In 1955, the Chinese People's Liberation Army implemented the rank system for the first time in the whole army, and the first rank was awarded that year. In addition to the ten marshals and ten generals, 57 generals (two supplementary awards), 177 lieutenant generals (two supplementary awards), and 798 major generals were also awarded to a total of 1032 generals.
Among them, lieutenant generals and above are called senior generals, and these people can be equipped with guards, secretaries, doctors, attendants and other attachés.
Of the 57 generals and 177 lieutenant generals, a total of 6 were from the uprising Kuomintang troops, namely: General Chen Mingren, General Dong Qiwu, General Tao Zhiyue, lieutenant general Kong Congzhou, lieutenant general Han Liancheng, and Lieutenant General Zeng Zesheng.
These 6 senior generals all recognized the essence of the Kuomintang in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression or the War of Liberation, determined that only the Communist Party could save China, launched an uprising with a patriotic heart, joined the sequence of our army, and made great contributions to the subsequent wars and the construction of new China.
Of the six generals who came from the Kuomintang uprising anyway, except for General Chen Mingren, who died earlier and did not have time to join the Party, General Dong Qiwu joined the Party in 1980, General Tao Zhiyue joined the Party in 1982, General Kong Congzhou joined the Party in 1946, and General Han Liancheng joined the Party in 1950. Although Zeng Zesheng made outstanding contributions in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and led the Fiftieth Army of the People's Liberation Army in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and won the Order of the National Flag of the Dprk First Class, he was never allowed to join the Communist Party of China in his lifetime.
It should be known that General Zeng had 6 children in his lifetime, and they all joined the Communist Party. Then for what reason did he himself not join the party, among which the twists and turns the author slowly said.
Zeng Ze was born in the autumn of 1902 in Yunnan to a landlord family, the family has a good land of 100 acres, and is charitable and charitable, very well-known in the local area, but due to the war, it led to a fall, and his father also died of illness. He and his brother were still young, and because of the rules of the clan, his father's inheritance was in the hands of his uncle, in which case his mother took the two brothers and remarried.
Zeng Zesheng, who has experienced the cold and warm of the world since he was a child, has great ambitions, because his mother has no financial resources for him to study, and the patriarch of the Zeng clan is not willing to help him for a long time, Zeng Zesheng joined the army of the old warlord Tang Jiyao when he just turned 14 years old, and performed well in the army and had good physical fitness, and was able to enter the founding machine gun sergeant corps opened by Tang Jiyao to study. Here, Zeng Zesheng studied military strategy assiduously, showed a command talent that far exceeded others, and was immediately recommended by his superiors to enter the Yunnan Wutang for further study.
When Sun Yat-sen founded the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924, yunnan daowutang contributed and sent many outstanding instructors to assist in running the school, so the two schools have deep roots.
The following year, Zeng Zesheng, as an outstanding cadet, was recommended to the Whampoa Military Academy as the captain of the third district, joined the Kuomintang after entering the school, and entered the advanced class in early 1927, during which his outstanding performance was very appreciated by the tutors.
It can be said that through continuous study over the years, coupled with the practice in the Yunnan Army and the Guangdong Army, Zeng Zesheng's military level has grown rapidly, and Zeng Zesheng, who is nearly 30 years old, is now almost a platform for performance.
In early 1929, Long Yun, chairman of the Kuomintang Yunnan Province, extended an invitation to Zeng Zesheng, hoping that he would return to Kunming to set up an alternate study team for officers for the Dian Army and serve as deputy captain. After Zeng Zesheng returned to the Dian Army, he was soon entrusted with a heavy responsibility as the deputy commander of the 5th Regiment of the 3rd Brigade of the 98th Division.
In 1937, Japan launched the July 7 Incident, the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out in full swing, and Zeng Zesheng led his troops to join the dispute over national fortunes. On September 10, the Yunnan Army completed its reorganization, and the newly formed 60th Army officially joined the sequence of the National Revolutionary Army, with 3 divisions under its jurisdiction, of which Zeng Zesheng was the commander of the 1085 regiment of the 184th Division, and the commander of the division at that time was Zhang Chong, the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of the People's Republic of China.
In late March 1938, the Japanese army gathered 8 divisions, 3 brigades, 2 detachments, a total of 240,000 people to attack Xuzhou in two directions, central China and north China, with the intention of taking Xuzhou as a strategic place in one fell swoop.
In order to hold Xuzhou to further ensure the safety of Wuhan, after the defeats at the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Nanjing, and the Battle of Taiyuan, the Kuomintang once again mobilized 64 divisions, 3 brigades with a total of more than 600,000 troops, and moved closer to Xuzhou, including 3 divisions of the 60th Army. Soon, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China launched another large-scale defensive campaign- the Battle of Xuzhou!
Zeng Zesheng's 1085 regiment, together with a large army, was placed at Yuwang Mountain and ordered to block the Japanese army.
