In January 1951, in the third campaign to resist the United States and aid Korea, the 50th Army of the Volunteer Army annihilated a tank battalion of the British army and made a great contribution, and the next fourth battle, the 50th Army fought a bloody battle on the Han River, fought extremely bravely, and completed the task of blocking the enemy army.
One day, Zeng Zesheng, commander of the 50th Army, met Peng Dehuai at the volunteer headquarters. Peng Dehuai shook his hand and said, "The 50th Army has fought well, you command it well, I will give you reinforcements, and give priority to giving you the 50th Army a change of clothing." The predecessor of the 50th Army was a Kuomintang unit, and Zeng Zesheng always felt inferior, and he said emotionally: "We have tried our best, and we can look up in front of the brother troops." ”
Peng Dehuai immediately corrected: "What is this, isn't it just a unit reorganized by the uprising, don't I Peng Dehuai also come from the same old army as you, our troops do not have miscellaneous troops, and I Peng Dehuai have never regarded you as a miscellaneous army." The 50th Army also has many Communists. ”
General Zeng Zesheng
After saying that, Peng Dehuai bowed deeply to Zeng Zesheng, saluted him again, and asked him to go back and tell the troops: "I Peng Dehuai bowed to the comrades of the 50th Army!" Peng Dehuai's sincerity and trust deeply touched Zeng Zesheng.
Zeng Zesheng, a native of Yongshan County, Yunnan Province, was born in 1902 and lost his father as a child, and his mother remarried to his uncle. The people in the village pointed out behind their backs, looked down on their families, and even affected Zeng Zesheng's study, and the village's private school mr. did not accept him. Zeng Zesheng had to go to Zhaotong, hundreds of miles away from home, to study with the help of his relatives.
However, before he finished junior high school, his family was no longer willing to provide him with schooling, so he was forced to throw in his pen and be admitted to the machine gun non-commissioned unit set up by the Yunnan warlord Tang Jiyao. After graduation, Zeng Zesheng was escorted to the Yunnan Daowu Hall. During this period, because the military school could not afford to pay subsidies, the students organized a riot, and the school found out that Zeng Zesheng was the mastermind behind the scenes, so he was forced to leave the school.
Yunnan Daowutang ruins
In 1925, Zeng Zesheng went to Guangzhou, entered the Whampoa Military Academy, served as the captain of the third phase with excellent military quality, and at the end of the same year, he was transferred to the company commander of the 3rd Regiment. However, he was not accustomed to the atmosphere of the old army, and especially hated the phenomenon of withholding military salaries, and resigned less than a year later and returned to the Whampoa Military Academy. After graduating from the Huangpu Senior Class, he refused to be with the corrupt commander and left the army to seek another development in Shanghai.
In 1929, Tang Jiyao's subordinate Long Yun had replaced the former as the new "King of Yunnan" and was appointed commander of the Nationalist Army. At the invitation of Long Yun, Zeng Zesheng returned to Yunnan to participate in the army reorganization plan and became the deputy captain of the Kunming officers' cadet team. He led by example, advocating integrity and fairness.
The good times did not last long, because Zeng Zesheng openly denounced the old warlords in the newspapers, offended Chiang Kai-shek, the Kunming officer cadet team was confiscated weapons, and Zeng Zesheng and some like-minded friends were imprisoned. Fortunately, Long Yun managed to rescue Zeng Zesheng, who was released and later became a brigade commander in the Dian Army.
Zeng Zesheng's thinking was incompatible with his colleagues, and he was unwilling to use his position to increase his income, and his life was very difficult and he was ridiculed by his colleagues. When his wife gave birth to a child and was hospitalized, the family ran out of money and owed the hospital 200 oceans. What is even more tragic is that the child died before the full moon. After experiencing various blows, Zeng Zesheng had to bow to reality and accept the way to make money that he hated before.
Long Yun and Chiang Kai-shek
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Zeng Zesheng served as a regimental commander in the 60th Army of the Nationalist Army. Later, in the great victory of Taierzhuang, Zeng Zesheng also commanded the troops to win the battle. In 1940, he was promoted to deputy division commander of the 184th Division, and then division commander.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zeng Zesheng, like many Kuomintang generals, used his position to make some "business" and make money while marching south and fighting in the north. According to Zeng Zesheng's recollection, he once sold gold and made a net profit of more than 300 taels in a few months. However, in the national righteousness, his original intention remained unchanged, and he vowed to resist the Japanese army to the death.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zeng Zesheng was appointed commander of the 60th Army, and in 1946 he was ordered to lead the troops into the northeast, and concurrently served as the deputy commander of the Fourth Appeasement District. In the northeast, the three divisions of the 60th Army were dispersed and commanded by the New First Army, the Northeast Security Command, and the New Sixth Army, respectively, and Zeng Zesheng had no real power.
The 60th Army was reorganized from the Dian Army and was severely marginalized among the factional Nationalist forces. In addition, many officers and men in the army are Zhaotong people in Yunnan, who carry an extra hookah and are jokingly called "two guns". Some people who looked down on the Dian Army also ridiculed the 60 Army as a "60 bear." For various reasons, the 60 officers and men were very dissatisfied.
