At that time, there were those who took the initiative to give up the title, and there were also a few generals who felt that their ranks were low, and what was even more unexpected was that wang Zhen, Xiao Ke, Gan Siqi and other 8 people jointly named a major general to compete for the rank of military rank.
Who has such a big face that Wang Zhen and 8 other veterans will compete for his rank? This person is Tan Youlin, in the founding general Tan Youlin's fame seems to be not large, even less famous than Major General Zhong Wei, so why do Wang Zhen and other 8 people feel that his military rank is underestimated?
This has to start from the special experience of Tan Youlin, a native of Jiangling, Hubei Province, in 1930, at the age of 14, Tan Youlin joined the Red Army, successively serving as a correspondent, propagandist and guard of the red 3rd army, and then became the political commissar of the 17th regiment of the Red 6th Division in February 1935.
Although he became the commander of the regiment late, he became the political commissar of the 5th Division of the Red 2nd Army in the autumn of 1935, the youngest division political commissar in the Red Army at that time, only 19 years old, did not know that the political commissar of his division was fighting with his life, in April 1935, Tan Youlin, who was then the political commissar of the 17th Regiment, fought fiercely with the enemy in the Tawo area.
After the enemy was surrounded by the Red Army, he was engaged in a battle of trapped beasts, and the enemy proposed that Tan Youlin, the political commissar of the regiment, come forward to negotiate, and in order to reduce casualties, Tan Youlin, who knew that it was the enemy's trap, resolutely stood up, and sure enough, he was shot cold by the enemy, and fortunately only hit one arm.
But what people did not expect was that this time the injury almost killed Tan Youlin, due to the poor treatment conditions at that time, the bullet in his right arm has not been able to be taken out, resulting in infection, and later under the arrangement of Zhou Enlai, Tan Youlin disguised as a young student to Go to Xi'an for treatment, and only then took out the bullet.
It can be seen that Tan Youlin, who was the commander of the division during the Red Army period, had a higher rank, and during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Tan Youlin first served in the New Fourth Army, serving as the commander of the detachment and the political commissar of the 3rd Column of the 6th Detachment, and in July 1940, he was appointed as the brigade commander of the 6th Brigade of the 4th Column of the Eighth Route Army.
At the beginning of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Tan Youlin was transferred to the northeast, was one of the cadres supporting the northeast, served as a brigade commander and commander of the military sub-district, and became the political commissar of the independent 2nd Division of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army in August 1947, participating in many battles in the northeast battlefield and fighting in the south.
In April 1949, Tan Youlin became the deputy commander of the 39th Army, when he resisted the United States and aided Korea, he was still the deputy commander of the 39th Army of the Volunteer Army, he led his troops to participate in the famous Battle of Unsan, the opponent was the 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army, according to the military history of the 39th Army, the 39th Army annihilated a total of 4046 American troops and South Korean enemy troops in the battle.
After the war, Mr. Peng spoke highly of the 39th Army, praising "the 39th Army fought well!" Tan Youlin then returned to China, and in June 1951, Tan Youlin was appointed deputy commander of the public security forces of the Northeast Military Region, and in August 1955, he was regularly promoted to commander, and he was awarded the rank of major general when he was awarded the title that year.
After learning that he had been awarded the rank of major general, Tan Youlin's old comrades-in-arms, Wang Zhen, Xiao Ke, Li Da, Gan Siqi, He Bingguang, Yu Qiuli, Wang Shangrong, and Yang Xiushan, and 8 others jointly wrote a letter to the General Political Department, and this joint letter was highly valued by Luo Ronghuan, then director of the General Political Department.
After that, Luo Ronghuan took the initiative to find Tan Youlin and said that his work was not meticulous enough, and Tan Youlin did not care about this, he said: "The comrades who participated in the revolution at the same time as me have all sacrificed, I now have a family and children, and I am also a general, what is not satisfied?" ”
General Tan Youlin's mind was admirable, he refused Luo Shuai's kindness, after which Tan Youlin developed well, in October 1983 he became the political commissar of the Lanzhou Military Region, a general at the level of the Grand Military Region, until his death on May 22, 2006, at the age of 90.