At the first award ceremony of New China in 1955, there were several generals who were controversial in their evaluations, such as Su Yu and Xiao Ke.
Readers who are familiar with the history of the Red Army are well aware of the status and significance of Su Yu and Xiao Ke to our party and army.
After the founding of New China in 1949, according to the unanimous opinion of the first generation of leading collectives, It was also possible for Su Yu to be awarded marshalship, but in the end it was only awarded to the general. Shaw's seniority was even deeper, and although he was not awarded the rank of marshal for certain reasons, the conferring of the rank of general was absolutely undisputed, but in the end he was only awarded the rank of admiral.
In addition to Su Yu and Xiao Ke, there was also a highly qualified general, who was also controversial when awarding titles. Turning the pages of history, we find that this general once participated in the Nanchang Uprising, one of the three major uprisings, and served as the battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 75th Regiment of the 25th Division (ye Ting Independent Regiment expanded), while the later founding marshal Lin Biao was only a company commander under the 73rd Regiment at that time.
In terms of seniority, the general's weight is heavier than the vast majority of people.
In 1951 he was already the commander of the Navy of the East China Military Region, and in 1952, he was rated as a quasi-corps. Judging from such seniority and rank, the general of the appraisal general did not dare to say that the lieutenant general should be in his hand, but the general was unexpected by everyone and only evaluated the major general.
He was the founding major general Yuan Yelie.
As we all know, the 55 appraisals, our party from the seniority, achievements, experience and political performance and other aspects of comprehensive consideration, basically achieved relative fairness and justice.
So what is the matter that General Yuan Yelie only commented on major generals? What kind of unknown experiences did he have?
This issue of the article will take you to understand the legendary deeds of the older generation of revolutionaries General Yuan Yelie, if you are a reader who likes to understand history, you may wish to calm down and read it, maybe you will gain something.
Yuan Yelie, another Hunan general, was born in 1899 in Yuan Jia'an, Jintian Township, Dongkou County, Hunan.
In his early years, Yuan Yelie had a close relationship with Mao Zedong.
It is well known that Mao Zedong humorously said to people:
"In all my positions, after all the removals, there is only one faculty member left."
When he was young, Mao Zedong once thought that teaching and educating people was the most suitable for him, and after graduating from hunan provincial first normal school in June 1918, he had been inseparable from his alma mater, and in the summer of 1920, he returned to Hunan provincial first normal university again as the principal (principal) of the attached primary school.
At the same time, he also actively promoted communism and advanced Ideas of the West in the school, which was praised and supported by the vast majority of teachers and students.
In August 1921, Yuan Yelie was admitted to the Hunan Provincial First Normal School, and during his studies at the school, he personally listened to Mao Zedong's speeches on the Communist Manifesto and the Great Powers.
Mao Zedong on the podium was emboldened and enthusiastic, calling on young people to "aim high," study for the future of the Chinese nation, and strive for the liberation of the people of the whole country.
Mao Zedong's speech deeply infected Yuan Yelie, and from this he gave birth to communist ideas and actively participated in various activities of the Marxist Research Society.
Therefore, in a certain sense, it is not an exaggeration to say that Mao Zedong was Yuan Yelie's revolutionary mentor.
In 1924, after graduating from the Hunan Provincial First Normal School, Yuan Yelie, under the influence of Mao Zedong's progressive thought, had already saved a heart of national security and was admitted to the Guilin Military Academy.
Soon after being admitted to the Guilin Military Academy, Yuan Yelie immediately responded to the call to join the Chinese Young Soldiers' Federation led by the Communist Party.
At the end of 1924, Li Gonggang, Zhou Yiqun, Wang Bocang, Wu Ming, and other communist party members among the students of the second phase of the Whampoa Military Academy followed Lenin's example in founding the "Mars Newspaper" and secretly organized the "Mars Society" and actively attracted progressive students from the periphery to participate in the "Mars Society" to find and cultivate talents for our party.
