He led the reclamation of Nanniwan, he led the second Long March of our army, he led the troops to recover Xinjiang, he single-handedly created the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the legendary general Wang Zhen
"Nanniwan" sung by the famous singer Guo Lanying is a classic song in the large-scale musical and dance epic "Dongfang Hong" in the 1960s, which praises the great spirit of the 359th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army in Yan'an to carry out a large-scale production campaign, self-reliance and hard work.
The name of a general also traveled through history with the song of "Nanniwan", shocking the world. He was Wang Zhen, then the commander of the 359th Brigade and known as the Bearded General.
In August 1937, the Sixth Army of the Second Front of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the 32nd Army of the Red Army, and the First Special Service Regiment of the Red Army Headquarters were reorganized into the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army in Zhuangli Town, Fuping County, Shaanxi Province.
At this time, Chen Bojun was appointed brigade commander and Wang Zhen was appointed deputy brigade commander. A month later, the 359th Brigade was divided into two parts, with Chen Bojun leading the 718th Regiment and a battalion directly under the brigade remaining in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia. Wang Zhen led the 717th Regiment and the first unit of the brigade's directly subordinate battalion to the Shanxi anti-Japanese front under the name of the 359th Brigade. After that, Wang Zhen began to serve as the brigade commander and political commissar of the 359 brigade.
Begin the revolutionary road
Wang Zhen was born on April 11, 1908, to a peasant family in Liuyang County, Hunan Province. When he was 13 years old, Wang Zhen came to Changsha, first as a worker at the Changsha Railway Station. In the ranks of railway workers, he came into contact with the ccp's underground party organizations. Soon, Wang Zhen was elected as the executive member of the Changsha Workers' Branch of the Guangdong-Han Railway and the leader of the workers' picket team. In January 1927, Wang Zhen officially joined the Communist Youth League of China, and in May of the same year, at the lowest tide of the Chinese revolution, Wang Zhen became a full member of the Communist Party of China.
On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched a counter-revolutionary coup in Shanghai, and bloody rain and wind also covered the entire city of Changsha. The Hunan Communists were forced to go underground. Wang Zhen used his position as an underground traffic officer working at the station, escorting many party members and revolutionary masses out of Changsha.
In 1928, the underground party organization was destroyed, Wang Zhen lost contact with the party organization, and he began to organize workers and local people to receive materials transported by Kuomintang troops along the railway line, gradually forming an active local armed force.
Shortly thereafter, Wang Zhen successively participated in the formation of the CPC's Xiang'e-Gansu Border Region Special Committee and the Liubei Guerrilla Group. It was at this time that he met Mao Zedong, then the General Political Commissar of the Red Army and secretary of the Committee of Former Enemies of the Communist Party of China.
In September 1930, in the north of Zhentou City on the Liuyang River, Teng Daiyuan, then the political commissar of the Red Third Army, introduced Wang Zhen to Mao Zedong.
Unexpectedly, Mao Zedong had already heard of him, and the words on Wang Zhen's leaflets were very skilled. Wang Zhen hurriedly explained, "I did not write this notice, my original name was Wang Yukai, also known as Wang Zhenglin." The guerrilla showmen suggested that he use the name Wang Zhen instead to make a proclamation, which was loud and loud. I'm a big boss, and those leaflets and announcements are written by those talented people. ”
Mao Zedong did not believe that "those leaflets and announcements are not from the hand of Xiucai, but rather like the handwriting of your big old man, there is a kind of momentum, you big old man can organize those small details, and it is not rude to write out your intentions."
The period of the Red Army
On the fourth day of separation from Mao Zedong, Wang Zhen received a formal order from the Special Committee to quickly participate in the formation of the Xiangdong Independent Division. He took the initiative to ask, but when the list was released, the vast majority of people did not want to leave their hometowns, and 151 people wrote leave slips. This undoubtedly poured a basin of cold water on Wang Zhendang, who was full of blood and ambition.
