Chairman Mao
Text | Star Sword Army
Edited by | Star Sword Junwu
At 11:00 p.m. on September 26, 1955, on the eve of the ceremony, Chairman Mao stayed alone in his office and wrote a book.
On his desk was a stack of red certificates with the names and title numbers of tomorrow's recipients.
At 12 o'clock in the evening, the secretary Ye Zilong knocked on the door to remind Chairman Mao that it was time to rest, but Chairman Mao said to him: "This decision must be made today, otherwise it will be too late." ”
At 2 a.m., Chairman Mao finally made up his mind and wrote down the number 001 on a certificate, which was the title number of one of the awardees.
On September 27, 1955, the ceremony officially began. Chairman Mao's first authorized marshal was Zhu De, followed by Peng Dehuai, He Long, Chen Yi, and others.
Zhu De and Chairman Mao
Zhu De is known as the "father of the Red Army" and made great contributions to the establishment of New China, and at the same time he is the head of the ten founding marshals, and the title number should be 001.
To everyone's surprise, however, Marshal Zhu De's title number was 004.
So, to whom exactly is the rank warrant number 001 given? Why did Chairman Mao give him the 001 title number?
In fact, as early as 1952, the Central Committee began to prepare for the work of military ranks, and later, with reference to the military rank system of the Soviet Union and North Korea, formulated a second set of plans suitable for our army.
After many meetings of high-ranking cadres, it was finally at the sixth session of the Standing Committee of the First National People's Congress on February 8, 1955 that the mainland's military rank system was officially determined.
According to the system, the criteria for selecting military ranks should not only look at the merits of the battle, but also consider morality, qualifications, and so on.
At the meeting, it was proposed that on top of the ten marshals, another grand marshal should be elected, and Chairman Mao should make the greatest contribution to the army and should be awarded to the grand marshal.
However, when Chairman Mao learned of this proposal, he denied it on the spot, and he modestly said: "It is very difficult for you to engage in appraisal and appraisal, I don't want to be a grand marshal, let me wear the uniform of a grand marshal, and how can I contact the masses." ”
Seeing Chairman Mao's resolute attitude, the crowd did not say anything more. Subsequently, Chairman Mao said to Comrade Liu Shaoqi: "You have worked in the army, and you should be rated as a marshal." ”
Hearing that Chairman Mao wanted to select marshals for himself, Comrade Liu Shaoqi just smiled, then waved his hand and said, "I don't want to evaluate it, I have long since stopped working in the army." ”
Then Chairman Mao asked Premier Zhou Enlai and Comrade Deng Xiaoping: "Do you two still want to comment?" ”
The two of them shook their heads in agreement and said, "No, no." ”
Deng Xiaoping, He Long, Zhu De
Then Chairman Mao asked a few more questions in succession, and seeing that everyone was very modest, Chairman Mao said, "Well, comrades working in local areas should not be appraised on military ranks!" ”
On September 15, 1955, after many deliberations and adjustments, the appraisal work was basically completed.
On September 27, 1955, the medal ceremony was held in Zhongnanhai, which was a very commemorative day for the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
At 4:30 p.m., the square of Huai Ren Tang was full of cars, and Peng Dehuai, He Long, Chen Yi and others stepped out of the car one after another and then walked into the lounge.
When all the people had arrived, Chairman Mao, dressed in gray Zhongshan suits, came to the lounge and greeted the marshals who were about to be awarded the medal in turn.
At 5 p.m., Chairman Mao walked to the front of the rostrum, and behind him stood Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, and other state leaders, and bursts of applause rang out at the venue.
Accompanied by the "March of the Volunteer Army", Chairman Mao personally awarded the military order of the rank of marshal to the marshals present.
In the hearts of everyone, Zhu De is the founding hero and the head of the ten marshals, and the title number 001 should naturally be his, but in fact, Zhu De's number is 004.
At first, everyone did not know about this matter, until the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, everyone knew that the title number 001 was actually Marshal He Long.
He Long
At that time, the staff of the People's Liberation Army Publishing House went to He Long's home to collect information, and He Long's daughter pointed to a frame and told the staff: "My father's military rank order is No. 001." ”
The people present were very surprised, it turned out that Marshal He Long's title number was in front of Zhu De, and it was still the first.
Then the question arises again, why did Marshal He Long get the Rank 001 Order? In fact, this is related to the Nanchang Uprising.
The August 1st Nanchang Uprising was the first shot to launch an armed uprising, and the commander-in-chief of this uprising was He Long, who made great contributions to the Nanchang Uprising.
He Long (first from left)
He Long joined the revolution from the age of 18, he had no professional military education, but he was very good at combat, and became a division commander in only 10 years, and his reputation in the army was very high.
Such a brave and good-fought general, our party naturally does not want to miss it. In early July 1927, Premier Zhou Enlai personally went to the Wuhan mansion to meet He Long, which was the first time the two met.
The two men talked all night in the room, not only talking about the fate of the country and their personal future, but also discussing the detailed battle plan of the Nanchang uprising.
Later, He Long once recalled: "The conversation between Comrade Zhou Enlai and me in Wuhan made me gain a lot, and his words made me enlightened and further promoted my awakening." ”
Zhou Enlai and He Long
It can be said that this meeting between He Long and Premier Zhou in Wuhan became a turning point in He Long's life and the beginning of decades of friendship between the two.
