What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
General Xu Shiyou not only fought hard battles, but also had a wealth of talents under him, and several of his guards, attendants, and secretaries became generals, and even generals of the same rank as him.
However, there was only one person who became Xu Shiyou's immediate boss.
He is Chen Haisong.
Chen Haisong, a native of Li Chenwa, Dawu County, Hubei Province, was younger than Xu Shiyou and had lower revolutionary seniority than Xu Shiyou. He was born on February 13, 1914, in a family that was so poor that his mother died early and was raised by his aunt.
In the spring of 1930, Chen Haisong served as the captain of the Boy Scout Regiment, and when he saw that young people had joined the Red Army, his heart itched, and in July, he hid from his family and resolutely signed up for the Red Army. Soon after he arrived in the army, he joined the Youth League, and in the spring of the following year, he became a party member.
His first job was to serve as a service soldier for the regimental commander Xu Shiyou.
After a while, he changed to a correspondent and soon became a battalion propaganda captain.
In the autumn of 1932, on the way for the main force of the Red Fourth Front to leave Eyuwan and move to southern Shaanxi and northern Sichuan, Chen Haisong served as the instructor of the special agent company of the Red 36th Regiment. In early 1933, after the troops entered the river and hit the chin, he was transferred to the machine gun company instructor.
The commander of the machine gun company was originally a machine gun shooter of the Kuomintang army, and the machine gun shot particularly well. But he was arrogant, and several instructors could not get along with him. Chen Haisong got along well with him and learned to play machine guns from him. Since then, Chen Haisong has a special love for machine guns, and later he commanded the battle, always asking a machine gun to follow, and at the critical moment, he personally mastered the shooting.
Chen Haisong has a high consciousness and can fight.
Soon after, he was promoted to political commissar of the Red 3 Battalion. Soon, the political commissar of the Red 36 Regiment was mistakenly arrested, and he was promoted to the political commissar of the Regiment. A few days later, the director of the regiment's political office was mistakenly arrested, and under severe torture to extract a confession, someone bit Chen Haisong as a traitor, and Chen Haisong was immediately arrested.
After Chen Haisong was arrested, regimental commander Yu Tianyun ran to the division commander He Wei and said, "Chen Haisong was still a little ghost when he joined the army, and he grew up with me and has always performed very well. On the way into the river, so hard, he brought the doll soldiers of the secret service company well, what kind of traitor? Someone must have attacked him behind his back!" Why not listen. Yu Tianyun looked for the commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian again. Under Xu Xiangqian's intervention, Chen Haisong was released, but the division's political department refused to restore his party membership and was sent back to the 36th Regiment as Yu Tianyun's guard.
Soon, the Sichuan warlord Tian Songyao gathered nearly 60,000 people to attack the Red Army, and on the eve of the anti-three-way siege operation, Chen Haisong was transferred to the third battalion as the deputy battalion commander, and was ordered to lead two companies to guard and kill Niuping. Taking advantage of the topographical characteristics of the cattle killing camp, he used a small number of troops to rely on fortifications to hold the main points, and the way most of the troops attacked with cameras to resist the repeated attacks of the enemy's five regiments, fiercely fighting for three days and nights, killing and wounding more than 1,500 enemy personnel, and the position stood still. Later, in Yinglongshan and other places, several beautiful blockade battles were fought in succession. At this point, he resumed his party membership and was reinstated as the political commissar of the 36th Regiment.
After the victory of the anti-three-way siege, the Red 12 was expanded into the Red 9Th Army, and the military headquarters set up a teaching team, and Chen Haisong was transferred as the political commissar of the teaching team. After completing the task of training cadres, Chen Haisong was transferred to the political commissar of the 73rd Regiment and immediately promoted to the political commissar of the Red 25th Division.
The Red 25th Division was one of the three main divisions of the Red Fourth Front, and Xu Shiyou, deputy commander of the Red 9th Army, was also the commander of the division. In this way, Chen Haisong changed from Xu Shiyou's service soldier to Xu Shiyou's political commissar and partner.
In the Battle of Wanyuan, the Red 25th Division held on to Damian Mountain for four and a half months, causing the enemy to continuously pay a heavy price, and finally could not cross our position one step, making an important contribution to the final smashing of the Six-Way Siege.
After the victory of the anti-Six-Way Siege, the Red Fourth Front held a party and government work conference in December 1934, and the 73rd regiment and 75th regiment of the Red 25th Division were awarded the prize flags of "Attacking Like a Fierce Tiger" and "Defending Like Mount Taishan" respectively.
Shortly after the victory of the anti-Six-Way Siege, the political commissar of the Red 9 Army had passed on the work of the Sixth Route Headquarters, and Chen Haisong was promoted to military political commissar.
At this time, Xu Shiyou was also the deputy commander and commander of the 25th Division.
The Red 9 Army was 20,000 men. In the early stage of the Battle of Wanyuan, commander He Wei was injured by an enemy plane and his lower limbs were unable to move, and the burden of commanding the troops to fight fell on Chen Haisong's shoulders.
In this way, Chen Haisong became Xu Shiyou's boss in just four years from Xu Shiyou's service soldiers.
This situation continued until Xu Shiyou was promoted to the commander of the Red 9 Army.
Chen Haisong was a legendary hero, but unfortunately died heroically in the 1937 Western Expedition.
At that time, the Western Route Army was under siege at Liyuankou. The Red 9th Army was ordered to cover the main force shift. Chen Haisong personally led the remnants of the Red 9th Army to fight, and as a result, they were attacked on three sides and ran out of ammunition and food. He led the soldiers to be fearless, quickly dismantled the parts of the machine guns and rifles, brandished large knives, roared angrily, and rose up to meet the enemy, killing the enemy and stagnating.
In order to observe the situation on the battlefield, Chen Haisong took advantage of the intermittent opportunity of the enemy machine guns and climbed toward the top of the mountain. He climbed to the top of the hill, and as soon as he lifted up, the enemy's machine gun fired a salvo, and he was hit eight times in a row and fell into a pool of blood.
He was only 23 years old at the time of his death.
Xu Shiyou, who was in Yan'an, was very excited and sad to hear of Chen Haisong's sacrifice. Decades later, he made a special note for Chen Haisong in his memoirs:
"Comrade Chen Haisong (1914-March 1937), a native of Xuanhuadian, Luoshan County, Henan (now Dawu County, Hubei), was an outstanding political worker and young commander of the Red Fourth Front, and was my confidant and comrade-in-arms. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1929 and the Red Army in 1930. After enlisting in the army, I served as a civil servant, a squad leader and platoon leader in our 1st battalion, a special agent company instructor, a battalion political commissar, a regimental political office director, and a regimental political commissar in our 34th regiment. In July 1933, he was appointed political commissar of the 25th Division of the 9th Red Army. In December 1934, he was appointed political commissar of the Red 9 Army. In late October 1936, he crossed the Yellow River with the Red 9th Army and advanced towards Ganbei. In March 1937, the troops entered the Liyuankou area of Zhangye County, and Chen Haisong and his troops were heroically sacrificed when they fought with the enemy. ”