Many of the founding generals joined the Red Army very early and have been following the troops around since then, so they rarely have the opportunity to return to their hometowns. For example, the founding major general Wang Fuzhi joined the Red Army at the age of 12, and only returned to his hometown to visit his relatives 18 years later, and his old father almost did not recognize him.
Coincidentally, the experience of founding Major General Zheng Guozhong is very similar to that of Wang Fuzhi. Zheng Guozhong is a native of Hong'an, Hubei Province, born in 1913. At that time, although the Qing Dynasty had collapsed, warlords of all sizes often fought in a chaotic manner in order to compete for power and profit, and the lives of the people were miserable.
Major General Zheng Guozhong
Zheng Guozhong's family of four, with only one acre of thin land, could not maintain their livelihood at all. In desperation, my father rented a few acres of land from the landlord's family and became a sharecropper. Despite the family's daily toil, after paying the rent, the harvest is running out.
This year, the weather was severely dry, and the crops were not harvested, but the landlords still collected rent as usual. Zheng Guozhong's father was forced to have no choice but to mortgage his own acre of land to the landlord and become a complete proletarian. The family did not even have enough to eat, and Zheng Guozhong naturally had no money to study.
Later, in order to let Zheng Guozhong master a craft to make a living, his father sent him to a tailor shop in the town as an apprentice. The owner of the tailor shop is very harsh, letting Zheng Guozhong do some dirty and tiring work, but the annual salary is only a bucket of rice.
General Zheng Guozhong and his family
In 1929, the Red Army came to Hong'an, and they beat up local tycoons to divide the land, and the lives of the poor people were greatly improved. In order to defend the fruits of victory, many enthusiastic young people joined the army. 16-year-old Zheng Guozhong also wants to sign up, but his father does not agree, his health is not good, his son has become a pillar, once he leaves, what should the family's life do?
But Zheng Guozhong was determined to join the Red Army, and he took advantage of his parents' lack of attention, secretly ran to register, and then followed the Red Army team. In the days that followed, Zheng Guozhong followed Hongsi to fight against the enemy in the Eyu-Anhui and Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet regions, and made many military achievements, growing from an ordinary Red Army soldier to the commander of the main regiment.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zheng Guozhong entered the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and successively served as battalion commander, deputy regimental commander, regimental commander, deputy commander of the Third Military Subdistrict of the Taihang Military Region, and commander of the third detachment of the Taihang Column.
In late August 1940, Zheng Guozhong, then commander of the 769th Regiment of the 385th Brigade, under the command of Brigade Commander Chen Xilian, blocked the enemy at Lion's Brain Mountain to cover the fraternal troops fighting in the western section of Zhengtai Road. Shinaoshan is only a few kilometers away from Yangquan Station, the strategic position is very important, the Japanese army in order to seize the Shinaoshan, with heavy troops under the cover of aircraft and artillery launched a continuous onslaught.
The 769th Regiment fought with the enemy on the Lion's Brain Mountain, holding out for a full 6 days and nights, and at the most critical moment, the regimental commander Zheng Guozhong personally took the lead in rushing into the enemy group, and launched a white-knife battle with the enemy, and finally repelled the enemy.
After the war, Li Da, then chief of staff of the 129th Division, spoke highly of the 769th Regiment, saying: "The troops guarding Shinaoshan carried forward the style of brave fighting, fought tenaciously, and repelled the enemy's attacks again and again, which not only shows that our army attacked like a fierce tiger, but also defended like Mount Tai, and killed the mighty Japanese army!" ”
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zheng Guozhong entered the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army and served as the deputy commander of the Third Column, serving as Chen Xilian's deputy. In 1947, the Left Route Army of the Third Column, as Liu Deng's army, was ordered to advance into dabie Mountain, and under the condition of no rear support, launched the Zhangjiadian Campaign, which severely damaged the 88th Division of the Nationalist Army and annihilated more than 5,300 enemy troops.
The victory at the Battle of Zhangjiadian won the three columns a valuable period of rest. At this time, Zheng Guozhong had been away from his hometown for eighteen years, and during these eighteen years, he often thought of his parents, were they still alive? What is your physical condition?
However, due to the tense fighting, Zheng Guozhong has never had the opportunity to return to his hometown to visit his relatives. Now that the troops finally had a rare time to rest, Zheng Guozhong was determined to return to his hometown to visit his parents, who had not seen each other for eighteen years.
After receiving the approval of his superiors, Zheng Guozhong returned to his hometown where he thought about it day and night. When he first left home to join the Red Army, he was still a weak teenager, and now he is the deputy commander of tens of thousands of people, with a tiger's back and a bear's waist.
General Zheng Guozhong while serving in the Navy
After Zheng Guozhong joined the Red Army, his mother asked people to inquire about his news in many ways, but there was no reply. The mother also thought that her son had died on the battlefield, so she shed no less tears, and her eyes were almost blind. Therefore, when Zheng Guozhong stood in front of her, the old man did not recognize her for a moment and asked, "Sir, who are you looking for?" ”
Zheng Guozhong saw his mother full of white hair, his face was very old, tears flowed involuntarily, he knelt on the ground and prostrated his head and said: "Mother, I am your son Guozhong" The old man rubbed his eyes hard, only to find that he was really his son who had not been seen in eighteen years, and joyfully wiped his tears with the corners of his clothes.
Due to the combat mission, Zheng Guozhong only stayed in his hometown for a few days before returning to the army. After that, he followed Liu Deng's army and participated in the Battles of Huaihai, the Battle of Crossing the River, and the Liberation of the Great Southwest, and was promoted to deputy commander of the 11th Army of the Third Corps of the Erye With his merits. After the founding of New China, Zheng Guozhong took his parents to his side, and the second elder was able to enjoy his old age in peace. In 1955, Zheng Guozhong was awarded the rank of major general.