In April 1940, the New 8th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army was established, with Zhang Weihan as the brigade commander and Wang Jinshan as the deputy brigade commander. For Wang Jinshan, everyone is very familiar with it, and the name Zhang Weihan may not have been heard of by many people, so today we will tell his story.
Zhang Weihan, a native of Handan, Hebei Province, was born in 1906, and when he was a child, his family was very poor, and his second brother Zhang Weixi was forced by life to defect to Feng Yuxiang's army as a soldier. When Zhang Weihan was 14 years old, his second brother Zhang Weixi was already the leader of Feng Yuxiang's regiment, and at this time, the living conditions of the Zhang family had been greatly improved, and Zhang Weihan also came to Beiping to study with the help of his second brother.
During his studies in Beiping, Zhang Weihan and Peng Xuefeng became friends in the same window, which had a major impact on his later life choices. After graduating from school, Zhang Weihan worked in Henan and Shandong, and in the summer of 1936, he was transferred to the secretary of the Inspector of the Sixth Special District of Shandong, who was the famous patriotic general Fan Zhuxian.
In May 1937, Peng Xuefeng and Zhang Weihan met in Liaocheng, Shandong, and under the introduction of Peng Xuefeng, Zhang Weihan joined our party. Soon after the Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Fan Zhuxian was appointed guerrilla commander of the Sixth District of Shandong Province, and Zhang Weihan was appointed director of the Political Training Office. At that time, Fan Zhuxian's anti-Japanese armed forces had a total of 35 detachments, with a total strength of more than 20,000 troops, and was known as the "100,000 Iron Army". Among these 35 detachments, the 10th detachment, with Zhang Weihan as the captain, is the most powerful, with a total strength of more than 2,000 people and excellent weapons.
Zhang Weihan
In late October 1937, when the Japanese army invaded the north bank of the Yellow River, Han Fuyu, then chairman of Shandong Province, ordered Fan Zhuxian to retreat, but he categorically refused. Not only that, on November 19, he also sent a telegram to the whole country that "split the eyes of the north and never cross the south", after which Fan Zhuxian and Zhang Weihan led their troops to fight against the Japanese in Shandong province many times, striking at the arrogance of the enemy.
On November 13, 1938, two japanese companies set out from Jinan and invaded Liaocheng. Liu Guanqian, chief of staff of the First Route Army of the Nationalist Army who assisted Fan Zhuxian in the battle, led his troops to escape on his deathbed, at this time Fan Zhuxian only had more than 600 people left around him, he still led his troops to die, and the Japanese Kou fought a bloody battle in Liaocheng for two full days and nights, after the city was destroyed, Fan Zhuxian, who was wounded in many places, committed suicide by raising a gun in order not to be a prisoner, at the age of 57.
Fan Zhuxian
After Fan Zhuxian's death, his anti-Japanese armed forces were leaderless, some were absorbed by the Nationalist army, some became puppet troops, and Zhang Weihan led the 10th detachment and several other detachments to join the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. In January 1939, in order to commemorate the patriotic general Fan Zhuxian, who sacrificed his life for the anti-Japanese resistance, Zhang Weihan's unit was reorganized into the 129th Division Zhuxian Column, with Zhang Weihan as commander and director of the Northwest Lu Administrative Committee.
In April 1940, the Zhuxian Column was merged with the Advance Column of the Luxi Bureau to form the newly organized 8th Brigade of the 129th Division, with Zhang Weihan as the brigade commander and Wang Jinshan as the deputy brigade commander, and two years later the new 8th Brigade was merged with the Third Sub-district of Ji'nan, with Zhang Weihan as the commander of the division and Kong Qingde as the deputy commander.
When zhang Weihan was awarded the title in 1955, Zhang Weihan's two lieutenants, Wang Jinshan and Kong Qingde, both became founding lieutenant generals, but he himself was only awarded the rank of colonel. Originally from the late period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the founding of New China, Zhang Weihan basically did not have a promotion. During the Liberation War, he served as the commander of the Ninth Subdistrict of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Military Region, and after the founding of New China, he served as the commander of the Handan Military Subdistrict, and in 1952 he was designated as a full division, so he was awarded the rank of colonel in 1955. In 1979, Zhang Weihan died of illness at the age of 73.