In September 1927, Chairman Mao led the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Xiangganbian province, and led the team of the Autumn Harvest Uprising to Jinggangshan after being reorganized through Sanwan, creating the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area, the first rural revolutionary base of our Party. The Autumn Harvest Uprising has important historical significance, and many outstanding founding generals have emerged, such as Tan Xilin, who we are going to talk about today, who participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising. So, what is the story of Tan Xilin?
Tan Xilin was born in 1908 in Changsha, Hunan Province, into a handicraft family. In his early years, Tan Xilin had studied in private school for several years, but because of his family's poverty, Tan Xilin dropped out of school soon after and entered a spinning factory to work and earn a living. Also during his part-time job, Tan Xilin began to contact progressive ideas, joined the workers' movement, and joined the Communist Youth League in 1925.
In 1926, Tan Xilin became a party member, after which he was admitted to the fifth engineering battalion of the Whampoa Military Academy, and after graduation, he entered the Ye Ting Independent Regiment as a platoon leader. In 1927, after the defeat of the Great Revolution, Tan Xilin broke away from the Kuomintang troops and participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising led by Chairman Mao. After the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Tan Xilin followed Chairman Mao to Jinggangshan, participated in the creation of the Jinggangshan Revolutionary Base Area, and served as a deputy battalion commander of the Red Fourth Army.
In 1929, Tan Xilin left Jinggangshan with the Red Fourth Army, after which he participated in the creation of the central base area and experienced the anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle of the central base area. During that period, Tan Xilin fought bravely and was one of the heroes of the Red Army's previous victories in the anti-"encirclement and suppression" battles, but in 1931, at the age of 23, Tan Xilin was framed in the "purge" movement in the Soviet district, and was expelled from the party, and at the same time demoted to a teacher in the Red Army Special Science School. Fortunately, Tan Xilin was optimistic and strong-willed, and soon he walked out of this bumpy experience, restored his party membership, and steadily improved his position.
In October 1934, after the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, Tan Xilin followed the Red Army on the Long March, and successfully reached northern Shaanxi and won the victory of the Long March. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to strengthen the construction of the New Fourth Army, Tan Xilin was sent to the New Fourth Army, served as the chief of staff of the 4th detachment of the New Fourth Army, and followed the New Fourth Army to witness the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
During the Liberation War, Tan Xilin was mainly active in the Shandong region, serving as the commander of the 7th Division of the Shandong Field Army and the first deputy commander of the Yuwan Soviet Military Region. In February 1949, according to the order issued by the Central Military Commission "On Unifying the Organization of the Whole Army and the Number of Troops", the forward command of the Jiaodong Military Region and its subordinate units were reorganized into the 32nd Army, and Tan Xilin served as the commander of the 32nd Army, after which he commanded the 32nd Army to liberate Qingdao and undertook the garrison task of Qingdao.
After the founding of new China, Tan Xilin served as the first deputy commander of the Shandong Military Region, but in 1950 he was transferred to Beijing, entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, served as the ambassador to Czechoslovakia, was a famous general ambassador at that time, and made outstanding contributions to the diplomatic work in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 1954, Tan Xilin stepped down as ambassador abroad and returned to the army, where he served as deputy director of the Department of Training Directorate.
When he was awarded the rank in 1955, tan Xilin, then 47, was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and became a founding lieutenant general. Three years after the award, in 1958, Tan Xilin was assigned to the Beijing Military Region and served as the deputy commander of the Beijing Military Region. Tan Xilin served as the deputy commander of the Beijing Military Region for a total of 11 years, and from 1958 to 1969, he made outstanding contributions to the development and growth of the Beijing Military Region and the regularization and modernization of our army. In 1970, Tan Xilin died of illness in Beijing at the age of 62.