After the founding of New China, many generals who made great contributions during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression still shine in their new posts. Marshal Nie Rongzhen, one of the ten marshals of the Republic, still thought about the development of the motherland until his death, and his last words were touching.
Nie Rongzhen
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > the "blessing marshal" of youth</h1>
In December 1899, Nie Rongzhen was born in a family in Wutan Town, Jiangjin District, Chongqing.
At the age of seven, Nie Rongzhen was sent to a private school for enlightenment, and in 1913, at the age of fourteen, Nie Rongzhen left his hometown to attend the Chen Food Higher Primary School in Yongchuan County, 15 kilometers away, where he received a new-style education, where he was exposed to many subjects that were different from traditional Chinese education, such as physics, mathematics, and so on.
This experience planted a small seed in Nie Rongzhen's heart, he glimpsed the charm of science and technology for the first time, had a yearning for advanced science and technology, and also laid the groundwork for his later vigorous support for China's national defense science and technology undertakings.
In the summer of 1917, when Nie Rongzhen was admitted to Jiangjin Middle School, Nie Rongzhen's essay entitled "Commenting on Internal and External Troubles" was unanimously praised by teachers, who praised him for "telling the root cause of China's weak people's poverty and cutting to the point." ”
As the teacher said, Nie Rongzhen's sharp view of China's current shortcomings also determines that he will not talk about it on paper, and his heart is full of patriotic blood. In order to save the country from danger, at the age of twenty, Nie Rongzhen resolutely embarked on the road to study in France. In France, he met a close friend who had fought alongside him for seventy-two years, deng xiaoping.
In 1922, together with Deng Xiaoping, he joined the "Young Communist Party of China in Europe" initiated by Premier Zhou and others, and under the leadership of Premier Zhou, the two worked closely together to propagate Marxism among the ranks of work-study students and Chinese workers, and won over a large number of young people with lofty ideals to join the socialist contingent.
It is precisely because of this friendship of fighting together for ideals in a foreign country that Nie Rongzhen and Deng Xiaoping, in addition to their hometown relations, have further risen to a noble revolutionary comradeship. The friendship forged in France lasted until the difficult years of the War of Resistance.
Nie Rongzhen had to retire from the front line to recuperate, and during the three-year recuperation period, Deng Xiaoping visited many times and had a long talk with his old friend in the hospital to discuss major state affairs. After Nie Rongzhen's recovery in 1956, Deng Xiaoping approached Nie Rongzhen on behalf of the Party Central Committee to talk to him and solicit his opinions on the work arrangements after that.
Nie Rongzhen once wrote about this conversation in his memoirs, and Deng Xiaoping said to him:
The central government has conceived three plans for your work arrangement, and you can choose one.
First, the Central Committee has decided to transfer Comrade Chen Yi to specialize in diplomacy, and the scientific and technological work he is in charge of is up to you;
Second, Comrade Peng Zhen is too busy with his work, and the central authorities want him to be relieved of his tenure as mayor of Beijing Municipality.
The third is to be in charge of the national defense industry and the equipment of the troops.
Saving the country through science and technology and industry was Nie Rongzhen's long-cherished wish in his youth, and he thought about it for a long time, looked up and firmly said to Deng Xiaoping:
"I don't want to be mayor. I am very interested in scientific and technological work. Our country is too backward and there is an urgent need to carry out work in this regard. The defense industry is closely related to science and technology, and if possible, it will be possible to take care of it in the future. However, the central government is also invited to decide. ”
After that, Nie Rongzhen became vice premier of the State Council, in charge of scientific and technological work. Until the time of Marshal Nie Rongzhen's death, he still remembered China's national defense science and technology undertakings and the great cause of reform and opening up and the reunification of the two sides of the taiwan strait of the motherland.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="20" > Nie Rongzhen at the time of his death</h1>
Since March 1992, Marshal Nie Rongzhen's illness has been worsening, and a month later, when he was dying, Nie Rongzhen felt that he was probably not long gone, but he still had a thousand words to say about his beloved motherland.
