Among the founding generals, many of them were born of hardship, but there were not many like Wang Zonghuai. Wang Zonghuai is a native of Shuangqiao, Jiangxi, born in 1915, his family has a lot of land and little land, there is not enough food to eat, and he has to eat wild vegetables for more than half of the year.
Lieutenant General Wang Zonghuai
When he was one year old, Wang Zonghuai's mother died due to overwork and long-term malnutrition. He lost his mother's love at a young age, which also became the biggest regret in General Wang Zonghuai's life. More unfortunately, 7 years later, his father also fell ill.
At that time, the Wang family had four walls, and could not afford to hire a doctor, Wang Zonghuai and the fourth uncle could only go up the mountain to dig up herbs, but the effect was not great, and soon after his father died, and the 8-year-old Wang Zonghuai became an orphan. In order not to let Wang Zonghuai live on the street, his aunt took him to his home to raise him.
Although her aunt's family was also very poor, he was very kind to Wang Zonghuai, and when she saw that her nephew was clever and clever, she was a piece of reading material, so she gritted her teeth and sent him to the school. But after only half a year, the aunt's family could not come up with money, and Wang Zonghuai was forced to drop out of school.
Wang Zonghuai during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
After that, Wang Zonghuai first helped his aunt to do housework, and later learned to weave with others, and suffered a lot. In 1929, the Red Army came to his hometown, and the 14-year-old Wang Zonghuai joined the Young Pioneers, became a small traffic officer, and officially joined the Red Army a year later.
At that time, most of the soldiers of the Red Army were from a hard background, and very few people had studied, and Wang Zonghuai had studied private school for half a year, which was considered to be half a cultural person. Coupled with his sharp tongue and excellent memory, he was assigned to the Political Department of the Second Red Division and became a youth officer.
After that, he followed the troops to participate in the first to fifth anti-encirclement and suppression struggles, showing great bravery and making many meritorious contributions. After the start of the Long March, Wang Zonghuai acted with the third battalion of the Sixth Regiment of the Red Second Division, which was the vanguard battalion of the Second Division, and fought with the enemy many times along the way, and made the first contribution in the battle to capture Zunyi New City.
After the Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, Wang Zonghuai served as an instructor in the red first army teaching battalion, and soon entered the Kang Da to study. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Zonghuai first served in the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and soon after transferred to the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region as the head of the organization department of the Political Department.
After Wang Zonghuai took office, he successively assisted Nie Rongzhen, commander of the military region, in completing the reorganization of Lü Zhengcao's People's Self-Defense Army and Zhang Zhonghan's Hebei Nationalist Army, thus strengthening the strength of the Eighth Route Army. With his excellent work ability, Wang Zonghuai won nie Rongzhen's praise and became one of his most trusted assistants.
At the end of 1939, Wang Zonghuai followed Nie Rongzhen and others to the First Military Subdistrict of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region to inspect the work. When he walked to Lingdong Village in YiXian County, Wang Zonghuai suddenly fell ill with typhoid fever, wrapped in several quilts and shivering coldly.
Wang Zonghuai and his wife Fan Jingming
Seeing this, Nie Rongzhen hurriedly summoned Ye Qingshan, the health minister of the accompanying military region, and asked him to take Wang Zonghuai back to the military region for treatment, and "ordered" Ye Qingshan to cure Wang Zonghuai and find him a daughter-in-law. As early as the Red Army period, Ye Qingshan worked with Wang Zonghuai, who was the director of the Ministry of Health of the Red Second Division, and Wang Zonghuai was the youth officer of the Political Department of the Red Second Division.
Later, the two also participated in the Long March together and formed a deep friendship. At that time, although the Eighth Route Army did not have a special medicine to treat typhoid fever, under Ye Qingshan's meticulous treatment, Wang Zonghuai slowly recovered. Ye Qingshan was very happy to see this, and Commander Nie's task was completed.
General Wang Zonghuai and his wife Fan Jingming
Then Ye Qingshan began to introduce wang Zonghuai to the object, but several introductions in succession were not negotiated. Soon after, Wang Zonghuai was transferred to the Third Sub-district as the director of the political department, and the political commissar Wang Ping introduced his wife and sister Fan Jingming to him. After the two met, they had a good feeling for each other, and in June 1944, Wang Zonghuai and Fan Jingming married each other and walked hand in hand through half a century of wind and rain. In 1998, General Wang Zonghuai died of illness at the age of 83.