On October 27, 1979, a memorial service was held in Babaoshan, Beijing. The deceased old man was Zhang Weihan, a founding colonel and former director of the Land Sports Department of the National Sports Commission. According to the rank division, although the colonel is the highest level among the colonels, he is still a mid-level officer. Therefore, Zhang Weihan's memorial service may not be paid too much attention. However, what is surprising is that among the crowds who came to the memorial service, there were nearly a hundred generals and dozens of provincial and ministerial cadres. Not only that, but even Deng Xiaoping, Liu Bocheng, Xu Xiangqian, and others sent wreaths, and Xinhua News Agency also issued a special press release to publish the news of the old man's death in the People's Daily the next day.
Who is this Zhang Weihan? Why is the standard of treatment such a founding colonel and bureau-level cadre so high after his death? With these questions in mind, let us return to the years of revolutionary war, when the smoke of war was raging.
Zhang Weihan
In 1906, Zhang Weihan was born in an ordinary poor family in Handan, Hebei Province. Forced by his livelihood, Zhang Weixi, the second brother who was 17 years older than Zhang Weihan, joined the front team (company) of the Wubei Academy in the Three Eastern Provinces as a student soldier in the year of weak crown, and during the Xinhai Revolution, Zhang Weixi followed Feng Yuxiang to launch the Luanzhou Uprising, and from then on his career was prosperous. Thanks to Zhang Weixi's care, Zhang Weihan came to Beiping with his mother at the age of 9 and entered the 16th Mixed Brigade Officers' School run by Feng Yuxiang, so he began to be influenced by the ideas of some progressive people in the school.
After graduating from university, under the introduction of Zhang Weixi, Zhang Weihan entered the Civil Affairs Department of Henan Province, and later, dissatisfied with the mediocre and corrupt style in the government department, he voluntarily resigned and returned to Tianjin, intending to find a way out for himself. Unfortunately, his flesh-and-blood, vicious and vicious personality has made him suffer repeated setbacks in his work. In desperation, he was introduced by Zhang Weixi to the door of Fan Zhuxian, the inspector and security commander of the Sixth Special District of Shandong Province, and because he was a fellow villager, Zhang Weihan was entrusted with the heavy responsibility of the commissioner's secretary.
Zhang Weihan and his friend Peng Xuefeng
In May 1937, under the introduction of his friend Peng Xuefeng, Zhang Weihan joined the Communist Party of China. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in full swing, Fan Zhuxian sent an electric message to the whole country that "split the eyes of the north and never cross the south." Under the coordination of Zhang Weihan, the CPC Lubei Special Committee helped Fan Zhuxian reorganize the Sixth District Security Command into the Shandong Sixth District Guerrilla Command under the wartime system, and assisted Fan Zhuxian in integrating many groups of people's uprising armed forces and militia armed groups in Shandong. In less than half a year, the armed forces under the jurisdiction of the guerrilla command of the Sixth District of Shandong Province reached 35 detachments, known as the "100,000 Iron Army". Among them, the strongest tenth detachment was directly founded by the CPC Lu Northwest Special Committee, with Zhang Weihan as the commander of the detachment.
In November 1938, Liaocheng fell, and Fan Zhuxian was martyred. The guerrilla commander of the Sixth District of Shandong partially collapsed, and the original 35 detachments, some of which defected to the enemy and were partially drawn in by the Kuomintang. Zhang Weihan and his tenth detachment, under the suppression of the Japanese and Kou and the Kuomintang diehards, went through many twists and turns before they made contact with the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in early 1939. In order to commemorate General Fan Zhuxian, Zhang Weihan's tenth detachment was reorganized by the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army into the 129th Division's Zhuxian Column, officially becoming the main force of the Eighth Route Army. It should be known that at that time, the 129th Division had more than 50,000 people in the whole division, and there were nearly 10,000 people in the Zhuxian Column, which showed Zhang Weihan's contribution to the Eighth Route Army.