He called the secretary to his side, and Nie Shuai lay on the hospital bed, trembling and opening his eyes to them, saying, "Even if the doctor wants to save (me), it is difficult to rescue him, so while his mind is still awake, say a few words, it is called a parting word." ”
He said:
"(I) also want to hear more about the exciting news of the motherland's scientific and technological cause... I hope that the scientific and technological workers throughout the country will bear in mind the heavy responsibility of rejuvenating the country through science and technology, strive to climb the lofty mountains and mountains of the world's high technology, win glory for the country, and make more contributions to the progress of mankind. ”
This is not only Nie Rongzhen's ardent expectation for the descendants of the motherland at the time of his death, but also the lofty goal he has practiced for half a lifetime. In the first half of his life, Nie Rongzhen devoted himself to the revolutionary cause and was born and died for the establishment of a new China; in the second half of his life, he devoted himself to the cause of science and technology and devoted himself to national defense construction.
In the 1950s, China, which had just risen from the ashes of war, was like a baby who had just learned to walk, surrounded by dangers, and had faced nuclear threats and nuclear blackmail from Western countries on many occasions.
In order to safeguard the security of the motherland and the people, the great Chairman Mao resolutely made the decision to develop "two bombs and one satellite," and Nie Rongzhen was the specific organizer of this decision; from missiles to the successful launch of artificial earth satellites, Nie Rongzhen risked his life four times to command the scene.
However, at that time, New China had just been founded, and there was a shortage of intellectuals, let alone those with knowledge of missile development.
Nie Rongzhen's 12-year scientific plan concluded that the "two bombs and one satellite" project also requires nearly 180,000 researchers above the university level, including 50,000 people engaged in new technology research, but the number of science and engineering college students who graduated that year is only about 30,000 in the country.
At Nie Rongzhen's insistence, the State Council finally approved the Missile Research Institute to accept dozens of experts, including Ren Xinmin and Zhuang Fenggan, and more than a hundred college graduates.
However, these talents are far from enough to support China's missile research and development cause, and the help promised to us by the Soviet Union has been delayed again and again, often using various pretexts to prevaricate, and all kinds of signs indicate that Sino-Soviet relations are about to undergo major changes. Nie Rongzhen reported to the Central Committee:
Nie Rongzhen wanted to resist the pressure and grit his teeth forward, but since 1959, China has entered a period of economic difficulties that lasted for three years, and the Soviet Union has fallen into a well, unilaterally withdrawing all experts in China and interrupting all agreements and contracts signed with China.
The construction troops of the test base also had to be evacuated due to food supply difficulties, and the scientific researchers were evacuated one after another. After receiving Nie Rongzhen's report, Premier Zhou deployed major units of the army at the meeting of the Central Military Commission to raise grain and urgently transport it to the test base in the northwest.
However, some people have pointed out that now the stomach is not full, and the "two bombs" project is so expensive and burning, affecting the development of the national economy, which is very unfavorable to the motherland and should be "dismounted."
In the face of this situation, Nie Rongzhen did not hesitate in the slightest, and repeatedly went to the Beidaihe National Defense Industry Committee to speak, pointing out that Chen was severe and that the sentences came from the bottom of his heart, saying: Now that the "two bombs" already have a certain foundation, it will be very difficult to continue if the contingent disperses. Our work cannot be disconnected. The strength of national defense science and technology is of vital importance to the motherland.
It is precisely because of Nie Rongzhen's persistence and the support of Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou that the "two bombs and one satellite" project has been preserved in several storms.
Nie Rongzhen's emphasis on national defense science and technology is also reflected in his special concern for and care for national defense science and technology talents. He put forward a constructive thesis very early on, saying that national defense science and technology talents are a special group with relatively high professional skills and scientific research capabilities, and the particularity of the tasks they shoulder and the regularity of scientific research work itself determine the particularity of the management of national defense science and technology talents.
Nie Rongzhen stressed many times in his talks with the leaders of national defense and various research institutes that although many scientific research personnel are also soldiers, they are not ordinary soldiers, and there should be fewer administrative orders, respect them, care for them, and rely on personality charm to carry out the management of scientific and technological talents.
After Nie Rongzhen knew about this matter, he immediately informed the leaders of the five courts that in the future, Qian Xuesen only needed to be responsible for technical work, and administrative affairs should not bother him, so that such a big talent could not be opened in trivial matters, which was a huge waste of talent.
Therefore, Nie Rongzhen then appointed Liu Yalou, commander of the Air Force, to concurrently serve as the president of the Fifth Academy, and Qian Xuesen retired to the position of vice president and was at ease to engage in scientific research.
Although Nie Rongzhen is not a scientist, he is very able to consider problems from the perspective of these high-end intellectuals and give them meticulous encouragement and help.
