There is a famous saying called "no Xiang army," which says that in modern history, the Xiang army in the military field can be described as a stormy situation, galloping in all directions, and producing many talents, and the source of this saying is that Hunan produced a pair of Zeng brothers in the late Qing Dynasty, starting from their hometown to engage in regiment training, forming a Xiang army based on "fighting brothers in battle, fighting fathers and sons and soldiers", through more than ten years of left and right raids, the taiping heavenly kingdom movement that conquered China's rich land was developed to millions, and the vigorous Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement that ruled for fourteen years was extinguished in one fell swoop. Becoming a famous courtier of the Qing Dynasty, the two brothers were Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan.
Qingshan can not cover, after all, the east flow, the years are leisurely, the late Qing Zeng brothers rose up in the Xiang army nearly half a century later, into the Chinese revolutionary period, from Hunan here, out of a pair of Zeng brothers, the fame of this pair of brothers is also like thunder, the brother is called Zeng Zhongsheng, the younger brother is called Zeng Xisheng.
The elder brother was a well-known military figure and the main founder of the Red Fourth Front, and the younger brother was a revolutionary, politician, father of the "Red Code", and later became a ministerial leader.
With great reverence, he came to the place where the brothers grew up, Chunniu Village, Mensi Town, Zixing Prefecture, Hunan.
Walk along the machine ploughing road in front of the village and see an idyllic village, surrounded by mountains, pine and bamboo maple cypress, verdant and lush. Enter the village to see the old house covered with green trees, brick and wood structures, covered with small green tiles. There are no carved beams and paintings, no paintings, and the plaque of "Zeng Zhongsheng Zeng Xisheng's Former Residence" hangs above the passage of the old house.
Stepping on the stone steps full of vicissitudes into the old house, inside a small courtyard, a pair of stone carved door piers, standing on both sides of the gate of the hall house. The erosion of wind and rain, the wooden door has been mottled, the feng shui master's point, sitting south to north of the gate has become sitting south facing east, standing at the door overlooking, the yongle River, about looming, from the east to the old house. There is a building where the brothers lived, read and played when they were young, and the house has wooden beams and wooden slabs and windows.
Zeng was born in this room on June 10, 1900, and his younger brother Zeng Xisheng was born here on October 11, 1904. His grandfather, Zeng Daozhao, was a talent during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, who was rich in five cars and full of economics, and because he was not ambitious, he set up a "Huangyang Academy" in his hometown, pinning his hopes on his two grandsons, not only personally enlightening them and carefully teaching cultural knowledge, but also spending a few loads of millet, inviting a master with high martial arts skills in the village to teach martial arts to the brothers, encouraging them to have great ambitions and become the pillars of the country in the future.
In the summer of 1924, Zeng Xisheng came to Guangzhou with his brother Zeng Zhongsheng and became the fourth enlisted students of the Whampoa Military Academy, after which the brothers passed the examination and became the official students of the Whampoa Phase IV. Before noon that day, the large playground of Guangdong University was full of banners and slogans, and the brothers' blood boiled, and they secretly resolved: Only by devoting themselves to "washing away the dirt of mankind" and being "human victims" can they live up to this life!
However, due to the school's participation in advanced organizations, after the failure of the Great Revolution, his brother Zeng Zhongsheng went to study at Sun Yat-sen University in the Soviet Union.
Zeng Xisheng entered the Political Workshop in Guangzhou, and after graduating, he actively enrolled in the Northern Expedition, and at the same time worked in the Eighth Army of the National Revolutionary Army (Tang Shengzhi Department of the Xiang Army): he successively served as the leader of the propaganda team, the political instructor of the regiment, and the military captain of the teaching regiment to carry out military movement work, and since then, the brothers have each embarked on the road of revolution.
At this time, when the enemy's Eyu-Anhui base area launched the first "encirclement and suppression" campaign, and the main force of the Red 1st Army had already left western Anhui in the east, at this critical moment, he calmly and decisively formed a temporary special committee and a provisional military commission to command the anti-"encirclement and suppression" struggle in a unified way, and under the command of Zeng Zhongsheng, he launched guerrilla warfare, carried out raids and sieges, and made the "encirclement and suppression" army fearful, exhausted, and encountered walls everywhere, and finally had to retreat to various town strongholds and turn to the defensive position. With the return of the Red 1st Army to annihilate 1 regiment of the "Encirclement and Suppression" Army, the Red Army won a victory against the "Encirclement and Suppression". Subsequently, Zeng Zhongsheng presided over the formulation of various policies for the construction of base areas, founded military and political schools, and reorganized the main forces of the Red Army, and the base areas developed rapidly.
Subsequently, during the Kuomintang's second "encirclement and suppression" of the Eyuwan base area, Zeng Zhongsheng continued to lead the military and people in the base areas to carry out the struggle against "encirclement and suppression." The Battle of Dushan annihilated more than 2,000 Kuomintang troops, the Battle of Huwan, the annihilation of nearly a thousand Kuomintang troops, the Battle of Peach Blossom, and the annihilation of nearly two battalions of the Kuomintang army. By the end of May, the second "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang army against the Eyu-Anhui base area had been smashed.
After winning two victories against "encirclement and suppression," Zeng Zhongsheng systematically summed up the experience of the Red Fourth Front's anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations and wrote such military theoretical works as "Key Points for Fighting with the Sichuan Army" and "Essentials of Guerrilla Warfare." He was praised by high-level leaders, calling him one of the founders of guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare theory. However, it was such a major founder of the Red Fourth Front, the founder of the Eyu-Anhui base area, who was killed by the wrong ideological leader on trumped-up charges, and was only 35 years old at the time of his death.
His younger brother Zeng Xisheng was transferred to Hankou in 1930 and obtained the enemy's military plan for the third "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Soviet Region. He then entered the Central Soviet Region of Jiangxi, served as the chief of the reconnaissance section of the General Headquarters of the Red Army, and became the first director of the Second Bureau; the Second Bureau under his leadership intercepted and deciphered the enemy's radio code many times, made outstanding contributions to the Victory of the Red Army in the anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations and the Long March, and was awarded the Second Class Red Star Medal by the Central Military Commission. ”
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zeng Xisheng successively served as the political commissar of the division and brigade, and during the Liberation War, he successively served as deputy chief of staff, division political commissar, deputy chief of staff of the Erye, commander and political commissar of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army, commander and political commissar of the Western Henan Military Region.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, when awarding military ranks, according to the fact that both brothers were in the fourth stage of the Whampoa Military Academy, their seniority in the Red Army and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and the meritorious achievements established, they could be awarded to generals and admirals. Unfortunately, his brother Zeng Zhongsheng died young and was rated as one of the 36 military experts of the Republic. His younger brother Zeng Xisheng transferred to local work after the founding of the People's Republic of China and served as a leading cadre at the ministerial level, and was not awarded a military rank.
Today, the rain of bullets has long gone, the smoke of gunfire has long since left, the old house in the hometown of the heroic brothers is still holding on and remembering, and countless people have come here to pay tribute to the great achievements of the two revolutionaries of the older generation.