In 1955 Chinese the People's Liberation Army held the first ever major award, and in this award, naturally some people were happy and some were sad. Zhang Zongxun, who had outstanding military achievements and profound qualifications, had no chance of being a major general, and General Zhang Zongxun did not have any disagreement on this, but there were still many people who complained about him, after all, Zhang Zongxun's seniority was also considered to be the existence of the older generation in the history of the Chinese revolution, and even if he was awarded the rank of general, there was no problem at all.
However, Chairman Mao's words broke the reason, saying that Zhang Zongxun did not get strong when he should be strong. This may be the most fundamental reason why Zhang Zongxun has no chance of being a general. However, without the intention of planting willows and willows, although General Zhang Zongxun did not have the opportunity to be a major general, he inadvertently opened a unique good story in the history of our People's Liberation Army.
In 1955, Zhang Zongxun was awarded the rank of general, and fifty-six years later, his son Comrade Zhang Youxia was also awarded the rank of general, and both father and son were generals, which is unique in the history of the republic and rare in the world's military history.
Speaking of Zhang Zongxun's qualifications, in the People's Liberation Army, it can also be regarded as very deep. In particular, he had the experience of serving as the deputy commander of the First Field Army, and during the Liberation War, he could be said to be on an equal footing with Su Yu, the god of war, and General Xu Guangda was the commander of the Second Corps of Yiye, theoretically speaking, he was still a subordinate of Zhang Zongxun. However, Zhang Zongxun, who had such proud qualifications, did not qualify for the rank of general when he was awarded the title in 55 years, and was only awarded the rank of general.
In fact, everyone may not know that the General Cadre Management Department, the leading organ responsible for the cadres of the whole army, which was established in 1950, once rated the commanders of the whole army under the care of Comrade Zhu De, and after the rating was completed, the issue of awarding titles began to be discussed. Under the care of then-Defense Minister Peng Dehuai, the Cadre Department submitted two lists of generals, namely the list of 15 people and the list of 22 people. In contrast, the list of 15 people is more gold-rich, because the 10 generals who were later awarded the title are all in this list.
In this pre-authorized list of 15 founding generals, su yu, Xu Haidong, Huang Kecheng, Chen Geng, Tan Zheng, Xiao Jinguang, Zhang Yunyi, Luo Ruiqing, Wang Shusheng, Zhang Zongxun, Song Renqian, Xu Guangda, Xiao Ke, Wang Zhen, Zhou Chunquan, these names are deafening. Through this list, it is not difficult to find that the top 9 are all in the list of generals in 1955, and Xu Guangda, who ranks twelfth, replaced Zhang Zongxun, who ranked tenth in the original list, and became a general.
The reason for this situation is that many people attribute that the results of the Datong Jining Campaign, which zhang Zongxun personally commanded, were not very satisfactory, which affected the final award of Zhang Zongxun's title, so is this statement correct in the end?
Zhang Zongxun accepted Marxism-Leninism as a revolutionary very early on and made a grand wish to save the country and the people. Soon after, Zhang Zongxun was selected by the party organization to enter the Whampoa Military Academy, and after Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution, he demanded that the cadets should not have dual party membership, and Zhang Zongxun wrote directly on the form, quitting the Kuomintang to show his communist identity.
Subsequently, Zhang Zongxun participated in the autumn harvest uprising led by the great man, and was not afraid of death on the battlefield, coupled with the Whampoa Military Academy, he had a certain military background, and soon attracted the attention of Mao Zedong, who transferred him to his side and was responsible for the security of the old man.
Zhang Zongxun was extremely attentive to the arduous task of defending Chairman Mao, and in the chairman's own words, this little Zhang was almost inseparable from him like his own shadow. Even at rest at night, the chairman slept on the bed, and Zhang Zongxun made a bunk to protect the chairman's safety.
Of course, Zhang Zongxun was not just an ordinary guard, he was also responsible for collecting intelligence, and even the famous Zhu Maohui master had a great contribution from Zhang Zongxun. It was the newspaper that Zhang Zongxun got that allowed Chairman Mao to find Zhu De, the two great men of the century, who held each other tightly together for the first time, and it can be said that Zhang Zongxun was the matchmaker of Zhu Maohuishi!
