General Zhang Xueliang has been under house arrest since the Xi'an Incident, and only gradually returned to a free life in his later years. But the old friend has passed away, and the heavens and men are eternally separated. Until May 23, 1991, Zhang Xueliang's old subordinate and founding general Lu Zhengcao came to the United States to reunite with the old Shangguan for a long time.
The two veteran generals talked about the past, some joy and some sorrow, and they were overwhelmed with regret. Zhang Xueliang quipped to Lu Zhengcao: You have a nickname called Ground Mouse, remember? Lu Zhengcao couldn't help but laugh. During the banquet, Zhang Xueliang asked again: Why did you run to Zhou Enlai's side that year (referring to the Xi'an Incident)? In this regard, Lü Zhengcao did not use sleek diplomatic rhetoric, but said something heartfelt, which made Zhang Xueliang quite satisfied.
So, why did Lü Zhengcao, zhang Xueliang's aide-de-camp and a general in the Northeast Army, switch to the Communist army?
Lü Zhengcao is a native of Haicheng, Liaoning Province, born in 1904. The Russo-Japanese War broke out that year, and the two imperialist countries blatantly ignored China's sovereignty, regarded northeast China as a "borderland" containing treasures, and engaged in fierce battles for it. After the war, Japan seized control of the South Manchuria Railway (Changchun-Dalian) and had the right to garrison troops along the line. Under the pretext of protecting the railway, Japan began to gradually send troops to invade the northeast, kicking off the prelude to the invasion of China.
Lu Zhengcao is a poor rural baby, and the South Manchuria Railway passes through the village of Shanhou where his family is located. Since he was a child, Lü Zhengcao had witnessed the ugliness of the Japanese soldiers flying high and mighty, and his heart was full of resentment against the foreign invaders.
Lu Zhengcao attended primary school for four years. In the northeast rural areas, there is generally no official name, and the primary school teacher gave him a name called "Zhengyan". But he later changed the name to "Zhengcao", which means practicing his skills every day and joining the army to fight the Japanese when he grows up. As he grew older, Lü Zhengcao's desire to join the army became stronger and stronger, and he was not willing to be a farmer for the rest of his life. At the age of 17, the Zhifeng War broke out, and Lü Zhengcao ran to join the Northeast Army.
Originally, Lü Zhengcao could only be a big soldier, and it happened that a distant relative was working as a military doctor in Zhang Xueliang's direct subordinate unit, so he recommended him to Zhang Xueliang's command. Zhang Xueliang's Guards Brigade was a new-style regiment, and liked to absorb young soldiers who could write and fight and were diligent and enterprising. Lu Zhengcao worked hard in the team, performed outstandingly, and was recommended to study in the Northeast Martial Arts Hall. After graduation, he became Zhang Xueliang's aide-de-camp and part-time secretary, and the two established a deep friendship throughout their lives.
In 1928, the Japanese army planned the Huanggutun Incident, and the ambition to invade the northeast was already clear. Lu Zhengcao, who had an unusually strong patriotic feeling, was extremely angry about this. With the change of northeast China on December 29, 1928, the Feng Army was reorganized into the Northeast Army, and Lü Zhengcao applied to Zhang Xueliang, thinking of leading soldiers to fight in the front-line army. Zhang Xueliang was also willing to expand his direct subordinates, so he readily agreed.
In the Northeast Army, Lü Zhengcao served as the chief of staff for several years, and then became a front-line commander, leading a regiment of troops to participate in the Rehe Resistance. Due to the fact that the elders of the Northeast Army were fighting each other and had no fighting spirit, coupled with the fact that tang Yulin's troops of the Northeast Army were unpopular in Rehe and the military discipline was scattered, the Rehe War of Resistance was declared a failure after only ten days. After this battle, Lü Zhengcao lost confidence in the top brass of the Northeast Army, began to contact the Communists in the army, and was deeply impressed by the Anti-Japanese ideas of the Communist Party of China.
