Born in a solid and stable family, he is full of worries and keeps searching! At a young age, he fought hard against the enslavement and oppression of imperialism! Finding his way to serve the country, he became a staunch communist. Zhu Rui went from being cautious and ambitious, worried about the fate of the country and the nation, and dreaming of finding a way to serve the country, and found the truth of communism in anxiety and hesitation, and then studied in the Soviet Union, growing from an aspiring young man to a communist fighter with firm beliefs.
The eastern section of the Impression Yellow River Scenic Area in Sucheng District, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province is located in the General Zhu Rui Memorial Hall. In the hall of the museum, there is a 5-meter-high sculpture of General Zhu Rui, dressed in military uniform, looking ahead. On the back of the sculpture is a line of large characters "Long live the people's artillery".
In the flames and smoke of the war of liberation, many brave and fearless military generals emerged in our army, who did not hesitate to pay the price of their lives for the liberation of the nation and the happiness of the people. Among them, General Zhu Rui, with his outstanding military ability and firm revolutionary conviction, became the highest-ranking general of our army who sacrificed his life during the War of Liberation.
In the movie "Armageddon", there is a very spectacular scene that is impressive, thousands of artillery pieces are lined up, aiming at the same target, at the same time, and firing together. This was the first time in the history of the Chinese People's Liberation Army that it surpassed the enemy in absolute artillery numbers, and such a spectacular scene appeared on the key battlefield of the Liaoshen Campaign, which was the Jinzhou Campaign.
Just two years ago, the PLA had almost no large artillery, and the so-called ground artillery was just carrying Japan ground mortars and grenadiers to fire a few small-caliber shells back and forth.
And in such a short period of time, there is one person who has contributed to the addition of so many large-caliber artillery pieces to the People's Liberation Army and the training of a large number of excellent artillerymen. This person was Zhu Rui, the only artillery commander of the People's Liberation Army at that time.
It's a pity that General Zhu Rui didn't see with his own eyes the scene outside Jinzhou City, where thousands of cannons were fired at once. Just before the attack on Jinzhou, General Zhu Rui unfortunately struck a mine and died heroically in order to find out the newly captured American howitzer as soon as possible!
On October 1, 1948, General Zhu Rui, who was called China's "artillery marshal" by Chairman Mao, came to the front line of the Yixian Battle to inspect. Suddenly, crackling gunshots rang out from the bunker hidden in the darkness, and Zhu Rui hurriedly pulled the soldiers to the side to fall to the low-lying place, everyone clinging to the ground, and the enemy's bullets kept grazing overhead.
At this moment, Zhu Rui saw that a comrade was lying on a relatively high ground, which was easily swept by the enemy's machine gun, Zhu Rui hurriedly reached out and pulled him, but it was this pull that touched a mine next to Zhu Rui. With a "boom", the mine exploded, and the fragments hit the heart directly, and General Zhu Rui died heroically on the spot at the age of 43, and General Zhu Rui also became the highest general who died in the mainland liberation war.
The news of Zhu Rui's sacrifice caused great shock to Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee, and Chairman Mao regretted that a bright star in New China had fallen like this, which was really embarrassing!
On 3 October, the Party Central Committee issued a telegram of condolence: "At a time when our army was victoriously attacking on the Bac Ninh Line, Comrade Zhu Rui, commander of the artillery of our Northeast People's Liberation Army, died honorably, which is indeed a huge loss to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people. ”
General Zhu Rui was the highest-ranking general who died in the Liberation War on the mainland, although China had not yet implemented the military rank system at that time, but in the hearts of Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee, General Zhu Rui had already been a well-deserved "artillery marshal".
Our Chinese artillery marshal
In September 1949, the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China in People's Republic of China was in full swing, and the Party Central Committee decided to hang a portrait of Chairman Mao in the center of the Tiananmen Tower.
In order to provide more portrait references for the painters, the staff searched for photos of Chairman Mao everywhere to find the most suitable positive portrait reference, and finally, Zhou Enlai found a few photos of Chairman Mao's life in Yan'an as a reference, among which this photo of Chairman Mao and General Zhu Rui is one of the many references for Chairman Mao's portrait painting.
