Pictured| General Zhang Yunyi
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="2" > preface</h1>
"If I hadn't gone out to buy vegetables at that time, I would have been the 'Seventy-Three Martyrs of Huanghuagang.'"
After the founding of New China, when Zhang Yunyi, the founding general of the People's Republic of China, talked about his revolutionary experience, he once said such a sentence with humor.
Even after many years, his son Zhang Guangdong recalled his father, or remembered deeply, although his father said that he did not have many stories when he was young, but he relished the fact that he could escape the disaster for many years.
"When attacking the Liangguang Governor's Palace, he rushed to the front, but he was not injured."
Among all the founding generals, there is no older general than Zhang Yunyi, who participated in the League, is the elder of the League, and before joining the Communist Party of China, Zhang Yunyi was already a staff officer of the 25th Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
"There are not many people in the Communist Party who can speak to the Kuomintang generals, and Zhang Yunyi is one of them."
December 1929, Deng Xiaoping. Zhang Yunyi led the Baise Uprising together, and since then, the two old comrades-in-arms have been closely linked and composed a good story together.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="112" > "the beginning of friendship"</h1>
On November 25, 1974, at Zhang Yunyi's memorial service, Deng Xiaoping said affectionately in his eulogy:
Comrade Zhang Yunyi was an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China; over the past several decades, under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the CPC Central Committee, in the protracted revolutionary war, in the course of socialist revolution and socialist construction, he was loyal to the party and the people, worked hard to study Marxism, Leninism, and Mao Zedong Thought, resolutely implemented Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line, worked actively, worked hard and simple, maintained close ties with the masses, served the people diligently and sincerely, and devoted his whole life to the revolutionary cause.
Zhang Yunyi was 34 years old when he joined the party. According to Zhang Yunyi's own words:
"When I joined the party, I was very old and paid a very high salary, and I joined the party to liberate the working people."
Pictured| Zhang Yunyi's old photo when he was in Yan'an
Zhang Yunyi was born in 1892 to a poor peasant family in Wenchang County, Hainan Province.
Although the family situation is not very good, parents still hope that their son can change his fate through reading, so he saves money and sends his son to the village private school to study.
But even so, Zhang Yunyi still had to drop out of school because of the conditions at home, and went to Zhao Shihuai, a fellow who was an officer in Guangzhou, fortunately, Zhao Shihuai was not a fierce and cruel landlord, but an enlightened gentleman, seeing that Zhang Yunyi was very intelligent, so he took the initiative to provide him with the conditions for learning to study, and Zhang Yunyi also changed his fate.
In the spring of 1908, Zhang Yunyi was admitted to the Huangpu Army Primary School in Guangzhou with excellent results.
One day, Sun Yat-sen's close friend and revolutionary Zhu Zhixin came to the school to propagate revolutionary ideas, and Zhu Zhixin's generous statement also stimulated Zhang Yunyi's enthusiasm for serving the country.
In 1909, Zhang Yunyi was introduced to the League and participated in the Huanghuagang Uprising led by Sun Yat-sen in 1911.
The 19-year-old Zhang Yunyi, who served as the bomb captain of the rebel forces, was defeated because the rebel army was outnumbered, and Zhang Yunyi and several companions hid in a residential house in the city.
Once Zhang Yunyi went to the street to buy vegetables after putting on makeup, he inquired about the news by the way, and when he returned, he found that the place where he lived had been surrounded by Qing troops, and several companions were also killed one after another, fortunately, Zhang Yunyi happened to be absent and escaped a disaster.
Even after many years, Zhang Yunyi still has a deep memory of the original incident.
After the success of the Xinhai Revolution, Zhang Yunyi remained in the revolutionary ranks and successively served as the battalion commander of the Guangdong Army and the county magistrate of Jieyang County, Guangdong.
Figure | Zhang Yunyi Huaibei Siyang County Xinxingwei in November 1941
In 1924, Zhang Yunyi rejoined the Cantonese Army and served as a brigade commander in Xu Chongzhi's department.
By the time of the Northern Expedition in 1926, Zhang Yunyi had been promoted to chief of staff of the 25th Division of the Fourth Army.
Zhang Yunyi had a great influence in the Cantonese army.
In the early years, Zhang Yunyi was victorious, and when he was a brigade commander in Xu Chongzhi's department, his ministry name was "Sheng Tour". Later, when Zhang Fakui's Fourth Army was transferred to serve as a staff officer of the First Independent Brigade, he was famous for leading strange plots.
