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Recently, Shanxi has been "on fire"!
With the popularity of "Black Myth: Wukong", many people realized for the first time that there was more than just coal and vinegar in Shanxi.
But in fact, Shanxi's cultural "characteristics" are not only in ancient customs.
As an ancient province that carries 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, it also plays a pivotal role in the history of modern warfare.
In the past, Shanxi was known as "the hometown of the Eighth Route Army and the cradle of the soldiers".
And here is also the hometown of the "founding marshal" Xu Xiangqian!
Once upon a time, the story of Xu Shuai and Yan Xishan was still a topic of conversation among many old people.
Xu Xiangqian
"Lao Xi" hated other places
As a separatist warlord during the Republic of China, Yan Xishan ruled Shanxi for 38 years, and was a veritable "soil emperor" in Shanxi at that time.
From the early days of Beiyang to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, whether it was Duan Qirui, Wu Peifu, Zhang Zuolin, or Chiang Kai-shek, they never really pushed Yan Xishan down.
With such a proud "record", "Lao Xi" would never have thought that the one who finally made him hate his hometown was the small "junior of the neighboring village" back then.
On the evening of March 29, 1949, the sky was just getting a hint of darkness.
In Honggou, on the banks of the Fen River, an airstrip where only one small plane could take off, Yan Xishan hurriedly boarded a special plane to Nanjing.
At that time, the battle to liberate Taiyuan was in full swing.
At that time, the Kuomintang was at the end of its rope and was dreaming of "ruling the country by rowing the river" and launching a new round of peace talks with our party.
As a warlord with real power who has been entrenched in Shanxi for nearly 40 years, the conditions related to Shanxi are of course inseparable from Yan Xishan, the "soil emperor".
At the invitation of Li Zongren, acting president of the Kuomintang, Yan Xishan, who originally claimed to "swear to defend Taiyuan to the death, and if he does not succeed, he will become benevolent", so he hurriedly "abandoned" the war situation and rushed to Nanjing.
Yan Xishan
Before leaving, he may not have thought that this departure would also become his farewell to Shanxi.
At the meeting of cadres before leaving, he also swore solemnly: Maybe three days and five days, maybe ten days and eight days, and I will come back when the results of the peace talks are achieved.
However, it was not until April 24 that Taiyuan was victoriously liberated.
Six days later, the Datong garrison accepted the peaceful reorganization, the whole territory of Shanxi was liberated, and Yan Xishan never set foot back on the land of Shanxi.
The once majestic "Old West" can only hate other places from now on.
Looking back on the entire battle situation for the liberation of Taiyuan, Xu Xiangqian, who served as the commander-in-chief of the front, is undoubtedly one of the greatest heroes.
Plagued by old heart diseases, he even commanded the troops on a stretcher on the front line when there was a large amount of water in his chest.
And the same fellow of Wutai, Shanxi, the battle between Xu Xiangqian and Yan Xishan has also become a story that many later generations talk about.
The edge of the past
If you want to talk about the story between Xu Xiangqian and Yan Xishan, it is actually far more than a "fellow" or an "enemy".
To a certain extent, Xu Xiangqian may still have to be called Yan Xishan a "teacher".
Xu Xiangqian and Yan Xishan's hometown are on the bank of the Hutuo River, and the two villages are not far apart, only less than 10 kilometers apart.
The difference is that the two have a considerable age difference, and Yan Xishan is a full 18 years older than Xu Xiangqian.
In 1911, Yan Xishan took advantage of the spring breeze of the Xinhai Revolution to launch the Taiyuan New Army Uprising, ending the rule of the feudal dynasty in Shanxi.
It also made the name Yan Xishan deeply engraved in the history of Shanxi since then.
At this time, Xu Xiangqian was just a 10-year-old doll.
Speaking of the first time the two had contact, it was in 1919.
After seizing military and political power in Shanxi, Yan Xishan began to try to consolidate his rule.
Among them, the reform of education has become an important part of his policy measures.
