In the glorious history of our army, countless generals have emerged, and there are 36 stars in this starry sky, which are particularly bright, they are the 36 contemporary military experts who were approved by the relevant departments in the 1980s and 1990s.
These 36 military experts are divided into three categories, the first category is the national leaders headed by Comrade Mao Zedong, who are the commanders of the three armed forces! Among them were Comrade Mao Zedong, the founder of the party, the state, and the army; Comrade Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of reform and opening up and chairman of the Central Military Commission; Comrade Li Xiannian, who once served as president of the state; and Comrade Yang Shangkun, who served as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and president of the state.
Of course, since they are military experts, the second type of people are naturally veteran marshals and veteran generals who can fight well, and the ten marshals and ten generals will naturally not be absent.
In addition, there is the third category of people, who are the revolutionary martyrs who died on the eve of the victory of the revolution, including Ye Ting, Xu Jishen, Cai Shenxi, Duan Dechang, Zeng Zhongsheng, Zuo Quan, Peng Xuefeng, Luo Binghui, Huang Gongluo, Fang Zhimin and Liu Zhidan, a total of 11 people.
In fact, if we analyze the list of 36 people, we will find that this 36-person modern military expert has a threshold, and the military experts who can enter this list must be generals and above, and it can be said that the minimum threshold of 36 military experts is simply a skyline for many military personnel, and it is impossible to reach.
First of all, no one from the generals and below in this list has been selected! A total of 1614 founding fathers were awarded the rank of major general and above, including 10 marshals, ten generals, 57 generals, and more than 200 lieutenant generals and more than 1000 major generals. In this list of 36 people, only the general and the marshal were shortlisted, and none of the generals were selected, let alone the ranks of lieutenant general and major general.
Secondly, those military personnel who sacrificed themselves before the founding of the country can also find their places in the ranks of marshals and generals. For example, Ye Ting, as one of the commanders of the Nanchang Uprising and the first commander of the New Fourth Army, these two points alone were enough to make him one of the marshals. Xu Jishen and others were also military commanders and political commissars in the early days of the Red Army, and if they participated in the conferment of titles, they were properly ranked generals or above. Zuo Quan, as the deputy chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army, was also the best candidate for the general.
Therefore, the evaluation of these 36 military experts is based on the rank of general as the benchmark, which is reliable.
But one of these 36 people is very special, that is, Comrade Fang Zhimin, and we often think about Comrade Fang Zhimin's qualifications, merits, abilities, if there is no sacrifice, will he be awarded the rank of marshal or the rank of general when authorized?
Comrade Fang Zhimin's life is a great life and a life of dedication. Comrade Fang Zhimin was born in 1899 at the turn of the century, and during his studies he participated in the organization of progressive groups, and in 1924 he found the organization and became an honorable Communist Party member.
After the Nanchang Uprising in 1927, Fang Zhimin organized the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Yiyang and led the Yiheng Uprising, it can be said that at that time, Fang Zhimin was very active, and his ability was fully reflected in this uprising. After the uprising, Fang Zhimin led the rebel army to continue the southern expedition to the north, and soon became famous and established a revolutionary base area in northeast Jiangxi.
In the construction of revolutionary base areas, Fang Zhimin was definitely an expert, and the revolutionary base areas in northeast Jiangxi soon became a model for revolutionary pioneers; Fang Zhimin created a complete set of revolutionary political power, built the party and the army, and established the valuable experience of base areas, which had a strong guiding significance for the construction of revolutionary base areas that were moving forward in the process of exploration at that time.
Fang Zhimin is not only a master of building base areas, he is also one of the founders of the Red Army, and the famous Red Tenth Army in history was mainly created by Comrade Fang Zhimin. When the Red Tenth Army merged with the Red Seventh Army in the north to establish the Red Tenth Army, Fang Zhimin was the number one, and Comrade Su Yu, who ranked first among the ten major generals, was only the chief of staff and one of Fang Zhimin's assistants. If you look at it from this point of view alone, Fang Zhimin awarded the rank of marshal, it is not an exaggeration! In the two hard indicators for awarding the rank of marshal, the creation of the Red Army and the creation of revolutionary base areas, Fang Zhimin's contribution is no less than that of any marshal!
However, as a marshal, he must have extremely strong military qualities, and this is precisely what Fang Zhimin lacks the most. Fang Zhimin's military command ability was not too strong.
