One morning in the fall of 1958, near the Army 163 Hospital on the outskirts of Changsha, a group of civilians were picking up cow dung. It is a remote place, and there are many donkeys and horses passing by, leaving a lot of dung on the road. In the crowd of people picking up dung, there was a humble middle-aged man, dressed in a hospital uniform, carrying a basket on his back, holding a shovel in his hand, and picking up dung with everyone.
The general picks up the dung
The villagers approached him and asked, "Are you a fecal collector at the hospital?" ”
The middle-aged man stopped his work and said with a smile:
I was a soldier and picked up dung in my spare time
。 ”
The villagers on the side shook their heads: "Don't say it, say that you are a soldier, it doesn't look like it at all." ”
The middle-aged man did not speak again, but only picked up the dung, and then carried a basket of dung to the nearby production team. At this time, the villagers were even more surprised, was it an anonymous person who did good deeds?
After the production team received the dung, they also thought that he was the excrement worker of the hospital, and out of gratitude, they wrote a letter of commendation and sent it to the 163 Hospital. The leader of the hospital was confused after receiving the commendation letter, and there was no excrement worker here, so he asked the production team about the situation.
The production team described the figure of the "excrement digger", and the hospital leader reacted to it, stood up hurriedly and said:
Who is the excrement worker of the hospital, it is clearly our commander He, he is the founding lieutenant general
！”
The words of the hospital leaders surprised the people present, and the founding lieutenant general picked up the dung? It was unheard of, so they asked Commander He about his origins.
As a result, the identity of this "Commander He" was revealed.
Mother and son of the old society
Join the Xiang Army and save Peng Dehuai
"Commander He", whose real name is He Dequan, is a native of Changsha, Hunan, born in 1897. He Dequan's childhood was very tragic, and he lived a life of starvation at a young age. When He Dequan was three years old, his mother suddenly died of illness, and in order to make ends meet, he had to go out with his sister to beg, and he suffered from the cold eyes of others.
When He Dequan grew up, his father did everything he could to send him to the academy to study in order to change his fate. However, this life did not last long, and three years later, my father fell seriously ill and died because he had no money to heal him.
He Dequan became a complete orphan, and his life became more and more difficult.
Just when He Dequan felt that his future was bleak, in 1914, the Xiang Army began to recruit troops, and in order to get rid of the humiliation of the landlords, He Dequan signed up to join the army and became a member of the Xiang Army. He originally thought he had jumped out of the bitter sea, but he was bullied by veterans.
Peng Dehuai in his youth
The veteran saw that he was thin and weak, so he decided to find fun in him and use his hands and feet on him. He Dequan couldn't bear it, and he pulled open his clothes, revealing the scars on his body, and asked in a sharp voice:
I was beaten at the landlord's house, and when I came to the army, was I born to be bullied?
He Dequan's words left the veterans speechless and did not dare to bully him again.
Two years later, the Xiang Army came with a new recruit, and when the next company was divided, a veteran pulled the recruit to a corner and made a gesture to slap his mouth. He Dequan, who was passing by, saw this scene and was immediately angry, and the recruit in front of him was not exactly himself at that time! He immediately stepped forward and punched the veteran. The veteran soldier saw that it was He Dequan, did not dare to say anything, and had to cover his swollen face and leave.
In order to protect the safety of this recruit, He Dequan called him to his class and greeted him warmly.
After some understanding, he knew that the recruit's name was Peng Dehuai.
In the four years of getting along day and night, he and Peng Dehuai established a deep friendship, and later the two went to Hunan Tonwutang to study together, not only comrades-in-arms but also alumni. After graduating from school, the two went their separate ways and gradually lost contact.
Peng Dehuai led his troops to fight Changsha
Meet Peng Dehuai again and join the Red Army
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup d'état, which wantonly arrested Communists and progressive masses throughout the country. One day, He Dequan, who was the company commander, was ordered to lead a platoon of soldiers to arrest the Communists. He Dequan sympathized with the Communist Party and agreed with the Communist Party's revolutionary ideas from the bottom of his heart, so when he walked to the door of the hotel, he deliberately shouted "LiZheng" and "reported the number" to the Communist Party inside. The arrest ultimately failed, and the battalion commander scolded He Dequan for believing that he had"
Communist suspicion
", dismiss him and return him to his hometown.
