In 1955, the military rank system was first implemented in New China, and more than a thousand generals were awarded, including 55 generals (Wang Jian'an was re-awarded in 1956 and Li Jukui was awarded in 1958).
Among these 55 people, Chen Mingren, Tao Zhiyue, and Dong Qiwu were quite special, because they did not always follow the footsteps of the revolution, but only revolted in the late stages of the Liberation War.
Even though they were in different camps, their deeds still made great contributions to the great cause of liberation and reduced many unnecessary sacrifices, so New China still gave them high honors, which also shows the benevolence and righteousness of our Party.
In particular, Chen Mingren, in the War of Liberation, led his troops in a bloody battle with our Northeast Democratic United Army in Siping, causing many casualties in our army. This situation can be called a "vendetta" in the past, but after his uprising, the central authorities still fully trusted him to continue to let him lead the troops.
At the end of 1950, Chen Mingren led his troops into Guangxi to suppress bandits, and he was accompanied by Li Tianyou, a famous general of Siye. It is very interesting here, when the Siping Offensive was attacked, Chen Mingren was the defender, li Tianyou was the commander of the siege, the two fought very fiercely, and now the opponent became comrades, and their cooperation was not half a point, and together they completed the task of suppressing bandits issued by the central authorities.
In October 1952, the 21st Corps was downsized into the 55th Army, and the former commander of the corps, Chen Mingren, served as the commander of the 55th Army.
In April 1959, the first session of the Second National People's Congress of New China was held in Beijing, and Chen Mingren, as a member of the People's Liberation Army delegation, also participated in the meeting, which resulted in a small episode at that time.
Since the uprising in 1949, General Chen Mingren has been thrown into the ranks of the people for ten years, and this time is not long, it is not short, and his thinking has changed greatly.
But after all, he has been in the Kuomintang camp for more than twenty years, and it is inevitable that he will still have some previous imprints on his body, and when he attended the npc session this time, he retained a habit of the past - carrying a gun.
In 1951, Huang Zuyan, deputy director of the Political Department of the Shandong Military Region and former secretary of Chairman Mao, was assassinated by Wang Jumin at a cultural work forum, causing a great sensation. Since then, organs and units have basically not allowed to carry firearms at meetings.
In the localities, the security of the highest standard of the National People's Congress is even stricter, so Chen Mingren's move is obviously not in line with the regulations.
If he was an officer with a normal background, the staff would ask him to hand over the gun to the Secretariat for safekeeping at the beginning and return it at the end of the conference. But Chen Mingren is different, he is an uprising general, and for people of this status, the organization will still take care of some things.
Therefore, the guards of the congress felt very tricky, let him hand over the gun, worried that it would cause him displeasure and would not be conducive to united front work; if he did not hand it over, what would happen to the problem when the time came? Who can afford this responsibility? The guards could not find a way to have both, so they did not let Chen Mingren undo the gun on the spot, but still reported it to the relevant person in charge of the meeting at the first time.
After Peng Zhen, secretary general of the conference, listened to the incident, he immediately went to he Long, head of the PLA delegation. In terms of military rank, He Long was a marshal, Chen Mingren was a general, and on the identity at that time, He Long was the head of the delegation and Chen Mingren was one of the deputies, which seemed to be something that could be solved in a single sentence, but He Long also felt troublesome.
If it was He Long who coordinated, the gun would definitely be able to be put away, but there would be a feeling of making a fuss, as if it was oppressed with identity, which would hurt Chen Mingren's face.
In order not to complicate simple things, He Long was inconvenient to come forward, and there were many high-ranking generals around him at that time, but these people were also not suitable. So what to do?
Mr. He considered for a while and decided to let the young staff at the venue deal with it, first, it was more natural, and second, Chen Mingren would not embarrass a junior. In the end, the leaders selected Chi Haotian, who was studying at the PLA General Senior Infantry School.
Chi Haotian was only 30 years old at the time, and his military rank was only major, so why could he become a representative of the People's Liberation Army along with many generals? The main reason is that he has been too excellent since he joined the army, made many meritorious contributions during the war years, and is a combat hero who is well-known to the whole army and a people's hero of the third level in East China, so he participated in this meeting as an outstanding representative of middle- and lower-level commanders and fighters.
He is very capable, flexible, and good at dealing with complex problems, so it is very appropriate to entrust him with this task.
Many feared that by having the Major "hand over" the General's gun, there might be fear, but this fear proved superfluous. Chi Haotian also knew that this kind of thing was sloppy, and soon found Chen Mingren, first generously saluted, and then said in a respectful tone:
Commander Chen, to report to you on a matter, the secretariat of this meeting has a request, during the meeting all the weapons carried by the delegates must be handed over to the conference for unified custody, and then returned after the end of the meeting.
This sentence is very decent, and it is not directly said that it is to collect the gun, but it is just used as a reminder to give Chen Mingren enough face, and it also shows that all deputies are not allowed to carry guns, not deliberately aimed at a certain person, so that Chen Mingren will not be disgusted.
After Chen Mingren heard this, Ma Cai reacted that he had a gun on his body, but he basically did not fire this gun, it was used as a souvenir.
In January 1945, Chen Mingren, then commander of the 71st Army, led his troops to capture Huilongshan, ensuring the final victory of the Western Yunnan War.
The battle was very important, and many important Allied generals were watching the battle, so they also gave a high evaluation, the commander of the US army Dou En called the Battle of Huilongshan "a masterpiece of military command art", and General Wei Demai called Chen Mingren "an outstanding Chinese general".
The United States and Britain were very satisfied, believing that the Nationalist army was still worthy of support, so it also gave convenience in aid, so that Chiang Kai-shek was also very satisfied, and specially rewarded Chen Mingren with a commemorative pistol, which was a gold-plated gun made in Germany.
Of course, Chen Mingren himself was more satisfied, he wrote in his autobiography: The battle of Huilongshan not only saved the entire situation at that time, but also increased my personal reputation at home and even internationally, and I myself of course think that it is another proud work of my life.
Therefore, this gun is a symbol of the fight against the Japanese for Chen Mingren, and he has not left his body for many years. It is also because of this that he only brought a gun to the meeting that day, which was a purely unintentional move.
After Chi Haotian's reminder, Chen Mingren immediately pulled out the gun: I forgot it at once, and indeed there was a gun that was not handed over, so please keep it for me. Chi Haotian saluted again, then took the gun and handed it to the conference team, and after the meeting that day, he returned the gun to Chen Mingren.
This incident made Mr. He and others look at this young cadre with astonishment and think that he was a material that could be made.
Afterwards, chi Haotian proved to be very capable, and in 1988 he was also awarded the rank of general and served as the minister of national defense, keeping up with these old predecessors.
Sure enough, it's gold that always shines!