In 1950, Mao Zedong was 57 years old.
On January 13, 1950, Mao Zedong sent a telegram to Liu Shaoqi: "Xiao Jinguang can be appointed as the commander of the navy immediately, and Nie Rongzhen is also requested to inform him on this point." ”
Xiao Jinguang thus became the second commander of the Chinese People's Navy. Since when Zhang Aiping was the commander of the navy before, the Chinese Navy was only the East China Navy and not the national navy, so the commander of the Chinese Navy can also be counted as starting with Xiao Jinguang.
Lin Zun led the Kuomintang Second Fleet to revolt
On April 4, 1949, Su Yu, deputy commander of the People's Liberation Army, and Zhang Zhen, chief of staff, were ordered by the Central Military Commission to arrive at Baimamiao Township, Taixian County, Jiangsu, to establish the command headquarters of the river-crossing campaign, accept the Kuomintang uprising and surrender ships, and form a naval force to defend the coastal river.
On April 23, 1949, Lin Zun, commander of the Second Fleet of the Kuomintang Navy, led 25 ships under his command to join the People's Liberation Army and became part of the People's Navy.
On the 23rd, the leading body of the East China Military Region Navy was established in Baimamiao Township, with Zhang Aiping as commander and political commissar, and the People's Navy was officially born. At the naming ceremony, Zhang Aiping awarded each ship with the naming certificate, military flag, captain's flag, and bow flag issued by the Central People's Government and the Central People's Revolutionary Military Commission. Then, Zhang Aiping walked to the statue of Chairman Mao Zedong and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, and led all the sailors to solemnly swear:
"We are the maritime armed forces of the Chinese people, grown up under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Today, we feel infinitely honored and responsible for receiving the solemn banner and glorious title conferred on us by the Central People's Government...... We will always defend this glorious banner and title as we defend the dignity of the motherland. ”
Since then, the PLA has had its own navy.
Zhang Aiping formed the East China Navy
Zhang Aiping was born on January 9, 1910 in a peasant family in Zhangjiagou, Luojiangkou Town, Daxian County, Sichuan Province. In the spring of 1925, he entered Daxian Middle School and began to participate in revolutionary activities. He joined the Chinese Communist Youth League in April 1926, and became a member of the Communist Party of China in August 1928.
In June 1929, he went to Shanghai to participate in the party's underground work and served as a member and deputy secretary of the Zhabei District Committee of the Communist Party of China. He was twice arrested by foreign patrols and the Kuomintang security forces, and fought unyieldingly in prison to maintain his revolutionary integrity. In December 1929, he joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. In the 1st Division of the Red 14th Army, he successively served as squad leader, political instructor, squadron leader, and brigade leader. In the battles against Tiger Village and Taizhou, he fought bravely and was wounded in the left arm.
At the end of 1930, Comrade Zhang Aiping went to work in the Central Soviet District. He successively served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Youth League in Western Fujian and head of the Propaganda Department, secretary general of the Central Bureau of the Communist Youth League Soviet District, secretary of the Central County Committee of the Communist Youth League, member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League and director of the Propaganda Department, director of the Training Department, chief of staff and head of the Central Committee of the Young Pioneers, head of the Youth Department of the Central Anti-Imperialist and Pro-Soviet League, and alternate member of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic.
He participated in the organization and mobilization of the establishment of the International Division of the Young Communist Party and the reserve source of the Red Army, composed the lyrics of the song of the International Division of the Young Communist Party, participated in the editing of the newspaper "Youth Truth", the newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist League, and edited the publication "Young Pioneers", an organ of the Central Committee of the Young Pioneers. Participated in the third, fourth, and fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations. In the spring of 1934, he entered the Red Army University to study, and in September of the same year, he was appointed political commissar of the 12th Regiment of the 4th Division of the 3rd Red Army Corps.
