In August 1958, Chairman Mao held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in Beidaihe, at which he proposed:
I think all "commanders" ------ commanders, division commanders, etc., must be soldiers for at least one month. It is best to do two months in the first year, and you must obey the command of the squad leader and the platoon leader. You manage people for eleven months in a year, and people can't manage you for a month? Some soldiers who used to be soldiers are now not soldiers for many years, so go and become soldiers again. ”
After the meeting, the former General Political Department, in accordance with Chairman Mao's instructions at the meeting, issued the "Regulations on Cadres at All Levels of the Armed Forces Serving as Soldiers for One Month a Year." Subsequently, officers and soldiers at all levels throughout the country actively responded to the call of the central authorities.
Why did Chairman Mao call on military commanders and division commanders, who are basically in their fifties, to become soldiers at the grass-roots level?
In fact, it was because there were some problems in army building at that time.
The introduction of the Soviet military system and the burial of fine traditions
After the founding of New China, our army vigorously promoted the modernization of the armed forces and worked hard to transform itself into a major military power in the world.
Chairman Mao once said, "Power comes out of the barrel of a gun." Army building has always been the key to our party's establishment of the country, the development of the economy, and the stability of homeland security.
In this regard, our army actively learned from the Soviet side, and introduced the rank system, and also extensively learned a series of military etiquette of the Soviet army, and the troops under this set of management looked brand new. Gradually showing a new atmosphere of modern military that can connect with the world.
But there are always two sides to the world. The military rank system also has a bad side, the most important of which is because of the introduction of military salutes. These military salutes make the army appear orderly, but they also bring problems.
For example, on some occasions, lower-level soldiers need to march to their superiors, which was originally intended to make the army appear "long and young", but it violated the long-standing fine tradition of the Red Army.
As early as September 1927, when Sanwan was reorganized, Chairman Mao once proposed: "Break the feudal mercenary army management system and warlord style, and realize the democratic system." Since then, the Red Army units have resolutely implemented the tradition of "officers and soldiers are in unison", and the leaders of the Red Army at all levels have fought with the soldiers in eating, living and fighting.
Three Bay adaptations
Later, at the Gutian Conference, it was proposed that "officers and soldiers only have the distinction of duties, not the distinction of rank, and the officers and commanders should love and care for the soldiers." "This decision has been implemented in our army, and officers and soldiers at all levels have also strengthened their ties with each other.
During the war years, officers and men often ate in the same cauldron, and there was no restraint between officers and men. They sat or squatted with their rice bowls, talking and laughing, just like a family working in the field and eating at the meal point.
It should be known that most of the Red Army is from the workers' and peasants' class, and they have a natural "sense of intimacy" with such a mode of getting along. It was also thanks to this kind of getting along, they were outspoken to each other, and the officers and commanders also used this to strengthen their understanding of the grass-roots soldiers. It has achieved "the unity of officers and soldiers."
The "unity of officers and men" has strengthened the cohesion of the troops and enhanced the combat effectiveness of our army.
The old Red Army and the old Eighth Road were accustomed to this way of getting along. However, after the introduction of Soviet military ceremonies, this method was puzzled and dissatisfied by Soviet advisers.
They felt that the general should have the general's restaurant, the officer should have the officer's residence, and the soldier naturally had their camp.
Although this method seems to have a "modern atmosphere", it has caused estrangement between officers and soldiers. Many veteran Red Army members bluntly said, "Nowadays, cadres are becoming more and more "officially authoritative," and "if this continues, the glorious tradition belonging to the old Red Army and the old Eighth Road will be ruined." ”
In view of this situation, Chairman Mao put forward the activity of "generals serving as soldiers under their company." General Yang Dezhi was the first commander of the military region to take the initiative to become a soldier in the company.
Yang Dezhi
The general descended from the company and assumed the pseudonym Yang Shaogang
In 1958, the 4th squad of 2 platoons of 6 companies of a certain unit of the Xuzhou Military Region of the People's Liberation Army welcomed a "new recruit" with half-white hair, who called himself Yang Shaogang.
Yin Bihui, the leader of the 4th squad, looked at this "recruit" who was older than himself and did not know how to arrange it for a while. In his mind, joining the army is of course welcome, but after all, he is old, how should he arrange to take care of himself?
