In 1976, before his death, the chairman issued an order: Chen Xilian was appointed as the Central Military Commission, and Ye Shuai's military power was handed over to Chen Xilian to lead. After all, during this period, there were many people in the same position as Chen Xilian, and even a few who were higher than him, but why did chen Xilian be chosen? Deng Gong said for Chen Xilian: He has no ambitions. But why did the chairman push Chen Xilian to the cusp of the storm?
It should be known that since Ye Shuai became vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of our army in 1967, his various measures have played a great role in stabilizing the army at that time, and he also commanded the Xisha self-defense counterattack and recovered the islands occupied by our country. In this way, it is even more puzzling: Why did the chairman appoint Chen Xilian to the Central Military Commission? What is the reason for this? Next, let's talk about the legendary life of Admiral Chen Xilian.
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Chen Xilian was born in 1915 to a poor family in Pengjia Village, Gaoqiao Mountain, Huang'an (now Hong'an), Hunan Province. Due to the large population and small fields in the family, life is very difficult. Chen Xilian's father was a stonemason, when Chen Xilian was 3 years old, helping people build a house was unfortunately smashed by a falling stone beam, and the condition that could have been cured was eventually died because he had no money to see a doctor.
It is worth mentioning that among the four brothers and sisters, Chen Xilian's eldest sister was also a revolutionary martyr of our party, and the second sister also threw herself into the vigorous peasant movement under the influence of the eldest sister. This also sowed a seed for Chen Xilian to join the revolution early.
As he grew older, he also reached school age, but since the death of his father, the family had become more difficult, and his mother told him that he would send him to the landlord's house to work as a cattle herder, and it was sad to watch the children of the same age go to school, and he could only work as a long-term worker for others. However, at that time, Chen Xilian was not sad, because he was young and knew this, but he just thought that he could play while herding cattle, and he felt that it was also very good.
But when he actually went to the landlord's house to herd the cattle, he realized that it was not what he thought. Although there is food to eat, but often beaten and scolded, can not finish the work every day, can only sleep in the cowshed at night, in the summer mosquito bites, stinky weather, winter cold wind bone-chilling. After several years of cattle herding life, his young mind deeply felt the cruelty and injustice of the exploitation and oppression of the old society.
By chance, he met the Red Army, and he wanted to become a soldier, and the captain of the Red Army at that time was Zhan Caifang, and when he saw this small hairy boy in front of him, although he was very pleased that he wanted to become a soldier, but because he was too young, Zhan Caifang told Chen Xilian: You are too young, wait another year, you can rest assured, after a year, you will definitely come back to pick you up, never renege on your word!
In this way, Chen Xilian waited for a year, and Zhan Caifang really kept his promise to pick up Chen Xilian. Upon hearing this news, Chen Xilian excitedly ran to Zhan Caifang's troops, so at the age of 14, he joined the guerrilla group and was incorporated into the 11th Army of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the same year. And a year later, he officially became a member of the Communist Party of China.
Although he had never read a book, Chen Xilian had extraordinary courage and bravery, which allowed him to rise all the way to the top of the army. In 1933 he was appointed deputy commander of the 10th Division of the 4th Red Army and political commissar of the 11th Division. At that time, Jiang sent tens of thousands of troops to besiege the Sichuan-Shaanxi Su region, Chen Xilian was ordered to fight an ambush, he cleverly ambushed in the dark, hit the enemy by surprise, and also captured a large number of military supplies.
This greatly angered Jiang, so he ordered Liu Xiang of the Sichuan army to gather 200,000 troops to carry out a six-way siege, this time Chen Xilian was tasked with holding Huofeng Mountain.
When those Sichuan troops, whose faces were painted with oil paint and holding large knives, shouted that "knives and guns do not enter" and rushed to the mountain, Chen Xilian behaved very calmly, because he had heard about it earlier, which was the usual trick of the Sichuan army, just to scare the recruits. Therefore, it was immediately decided to lead the troops to meet the enemy, and sure enough, when the bullets hit, the opposing troops fled in all directions in fright.
