Chen Xilian was only 23 years old when he was the commander of the new 385 brigade of the Eighth Route Army, and he was also the youngest brigade commander of the eighth route army at that time. This is because there were two 385 brigades in the eighth route army at that time, and when the new brigade was established, the number of the old brigade still existed, in order to distinguish, it was called the old 385 brigade and the new 385 brigade.
On August 25, 1937, the Red Army in northern Shaanxi was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, with jurisdiction over three main divisions of the 115th Division, the 120th Division, and the 129th Division, each with two brigades, of which the 385th Brigade was one of the two main brigades of the 129th Division, the brigade commander was Wang Hongkun, the deputy brigade commander Wang Weizhou, and the chief of staff was Geng Biao, which had jurisdiction over the 769th Regiment (regimental commander Chen Xilian, reorganized from the 10th Division of the Red 4th Army), and the 770 regiment (regimental commander Zhang Caiqian, reorganized from the 12th Division of the Red 4th Army). After the reorganization, the main force of the Eighth Route Army went to the anti-Japanese front, Chen Xilian led the 769th Regiment to the Shanxi battlefield, while the other units of the 385th Brigade (mainly the 770th Regiment) remained in northern Shaanxi as a rear guard.
In order to meet the needs of the war situation, in May 1938, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army decided to organize a new 385 Brigade with the 769th Regiment as the backbone, and on June 12, 1938, the new 385th Brigade was formally established, with Chen Xilian as the brigade commander, Xie Fuzhi as the political commissar, chief of staff Fan Chaoli, and director of the political department Huang Zhentang. The whole brigade has three regiments, so who are the regimental commanders?
Commander of the 769th Regiment - Wang Jinshan
After the formation of the new 385Th Brigade, Wang Jinshan served as the commander of the 769th Regiment and Bao Xianzhi as the political commissar, which was one of the main regiments of the Eighth Route Army and the core unit of the brigade.
Wang Jinshan, born in 1915 in Huang'an County (now Hong'an County), Hubei Province, joined the Red Army when he was less than 15 years old, and during the anti-Six Road Siege in the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, Wang Jinshan, then the commander of the Red 28 regiment, led his troops to fight a bloody battle, and he led a remnant regiment with more than half of the casualties to crush a brigade of Fan Shaozeng, a Sichuan army general known as the "Silly Division Commander".
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Jinshan successively served as deputy regimental commander, commander of the 769th regiment, deputy political commissar of the 385th Brigade, brigade commander of the 386th Brigade, commander of the newly organized Fourth Brigade, and deputy commander of the Guanzhong Garrison District Headquarters of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Jinsui Joint Defense Army; during the Liberation War, he successively served as deputy commander of the Taiyue Column, commander of the 6th Column of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army, deputy commander of the 3rd Corps of the Second Field Army, and commander of the 12th Army; after the founding of New China, Wang Jinshan successively served as commander of the Eastern Sichuan Military Region. Deputy Commander of the 3rd Corps of the Volunteer Army, Deputy Commander and Acting Commander of the Shandong Military Region, Deputy Commander of the Beijing Military Region, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Nanjing Military Region, etc.
In 1955, Wang Jinshan was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, the Order of August 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class, and died of illness on May 10, 1978 at the age of 63.
Wang Jinshan was a good partner of Chen Xilian, and the two were liu and Deng's beloved generals during the Liberation War, and were known as "two wild and two flowers".
The head of the Independent Regiment - Zou Guohou
In November 1937, the cavalry regiment of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army sent some battalion, company, and platoon cadres to create base areas in the areas of Zanhuang, Lincheng, and Yangyi, and established a battalion in each of these three areas.
Zou Guohou, born in 1908, a native of Huang'an County (now Hong'an County), Hubei Province, participated in the Jute Uprising in 1927 and was later incorporated into the Red Army with the rebel forces, successively serving as squad leader, platoon commander, company commander, battalion commander, deputy regimental commander, and regiment commander of the Red Army.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zou Guohou successively served as commander of the independent regiment of the 385th Brigade, deputy brigade commander of the New 7th Brigade, commander of the 6th Subdistrict of the Ji'nan Military Region, and deputy brigade commander of the New 4th Brigade; during the Liberation War, Zou Guohou successively served as commander of the 4th Sub-district of the Eyu Military Region and commander of the Nangong Military Subdistrict of the Ji'nan Military Region; after the founding of New China, Zou Guohou successively served as commander of the Xingtai Military Subdistrict of the Hebei Provincial Military Region and deputy commander of the Hebei Provincial Military Region.
In 1955, Zou Guohou was awarded the rank of major general, the Order of August 1, 2nd Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class, and died of illness on September 18, 1999 at the age of 92.
The leader of the independent detachment - Wang Naigui
The independent detachment, also known as the Wang Detachment, took the seven companies of the 769th Regiment as the basic unit and absorbed three guerrilla brigades in Hebei and Shanxi, and the detachment leader Wang Naigui was the deputy regimental commander of the former 769 regiment and the political commissar Li Dingzhuo.
Wang Naigui, born in 1905 in Jinzhai County, Anhui Province, joined the Red Army in 1929 and successively served as a company commander, deputy battalion commander, battalion commander, deputy regimental commander, regimental commander, and division commander of the Red Army.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Naigui successively served as deputy regimental commander of the 769th Regiment of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, commander of the independent detachment of the 385th Brigade, deputy brigade commander of the 385th Brigade, commander of the 8th Detachment of the EastWard Column, deputy brigade commander of the newly organized 10th Brigade, commander of the 4th Division of the Xiang'e-Gan Military Region, and deputy brigade commander of the 13th Brigade of the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army; during the Liberation War, Wang Naigui successively served as the commander of the 35th Brigade of the 12th Column of the East China Field Army, and the deputy commander of the Northeast Jiangxi Military Region; after the founding of New China, Wang Naigui successively served as commander of the Guiyang Garrison District. Deputy commander of the Guizhou Provincial Military District and other positions.
In 1955, Wang Naigui was awarded the rank of major general, the Order of August 1 of the First Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, the Liberation Medal of the First Class, and there were not many founding major generals who won three first-class medals at the same time, according to statistics, there were only 15 people. On June 6, 1991, Wang Naigui died of illness at the age of 86.
When Chen Xilian led the 769th Regiment to fight in Shanxi, the whole regiment had about 2,500 people, and less than a year later he served as the brigade commander of the 385th Brigade, with a total of more than 8,000 people in the whole brigade; although the independent regiment and the Wang detachment were newly formed units, they sent many of the original old Red Army to enrich and strengthen them; for example, Liu and Deng specially transferred more than 130 people from the 129th Division's teaching company (company commander Xiao Yongyin) to the Wang detachment, and soon the combat effectiveness of these two units was greatly improved, not much inferior to that of the 769 regiment.