The most obvious example is the Chashan Conference, where Fang Zhimin did not make the right choice when discussing whether to divide the troops, causing the Red Army to suffer great losses. At that time, the Red Tenth Army was in a very bad situation, and if it wanted to get out of the predicament, it was necessary to make a choice, whether to continue to fight in large armies or to break into pieces and fight guerrilla warfare.
Some comrades believe that it is necessary to abandon the previous line of thinking that regular troops fought regular wars, carry forward the characteristics of our army's small and quick spirits, and make use of the advantages of a good mass base and a familiar land to turn the troops into guerrilla units and carry out guerrilla warfare in order to tide over the difficulties. In the end, it turned out that this was the only correct solution to the problems faced by the Red Tenth Army at that time, and the only way out for the Red Tenth Army.
However, at such a critical juncture, Fang Zhimin appeared hesitant and lacked confidence, and never made the decision to divide the troops. Fang Zhimin's indecisiveness and hesitation almost buried this revolutionary team, but thanks to Su Yu and Liu Ying, who were the vanguard of the army, they led more than 1,000 people to break through the Kuomintang defense line and return to the Gansu district of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Gansu, leaving the last flame for the Red Tenth Army.
The main force of Fang Zhimin and others of more than 2,000 people was besieged by 20 regiments of the Kuomintang in Huaiyu Mountain, and after a bloody battle, they were still inferior to the enemy who had absolute superiority in strength and weapons. Comrade Fang Zhimin, chairman of the Military and Political Committee and the first commander of the Red Tenth Army, Liu Yuxi, commander of the regiment and commander of the 20th Division, and Hu Tiantao, commander of the 21st Division, were captured and heroically inaugurated on August 6, 1935. It can be seen from this that Fang Zhimin is lacking in commanding operations. Regarding this, Su Yu, as the god of war, did not deny that commanding the war was indeed not Fang Zhimin's strong point.
It should be said that after suffering a big defeat and weak military ability, this is not a minus item for Fang Zhimin to select marshals, but his disqualification, and the experience of leading the team independently but almost destroying the whole army is almost doomed to Comrade Fang Zhimin and the marshal.
Therefore, we believe that if Comrade Fang Zhimin is awarded the rank of general in 1955, it is very likely that he will be awarded the rank of general.
And there is also a point that can prove that Comrade Fang Zhimin did not qualify for the rank of marshal! As we have analyzed earlier, this list of 36 military experts is based on the general as the benchmark, and Fang Zhimin, as a revolutionary martyr, is not the first batch of military experts, but was supplemented in 1994 with Huang Gongluo and Liu Zhidan, ranking 35th in this list of 36 people.
Huang Gongluo, who was on the list with him, and Liu Zhidan, two military figures, had a more common view that they should be awarded the rank of general. In this way, Fang Zhimin's equivalent to the rank of great general is almost ready to come out. And the interesting point is that Ye Ting, who is also a revolutionary martyr, is not only the first batch to be selected for this list, his ranking is also quite interesting, and his name appears after the 10 marshals and before the 10 generals.
So we are almost certain that Ye Ting was regarded as a military expert equivalent to a marshal, and in order not to disrupt the order between the original marshals, Ye Ting was arranged at the end of the marshal. Fang Zhimin did not have this treatment, and even when the list of military experts was first established in 1989, Fang Zhimin was not shortlisted. Therefore, in summary, it is not difficult to conclude that if Fang Zhimin did not sacrifice, when he was awarded the rank in 1955, it is very likely that he was awarded the rank of general, not the marshal that some friends think!
Of course, there are variables in all this, because Fang Zhimin has rich experience in building base areas, coupled with the fact that military struggle is not his strength, Fang Zhimin is likely to leave the army after liberation to participate in leading national construction and give full play to his strong points. This was not uncommon in China at that time, and Deng Zihui and Tan Zhenlin, who were also the founders of the revolutionary base area in western Fujian, both left the army for half a lifetime of military service and threw themselves into the country's economic construction. Leaving the army, it is natural to lose the qualification of authorization, so if Comrade Fang Zhimin does not sacrifice, there is a considerable possibility that he will not be awarded a military rank.
It is just that history has no if, Comrade Fang Zhimin did not see the day of the victory of the revolution after all, but his great achievements, the people will never forget, without Comrade Fang Zhimin's selfless dedication, where would there be the present prosperity! Fang Zhimin martyred for eons.