And in 1919, a provincial national normal school was founded to train elementary school teachers.
Xu Xiangqian, who was 18 years old at the time, became the first batch of students of this institution with excellent results. Because of this, he formed a "teacher-student" relationship with Yan Xishan.
Xu Xiangqian
But in fact, for many years, the two did not really meet, and it was not until 1937 that they really met for the first time because of their cooperation in the fight against Japan.
In July 1937, the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and in September of the same year, the Japanese invaded Shanxi on a large scale.
In order to protect this important energy base, the Central Committee of our Party decided to establish a base in Shanxi and cooperate with Yan Xishan to resist Japan.
Considering the relationship between the villagers, Chairman Mao specially ordered Xu Xiangqian to participate in the negotiation of Yan Xishan with Premier Zhou and others.
After the meeting at the Yan Mansion, Xu Xiangqian began to cooperate with Yan Xishan to a certain extent to unite against Japan.
Until the outbreak of the Liberation War, our party had hoped that the Shanxi issue could be resolved peacefully, and made many efforts to hold talks with Yan Xishan.
However, in the end, because of its stubbornness, it still failed to avoid a big war.
Xu Shuai's trip back to his hometown
There is a saying in China, called "whether you are close or not, the hometown people", for each of us, hometown has always been a place that is difficult to give up in our hearts.
As the founding marshal of the People's Republic of China, Xu Xiangqian is no exception.
Although he was able to return home not many times in the many years after he participated in the revolution, and his stay was very short.
After graduating from the National Normal School, Xu Xiangqian naturally became a primary school teacher, but was soon dismissed for promoting patriotic education.
This seems to be doomed, Xu Xiangqian and Yan Xishan will be "enemies" in the future.
Beginning in 1924, Xu Xiangqian left home, Wutai, and Shanxi, and in the same year he was admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy, and then embarked on a revolutionary journey.
Since leaving home at this time, Xu Xiangqian has returned home very rarely.
According to Xu Shuai's memoir "A Review of History", he first returned to his hometown in 1926.
Due to the "Zhongshan Ship" incident, he was forced to return home.
But he only stayed for a short period of 10 days, and then left in a hurry to look for the party organization.
As for his next two trips back to his hometown, they were in 1937.
That is, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, after the cooperation negotiations with Yan Xishan.
After the negotiations, under the persuasion of Premier Zhou, Peng Dehuai, Zhu De and others, Xu Xiangqian finally set foot on the land of his hometown again after a 12-year absence.
After 12 years of revolution away from home, Xu Xiangqian's biggest worry was that because of his identity, his relatives would be persecuted.
But when I returned to my hometown this time, I learned from my sister that Yan Xishan had never found trouble at home for many years.
Recalling this incident in his later years, Xu Xiangqian was always grateful to him, but he never regretted letting him finally hate his hometown, because this was Yan Xishan's own wrong choice.
In the entire war to liberate Shanxi, Yan Xishan and Xu Xiangqian "fought" many times.
However, what he remembers most is the fight in June 1948.
At that time, Xu Xiangqian led the Eighth Column, which had just been established for less than a year, and encountered Yan Xishan's trump cards "pro-training division" and "pro-training artillery regiment" on the Fenhe beach.
Less than two hours after the battle began, Yan Xishan's troops were completely annihilated.
Yan Xishan, who heard the news, almost fainted to the ground, and couldn't help but lament repeatedly: He has lived for 65 years in vain, making the descendants of the villagers in a neighboring village miserable.
Today, looking back on the historical process of the past, we can only say that as a diehard among the reactionary warlords, Yan Xishan's defeat was an inevitable result.
Bibliography:
The dust settles on the Battle of Taiyuan: "Lao Xi" Yan Xishan hates his hometown, China Youth Daily, 2007-07-13
The Indissoluble Bond between Xu Xiangqian and Yan Xishan, Dazhong News Network, 2004-08-13
YAO Yuan. Xu Xiangqian's return to his hometown three times [J]. Vanguard, 2012, (10)