General Li Desheng was an outstanding military expert in our army, joined the army during the Red Army period, made outstanding contributions in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and was awarded the rank of major general in 1955.
In 1916, Li Desheng was born in Lijiawa Village, Chendian Township, Xinxian County, Henan Province, and in 1928, the Red Army liberated his hometown, and at the age of 12, he became the leader of the children's regiment, participating in revolutionary activities such as standing guard, delivering letters, and leading the way. At the age of 14, he officially turned to the Red Army, joined the Chinese Communist Youth League the following year, and joined the Party in 1932.
At that time, Xu Xiangqian and Li Desheng, one was the commander-in-chief of the Front Army and the other was a young red devil, and it was said that the intersection between the two was not very much, but General Li Desheng always said before his death: "The reason why he was able to grow up to become a senior general of our party and our army was that he was deeply influenced by Marshal Xu Qianqian in terms of party spirit cultivation, leading troops to fight, and commanding operations." ”
Where did Xu Xiangqian's influence on him come from? Li Desheng recalled the experience of the two meeting for the first time.
He had just turned into the Red Army, but he had no weapons in his hands. At that time, the Red Army was in great shortage of weapons, and generally gave priority to veterans. One day, Li Desheng had the courage to ask the veteran for a gun, and the veteran told him, "If a Red Army soldier wants a gun, he will get it from the enemy's hand." Don't be in a hurry, wait for the war, after the battle you have a gun. ”
At that time, there were many sporadic battles in the Red Army, and soon after a battle, Li Desheng was assigned a gun and equipped with 10 rounds of ammunition. But because he was so small at the time, the gun he got was already half broken, but it was still usable.
After running with the team for two years, because he was experienced and clever in running errands in the children's regiment and delivering letters, he was selected by the regimental headquarters as a messenger. After he went to the traffic platoon, the platoon commander quickly changed him to a Soviet-style small horse gun, which although it was damaged in battle, was much stronger than the previous half-cut gun.
The first time he saw Xu Xiangqian was at this time.
Xu went forward to inspect their troops, and when he saw that there was something wrong with the gun, he asked, "Whose is this?" ”
Li Desheng replied, "Report to the military commander, it's mine."
Xu Xiangqian then asked him, "How can I aim without a crosshair?" ”
The young Li Desheng said, "Let the gap in the ruler be aimed at the center of the barrel, forming three points into a line, and paying attention to the high and low points." ”
At this time, although he was not very old, he could shoot so skillfully, indicating that he had already honed into a veteran.
As a messenger, he was not only responsible for transmitting combat orders, but also for transmitting victory messages.
Under the command of Xu Xiangqian, the Four Fronts often won battles, and every good news was so encouraging. He also began to ponder the deep meaning of the leader's orders in the transmission of orders again and again. How to pass on the orders of the headquarters in a timely manner, and how to accurately deliver the situation on the front line to the headquarters, is something he ponders every day.
Li Desheng, who was good at learning, studied war in war, and because of the special opportunity of work, he laid the foundation of important military literacy and professional knowledge during this period.
In November 1932, during a battle, a timely and accurate report by Li Desheng turned the tide of the war.
At that time, under the leadership of the commander-in-chief Xu Xiangqian and the political commissar Chen Changhao, the Four Fronts Army moved from the Eyu-Anhui Su District to the Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi. On the way, they encountered the troops that the Kuomintang came to intercept, and the 33rd Regiment of the Vanguard of the Red 11th Division and the first part of the Red 10th Division immediately turned back to cooperate with the main force of the Red 11th Division to defeat it.
On the 27th, when the Red Army was divided into two echelons and marched to the area around the town of Xianglan, the Rear Echelon Red 10th and Red 12th Divisions were cut off by Chiang Kai-shek's army, and quickly formed a situation of encirclement on the east, west, and north, and because the south was the towering Qinling Mountains, this Red Army was about to be completely destroyed.
When Li Desheng saw that the situation on the front line was not right, he quickly reported the important information of the Nationalist army to Xu Xiangqian. After carefully analyzing the situation, Xu Xiangqian immediately organized a counter-encirclement of the enemy army. The Nationalist army was surrounded by the Red Army on the periphery, and the Red Army in the middle soon lost its fighting spirit under the attack of the inside and outside, and the battle ended with a complete victory of the Red Army. In this battle, the Red Army completely annihilated 1 garrison brigade of the Shaanxi Army, captured thousands of people below the brigade commander, and killed and wounded hundreds of officers and men below the commander of the 1st Division of the enemy.
