The Beijing Military Region is one of the seven major military regions, with an important geographical location and special mission and mission, and is in charge of military defense work in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Since its establishment in 1955, successive commanders of the Beijing Military Region have been fierce generals who can fight good battles, such as Yang Chengwu, Yang Yong, Li Desheng, Qin Jiwei and so on.
General Li Laizhu, who served as the 9th commander of the Beijing Military Region, was also a veteran general who participated in the revolutionary war before liberation, and he was called a mainstay by Chairman Mao and was the president of China's "West Point Military Academy".
Li Laizhu, born on October 10, 1932, is a native of Caotun Village, Xinxian County, Shandong Province. His parents were kind, reasonable, filial to their parents and were highly respected in the village. Originally, he had 10 brothers and sisters, but his sister unfortunately starved to death, and Li Laizhu became the eldest brother among the 9 brothers and sisters.
After the "July 7 Incident" in 1937, Japanese imperialism launched an all-out war of aggression against China, and Xinxian and northwestErn Lu fell one after another. The Japanese army wantonly burned and looted, snared traitors and spies, and built strongholds, which aroused strong indignation among the local people. Our Party quickly established an anti-Japanese base area in northwestern Lu and launched a mass war of resistance work.
8-year-old Li Laizhu, although young, often led his friends to deliver letters to the Eighth Route Army, stand guard and reconnoiter the enemy situation, and served as the leader of the anti-Japanese children's regiment. When he was 13 years old, after successfully ambushing the Japanese puppet army with the guerrillas, when he retreated, he was chased by the Japanese puppet army and encountered a small river blocked, fortunately, the water was good, and he swam to the opposite bank at once, otherwise the consequences were unimaginable.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Chinese finally ushered in the dawn of peace, but chiang kai-shek of the Kuomintang moved against the current and launched an all-out attack on the liberated areas after tearing up the "Double Ten" agreement. In 1947, Li Laizhu, who had reached the age of 15, joined the army with full anger against the Kuomintang and was assigned to the Second Column and Fourth Brigade under Liu Deng's army.
Because Li Laizhu was tall and powerful, and he had endless strength, he was appointed as the leader of the machine gun squad. In the big and small battles he participated in, he always suppressed the enemy with machine gun fire and ensured the safety of his comrades. Because of his bravery, he joined the Communist Party in 1948. In his later years, Li Laizhu recalled that when he joined the party, he was very excited and wrote a poem to express his feelings: "The sickles and hammers reflect each other, and the mood is surging and it is difficult to calm down. Solemnly raise your fist and make a vow, and strive for revolution all your life. ”
In 1949, during the Battle of Huaihai, Li Laizhu's fourth company was ordered to counterattack Xiao Songzhuang. He and his comrades braved the enemy's dense bullets and rushed into the enemy position along the communication trench, engaged in more than 20 minutes of white-knife hand-to-hand combat, and recaptured the position in one fell swoop. Li Laizhu also withstood the test in the face of life and death.
In the ensuing defensive battle of Xiaosongzhuang, when the company commander Song Sichuan was seriously wounded and the political instructor Zhai Dayuan was killed, Li Laizhu led his comrades to repel the enemy's attacks many times in a row. He himself was also injured by enemy shells, 32 pieces of shrapnel in his body, 42 bullet holes in his military cap, and blindness in his right eye for a while, which was recovered to about 0.3 after rescue. After the battle, Li Laizhu made a great contribution and was rated as a model Communist Party member.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1952, the army was reorganized, and Li Laizhu served as the instructor of the fourth company of the 82nd Regiment of the 28th Division. Originally, the Twenty-eighth Division was going to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, but later, due to the adjustment of tasks, there was no reorganization system to go to Korea, and some people were dispatched to fight in Korea, and Li Laizhu bit his finger and wrote a blood letter many times without approval.
In 1957, the 28th Division built the Ming Tombs Reservoir in Beijing, and Li Laizhu was fortunate to be received by Chairman Mao. When Chairman Mao passed by Li Laizhu's side, he saw that he was tall, thick-eyebrowed, big-eyed, and full of spirit, and he held his hand affectionately and asked what his name was? After Li Laizhu replied, Chairman Mao said: "This name is a good name, and it will continue to open up the past and open up the future, and it will be the mainstay of the mainstream!" Since then, Li Laizhu's military career has been step by step, and he has successively served as the chief of staff of the regiment, the commander of the regiment, the chief of staff of the division, and the commander of the division.
In February 1978, Li Laizhu was transferred from the position of division commander to the newly established Beijing Military Region Infantry School as vice president due to his rich experience in military and political work. For the next 7 years, he worked in the military academy and trained a large number of junior commanders for the troops. In December 1980, the Beijing Military Region Infantry School was renamed Shijiazhuang Army School, and he served as the principal.
At the graduation ceremony of the cadets in 1984, Li Laizhu accompanied Yang Dezhi, then chief of the general staff, to inspect the college, and Yang Dezhi wrote an inscription: "Build the school into a base for cultivating a large number of outstanding commanders with all-round development of morality, intellect and body." In 1986, Yang Shangkun, then vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, spoke highly of it after inspecting it: "People say that it is China's 'West Point', and I am very satisfied after reading it." The Shijiazhuang Army School, known as China's "West Point Military Academy," has been circulating since then.
In 1985, Li Laizhu was appointed deputy commander of the Beijing Military Region, and the commander of the Beijing Military Region at this time was Qin Jiwei, who was also a famous general under the Army of Liu Deng of Erye. When Li Laizhu was a soldier, Qin Jiwei was already the commander of the Erye Nine Columns, and later served as the commander of the Fifteenth Army, and became famous in the Battle of Shangganling. Li Laizhu mainly cooperated with Qin Jiwei in doing a good job in the beijing military region's combat, combat readiness, and training work.
Figure | Qin Jiwei
In the following 7 years, Li Laizhu used his rich experience in leading soldiers to fight to guide the construction of troops, and many officers and soldiers commented that he "wore millions of soldiers on his chest and often went to the grass-roots level." After successively cooperating with Qin Jiwei, Zhou Yibing, and Wang Chengbin as commanders of the Beijing Military Region, in December 1993, Li Laizhu was appointed as the 9th commander of the Beijing Military Region.
In May 1994, at the age of 61, Li Laizhu and 19 senior officers were promoted to the rank of general and retired from active service in November 1997. Today's General Li Laizhu is 89 years old, but his body is tough and his spirit is strong, and he wishes the old general a high life!