When Chiang Kai-shek heard of Zhang Yunyi's name, he wanted to transfer him for his own use, but Zhang Fakui did not allow it and shouted: "You just give me a division to exchange for victory, and I will not do it." ”
When people mention Zhang Yunyi, they always say this:
"Old Chiang Kai-shek can't exchange a division for the brigade chief of staff"
However, in the process of gradual revolution, Zhang Yunyi also gradually realized the limitations of the bourgeois revolution and realized that only the Communist Party of China can lead the whole nation to the road of independence, self-reliance, and prosperity.
In October 1926, Zhang Yunyi joined the Communist Party of China.
After the defeat of the Great Revolution, the party organization sought Zhang Yunyi's opinion on whether he wanted to study in the Soviet Union or stay in China to carry out military movement.
At that time, the domestic revolution was at a low ebb, and the Kuomintang reactionaries headed by Chiang Kai-shek were searching everywhere for communists and revolutionary masses.
In May 1929, Zhang Yunyi was sent to Guangxi, and under the introduction of Chen Ce, commander of the Guangdong Navy, he entered the ranks of the Guangxi warlords Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui, serving as the captain of the officer training corps and the captain of the 4th garrison brigade.
In fact, after the defeat of the Great Revolution, the chaotic situation of warlordism in the whole country did not completely end.
In March 1929, the Chiang-Gui War broke out, and Chiang Kai-shek co-opted Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui, who were also members of the Gui clan, and the Gui clan lost the War of Chiang Kai-shek, and Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi fled to foreign countries.
Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui were the leaders of the Gui clan supported by Chiang Kai-shek, and originally planned to use them to divide the Gui forces against Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi.
Pictured| old photo of Deng Xiaoping
But Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui were leftists of the Kuomintang, and after taking charge of Guangxi, they released a large number of Communists and revolutionary masses who had been arrested by the Gui clan, so as to obtain sufficient conditions for the uprising in Guangxi.
In August 1929, Deng Xiaoping was sent by the Party Central Committee to Guangxi to lead the uprising, and Deng Xiaoping, Chen Haoren, and Zhang Yunyi formed the former committee, with Deng Xiaoping as the former secretary of the party committee.
The uprising was on the verge of erupting.
On December 1, Deng Xiaoping led a group of cadres to the Zuojiang area to deploy the Longzhou uprising.
Before leaving, Deng Xiaoping took Zhang Yunyi's hand and instructed: "Comrade Yunyi, the time of the Baise Uprising remains unchanged, remember it, the second anniversary of the Guangzhou Uprising." ”
Zhang Yunyi solemnly said: "Party deputies, please rest assured that we will definitely revolt on time. ”
Zhang Yunyi was 37 years old, while Deng Xiaoping was only 25 years old.
Although the two have a lot of age differences, in just a few days together, they have established a deep friendship with each other.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="113" > "old and heavy, prestigious"</h1>
Chairman Mao once praised Zhang Yunyi: "The old man is heavy and has a high prestige. ”
Because Zhang Yunyi's revolutionary qualifications are quite old, especially in the Kuomintang camp, he has a considerable right to speak. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. Zhang Yunyi rushed around to make contact and made great achievements.
On November 20, 1933, the famous patriotic general contacted Li Jishen, the anti-Chiang kai-shek camp within the Kuomintang, launched the Fujian Incident, established the People's Revolutionary Government of the Republic of China, and sent people to liaise with the Red Army.
Zhang Yunyi was responsible for contacting the Nineteenth Route Army as a military representative at that time, and the two sides also signed an anti-Japanese and anti-Chiang Kai-shek agreement.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Yunyi was ordered to go to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Guilin, Fuzhou, and other places to do anti-Japanese national united front work among the upper military and political personnel of the Kuomintang.
Because Zhang Yunyi was the elder of the League, all factions within the Kuomintang respected Zhang Yunyi very much, which greatly promoted the reorganization of the New Fourth Army.
Picture | Zhang Yunyi, Zhou Enlai and Kong Shiquan in April 1937 in Xi'an
In May 1937, appointed by the Party Central Committee, Zhang Yunyi took Hong Kong to Guangzhou to do united front work in South China.
At first, Zhang Yunyi was very worried, after all, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi's consistently reactionary thoughts, perhaps this trip was not smooth, but after arriving in Nanning, Zhang Yunyi just got off the plane and saw a huge welcome ceremony.
People from all walks of life in Nanning not only gathered at the airport to welcome, but also hung up banners with the inscription "Warmly Welcome to Communist Party Deputy Ying Gui."
Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi even prepared an open-top car for Zhang Yunyi, and before leaving, Bai Chongxi bi gongbi asked Zhang Yunyi to stand in the middle, while he himself stood aside and drove all the way to Nanning City.
Zhang Yunyi knew very well in his heart that li zongren and Bai Chongxi did this, in addition to showing respect, the more important purpose was to demonstrate with Chiang Kai-shek.
