Since ancient times, China's imperial power did not go to the countryside, the ruling organs only went to the county level, and then implemented autonomy, and the township gentry were responsible for collecting grain taxes and maintaining basic social order, which doomed the vast number of remote rural areas and mountainous areas to be in a de facto unmanaged state.
Due to the continuous wars, disasters, and oppression by the government and large households, many people occupy the mountains and do the business of robbing their families and houses, and they are called bandits. When the whole country was first liberated, bandits in the western Hunan region had a history of thousands of years and had not been broken since the Song Dynasty.
Western Hunan is full of mountains, traffic is blocked, Miao and Han are mixed, the people's customs are simple and tough, coupled with the small amount of arable land and a large population, there are many people who go up the mountain as bandits. Successive official governments have both suppressed and recruited bandits, but bandits have become a good way out, so they have been repeatedly forbidden.
When the Kuomintang was defeated and retreated, it co-opted a large number of bandits in western Hunan and made a wish to let them find trouble for the people's government and cooperate with future counter-offensives. The Kuomintang also conducted guerrilla training classes with great care, and the textbook was actually "On Protracted War."
Suddenly, all over western Hunan were division commanders, brigade commanders, and commanders, and bandits of all walks of life were transformed into party-state cadres. The Kuomintang sent a number of agents to help them train their troops and maintain contact with Taiwan, looking forward to one day cooperating with each other.
When Xiangxi was just liberated, the investigation found that the total number of bandits was more than 100,000, distributed in various townships and towns, and some bandits disguised themselves as squires or local Kuomintang troops, deceived the people's government, and secretly obstructed the establishment of grass-roots political power.
When the Siye army passed through western Hunan and marched to Liangguang, the bandits saw that the PLA soldiers were strong and strong and did not dare to make a mistake, and when only a small number of remaining troops were left, and when the people's governments at all levels began to form, the bandits began to stir and constantly launch small-scale attacks.
When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the Kuomintang told the bandits that they were about to counterattack the mainland, and asked them to create a momentum to cooperate with the action. Bandits of all stripes suddenly attacked everywhere, attacking the people's government and killing the People's Liberation Army, clamoring to retake western Hunan Province. In the weakly defended county town, it was attacked by bandits, losing some personnel and materials, and further fueling the arrogance of bandits.
In February 1951, the 47th Army issued an order to suppress bandits and began to comprehensively suppress bandits in western Hunan Province. In the face of the well-equipped field troops, the bandits were not opponents at all, and they could not even walk down one by one, and they were defeated and retreated.
The bandits used their ancestral skills to go into the mountains and forests to fight a guerrilla war, believing that their ancestors had not been suppressed by the government for generations, and the Communist Party could not do anything about them. Unfortunately, "On the Long War of Poetry" was written by Mao Zedong of the Communist Party, and the People's Liberation Army was a master of guerrilla warfare.
While cooperating with governments at all levels to mobilize the masses and fight local tyrants to divide the land, the 47th Army formed a capable detachment and went deep into the lofty mountains and mountains to pursue and annihilate the bandits. These squads were better able to endure hardships and fight than the U.S. special forces, chasing the bandits to the sky without a way, without a door, with fewer and fewer people, and finally being caught and killed one by one.
The people's government preached to the masses that the first evil must be dealt with, and the threat should never be asked, so that the families of the bandits would persuade their men to take the initiative to surrender, and the government would not blame them in the past. Many bandits were originally peasants who could not survive or were coerced by the bandit leaders, and in the face of a powerful political and military offensive, most of the bandits chose to abandon the dark and turn to the light.
The people's government has also formed tens of thousands of militias, forming an airtight web, leaving the bandits with nowhere to escape, and as soon as they appear, they are discovered by the masses and the militia, and one by one they are captured. A few bandits actually hid until the late fifties, but they were already alone, cultivating their own land and growing vegetables, which was no different from ordinary farmers.
After more than a year of fighting against bandits, all the bandits in western Hunan province that have been plagued for thousands of years have been eliminated, and a miracle on earth has been created again. In the 1980s and 1990s, China filmed many film and television dramas in this regard, which vividly reflected the arduousness and great achievements of the fight against bandits.
The period of suppression of bandits coincided with the Korean War, and after the 47th Army completed its task of suppressing bandits, it was ordered to transfer north to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Many of the Xiangxi Hanzi who had served as bandits were incorporated into the 47th Army or formed supplementary regiments to support other volunteer troops.