After leaving the Nationalist army, He Dequan searched for the Red Army several times, hoping to join the revolutionary ranks, but without success. He Dequan did not give up hope, and when he was living in seclusion in Changsha, he appointed himself a "gun collection committee member" to collect the guns of the Kuomintang's defeated soldiers, and collected more than a dozen guns before and after, preparing to hand them over to the Red Army one day.
In July 1930, the Red Army conquered Changsha in one fell swoop. When he learned that the leader of the siege force was his comrade-in-arms Peng Dehuai, He Dequan was very excited and immediately wrote a letter to Peng Dehuai, stating his wish to join the Red Army.
Peng De remembered his old feelings and appointed him as the platoon leader of the special service battalion of the Third Division of the Third Red Army.
However, He Dequan's application to join the party made Peng Dehuai difficult, He Dequan had been a soldier in the old army, had no revolutionary ideas, and the enlistment time was so short that it did not conform to the relevant regulations for joining the Communist Party.
But He Dequan was not discouraged, he returned home at the first time, took more than ten guns he had collected, and handed them to Peng Dehuai. The Red Army lacked weapons and equipment, and Peng Dehuai was very happy to see the situation, and immediately gave him a note of 100 silver dollars as a sign of encouragement.
He Dequan did not rush these silver dollars, he once again put forward the desire to join the party,
Peng was eventually moved by his actions and approved him to join the Communist Party.
General He Dequan
Although He Dequan has not been a party for a long time, he adheres to the party's norms and puts principles first. One day, regimental commander He Guangfu went to He Dequan's company to inspect the work. He found that the soldiers had been fighting for a long time, lacking nutrition, and had dishes one by one, while the special agent company had just confiscated more than a dozen cultivated cattle, but the soldiers would not eat them.
He Guangfu's face became difficult to see, and he criticized He De for being a company commander, not caring about the lives of the soldiers, and slaughtering a cow to open the meat for the soldiers. Unexpectedly, He Dequan was angry on the spot, and he angrily rebuked He Guangfu: "Commander, you don't understand the actual situation, the Political Department of the Legion has long stipulated that these cattle must be sent to the local Soviet government for unified management." ”
Seeing that He Guangfu did not back down, He Dequan slapped the table in a fit of anger: "
This is a matter of principle for the Party!
The two men fought against each other, did not give in to each other, and made trouble with Huang Kecheng, the political commissar of the division.
After Huang Kecheng learned the reason, he affirmed He Dequan's approach, and criticized him for paying attention to the attitude of his superiors, especially not patting the table. He Dequan listened to it and apologized to He Guangfu on the spot.
In August 1934, the Fifth Anti-"Encirclement and Suppression" of the Red Army entered a critical stage, and Before He Dequan's malaria had recovered, he led his troops to the front line to block the attack of the main Kuomintang forces at Gaohu'an. Faced with the unfavorable situation of weapons and equipment and numbers far inferior to the enemy, He Dequan led the soldiers to defend their positions to the death and completed the task of blocking the attack. After the war, he was awarded the title of ""
Heroic command
"Awards.
The Red Army crossed the snowy mountains
He was awarded the rank of lieutenant general
After the Red Army began the twenty-five-thousand-mile long march, He Dequan's health became worse and worse, malaria had just recovered and he suffered from severe low back pain, sometimes the pain was too painful to straighten up, and he fell farther and farther behind, so the regimental leaders had to arrange for him to work in the reconnaissance section.
When the troops arrived in Maogong, Sichuan, the head of the reconnaissance section saw that he was really weak and suggested that he stay and work in the local area. He Dequan did not agree: "
Leaving me behind would be tantamount to taking my life
。 "Insist on following the large troops forward.
In 1939, as the commander of the 115th Division's teaching brigade, He Dequan was ordered to lead his troops into Shandong and establish a base behind enemy lines. During his stay in Shandong, He Dequan successively served as the commander of the teaching brigade, the chief of staff of the Independent Brigade of the 115th Division, and the chief of staff of the 343rd Brigade, commanding many combat operations against the Japanese puppet army, and making great contributions to the development and expansion of the anti-Japanese base area in Shandong.
