In February 1949, Zhou Xihan, former commander of the 10th Brigade of the 4th Column of the Jin-Hebei Luyu Military Region, was appointed commander of the 13th Army of the Second Field Army. For this meritorious general, his promotion was relatively late.
Afterwards, Deng Xiaoping talked to Zhou Xihan and said straight to the point:
"Zhou Xihan, in the past ten years, we have deliberately suppressed you in your use. You should have been a military commander long ago. I don't know why I haven't mentioned you until now? ”
In this regard, Zhou Xihan was very "self-aware", and he said without hesitation: "Does the chief think that I am proud?" ”
Deng Xiaoping said: "The right head, it is for this." We're going to kill your pride. Pride is sometimes the most dangerous enemy of a good commander. In doing so, we are responsible to you and to the revolution. ”
Zhou Xihan said frankly: "The country and mountains are easy to change, and the nature is difficult to move. When I was in the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, Commander-in-Chief Xu Qianqian criticized me in this way. I know that this weakness of mine is that I can't change it. ”
Deng Xiaoping did not have any intention of accommodating, but said solemnly: "If you can change it, you must change it, and if you can't change it, you have to change it." Must be changed! The leaders can understand you, and the comrades can understand you. But something went wrong, and the revolutionary cause cannot forgive you, understand? ”
General Zhou Xihan spent his life on horseback and had many labels on the battlefield. However, in the eyes of the chiefs, the biggest characteristics of Zhou Xihan may be "pride" and qinggao. As an "arrogant general", Zhou Xihan does have the capital of "pride".
In fact, as early as the Battle of Huaihai, Zhou Xihan, as a brigade commander, had already commanded an army.
Zhou Xihan is a native of Macheng, Hubei Province, according to himself. When he was born, his father Zhou Qiyao once asked a fortune teller to show him a picture, and the result was: "This son has the appearance of a prince, the form of a proud thing, and the fate of rushing." ”
Zhou Xihan grew up to be thin and tall, appearing to be somewhat "shaped and bone-like", and was very conspicuous in the army. Therefore, he often calls himself "the thinnest in the world". During his time in the Red Army, Zhou Xihan led his troops to capture a Kuomintang officer, and it turned out that he was also extremely thin. So he stood shoulder to shoulder with the officer and said with great joy, "Good! Lao Tzu is not the thinnest in the world. ”
Zhou Xihan was thin, even Chairman Mao knew. He knew that in the Red Fourth Front, there was a "thin general" named Zhou Xihan. The supreme commander was able to remember his name among The generals of Rulin, which made Zhou Xihan particularly proud.
Zhou Xihan's family has three generations of single transmission, and his father only had such a son when he was forty years old, which is simply spoiled. In 1927, when the Communists launched the Macheng Rebellion, Zhou Xihan, who was only 14 years old at the time, wanted to participate, which upset his old father: "You went to join the army and were killed, who will pass on the generations of the Zhou family?" ”
However, Zhou Xihan was determined to join the people's armed forces and fight for the poor, where could he manage so much? He shouted, "I don't care about that!" I'm just going to join the army!" ”
Zhou Qiyao saw that he could not help his son, so he came up with an idea, simply let him get married, and tie his heart. In the late spring of 1928, his father found him a daughter-in-law surnamed Zheng, who was two years older than Zhou Xihan. According to Zhou Xihan, he didn't even know what his original name was, so he went into the cave room in a daze.
It just so happened that on the day of the wedding, Zhou Xihan got the above certificate about the identification of poor peasants, and because he was seen dead by his family, he had to participate in the whole process of being a groom from greeting relatives, worshiping the church, and then entering the cave house.
However, the bride waited for the groom to unveil his red hijab, and waited for several hours for his neck to harden before anyone came to reveal it. It turned out that Zhou Xihan had obtained the certificate of a poor peasant and had already escaped through the window to join the Red Army.
In the army, although Zhou Xihan was young and only a small soldier, he was extremely assertive and fought very bravely. By 1930, at the age of 17, Zhou Xihan had become a platoon leader. In the course of a battle, Zhou Xihan believed that the commander of the regimental commander Ren Nan had made a mistake, so he pointed out this mistake to the regimental commander in public.