Unfortunately, due to carelessness, Chen Xilian's right shoulder was hit by a bullet, and the guards wanted to carry him back, but he insisted on commanding the battle, and the soldiers saw that the political commissar was so brave, and for a time the morale soared, and finally severely damaged the Sichuan army.
Later, the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression failed, the Central Red Army was forced to start the Long March, and Chen Xilian did not fight with the Kuomintang troops. During a battle, Chen Xilian injured the thumb of his left hand, and due to careless bandaging, the blood did not circulate, resulting in finger necrosis. Chen Xilian didn't say a word, took a sip of wine, sprayed it on the knife, raised the knife in his hand, and directly cut it down. Because of this incident, many soldiers and comrades looked at him with admiration. Therefore, he has the title of "small steel cannon", brave in combat, not afraid of life and death, which is the spirit of small steel cannon.
Another time he was injured in the waist, when the nurse changed his medicine, but did not see the blood flowing out, Chen Xilian immediately let the guards lift him up high, let the wound face down, the result was that after a while there was blood flowing from the abdominal cavity, Chen Xilian laughed: Fortunately, there is experience, otherwise the blood is in the stomach, and people must not be swollen to death! Bleeding and injuring on the battlefield is a common thing, but Chen Xilian can be so relaxed, laughing and saying that this is a real tough guy.
But the tough guy also has a time when he can't bear it, because of excessive fatigue, Chen Xilian suffered from typhoid fever, always high fever, vomiting diarrhea, tormented him in pain, ten days later, his whole person has changed. But he still insisted on crossing the snowy mountains and through the meadows, commanding the troops to fight until they successfully walked the Long March.
In 1937, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in full swing, Chen Xilian served as the commander of the 769th Regiment of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and this year he was 23 years old. The first shot fired by the 129th Division was ordered by Liu Bocheng, commander of the 129th Division, to have Chen Xilian lead his troops to attack the Japanese troops coming from Yanmen Pass to Xinkou. He was very excited to receive this order, and he told himself that he must fight this battle well.
Since following Liu Bocheng, Chen Xilian's combat command skills have become more and more superb, from how to deploy troops to fight, to how to get along with soldiers, Liu Bocheng taught him one by one. Therefore, this time is also a teaching test, which is of great significance to Chen Xilian.
In October, after surveying the terrain, Chen Xilian prepared to ambush the Japanese army on the east side of the road between Xinkou and Datong. But during the ambush, he found that the area was constantly passed by Japanese transport vehicles, and from time to time there were planes flying by.
Chen Xilian was keenly aware that the place where the plane took off was most likely in Yangmingbao, so the airport might also be there. In order to test this speculation, he went to check it out, and sure enough, the airport was located south of Yangmingbao, and the rows of planes in the airport were ready to go.
Upon learning of this situation, Chen Xilian immediately ordered a night attack on Yangmingbao. At night, the soldiers packed lightly, quietly sneaked into the airport, quickly put bundles of bombs into the aircraft, and in an instant, one plane after another was destroyed, and the airfield was full of fire.
The Japanese immediately sent troops to counterattack, and even a large number of troops preparing to attack Xinkou were forced to retreat to the rear of the garrison, and Chen Xilian immediately ordered a retreat according to the original plan.
In this operation, Chen Xilian not only completed the task, but also led the troops to blow up a total of 24 enemy planes, annihilated more than 100 Japanese troops, and suffered more than 30 casualties in our army. Xu Xiangqian laughed and said, "I have to give you credit immediately!" Liu Bocheng also praised: This battle 769 Regiment fought beautifully! Mr. Peng even settled accounts with the cadres, saying: How much is this plane worth? How much millet can you buy, and how many people can eat it for a year? It is enough to prove that this heavy blow to the enemy army.
