In 1955 Chinese when the People's Liberation Army first introduced the rank system, a total of 57 generals were awarded the rank of general. Deng Hua, then deputy commander-in-chief and commander of the Shenyang Military Region, ranked seventh among the founding generals and first among the founding generals of the Four Wilds.
Deng Hua was born in 1910 in Yongning Township, Chenxian County, Hunan Province, to a family of scholars. Influenced and educated by his enlightened father since childhood, he was diligent and studious, and at the age of 15, he entered Changsha Yueyun Middle School and actively participated in the patriotic student movement organized by the school. He once wrote generously in the article "On the Young People's Outlook on Life": "Young people should sacrifice their lives to serve the motherland, save the country from danger, and liberate hundreds of millions of lives!" ”
In March 1927, Deng Hua joined the Communist Party of China and participated in the Shonan Uprising led by Zhu De and Chen Yi the following year. In 1928, after zhu and Mao's Red Army joined the division of Jinggangshan, Deng Hua successively served as the organization officer of the Red 4th Army and the chief of the organization section of the political department of the 3rd Column.
In 1930, Deng Hua became the political commissar of the Red 36th Division. Two months later, the Red 36th Division was incorporated into the Red First Army, and Deng Hua successively served as the political commissar of the 3rd Regiment and the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Division of the Red First Army, and led the troops to participate in the five anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaigns in the Central Soviet Region. His troops were extremely strong in combat and were known as the "Iron Red Army," and Chairman Mao affectionately called him "the man who strikes iron."
In 1937, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and Deng Hua served as the director of the Political Training Office of the 685th Regiment of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and participated in the famous Battle of Pingxingguan. After that, Deng Hua successively served as the political commissar of the Independent Regiment of the 115th Division and the political commissar of the First Military Subdistrict of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. At that time, together with Yang Chengwu as the commander, he went deep between Beiping, Baoding, Zhangjiakou, and Datong, and became a sharp knife inserted into the heart of the Japanese army.
In May 1938, the Eighth Route Army established the 4th Column, with Song Shi as the commander in turn and Deng Hua as the political commissar, leading the troops to advance into eastern Hebei to open up anti-Japanese guerrilla base areas. 4 The company created the anti-Japanese guerrilla base area in eastern Hebei and developed more than 100,000 anti-Japanese armed forces.
In the autumn of 1941, the Japanese army mobilized more than 70,000 troops to adopt tactics such as "encirclement of iron walls" and "combing and suppression" to carry out a major "sweep" of the Jin-Cha-Ji base area. Deng Hua led his troops to carry out extensive guerrilla warfare, and through the flexible use of our army's strategy and tactics, repeatedly created the Japanese army, leaving the Japanese puppet army in the ocean of people's war and forcing the enemy to withdraw from the base areas.
In February 1943, Deng Hua commanded the main force to launch an attack on the Japanese army, conquering the enemy's small verbal stronghold in one fell swoop, attacking Liu Kuchi three times, attacking Dongsi at night, and attacking Tanzhuang, killing and wounding more than 700 enemy soldiers in 10 days. During the Japanese army's sweep, Deng Hua led his troops to fight the enemy hundreds of times, annihilating more than 2,400 enemy troops and thwarting the enemy's "encroachment" and "sweeping."
In August 1945, Deng Hua went to the northeast and served as the commander of the Liaoji Column of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army, the commander of the 7th Column of the Northeast Field Army, and the commander of the 15th Corps of Siye, and was one of Lin Biao's favorite generals.
In March 1946, when the Soviet army withdrew from Siping, more than 3,000 people, including the "Iron stone troops" of the puppet Manchu Jing'an Army, took the opportunity to attack and occupy Siping, waiting for a large number of Kuomintang reinforcements to go north to "receive". Deng Hua made a long-distance attack, successfully conquered Siping, completely annihilated the enemy, captured more than a thousand rifles and 40 or 50 machine guns, and won a great victory of "four draws in one war."
In June 1947, the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army decided to "fight three wars and four peaces" as an important battle for the northeast to turn into a strategic counteroffensive. Lin Biao ordered Deng Hua's column to surround and annihilate the Nationalist Seventy-first Army stationed at Siping. The commander of the army, Chen Mingren, was from Whampoa and was a well-equipped Kuomintang troop who had participated in expeditions to Burma, and his combat effectiveness was extremely tenacious. Deng Hua fought fiercely with Chen Mingren for 13 days and nights, capturing Chen Mingren's brother Chen Mingxin alive. However, due to the approaching of a large number of enemy reinforcements in Shenyang, the Democratic Coalition army finally had to abandon the plan to capture Siping. At the post-war summary meeting, Lin Biao stood up and reviewed: "This city has not been fought, do not let you be responsible, it is completely responsible for me." ”
In March 1948, Deng Hua led his troops to fight four and draw four. After 23 hours of fierce fighting, more than 19,000 defenders were completely annihilated, and Siping returned to the hands of the people.
In December 1948, Deng Hua was ordered to command three columns, including the 7th Column, to annihilate the defending enemy in the Tanggu area and block the way for the Pingjin enemy to escape from the sea. Deng Hua found that the enemy army was taking the salt flats outside Tanggu as the defensive front, fortifying from the front to the depth layers, and there was no cover after our army launched the attack, and the entire unit would be exposed to the enemy's dense firepower. Deng Hua suggested to Lin Biao that our army should first take Tianjin and block the sea escape route of the enemy in Beiping, so that the casualties of the troops would not be large and would be beneficial to the overall situation.
