"You can fight tigers when you go up the mountain, you can touch fish when you go into the water, you can negotiate when you go out, and you can cook when you go home."
This is the evaluation of Geng Biao by an old professor at Peking University.
On August 26, 1909, Geng Biao was born into a poor peasant family in Yanjiachong, Beixiang, Li (lǐ) Ling County, Hunan Province, but his family can be said to be a wulin family. Geng Biao's father's martial arts skills were very superb, which was well-known in the Ten Mile Eight Townships. Geng Biao's father, who was greatly infamous, was selected to enter the palace at a young age and became a bodyguard in the palace. Because of his outstanding martial arts, he was also rewarded by the Qing court with a pair of tiger heads and double hooks.
Later, there was a famine in Geng Biao's county, and in order to make a living, Geng Biao's parents fled with him to Changning County, Hunan. Because of their craftsmanship, the Geng family father and son continued to work in Changning County. But at that time, the oppression of the people by the dark society was very serious, and my father worked all day to earn money, but the money he earned was difficult to support the family. As the eldest son in the family, Geng Biao went to the Shuikou Mountain Mine as a child laborer at the age of 13 to earn money to subsidize the family.
During this period of living in the mine, Geng Biao saw the cruelty of society, and even more saw the ruthlessness of the bureaucrats in the old society. At the time of one mine collapse, more than forty workers were trapped underneath the mine. Geng Biao's uncle Song Qiaosheng saw the situation and quickly put the tank cage down, hoping to save these workers before the second collapse. But at this time, the official ordered the mine police to lift the cages, regardless of whether the workers were dead or alive.
Fortunately, Geng Biao was physically strong, and from an early age, he practiced martial arts with his father and carried all these hardships down.
Later, after Geng Biao came into contact with the Communist Party and learned about Marxist thought, he saw hope.
His sincere heart and strong martial arts can come in handy. After Geng Biao embarked on the revolutionary road, he began to actively participate in the strike struggle of the workers, and in May 1925 joined the Communist Youth League of China.
In the autumn of 1927, Geng Biao, who had returned to his hometown to carry out revolutionary struggle, learned of Mao Zedong's leadership of the Autumn Harvest Uprising, so he applied to the organization to join his team, and soon received everyone's approval, so Geng Biao rushed to Mao Zedong's large army overnight. Later, after learning that Mao Zedong had already ascended Jinggangshan, Geng Biao had to accept the arrangement again, become a county guerrilla leader, and insist on the movement on the spot.
In August 1928, General Geng Biao officially became a member of the Communist Party and led the guerrillas to continue the revolutionary struggle and cooperate with the Red Army.
In September 1930, after cooperating with the Red Army to win the great victory in Wenjia City, Liuyang, he led a team to join the Red Army. Since then, his life has also become "colorful".
After the large troops of the Red Army began the strategic transfer, General Geng Biao, who was already the commander of the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the Red First Army, took on the task of opening the way. Passing through the barriers, it opened a way for the large troops to break through the enemy's encirclement. Among them, the strong crossing of the Wujiang River can be said to be his classic battle.
Later, he followed the Long March of the Red Army and participated in the famous Battle of the Xiang River, at this time Geng Biao was already a red army commander, in the face of chiang kai-shek's army's heavy blockade, intending to put the Red Army to death here, Geng Biao was not afraid, he was a pioneer, holding a machete, like a tiger descending the mountain rushed to the kuomintang reactionary army, with one to ten, a bloody battle, blood stained the river, the whole Xiang River was filled with the smell of artillery fire and blood, he and other soldiers led the Red Army soldiers, with one enemy and one hundred, By virtue of his own small number of troops, he won this battle and successfully broke another conspiracy of Chiang Kai-shek to eliminate the Red Army, and Geng Biao also became famous in the First World War, with iron blood, courage and strategy, wisdom and courage, and the Bloody Battle of the Xiangjiang River has also become a very famous battle in history.
In 1936, Chairman Mao did Geng Biao's work and wanted him to serve as chief of staff of the Red First Division of the Red Fourth Front. At first, General Geng Biao was reluctant and said that he was not good at political work, but Chairman Mao encouraged him: "Don't be afraid, I will send you two sentences: 'Start following and then catch up.'" After Geng Biao listened, he raised his motivation.
