"The Red Army is not afraid of expeditions and difficulties, and thousands of rivers and mountains are only waiting for leisure. Five ridges rushing waves, Umeng majestic mud pills... ”
This is a verse from Chairman Mao's "Seven Laws: The Long March", which depicts the difficulties and obstacles that the Red Army overcame on the 25,000-mile Long March, and ended the Long March in 1936 after the three main forces of the Red 1st, 2nd, and 4th Red Army.
It's just that many people don't know that in the long march of thousands of miles, in addition to the three main forces of the Red 1, Red 2 and Red 4, the contribution made by the Red 25th Army is also outstanding, the Red 25th Army is a very young team, at that time the commander of the Red 25th Army was less than 30 years old, many soldiers were also 13~18 years old, because the age was too young, this unit was once called the "baby army".
During the Long March, the Red 25th Army repelled the enemy's elite troops several times, buying the most precious time for the three main forces, and in order to conquer the strong defense of the Red 25th Army, Chiang Kai-shek also sent the Northwest Army, the Northeast Army, and even the Ma Family Army to intercept along the way, but with little success.
Group photo of some leaders of the Red 25th Army and security personnel
The arrival of the Northwest Army, the Northeast Army, and the Majia Army not only did not cause substantial losses to the Red 25 Army, but actually strengthened the strength of the Red 25 Army; with this batch of combat materials "sent" by Chiang Kai-shek, the Red 25 Army suddenly became "rich." With materials and weapons, the Red 25 Army created the Eyu-Shaanxi Revolutionary Base Area and recruited many like-minded comrades along the way.
In addition, this unit is also a rare army of "one army and one hundred generals" in our army, at the Zhongnanhai award ceremony in 1955, among the more than 3,000 soldiers of the Red 25th Army, 1 general, 2 generals, 6 lieutenant generals, 88 major generals appeared one after another, and 97 founding generals appeared at a time, which had never appeared before, and among the 2 generals, in addition to the deputy commander of the army, Senior General Xu Haidong, the other was General Liu Zhen.
So, what achievements did General Liu Zhen do? What interesting things happened in his military career?
Admiral Liu Zhen
Liu Zhen was born in 1915 in a poor peasant family in Xiaogan County, Hubei Province, his mother died early, and his father was sick, so Liu Zhen matured earlier than his peers from an early age and had a deeper understanding of the revolutionary movement than others.
At the age of 15, Liu Zhen joined the Red Guards, and in the struggle, Liu Zhen realized the correctness of our party's leadership, so he resolutely joined our party, and Liu Zhen was only 17 years old that year, and since then Liu Zhen's military career has officially begun.
Doll soldiers
Not long after joining our party, Liu Zhen set a brilliant record, when our army was dealing with the Red Rifle Society, Liu Zhen was assigned to participate in this battle after entering the army, and at the same time Han Xianchu was also sent to battle, but Liu Zhen and Han Xianchu were not familiar with it at that time.
In this battle, Han Xianchu performed outstandingly, although Han Xianchu was only 19 years old at the time, but the general's demeanor has gradually been revealed, when fighting against the enemy, Han Xianchu commanded properly, turned the situation on the battlefield in one fell swoop, and the red spear would be defeated, and could only retreat step by step.
Han Xianchu
In the subsequent pursuit battle, Liu Zhen performed even more prominently, only seventeen years old, he was like a tiger descending the mountain when pursuing the enemy, although he was not tall, but extremely fast, the enemy had no chance to escape, and finally Liu Zhen alone captured two prisoners, and by the way captured several guns.
In 1932, the main forces of the Red Fourth Front Army carried out a strategic transfer, and part of the remaining Red Army immediately reorganized the Red 25th Army, because Liu Zhen has always performed well, after the establishment of the Red 25th Army, Liu Zhen was assigned to the fourth brigade of the pistol regiment of the Red 25th Army, at that time our army was in difficult conditions, guns and ammunition were extremely scarce, most soldiers were difficult to touch real guns and real bullets after entering the army, Liu Zhen was able to enter the pistol team, which shows the degree of attention at that time.
Soldiers of the pistol regiment of the Red Army (pay attention to the barge gun worn)
And Liu Zhen did not disappoint, after joining the pistol team, Liu Zhen followed the troops to make many great achievements, under the leadership of army commander Xu Haidong, Liu Zhen and his party even beat Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army to the ground, at that time Chiang Kai-shek proudly thought that the main forces of the Red Fourth Front Army had been transferred, and the young Red 25th Army left behind was just a fake style, so let Zhang Xueliang be sure to annihilate this group of "boy scouts" within three months.
What Zhang Xueliang did not expect was that Xu Haidong, the commander of the 25th Red Army, was extremely good at using troops, although he was only in his twenties, Xu Haidong had already experienced countless wars of various sizes, so when facing the siege of the Northeast Army, Xu Haidong skillfully used tactical tactics to successfully confuse the enemy, and attacked the rear warehouse of the enemy's 54th Division by surprise, the enemy was unprepared and was completely annihilated, Xu Haidong and others also seized more than 7,000 silver dollars and a large number of weapons and ammunition from the enemy warehouse.
Xu Haidong during the Red Army
This battle was undoubtedly very successful; after the war, the 25th Red Army held a celebration party, capturing so many strategic materials at once at the most difficult time, and everyone in the troops cheered; however, just when everyone was immersed in a joyful atmosphere, Liu Zhen suddenly stood up and put forward a different view, and said that "this battle cannot be regarded as a great victory."