On 1 October, the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China was successfully held under the attention of the whole world, and Chairman Mao's solemn and kind portrait was hung high on the tower of Tiananmen Square.
It is a pity that at this moment of national celebration, General Zhu Rui, who once took a photo with Chairman Mao, is long gone, and when the dawn of the victory of the revolution is approaching, Zhu Rui is forever sleeping on the battlefield.
In June 1945, the Party Central Committee wanted Zhu Rui to be the second deputy chief of the General Staff of the Military Commission, but Zhu Rui wanted to engage in the artillery department, because he studied artillery in Moscow back then, and after returning to China, he wanted to engage in artillery, but he never had the opportunity.
Chairman Mao personally talked to Zhu Rui after he found out, and as soon as the two met, Chairman Mao said with a smile: "Listen to En, you have an opinion on the work arranged by the central government, let's talk about it today, what do you think?" ”
Zhu Rui glanced at Chairman Mao embarrassedly, to be honest, the appointment of the Central Committee this time is a very high trust and appreciation for him, at that time the first chief of the General Staff of the Military Commission was Peng Dehuai, and the first deputy chief of the General Staff was Ye Jianying, and Zhu Rui felt a little flattered to be able to work with Peng Dehuai and Ye Jianying.
Zhu Rui pondered for a moment and said to Chairman Mao: "Chairman, I studied artillery in the Soviet Union, and when I returned to China, I wanted to go to the artillery school to be a teacher!" ”
One is the deputy chief of general staff of the Central Military Commission, the other is an instructor of the artillery school, the direct gap between the two is quite huge, Zhu Rui's choice made Chairman Mao a little surprised, and then Zhu Rui explained to Chairman Mao some of his ideas on the construction of Chinese artillery, Chairman Mao was greatly encouraged after hearing this, and said happily to Zhu Rui: "You just let it go, make a bridgehead!" ”
What made Chairman Mao change his mind was not only Zhu Rui's talent and experience in the field of artillery, but also Zhu Rui's noble character of not caring about the gains and losses of his status and not being a high-ranking official to do practical things.
After the conversation, Chairman Mao sent Zhu Rui out of the house, he held Zhu Rui's hand tightly, and said: "The Soviet Union has an artillery marshal, so you can be our Chinese artillery marshal!" ”
Beginning with Si, ending with Si, and growing old
Zhu Rui had a strong sense of struggle at a very young age, when he was a child, he met a new school teacher who had worked with Sun Yat-sen to do revolution, the teacher told Zhu Rui a lot of revolutionary party news, so that Zhu Rui's heart was restless, he used his spare time to read a large number of revolutionary books, and gradually established the revolutionary idea of saving the country and the people.
After the May Fourth Movement, Zhu Rui led his classmates to actively participate in the anti-Japanese patriotic struggle, and then learned about Marxism from revolutionary books and periodicals such as "Guide" and "New Youth", and Zhu Rui's ideological consciousness changed greatly.
In 1926, Zhu Rui, who was well-rooted, went to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow on the recommendation of the Guangdong District Academic Committee, and this study abroad experience became the most significant turning point in Zhu Rui's life.
After coming to Moscow, Zhu Rui overcame the language barrier in a very short period of time and entered the seventh class of Sun Yat-sen University, which was also the most talented in Sun Yat-sen University that year, and many outstanding talents of the Communist Party of China studied in the seventh class.
After graduating from Sun Yat-sen University, Zhu Rui entered the Krasin Artillery Officer School in Moscow, where he performed very well, and achieved excellent results in professional courses, political ideology, sports and labor, and was elected by the artillery school as a member of the Soviet Union Young Communist Committee.
Krasin Artillery School is a prestigious military academy in Moscow, which has successively trained a large number of outstanding military personnel for the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Red Army pursued the "artillery doctrine" and paid great attention to the development and training of artillery.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched a "counter-revolutionary coup", the "White Terror" shrouded the Communists, a large number of outstanding comrades were persecuted, and the bloody reality made the CCP realize the importance of armed revolution, and Zhu Rui, who was far away in Moscow, also strengthened his determination to learn artillery well.