What really made Zhang Zongxun take up the leadership position of the army was the Long March. Due to the fierce fighting, the senior officers of our army were seriously reduced, the commander of the Red Fourth Division of the Third Army was sacrificed, and the troops could not go without a commander for a day, but for a while they could not find a suitable candidate, which made General Manager Peng anxious, and General Manager Peng thought left and right, and finally thought of a person, a fierce man Zhang Zongxun.
As soon as Zhang Zongxun arrived, Mr. Peng transferred his precious knot, the only artillery company in the entire regiment, to Zhang Zongxun, asking him to quickly open the situation to break through the enemy's defenses, and this trust can be said to be no one.
Zhang Zongxun's performance also did not betray the trust of General Manager Peng, and under extremely difficult circumstances, his command post unit tore through the enemy's three lines of defense like a sharp knife in a row, and fought a bloody battle with the enemy for 72 hours on the banks of the Xiang River, laying the foundation for a large army to forcibly cross the Xiang River.
After the victory of the Long March, Zhang Zongxun was transferred to the headquarters, and it was not until the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan that Chairman Mao was willing to let this general lead the 358th Brigade on the battlefield of the Anti-Japanese War.
Since crossing the Yellow River into Shanxi, Zhang Zongxun led his troops to successive battles and destroyed a large number of Japanese puppet troops. When the Japanese occupied the seven counties of Ningwu Shenchi, Zhang Zongxun immediately mobilized troops to support. On this large area of snow-covered land, the soldiers of the 358th Brigade were full of might, bravely taking the lead, and beating the devils, and even many officers and men stood barefoot in the cold snow and fought with the Japanese. Relying on this spirit of fighting and not dying in battle, our army defeated the Japanese and captured a large amount of equipment, which, in The words of Li Yunlong, was worth more than his daughter-in-law.
And this was not the first time that Zhang Zongxun had made a fortune as a local rich man, Zhang Zongxun had repeatedly captured a large number of people, but his eyes were red and bad for several other eighth route army commanders, and they slightly called Zhang Zongxun the king of the capture.
In fact, this is all Zhang Zongxun's intention, and like Li Yunlong, Zhang Zongxun fought a war with the elite, and only when the elite of the enemy hurt them and feared them could there be a large number of captures. When the Kuomintang Central Army and the Jin Sui Army, which were far better equipped than the Eighth Route Army, avoided the enemy's elite, Zhang Zongxun did the opposite, the more elite the more he fought, and every time there were major gains, which fully demonstrated the extremely strong combat effectiveness of Zhang Zongxun's troops, and Zhang Zongxun's ability to lead troops was evident.
However, during the Liberation War, Zhang Zongxun, who was mighty on the anti-Japanese battlefield, finally met his lifelong opponent, Fu Zuoyi of the Jin Sui Army!
At that time, after the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region took more than a dozen county towns in Shanxi, the military town of Datong was completely isolated. In order to open up the connection between the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region and the Jin-Sui Military Region and liberate the people of Datong, the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army pointed directly at Datong. Zhang Zongxun, then deputy commander of the Jinsui Military Region, mobilized more than 50 regiments of the main force to launch a fierce attack on Datong.
Responsible for the defense of Datong was Chu Xichun, deputy commander of the 8th Army under Yan Xishan. Except for Fu Zuoyi, the generals of the Jin Sui Army had almost no hands, especially the Jin Army, these people were sneaking and clapping horses, and each of them was an expert, but when it came to fighting, 10 were not as good as Zhang Zongxun. In the face of such a Datong defender, our army has absolute certainty that it will take this important military town.
After more than a month of fierce fighting, the outer positions of Datong were almost all occupied by our army. In the face of the situation in Datong, Yan Xishan could not help, and he simply could not draw the troops of Taiyuan to support Datong, because our army had already used a trick to cut off the railway between Datong and Shanxi, and Yan Xishan could only face the map and shout in vain!