One day, Xu Shiyou wanted to find Geng Biao to compete, and everyone knew that Xu Shiyou was also a powerful character, waiting for the news and seizing the opportunity to see the hilarity.
However, after Geng Biao heard about it, he shook his hand and refused: "Don't compare, he is not my opponent." ''
These words reached Xu Shiyou's ears, but they aroused his curiosity, and he came here with greater vigor, insisting on competing with Geng Biao. Geng Biao excused himself from busy official duties and shirked a bit. But how patient Xu Shiyou was, he said that he was willing to wait for Geng Biao to finish his official duties.
It wasn't until Geng Biao said that there would be an emergency meeting to be held to discuss military information, that Xu Shiyou compromised and left, but his idea of trying to compete with Geng Biao had not been dispelled.
After that, Xu Shiyou looked for Geng Biao several times, Geng Biao was helpless, and finally explained that he refused his request because he knew Xu Shiyou's strength, and if he had to compete, the two would inevitably be injured, which was a picture he did not want to appear.
No matter which one is wounded, it is a great loss to our army, and now our task should be unified with the outside world, and our ability should remain on the battlefield, left to the aggressors, and it does not matter who is more powerful, and victory in the revolution is victory.
In fact, xu Shiyou wanted to find Geng Biao for a reason, and Geng Biao was also a famous military general in the army.
In 1940, Geng Biao led his troops to open up land in a remote mountainous area, and in the deep mountain jungle, there were many ferocious beasts that plagued the crops of the common people.
A month later, he killed four tigers, seven or eight leopards, and hundreds of wolves, and later, Geng Biao sent a tiger to Yan'an and to Chairman Mao.
As soon as Chairman Mao saw such a big tiger, he became childlike, and he said to President Zhu, "Can you lift the tiger up alone?" After Zhu De heard it, he really tried it, and after trying it, he didn't lift it up, but the boss was full of red and said no.
After the founding of New China, he was named and transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before leaving the army, and his military career was not awarded a title for 23 years, and he was known as the unceremonious general of the republic. Chairman Mao commented on Geng Biao: "Our country just needs this kind of talent, who dares to tell the truth and tell us the truth, and who is a qualified diplomat." ”。
On October 1, 1950, a large reception was held in the largest hotel in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the founding of New China, the Chinese Embassy in Sweden invited more than 500 people from all walks of life in Sweden to attend the banquet.
The Chinese ambassador to Sweden raised a glass and frequently toasted among these dignitaries, when suddenly a Swedish general stopped the ambassador and asked:
"Your Excellency, Ambassador, I heard that you are a general?"
The Chinese ambassador to Sweden nodded in acknowledgement, and the Swedish general asked:
"How many soldiers have you brought with you?"
At this time, New China had just celebrated its first anniversary and had just established diplomatic relations with Sweden. The whole country of Sweden still has the same stereotype of China, and they do not believe that the new China will have a real high-ranking general, put in the position of ambassador.
The Chinese ambassador to Sweden replied at that time:
"The 19th Corps of the People's Liberation Army, the next three armies, about 100,000 people!"
When the Swedish general next to him heard this, he immediately stood in awe: "You have brought more soldiers than I have in all of Sweden!" ”
He has served as an ambassador or minister of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Pakistan, Myanmar, Albania and other countries, and also served as vice minister of foreign affairs, Geng Biao engaged in diplomacy just like him in war, flourished, made a lot of achievements, in 1978, 69-year-old Geng Biao became vice premier of the State Council.
In 1980, Geng Biao led a military delegation to visit the United States and received the highest courtesy from the United States, not only boarding the US aircraft carrier, but also watching the movie "Star Wars" accompanied by US President Carter and his wife.
In March 1981, Geng Biao was appointed Minister of National Defense, becoming the only minister of defense without a military rank, and the following year he served as a state councilor.
On June 23, 2000, Geng Biao died in Beijing at the age of 91 due to ineffective medical treatment, and the "General Ambassador" who had delivered medicine to secret agents and watched the movie "Star Wars" with the President of the United States and sent tiger meat to Chairman Mao left us!
The organization buried him in babaoshan cemetery. The scale of the funeral was comparable to a state funeral, and hundreds of leaders came to bid farewell to the revolutionary who had dedicated his life to the country.