In the summer of 1947, when the War of Liberation was underway, our army gradually began to shift from strategic defense to strategic offensive. In order to meet the new operational needs, at the end of July of that year, the 4th Column led by Chen Geng, Qin Jiwei's 9th Column, the 38th Army of the Rebel Army, and the 22nd Brigade of the Taiyue Military Region were combined into the Chen Xie Corps, which had 8 brigades under its jurisdiction and a total strength of more than 80,000 people. Chen Geng is the commander of the Corps and former secretary of the CPC Committee, and Xie Fuzhi is the political commissar.
At that time, Cha Yusheng served as the brigade commander of the 22nd Brigade in the Chen Xie Corps. He is a native of Lu'an, Anhui Province, and his parents died of illness when he was very young. The young Zha Yusheng made a living by begging for food, and when he was a little older, he began to work for the landlord's family and suffered a lot. In 1931, at the age of 17, Zha Yusheng joined the ranks of the Red Army and followed the troops to fight the enemy in the Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area and the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet region, and made many military achievements.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he entered the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army and served as a company commander under Chen Geng. After crossing the Yellow River, the 386th Brigade camped in a village, and in the middle of the night, a traitor sneaked out of the village and told the little devil. Soon the Japanese army sent heavy troops to surround the village, and at the critical moment, Zha Yusheng personally lifted the machine gun and took the lead in the charge, tearing a hole in the encirclement of the little devil, and Chen Geng took the opportunity to lead his troops to break out of the encirclement.
After this dangerous situation, Chen Geng thought that if the troops wanted to fight the little devils with peace of mind, they must first get rid of those traitors who were fighting for the tiger, and handed over this task to Zha Yusheng. After careful investigation and arrangement, Cha Yusheng sneaked into the city in the dead of night and eradicated those traitors who committed the most heinous crimes one by one, so that the little devils lost their ears and eyes. After that, Cha Yusheng followed Chen Geng to participate in many ambush battles, accumulated combat merits and was promoted to regiment commander.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zha Yusheng participated in the Liberation War and continued to fight under the command of Chen Geng. After the establishment of Chen Xie's Corps, he served as the brigade commander of the 22nd Brigade and followed the main force to participate in the Battle of the Eastern Foothills of Funiu Mountain and the attack on the Pinghan Line, destroying tens of thousands of enemy troops and liberating more than 30 county seats. At the beginning of 1948, Chen Xie's corps advanced into the Central Plains and prepared to launch the Luoyang Campaign. Unexpectedly, just before the campaign was about to be launched, Cha Yusheng, then the commander of the 22nd Brigade, angrily scolded Xie Fuzhi, the political commissar of the Corps: You are fooling around! What is going on?
At that time, many prisoners were added to the major field armies, and in order to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, a new-style army rectification campaign was launched, the main contents of which were education on grievances and three inspections and three rectifications. In Chen Xie's corps, the political commissar Xie Fuzhi was in charge of the new-style army rectification movement. He and Chen Geng are old partners and have worked together for many years. Originally, according to the arrangements of the higher authorities, the new-style army rectification movement was mainly to carry out education on grievances and three investigations and three rectifications, but Xie Fuzhi came up with ingenuity and added a "poor farmer in charge."
This "poor peasants in charge" means that commanders and fighters from poor peasants and hired peasants are allowed to hold important posts in the troops, while those cadres with poor backgrounds are squeezed out, some are demoted, and some are dismissed. At the same time, Xie Fuzhi also organized some soldiers who were born as poor hired peasants and set up a search team to search the luggage of cadres at all levels.
There was a regiment commander under Zha Yusheng, who was a rich peasant, but as a result, he was hit by the "poor hired peasants in charge", his post was revoked, and he became an ordinary soldier. Zha Yusheng was very dissatisfied with this, and he couldn't understand it, so he personally found Xie Fuzhi's theory and reprimanded him for fooling around. Zha Yusheng became an orphan when he was very young, and his family was poorer than Xie Fuzhi. Xie Fuzhi was very angry when he saw that he did not support his "poor farmer in charge", but he had nothing to do with him.
Xie Fuzhi's "poor hired peasants in charge" in the army was carried out behind Chen Geng's back, and Chen Geng was not only the commander of the corps at that time, but also the former secretary of the party committee. According to common sense, Xie Fuzhi's inclusion of "poor hired peasants in charge" in the new-style army rectification movement is a major event, and he should greet Chen Geng and study and decide by convening a front committee. However, Xie Fuzhi not only did not inform Chen Geng, but also instructed the search team to rush into Chen Geng's residence to "share the floating wealth".
Xie Fuzhi said: "All cadres with bad backgrounds must be searched, and commanders are no exception!" So the search team rushed into Chen Geng's residence, and without saying a word, began to search everywhere. At that time, the conditions of the People's Liberation Army were still relatively difficult, and Chen Geng built a marching bed at the corps command post, which could both work and rest. There were quite a few classified documents in them, and the search party rushed in and rummaged through, and the troops' battle plans could be leaked at any time.
Chen Geng was very angry about this, and immediately reprimanded these search teams with a straight face, and asked them who ordered them to do this, and only after asking did he know that it was Xie Fuzhi who did it. Chen Geng immediately found him, questioned why such a big matter was not voted on by the front committee, and reprimanded him for trying to mess up the troops. Xie Fuzhi believed that this was a matter within his authority, so he refused to rectify the situation, and said that he would continue to implement the "poor hired peasants in charge", and dismissed Wang Buqing, the branch secretary who was not from a poor hired peasantry.
Xie Fuzhi's move was tantamount to artificially creating antagonism among the troops, which caused panic among the people for a time and had an extremely adverse impact on the troops' preparations for the Luoyang Campaign. Chen Geng saw that Xie Fuzhi did not listen to persuasion, and quickly reported the matter to his superiors. Soon after, the superiors called back and clearly demanded that the practice of "poor hired peasants in charge" be abolished, and Xie Fuzhi died down. Chen Geng immediately took remedial measures, transferred those cadres who had been excluded before back to their original positions, and comforted them, which stabilized the morale of the army.
Soon after, the Battle of Luoyang began, Chen Geng and Chen Shiyu joined forces, and it took only 6 days to conquer Luoyang and capture Qiu Xingxiang alive, which was also the first time since the People's Liberation Army advanced into the Central Plains to conquer the well-fortified medium-sized cities of the National Army, and accumulated valuable experience for the subsequent urban siege. Zha Yusheng performed very well in this battle and was later promoted to the commander of the 41st Division. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and the War of Self-Defense and Counterattack against Vietnam, and was awarded the rank of major general in 1955.