At that time, the Kuomintang who received this news was initially unbelieving, and also specially sent planes to reconnoiter, and when they saw a messy Yangmingbao, they were greatly shocked, for which Jiang specially issued a bonus to the 769 regiment and published it in the newspaper for commendation. It was also this battle that made Chen Xilian famous in the first battle.
When the news in the newspaper reached her hometown, the old family took the newspaper to find Chen Xilian's mother, saw the photo of her son, the mother could not cry in an instant, she did not expect that the son who had not been seen for many years was now seen in the newspaper, and she thought of writing a letter to her son. However, due to the war, this letter only arrived in Chen Xi's joint efforts half a year later, and when he got the letter, he saw the contents of the above, as if he saw his mother dinging and worrying about him in front of him, and the iron-blooded boy who had cut off his fingers and killed the enemy could not help but shed tears.
However, due to the war, he could not immediately return to visit his mother, and could only kill the enemy more desperately, hoping to drive out the foreign enemy as soon as possible and let the people and their families live a peaceful and stable life as soon as possible.
After that, Chen Xilian participated in various large and small battles such as the sabotage of the Baijin Railway and the Hundred Regiments War. It can be said that on the anti-Japanese battlefield, you can see his figure.
In this regard, Deng Gong once praised him to his face: You can fight, you are a general! In the face of such praise, Chen Xilian was very happy, but he was never proud, but on the contrary, he clearly realized his own shortcomings, because he had not studied, he could not read, but how could he lead soldiers to fight.
Therefore, in the gap between wars, he used all his free time to ask many comrades-in-arms to teach him to read, and then practiced writing with stones and wooden sticks, and gradually he could read books and newspapers. Some people say that if Chen Xilian had read books, he would definitely have higher deeds. Chen Xilian explained very well that gold always shines, this sentence.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was appointed commander of the 3rd Column of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region and the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army, which later became the Central Plains Field Army, and Chen Xilian was 31 years old. After the outbreak of the Kuomintang-Communist Civil War, Chen Xilian quickly joined the battle, leading his troops to participate in the battles of Shangdang, Handan, and Advancing into Dabie Mountain. Every battle was fought beautifully.
For example, in the Battle of Yangshanji, the 66th Division, a unit of Chiang Kai-shek's lineage, was completely annihilated, laying the foundation for advancing into the Central Plains. For example, in the Battle of Northern Henan, an excellent example was created to annihilate a mechanized brigade of the Nationalist army with inferior equipment. Another example is the capture of Tangyinzhong, an important town in northern Henan, and the capture alive of Sun Dianying, commander of the Kuomintang 12th Column. And later in the Battle of Shuangduiji, the annihilation of the Kuomintang Huang Wei Corps, the battle of crossing the river, the annihilation of the Song Xilian clique, the liberation of Chongqing, and so on.
Especially in the campaign to advance into Dabie Mountain, when Liu and Deng's large armies jumped thousands of miles into Dabie Mountain, and Jiang gathered 200,000 troops to encircle and suppress them, at that time the main force of our army was only 120,000, and the disparity between the enemy and our strength was huge. Considering that Dabie Mountain was not suitable for large corps to fight, Liu and Deng decided to divide the troops into two routes, fighting on the outer and internal fronts respectively.
The troops led by Deng Gong included Chen Xilian and the three columns he commanded. Chen Xilian, who received the order, immediately made a detailed plan, and then led the 3rd Column across the Longhai Road, crossed the Huangpan Area, and quickly crossed the Huai River in an alternating way to reach the northern foothills of the Dabie Mountains, and in half a month, liberated 9 counties and large areas in Wanxi, opening up a new situation for Wanxi.
Many years later, Chen Xilian still proudly said: Deng Gong asked me to stay and carry more enemies, which is his trust in me! Just as Deng Gong said in his later years: In every battle in Erye, the specific commanders were the commanders of each column, and several battles during this period were commanded by Chen Xilian. And the "several" in this sentence are affirmations of Chen Xilian.
In addition, this advance into the Dabie Mountains also became a key battle in which the Huaihai Campaign developed into a huge strategic decisive battle.
