Between 1991 and 1992, three high-scoring classic films were released in China, the "Armageddon" trilogy. The series truly restores the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin in the Liberation War. Whether it is the magnificent battle scenes, the vast PLA contingent, or the highly restored and extraordinarily vivid historical figures, all of them are shocking.
Among them, Marshal Lin Biao, played by Teacher Ma Shaoxin, is particularly deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and his sentence "I don't want casualty numbers, I only want Tashan" is regarded as a generation of classic lines. Since Zhu Yu was in front, the other versions of Lin Biao have not been able to make any splashes since then.
However, did you know that during the filming of Armageddon, someone once proposed to remove the character of Lin Biao, or to demonize him as a pure villain. What's going on here?
Lin Biao
Chairman Mao climbed alone on the ravine-covered loess mountains, stood under the orange sky, and looked into the distance. Suddenly, with a muffled roar, the frozen ice of the Yellow River instantly fell apart, and the thick ice cubes tilted down with the billowing Yellow River water and flowed eastward.
This magnificent scene is the beginning of the Battle of Liaoshen in The Great Armageddon. In order to use the natural scene of the Yellow River thawing, ice-breaking, and surging to fully show the unstoppable pace of the Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army, and the rebirth of China. The film crew waited by the Yellow River for two years before they were able to capture and capture the 3-minute scene.
And this kind of investment regardless of time, money, and labor costs runs through almost the entire film, only because the story behind the film is too important and too exciting.
Now let's pull back the clock to 1948. Xibaipo, Pingshan County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, a small mountain village located in the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains and on the north bank of the Tuotuo River, is a famous revolutionary shrine in China. From July 2, 1947, when the Central Working Committee was formally established here to March 23, 1949, the Party Central Committee completed the great historical turning point of the Chinese revolution in Xibaipo in 621 days. Among them, the most crucial and brilliant is the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin.
On September 12, 1948, Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan led the Northeast People's Liberation Army to launch a fierce attack on the Kuomintang troops on a front of more than 300 kilometers from Yixian County, Liaoning Province to Luan County, Hebei Province. After a month of fierce fighting, our army successfully conquered Jinzhou, the "gateway to the northeast", annihilated more than 100,000 defenders, and firmly closed the gate of the northeast, and also completely cut off the lifeline of the nationalist army to withdraw to Guannei and transport materials. Forcing the Nationalist 60th Army, which was trapped in Changchun, more than 26,000 people from the whole army revolted and surrendered.
Immediately afterward, our army lured the enemy deeper with one move and successfully besieged the 100,000 troops sent by Chiang Kai-shek to retake Jinzhou and besieged the western Liaoning region. And the use of large-scale encirclement and annihilation, the entire army was destroyed.
In the following 10 days, the Northeast Field Army took advantage of the victory and pursuit all the way, and successively liberated important strongholds such as Fushun, Anshan, Shenyang, and Huludao. Finally, on November 9, the entire territory of northeast China was successfully liberated.
At the beginning of the Liaoshen Campaign, General Su Yu, then acting commander of the East China Field Army, based on our party's guiding ideology of "annihilating the enemy north of the Yangtze River," put forward the strategy of taking the lead in annihilating Huang Baitao's corps and liberating Xuzhou as the core.
The Battle of Huaihai, fought from November 6 to January 10 of the following year, was the largest of the three major battles and the most severely sacrificed by our side, as well as the battle with the largest number of annihilated enemies and the most important strategic significance. Although our army was at a clear disadvantage in terms of strength and weapons and equipment in this battle, with its brave and fearless will and exquisite tactics, our army still won a comprehensive victory.
The most shocking, tearful purpose. During the Battle of Huaihai, the four provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Anhui, and Henan mobilized 5.43 million militiamen on their own, shouting the slogan of "ruining their homes, supporting the front, enduring all hardships, overcoming all hardships, and winning the battle", and advancing and retreating together with the SOLDIERs of the People's Liberation Army.
They raised 880,000 vehicles, 770,000 heads of livestock, and transported more than 400 million catties of grain all the way to the front, fully ensuring the food and clothing supplies of the soldiers. They worked day and night, changing shifts, and repaired 220-mile railways, 68 iron bridges, and roads of unknown length in a very short period of time, creating a solid and powerful foundation for the people's liberation army to march forward.
It is worth mentioning that when meeting with Soviet Ambassador to China Eugene in February 1951, Marshal Chen Yi proudly said: "Five million former migrant workers are full of people transporting grain, ammunition and carrying the wounded, and this is our real advantage." The victory in the Battle of Huaihai was pushed out by the masses of the people with a cart. ”
In the last battle of Pingjin, the nationalist army, which was already in full decline and panic, became even more vulnerable. Lin Biao, Luo Rongheng, and Nie Rongzhen led a million-strong army, and with only 39,000 casualties, they annihilated all 520,000 of the enemy's 13 armies.