Liu Zhen's words made Xu Haidong instantly interested, Liu Zhen was only nineteen years old at the time, and he could only be regarded as a recruit in the pistol regiment, Xu Haidong was very curious to know what kind of opinion he could say, so he hurriedly asked him: "Tell me about it, where did we fight badly?" ”
Because the problem was relatively complicated, Liu Zhen systematically listed three tactical problems, one is that the gun fire is not closely coordinated enough during the attack, resulting in excessive casualties among our troops; the second is that the formation is chaotic when withdrawing from the target area, and fire cover is not arranged in advance around the area; the third is that the entry time of the pistol regiment is too late, and if it can enter the warehouse half an hour earlier to transport materials, this time it will gain more.
Although there are only three short sentences, these three sentences have a huge inspiration for Xu Haidong, after listening to Liu Zhen's speech, Xu Haidong was excited, constantly praising Liu Zhen's vicious vision, he had such an opinion at a young age, even if he was a company commander and an instructor, it was enough, and Xu Haidong was not just talking, a few days later, Xu Haidong promoted Liu Zhen to the instructor of the first battalion and company of the 224th regiment.
Liu Zhen guided the troops' training
Because Liu Zhen rose so fast, even his comrade-in-arms Han Xianchu could not help but quip: "Comrade Liu Zhen, you have been promoted by two and a half levels in three sentences." This shows the degree of our army's desire for talent, and as long as there are opinions and ideas, our army will give play to space, and this is called the people's army.
Letting a nineteen-year-old soldier be an instructor naturally had many skeptical attitudes at that time, but it turned out that Xu Haidong did not look at the wrong person, and what Liu Zhen did next fully confirmed that he had this strength, and the strength did not stop there.
Young Liu Zhen
In November 1934, during the Long March of the 25th Red Army, it encountered an enemy encirclement in Chengxian in Henan, and the situation was extremely critical, in order to cover the retreat of the troops, Liu Zhen led the soldiers of the first company to seize a mountain as quickly as possible, and relied on the terrain advantage of this mountain to intercept the enemy army.
It's just that the number of enemies is too large, and their firepower is very dense, Liu Zhen's troops were seriously damaged during the interception, but even though the situation was so grim, Liu Zhen still did not give up on the mountain, and under his leadership, the soldiers repeatedly charged, and finally held the position at the cost of nearly half of the casualties of the entire company, delaying the enemy's pursuit.
After the battle, in order to allow the seriously injured soldiers to be treated as soon as possible, Liu Zhen took the lead in carrying the stretcher, which was more than a dozen days and nights, although there were many difficulties along the way, Liu Zhen never left any wounded, which made his prestige in the army instantly rise.
The first on the left is Liu Zhen, and the middle is Han Xianchu
In addition to fighting fiercely, Liu Zhen is also a rare "technician" in the army, although Liu Zhen has not studied for a few days, but his mind is very flexible, especially interested in engineering technology, at first our army did not know very much about artillery such "foreign things", many soldiers even if captured do not know how to use it, so most of the captured artillery was buried, this scene greatly shocked Liu Zhen, after which he began to study the use of artillery.
Liu Zhen's efforts were not in vain; after his painstaking study, he not only understood how artillery should be hit, but also understood the principles thereof, and once became an artillery expert in the 25th Red Army; later, when dealing with the Japanese army, Liu Zhen also changed the curved mortar into a curved and straight dual-purpose mortar in accordance with the basic principle of artillery, which greatly increased the accuracy of our army's fire coverage.
Tank men of the Northeast Field Army
After the surrender of Japan, Liu Zhen was immediately appointed commander of the second column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army because of his outstanding performance, leading the troops to participate in the war of liberation, in the autumn offensive and winter offensive operations, Liu Zhen took the lead, concentrated 66 artillery pieces at once to attack Zhangwu, in just 20 minutes, the enemy garrison could not support, and the defensive positions were lost one after another.
After the first round of direct fire attacks, Liu Zhen commanded the artillery to extend the fire, the enemy position instantly collapsed, while the enemy scattered and fled, Liu Zhen quickly organized the commando team to charge under the cover of machine gun fire, and took Zhangwu in less than 5 hours, the enemy defender Major General was captured alive, and more than 7,000 people were captured, which can be described as a great victory.
In the subsequent Liaoshen Campaign, Tianjin Campaign, and River Crossing Campaign, Liu Zhen's figure was everywhere, and under his command, the Second Column repeatedly made great achievements and became a well-known ace unit in the People's Liberation Army.
Artillery of the Eighth Route Army firing
After the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea began, Liu Zhen was appointed commander of the Air Force of the Chinese People's Volunteers because of his deep research on technical work, although it was the first contact with aircraft, before which Liu Zhen had not even done an airplane, but Liu Zhen was full of confidence, he studied intensively, urged pilots to train hard, and humbly asked Soviet experts on various flight problems and flying skills.
In January 1951, Liu Zhen led the People's Air Force to shoot down a US fighter plane for the first time in the air, and in the following months, several US fighters were shot down one after another, turning the situation on the Korean battlefield in one fell swoop and making the volunteers no longer suffer from the lack of air supremacy.
Volunteer Air Force Unit
In 1955, Zhongnanhai was conferred, and Liu Zhen and Han Xianchu, as two outstanding representatives of the former 25th Red Army, were respectively awarded the rank of general, when Liu Zhen was still very young, but only in his early 40s.
In 1955, Liu Zhen was awarded the rank of general at the age of 40
Although General Liu Zhen's life is simple, but it is not ordinary, although he does not read much, but the pursuit of science has never stopped, through study, he has completed his own transformation, brilliant in the people's army, and made immortal feats, it is precisely because of the existence of such a group of soldiers who work hard and strive for self-improvement, our China today can stand tall in the world with the best posture.