After this battle, Xu Xiangqian, as the commander-in-chief of the Front, ran to Li Desheng's unit and praised him.
It is extremely rare for a commander-in-chief to praise a soldier in person.
Later, when he and Xu Xiangqian met again, Li Desheng was about to be killed, but fortunately Xu Qiangqian was able to survive the disaster.
Zhang Guotao killed his own people very fiercely in Eyuwan, and even Xu Shiyou said that "old Zhang's hands are very dark, and he generally can't fight him." Under the influence of Zhang Guotao, some people who were very "left" at that time often went on a killing spree.
At that time, the troops were stationed in Zhenjiangguan, Songpan County, and Li Desheng was appointed secretary of the party branch. At a branch meeting, after the group leader reported on the situation, Li Desheng said: "Now that the battles are relatively frequent and life is quite arduous, it is necessary to strengthen ideological work and strengthen the party's life. ”
In just two sentences, when the secretary of the political commissar of the Red 10th Division went back to report to Commissar Ye, he said that Li Desheng said that the current troops are not as good as the past. Li Desheng, the name of this Ye political commissar, did not say, but only said that this person later deserted during the War of Resistance. At that time, this person was very highly used by Zhang Guotao, and the warlordism was very heavy, and after hearing the report, he tied up Li Desheng. He wanted to argue a few words, but as soon as he opened his mouth, ou was beaten severely, and then he was going to shoot him.
Li Desheng said: Many comrades-in-arms of the Fourth Front were mistakenly killed in this way.
At this moment, Xu Xiangqian came to the 10th Division and met this scene, and after some questioning, Xu Xiangqian thought that Li Desheng had been wronged and demanded that he be released on the spot. The commander-in-chief let others no longer dare to say anything, and Li Desheng saved his life. If Xu Xiangqian had been a little later, there would have been no meritorious general Li Desheng who destroyed Japan, opposed Chiang Kai-shek, and resisted the United States.
After the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Desheng was assigned to the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division. At first, he was only a platoon commander, and then he served as a company commander, a deputy battalion commander, a battalion commander, and the commander of the 30th Regiment of the Second Military Sub-district of the Taihang Military Region. Participated in famous battles such as the overnight attack on Yangmingbao Airport, Xiangtangpu, and the Battle of the Hundred Regiments.
It was a miracle that a battalion of troops had crushed a japanese brigade and won a 1:3 battle without superior weapons! He also fought more mysterious battles. In May 1942, the Japanese army gathered more than 25,000 people to sweep the northern part of the Taihang base area, targeting the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. Li Desheng led more than 2,000 people to circumvent the enemy and successfully completed the mission, and he was not easy to fight with Li Yunlong in this battle.
At the time of the Liberation War, he had been promoted to brigade commander, and he made Chiang Kai-shek's army cry bitterly in the Central Plains and fought a lot of fairy battles. By 1949, he had been promoted to division commander, participated in the Battle of the Crossing River, and commanded the southwestern bandits. During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he successively served as division commander, deputy commander, first deputy commander and chief of staff, and successively led his troops to participate in the Fifth Campaign, the defensive operations in the area south of Jincheng, and the Battle of Shangganling, successively engaging in 421 large and small battles with the enemy and annihilating more than 19,000 enemy personnel.
The first stage commander of Shangganling was Qin Jiwei (who was Xu Qianqian's guard), and the second stage was Li Desheng. He unified command of the units of the 12th Army and the 15th Army fighting on the front line, and his combat style was mobile and flexible, and he was extremely brave, repelling hundreds of fierce attacks by the enemy and winning the final victory in the Battle of Shangganling.
In 1955, Li Desheng was awarded the rank of major general. According to Xu Xiangqian's son Xu Xiaoyan, after the founding of New China, Li Desheng often visited Xu Xiangqian. It was also at that time that he learned that his father, Xu Xiangqian, who had been the commander-in-chief of the Front Army, would explain in detail whoever asked him a question, even if it was an ordinary soldier, the two old men had told many such stories. Li Desheng always said that whether it is politics, military or life, Xu Xiangqian has had a very great influence on him.
In 1988, Lee was awarded the rank of general.