After the Japanese army invaded the northeast, Chiang Kai-shek transferred a large number of northeast troops and entered the Shaanxi-Gansu region to suppress the communists. Lü Zhengcao's troops remained in Beiping to defend the Japanese army, and many rebels who tried to defect to the enemy were destroyed. During the "12.9" movement, Lu Zhengcao firmly sided with the patriotic students and ordered his subordinates not to interfere with the students' demonstrations. At a time when the country was in trouble, Lü Zhengcao's anti-Japanese belief was firmer and more enduring than anyone else.
In 1936, Lü Zhengcao was transferred to Xi'an and was in charge of internal affairs at Zhang Xueliang's residence. During the Xi'an Incident, he had frequent contacts with the representatives of the Communist Party of China and determined that only the Communist Party of China was the truly anti-Japanese unit that could drive out the Japanese invaders and restore the great rivers and mountains of China.
After the Xi'an Incident, in order to eliminate the Communists in the Northeast Army, Chiang Kai-shek forcibly reorganized them. Lü Zhengcao also left his original unit and became the commander of the 691st Regiment of the Fifty-third Army. Lü Zhengcao's regiment exchanged fire with the Japanese army three times in north China, and did not retreat from the battle. However, the Fifty-third Army was crushed as a whole, and the commander Wan Fulin ordered the whole army to retreat, behind the 691st Regiment. Wan Fulin has always regarded Lü Zhengcao as an "outlier" in the army, believing that he is suspected of "communism", so he plans to use the hands of the Japanese to eliminate Lü Zhengcao's regiment.
At this time, Lü Zhengcao had already secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party and was extremely annoyed by Shangfeng's passive resistance. Most of the officers and men in the northeast of the regiment were also worried about their homeland, unwilling to retreat south, and vowed to fight Japan to avenge themselves. Under the favorable conditions of the indignation of the crowd and the unity of heart, Lü Zhengcao gathered the battalion and company commanders and announced that he would break away from the Fifty-third Army and go north to find the Communists and fight guerrilla warfare with the Japanese.
In October 1937, in Xiaoqiao Town, Jin County (now Jinzhou City), Hebei Province, Lü Zhengcao held a democratic meeting with representatives of officers and soldiers, and renamed the 691st Regiment the "People's Self-Defense Army", with more than 1,000 troops, and Lü Zhengcao served as commander. It became the first anti-Japanese armed force in the Jizhong Plain to be fully led by the Communist Party.
After the change of the tree, the morale of the new 691 Regiment was high. With the support of other anti-Japanese forces in the surrounding area, Lü Zhengcao waved his division northward, and with a single blow, he defeated the county seat of Gaoyang county and set off a wave of anti-Japanese storms in the Jizhong region, which became an enemy-occupied area. For a time, the military's might was greatly enhanced, and a large number of patriotic young people came to vote, and Lü Zhengcao's troops quickly expanded to more than 5,000 people, with 3 regiments, 1 special regiment, 1 special agent battalion, and 1 model battalion. Lü Zhengcao led his troops throughout central Hebei, causing headaches for the Japanese invaders.
Two months after Lü Zhengcao's uprising against Japan, the party organization helped him contact Nie Rongzhen, commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, and sent him a radio call sign and code to establish a formal relationship with the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. Lü Zhengcao's idea of reorganizing the People's Self-Defense Army into the Eighth Route Army was affirmed by the Party Central Committee. Lü Zhengcao then led three main regiments to the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region for training and reorganization. The Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region also delineated the area of military activity for Lü Zhengcao and formally established the administrative status of the base area in Central Hebei.
Lu Zhengcao's next task is to transform the variegated armed forces in the central Hebei region, extensively mobilize and organize the masses of the people, and establish a new anti-Japanese order behind enemy lines. In April 1938, the Jizhong Administrative Office and the Jizhong Military Region were formally established, with Lü Zhengcao as the third column of the Eighth Route Army and the commander of the military region, and Later Meng Qingshan, who was awarded the rank of major general, as the deputy commander, and the main force of the military region was more than 40,000 people, and the momentum was quite strong. In particular, there is also a famous Huimin detachment in the Jizhong Column, with Ma Benzhai, a Hui anti-Japanese hero, as the commander-in-chief.
