Mention Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Xueliang father and son, people will not be unfamiliar, this father and son in China's modern history can be said to have written a heavy stroke, it is no exaggeration to say that China's modern history for a long time and their father and son have an inseparable relationship, however, few people know that Zhang Zuolin's young son, who is also Zhang Xueliang's younger brother, also played a very important role in history, and even finally became a rear admiral of the People's Liberation Army, this general is called Zhang Xuesi.
Zhang Xuesi, the fourth son of Zhang Zuolin, was born in 1916, 15 years younger than his eldest brother Zhang Xueliang. By the time he was born, Zhang Zuolin had fully acquired a dominant position in Fengtian, so the material conditions and educational resources given to him were quite excellent, and in 1928, at the age of 12, he entered the best Tongze Middle School in Shenyang at that time.
During his studies at Tongze Middle School, he met Wang Jinjing, a close friend who had influenced him all his life, and under the influence of Wang Jinjing, Zhang Xuesi became acquainted with the progressive Wang Xizheng, and under the influence of the "Second King", Zhang Xuesi's thinking also changed rapidly, resulting in the idea of saving the country and saving the people, and began to tend to the left of his thinking.
Later, after the fall of northeast China, he came to Beiping to study, and in 1933, under the introduction of Wang Jinjing, Zhang Xuesi secretly joined the Communist Party of China.
Later, Zhang Xuesi successively served in different units of the Northeast Army, on the one hand, he studied military technology in the army, on the other hand, he was instructed by the party to secretly develop party organizations in the Northeast Army.
After the July 7 Incident, Zhang Xuesi was dispatched by the party organization to secretly come to Xikou, Zhejiang, where Zhang Xueliang was placed under house arrest, to meet with his eldest brother. However, under the close surveillance of dozens of military command agents and armed gendarmes, the two brothers were hardly given the opportunity to be alone, and had to play every day, eating, drinking and having fun.
Finally, on the last day of the visit, after breakfast, Miss Zhao Si took the agents away to play cards, and Zhang Xueliang called Zhang Xuesi aside in the name of "reading the pictorial", because of fear of the secret agent eavesdropping, the two brothers launched a key conversation in the form of "pen talk". In the pen conversation, Zhang Xueliang told his brother: "Follow the Communist Party and transform China!" This provides a lot of support for Zhang Xuesi.
In 1938, Zhang Xuesi refused his birth mother's request to go to the United States with him. He came to Wuhan, met Zhou Enlai, and was assigned by Zhou to study at the Yan'an Anti-Japanese University, and from 1940 onwards worked and fought in the anti-Japanese base area in central Hebei.
He used his status as the fourth brother of Zhang Xueliang to win over many old units of the Northeast Army that had their own equipment and had a good level of training and military knowledge to join the Eighth Route Army, making great contributions to the development and expansion of the Jizhong Military Region.
During this period, together with his old friend Wang Jin, he won over the officers and men of the former 53rd Army of the Northeast Army, and also earned 200 rifles from other places. From then until the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Xuesi obeyed the party's leadership in the Jizhong region, persisted in the anti-Japanese struggle, and successively served as a staff officer and chief of staff of the Jizhong Military Region.
In 1942, during the "great sweep" of the Japanese army, Zhang Xuesi commanded more than 4,000 troops of the Jizhong Military Region, and with tact and courage, he jumped out of the encirclement circle and joined the main force of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which became a classic battle during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party forcibly occupied the northeast and used the elderly people of the northeast department one after another, and Zhang Xuesi also returned to Shenyang with the troops in a very short period of time, which had been bid farewell for 14 years, and was also appointed chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Government.
During his term as chairman of Liaoning Province, he used his special status to do a lot of work, especially to publicize the party's policies and propositions to his fathers and fellow villagers in the northeast, laying the foundation for the initial group leaders of our party in the northeast.
In addition, Zhang Xuesi also rejected the proposal to return to his childhood home, the Dashuai Mansion, believing that he had long since left the feudal family, and the Dashuai Mansion should also be the property of the entire people rather than the private residence of the Zhang family. Zhang Xuesi was in the northeast and experienced a lot, and like other cadres of our party stationed in the northeast, he participated in the decisive battle in the northeast.
After the uprising of the Kuomintang Navy cruiser "Chongqing", Zhou Enlai personally assigned Zhang Xuesi to handle this work, and although the valuable warship was not saved in the end, Zhang Xuesi still accumulated a lot of naval experience, which laid the foundation for his later position in the People's Liberation Army Navy.
In April 1949, on the eve of the founding of New China, Zhang Xuesi was appointed as the principal of the Anton Naval School, which was the starting point of his naval career. He has since served within the naval education system, where he was awarded the rank of rear admiral in 1955.
In 1956, Zhang Xuesi went to the Soviet Union to study naval business, when the Soviet side had raised objections to the acceptance of the son of the great warlord Zhang Zuolin to study military affairs, while Zhou Enlai insisted that although Zhang Xuesi was the son of a warlord, he had already betrayed the class and family, and made many contributions to the Chinese Communist Party and the proletariat, so that the Soviet side could accept Zhang Xuesi's study abroad.
After Zhang Xuesi returned to China, he served in the Navy Headquarters. Successive chiefs of naval staff also personally commanded many naval battles against the Kuomintang army, which fully demonstrated his naval command ability.
In 1970, Zhang Xuesi died in Beijing due to persecution during that special period.
Looking at Zhang Xuesi's life, we can clearly see that this is a patriotic and ambitious young man from an extraordinary birth, out of simple national feelings, under the guidance of the Party, embarked on the correct revolutionary road and established meritorious deeds.