Among them, Yuan Yelie actively united around our party, participated in the organizational activities of the peripheral Martian Society, and finally in May 1925, through his excellent organizational and leadership skills, led more than 200 students of the Guilin Military Academy to revolt and defected to the Whampoa Military Academy.
After entering the Whampoa Military Academy, in view of Yuan Yelie's outstanding performance in political work and his excellent organizational and leadership skills, our party directly attracted him to the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy as an officer of the secretarial unit and a member of the propaganda section.
As we all know, the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy has always been presided over by our party, and Zhou Enlai served as the director of the political department from November 1924 to March 1925, and after participating in the Crusade, the position was held by Bao Huisheng, the earliest party member of the CCP. Therefore, during yuan yelie's period in the political department, he was led by Bao Huisheng.
At that time, Nie Rongzhen was working as a secretary and political instructor in the Political Department to lead the propaganda and organizational work of the Political Department, and it was precisely Yuan Yelie, who was also a member of the Propaganda Section, who was also the head of the Propaganda Section, so yuan Yelie and Nie Rongzhen formed a revolutionary friendship with Nie Rongzhen in the early years.
In July 1925, under the introduction of Nie Rongzhen, Yuan Yelie officially joined the party and became a member of the Communist Party.
After joining the party, with the efforts of our party, Yuan Yelie became the instructor of the Huangpu Phase IV Enlistment Group, and later the famous generals who came out of the Fourth Phase were Lin Biao, Liu Zhidan, Zhang Lingfu, Hu Lian, and so on.
Judging from his seniority and rank in his early years, Yuan Yelie was much higher than Lin Biao.
Later, Yuan Yelie served as the commander of the sixth company of Ye Ting's independent regiment, participated in the Northern Expedition, and fought bravely to kill the enemy in the Northern Expedition, completed arduous combat tasks many times, and was known for his bravery and bravery in the army.
After the Northern Expeditionary Army captured Wuchang City, he was promoted to battalion commander to garrison Wuhan, and in July 1927, he led his troops into Nanchang to participate in the later "August 1 nanchang Uprising".
During the Nanchang Uprising, Yuan Yelie's command and combat performance was extremely outstanding, and he completely annihilated a regiment of the enemy's Zhu Peide's department with only one battalion.
At the same time, around the Nanchang uprising, Yuan Yelie also did not fight with Mr. Zhu and did not know each other.
During the uprising, in order to prevent the enemy from escaping, Yuan Yeliebu was ordered to garrison the first line of the East Gate.
After the battle was over, Yuan Yelie and others saw with their own eyes a majestic Kuomintang officer of about 40 years old, riding a high-headed horse.
Yuan Yelie shouted, "Stop! ”
Unexpectedly, the officer was calm, and there was no panic at all, Yuan Yelie was even more certain at the moment that this person was not bad, so he quickly made eye contact with the soldiers, waited until the officer came to the front, suddenly rushed up from all sides to surround him, and handed him over the gun and took him prisoner and reported it to the command headquarters.
However, not long after, someone from the headquarters rushed to the scene and shouted: "Catch the wrong catch, catch the wrong, release the person!" You are not capturing the enemy, but the famous General Zhu De! ”
Yuan Yelie listened, his heart mentioned the throat eye, and he was ready to be questioned at the moment, but he did not think that Zhu De was not angry but smiled happily: "Hey, I didn't expect that your battalion commander's vigilance was quite high!" ”
At that time, Zhu De founded the Officer Education Corps of the Third Army of the National Revolutionary Army in January 1927 and served as the head of the regiment. In April, he also served as the director of the Nanchang Municipal Public Security Bureau. Later, after the August 1st Nanchang Uprising, he served as the commander of the Ninth Army. It can be said that Zhu De was already one of the most important leaders of our party and our army at that time.
