In 1955, our army held the first large-scale founding ceremony in the history of New China. At the grand conferment ceremony, our army awarded a total of ten founding marshals, ten generals, 55 founding generals, 175 founding lieutenant generals, and 798 founding major generals, and more than 1,000 founding generals who braved the wind and rain, shed blood and sacrificed for the great cause of national independence and liberation, and established a founding general who could sing and weep and make heroic achievements in the annals of history.
However, during the period when the whole army was awarded the title, several senior generals of our party and our army who died in the early days were often mentioned, and some people even thought that if Ye Ting and Zuo Quan did not sacrifice, they were fully qualified and capable of being awarded the rank of founding marshal.
In this issue, Brother Craftsman circled a useful history, deciphering Ye Ting and Zuo Quan, if they had not sacrificed in advance, could they have been awarded the rank of founding marshal when they were first awarded the rank of grand meritorious service in 1955?
If Ye Ting and Zuo Quan had not sacrificed, could they have been awarded to the founding marshal?
General Ye Ting, born in September 1896 in a remote mountain village in Guishan County, Guangdong Province, to an ordinary poor peasant family, in 1912, Ye Ting was only 16 years old when he was admitted to the Guangdong Army Primary School, in 1917, the 21-year-old Ye Ting graduated from the Army Reserve School, and as a student with excellent grades in all subjects, he was guaranteed to enter the Baoding Army Officer School in Hebei Province for further study, and the future was unlimited.
In 1919, Ye Ting formally responded to the call of the revolutionary pioneer Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and after graduation, he went south to join the Guangdong Cantonese Army and began a magnificent revolutionary life, successively serving as a major staff officer, deputy battalion commander and presidential guard battalion commander.
In the revolutionary movement to suppress Chen Jiongming's rebellion in 1922, Ye Ting led his troops to engage the rebels fiercely, repelled the enemy's repeated offensive charges with fewer victories and more, and successfully covered Sun Yat-sen's wife, Ms. Soong Ching Ling, who successfully escaped from danger and made great achievements.
After the first in-depth cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in 1924, he was recommended to study in Moscow, the Soviet Union, systematically studied and deeply studied military theoretical knowledge, and became a classmate with the later founding marshal Nie Rongzhen, and in early December of the same year, Ye Tingrong became a member of the Communist Party of China.
He was tragically killed in a plane crash at the age of 50
In 1925, after Ye Ting's return to China, he set out to create an independent regiment of the 4th Army of the Chinese Revolution with Communist Party members as the backbone, with Ye Ting personally serving as the head of the independent regiment, and threw himself into the Northern Expedition of the Great Revolution.
Therefore, the Independent Regiment of the 4th Army was also named "Ye Ting Independent Regiment", and this unit was also the only revolutionary armed force under the direct control of our Party, which was called the "Northern Expedition Iron Army".
In 1927, after Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei conspired to betray Dr. Sun Yat-sen and plotted a great revolution, in the early morning of August 1, Ye Ting, together with Premier Zhou, Zhu Laozong, and Marshal He Long, led the August 1st Nanchang Uprising in Nanchang, Jiangsu Province, which shocked China and foreign countries, and completely opened the prelude to our party's independent leadership of the democratic revolutionary movement.
Ye Ting personally served as the commander of the 11th Army and the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, and later served as the commander-in-chief of the Red Army in the uprising in Guangzhou, and was one of the main founders of our people's army.
However, after the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising in 1927, Ye Ting was forced to go into exile overseas for more than 10 years for some reason, and lost contact with our party for a long time, but under the coercion and inducement of Chiang Kai-shek, Ye Ting righteously refused to join the Kuomintang reactionaries and always tried to get in touch with our party and our army.
Finally, in 1937, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in an all-round way, Ye Ting supported the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the revolutionary banner of the united front against Japan did not waver, and after returning to China, he actively gathered and reorganized the guerrilla groups in 8 provinces in Jiangnan and established the New Fourth Army.
In October of the same year, he personally went to Yan'an, the holy land of revolution, northern Shaanxi, to complete a meeting with Chairman Mao, saying that he would fully accept the leadership of the Communist Party of China, work hard to resolutely resist Japan, pass Chairman Mao's test, and officially become the commander of the New Fourth Army in early 1938.
