Due to the influence of modern film and television dramas, when it comes to the Qing Dynasty army, many people's first impression is the tattered military uniform and oily braids, as well as the combat effectiveness that collapses at a touch. In any case, it would not be combined with the Eighth Route Army, which was armed with backward weapons but high morale.
However, among the founding officers of the People's Liberation Army, there was such a person: born in the third year of Guangxu (1878), he joined the Qing army after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. He joined the army successively in the troops of Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai, and Duan Qirui, and went all the way from a big head soldier to the standard command of the Qing army (roughly equivalent to the current regimental cadres). In 1938, he joined the Eighth Route Army at the age of 60, and finally became the oldest founding lieutenant colonel of the People's Liberation Army in 1955 at the age of 77.
Jiang Shunfa was born in 1878 in Fangshan County, Hebei Province (now Beijing). Because he was born in a poor family, his parents specially named him Jiang Shunfa, which means that he can develop smoothly in the future.
In 1898, at the age of 20, Jiang Shunfa joined Li Hongzhang's Huai Army, and then served under Yuan Shikai's new army. Because of his flexible mind and ability to recruit good warriors, after eight years of joining the army, he had to go all the way from a big head soldier of the Qing army to the position of standard unification.
However, with the promotion of his post, Jiang Shunfa gradually discovered that due to the decay of the system, the national strength of the Qing government was increasingly weakened. The foreign army that Li Hongzhang had painstakingly built was not all to defend against foreign enemies, and the new army that Yuan Shikai had single-handedly managed was gradually reduced to a private armed force. Seeing that the army exploited the people and the government's agreements on the loss of power and humiliation of the country were signed one after another, the disheartened Jiang Shunfa abandoned his official position to practice medicine in 1930 and concentrated on studying medical skills.
After the Lugou Bridge Incident, the Fangshan area soon fell. In order to escape the war, Jiang Shunfa, who was already an old flower armor, fled with the villagers to Xinghuang Village in Fangshan County. In February 1938, the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army passed through Xinghuang Village, saw that although the Eighth Route Army was backward in equipment, but the military discipline was strict and morale was high, Jiang Shunfa, who had fought in the army when he was young, seemed to see the dawn of saving the country and survival, resolutely closed the pharmacy he had worked hard to run and sold all his family property, and then joined the Eighth Route Army with his son with medicine, because of his outstanding medical skills, he joined the Communist Party of China only two months after joining the army.
After the Hundred Regiments War, the Japanese and puppet armies adopted the three-light policy of abducting the Nationalist army and frantically sweeping up the anti-Japanese armed forces behind enemy lines led by the Communist Party of China. Due to the blockade of the Japanese puppet army, there was a shortage of medicine in the entire anti-Japanese base area behind enemy lines. After Jiang Shunfa's 359th Brigade was stationed in Suide County, Shaanxi Province, in 1941, it was the main force and the number of casualties frequently increased. Jiang Shunfa, who is in his 60s, was transferred to the 359 Brigade Pharmaceutical Factory as a factory director because he understood medical skills. Based on his many years of military experience and medical skills, and combined with local animals, plants and mineral raw materials, he allocated the drugs that were urgently lacking in the troops such as "scabies sweeping away", "malaria pills", and "surgical anti-rot cream", which greatly alleviated the plight of the 359 Brigade's lack of medical treatment and medicine.
In 1941, during the large-scale production movement in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region initiated by Chairman Mao, Jiang Shunfa served as the farm director of the 719 regiment in Jiulongquan, Nanniwan. In that year, he led more than 100 people on the farm to open up more than 400 acres of land, and while realizing grain self-sufficiency, he handed over nearly 30,000 kilograms of public grain. Because of his outstanding contributions, he was rated as a model worker by the 359 Brigade in 1943, and in the same year he was named a labor hero in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia.
After the founding of New China, Jiang Shunfa successively worked in the hospital directly under the Chahar Military Region, the Zhangjiakou Hospital of the North China Military Region, and the 251st Hospital of Zhangjiakou of the Beijing Military Region.
In 1955, among the Chinese People's Liberation Army awards, the oldest Zhu De was 69 years old, General Zhang Yunyi was 63 years old, and Jiang Shunfa, who joined the army at the age of 60, was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel at the age of 77, and at the same time, he was awarded the Order of Independence and Freedom of the Third Class and the Liberation Medal of the Third Class. In the big title, according to the military management system, no one is allowed to grow a beard. But Jiang Shunfa, who came from a military doctor, insisted on not cutting off his beard. When Chairman Mao learned of his situation, he specially instructed: Jiang Shunfa has made great contributions and has given special cases!
Among the millions of PLA officers and men after the founding of the People's Republic of China, only three were specially approved by Chairman Mao to grow beards, the first being Marshal He Long (He Beard), who started with two kitchen knives, and the other being Commander-in-Chief Zhu and Chairman Mao's lieutenant general Sun Yi, who was also specially approved to grow a beard. In addition, only Jiang Shunfa, who was below the general level, was specially approved to grow a beard, which has also become a good story of our army.