In the end, Zhu Rui graduated from Krasin Artillery School with the results of the graduation examination and the actual combat "double first", and became the best graduate international student of that class.
Zhu Rui, who left the campus, returned to his heart like an arrow, and in the face of the kind invitations of various departments in Moscow, Zhu Rui refused, and couldn't wait to return to the embrace of the motherland, imagining the formation of an artillery team with strong combat effectiveness in the motherland.
It is a pity that the ideal is very full, the reality is very skinny, and there was no fertile soil in China at that time for Zhu Rui to give full play to his artillery talents, and for the Red Army and the New Fourth Army, the formation of an artillery unit was simply a luxury.
Coupled with China's backward weapons production capacity at that time, we were not yet able to mass-produce artillery, and the only ones that were captured were captured from the enemy. Faced with such a reality, Zhu Rui hid his dreams, obeyed the arrangements of the central government, and engaged in work in various fields, united front, party and government, and combat...... Zhu Rui is like a brick, where it needs to be moved!
In this way, it was not until the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression that Zhu Rui made time to ponder his "artillery dream"; after the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee wanted to appoint Zhu Rui as the second deputy chief of general staff of the Central Military Commission, and such an opportunity was extremely precious.
Zhu Rui resolutely refused the appointment of the central government and took the initiative to apply to be a teacher at the Yan'an Artillery School. It is true that the artillery school lacks teachers, but it also lacks a good principal.
Comrade Guo Huaruo, who founded the Yan'an Artillery School, fell to work because he was overly busy with work, and the position of principal had been vacant for several months before Zhu Rui came to the school.
In order to welcome Zhu Rui's arrival, Yan'an Artillery School organized all teachers and students to gather on the playground and held a grand welcome ceremony. On that day, Zhu Rui was wearing a faded old military uniform and yellow-rimmed glasses, tall and burly, but he looked like a literati.
With a mouth and a thick Jiangsu accent, Zhu Rui stood on the podium of the artillery school, raised his hands high, and delivered an inspiring speech.
Zhu Rui mentioned Chairman Mao's famous sentence "There is no victory without artillery", analyzed the importance of artillery to the victory of the revolution, and systematically described the important role played by artillery in the Soviet-German war.
Towards the end of the speech, Zhu Rui walked to the side of the podium, pointed to a few dilapidated cannons not far away, and said: "Don't underestimate these cannons captured from the enemy, although they are very broken and small, but for us this is a great heavy weapon, the treasure of our army, in the future, we will rely on artillery to achieve victory!" ”
On August 1, 1945, the opening ceremony of the Yan'an Artillery School was held, and this day was also the 18th anniversary of the founding of the mainland army.
The 24-gun salute was deafening, and the dust raised was more than three meters high, and in those years, the opening ceremony of such a scale could only be "enjoyed" by the artillery school, and no unit could be so "luxurious".
After the opening ceremony began, Zhu De, Ye Jianying and other central leading comrades came to the stage to deliver speeches, and then the artillery school showed its "rich" family background, mountain artillery, field artillery, and mortars were neatly arranged, although they were all dilapidated, and the number was not much.
The most wonderful thing in the whole opening ceremony was the shooting performance of Comrade Zhao Zhangcheng, the captain of the mortar team, who came to the mortar and squatted down, stretched out his right thumb to aim at the target, and then began to fire the bomb, but he did not expect that several shells hit the target accurately, and the audience instantly burst into warm applause.
After the opening ceremony, the course of the artillery school is gradually on the right track, but for Zhu Rui, the pressure is still not small, mountain artillery, mortars are the lightest firepower in the final analysis, in the general environment at that time, at most it is the accompanying firepower of the company-level infantry, and the real artillery strength can be shown is howitzers, cannons and heavy artillery.
However, in the Yan'an Artillery School of that year, the better artillery was only the 75-mm Japan Type 41 Mountain Cannon, which made the Chinese army suffer a lot of losses, and the soldiers hated the Japanese shells, once they were captured, they were more important than anything else, and the central government drew this Type 41 Mountain Gun from various units for the students of the Artillery School to study, but the number was still far from enough.