These Xiangxi Hanzi had certain military qualities, good physical fitness, some were quite powerful, and they were fierce in nature, and after political mobilization and training, they could soon become excellent volunteer soldiers.
Many of them had blood debts in their hands, but as long as they surrendered to the people's government, they were treated leniently and given land and agricultural tools, so that their whole family could live a worry-free life. Therefore, when the people's government mobilized them to join the army, they were very active and expressed their willingness to make meritorious atonement for their sins and wash away the shame they had once been.
Jin Zhenbiao, a first-class meritorious hero of the Volunteer Army and a second-class combat hero, is a Xiangxi Hanzi with a background of banditry, good marksmanship, and cleverness, and there is no hesitation when mobilizing him to join the army. If you can make a battle achievement, you and your whole family can raise your eyebrows in your hometown without having to carry the burden of being a bandit.
When he arrived in North Korea, Jin Zhenbiao found that this was a war that could not even be imagined before, the US planes hovered in the sky all the time and dropped bombs, the enemy's artillery and tanks desperately fired, and human life was as fragile as an ant, which could be trampled to death at any time.
The Communists in the company always rushed to the front, and they never flinched in the face of death. The fierceness in Jin Zhenbiao's bones was aroused, people are a man, and I am not a breed. Never retreated in every battle, killing an unknown number of enemies.
In the 1953 Battle of Shangpu Defense dongshan, Jin Zhenbiao's company repeatedly fought with the enemy, changing positions five times, and finally did not take it. In order to cover his comrades-in-arms, Jin Zhenbiao insisted on blocking the enemy who attacked, injured his right leg, and was burned by a flamethrower, and passed out and fell into the pile of dead people, so that he was not discovered by the enemy.
After retaking the position, the comrades-in-arms found that Jin Zhenbiao was still alive, and quickly carried him back to the rear hospital, and finally picked up a life. The Xiangxi Hanzi did not disgrace the people of their hometown and performed very heroically on the battlefield.
Cao Lihuai, the former commander of the 47th Army, later wrote a personal account of the bandits in western Hunan Province, specifically mentioning the contributions of these former bandits in western Hunan on the Korean battlefield, most of whom died for the country, and they were worthy of their fathers and elders in their hometown and worthy of the country. The prototype of Jin Biao, the hero of Mr. Lao She's "Nameless Highlands Are Famous", is Jin Zhenbiao
After Returning from His Injuries, Jin Zhenbiao was promoted to the Party because of his outstanding military achievements. After the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Jin Zhenbiao returned to China with full of glory, and the 100,000 people in Dandong welcomed him, and soon Jin Zhenbiao was transferred to the Guilin Infantry School as an instructor. However, the world is uncertain, and all the glory of Jin Zhenbiao is ruined by a false letter of denunciation.
One year, Jin Zhenbiao returned to his hometown to visit his relatives, and under the supervision of his father, he married a woman from the same village. Shortly after Jin Zhenbiao's marriage, his unit received a whistle-blowing letter against Jin Zhenbiao, which roughly read:
On the way back to his hometown to visit his relatives, Jin Zhenbiao was difficult to change his banditry, used force against women, attacked the granary, and other crimes.
In the same year, Jin Zhenbiao was removed from his post, his party membership was revoked, and he returned to his hometown. After returning to his hometown, he could not stand the indifferent treatment of the hometown people, Jin Zhenbiao chose to escape, hid in the mountains and became a "wild man", this stay was eight years, during which he was "dragged back" several times.
After ten years of turmoil, Jin Zhenbiao returned to his normal identity and life, and his bumpy experience is a microcosm of that era. Fortunately, the mistakes were corrected, and the merits of him and the Xiangxi Hanzi will never be forgotten by the republic and the people.
These former Xiangxi bandits have indeed made indelible military achievements for the country, but they must also beware of some people who have achieved the purpose of distorting history by rendering their deeds. A few years ago, there was an article saying that many volunteer heroes were former Xiangxi bandits, which was actually incomplete.
The total number of bandits in western Hunan is actually not much, compared with the bandits in the northeast and northwest, they are much inferior in all aspects. It is only because he is particularly good at drilling ravines that it is more difficult to suppress, so it is difficult to deal with.
As many as a million new recruits have been added to the volunteer army, and they account for only a small proportion of them, and most of them only entered Korea in the middle and late stages of the war, and the impact on the war situation was relatively small. While remembering their merits, we must also distinguish the truth and not be used by hostile forces.
On September 7, 2019, after 61 years, Jin Zhenbiao received attention again, this time he was lying on a hospital bed, white hair, and this time he finally entered the arms of the party again!