In 1941, in view of He Dequan's excellent performance, the organization transferred him back to Yan'an and proposed to appoint him as the director of the war room. However, on the grounds that he was older and had a low level of education, He Dequan politely rejected the organization's proposal and went to the 18th Military Station Department of the Eighth Route Army as a minister to organize and lead the logistical support work of the Military Station Department.
He Dequan in Yan'an large-scale production
In the vigorous Yan'an large-scale production movement, He Dequan personally did his own work, and every day before dawn, he braved the bone-chilling cold wind to reclaim the countryside. Not only that, but during the evening break, He Dequan would call his wife and make the worn-out clothes that could no longer be worn into cloth shoes, and then take them to the market to sell. For a long time, Yan'an was rumored to be"
Minister He sells cloth shoes
"The legend.
By the time of the autumn harvest, He Dequan was smiling happily while holding the 24 kilogram pumpkins he had planted. Chairman Mao also praised him in particular:
"Just to rush the size of this pumpkin, we must also give Comrade He Dequan a 'model worker'!"
”
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, He Dequan led his troops into the northeast and served as the commander of the Headquarters of the Eastern Manchurian Escort Army, ensuring the safety of the railway lines along the line to the greatest extent.
After the founding of New China, in view of He Dequan's physical condition, the organization put him in charge of logistics work, and successively appointed him as deputy commander of the public security forces of the Central and Southern Military Regions and deputy commanders of the Hunan Military Region.
In 1955, He Dequan was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, one of the oldest lieutenant generals.
An old farmer who picks up manure
Do not favoritism, personally bend down to pick up feces
In order to participate in the revolution, He Dequan did not return to his hometown for more than ten years, until the liberation of Hunan in 1949, He Dequan had time to go home to have a look, at this time his son He Luosheng was already a young man in his twenties. Seeing his father come home, He Luosheng was very happy, reported his learning results to his father, and said that he had spent too long in the countryside and thought of urban development. The implication is that I want my father to help arrange a job.
This is a normal thing to put in an ordinary person's home, but He Dequan elongated his face after hearing his son's thoughts and said:
"When I became a state cadre, I arranged you to be in the city, is it fair to the other children?" Besides, if there is anything bad in the countryside, it can also be done.
Although He Luosheng was not happy in his heart, he still followed his father's advice, stayed in the countryside, and really did a career, and was also rated as a local farmer model.
He De was all strict with his own sons, but he was very kind to other children. He Dequan used his own salary to sponsor 11 children to go to school, and these children were also very competitive, some were admitted to universities, some went to technical colleges, and all grew into talents available to the state. However, He Dequan himself was very frugal, never spent a penny indiscriminately, and his clothes were patched with more than a dozen patches and were reluctant to change.
In 1958, He Dequan fell ill and was hospitalized and treated at the Army 163 Hospital. He dragged the sick body and often went to the hospital to collect feces, and the villagers could always see him carrying a basket and a shovel. When the hospital leaders learned of this, they exclaimed:
The founding lieutenant general of the country actually picked up dung for people!
Mr. and Mrs. He Dequan
The Publicity Department of the hospital wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to give He Dequan an exclusive interview and call on the working people to learn from him. He Dequan waved his hand and said, "
I just picked up the dung a few times and went to the newspaper? Don't talk about me, Mr. Zhu has also picked up dung for the villagers in Yan'an, who has ever heard Mr. Zhu go to the newspaper?
He Dequan did not forget the nature of labor, planted many grains and vegetables in his own fields, took care of them himself, and harvested a lot in the autumn, and he often said to the people around him: "
I used to be a commoner, fighting for the liberation of the people of the world, and now that it is too peaceful, I am still a commoner
In 1983, General He Dequan died of illness in Beijing at the age of 86. When the family collected the relics, they found that the general was empty except for a few old clothes that could no longer be old, and he had achieved extreme diligence and thrift.
General He Dequan is in a high position, but he does not forget his original intention and devotes all his energy to the liberation of the people and the construction of the country.