In September 1940, Comrade Zhu Rui fiercely criticized the headquarters of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army. At that time, a meeting of senior cadres in Taoyu was held, and Zhu Rui pointed out: "The 115th Division is willing to do it only when there are people in front of it and someone in the back who pushes it. If such criticism had been made by the head of the Central Committee, the cadres of the 115th Division might have profoundly summed up and modestly corrected it, but in the face of such sharp wording, Acting Division Commander Chen Guang would never have been ambiguous. This is indeed the case, and the short-tempered Chen Guang immediately hit back at Zhu Rui's opinion, saying that he deliberately belittled the 115th Division.
If it weren't for the other cadres on the scene to control Chen Guang in time, the acting teacher would have rushed up to theorize alone. At that time, Zhu Rui was the secretary of the Shandong Branch and the highest person in charge of the Shandong Base Area within the party; Chen Guang was the acting commander of the 115th Division and the highest military commander of the Shandong Eighth Route Army; and the other person involved was Luo Ronghuan, who was serving as the political commissar of the 115th Division and was Chen Guang's partner at the division headquarters, but in fact he was slightly higher in rank than the acting division commander.
Zhu Rui was very dissatisfied with the 115th Division's style of play and achievements, so he criticized it. Is he "telling"? Because Zhu Rui is the leader of the party, and the party's command of the gun is the basic principle of our army. However, at that time, the Shandong base area was not a real "unified" leadership, and the party, government, and military power were not completely unified. As for Luo Ronghuan, it was naturally very uncomfortable to hear the words "only do hygiene", but Luo Shuai was old and serious, and did not refute it on the spot.
Chen Guang's opinion on Zhu Rui was not formed overnight. Zhu Rui has a straight temperament, and he often reprimands his subordinates mercilessly. Previously, because of similar circumstances, the two had quarreled several times, but they were not in front of so many comrades like the Taoyu Conference. The phenomenon of a large number of troops in Shandong and a lack of uniformity in military orders is quite serious, which restricts the development of the base areas, and the central authorities are also seriously inspecting several principal cadres in Shandong.
In Zhu Rui's report to Yan'an, he clearly pointed out that "Chen Guang, the acting commander of the 115th Division, has low prestige", which is a very low evaluation, and the deeper meaning is that he is not suitable for a higher leadership position. Chen Guang is also unambiguous, the person in charge of the base area he recommended to the central government is his partner Luo Ronghuan, not Zhu Rui. Luo Shuai is caught in it, and it is very difficult to reconcile the relationship between the two, because of their personalities and work habits, Zhu Rui and Chen Guang are not very persuasive people.
In order to coordinate the issue of the Shandong base area, the Yan'an General Headquarters sent Comrade Shaoqi over, which shows the degree of attention. In the end, Zhu Rui and Chen Guang were both transferred from Shandong and returned to Yan'an for further study, which shows the attitude and personnel judgment of the central government from this perspective. In 1943, Luo Shuai officially became the commander and political commissar of the Shandong Military Region, and at the same time he was also the political commissar and acting division commander of the 115th Division, and served as the secretary of the Shandong Branch within the party.
Obviously, the personnel problems that have plagued the Shandong base areas for many years have come to an end, and unified leadership has been realized. Luo Ronghuan is Chairman Mao's most reassuring cadre, and he officially began to preside over the overall situation of Shandong. By the time of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Luo Shuai, Li Yu and other comrades worked together to create a strong base area, with more than 270,000 regular Eighth Route Army alone, which shocked the whole country and laid a solid foundation for soldiers and logistics for the Liberation War.
It is a pity that the two generals, Zhu Rui and Chen Guang, are more regrettable. Disputes are disputes, and there are subjective and objective reasons, but from the Red Army to the Anti-Japanese War, their qualifications and achievements have always been outstanding, and they both have the resume of evaluating generals after the founding of the People's Republic of China. However, in 1948, Zhu Rui was killed in a thunderstorm during the Liaoshen Campaign, at the age of 43; although Chen Guang lived to the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was involved in some sensitive issues because of his strong personality, and in 1954, he was too mentally stressed and found a short-sighted situation, which is a pity. Neither of these predecessors received military ranks, but we should not forget their contributions to the revolution and the establishment of New China.
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