After the founding of New China, the military ranks were awarded to those who had made military merits in the revolutionary war years, and when the titles were first awarded, the main consideration was that one was the current military position at that time, and the other was that there were requirements for the positions in the Red Army, the Anti-Japanese War, and the Liberation War, such as the criteria for the highest level marshal: creating and leading the people's armed forces, leading the campaign corps to fight, and building senior generals with outstanding merits, who could be awarded the rank of marshal.
Further down, the general corps-level leadership is awarded to the general, and the standard rank of "commander" in the army is "lieutenant general". The rank of "Division Commander" is "Major General". Of course, this is general, but during this period, there were many moving stories, some people took the initiative to request to lower the rank, some people suspected that the rank was low, and even some generals missed the big award because they were transferred to local departments.
However, among them, there were three god of war-level figures who had made great achievements in battle, who were originally founding generals without suspense, but what they did not expect was that they were finally awarded to the colonel, these three people were Yin Xianbing, commander of the 16th Army, Yang Zongsheng, director of logistics of the Northwest Military Region and deputy corps-level general, and Ning Xianwen, chief of staff of the 40th Army.
Yin Xianbing, the military commander who became a colonel because of the incident of the female secretary. Yin Xianbing, a native of Hanchuan, Hubei Province, joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in 1930 and successively served as a platoon leader, company commander and battalion commander. During the agrarian revolution, Yin Xianbing's performance was not very prominent, and very little relevant historical material can be found. Yin Xianbing's real fame was during the War of Resistance Against Japan. In 1940, Yin Xianbing was transferred to the Jixi Guerrilla Corps as deputy commander, commanding the troops to annihilate more than 100 Japanese non-commissioned officer training teams at the Heishui River, and Yin Xianbing's reputation was greatly enhanced, and he entered the ranks of famous military commanders of the Eighth Route Army.
In the Battle of Heishui River, Yin Xianbing commanded the troops to annihilate the Japanese non-commissioned officer training team during the Liberation War, after which Yin Xianbing commanded one major battle after another, and his reputation was shocked. He successively served as brigade commander, deputy commander of the column, and commander of the army. He participated in major battles such as Pinghan, Longhai, Dingtao, Northern Henan, Southwest Lu, Advancing into Dabie Mountain, Huaihai, Crossing the River, and Marching into The Great Southwest. Subsequently, he participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and served as the commander of the 16th Army of the Chinese Volunteer Army and the supreme commander of the first mechanized unit of our army.
Under the command of Yin Xianbing, the Sixteenth Army won one victory after another. It can be said that Yin Xianbing's battle is very fierce. However, Yin Xianbing seems to have been a little fluttered by this big victory and made a little mistake in life. He took a fancy to his female secretary and fell into a relationship with her. Later, the female secretary incident was also known to the superiors, and they were very angry.
In 1955, China began to implement the military rank system. Yin Xianbing, as a military commander, was originally supposed to be a lieutenant general. However, due to the affairs of the female secretary, Yin Xianbing was finally awarded the rank of colonel. He was also the only one of the commanders to be awarded the rank of colonel. Unfortunately, Yin Xianbing was pit by the female secretary.
Yang Zongsheng, who was shielding a landlord from lieutenant general to colonel. He was a native of Miluo, Hunan, who joined the revolution in 1926. In 1930, he joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, successively serving as a squad leader, platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander, director of the supply department, chief of the Finance Department of the Soviet Union, minister of supply, chief of the accounting section of the supply department of the Red 6Th Army, and participated in the Long March.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yang Zong was the director of the Supply Department of the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, a member of the Finance Committee of the Guanzhong Bureau, the director of the Guanzhong Material Bureau, the deputy commander of the Southward Detachment, and the commander of the Xiangdong Military Subdistrict. During the Liberation War, he served as director of the Logistics Department of the Lüliang Military Region and director of the Quartermaster Department of the Northwest Military Region. After 1949, he entered Sichuan with The He LongBu and served as the director of the Chengdu Office of the Logistics Department of the Southwest Military Region and the director of transportation. Later, he served as deputy director of the General Finance Department of the People's Liberation Army and director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of the General Logistics Department, and in the rating work at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yang Zongsheng was rated as a deputy corps level.
According to the relevant regulations, the rank of the main corps is generally awarded to the general, of course, there are exceptions, such as Wang Shusheng and Xu Guangda, two of the main corps level were awarded the rank of general. The deputy corps level is also awarded to the general, such as General Han Xianchu, who served as the deputy commander of the 12th Corps of the 4th Field Army and the commander of the 40th Army, which belongs to the rank of deputy corps. Therefore, at the rank of deputy corps, the benchmark rank is lieutenant general, and those with deep seniority can be rated as generals, even if it is a little worse, people say that He Jinnian is the deputy commander of the 15th Corps, and he was also awarded the rank of major general.
