The general of the Republic today is General Zhuang Tian, who was awarded the rank of lieutenant general in 1955. Zhuang Tian, whose original name was Zhuang Zhenfeng, was born in 1906 to a poor peasant family in Wenyuan Village, Longjuan Township, Wanning County, Hainan Island, and he was the only boy in the family. In his childhood, Zhuang Tian followed his sister every day to herd cattle, cut firewood, and cut grass. He started studying at the age of eight, was very diligent and always had the best grades.
In the autumn of the age of 18, in order to make a living, Zhuang Tian left his hometown and went to Singapore.
Singapore was a British colony at the time. Shoda was introduced to work in a rubber factory. The factory was opened by British capitalists, and the labor intensity of the workers was high, and there were many fatal accidents at work. Zhuang Tian saw with his own eyes that the capitalists and foremen disregarded the lives of the workers and spent the money they had exploited by knocking out the bones and sucking the marrow, and his heart was very resentful. He often protected his co-workers who were unjustifiably abused by the foreman, and was expelled from the factory as a heretic by the capitalists. He went on the road for several months, without work, and suffered from unemployment and hunger.
Later, through the introduction of his compatriots, Zhuang Tian found a job burning boilers on a freighter run by Dutch capitalists. He got up early every day and worked for more than ten hours without rest, and if he slackened off, he would be scolded by the owner of the ship. Later, through the inspection and introduction of Huang Yidun, a member of the Communist Party on board, Zhuang Tian became a member of our party one night in March 1926. During Labor Day in 1928 and 1929, Chuang Tian led a strike of boatmen, and he was later sent to Moscow for training by the Singaporean head of our party. In October 1931, he graduated early with honors in all subjects.
In November 1931, Zhuang Tian secretly returned to China and arrived in Shanghai. He also came to Ruijin, the capital of the revolutionary base area, and Liu Bo undertook to meet him. Liu Bocheng said: "I read your academic performance card a few days ago, and I am also an excellent student." We in the Red Army School are in great need of talents now, and you have come to work in the Red Army School and enriched the team of instructors in our school. ”
Zhuang Tian worked actively in the Red Army, set strict demands on himself, and was soon promoted to company instructor and later served as the director of the political department of the model regiment. During the Long March of the Red Army, Zhuang Tian's Red Ninth Army paid a huge sacrifice to cover the transfer of the Central Red Army. In 1936, Zhuang Tian accompanied his troops on a western expedition, but after his failure, he returned to Yan'an. At the beginning of September 1940, Zhuang Tian and his party secretly crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and came to the Meihe base area where the Qiongya Special Committee was stationed, to meet with Feng Baiju and other leaders. Zhuang Tian was appointed deputy commander of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps. He presided over the opening of the school for military and political cadres, personally taught cadres and fighters, spread revolutionary traditions, imparted political work and combat experience, guided cadres and fighters to learn tactical techniques, and trained a large number of military and political cadres for the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps.
On December 15, 1940, Li Chunnong, deputy commander of the Kuomintang security forces in Qiongya, led more than 3,000 people to attack the U.S. base area. After a bitter battle, the Qiongya Special Committee decided to withdraw the main force from the US-United States base area. In 1941, both the Kuomintang army and the Japanese army launched a sweep of the Qiongwen base area. Zhuang Tian and other troops rose up to fight back and dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese puppet army. After the Japanese puppet army suffered a setback, it immediately increased its troops. In August 1943, the Qiongya Special Committee of the Communist Party of China led the anti-Japanese armed forces and gradually developed from the southwest and southeast roads to the Wuzhi Mountains. In the autumn of 1944, the Qiongya Special Committee reorganized the Independent Corps of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Brigade in Guangdong Province into the Independent Column of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Brigade in Guangdong Province, and Zhuang Tian was appointed deputy commander.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Kuomintang Qiongya authorities stepped up preparations for a civil war in accordance with Chiang Kai-shek's instructions. In February 1946, the Kuomintang 46th Army, with the strength of five regiments, divided into four roads and launched a large-scale attack on the Qiongya Liberated Area, and the Qiongya Civil War broke out in full swing. In April 1947, Zhuang Tian went to Guangdong-Guibian to lead the armed struggle, and in May he was ordered to withdraw to the Sino-Vietnamese border and later transferred to Vietnam for training.
During the training of Chuang Tian's troops in Vietnam, the French invading army launched a large-scale attack on the Vietnamese base area. In order to help the Vietnamese people in their struggle against France, at the request of the Ministry of Defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Trang Tin was sent to the Ministry of Defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a senior military adviser. He organized the cadres of the first regiment of training in Vietnam, helped the Vietnamese army to carry out military training, cultivated combat backbones, and also assisted General Wu Yuanjia, the head of the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense, to ambush a battalion of the French army on the Fourth Road of Dongxi in Taiyuan Province, annihilating more than 400 French troops.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhuang Tian successively served as the education chief and director of the training department of the PLA General Senior Infantry School, the commander of the Hainan Military Region, and the deputy commander of the Guangzhou Military Region. On April 25, 1992, Zhuang Tian died of illness in Guangzhou at the age of 86.