Mao Zedong later commented on Zhu De during his time in Yan'an: The measure is as big as the sea, and the will is as strong as steel.
This interesting confrontation with Zhu De allowed Yuan Yelie to truly experience the metrics of Zhu Laozong's "prime minister can hold a boat in his belly" and "as big as the sea", which further strengthened his pace of following communism.
Unfortunately, however, the Nanchang Uprising ultimately failed due to the large-scale attack of the Kuomintang.
In order to preserve the seeds of the revolution, our party had to break down into pieces, leave Nanchang City in batches, and transfer to the localities to carry out work; Yuan Yelie was also assigned to Longzhou, Guangxi, where he served as chief of staff of the first regiment of the Fifth Guangxi Garrison Brigade and commander of the first battalion, and participated in the Guangxi Longzhou uprising, which was later organized by Deng Xiaoping and led by He Shichang, Yu Zuoyu, Wan Danping, and Li Mingrui.
On February 1, 1930, after the great victory of the Longzhou Uprising, our Party established the rebel forces into the Eighth Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and Yuan Yelie served as the chief of staff of the First Column, the commander of the First Battalion and the secretary of the General Branch of the Party.
On October 26, 1930, Yuan Yelie's Red Eighth Army and Red Seventh Army finally met at Leye County, Guangxi, and six days later began to march north to advance into the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area led by Mao Zedong.
Unfortunately, in the process of moving to the Jiangxi Su District, Yuan Yelie encountered a fierce attack from the enemy at Ruyuan in Shaoguan, Guangdong, and was heavily burdened.
At that time, in view of the importance of Yuan Yelie in revolutionary work and his health considerations, our party finally sent him to Shanghai for treatment and recuperation through the efforts of local comrades in many ways. Therefore, Yuan Yelie did not participate in the advance of Jinggangshan to complete the meeting.
This trip north also brought disaster to him and brought an indelible negative impact to his later political career.
Late at night on May 15, 1931, because of the whistleblowing of villains, a group of British patrols suddenly broke into Yuan Yelie's home and forcibly arrested him together with Gui Yang.
Yuan Yelie, who was recuperating at the time, was afraid that his thoughts would not be able to keep up, and was studying party documents with Gui Yang, so 24 documents fell into the hands of the enemy when he was arrested.
During the escort, Yuan Yelie alertly said to Gui Yangzhi: "During the interrogation, you said that the documents belonged to Yuan Yingwu, and you should not say anything else!" ”
Yuan Yingwu is a pseudonym of Yuan Yelie during his recuperation.
Sure enough, the British really had an affair with the Kuomintang, and Yuan and Gui were transferred to the Kuomintang for interrogation. During the interrogation, as Yuan Yelie expected, the enemy bit down on 24 documents as soon as they came up.
The enemy scolded viciously and asked, "Whose documents are these documents?" ”
Yuan Yelie replied calmly like a nobody: "Mine! ”
The enemy excitedly asked, "Are you a communist?" Who gave you these documents? ”
Yuan Yelie replied: "I am not a Communist Party, and these documents were deposited with me by a friend surnamed Wang." ”
The enemy asked again, "Where is the king?" ”
Yuan Yelie replied, "Where do I know?!" ”
When the enemy heard this, he obviously suspected that Yuan Yelie was deliberately covering up and refusing to confess, so he beat him and tortured him in the hope of forcing him to obey, but unfortunately, Yuan Yelie clenched his teeth from beginning to end, did not know what he asked, and insisted on the secret in his heart.
Seeing that the coercion of confessions could not be achieved, the enemy again guarded Yuan Yelie's home and waited for rabbits, and trapped Zhang Jianping, a Red Army cadre who once again sent documents to Yuan Yelie.
