<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > Four Field General Series 27: Zhong Wei (III</h1>).
Author: Mast
Zhong Wei is known as the "militant" of Shiye, with a strong personality, a stubborn temper, and a very good set of fighting. During his time in the northeast, there was an article saying that he "disobeyed Lin Zongdian's order three times" during the Battle of Paoshantun . This is not true, but in Zhong Wei's history, there was indeed a very serious incident of "disobedience", which almost caused a catastrophe, and after the fact, he disobeyed and ran away without permission.
For this matter, many articles are vague, and some articles even say that he "because he was not willing, he took his wife, children and guards, ran away privately, and rushed thousands of miles to northern Jiangsu to find the old leader Huang Kecheng." By consulting the reminiscences of relevant personnel, the author will talk about the causes and effects of this matter today.
Zhong Wei (back row, first left)
(1) Retreating without permission almost leads to a catastrophe
In the spring of 1940, the Yu'e Advancing Column of the New Fourth Army (Commander Li Xiannian and Acting Political Commissar Ren Jianbin) marched eastward into the Dawushan area to establish an anti-Japanese base area. In this battle, the task of the 3rd Regiment of the Column (Regiment Commander Xiao Jiuyuan and Political Commissar Zhong Wei) was to hold the sifang mountain position at the commanding heights of the entire battlefield. After 4 days of fierce fighting with the enemy, the 3rd Regiment fought very hard and suffered relatively large casualties.
That afternoon, without receiving orders, Xiao Jiuyuan and Zhong Wei organized 3 regiments to retreat, but left 1 battalion (led by battalion instructors) and ordered them to hold out until dusk. After Xiao Jiuyuan and Zhong Wei descended the mountain, they received a call from the column headquarters, ordering the 3rd Regiment to hold out until 12 o'clock that night. But the 3rd Regiment, first, did not carry out this order, second, did not inform the battalion that remained on the hill, and third did not report to the column headquarters. Thus, the battalion that remained on the hill also withdrew from its position on Sifang Mountain at dusk. As a result, the enemy's positions withdrawn from the 3rd Regiment that night directly hit the vicinity of the column headquarters, almost wrapping the column headquarters with "dumplings", and Li Xiannian was almost in danger.
It should be said that the nature of this incident was very serious, and the column ordered an investigation and held accountable. I have to say that there was a delicate situation in our army at that time: Since the Red First and Fourth Fronts were separated in the meadow during the Long March, although the problem of unity at the top level has been solved, some middle- and lower-level cadres still have knots in their hearts. Specific to the column, the commander Li Xiannian was from the Red Fourth, while Xiao Jiuyuan and Zhong Wei of the 3rd Regiment were both from the Red Army. Li Xiannian had a broad mind and a strong sense of the overall situation, and although he was in danger, he did not put forward serious opinions on the handling of the disobedience to the orders of the 3 regiments at the beginning, but only made unnamed criticism. Commander Li also recused himself from handling the incident, and Ren Qianbin, the acting political commissar from Hongyi, was in charge of the investigation and handling of the incident.
However, in the course of the investigation, Zhong Wei's stubborn temper came up, not only did he admit his mistakes and had a bad attitude, but also spread some words that were not conducive to unity, and he was resistant to Li Xiannian and other leaders of the Red Fourth. In early August 1940, the column held a rectification meeting, focusing on solving the problems of the 3rd Regiment and Zhong Wei, and making a decision to deal with it: Xiao Jiuyuan, the regimental commander, was severely criticized and transferred away from the 3rd Regiment; the political commissar Zhong Wei was expelled from the organization for one year and transferred to the camp school as a teacher. It should be said that compared with the political commissar of the regimental commander, the matter was handled more seriously by the political commissar Zhong Wei: although the decision to withdraw was made jointly by the regimental commander and the political commissar, the political commissar at that time had the final decision-making power and greater responsibility. Objectively speaking, this punishment cannot be said to be very heavy. In the war years, such a vicious disobedience to orders could not be punished excessively.