In 1955, Yang Zongsheng was rated as a lieutenant general, but when he reported it, he became a major general, and when he was approved, he became a colonel, and suddenly changed from a general to a colonel. Whether in terms of seniority or battle achievements, Yang Zongsheng will not be a colonel, as an old Red Army, only rated as a colonel, some of his former subordinates have higher ranks than him, which makes Yang Zongsheng feel that there is no glory on his face, so he did not go to the awarding conference on the pretext of physical reasons.
Later, his colonel's uniform was sent to his home, Yang Zongsheng did not look at it, after taking it, he directly locked it in the cabinet, and he never looked at it again, for this matter he even looked for his old superior Wang Zhen, but the work of awarding titles was over, and Wang Zhen had no choice. The old superior Wang Zhen, out of the consideration of Yang Zongsheng, transferred him to the Xinjiang Construction Corps as deputy chief of staff, so that he did not have to wear the uniform of a colonel.
Many people may wonder why Yang Zongsheng, who should have been awarded the title of lieutenant general, was only named a colonel. The reason was that he had shielded a landlord in Xiangyin who had helped Yang Zongsheng establish an anti-Japanese base area. However, due to the long time interval, this matter has been impossible to verify, resulting in Yang Zongsheng is not clear, so he was demoted and awarded, and later Yang Zongsheng followed Wang Zhen to do some work in Xinjiang, until January 24, 1981 in Xi'an, died of illness at the age of 75.
The third person was Ning Xianwen, chief of staff of the Army in the Hainan Campaign, who injured himself. Siye fought from the northeast to Hainan Island, and many people in the army knew that this was the last battle, and their thinking was loosened. At that time, the other troops in Siye were resting, and only the 40th Army led by Han Xianchu and Li Zuopeng's 43rd Army were preparing to attack Hainan Island. This made the officers and men think that the old troops were just unlucky, and after fighting for so many years, the revolution went to the sea.
After the landing operation began later, many divisional cadres of the 40th Army did not cross the sea, and only Han Xianchu, commander of the army, and Li Boqiu, director of the political department, took the lead in landing on the island to fight, leaving some cadres in the rear to go to Hainan Island after the battle was over. Thinking about the liberation of Hainan Island is not the same as imagined by the troops, but has experienced many twists and turns, and it is in this context that Han Xianchu liberated Hainan Island. Because he was injured, Ning Xianwen, the chief of staff of the army who did not participate in the sea crossing operation, it was confirmed that he accidentally misfired while playing with a small pistol and injured his finger. However, being mistaken for self-harm has an impact on the future awarding of titles.
Ning Xianwen, a native of Dawu, Hubei Province, joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in his early years, serving as a clerk for the Red Army's teaching brigade, a clerk for the three regiments and a battalion of the independent division, a platoon leader of the traffic brigade of the Red Fourth Front, and a captain of the traffic team of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, and participated in the Long March. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as the chief of the school accompanying the battalion of the 129th Division, the leader of the teaching brigade of the Ji'nan Military Region, and the head of the special service regiment.
In that year, during the great sweep of Ji'nan facing the Japanese Kou, when encountering the first encirclement circle of the Japanese army, ning Xianwen encountered enemy resistance at The Size Shangzhuang, Ning Xianwen adjusted his firearms, suppressed the enemy guarding outside the village with fierce firepower, and fought with the enemy's white blade with 2 companies. The enemy retreated into Zhuangnei, and Ning Xianwen then commanded a fierce village battle and occupied Shangzhuang. At this time, the Japanese planes came to bomb, and the Japanese troops on the ground shot out the sun flag to let the planes identify the target, and he also played the sun flag that captured the Japanese Kou, so that the Japanese planes could not distinguish between the enemy and us, and made great achievements.
During the Liberation War, Ning Xianwen went to the northeast, he had a strong military quality and command ability, after marching into the northeast, he trained a group of scattered soldiers, and consciously chose an engineer battalion of the nationalist army as the opponent of the first battle of the troops, completely annihilated the enemy with absolute superiority, eliminated the fear of the new troops for actual combat, and when attacking Yixian and Jinzhou, Ning Xianwen was the commander of the 8th Division of the 3rd Column of Dongye. The task of the 8th Division was to clear the enemy on the eastern outskirts of Yixian City, then attack from the north side of the East City Gate, open the breakthrough and develop westward, annihilating the enemy north of the East Avenue.
Therefore, Ning Xianwen, Deng Yue, and Xu Guofu were all three fierce generals and fierce generals under Han Xianchu, but when he was awarded the title in 55 years, both of them were awarded major generals, only Ning Xianwen was awarded the title of colonel, and of the three, only Ning Xianwen's position was that of military chief of staff, which was higher than their positions, and the event that affected the title was his misuse during the sea crossing operation, which was considered to be a "self-injurious" act of evading the sea crossing operation, so in the end he was only awarded to colonel.
From the qualifications and military achievements of the above three people, we analyze that they can all be awarded lieutenant generals, but due to the incident of the female secretary, the incident of sheltering the landlord, and the incident of shooting, they have become a colonel, and their tortuous experiences have indeed made posterity sigh.