In 1955, the mainland implemented a military rank system, a total of 10 people were awarded the rank of marshal, 10 generals, 55 admirals, 175 lieutenant generals, 800 major generals, 32,000 officers at the school level, 498,000 officers at the lieutenant level, and 113,000 warrant officers. The workload of awarding and commending so many generals and military cadres is very huge, and some controversies will arise, which is inevitable. Some generals feel that their military ranks are too high to give up, such as Marshal Luo Ronghuan, General Xu Haidong, General Xu Guangda, etc., and also suspect that their ranks are low, such as Xu Shiyou, Wang Jinshan, Wang Bicheng, Zhong Wei, and so on.
However, the most controversial is the conferring of the title of the founding general, there are 10 founding generals, but there are 4 people whose ranks have been disputed, of which the general Xu Guangda is the most controversial, not only Xu Guangda himself feels ashamed, even many generals think that Xu Guangda's military rank is indeed high. Xu Guangda had proposed three times to give up his title, but Chairman Mao did not allow it, and praised him: "Great General Xu Guangda, several times to give up his title, the british name is famous in the world!" ”
So, for what purpose did the Central Committee implement the rank system in 1955 and engage in large-scale awarding of titles?
Why did the PLA implement a rank system in 1955?
At first, our army did not advocate the rank system, our army paid attention to the equality of officers and men, and the implementation of the rank system in the army always made people feel a bit of a taste of "rewarding merits and deeds." During the first period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, many generals of our army had been in the Northern Expeditionary Army, and they clearly knew the unequal side of the officers and men within the Nationalist army, and that people with military ranks had to suppress ordinary soldiers in terms of material, treatment, and status, which led to the breeding of habits in the old army and weakened the overall combat effectiveness of the troops. Therefore, at the beginning, many people did not advocate the rank system, and moreover, the political commissar of our army and the democracy of party members and other systems made up for some series of problems such as command, supply, and logistics of some troops, so this matter was postponed again and again.
But later, as the number of our army is too large, in order to achieve unified coordinated command, it is difficult to coordinate without a hierarchical rank system, for example, both are division commanders, when they are unified command together, who should give orders, if there is a military rank, the command of the high rank is low, the rank is the same, and the top command. In 1940, Peng Dehuai proposed to the Central Committee to implement the military rank system, but at that time it was the period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the tasks were heavy, the troops were too scattered, and later the War of Liberation, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and other wars were delayed. The reason why the military rank system was implemented in 1955 was mainly due to several considerations.
1. In order to improve the treatment of the army
In the middle and late period of the Liberation War, our army successively liberated the major cities throughout the country, most of the generals and soldiers of our army were peasants from poor backgrounds, many people had never entered the city, they saw the strange things in the city and felt fresh, they wanted to buy everything, but they couldn't afford to buy it, so they put it and put it away. Our army is a collective supply system, the army's food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and so on are all uniformly arranged and distributed, and the allowances are very small, so there is no money to buy at all, at first it was fine, but later it was often blinded. Many people are born and die for most of their lives, and many generals can't even afford to buy some basic daily necessities.
2. In order to facilitate and coordinate the overall command of the troops
During the period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, our army was fortunate, and it was very handy in planning the corresponding base areas and the form of the field army, each of which was formed into a system, and the coordination, overall planning, and command were very handy. However, during the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, an embarrassing situation arose. At first, the Volunteer Army was mainly composed of the 13th Corps of the Northeast Field Army, but later more and more troops were deployed, some troops withdrew to the country for recuperation, and some troops were replenished to the Korean battlefield. The composition of these units is complicated, including the units of the first, second, third, and fourth fields, the troops of the North China Field Army, and the rebel troops of the former Kuomintang. The command framework of the Volunteer Army remained unchanged, except for Peng Dehuai, the system of the Volunteer Army Command Headquarters was mostly the generals of the Four Fields, such as how Xie Fang (Major General), chief of staff of the Volunteer Army, commanded Chen Geng (General). You are the commander of Shino, I am the commander of Nino's corps, you are the commander of Sanno's corps, I am the commander of Shino's corps, why do you command me to fight.
3. Diplomatic embarrassment
The U.S. military and the Soviet army are both rank systems, in the Dprk negotiations, the U.S. military negotiators have three or four stars on their shoulders, our army has nothing on their shoulders, and people who don't know think that our army has sent an ordinary soldier or a civilian officer to participate in the negotiations. At that time, our army and the Soviet army often had cooperation and exchanges, and when the generals of our army met with the generals of the Soviet army, our army could know the identity of the representative of the Soviet army as long as it looked at the shoulder of the other party, and the representative of our army had to introduce a bunch of them to reflect the identity to show respect for others.
Therefore, in 1955, after the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, our army realized the rank system.
Of the 10 founding generals, why do only 8 enjoy the treatment of generals?
Another purpose of the ranks was to honor the generals who had made great contributions to the birth and death of national independence and national liberation, and the ranks also represented different treatment. For example, the founding marshal belongs to the third level of administration, enjoys the treatment of politburo members, the founding general enjoys the treatment of the fourth level of administration, the treatment of the deputy prime minister, the founding general belongs to the fifth level of administration, enjoys the treatment of the secretary general of the State Council, the founding lieutenant general is the sixth level of administration, has the treatment of a minister, as long as it is above the rank of lieutenant general, can have a secretary and health care doctor, and so on.
The only treatment that enjoys asymmetric treatment appears among the 10 founding generals, who originally enjoyed the treatment of the fourth level of administration, but only 8 generals had the same treatment and rank, and the treatment and rank of two were not equal. Among them, General Zhang Yunyi enjoyed the treatment of the marshal level, that is, the third level of administration, while Xu Guangda enjoyed the treatment of the general.
