Now that more than seventy years have passed since the founding of New China, most of the founding heroes and heroes who created this great country and led the Chinese nation into a new era have left us. In those years, they endured the test of bloody rain and wind, the baptism of guns and bullets, and after countless battles and the sacrifices of many comrades-in-arms, they finally looked forward to the victory of the revolution.
Unfortunately, the years did not spare people, and in the fading time, they slowly grew old, from the generals who could fight good battles to the white-haired old man, and finally left this world. But it is gratifying that there are still several founding generals alive today, these centenarians are national treasures, and today's protagonist is one of them, he is General Zhang Lixiong.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the old revolution that came out of the model township</h1>
Zhang Lixiong, who came from a poor family, became a Red Army soldier at the age of 19. He had not gone to school before, but Zhang Lixiong, who was intelligent, good at thinking, and liked to learn, gradually stood out from the recruits, was appreciated by his superiors, and was sent to the Ruijin Red Army University as a key training object.
As soon as he graduated from the University of the Red Army, Zhang Lixiong became the instructor of the machine gun company of the 100 regiment of the Red 34th Division, and when he came to the regimental headquarters to report, the battalion commander took him to familiarize himself with the situation of the machine gun company, and before leaving, he handed him a revolver:
"This pistol is my meet and greet gift to you, and you will have a self-defense equipment in the future." You must remember that every weapon of our Red Army is hard-won and requires soldiers to risk sacrifice to seize from the enemy. Especially this precious revolver. Hopefully, it will protect your life in the future, and you will be able to use it to destroy more enemies and avenge our fallen comrades."
Fast forward two years, and Zhang Lixiong also became the director of the regiment's political office.
One day in early 1934, Zhang Lixiong, who was commanding the operation in the front, received a notice that he was going to Ruijin to attend the political work conference in the Soviet Union.
After the meeting, when the chairman happened to pass by him when he walked outside, Zhang Lixiong saluted the chairman. The chairman chatted with him about the day, and after hearing that he was a native of Shanghangcaixi Township, Fujian Province, the chairman said:
"I am familiar with your hometown, Caixi is a model township, I went there to do research in those years"
Listening to the chairman praise his hometown, Zhang Lixiong was very excited in his heart, and he could not calm down for a long time...
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > unforgettable Long March experience</h1>
After the Start of the Long March, Zhang Lixiong was transferred to the Red Fifth Army Teaching Brigade as a political commissar, and before leaving, he also met with his comrades in arms of the 100 Regiment, and when he had the opportunity to get together in the future, he must get together well. Unexpectedly, in the Battle of the Xiang River, after the 34th Division, which served as the rear guard, completed the task of covering the main force to cross the Xiang River, it fell into the heavy siege of the enemy army, and the entire army was destroyed in the process of breaking through, which caused Zhang Lixiong to lose all his comrades.
In the course of the Long March in the past year, Zhang Lixiong also witnessed the sacrifices of many comrades and comrades-in-arms, especially when crossing the grassland, their unit was the last batch. Originally, there was not much food raised, tens of thousands of troops had passed, and everything that could be eaten within miles of the surrounding area had been eaten.
In order to survive, they collected everything they could eat, gun belts, leather tents, belts... All the leather items were collected together, roasted and boiled for everyone to make cowhide soup to drink, and the nearly ten days of marching finally finished walking through the meadow, when many people were hungry and weak, but when they saw them walking out of the grass, they all shouted happily.
In the end, not long after northern Shaanxi, Zhang Lixiong joined the Western Route Army with the Red Fifth Army, and the journey was relatively smooth at the beginning, but with the excessive loss of soldiers and the difficulty of supplying soldiers and materials, the situation of the Red Army became more and more difficult.
In January 1937, the Fifth Red Army had just established a new political power in Gaotai County, and it was surrounded by the Majia Army, and thousands of people resisted to the death, still unable to get rid of the situation in which the county town fell.