In the Battle of Huaihai, Chen Xilian was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, and the 1st column and the 3rd column of the Central Plains Field Army and the 13th column of the East China Field Army under his command formed the Western Group, and after a fierce battle of one day and one night, annihilated more than 12,000 nationalist troops, and the Xuzhou Liu Zhi Group was completely isolated. Later military experts called it the finishing battle of the Huaihai Campaign.
For Chen Xilian, being able to command such a large group army was what he dreamed of, and it also made him thank Deng Gong for this opportunity for life.
After the founding of New China, Chen Xilian was awarded the rank of general and was awarded the Order of August 1st Class, the Order of Independence and Freedom of the First Class, and the Liberation Medal of the First Class. Chen Xilian went from a cowherd to a founding general, but he did not stop there, but focused on working for the modernization of the army and national defense.
At that time, the country was under tremendous pressure, one of which was that our army had always lacked a strong artillery mechanized force. However, it is difficult to decide who will organize the construction of artillery. The chairman of the "small steel cannon" reputation was known before, so at the meeting he proposed: The Red Fourth Front does not have a small steel cannon Chen Xilian, I think he is more suitable for artillery.
In this way, on October 20, 1950, he was transferred to the people's liberation army artillery commander, but in fact the artillery he took over was quite difficult to clean up, when the Korean War broke out, Chiang Ambition did not die, under the internal and external troubles, there were only 6 regiments of artillery that were important, and the ratio of troop strength to task was not proportional.
To this end, Chen Xilian asked his superiors for instructions and transferred excellent infantry divisions from other military regions to form an artillery unit. In addition, in order to make the artillery better study, he tirelessly ran to four provinces and personally set up 8 training bases. After several months of study, he finally completed the task of modification and training of the artillery unit, and was transported to the Korean battlefield at the first time, making great contributions to the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. In the later Battle of Kinmen, it also played a huge role.
Not only that, he also advocated the construction of artillery schools and cultivated many military talents for our army. It was precisely under Chen Xilian's rush and management that the building of artillery units was increasingly regularized and modernized. By the end of 1953, there were 23 divisions of reserve artillery in the whole army, including 2 rocket artillery divisions and 6 anti-aircraft artillery divisions, with a total strength of more than 300,000 troops. In only two years, Chen Xilian increased the artillery strength by as much as 3 times.
Carrying forward the spirit of "small steel cannon" from beginning to end, when selecting China's first missile test base, he led the expert group to take a plane, cross the Gobi Desert, and even enter and exit no man's land many times, providing a large amount of first-hand information for the country and making important contributions to the creation of the people's liberation army strategic missile force.
In February 1976, when the chairman became seriously ill, he proposed to appoint Chen Xilian to the Post of Central Military Commission, a decision that was deliberate. Before this, Premier Zhou had died, Deng Gong could not get out of his body, and after Lin Shuai crashed, Ye Shuai was even busier, plus his health was not as good as before, so the command of the three armed forces was only appropriate if it was handed over to Chen Xilian.
And at this time, Chen Xilian was not only a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, but also a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission. After some thought, the chairman said: Chen Xilian joined the army at a very young age, was loyal to the revolution, and could fight wars, and he also brought corps and artillery, and he also had a post.
After Chen Xilian was appointed, it caused a lot of controversy, and Deng Gong always said for Chen Xilian after learning about it: He has no ambitions. It turned out that this was indeed the case, after taking office, Chen Xilian never transgressed, and he would consult and communicate with Ye Shuai in time on many affairs in the army and ask for his suggestions.
By 1977, Ye Shuai had re-presided over the daily work of the Central Military Commission, with Chen Xilian assisting in the work. It was not until 1980 that he submitted his resignation to the Central Committee, and military power was handed over to Deng Gong. In 1999, the elderly Chen Xilian died of illness in Beijing that year at the age of 85. After his body was cremated, he was buried in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, and Chen Xilian, the founding general, ended his legendary life.