preface
On September 27, 1955, at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, Wang Shusheng was awarded the rank of Grand Prize. Wang Shusheng likes to use guns and cannons, and he was appointed director of the Ordnance Department of the people's liberation army of the Chinese, and the ordnance department is an important guarantee for the modernization of the army; therefore, after Wang Shusheng took office, he devoted a lot of energy to striving to change the backward status quo as soon as possible.
Destroy relatives for the great righteousness of the revolution
Wang Shusheng was born in a remote mountain village in Macheng County, Hubei Province, and his grandfather earned some wealth by practicing medicine and teaching, so Wang Shusheng's family can also be regarded as a "well-off family". When Wang Shusheng was in elementary school, he experienced the pain of tax payment and witnessed the miserable life of the low-level people, so he gradually changed from a weak scholar who followed the rules to a progressive youth who pursued freedom and dared to revolutionize.
Wang Shusheng's uncle Wang You'an was a member of the Communist Party, under the influence of his uncle, Wang Shusheng read many progressive books and periodicals, and often discussed current politics with his classmates and imagined the future of the country.
Wang Shusheng's uncle Ding Pillow Fish is a landlord who does nothing wrong, Ding Yueping is also a bully, Ding Pillow Fish implements the "right of the first night" in the local area, and all the tenants and servants of his family, who have a man marrying a woman's family, ask the newlyweds to sleep with him first, which makes many people cry bitterly, but they dare not speak out.
After Wang Shusheng became the head of the organization and led the comrades to carry out their work, when someone reflected on the bully deeds of Ding Pillow Fish, Wang Shusheng heard the words, clenched his fists and smashed them on the table, saying: "If you want revolution, you can't take care of personal feelings." Saying that, he took someone to find Ding Pillow Fish to settle the account. A group of people broke into the gate of the Ding family, burned the deeds of the fields, opened the warehouse to release grain, tied up the Ding pillow fish, and paraded around the streets.
Since Wang Shusheng disregarded the face of the "family", Ding PillowYu was angry, and on a dark and windy night in the month, he led a group of thugs to surround Wang Shusheng's home, Wang Shusheng heard movement outside the house, and vaguely felt that something was wrong, and lifted a ghost head knife from the back window and turned over to the house. Ding Pillow Fish rushed into the house, seeing that he was about to be exposed, and before he could think about it, Wang Shusheng jumped down, cut down one of the thugs, and said, "The surname Ding, Wang Shusheng is here!" ”
Ding Pillow Fish broke out and scolded: "You rabbit cub, great rebellion, Lao Tzu must bear fruit for you today!" During the conversation, the thugs swarmed up, fighting with a large number of people, and fought with Wang Shusheng. Wang Shusheng was brave and abnormal, one knife on the left, one knife on the right, and several thugs who rushed up suddenly fell in a pool of blood, and Ding Pillow fish saw the situation, and his soul was frightened and scattered. Wang Shusheng said, "Ding Pillow Fish, you have done no evil, you bully men and women, on behalf of the peasant association, I will sentence you to death!" ”
At this critical time, several gunshots came from outside the window, Wang Shusheng hesitated for a moment, fixed his eyes on it, only to see that the people of the Regiment Defense Bureau came with guns, saw that things were not good, and immediately ran over the wall. Ding Pillow Fish chased people out and ran to the mouth of the village, but he was no longer seen, and he was so angry that he scolded. Ding Pillow Fish had the thugs burn Wang Shusheng's house and then smash the farmers' association office.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek openly rebelled against the revolution, the reactionary armed forces in Macheng gathered the Red Gun Society and began to act, and the comrades of the Macheng County Cpc Committee mobilized workers and peasants to resist. One day, the people of the Red Gun Society were naked, chanting incantations, and flocked to the city wall, and Wang Shusheng stood on the wall, with a contemptuous look in his eyes, raised his rifle, pulled the trigger lightly, and as the gun sounded, the leader whimpered for his life. The people guarding the city lifted up stones and bricks and smashed the red gun society's heads and bloodied, making a mess.
The second leader of the Red Gun Society was ready to lead people to sneak attack from the west gate, and when they came to this place, the second leader shouted: "Heavenly Soldier Heavenly General, kill me!" As soon as the words fell, a loud noise came, and it turned out that Wang Shusheng had already calculated their sneak attack, arranged an ambush early, and set up an earthen cannon in a secret place. The bombardment of the earthen cannon made the Red Gun feel frightened and flee in all directions.