During the Long March, he successively served as the director of the Political Department of the 4th Division of the 3rd Red Army Corps, and the political commissar of the 11th and 13th Regiments. In the battles and battles such as breaking through the four blockade lines of the Kuomintang army, crossing Chishui four times, bravely capturing Loushan Pass, fighting Lao Ya Mountain, defending Zunyi City, seizing the Bailiu Ferry, blocking the enemy on the Jinsha River, and annihilating the enemy cavalry in Qingshizui, he led his troops to fight bravely, charged ahead, and took on the front guard and rear guard of the corps many times, opening the way for the main force of the Red Army and covering the security of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission.
After the Long March arrived in northern Shaanxi, he served as the political commissar and acting head of the cavalry regiment of the Central Military Commission. He assiduously studied cavalry techniques and tactics, and soon became an excellent cavalry commander. In order to cooperate with the Red Army's large forces to cross the Yellow River to the east to resist the Japanese, he led his troops to fight in the Yulin, Jingbian, Dingbian, and Anbian areas inside and outside the Great Wall. In June 1936, he entered the Red Army University to study. In the first half of 1937, he served as a faculty member at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Aiping was appointed by Comrade Mao Zedong to Shanghai to serve as secretary of the Military Committee of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and organized the anti-Japanese guerrilla war in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. In the spring of 1938, he served as a staff officer of the General Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and did united front work in the Wuhan Office of the Eighth Route Army.
After the Southern Anhui Incident in 1941, he served as the commander of the 9th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army, the deputy commander of the 3rd Division and the deputy commander of the Northern Jiangsu Military Region. In December 1942, he served as the deputy commander of the 3rd Division, the commander and political commissar of the 8th Brigade, and the commander and political commissar of the Yanfu Military Division, as well as the secretary of the Yanfu Prefectural Party Committee, and commanded the anti-"sweeping" struggle in the Yanfu area. In September 1944, he served as the commander of the 4th Division of the New Fourth Army and the commander of the Huaibei Military Region, and led his troops to fight in the vast battlefields south of Xuzhou and east and west of Jinpu Road, fighting continuously, recovering lost territory, and contributing to the final victory of the War of Resistance against Japan.
In the early days of the War of Liberation, Comrade Zhang Aiping served as deputy commander of the Central China Military Region and member of the Central China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. At the end of 1948, he returned to China after recovering from his injuries and served as a member of the Front Committee of the Third Field Army.
At the beginning of the battle to cross the river, he was ordered to form the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy and served as the commander and political commissar of the East China Navy. He insisted on taking the people's army as the foundation, recruiting talented people, recruiting a wide range of talents, uniting and educating the former Kuomintang naval personnel, strengthening the building of rules and regulations, and founding our army's first naval school and the first naval technical research and guidance institution -- the Naval Command Research Committee. In less than two years, from the beginning of the takeover of the Kuomintang naval organs and ships, a naval force with relatively strong combat capability was built.
At the beginning of 1951, Zhang Aiping served as the commander of the 7th Corps of the People's Liberation Army and the Zhejiang Military Region. Later, he served as Chief of Staff of the East China Military Region and the Third Field Army, member of the East China Military and Political Commission, member of the East China Administrative Committee, and member of the East China Bureau of the Communist Party of China. He organized and commanded the anti-bandit operations on the coastal islands, eliminated the remnants of the Kuomintang army and the hidden spies, went deep into the front line of coastal defense to survey the terrain, and deployed and built fortifications, thus effectively strengthening the coastal defense construction in eastern Zhejiang. In 1955 he was awarded the rank of general.
Xiao Jinguang Hengbao battled Bai Chongxi
Xiao Jinguang (January 4, 1903 - March 29, 1989) was a native of Changsha, Hunan Province. In 1921, Xiao Jinguang entered Moscow Eastern University to study. When filling out the registration form for admission, he resolutely wrote the word "military" in the column of what occupation he chose. During his studies at the school, he was transferred to the school of the Red Army of the Soviet Union to study military affairs. In 1925, 22-year-old Xiao Jinguang served as the party representative of the Sixth Division of the Second Army of the National Revolutionary Army and participated in the Northern Expedition. After the defeat of the Revolution, he was again sent to the Soviet Union to study at the Leningrad Military and Political Academy. He summed up the lessons of the defeat of the Great Revolution, realized the importance of military work, and systematically studied military and political theoretical knowledge.