It happened that at this time, the deputy commander Xu Xiangqian happened to come to the regimental headquarters of Zhou Xihan's regiment, and also wanted to talk to Ren Nan about this issue. Seeing this young man who had the same opinion as himself, Xu Xiangqian had an unspeakable liking.
He looked zhou Xihan up and down, patted his thin shoulder, and said with regret: "Pity! It's just a little thinner. ”
However, Zhou Xihan said unashamedly: "In the future, Guan Yunchang is tall, and has not also been defeated?" How do Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong look? Won't you win the battle? ”
Xu Xiangqian secretly rejoiced after listening to it, since the Guqi people must have strange words and strange shapes, the future of this thin platoon leader is certainly not simple. So Xu Xiangqian took out a map and examined Zhou Xihan: "Do you know this?" ”
Zhou Xihan did not pretend not to understand, but shook his head generously: "I don't understand." Then he said, "Can you teach me?" I can definitely learn, there is no skill that I can't learn. ”
Xu Xiangqian heard the words and whispered: "Although this boy is young, he knows how to study modestly, this boy is so confident, and he has the strength of a newborn calf who is not afraid of the tiger's refusal to lose, which is very rare." Such ambitious young people are exactly what we in the Red Army need! ”
So Xu Xiangqian patted his head and encouraged him in an appreciative tone: "Do a good job, it is a good material." ”
Later, Xu Xiangqian left Zhou Xihan by his side as a clerk, and the two formed a deep relationship. Under the command of the military god Xu Qianqian, Zhou Xihan's military level improved rapidly, and he soon became a fierce general in the Red Fourth Front.
Although the official is getting bigger and bigger, he is still full of pride, and he can say whatever he wants, and he has never shied away from it. In 1932, Chiang Kai-shek launched the fourth "encirclement and suppression" against the Eyu-Anhui Red Army. The enemy army was huge, but Zhang Guotao believed that "the White Army is not worried." Not only did the Red Army not get a rest, but instead forced the troops to attack Macheng. As a result, Macheng did not fight down, but instead made the hinterland of the base area, Jinjiazhai, anxious. Although Zhou Xihan was a small staff officer, he did not shy away from saying, "It is really a blind command." ”
He Wei, former commander of the Ninth Army of the Red Fourth Front, had a violent personality, was a habit of the old army, and liked to serve people with sticks and sticks (. After the defeat of the Ninth Army in a battle, He Wei was angry with Zhou Xihan, the chief of the military operations section. As a result, Zhou Xihan directly shook back. He Was furious and took out a gun to fire five shots at Zhou Xihan in a row, but none of the shots hit. On the other hand, Zhou Xihan did not have a dreadful face, but instead stared at He Wei with wide eyes: "Your marksmanship is not good, Lao Tzu's life is great!" ”
Who knew he was afraid to say, "I'm just scaring you, and I'm willing to fight really!" For He Wei, Zhou Xihan was indeed a love general he could not leave. Since He Wei was a Native of Guangdong, everyone did not understand what he said, so He Wei changed his staff officers several times. However, after the clever Zhou Xihan arrived, he carefully studied the pronunciation rules of the military commander and understood Cantonese within a week. He Wei was overjoyed, and boasted when he met people: "Zhou Xihan is really a genius." ”
I have to say that Zhou Xihan is indeed a genius. He did not read a day in military school, but he could always find the laws of war, which can be described as a natural commander. In the course of combat, Zhou Xihan repeatedly surprised soldiers and repeatedly built miracles.
In June 1933, Zhou Xihan's Sichuan-Shaanxi Su District was subjected to a "six-way siege" by a Sichuan warlord of 200,000 troops. In order to completely crush the enemy siege, the Red 9th Army was ordered to rush along the Xuan (Han) Da (County) Highway to Luowenba, an important supply point of the Sichuan Army. At that time, Zhou Xihan led the army's direct subordinates to the operation.
