Luotian is a very ordinary small county in the northeast of Hubei, because of its special geographical location, it is of great strategic significance, and in the history of the Red Army, it has attacked here 12 times.
In early May 1934, this was the seventh time that the Red Army attacked Luotian. At that time, under the command of Xu Haidong, more than 2,000 people of the Red 25th Army set out from Wujiadian in Lihuang County (present-day Jinzhai) in Anhui Province, rushed to Luotian, and arrived at Luotian County in the early morning of the 16th.
At that time, Xu Haidong and political commissar Wu Huanxian attacked in two directions, from the west gate and the north gate. Due to the red army's adequate preparations, the enemy defenders rushed to battle, and after several hours of fierce fighting, most of the defending enemies were eliminated and successfully attacked the county seat. The county magistrate Wu Bingzhong saw that the situation was not good, and withdrew from the city with a family of old and young and remnants defeated.
The Red 25th Army successfully attacked the county seat, captured a large number of weapons and equipment and other materials, and captured more than 7,000 yuan in silver dollars alone, which was a big victory.
After the war, according to the custom, Xu Haidong held a summary meeting, at which some meritorious men in the battle were commended. However, after all, it was a summary meeting, and after the commendation, Commander Xu asked everyone to actively speak to see what experience this battle had worth summarizing and accumulating.
The Red Army had a rare victory in a big battle, and everyone spoke enthusiastically, of course, all of which were advantages, but one soldier stood up and thought about it and said, "Commander, I think there are still some deficiencies in this battle, and if the commander at that time had not made these mistakes, the results of the battle might have been greater, at least our losses would have been smaller." ”
After he finished speaking, there was a sudden silence around him, and they all looked at him in surprise, and many people were thinking, "This little soldier is really bold, daring to say in front of the commander that there is something wrong with his command."
Xu Haidong looked at him with encouraging eyes and said gently, "You talk about it."
The little soldier sorted out his thoughts and said: "When attacking the city gate, our firepower was not arranged, and the cover role of those light and heavy machine guns was not fully utilized, otherwise our casualties would not be so large." ”
"In addition, when we withdrew from the county seat, the order was somewhat chaotic, fortunately, the enemy was beaten away by us, and if they came back to the carbine, it would be trouble." The pistol regiment also occupied the vault half an hour later than expected, and if the original plan had been followed, more silver dollars would have been captured. ”
This little soldier was Liu Zhen, deputy squad leader of the Red 25th Army Pistol Regiment, who said three short sentences, but he said three big problems in this battle in a concise and concise manner.
Xu Haidong also said: "This soldier is not bad, willing to use his brain in battle, and is a good seedling to be a company instructor." At first, Liu Zhen thought that the commander was talking like this, but he did not expect that the appointment would come down quickly, and he was transferred to the 224 regiment and a battalion and a company as an instructor.
Embark on a revolutionary journey
Liu Zhen likes to use his brain, and it is also related to his education before joining the army. He was born in 1915 to a poor peasant family. Don't look at the poor family, the father is not small, when Liu Zhen was five years old, he said that he would send his son to study.
Liu Zhen this book is five years, the tuition fee is not much, but to the family to bring a lot of burdens, coupled with the grandparents have died in recent years, lending them money to do the aftermath, the family burden is more and more, 10 years old, the father due to perennial overwork suffered from asthma, Liu Zhen can only drop out of school to go home, share the burden of the family.
Fortunately, a few years later, under the leadership of our party, the local agricultural cooperative was created, the agricultural movement was launched, and the life of Liu Zhen's family was much better. In 1929, at the age of 14, Liu Zhen joined the Red Guards, and more than a year later, he joined the Red Army with the Red Guards, and Liu Zhen was assigned to the 1st Squad of the 4th Special Agent Brigade of the Northeast Hubei Provincial Committee, which is the famous "General Class".
