In 1955, General Huang Kecheng returned to his hometown to visit relatives. When the villagers heard the news, they welcomed them. Huang Kecheng cordially shook hands with the villagers one by one.
But when he saw a familiar figure in the crowd, he suddenly paused. The villagers reminded him that this was the head of the village.
Suddenly, the village chief walked up to Huang Kecheng and said a little nervously: "Do you remember me?" ”
Huang Kecheng smiled and said, "Of course I remember, I was a political commissar for you twenty-five years ago. ”
What happened to Huang Kecheng and the village chief? Why did Huang Kecheng become a general in the end, but this person was only a village head?
Difficult road from the military
The village chief's name is Zhang Tao.
Zhang Tao was a Red Army soldier. He was born in a small mountain village in Hunan Province to a poor family. In order to pay off the family's debts, his parents sold Zhang Tao, who was only six years old, to a landlord.
Zhang Tao grew up in the beating and scolding of the landlord. The landlord did not regard Zhang Tao as a human being, and often let him work day and night, and often did not give him food.
Later, Zhang Tao couldn't stand this oppressed life, so he secretly escaped while the landlord was not paying attention.
In order to survive and change this dark society, Zhang Tao decided to join the army.
At the beginning, Zhang Tao participated in the Hunan Army. At this time, the leader of the Hunan army was Tang Shengzhi.
However, Tang Shengzhi was not a good person, he colluded with the stubborn forces of the landlords, and often helped the landlords to prey on the people. The soldiers below also did the same, bullying men and women in the town, harming one party.
Zhang Tao was greatly disappointed, he only enlisted in the army for ten days to see the bad deeds of this army, and then he resolutely withdrew from the Hunan army.
Since then, Zhang Tao's revolutionary determination has become even stronger. He must wipe out all these evil forces and return the people to a peaceful homeland.
At that time, the first great revolution of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was launched, and the Northern Expedition was in full swing. So Zhang Tao went through a long journey and came to the Kuomintang army to join the army.
At that time, in order to train new recruits, the Kuomintang would send them to the training team for training. Zhang Tao also met Huang Kecheng during this period.
At that time, Huang Kecheng was Zhang Tao's instructor. Although Huang Kecheng is strict, he is very upright, so Zhang Tao has always had a good impression of this young instructor.
In addition to training the recruits, Huang Kecheng often gave them lectures, imparted military knowledge to them, and taught them how to fight.
Huang Kecheng once asked a question that impressed Zhang Tao very deeply, that is, if Tang Shengzhi's troops were caught, but Tang Shengzhi intended to surrender, what should they do?
Everyone unanimously agreed that Tang Sheng should be full of wisdom and evil, and should be shot on the spot.
Zhang Tao has deeply seen the evil deeds of Tang Shengzhi's troops, so his opinion is the same as everyone else, and he will never give Tang Shengzhi a chance to change.
But Mr. Wong disagreed. Because from the overall situation, Tang Shengzhi has been in Sichuan for a long time, and his power is huge, and he will affect his whole body.
If Tang Shengzhi is won over, then the forces related to Tang Shengzhi will see the opportunity to act and obey our army.
And if Tang Shengzhi is not given any chance to execute him directly, then other local forces will inevitably think that they have no possibility of being accepted by our army, and they will definitely fight hard at that time.
So in general terms, although Tang Shengzhi is a wicked person, he can't be killed.
Huang Kecheng's words gave Zhang Tao a great shock. He couldn't help but wonder, is a person like Tang Shengzhi really worthy of forgiveness?
Under Huang Kecheng's teachings, Zhang Tao and others increased their military knowledge and gradually improved their combat capability.
After the teaching life, Zhang Tao also followed Huang Kecheng to the battlefield and participated in the Northern Expedition.
Zhang Tao is very talented in combat, and with Huang Kecheng's guidance on the side, he soon made meritorious contributions on the battlefield and became an officer. Zhang Tao and Huang Kecheng's friendship is also getting deeper.
