In 1955, at the first investiture ceremony of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, a total of ten generals who made great contributions to the founding and construction of New China were conferred the ranks of Su Yu, Xu Haidong, Huang Kecheng, Chen Geng, Tan Zheng, Xiao Jinguang, Zhang Yunyi, Luo Ruiqing, Wang Shusheng and Xu Guangda.
Among them, Chen Geng, as the most legendary one of the ten generals, many people have a lot of discussion about his fourth rank among the ten generals, so today we will talk about whether General Chen Geng's fourth ranking among the ten generals is high or low, and what kind of reasons are there as the basis for this?
Evaluation criteria for the 1955 investiture ceremony
To know whether General Chen Geng's ranking is overrated or underrated, it is necessary to understand the criteria for evaluating each rank at the first award ceremony in 1955.
The first criterion for being selected as the top ten marshals is that he has led or participated in the important armed uprisings and struggles during the founding period of the PLA. For example, Marshal Zhu De and Marshal Lin Biao directly led the Nanchang Uprising and the Southern Hunan Uprising, while Peng Dehuai led the Pingjiang Uprising.
For example, Comrade Zhu De served as commander of the Red First Army, commander-in-chief of the Red Army, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and commander-in-chief of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
After satisfying the above two conditions, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the army's leadership ability, combat achievements, military strategic thinking, loyalty and dedication to the party and the people, and other aspects, and finally determine the candidates for the last 10 marshals according to their ranking.
As a military rank second only to marshals, although the evaluation criteria for generals are not clearly stipulated, their requirements are only one line lower than those of the top ten marshals.
That is, first of all, it is necessary to lead or participate in important armed insurrectionary wars at the beginning of the founding of the PLA, secondly, to participate in the construction of early revolutionary base areas, to serve as the leader of major Red Army units, and to lead important battles during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation.
In such a range, they will be carefully screened, and then comprehensively evaluated according to their command ability, military achievements, and loyalty and dedication to the party and the people, so as to select the final ten generals.
Overestimation or underestimation
So, is General Chen Geng's fourth rank among the ten generals overestimated or underestimated? The answer is that it is neither overestimated nor underestimated.
In the early days of the Red Army, he far surpassed Su Yu, Xu Xiangqian and Huang Kecheng, the three generals who came before him in terms of qualifications and military positions, so why did he rank behind the other three generals in the later award ceremony?
In November 1927, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting in Shanghai, the theme of the meeting was to focus on the theme of how to carry out the revolutionary struggle and work of our party members under the white terror.
Because the Special Section consists of four sections, namely, General Affairs, Intelligence, Operations, and Communications, and because of the particularity and crucial nature of its work, the question of who to appoint in charge of the Intelligence Section has become Premier Zhou's biggest headache.
At this time, Comrade Chen Geng was transferred to Shanghai Hospital for treatment because of the leg bone injury in the Nanchang Uprising, and the arrival of Comrade Chen Geng gave Premier Zhou a flash of inspiration, and he immediately determined the candidate for the intelligence section of the General Consulate, so after Chen Geng's leg injury healed, he accepted Premier Zhou's proposal to stay in Shanghai to engage in intelligence work, so he left the field army.
During his period of engaging in intelligence work, General Chen Geng relied on his clever wisdom to travel among many forces in Shanghai under the pseudonym "Wang Yong," thus winning a lot of useful information for our party's revolutionary work and providing a lot of convenience for the revolutionary work at the front.
Later, because he was betrayed by traitors, Comrade Chen Geng was unfortunately arrested and imprisoned by the Kuomintang, and was imprisoned in Nanjing, Nanchang and other places. Because of his special identity and status, and his kindness to Chiang Kai-shek, although the Kuomintang imprisoned Chen Geng, they did not murder him, and later he successfully escaped.
However, by the time Comrade Chen Geng returned to the unit to carry out combat work, the positions of Su Yu, Xu Haidong, and Huang Kecheng had already changed greatly.
Before Chen Geng left the army, he was already the division commander of the Red Fourth Front Army, and Xu Haidong at that time was only a regiment commander directly under Chen Geng, although Su Yu was equivalent to Chen Geng's military position at that time, but the strength of his Red 64th Division was far inferior to the Red Fourth Front Army led by Chen Geng, and Huang Kecheng was only a director of the Political Department of the Red Third Army at that time.
However, when Chen Geng returned to the army, the positions of the three of them were no longer the same. At that time, Su Yu had already been promoted to chief of staff of the corps by virtue of his command ability, Comrade Xu Haidong held the post of commander of the Red 25th Army, and Huang Kecheng had also been promoted to the political commissar of the division.
More importantly, after Chen Geng returned to work in the army, he did not hold an actual position in the army, but served as the principal of the "Pengyang Infantry School", and it was not until after the Red Army met in northern Shaanxi that he served as the commander of the Red First Division of the Red First Army.