In the three major battles that lasted for 142 days, the Communist Party, the People's Liberation Army, and the people of the whole country worked together to annihilate more than 1.54 million Nationalist troops in one fell swoop. With the liberation of Peiping and a large area of northern China, the communist red basically burned every inch of land north of the Yangtze River. The remaining remnants of the Kuomintang will never have a chance to turn around.
"The Strategic Decisive Battle that Determines China's Future and Destiny", "A Brilliant Milestone in the History of the Chinese People's Liberation War", and "The Consolidated Cornerstone of the People's Liberation War's Victory in the Whole Country" are the brilliant titles of the three major battles.
It is also because of the unique and pivotal position of the three major battles, as early as the beginning of the founding of New China, the Bayi Film Studio wanted to put the three major battles on the big screen. However, due to the limitations of the economy, equipment and other conditions, as well as the influence of the social environment such as the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, it has not been able to achieve its wishes. It was not until January 1986, the 37th anniversary of the victory of the three major battles, that the leaders of the Party Central Committee personally ordered the launch of the three major campaign film projects.
Of course, the project went around and was ultimately put in charge of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Bayi Film Studio. The director's Da Liang was personally arranged by the central government to Li Jun. Li Jun, a third-generation Chinese film director, joined the Communist Party at the age of 16 and entered the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, Li Jun held important cultural positions such as cultural instructor and propaganda team instructor for a long time, and at the age of 25, he was awarded the first class meritorious service with the opera of the same name by the combat hero Li Hongxi. Li Jun, who transformed into a director after the founding of the People's Republic of China, has directed a number of classic red films, such as "Shining Red Star" and "The Great Wall of the South China Sea" and so on.
Obviously, as a witness and soldier of the Liberation War, as well as an excellent director with outstanding works and rich experience, Li Jun is undoubtedly the best person in charge of this important project.
Nowadays, many movies like to use gimmicks such as "how many hundreds of millions of dollars", "preparation for several years", "luxury cast" and so on, but 99% of them are indiscriminate. Most of the funds have entered the pockets of several traffic stars, and the so-called n years can be explained by simple procrastination.
Of course, the "Armageddon" trilogy is different from those pseudo-blockbusters that don't know what to do, which is a real blockbuster. If nothing else, just look at the long list of thanks at the end of the film: the General Staff Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the General Political Department, the General Logistics Department, the Cultural Relics Bureau, the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, the Central Archives, and so on. You can fully feel that the creation of "Armageddon" is really the grandeur of the national power.
Director Li Jun carefully selected three chief directors, Yang Guangyuan, Cai Jiwei and Wei Lian, who were responsible for the directing and shooting of "Liaoshen Campaign", "Huaihai Campaign" and "Pingjin Campaign" respectively, and they grasped the overall situation.
Subsequently, the main creative team went to the Central Documentation Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, the Central Archives, the Museum of the Chinese Revolution and other places to consult all the literature on the three major battles. Marshal Nie Rongzhen, one of the commanders of the three major campaigns, was invited to personally serve as an adviser and give a detailed account of the situation of the operation at that time. In addition, there are many veterans who participated in the three major battles, all of which tell the details of the war in their memories. According to these materials, the main creative team worked intensively, turned over and revised the script 8 times, and played the excellence to the extreme.
Marshal Nie Rongzhen
In the specific shooting, the investment in "Armageddon" is even more unprecedented in the history of Chinese film: 100 million yuan investment, 5 years of shooting, 130,000 cadres and fighters participated, more than 150,000 people were dispatched, in addition to 160 tons of tn explosives, tens of thousands of sets of cotton uniforms of the People's Liberation Army and Kuomintang troops, more than 1.7 million shells and so on.
To what extent is the actual shooting effect domineering? In addition to the two-year wait for the Yellow River to break the ice, the "Armageddon" trilogy also gave birth to two famous scenes that are often borrowed by other war films.
One is the Huang Wei Legion March in the Battle of Huaihai. It is said that the military department directly dispatched an entire group army, and tens of thousands of soldiers actually restored the marching scene during the war, and the team was like a giant dragon, and it was impossible to see the head at a glance.