On July 19, 1927, after clarifying the battle plan for the Nanchang Uprising, He Long held an emergency meeting.
He passionately told his soldiers: "Brothers, we are about to go to war, to fight Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, as for where to fight, we can't say it now, if anyone asks, you will let him come to me He Long!" ”
The next day He Long led his 20th Army to Jiujiang, and on July 23, reached Jiujiang City.
Our Party also secretly dispatched troops to Jiujiang and Nanchang respectively.
At the time of the gathering of He Long and our party's troops, the Kuomintang Wang Jingwei was also plotting a trap, and he wanted to trick He Long and Ye Ting into going to Lushan for a meeting in the name of Zhang Fakui, and then take the opportunity to besiege He Long and Ye Ting's troops.
However, what he did not expect was that this trap was known to Ye Jianying, the inner ying of our party.
Ye Jianying, who learned of the trap, hurriedly found Ye Ting, and then informed He Long and Gao Yuhan and others to meet at the water pavilion to discuss the response plan.
Subsequently, in the name of swimming in the lake, several people took a small boat to the lake and began to discuss countermeasures, which is the famous "small boat meeting".
After this meeting, several people changed their original plans, which also meant that Wang Jingwei's trap was in vain.
On July 26, 1927, He Long led his 20th Army to Nanchang and was stationed in a middle school.
The next day, Premier Zhou Enlai and Comrade Li Lisan also came to Nanchang and decided to hold an armed uprising here, and Premier Zhou was appointed as the former secretary of the party committee.
After talking with He Long, Premier Zhou appointed He Long as the commander-in-chief of the Nanchang Uprising, and He Long assured Premier Zhou: "I resolutely obey the arrangements of the Communist Leadership!" ”
On July 30, He Long held a meeting of officers and delivered a speech: "The Kuomintang has now betrayed the revolution, and from today onwards, we must obey the arrangements of the Communist Party, overthrow Chiang Kai-shek, and set up a new revolutionary banner!" ”
When the work of the uprising was proceeding in secret, Zhang Guotao suddenly stood up and, at the meeting, for various reasons, suggested that Premier Zhou stop the uprising.
However, Premier Zhou ignored his words and insisted on carrying out the uprising as originally planned, but postponed the uprising by one day, targeting 4 a.m. on August 1.
In addition, on the eve of the uprising, a man named Zhao Fusheng defected, and he secretly told the Kuomintang the time of the uprising.
In desperation, the time of the uprising had to be advanced to 2 a.m. on August 1.
That night, the city of Nanchang was full of fire and artillery fire, and after 4 hours of fierce fighting, the rebel army annihilated all the enemy troops and successfully occupied Nanchang.
The Nanchang uprising not only fired the first shot of the armed uprising, but also made the influence of our party more extensive, so that our party had a better mass base.
In the 1960s, some people suggested that Chairman Mao change the mainland's founding day from August 1 to September 9.
As we all know, September 9 was the time of the autumn harvest uprising led by Chairman Mao.
After hearing this suggestion, Chairman Mao directly expressed his negative attitude.
Because in Chairman Mao's view, the Significance of the August 1st Nanchang Uprising was even greater and had profound historical significance for the establishment of New China.
As the commander-in-chief of the Nanchang Uprising, He Long made great contributions, and perhaps it was for this reason that Chairman Mao gave he long the title number 001.
He Long and Chairman Mao
In addition, chairman Mao's friendship with He Long is also very deep.
Chairman Mao has only called the boss to three people, in addition to calling Zhu De president Zhu and Peng Dehuai as president Peng, the other person is He Long, and Chairman Mao calls him Boss He, which shows that his relationship with Chairman Mao is better.
In 1940, He Long served as the commander of the Northwest Jinbei Military Region, and at the same time assumed the heavy responsibility of protecting the Party Central Committee.
During that period, the conditions of the troops were very difficult, and when the soldiers were hungry, they could only nibble on the bark and eat the leaves.
At that time, Chairman Mao was in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, and as soon as He Long got the supplies, he would immediately send them to the Party Central Committee in Yan'an.
During the battle against the Japanese army, He Long did not leave a single piece of military coats, blankets and other materials, and all of them were sent to Chairman Mao.
He Long once said: "Man cannot live without his own head, and neither a party nor an army can have a head." And the head he said was Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee.
He Long, Zhu De, Chairman Mao
In the course of the long-term relationship between He Long and Chairman Mao, He Long has long believed that Chairman Mao is a hero who saved the nation from peril and is also the supreme leader of our party.
Chairman Mao, on the other hand, believed that He Long was the banner of the Second Front and entrusted He Long with heavy responsibilities on many occasions.
In 1959, when the new Central Military Commission was established, Chairman Mao created three vice-chairmen, and He Long was the second vice-chairman. Chairman Mao's emphasis on He Long can be seen.
The friendship of the two great men, tested by strong winds and waves, finally achieved an earth-shattering revolutionary cause together.
Marshal He Long also dedicated his life to our party, the people, and the country, and is a well-deserved No. 001.