On the day that Ma Jiajun attacked the county seat, Zhang Lixiong was bandaging his wounds because of his left leg injury, he heard the gunshots in the city, he felt bad and wanted to go out to see, just after passing a small alley, he was stopped by a fellow villager.
The fellow told him that the horse bandits had entered the city, and after saying that, they dragged him back to his house and hid him in the wall of his home. More than ten days later, the Ma family army's search was not as strict as it had been at the beginning. He hid Zhang Lixiong in a cart carrying horse dung and rushed to the city gate at night. The soldiers guarding the city gate were smelly and did not search carefully, and Zhang Lixiong escaped from the city.
For the life-saving grace of this fellow, Zhang Lixiong has not forgotten, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, according to the name of the hometown in memory, it was not found until 1984 that this person was called Chai Weiren, who passed away in 1985.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > a good partner for Pi Dingjun</h1>
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Lixiong served as the director of the political department of the Kang University Branch School, and was later ordered to come to the northern Henan region to create the Seventh District of the Taihang Military Region, and his partner was Pi Dingjun.
When the military region was first established, it was full of difficulties, surrounded by Japanese puppet troops who were eyeing the tiger, or reactionary forces that defected to the Japanese, and from time to time looked for opportunities to attack the people's power. The serious natural disaster a year ago caused the local people to live in difficulty, and has not yet recovered.
Both of them were old revolutionaries who had been fighting for more than ten years in the rain of bullets and bullets, and they had never experienced any thrills in those years, and these difficulties seemed to them to be overcome and overcome as long as they wanted.
They first organized troops to launch battles such as Bobi Town, Dawangzhuang, Linxian County, and Tazhishan, and these victories dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the local Japanese puppet army, revived the confidence of the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians, and at the same time captured a large number of weapons, equipment, grain and materials, and expanded their own strength.
Later, in more than a year, the two fought more than 300 battles, smashed the enemy's repeated attacks, and successfully opened up the anti-Japanese base area in northern Henan with a population of hundreds of thousands.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Central Plains Military Region was established, and the two partners no longer worked together, but in the same column, one was the commander of the first column and one brigade, and the other was the political commissar of the third brigade. It is worth mentioning that this brigade is still the main force of the military region, and the troops are fully loaded, all of which are 7,000 people.
As everyone knows, later, Pi Dingjun's first brigade took on the heavy responsibility of covering the withdrawal of the main force in the breakthrough of the Central Plains. As soon as the task was completed, Pi Dingjun led a brigade of officers and men through a 24-day raid to successfully get rid of the enemy's blockade and chase after the enemy, and brought the first brigade with a complete structure back to the liberated areas, creating a military miracle in the history of our army.
However, since then, the two have never had the opportunity to meet, and later reunited again on the battlefield of Huaihai. The two talked about the past and felt a lot.
Judging from the experience of the two men, this is an old revolution that has experienced hundreds of battles and has repeatedly broken through the dangers of life and death, and it is really not easy to usher in the founding of new China.
Although the two were equal in ability and outstanding in battle, they were different when they were awarded the title in 55 years. Pi Dingjun was awarded lieutenant general, but Zhang Lixiong, who was a regular soldier, was only awarded the rank of colonel, and many comrades-in-arms felt unfair to him when they saw the situation. But Zhang Lixiong did not mind this, in his opinion, as a revolutionary soldier to live to this day is not bad, compared to the comrades who died in the past, they do not know how lucky, there is no need to worry too much.
However, in 1961, Zhang Lixiong was promoted to major general, and he became a homable founding general.
The first half of the old general's life can really be said to have fought out from the pile of dead people, fortunately he survived many times from danger, endured hardships, tested for a long time, and finally became a founding general with great merit, in fact, no matter which founding hero has the experience of General Zhang. Now that the old general is 108 years old, I hope that he will always be healthy and healthy, and enjoy a happy and peaceful old age.