In the autumn of 1955, in order to commend the generals who had made important contributions to the victory of the Chinese revolution and the founding of New China, our army held the first major award in history. The main basis for the award of the title this time is seniority, position and military merit, and it is also stipulated that those who have left the army and are not serving in the army will not participate in the award.
It is precisely because of this stipulation that many people who have made great achievements on the battlefield have regrettably lost their ranks, such as Zhou Baozhong, the elder and banner figure of the Northeast Anti-Japanese Alliance, such as Feng Baiju of the Qiongya Column, and Cheng Zihua, commander of the 13th Corps of Siye, who missed out on their ranks because they did not serve in the army.
Cheng Zihua
Compared with Zhou Bao and others, there is undoubtedly a person who is very lucky, in the spring of 1953, his superiors asked him to leave, but he was very fond of the army, he was reluctant to leave, in order to stay, he voluntarily demoted, but unexpectedly obtained the rank of major general. So who is this person? He was the founding Major General Sulu.
Sulu is a native of Liuyang, Hunan, born in 1902, his father made a living from farming, because of the large number of people and the small amount of land, life is very difficult. In order to make a living, Sulu was forced to leave his hometown and go out to work, suffering a lot. In 1927, at the age of 25, Sulu joined the revolution and soon joined the Ranks of the Red Army.
After that, he followed the troops to participate in the anti-encirclement and suppression struggles and the Long March, and was promoted to the commander of the Red 53rd Regiment with his military achievements. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Sulu entered the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and more than a year later became the commander of the first sub-district of the Taiyue Military Region.
During the Liberation War, Sulu mainly followed Xu Xiangqian in Shanxi and Yanxishan, and successively participated in the Battle of Linfen, the Battle of Jinzhong and the Liberation of Taiyuan, of which the Battle of Taiyuan was the most arduous. Taiyuan is the old nest of Yan Xishan, in order to defend Taiyuan, he spared no expense, built thousands of ming forts and dark castles, turning Taiyuan into a steel fortress.
At that time, most of the field army led by Xu Xiangqian was upgraded from local troops, and the number of artillery was not only not comparable to that of the four fields, but also far inferior to that of several other field armies. Due to the serious shortage of artillery fire, the troops' ability to attack the fortified points was greatly affected.
At that time, the 184th Division was ordered to capture the Red House stronghold, and the troops failed to charge many times in a row, and Sulu, who was the deputy commander of the division at the time, saw the situation and personally rushed up with the commando team, unfortunately stepping on the mines laid by the enemy, so he lost his right arm.
After recovering from his injuries, Sulu had planned to return to his old unit, but his superiors took into account his physical condition and left him in Shanxi as the commander of the Changzhi Military Subdistrict. In this position, Sulu has been working for 6 years. In the spring of 1955, Sulu relapsed from an old injury he had suffered during the war years, and his physical condition was not very good, but he still insisted on working.
For the sake of his health, his superiors prepared to let him leave his post to recuperate. But Sulu was very fond of the troops and was reluctant to leave, and although his physical condition could no longer adapt to the work of the commander of the military sub-district, it was still okay to do something else. After much thought, he applied to his superiors to see the warehouse.
At that time, the warehouse chief was only a regimental position, which was equivalent to demotion, so the superior did not agree at first, but could not stand Sulu's soft and hard bubbles, so he had to agree to the request, so Sulu changed from the commander of the military sub-district to the commander of the warehouse.
After Sulu took office, he worked diligently and won the praise of everyone. Six months later, the grand award began, and Sulu also participated in the award because he was still serving in the army, and was finally awarded the rank of major general as a regimental cadre. Soon after, Sulu became deputy commander of the provincial military district, and died of illness in 1976 at the age of 74.