In 1955, the ceremony of conferring military ranks was quite exciting, and soldiers took obedience to orders as their duty, and the glory they obtained as an affirmation of themselves. There was one man, and with his many exploits on the battlefield, everyone speculated that he was a proper marshal rank. However, at the ceremony of conferring military ranks, he was unexpected by everyone, only awarding the rank of general, and only ranked sixth among the ten founding generals.
This should not be what Xiao Jinguang's exploits deserved at all, but everyone did not have the slightest unhappiness on his face. On the contrary, he fully agreed with all the decisions of the Party organization.
In fact, the reason why he trusted the party and the country so much was entirely because of his trust in Chairman Mao, and it can be said that the reason why he was able to achieve such tremendous achievements was inseparable from Chairman Mao's cultivation of him. He is also a person who inherits the grace of the king, knows the grace of the king, and repays the grace of the king! Chairman Mao also knew that Xiao Jinguang's military rank was more than that, but at that time he was afraid that because he and Xiao Jinguang were too close, the awarding of the rank of marshal would cause people to gossip.
In the days that followed, Chairman Mao still reused Xiao Jinguang, and even more let him sit in the position of the first naval commander-in-chief of the founding of the Country. A country's sea power is all in the hands of Xiao Jinguang. As for why Chairman Mao liked Xiao Jinguang so much, we must start with Xiao Jinguang as a person.
1. Young heroes, Confucianism will be born
Xiao Jinguang was born in 1903 in Changsha, Hunan Province, an ordinary family, although the family is not rich, but his parents are very willing to spend money on Xiao Jinguang's education, private schools and new-style schools, you can see Xiao Jinguang's shadow. Later, Xiao Jinguang was also admitted to the local middle school with excellent results, and during this time, he received a lot of new ideas.
At the time of the May Fourth Movement in 1919, Xiao Jinguang was only 16 years old, and although he was a small man, it did not affect his great ambition to serve the country and the people. He actively participated in this anti-imperialist and anti-feudal patriotic movement, and the feeling of boiling blood made him lay the path of life from then on - a permanent revolution for the rise of China.
With this in mind, he decided to go to Shanghai to learn Russian, and then to the Red Army school in the Soviet Union to learn more advanced military knowledge and ideas. During his time in the Soviet Union, the great proletarian teacher Lenin passed away, and Xiao Jinguang, as the proletarian representative of the Eastern nations, guarded Lenin's soul.
Subsequently, Xiao Jinguang entered the Leningrad Military and Political Academy to learn more abundant military knowledge. At this time, Xiao Jinguang had made it very clear that armed revolution was the only way out to save China. With its decadent dynastic roots and eroded people's ideas, only a military revolution can give everything a chance to start over.
It is also because he has laid a very rich cultural foundation and military foundation since he was a child, so he will become a close friend with Chairman Mao, both of whom love to read and love the military, and only then will they have nothing to say and be intimate.
After he returned to China, he immediately went to the battlefield of the Fujian-Guangdong-Gansu Special Administrative Region to fight, and was a legendary figure who had just sat on the chief of staff of the Central Military Commission with his brain. Therefore, Xiao Jinguang's rank at the beginning was already lieutenant general, until 1955, when he was awarded the rank of general, everyone would feel sorry for him.
Moreover, in 1930, when Chairman Mao wanted to establish his own military school of the Red Army, the first thing that came to mind at that time was Xiao Jinguang. This year, Xiao Jinguang was only 27 years old, and he had already become the principal of the Red Army School, which can be described as a hero out of a teenager.
At this time, everyone felt that this was already the peak of Xiao Jinguang's military career, and did you know that Xiao Jinguang's life had just begun?
Second, the regiment that remains behind should not fail in its mission
In 1937, the Japanese army had already extended its hand to Shanxi, at this time it was only a line away from the Communist Party's Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area, and everyone began to panic, the base area in the rear was so important, everyone was not at ease when they were fighting guerrillas outside, and they were always afraid that the front had not yet succeeded, and the old family would first give it to the Japanese devils.
In order to solve this dilemma, Chairman Mao specially held the Luochuan Conference in northern Shaanxi. Everyone has the same purpose, never allow the Japanese to "mantis catch cicadas and sparrows behind", and think of a way to prevent any unexpected situations. After all, fighting in the front, if you lose, you will lose, you can go home and regroup and be ready to go again. But if the rear is ended, and the "Father and Elder of Jiangdong" does not even have it, then what will be taken to make a comeback again?
So everyone unanimously decided to leave a team to garrison the rear base of the Red Army, and at this time Chairman Mao could give the most troops, only three main divisions, nearly 15,000 people. Although they are all elite soldiers, they face a problem: there are many tasks.
This army not only has to undertake the important task of defending the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, but even the daily task of suppressing bandits in the border area, as well as the agricultural production and logistics tasks in the rear, all of which need to rely on this army of only 15,000 people. Chairman Mao also knew that this was a bit difficult for people, but in special periods, special arrangements could only be made. Therefore, the position of this chief general, he thought about it, could only be handed over to the most trusted person, and this person was Xiao Jinguang, who was already sitting in the position of director of the military department of the Shaanxi-Gansu Provincial CPC Committee at that time.
Chairman Mao jokingly said to Xiao Jinguang:
"My head is not there, but it depends on whether you can give it any strength!"
Xiao Jinguang dared to insult the mission and hurriedly accepted it.
