As we all know, Zuo Quan was the highest-ranking general of our army who died during the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Then, who was the highest general who sacrificed his life in our army during the War of Liberation? His name was Juray.
For this name, today's young people are already somewhat unfamiliar.
Ordinary people only know that he is the artillery commander of the Northeast Military Region. What most people don't know is that Zhu Rui was once the head of a large strategic area, but later became the commander of the artillery under Lin Biao, not the person who directly led the troops.
What kind of tribulations did he go through in the middle of this, and what kind of brilliance did he burst out?
From the head of Shandong to the principal of the artillery school
Zhu Rui was born in Zhu Daxingzhuang, Suqian, Jiangsu Province. In 1925, he went to the Soviet Union and studied at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and the Krasin Artillery School.
After returning to China in 1930, he participated in the fourth and fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations and the Long March. After arriving in northern Shaanxi, he also participated in the Eastern Expedition and the Western Expedition.
In December 1936, he became the director of the Political Department of the Second Red Front. After the outbreak of the National War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, he served as secretary of the Military Commission and director of the Organization Department of the Northern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
In May 1939, Zhu Rui was appointed as the political commissar of the first column of the Eighth Route Army, and went to Shandong with commander Xu Qianqian to unify the command of the troops in Shandong and northern Jiangsu.
Zhu Rui later concurrently served as secretary of the Shandong Military and Political Committee and secretary of the Shandong Branch Bureau, leading all aspects of the work of the party, government, and army in Shandong, and became the highest responsible person of the party in Shandong.
However, due to historical reasons, for a long period of time, the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area failed to achieve centralized and unified military and political leadership.
Due to the influence of the war environment, the Shandong Column and the 115th Division were in different combat areas, forming two centers leading the Shandong War of Resistance.
In 1941, the Japanese attacked the base area on a large scale, and a large number of anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians were brutally killed, and Zhu Rui's wife Chen Ruoke and her newborn son were also killed.
In 1942, the situation in Shandong was even more severe. Mao Zedong sent Liu Shaoqi to Shandong to investigate the situation in Shandong and resolve the controversy within the leading organs.
Liu Shaoqi lived in Shandong for four months, conducted an in-depth and extensive investigation of the problems here, and finally came to the conclusion that the problems in Shandong were made by the principal leading comrades in a series of major issues.
The main leading comrade is Zhu Rui
In September 1943, Zhu Rui returned to Yan'an, and the central government appointed Luo Ronghuan as commander and political commissar of the Shandong Military Region.
After Zhu Rui returned to Yan'an, he studied at the Party School. During this period, he wrote "Autobiography of My History and Thought", which made a profound analysis of his own history.
At the Seventh National Congress of the Cpc, Zhu Rui also made a speech entitled "The Experience and Lessons of the Shandong Base Areas in the Triangular Struggle," in which he made a profound speech on his shortcomings and mistakes.
His spirit of self-criticism impressed everyone.
After the end of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Central Military Commission prepared to make Zhu Rui deputy chief of the general staff.
However, after much deliberation, Zhu Rui made another choice, and he decided to contribute to the artillery construction of our army.
So Zhu Rui took the initiative to ask Mao Zedong to go to the Yan'an Artillery School as a teacher.
Zhu Rui said:
"In the Soviet Union, I chose the artillery profession because I wanted to go back to China to get our own artillery. After returning home in 1930, there were no conditions at that time and put it aside. I was determined to start from scratch and pick up my past professions again. I'm going to give the rest of my life to the cannons, make friends with the cannons, and do what I can to build our own artillery. ”
Mao Zedong greatly appreciated and encouraged him:
"The Soviet Union has an artillery marshal, so you should be our Chinese artillery marshal!"
In June 1945, Zhu Rui was appointed acting principal of the Yan'an Artillery School.
After Zhu Rui arrived at the school, he opened up a new situation for the construction of artillery under very difficult circumstances.
He personally grasped the training, and he was in the gun field every day except for meetings. He was with the trainees, personally demonstrating and guiding their operational training.
After each day's training, the trainees are also given a lecture to summarize the advantages and disadvantages.
More than 1,000 cadets graduated in the first phase, becoming an important backbone of our army's artillery construction.
Artillery units were formed from scratch
According to the development of the situation, Zhu Rui led the comrades of the Yan'an Artillery School to the northeast to prepare to receive the equipment left over from the Japanese army and build an artillery unit.
However, after arriving in the northeast, the situation changed. Not only was there no Japanese equipment to receive, but the Nationalist army was also preparing to attack the northeast on a large scale.
Faced with a difficult and complicated situation, Zhu Rui proposed sixteen words, "Disperse the troops, collect weapons, develop the troops, and establish domestic chores." ”
A few remained in school, while others were assigned to field troops, who formed small detachments and traveled to various parts of the northeast to collect weapons.