In addition to the scarcity of cannons, various basic teaching aids, such as telescopes, steering wheels, etc., are also in short supply. Zhu Rui gave full play to the spirit of hardship and hard work, and led the teachers of the school to make their own "teaching aids", replacing them with wooden horses if there were no horses, making them with wooden boards or cardboard if they did not have steering wheels, passing them orally if they did not have communication equipment, and replacing them with white clay if they did not have chalk......
It was under such difficult circumstances that Zhu Rui cultivated the first batch of artillery talents for New China and laid the foundation for the artillery construction of New China.
In the early days of the Liberation War, the situation of the Chinese revolution underwent tremendous changes, and the Central Committee decided to send all the more than 1,000 teachers and students of the Yan'an Artillery School to the northeast to use the materials from the northeast to establish an artillery unit.
There was such a saying in the army at that time, "the northeast is full of materials, how many guns and cannons are needed", Zhu Rui was most concerned about artillery, according to rumors, the Japanese invaders in the northeast left more than 6,000 cannons after surrendering, basically all of which were not damaged, and the ammunition and equipment were piled up like a hill.
Zhu Rui, who heard these rumors, was so excited that he couldn't sleep all night, and couldn't wait to go to the Northeast to show his skills, however, when he came to the Northeast, he found out how huge the gap between reality and rumors was!
In order to be able to capture more weapons in the northeast, Zhu Rui and the more than 1,000 teachers and students of the artillery school all traveled lightly, leaving only two rifles in each brigade.
After arriving in the northeast, Zhu Rui learned that the Soviet Red Army planned to hand over the northeast to the Kuomintang government, and some of the materials surrendered by Japan were in the hands of the Soviets, part in the hands of the Kuomintang, and a small part was taken away by the People's Autonomous Army that was the first to enter the northeast.
Such a result made Zhu Rui very disappointed, he unwillingly found the commander of the Soviet Far East Army Malinovsky, asked the Soviet Union to hand over the materials surrendered by Japan, Malinovsky was entangled by Zhu Rui had no way, casually gave him dozens of small-caliber old Japan guns, seeing this situation Zhu Rui understood that there was no hope here in the Soviet Union, if we want to form our own artillery, we have to be Chairman Mao's sentence - do it yourself, have enough food and clothing.
After returning from Malinovsky, Zhu Rui ordered all the teachers and students of the artillery school to disperse their operations, collect weapons, and develop troops.
For a time, all the teachers and students of the Yan'an Artillery School, even the horsemen and men, were organized into squads to search for weapons in various places in the northeast, as long as the Japan had appeared, they could see the figures of the teachers and students of the artillery school, and a deputy company commander named Zhou Tiancai collected more than 20 artillery pieces with his own efforts, and was known as the "hero of the artillery search"!
In this way, the teachers and students of the Yan'an Artillery School relied on the method of "picking up foreign falls" to collect more than 700 artillery pieces, more than 500,000 shells, and countless parts and equipment of various kinds, and the Chinese artillery team was established step by step with great difficulty.
By August 1946, the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, where Zhu Rui and the teachers and students of the artillery school belonged, already had four artillery regiments directly under the headquarters, plus an anti-aircraft artillery brigade and a combat vehicle brigade, and the artillery of the rest of the army units also grew rapidly, and for a time, artillery cadres became the most scarce talent in the troops.
In order to train a group of outstanding artillery cadres more quickly, Zhu Rui combined practice with theory and put forward the idea of cultivating artillery technology in the practice of the troops.
When we were still using Japan's old artillery, the Kuomintang had already used the latest American-style equipment, and the American-style 105-mm howitzers used by the Kuomintang in the bloody battle of Siping launched a frenzied bombardment of our army's positions, causing considerable losses to our army.
Japan's mountain artillery field artillery was placed in front of the United States heavy artillery, which was really not worth mentioning, and after the Battle of Siping, the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army suffered heavy casualties and had no choice but to retreat to the north of the Songhua River to recuperate.
This battle also gave Zhu Rui a great shock in his heart, the people's army is always slow in terms of weapons and equipment, and the Kuomintang, which was still fighting with the Communist Party for Japan's surrender materials, could not look at Japan's mountain artillery and field artillery at all at this time.