The Jizhong Military Region under the leadership of Lü Zhengcao, on the one hand, constantly harassed the Japanese army, and on the other hand, it also had to clean up all kinds of landlord armed forces and bandits and traitors in the region that endangered the people and obstructed the resistance to Japan. For example, in the Renqiu area of Jizhong, Gao Shuncheng's guerrilla first division, which was known as a crowd of people, although this unit also fought against the Japanese puppet army, the officers and men had a heavy bandit atmosphere and extremely loose military discipline. On the first anniversary of the July 7 Incident, Gao Shuncheng asked Lü Zhengcao and other cadres of the Jizhong Military Region to come to Renqiu to give a lecture, intending to seize the opportunity to detain Lü Zhengcao and ask the military region for guns and grain. As a result, Lü Zhengcao had already seen through his ghost tricks, and when Gao was forced by force, Shunshi killed him and reorganized his guerrilla division.
The establishment of the anti-Japanese base area in Central Hebei was like a steel knife inserted into the heart of the Japanese army in North China, making it difficult for the Japanese troops stationed in China to sleep and eat. From the end of 38 to the spring of 1939, the Japanese army successively invested nearly 30,000 troops to launch a large-scale siege of the Jizhong region in an attempt to eliminate or minimize the military force of the Eighth Route Army and achieve complete control over the Jizhong Plain.
However, at this time, the focus of the Japanese army was still on the frontal battlefield, the troops in the Qing Dynasty and Hebei were a mixture of Japanese puppet armies, the strength was not first-class, coupled with the excessive size of the net, the dispersion of troops, and the loss of geographical advantages, so it was not An opponent of Lü Zhengcao, several consecutive sieges were broken by the Eighth Route Army, and even in turn threatened the big cities occupied by the Japanese army.
In 1940, Lü Zhengcao participated in the Hundred Regiments War, eliminating more than 1,500 Japanese puppet troops in the areas of Renqiu, Hejian and Suning. Subsequently, Okamura Ningci took over as commander of the Japanese army in North China, changed his thinking on liquidation and suppression, launched a "general force battle" integrating military, political, economic, transportation, and secret agents, and carried out a "cannibalizing" attack on the Jizhong Plain, occupying the points first, then connecting the lines, and then expanding the area, and combining the cruel "sweeping" and "three-light policy" to gradually compress the anti-Japanese base areas. As a result, the anti-Japanese resistance in Central Hebei entered the most arduous stage. But at the same time, it was also the highlight moment of Lü Zhengcao's military career, and in the Jizhong Plain, where there was no danger to defend, a classic example of guerrilla warfare in the plains was played.
Generally speaking, generals from the regular army do not like or disdain to fight guerrilla warfare, but Lü Zhengcao, who came from a peasant background, does not consider such things, and for him, what can pull out pus is a good plaster, and he does not have to consider means to eliminate Japanese devils at the lowest cost. Being Zhang Xueliang's aide-de-camp for a long time made Lu Zhengcao's brain turn faster than others
Many, the tactics are eclectic, even if the plains war is not safe, he can figure out all kinds of tricks, and later got a nickname of "ground mouse".
In the arduous struggle against "encroachment" and anti-"sweeping," the troops of the Eighth Route Army in Hebei province closely integrated with the local people and adopted various guerrilla tactics that were unimaginable and invincible to the enemy, and smashed the enemy's arrogant attempts again and again. Those films that are familiar to us, such as "Tunnel Warfare", "Mine Warfare", and "Plain Guerrilla", all reflect the real struggle scenes of guerrilla warfare in Hebei during this period on an artistic level. The Baiyangdian area also organized a water guerrilla group known as the "Yanling Brigade".
