Tao Zhu and Tang Tianji have a deep friendship, which is a friendship watered in the long-term revolutionary struggle.
The two had a lot in common: they were promising young people who had thrown themselves into the revolutionary torrent at the beginning of the founding of the Communist Party of China. They were fellow villagers, all of them were hunan shonan people, Tao Zhu Qiyang people, Tang Tianji Anren people, less than a hundred kilometers apart; classmates, all were Huangpu sheng, Tao Zhu phase V, Tang Tianji phase IV; in 1926, in the same year, they joined the Communist Party of China at the Huangpu Military Academy; comrades-in-arms, they were all the founders of the people's army, after a long revolutionary war test, during the liberation war they all served as senior commanders of the people's army in the northeast; after the founding of New China, Tao Zhu served as deputy director and director of the political department of the Central and Southern Military Region, and Tang Tianji served as the political commissar of the 21st Corps. Because of the work relationship, the two have more interactions.
The two of them were not only revolutionaries, politicians, and military experts, but also had a high cultural attainment, and tao zhu's writing ability was very good, and they wrote many books on the cultivation of revolutionary moral sentiments; Tang Tianji's calligraphy was very good, leaving a lot of precious ink marks.
The two of them also have a common feature: no tobacco, no alcohol, no pay.
Tao Zhu, director of the Political Department of the Central South Military Region, Chen Mingren, commander of the 21st Corps (founding general), Tang Tianji, political commissar of the 21st Corps (founding lieutenant general), Yang Huanmin, chief of staff of the 21st Corps (founding major general), Zhang Hua, principal of the Women's School of the 21st Corps (wife of Lieutenant General Fang Zhengping, director of the Political Department of the 21st Corps), and my father, Zhang Shoulun.
Just as the so-called sympathy for each other, Tao Zhu is very supportive of Tang Tianji's work and responds to every request. At the end of 1949, the 21st Corps was formally established, and the inaugural meeting and flag awarding ceremony and seal ceremony were held in Liuyang. On behalf of the Central and Southern Military Region, Tao Zhu personally attended the meeting, presented the flag and seal, and delivered a warm speech.
In 1950, during the rectification training of the 21st Corps in Liling, Tang Tianji repeatedly invited Tao Zhu to the troops to make reports to party members and cadres at all levels, which effectively promoted the development of the rectification and training work.
In 1950, Guangxi was ineffective in suppressing bandits, and Chairman Mao personally appointed Tao Zhu as the acting secretary of the Guangxi Provincial CPC Committee, comprehensively presiding over and leading the struggle against bandits in Guangxi. Soon, at the request of Tao Zhu and the approval of the central authorities, Tang Tianji and Chen Mingren led the 21st Corps to participate in the Guangxi Bandit Suppression in October 1950, and Tang Tianji concurrently served as the director of the Guibei Bandit Suppression Committee. Under the close cooperation of Tao Zhu and Tang Tianji, Li Tianyou and Chen Mingren's former opponents fought side by side, and after several months of arduous efforts, the Guangxi bandits won a decisive victory. The victory of the Guangxi bandits is inseparable from the strategizing of Tao Zhu and Tang Tianji.
During the period when the 21st Corps was in Guangxi, Tao Zhu even visited the troops many times to inspect and guide the work, providing many good suggestions for the construction of the troops. Tao Zhu was the chief who guided the work of the 21st Corps the most.
The two of them can be said to have worked hard and painstakingly for the building of the people's army.
Since my father Zhang Shoulun was the chief of the cadre section of the 21st Corps, Tang Tianji had great trust and cultivation for my father. Starting from Liling, every time Tao Zhu reached the 21st Corps, Tang Tianji asked my father to attend the reception and escort. Tao Zhu's guard security also needed my father's assistance.
Tang Tianji attaches great importance to cadre work, and he is both the political commissar of the 21st Corps and the director of the Cadre Management Department of the 21st Corps. Every time Tao Zhulai discussed the issue of cadres and proposed to increase the number of cadres. Whenever the cadre issue was discussed, Tang Tianji asked my father to talk more every time, and he added that it was obvious that Tang Tianji intended to exercise and cultivate my father.
Tao Zhu was very helpful with the requirements of the 21st Corps on cadres and tried his best to meet the requirements. After that, my father was sent to Wuhan by Chen Mingren and Tang Tianji to ask for cadres, and Liu Xingyuan, who was then the deputy director of the cadre department, readily agreed and quickly implemented it.
