In 1984, Liang Xingchu left his post and moved his family to Beijing, preparing to raise a family.
Liang Xingchu is already 72 years old this year, and now, this is indeed a suitable age for retirement, but for the veteran generals at that time, as long as they can move, they will continue to stay in their posts to contribute to the motherland, so it is a very rare thing for Liang Xingchu to leave office automatically.
The news spread quickly, and Marshal Ye Jianying, who was the vice chairman of the Military Commission, also received relevant information. The marshal could not bear to waste Liang Xingchu's talents, so he invited him to serve as a military adviser to the Jinan Military Region in Shandong Province and continue to make some contributions to the people.
However, when the deputy director of the General Political Department personally approached Liang Xingchu and conveyed Ye Jianying's instructions to him, Liang Xingchu resolutely refused the appointment and directly said: "I am not an adviser." ”
Why did Liang Xingchu reject this appointment? What are the hidden reasons behind this matter?
Picture | Liang Xingchu
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="76" > "Strike Iron General" has just grown</h1>
Liang Xingchu, whose original name was Liang Xingfang, was born on August 23, 1913, and was a native of Yupi Village, Purification District, Ji'an County, Jiangxi Province.
When he was a teenager, Liang Xing was born with a stubborn nature, and often caused trouble, which made his honest and responsible smith father very headache. Every time he committed a crime, Liang Xingchu's father would always hang him up in exasperation and beat him hard, trying to make him "remember sex for a long time". But Liang Xingchu seemed to be untaught, and even if his father used all kinds of means, it never worked.
Because Liang Xingchu loved to tease his classmates in the school and repeatedly taught, the teacher, in anger, let him leave school and return home. Liang Xingchu did not have the restraint of the division commander and became more and more arbitrary. After a long time, his father thought that he could not continue to be so "lawless", so he arranged for him to learn some decent crafts, so that he could make a living alone when he became an adult.
However, Liang Xingchu, who was rebellious by nature, was very disgusted by this: his father asked him to learn tailoring, he deliberately cut off the sleeves of his robe, the master saw that he was so ignorant, he was frightened and quickly blasted him away; his father sent him to learn haircuts, he deliberately shaved people into yin and yang heads, and the barber saw that he was so excessive, and he was unwilling to continue to take him in.
After the father learned of this series of events, he was very disappointed in his son, and in the quarrel, the father gambled for a while and sent Liang Xingchu to the blacksmith shop. Iron strike is a difficult technical job, not only requires enough strength and courage, but also careful, and can endure hardships, the father intended to punish the disobedient son, let him understand the hardships of life.
Who ever wanted to see the roaring fire and the hot boiling hot molten iron, Liang Xingchu, who had been restless since childhood, actually liked this technical work in his heart. Since then, Liang Xingchu has played pranks a lot less often, and most of the time, he has done a good job of sledgehammering and pulling bellows in the iron shop. The blacksmith master therefore fell in love with this serious and capable apprentice and began to teach him.
Liang Xingchu worked in the blacksmith shop for 3 years, until he joined the Red Army troops, and he reluctantly left. Because of this special experience, in later careers, there are always people who call him the Iron General. When Liang Xingchu himself recalled this incident, he also sighed: "Striking iron is a job that requires both brute force, ingenuity, and perseverance, and I have been a blacksmith for three years, which should be said to have had a positive impact on later military life." ”
Figure | strike iron
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="78" > shines</h1>
In April 1930, liang Xingchu, a small blacksmith, joined the Red Army. In October of the same year, Chiang Kai-shek successively mobilized 100,000 soldiers and launched the first "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the central revolutionary base areas. The front-line commander sent by the enemy was Zhang Huizhen, then commander of the 18th Division of the Kuomintang "Iron Army Division," who had studied at the Hunan Military Academy and the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, and this general had great contempt for the guerrilla-type Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Therefore, in the course of fighting our army, this general behaved very recklessly.
Naturally, our army will not give up this obvious superiority, seeing that the enemy is becoming more and more reckless, and the soldiers of our army have set up an ambush in the front, the enemy did not expect that our side had such a great skill, and rushed into the trap.