It is said that this direct subordinate unit is not a combat unit, except for the communication company and the division number teaching company, the rest are cadres of the organs and miscellaneous personnel. Less than 10 kilometers from the Rowan Dam, Junzhi encountered a platoon of the enemy army, and Zhou Xihan decisively commanded everyone to eliminate all the enemies.
During the interrogation of the prisoners, Zhou Xihan received the news that there was a regiment of enemy troops in front of him, and he could not get around at all. If you retreat, I am afraid that it will destroy the deployment of your superiors. However, there is a huge difference in the number of enemies and us, so how should this battle be fought?
Looking at his own trumpet soldiers, Zhou Xihan suddenly had a clever move, so he laid down a suspicious formation. First, he dispersed more than 100 divisional cadets. As soon as the battle began, all the trumpeters blew their trumpets in unison, which was really deafening and landslide, as if thousands of troops and horses were rushing towards the enemy army. The enemy army was already demoralized, and they did not know the details of our army, so they did not fight and chaos, and they were quickly defeated by our army.
Subsequently, Zhou Xihan repeated the same trick and used his "military trumpet array" three times. Overnight, Zhou Xihan commanded an army of several hundred people to fight four battles in a row, crushing 3 regiments of the enemy army and capturing more than 2,000 people, creating a miracle. After this battle, Zhou Xihan's reputation for making good use of the strange soldiers spread throughout the entire Red Fourth Front.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhou Xihan served under Chen Geng and his military prowess was also admired and recognized by the head of the "Huangpu Three Masters". At that time, Zhou Xihan was the chief of the operations unit of the 386th Brigade. Chen Geng believes that this position is too big for Zhou Xihan to be too big and too useful. So he used his brain to think about how to give this young man the opportunity to exercise and display his talents.
In 1938, the 386th Brigade formed a supplementary regiment, and Chen Geng promoted Zhou Xihan to the regimental chief of staff two levels. At the end of 1938, the 25-year-old Zhou Xihan went through a very short transition of deputy chief of staff of the brigade and became the chief of staff of the 386th Brigade.
From then on, Zhou Xihan followed Chen Geng closely and fought from the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the liberation of New China. On the battlefield, Zhou Xihan did not live up to Chen Geng's kindness to him.
On the night of September 1, 1940, Zhou Xihan, who was the commander of the left column of the 129th Division in the first phase of the Hundred Regiments War, led his troops and retreated to a place called Yangerling.
Judging from the situation at that time, our army was in a very critical situation, with the town of Mafang in the west being the enemy and the town of Baoyugou in the east being its own people. Under the cover of aircraft, the Japanese occupied Yangerling.
At this moment, Liu Bocheng sent the commander of the guard battalion to find Zhou Xihan and said urgently: "Chief of Staff of Zhou, the division commander ordered you to hold the Position of Yangerling and cover the retreat of the organs and the masses. You cannot retreat without His command! ”
It turned out that there were not only hospitals and division headquarters in Baoyugou, but also the foreman of the Eighth Route Army and the head organ of the Northern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Once the enemy is killed, the consequences are unimaginable. At this time, Liu Bocheng was worried that there were no soldiers to send, and as a result, he happened to encounter Zhou Xihan. Zhou Xihan said in a calm tone:
"Understand, no retreat is allowed without the order of the division commander, please tell the division commander that we will resolutely complete the task!" The commander of the guard battalion saluted and prepared to go back, but he couldn't help but say to Zhou Xihan: "Chief of Staff, just now the chief praised you as Zhao Zilong in the Three Kingdoms." After Zhou Xihan successfully completed his task, the good story about Liu Bocheng praising Zhou Xihan as Zhao Zilong did not go away.
Zhou Xihan's bravery and wisdom made Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, the two chiefs, feel admired. In the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, General Zhou Xihan was appointed commander of the left wing assault team, responsible for the destruction of the Railway from Shouyang to Yuci.
Deng Xiaoping asked Zhou Xihan: "The left wing does not have a political commissar or a chief of staff, only you, is it okay?" Zhou Xihan replied, "Don't be afraid, this kind of task, there are two or three tough staff officers." ”
In Zhou Xihan's view, in carrying out such temporary tasks, political work mainly depends on the political commissars of each regiment, and what he lacks now is a few top staff officers. As before, Zhou Xihan said whatever he wanted.
