In September 1937, the Red Army was reorganized, and the Nationalist government also awarded senior generals the rank of general, commander-in-chief Zhu De, and two of the nine lieutenant generals were very surprising.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red Army was renamed the Eighth Route Army (August 22, 1937) and soon renamed the Eighteenth Army (September 11, 1937). Both the route army and the group army are one level higher than the army, usually commanding 2 or 3 corps.
According to the military rank system of the Republic of China, there is only one special general Chiang Kai-shek, and the award of first-class generals and second-level generals is also very strict, and it is not only necessary to reach a certain military post, but also to reach a certain number of years of seniority. Zhang Zizhong, a famous general of the Anti-Japanese War, served as the commander-in-chief of the Thirty-third Army, and was a lieutenant general with the rank of general, and was promoted to a second-class general after his death. Du Yuming, Hu Zongnan, Guan Linzheng, and Wang Yaowu were promoted to high positions such as commander of the group army and commander of the theater during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and they were all lieutenant generals with the rank of general. After the reorganization in September, the Nationalist government awarded the ranks of generals to our army accordingly, a total of 1 general, 9 lieutenant generals, and 19 major generals. Judging from the ranks awarded, the generals of our army are not low.
Zhu De, who held the rank of general commander-in-chief, served as deputy commander of the Second Theater of Operations, and was a lieutenant general in the Republic of China in 1926, with no problems in terms of seniority and position. Among the nine lieutenant generals, Zhou Enlai concurrently served as deputy director of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government; Peng Dehuai, Ye Jianying, He Long, Liu Bocheng, Lin Biao, and Xiao Ke were respectively deputy commanders-in-chief, chiefs of staff, and chief and deputy division commanders. There are also two mid-lieutenant generals who are surprisingly chosen.
1. Guo Moruo
Born in 1892, a native of Leshan, Sichuan.
In March 1926, he taught at Guangdong University and became acquainted with the early leaders of the party. During the Northern Expedition, he served as deputy director of the General Political Department of the Northern Expeditionary Army, with the rank of lieutenant general. After the Nanchang Uprising, he was a member of the leading committee and director of the General Political Department. On the way south to Ruijin, the rebel forces, with Zhou Enlai and Li Yihu as the introducers, joined the Chinese Communist Party together with He Long.
After that, he was strictly wanted by Chiang Kai-shek, and under the arrangement of the party organization, he went to Japan at the end of February 1928 and began a nearly ten-year exile. During his ten years in Japan, he devoted himself to the study of ancient Chinese social history, as well as the study of oracle bones and Yin Zhou bronze inscriptions. After the Xi'an Incident, Chen Yi, Shao Lizi, Zhang Qun, He Lian, Chen Brei, and others continued to "make suggestions" to chiang kai-shek, and Chiang Kai-shek finally canceled the arrest warrant. On July 25, 1937, he resolutely left his Japanese wife Anna and his five children, left Japan, and returned to Shanghai three days later. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as the director of the Third Department of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government, during which he organized the huge Wuhan Anti-Japanese War Cultural Movement, and launched songs, dramas, movies and other circles to publicize the War of Resistance.
2. Father Xuanxia
Born in 1899, a native of Zhejiang. The eccentrics of the first phase of Huangpu opposed Chiang Kai-shek's appointment of party group leaders of various detachments as soon as they entered school, adhered to the truth, and did not hesitate to withdraw from school.
Since then, on the recommendation of Li Dazhao, he has been engaged in military movement work for a long time. He worked in Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army for more than ten years, and became friends with Sun Liangcheng, Ji Hongchang, Fang Zhenwu, Liang Guanying and other high-level officers, and also had many contacts with various ethnic groups from all walks of life in the northwest region. He joined the Left League and made many contributions, publishing books and publications for the Left League.
He also participated in the anti-Japanese allied army established by Feng Yuxiang, and extensively contacted the old departments of the Northwest Army to carry out anti-Japanese activities. After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as the General Counselor of the Eighteenth Group Army, mainly in the office of the Eighth Route Army in Xi'an, engaged in united front work. In 1938, he was assassinated by secret agents.
Of the 19 major generals, except for Nie Rongzhen and Xu Xiangqian, who were deputy division commanders, the rest were brigade-level cadres of the Eighth Route Army, and the specific list is as follows:
Chen Bojun, Chen Guang, Chen Geng, Chen Xilian, Huang Kecheng, Lu Dongsheng, Ni Zhiliang, Nie Rongzhen, Peng Shaohui, Wang Zhen, Wang Hongkun, Wang Weizhou, Xu Xiangqian, Xu Haidong, Zhang Zongxun, Zuo Quan, Zhou Kun, Zhou Shidi, Zhou Jianping.
Below the regimental level, military ranks are also formulated according to the position. General Zhang Zhenzhong (promoted to general in 1988) recalled that he was serving as a staff officer at the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and the ranks and emblems of the Kuomintang army needed to be bought on the street and reimbursed back. At that time, everyone did not know how to wear the rank, and asked the shop owner.
In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army implemented a military rank system, mainly for the purpose of connecting with the Nationalist army and facilitating work. In the spring of 1938, the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government held a joint meeting of chiefs of staff and directors of the Political Department at and above the division level in Wuhan, and the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army sent Peng Xuefeng, Zhou Kun and 8 other people to attend the meeting, wearing the corresponding ranks of major general and colonel.
In addition, wearing military ranks also facilitates transportation in the Guotong District. For example, when Liu Shaoqi and Xu Haidong were sent to the New Fourth Army, Xu Haidong, the commander of the 344th Brigade, was wearing the uniform of a major general, and Liu Shaoqi disguised himself as his secretary and successfully passed the interrogation of the gendarmes of the Nationalist government. General Wu Xiuquan recalled that the Lanzhou office of the Eighth Route Army received comrades who had returned from the Soviet Union, gave them the uniforms and symbols of the Eighth Route Army, and gave them appropriate ranks and official positions, generally ranging from second lieutenant to major. These comrades wore military uniforms and military ranks, and it was more convenient to go to northern Shaanxi.
However, the Eighth Route Army was reorganized and wore a military rank. In December 1937, Chairman Mao said at the Kang Da: "The Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, nominally under the unified command of Chiang Kai-shek, but in fact it is still under the leadership and command of the Party Central Committee. Now there are some people who have been awarded by the Kuomintang to lieutenant colonels and colonels, and they are a little overwhelmed and fluttering. These people, if they don't ring the alarm bell on him early, will make mistakes..."
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the military rank and hat badge were not implemented for a long time. On the battlefield, wearing a military rank is easy to become a target for Japanese sniping, so the Generals of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party do not wear it on the front line. Later, only a small number of Eighth Route Army or New Fourth Army army that dealt with the Nationalist Army wore it, and the ranks were abolished within our army.