At that time, Wang Zhen drew a total of 154 backbone cadres from the Liubei detachment. In addition to Wang Zhen, only two people voluntarily left their hometown to participate in the formation of the Xiangdong Independent Division. Wang Zhen immediately organized competent cadres to go to each household to do the work. In just two days, the ideological work of these comrades was basically completed. They all said that although they were ideologically reluctant to leave their hometown, they were resolutely obedient to organizational arrangements. When they left the detachment station, thousands of people beat gongs and drums to send off the 154 athletes with red flowers. The second time Wang Zhen left his hometown, he was separated for more than thirty years.
In August 1934, the Central Red Army repeatedly fought unfavorable battles in the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, and the enemy suppressed the territory, and Wang Zhen, who was already the political commissar of the Red Sixth Army Army, was ordered to move from the Soviet zone to central Hunan and became the advanced team of the Central Red Army's Long March.
The Red Sixth Army continuously broke through many of the enemy's blockade lines, and finally opened a gap in the enemy's strategic western front. After Chiang Kai-shek learned of the breakthrough of the Red Sixth Army, he scolded and scolded, "Let the Sixth Army go, Wang Zhen has escaped, and I must hold him accountable." He then dispatched his troops, and the enemy surrounded the Red Sixth Army from all sides.
The officers and men of the Red Sixth Army traveled through the mountains and mountains at night, and when the troops marched to Chenxian County, they were blocked by a large mountain. The only passage on the mountain was still heavily guarded by the enemy, and Wang Zhen personally visited the village. An old man told him about a path to collect medicine, so Wang Zhen led a team of elite soldiers, cut through thorns, found the mountain path, and quickly passed through this mountain. After some arduous battles and marches, the Red Sixth Army was transferred to Guanxian County, Guangxi Under the eyes of the enemy's heavy troops.
Tun tian reclamation
After the July 7 Incident, the Red Army was unified and reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. After Wang Zhen became the commander of the 359th Brigade, he led his troops to advance into the anti-Japanese front line in Shanxi. Soon after, the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek openly undermined the anti-united front, gathered heavy troops to attack Yan'an, and imposed an economic blockade on the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. The Central Military Commission dispatched the 359th Brigade back to the border areas to strengthen its defensive forces.
In the autumn of 1940, Wang Zhen led the 359th Brigade to start the first step in his military reclamation cause according to Zhu De's instructions. After three years of hard work, the 359th Brigade used hoes and sweat to reclaim a piece of fertile land, built rows of cave kilns, raised flocks of cattle and sheep, completely improved the desolate appearance of Nanniwan, and presented a scene of good Jiangnan in northern Shaanxi. Today, Nanniwan in Yan'an has become a famous attraction, and the 359th Brigade has become a symbol of hard work and self-reliance.
Since 1944, the world anti-fascist war is developing triumphantly, and the Japanese aggressors launched the Battle of Yuxianggui in order to open up the mainland communication lines in various parts of southeast Asia, and the Kuomintang army lost hundreds of thousands of troops and lost a large area of land in central, southern and southwestErn China.
Southward detachment
However, the battlefield behind enemy lines under the leadership of the Communist Party of China launched a large-scale local counteroffensive. On September 1, 1944, the Presidium of the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to form the First Guerrilla Detachment of the Main Force of the Eighteenth Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army, with Wang Zhen as the commander and Wang Shoudao as the political commissar, to escort the central government to work in the Eyu Border Region. More than 900 cadres marched into southern China, and together with the Dongjiang Column, they opened up the Guling anti-Japanese base area on the edge of Xiangyue and Guizhou.
The southbound detachment consisted of a 359th brigade with a total of 5,060 men. On October 1, 1944, the team took the oath of battle. Advance towards the Xiangyue border. Chiang Kai-shek began to panic and order the troops along the way to arrest Wang Zhen at all costs.
On November 10, 1944, the southbound detachment bid farewell to Yan'an and embarked on a journey, soon reaching the south bank of the Yellow River and entering the Henan region. On January 26, 1945, the Southward Detachment handed over the cadres who accompanied the Army to the Eyu-Anhui Base Area under the leadership of the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army.