However, just as Zhang Tao's career was steadily rising, the relationship between the KMT and the CCP suddenly broke down. So the people in the army began to stand in line.
At that time, our party's prestige in the army was very high, and many people with lofty ideals chose to stand on our party's side.
In order to win the hearts of the people and retain talents, Lao Jiang not only threatened with force, but also began to tempt money.
The revolutionary will was unmoved, and left the national army with our party. And those who are not accustomed to living a hard life and can't withstand the temptation are falling to Lao Jiang's side.
The Kuomintang also attached great importance to Zhang Tao, and they promised Zhang Tao that they would be high-ranking officials and wanted to keep him.
However, Zhang Tao directly burned all the boxes of silver dollars they brought in front of everyone, and firmly stated his position: "I will revolutionize to death in my life, and I will never waver!" ”
In addition to being annoyed, the national army also admired Zhang Tao's ambition. Seeing that Zhang Tao could not be persuaded to do so, he could only put him under house arrest first.
Later, it was Huang Kecheng who rescued Zhang Tao after several rounds.
After the two escaped, Huang Kecheng solemnly asked Zhang Tao: "The revolution is very bitter and difficult, if you have time to regret it now, I will arrange for someone to send you home." ”
Zhang Tao said firmly: "I am ready to sacrifice for the revolution at any time, and I will never regret it." ”
Huang Kecheng admired Zhang Tao's determination very much, so he introduced him to work in the Red Fifth Army. Zhang Tao also officially joined our party.
After the organization learned about Zhang Tao's experience, it sent him to the Eighth Brigade of the Fifth Column as the captain, and Huang Kecheng became his political commissar.
From then on, the two began to fight side by side and participated in the construction of the revolutionary base area in southeastern Hubei together.
The two also had a very deep tacit understanding in the many days of getting along. With their joint efforts, they smashed the enemy's attacks again and again, and successfully guarded the development and growth of the base area.
However, just when everything was going for the better, the unexpected happened.
一失足便成千古恨
In 1930, the Red Army planned to attack Changsha. Zhang Tao and Huang Kecheng also led their troops to participate in the war.
At that time, the Red Army had just been founded, our army lacked advanced weapons and equipment, and the soldiers were only half-grown children of fifteen or sixteen years old, and their combat effectiveness was not strong.
The enemy not only has a large amount of American-style equipment, but even the strength of the army is dozens of times that of our army, and the tragedy of the battle situation can be imagined.
Zhang Tao already had mature combat experience at this time. In the face of the enemy's strong artillery fire, he was not afraid, but rose to the challenge and rushed to the front of the team. Huang Kecheng also followed.
The warriors followed the footsteps of the two men and bravely rushed into the camp of the enemy army. Although our army is weaker than the gun battle, if you fight in close quarters, the enemy will not be able to defeat our army.
Zhang Tao brandished a machete and slashed at the enemy's firearms, and after knocking down the enemy's weapons, he stabbed the sharp knife into the enemy's body.
He slashed left and right, scattering the enemy in all directions. The fighters also wiped out most of the enemy in one fell swoop.
As a result, just when the battle situation was gradually improving, several stray bullets suddenly hit Zhang Tao's shoulder, and Zhang Tao suddenly fainted.
Seeing this, Huang Kecheng hurriedly took advantage of the cover of the soldiers to carry Zhang Tao out.
After Zhang Tao was carried into the operating room, he was rescued for three days and three nights before he was rescued. Due to the tight war, Huang Kecheng didn't have time to wait for Zhang Tao to wake up and continued to go back to fight.
When Zhang Tao woke up, the troops had already been transferred. The superior left an order for Zhang Tao to lead the team to continue the battle when he left.
So Zhang Tao and Huang Kecheng separated, and the two also ran to different futures.
The Red Army moved large forces, and the enemy's forces gradually withdrew from southeastern Hubei. The Red Army's battle gradually began to go smoothly.
Zhang Tao was also promoted to commander of the Red Seventeenth Army after many victories.