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek directly intervened, and he asked Fu Zuoyi to rescue Datong. But Fu Zuoyi is not Jiang's concubine, so why listen to your old Jiang? In order to preserve Datong, an important military town, Old Jiang was both a feudal official and a wish, and also set aside a large piece of land for Fu Zuoyi, seeing that fu Zuoyi was profitable, he decided that the whole army would attack and rescue Datong.
But how to save Datong, Fu Zuoyi has his own ideas. Through his understanding of our army's tactics, Fu Zuoyi believed that the practice of directly rescuing Datong was tantamount to suicide. With the shrewdness of the People's Liberation Army, it is inevitable to set up ambush troops on the road of rescue, and besieging the city to provide assistance is the strength of the People's Liberation Army, so Fu Zuoyi is not prepared to touch this moldy head.
He decided to follow the example of the historical Sun Zhen to encircle Wei and save Zhao, and he set his sights on Jining. As long as they take it, their soldiers can threaten Zhangjiakou, which was the capital of our Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region at that time, and there is no room for mistakes at all.
In the face of the sudden situation of the Jin Sui army attacking Jining, Chairman Mao also made an important instruction -- to stick to it! Must die!
When our army attacked Datong with all its might, it did not expect that a fire broke out in the backyard, and Fu Zuoyi suddenly sent troops to attack Zhuo Zi and Jining, which completely disrupted the deployment of our army, especially the only brigade that was originally planned to hold Zhuo Zi for three days, under the siege of Fu Zuoyi's three elite divisions, it lost its position in only 8 hours, and the loss of Zhuo Zi too quickly made our army fall into a greater passivity on the battlefield.
In the face of this sudden situation, Zhang Zongxun decisively left Yang Chengwu and other troops to continue to besiege Datong, and he led 8 brigades to rapid reinforcements.
After the reinforcements of our army were in place, it was Fu Zuoyi's turn to have a headache at this time, and his strength was insufficient. On the one hand, it was necessary to continue to attack the city, and on the other hand, it had to divide its troops to block the reinforcement corps.
But at this time, Zhang Zongxun's command made a mistake. At the beginning, our army made up its mind to use the superior reinforcements plus the defenders to cut off the enemy's finger and completely annihilate the enemy's Dong Qiwu clique. At that time, this group of enemies was indeed already the turtle in the urn, and our army, which had already occupied an absolutely superior force, was surrounded in the southwest corner, and was no longer able to break through, and it was already a matter of time before the enemy of Dong Qiwu's armed forces was completely annihilated.
However, at this very moment, Zhang Zongxun made a serious mistake, believing that the officers and men of our army were extremely tired after a day of bloody battles, so they stopped for a whole day and did not launch a new offensive.
However, time is not waiting for anyone, and the besieged Dong Qiwu also knows that his fate is in the hands of others, but in order to avoid being completely destroyed by our army, Dong Qiwu's troops are determined to fight with our army in exchange for the hope of survival. Taking advantage of this blank day, he reorganized his troops and attacked Jining City, and one of his division commanders cut off two fingers to show his determination. Encouraged by such a crazy officer, the morale of the enemy was high, and everyone had the will to die, and they fought very bravely and tenaciously.
Although the enemy's morale has soared, the gap in strength cannot be solved by morale, and as long as our army's energy continues to strike at the enemy, the total annihilation of this enemy army will be just around the corner.
However, at this time, a message came that Guo Jingyun's 101st Division came to support. At this time, Zhang Zongxun's mind was full of thoughts, and he wanted to completely annihilate Dong Qiwu's troops and the 101st Division, so he decided to divide his troops. The result was that the two ends were not flattered, and on Dong Qiwu's side, the original superior troops were wiped out after the division of troops, and neither Dong Qiwu nor Guo Jingyun was completely annihilated. Instead, he was used by the enemy, and Dong Qiwu, who was originally regarded as a cooked duck, actually flew and launched a fierce attack on Jining, and even occupied Tianmen Mountain and Wolong Mountain continuously, which eventually led to the loss of the entire Jining.