Strictly speaking, from the inaugural meeting of the Liuyang 21st Corps, Tao Zhu first came to the 21st Corps, to Liling and then to Guilin, two years of contact. Tao Zhu also slowly became familiar with my father and got to know something.
The relationship between Tao Zhu and Tang Tianji is very good, the feelings are thick, there is no polite greeting when they meet, it is all about work. Tao Zhu did not need to be accompanied by other leaders when eating, most of them were accompanied by my father, and each time he did not even have more than four soups and dishes, and he did not waste them. Tang Tianji only occasionally attended dinner when Tao Zhu left. The two of them also talk about work at dinner, constantly discussing problems...
At the end of 1951, after the victory of the task of suppressing bandits in Guangxi, Tao Zhu left Guangxi to work in Guangdong and served as the acting secretary of the South China Branch bureau and the second political commissar of the South China Military Region.
A few months later, in early 1952, Tang Tianji led most of the troops of the 21st Corps north to participate in the Jingjiang Flood Diversion Project. My father also went with Tang Tianji to the Jingjiang Flood Diversion Project Headquarters and continued to do cadre work under the leadership of Tang Tianji.
In 1952, after the completion of the Jingjiang Flood Diversion Project, Tang Tianji was transferred to the Beijing People's Liberation Army Air Defense Army as the political commissar, and my parents followed the large troops to Hainan to build a national defense highway and continued to do cadre work in the Hainan Highway Engineering Headquarters. A few months later, in early 1953, Tian Weiyang, commander of the engineering unit of the Central and Southern Military Region, informed my father one day: Huang Yongsheng wants to talk to you. My father was very confused, Huang Yongsheng did not know him, why look for him? When I went to the guest house of the Hainan Military Region to see Huang Yongsheng, Huang Yongsheng said to my father very kindly: You go to Guangzhou to work in the cadre management department, go quickly. The other Huang Yongsheng didn't say anything.
After returning, my father reported to Tian Weiyang, who did not say anything and asked him to go through the formalities immediately. A few days later, Tian Weiyang called a car to take my parents to the dock to take a boat to Guangzhou.
Tian Weiyang founding lieutenant general
In 1953, my father began to work as a cadre under Huang Yongsheng and Liu Xingyuan, first in the Large Cadre Management Department of the Central and Southern Military Region, and then in the Small Cadre Department of the Guangzhou Military Region, which lasted for 12 years.
During his work in Guangzhou, he often saw Tao Zhu, and every time Tao Zhu saw him, he greeted him warmly, and occasionally asked my father to sit at his house, talk about the situation of the troops, and assign some other things. My mother, who changed jobs in 1955, also arranged to work at the Xicun Power Plant in Guangzhou, where Mrs. Tao Zhu's wife Zeng Zhi was the secretary. The relationship between Tao Zhu and my father was known to the family members of the Guangzhou Military Region at that time.
In 1964, my father left Guangzhou to work in Guangxi. At the end of 1967, Tao Zhu had an accident in Beijing, and in early 1968, my father was also isolated and examined by the head of the Guangzhou Military Region on trumped-up charges. It was not until the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that my father was completely rehabilitated, and Tao Zhu re-established his conclusions: staunch Marxists, outstanding proletarian revolutionaries, outstanding political workers of the Party and the army, and outstanding leaders of the Party and the state.
My father Zhang Shoulun took a photo in front of a ceramic statue at the South China Botanical Garden in Guangzhou on April 8, 2018.
My father recalls those turbulent years with a lot of emotions. He said: He learned a lot from Tao Zhu. At that time, the comrades were really very innocent, and they had no other ideas than work, and everyone was strict with themselves. It is good not to form gangs politically, to be clean economically, and to have clear interpersonal communication! It was a time when revolutionary ideals were higher than heaven.
Tao Zhu's famous essay "The Style of Pine Trees" wrote: "Everyone with a communist style should be like a pine tree, no matter how harsh the environment, can thrive, work tenaciously, never be intimidated by difficulties, and never succumb to harsh environments." During his difficult times during the Cultural Revolution, my father's words gave him a lot of strength, made him persevere, and never bowed his head!
Tao Zhu and Tang Tianji, two proletarian revolutionaries, are immortal!
Fathers are ancient!