The general Xu Guangda was personally approved by Chairman Mao to enjoy the treatment of the third level of administration, while General Xu Guangda proposed it himself, and he insisted on it repeatedly, and Chairman Mao agreed.
Why is Zhang Yunyi treated as a marshal?
For Zhang Yunyi, first, Zhang Yunyi was old and in poor health, he was 63 years old when he was awarded the title in 1955, one year older than Chairman Mao, and Lin Biao and Su Yu were only 2 years old when Zhang Yunyi joined the League to make a revolution. Among the 10 marshals, except for Mr. Zhu, the other nine people had to call him Big Brother.
Second, Zhang Yunyi's qualifications are very high, and he is given higher treatment so as not to appear embarrassed.
Chairman Mao once said: "There are not many people in the Kuomintang army who can speak, and Zhang Yunyi is one of them. ”
Zhang Yunyi served as a staff officer in Sun Yat-sen's presidential palace, before Chiang Kai-shek. He and Xue Yue were classmates and had close ties with senior Kuomintang generals such as Bai Chongxi, Li Zongren, and Yang Hucheng. He participated in the Nanchang Uprising, participated in the command of the Guangzhou Uprising, and later mixed into the top level of the Guangxi Kuomintang Army, launched the Baise Uprising in Guangxi with Deng Xiaoping, formed the Seventh Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and served as a commander, and was one of the main founders and founders of our army.
When forming the New Fourth Army, he personally went to Macao to ask Ye to stand out of the mountains, and then contacted the Red Army guerrillas in the eight southern provinces with Chen Yi, and made great contributions to the establishment of the New Fourth Army. Later, the New Fourth Army was rebuilt, Chen Yi was the commander, he was the deputy commander, and when Chen Yi returned to the central government, he commanded the New Fourth Army. During the Liberation War, he moved to the second front, and during the Battle of Huaihai, he mobilized more than 4.3 million migrant workers to support the front, and his name ranked first in the list of celebrations of the Huaihai Campaign. In the Battle of Pingjin and the Battle of Crossing the River, he also organized millions of migrant workers to support the front.
Zhang Yunyi, who has worked hard and done a lot, should enjoy the treatment of a marshal.
Why does Xu Guangda have so many doubts?
The rank evaluation of the founding general is different from other military ranks, and generally the ranks of the upper, middle and major generals are compared to the military merits, seniority, and position, and also secretly compare political performance. However, there are more factors for generals, there are four founding generals whose ranks are controversial before they are awarded, Su Yu's battle merits exceed those of many marshals, and many people think that they should be awarded marshals; Xu Haidong was absent from half of the War of Resistance and the entire Liberation War, and in terms of battle merits and military positions, he had not been in charge of the army for many years, but he still ranked second among the generals; in 1952, when selecting members of the Central Military Commission, there was no Wang Shusheng and Xu Guangda.
The selection of generals considers not only military merit, positions and qualifications, but also special contributions and the military system they represent. For example, Su Yu represents the series of battle achievements; Xu Haidong represents, in addition to the Eyu-Anhui base area, he mainly made special contributions during the period of the agrarian revolution; Huang Kecheng's strategic vision is comparable to Chairman Mao's, who has predicted the trend of the liberation war and suggested that the central authorities quickly seize the northeast; Chen Geng dangling, in addition to Zhu Laozong, is also more than the remaining 9 marshals, second only to Zhang Yunyi in seniority and second only to Su Yu in battle achievements; Tan Zheng is the representative of the political work general; Xiao Jinguang is the four wild tiger generals, and the commander of the four corps in the four fields has the strongest comprehensive ability, and is also a representative of the navy Zhang Yunyi was highly qualified and was the four giants of the New Fourth Army; Luo Ruiqing was a public security general.
The number of the Four Fronts Army had far exceeded that of the Central Red Army, and Wang Shusheng, as the former deputy commander-in-chief of the Four Fronts Army and one of the main founders of the Eyu-Anhui base area, should naturally be the representative of the general.
Xu Guangda was temporarily assaulted, and Xu Guangda's qualifications, military achievements, and positions were not enough to convince the public. For example, Xiao Ke, Wang Zhen, Zhang Zongxun, Gan Siqi and others must surpass Xu Guangda in terms of military merit, seniority and position. In particular, Xiao Ke, Xu Guangda was only a division-level cadre during the agrarian revolution, while Xiao Ke was once the second-in-command of the Red Second Front, and his seniority and position were several levels higher than Xu Guangda's; Xiao Ke was also the commander of the Eighth Route Army during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and he was a marshal at the same level.
There are 3 reasons why Xu Guangda was assaulted as a general:
1. Xu Guangda is the old man of the Red Second Front, the Central Red Army has produced 8 marshals, the Red Second Front has only one marshal, and the generals of the Fourth Front army have Wang Shusheng and Xu Haidong, including Chen Geng, who was once the chief of staff of the Four Fronts Army.
2. In the nine major armies of the Red Army, the remaining corps either have representatives of marshals or generals, and there are not many outstanding generals in the Red Second Army, and Xu Guangda, as one of the only four remaining party members of the Red Second Army, is the best representative.
3. Xu Guangda is the commander of the armored corps of our army, and the armored corps of the Soviet army is the rank of general. In order to exchange military exchanges on an equal footing and develop our army's armored units, Xu Guangda should be a general.
Therefore, from the perspective of these conditions, Xu Guangda's award of the title of general is truly deserved, and there is nothing to dispute. However, General Xu Guangda always felt ashamed, and several times proposed to give up his title, Chairman Mao refused many times, and finally compromised, and the central authorities accepted Xu Guangda's request to reduce his treatment and only enjoyed the treatment of generals.