The name He Changgong is not particularly unfamiliar to those familiar with the history of the early days of the revolution, especially during the Red Army period, He Changgong once held many important positions in the army, and can be said to be Chairman Mao's most trusted and valued subordinate. He Changgong and Chairman Mao became acquainted with each other much earlier than Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and others, and even the name "He Changgong" was given by the chairman.
However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Changgong fell silent, and among the central leaders we are familiar with, the three words "He Changgong" disappeared. Since he was one of the leading figures with outstanding achievements and contributions in the early stages of the revolution, why did He Changgong not have a clear reputation, and where did this legendary figure in the People's Liberation Army go in all these years of the development of New China?
He Changgong is a man
He Changgong was born in 1900 in Huarong, Hunan Province, and his real name is He Kun. After graduating from the Jiazhong Industrial School in Changsha in 1918, he prepared to study in France, and also worked as a worker in Changxindian in Beijing, so he met Chairman Mao, who was running around in Beijing to prepare students for France. He Kun had excellent grades since he was a child, and a good education had brought him a wealth of eloquence and profound knowledge, and Chairman Mao at that time was very appreciative of this young man.
After the "May Fourth Movement", He Kun and the students of the preparatory class for studying in France embarked on the road to France for work-study. In France, He Kun absorbed many Marxist doctrines, established socialist beliefs like Zhou Enlai and others, and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1922.
In 1923, He Kun returned from studying abroad and returned to Hunan to develop education and the party's cause. In 1924, he founded Xinhua Middle School, and while carrying out educational activities, he actively led the peasant movement, and was elected as the military minister of Huarong and the commander-in-chief of the Peasant Self-Defense Army in dongting Lake West District.
He Changgong
After the May 1927 Ma-Ri Incident, He Kun was on the wanted list of the Hunan warlord Xu Kexiang, and he went to Wuhan with Cai Xiemin and others to find Chairman Mao to discuss countermeasures. Faced with the pursuit and persecution of the Kuomintang reactionaries, Chairman Mao suggested that they change their original names so that they could fight for the revolution in the future.
Cai Xiemin said that he was reluctant to change this name with the meaning of a peasant association, so he changed He Kun's name, and it was best to lean on the word "worker", so that there was the meaning of the alliance of workers and peasants. Chairman Mao took over the stubble, since Comrade He Kun used to be a worker in Changxindian, let's call him He Changgong.
Since then, the name He Kun has disappeared from the ranks of the Chinese revolution, and a new He Changgong has been born. Originally, the name was changed just to avoid the persecution of the reactionaries, but He Kun silently strengthened the belief of "fighting for the people for a lifetime", and this name also accompanied He Changgong throughout his life.
Created the flag of the Red Army and promoted the Zhumao Division
In September 1927, Chairman Mao planned an autumn harvest uprising, but the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army did not yet have its own flag, and He Changgong was temporarily ordered to take over the task of creating a military flag. Under the whimsy of He Changgong, the first flag of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army painted with a hammer, a sickle and a five-pointed star was born.
The first military flag of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army
After He Changgong and Chairman Mao carried out the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Chairman Mao decided to pull the team to Jinggang Mountain. Prior to this, The existing Mountain King Wang Zuo of Jinggang Mountain was a huge hidden danger. Chairman Mao entrusted this arduous task to He Changgong and asked him to persuade Wang Zuo to take the initiative to join the ranks of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.
He Changgong took the lead in going up Jinggangshan with Chairman Mao's expectations and instructions, and was politely and alienated by Wang Zuo. Although he was anxious in his heart, He Changgong did not show it at all, and while sincerely influencing Wang Zuo, he preached revolutionary principles and beliefs to them.
During this period, He Changgong also offered a plan to help Wang Zuo get rid of his enemies, so that Wang Zuo, who had never seen the ambush of the Red Army, opened his eyes and was determined to follow the Red Army. This contingent became a regiment of the Red Army, and He Changgong was also sent to take charge of the political work of this regiment.
In order to unite the revolutionary forces, jinggangshan's contingent urgently needed to get in touch with the higher-level party organizations, and this heavy task was again entrusted to He Changgong.
He Changgong was a little embarrassed by this task, the calluses on his hands looked like they had been formed by holding a gun for a long time, and it was difficult to evade the Kuomintang's interrogation, and what to do if the task was delayed. The people next to him gave He Changgong an idea, asking him to say that he had escaped from Chairman Mao's ranks, which was obviously a joke, but he did not expect that He Changgong really dressed up as a ragged deserter, and when confronted with the sentry interrogation, he insisted that he had escaped from Mao Zedong's ranks.