Regrettably, however, in 1941, the reactionaries of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Army suddenly set off a second upsurge of opposition to the Communists at home, and surrounded and attacked the troops directly under the headquarters of the New Fourth Army that had been ordered to move north of the Yangtze River.
General Ye Ting was not afraid of danger, and commanded the soldiers of the New Fourth Army to fight bloodily for 8 days and 8 nights, and finally ran out of ammunition and food, almost the entire army was destroyed, and Xiang Ying and other high-level leaders of the New Fourth Army died heroically on the spot. The military commander Ye Ting was captured and transferred to Jiangxi, Guilin, and Chongqing for five years in secret detention. It was not until the beginning of March 1946 that he was successfully released from prison under the painstaking rescue of our party.
In the name of the headquarters organ of the Central Military Commission, Chairman Mao spoke highly of Ye Ting's loyalty to the party and wholeheartedly serving the people; in the course of 20 years of arduous struggle, he never changed his original intention, experienced many tests, wholeheartedly made major contributions to the cause of national independence and liberation, and was one of the important founders of the people's army and the New Fourth Army.
He was martyred at the age of 37
General Zuo Quan, born in 1905 in a poor peasant family in a remote mountain village in Liling, Hunan Province, lost his father at an early age, and suffered from the oppression and cold eyes of the landlord reactionary class in his childhood life.
In 1923, zuo quan, who was only 18 years old, in order to change his fate, threw pen from Rong, walked out of his hometown in Hunan for the first time, traveled thousands of miles south to Guangzhou, and was admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy with excellent results, becoming an outstanding graduate of the first term, and was a classmate of General Chen Geng.
In 1925, under the recommendation of Chen Geng, Zuo Quan gloriously joined the Communist Party, and after graduation, he served as the company commander of the teaching regiment of the student army, participated in the Great Revolutionary Crusade and the Northern Expedition, and made outstanding achievements in the Southern Expedition and the Northern War.
In 1930, after Zuo Quan returned to China, he was ordered to serve as the chief of education of the Red Army Officer School and the commander of the Red 12th Army in the Fujian And Western Fujian Base Area. In 1931, Zuo Quan was officially promoted to the operational staff of the main force of the Red Army.
In just a few months, Zuo Quan sat in the position of chief of staff of the Front Army, and his revolutionary qualifications were very deep, and at the same time, Zuo Quan finally realized his talent and showed his extraordinary military command and organizational skills.
In 1934, after the Red Army was forced to carry out the 25,000-mile Long March transfer plan, Zuo Quan, as the chief of staff of the Red First Army, commanded the vanguard troops to go out in advance, and successively completed such legendary feats as forcibly crossing the Dadu River, capturing the Dashubao Ferry, and forcibly crossing the Luding Bridge, effectively coordinating the safe transfer of the main Red Army, and completely getting rid of the Kuomintang reactionary and recalcitrant army that was in relentless pursuit.
In October 1936, after the victory of the Red First, Red Second, and Red Fourth Fronts in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, in the Battle of Shan castle in mid-November, Zuo Quan cooperated with Marshal Nie Rongzhen to command the Red First Army and the Red 15th Army, and completed the encirclement and total annihilation plan of the main forces of Hu Zongnan, the king of the northwest, and completed the annihilation plan in just one day, completely annihilating the strength of the enemy's two elite regiments.
This created a great feat and example on the eve of the 1936 Double Twelve Xi'an Military Incident. Even Marshal Liu Bocheng did not hesitate to praise Zuo Quan's talent and talent in military command: Comrade Zuo Quan's military combat deployment at the mountain castle was meticulous and thorough.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Zuo Quan served as chief of staff of the former enemy headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, was ordered to cross the Yellow River in the east, marched to the North China Front to fight to the death, ran across Shanxi, Hebei and other places, actively led several conspiracy sweeps to smash the iron wall of the Japanese army and the puppet army, and actively developed and mobilized the anti-Japanese masses to enthusiastically join the army and strengthen the anti-Japanese strength of our army.
He has won several major victories in several battles, such as the Battle of the Hundred Regiments and the Battle of Huangyadong, and has made great achievements, and in the experience of blood and fire, he has gradually grown into a famous anti-Japanese general in China, and is also the most effective assistant under The command of General Peng.