Wang Shusheng believed that the Red Gun Society had only temporarily retreated and would definitely make a comeback, so he decided to take two soldiers and go to Wuhan for help. That night, Wang Shusheng disguised himself as a disciple of the Red Gun Society and went out of the city, and on the way found the camp of the Red Gun Society, which was divided into two organizations. Wang Shusheng said to the two warriors, "You two fight to the left, I fight to the right, the two sides are in chaos, let's rush over the chaos!" ”
When the gunshots rang out, the red gun clubs on both sides were confused and shouted, "The peasant association has come!" Wang Shusheng and the other three people took advantage of the chaos to rush away, who knows how far they ran, they were tripped by a rope, at this time from both sides of the road rushed out more than a dozen people of the Red Gun Society, one of them stabbed at Wang Shusheng with a spear, and a warrior bravely sacrificed himself in spite of his body blocking Wang Shusheng's chest.
Wang Shusheng did not have time to grieve, and took out a shuttle of bullets, and the red gun would be repelled. Looking at the sacrificial comrades-in-arms, Wang Shusheng shed tears, but he had a heavy responsibility on his body, and could not stay longer, immediately buried the body, and another soldier strides towards Wuhan.
When he came to Wuhan, Wang Shusheng met Dong Biwu, head of the Hubei Provincial CPC Committee, who listened to the report, immediately convened a meeting, and sent more than 3,000 people to quickly support Macheng. The regular troops, more heroic and majestic, under the leadership of Wang Shusheng, went straight to Macheng, and the people of the Red Gun Society heard that reinforcements had arrived, and fled in the wind, and Macheng was lifted, and everywhere they praised Wang Shusheng's deeds of risking to move and rescue soldiers.
Wang Shusheng held a mass meeting, and in accordance with the "Regulations on Punishing Local Tycoons and Inferior Gentry," arrested Ding Pillow Fish and other bullies, executed them, and shot them on the spot.
Military excellence, outstanding military achievements
In mid-January 1931, the First Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the Red Fifteenth Army, which had been transferred from Huangmei and Guangji, met in Shangnan and merged into the Red Fourth Army, with two divisions and an independent regiment under its jurisdiction. In the face of Chiang Kai-shek's encirclement, pursuit, and interception, the Red Fourth Army heroically counterattacked, and won successive victories against "encirclement and suppression." Wang Shusheng showed outstanding military command ability in the battle.
However, due to Zhang Guotao's erroneous command, the Red Fourth Front, which had been becoming more and more courageous in battle, suffered a defeat in the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign and had to withdraw from the Eyu-Anhui base area and carry out a strategic shift. Wang Shusheng led the Seventy-third Division of the Twenty-fifth Army, sometimes as the forward of the whole army, sometimes as the rear guard of the whole army, and along the way broke the enemy's blockade and pursuit, reversing the passive situation of the large army.
After that, Wang Shusheng took advantage of the opportunity to establish a revolutionary base area in Sichuan and Shaanxi with northern Sichuan as the center, and repeatedly achieved good results in the contest with the enemy.
In the early spring of 1935, the Red Fourth Front forcibly crossed the Jialing River to kick off the prelude to its long march, and on June 14, the Red First and Fourth Fronts met at Maogong Division, and the Central Military Commission decided to divide the two armies into mixed formations and divide the left and right routes north. Wang Shusheng was ordered to concentrate on Mao Ergai, and when he arrived here, he was incorporated into the Right Route Army, and Chairman Mao and Zhu De personally received him.
At this time, Zhang Guotao adopted a separatist stance and sent a telegram ordering the Right Route Army not to go north, and Wang Shusheng and the soldiers of the Fourth Front Of the Right Route Army had to bid farewell to the Red Army and return to the south. The weather was getting colder and colder, the warriors were thinly dressed and starving, and many of them fell down and never stood up again, Wang Shusheng looked at it in his eyes and felt extremely sad.
On October 18, the Red Army moving south attacked in two columns on the left and right, and in more than ten days, it destroyed six brigades of the enemy Liu Wenhui's army, occupied Maogong and Danba counties and surrounding important towns, and on October 24, Wang Shusheng led his troops to cross Jiajin Mountain, captured Baoxing, and successively crushed the obstruction of a brigade and a regiment of Liu Xiangjiao's mentor, directly approaching Lushan City, Liu Xiang ordered other independent brigades to reinforce Lushan, and was annihilated by other Red Army.