Just then, the Red Army soldiers, who had been in ambush for a long time, rushed out and attacked the enemy in the encirclement. Liang Xingchu, who had just joined the army, was carrying a machete, his eyes were violent, and he chased and slashed, as if he had entered no man's land, even if he was shot in the leg, he could not eliminate his strong belief in combat.
Because of this tenacious fighting spirit, only five months after joining the Red Army, Liang Xingchu received the attention of the organization, was promoted to the 36th Regiment Headquarters of the 12th Division of the Red Fourth Army as a communication squad leader, and joined the Communist Party of China in November.
In 1932, Liang Xingchu, as deputy company commander, led the soldiers to participate in the Battle of Huangpi, and after the battle, he was awarded the title of "Model Company Commander" for his outstanding performance.
In August 1933, Liang Xingchu received the Third Class Red Star Medal of the Chinese Soviet Republic, which was the highest honor awarded by our army at that time, and very few people were able to win this honor, so after receiving the medal, Liang Xingchu's revolutionary enthusiasm was even higher.
Figure | warriors fighting
In 1933, our army and the enemy fought in the Duhe River, and in the bloody battle, a bullet penetrated Liang Xingchu's cheek, and the blood flowed on the spot, and even talking and breathing became extremely difficult. However, even though he had become like this, Liang Xingchu still stuck to his post and gritted his teeth to continue to command the battle. Under his command, the soldiers of our army repelled 7 crazy attacks of the enemy successively, making great contributions to the victory of the ambush battle.
After the battle, Liang Xingchu fell in a pool of blood, and the surrounding fighters were startled and rushed to take him down for treatment.
Because the medical equipment at that time was too backward, and Liang Xingchu was in a coma for three days and three nights without waking up, the soldiers thought that the company commander had died and cried very sadly. In extreme grief, some of the warriors even prepared a coffin for him.
Unexpectedly, at the beginning of the funeral, Liang Xingchu miraculously woke up. Since then, Liang Xingchu's reputation for "iron strikes" has spread more widely.
After climbing back from the ghost gate, Liang Xingchu showed more mighty, and in the subsequent battles, as long as he heard the gunshots, Liang Xingchu would take the lead and lead the soldiers forward. In this case, in just 8 years of joining the army, Liang Xingchu was seriously injured 9 times, promoted to 9 ranks, and became a heroic and fearless Red Army commander who killed decisively.
After the Red Army's Long March captured Lazikou, Chairman Mao and other leading comrades were momentarily in trouble and were unsure where the Red Army troops should go next. Just at this time, Liang Xingchu received orders to lead a team to Hadapu to reconnoiter the enemy situation and prepare food and materials. Before leaving, Chairman Mao specially summoned Liang Xingchu to his side and instructed: "When you collect materials, remember to find a way to get me some 'spiritual food', and the Kuomintang newspapers and magazines, as long as they are recent, will do some of everything." ”
Pictured| Chairman Mao
Hadapu is located at the foot of Minshan Mountain, is China's famous medicinal material distribution center, in order to allow pharmaceutical dealers from all over the world to keep abreast of the latest information, Hadapu's postal agency at that time will sell national newspapers. More importantly, it is often guarded by national troops.
In order to occupy Hadapu unexpectedly by the enemy, Liang Xingchu led the comrades of the reconnaissance company disguised as the Kuomintang "Central Army" and came to the gate of Hadabu with a swaggering posture.
The defenders in hadapu did not believe that the Red Army would have such boldness, and easily believed Liang Xingchu and others. Seeing that the "family" had come to the front, the defenders hurried to open the city gates and welcome the arrival of the "Central Army".
After entering the city, Liang Xingchu immediately commanded the soldiers to control all the enemies, so that without spending a single shot, our army successfully occupied Hadapu. What was even more surprising was that Liang Xingchu and others also grabbed an aide-de-camp under Lu Dachang, commander of the Kuomintang 14th Division, while collecting supplies.
When this adjutant returned from the provincial capital, he happened to pass by Hadapu, and when he saw that it was late, he prepared to spend the night at the postal agency office, but he did not expect to be so unlucky to run into our army.
After searching, Liang Xingchu pulled out clothes and medicinal materials from his luggage, and among these things, what interested Liang Xingchu the most was the few books and newspapers that the adjutant carried with him.