Regrettably, however, in May 1942, in order to retaliate for the great victory of our Eighth Route Army in the "Battle of the Hundred Regiments," the ferocious And ruthless Japanese army suddenly dispatched a large army to sneak up on the former enemy headquarters of our Eighth Route Army.
On May 23, he was unfortunately hit by a shell in Shiziling, Liaoxian County, Shanxi Province, and was martyred at the age of 37, after Zuo Quan's sacrifice, our party held a solemn memorial service for him in Xiangxian County, and renamed The Liao County where Zuo Quan died was named Zuoquan County.
Ye Ting was senior enough, but it was difficult to evaluate the marshal
In 2009, Ye Ting and General Zuo Quan were included in the list of 100 heroes and models who made outstanding and significant contributions to the founding of New China. Then, if the two generals Ye Ting and Zuo Quan had not died in advance, could they have been awarded the rank of founding marshal at the first meritorious service ceremony of the whole army in 1955?
When the state is preparing to evaluate the rank treatment of cadres and to examine the criteria for awarding military ranks, it has formulated quite strict regulations for the ten founding marshals. Although the specific rules are not officially disclosed, according to the common points of the ten marshals summarized by the people, they can be roughly divided into 5 points:
(1) The founding marshal must participate in the creation of revolutionary base areas;
2. During the Red Army period, he must have served as a corps commander or above;
(3) During the period of the agrarian revolution of the Red Army, he must have held the position of commander-in-chief and leading of several major fronts;
4. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he must have held leading positions at or above the army level of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army;
5. After the founding of New China, before the start of the great award of titles, they must be selected into the list of vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission.
Because ye ting and Zuo Quan sacrificed very early, the last point is not considered, so we can only analyze the first 4 points: First, General Ye Ting, as early as the period of the Great Revolution, was already the independent regimental commander of the 4th Army of the Revolutionary Army, and also participated in the Nanchang and Guangzhou uprisings, two of the three major uprisings of our Party.
Later, during the period of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as the commander of the New Fourth Army, made indelible and outstanding contributions to the cause of national independence and liberation, and was one of the founders of our people's army.
Therefore, if Ye Ting had not sacrificed himself in advance, he would have lived to be awarded the rank of founding marshal after the founding of New China. But after the failure of the Guangzhou Uprising in 1927, he fled overseas to quit the Communist Party.
Although he became the commander of the New Fourth Army during the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was no longer a member of the Communist Party at that time, and since the 1941 Anhui Incident, Ye Ting has been imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek for a long time and has lost the opportunity to make meritorious achievements, so Ye Ting's revolutionary qualifications are sufficient, but his military merit is lacking, coupled with the situation of quitting the party in the middle of the way, it is slightly difficult to evaluate the rank of marshal.
But no matter what, General Ye Ting's position in the hearts of many senior generals of our party, government, and army is very high, and he is a revolutionary hero worthy of our eternal admiration.
Zuo Quan's participation in the marshal was very much at a loss
The second was Zuo Quan, who, when he died in 1942, was the former deputy chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army, whose main duty was to plan and cooperate with Peng Laozong in the anti-Japanese war in North China, but Zuo Quan was able to write and be able to use martial arts, a high-caliber student at the Whampoa Military Academy and the Frunze Advanced Military Academy in the Soviet Union, who drank foreign ink and was amazingly talented in military command.
Therefore, he was heavily valued by the headquarters of the party group and did not hesitate to entrust him with heavy responsibilities, but during the War of Resistance, he only became the chief of staff of the headquarters, and was not a front-line general who could directly lead the troops to command the operation, and there were great limitations in the evaluation of military merit.
In addition, although Zuo Quan was born in the Red First Army and the First Army, he did not directly hold such a powerful position as the commander of the regiment during the Red Army period, and his qualifications were somewhat insufficient, and these two reasons would lead to his very bad loss when participating in the marshal evaluation.
Moreover, when the title was awarded in 1955, most of the senior generals who had served as chiefs of staff of the Eighth Route Army were only awarded the rank of founding lieutenant general or general, so Zuo Quan, even if he did not sacrifice, may not be eligible to be rated as a founding marshal. However, because his revolutionary resume is very bright, so if considered comprehensively, Zuo Quan is very likely to be rated as a founding general.