According to statistics, in the early days of the counter-sweeping campaign in May and June 1941, the anti-Japanese forces in Hebei killed nearly 4,000 Japanese puppet troops and wounded more than 7,500 people, while the Eighth Route Army suffered 4,600 casualties, the county and district guerrillas lost 5,300 people, and more than 50,000 people were killed. Under the cruel casualty figures, the guerrilla warfare in Jizhong also achieved corresponding results, snuffed out the momentum of the Fierce Sweep by the Japanese Army, and greatly encouraged the morale of the military and civilians in the joint war of resistance in Hebei.
In the guerrilla warfare on the plains under harsh conditions and brutal combat, Lü Zhengcao always maintained a high fighting spirit and a calm decision, leading the strength of a guard company to kill in the east and west on the front line of the battle, and was called a legendary commander by the people of Jizhong. Lü Zhengcao's hatred for the Japanese invaders was unforgettable, and for this reason he spared no effort to take the lead, often taking the lead and pillowing Godan, just to restore the Central Plains. At the height of the fighting, Lü Zhengcao participated in five battles in one day, and dangers abounded. In September 1941, the headquarters of the Jizhong Military Region was bitten by Japanese aircraft during the retreat, several enemy planes took turns to strafe and bomb, and the staff officers and signal officers on duty were heroically sacrificed, and Lü Zhengcao survived.
The Jizhong Eighth Route Army, which could not be grasped or killed, made the Japanese troops stationed in China lose face and look like a fish in their throats. In May 1942, Okamura Ninji made a desperate move, gathering the maximum strength of 50,000 Japanese troops and more than 40,000 puppet troops, supplemented by aircraft, armored vehicles and railway locomotives, and was determined to completely destroy the anti-Japanese base area in Hebei in one fell swoop. In the face of the menacing Japanese army, Lü Zhengcao said humorously at the mobilization meeting for anti-sweeping operations: The enemy will conduct a blitzkrieg against us, and we must carry out a blitzkrieg battle against the enemy.
Subsequently, Lü Zhengcao led the main forces in Hebei to skillfully break through the "iron wall encirclement" of the Japanese army and successfully transferred to the Taihang Military Region, so that the Japanese Army's May Day sweep did not achieve any results. Along the way, passing through several military region garrisons, Lü Zhengcao met cordially with Yang Dezhi, Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, and others and exchanged heartfelt complaints. In September 1943, he was renamed Lü Zhengcao as the commander of the Jinsui Military Region. As a result, the legendary commander Lü Zhengcao, who was mighty and fearful, left the jizhong land where he had fought for seven years and opened a new chapter in his personal military career.
During the liberation war, Lü Zhengcao finally returned to the white mountains and black waters that he had in mind, became the first deputy commander-in-chief of the Northeast Democratic United Army, organized and mobilized the masses in the northeast, suppressed bandits and opposed hegemony, developed armed forces, and built base areas, laying a solid foundation for the expansion and expansion of the main forces.
Lu Zhengcao was in charge of the rear transportation supply and also managed the railway work, he began to study the relevant knowledge of railway transportation and various types of locomotives, and since then he has formed an indissoluble relationship with the railway. The army fights, and the grain and grass go first. In the Liaoshen Campaign, the daily consumption of combat materials of nearly ten columns on the front line was extremely large, and Lü Zhengcao led the railway corps to fight the logistics front, making important contributions to the victory in the front.
When it came time to resist US aggression and aid Korea, Lu Zhengcao, then vice minister of the Ministry of Railways and commander of the Railway Corps, once again took up his clothes; in the face of the indiscriminate bombardment of US aircraft, the Railway Corps braved difficulties and built a strong and incomparable steel transportation line, which became a powerful guarantee for the logistics supply of frontline soldiers.
In 1955, Lü Zhengcao was awarded the rank of general. At that time, looking forward to the vast land of China, Lu Zhengcao said worriedly that There were too few railways in China, and the distribution was not even, and more than half of the national railways were in the northeast, and some were on the southeast coast, and the vast central and western regions were almost without railways. With the successful laying of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, Chengdu-Kunming Railway, Lanbao Railway, Yingxia Railway and other steel dragons, the layout of China's road network has gradually taken shape.