After many battles, the base area in southeastern Hubei was gradually restored. The Red Seventeenth Army also became the main combat force in the base area, and Zhang Tao also became the main speaker.
But as his power grew, Zhang Tao's mind gradually became active, and he began to be dissatisfied with this base area, and wanted to expand his sphere of influence every day.
As our army grew, the enemy gradually felt threatened. So Lao Jiang ordered Guo Rudong to launch an "encirclement and suppression" against southeastern Hubei Province. Guo Rudong immediately sent troops to besiege our army.
After that, Zhang Tao transferred Guo Rudong's main force out by luring the enemy deep into the depths and carried out a siege and annihilation battle. Guo Rudong saw that the general trend was gone, so he took a few stragglers back to move the rescuers.
After the battle, Zhang Tao led his troops to destroy Guo Rudong's supply warehouse and seized a large amount of supplies.
At this time, the political commissar suggested that Zhang Tao take advantage of the fact that the enemy's rescue had not yet arrived, and quickly lead the troops to withdraw.
But after this victory, Zhang Tao has developed a mentality of underestimating the enemy.
He believed that the enemy's reinforcements were nothing to fear and could be completely destroyed. It is better to take advantage of this opportunity to wipe out all Guo Rudong's troops and further expand the base area.
However, the political commissar believed that the strength of our army was not enough to confront Guo Rudong's troops, so he strongly demanded that Zhang Tao withdraw his troops. Others also agreed with the commissar.
But Zhang Tao was stubborn. After all, he was the commander of an army, and everyone could not, so they could only stay and continue to fight.
As a result, to everyone's surprise, Guo Rudong actually moved seven brigades of rescuers, totaling more than 30,000 people.
And our army is less than 10,000 people, and the outcome of the battle can be imagined.
After several days and nights of hard fighting, Zhang Tao broke out with more than a dozen people. This battle dealt a serious blow to our army, and Zhang Tao regretted it.
Zhang Tao only came to his senses at this time, and deep fear arose in his heart. He seemed to feel the feeling of being on the operating table a few years ago, hovering on the line of life and death.
Zhang Tao did not dare to face the mistakes he made, nor did he dare to bear the consequences. So he took advantage of no one to pay attention and quietly left the army.
Remorse for life
After that, Zhang Tao joined the Kuomintang. At this time, Zhang Tao had completely forgotten his original intention of the revolution.
Zhang Tao thought that he had been a senior officer of the Red Army and would definitely receive preferential treatment from the National Army.
Unexpectedly, Lao Jiang didn't look at him at all at all, and when he saw that he couldn't say any secrets, he casually threw him into a unit as a sentry.
Zhang Tao couldn't stand such an insult, so he left the Kuomintang again. After that, Zhang Tao returned to his hometown and became an ordinary farmer.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, although some of his things were discovered, he was not punished because he did not do anything bad.
Zhang Tao was grateful for the country's tolerance and finally shed tears of remorse. He began to serve the people wholeheartedly and conscientiously implemented every policy decision of our party.
Later, because he did a lot of practical things for the village, the villagers elected him as the village head.
In 1955, Huang Kecheng became a general and returned to his hometown to visit relatives. Old friends who have been separated for many years have finally reunited.
Huang Kecheng had also heard about this old comrade-in-arms for a long time, and he had always felt very sorry. Now seeing that Zhang Tao sincerely repented, he was also very pleased.
Huang Kecheng and Zhang Tao chatted about the previous fighting years, and both of them were full of emotion.
Zhang Tao remembered that Huang Kecheng said that he would be lenient with Tang Shengzhi, and at that time he also said indignantly that he would never forgive sinners.
Only now did he understand how important a chance to turn a new leaf was to a person who had made a mistake.
Zhang Tao's ending can't help but be embarrassing. He once fought hard and shed blood for the revolution, but in the end he went astray because of a wrong thought. Therefore, when we make mistakes, we should face our mistakes head-on and be brave enough to bear the consequences. Of course, it's best not to make mistakes.