At the 1955 ceremony, Liu Zhen, who was only 40 years old, was awarded the rank of general, and together with Xiao Hua, who was 39 years old at the time, and Chen Xilian, 40, were jointly known as the youngest "three generals" in China.
Like many children of poor families, he began to live a cattle life when he was a teenager, and because the landlord often punished him, the young Liu Zhen often could not even afford to eat, and in such an environment, he always hoped to change the fate of the whole family through his own efforts.
At the age of 16, he joined the Red Army and embarked on a new journey.
In the later process of "anti-encirclement and suppression", Liu Zhen often used repeated roars to scare the enemy back, which also inspired the soldiers under his command, and the soldiers would bravely charge forward whenever they heard the roar of General Liu Zhen, and Liu Zhen also developed a violent temper in the war.
Who would have thought that in May 1934, on the way to a meeting of the Red 25th Army, Liu Zhen, who was only the deputy squad leader, would openly criticize the general's command problems, which made everyone stunned.
As a result, it was this "criticism" that gave Liu Zhen a new life.
Liu Zhen
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Battle of Luotian, Liu Zhen saw the problem</h1>
In the history of the Red Army, a total of 12 battles were fought in Luotian County, which is enough to see the strategic position of this place.
During the seventh attack on Luotian County, more than 2,000 people of the main force of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, led by commander Xu Haidong and political commissar Wu Huan, set out from Wujiadian in Lihuang, Anhui Province, and attacked the county town all the way.
Xu Haidong
At the time of Xiao Jia'ao, the troops encountered more than a hundred sporadic security guards, and these people could not hinder the pace of the Red Army's advance at all, and were quickly completely annihilated by our army.
On May 16 of that year, after encircling the county seat, the Red Army again divided its troops into two roads and attacked the county town from the north and west gates, and the artillery company and engineer company of the enemy's main force were quickly wiped out, and Wu Bingzhong, the county magistrate of Luotian County, quickly led a small number of remnants to flee.
When the Red Army broke the city, it developed.
When the county magistrate fled, he did not take or destroy the materials in the arsenal, and many of the arms and vaults were placed there; another group of soldiers pried open the vaults in the county town and found more than 7,000 pieces of ocean stored here by the enemy, which was a beautiful victory.
In the prison, more than two hundred cadres and the masses were also rescued.
On the third day, the Red Army troops considered the complicated enemy situation nearby, and the other side was likely to gather heavy troops to launch a counterattack after losing the county seat of Luotian County, so everyone passed through Sun Zhai and Gongjia'ao and other places and moved to the mountainous area of the Chinan region.
In the process of reorganizing the troops that month, the Red 25th Army held a special post-war analysis meeting, and he himself said to everyone: "Today, no matter how big or small your official position is, no matter how high or low you are, as long as you have any ideas in your heart, you can put them forward and discuss them together." ”
Everyone did not dare to talk too much, after all, the one standing in front of him was a military commander, and the Battle of Luotian was a victory in nature, so most of the people who spoke adopted the method of "boosting morale", hoping that everyone would add more oil in future battles and strive for greater glory.
But Xu Haidong's face did not have any expression, perhaps he also wanted to hear different voices.
"I don't think this battle was fought well, and if we had used good tactics in the retreat, our army would have been able to achieve even greater results now."
The sudden sound in the crowd really startled everyone.
Xu Haidong also looked at him curiously, and the young man in front of him had a determined look in his eyes and looked directly at him.
The person who spoke was Liu Zhen, and at this time, he was only a deputy squad leader.
The people around him quickly tugged at his clothes and whispered, "Don't you talk nonsense, this is a military commander, can you criticize him casually?" ”
Unexpectedly, this whispered exhortation was exchanged for Liu Zhen's even louder voice: "Commander Xu also said that he would say whatever he thought, all for the sake of the victory of the revolution, why did I dare not express my thoughts?" ”
Hearing him say this, Xu Haidong also laughed, he is also a person with a bold personality, and he has always said something, so he beckoned Liu Zhen to sit down and said to him:
"I didn't see it, your little boy's courage is indeed not small, what is right is right, what is wrong is wrong, I have also thought about the questions you raised, and everyone should also learn from Comrade Liu Zhen."
Immediately afterward, Xu Haidong motioned for Liu Zhen to continue.
He stood up and methodically analyzed:
"I think that in this battle, we still have great problems in tactics; when we first attacked the enemy's hill, the relevant firepower arrangements were not fully organized, and the role of a few heavy machine guns was not fully brought into play, and although the final result was victory, the casualties of our army were still very large."
As soon as the words fell, the scene fell into a silence, and everyone was very shocked, although it was the commander who asked him to say it, but many soldiers present felt that they directly "exposed" in front of the commander, which is not equivalent to saying that the commander did not command well in this battle?
However, Xu Haidong nodded and asked Liu Zhen if he had any other ideas.
Liu Zhen then analyzed:
After the battle, the troops took a short break in the county seat, and the formation of the retreat was very chaotic, which also caused some unnecessary losses among the troops.
Moreover, we occupied the enemy vault, the guard time was not sufficient, and the pistol team calculated from the time they received the order to enter the vault, which was more than half an hour slower than originally planned.
