Ranks are the honor of soldiers, and the senior generals who have made meritorious contributions to the revolution more or less hope that they can be recognized and valued. Through the level of military ranks, it can directly reflect the merits of a general, so in 1955, the first award ceremony in New China, Luo Ronghuan, Song Renqian and others in charge of the awarding of titles were very cautious and treated more than a thousand generals in the whole army as fairly as possible.
The 1955 ceremony was well done as a whole, most of the generals had no problem with their ranks, and a few people were dissatisfied with the ranks they had conferred, such as Zhong Wei, Wang Bicheng and others, who had raised objections in public, and Zhong Wei even gambled and said: "I want to hang that brand on the dog's tail!" ”
Zhong Wei is a famous general in the four fields, but his seniority is not high, he can be awarded a lieutenant general or a major general, and the chairman has special respect for him, not only giving Zhong Wei the treatment of lieutenant general or above, but also letting him serve as the chief of staff of the Beijing Military Region.
It is worth mentioning that compared with Zhong Wei and Wang Bicheng, Yang Zongsheng's situation is a bit complicated. In 1952, Yang Zongsheng was a deputy corps rank, which was most likely a lieutenant general when he was awarded the rank in 1955, and a small number of generals could also be awarded, and the worst was also a major general. However, as a result, Yang Zongsheng only received the rank of colonel and did not have the rank of general.
Born and died for the revolution?
Yang Zongsheng is a native of Hunan, and when he was a child, his family was very poor and he was a low-level figure in society. Because he did not have money to study, Yang Zongsheng, with the support of his parents, could not afford to pay the tuition after a year of private school. In order to reduce the burden on his family, Yang Zongsheng, who was still a minor, went out to work and subsidized his family.
At that time, revolutions broke out everywhere in Hunan, and Yang Zongsheng was also very moved; he was not afraid of losing anything, and resolutely joined the peasant movement, hoping to overthrow the landlord exploiting class and make the peasants turn themselves into masters. In 1926, Yang Zongsheng embarked on the road of revolution, starting with the peasant armed forces and the Red Guards, and by 1930 he was already a member of the Red Army.
In the Red Army, Yang Zongsheng fought bravely, knew a few words, and had the opportunity to be promoted. Starting from the squad leader and all the way to the head of the supply department, the personal development is relatively fast. The fact that the superior was able to hand over the post of director of the supply department to Yang Zongsheng was enough to show his trust and importance.
Yang Zongsheng's revolutionary will was always maintained, and when he was seriously injured, in order not to leave the team, he followed the troops with his wounds all the way and refused to stay for recuperation. In terms of the logistics of the troops, Yang Zongsheng managed them very well and was praised by the head of the troops many times. Don't look at the logistics work on weekdays, it looks inconspicuous, once it comes to fighting, the quality of logistics support directly affects the lives of the frontline soldiers.
After the end of the Long March of the Red Army, Yang Zongsheng was organized to focus on training and studied at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yang Zongsheng served as the chief of the supply department in the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army. During the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yang Zongsheng was mainly engaged in logistical support work, providing necessary materials for the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army on the front line of the Anti-Japanese Resistance.
In addition to logistics, Yang Zongsheng also has experience in leading soldiers to fight, in 1944, he took a unit back to his hometown to run errands, on the way encountered a puppet army, they worked for the Japanese, Yang Zongsheng decided to take out this gang in one pot. Under his persuasion, some puppet troops chose to revolt, no longer fighting for the Japanese, and set up an anti-Japanese armed force, which became more and more powerful, with a small number of thousands.
The Japanese army could not see the anti-Japanese contingent growing under their eyes, and quickly mobilized soldiers and horses to prepare to eliminate the anti-Japanese armed forces led by Yang Zongsheng. Although Yang Zongsheng had not led many soldiers to fight before, he played very well on the spot, did not panic, and orderly commanded the team to block the Japanese army layer by layer, and repelled the enemy's attack many times. One after another, the Japanese army suffered a lot of losses, failed to eliminate Yang Zongsheng, but its own losses were not small.
In the Liberation War, Yang Zongsheng's son Yang Yingjiu was still a minor and died in the Central Plains Breakthrough. At that time, the situation was critical, and Yang Zongsheng temporarily suppressed his grief and successfully broke out from the enemy's encirclement. After the breakthrough was successful, Yang Zongsheng cried a lot, and the pain of losing his son was a big blow to a father, not to mention that Yang Yingjiu was still so good. During the entire revolution, Yang Zongsheng's performance was very good, he experienced the test of life and death, his relatives sacrificed on the battlefield, and he was born and died for the revolution, without complaint or regret.
Conferring the title, not attending the conferment ceremony?
During the Liberation War, Yang Zongsheng's work was to be in charge of logistics, and he served as director of the Logistics Department of the Lüliang Military Region and director of the Quartermaster Department of the Northwest Military Region, and together with Marshal He Long, he guaranteed the logistics supply of the People's Liberation Army. In 1949, He Long led the army to liberate the great southwest, and Yang Zongsheng was also among them, serving as the director of the logistics department of the Southwest Military Region in Chengdu.
After the founding of New China, Yang Zongsheng served as the deputy director of the General Finance Department of the People's Liberation Army, which was a very important position. In the 52-year rating, Yang Zongsheng was a deputy corps rank, and according to the provisions of the 1955 award ceremony, the rank of lieutenant general was relatively stable under normal circumstances. However, when it came time to confer the title, Yang Zongsheng was only awarded the title of colonel and had no chance of being a general, which made him feel a little difficult to accept.
Yang Zongsheng's deputy corps rank should not be a colonel, at least a general. The reason for this is mainly that some people have reported that Yang Zongsheng once had interests with an enlightened gentleman, which affected the level of his title. Although after organizing the investigation, it was found that Yang Zongsheng and the gentleman were in normal contact, but in terms of personal relations, there was no so-called interest exchange. In addition, the gentleman had provided help to our army, and Yang Zongsheng was also a beneficiary, and he was very grateful for the righteous deeds made by this gentleman in his difficult times.
Although the matter was clarified, the result of the award could not be changed, and Yang Zongsheng felt very embarrassed to learn that he had been awarded the title, afraid of being canceled by his colleagues and refused to attend the award ceremony. Soon, Yang Zongsheng asked his old superior Wang Zhen to take him to Xinjiang to carry out construction, and after obtaining consent, he served as deputy commander in Xinjiang and other positions, contributing to the construction of Xinjiang.
epilogue
Yang Zongsheng was indeed awarded the rank of colonel, and as a revolutionary fighter who joined our army since the beginning of the Red Army, he performed well, did not make any major mistakes in his work, and his rank was demoted two levels in a row, which was really a little difficult for ordinary people to accept. Fortunately, Yang Zongsheng also saw it, took the initiative to go to Xinjiang to carry out construction, far away from the center of power, and could still serve the people, and made a good decision.