The squad leader Chen Xianrui is a founding lieutenant general, he and Han Xianchu are the founding generals, after the founding of the country, the three of them got together, Chen Xianrui joked: "You are both generals, the rank is higher than me, do you still recognize me as a squad leader", Liu Zhen smiled and said: "What general is not a general, you will always be an old superior in our hearts." ”
Later, after the reconstruction of the Red 25th Army, the 4th Special Agent Brigade of the Northeast Hubei Provincial Committee was reorganized into a pistol regiment, and Liu Zhen was also promoted to deputy squad leader, but he did not expect that after the Battle of Luotian, Liu Zhen was appreciated by Commander Xu for saying a few words, and later Han Xianchu joked:
"Liu Zhen, you are really powerful, just said three sentences, the official was promoted to three levels, this deal is worth it."
A famous general of the Red Army
During the Long March of the Red 25th Army, in the case of the sacrifice of the company commander, he single-handedly picked up the girder, commanded a company to successfully block the enemy, covered the retreat of the main force, and after the war, Liu Zhen was promoted to the political commissar of a battalion.
The Red 25th Army's Long March was the shortest, but the whole army was only more than 2,000 people, and in the enemy's encirclement and blockade, it often encountered critical situations, which also gave Liu Zhen the opportunity to show. However, in a dangerous situation, injuries and bleeding were inevitable, and Liu Zhen's left arm and right chin were seriously injured during the entire Long March.
Later, in northern Shaanxi, the Red 25th Army and the Northern Shaanxi Red Army were merged into the Red Fifteenth Army, and Liu Zhen was also promoted to political commissar of the 225th Regiment. After returning from the Eastern Crusades, the 225th Regiment he led was expanded into the Red 73rd Division, and he was promoted to the political commissar of the division, and it can be said that within half a year, he was promoted from battalion political commissar to division political commissar, and this 21-year-old young man became the best among the young officers of the Red Army.
In 1940, Liu Zhen led the 344th Brigade south to Guoyang County, Anhui Province, and met with the Sixth Detachment of the New Fourth Army to meet the Division in Victory, and soon after the Second Column of the Eighth Route Army and the Sixth Detachment of the New Fourth Army were merged into the Fourth Column of the Eighth Route Army, the commander was Peng Xuefeng, the political commissar of the column was Huang Kecheng, the 344th Brigade was reorganized into the Fourth Brigade, and the brigade commander was still Liu Zhen.
In November of that year, the Japanese army gathered more than 5,000 people and launched an attack on the base area under the cover of aircraft artillery. During the retreat, the Fourth Brigade was suddenly attacked by the Japanese puppet army on three sides, and at the critical moment, Liu Zhen resolutely stayed behind and led a crack detachment to cover everyone's retreat.
Although the number of this left-behind unit is small, it is all a capable force, and with the brigade commander as the main backbone, everyone's mood to kill the enemy is high. When the Japanese puppet army approached a distance of 100 meters, Liu Zhen took the lead in raising his gun to shoot, and suddenly the gunfire was loud, and after ten minutes of fierce fighting, this enemy army was repelled, and Liu Zhen led the team to temporarily retreat.
On the way, Liu Zhen relied on the advantages of the terrain and constantly attacked the enemy troops. They did not have many people, they fought flexibly, the enemy army was powerful and had nowhere to go, and they cried bitterly, at which time Liu Zhen led everyone to join the large troops. A few days later, the Fourth Brigade and the Fifth Brigade launched a joint attack, finally repelling this invading enemy and incidentally recapturing the two county towns of Mengcheng and Woyang.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Liu Zhen went to the northeast with his army, and in 1946, he and Wu Faxian formed the second column of the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army, and the two served as the commander and political commissar of the column. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wu Faxian served as the director of the Political Department of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army, and Liu Zhen was the brigade commander of the Tenth Brigade of the Third Division.
This time when the leadership team was formed, the two were very familiar with each other and also respected each other very much, and the leadership team was united, and the combat effectiveness of the column also went up. Because the Second Column was known for fighting vicious and hard battles, he participated in almost all important battles in Higashino. Later, the 39th Army (reorganized from the second column) participated in the Battle of Pingjin, and later went south to participate in the liberation war of the southern provinces, with brilliant results.
Among the troops in the Four Wilds, Liu Zhen's team had the most military achievements, and it was not an exaggeration to call himself the "Number One Warlord of the Four Wilds". In 1955, at the age of 40, Liu Zhen was awarded the title of general, becoming one of the youngest founding generals, and it is worth mentioning that his two sons are also very good, a lieutenant general, a major general, and a family out of the three generals, which is really remarkable.