He Changgong used his wisdom to deceive the sentry's open road, and all the way unimpeded through the white area strictly guarded by the Kuomintang, arrived in Changsha, successfully connected with the provincial party committee, and established the connection between the Jinggangshan and Hunan provincial party committees and the Hengyang Special Committee.
After completing the mission, He Changgong did not return to Jinggangshan, but turned south to look for the troops of the Nanchang uprising. He took the road through Wuhan, turned to Hong Kong, and then arrived in Guangzhou by boat, where he heard about Zhu De's presence in Shaoguan in the tense atmosphere of the warlords arresting people everywhere. So He Changgong looked for an opportunity to go to Shaoguan again, and finally successfully met Zhu De and Chen Yi's team at the head of the plough.
Zhu De staged another uprising in Shonan before he rushed to Jinggangshan with his troops to meet Chairman Mao's troops. Zhu and Mao succeeded in meeting at Jinggangshan, and He Changgong was the one who made the greatest contribution.
Later, Peng Dehuai and Teng Daiyuan led the Red Fifth Army to converge at Jinggangshan, and Chairman Mao appointed any long-term workers to serve as the party representative of the Red Fifth Army. At that time, the enemy's "encirclement and suppression" of Jinggangshan had never been broken, and Chairman Mao decided to lead the Red Fourth Army down the mountain together with Zhu De to open up the Base Area in Gannan and expand the results of the battle.
She Xiaojia conquered Changsha for everyone and shocked foreign media
He Changgong originally wanted to go with Chairman Mao, but Peng Dehuai wanted him to stay in the Fifth Red Army. In the end, chairman Mao intervened and let He Changgong stay on Jinggang Mountain to resist the attack of the Kuomintang warlords together. In a battle in early 1929, the enemy actually sent twenty-one regiments to besiege Jinggangshan, and He Changgong accidentally rolled off a cliff on the fierce and complicated battlefield, broke a leg, and fell with a lifelong disability.
In 1930, the fourth column and the fifth column of the Red Fifth Army were reorganized into the Red Fifth Army and the Red Eighth Army, which were collectively known as the Red Third Army. He Changgong served as the commander of the Eighth Army and cooperated with Peng Dehuai in attacking Changsha. At that time, Peng Dehuai led the Fifth Red Army to attack from the front, and because the enemy's artillery fire was really fierce, the Red Army repeatedly rushed to the position and was retaken by the enemy, and the team gradually became powerless.
He Changgong provided support from the flanks, cheered up the soldiers of the Red Fifth Army by publicizing the achievements of the Red Eighth Army, and led the Red Fifth Army to rush into Changsha together. Seeing that the Red Army was about to break through the city, the Kuomintang reactionaries tied up He Changgong's wife, son, and more than thirty relatives and threatened the Red Army to retreat. For the sake of the country's great righteousness, He Changgong watched his relatives die one by one in front of him.
After the troops entered Changsha, He Changgong did not have time to worry about his small family, and he hurriedly threw himself into the party's cause. Immediately in Changsha consulates and churches and other places in English and French to promote the red army discipline, so that a number of foreigners for the Red Army to have a new understanding of the Red Army, the British Reuters agency also specially reported on this, to the surprise of the Soviet side.
In August 1930, the Red Third Army and the Red First Army were merged to form the Red Army, and He Changgong served as a member of the General Front Committee.
Founded the first university in the history of our army
In 1931, the Central Soviet Region successfully attacked the Kuomintang's third "encirclement and suppression" activities, and the party organization decided to establish a military academy in Ruijin to cultivate more commanders and cadres for the Red Army. This important and arduous task was once again entrusted to He Changgong by Chairman Mao.
After accepting the task, He Changgong immediately organized an organization with another Red Army general, Deng Ping, in Ruijin. In just a few days, He Changgong pulled up a strong team of teachers, assisted by Su Yu, Long Yun, Liu Bojian, Dong Biwu, Cai Chang and others. When Chairman Mao, Zhu De, and other central secretaries went to Ruijin to inspect, He Changgong's Red Army School had already been organized in a similar way.
In 1931, when the Chinese Soviet Republic was established, the school was also named the Central Military and Political School, and in 1933 it was renamed the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army University, with He Changgong as the political commissar. When Zhou Enlai came to inspect, He Changgong specially organized a military sports meeting, and the students of the military academy with a new look made Zhou Enlai very happy, praising the He Changgong School for running better than the Whampoa Military Academy.
