What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Who are the ethnic minority generals in the New Fourth Army?
Many people will be the first to say: Luo Binghui! Luo Binghui served as the commander and deputy commander of the 2nd Division of the New Fourth Army. Because he was born in Yiliang County, Yunnan Province, and the movie "From Slave to General" is based on him, most people think he is Yi.
In fact, Luo Binghui is Han Chinese.
His ancestors migrated from Hunan to Sichuan and then to Yunnan, and were Han Chinese.
There are many ethnic minority generals in the New Fourth Army. Among them, the largest number of them were the Zhuang people, including Wei Guoqing, deputy commander of the 4th Division, Qin Jian, commander of the Huai Naval Region and brigade commander of the Independent Brigade, and Qin Shimian, Zhu Heyun, Zhao Binyu, Liu Zhenying, and Zhou Feng, who served as regimental-level cadres. Wei Guoqing, Qin Jian, and Qin Shimian were from Donglan County, Guangxi, and Zhu Heyun, Zhao Binyu, and Liu Zhenying were from Tiandong County, Guangxi, and were all participants in the Baise Uprising.
They were all old Red Army soldiers who participated in the Baise Uprising.
A native of Luzhai County, Guangxi Province, Monday Feng participated in the party-led student movement while studying at Fudan University in Shanghai, went to northern Jiangsu to engage in underground work during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and led the Kuomintang troops he had won into the New Fourth Army during the famous Battle of Huangqiao, and later served as the regimental political commissar.
There were also two Tujia generals in the New Fourth Army, one was Liao Hansheng and the other was Peng Fei. In February 1945, the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army decided to establish the Base Area of Northern Hunan and Western Hubei on the basis of the Honghu Anti-Japanese Base Area. He Bingyan and Liao Hansheng, who were from the Honghu Red Guards, went south from Yan'an and were sent back to Honghu to serve as commanders and political commissars of the 3rd (Xiangnan) Military Subdistrict, respectively.
At the beginning of 1941, Peng Fei's Suluyu Detachment of the Eighth Route Army was reorganized into the 7th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army, and he successively served as the chief of the brigade's operations section, the commander of the seaside detachment, and the commander of the 20th regiment.
The New Fourth Army also had a Hui general, Liu Ruifang, who was promoted to major general in 1964. A native of Tianjin, he went to the guerrilla detachment of the New Fourth Army in 1938 and successively served as a company political instructor, a battalion political instructor, and a regimental political commissar. After 1939, the guerrilla detachment was expanded into the 6th Detachment and the 4th Division, and Liu Ruifang remained in this unit until the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
There are also Tibetan cadres in the New Fourth Army, named Yang Dongsheng. He joined the Red Army in 1935 when the Long March passed through Aba, and after the beginning of the All-Out War of Resistance, he was transferred to the New Fourth Army, serving as a youth officer, political instructor and radio captain in the 6th and 4th Divisions. In July 1950, he transferred to the local work and became a provincial leader, and in 1955 he was not awarded a title.
From the place of origin of the cadres of the New Fourth Army, it is speculated that there may also be Miao, Yao, Yi, Manchu and Korean.
However, among the ethnic minority generals in the New Fourth Army, the most famous was Su Yu. But for a long time, even Su Yu himself did not know that he was a Dong ethnic group.
Because his hometown of Huitong County, Hunan Province, is a multi-ethnic mixed area, in the old society, some ethnic minorities often deliberately concealed their ethnic affiliation in order to avoid ethnic contradictions. Li Yu left home as a teenager and always thought he was Han Chinese. After the founding of New China, the people's government conducted a long-term investigation into the ethnic attributes of the masses in western Hunan and finally ascertained that the ancestors of the Su surname in Huitong County were the Dong people who had moved to Tuantou Township of Huitong Dong Autonomous County. In January 1986, the Huitong County People's Government approved the restoration of all descendants of the Su surname to the Dong ethnic group. On July 19, 1989, the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army officially changed Su Yu to Dong ethnic group based on this situation.
At this time, Su Yu had been dead for more than five years.