After zhang Jianping was arrested, the enemy took Yuan Yelie to him and pointed at Zhang Jianping and asked, "Do you know this person?" ”
Yuan Yelie raised his heart to his throat when he saw it, but pretended to be indifferent: "I don't know, he is not the one with the surname Wang." ”
The enemy was anxious and immediately asked, "Didn't he give you the document?" ”
Yuan Yelie shook his head firmly: "No! ”
When the enemy saw it, he immediately became angry and threw Yuan Yelie to the ground with one punch. After punching and kicking him to vent his anger, he was pushed into the torture room and used cruel means such as tiger stools, electrocution, and whipping to try to make him submit to confessions.
However, the revolutionary faith of our Communists in "the people and the nation" was incomparably lofty and firm, and Yuan Yelie stood up from beginning to end and clenched his teeth without uttering a word.
Torture to extract confessions to the end, the enemy is also tired, and finally can only be installed on an inexplicable charge of "endangering the Republic of China", sentenced to 5 years in prison, and imprisoned in Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison.
During his detention, Yuan Yelie completely broke off contact with the organization. The organization did not understand its situation, and it also developed a wary heart for it.
At that time, there were two main major problems facing our party:
I. Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary contingent.
Since Chiang Kai-shek single-handedly concocted the "White Terror" in Shanghai on April 12, 1927, a large number of outstanding party members and progressive friends of our party have been slaughtered by him. From that time on, fighting wits and courage with the reactionary forces of the Kuomintang has always been the main theme of our party's revolutionary work. Enemy agents are everywhere and pervasive, so there is no room for sloppiness.
2. Traitors within the Party.
The threat from traitors in the Party is more deadly to our Party than the danger of the enemy. Only a month before Yuan Yelie's arrest, Gu Shunzhang, the biggest traitor of our party, betrayed the revolution and faith, almost bringing ruin to the Shanghai underground party, and a large number of outstanding Communist Party members were slaughtered.
Therefore, after Gu Shunzhang, our party has always been nervous and cautious about comrades who may be tainted and suspected. After all, the bloody experience tells us that the slightest carelessness is a full loss!
Therefore, looking back at history, we find that the cautious attitude of the party organization toward Yuan Yelie at that time was both excusable and helpless.
In October 1934, Yuan Yelie's amnesty and commutation of his sentence had already met the conditions for release from prison, but the Kuomintang side ordered him to write a "letter of repentance" as a condition for his release from prison.
In the face of oppression and coercion of confessions, Yuan Yelie refused to yield and said with a straight face: "I am not a Communist Party, what have you made me regret?" ”
Yuan Yelie's tough attitude provoked the Kuomintang's displeasure and rebellion, and in the end, the Kuomintang Shanghai Municipal Party Department forcibly transferred him to the Suzhou Provincial Reflection Institute for reflection on the grounds that "Yuan Yingwu has never admitted to joining the Communist Party, has no remorse and sincerity, and should be sent to the Provincial Reflection Institute for reflection."
The so-called Introspection Institute is a kind of political prisoner concentration camp set up by the Kuomintang, which conducts introspection and education of revolutionaries through various means in order to achieve the goal of ideological united front and even plotting rebellion.
During his time in the Reflection Institute, Yuan Yelie, instead of being brainwashed by the enemy, made full use of his outstanding ideological united front ability to turn the Reflection Institute into his own revolutionary stage and used various forms to expose to his fellow prisoners the ugly features of the Kuomintang's foolishness and poisoning of everyone's souls, so that a large part of the Democrats among them had a fuller understanding of our party's ideology and propositions.
Originally, the original period of reflection was only six months, but the Kuomintang side maliciously extended Yuan Yelie's reflection time to 10 months.
10 months later, the Kuomintang set up a set for Yuan Yelie, pretending that he would be discharged from the hospital after going through a bail formality and handwriting a discharge certificate.
Yuan Yelie found someone to handle the bail formalities according to the usual practice, and also wrote his own experience and experience of the "Three People's Principles" and the future development of the nation in the discharge certificate, but was rejected by the enemy and ordered to rewrite.