Lu Zhengcao said: Railways are not fashionable, and they should be replaced when they are not suitable. Laying railways is a century-old plan, if there is no corresponding professional talent, do not act according to scientific laws, and deliver diseased railways to the country, it will eventually cause greater waste of materials and affect future generations. Under the administration of Lu Zhengcao, the Ministry of Railways demanded that it must conduct in-depth on-the-spot inspections and extensively solicit opinions, and that leading cadres must never make decisions as soon as they pat themselves on the head.
Lü Zhengcao resolutely forbade the tofu residue project from endangering the interests of the state and the people, and once ordered the blowing up of unqualified piers of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. With regard to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which the central authorities have been worried about, after on-the-spot inspections and repeated calculations, he reported to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou that it is too difficult to build the Tibet Railway at present, and that the problems of frozen soil, the lack of oxygen on the plateau, and the problems of economic capacity are difficult to solve under the current conditions. Therefore, in 1961, the large-scale construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was temporarily suspended, but the research work continued. It is the principle that Lu Zhengcao presided over the construction of the railway.
In 1981, Deng Xiaoping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, proposed that the army must "reduce swelling." Among them, hundreds of thousands of railway soldiers must directly withdraw from the PLA sequence, leaving no soldiers and pawns to change careers. This dismissal order touched the practical interests of many officers and soldiers and their families, and caused a lot of dissatisfaction in the railway troops. Lu Zhengcao, who was the first political commissar of the railway troops at the time, was also very uncomfortable in his heart. The railway troops can be said to be the "pro-son" that Lu Zhengcao brought up with him, and his feelings for this unit are deeper than anyone else. But for the sake of the national interest, he resolutely said: If you offend people, you can't offend people, I will bear it.
So in April 1982, Lü Zhengcao served as the head of the leading group for disarmament work, with Chen Zaidao, commander of the Railway Corps, and Liu Jianzhang, minister of the Ministry of Railways, as deputy leaders, and began to implement the decision of the Central Military Commission. In the first month of 1984, the collective transformation of the railway soldiers was a complete success, and General Lü Zhengcao's military career was also drawn to a perfect end.
The martyr was in his twilight years and his heart was full of courage, and General Lü Zhengcao took off his military uniform and transferred to the CPPCC to continue to shine. He presided over projects such as the study of the Xi'an Incident, the study of Zhang Xueliang, and the study of the construction of the government in Jizhong, and excavated many precious historical materials. He also actively participated in the patriotic united front and extensively united people from all walks of life. The reunion of General Zhang Xueliang introduced at the beginning of this article belongs to the work of the patriotic united front.
"Why did you run away from Zhou Enlai?" In the face of the questioning of his old superior Zhang Xueliang, Lü Zhengcao replied sincerely: I have never believed Chiang Kai-shek, and if you send him back to Nanjing, I feel that it will be bad; after you leave, the Northeast Army will also be torn to pieces, and all I can do is to go back to rectify the troops, keep this batch of fire seeds, kill the Japanese devils to retake the northeast, avenge the fathers and fellow villagers in the northeast, avenge the death of the northeast army, Chiang Kai-shek cannot defeat the Japanese, only the Communist Party can beat the Japanese, and shame our northeast army.
Zhang Xueliang was quite satisfied with these remarks, because Lü Zhengcao inherited his will to resist Japan, adding glory to the northeast people and the northeast army. He said to Lü Zhengcao: "Must" (Lü Zhengcao's word), you are on the right path!
General Lü Zhengcao died at the age of 106 and was the last founding general to die. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, he also wrote a letter to the Central Committee, proposing to strengthen party building and ruling ability, and thoroughly eliminate some corruption problems in the party. General Lü has said many times: Holding power does not seek personal gain, and as a communist, the leadership position cannot be carried out for life, but serving the people should strengthen the lifelong system.
Lü Zhengcao was a true iron-blooded general and a servant of the people. He is upright and frank, works hard for the people, pursues the truth all his life, and his patriotism does not lose to others. Playing Japan, managing railways, and playing tennis, Lu Zhengcao humorously said that he had only done three things in his life. This understated narrative is the perfect interpretation of his life.