Had it not suffered that tragic defeat, General Cheng Shicai might have been awarded the rank of general or even a higher rank.
Cheng Shicai, a native of Dawu, Hubei Province, was born into a poor peasant family, and because he could not bear the oppression of the landlords and hated the corruption and injustice of the old society, in 1930, cheng Shicai, who was only 18 years old, resolutely joined the Red Army.
Although joining the army was not early, Cheng Shicai's progress was very rapid, but in just three years, he jumped from an ordinary soldier to a senior commander of the Red Army.
In June 1933, Cheng Shicai was appointed political commissar of the 88th Division of the Red 30th Army. This year, Cheng Shi was only 21 years old.
The reason why Cheng Shicai has made such rapid progress is not only because of his outstanding military talent, but also because he has extraordinary courage.
In 1932, when Chiang Kai-shek learned that the Red Fourth Front had jumped out of the encirclement, he immediately sent Wei Lihuang, commander of the 14th Army, to lead the 10th Division, the 83rd Division, and the 34th Brigade to encircle the Red Army from the east, south, and north, in an attempt to encircle and annihilate the Red Army in the area west of Xinji and east of the Han River.
The Red Army was forced to engage in a decisive battle with the enemy. This battle was fought very fiercely, and it can be said that it was the fiercest battle fought since the Red Fourth Front army implemented its strategic shift to the west.
One day, the Red 11th Division was ordered to launch a counterattack against the enemy's 34th Brigade, and Wu Yunshan, the commander of the 33rd Regiment, was unfortunately killed during the attack, and Cheng Shicai, who was the political commissar at the time, did not hesitate to take over the command baton and immediately personally led the large army to kill the enemy position.
However, Cheng Shicai was seriously injured and fell into a coma twice. But Cheng Shicai was not afraid, and the next battle, he was still a pioneer.
In May 1933, Chiang Kai-shek made Tian Songyao the "inspector of bandit suppression" in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Border Region, and divided his troops into three roads to carry out a "three-way siege" against the Red Army.
Seeing that the 13 regiments of the enemy's left column were greedy and impetuous, the headquarters of the Four Fronts Army decided to list them as the key targets of attack and ordered the Red 11th Division to cut off the enemy's retreat.
Cheng Shicai, who had been the commander of the 33rd Regiment, personally inspected the terrain and decided to open a forest passage near Yuwan Mountain in order to attack the enemy from the flank.
On May 21, the main force of the Red 11th Division engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy's left column, and when the two sides were inseparable, an elite force suddenly fell like a divine soldier and plunged straight into the enemy's flank. This unit was the 33rd Regiment, and the enemy was caught off guard, and before he could adjust his position, he took prisoner of the 33rd Regiment.
This battle created extremely powerful conditions for the four fronts to completely annihilate the enemy's left column, and also made the 33rd Regiment famous in the first battle, known as "attacking like a tiger regiment." Less than a month after the war, the Red 11th Division was expanded into the Red 30th Army, and Cheng Shicai was promoted to political commissar of the 88th Division of the Red 30th Army.
During the Red Army period, the position of division commander was already very high, fully worthy of the rank of general, however, this was not the peak of Cheng Shicai's Red Army period.
Because of his outstanding performance, in 1935, Cheng Shicai was promoted to acting commander of the Red 30 Army. In October 1936, Cheng Shicai joined the Western Route Army as the commander of the Red 30th Army and participated in the Western Expedition.
The Red Army's Western Expedition was an extremely tragic military operation, in which the Western Route Army fought alone in the Hexi Corridor, and due to the disparity in strength, it finally ran out of ammunition and food, suffered a tragic defeat, and almost completely annihilated the army. Cheng Shi was one of the few survivors of the Western Route Army and the only surviving commander of the Western Route Army.
This tragic military action not only left Cheng Shicai with mournful memories, but also affected his revolutionary cause to a certain extent.
If this failure had not been made, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in full swing, Cheng Shicai would have probably served as a commander at or above the brigade level of the Eighth Route Army with his seniority.
After the failure of the Western Expedition, Cheng Shicai led the rest of the army to break through, in order to avoid the pursuit of the enemy, chose to march in the Qilian Mountains area with difficult conditions, and after many hardships, finally returned to Yan'an, and then entered the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University and the Central Party School to study.
After graduation, the Red Army had long been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, and the personnel of various senior command posts were full, and Cheng Shicai only served as the chief of staff of the Jirecha Advancing Army, the commander of the 12th detachment, and the principal of the Kang Da Branch School.
During the Liberation War, Cheng Shicai's position was not very high, and he successively served as deputy commander of the Liaoning Southern Military Region, commander of the 3rd Column of the Northeast Military Region, and commander of the Western Liaoning Military Region.
After the founding of New China, Cheng Shicai entered the Military Academy for further study, and after graduation, he was personally appointed by Chairman Mao as the first deputy commander of the Public Security Army, partnering with Luo Ruiqing, the commander of the Public Security Army at the time.
We know that Luo Ruiqing is the founding general, and Cheng Shicai, as his deputy partner, can be awarded the title of general. The key is also that the second deputy commander of the public security army at that time was Wei Guoqing, who was the rank of general. In this way, Cheng Shicai should be awarded the rank of general even more.
However, due to Cheng Shicai's lack of seniority during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, he was finally awarded the rank of lieutenant general in the organization.
In fact, General Cheng Shicai's qualifications during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and liberation were certainly lacking, but he could also be awarded as a general, because in 1952, the army rating, Cheng Shicai was rated as a deputy corps. The rank of deputy corps was worthy of the rank of general, and since he was serving as the first deputy commander of the Public Security Army at the time, there was nothing wrong with the appointment of general.