As the war situation became more intense, those Japan mountain artillery of our army also began to strike one after another, and at the most exaggerated time, there was a situation of shells falling on their own positions, and some hot-tempered commanders directly scolded after seeing it: "The artillery is out of spies, do not hit the enemy and fight Lao Tzu!" ”
For a time, there was also a saying in the army that "the artillery is not doing us a favor," and Zhu Rui was anxious to see these things, and China's artillery units urgently needed a set of constructive "growth guides."
At the 1947 Twin Cities Conference, Zhu Rui put forward a set of artillery tactical and technical ideas that he had researched, and Zhu Rui believed that China's artillery tactics could not copy the Soviet Union, nor could they learn from the Kuomintang, let alone lean on Japan, although the Soviet Union was also a people's army, the Kuomintang's artillery was more powerful than ours, and the artillery we used was Japanese-style, but we still had to create a set of artillery tactics that belonged to China, the people, and were inferior, destroying the enemy and preserving our own.
Subsequently, Zhu Rui led the artillery cadres to attack the fortified positions day and night, fully analyzed the failure cases, learned from them, and summed up the principles of Chinese artillery operations, including tactics such as concentrated operations, stormy operations, and coordinated operations.
Under the leadership of the new tactics, the people's artillery soon achieved good results, and made great contributions in the summer offensive and the winter offensive in 1947, and the Northeast Military Region highly affirmed the contribution and merits of the artillery and commended every commander and soldier of the artillery unit.
Ten years of courage to sharpen a sword, a sword to compete for nineteen continents. Up to the time of the Liaoshen Campaign, the people's artillery units were still quite large-scale, had formed a systematic combat effectiveness, and had made great contributions in many battles, which also greatly changed the combat mode of the Chinese army and promoted the modernization process of our army.
Sacrifice before dawn, and become a marshal without dying
In 1948, the Liaoshen Campaign kicked off, and our army decided to implement the strategy of "closing the door and fighting the dogs" and decided to attack Jinzhou first. If you want to fight Jinzhou, you have to take Yixian first, so the battle of Yixian is particularly important.
In the Battle of Yixian, Zhu Rui boldly tried a new tactic, he ordered his troops to put the artillery as close as possible to the enemy's fortifications and city walls, and fired directly at a distance of only a few tens of meters, so as to cause as much damage to the enemy's fortifications as possible.
Sure enough, under the continuous bombardment of our army's 150 mm caliber heavy artillery, the city wall of Yixian County was soon unable to withstand it, and a gap of more than 30 meters was directly blown up.
In order to find out the enemy's situation more accurately, Zhu Rui decided to take someone to the front line to personally inspect the actual effect of the artillery bombardment, but he never came back.
That night, Zhu Rui led a group of soldiers along a low-lying road to quietly touch under the city wall, and suddenly a row of machine gun bullets swept towards Zhu Rui's place, and Zhu Rui hurriedly beckoned everyone to lie down.
After lying on the ground, Zhu Rui looked towards the place where the machine gun fired, but he didn't expect that there was still an enemy bunker hidden there, at this moment, Zhu Rui saw a comrade lying on a relatively high ground, and it was easy to be shot by the enemy's machine gun.
The mine was detonated in an instant, and Zhu Rui didn't even have time to say "run", he was hit through the heart by shrapnel on the spot, and died heroically......
When the soldiers found Zhu Rui, he was lying in a pool of blood, his body and face were full of scars, the soldiers hugged Zhu Rui's body and cried bitterly, Zhu Rui's sacrifice was too sudden, a hero like him should not leave suddenly like this, he should always say goodbye to his family and comrades, and he should always say goodbye to the artillery unit he has loved all his life......
In this way, Zhu Rui died before dawn and became the highest-ranking general of our army who sacrificed in the Liberation War, according to Zhu Rui's qualifications and contributions, if he can live to the 1955 Medal Ceremony, he is fully qualified to be awarded the rank of marshal, Zhu Rui's sacrifice is a huge loss for the country and the people.