Hearing this, Deng Xiaoping thought that although Zhou Xihan's words were true, they revealed a little arrogance, which was indeed a weakness for a commander. So he and Liu Bocheng exchanged views, and Liu Bocheng also expressed the same feeling.
Because of this intuition, neither Liu Bocheng nor Deng Xiaoping pointed it out directly to Zhou Xihan, but slowly examined him. And this expedition took ten years.
After entering the War of Liberation, Zhou Xihan, as the brigade commander of the 10th Brigade of the 4th Column of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region, followed Chen Geng on his way to the Central Plains and repeatedly defeated strong enemies. As the commander of the top troops, he directly commanded the troops to kill and capture a total of 61 Kuomintang general-level officers. Among them, 8 enemy lieutenant generals were captured alive and 2 enemy lieutenant generals were killed, among whom famous generals such as Tang Yao, commander of the Eighth Corps of the Kuomintang, Yu Yingqi, Huang Zhengcheng, and Qiu Xingxiang, commanders of the "Guangdong-Guizhou Border Suppression Army," and other famous generals were called outstanding in battle.
In September 1946, Hu Zongnan attacked the north along the Tongpu Railway, and Chen Geng commanded the 4th Column to launch the Lin (Fen) Floating (Mountain) Campaign. During this battle, Hu Zongnan sacrificed his heart and liver treasure, which he boasted as the reorganized first brigade of the "first brigade under the world". As an integrated unit, this brigade is actually equivalent to a division in number and is equipped with sharp American equipment. Brigade Commander Huang Zhengcheng was born from the Whampoa Military Academy and studied in Germany. His contest with Zhou Xihan was a duel between "foreign brigade commander" and "soil brigade commander".
Under the command of Chen Geng, Zhou Xihan commanded the 10th Brigade, which was ambushed on the Linfu Highway, and surrounded Huang Zhengcheng's brigade headquarters and the 1st Regiment in the Chenyan section; the 11th Brigade surrounded the 2nd Regiment of the Huang Brigade in the Guanque section. By midnight, Huang Zhengcheng's 2nd Regiment was completely annihilated. Only the 1st Regiment, the most powerful, remained.
Chen Geng asked Zhou Xihan, can you solve the 1st Regiment before dawn? Zhou Xihan replied, "No problem, prepare breakfast for Huang Zhengcheng!" That night, Zhou Xihan led the 10th Brigade to launch a general offensive against the enemy's 1st Regiment.
Due to the fierce firepower of the enemy, Zhou Xihan adopted the tactic of steady and steady fighting, gradually tightening the encirclement and advancing layer by layer. By the early morning of the 24th, the 1st Regiment could not hold out, and destroyed one brigade headquarters, 1 regimental headquarters, and 4 whole battalions of the enemy. And all of this took only 12 hours.
After Huang Zhengcheng was captured, he shouted loudly: "The People's Liberation Army has no rules for fighting, and I want to fight again!" ”
Seeing Zhou Xihan, Huang Zhengcheng shouted again, "You are not Chen Geng! Zhou Xihan said, "I am Zhou Xihan!" Huang Yue: "Why didn't Chen Geng see me?" Zhou Xihan replied proudly: "Kill the chicken with a cattle knife and catch you, I Zhou Xihan is enough." ”
Later, Chen Geng still received this elementary school disciple, and he said: "Sun Tzu's Art of War" has two sentences: one sentence : "Attacking him is unprepared, surprised", and the other sentence "Those who attack and must take, attack what they do not defend." Our Brigade Commander Zhou defeated you according to Sun Tzu's art of war. If you wait until you open it and then fight, don't you violate Sun Tzu's Art of War, then it is called the Law of Disorder!
Later, he pointed at Zhou Xihan and said: "Our brigadier Zhou Xihan is a brigade commander from a peasant background, who has not entered the foreign school, who is a "soil leopard", a brigade commander who grew up in the real war. ”
In the winter of 1948, the Battle of Huaihai was fought. Chen Geng was assigned unified command of the group army composed of the 4th Column, the 9th Column, the 11th Column, and the Yuwansu Independent Brigade.