"The Song of Collecting Weapons" records the scene where they collect weapons.
In less than half a year, a total of more than 700 artillery pieces, more than 500,000 shells, 12 tanks, 23 cars, as well as a large number of spare parts and various equipment were collected, laying a preliminary material foundation for the establishment of the Northeast Artillery Corps.
Zhu Rui used these family foundations to form 10 artillery regiments, 6 artillery battalions and 22 independent artillery companies in a relatively short period of time.
Although it is beginning to take shape, there are also many problems. For example, the strength is scattered, the organization is not uniform, the weapons and equipment are not matched, and even a gun company has several calibers of artillery.
If these problems are not resolved in a timely manner, they will certainly affect the combat effectiveness of the troops.
In December 1946, in accordance with the development and needs of the northeast war situation, Zhu Rui focused on the existing artillery to the reserve artillery directly under the military region, and allocated all other equipment and personnel to all columns and divisions according to the order, and established a team-affiliated artillery.
After adjustment, the military region established four reserve artillery regiments, each column having a field artillery regiment or battalion, and each division having a mountain artillery battalion or company.
In doing so, we have not only enhanced the independent combat capability of each column and division, but also enabled the limited artillery strength to be used in a concentrated manner, and greatly enhanced our army's ability to attack fortified areas and fight.
In order to sum up the actual combat experience, he personally went to the troops to command the operations and put forward a series of tactical tactics suited to the actual conditions of the troops, such as concentrating on the use of firepower, fast, accurate, and fierce, attacking tough operations, and coordinating infantry and artillery to directly aim and shoot at close range.
These tactics summed up by Zhu Rui greatly improved the combat capability of the artillery. In 1947, with the strong cooperation of artillery, our army captured Meihekou and Changtu, surrounded Siping, annihilated more than 80,000 enemy nationalist troops, and recovered more than 40 county towns, fundamentally changing the situation in the northeast battlefield.
After the practical experience of the offensive in the summer, autumn and winter of 1947, Zhu Rui further enriched the tactical principles, so that the combat technology level of the artillery gradually matured.
By 1948, the Northeast Military Region had more than 4,700 artillery pieces of various kinds, and had occupied a superior position in equipment, making full preparations for the upcoming Liaoshen Campaign.
He was killed on the front line of the Liaoshen Campaign
In July 1948, Zhu Rui participated in the preparations for the Liaoshen Campaign.
The leader of the military region had originally asked him to stay in Harbin to take charge of the rear work, but he insisted on going to the front, he said:
"I was in the rear for the last two years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and now that I have a campaign to liberate the northeast, I will take the artillery to the front."
On September 12, our army besieged YiXian County. Yixian is the northern gate of Jinzhou, and once conquered, Jinzhou becomes an isolated city.
However, the city of Yixian was high and thick, and the enemy relied on it and stubbornly resisted. The Nationalist army built bunkers and bunkers around the city wall, and also planted many mines around the city wall.
On September 30, 1948, the day before the general offensive, Zhu Rui went to each regiment, carefully inspected the direction and concealment of the artillery, and encouraged the artillery commanders and fighters to make contributions to the liberation of the whole northeast.
At 9:30 a.m. on October 1, Julie gave the order to fire.
More than 200 cannons fired at the same time, and after an hour and a half of artillery fire, the city head of Yixian Had collapsed, and the front wall was also opened by artillery fire more than 30 meters wide.
Subsequently, Zhu Rui ordered the artillery fire to extend, and the fortifications in the enemy city were also blown to pieces.
By 15:20, our army had conquered Yicheng, annihilated more than 10,000 enemy troops, and captured Wang Shigao, the commander of the Nationalist Division, alive.
In this campaign, for the first time, our army used previously captured American howitzers. The offensive performance of this artillery is not yet understood.
Driven by a strong sense of responsibility, Zhu Rui did not wait to clean up the battlefield, he took a guard warrior towards the city wall.
Zhu Rui wanted to go to the head of the city to see how wide the breakthrough was, and to know exactly what he knew in order to attack Jinzhou.
When Zhu Rui stepped onto a dirt ridge, he unfortunately stepped on the mine planted by the enemy, and with the flash of fire, the general fell, and he weighed dozens of pieces of shrapnel and never woke up.
When the news of Zhu Rui's death reached Mao Zedong, Mao Zedong did not speak for a long time, and he was grieved.
The condolence telegram sent back to Higashino from the central government pointed out
"Comrade Zhu Rui has made outstanding contributions in the artillery construction of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and his sacrifice today is a huge loss to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people. The Central Committee hereby expresses its deep condolences and hopes to convey to the whole army that it will continue to struggle for the complete victory of the revolutionary war in order to commemorate Comrade Zhu Rui's immortality. ”
In 2009, he was named one of the 100 heroic models who made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China.