Among these books and newspapers is a "Ta Kung Pao" issued on September 12, 1935, which includes "Xu Haidong's Rampaging banditry in Gansu and Shaanxi" and "The Military Situation in Northern Shaanxi Has Changed Liu Zhidan and Xu Haidong Have a Trend of Joint Stocks." Liang Xingchu, as if he had obtained the treasure, hurriedly sent these newspapers and prisoners of war to the regimental headquarters overnight.
The leaders of the regimental department were very happy to see these things, and the newspaper attracted the attention of a large number of people, although the newspaper was shouting the slogan of "suppressing bandits" throughout, but the leaders were still keenly aware of an important message - there were also red army tracks in northern Shaanxi.
Pictured| Red Army soldiers
Prior to this, the central leaders were more inclined to lead the team to the "Soviet border" and create a new revolutionary base area in the local area, and after seeing the hadapu newspaper, the leaders had a new choice - to go to Shaanxi to meet the local Red Army, and then form a base area together.
After some rest, the Central Red Army changed its name to the "Shaanxi-Gansu Detachment" and marched straight to northern Shaanxi. In this process, the fate of the Central Red Army can be said to have been changed by this newspaper, and in this major historical decision, Liang Xingchu "crookedly and straightened out" and played an indispensable role.
It is worth mentioning that just when everyone thought that Liang Xingchu's "good luck" was just an accidental event, in a subsequent battle, his ability actually played a role again.
In October 1935, Liang Xingchu led the comrades of the reconnaissance company on a mission, and when he happened to pass by a village, he found a cavalry unit of the Kuomintang recuperating in the village. More importantly, for whatever reason, the enemy's defenses were lax.
In the face of sloppy enemies and more than a hundred tall horses, this "fat duck" sent to the door made Liang Xingchu almost unable to hold back the excitement in his heart: Heavenly opportunity! In any case, he will take the risk of raiding!
Liang Xingchu let out a slight breath and immediately ordered the soldiers of the reconnaissance company to quietly surround the nationalist troops, so that while the enemy was still immersed in a leisurely rest, the Red Army soldiers suddenly came out from all sides and launched an attack on them. Due to the suddenness of the incident, the Nationalist army quickly fell behind, and by the time they reacted, the enemy had already been wiped out by our army!
In this surprise attack, our army killed and captured more than two hundred enemies, and the results were quite fruitful. Of course, of all the booty, the most conspicuous was the more than a hundred horses. Due to the lack of materials, the Red Army troops did not have their own cavalry at that time, and it was precisely because of the lack of mounts that our army suffered many losses in the battle against the horse bandits, and now that the troops have captured so many hardcover horses, the soldiers of the reconnaissance company are overjoyed.
Pictured| cavalry
After the news was reported to Chairman Mao, the chairman was also very happy, and after some thought, he decided to formally reorganize Liang Xingchu's reconnaissance company into a cavalry reconnaissance company. The reconnaissance company was equipped with war horses and added wings to the tiger, and its mobility and combat effectiveness have risen to a great level. In the subsequent operations, this cavalry reconnaissance company continued to grow, and eventually expanded into the famous Eighth Route Army cavalry reconnaissance company.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="85" > shocked everywhere</h1>
After the end of the anti-Japanese war, the northeast became a place of contention between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and according to the central arrangements, a large number of main battle units of our army quickly marched north. Liang Xingchu was also a member of the main battle force, and in the process, he had been closely following Lin Biao and trekking with him to the northeast battlefield.
Liang Xingchu was a division commander under Lin Biao at that time, because of the fierceness of the battle and the strong combat effectiveness, he was known as one of Lin Biao's five tiger generals, and Lin Biao had always admired his talent.
Soon after, the Two Parties decided to fight at Xiushui Hezi, which was also the first annihilation battle between the two sides on the northeast battlefield, and its key significance was self-evident.
Before the war, many people recommended command talents to Lin Biao, but Lin Biao still had a special love for Liang Xingchu, and he tried his best to make Liang Xingchu the commander of the front line. Liang Xingchu also did not live up to his high hopes, and in the Battle of XiushuiHezi, he led a team to annihilate a Kuomintang reinforcement regiment equipped with American machinery, setting a precedent for our army to eliminate the AMERICAN enemy army on the northeast battlefield, and the morale of the army soared.