Fu Zuoyi freed his hands to send a large group of men and horses to rescue Datong, and the troops besieging Datong could only retreat. In the end, the Battle of Datong Jining was fought a terrible battle, and in addition to failing to achieve the strategic objectives, it also lost Jining, which caused Zhangjiakou to fall into the dilemma of being caught between two sides, the situation was precarious, and the aftermath caused by the failure to achieve a complete victory in this battle took our army in North China a whole year to recover.
Two consecutive command errors in a campaign led to questions about Zhang Zongxun's military capabilities. First, he did not attack Dong Qiwu's army in time, giving him the opportunity to calmly adjust, and secondly, he found that after discovering Guo Jingyun's troops, he had committed the taboo of dividing the troops, coupled with the fact that the commanders had the idea of light enemy and did not concentrate on the use of troops, which led to the defeat of this campaign.
Chairman Mao's evaluation of Zhang Zongxun is very objective, and when it is time to be severe, it is impossible to get up, if Zhang Zongxun is determined to solve Dong Qiwu's troops first, with the strength of the People's Liberation Army, Dong Qiwu will inevitably be completely annihilated, and then free his hands to fight Guo Jinyun, in the face of the fact that Dong Qiwu was completely destroyed, Guo Jingyun is likely to collapse without a fight, and Jining will also hold on, but unfortunately history does not have so many ifs and assumptions.
This defeat became a stain on Zhang Zongxun's life. In fact, this matter is very easy to explain, just like the Chinese table tennis team played invincible players all over the world, but people will always remember that in the Olympic Games, Wang Hao lost to South Korea's Liu Chengmin, Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen lost to Mizutani Hayabusa and Ito Mimako.
After that, Zhang Zongxun, as the deputy commander of the First Field Army, assisted Mr. Peng in his work and participated in the command and understanding of the battle in the northwest, but there was little opportunity to lead the army to fight independently.
Finally, when he was conferred the rank in 55 years, Zhang Zongxun, who was equal in seniority to General Su Yu, was not a general, and only received the rank of general. For this rank, the old general Zhang Zongxun himself has no opinion, in the eyes of our posterity, with his seniority absolutely worthy of a general, then why only get the rank of a general? In fact, the Battle of Jining is only a small part of the factor.
In fact, compared with the resumes of several other generals, Zhang Zongxun's military career has hard injuries. During the Red Army period, Zhang Zongxun was completely comparable to all the generals, but compared with other generals during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the 358 Brigade led by Zhang Zongxun did not form an independent anti-Japanese base area, which was a hard injury.
Again, Zhang Zongxun's number of independent command of major battles was too small, and in his military career, the counted major battles belonged to the Datong Jining Campaign, but in this battle he made mistakes, and he made two mistakes. The other generals were all commanders on their own, and Zhang Zongxun, whose highest position was only deputy commander of Ichino, was obviously slightly inferior. Therefore, Zhang Zongxun's evaluation as a general is also well deserved.
After liberation, Zhang Zongxun remained very low-key and silently contributed to the modernization of our army. Zhang Zongxun, who was the general logistics minister at the time of the Tangshan earthquake, disregarded his advanced age, just like returning to the war years, high-intensity continuous work, and coordinated the earthquake relief of all units of the whole army at the first time. After his retirement, General Zhang Lao also often donated money and materials to the poverty-stricken areas in the disaster areas, and gave back all his life's enthusiasm to the land of China that gave birth to him and raised him.
In 1998, the elderly veteran general smiled at the age of 91.
Finally, we conclude with xinhua news agency's evaluation of him: He sacrificed his life and forgot his death, was not afraid of danger, was a pioneer, was brave and good at war, and even in peacetime, he assiduously studied modern military science, and poured his life's experience into the construction of our army.
Si people have passed away the style of posterity, the reward for the deeds of the man is not worth the life of the man, there is no difference between the generals in the Hall of Heroes, and the pillar of the country is immortal!