Pan Shuoduan, commander of the 184th Division of the army, was a friend of Zeng Zesheng's tribulations, and in May 1948, Pan Shuoduan led an uprising in Haicheng. After the uprising of the 184th Division, the 182nd Division and the provisional 21st Division returned to the command of the 60th Army and were stationed in the suburbs of Jilin Province. However, Zeng Zesheng was ostracized by his colleagues, suffered hardships everywhere, and the supplies of the troops could not be obtained on time, and the officers and men of the 60 Army complained bitterly.
In September 1948, when our army launched the Liaoshen Campaign, Zeng Zesheng led his troops to retreat to Changchun. Our army adopted the strategy of "encircling but not fighting" against Changchun, and Zeng Zesheng could not wait for reinforcements, so on October 17, he led his troops to revolt and withdrew from Changchun City. The Kuomintang army in the city was left with only 1 corps headquarters and the new 7th army, and was forced to lay down its weapons, so Changchun was peacefully liberated.
After the surrender of the 60th Army, it was reorganized into the 50th Army of the People's Liberation Army, Zeng Zesheng continued to serve as the commander, and the newly sent political commissar Xu Wenlie began to comprehensively transform the unit. Xu Wenlie pointed out some of Zeng Zesheng's old officer style, and Zeng Zesheng could not hang on to his face and asked the organization for sick leave for recuperation. During his convalescence, he read a large number of Marxist-Leninist and other works, and his thinking was completely transformed.
When he returned to the army, Xu Wenlie was surprised by his change of thinking, and the two of them transformed the 50th Army together, and the 50th Army became a strong brigade.
In 1950, before the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea began, Zeng Zesheng took the initiative to ask for battle, and the 50th Army was transferred to the northeast, with three divisions under its jurisdiction: 148, 149, and 150. In October of the same year, when the volunteer army entered The Dprk, the 50th Army followed the 13th Corps across the Yalu River and fought alongside the 38th Army and other ace units.
At that time, the 50th Army had only been reorganized for two years, and it was not optimistic and was not the main force. When it first arrived in a foreign land, the 50th Army was a bit uncomfortable, and there was no outstanding performance in the first two battles. The 112th Division of the 38th Army released a South Korean army due to intelligence errors in the first battle, and Peng Zong also reprimanded the commander Liang Xingchu fiercely.
Zeng Zesheng was not criticized, but he also felt ashamed. In the subsequent battles, Zeng Zesheng riveted enough and led the 50th Army to a surprising record.
For example, in January 1951, in the third campaign launched by the Volunteer Army, the 149th Division of the 50th Army was ordered to pursue the enemy who fled south, and completely annihilated the 1st Battalion and Tank Battalion of the 29th Rifle Regiment of the British 29th Brigade in the area south of Gaoyang, capturing and destroying more than 30 tanks. When Peng Dehuai heard the good news, he did not dare to believe it at first, and then praised the 50th Army for fighting well.
It was the first time the Volunteers had captured a batch of heavy tanks. You know, at that time, the volunteer army did not have anti-tank weapons, and it was forced to win the battle with explosive packs, explosive canisters and grenades.
In the fourth campaign, since the 50th Army was not the main force, it undertook the task of defensive operations and deployed on both sides of the Han River to block the enemy forces in order to ensure the battle of the brother troops on the Eastern Front. For safety reasons, the 38th Army was deployed as a reserve on the flank of the 50th Army, ready to take the top.
As a result, Zeng Zesheng led the 50th Army to resist the enemy armed to the teeth, fought fiercely for 50 days, and completed the task of blocking the attack. The bloody battle on the Han River was more tragic than imagined, and the 50th Army suffered heavy casualties, and many combat heroes and honorable troops emerged. This was the most brilliant and tragic battle of the 50th Army, which was born in the Dian Army. After the war, Peng Dehuai bowed and saluted Zeng Zesheng, which was to express his gratitude and salute to all the officers and men of the 50th Army.
In April 1951, during the recuperation of the 50th Army, Chairman Mao received Zeng Zesheng and said to him: "You are still fighting quite beautifully in the Korean battlefield!" Chairman Mao's affirmation and encouragement of the 50th Army made Zeng Zesheng very excited and unforgettable.
Zeng Zesheng later recalled that during that conversation, Chairman Mao carefully inquired to him about the situation of the Han River blockade battle, down to the deployment of a certain detachment. But he didn't remember some details very well, couldn't answer them, and felt very ashamed. Chairman Mao, in order to alleviate his embarrassment, diverged from the topic.
After Zeng Zesheng returned home, he asked his wife to immediately pack her bags: "I want to leave Beijing immediately, leave now!" "I am still blaming myself for not being able to answer Chairman Mao's question.
In July 1951, Zeng Zesheng led the 50th Army into the Korean War for the second time, and served as a coastal defense mission from the north bank of the Cheongcheon River estuary to the Tieshan Peninsula, and made new contributions. After returning to China in 1955, Zeng Zesheng was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.