Liang Xingchu's strong command ability was also vividly reflected in this battle, and after this, Lin Biao was even more partial to him. Liang Xing learned haircuts for a while when he was a teenager, and when he was the commander of the column, he often took the initiative to ask for the soldiers to cut their hair.
He did have some craftsmanship, he was decent, but he had a bad habit of quickly adding two beards to someone's mouth after every haircut, and looking at the dazed expression of the warrior, everyone around him laughed.
Once Luo Ronghuan happened to be passing by, saw this scene, and scolded him with a cry and a smile: "How old are you, and are you still engaged in this prank?" Lin Biao, who had always been serious, turned his head silently and couldn't help but smile.
Pictured| Lin Biao
In 1947, the central leaders decided to form the Tenth Column of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army, and after selection, Liang Xingchu was elected as the deputy commander.
However, just when the leaders thought that Liang Xingchu would be eager to agree to this appointment, Liang Xingchu rarely raised an objection: "I am not a deputy commander, I would rather continue to be a division commander!" After saying this, Liang Xingchu went straight away with the guards.
The fact that a column commander dared to openly reject the headquarters seemed a little incomprehensible, but fortunately, the commanders loved Cai, so they did not hold him accountable. In the end, after some consideration, the headquarters still canceled the "vice" word in front of his name.
After becoming a commander as he wished, Liang Xingchu especially cherished this hard-won opportunity, and it didn't take long for him to command the troops to fight a series of beautiful battles! Especially in the 1948 Montenegro Blockade War, he led the Ten Columns to create a rare miracle.
In 1948, Liang Xingchu led the soldiers of the Ten Columns to the Black Mountain To resist the war, in which the soldiers with tenacious willpower resisted the onslaught of fire several times greater than their own, and annihilated more than 14,000 enemy troops at the cost of more than 4,000 casualties. After the end of this battle, some people commented: "If the Fan Hanjie Group in Jinzhou was finally annihilated because they failed to rush eastward through Tashan; then the liao Yaoxiang Group was completely destroyed because they finally failed to advance west to break through Montenegro!" ”
After the liberation of the whole country, Liang Xingchu was appointed as the commander of the 38th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the predecessor of this unit was Dongye Yizhong, Liang Xingchu's transfer this time can also be regarded as a return to the old army. In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, Liang Xingchu received orders to lead the 38th Army to combat.
Because our army was not very adapted to the terrain and the war environment during the first battle, it failed to inflict heavy damage on the enemy. As a result, the UN military speculates that China is only a "symbolic troop" and will not pose much of a threat. In this case, the enemy deployed a strategic plan, tried to immediately divide his forces into two routes, launched a general offensive on our positions, and clamored for an end to the war before Christmas.
After receiving the information from the front, the comrades of the Volunteer Army did not panic in the slightest. They decided to make a plan, first show weakness to the enemy, and when the enemy penetrated deep into the position, they immediately launched a fierce attack on him, so that they could taste the strength of the Chinese soldiers.
Under Liang Xingchu's vigorous efforts, the task of luring the enemy to go deep was entrusted to the 38th Army. Seeing that the enemy was about to walk toward our side, the first unit of the 38th Army immediately pretended to be invincible and began to "flee" backwards, perhaps because our soldiers acted too realistically, or perhaps because the enemy despised our army too much, and the enemy general MacArthur became even more arrogant.
According to the pre-war deployment, the first task of our army at present is to annihilate the enemies in Tokugawa and Ningyuan, and then lead the army into Theokawa and Sansho-ri to block the enemy's retreat, so as to surround the enemy and annihilate them one by one. At the command post of the 38th Army, Liang Xingchu assured the headquarters that he would take Tokugawa within a day.
Tokugawa is close to the Tatsumi River, where five roads converge and is an important enemy stronghold. When attacking here, Liang Xingchu learned from his previous mistakes and first sent an advance force to conduct a preliminary investigation of the local area, and at the same time commanded the headquarters to destroy the surrounding roads and make the enemy lose the possibility of breaking through.