Later, in consideration of Comrade Chen Geng's special contributions during his two-year special branch work, he was promoted to brigade commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, but this promotion did not enable him to surpass the first three generals in the subsequent award ceremony.
Due to various reasons, until the end of the Liberation War, the highest military post Chen Geng held was only the commander of the Fourth Column, and compared with Su Yu's deputy commander of Sanye, Huang Kecheng's deputy commander of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, and the post of member of the Central China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, this military position that only belongs to the level of corps commander has been somewhat different.
In addition to their military ranks, the top three generals have made special contributions to the party and the people. First of all, the "God of War" Su Yu, who led and participated in many important battles and made great achievements for the party and the people, if it were not for seniority, it was possible to confer the rank of marshal.
General Xu Haidong, as the leader who led the Red 25 th Army to arrive in northern Shaanxi to complete the task of meeting the divisions, made outstanding contributions during the important period of the revolution, and was personally praised by Chairman Mao as "a person who has made great contributions to the Chinese revolution"; General Huang Kecheng was not far behind in terms of military merits, and in addition, his military rank has always been ranked before Chen Geng, so it is certainly understandable that he was ranked before Chen Geng in the award ceremony.
Judging from these aspects, General Chen Geng's ranking fourth among the ten generals is already considered an upper limit, and none of the first three can be ranked behind him.
So, some people think that Chen Geng is too high in the fourth ranking, so is this reasonable?
First of all, among the ten generals, after General Chen Geng, are Tan Zheng, Xiao Jinguang, Zhang Yunyi, Luo Ruiqing, Wang Shusheng and Xu Guangda.
In terms of military ranks, General Tan Zheng served as deputy director of the General Political Department of the Eighth Route Army, director of the Political Department of the Fourth Field Army, and deputy director of the General Political Department; General Xiao Jinguang served as political commissar of the Red Fifth Army Corps, commander of the left-behind corps of the Eighth Route Army, deputy commander of the Fourth Field Army, and commander of the Navy.
Zhang Yunyi served as commander of the Red Seventh Army during the Baise Uprising, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, and commander of the Guangxi Military Region; Luo Ruiqing served as director of the Field Political Department of the Eighth Route Army, political commissar of the Xiaoluo Corps, and commander of the Anjun Army; Wang Shusheng served as deputy commander-in-chief and director of the General Armament Department of the Red Fourth Front Army; and Xu Guangda served as chief of staff and commander of the armored corps of the Honghu Red Sixth Army.
Among them, there are many people whose military rank is higher than Chen Geng's, but when evaluating the ten generals, although the military rank is one of the important evaluation indicators, it is not completely determined by the military rank.
Although Chen Geng's highest military position before the founding of the People's Republic of China was only the rank of corps commander, and the highest military positions of Xiao Jinguang, Zhang Yunyi and Wang Shusheng after his ranking were all marshals, considering that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Geng also served as the deputy commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and also belonged to the marshal level, based on this, Chen Geng was on a par with Xiao Jinguang, Zhang Yunyi and Wang Shusheng. Considering the importance of the campaign of several leaders, Chen Geng is not lagging behind the other three at all.
In terms of qualifications, Comrade Chen Geng joined the Communist Party of China as early as 1922, was a student of the Whampoa Military Academy, and directly participated in and led the Nanchang Uprising in 1927.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he led the troops to participate in countless important battles, and made great contributions to the overall victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he directly led the campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea.
With his military rank, his military achievements, and his special contributions to the party and the people, Comrade Chen Geng's ranking fourth among the 10 generals is definitely worthy of his name.
Descendants of General Chen Geng
On March 16, 1961, Senior General Chen Geng died of illness in Shanghai at the age of 58.
General Chen Geng had two marriages before his death, he and his first wife Wang Genying had a son, named Chen Zhifei, as Chen Geng's eldest son, Chen Zhifei experienced a very difficult life when he was young, after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, he entered North China University to study, and later worked in Changchun FAW, making great contributions to the development of China's automobile industry.
Chen Geng and his second wife had a total of three sons and a daughter, and Chen Zhijian and Chen Zhishu followed in their father's footsteps and joined the military camp. The youngest son, Chen Zhiya, works in embassies abroad, and Chen Geng's youngest daughter, Chen Zhijin, embarked on the road of medicine.
Although later generations have a lot of discussions about General Chen Geng's ranking among the ten generals, for each general, the rank may be just a name, and all they care about from beginning to end is the victory or defeat of the war and the peace that can be obtained from the war.
Bibliography:
"Ten Generals of the Republic in 1937", Lu Dan, "Party Class Reference" periodical
"Brief Profile of the Ten Generals", Zhu Danchi, People's Tribune periodical
"Founding General Chen Geng" Chunqi "New Long March" periodical
"List of Marshals, Generals, and Generals in the Mainland when the Military Rank System Was Implemented in 1955", Tianjin CPPCC Periodical