Chen Geng is going to command a group army, what about the 4 columns? No, he actually "took the burden" and handed over all the 4 brigades of the 4 columns to Zhou Xihan. As a result, Zhou Xihan was temporarily designated as a front-line commander.
Afterwards, Xie Fuzhi commented: "In a life-and-death decisive battle like the Battle of Huaihai, letting a brigade commander command an army, this burden, only 'Chen Lame Zi' dares to pick up, 'Zhou Slender' (Zhou Xihan nickname) dares to take over." ”
Under the resistance of heavy artillery and flamethrowers, Zhou Xihan's troops suffered heavy casualties. Seeing this, the old chief Chen Geng said: "After this battle is over, how many soldiers you need, I will give you as many soldiers as I want." Who knew that Zhou Xihan was confident: "No need, I still have a ten brigade!" ”
It turned out that Zhou Xihan had already left the reserve of the Tenth Brigade for the crucial moment. Chen Geng was overjoyed, and hammered his beloved general's chest with his hand: "You little boy! ”
When Huang Wei's corps was exhausted, Zhou Xihan sent the Tenth Brigade to the battlefield, and finally completely destroyed the enemy. Therefore, Zhou Xihan often said in his later years: "Huang Wei was not captured alive by me, but he was defeated by me." ”
After the Battle of Huaihai, Deng Xiaoping finally ended his inspection of Zhou Xihan and appointed him as the commander of the 13th Army. The 13th Army was Nino's ace unit. It was a promotion that was ten years late.
Sometimes, "pride" and purity are not all bad things for a soldier. Zhou Xihan's "pride" is by no means an unfounded "pride", but he does have the ability, does have self-confidence, and can really seek truth from facts. Therefore, his "pride" has not only not become a stumbling block for him to command the battle, but has become a magic weapon for him to be resolute and invincible. And this is also the point that Deng Xiaoping valued him the most.
Subsequently, Zhou Xihan led his troops to participate in the Battle of Crossing the River, the Battle of Xianggan, the Battle of Guangdong, and the Battle of Guangxi. As the ace army of Erye, the 13th Army was invincible, as the vanguard, took the lead, defeated the enemy, and established immortal merits.
Perhaps Deng Xiaoping's remarks to Zhou Xihan did play a role. When New China was founded and Zhou Xihan stepped into a new post, his purity and pride seemed to be much less.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, General Zhou Xihan successively served as the commander of the Tenth Army, the chief of staff of the Navy, and the deputy commander. During this period, Zhou Xihan invited the famous scientist Qian Xuesen to give a lecture to the leaders of the Navy. With the help of Soviet scientists, Zhou Xihan organized the test of firing live ammunition of the Soviet-made "Small Volcano" shore-based missile.
One day, Zhou Enlai introduced General Zhou Xihan to the foreign guests: "Deputy Commander of the Chinese Navy, Naval Expert Zhou Xihan, Xihan, Chinese means a rare hero. ”
And Zhou Xihan also lived up to Premier Zhou's praise in his work. He worked day and night, even with stomach cancer. As he once said to himself: "I eat donkey food, and I do mule work." ”
In 1973, Zhou Xihan ignored his physical illness and interrupted hospitalization and threw himself into the Navy's research on important projects such as a certain type of nuclear submarine and a certain type of guided missile destroyer. Even if you are tired and vomit blood, you will not hesitate. In 1975, Zhou Xihan became ill with overwork and had to "hang up his post to recuperate". In August 1983, Zhou Xihan was appointed naval adviser.
In May 1987, Zhou Xihan left for retirement. In the autumn of that year, Junbo held an exhibition of calligraphy and paintings of the old generals, and the works sent by the generals to the exhibition were calligraphy vertical scrolls, with seven big characters written on them: "Iron Horse Jingo Dreams." ”
On November 7, 1988, a generation of war generals Zhou Xihan died in the hospital due to sudden arrest of sleep and breathing, at the age of 75. In his sleep, Zhou Xihan, who had been proud all his life, may have returned to the battlefield where the war was raging.