After these preliminary strategic preparations, on the afternoon of November 27 of that year, the soldiers of the 38th Army successfully conquered Tokugawa, and under the courageous offensive of our army, the enemy was frightened and fled.
Just by this time, the advance troops had arrived at the designated position and successfully destroyed the road bridge from Tokugawa to Shuncheon and Pyongyang, and in this way, the enemy's only way to escape was cut off by our side, and they no longer had the arrogance they had before.
Almost at the same time that the bridge was blown up, the enemy fleeing from Tokugawa appeared, and Liang Xingchu immediately gave the order to command the soldiers of the 38th Army to attack. After 7 hours of fierce fighting, the officers of the 38th Army successfully annihilated the enemy, and the American advisers were all captured by our side.
The victory at the Battle of Tokugawa swept away the shadow that had been hanging over the hearts of Liang Xingchu and the soldiers of the 38th Army, and in order to completely annihilate the enemy, the 38th Army took advantage of the hot iron and boldly marched to sansholi behind the enemy.
The warriors hurried through the starry night, five minutes ahead of the enemy to reach Sansholi. It is precisely because of this precious five minutes that we have successfully seized the favorable terrain and finally locked in the battle.
More than 40,000 officers and men of the US army were intercepted by our side in the narrow strip between Sansho-ri and Longyuan-ri, and it was only at this time that the enemy general finally realized what a wrong decision he had made before, unfortunately, they found out too late.
In order to escape, the US army did not hesitate to use the most advanced weapons in the team to throw heavy artillery fire at our side, but no matter how hard they struggled, our soldiers were still firmly fixed like a steel nail in the positions of Sansholi and Longyuanli.
With the passage of time, the U.S. support forces that had noticed the encounter in the rear had also reached the position south of Sansoli and Longyuanli, only 1 kilometer away from the fleeing U.S. troops, and the besieged U.S. troops could even clearly see their figures. But the short 1 kilometer seems to be separated by a cape, and under the stubborn resistance of our army, the enemy has never been able to meet.
After seven days of fierce fighting, the United States had to admit that it had suffered a "shameful rout in The history of the United States", and the 38th Army achieved the great achievement of eliminating more than 7,000 enemy troops and capturing more than 3,600 prisoners at the cost of more than 2,000 casualties.
Pictured| Peng Dehuai
At the celebration, Marshal Peng Dehuai shouted excitedly: "Long live the Chinese Volunteer Army, long live the 38th Army." On the spot, some people said that it was no problem to shout long live the volunteer army, and there was no precedent for shouting long live a certain army, but Peng Dehuai said to him disapprovingly: "As long as the battle is fought well, it is long live!" Mr. Peng didn't often do such things, and now he shouted such slogans, which was enough to prove the excellence of the 38th Army and Liang Xingchu.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="92" > declined appointment</h1>
Such an excellent comrade, the Party Central Committee naturally hopes that he can stay in the army for a long time and make more contributions to the construction of China's national defense cause. Therefore, when Marshal Ye Jianying heard in 1984 that Liang Xingchu had retired from his post, he immediately sent him an invitation to go to the Jinan Military Region in Shandong province to serve as a military adviser.
Picture | Ye Jianying
Unexpectedly, when the staff informed Liang Xingchu of the news, he decisively refused the appointment: "I am not a consultant. ”
The staff was deeply sorry for this, so they asked: "Do you have any concerns?" ”
Liang Xingchu replied: "Now that my body is not as good as before, it is time for the rapids to retreat and recuperate." ”
At first hearing this, it seemed a bit arrogant, but the reason why Liang Xingchu made this decision was also carefully considered.
First of all, as a general, Liang Xingchu suffered many serious injuries on the battlefield, and now that he is old, these injuries often recur, making him unable to work with peace of mind; secondly, there are still many young people in the current society waiting for meritorious service, after he retires, that post can be vacated, so that the younger generation has more opportunities to emerge; finally, this is the most important reason for Liang Xingchu - he has always wanted to write a memoir, recording the past military career for future generations to learn from and observe, due to busy official duties. He never had that time, and when he retired, he was able to concentrate on writing his memoirs.
After listening to Liang Xingchu's reasons, the staff no longer advised him, and in this way, Liang Xingchu lived a leisurely pension life as he wished.