(2) Not accepting the punishment and running away without permission
Zhong Wei was very dissatisfied with this decision, and even said to his subordinates that he would take the team to The Makufu Mountains (Enan) to carry out activities and break away from the column. This is a serious departure from the team, and the nature is worse than the previous disobedience. Fortunately, Zhong Wei only said that the matter of going to The Mufu Mountain was not put into action. Zhong Wei's real thought was to think of the Central Plains Bureau to find a complaint for the transgression, and at the same time, he also had the intention of going to the old superior Huang Kecheng. Because at that time, the Central Plains Bureau and the Fifth Column of the Eighth Route Army (Huang Kecheng was the commander and political commissar) were in Yancheng. There is an article that says that he is going to the New Fourth Army Military Headquarters to complain, which is not credible, because this incident occurred before the Anhui Incident, and the Military Department was still in Southern Anhui at that time. What can be corroborated is that later, at Zhong Wei's residence, he searched out the road map he had privately prepared to go to northern Jiangsu.
Huang Kecheng
But Zhong Wei's idea of going to Mount Mufu was soon known to the leader of the column. In this way, the principles of organization and personal temper are on top, and the degree of confrontation between the two sides gradually increases. At the end of August of that year, the column sent several telegrams to the headquarters, the Central Plains Bureau, and the Headquarters of the New Fourth Army, with an unusually harsh tone, believing that Zhong Wei had "been shaken and secretly instigating his subordinates to defect," and suggesting that Zhong Wei be imprisoned. By this time, the column had characterized Zhong Wei's intention to flee (whether to Mufu Mountain or Yancheng) as a "rebellion" and put him under his supervision. But the care is not strict.
After the Central Plains Bureau received the report, Secretary Liu called back and asked that Zhong Wei be sent to the Central Plains Bureau for processing. Due to the long distance and the enemy-occupied area in the middle, no arrangements have been made for this matter. During this period, one night in November 1940, Zhong Wei took his wife and children and 11 soldiers who sympathized with him (including 8 members of the guard squad) from the Yu'e base area and arrived in Yancheng in early February 1941 after more than two months of wandering. This was already after the Anhui Southern Incident, the New Fourth Army rebuilt the military headquarters in Yancheng, and Chen Yi acted as the commander.
After arriving at the headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Yancheng, he may have thought that he had been greatly wronged, and there are records that Zhong Wei shed tears as soon as he saw Chen Yi. It should be said that although Zhong Wei's disobedience was a cause, the mistake was a fact, but going to Yancheng was not a rebellion, but only thinking of the Central Plains Bureau to appeal, but also by the way to change a working environment. Therefore, the military department did not deal with him further, but arranged for him to act as the principal of the fifth branch of kang university. For a veteran general like Zhong Wei, this arrangement is certainly not reusable.
In the war years, "dragging a gun to escape" was a very serious event. For example, in 1937, Xu Shiyou planned an attempted exodus in Yan'an, implicated a group of people, and although the punishment was finally mitigated, Xu Shiyou and 6 other people were sentenced. Zhong Wei obviously did not learn this lesson.
It should be said that people are likely to make mistakes, especially people with a personality like Zhong Wei, who have a strong personality and a stubborn temper, go all the way to black, and finally make mistakes again and again. Fortunately, after arriving at the military headquarters, Chen Yi and other chiefs properly handled this problem. As a senior elder, Chen Yi's level of handling thorny contradictions is extremely high. Zhong Wei's affairs, if they had been handled better after the disobedience incident occurred, would not have reached this step. For a person with a personality like Zhong Wei, when he meets the chief of his obedience, he will become a tiger general; when he encounters the chief who is not convinced, he is a "thorn head".
In January 1943, the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army and the Northern Jiangsu Military Region established the Huai naval sub-district, with 4 subordinate detachments. At that time, the development of the army was very fast, and there was an urgent need for military cadres, and Zhong Wei, who acted as the principal of the Fifth Branch of the University for more than 1 year, was arranged to serve as the commander of the 4th detachment, which was directly led by Liu Zhen, the commander of the military sub-district, and became an indirect subordinate of Huang Kecheng.
In 1945, Zhong Wei marched into the northeast with the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army, and successively served as the commander of the 5th Division of the 2nd Column of Dongye and the commander of the 12th Column. From northern Jiangsu to northeastern Jiangsu, his superiors were Liu Zhen, Huang Kecheng, and Lin Biao. The appreciation and reuse of these superiors is an important factor in making him a generation of famous players.
【Deeply cultivate the history of war, carry forward positive energy, welcome to submit, private messages will be restored】