On April 22, 1938, the 183rd Division, as the vanguard of the unit, exchanged fire with the Japanese army, and due to the excessive firepower of the Japanese army, Yuwang Mountain was once occupied by the Japanese army. But the next day, reinforcements from the 184th Division came up and retaken the position while the Japanese fortifications were not yet built. Since then, this highland, which is less than 130 meters above sea level, has become a flesh and blood mill for Yunnan soldiers.
In the face of the Dian army's defense, the Japanese army sent two mechanized divisions and a large number of puppet troops to launch a fierce attack on Yuwang Mountain, and the battle was extremely fierce. In the face of Japanese aircraft, armored vehicles, and artillery, the Generals of the Dian Army could only return fire with rifles and machine guns, and many soldiers chose to die with the Japanese tanks with a bundle of grenades.
On April 28, the sixth day after the outbreak of the blockade war, the generals of the Dian Army fought with the Japanese army more than 20 times in just one day, and defended the position with their flesh and blood.
The fierce battle lasted for 27 days, and the 1085th Regiment led by Zeng Zesheng faced the 103rd Division of the Japanese Army in Central China, and the fierce artillery fire of the Japanese army flattened the height of Yuwang Mountain, where his troops were located, by 1.4 meters, and the positions of the brother troops in the immediate vicinity were razed to the ground.
When the Japanese army then launched a charge to the front of the position, Zeng Zesheng did not hesitate to jump up with his bayonet and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army, and under the leadership of Zeng Zesheng's pioneers, the 1085 Regiment resisted the Japanese attack again and again.
In other positions, when they were captured because all their comrades were killed, Zeng Zesheng would take on the heavy responsibility of retaking the position. Zeng Zesheng personally organized and served as the leader of the stormtroopers to launch a counterattack against the occupied positions. For nearly a month, the 1085th Regiment not only firmly held its positions, but also repeatedly snatched back positions seized by other units.
On May 18, the 60th Army finally received an order to retreat from the Fifth Theater Command, by which time they had exceeded their mission.
They had planned to hold out for 10 days to buy time for the large troops to transfer, but they held out for 27 days. In these 27 days, the 60th Army lost a total of 13,869 soldiers and more than 5,000 wounded, in addition to chen Zhongshu, commander of the 542nd Brigade, Dong Wenying of the 1078th Regiment, Long Yunjie, commander of the 1080th Regiment, Yan Jiaxun, commander of the 1082nd Regiment, and Mo Zhaoheng, commander of the 1083rd Regiment, and other senior commanders who bravely fought in righteousness, which shows the fierceness of the battle.
After this battle, Zeng Zesheng entered the high-level vision of the Kuomintang with his bravery and good fighting, and his ability to attack and defend. He was soon promoted to commander of the 184th Division. By the end of 1939, he led his troops to participate in many anti-Japanese battles, including the Wuhan Defense War and the Battle of Nanchang. Later, he returned to Yunnan to participate in the defense of the southern Yunnan border, repeatedly defeated the Japanese army invading from Vietnam, and did not let the Japanese army cross the thunder pool for five years.
On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and the 60th Army was ordered to enter Vietnam to accept the surrender of the Japanese army in Vietnam. In November of that year, Chiang Kai-shek reorganized the 60th Army and appointed Zeng Zesheng as its commander, and in the reorganization, Chiang Kai-shek inserted a large number of secret agents into the 60th Army, which greatly damaged the feelings of the generals of the Dian Army.
In April of the following year, under the vague threat of the 100,000 central army stationed in Yunnan, Zeng Zesheng was forced to lead the 60th Army by boat to the northeast to participate in the civil war, stationed in Jilin. However, Zeng Zesheng, who had no intention of dealing with his own people, fought out
"The anti-Japanese war has been repeatedly won, and the civil war has been repeatedly defeated"
Of the record.
In March 1948, Zeng Zesheng led his troops to retreat to Changchun, and the People's Liberation Army mobilized three columns to attack Changchun in turn, but under Zeng Zesheng's defense, there was no progress. But at this time, Zeng Zesheng, who had long been unable to tolerate cannibalism, began to take the initiative to contact representatives of the People's Liberation Army to discuss surrender.
On October 17, Zeng Zesheng summoned the commanders of his divisions to Changchun for a meeting in the name of a meeting, after which he had already received the support of the 182nd and Provisional 21st Divisions.
The two divisions, 182nd and 21st, were old troops of the Dian Army brought out of Yunnan, and they had been homesick for a long time, and the mood of uprising was very high. However, the temporary 52nd Division that Chiang Kai-shek installed later was an unstable factor, so Zeng Zesheng made sufficient preparations before the meeting.
When Li Song, commander of the Provisional 52nd Division, arrived at the meeting with several regimental commanders, he was immediately resisted by the guards with guns, and at Zeng Zesheng's request, they each called their deputies and asked to obey the orders of Commander Zeng. In this way, the People's Liberation Army entered the city overnight to take over the city defense, while Zeng Zesheng led the 60th Army to withdraw from Changchun and accept the reorganization of the People's Liberation Army at Jiutai.
