Author: Mo Guyan
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yan'an once circulated a joke of "major general tahini", and some cartoonists created satirical works on this theme, and the chairman used this incident to educate the vast number of officers and soldiers. What's going on here?
In the autumn of 1937, a certain unit of the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army was stationed in Luochuan, and there was also another Chiang Kai-shek army stationed there, and mutual contact was inevitable. In order to take the initiative in dealing with each other, the supply department printed a box of "Major General Brigade Commander" business cards for the brigade commander Chen Bojun.
During the Red Army period, Chen Bojun (right) was with Xu Haidong (left) and Luo Binghui (center).
Chen Bojun is indeed a "major general brigade commander" of genuine value. When the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, the organization was completely in accordance with the principles of the Nationalist Army, and the generals at all levels were successively awarded corresponding military ranks by Nanjing, among which Zhu Laochang was always a general, Vice Chairman Zhou, General Peng, Ye Jianying, Lin Biao, He Long, Liu Bocheng, Ye Ting, Xiao Ke, Xuan Xia's father (general counselor of the 18th Group Army) were lieutenant generals, Zuo Quan, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Xu Haidong, Huang Kecheng, Chen Geng, Chen Zaidao, Zhou Kun, Chen Guang, Zhou Jianping, Chen Xilian, Zhou Shidi, Lu Dongsheng, Zhang Zongxun, Peng Shaohui, Chen Bojun, Wang Zhen, and Ni Zhiliang Wang Hongkun, Wang Weizhou, Xiang Ying, Zhou Suyuan, Tong Lusheng, Zhang Kewei, Peng Xuefeng, Li Kenong, Zhang Yunyi, and Qian Zhiguang are 28 major generals.
Chen Bojun's position at that time was as the commander of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and he was at the same level as Chen Guang, Xu Haidong and others. However, when he went to meet the chairman, he was very unhappy because of a bright national military uniform and the business card of the "major general brigade commander", plus a few questions were not answered, so he was beaten by the chairman: "What major general, sesame sauce!" "
Chen Bojun (center) and the chairman take a group photo in Yan'an
Chen Bojun was loyal and open-minded, not an official fan, and the so-called "major general brigade commander" incident was actually a misunderstanding. However, since then, various "sauces" such as tahini, spicy sauce, and so on have become the stems for military cadres to ridicule military ranks.
In 1955, chen Xianrui, Han Xianchu, Liu Zhen, three classmates of the Nanjing Military Academy took a group photo together, the three of them were old comrades-in-arms during the Red Army period, Chen Xianrui had given Han Xianchu and Liu Zhen as class leaders. Chen Xianrui said, "The old squad leader, a lieutenant general, how did he lead two generals?" Liu Zhen replied: "What will this be, watercress sauce spicy sauce, the soldiers have to listen to the squad leader at any time." Chen Geng's children asked him what kind of general he had taught, and Chen Geng smiled and replied, "Tahini." "
Chen Xianrui (right) with Han Xianchu (center) and Liu Zhen (left).
When the Eighth Route Army first accepted the reorganization, due to changes in the environment and changes in their identities, some cadres had fluctuations in their thinking, and if they were not corrected in time, the consequences would be very serious. For example, the Zhou Kun exodus incident is a typical example.
During the meeting in Wuhan, Major General Zhou Kun, chief of staff of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, witnessed the life of the commander of the friendly army who spent thousands of dollars, and then looked at himself as a major general. When he returned to the headquarters to report on the situation of the Wuhan meeting, he frankly expressed his inner feelings and was immediately criticized by Zhu and Peng. Who knew that Zhou Kun had already made up his mind, and he did not quit with 30,000 yuan of military pay, and he never returned, and no one knew his whereabouts.
The consistency of officers and men is one of the basic characteristics of the people's army that distinguishes it from the old army, and there has been no military rank since the era of the Red Army, mainly because it is mainly considered that the setting of military ranks will lead to differences in ranks, and it is easy to breed the idea of "official standard". If this atmosphere cannot be stopped, the people's army will be in danger. Sure enough, just after the cadres at all levels of the Eighth Route Army were awarded military ranks, a mentality of vanity and comparison appeared among a few individuals, and this problem cannot but arouse great attention.
To this end, by the beginning of 1942, the Yan'an headquarters issued an opinion to the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army not to grant military ranks for the time being, while affirming that military ranks are helpful to the regularization of the army, but also stressing that the current form of war is still guerrilla warfare, and the regularization is extremely limited. The most important point is that the harsh environment of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression requires cadres and fighters to share weal and woe and to live and die together; at this time, the division of ranks and ranks is not conducive to the unity of the troops and runs counter to the glorious tradition of equality between officers and men of our army. Therefore, the evaluation of our army's ranks during the War of Resistance Against Japan has been suspended.
The Eighth Route Army is in combat
Revolutionary soldiers carrying guns and fighting wars were not originally meant to be officials and masters. Therefore, the vast majority of cadres in our army do not care about a few beans on their shoulders, and even many people do not know that they actually have a military rank. For example, the founding major general Wang Zhaoxiang did not know that he had been awarded a military rank, until he wrote his memoirs in his later years to check the historical materials, and then accidentally learned from a telegram that he had also been a colonel during the Eighth Route Army.
However, when it comes to foreign affairs, our military cadres will also be temporarily awarded military ranks to facilitate their work. For example, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yan'an sent Peng Zhen, Chen Yun, Ye Jizhuang, Wu Xiuquan, Duan Zijun, Mo Chun and 6 people to Shenyang to negotiate with the Soviet Red Army on the reception. Considering that the Soviet army had military ranks, the Yan'an headquarters temporarily awarded military ranks to these 6 deputies, of whom Peng Zhen, Chen Yun, and Ye Jizhuang were lieutenant generals, Wu Xiuquan was a major general, and Duan Zijun (director of the Northeast Liaison Bureau) and Mo Chunhe (deputy director of the Northeast Classified Department) were colonels.
These ranks were all granted temporarily for emergency purposes, "informal ranks", which disappeared automatically after the completion of the mission, and no one took the general seriously. However, in this way, the 6 of them became the first cadres in the history of our army to be awarded military ranks by their own side, which they probably did not expect.
【Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be restored】