After graduating and returning to China in 1930, Xiao Jinguang was sent to the Western Fujian Soviet District, and successively served as the chief of staff and director of the Political Department of the Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi Military Region, the principal of the Central Military and Political School, and the political commissar of the Red Fifth Army Corps. Later, he served as the commander and political commissar of the Jianlitai Garrison District, and the political commissar of the Red Eleventh Army and the Red Seventh Army Corps.
In October 1934, he participated in the Long March. In January 1935, he was appointed chief of staff of the Third Army of the Red Army. After arriving in northern Shaanxi, he served as the head of the Military Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, the commander of the 29th Red Army, and the chief of staff of the Red Army Rear Command.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as the director of the rear general left-behind office of the Eighth Route Army, the commander of the left-behind corps, and the deputy commander of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningjin-Sui Joint Defense Army. In 1945, he was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he served as deputy commander-in-chief and chief of staff of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, and later changed to commander of the South Manchurian Military Region. He participated in the command of the Sibao Linjiang, the Northeast 1947 summer and autumn offensive operations, and the siege of Changchun.
In 1948, Xiao Jinguang served as the commander of the First Corps of the Northeast Field Army, the commander and political commissar of the Twelfth Corps of the Fourth Field Army, and later the commander of the Hunan Military Region.
In August 1949, after the peaceful liberation of Changsha, Bai Chongxi, the military and political chief of Central China of the Kuomintang, led more than 200,000 troops to defend the southern Hunan region centered on Hengyang and Baoqing, in an attempt to prevent the PLA from advancing to South China and Southwest. Bai Chongxi was nicknamed "Little Zhuge ", and among the various departments of the Kuomintang at that time, Bai Chongxi's group had quite strong combat effectiveness.
From September 13 to October 16, the Fourth Field Army of our army launched the Battle of Hengbao and divided its troops into three ways to encircle and annihilate the Bai Chongxi group. Xiao Jinguang commanded the 12th Corps and undertook the arduous task of frontal attack. On 2 October, he commanded three corps to launch a frontal attack on the enemy at the same time. After quickly breaking through the enemy's front-line positions, our army took advantage of the victory to develop in depth, especially the 135th Division of the 45th Army, which fought in depth and bravely alone, like a sharp knife inserted into the enemy's heart, disrupting Bai Chongxi's entire deployment.
Bai Chongxi was worried that he would continue to be entangled and delayed, so he hurriedly changed his battle plan, immediately reduced his forces, and commanded his most powerful ace, the Seventh Army, to cover the retreat of the large army. Xiao Jinguang seized the fighter plane and ordered the 12 divisions of the 4 armies responsible for the attack to attack and pursue the fleeing enemy.
On the 9th, Xiao Jinguang commanded 9 divisions to besiege the Seventh Army, and another 6 divisions blocked the front and intercepted the rear, and the Seventh Army became a turtle in the urn. On the 10th, Xiao Jinguang organized 8 divisions to launch a general attack on the encircled enemy, annihilated 4 elite divisions of the enemy in one fell swoop, captured the deputy commander, chief of staff and 3 division commanders of the Seventh Army, liberated Hengyang, Baoqing, Chenzhou and other important towns in southern Hunan, and created favorable conditions for our army to march into Guangxi to completely annihilate the Bai Chongxi group and liberate South China.
In October 1949, just after the Battle of Hengbao, Mao Zedong summoned Xiao Jinguang in Zhongnanhai and asked him to be the first naval commander of New China. In January 1950, Xiao Jinguang was officially appointed as the commander of the Navy by the Central Military Commission.