In the subsequent campaign, the artillery units of the People's Liberation Army showed great might and made outstanding contributions in the Jinzhou Campaign, including the follow-up campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea, the people's artillery played an extremely important role
The revolutionaries of the older generation have made us understand a sentence at the cost of their lives and blood and sweat - dignity is only above the edge of the sword, and truth is always within the range of the cannon!
Zhu Rui, a brilliant military strategist born in Suqian, Jiangsu Province in 1905, devoted himself to the revolutionary cause from an early age. He has experienced the baptism of the struggle in Jinggangshan, the hardships of the Red Army's Long March, the flames of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the smoke of the War of Liberation, and has left indelible contributions in every historical period.
During the arduous years of the Red Army's Long March, Zhu Rui successively served as director of the Political Department of the First Army of the Red Army and director of the Political Department of the First Army of the Red Army, and made great contributions to the victory of the Red Army. After arriving in northern Shaanxi, he participated in a series of battles in the Eastern Expedition and the Western Expedition, and served as the director of the Political Department of the Red Second Front Army, showing outstanding political work and military command ability.
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out. Zhu Rui was initially appointed secretary of the Military Commission of the Northern Bureau, and later transferred to the head of the Eighth Route Army's Liaison Office in the First Theater. He actively carried out united front work and made important contributions to the establishment of anti-Japanese base areas and the training of military and political cadres. In 1939, Zhu Rui was sent to work in Shandong, where he led the local anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians to carry out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, effectively striking a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese army.
In the later period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhu Rui was sent to Yan'an to study, and he deeply felt the important role of artillery in modern warfare, so he attached great importance to the construction of our army's artillery. He served as the acting principal of the Yan'an Artillery School and was committed to cultivating artillery talents. At the end of 1945, in order to carry out the strategic task of developing the Northeast, Zhu Rui was sent to work in the Northeast. He was appointed vice president of the Northeast Military and Political University and president of the Northeast Artillery School, laying a solid foundation for the development and growth of the Northeast Artillery Force, and was known as the "father of artillery".
During the War of Liberation, Zhu Rui was fully responsible for the organization, training, equipment, and combat work of our army's Northeast Artillery Unit. He led the artillery unit to play a key role in major battles such as the Liaoshen Campaign, and made great achievements for the victory of our army.
Suddenly hearing that General Zhu Rui was martyred, the Party Central Committee collectively grieved, and Lin Luo Liu of the Northeast Front wept for it. General Zhu Rui's former friend was also his close partner on the battlefield, General Han Xianchu cried bitterly and almost fainted!
Even our local opponent, the Kuomintang army, heard that Zhu Rui had died in a mine, and he felt pity for this legendary artillery wizard.
So what kind of character is this General Zhu Rui, and why did his sacrifice move so many people? And after his sacrifice, it is often said that if Zhu Rui does not die, a special military rank should be set up for him: artillery marshal!
General Zhu Rui is an extremely important figure in the history of our army's artillery, and from a certain point of view, he is one of the founders of our army's artillery.
Zhu Rui's family was originally relatively wealthy, but when he was eight years old, his father died suddenly, and the family's situation took a sharp turn for the worse.
First, the family was robbed by bandits, and the house and property were burned down, so in desperation, my mother had to take Zhu Rui's brothers and sisters to travel around and live a difficult life. Zhu Ruidi's mother is a strong woman, no matter how hard life is, she never bows her head, and at the same time educates several children to be self-reliant.
The strong mother had a great influence on Zhu Rui, despite the difficult conditions, but Zhu Rui was never discouraged, not only took the initiative to take care of the housework for his mother in life, but also worked hard in his studies, and his grades have always been excellent.
Zhu Rui is not only a good child in the family, but in that dark and chaotic era, the young Zhu Rui is also actively looking for the truth to save the country and save the people. In his heart, if he had been born in a strong, wealthy country, he would not have fallen to such a state even if his family suffered misfortune. At the same time, so many compatriots will not be displaced, and the great rivers and mountains will not be repeatedly invaded.
Full of a strong patriotic heart, Zhu Rui was admitted to Guangdong University with excellent grades in 1924, leaving his mother and family for the first time in his life. At that time, Guangzhou was the center of the revolution, and the Nationalist Government led by Sun Yat-sen was located in Guangzhou, as well as the Whampoa Military Academy, and Zhu Rui was also exposed to all kinds of novel revolutionary ideas in Guangzhou.