On November 12, Wang Shusheng led his troops to occupy Lushan City, and four days later, he attacked the famous mountain town of Baizhangguan. In order to stop the Red Army's offensive, Liu Xiang gathered more than 80 regiments and, under the cover of the fire of aircraft and artillery, launched a counterattack against the Red Army.
The defeat at Baizhangguan was the result of Zhang Guotao's unauthorized leadership of his army to the south, and the enemy transferred heavy troops to Mingshan, Ya'an, and other places to build pillboxes, which made the Red Army militarily passive, at the same time, the Red Army's supplies also became a problem, and the soldiers had to eat wild vegetables to fill their hunger. The Central Red Army, on the other hand, went all the way north, arrived in northern Shaanxi, joined the local Red Army, smashed the enemy's encirclement and suppression, and established a revolutionary base area in northern Shaanxi.
On December 25, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward the strategic principle of the anti-Japanese national united front and maintained contact with the Red Fourth Front, so there was a strong reaction within the Red Fourth Front, and Wang Shusheng and the vast number of commanders and fighters demanded that they go north to meet the Central Committee.
Ren Bishi and He Long led the Red Second and Sixth Armies to Ganzi to meet the Red Fourth Front, and although Zhang Guotao still had other plans, at the strong request of the cadres and soldiers of the Red Fourth Front, including Wang Shusheng, he finally decided to go north and join the central government. The route of the Red Fourth Long March was the shortest, but it was the most arduous and complex, and before they set out, they had relatively adequate preparations in terms of materials, but due to the long distance, they finally had to eat grass roots and bark to fill their hunger.
Along the way, Zhang Guotao's anti-Party and anti-Red Army plots collapsed one by one, and Wang Shusheng expressed strong dissatisfaction with Zhang Guotao, but was retaliated against, and Wang Shusheng was dismissed from his post as commander of the Thirty-first Army and demoted to the head of the Red Fourth Front's Teaching Regiment.
In 1938, Wang Shusheng bid farewell to Yan'an and went to the anti-Japanese front as deputy commander of the Jinji-Hebei Yu Military Region, which later merged with the 129th Division, and concurrently served as the minister of the People's Armed Forces.
In June 1947, the Chinese People's Liberation Army began a strategic counteroffensive, and the superiors asked Wang Shusheng to follow Liu Deng's army in the southern attack, and Wang Shusheng returned to Eyuwan as the commander of the Eyuwan Military Region. Liu Deng's army leaped thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains, like a steel knife, inserted into the heart of the enemy, and Chiang Kai-shek immediately dispatched his troops to try to catch our army by surprise when its foothold was unstable. The troops under wang shusheng's command coordinated with the main force of Liu Deng's army to engage the enemy, smash the enemy's plan, and open up the situation for the reconstruction of Dabie Mountain.
After the Battle of Huaihai began, the Nationalist troops who had cleared and suppressed Dabie Mountain withdrew in large numbers, leaving only more than 20 regiments, and Wang Shusheng seized the opportunity to destroy the enemy with one blow, successively liberating Shangcheng, Gushi, Xinxian, and Huang anddeng County. The troops of Wang Shusheng's Eyu Military Region not only cleared the obstacles to crossing the river for the army going south, but also actively cooperated with the local government in raising grain and opening up roads, thus making immortal meritorious contributions to the cause of the liberation of New China.
The defeat of the Kuomintang was already decided, but Bai Chongxi was not willing to lose, and a large number of bandit leaders lurked back to Dabie Mountain in an attempt to establish a "guerrilla base area." Faced with such a situation, Wang Shusheng opened up a battlefield of "suppressing bandits" and annihilated more than 15,000 people in half a year, greatly consolidating the Dabie Mountainous Area of Eyu and Anhui. On the eve of the founding ceremony, Wang Shusheng received a notice inviting him to participate in the Tiananmen Square ceremony, but he resolutely gave up this opportunity and devoted himself to the work of Dabie Mountain, and was praised as "hero of Dabie Mountain".
A true hero in times of peace
One day in 1954, a paper order from the Central Military Commission was placed in front of Wang Shusheng, asking him to serve as the director of the General Ordnance Department of the Central Military Commission. In order to speed up the pace of army modernization, the Central Military Commission set up the General Ordnance Department, but because the staff came from all over the world and different units, many contradictions arose, Peng Dehuai attached great importance to this and decided to transfer to a big future, so Wang Shusheng "changed his career" and became the minister of ordnance.
