On the eve of the 1955 award ceremony, the selection team found from the list of generals returned by Chairman Mao that General Wang Jian'an's name was circled, and a line of small words was annotated next to it: "This person is proud and complacent, and it is appropriate to award the lieutenant general." Some of these generals are not as good as Wang Jian'an in terms of merit and qualifications, and if Wang Jian'an is only given the rank of lieutenant general, it may have a bad influence in the army, but he cannot ignore the chairman's instructions. Therefore, the chairman's decision made the members of the selection team feel very difficult, and Marshal Luo Ronghuan said after knowing this situation: Wait. In 1956, the selection team once again asked General Wang Jian'an to confer the rank of general, and Chairman Mao, after learning the truth of the matter, realized that he had a momentary misunderstanding and made a wrong decision, so he specially awarded Wang Jian'an the rank of general. So, why did Chairman Mao have this misunderstanding? Is General Wang Jian'an really proud and complacent?
General Wang Jian'an was also born in poverty, and he used to beg for a living when he was young, and later herded cattle for the landlord's family, but he was repeatedly humiliated, and Wang Jian'an could not bear it, so he set fire to the landlord's house. But considering that the landlord might retaliate against him, Wang Jian'an left his hometown and went to Wuhan to serve as a soldier, but the old army had many vices, which made Wang Jian'an very dissatisfied, so he fled home and formed an armed organization of 60 people in his hometown, and after that, he got in touch with the local organization of the Chinese Communist Party, and joined the Communist Party of China in 1927, participated in the Jute Uprising, and opened a new chapter in his life.
In 1932, Wang Jian'an served as a political commissar in the 10th Division of the Red Fourth Front Army, participated in the anti-three-way siege campaign, and later commanded the team to destroy the first division of the Sichuan Army in the Yida campaign, and also participated in the anti-six-way siege.
In 1941, Wang Jian'an, who graduated from Kang University, served as deputy commander and political commissar of the Shandong Military Region, but there was no commander at that time, so all matters in the army were commanded by Wang Jian'an.
At that time, the anti-Japanese situation in Shandong was very grim, and the Japanese puppet army gathered more than 8,000 people and at the same time mobilized a large number of planes, coordinated with the heavens and the earth, and adopted the "sweeping" tactic of "pulling the net and encircling it" to surround the troops of the Shandong Military Region, in a vain attempt to wipe out the anti-Japanese leading organs of the Chinese Communists in Shandong in one fell swoop.
Under such circumstances, Wang Jian'an knew that it would be difficult to succeed in a direct breakthrough, so he decided to hold on first and then find an opportunity to break through. He immediately mobilized troops to block the Japanese puppet army rushing from all directions, and issued instructions one after another in an orderly manner according to the changes in the war situation.
However, the Japanese puppet army had planes and heavy artillery, and under the continuous attack, the bullets of the guard battalion had basically run out, but these soldiers were still brave and began to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy with bayonets and stones, but in such a battle, the casualties were bound to be heavy. Wang Jian'an always pays attention to the situation on the battlefield, and from time to time commands the team to continue to fight with the Japanese puppet army, and in the evening, Wang Jian'an thinks that the time has come to break through, so he first called the guard battalion commander, and the guard battalion commander Yan Yulin, who was full of blood, was torn into wisps of shrapnel at this time, Wang Jian'an looked at him and said solemnly: "I am going to lead the organ to break through now, you and the soldiers are here to contain the enemy, and after we leave for half an hour, you will quickly retreat, and you must be flexible and mobile." Yan Yulin replied and promised to complete the task. Wang Jian'an immediately led the personnel of the organ to successfully break out of the encirclement under the cover of the guard battalion.
In 1947, Wang Jian'an led the troops to participate in the Battle of Menglianggu, in this battle, with the shortest time to seize the Taohua Mountain, Leishi Mountain and other strategic points, and then received Chen Yi's instructions, commanded the team to take the southeast defense line of Menglianggu Lushan Peak, in this battle, it was really a bloody road with bayonets, and annihilated the 74th Division, Chiang Kai-shek heard the news, lamented: "This is the most painful, the most regrettable thing." It is "irreparable loss".
