In everyone's opinion, the higher the rank, does not mean that the person's status in the army is higher? In fact, the main position of the army depends on ability, and the military rank is only an honor and battle merit, especially after the founding of the People's Republic of China, many generals without military ranks have relatively high achievements, such as Li Xiannian, Deng Xiaoping and others. Because after the founding of the country, when the war was over, it was necessary to start building the country, and many talented generals transferred to local work, resulting in them having no military ranks.
Among the many founding major generals, Li Desheng was the highest-ranking one, who had served as vice chairman, and after the founding of the country, his achievements were extremely high, surpassing all the old superiors in the army whose ranks were higher than his previous ranks, which was amazing.
Li Desheng was born in 1916 in a small village in Henan, because the Red Army liberated his hometown, the people in his hometown were divided into heaven and earth, so from an early age he was very yearning for the Red Army team, and at a young age he had a very high political consciousness, and soon became the leader of the Boy Scout Regiment, responsible for helping to lead the way and deliver letters in the army, although the contribution was not large, but accumulated a lot of experience in the army.
At the age of 14, Li Desheng officially joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and at the age of 16, he joined the Communist Party of China. During the period of the agrarian revolution, Li Desheng had a very good performance, leading the troops to participate in many arduous battles and achieving many military achievements.
In the course of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he experienced many moments of death, such as the Battle of Eight Temples, where he was seriously wounded, and his left chest was penetrated by a bullet, breaking the internal nerves and causing his left hand to fall disabled. But even during his recuperation, he continued to study, reading red books every day and learning the revolutionary spirit.
However, even a genius like him, there are some twists and turns, in 1935, because he offended Zhang Guotao, he was dismissed from his post and investigated, stripped of all his positions, and also handcuffed and shackled. However, he did not resent or give up on himself, but continued to summon up his spirits and experienced the Long March with the troops.
In 1936, he was able to rejoin the party and become an ordinary Red Army soldier, but he was not discouraged and still struggled on the front line.
In 1946 he was rehabilitated and his membership was recalculated in 1932, but because of this experience, his promotion was extremely slow. He became a regimental commander in 1945, when he was 29 years old. Even though his position was not high, Li Desheng still led his troops to charge bravely.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he participated in important battles such as the Hundred Regiments War, night raids on airfields, and also participated in battles in the Taihang and Ji'nan base areas. In 1942, the Japanese army gathered nearly 30,000 troops to sweep and suppress our Taihang Mountain base area, and Li Desheng was the commander responsible for blocking the Japanese attack. In the face of the huge gap in strength, Li Desheng did not panic at all, but used tactics and willpower to successfully block the enemy's attack again and again, so that the leaders could withdraw safely.
In 1945, Li Desheng took the initiative to request an attack on the Japanese Mafang stronghold, for which he was bound to win, and had already formulated a very careful plan to take this stronghold with minimal losses. After the approval of his superiors, he personally disguised himself as a peasant to enter the vicinity of the stronghold to investigate, and then with 82 soldiers, he directly annihilated this Japanese den, which can be called a legendary battle in the history of our army's war, and was also praised by name in the newspaper. In addition, he also participated in many major battles in the Liberation War, was a fierce general under Wang Jinshan, and at the time of Wang Jinshan's death, he talked nonsense, and it was his son who said that Uncle Li Desheng had risen up, and Wang Jinshan was quiet. During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he successively led his troops to participate in the Fifth Campaign, the defensive operations in the area south of Jincheng, and the Battle of Shangganling, leading a division of troops to annihilate more than 19,000 enemy troops, and making great contributions to the country.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was awarded the rank of founding major general, served as the commander of many important military regions, and made outstanding contributions to the training of military combat and military talents. In August 1973, at the age of 57, he was elected as a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, vice chairman of the Central Committee, and director of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army, and even his old superiors Xu Shiyou, Wang Jinshan, Du Yide and other generals were not as high as his predecessors, surpassing all his previous superiors. He was awarded the rank of General in 1988. He died of illness in 2011 at the age of 96.