famous unit of our army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. This team was established in February 1939 and was mainly responsible for the unified command of the anti-Japanese armed struggle in the Pingxi, Pingbei and Eastern Hebei regions. Later, the team was abolished in 1942. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, this group produced many founding generals, such as: Xiao Ke, Deng Hua, Song Shilun, Cheng Shicai, Ding Sheng, Xu Decao... However, I would like to introduce the political commissar of this unit, Chen Manyuan.
Chen Manyuan
Chen Manyuan, a native of Mengshan, Guangxi, was born in 1911. In 1924, he transferred to Wuzhou No. 2 Middle School. According to the recollections of some alumni, he was diligent and ambitious. Therefore, he joined the Communist Youth League at the age of 15. In the same year, he had no choice but to drop out of school due to the failure of his family. In order to survive, he went to a nearby book club to do miscellaneous work. In January 1927, he joined the Party with honor for his outstanding performance, at the age of 16. Soon after, he was unfortunately arrested.
In 1929, he was finally released and went to teach at a primary school in Enlong, Guangxi. Soon, under the arrangement of his superiors, he came to a garrison unit of the Xingui department as a probationary political trainer. In December of the same year, he took part in the famous Baise Uprising. Because of his bravery in battle and his culture, he was soon promoted to battalion commissar. At this time, his comrade-in-arms Li Tianyou was just a company commander, Mo Wenhua was a company instructor, and Wei Guoqing was an ordinary combatant.
Li Tianyou
The Red Seventh Army was soon surrounded by heavy enemy troops and lost more than half of them. According to Zhang Yunyi's recollection, the team was once only about 3,000 people left. There were two regiments and four battalions in the whole army, and the political commissars of two battalions were Yuan Renyuan and Chen Manyuan. In the battle of Lianzhou, Guangdong, in order to block the fierce offensive of our army, the enemy actually set fire to some houses outside the city. At this time, the main force of our army continued to attack the city, and Chen Manyuan and others led their troops to fight hard to extinguish the fire.
In February 1931, the Red Seventh Army came to Meihua Village in Ruyuan, Guangdong. Subsequently, three regiments of the Cantonese army suddenly killed them. The two sides soon began a fierce battle, which was the famous Battle of Plum Blossom. In this battle, Li Tianyou, commander of the Special Agent Company of the Seventh Red Army, Chen Manyuan, political commissar of the Second Battalion of the 55th Regiment, and Li Xian, commander of the Second Battalion of the 58th Regiment... They were all brave and tenacious, and they led their troops to repeatedly repel enemy attacks. In the end, the enemy was forced to suspend the attack, and our army withdrew from Meihua Village at night.
Yuan Renyuan
In the summer of 1931, the remnants of the Seventh Red Army were transferred to Jiangxi and subsequently incorporated into the Red Third Army led by Peng Dehuai. Since then, Chen Manyuan has successively served as the political commissar of the regiment, the political commissar of the division, the director of the political department of the Guangdong-Gansu Military Region, the director of the political department of the Second Division of the Red First Army, and the director of the Enemy Engineering Department of the Political Department of the Red First Army. In 1934, he participated in the famous Long March of the Central Red Army. After the Central Red Army came to Yan'an in northern Shaanxi, he was soon reappointed as the political commissar of the 73rd Division of the Red Fifteenth Army.
It can be said that Chen Manyuan was brave in battle, complete in both literature and martial arts, loyal to faith, and firm in will... Therefore, he quickly grew into a senior commander during the Red Army period. However, he was not outstanding in military command, and his ability and contribution were mainly reflected in political work. But the superiors admired him very much and wanted him to be transformed into a good military commander. Therefore, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was changed to chief of staff of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army.
Wei Guoqing
He took part in the famous Battle of Pingxingguan and was soon renamed commander of the Third Military Subdistrict of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region of the Eighth Route Army. In the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, Commander Nie Rongzhen attached great importance to some commanders who came from political work cadres, such as Yang Chengwu, Chen Manyuan, Zhan Caifang, Deng Hua... He promoted some political work cadres and changed them to military command work. For example, Yang Chengwu is the commander of one sub-district, Chen Manyuan is the commander of the third sub-district, and Zhan Caifang is the deputy commander and chief of staff of the third sub-district.
In the third sub-district, Chen Manyuan, who was born as a political work cadre, was appointed commander, and Wang Ping, who was born as a political work cadre, was appointed as a political commissar. Before Zhan Caifang came to the Third Division, Huang Yongsheng, who had always been a military cadre, was appointed deputy commander. This arrangement is not particularly reasonable, Huang Yongsheng is a famous general of our army, he is the best commander of the third division. Chen Manyuan has been engaged in political work for a long time, and he has certain deficiencies in military command, not as good as deputy commander Huang Yongsheng or deputy commander Zhan Caifang.
Huang Yongsheng
However, Nie Rongzhen, commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region of the Eighth Route Army, very much hoped that these political work cadres would be quickly transformed into excellent military cadres. Therefore, Huang Yongsheng could only obey the order. However, Chen Manyuan, commander of the Third Sub-district, and Huang Yongsheng, deputy commander of the Third Sub-district, often quarreled, which to some extent affected the development and progress of the entire military sub-district. Specifically, it is manifested in: Huang Yongsheng is arrogant and arrogant, and he has repeatedly looked down on Chen Manyuan, who is inferior to himself in fighting wars, and Chen Manyuan is not accustomed to Huang Yongsheng's pride and irritability.
