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On September 27, 1955, in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, a grand award ceremony was held, during which a total of 1,048 generals received the rank of major general or above, including a total of 10 leaders and founders of the People's Liberation Army were awarded the rank of marshal, 10 senior generals with outstanding military achievements were awarded the rank of general, in addition, there were 55 generals, 175 lieutenant generals, and 798 major generals.
The military ranks of these people were all decided by the Central Military Commission and the Party Central Committee after careful consideration, and few people raised objections after the ceremony, but they were not without exceptions, such as the award of the title to General Zhang Yunyi.
Many people feel that with Zhang Yunyi's qualifications and merits, he is fully qualified to be named marshal, and now he is really a little wronged by just being a general, and some people think that even if the position of marshal is full, he should be the head of the generals, and it should not be just the seventh anyway.
So what's going on here? Why is it said that Zhang Yunyi has the qualifications of a marshal, and if so, what are the organizational considerations for granting him a lower military rank?
The old revolution of the late Qing Dynasty
Everything has to start with Zhang Yunyi's experience of participating in the revolution.
In 1892, Zhang Yunyi was born in a well-off family in Wenchang County, Hainan Province, although the family relied on farming for a living, but with hard work, in that turbulent era to gain the ability to make a living, not only that, Zhang's parents also attached great importance to education, only seven years old let Zhang Yunyi study in private school, at the age of twelve he was sent to a new primary school.
Subsequently, seeing that Zhang Yunyi had a talent for reading, the old couple emptied their family funds and sent him to the Guangdong Army Academy, of course, it was here that Zhang Yunyi first came into contact with revolutionary ideas, and felt that China was poor and weak and urgently needed to change, so he participated in the revolution at the age of 17, that is, in 1909, entered the League led by Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and quickly devoted himself to the following Guangzhou Uprising, Huanghuagang Uprising, and the Xinhai Revolution that changed the fate of China.
You must know that the Qing Dynasty has not yet fallen at this point in time, it is not an exaggeration to say that Zhang Yunyi is an old revolutionary, and it can even be said responsibly that when he led the troops to fight and kill the enemy, the ten marshals, including Mr. Zhu, were still unknown small roles, either still in school, or still working and farming, and the younger ones were still babbling, and Zhang Yunyi was definitely above a few people in terms of qualifications.
In the following years, Zhang Yunyi has also been active in the road of revolution, closely following the footsteps of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, fighting against warlords and traitors, so that during the Northern Expedition, he has become the chief of staff of the 25th Division of the National Revolutionary Army.
Don't look at the low position, if you really want to count it, General Ye Ting at the same time was only the head of an independent regiment, not to mention the irregular establishment, and the position was also a lot shorter, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the mainstay of the army.
It can be said that as long as Zhang Yunyi continues to develop step by step, he can mix in the top level in the Kuomintang and become Chiang Kai-shek's confidant, but what is commendable is that he was not blinded by the high-ranking officials in front of him, and he always remembered his original intention and mission, that is, to liberate the toiling masses and let the descendants of Yan and Huang live a good life all over the world.
This is exactly what our party has been working hard for, but what about the Kuomintang? After the death of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, it has become a vanity fair, all forces only know how to fight for power and profit, only know how to use the people's fat and people's ointment to expand their power, they are already very good if they don't bully the people, let alone make decisions for the people.
This was especially true of Chiang Kai-shek, whose various practices gradually disappointed Zhang Yunyi, so in October 1926, he resolutely chose to abandon the darkness and join the Communist Party of China, which symbolizes light and justice.
He joined the party in 1926, which was neither early nor late, but with Zhang Yunyi's status, the impact of a few years later was really not great, not to mention his contributions to the party and the people since then.
Since December 11, 1929, Zhang Yunyi led the troops to revolt and joined the ranks of the Red Army, he is the main commander of the Seventh Army, in order to meet with the large army, he can be said to spare no effort, and personally came forward to recruit troops and horses, under the siege of the enemy, he forcibly expanded a strong iron army, and broke out of the encirclement, after thousands of kilometers of trek to Jinggangshan, filled the key force for the revolution.
This credit is simply a charcoal in the snow, plus his rank as a military commander, it stands to reason that even if he has no merit in the future, just hard work, it is not too much to be a marshal, so the question is, the generals of the same level at the same time, and even the generals of the lower level will become marshals in the future, why is he only rated as a general? Could it be that he made some mistakes in the War of Resistance against Japan and the War of Liberation?
A paper appointment
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, he devoted himself to the revolution and led an army to defect to our party, General Zhang Yunyi can be called an out-and-out old revolutionary, half a lifetime of horses, only in this period of time his merits are enough to be rated as a marshal, so in this case, in the end, why was he only awarded the rank of general, and not the first general?
As we all know, although the Baise Uprising is critical, it is nearly two years later than the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising, which means that in the Red Army, his qualifications are still worse, not only that, but in the case that the army has been formed, the organization has to put him under the command of Mr. Peng, that is, the Red Third Corps.
After that, the organization originally wanted to gradually straighten Zhang Yunyi and let him lead the army alone, but unfortunately, the ideal is plump and the reality is skinny, because the situation is changing too fast, our party's situation is precarious, and the superiors have to give him a more important task, that is, in 1932, the Central Committee transferred Zhang Yunyi to the Military Commission as deputy chief of staff, and concurrently served as director of the Operations Bureau.
These two positions sound like they belong to the military, but in fact, they can't directly lead troops to fight, as for why this arrangement is simple, it is not that the organization wants to deprive Zhang Yunyi of military power, but it is really Zhang Yunyi's ability.
