General Su Jin, commander of the "Railway Troops", and his memories of the history of the formation of the "Road Escort Army" (Part I)

Original Mei Zixiang

Water has a source, trees have roots, where is the "source" of the world-famous railway soldiers?

The predecessor of the railway corps was the railway column formed on July 5, 1948. However, many military history books, as well as exhibitions of the glorious history of the People's Liberation Army, mostly record that the road escort army before the railway column was the first railway unit of the people's army.

The commander of this railway unit ——— the road escort army was General Su Jin.

Su Jin, who was then the commander of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Railway Command.

This article introduces General Su Jin's reminiscence article "The Formation and Development of the Road Escort Army", and also introduces the brief history of General Su's life. Everyone can feel the beginning of the "red seedlings" of railway soldiers, and today's China Railway Construction in the infrastructure industry is majestic, and it began to lay a long foundation for development more than 70 years ago.

General Su was the first commander of the "railway soldiers", and his revolutionary career was awe-inspiring, and he made the commanders and fighters of the railway soldiers proud and proud.

General Su, a native of Henan, studied private school and elementary school for 8 years, and joined Feng Yuxiang's army at the age of 15. Many high-ranking generals of our army in the early days had resumes from several historical periods, such as "participating in the Agrarian Revolution, the War of Resistance Against Japan, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea."

In 1931, more than 19,000 officers and men of the 26th Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, to which General Su belonged, went to Ningdu, Jiangxi to participate in the "encirclement and suppression" of the Central Soviet Region. In the same year, he became the commander of the Red Army, the following year he was promoted to division commander, and in 1934 he accompanied the Long March of the Central Red Army.

Due to the three-year experience of studying in Feng Yuxiang's unit and being admitted to the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School, General Su was mostly engaged in management and teaching at the Red Army University and the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.

General Su also had a glorious history in his early years associated with the "railway soldiers":

In October 1986, Su Jin (first from left) took a group photo with Wang Zhen (middle), an old comrade-in-arms of the 359th Brigade and vice president of the country, and Wang Enmao, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Everyone is familiar with the Nanniwan large-scale production movement of the 359th Brigade, brigade commander Wang Zhen, and deputy brigade commander is Su Jin. At that time, Wang Zhen also served as the commander of Yan'an's garrison. Later, it is somewhat legendary that both generals played a "pivotal" role in the development history of railway troops: Su Jin was the founder of the railway troops, and Wang Zhen was the first commander of the railway soldiers who later became a branch of the army. The two old men met and got together many times in their later years, but they didn't know if they remembered the "railway soldiers" together when they talked very happily?

Speaking of the northeast battlefield of the Liberation War, the Northeast People's Liberation Army had two special forces columns: an artillery column and a railway column (the only of the four major field armies, and the development of the Northeast Railway is the reason), and Su Jin held the main leadership positions of the two columns.

On New Year's Day 1947, Su Jin (front row, 7th from left) took a group photo with cadres at and above the company level of the Road Escort Army garrison in Harbin.

Chronology of General Su Jin in the "railway soldiers":

In June 1946, he was appointed commander of the Railway Command of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army and military representative stationed in the Zhongchang Railway. In November of the same year, he was appointed commander and party secretary of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army Escort Army.

In September 1947, he concurrently served as the secretary of the Party Committee of the Northeast People's Liberation Army Field Army Road Escort Army Headquarters.

In January 1948, he was appointed commander of the Road Escort Army of the Northeast People's Liberation Army and secretary of the Party Committee. In July, he was appointed deputy commander and chief of staff of the Northeast Field Army Railway Column (also known as the Northeast Railway Restoration Engineering Bureau) and first deputy director of the Railway Restoration Bureau (the commander and director was Huang Yifeng). In August, he was appointed deputy commander of the artillery headquarters of the Northeast Field Army headquarters and commander of the artillery column.

In March 1957, Chairman Mao shook hands with Su Jin and talked.

After the liberation of the country, he served in artillery for a long time, serving as deputy commander and chief of staff.

Su Jin was a founding general and was awarded the rank of major general in 1955. On February 29, 1992, he died of illness in Beijing at the age of 85.