At this time, after Zhu Rui came into contact with Marxism, his thinking changed greatly, and he gradually realized that this kind of thinking was the revolutionary truth that was truly suitable for China. Therefore, he actively participated in various activities organized by the Chinese Communist Party, worked hard to study Marxism, and became an active member of the party.
Due to Zhu Rui's diligence and excellent grades, he was sent to the Soviet Union for further study in the second year. Before going abroad, Zhu Rui had already made up his mind to devote himself to Rong, and to become an excellent soldier for the sake of the country's strength.
After arriving in the Soviet Union, he first entered Sun Yat-sen University to study, and later, at the strong request of his locality, he entered the Krasin Artillery Academy to continue his studies.
Zhu Rui's chosen specialty in the Soviet Union was artillery, because Zhu Rui found that the reason why foreign armies were better than us was largely because they were too far ahead of us in terms of weapons.
In fact, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, China had modern model arsenals, and the Tianjin Machinery Bureau and the Hanyang Manufacturing Bureau could produce guns, ammunition and artillery. However, the late Qing government was corrupt and backward and did not manage well, which led to the decline of the fledgling national military industry.
After the Xinhai Revolution, most of China's arsenals from the south to the north could only manufacture firearms and ammunition, due to the development of the second industrial revolution, the ground artillery at that time was several grades ahead of the late Qing Dynasty, and the requirements for steel and craftsmanship were very high, and China was basically unable to manufacture large-caliber artillery that met the requirements of the time.
Mortars and mountain artillery are the main warlords in various places, and they are few in number, and they are very old, many of them are far beyond their service life, and the barrels of the guns have not been replaced.
Therefore, on the surface, the gap between China's local army and the great powers is mainly reflected in artillery.
Zhu Rui also realized this in China, and after arriving in the Soviet Union, he visited the powerful artillery units of the Soviet Red Army, and looked at the huge caliber, well-made and large-scale Soviet artillery units, Zhu Rui thought of the Chinese army.
Although the Chinese army had broken away from the era of cold weapons, the army was still dominated by rifles and light machine guns. In Zhu Rui's view, the Western powers and Japan's ground artillery are also very powerful, and if the Chinese army meets them on the battlefield, these over-the-horizon ground artillery will be enough to destroy more than half of us. What do we stand up to foreign invaders?
In addition, modern artillery is very precise, and the cost of barrels and shells is very high, and the requirements for accuracy are correspondingly improved. Therefore, artillery alone is not enough, but also skilled artillery. The technical content of contemporary ground artillery is already very high, and it is no longer the kind of ordinary soldier who only needed to take a big look and open the artillery ground in the past.
Therefore, Zhu Rui resolutely decided to study artillery in the Soviet Union and make a contribution to China's ground artillery units.
When Zhu Rui was in the Soviet Union, he assiduously studied artillery technology, and studied almost all the materials he could access and borrow. And he attached great importance to practice, and at the Krasin Artillery Academy, he had to go to the artillery field almost every day to practice in person.
A few years later, Zhu Rui had become an all-rounder in the field of artillery, and he had all kinds of artillery technical parameters and operational essentials in mind, and the Soviets called him an artillery encyclopedia.
In the spring of 1930, Zhu Rui returned to China after completing his studies, but because the strength of the Red Army was still very weak at that time, there were no artillery units at all, and the conditions did not meet the conditions for building artillery units. As a high-achieving student who returned from studying in the Soviet Union, Zhu Rui was appointed as a special commissioner of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chief of staff of the Yangtze River Bureau.
In 1932, Zhu Rui was transferred to the Central Soviet District, where he held important positions in the Soviet government and the Red Army, and participated in the Fourth and Fifth Anti-Encirclement and Suppression Wars.
In 1934, he served as the director of the Political Department of the Red First Army, and became close comrades-in-arms with Lin Biao and Han Xianchu, and fought side by side. Later, he participated in the Long March and most of the battles of the Red Army and the Eighth Route Army.
