After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance in 1937, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated for the second time, and the Nationalist government gave our party three divisions of the army structure, for which many Red Army generals had to be demoted to use.
The regimental level Red Army general was demoted to division, the army rank was demoted to the brigade level, and then to the lower platoon, all the Red Army generals were demoted and used, which was forced, but the demotion and use of this person was too much, and he was directly demoted to 6 levels and was appointed battalion commander.
When Chairman Mao learned of this, he also felt that it was unfair, and he said unevenly: "This is too unfair."
This person was Li Xiannian, who had been the political commissar of the Red Thirty Army.
Born in 1909 in Huang'an, Hubei Province, Li Xiannian participated in the Jute Uprising in 1927, after which he worked in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet District, and in 1929, Li Xiannian transferred to local work, successively serving as secretary of the Gaoqiao District Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Soviet Government.
During the agrarian revolution, Li Xiannian successively served as the political commissar of the Red Army Division and the political commissar of the Red 30th Army.
In May 1935, the Central Red Army received a telegram from the Red Fourth Front: We have sent a small detachment to the southwest to Jammaogong to contact you. As soon as your vanguard unit has made contact, please indicate the general direction of future action. If we ask our comrade who is the commander of the advance, we will know about it.
A small detachment sent by the Red Fourth Front was led by Li Xiannian at the time, and on June 16, Chairman Mao met Li Xiannian, then political commissar of the Red Thirty Army, in a Catholic church in Maogong, Sichuan.
This was the first time Li Xiannian had met Chairman Mao, and when he saw Li Xiannian, Chairman Mao felt very cordial, shook his hand tightly, and said: "The name is not worthy of the name, and it is true that heroes are teenagers." ”
This year, Li Xiannian was 26 years old.
Subsequently, Li Xiannian reported all the information he had learned to Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao was very satisfied and happy.
After the Central Red Army met with the large troops of the Red Fourth Front, Zhang Guotao, the leader of the Red Fourth Front, engaged in a split, and Li Xiannian followed Zhu De, Liu Bocheng, and others to resolutely struggle against Zhang Guotao.
In October 1936, the three main forces of the Red Army met the division.
The Party Central Committee decided to organize the Ningxia Campaign according to the predetermined battle plan, thus forming the Western Route Army, among which the Red Thirty Army led by Li Xiannian was among them.
In the end, the Western Route Army was almost completely destroyed, and only Li Xiannian returned to northern Shaanxi with a few people.
In November 1937, Chairman Mao received Li Xiannian and other leaders of the Western Route Army, and Chairman Mao pointed out: The Western Route Army has failed, but the vast number of cadres and fighters of the Western Route Army are heroic and tenacious. They had no food to eat, no water to drink, no cotton clothes, no medicine, no bullets, but they insisted on fighting with large knives and spears against the enemy, and their sacrificial spirit was invaluable.
Chairman Mao also encouraged Li Xiannian: When the Western Route Army fought to the end, you led a part of the comrades to reach Xinjiang against all odds, and this kind of firm behavior could not be done by any army except the Red Army led by the Communists.
Chairman Mao highly praised Li Xiannian, saying that he was a general who did not get off his horse.
Soon, under Chairman Mao's arrangement, Li Xiannian went to the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.
After the Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Tan Zheng, then director of the Rear Political Department of the Red Army, found Li Xiannian and prepared to arrange for him to be the battalion commander of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army.
From the 6th rank of the military political commissar company to the battalion commander, such a gap is unbearable for many people, but Li Xiannian accepted it calmly.
When Chairman Mao later heard about this, he fought for Li Xiannian, and soon after, his superiors appointed Li Xiannian to go to the detachment of the New Fourth Army as chief of staff.
In 1939, Li Xiannian took more than 100 people to the Yu'e Border Region to organize guerrilla warfare, and this unit was later reorganized into the Yu'e Independent Guerrilla Detachment of the New Fourth Army, with him as commander.
After the Anhui Incident in 1941, Li Xiannian's troops were reorganized into the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army, and he served as the division commander.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Xiannian led his troops to fight many battles and destroyed many Japanese puppet armies, and after the victory of the War of Resistance in 1945, the Party Central Committee established the Central Plains Military Region, and Li Xiannian was appointed commander.
In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek's troops of more than 20 divisions attempted to eliminate our Central Plains Liberated Areas, And Li Xiannian and Political Commissar Zheng Weisan unified command of the Central Plains Breakthrough, and Chairman Mao was very concerned about the Central Plains Liberated Areas, and he sent a telegram to Li Xiannian: Don't have any worries, survival comes first, victory comes first. In the future, everything is up to you to decide, do not ask for instructions, so as not to delay the timing.
Under the command of Li Xiannian, the Central Plains Liberation Army broke through the enemy's heavy encirclement and successfully completed the strategic transfer task.
Not only that, the Central Plains People's Liberation Army also pinned down a large number of Kuomintang troops in the Central Plains, thus strategically and effectively supporting the operations of other liberated area troops throughout the country.
Chairman Mao spoke highly of the breakthrough in the Central Plains: "In the past three months, our Central Plains Liberation Army has overcome hardships and hardships with unparalleled perseverance, and with the exception of some of them transferred to the old liberated areas, the main force has created two guerrilla base areas in the southern Shaanxi and western Hubei regions. In addition, there were troops in eastern and central Hubei who insisted on guerrilla warfare. All this greatly assisted the old Liberated Areas in combat and played a greater role in future protracted wars. ”
During the Liberation War, Li Xiannian successively served as the second deputy secretary of the Central Plains Bureau and the deputy commander of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army.
In May 1949, Li Xiannian was appointed secretary of the Hubei Provincial Cpc Committee, chairman of the provincial government, commander and political commissar of the provincial military district, and presided over the party, government and army work in Hubei.
In 1954, the central authorities urgently needed to transfer a number of young and energetic leading cadres with the ability to manage economic and financial work to the central authorities to take up leading posts.
Li Xiannian was selected, and he became the minister of finance and the second office in charge of the Finance Commission, mainly responsible for leading the work of finance, banking, commerce, foreign trade, prices and other departments.
During this term of office, Li Xiannian's ability was highly praised by Chairman Mao, who called him the "four famous dans" of China's economic work with Chen Yun, Bo Yibo, and Deng Xiaoping.
Later, chairman Mao said in a conversation with foreign guests: "At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, we were very short of economic management personnel, so we had to seize a large number of soldiers to manage the money. As it turns out, there is nothing wrong with us doing this. Our comrade Li Xiannian managed China's renminbi and all kinds of money very well! ”
Li Xiannian was in charge of finance and trade work at the State Council for 22 years.
In 1982, Li Xiannian was elected to the Politburo Standing Committee and became a member of the Zhengguo level, and he successively served as president of the People's Republic of China and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
In 1992, Li Xiannian completed his legendary life at the age of 83.