Yang Shaogang seemed to see Yin Bihui's thoughts, and he stepped forward to perform a standard military salute to Yin Bihui. After that, he said, "The squad leader doesn't have to take special care of me, although I am older, I have been a soldier for a while before and know the management system of the army." ”
Hearing this, Yin Bihui's dangling heart let go, and he went forward to pat Yang Shaogang's shoulder and said, "Since he is an old comrade-in-arms, it is much easier to do!" Subsequently, he arranged for Yang Shaogang to live with other warriors.
Subsequently, Yang Shaogang was integrated into the soldiers of the 6th Company and 4 Squads. The warriors were very interested in this "recruit" who was nearly half a hundred years old. After a few days of contact, they gave Yang Shaogang the title of "Old Yang Tou", and Yang Shaogang often told some stories from the war of resistance to the soldiers.
But what the soldiers did not know was that the "old Yang Tou" in front of them was None other than Yang Dezhi, the commander of the Jinan Military Region at the time and the founding general of New China------.
Born in 1911, Yang Dezhi joined the Red Army in 1928 and began to follow Chairman Mao in his revolution.
Later, with his amazing perseverance and outstanding military ability, he repeatedly made meritorious achievements in the Long March, the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the War of Liberation, and by the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was already a general who had achieved fame and success. In 1955, he was appointed commander of the Jinan Military Region.
After Chairman Mao called for "lower companies to become soldiers," Yang Dezhi actively responded to Chairman Mao's call.
In 1958, after years of not experiencing the life of an ordinary soldier, Yang Dezhi was also worried that he would not be able to keep up with the training of the troops. In response, he decided to conduct a "surprise" training.
Assault training, under the company as a soldier
Yang Dezhi specially found his own guards and asked him to go to the grass-roots soldiers to observe the training content of the soldiers.
After that, he used his nap and free time to start "training" according to the training described by the guards.
During this time, he often got up an hour early for the soldiers to prepare for training, and only after the people in the military district building began to work did he return to his office.
Many times, especially during nap times, people can often see the old general busy on the field.
After nearly ten days of surprise training, Yang Dezhi admitted to keep up with the training of the troops. After that, he summoned other generals who were ready to "become soldiers in the next company" and held a special meeting to discuss "how to keep the identity secret after the next company is laid down, so as to better integrate into the army."
Eventually, the meeting developed a series of plans, first so that the future class leader could boldly manage and find a pseudonym for himself. Yang Dezhi chose the "Yang Shaogang" he took when he joined the army in his early years. Due to the long age, coupled with the fact that the soldiers at the grass-roots level basically did not have direct contact with themselves, no one knew his name.
After that, he chose a more remote place, far from the center of the military district where he was located. But it also means that conditions will be tougher.
In fact, this "company as a soldier" activity is not supported by everyone, and the most opposed one is the guard who cares about the chiefs.
In their view, the chiefs' bodies were already in danger because they had some hidden diseases in the war with the army for many years, and because they were old, they were in danger. To this end, the guards proposed to "arrange escorts to protect the safety of the chiefs".
Their proposal was unanimously opposed by the chiefs, who were meant to go down to the army, to be really at the side of every ordinary soldier. How else do you work with an escort?
Yang Dezhi also considered it this way. In fact, almost all the generals at that time had the same purpose: to see if they could command tens of thousands of people to fight, and what was the gap between them and the soldiers at the grassroots level. At the same time, it is also a reliving of the life of an ordinary soldier.
In this way, Yang Dezhi came to the 2nd platoon and 4th shift.
The troops are strictly trained and the generals are no different
Although he is an "old Yang head", Yang Dezhi did not "engage in special" because he was older.
In his daily training, he did not have the slightest sloppiness. Even the most basic training is done tightly and seamlessly, demanding himself to the highest standards. His earnestness could not catch up with many young soldiers.
As a "new recruit", Yang Dezhi's training starts from the most basic backpacking. Yin Bihui originally planned to demonstrate to Yang Dezhi, but Yang Dezhi did not wait for him to finish, so he hit a backpack that was close to "perfect" according to the method he used when he was an eight-way guerrilla in his early years.