You must know that Zhang Yunyi has worked in the Kuomintang army for many years, and there are many old departments, and many of his former comrades-in-arms and subordinates have even become senior generals or cadres of the Kuomintang, which is undoubtedly bad news for Lao Jiang, after all, knowing oneself and knowing that the other side will win all battles, but it is different for our party, even Chairman Mao said that he is one of the few people in our party who can talk to the top of the Kuomintang, how can this advantage not be used?
Therefore, since 1932, Zhang Yunyi began to stay in the rear, and the Kuomintang side or secret or explicit communication work, in the rear is not on the front line, Zhang Yunyi naturally lost many opportunities for meritorious service, and it is certainly more difficult to promote his position than other generals, but having said that, during this period he still made great contributions to our party.
First of all, the matter of the anti-Japanese national united front, Chiang Kai-shek had already agreed to the unanimous external affairs under the advice of the two generals, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, but unexpectedly, the warlords of the Gui family, who had always been at odds with him, did not agree, especially Li Zongren, although he was patriotic, he did not want to submit to Chiang Kai-shek in any case.
This can give my party a headache, after all, it is better to resist Japan in an all-round way sooner rather than later, if it drags on, maybe there will be some kind of moth on the Kuomintang side, now Zhang Xueliang has been placed under house arrest, if there is another "outside must first settle inside", who else can subdue Chiang Kai-shek?
Fortunately, at this critical moment, General Zhang Yunyi stood up, he took the initiative to ask Ying to find Li Zongren directly, and then acted as the other party's steps, relying on his three-inch tongue, persuaded the Gui family in one fell swoop, and let them devote themselves to the War of Resistance against Japan.
Of course, his merits are not limited to this, no, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party have finally united, and our party and our army have also been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in accordance with Chiang Kai-shek's arrangement.
Chiang Kai-shek's meaning is very simple, that is, to let his people serve as the commander of the New Fourth Army, and our party is also unyielding, vowing to die unwilling to hand over this iron army, seeing that a civil war is about to break out, fortunately, at this time, General Zhang Yunyi, who has been silent, stood up, he elected a person to the organization, that is, Ye Ting, who lived in seclusion in Macao, seeing that the Party Central Committee nodded and agreed, he contacted the Kuomintang high-level again, and through some action, the other party also agreed to this candidate.
In this way, a crisis was skillfully resolved by relying on Zhang Yunyi's "face", and our party also kept this revolutionary contingent and planted a nail in the Central Plains, and then laid a solid foundation for the subsequent liberation of the whole country.
Let's put it this way, relying on these two merits alone, even if Zhang Yunyi has been sparse for a long time and has barely made any military achievements on the frontal battlefield, he is also qualified to be this marshal, and he should be the first general at the worst, as for why it backfired, there is actually a deeper reason, that is, it originated from a telegram.
Missed the marshal
Originally, according to Zhang Yunyi's merits in the anti-Japanese national united front and the appointment of commanders of the New Fourth Army, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was properly a marshal or the first general, but this is not the case, when he was awarded the title in 1955, he was not only not a marshal, but also ranked seventh among the generals, so what is going on?
In fact, in addition to being in the background during the Red Army period and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Yunyi's low military rank was also inseparable from the organizational appointment of him during the Liberation War, and it can be said that it was a telegram that changed his fate!
That happened at the end of 1945, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression had just ended, and although the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were surging behind their backs, they could not see any signs of an imminent outbreak of civil war.
According to the situation at that time, this appointment was really helpless, after all, there are many generals in our army who can fight well, and there are very few people who can really be proficient in organization and coordination, and can fight in the ring with the Kuomintang face to face.
In this way, Zhang Yunyi came to the background again, as for the follow-up things, everyone also knows, only half a year later, Lao Jiang brazenly launched a civil war, Zhang Yunyi, who was already familiar with the affairs of the military region, naturally could not leave, so he could only continue to work at his post.
As we all know, the military exploits in the Liberation War are particularly important for the evaluation of military ranks, Zhang Yunyi lacked the war experience during this time, and was only responsible for logistics supply, recruitment, and organization of propaganda work, and it is understandable that he finally missed the marshal and the first general.
But it's still that sentence, not only can you lead troops to fight to make meritorious contributions, in the rear, Zhang Yunyi also has a lot of credit, especially in the Huaihai Campaign, the famous million-dollar wheelbarrow must be known to everyone, right? That's exactly what he did!
Let's just say that the reason why our army was able to defeat the 800,000 elite Kuomintang army in the Huaihai Campaign with 600,000 weak troops and equipment is that in addition to the wise command of the front-line generals, he Zhang Yunyi should be the first merit.
To sum up, because he was too good at organizing and coordinating work, General Zhang Yunyi could only retreat from the front-line battlefield and become a green leaf in the anti-encirclement and suppression war, the War of Resistance against Japan, and the War of Liberation.
However, these controversies are only the voices of the army and the people, in fact, General Zhang Yunyi himself does not care, as for the reason is very simple, after all, his original intention to participate in the revolution is for the sake of all sentient beings, is to let the ordinary people live a good life, not to fight for power and profit, if he really wanted to be a marshal and a high-ranking official, he would not have chosen to defect to our party when he was in a high position.
And now that the People's Republic of China has been founded, the people are the masters of the country, the strong enemy has been defeated externally, and the internal unity is united, what is he not worried about? Fame and fortune are just a passing moment in his heart.
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