General Wang Jian'an, who has been fighting on the battlefield all the year round, is vigorous and resolute, and his personality is also extremely hot, General Xu Shiyou once commented on him: "I will slap the table and scold my mother, and I will never tear down the stage." ”
At a meeting, General Wang Jian'an and Commander Chen Yi disagreed on the battle, so that they slapped the table at the meeting on the spot, at that time, his position was still under Chen Yi, such behavior shocked the participants, but the generals often quarrel with each other because of different ideas, which was not a big deal, but this matter was soon passed to Chairman Mao, which made Chairman Mao have a misunderstanding of Wang Jian'an, thinking that he dared to call out to his superiors for his own merits, and was a proud and arrogant person who did not obey management.
This is the matter that Chairman Mao crossed out the name of General Wang Jian'an from the list of generals before the award ceremony.
At that time, General Wang Jian'an was also recuperating in Qingdao due to serious illness and did not attend the 1955 award ceremony. In 1956, the selection team once again reported General Wang Jian'an's evaluation of the general to Chairman Mao, and explained the reasons for the selection, Chairman Mao realized that he had misunderstood General Wang Jian'an, he was not arrogant and complacent, but his temper was too hot, after knowing the inside story, Chairman Mao agreed to award General Wang Jian'an the rank of general, so far, General Wang Jian'an was finally by-elected as a general in 1956.
In fact, General Wang Jian'an is indeed a little impulsive, but he is not complacent, and he is never arrogant, which can be seen from the fact that he and General Xu Shiyou "made peace with the generals of Jinan City".
In 1948, after the victory of the Battle of Eastern Henan, the Central Military Commission planned to take Jinan as soon as possible, but it was necessary to send generals to serve as the deputy commander of the Shandong Corps.
This dates back to 1937, when Yan'an was criticizing "Zhang Guotao's right-leaning escapism", and the cadres of the Red Fourth Front Army were also indiscriminately involved. After that, he felt that he could make a revolution wherever he went, so he and more than a dozen cadres at the army and division level prepared to leave with guns and return to the old areas of Sichuan and Shaanxi to fight guerrillas. Before leaving, Wang Jian'an thought that such behavior was very inappropriate and had seriously violated party discipline, so he reported the matter to the school of Kang University, and Chairman Mao immediately dealt with the matter after learning about it.
Afterwards, although Xu Shiyou also realized that his approach was indeed wrong, he still formed a bond with Wang Jian'an, who was a "whistleblower", and never ignored Wang Jian'an again.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, because they were both in Shandong, they held meetings in a courtyard of the Shandong Military Region many times, but Xu Shiyou never said a word to Wang Jian'an. Although the relationship between the two has always been "discordant", both of them are fierce generals, and they can be called "Shandong Twin Heroes" in the Shandong Eighth Route Army.
In this attack on Jinan, Chairman Mao naturally thought of Wang Jian'an for the first time, but now let Wang Jian'an go to Xu Shiyou as his deputy, will he be willing?
Chairman Mao said to Wang Jian'an with such concerns: "Comrade Jian'an, this time I need you to go back to your hometown and complete a major move." At present, only Jinan is still in the hands of the enemy in the liberated area of Shandong, and the Central Military Commission plans to liberate Jinan first, so in order to fight this battle well, you should go back to Shandong and serve as deputy commander of the Shandong Corps, and Xu Shiyou is the commander, do you have any opinions?"
Wang Jian'an understood that Chairman Mao was afraid that he and Xu Shiyou would not be able to work together happily and wanted to ask for his opinion, so he replied briskly: "All actions are subject to command, and there is no opinion." ”
Chairman Mao was very happy about Wang Jian'an's attitude and said: "The two of you are 'two heroes', and they both say that 'it is difficult for two heroes to stand side by side', and I think that 'it is difficult to sing alone', and the two of you must work together." ”
Wang Jian'an went to the Shandong Military Region soon after, but Xu Shiyou was recuperating in Penglai, Jiaodong, and the two did not meet until Xu Shiyou returned from recuperation, Wang Jian'an personally went to greet him, Xu Shiyou also shook hands with Wang Jian'an, and took the initiative to invite Wang Jian'an to drink, and said: "The past is gone, don't mention it." The two of them let go of their previous suspicions. Under the joint command of these two tiger generals, the Shandong Corps captured Jinan in only 8 days and captured Wang Yaowu alive.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, General Wang Jian'an, who had made extraordinary achievements, has always held a deputy position, and some of his superiors were still his subordinates in the past, but he worked hard and never complained. There is also a leader who once joked: "Old chief, you can't always be a supporting role with your qualifications!" Wang Jian'an didn't care. Not only did he not strive for merit, but he always maintained a revolutionary demeanor, often saying that party cadres should be servants of the people, that they should be honest, and that they should refuse to engage in special activities.
