Among the generals awarded in 1955, Su Yu, Xu Haidong, Chen Geng and Luo Ruiqing were familiar to people, but for the name "Zhang Yunyi", many people said that they were very unfamiliar.
In fact, this strange general was the most senior general, and there was no one. Even Mr. Zhu, who is six years older than Zhang Yunyi, is not as senior as Zhang Yunyi compared to the military. Why? We'll reveal that later.
Zhang Yunyi, formerly known as Zhang Yunyi, also known as Zhang Shengzhi. Born on August 10, 1892 in Wenchang County, Guangdong Province, it is now part of Hainan Province. At the age of 7, he began to attend a private school, and at the age of 12, he transferred to Hongo Keimaki High School.
In 1908, he was admitted to the second phase of the Guangdong Army Primary School and began to accept progressive ideas.
In 1909, he joined the Chinese League led by Sun Yat-sen and began to work to overthrow the corrupt rule of the Manchu Qing, and became the youngest member of the League at that time. At this time, Mr. Zhu was only studying at the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall.
The following year, in 1910, Zhang Yunyi participated in the Guangzhou New Army Uprising. Unfortunately, due to the rapid changes in the situation at that time, the date of the Guangzhou Uprising changed again and again, and finally failed because of the excessive disparity in strength between the two sides. But this uprising hastened the development of the revolutionary situation.
In 1911, Zhang Yunyi participated in a larger uprising, the Huanghuagang Uprising. In the course of the uprising, the troops were suppressed in civilian houses, and Zhang Yunyi disguised himself as a grocer and went outside to inquire about the situation, and finally saved his life.
When Zhang Yunyi inquired about the news and returned, he found that the qing soldiers were all around the house, and the rest of the comrades were killed. This Huanghuagang uprising, known as the Huanghuagang Seventy-two Martyrs, and Zhang Yunyi was able to survive, so later Zhang Yunyi said: "If I don't go out to buy vegetables at that time, I will be the Seventy-three Martyrs of Huanghuagang."
Later, Zhang Yunyi successively participated in the Xinhai Revolution, the Patriotic War and the Northern Expedition. In the course of the Northern Expedition, Zhang Yunyi joined our party in Wuhan.
After the defeat of the Great Revolution, he secretly covered up the escape of our Party members and encouraged his subordinates to participate in the Nanchang Uprising. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Yunyi participated in leading the formation and reorganization of the New Fourth Army.
After joining the Red Army, Zhang Yunyi also had a brighter future, serving as deputy chief of staff of the Central Military Commission, the General Headquarters of the Red Army, and the deputy chief of staff of the Red Army.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Yunyi successively served as chief of staff and deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, and generals such as Su Yu and Huang Kecheng were his subordinates.
When forming the New Fourth Army, Zhang Yunyi used his connections in the military circles of the Nationalist government to complete a special mission - to go to Macau to ask Ye to stand out of the mountains.
Zhang Yunyi and General Ye already knew each other during the first domestic revolution, and after the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, Ye Ting avoided Living in Macao for ten years, still worrying about the revolutionary situation in his heart.
On the eve of the founding of the New Fourth Army, Zhang Yunyi received a secret task from the Party Central Committee and arranged for him to rush to Macao and invite General Ye to come out of the mountains.
After receiving the task, Zhang Yunyi planned the operation in detail, and through his old friends in the military circles of the Nationalist government, disguised as a wealthy overseas Chinese, he finally arrived in Macao safely.
During the Liberation War, Zhang Yunyi served as commander of the Shandong Military Region, deputy commander of the East China Military Region, and president of the East China Military and Political University, and among the generals, only Su Yu could sit on an equal footing with him.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Yunyi served as secretary of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region CPC Committee, chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Government, commander and political commissar of the Guangxi Military Region, and number one of the party, government, and army. At the same time, Zhang Yunyi also did one thing, which is still benefiting the people of Guangxi.
At that time, Guangxi was rich in environmental resources, but talent resources were relatively scarce. Therefore, Zhang Yunyi, with the help of Chen Yi, the founding marshal of Shanghai at the time, introduced a number of advanced enterprises and technical backbones from Shanghai, and reserved a large number of talents for Guangxi.
In terms of administrative planning at that time, Guangxi had no access to the sea, which led to no market for the rich local products. The local people hold the golden mountains and silver mountains, but their pockets are empty. After Zhang Yunyi discovered this problem, he ran to Guangdong and found Ye Jianying, another founding marshal who presided over the work in Guangdong.
I have to say that Zhang Yunyi's face is still quite large, and he is worthy of being the first person with seniority. Come to your territory to "grab food and eat", and the marshal will not be able to attack. Zhang Yunyi asked Ye Jianying to understand Guangxi's difficulties and "give" some of the sea outlets to Guangxi.
Ye Shuai has always attached great importance to the overall situation, and has very "generously" assigned coastal cities such as Beihai, Qinzhou, and Fangchenggang to Guangxi. With this coastline of more than 1,000 kilometers, Guangxi can directly face the vast market in Southeast Asia.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that after Zhang Yunyi left Guangxi in 1955, the outlet to the sea was actually taken back by Guangdong. After Zhang Yunyi found out, he was very angry, and after many negotiations, he transferred Beihai and other cities back to Guangxi in 1965. All this is thanks to the merits of General Zhang Yunyi.
In fact, the "grabbing food" just mentioned is a joke, and in terms of the consciousness of the older generation of revolutionaries, it is incumbent upon us to give some outlets to the sea to solve the problems of neighboring provinces.
When Zhang Yunyi was awarded the rank of general, the central leaders specially approved him to enjoy the treatment of marshal, and Chairman Mao even called him "an old man with a heavy heart and a high prestige, and is an elder who witnessed the whole process of our army"!