At 2:00 p.m. on September 27, 1955, the medal ceremony of senior generals of the People's Liberation Army was first held in Zhongnanhai Ziguang Pavilion, which was founded in the Ming Dynasty, where the Ming Emperor paraded and selected Wu Zhuangyuan, and in the Qing Dynasty, it was the place where the Qing government officially received foreign envoys for the first time. After the founding of New China, it chose to hold the ceremony of awarding senior generals of the People's Liberation Army here.
In addition to Xu Haidong's convalescence in Dalian due to illness, the remaining nine generals and 172 generals, lieutenant generals and major generals in Beijing all attended the ceremony. Before the ceremony, each general received a new military uniform, which was tailored by a specialized agency and woven with a number of rank symbols on the gold thread on the epaulettes. This medal ceremony not only marks the modernization of the People's Liberation Army and the regular army, but also affirms the meritorious deeds of these revolutionary soldiers over the years.
Many founding generals of the People's Liberation Army attached great importance to this medal ceremony, and some of them had a great controversy about the level of military rank, but after the award ceremony, there was a strange scene, that is, Xu Shiyou, Hong Xuezhi and a number of other generals walked up to a lieutenant general and saluted the lieutenant general, who was Zhan Caifang.
Zhan Caifang was born in 1907 in the famous General County, Huang'an County, Hubei Province, his childhood was very tragic, his mother died of illness when he was 7 years old, and his father and sister left him when he was 12 years old because of the accidental consumption of poisonous wild vegetables. Zhan Caifang was later able to grow up under the care of her eldest sister. In 1924, 16-year-old Zhan Caifang, with the help of her brother-in-law, came to the Wuhan Middle School sponsored by Dong Biwu to work half-study and half-study.
Under the influence of Dong Biwu, Zhan Caifang understood a lot of revolutionary principles and participated in leading the workers' movement and the student movement. In the spring of 1925, Dong Biwu sent Zhan Caifang and a group of other progressive young people back to their hometown of Huang'an, Hubei Province, to carry out revolutionary propaganda work, organize the people, and run education on a large scale. After returning to his hometown, Zhan Caifang quickly founded a peasant association, organized a peasant self-defense army, and set up a school to propagate revolutionary ideas to the peasants.
In 1927, Zhan Caifang had a 12-year-old child by his side, and this child pestered him all day and asked to join the revolution. Zhan Caifang originally did not want to accept him, but he could not resist the soft and hard bubbles of the child, so he let him follow him, this child was the later famous founding lieutenant general Wang Jinshan. In September 1927, under the leadership of Wang Shusheng, Zhan Caifang led the local peasant self-defense army to participate in the autumn harvest rebellion in the southern foothills of dabie Mountain. In November, he also participated in the jute uprising, and in the siege operation, Zhan Caifang personally led a commando team of more than 30 people to attack the south gate in one fell swoop, making a great contribution to the occupation of Huang'an.
After the Jute Uprising, Zhan Caifang served as the commander of the 31st Division of the Red 11th Army, the political commissar of the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Division of the Red 1st Army, and the political commissar of the 30th Regiment of the 10th Division of the Red 4th Army (the regimental commander was the founding general Wang Shusheng).
Political Commissar of the 12th Division of the Red 4th Army, Political Commissar of the Red 9th Army, Political Commissar of the Red 31st Army, Commander of the 5th Column in Western Sichuan and other positions. In different historical periods of the Red Fourth Front, Zhan Caifang played an important role, and he accompanied the Red Fourth Front from the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region to the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, and was a pivotal figure of the Red Fourth Front.
Many important generals of the People's Liberation Army were protected by Zhan Caifang or promoted by Zhan Caifang. When Zhan Caifang was the company commander, Xu Shiyou was the squad leader under him. Founding General Chen Xilian followed Zhan Caifang when he was less than 15 years old, and initially only started with his service soldiers.