At that time, General Wang Jian'an's children were all working in other places, and many comrades thought that one or two children could be transferred back to Beijing so that they could take care of him nearby, but Wang Jian'an believed that they could work wherever they should work, and that they could not be transferred to a big city because of my relationship, so he rejected such an offer and did not have a single child by his side until he died.
In addition, General Wang Jian'an is also extremely rigorous in life. Because he himself suffered from high blood pressure and heart disease, he couldn't eat too much lard, but the vegetable oil supplied according to the standard was not enough, so the secretary went to the local grain store through the management department to buy 10 catties of peanut oil for free. After Wang Jian'an learned about this incident, he seriously criticized it: The cadres all bought tickets for free, and the party style would not be ruined! The secretary gave enough money to the grain store under the command of the general, and the matter was really concluded.
Once, Wang Jian'an was conducting research in a certain unit in Nanchang, Jiangxi, and the secretary proposed: You can go to Jinggangshan to have a look. Jinggangshan had different feelings for them, the generals during the Anti-Japanese War, and Wang Jian'an naturally wanted to go back to his hometown again, but when Wang Jian'an knew that he would have to transfer a special car from Nanchang, he directly canceled the plan. He believes that going to Jinggangshan is not a work need, and the government's resources cannot be wasted.
General Wang Jian'an has always had a special affection for the countryside, when he was on vacation, passing by Weifang, he wanted to go to the secretary Zhou Zhongxiu's house to see, Zhou Zhongxiu's family was naturally very happy, the whole family changed into new clothes, you must know that the era at that time, only the Chinese New Year will wear new clothes, it can be seen that Zhou Zhongxiu's family is very welcome to General Wang Jian'an. After Wang Jian'an and his wife Niu Yuqing arrived at Zhou Zhongxiu's house, Zhou Zhongxiu's mother, who was small, hurriedly spread a blanket on the kang and ran back to the house to get a quilt so that the general could cushion behind her. But Wang Jian'an directly folded the blanket and put it away, also put the quilt aside, and sat cross-legged on the kang directly. During the meal, Wang Jian'an also took care of Zhou Zhongxiu's blind father, handed the food to him, and then ate pancakes, small tofu, and chatted with Zhou Zhongxiu's family.
General Wang Jian'an also went to Li Mingde's home in Henan Mall, visited the home of Chen Qingfu, a cook, and returned to his hometown of Shahe Town, Hong'an, Hubei.
At that time, General Wang Jian'an was researching in Hubei and took time to return to his hometown. 50 years have passed, the hometown is still green mountains, the road is still the same, the feeling is still so kind, the white-haired old man at the entrance of the village trembled and greeted him, his face was full of excitement, Wang Jian'an followed the old man to the west, his face was always full of smiles, and his mouth said: "This is the place where I was born and raised, and I must come back when I rest." ”
On July 24, 1980, General Wang Jian'an was critically ill, and he said to his wife: "After I die, don't hold a memorial service, don't make wreaths, and scatter my ashes on the land of my hometown." In fact, when he was seriously ill, he said such things many times, so on July 25, General Wang Jian'an died of illness, and his wife Niu Yuqing complied with the general's last wishes, and sent General Wang Jian'an's ashes back to Hong'an with his children who had just returned from other places.
It wasn't until General Wang Jian'an's death for more than a month that his old comrades-in-arms learned the news that Wang Jian'an had passed away, and they were very shocked and asked each other, but they only got three words: I don't know, they all said why Wang Jian'an's wife Niu Yuqing didn't report it.
General Wang Jian'an was honest and honest all his life, his sleeves were clean, although he made great achievements in war, he never invited credit, and even after his death, he was thrifty, such a general should be remembered forever.