Fan Zhuxian
In April 1940, the Zhuxian Column was merged with the Advance Column of the Luxi Bureau and reorganized into the New Eighth Brigade of the 129th Division, with Zhang Weihan as brigade commander, deputy brigade commander Wang Jinshan, director of the Political Department Wang Youping, and chief of staff Gao Houliang. In 1955, Wang Jinshan was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, Gao Houliang was awarded the rank of major general, and Wang Youping was not awarded the title of vice minister of foreign affairs because of his conversion to diplomatic work. In 1942, the New Eighth Brigade was incorporated into the Third Sub-district of Southern Hebei, with Zhang Weihan as the commander of the sub-district, Kong Qingde as deputy commander, and Wang Youping as deputy political commissar. Again, kong qingde was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
In 1943, with the changes in the situation of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Party Central Committee decided to send a large number of cadres to Yan'an to study. Zhang Weihan was ordered to arrive in Yan'an and enter the 16 detachments of the Second Department of the Central Party School to study. In the following four years, Zhang Weihan has been studying and living in Yan'an. After the outbreak of the Kuomintang-Communist Civil War, although Zhang Weihan returned to the battlefield, he never showed as much as his previous resume, and in March 1947, he was appointed commander of the Ninth Sub-district of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region reorganized by the 129th Division, and a year later, he was changed to the commander of the Handan Military Subdistrict. In the early days of liberation, Zhang Weihan also worked in his hometown of Handan.
Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Weihan
In January 1952, when New China launched a rapid "three antis" (anti-corruption, anti-waste, and anti-bureaucracy) movement, Zhang Weihan, then commander of the Handan Military Region, was slandered by some people with ulterior motives as a "big tiger from a landlord's family", and was not only raided, but also thrown into prison for a year. After his release from prison, Zhang Weihan went to Beijing to complain, and after investigation, the Cadre Department of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army determined that Zhang Weihan's case was a wrong case, but because it took time to correct it, zhang Weihan was arranged to serve as vice president of the PLA Military Sports School. It is precisely because the military sports school belongs to the military establishment, so when the rank was awarded in 1955, Zhang Weihan had the opportunity to be awarded the rank. Unfortunately, the wrong case on his body could not be rehabilitated in time, and at that time, when evaluating the title, according to the previous punishment of "administrative demotion", Zhang Weihan was only awarded the rank of colonel. And most of his former comrades of the same rank or lower rank were generals.
However, revolutionaries who truly serve the people have never paid much attention to the level of military rank. The same is true of Zhang Weihan, although his rank is relatively low, he is still diligent and earnest in the post arranged by the organization, and he works hard and complains. During the Cultural Revolution, although he was tortured, he never bowed to the "Gang of Four" and other bad elements.
Zhang Weihan's former old comrade-in-arms Gao Houliang
In 1979, the miasma of China was eliminated, and a large number of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases were corrected. When Zhang Weihan's former old comrade-in-arms, Gao Houliang, then political commissar of the Air Force, learned that Zhang Weihan's unjust case had not yet been rehabilitated, he immediately contacted Xu Shenji, deputy commander of the Beijing Military Region and secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission, and asked him to rehabilitate Zhang Weihan as soon as possible. A few days later, the Hebei Provincial Military Region held a party committee to make a decision and reported it to the Party Committee of the Beijing Military Region for approval: "Comrade Zhang Weihan's so-called erroneous facts at that time cannot constitute an error, and it is recommended that Zhang Weihan's conclusions and handling be completely revoked and corrected." ”
After more than twenty years of injustice, Zhang Weihan, who had been ill for a long time, had a relaxed face and died soon after. At his memorial service, Deng Xiaoping, Liu Bocheng, Xu Xiangqian, and other veteran leaders of the 129th Division sent wreaths; nearly a hundred generals, including Song Renqian, Li Jukui, Wang Xinting, Zhang Zhen, Xu Shenji, and Gao Houliang, personally went to Babaoshan to send off their old comrades-in-arms. Such a high-level memorial service is not only an endless remembrance of the death of the old man, but also a fair evaluation of Zhang Weihan's historical merits!
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