If we had planned in advance and directly let the detachments carry out their tasks after entering the city, then we could have memorized an extra batch of silver dollars and had more income.
When he said these words, Liu Zhen was the deputy squad leader of this pistol regiment, and he criticized his own squad after the great victory, which is a rare phenomenon in the military.
After a paragraph was said, Commander Xu Haidong immediately took the lead in applauding, and he said to Liu Zhen: "Liu Zhen, you really have tactical vision, I see, you can go to be a company commander's instructor!" ”
At that time, Liu Zhen thought that this was a joke by Xu Junchang.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three sentences to promote the instructor, and finally the officer to the general</h1>
When the meeting ended, what Liu Zhen himself did not expect was that he was actually arranged by Xu Haidong to be an instructor.
Since then, Liu Zhen has already become an instructor of the 1st company of the 1st Battalion of the 224th Regiment of the 75th Master, so that he jumped from deputy squad leader to company commander to three levels in only three sentences.
Xu Haidong knew very well in his heart that winning or losing every war was on the one hand, and the most important thing was to exchange the minimum casualties for a greater victory; if everyone did not dare to tell the truth and problems were not discovered in time, then in the follow-up battles, it was the soldiers themselves who were sacrificed, and the cadres in the army who dared to speak the truth were needed, and the promotion of Liu Zhen was to let this fine style of work spread.
To fight a war, we must have courage, and even more we must have strategy, and Liu Zhen has completely occupied both of these points.
In the battle in Guangshan County, Henan Province, the Kuomintang gathered heavy troops to launch a surprise attack, and our army suffered heavy losses in an instant, and Liu Zhen saw that the morale of the comrades was getting lower and lower, and he shouted to everyone on the spot:
"This battle must be won, if we can't win, we all have to go to see the king of Yama, retreat is impossible, I rush to the first, afraid of death will go to the side, not afraid of death with me."
The warriors were called upon by him, and one by one they followed.
The instructors are gone, what else is there to worry about?
Therefore, everyone's morale was high, and they rushed down with General Liu Zhen, and in the eyes of the enemy, this was definitely an unexpected attack, and there was really such a group of people who rushed directly to the position against the rain of bullets and bullets.
This incident let Xu Haidong know, directly praised Liu Zhen for his courage and strategy, and even more thought that he had made a correct decision, Liu Zhen, worthy of the word "Zhen" in his name.
After only a year, the Kuomintang once again gathered the strength of more than twenty regiments and launched a fierce attack on the Red Twenty-fifth Army, Xu Haidong heard the news, quickly convened an emergency meeting in the base area, and after some thought, decided to set up an encirclement circle in Yuanjiagou and open a precision strike when the enemy came in.
At that time, Liu Zhen was already an instructor at the battalion headquarters, so he was also eligible to participate in the meeting.
Xu Haidong has always cultivated Liu Zhen as a good seedling, and when he saw Instructor Liu enter the conference room, he jokingly said to him:
"Xiao Liu, the enemy may have to dispatch a brigade of troops this time, this is a tough battle, do you have the confidence to gnaw down this hard bone?"
At this time, Liu Zhen had been working in the position of instructor for half a year, and at this time, it was also the good age of fang gang, he suddenly stood up, saluted Xu Haidong with a military salute, and then said loudly: "Report to the commander, if I let go of an enemy, I will put my head against it!" ”
In this way, Liu Zhen successfully took over the task, and the enemy also entered the encirclement as the general staff expected.
In this battle, Liu Zhen personally stood up, and was also shot in the arm, successfully solving the enemy's senior officer, at this time, Liu Zhen's name of "boldness" was completely spread in the army, and no one could believe that an instructor actually rushed to the front after arranging the task.
Later, Liu Zhen made great contributions again in the battle of Dushu Town, and was promoted to the political commissar of the 223rd Regiment, and subsequently, on the road of the Red Army revolution, the troops fought more and more, and the 223rd Regiment was expanded into the 73rd Division, and Liu Zhen also naturally became the political commissar of the division headquarters.
Later, during the Liberation War, Liu Zhen participated in the Liaoshen Campaign, the Pingjin Campaign, and the "Siping Defense War" that was later adapted into countless film and television works, and made great achievements for the establishment of New China, so he was awarded the rank of general at the first award ceremony in 1955.
General Liu Zhen has always been known as a generation of tiger generals in the style of "daring to fight and dare to rush", so General Liu shoulders more important responsibilities.
The Central Military Commission came to the door and made him the commander of the Northeast Military Region and the commander of the Air Force, which is indeed a bit incredible for a general who has never even sat on an airplane.
But Liu Yalou told him: "China's air force has just started, it is all a blank, and it will look at you." ”
Liu Yalou
Later, when our air force confronted the US Air Force head-on, it took only three days to shoot down twenty-six American planes, so that the Americans did not dare to take the enemy lightly, and after this battle, the US military no longer dared to underestimate the Chinese Air Force.
Chairman Mao was very excited after hearing the news, and wrote: "The Fourth Air Division fought bravely, which is very good and very comforting!" ”
In the early construction of China's air force, his command ability was brought into full play, but Liu Zhen modestly said: "Let me manage the air force, it is really to catch the ducks on the shelves." ”