On January 2, 1949, our Party granted the reorganized 60th Army the nickname of the 50th Army of the People's Liberation Army, with Zeng Zesheng as its commander, under the command of the reorganized three divisions of 148, 149 and 150, and in March, it supplemented the 167th Division, which was reorganized from the uprising, with a total strength of more than 30,000 people and political reorganization. After the reorganization, the 50th Army participated in the battle in Erye and Siye successively according to the arrangements of its superiors, and made great contributions to the liberation of all of China.
In September 1950, the 50th Army was again assigned to the Northeast Military Region and transferred back to continue to garrison Jilin. Soon after, the DPRK asked for help, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea broke out, and China formed a volunteer army to cross the Yalu River to support the DPRK. Originally, only the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 42nd Armies and several artillery divisions and engineer regiments were mobilized by General Peng in the early days, but Zeng Zesheng, who received the news, went to take the initiative many times to ask for help, and the 50th Army became one of the first troops to enter the DPRK.
Our army fought a total of five large-scale battles on the Korean battlefield, and in the first two cases, although the 50th Army fought some victorious battles with other units, it also released some enemies.
At the summary meeting, Peng Dehuai severely criticized the 38th Army, but did not mention the 50th Army. Zeng Zesheng was very ashamed, but he could also feel that Commander-in-Chief Peng did not use himself as the main force. So he came to the General Headquarters and directly expressed his position to Peng Dehuai:
"We can fight Japanese devils in Yunnan, and American devils in Korea, please give me a chance!"
Peng Dehua looked at Zeng Zesheng, who was blushing with excitement, and gladly agreed to his request, placing him on the battlefield facing Seoul. After returning to the troops, Zeng Zesheng personally presided over the oath-taking meeting, holding a steel gun in his hand, leading 30,000 soldiers to face Beijing, and publicly vowing to fight the US army to the end and never take a step back.
Therefore, in the subsequent battles, the 50th Army has made a number of first-class achievements.
The 50th Army was the first to capture the reorganized British Royal Tank Battalion; the first to attack seoul, the capital of South Korea; and when stationed on the Han River for defense, it withstood the fierce attack of the US army for more than 50 days; in the face of the full strength of the combined army, Zeng Zesheng commanded the troops to annihilate more than 10,000 enemy troops, destroy more than 70 tanks, and shoot down 15 aircraft, causing a serious psychological blow to the US army that had long maintained its own firepower superiority. This battle brought out the famous name of the Fiftieth Army of the People's Liberation Army, and since then this 50th Army has resounded at home and abroad!
When Zeng Zesheng led the 50th Army to withdraw from the position, Commander-in-Chief Peng took the initiative to find him, only to see Peng Dehuai excitedly say to him:
"You're in good command! The Fifty Corps is good, and there are losses to replenish! You say, what is needed, I want soldiers to give to veterans, and I want ordnance to give Soviet equipment. You tell the brothers, I Salute them! ”
Speaking, Peng Zonglizheng saluted.
Zeng Zesheng listened to Peng Zong's words, his eyes were moist, and he returned a military salute to Peng Dehuai and said loudly:
"After fighting this battle, I can give an account to the fathers and elders in Yunnan, we have not disgraced the people of Yunnan, follow the Communist Party, we will never regret it!"
In 1954, after returning from the Korean battlefield, Zeng Zesheng was received by Chairman Mao. Taking this opportunity, Zeng Zesheng made a request to the chairman in person that had been brewing in his heart for a long time. Previously, because he felt that the time had not come, the merits were insufficient, and the contributions to the party and the people were not enough, he had not exported, but this time he thought it could be said.
He sincerely said to Mao Zedong:
"Chairman, I want to apply to join the Communist Party and want to make more contributions to the party!"
Chairman Mao listened to his words and said with a smile:
"It's good that you can take the initiative to join the party. But your party still needs you more! ”
Zeng Zesheng was stunned, he had announced his separation from the Kuomintang as early as the time of the uprising, what did the chairman mean.
Seeing that he was puzzled, Chairman Mao said:
"Your party is non-partisan. Retaining this identity now can serve as a good example for our Party's unity of the various groups. How do you see, can you not join the party first? ”
After listening to the chairman's words, Zeng Zesheng was relieved that he joined the party for his own faith, but he also served the party and the people. Since the current construction of New China requires him not to join the Party, he will not join the Party first.
Therefore, adhering to the idea that not joining the party is more important to the country than joining the party, General Zeng Zesheng did not join the party in his lifetime, which is also the biggest regret of his life.
But in the hearts of the Chinese people, in the hearts of Chairman Mao, he was already a qualified and excellent party member.
In 1973, General Zeng Zesheng died in Beijing, and he had four sons and two daughters in his lifetime, the eldest son was named Zeng Daming, the second son was named Zeng Daren, the third son was named Zeng Dakang, the fourth son was named Zeng Qiang, the eldest daughter Zeng Dayuan, and the second daughter Zeng Dali, all of whom had joined the Party. The second son, Zeng Daren, successfully developed China's first deep-sea crawler type cloth cable machine, and was awarded the first class of merit, which can be described as a tiger father without a dog, and the rest of the children are also extraordinary. General Zeng Zesheng must be deeply pleased that he knew about it under the spring!