After staying in Nanning, Zhang Yunyi learned from Li Zongren's adjutant Liu Zhongrong that the Gui clan and Chen Jitang had set off anti-Chiang Kai-shek actions the previous year, and although they had been divided and broken up by Chiang Kai-shek in just a few months, they had a considerable impact, and Chiang Kai-shek used means to gradually divide and suppress the Gui clan.
After Zhang Yunyi grasped the initiative in discourse, he negotiated with the Gui side and reached an agreement to consolidate domestic peace and unite in the War of Resistance.
After the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, the guerrillas in the eight southern provinces were also reorganized into the New Fourth Army.
Regarding the formation of the New Fourth Army, it actually took a lot of trouble.
Although the Xi'an Incident was later resolved peacefully, the Kuomintang army did not launch an attack on the main force of the Red Army, but stepped up the encirclement and suppression of the guerrillas in the southern provinces, resulting in the sacrifice of a large number of backbone cadres.
Pictured| Ye Ting, commander of the New Fourth Army
In May 1937, in view of the imminent start of the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, He Ming, a special commissar of the Fujian-Guangdong Border Region, signed a "Political Agreement" with the 157th Division of the Guangdong Army, and the Red Third Regiment led by He Ming was reorganized into a security independent brigade, with He Ming as the captain and Lu Sheng as the deputy captain.
After the reorganization of the troops was completed, He Ming advocated leaving the base area and stationing himself in Zhangpu City.
At this time, Yao Yi, the commissioner of the CPC Southern Committee, came from Hong Kong to prevent the troops from entering Zhangpu, and He Ming believed at that time that since the troops had been reorganized and the two sides had signed an agreement, there should be no major problems, so he insisted on going.
In fact, when He Ming entered Zhangpu, he had already received a lot of intelligence showing that the 157th Division of the Guangdong Army actually just wanted to surrender their weapons and eliminate them on the spot, but He Ming never thought so. As a result, after arriving in the local area, He Mingbu was surrounded by heavy troops of the Kuomintang army, and had to lay down his weapons under duress, He Ming was arrested during negotiations, and soon died, Lu Sheng led some people to escape, and re-formed a new Red Third Regiment.
This is a heavy lesson for the guerrillas in the eight southern provinces.
At the beginning, there was no clear statement about the reorganization of the guerrillas in the eight southern provinces, and like He Ming, there were not a few people who thought that the reorganization was to be incorporated, and some did not believe in the cooperation of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and killed several liaison officers sent in a row.
After the incident, the central government sent Zhang Yunyi to protest to Yu Hanmou for the first time, and proposed to the Kuomintang side the idea of reorganizing the guerrillas in eight southern provinces into an army.
It was not until October 1937, under the persuasion of Zhang Yunyi, that the Cantonese army returned the 887 seized weapons, and the former Red Third Regiment personnel were scattered and enriched into various Kuomintang troops.
After Ye Tingzushan was ordered to form the New Fourth Army, Zhang Yunyi became the chief of staff of the New Fourth Army and the commander of the third detachment.
Picture | old photo of Yunyi
Ye Ting and Zhang Yunyi were also classmates of the Huangpu Army Primary School in Guangzhou, during the Northern Expedition, both of them worked in the Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, Zhang Yunyi was the chief of staff of the 12th Division of the Fourth Army, Ye Ting was the head of the independent regiment of the division, Zhang Yunyi not only covered the participation of Li Shuoxun and Zhou Shidi, party representatives of the 25th Division of the Fourth Army, in the Nanchang Uprising, and the two also participated in the later Guangzhou Uprising.
However, after the failure of the uprising, Ye Ting went into exile overseas, and Zhang Yunyi participated in the Baise Uprising.
When the Nineteenth Route Army was fighting against Chiang Kai-shek in Fujian, Ye Ting was in Fujian as a guest staff officer, and Zhang Yunyi met with Ye Ting in Fujian when he was a military representative of the Chinese Soviet.
Ye Ting had complained about what had happened after the Guangzhou uprising and was eager to restore contact with the party organization, and Zhang Yunyi had promised him to report his situation so that someone could contact him.
The reason why Ye Ting was able to serve as the commander of the New Fourth Army was deeply related to this meeting with Zhang Yunyi in 1933.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="114" > "meritorious and well-deserved"</h1>
In September 1955, Zhang Yunyi was awarded the rank of Grand General.
When the military rank was awarded, Zhang Yunyi was already 63 years old, and as early as before the award, Zhang Yunyi said several times: "I am old, my health is not good, I can't work as always, or give the rank to others." ”
Zhang Yunyi's health is indeed not very good, not only because of his age, but because of the accumulation of labor and illness in the past war years.
