When it comes to the most respected person in the Whampoa Military Academy, who will come to mind first? Is it The President Chiang Kai-shek, the Party Representative Liao Zhongkai, or the Political Department Director Zhou Enlai? Not really.
These people are indispensable figures in China's modern history, and they are naturally very busy on weekdays, and because of this, the average student does not even have the opportunity to communicate with them. Coupled with the question of political stance, it is impossible for them to gain the respect of all students.
However, among the Huangpu instructors, there was really one person who did it, and his name was Yan Lisan. Even Chen Geng, who followed Zhou Enlai, said sincerely when talking about him: Yan Lisan is the eldest brother of all of us, and no one in the school does not respect him.
Yan Lisan, also known as Serious, was born in 1892 in Macheng, Hubei Province, where his father served as the governor of Anhui County at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and was a very honest official, and there was no money left in the family after his untimely death. Although orphans and widows lived very poorly, this belief in not being corrupt and corrupt deeply affected Yan Lisan.
When he was a teenager, Yan Li worked very hard three times, hoping to realize the ideal of saving the country and saving the people through his own efforts. He successively entered the Anhui Army Primary School, the First Preparatory School of the Qinghe Army in Beijing, and the Baoding Officer School, and had a very deep foundation in military theory.
In 1924, Yan Lisan was invited to become the chief captain of the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy, responsible for training all the students. Those who were admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy at that time were all proud sons of heaven, and it was difficult for ordinary people to make them satisfied, but Yan Lisan had this skill.
"Infantry Exercise Code" is one of the necessary teaching materials of the Whampoa Military Academy, and during a general exercise shortly after the beginning of the school, Yan Lisan explained this book to everyone, and some students who wanted to make him ugly deliberately asked some very tricky questions.
As a result, Yan Lisan was able to use the content of the Infantry Drill Code to make a perfect answer, and he answered the score in which paragraph on any page, which made everyone convinced.
In training, Yan Lisan is very strict with the students, but in life, he is very approachable, and he does not tire of answering any questions that others have.
The most crucial point is that how Yan Lisan asks others, he will do it first, so all the students admire him extremely.
Yan Lisan was not only the first issue, he was the captain of the first three issues and has always maintained these good qualities, so he is known as the "Huangpu Mentor". In the school, his words were sometimes more useful than those of the principal, Chiang Kai-shek, who himself admitted it.
At a certain party affairs meeting that Sun Yat-sen planned to convene to discuss the overall situation, several delegates were allocated to the Whampoa Military Academy, and they were elected by secret ballot of teachers and students, and Yan Lisan received the largest number of votes. Chiang Kai-shek said with emotion: "It seems that Yan Lisan's prestige among the students is even higher than that of me, who is the principal." ”
When the Northern Expedition broke out in 1926, Yan Lisan was appointed commander of the 21st Division of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army. The 21st Division was notoriously disciplined in all the Northern Expeditionary Forces, committing no crimes along the way, and was welcomed and supported by the people.
Even Bai Chongxi, who did not have a good relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, openly praised: The 21st Division is a model for our Northern Expeditionary Army, and those of us who are officers should learn from Yan Lisan. At that time, some people really responded to Bai Chongxi's call to consult Yan Lisan.
Yan Lisan's reply was very direct: I actually have no experience in leading the army, but I have to say two words - not greedy, not greedy, not greedy, you can establish WeiLide, and others can obey you.
This is true, but few people in the national army can do it.
On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek staged a counter-revolutionary coup in Shanghai, massacring Communists and Leftists of the Kuomintang. On August 1 of the same year, under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, Ye Ting, He Long and others, the Communists fired the first shots of armed struggle in Nanchang.
At that time, Yan Lisan and his troops were stationed in Jiujiang, very close to Nanchang, and Chiang Kai-shek urgently telegraphed him to encircle and suppress him. However, Yan Lisan hated Chiang Kai-shek's counter-revolutionary behavior, and he had a good personal relationship with Zhou Enlai, so he did not send troops for a long time.