This should be easy to inherit, but in the hearts of the military alone, it has already lost half. After all, this seemed to be an impossible task, so the left-behind corps all expressed their worries, and Xiao Jinguang also bravely stood up at this time, and his voice seemed magnificent:
"Soldiers! Today, the Japanese invade our great rivers and mountains, and our army is only separated from the Yellow River by a natural danger. I would like to ask you, how can this evil breath be endured? If you can't stand it, you will have to fight back with all your might! We are by no means alone, the whole of Shanxi is our armor! Today, as long as we have faith and are willing to throw away our heads, what kind of turtle can we be counted as a turtle? ”
After these words, everyone had a little bottom, after all, the Lord would be so energetic, how could the soldiers be so embarrassed to drop the chain?
So Xiao Jinguang relied on the natural dangers of the Yellow River, built many field fortifications, and began to adopt the roundabout tactics that were rarely used before, and the Japanese Kou launched a total of three attacks, all of which were beaten back by Xiao Jinguang.
At that time, the Japanese Kou had already firmly occupied the air supremacy, and did not hesitate to use poison gas bombs, which were anti-human biological and chemical weapons, resulting in heavy losses to our army. But even in the most difficult moments, Xiao Jinguang did not take a step back, he always remembered Mao Weiren's words, and he also understood that as long as he took a step back, the Red Army would no longer have the possibility of victory. It was by relying on this belief that it was possible to thwart the Japanese offensive several times.
Chairman Mao was very happy after hearing the good news, and was thinking about what would be better to reward this left-behind regiment, but he did not expect Xiao Jinguang to come first to invite a reward for the left-behind regiment. When Chairman Mao heard this, he laughed and said:
"You, you, you want to reward, and Jiang Zhong in Chongqing is going!"
After Xiao Jinguang listened to some thoughts, as soon as he left the door, he resolutely sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, and for a moment, he shocked the government and the opposition.
Third, he sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek and became the first person in the Chinese Navy
What is the reason for the Eighth Route Army to go to the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek to receive the reward? It made everyone scratch their heads, thinking that Xiao Jinguang really couldn't be a man.
In fact, this can also be regarded as a dumb puzzle between Chairman Mao and Xiao Jinguang. The remaining regiment was ordered to guard the rear of our army at the time of the first anti-communist upsurge of the Kuomintang. The diehard faction of the Kuomintang has been sending troops to attack the rear of our army, which has doubled and doubled the "workload" of the remaining regiments at once, and it is really unbearable to fight the Japanese and to beat their own people.
Xiao Jinguang's telegram is also a reminder to Chiang Kai-shek not to attempt to undermine the will and military sentiment of the united War of Resistance, not to undermine the stability of the rear of the military region, and not to let the situation expand endlessly!
Chairman Mao originally had this intention, and a small joke made Xiao Jinguang thoroughly understand. This is precisely because the two people get along very closely, are comrades-in-arms, and are confidants, and Xiao Jinguang was able to understand Chairman Mao's unspoken meaning so quickly.
It is precisely because of this that Chairman Mao especially trusts Xiao Jinguang. Later, in the Fourth Field Army, which was famous for shaking the north and south of the great river, Xiao Jinguang also became the well-deserved commander of the 1st Corps.
When he led the four fields to attack the 100,000 nationalist troops stationed in Changchun, he was even more courageous and strategic, came up with the tactic of "long siege and long siege", implemented a strategic encirclement of the Nationalist army, cut off its economy and politics, and completely trapped the 100,000 nationalist troops in changchun for 5 months, and finally could only surrender. It was also the first example of the peaceful liberation of a large city through siege on the battlefield of liberation, which has since been imitated by other defenders.
After Changchun was taken, Xiao Jinguang led the Four Wilds Regiment all the way south, and Shenyang, Beiping, Wuhan, Changsha and other places could be peacefully liberated, all because of Xiao Jinguang's strategy.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, China was faced with a situation in which there was no defense against the sea, and the power to control the sea was not at all, which made Chairman Mao worry day and night, and only wanted to quickly build up China's people's navy. And the commander-in-chief of the People's Navy, his first candidate, is still Xiao Jinguang.
It was October 1949, new China had just been founded, and Xiao Jinguang was still desperately fighting on the Battlefield of Hengbao. Suddenly, a telegram summoned him directly back to Beijing. Chairman Mao also went straight to the point and asked him directly if he had any ideas to become a naval commander.
This sentence suddenly gave Xiao Jinguang a whole baffle, after all, he was a very typical dry duck! This naval commander was naturally unblessed, but Chairman Mao listened to it with a hearty laugh, and he looked at Xiao Jinguang as a person, even if it was a dry duck, this naval commander was none other than him.
After Xiao Jinguang took over as naval commander, he built the Chinese navy almost from scratch. At that time, from equipment construction to arms construction, China had zero foundation, and even a decent warship could not be taken out. When Xiao Jinguang went to Weihai, an important naval town, he even went on a fishing boat.
However, thanks to Xiao Jinguang's efforts, the principle of army building, the theory of operations, and even the weapons and equipment of the navy were personally handled. This has allowed China's coastal defense capabilities to be continuously strengthened, and he has even been far-sighted and began to develop the Navy's cosmodrome combat capabilities. The first person in the Chinese Navy, Xiao Jinguang deserved it!
In 1989, Xiao Jinguang died of illness in Beijing, and he was the last general to die after the founding of New China. Many people will feel sorry that he only conferred the rank of great general, in fact, in his own view, as long as he can contribute to China, what rank does it matter? And all along, he has always trusted Chairman Mao very much, and of course he believes that the chairman has his own reasons for what he does, no matter what position he holds, he is as willing as he is!
Text/Lamb
Reference: "The Years of General Xiao Jinguang in Yan'an", Li Jiang