On February 14, 1945, the southward detachment began to advance towards southern Hunan, crossing the Yangtze River at Tianjia Town. Subsequently, in accordance with the instructions of the Party Central Committee, it was renamed the Hunan People's Anti-Japanese Salvation Army of the National Revolutionary Army and established the Xiang'e-Gansu Border Region Military Region. Wang Zhen was appointed commander of the military region, but the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army soon fell under siege by the Kuomintang troops and was forced to return to southern Hunan.
On May 10, 1945, Wang Zhen led the main force to advance to the enemy-occupied areas and continue to carry out guerrilla warfare. On July 5, 1945, Mao Zedong called Wang Zhen and Wang Shoudao, affirming their decision to march south and telling them that they should not stay too long along the way. At this time, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was successfully held in Yan'an, deeply encouraged all officers and men.
In August 1945, just as the troops were preparing to march toward the Hunan-Guangdong border, the situation in the War of Resistance Against Japan changed suddenly. On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and sent troops to northeast China, and the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, and Japan was forced to surrender unconditionally. On August 11, 1945, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a telegram to Wang Zhen that "the Soviet Union entered the war, Japan surrendered, and the civil war was forced." Your task is still to quickly reach the hunan and Guangdong borders, meet the Guangdong troops, resolutely create a base area, and prepare for the civil war."
Wang Zhen led his troops to break through the enemy's heavy interception, and at the end of August 1945, they arrived in the Bamian Mountain area in Guangdong, where they were surrounded by the enemy and all five passages out of the mountain were sealed. At that time, the situation was very tense, and he personally went down the mountain to explore the way, and happened to meet an old hunter with crane hair and childlike appearance. Wang Zhen asked him for directions, and the old man began to pretend not to know. As soon as Wang Zhen moved, he pulled out a picture of Mao Zedong from his arms. The old hunter understood at first sight and immediately pointed out a path down the mountain to Wang Zhen. Wang Zhen led his troops down the mountain for the night, and finally rushed out of the Eight Faces Mountain and fled the tiger's mouth.
At this time, the central authorities, considering that the situation of the southbound detachment was really difficult, and it was indeed difficult to complete the original task, agreed to their choice of route to the north. In this way, the southward detachment once again broke through the difficult and dangerous obstacles, crossed the Yangtze River in Echeng, Hubei Province, in late September 1945, and successfully returned to the Eyu-Anhui region to meet the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army. So far, the southbound detachment lasted 329 days, traveled through 78 counties in 7 provinces, and traveled 15,840 kilometers.
On August 29, 1946, Wang Zhen led his troops from the Central Plains to break through and return to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. Mao Zedong held Wang Zhen's hand and burst into tears, praising the southern expedition as the second Long March.
Build Xinjiang
In March 1949, Wang Zhen was summoned by Mao Zedong alone during xibaipo's second plenary session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Mao Zedong told Wang Zhen that "the war will not last long, and now we must focus on developing the economy and production and construction after victory." After hearing these words, Wang Zhen immediately took out the report he had drafted and handed it to Mao Zedong, saying, "My ideas are all here, I ask to go to Xinjiang, and the people of Xinjiang need us to liberate the frontiers of the motherland and need us to develop and build."
In early October 1949, Wang Zhen led the First Corps of the People's Liberation Army into Xinjiang. Xinjiang, which has just been liberated, can be described as a hundred wastes waiting to be rebuilt, so Wang Zhen invited well-known experts in various industries in agriculture and construction to jointly provide suggestions and suggestions for the construction of Xinjiang. After discussion, it was agreed that the top priority was to open mines to solve the fuel problem. Wang Zhen then sent a telegram asking the famous Professor Li Siguang to recommend a mining exploration expert to Xinjiang, and Li Siguang called back to say that he had a student named Wang Hengsheng, who is now in Xinjiang.
