In 1955, Zhuang Tian, the former deputy commander of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps, was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and he was also the highest-ranking founding general of the Qiongya Column. In the same year, he was awarded the Order of August 1 of the Second Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class.
Figure General Shoda
At the same time, Feng Baiju, who was the former commander of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps and later the commander and political commissar of the Qiongya Column, was only awarded the first-class August 1st Medal, the First-Class Independence Freedom Medal, and the First-Class Liberation Medal, and was not awarded a military rank.
And for the entire Qiongya Column,
When the rank was awarded in 1955, there was only one lieutenant general and one major general, until 1964, when two more major generals were promoted from the rank of colonel
In this way, the Qiongya Column has a total of 4 founding generals.
From September 23, 1927, when the first shots of the qiongqiang armed general uprising were fired, until the liberation of Hainan Island in 1950, the Qiongya column persisted for 23 years under extremely harsh conditions, becoming one of the only two red flags in China that did not fall (the other was the red flag erected by Liu Zhidan in northern Shaanxi).
When it comes to the merits of the Qiongya Column, one thing is enough to prove that at the founding ceremony, they were still wearing the uniforms of the Red Army more than a decade ago.
As everyone knows, the Red Army at this time has already experienced the process of the Eighth Route Army or the New Fourth Army and then the People's Liberation Army, and the Qiongya Column on Hainan Island is still wearing the uniforms of the Red Army period, which is enough to explain their merits.
So, why did the Qiongya Column, which had such merits, only produce one lieutenant general when it was awarded the title in 1955? There are two reasons for this:
For 23 years, he has always persisted in the struggle in Hainan Island and has not formed a great influence.
The Qiongya Column was reorganized in October 1947 by the Independent Column of the Qiongya Guerrilla Brigade in Guangdong Province, and its predecessor was the Qiongya Rebellion Revolutionary Army established in July 1927.
It was founded even earlier than the Nanchang Uprising.
On September 23, 1927, the Battle of Coconut Village began, which also marked the first shot of the total armed rebellion of the whole Qiong. The time of its armed insurrection
It was only a dozen days later than the autumn harvest uprising led by Chairman Mao.
In February 1928, the Qiongya Rebel Revolutionary Army was renamed the Qiongya Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and from then on, the spark of the Red Army began to spread on Hainan Island until the liberation of Hainan Island in 1950.
However, from its establishment in 1927 to the liberation of Hainan Island in 1950, the scope of the Qiongya Column's struggle has always been on Hainan Island, which is indeed a little less influential than the various armies of the Red Army.
Figure Qiongya Column
First of all
In terms of size, all aspects of the Red Army were very well armed in their heyday, such as:
The Red Army had about 80,000 troops at its peak;
The Red Second Front had about 20,000 troops at its peak;
The Red Fourth Front also had nearly 80,000 troops at its peak.
At this time, the qiongya column had only about 1,000 troops.
secondly
After the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the main force of the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, while the three fronts under the red army were reorganized into the 115th Division, the 120th Division, and the 119th Division, each division under the jurisdiction of three brigades, each brigade under the jurisdiction of several regiments, each division with tens of thousands of troops.
The Qiongya Column on Hainan Island was also reorganized on December 5, 1938, from the Qiongya Red Army Guerrilla Group to the Guangdong Provincial People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Regiment 14th District Independent Brigade, a total of about 300 people, divided into 3 squadrons, each squadron of about 100 people, until 1939, it was re-developed to about 1,000 people.
third
In the later period of the Liberation War, the strength of each of the four major field armies of the People's Liberation Army has grown to hundreds of thousands, and the Fourth Field Army has grown to about 1.5 million people.
The Qiongya Column did not grow to about 25,000 men until 1950.
In summary, on
Taking the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression as an example, the Qiongya Column was basically similar to the strength of a regiment of the Eighth Route Army at that time.
From the process of appraisal of titles in 1955, it can also be seen that there were 24 regiment-level cadres who participated in the awarding of titles at the time of the establishment of the Eighth Route Army at that time, and 21 people participated in the awarding of titles.
The fact that 7 people were awarded the rank of general, 11 were lieutenant generals and 3 major generals showed that most of the regimental cadres, except for a few others, were awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
Therefore, it can be seen from the situation when the title was awarded in 1955 that the award of the title of the Qiongya Column was basically considered according to the award of the title of the regimental cadres during the Eighth Route Army period.
In the end, only one person received the rank of lieutenant general, which was determined by the merits of each person.
Feng Baiju, commander and political commissar of the Qiongya Column, transferred to the local work and lost the opportunity to confer titles.
Feng Baiju was the founder of the Qiongya Revolutionary Armed Forces and Base Area, he was the commander and political commissar of the Qiongya Column, and was praised by Comrade Zhou Enlai as "a banner of the Qiongya people". Under his leadership, the military and people of Hainan have insisted that the red flag of the revolutionary war for 23 years will not fall, which can be described as outstanding achievements.
In July 1950, after the establishment of the Hainan Military Region, Feng Baiju served as the commander and political commissar of the military region.
According to Feng Baiju's merits, he could have been awarded the rank of lieutenant general or even above, but in the end he was not awarded the rank, because as early as 1951, Feng Baiju had basically transferred to local work, and by 1954, he was already the vice governor of Guangdong Province and had left the army.
When he was awarded the rank in 1955, Feng Baiju was not awarded a military rank, but was awarded the Order of August 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class.
Although he was not awarded a military rank, these three heavy medals were enough to prove his merits.
Figure Feng Baiju
Rank does not mean everything, although there are not many generals out of the Qiongya Column, but this does not mean that the merits of the Qiongya Column are not outstanding.
They left an extremely rare spark for the Chinese revolution on Hainan Island, and with tenacious perseverance and fighting spirit, they stood firm under heavy siege.
Let the spark of the stars on Hainan Island eventually become a burning trend.
In the War of Liberation, they stubbornly struggled against the Kuomintang reactionaries and laid a solid foundation for the liberation of Hainan Island.
In the war to liberate Hainan Island, they made a strong and positive cooperation, so that Hainan Island was quickly liberated.
Being able to persist in the struggle for 23 years in an extremely harsh environment is worthy of admiration by future generations for its merits.