Regarding the matter of military ranks, some generals take it more seriously, and they fought for it when they were awarded the title in 1955, and some generals take it lightly and feel that it is not important what title is awarded, and compared to those dead soldiers, they are already very lucky to be alive.
There are also people who have made outstanding achievements but have not been awarded, such as Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Yang Shangkun and others, Premier Zhou and Deng Xiaoping both refused themselves, so what about Yang Shangkun? Because Yang Shangkun's military partners are all at the level of marshal.
Yang Shangkun was a native of Chongqing, in 1926, at the age of 19, he joined our party, and it was also in this year that he entered the Soviet Union to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, until 1933, when he went to Ruijin and served as the director of the Political Department of the Red Army.
Don't underestimate the position of director of the political department, at that time Zhu De was the commander-in-chief, Zhou Enlai was the political commissar, and the chief of staff was Ye Jianying, followed by Yang Shangkun, he sat in the fourth position, it can be seen that this position is not small, and the other three are all at the marshal level.
In January 1934, he was ordered to serve as a political commissar in the Red Third Army, the commander of the regiment at that time was Peng Dehuai, and he and Peng Dehuai became military partners, and later due to the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression", he participated in the Long March, and also participated in the famous Zunyi Conference.
After the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, he served as the deputy director of the Political Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment, and participated in the Battle of Zhiluo Town and the Eastern Crusade.
Later, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, he was transferred to serve as the secretary of the Northern Bureau, responsible for leading the work of the entire base area behind the enemy in North China, with the main task of helping Zhu De and Peng Dehuai, and being responsible for the rear support work of the North China Anti-Japanese War.
Judging from Yang Shangkun's resume, as well as his military partner, it is not a problem for him to be named a marshal after the founding of the People's Republic of China, even if he is not a marshal, at least he is a general, but unfortunately he was not awarded the title, mainly because he left the army, so he was not awarded.
Later, in 1988, the mainland carried out another award, at this time there was no no military rank of marshal, at that time Yang Shangkun was the vice chairman of the Military Commission, Deng Xiaoping was the chairman, so someone proposed to give them the title, Yang Shangkun, who was already 81 years old, chose not to have a military rank.
On September 14, 1998, at the age of 92, Yang Shangkun died of illness in Beijing. After the cremation, a piece of shrapnel was found in his ashes, and later the relevant personnel sorted out their memories and learned that this shrapnel was left by Peng Dehuai when he rescued him.
In the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression, the enemy plane came, Yang Shangkun did not have time to dodge, but fortunately Peng Dehuai pounced on him in time to save his life, but his leg was injured.
This is also the only time he was injured on the battlefield, and the shrapnel that burned out should have been left behind when he was wounded.