Yin Bihui felt incredible, and Yang Dezhi explained: "I used to join the army in my early years and practiced this technique in those years. ”
For his explanation, Yin Bihui will be suspicious. He patiently demonstrated the new technique to Yang Dezhi, and Yang Shao was amazed when he saw it, and he said: "It is really a life to learn from the old" Ah.
Subsequently, he played again according to the new method, although this time the speed was very slow, but there was no interruption, and the whole set of actions flowed smoothly, which caused Yin Bihui to be very surprised.
In his daily training, he worked with his soldiers to train under the scorching sun, often exposed to the sun for hours. In order to train the queue, many times he would train himself after disbanding until he could keep up with the pace of the fighters.
After receiving the exercises, he competed to do the work. Sweeping the floor, wiping glass, pouring spittoons and other work, he did it. At the beginning of the meal, he first divided the dishes for the soldiers, prepared the rice, and did not pick up his own meal until the last soldier also ate the meal.
His series of performances earned the respect of the warriors. Once, Yang Dezhi found that his meal contained some more chili fried meat. It turned out that the soldiers knew that he was from Hunan, so they specially fried a piece of chili fried meat for him.
Yang Dezhi and the warriors
But Yang Dezhi felt that it was not good to do so. So he went to the chief of the department and told him not to "make a special" and to be like the soldiers.
At the same time, in order to take care of this "old Yang Tou", the warriors arranged his guard time to the last shift during the day or night, so that he could sleep well at night. At first, Yang Dezhi did not notice, but he never took the turn of the night whistle, and only after some understanding did he know the reason. He found the platoon leader and insisted that the platoon leader rotate in order, and could not give him a "special".
His serious attitude made the warriors give a thumbs up and admire his performance.
Yang Dezhi also gained a lot of things from it. When he saw the young soldiers around him who were full of vigor, it was like seeing the way he had just joined the army, and he saw the scene when he cherished his ideals for the motherland and was determined to revolution.
Every night when he picked up the sentry gun, he seemed to go back to the years of the Red Army, and in order to guard against the attack of the reactionary vigilante groups, he was already a commander and stood guard by the dangerous road.
He enjoyed the feeling, but his identity was eventually exposed by dismantling the gun.
Dismantling guns quickly, finally "the truth comes out"
It was a daily training, and Yang Dezhi's 6 company and 2 platoons began a training to disassemble firearms.
The company issued a variety of weapons to the soldiers in the platoon and asked them to practice disassembly. In Yang Dezhi's hand is an automatic rifle, which is very different from the rifle he used in combat. This left him not knowing how to start for a while.
He tried to dismantle old weapons in the same way he had used them, but soon failed. Compared with the Red Army era, this gun is much more advanced in principle and manufacturing. Ordinary soldiers simply gave up when faced, after all, this was not taught, and it was difficult to grope on their own.
The warriors on the side saw that Yang Dezhi's method had failed, so they went forward to show Yang Dezhi. After the demonstration, he asked Yang Dezhi to try it again.
After watching the demonstration, Yang Dezhi immediately understood the principle and structure of this gun, combined with his own experience with firearms, and successfully completed the disassembly when he tried it for the second time, and the speed was not slower than the demonstrated warriors.
This performance of his stunned the soldiers next to him, and then they applauded.
At the same time, the warriors were also more suspicious of the identity of this "old Yang Head". Thinking of the activities of "generals under the company" in the troops at that time, they felt that this "old Yang Tou" was a general. It's just that photos were scarce at the time. Nor did they know which general Yang Dezhi was.
For the performance of his comrades-in-arms, Yang Dezhi did not choose to hide it anymore. At a whole-battalion meeting, Yang Dezhi revealed his identity to his comrades-in-arms who lived day and night. Only then did the soldiers know that "Old Yang Tou" was actually the commander-in-chief of the Jinan Military Region, General Yang Dezhi, the founding general of the country.
After Yang Dezhi revealed his identity, he told the soldiers that he would continue to stay as a new recruit until he completed the task of "becoming a soldier in the next company". And the soldiers were also impressed by the perseverance of the old general.