The Central Military Commission listened to Deng Hua's opinion and decided to use a small number of troops to monitor the enemy in Tanggu and attack Tianjin with the main force. In January 1949, our army captured Tianjin in only one day and night, and more than 100,000 defenders were completely annihilated by us, completely cutting off the way for the enemy in Beijing to escape south from Tanggu on a ship, and creating favorable conditions for the peaceful liberation of Peiping.
During the War of Liberation, Deng Hua always kept the overall strategic situation in mind from the war outside Guanxi to guannei, reflecting the style of a famous general. In less than two years, Deng Hua's troops grew from the initial 1 brigade to 1 army, and forged into the main force of Dongye' top ranks, and in the Liberation War, they conquered the north and the south, and repeatedly built up their achievements. His troops were one of the main forces of Shino, often taking on the role of a single player. Deng Hua also stood out from the hundreds of commanders of the People's Liberation Army and grew into a commander at the campaign level.
In 1950, Deng Hua was appointed as the first deputy commander and first deputy political commissar of the Volunteer Army, and entered the Korean War as Peng Dehuai's main deputy, and the two soon formed a deep friendship. Deng Hua was not only courageous but also strategic, and put forward many insightful opinions and suggestions, some of which played an important role in the development of the entire war situation.
On October 14, 1952, Deng Hua directly deployed and commanded the world-famous Battle of Shangganling, leading more than 40,000 soldiers to rely on the strong defensive position with the tunnel as the backbone to fight more than 60,000 UN troops for 43 days. The Volunteers and the Un Army repeatedly fought for positions 59 times, repelled more than 900 UN troop charges, annihilated more than 25,000 UN troops, shot down and damaged more than 270 UN aircraft, 14 tanks, and more than 60 artillery pieces. The offensive, commanded by Van Vleet, commander of the U.S. 8th Army, was crushed, and the position was held, creating an example of a defensive battle.
In the spring of 1952, Peng Dehuai returned to China to preside over the work of the Central Military Commission. In June, Deng Hua was appointed acting commander and acting political commissar of the Volunteer Army, during which time he and Yang Dezhi commanded the counterattack operation in the autumn of 1952, the Battle of Shangganling, and the counterattack campaign in the summer of 1953, all of which achieved major victories. Deng Hua, who was just 43 years old, became the supreme commander of the Million Heroes Division.
On the eve of the Fifth Campaign, Chen Geng, Song Shilun, Wang Jinshan, and many other generals who were more senior and famous than Deng Hua came to Korea, and Deng Hua sent a telegram to Chairman Mao and Peng Dehuai, suggesting that Chen Geng be the first deputy commander and Song Shilun the second deputy commander, and that he be willing to serve as the third deputy commander. However, the chairman and General Manager Peng quickly called back and decided that Deng Hua would serve as the first deputy commander, Chen Geng and Song Shilun, respectively, as the second and third deputy commanders.
Later, Deng Hua learned that the central authorities' consideration was that most of the main force of the volunteer army came from Siye, and Deng Hua was more convenient in commanding; Deng Hua's ability to lead troops had also been examined, and his command quality was no less than that of other generals, and he was more familiar with Korea, so he was able to suppress Chen Geng and Song Shilun and become the first deputy commander.
On the night of July 13, 1953, Deng Hua organized and commanded the Jincheng counterattack, annihilating more than 78,000 enemy troops, capturing the deputy commander of the pseudo-"capital" division alive, and advancing the front 178 kilometers to the south, straightening the front south of Jincheng and forcing the United States to sign the armistice agreement on July 27.
Through the test of the Korean battlefield, Peng Dehuai said heartily: "Deng Hua fought bravely and carefully, came up with many good ideas, and was a good helper."
In September 1955, Deng Hua was awarded the rank of general and served as deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, and was awarded the Order of August 1, 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class.
In 1959, Deng Hua was labeled a "member of the military club" of the Peng and Huang anti-party cliques on trumped-up charges, mistakenly removed from his posts inside and outside the party, transferred to a local government, and left the army he had fought for many years.
On June 3, 1967, a group of Red Guards broke into Deng Hua's apartment, arrested Deng Hua and imprisoned him in the Chemistry Building of Sichuan University, and asked Deng Hua to confess your crimes. Deng Hua said in a dignified manner, "I have not done anything to be sorry for the people, and I have nothing to answer for." The Red Guards also asked Deng Hua to explain peng Dehuai's "black relations," and Deng Hua said, "Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee know my problem. After coming to Sichuan, he and Peng Dehuai did not meet. I have been following Chairman Mao in the revolution since I was 18 years old, burning my bones to ashes, and I cannot find my problems against Chairman Mao. ”
His resistance was beaten by the Red Guards and a broken rib. Soon he was branded a "counter-revolutionary". Jiang Qing and Kang Sheng said that "Deng Hua is a bad person and must have dictatorship over bad people", and the criticism of Deng Hua quickly escalated:
Under the care of the chairman and the premier, Deng Hua was rescued and joined Zhang Dingcheng, Hu Yaobang, Fan Wenlan and others in attending the Twelfth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Chairman Mao said to Deng Hua at the meeting: "I didn't know that the Red Guards had locked you up. You just made a mistake with Peng Dehuai. Mistakes are allowed, corrections are allowed, and it is good to change. ”
During the Cultural Revolution, Deng Hua served as vice governor of Sichuan, in charge of agricultural machinery. In 1979, Deng Xiaoping deliberately put Deng Hua in command of the self-defense counterattack, but the general was seriously ill at this time and had to choose another person.
On July 3, 1980, Deng Hua died of illness in Shanghai. Deng Xiaoping said sadly: "Lose my great general! ”