In December 1949, Zhang Yunyi was appointed secretary of the Guangxi Provincial Party Committee, chairman of the Provincial People's Government, and other positions, responsible for Guangxi's local affairs, and launched a difficult campaign to suppress bandits.
Because of his poor health, Zhang Yunyi fell ill several times, and when he thought of work, he climbed up again.
By the second half of 1951, the war against bandits throughout Guangxi had finally been won, but Zhang Yunyi could no longer support it.
Pictured| Zhang Yunyi and his wife Han Bi in Guangzhou in 1964
In the spring of 1952, Zhang Yunyi had to lie ill in bed, and the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao were very concerned about his physical condition, and specially called to inquire, not only that, Chairman Mao also personally wrote to Zhang Yunyi, encouraging him: "Do not worry about work, and then resume work after the illness is better." ”
After being rated as a major general, Zhang Yunyi proposed several times to change his military rank to others, and the Central Military Commission reported his request to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou, but the result was that it was not approved, and Chairman Mao later repeatedly explained:
"Comrade Zhang Yunyi, under the condition that the white terror enveloped the whole country, led the Baise Uprising with a fearless spirit, created the Red Seventh Army and the Youjiang Revolutionary Base Area, and ignited the spark of the southern revolution.
In September 1955, Zhang Yunyi went to Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai to participate in the awarding ceremony, and when Premier Zhou came to him with the order of the rank of general, Zhang Yunyi could not help but burst into tears of excitement...
Even in a high position, Zhang Yunyi still maintains a hard and simple style and has never sought any selfish interests for himself.
Zhang Yunyi's home is a courtyard located in Nanchizi Street, and the furnishings in the home are also the decorations of ordinary people's homes, and there is no big difference.
Pictured | Zhang Yunyi and his wife Han Bi
Wang Xinggang, director of the General Office of the Central Military Commission, came to visit and found that Zhang Yunyi did not even have a carpet at home, and he was afraid that the ground would be too slippery and accidentally fell down, so he specially asked the management office to distribute a carpet.
Wang Xinggang said more than once that he wanted to repair the house for Zhang Yunyi, but Zhang Yunyi never allowed it: "It's very good to live like this, what is the purpose of repairing it?" ”
"Alas, a founding general lives in such a dilapidated house, so that others can see what it looks like!"
As soon as he heard this, Zhang Yunyi suddenly became angry: "Why, the general has to live in a good house?" If ordinary people can live, I can live too. Hmmm, who wants to see who watches! ”
Once Zhang Yunyi found that when someone knocked on the door of the house, the guard stuck his head out of the crack of the door to ask people, and when the people left, Zhang Yunyi found the guard and patiently educated him:
"This is not good, it does not respect people." No matter who it is, if there is something, you should invite someone to come in and say that it is a good reception. What are you afraid of? ”
The guard's face turned red and he whispered, "Chief, I'll fix it next time." ”
Pictured| Zhang Yunyi and son Zhang Guangdong
Zhang Yunyi's younger son, Zhang Guangdong, also recalled more than once: "Since I was a child, I have never felt anything special, and I will do what people do." ”
The only special thing is that Zhang Yunyi never allows his son to write his name when filling out the family situation questionnaire, and Zhang Guangdong's father column is always empty when he goes to school. It is also to avoid the influence of his son.
Zhang Guangdong later assigned work, and Zhang Yunyi did not say a word.
In his later years, Zhang Yunyi's health has not been very good, once Zhang Guangdong went to the 301 Hospital to visit his father, Zhang Yunyi looked at his son for half a day without speaking, and only after a while did he ask:
"Can you come back?"
Zhang Guangdong burst into tears at once, his father had never made such a request to himself before.
Picture | Zhang Yunyi's family photo
In 1973, the organization took into account Zhang Yunyi's physical condition and needed to be taken care of, which transferred Zhang Guangdong back to Beijing to work.
"When I transferred back, my father was very ill, and we couldn't communicate anymore."
At the beginning of November 1974, Zhang Yunyi was seriously ill, Deng Xiaoping heard about it and went straight to visit, the old comrade-in-arms did not see each other for many years, the two hands clasped tightly together, Deng Xiaoping said with emotion: "We are old comrades-in-arms, we have known each other for 45 years." ”
Zhang Yunyi was not able to speak at this time, but after seeing Deng Xiaoping, he always held his hand tightly, slightly bowed his head, and watched Deng Xiaoping leave the ward all the time.
On November 19, Zhang Yunyi died in Beijing at the age of 82.
Soon after the death of Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Yunyi, his family vacated the family's old house in accordance with the regulations, and the Zhang family always pursued the education of Zhang Yunyi when he was alive, still maintaining a hard and simple style, and this noble feeling made people can't help but be moved.