He knows very well that scientific research work is not to cook a meal, cook a dish, and it is not the assembly line of the factory, it is impossible to be perfect, so it is necessary to allow scientific researchers to fail.
In 1962, when Ren Xinmin was in charge of improving the engine of the P-2 imitation of the Soviet Short-range Surface-to-Ground Missile, he experimented many times and failed, and some people with malicious intentions seized on this matter and raised him to a political height, saying that Ren Xinmin had a political problem and that his experiment failure was intentional.
Ren Xinmin simply said that he was in pain, and he asked to be transferred to work at the most difficult time of the Fifth Yuan, preferring to sleep in a simple camp bed rather than go to the guest house for scientific research, but he was slandered like this. His hard work Nie Rongzhen was all in his eyes.
At that time, he could not get rid of something, so he asked Wang Yi and Qian Xuesen of the Fifth Yuan to tell Ren Xinmin: "Whenever it is the most difficult time, success will be fast." He also specially instructed the leadership of the five courts not to put too much pressure on Ren Xinmin, let alone to hold him responsible for this matter.
Many years later, ren Xinmin recalled the experience: "Nie Shuai stood tall and saw far. I listened to his words, my heart was warm, and tears were about to flow out. Nie Shuai's words are a great encouragement to us. Under his leadership, our scientific researchers stubbornly tackled key problems, and later spent a relatively short period of time to develop and launch the first domestically produced medium- and short-range missile. ”
Nie Rongzhen's love and concern for the cause of national defense science and technology is lifelong; in 1982, even though he was no longer responsible for China's scientific and technological undertakings, he was always worried; in October of that year, after reading the report on the failure of the first launch of China's submarine-to-ground missiles, Nie Rongzhen also asked his secretary to call the leaders of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense:
"Tell them that both the test has the two possibilities of success and failure, just like the Chinese women's volleyball team competes for the championship, winning is not arrogant or defeated."
Nie Rongzhen was reluctant to the motherland, and what he could not give up was not only the cause of national defense science and technology, but also the cause of reform and opening up presided over by his old friend Deng Xiaoping. In his last words, he said: "I very much agree with Comrade Deng Xiaoping's important remarks when he inspected the South. I would like to see more of the gratifying situation in which the socialist cause for which I have struggled for decades is flourishing. ”
Nie Rongzhen and Deng Xiaoping had a youthful friendship, fought side by side to the founding of New China, and each of them shined for the construction of the motherland in their new posts, although they could not get together and chat as often as before, but they all remembered their old friends.
After Nie Rongzhen retired, although he was seriously ill, he insisted on letting his secretary read documents and newspapers to him every day. One day, the secretary read him a copy of Deng Xiaoping's speech when he inspected the south, and the secretary read: "Deng Xiaoping said: Practice has proved that our policy decision to engage in the special zone is correct, and our burden of reform and opening up should be a little bigger, and our steps should be faster. ”
After Nie Rongzhen heard this, he was very emotional, and he said to his secretary:
"Comrade Xiaoping is amazing! This speech is of great and far-reaching significance to China's socialist modernization drive. The reason why China has been able to speed up the pace of reform and opening up and concentrate its efforts on improving its economy is that it has adhered to Comrade Xiaoping's thinking. If we continue to carry out in accordance with Comrade Xiaoping's thinking, China's reform and opening up will have greater development. ”
Later, whenever someone came to see Nie Rongzhen and talk about China's current work, Nie Rongzhen would praise Deng Xiaoping well. It can be said that Nie Rongzhen and Deng Xiaoping were not only revolutionary comrades-in-arms, but also confidants who cherished each other.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="57" marshal Nie Rongzhen died ></h1>
At 22:43 on May 14, 1992, Marshal Nie Rongzhen passed away. Nie Shuai said in his last words that he still had many words to the motherland that he had not spoken to the motherland, and the motherland and the people also had a thousand words to say to Nie Shuai.
In 1958, he wrote a report to the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China's first university of science and technology was born, the spark of China's national defense science and technology undertakings was personally preserved by him, and the vigorous future of China's national defense science and technology undertakings thrived under his escort.
The people will always remember his contribution to the motherland and will always remember Marshal Nie Rongzhen. In the cemetery of the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, marshal Nie Rongzhen's inscription reads: "Comrade Nie Rongzhen will always be with us." "His spirit is always with the motherland and the people.