The other is the scene in the "Battle of Pingjin" where our army broke through the city of Tianjin. It was the cold winter of January 1949, and the Northeast Field Army fought for 29 hours and finally liberated the city of Tianjin. In order to perfectly restore the scene that made the whole army surging with blood, the film crew closed half of the city of Tianjin, mobilized 20,000 armed police soldiers, and showed them running, cheering and waving flags on the Jintang Bridge and on the ice of the Haihe River in the way of a panoramic view.
In the selection of actors, the crew has also made great efforts. At the same time, in the portrayal of actors, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Chairman Mao, whose shirt was wrongly buttoned, Liu Yalou, whose shoes were polished and polished, Deng Xiaoping, who liked to take a cold shower, and so on. Through the description of the lives of the leaders, the director shows a more real and humane side of them, which is very touching.
Script creation, investment, actor selection, shooting of large scenes and small scenes, the "Armageddon" trilogy has truly achieved the strength of the whole country and the heart to the extreme. Correspondingly, although the film consumes a huge amount of manpower, material resources, financial resources and energy, it is also worth the money, not only the quality of the film is high, but the shooting progress is also very smooth. The only point of contention is the question of Lin Biao.
Lin Biao stills
As we all know, when "Armageddon" was filmed, Lin Biao had already been expelled from the party for some serious problems. Even as early as September 13, 1971, while on the run, he died in a plane crash. In short, it is a very sensitive and controversial figure.
Because of this, some people believe that Lin Biao should not appear in this kind of huge war film personally led by the central government and of great significance. Either erase Lin Biao directly from Armageddon and not write about him, or make him a completely negative character.
At that time, Yang Shangkun, then vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, immediately made an important statement after hearing this proposal. He responded sonorously and forcefully: "There must be Lin Biao in the play, if Lin Biao is not written, then who fought the battle in the northeast battlefield that year?" Moreover, lin biao must be realistic in writing, and he cannot write this person as bad from beginning to end because he is not good later. ”
Yang Shangkun
Yang Shangkun's response was undoubtedly quite positive and domineering. People and things in this world, there is no pure white, or pure black, everyone is "colorful gray". Looking at the thousands of years of history, there is an obvious right and wrong controversy about how big and how big people are. For example, qin shi huang, who unified the Central Plains and realized "the same track of the car and the same text", but also committed the earth-shattering crimes of burning books and pit Confucianism. Another example is the "918 Incident" in which the three eastern provinces were given to the Japanese devils; later, Zhang Xueliang, who launched the Xi'an Incident and promoted the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists to resist Japan. And Lin Biao is also one of them.
As Yang Shangkun said, Lin Biao did make a big mistake later, but he was not bad from beginning to end. On the contrary, as one of the "Ten Marshals of the Founding of New China" and the youngest marshal, Lin Biao's contributions to the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and national liberation should not be underestimated.
From the "Battle of Pingxingguan" to break the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army; to the "Battle of the Three Lower Jiangnan and Four Bao Linjiang", the northeast Nationalist army's attack on the liberated areas of Southern Manchuria was smashed, and it was completely destroyed and forced to turn into a defensive position in an all-round way. In his decades of military career, Lin Biao has commanded many classic battles with far-reaching influence, and the three major battles should be called his peak.
Among the three major battles, the Liaoshen Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign, Lin Biao served as the main commander. Just as introduced earlier, after the liberation of Jinzhou City, Lin Biao immediately launched the Battle of Western Liaoning, encircling and annihilating Chiang Kai-shek's westward marching corps in one fell swoop, and smoothly liberating the entire northeast territory. Along the way, Lin Biao also grew the northeast troops from more than 130,000 people to millions, further enhancing the combat strength of our army.
All in all, the "Armageddon" trilogy tells the story of the three major battles of the Liberation War, and at that time, Lin Biao was still a general commander who pointed out the country and was admired by all. His future mistakes cannot be ignored, but his exploits at that time must not be erased or discredited.
In the end, under the instructions of Yang Shangkun, the role of Lin Biao was included in the 50 main roles and opened a national selection. Then there was Ma Shaoxin's version of Lin Biao.
Marshal Lin Biao has always been a taciturn, introverted and depressed appearance, he likes to ride in a chair, close his eyes and quietly think about problems, and often chew a lot of soybeans. Although he was decisive in killing on the battlefield, he made many preparations in private. He memorized the military map early on, knew the location of every mountain and every road, and was even able to deploy tactical plans on the white wall out of thin air. And all of this is clearly shown in Armageddon.
In short, the "Armageddon" trilogy is a rare good movie, and its restoration of war scenes, the shaping of character details, and the objective display of Lin Biao are all shocking and touching. I hope that there will be more excellent historical works in the future, and I hope that everyone can remember history and respect history.
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