It turned out that the enemy was not satisfied with what Yuan Yelie had written, and he deliberately found a sample discharge certificate that he did not know where it came from, and asked him to write it, with the aim of forcing him to write a certificate of "anti-communist self-surrender".
In the face of the enemy's tricks and oppression, Yuan Ye retorted angrily: "I am not a Communist Party member, let alone anti-government words and deeds. How do I write an anti-communist surrender statement?! ”
The people in the waiting room said fraudulently: "Your mind has not changed, or are you afraid of writing a statement that the Communist Party no longer wants you?" ”
In the face of the enemy's trap, Yuan Yelie was not deceived at all and righteously said: "Before in the patrol room, I did not bend into a confession, and now that I am discharged from the hospital, I am only willing to speak according to my actual situation!" ”
Due to Yuan Yelie's resolute struggle and the external mediation of our Party, the Kuomintang could only prevent Yuan Yelie from being released in October 1935 due to insufficient evidence.
From May 1931 to October 1935, Yuan Yelie suffered a total of four and a half years in prison, which not only brought him flesh and skin suffering, but also brought him an indelible negative impact on his later political career.
From his release from prison in October 1935 to 1942, Yuan Yelie never held an important position in the military, mainly focusing on political work and education, because our party weighed and conditionally trusted and examined him from many aspects based on the consideration that he had been imprisoned by the enemy for four and a half years.
In March 1942, our party's review of Yuan Yelie was concluded, and he was officially allowed to return to the army sequence and serve as the chief of staff of the Qinghe Military Region.
At this time, from 1931 to 1942, it is not polite to say that Yuan Yelie's four-and-a-half-year arrest experience directly reduced his revolutionary experience during the 11 years.
Readers who know history know what this period, 11 years, meant to a Communist.
After being reinstated in 1942, Yuan Yelie performed prominently in the anti-Japanese battlefield, including the famous Battle of Yucheng after becoming the acting commander of the Bohai Naval Region in September 1944.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Yuan Yelie's performance in the War of Liberation was also remarkable, and he achieved the position of deputy commander and chief of staff of the East China Military Region in December after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and was promoted to commander in February 1951.
When he was awarded the rank in 1955, Yuan Yelie was awarded the rank of major general.
At the time of the Wuchang Uprising, Yuan Yelie had already been promoted to the position of commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 75th Regiment of the 25th Division of the National Revolutionary Army (ye Ting Independent Regiment expanded), while Lin Biao was only the commander of the 73rd Battalion, 7th Company of the 73rd Regiment of the 25th Division, while Su Yu was only a guard squad leader.
When the title of Ke 55 was awarded, Lin Biao was awarded the title of Marshal and Su Yu was awarded the title of General.
When he was first appointed commander of the navy of the East China Military Region, Two of Yuan Yelie's subordinate deputy commanders, Liao Rongbiao and Song Shilun, were awarded lieutenant generals and one was awarded the title of general.
In terms of seniority, these two founding generals were far inferior to Yuan Yelie.
Therefore, the author analyzes that Yuan Yelie only commented on major generals in the end, and in the final analysis, he was stuck in the 11 years from 1931 to 1942.
Despite this, Yuan Yelie was quite open-minded about his own titles, and from beginning to end he was devoted to serving the country and the people, putting aside his fame and fortune and official wealth.
In February 1953, Mao Zedong, accompanied by Luo Ruiqing, then minister of public security, inspected the navy of the East China Military Region.
When the staff members introduced the navy top brass to the chairman as usual, Mao Zedong recognized Yuan Yelie at a glance and excitedly shouted twice: "You are Yuan Yelie, you are Yuan Yelie!" ”
It can be seen from this that in Mao Zedong's heart, Yuan Yelie's weight has never changed, and the chairman, in his unique way, has given Yuan Yelie a gratifying score for his revolutionary journey.
About the Editors:
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