There are 57 founding generals, of whom 55 were awarded in September 1955 and one in 1956 and one in 1957. So far, there are 57 founding generals, namely: Xiao Ke, Li Da, Zhang Zongxun, Li Kenong, Wang Zhen, Xu Shiyou, Deng Hua, Peng Shaohui, Zhang Aiping, Yang Chengwu, Han Xianchu, Li Tao, Fu Qiutao, Wang Ping, Lü Zhengcao, Fu Zhong, Xiao Hua, Gan Siqi, Song Renqian, Lai Chuanzhu, Hong Xuezhi, Zhou Shidi, Guo Tianmin, Zhou Chunquan, Yang Zhicheng, Chen Zaidao, Chen Qihan, Wang Hongkun, Su Zhenhua, Liu Yalou, Liu Zhen, Chen Xilian, Wei Guoqing, Chen Shiyu, Chen Bojun, Zhong Zhiguang, Song Shilun, Zhu Liangcai, Dong Qiwu, and Tang Liang , Ye Fei, Yang Dezhi, Wang Xinting, Huang Yongsheng, Li Tianyou, Chen Mingren, He Bingyan, Yan Hongyan, Xie Fuzhi, Tao Zhiyue, WuLanfu, Zhou Huan, Yang Yong, Li Zhimin, Zhao Erlu, Wang Jian'an, Li Jukui.
General Shaw
Among the 57 founding generals, the oldest was Tao Zhiyue, born in 1892, at the age of 63, as old as Marshal Liu Bocheng and General Zhang Yunyi; the youngest was Xiao Hua, born in 1916, at the age of 39. The difference between the oldest founding general and the youngest founding general is 24 years, a full twenty years.
Tao Zhiyue and Dong Qiwu
Of the 57 founding generals, the first to die was He Bingyan, who died of illness in 1960 at the age of 47. The latest to die was Lu Zhengcao, who died in 2009 at the age of 105. The difference between the earliest dead general and the last general to die is exactly 49 years, nearly half a century. General Lü died at the age of 105 and General He died at the age of 47, a difference of 58 years, which is exactly equal to the death of General Yan Hongyan at the age of 58. That is to say, the combined years of General He Bingyan and General Yan Hongyan are exactly equal to the death of General Lü Zhengcao.
General He Bingyan, then commander of the Chengdu Military Region
How old are all 57 founding generals? From largest to smallest: Lü Zhengcao: 105 years old, Xiao Ke: 101 years old, Tao Zhiyue: 96 years old, Song Renqian: 96 years old, Zhang Aiping: 93 years old, Hong Xuezhi: 93 years old, Li Jukui: 91 years old, Wang Ping: 91 years old, Yang Chengwu: 90 years old, Zhang Zongxun: 90 years old, Dong Qiwu: 90 years old, Zhu Liangcai: 89 years old, Fu Zhong: 89 years old, Li Da: 88 years old, Chen Shiyu: 86 years old, Ye Fei: 85 years old, Chen Zaidao: 84 years old, Chen Qihan: 84 years old, Wang Hongkun: 84 years old, Zhou Huan: 84 years old, Song Shilun: 84 years old, Chen Xilian: 84 years old, Wang Zhen: 83 years old, Yang Dezhi: 83 years old, Wu Lanfu: 82 years old, Li Zhimin: 82 years old, Zhong Zhiguang: 82 years old, Xu Shiyou: 80 years old, Zhou Chunquan: 80 years old, Zhou Shidi: 79 years old, Liu Zhen: 77 years old, Wei Guoqing: 76 years old, Wang Xinting: 76 years old, Tang Liang: 76 years old, Fu Qiutao: 74 years old, Wang Jian'an: 73 years old, Huang Yongsheng: 73 years old, Han Xianchu: 73 years old, Peng Shaohui: 72 years old, Chen Mingren: 71 years old, Yang Yong: 71 years old, Deng Hua: 70 years old, Xiao Hua: 69 years old, Su Zhenhua: 67 years old, Li Tao: 65 years old, Guo Tianmin: 65 years old, Yang Zhicheng: 64 years old, Chen Bojun: 64 years old, Li Kenong: 63 years old, Xie Fuzhi 63 years old, Zhao Erlu: 62 years old, Gan Siqi: 61 years old, Yan Hongyan: 58 years old, Li Tianyou: 56 years old, Lai Chuanzhu: 55 years old, Liu Yalou: 55 years old, He Bingyan: 47 years old.
Xiao Ke and Gan Siqi
As can be seen above, there are 2 people over 100 years old, 8 people over 90 years old (inclusive), 18 people over 80 years old (inclusive), 13 people over 70 years old (inclusive), 11 people over 60 years old, 4 people over 50 years old, and only 1 person over 40 years old.