The later founding major general, You Taizhong, who was awarded the rank of general in 1988, was almost abandoned because of illness during the Long March across the meadow, and zhan Caifang saw it and let You Taizhong drag his horse's tail out of the meadow. Founding Major General Deng Yue joined the Red Army at the age of 12, became a company commander at the age of 16, and after becoming a company commander,
Due to his youth and lack of combat experience, Deng Yue lost command in one operation, and the newly promoted company commander was lost, not to mention, but also had to be engaged by military law. Just when his comrades-in-arms were at a loss, Zhan Caifang passed by the court and saved him as his own guard.
Including the later founding general Hong Xuezhi, the founding general Chen Zaidao, the founding lieutenant general Qin Jiwei and other generals, they were also Zhan Caifang's subordinates during the Red Army period. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhan Caifang successively served as the captain of the advance brigade of the Second Branch of the Anti-Japanese War and the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region
Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Third Military Sub-district,
Jireliao Military Region
Deputy commander, commander of the Jidong Military Region and other positions.
In 1945, after Zhan Caifang became the commander of the Jidong Military Region, he was quickly attacked by the Kuomintang army. Zhan Caifang actively organized local armed forces, expanded troops, and cooperated with operations in the North China Battlefield and the Northeast Theater.
In 1947, the three field brigades led by Zhan Caifang and some local troops were merged into the Ninth Column of the Northeast Democratic United Army, with Zhan Caifang as the commander, with 25, 26, and 27 divisions under its jurisdiction, with a total of 23,000 people in the whole column. The first battle of the Ninth Column was to cooperate with Huang Yongsheng's Eighth Column to annihilate the 49th Army of the Kuomintang Army in the autumn offensive, in which Zhan Caifang led the officers and men of the Ninth Column to annihilate more than 5,000 enemy troops and block the enemy's reinforcements.
Subsequently, the Ninth Column carried out the Battle of Chaoyang and the encirclement of Yixi to annihilate the Kuomintang 92nd Army. In the entire autumn offensive operation, the Ninth Column fought five battles and five victories in a continuous battle that lasted more than 50 days, and the types of battles included mountain defense battles and mountain offensive battles, as well as urban offensive battles and night raids, totaling more than 11,000 enemy annihilations. In the following winter offensive, the nine columns turned to battle, and four large battles and campaigns were carried out successively, annihilating more than 1,900 enemy troops. In January 1948, the Ninth Column of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army was reorganized into the Ninth Column of the Northeast Field Army and participated in the Liaoshen Campaign.
In November 1948, the Ninth Column was reorganized into the 46th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, with Zhan Caifang as its commander, with 46,000 troops. Later, Zhan Caifang led the 46th Army to participate in the Battle of Tianjin, the Battle of Xianggan, and the Battle of Hengbao. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhan Caifang served as deputy commander of the Hunan Military Region, commander of the public security forces of the Central and Southern Military Region, deputy commander of the Guangzhou Military Region, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955.
General Zhan Caifang only ate vegetarian food in his life, so he was called "Zai Gong", he was frugal all his life, and all the clothes, shoes, and hats that had been better would be sent to his hometown, and he often paid for the villagers in his hometown. In 1955, when he was awarded the medal, his old subordinates Xu Shiyou, Hong Xuezhi, Chen Xilian and others were awarded the rank of general, and Wang Jinshan, Qin Jiwei and other generals who had served as guards and attendants were awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and many of them became his superiors or equal to him.
Some generals fought for Zhan Caifang, but Zhan Caifang said: "The purpose of the revolution is for the liberation of the people, not for the sake of personal fame and profit, how many martyrs have sacrificed their lives, and what rank have they been awarded?" These old subordinates also have great respect for Zhan Caifang, and every time Xu Shiyou goes to Beijing for a meeting, as long as Zhan Caifang comes, he demands that he must be a neighbor of Zhan Caifang, otherwise he will make a big fuss.