Soon after taking office, Wang Shusheng encountered a thorny problem, and several heads of the department disagreed on the location of the range. According to the opinions of Soviet advisers, some people advocate the establishment of the range in North China, but some people hold an opposing view, they believe that north China is densely populated, factories are like forests, safety is a big problem, the range is only eight or nine kilometers, and the northeast region is sparsely populated, and the range can reach more than 100 kilometers.
Wang Shusheng did not hurry to express his position, he firmly believed that "seeing is believing, hearing is false", after making a report to Peng Dehuai, the two people took a plane to the northeast and north China, from above, which place is more suitable for the shooting range, at a glance. In the end, the range was built somewhere in the northeast, and practice proved that this choice was correct.
The mechanical production of our army was also carried out with the help of the Soviet Union, which inevitably had some negative effects, and there was a saying circulating at that time: There is a rational and irrational three-plate axe, that is to say, in the process of learning from the Soviet Union, whether it is reasonable or unreasonable, it is necessary to be hit by the superior three boards.
The General Ordnance Department wants to produce a new type of artillery that can shoot 200 shells per minute, and there are two choices for the barrel material of this kind of artillery, one is made in the Soviet Union, and the other is a domestic material; foreign experts do not believe that the mainland's things can make new artillery, and the mainland experts also have great respect for Soviet products.
In order to compare which is better than domestic or imported, Wang Shusheng decided to engage in a "contest". On the day of the "contest", the two gun barrels kept spraying tongues of fire, under the eyes of experts, they fought for half a month, costing tens of thousands of shells, and the results proved that the imported barrels could not hit ten thousand shells, the gun barrels were red, and they had to be replaced, but the domestic gun barrels could hit twenty thousand shells, even if the barrels were red, as long as they were cooled with cold water, they could be used again.
Peng Dehuai watched the scene of the "contest", watched tens of thousands of shells being consumed like this, and was so distressed that he shook his head and sighed: "You can really break the fee!" Until the end of the "competition", the domestic gun barrel was better than the import, he smiled heartily.
Facts have proved that Wang Shusheng's vision is avant-garde, if a large number of foreign products are imported, not only need foreign exchange, but also not conducive to the development of national industry, compared with imported materials, the shells consumed by the "competition" are simply "small witches and big witches".
After this competition, Wang Shusheng was enlightened that if he wanted to build a strong ordnance industry team, it was impossible to rely on others, and he must take the road of independence and autonomy. In the early days of the founding of New China, there were two ways to obtain talents: one was to train their own experts through schools, and the other was to select from among the scientific and technological talents left over from the Kuomintang. The second method is undoubtedly a shortcut.
However, as soon as everyone heard that they were going to select scientific and technological talents from the Kuomintang, they immediately fried the pan and said one after another: "How can the ordnance industry in New China rely on the black minions of the Kuomintang reactionaries?" Wang Shusheng did not speak, but made a meticulous investigation of the "leftover" technicians, and he found that most of them were patriotic, and the reason why they served the Kuomintang was also forced by their lives.
After the matter was clarified, Wang Shusheng vigorously overcame the public opinion and called on the "left" scientific and technological talents of the Kuomintang as the living force of the Mechanical Research Institute; although it was still difficult at first, it laid an important foundation for the discovery of the mainland's ordnance industry. By the end of 1958, our army's ordnance work had "made rapid progress and renewed weather in Vientiane."
1959 was an extraordinary year, after the Lushan Conference, Wang Shusheng was transferred from the post of Minister of Ordnance Department, transferred to vice minister of national defense, member of the Central Military Commission, and in November, he was appointed vice president of the Academy of Military Sciences.
In 1974, due to the spread of cancer cells, Wang Shusheng's life entered the countdown, and on January 7, Zhou Enlai came to visit in the midst of a busy schedule, and he said kindly: "Comrade Shusheng, on behalf of the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, I have come to see you!" Wang Shusheng shook Zhou Enlai's hand, tears welling up, and Zhou Enlai continued: "The Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao know you well, you are a good comrade of the Party, you have made great contributions to the revolution, and you are one of the founders of the Eyu-Anhui base area!" ”
Five days later, the great general who had fought for the creation of a new China for half a century and established an immortal feat slowly closed his eyes and passed away at the age of 69.