The life course of General Su has the commonality of the times, born into death, and dedicated his life to faith. His personal morality, ideological sentiments, and personality are infinitely revered, and he is also introduced a little.

In the spring of 1941, Su Jin and Zeng Shaping married at the 359 Brigade station.

His marriage to Zeng Shaping:

In 1941, in Suide, where the 359th Brigade was stationed, Wang Enmao's diary recorded: "We met on February 4, talked three times from 5 to 8, and got married on the 9th. Wang Zhen presided over and announced his marriage: "Get married and fall in love again." "General Su is the pioneer of today's fashionable "flash marriage".

Zeng Shaping was born into a landlord and a family of martyrs, defected to Yan'an, and was a cadet at the Military and Political University. The two have been together for 50 years. During the "Culture-Transformation Revolution", General Su was persecuted and secretly imprisoned for 5 years. Zeng Shaping supported a family alone and ran to call for Su Jin's rehabilitation. In 1990, at the age of 77, Zeng Shaping died of illness and hoped to donate books to his hometown school. Su Jin, in his 80s, went back and forth to major bookstores in Beijing to buy books, spending Zeng Shaping's salary equivalent to one year, buying a batch of books on literature and history, science and technology, foreign languages and other books, and printing "Seeking truth and truth, Zeng Shaping donated" on each book, and donated it to Hubei Macheng Normal University. At the same time, General Su also donated books to his hometown, the No. 5 Senior High School in Luohe City, Henan Province, and established the "General Su Jin Book Donation Reading Room".

Henan Luohe Wugao Sujin donated books reading room.

Comradeship is righteous, and grievances must be redressed. In his later years, General Su did his best to rehabilitate Zhao Xue, the wrongly killed leaders of the Ningdu Uprising, Ji Zhentong and Huang Zhongyue. He collected information, wrote articles, and jointly wrote to the Party Central Committee, restored the reputation of Ji Zhentong and Huang Zhongyue, who had been unjust for 50 years, and visited the bereaved families of Ji Zhentong and Huang Zhongyue many times, complaining about the injustice they had received, and asking the organization to improve their lives.

After General Su's death, according to his last wishes, his relatives donated his organs for medical research.

Many years after the death of General Su, his heroic spirit once again came into close contact with the "railway soldiers".

His son Su Tieshan, and daughter-in-law Xiao Nan took the first train of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to commemorate the Qinghai-Tibet Railway,——, which was the "railway soldiers" and the "railway soldiers" and the China Railway Construction after the military reform.

The following text is excerpted from "Su Jin Painting Biography":

Consolation to the General's Spirit in Heaven

More than ten years after Su Jin's death, he very much hoped to complete the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. On July 1, 2006, Su Jin's son Su Tieshan, and daughter-in-law Xiaonan excitedly boarded the first train from Beijing to Lhasa. They brought homemade and purchased souvenir envelopes and asked the passengers and entire crew on the train to sign them one by one. CCTV, Beijing TV, Lhasa TV, Hong Kong Television, China Youth Daily, Beijing Youth Daily, Lhasa Daily, Wall Street Journal, Singapore Morning Post, and dozens of other news media made special reports on the matter. The Wall Street Journal said: "For many Chinese, the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is something they are very proud of. Cycad Mountain, a 60-year-old passenger, said his father worked in the Communist Party's railroad department in 1946. He said the Qinghai-Tibet railway proved China's strength. "Tonight News" said: "General Su Jin is the predecessor of the railway troops - the commander of the Northeast People's Liberation Army Road Escort Army, the commander of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army Railway Command... Before his death in 1992, General Su Jin still remembered the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. When the Qinghai-Tibet Line was opened to traffic, they decided to use this special way to comfort the spirit of the old man in heaven. ”

General Su's life course is magnificent, and here "only a scoop of drink" is taken. What we feel is the ordinariness and sublimity of this "railway soldier" predecessor.

Tomorrow, General Su Jin's article "The Formation and Development of the Road Escort Army" in the book "Historical Materials of the Railway Soldiers" will be released.

(To be continued)

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