In June 1948, the People's Liberation Army troops in the northeast region began to besiege the northeast important town of Changchun, after several months of siege, the morale of the Kuomintang troops in the city was lost, and Zeng Zesheng, commander of the Kuomintang Sixty Army, led the Sixty Army to a peaceful uprising, disrupting the deployment of Zheng Dongguo, the commander of the Changchun Garrison, zheng Dongguo had no choice but to lead the troops to surrender and Changchun was peacefully liberated.
After the peaceful liberation of Changchun, the Kuomintang Sixtieth Army was reorganized into the Fiftieth Army of the People's Liberation Army. However, after the reorganization of the troops was completed, the organization found that the Kuomintang troops belonged to the warlord forces, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers was not strong, and the morale was not strong, so the People's Liberation Army decided to reorganize the Fifty Army and truly turn them into the people's troops, and the person responsible for the reorganization of the Fifty Army was Xu Wenlie, who was the political commissar at the time.
Xu Wenlie was born in 1909 in Yunnan, to a poor peasant family, but the family supported Xu Wenlie's education and sent him to a normal school, hoping that he would become a teacher and become a cultural person after graduation. Xu Wenlie gradually came into contact with revolutionary ideas in the process of reading, and in 1928, Xu Wenlie joined the party and became a full party member.
In 1930, Xu Wenlie joined the Red Army and became the head of the Third Division of the Red Thirty-eighth Army, and soon after, Xu Wenlie and others commanded the Lu Liang Rebellion and began to arm their armed resistance to the Kuomintang dictatorship, but unfortunately, because the enemy was strong and weak, the Lu Liang Rebellion ended in failure, and Xu Wenlie also hid his name, using his identity as a teacher as a cover to continue to engage in underground work in Kunming and other places.
In April 1935, when the Long March of the Red Army reached the town of Banqiao, Xu Wenlie led a group of students to join the Red Army, entered the Red Ninth Army, served as an officer of the Propaganda Department of the Political Department, and followed the Red Ninth Army to participate in the Long March. At that time, the Red Army had already passed through the Zunyi Conference and gradually got rid of the Kuomintang's encirclement and blockade, so Xu Wenlie's long march was relatively smooth, and soon after, he successfully reached northern Shaanxi.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Wenlie entered the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, mainly engaged in political work, during this period, he successively served as the political commissar of the 120th Division's teaching regiment and the deputy director of the Political Department of the Kang Da General School, ushering in the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. During the Liberation War, Xu Wenlie was ordered to go to the northeast and served as the director of the political department of the Northeast Military and Political University, cultivating a large number of talents for the northeast base area. It is worth mentioning that during his time in the northeast, Xu Wenlie did two things of great significance.
The first occurred in 1946, when Pan Shuoduan, a general of the Dian Army, led the 184th Division of the 60th Army of the Dian Army in a peaceful uprising, because Xu Wenlie was a native of Yunnan, and people's local concepts were very heavy at that time, so they organized and arranged for him to enter the Dian Army, unite the cadres of the Dian Army, and transform this team. With the help of Xu Wenlie, this team was successfully transformed into the "First Army of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army" and put into the northeast battlefield.
The second occurred in 1948, when Changchun was peacefully liberated, the Sixty Army led by Zeng Zesheng revolted peacefully in Changchun, after which the troops were reorganized into the Fifty Army of the People's Liberation Army, because of the experience of the last army transformation, the organization also arranged for Xu Wenlie to serve as the political commissar of the Fifty Army, responsible for transforming this contingent into a people's unit, and Xu Wenlie also successfully completed the tasks assigned by the organization.
After the founding of new China, Xu Wenlie served as the deputy director of the political department of the Nanjing Military Academy, assisting Liu Bocheng in building the military academy, and when he was awarded the title in 1955, he was awarded the rank of major general and became the founding major general. However, Xu Wenlie's health was not good, and he was even paralyzed for a time, so he gradually left his job after being awarded the title.
In 1971, under the manipulation of some people with ulterior motives, Xu Wenlie was designated a "traitor" by the censorship team, expelled from the party and the military, and also sent back to his hometown, with only 60 yuan a month living expenses, and his life was very poor. In 1976, Xu Wenlie died of illness at the age of 67. It is worth mentioning that in 1979, the organization restored Xu Wenlie's reputation, confirming that the crimes imposed on him were all slander, and Xu Wenlie was also unjustly punished, but unfortunately, at this time, Xu Wenlie had been dead for three years, and he did not see himself being rehabilitated.
Resources:
"Confucian General Xu Wenlie" Qu Dingguo