After the training, according to the "Regulations", Yang Dezhi's performance needs to be evaluated by his company. As a result, without exception, all the fighters unanimously approved Yang Dezhi as a "five-with-the-same pacesetter".
And this is also the first "five pacesetters" of our army. The so-called five sameness is: eating together, living together, working together, operating together, and entertaining together.
The general served as a soldier and a tank artillery cook
Yang Dezhi was the first "five pacesetters", and other generals also became soldiers one after another.
General Deng Hua, then commander of the Shenyang Military Region, chose to go to a certain outpost company in Coastal Defense to become an ordinary soldier; Admiral Chen Zaidao, commander of the Wuhan Military Region, went to the company where the combat hero Huang Jiguang belonged before his death, Vice Admiral Tao Yong, commander of the Navy's East China Sea Fleet, chose to board the battleship "Jinggangshan", and General Xu Shiyou, commander of the Nanjing Military Region, went to a certain infantry company in the Zhoushan Islands.
Without exception, in order to facilitate the management of the company commander and squad leader, they all chose a more remote or dangerous place, and in addition, they changed their names. They took off their general uniforms and changed into ordinary soldiers' uniforms.
Although they were founding heroes who had experienced hundreds of battles, they all respected the grass-roots squad leaders and company cadres, and General Xu Shiyou was recognized when he saw the company commander Gao Lishan. Therefore, he simply stopped hiding it and said directly to Gao Lishan:
I would like to express my attitude to you, I am a very good leader, and I will certainly obey the words of the leaders of the party branch and the company. Do whatever you want, and you will never find a fork in the road. ”
In terms of training, they strictly abide by their work and rest and strictly complete the training tasks of the troops.
General Yang Chengwu often lost sleep because of his physical reasons, but he must lie in bed every time the lights were turned off, and he got up early the next day. In order not to affect the soldiers' schedule, he waited in bed with his eyes open, and waited until the whistle blew before getting up with everyone.
Yang Chengwu
One night, Yang Chengwu was shaving his beard, and he had just shaved halfway when he heard comrade platoon leader immediately go to roll call. He hurriedly wiped off the soap foam and ran to roll call. After half an hour of naming, he returned to the dormitory to continue shaving, but then the lights went out, and he had to hurry to bed and lie down.
In this way, the next morning, he shaved the beard off his face.
Tao Yong has a heavy addiction to smoking. His fleet ruled that smoking was not allowed in the cabin, so he ran to the deck to smoke. When the warriors saw that he was too old to climb up and down, they found him an ashtray and asked him to smoke in the cabin.
But Tao Yong refused this "special treatment", saying: "Like you, I am just an ordinary sailor, and I must not violate the rules." ”
Tao Yong (third from right)
General Chen Zaidao was in big trouble when practicing shooting, he was already very old, and he had a very heavy presbyopia. When he puts on the glasses, he can't see the aiming point on the target, and if he doesn't wear it, he is easy to see clearly.
But he didn't give up training. He found good shooters to demonstrate and talk about experience. In the end, in the company's 4 weapons shooting test, he achieved excellent evaluations.
There are many more examples of this, but without exception, they all reflect the determination of the generals to "unite officers and soldiers." They did not stay away from the grass-roots soldiers because they were in high positions for many years, nor did they have "official prestige" because of the introduction of the Soviet army system. They were also the "teenagers" they once were, the officials who were full of love for the country and cared for the soldiers.
In a month of training, the generals have gained a lot, they not only exercise their bodies and minds, but also live and train with the soldiers, so that they are more aware of the various problems encountered in the lives of the soldiers. This is something that cannot be done by relying solely on subordinate reports and research.
Under the encouragement and inspiration of these generals, the enthusiasm of the soldiers for hard training and actively striving for excellence was even higher. The fine tradition of officers and men being consistent, respecting cadres and loving soldiers has also been better inherited and developed, which has effectively promoted the building of a modern army with Chinese characteristics.
Nowadays, the soldiers of new China regard "obeying orders and defending the motherland" as their duty; they are in a territory where no one cares about them, with a harsh environment in front of them, and behind them are the people living happily, and they are the motherland that they have in mind. But they didn't complain, but were proud to be "soldiers." We should pay tribute to them!