As a rare general among the generals of the Red Army, Hong Xuezhi has always attracted the attention of the central authorities. He was born in 1913 to a poor family in Jinzhai County, Anhui Province. At the age of 16, he resolutely joined the army and joined the Communist Party of China. As a veteran revolutionary Red Army soldier, he participated in the Long March with the army, successively served as the political commissar of the regiment and the political commissar of the division in the Red Fourth Front, and led the troops to achieve many great victories.
During the Long March, Hong Xuezhi also correctly implemented the party's ethnic policy, so that the Red Army won the support of the vast number of national brothers, and he also raised a large amount of grain and materials for the army, making great contributions to the smooth arrival of the Central Red Army in northern Shaanxi. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as a staff officer of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army, assisting Huang Kecheng in directing the northern Jiangsu resistance. He smashed the sweeping of the Japanese army many times and annihilated a large number of Japanese puppet troops, thus reversing the situation of the War of Resistance in Northern Jiangsu and consolidating and developing the anti-Japanese base areas in northern Jiangsu. In the Liberation War, he also led his troops to participate in the Battle of Pingjin and the Battle of Crossing the River, and made great contributions to the founding of New China. He also served as director of the logistics department during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and his work was fully affirmed by Peng Dehuai, and he accumulated a series of experience in logistics support in modern warfare during the war, which has become a valuable asset in our army's logistics work.
In 1955, Hong Xuezhi was awarded the rank of general, and his merits were affirmed by the party and the state. Later, Hong Xuezhi was implicated by politics and was transferred from the army to serve as the director of the provincial agricultural machinery department. Some people hugged him, but he laughed and enlightened his friends: We did not join the revolution to become officials, as long as we can serve the people, everything we do is worth rejoicing. Hong Xuezhi also adhered to his words in practice, never complained in his work, and served the people wholeheartedly.
Although Hong Xuezhi was later criticized, relegated to work as a coolie on the farm, and engaged in the most arduous and tiring work, he never complained, but did his job well, firmly believing that the state would rehabilitate him. And the reality was exactly as he expected, and soon he was recruited by the state. That day he was wandering in the streets, but he was suddenly picked up by a special plane in Beijing, and he did not even change the peasants' clothes, and he became a great general.
Originally, after discussion, the Central Military Commission decided to select Hong Xuezhi as a member of the Central Military Commission, but because the meeting was urgently convened, it specially sent a special plane to pick up the old general Hong. Hong Xuezhi, who was suddenly recalled, was unprepared, and finally wore only a peasant's clothes and took a photo with a group of generals in military uniforms.