Wang Zhen was very happy after hearing this, but when he checked wang Hengsheng, he was undergoing reform in prison because of historical problems. So Wang Zhen took the risk and boldly activated Wang Hengsheng. After Wang Hengsheng was released from prison by Wang Zhen, he became the chief commander of the project and built the first coal mine in Xinjiang, the Nanshan Open-pit Coal Mine.
Subsequently, Wang Zhen personally went to Shanghai to find Mayor Chen Yi and invited yu Mingyu, a metallurgical expert, to serve as the chief engineer of the Xinjiang Iron and Steel Plant. In this way, under the personal leadership of Wang Zhen, the Xinjiang Bayi Iron and Steel Factory was established.
After entering Xinjiang, Wang Zhen, who served as commander of the Xinjiang Military Region, faced the same pressing problem as suppressing bandits and developing the local economy, the problem of food and salaries for more than 100,000 garrisons.
Like the development of Nanniwan in those years, Wang Zhen and ordinary soldiers camped in Aksu, Ili, Tacheng, Kuitun, Shihezi and other places, pulling ploughs, building roads, and digging river canals. In 1950 alone, 830,000 mu of wasteland was reclaimed, and more than 68 million catties of grain, more than 7,500 catties of cotton, and more than 3.7 million catties of oilseeds were harvested.
By 1952, in addition to self-sufficiency, the troops stationed in Xinjiang had surpluses in grain production and had also supported the interior with a large amount of cotton.
Soon, a new organization specializing in agricultural production and construction in the frontier areas on a large scale, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, was formally established.
Turned to the Railroad Soldiers
In February 1954, Wang Zhen was transferred to the post of commander and political commissar of the Railway Corps, at a time when Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary clique, which had returned to Taiwan, called for a counter-attack on the mainland. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to build a railway under the shadow. Wang Zhen mobilized 100,000 troops from all over the country to the construction site. After arriving at the construction site, many of the railway soldiers fell ill due to poor accommodation conditions. In order to solve this problem, Wang Zhen coordinated with the local county government, and first called without reply, so Wang Zhen personally came to the county government.
Because General Wang Zhen usually has a beard, like an old farmer. When the county magistrate saw him, he ignored him and left in the car. While waiting for the county magistrate, Wang Zhen chatted with the old man in the communication room, and when he learned that the county magistrate had not been doing his job all day, he knew that he was engaged in crooked doors and evil ways, and Wang Zhen was very disgusted in his heart.
Later, the county magistrate returned, and Wang Zhen continued to look for him. The county magistrate thought that Wang Zhen had come to petition, but still ignored him, turned around and left. As soon as Wang Zhen pulled him back and did not let him go, he immediately provoked the county magistrate, scolded him on the spot, and even asked the public security bureau to handcuff Wang Zhen and put him in a police car. Fortunately, at this time, the regional commissioner arrived in time, and everyone knew Wang Zhen's identity.
The county magistrate was frightened at that time, and some people came to reflect on the county magistrate's problems when they saw Wang Zhen coming, and the more Wang Zhen listened, the more angry he became. On the spot, he said, "As a member of the Central Committee, I have announced the removal of you, the county magistrate." After speaking, Wang Zhen called Ye Fei, secretary of the provincial party committee, in the office building of the county government, and truthfully reflected the situation. It wasn't long before the county magistrate was relieved of his post, and the problem of accommodation for the railroad soldiers was resolved.
General Wang Zhen has been unremittingly struggling for the revolution and construction of the Chinese people for more than seventy years. Throughout his life, he bravely shouldered heavy burdens and bravely forged ahead, and was a proletarian revolutionary full of vigor, vigor and vigor. The general was highly respected and distinguished in his life, but he did not live in merit and selflessly dedicated. On March 12, 1993, General Wang Zhen died of illness in Guangzhou. He donated his years of savings to the China Primary and Secondary School Kindergarten Teachers Award Foundation and donated his cornea.
In the agreements signed by Orbis International and many world leaders, Wang Zhen was the first to realize the promise.