In 1955, thousands of people were awarded the rank of general and above, and the Central Military Commission issued three kinds of medals, namely the August 1st Medal, the Independence Freedom Medal, and the Liberation Medal.
Being able to become a founding general does not necessarily mean that the person can get three medals at the same time, and if someone gets three medals, it does not mean that the person can get three first-class medals at the same time.
From this, we can see that it is very difficult to get three medals, and all of them are first-class people.
Of the thousands of generals and marshals, only 144 received the honor, including 10 marshals, 10 generals, and 47 generals, 59 lieutenant generals and 15 major generals.
The criteria for awarding the August 1st Medal of the First Class are: cadres at or above the division level during the Period of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, of course, this also includes the "division level" level.
The criteria for awarding the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class are: cadres of brigade rank and equivalent to brigade level when the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army; cadres at the detachment level and equivalent to the detachment level and above when the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was reorganized into the New Fourth Army; and cadres at the column level and the new Fourth Army division level and above in the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and in the anti-Japanese guerrilla unit led by the Communist Party of China before September 2, 1945.
The criteria for awarding the Liberation Medal of the First Class are: cadres at or above the military level and their equivalents during the Liberation War and personnel who directly led the former Kuomintang army in an uprising of more than one whole army.
The protagonist we are going to talk about today is one of the founding major generals who won three first-class medals, which can be described as a rare talent.
His name was He Qingji, and he was one of the 9 one-eyed generals in the whole army.
He Qingji was born in 1909, he Qingji joined the Communist Youth League in 1927, became a party member a year later, and in 1932, he officially joined the Red Army and served as a clerk in the Red Eighth Army.
Don't look at He Qingji's late entry into the army, but the beginning of the war is not ambiguous at all, in 1934, because of his bravery in battle and his many achievements, he was promoted to the commander of the first battalion of the Fifty-first Regiment of the Red Second Army.
When the Red 26th Army fought fiercely with the enemy in Hubei, He Qingji personally led the platoon above the commando team and captured the enemy division commander Zhang Zhenhan alive in one fell swoop.
Wang Zhen, who was then the political commissar of the Red Sixth Army, was very satisfied with He Qingji and praised him for fighting bravely and fiercely, and he would lay down wherever he wanted.
In July 1935, He Qingji was promoted to regimental commander, even if he became a middle and senior cadre of the Red Army, but whenever there was a war, He Qingji was not afraid at all, still fought bravely and fiercely, and did not hesitate to destroy the enemy.
In February 1936, Wu Zhengqing, commander of the Red Seventeenth Division, was killed, and He Qingji was promoted to chief of staff, and four months later, the Red Sixth Army formed a model division in Ganzi, and the commander of the Seventeenth Division, Liu Zhuanlian, was transferred, and He Qingji was promoted to division commander.
He Qingji was promoted from battalion commander to division commander in only one year.
However, He Qingji also had a sad place, after he became the commander of the division, two political commissars who were paired with him defected one after another, one named Le Shanglian, who was he Qingji's regimental political commissar, and in August 1935, Le Shanglian escaped with public funds.
Later, after he was promoted to division commander, Tang Xiangfeng, the political commissar of the division, defected to the Northeast Army.
For this kind of thing, He Qingji could only admit that he was unlucky, and Wang Zhen comforted him: "This is their personal problem, and it has nothing to do with you; it is not that there is any problem with our political commissar team, am I not a political commissar?" ”
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, He Qingji was appointed commander of the 719th Regiment of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division, and his superior brigade commander at that time was Wang Zhen.
In October 1938, He Qingji led the 719th Regiment to fight a beautiful ambush battle in Shaojiazhuang, in which our army killed more than 300 Japanese troops, captured more than 100 long and short guns, 7 light and heavy machine guns, 4 grenadiers, more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition, and a large number of military blankets, cans and other materials.
The headquarters of the Eighth Route Army commended the battle, and later, this ambush battle was also recorded in military history, and experts gave it a high evaluation, calling the ambush battle a textbook of actual combat.
In 1945, the superiors originally wanted He Qingji to go south, but in August, the central government made a combat policy of "developing to the north and defending to the south", because He Qingji led the department to turn around and seize the northeast.
After coming to the northeast, He Qingji was appointed as the second deputy commander and chief of staff of the Jilin Military Region.
In April 1946, the Northeast People's Liberation Army attacked Changchun, He Qingji was injured by a shell during the battle, lost his left eye, and after recovering from his wounds, he was appointed deputy brigade commander of the 359th Brigade, and later the unit was reorganized into the Only Division of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army, and he served as the deputy division commander.
During the battle in the northeast, He Qingji successively participated in the "Three Lower Jiangnan" and other battles.
In 1948, the unit was reorganized into the 28th Division of the Tenth Column, with He Qingji as the commander of the division, and during the Liaoshen Campaign, He Qingji's Tenth Column was ordered to block the westward advance of the Liao Corps on the front line of Black Mountain and Dahu Mountain.
The 28th Division was placed at the forefront of the battle, he Qingji had no fear, and before the battle began on October 23, Liang Xingchu, who was the commander of the column, announced a telegram from Lin Biao of the East Field Command: As long as you hold the Black Mountain for three days, the enemy fleeing west will be completely annihilated.
After the battle began, He Qingji calmly planned the defense plan of the command team, built a joint work, and strictly prevented the enemy from attacking; the enemy attached great importance to Montenegro and often organized heavy firepower attacks.
Lin Biao counted, and in the early morning of the 26th, he once again sent a power to the ten columns: the main force of the eastward advance had arrived, the enemy had retreated to the east, and it was hoped that the main force would coordinate the action and throw itself into pursuit from the front of montenegro.
The Battle of Montenegro became a very important battle during the Liberation War, in which the 28th Division led by He Qingji made great contributions.
When Dongye waved the division south, according to the orders of the Central Military Commission, the troops were reorganized into the Fourth Field Army, the Tenth Column was also reorganized into the 47th Army, the 28th Division was reorganized into the 139th Division, and then, after the liberation of He Qingji's troops, Yichang was liberated, and in September 1949, he was appointed deputy commander and chief of staff of the Jiangxi Military Region.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Qingji successively served as commander of the Liaoning Provincial Military Region.
When he was awarded the title in 1955, He Qingji was awarded the rank of major general and won three first-class medals, and the old leader Wang Zhen complained about him after learning about it, and Wang Zhen said that he should at least be awarded lieutenant general.
He Qingji was not impressed by this, he said: "Thinking about those comrades who died in Montenegro, I am already very good, have they ever thought of being a general?" I didn't dare to dream of eating watercress sauce! ”
On November 12, 1998, Shenyang was originally a clear sky, but suddenly the clouds were thick.
On this day, the general died of illness at the age of 89.