On November 15, 1990, founding Lieutenant General Cheng Shicai died of illness at the age of 78.
A few days later, his old comrade-in-arms Li Xiannian published an article entitled "Tribute to Comrade Cheng Shicai," in which he wrote: Cheng Shicai "has a clear mind, a bold temperament, is brave in combat, and has a vitality in fighting tigers and tigers," "he rushed out of the rain of bullets and bullets, fought many big, hard, and vicious battles, had both wisdom and courage, was able to attack and defend well, repeatedly accomplished miraculous feats, and was a member of the people's army." ”
Being able to get such a high evaluation from Li Xiannian shows the extraordinary features of General Cheng Shicai.
Cheng Shicai, a native of Dawu County, Hubei Province, joined the Red Army at the age of 18 and gradually grew into a fierce general under Xu Qianqian.
In 1933, the Red Fourth Front turned to Sichuan and Shaanxi, preparing to establish the Sichuan-Shaanxi Border Region, and faced with the 60,000 troops of the Sichuan warlord Tian Songyao, the Red Fourth Front decided to implement the eight-character combat policy of "tightening the position and waiting for the opportunity to counterattack".
Cheng Shicai, who was then the commander of the 33rd Regiment of the 11th Division of the Red 4th Army, put forward a bold proposal: send the main force of the troops, secretly penetrate into the rear of the enemy army, cut off the back road of those greedy and aggressive enemy troops, and wipe out the net! At that time, Cheng Shicai's target was Tian Songyao's 13 regiments.
After this suggestion was reported, Xu Xiangqian, who had always been unsmiling, laughed and said, "Cheng Shicai, it is powerful!" A regimental commander who actually wanted to eat the enemy's 13 regiments had a strategic vision! ”
Therefore, Cheng Shicai led the soldiers of the 33rd Regiment to brave the pouring rain and pass through the inaccessible mountains and old forests to complete the task of cutting off the enemy's retreat route, creating extremely favorable conditions for our army to completely annihilate Tian Songyao's 13 regiments.
In August 1935, the Right Route Army led by Xu Xiangqian and Chen Changhao seized Banyou, and the next step was to take the bao seat in order to smoothly send the troops out of Gannan.
At this time, Hu Zongnan's troops had already reinforced Baozuo, the situation was very urgent, who would be responsible for the task of attacking Baozuo? Just as everyone was thinking, two people stood up, one was Xu Shiyou and the other was Cheng Shicai.
At that time, Cheng Shicai was the commander of the Red 30 Army, and he was only 23 years old. In the history of our army, it is very cattle to become a military commander at the age of 23, and even Lin Biao became a military commander at the age of 23. In addition, the military political commissar of the Red 30 Army at that time was Li Xiannian mentioned at the beginning.
In the Battle of Baozuo, Cheng Shicai and Xu Shiyou joined forces to attack, and finally defeated the enemy army and successfully took Baoza.
Afterwards, Cheng Shicai met with Chairman Mao, who clasped his hand and said, "You are a very young military commander!" ”
In the period of the Liberation War, Cheng Shicai was even more famous, especially in the Battle of Xinkailing, which annihilated the 25th Division of the Kuomintang 52nd Army, which enjoyed the reputation of "Thousand Mile Colt".
This division is all American equipment, well-trained, good at long-distance raids, in the northeast region of the Kuomintang army, can be described as the trump card, the division commander is Huangpu Phase IV high-caliber student Li Zhengyi, participated in the Great Wall Gubeikou War of Resistance, Xuzhou Battle, Wuhan Battle, Changsha Battle, can also be regarded as a well-known anti-war general.
On October 19, 1946, Li Zhengyi led the 25th Division as a forward and attacked Anton. Cheng Shicai, who was then the commander of the 3rd Column of the Northeast Military Region, came up with a brilliant plan to choose a home for the 25th Division- Xinkailing, Huludao, Liaoning Province.
Cheng Shicai believed that the enemy troops were well-equipped and had a large number of people, so they must be arrogant, so Cheng Shicai decided to lead them to xinkailing with narrow terrain and fight an ambush battle.
Sure enough, as the battle of the whole front began, Li Zhengyi led the 25th Division into the "pocket" with a big swing, and Cheng Shicai immediately made a decision, ordered to open fire, and fought fiercely!
This battle set a precedent for our army to completely annihilate a division of the Kuomintang army in the northeast region, and it was still an ace division! In addition, division commander Li Zhengyi was also captured by our army.
When he was awarded the rank in 1955, Cheng Shicai was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, which was a bit low relative to his seniority.
——To learn more about the story of the founding generals, you can check out the column of the history inn, a total of 100 founding generals.