The armband of He Changgong when he was the political commissar of the school
In January 1932, He Changgong was called to the office by Chairman Mao and met Liu Bocheng, who had come to replace him, and He Changgong himself was transferred to the 13th Army of the Ningdu Uprising as a political commissar. Soon after the 13th Army, He Changgong's leg injury recurred, and he applied to Nie Rongzhen to go to the Soviet Union for treatment and study, and just after getting approval, Ren Bishi asked He Changgong to return to the Red School to assist Liu Bocheng's work.
Since its opening in September 1931, He Changgong has been sticking to his post at the Red School. In the six periods before the red school was divided in October 1933, He Changgong trained a total of 11,500 cadets for the party and government organs at all levels of the Red Army, except for the short period of work in the 13th Army, He Changgong never left the Red School, and was a well-deserved founder, leader and commander.
A mistake is a thousand years of hatred
Until the Zunyi Conference, He Changgong was a loyal supporter of Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao was accustomed to entrusting important and meaningful tasks to He Changgong. During the Long March, He Changgong was already ill, but he insisted on participating in the Long March until the Second Crossing of Chishui.
Chairman Mao also appointed him as the political commissar of the Red Ninth Army, headed by Luo Binghui, a General of the Kuomintang Uprising, and during the battle with other main forces of the Red Army, the two men also formed a deep affection. When crossing the Chishui River four times, the Red Ninth Army, as a suspect soldier, brazenly marched south of Chuan to attract the attention of the enemy.
After the large troops of the Red Army successfully crossed the river, the Ninth Army pursued all the way from northern Guizhou and fought while walking. Unexpectedly, their pace was still six hours slower, and the pontoon bridge on the river had been demolished by the cadre regiment. Originally, after the Fifth Army crossed the river, the cadre regiment had already demolished the pontoon bridge, and was criticized by Liu Bocheng and Zhu De, and the bridge was erected overnight, but they did not expect that the Ninth Army still did not arrive, and could only tear down the bridge again to prevent the enemy from chasing after them.
The Ninth Army, which had fallen behind, was cut off from the rear road, and could not catch up with the large troops, determined to fight alone in Wujiang and hit the enemy fiercely. Under the wisdom of He Changgong and Luo Binghui, the Ninth Corps ambushed five times the enemy, won opportunities for themselves, and finally caught up with the large army in Xichang.
After the success of the Red Army and the Red Fourth Front in western Sichuan, the Central Committee, centered on Chairman Mao, decided to go north. At that time, the troops were divided into two routes, left and right, the right route army had a Red Ninth Army, and He Changgong's Ninth Army was changed into the 32nd Army, and set out north together with the Left Route Army led by Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and The General Political Commissar Zhang Guotao.
When he reached the banks of the Kaqu River, Zhang Guotao said that the river had risen too much and that it was very unsafe for the Red Army to cross the river, and asked Xu Xiangqian, who had already crossed the meadow, to bring his troops back and turn south with the Left Route Army. He Changgong led the 32nd Army to follow Zhang Guotao south to Zhuo Mu Diao, but he did not expect that Zhang Guotao actually proposed to establish another central government here.
He Changgong, who had always been chairman Mao's most important person, was the first to be removed from his post by Zhang Guotao, and in order to win Zhang Guotao's trust, He Changgong vigorously supported any of Zhang Guotao's decisions at the congress and created momentum for the separatist activities in the south. Unexpectedly, Luo Binghui was also very excited, and he even listed some specific examples as an illustration.
The speeches of the two senior leaders who had followed Chairman Mao for a long time shocked the comrades at that time, but they were then led to complain about the Central Committee, and He Changgong also took the stage to shout slogans.
At that time, He Changgong's behavior could be said to be for self-preservation, and if he resolutely opposed it, he might have been eliminated by Zhang Guotao at that time. It's just that his behavior is ultimately associated with "apostasy", and his position this time is not firm, which also makes the organization feel some disappointment in him.
He Changgong later realized his mistake and regretted it in his memoirs, and until his later years, He Changgong was still reflecting on this matter with regret.
In his later years, He Changgong
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Changgong served as vice minister of the Ministry of Heavy Industry and director of the Aviation Industry Bureau, winning the support and assistance of the Soviet Union for the development of China's aviation industry. In August 1952, at the suggestion of Premier Zhou, he followed Minister of Geology Li Siguang to wade through the mountains and rivers all over the country, and still made many creative achievements after crossing the border.
In 1987, Mr. He Changgong completed the mission of "fighting for the people for a lifetime" and died in Beijing at the age of 87.