Peng Shaohui
Interestingly, only 8 of the 57 founding fathers were northerners, and the other 49 were all southerners. Strictly speaking, 3 of the 8 northern generals also have their hometowns in the south of the Huai River, and if they are divided according to the geographical dividing line between the north and south of China, the Qinling Mountains - the Huai River, these three generals also belong to the south.
General Xu Shiyou and his wife Tian Pu
The 57 generals were distributed in 14 provinces, of which 19 were from Hunan, namely: Xiao Ke, Wang Zhen, Deng Hua, Peng Shaohui, Li Tao, Fu Qiutao, Gan Siqi, Song Renqian, Su Zhenhua, Zhong Zhiguang, Song Shilun, Zhu Liangcai, Tang Liang, Tao Zhiyue, Yang Yong, Li Zhimin, Li Jukui, Chen Mingren, and Yang Dezhi.
Admiral Song Shilun
There are 14 hubei nationals, namely: Han Xianchu, Wang Ping, Guo Tianmin, Zhou Chunquan, Chen Zaidao, Wang Hongkun, Liu Zhen, Chen Xilian, Chen Shiyu, Wang Xinting, Huang Yongsheng, He Bingyan, Xie Fuzhi, and Wang Jian'an.
General Zhang Aiping
There are 3 people from Jiangxi, namely: Xiao Hua, Lai Chuanzhu and Chen Qihan.
There are 3 people from Shaanxi, namely: Li Da, Zhang Zongxun, and Yan Hongyan.
There are 3 Fujian nationals, namely: Liu Yalou, Yang Zhicheng and Ye Fei.
The 57 founding generals of New China
There are 3 people from Sichuan, namely: Zhang Aiping, Fu Zhong, and Chen Bojun.
Anhui, Shanxi, Liaoning and Guangxi all have 2 people, namely: Li Kenong and Hong Xuezhi (Anhui), Dong Qiwu and Zhao Erlu (Shanxi), Lü Zhengcao and Zhou Huan (Liaoning), Li Tianyou and Wei Guoqing (Guangxi).
Deng Hua, Xie Fang, Wang Zhen and Li Kenong
There are four remaining provinces, each with only one person, as follows: Xu Shiyou (Henan), Yang Zhicheng (Guizhou), Zhou Shidi (Guangdong), and Ulanfu (Inner Mongolia).
Second from left: Xiao Ke, third from left: Wang Zhen
Among the 57 founding generals, Li and Chen have the most, 6 respectively. The second is the surname Wang, which has 5 people. There are 4 people with the surname Yang and 3 people with the surname Zhou. Zhang, Liu, Fu, Xiao and Song are all 2 people. At this point, 34 were accounted for, and the remaining 23 were all with a single surname, they were: Ulanfu, Wei Guoqing, Lü Zhengcao, Zhao Erlu, Dong Qiwu, Yan Hongyan, Deng Hua, Peng Shaohui, Han Xianchu, Ye Fei, Tao Zhiyue, Zhu Liangcai, Gan Siqi, Guo Tianmin, Xu Shiyou, Hong Xuezhi, Tang Liang, Su Zhenhua, Zhong Zhiguang, Lai Chuanzhu, and He Bingyan.
General Xiao Ke and General Li Da inspected the troops at the south entrance of Beijing
Curiously, there are many provinces that do not have a founding general, such as Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Hainan, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Tibet, Ningxia, Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Tianjin, etc., not even a single general. To say that there were no founding generals in several western provinces is to say that, after all, in remote places, the seeds of revolution did not spread there. However, it is really puzzling that the four major provinces of Hebei, Shandong, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang have not produced a single founding general.
Admiral Xiao Hua
Hunan is really powerful, followed by Hubei, and then the old revolutionary areas of Jiangxi, Sichuan, Fujian and Shaanxi. It seems that the two sentences "no Xiang will not become an army" and "no river will not become an army" are really not in vain. With today's vision and thinking, the two lakes and Sichuan are inland areas, and the economy is far less developed than Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong, but most of the founding generals are from the two lakes, Sichuan, Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi and other provinces, followed by Fujian. It can be seen from this that in the revolutionary era, the masses in these provinces were still prophetic and had a revolutionary spirit.
Three one-armed generals
Another example is the 10 marshals, except for Xu Xiangqian, who is a northerner, the other 9 marshals are all southerners. The 10 founding generals, all of whom were southerners. At this point, I finally understood that Hongwu's 30 years of scientific examinations, the 52 recruits admitted, all of whom were southerners, were so angry that Zhu Yuanzhang beheaded the chief examiner and ordered him to retake the examination.
Boss He, President Zhu and Chairman Mao
Southern people are brilliant and spiritual, and they have produced talents since ancient times. Northerners are simple and simple, bold and atmospheric, rugged and heroic, and southerners are skillful, intelligent and studious, and have business acumen. In short, people from the North and the South have their own strengths.