Nie Rongzhen's original intention was to hope that the two could help each other, learn from each other, and make progress with each other. However, the two could not get along at all. In 1939, our army established the Eighth Route Army Jirecha Advance Army, which is mainly responsible for the unified command of the anti-Japanese armed struggle in the pingxi, northern and eastern Hebei regions. After careful consideration, Nie Rongzhen decided to transfer Chen Manyuan and replace Huang Yongsheng with huang Yongsheng as the commander of the third division. Subsequently, Chen Manyuan was appointed political commissar of the Advancing Army, and the commander of the Advancing Army was Xiao Ke.
The rank of the Advancing Army was higher than that of the Third Division, but lower than that of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. Chen Manyuan was reappointed as the political commissar of the Advancing Army, and he was actually promoted. However, he always refused to come to the March to take up his post. In my personal analysis, there are mainly the following reasons: He has feelings for the old troops, is unwilling to leave jin-Cha-Ji, is unwilling to leave the Third Division; he has no relationship with the Advancing Army, nor is he optimistic about this new unit; he thinks that he has not made a mistake, so why should he leave the Third Division...
In the end, he did not come to the Marching Army to take up his post, nor did he continue to stay in the Third Division. In 1940, he was ordered to return to Yan'an to study. In Yan'an, he worked for a time in a department of the Central Military Commission. In 1942, he finally returned to the field army and became the chief of staff of the Jinsui Military Region Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. In fact, it can also be regarded as a punishment for him by his superiors. Similarly, Xiong Botao refused to come to work in the Jizhong Military Region and was demoted as a result.
Wang Ping, Zhu Liangcai, Chen Manyuan
Under He Long's command, he successively served as chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, and chief of staff. In 1945, he participated in the famous Seventh Congress. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as Xu Xiangqian's chief of staff in Shanxi. Under the command of Xu Xiangqian, Zhou Shidi, Chen Manyuan, Wang Xinting, and others, our army successively launched the famous Battle of Yuncheng, the Battle of Linfen, the Battle of Jinzhong, and the Battle of Taiyuan. Xu Qianqian's regiment has annihilated hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, and Chen Manyuan, chief of staff, can be said to have made an indispensable contribution to this.
Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xu Qianqian Corps, also known as the First Corps of the North China Military Region, was reorganized into the 18th Corps of the North China Military Region. Chen Manyuan successively served as chief of staff and deputy commander of the corps. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was ordered to return to his hometown in Guangxi, and successively served as the director of the Guilin Municipal Military Control Commission, the vice chairman of Guangxi Province, the acting chairman, the deputy secretary of the Guangxi Provincial Party Committee, the second secretary, the first secretary... After Zhang Yunyi left Guangxi, he and Li Tianyou became the first political commissar and commander of the Guangxi Military Region.
Chen Manyuan and Lu Zhengcao
In 1952, our army conducted a cadre rating. Li Tianyou, commander of the Guangxi Military Region, was made a cadre at the rank of deputy corps. I have not yet inquired about the officer rank of Chen Manyuan, political commissar of the Guangxi Military Region, but there are data showing that he is the sixth rank of the executive. I tentatively confirmed that he had changed careers at this time. So, he only had the executive rank, but not the officer rank. As for his administrative rank, it was equivalent to many later lieutenant generals and several major generals. So, in 1955, he did not receive any rank.
He did not receive a military rank, mainly because he had already changed careers and had no military position except for the post of political commissar of the Guangxi Military Region. Moreover, this military post is also of a nominal nature, and the focus of his work is on local political power and economic construction. There is a saying that he ceded the rank of general to Wei Guoqing, but this is not the case. Wei Guoqing was designated as a deputy corps-level cadre in 1952, and relatively speaking, General Wei Guoqing was more qualified for the rank of general.
Chen Manyuan and Peng Dehuai
In 1956, Chen Manyuan, then secretary of the Guangxi Provincial Party Committee and political commissar of the Guangxi Military Region, was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee. At this time, he was the secretary of the provincial party committee and the political commissar of the provincial military district, Wei Guoqing was the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee and governor, and Lu Shaowu was the commander of the provincial military district. If he had to be awarded a military rank, I personally thought that he would have a greater chance of obtaining the rank of lieutenant general. As for the rank of general, there is also a certain probability. In general, the rank of lieutenant general is slightly lower, and the rank of general is slightly higher, and he and Wei Guoqing are somewhat similar.
In 1958, he was suddenly transferred to Beijing to study. In 1960, he became president of the Agricultural University. Soon after, he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee. At the same time, General Wei Guoqing took over his work and became the number one person in charge of the party, government and army in Guangxi Autonomous Region. I have not yet inquired about the specific reason, but according to some information, the superior is not particularly satisfied with his work performance. So he was transferred out of Guangxi and was actually demoted to a lower post and rank.
Xu Xiangqian and Chen Manyuan
In 1964, he was made Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Reclamation. Around 1969, he was dismissed from all positions. In 1976, he finally made a comeback and became an adviser to the Academy of Military Sciences. The following year, he was reappointed as the head of the Platon Logistics Academy, a position at the level of a zhengda region, and his political commissar was li jukui, the founding general of the people's republic of China. In the 1980s, he officially retired and enjoyed the treatment of Zhengda District. In 1982, he was elected as a member of the Central Advisory Committee. He died in Beijing in 1986 at the age of 75.
This article mainly refers to the following materials: Zhang Yunyi's Chronology, Mo Wenhua's Memoirs, Nie Rongzhen's Memoirs, Historical Review, Dong Lei, Ping's Poems, From the Nanchang Uprising to the Battle of Crossing the River, The History of the Eighth Route Army, The Development History and Combat History of the Seventh Red Army, Wang Ping's Memoirs, Guangxi Revolution Memoirs, Mengshan County Chronicles, Chen Manyuan's Biography, Founding General Zhang Yunyi... If there is any mistake, welcome to correct, thank you!