Because of this, the following year, Chiang Kai-shek Mingsheng secretly appointed Yan Lisan as the director of the Military and Political Department of the Military Commission, causing him to lose his military power. Although Chiang Kai-shek admired Yan Lisan, because Yan Lisan and Chiang's political enemy Deng Yanda were close friends, even in the Military and Political Department, Yan Lisan basically had no access to the core things.
Yan Lisan simply resigned and lived in seclusion in Taiyifeng, Lushan, where some Huangpu students asked him when he left, "How does the teacher hang up the crown and leave?" Yan Lisan told him: "The division between Ning and Han is heart-wrenching. Nanjing's large-scale killing has hurt the vitality of our nation; Wuhan's large-scale tart is not a stirring wave? How can I go along with them? ”
For nearly a decade, Yan Lisan lived like an old farmer, relying on the harvest he had worked so hard to make ends meet. Chen Cheng visited him many times and wanted to pay him the salary he received when he was the head of the military and political department, but Yan Lisan resolutely refused to accept it. Chiang Kai-shek also sent money over several times and invited him to live in Nanjing, but the money was returned and no one went.
Only students go to see, Yan Lisan will entertain, but this reception is also really more shabby, once Huangpu Phase III student Song Ruike went forward, but also had to help burn the fire, Yan Lisan fried the bread, no dish no soup, the two of them ate tea. Song Ruike saw that the teacher was living poorly, and secretly left 50 yuan when he left, and Yan Lisan found out and deposited it in the bank on behalf of Song.
After the July 7 Incident broke out, Chiang Kai-shek invited Yan Lisan to take up a public office, and Yan Lisan believed that the country was in trouble, and the soldiers should stand up and not be slaves to the country, so this time he agreed.
He approached Chiang Kai-shek and asked to be able to go to the front, but military power has always been a top priority in Chiang's heart, so it is impossible to allow it. Chiang Kai-shek made Yan Lisan the head of the Hubei Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, and later acted as the chairman of Hubei Province.
After Yan Lisan took office, he did a lot of practical things; he did not follow his personal feelings, dared to take a hard face, and inscribed the inscription "Do not wear the heavens together" on the stone wall of the Three Tours Cave in Yichang, encouraging the people under his rule to resist Japan to the end and resolutely prohibiting opium, which caused great harm.
Like the accounting director of the Enshi County Government who smoked opium, Yan Lisan approved his death sentence; Zhu Dingjun, director of the Shashi Police Bureau, extorted 2,000 French dollars from merchants, and yan Lisan arrested him and tried him in Yichang after he learned of it. These powerful measures have won the support of the people of Hubei.
In June 1940, Yichang was also occupied by the Japanese Kou, and in July Yan Lisan resigned as acting provincial chairman and was succeeded by Chen Cheng. Chen Cheng found that there were tens of thousands of yuan left in the balance of the "chairman's special office expenses" during Yan Lisan's tenure, so he entrusted someone to hand it over to Yan Lisan. As a result, Yan Lisan did not accept it and proposed to allocate the money for the relief of refugees, and Chen Cheng finally had to do so.
After that, Yan Lisan led more than 300 officers and men of the Second Security Regiment of Hubei Province to open up military reclamation in Xuan'en County, where they opened up land to develop animal husbandry, delivered grain and grass to the front line, and established a production and supply base. He also volunteered to teach mathematics at Xuan'en Middle School. All this can be seen that he is a man of high moral character.
Unfortunately, on April 30, 1944, Yan Lisan died of overwork at the age of 52, and he could not see the day of China's victory against Japan. When he died, he did not even have a decent dress, and many people spontaneously donated money for him out of love and held a beautiful funeral.
It feels like Yan Lisan is like the kind of chivalrous guest in ancient times, if the world does not meet his ideals, he is willing to live in seclusion, but if the country is in difficulty, he will definitely go down the mountain to save the country.
He was incorruptible all his life, did a lot of practical things but lived a very hard life, which highlighted the greatness of his personality!