Among the more than 1,000 founding generals of the People's Liberation Army, Major General Zeng Kelin may not be special, and his position is not particularly high. However, in the early stage of the Liberation War, he had a far-reaching impact on the development of the Northeast Field Army and played a very positive role in the strategic decision-making of the central authorities.
Zeng Kelin was an old revolutionary, who joined the guerrillas in 1928 and the Red Army in 1929, participated in the 25,000-mile Long March, and participated in important battles such as the four crossings of chishui, the forced crossing of the Jinsha River, and the Dadu River. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he led his troops to be active in the land of eastern Hebei and inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army many times.
On July 19, 1942, Zeng klin led the troops in
The dry river grass was ambushed and completely annihilated
More than 100 Japanese troops in the first machine gun squadron of the First Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Garrison Army, who caused the Panjiayu massacre, killed the culprit of the tragedy, Sasaki Jiro.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the strategic position of the northeast was immediately highlighted, and the northeast not only had rich grain, mineral resources, and forestry resources, but also had the most developed railway system and a large number of arsenals in the country at that time. Both for the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the northeast is very important.
However, at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang army was shrunk in the southwest region, while the Communist-led Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were active in North China and East China, whether on the road or from the sea passage to the northeast, the distance was very close.
Moreover, at that time, there was also a unit led by the Communist Party of China that returned to the northeast with the Soviet army, which was the 88th Brigade of the Soviet Far East International, the predecessor of this unit was the Northeast Democratic United Army, which had fought against the Japanese army in the northeast for many years and was very familiar with the northeast.
The reaction of the top generals of the Eighth Route Army was also very rapid, and on August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. On August 9, 1.5 million Soviet troops attacked the Japanese Kwantung Army entrenched in the northeast of China from the east, middle and west roads, and although the Japanese Kwantung Army had 700,000 people, the elite were all drawn to the Pacific Theater, and the remaining soldiers had limited combat effectiveness.
On the same day that the Soviet army launched an offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army, Chairman Mao issued a statement entitled "The Last Battle against the Japanese Kou", calling on all anti-Japanese forces in China to hold a nationwide counteroffensive. On August 10, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, on behalf of the Yan'an headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, issued an order for a general offensive to the Liberated Areas.
On August 11, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De issued an order to Li Yunchang of the Jireliao Military Region, requiring the department to immediately march to the northeast, cooperate with the Soviet army, and take over the northeast.
After receiving the order from the central authorities, the party committee of the Jireliao Military Region immediately held an emergency meeting on August 14, and the meeting decided to draw 13,000 people and more than 2,000 local cadres from the Jireliao Military Region to advance to the northeast and Rehe in three ways.
Among them, Shu Xing, the 13th Regiment of the 14th Military Sub-district led by Li Ziguang and more than 2,000 people of the Tingbei Detachment marched for the West Road and marched toward Chengde, and the 11th Regiment and the 51st Regiment of the 15th Military Sub-district led by Zhao Wenjin totaled more than 3,000 people, marching for the middle road, marching towards Chifeng and Beipiao.
The largest was the 16th Military Subdistrict of Jireliao led by Zeng Kelin, which had 12 regiments, 18 regiments, seven detachments, reconnaissance companies, special service companies, teaching teams, and more than 4,000 troops of the Korean volunteer military industry, and some local troops accompanied by them, preparing to receive major cities along the way.
At that time, the first difficulty encountered by Zeng Kelin was Shanhaiguan,
When Zeng Kelin arrived at Shanhaiguan, Japan had already surrendered, but the Japanese army at Shanhaiguan refused to surrender to the Eighth Route Army on the grounds that Shanhaiguan did not belong to the northeast, and wanted to surrender to the Kuomintang army. Shanhaiguan has 16,000 Japanese puppet troops, and there are police brigades and gendarmes, special agent defense, and there are 19 brigades and 27 crusade teams of puppet troops nearby.
Two cavalry regiments and three regiments of the North China Pseudo-Security Army, all of which added up to 100,000 troops.
Zeng Kelin found the Soviet army and asked the Soviet army to help fight together, but the Soviet army also refused to support Zeng Kelin's department on the grounds that Shanhaiguan belonged to north China and did not belong to the northeast. In the end, Zeng Klin said that the Soviet army agreed to artillery support the Eighth Route Army.
With the strong artillery support of the Soviet army, Zeng Kelin only took four hours to annihilate more than 200 Japanese troops and more than 1,000 puppet troops, and the remaining Japanese puppet troops fled to Qinhuangdao, and our army successfully recaptured Shanhaiguan.
After the troops arrived in Jinzhou, Zeng Kelin left 500 people, and with the help of the Soviet army, these 500 people disarmed about 5,000 people in a brigade of the Jinzhou pseudo-Manchurian army, obtained 28 artillery pieces, 216 light and heavy machine guns, more than 3,200 rifles, 150 pistols, more than 100 boxes of shells, more than 500 bullets, 20 cars, and zeng Kelin left more than 500 people to quickly expand the strength of a brigade.
After the troops arrived in Shenyang, because the Soviet military had not received a note, they felt very sudden, and Major General Kaftong, commander of the Soviet army's Shenyang city defense, asked Zeng Kelin: "What kind of troops are you?" Where did it come from? Who called you here? ”
Zeng Kelin replied calmly: "Our unit is the Eighth Route Army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which marched into the northeast in accordance with the orders of the Eighth Route Army's Yan'an headquarters, cooperated with the Soviet army in fighting together, liberated the northeast, recovered the lost land, took over the northeast, and maintained order in the northeast." ”
At that time, the Soviet army had reached an agreement with the Nationalist side to hand over the big cities in the northeast to the Kuomintang army, so it was very difficult for the Soviet army to finally decide to let Zeng Kelin station his troops in Sujiatun, 30 kilometers from Shenyang. At this time, the people of Shenyang already knew the news of the arrival of the Eighth Route Army, and hundreds of thousands of people spontaneously poured into the streets, shouting slogans such as "Long live the Eighth Route Army" and "Welcome the Eighth Route Army to Shenyang", and tens of thousands of people stopped Zeng Kelin's troops and prevented them from leaving Shenyang.
The commander of the Soviet city defense was shocked by this scene and immediately decided to let Zeng Kelin lead the troops to be stationed in Shenyang.
The next day, the supreme commander of the Soviet army in Shenyang, General Kravchenko, commander of the Sixth Army of the Guards Army, met with Zeng Kelin and suggested that the Eighth Route Army should not directly enter Shenyang in the name of the Eighth Route Army, so as not to irritate the Kuomintang army and the Americans, but stationed in Shenyang in the name of the Northeast People's Autonomous Army.
The pragmatic Zeng Kelin immediately agreed, and served as the commander of the Shenyang Garrison Headquarters, and began to take over the city defense of Shenyang in an all-round way.
Only three days after Zeng Kelin took over Shenyang, he disarmed 15,000 puppet troops in Shenyang, and comprehensively took over Liaoning and all parts of Jilin in five routes, disarmed the Japanese puppet army, carried out a comprehensive expansion of the army, and cleared the way for the arrival of the main force of the Eighth Route Army. In just one month, Zeng Kelin expanded his 4,000-man force to 9 brigades, 7 independent regiments, and 60,000 people.
When Zeng Kelin first arrived in the northeast, his relations with the Soviet army were fierce, and he took over the Shenyang Arsenal and the arsenals of Fushun, Liaoyang, Benxi and other places.
Zeng Kelin also took over the Largest Arsenal of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the Sujiatun Arsenal, and fearing that the Soviet Army would repent, Zeng Kelin sent a regiment to remove 20,000 rifles, more than 1,000 light and heavy machine guns, 156 artillery pieces, and a large amount of military supplies from the arsenal in three days and three nights.
Zeng Kelin not only armed his own troops, but also provided a lot of ammunition support to the 359th Brigade, Shandong Luzhong Troops, Shandong Jiaodong Troops and Yan'an Lai's First Brigade.
Zeng klin's practice was soon detected by the Kuomintang side and the United States, and at that time the Soviet Union and the Kuomintang side also signed a treaty between the United States side that the Eighth Route Army was not allowed to do so in the northeast. So soon the Soviets stopped zengklin's behavior and also withdrew some of the arsenals, and zengklin was very angry about this and went to the Soviet headquarters to theorize.
The Soviet general invited Zeng klin to a cocktail party, at which the Soviet general deliberately embarrassed Zeng Klein and told him to drink a glass of liquor and give him an arsenal. The Soviet generals present all looked at Zengklin and thought he would retreat.
But Zeng Kelin did not hesitate, picked up the wine glass and began to drink one cup after another, drank 12 glasses of vodka in one breath, directly fainted on the ground, and was sent to the hospital for treatment. In the end, the Soviets also kept their promise and gave 12 arsenals to Zhnklin.
On September 14, 1945, Marshal Malinovsky of the Soviet Army sent a plane and two representatives to Yan'an with Zeng Kelin. Zeng Kelin reported to Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Ren Bishi, and other leaders for a day, and finally Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, Ren Bishi, and other leaders held a meeting all night to convey the minutes of the meeting to Chairman Mao who was negotiating in Chongqing, and finally made up his mind to send troops to the northeast in an all-round way, and the Eighth Route Army, the 100,000 troops of the New Fourth Army, and 20,000 local cadres rushed ahead of the Kuomintang Military Region and reached the northeast.
Zeng Kelin's behavior in the northeast had a far-reaching impact on the later development of the northeast base areas and the overall revolutionary situation. Zeng Kelin's subsequent experience is also quite legendary; he was the commander of the first tank division of our army, the brigade commander of the fourth mixed brigade of the air force, the first air force unit of our army, and later the three regiments of the fourth air brigade were expanded into three air force divisions. In 1952, Zeng Kelin served as deputy commander of the Naval Aviation Department and commander of the First Aviation Division, and in 1975 he was appointed commander of the Naval Aviation Corps, and he was also the first general of our army who could fly a fighter jet, making great contributions to the construction of our army.