Before the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhu Ruidi's position was mainly on ideological and political work and teaching, but due to the constraints of conditions, Zhu Rui's greatest advantage had not yet been brought into play.
At the end of the Anti-Japanese War, with the continuous growth of our army's strength, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ordered Zhu Rui to form the first artillery unit of our army in Yan'an. Despite the limited conditions and equipment, Zhu Rui regarded it as the most important undertaking, and in a very short period of time, he selected more than 1,000 experienced and talented artillery instructors and students from all over the military region to carry out artillery teaching work in full swing in Yan'an.
At that time, our army had already captured a lot of artillery, but it was scattered among the various units, and the caliber and shells and methods of use were also different. Besides, these cannons were snatched back by the troops with their lives, and they were their treasures, and they were really reluctant to hand them over. Therefore, it will take time to form a real artillery unit.
In August 1945, Japan suddenly announced its unconditional surrender, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Zhu Ruidi set their sights on one place at the same time, the northeast.
The Japan have invested a lot of resources in the northeast region, not only building a perfect local industry and military industrial system, but also producing and stockpiling a large number of weapons and ammunition.
At that time, the Soviet Union took the lead in attacking the Kwantung Army of Japan, and the Kwantung Army resisted for only a week before being completely defeated. After Hirohito announced his surrender, the Japanese surrendered their guns to the Soviet Red Army.
According to the Yalta Agreement, the Soviet Union had to hand over the northeastern region to the Chinese army, so both the Party Central Committee and Chiang Kai-shek demanded that the Soviet Union handle the handover to themselves.
The Soviet Union publicly recognized the Nationalist Government as the only legitimate place of government, and the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party were nominally the National Revolutionary Army under the leadership of the Nationalist Government. Therefore, the Soviet Union had no reason to reject Chiang Kai-shek.
But Chiang Kai-shek was completely pro-American, which did not correspond to the Soviet Union's interests in the post-war international political landscape. Therefore, the Soviet Union also agreed to hand over to the Chinese communist army, because it was also an army in the legal system of government.
In this way, whoever can get to the Northeast first will be able to take over first. Therefore, Chairman Mao urgently ordered the First Division of the Eighth Route Army in North China to immediately go north out of Shanhaiguan and seize the northeast. Lin Biao, who was rushing to Shandong to take up his post, also received Chairman Mao's urgent order halfway, and immediately turned around and headed north, heading straight to Shanhaiguan.
At this time, Zhu Rui was interested in the countless large and small artillery pieces and mountain shells piled up in the Japan warehouse. If the Japanese had these artillery pieces and ammunition, it would be enough to form several large artillery units. At that time, whether it is the Kuomintang reactionaries or the foreign invaders, we will be able to fight a tough battle face to face with them.
Therefore, Zhu Rui applied to the Party Central Committee to lead the teachers and students of the Artillery Academy to the northeast to take over the artillery equipment of the Japan, and the Central Committee quickly approved Zhu Ruidi's application. So Zhu Rui led more than 1,000 teachers and students of the Artillery Academy to set off towards Shanhaiguan.
However, the actual situation is not as rosy as Zhu Rui imagined. Although the Soviets agreed to hand over supplies from the Northeast and some of the Japan to us, they would not come in vain.
The Japanese left behind a large number of local industrial and mining enterprises and military supplies, and the Soviets first dismantled all the most advanced industrial equipment and shipped it back to China, leaving only some infrastructure and a batch of old equipment that they did not look at.
A large number of military supplies were pulled back by the Soviets train by train, only the guns and ammunition of the Japanese, because the caliber and power were too small, the Soviets could not look at it, so it was left to us.
And artillery is a very important military-strategic weapon, although the caliber of the artillery of the Japanese is different from that of the Soviets, but there are a large number of shells in the warehouse, which can be used for a long time, so they also pulled away.
Our army was the first to arrive in the northeast, and some generals and the Soviets quarreled for a long time over these military supplies, and in the end they tried everything possible to barely leave some.
Zhu Rui heard the news on the way, and he hurriedly spun around in place, wah-wow, and shouted that he brought so many people to the northeast because there were artillery there. Now that the cannon has been pulled away by Lao Maozi, what's the use of going? Let's go to the Northeast first to eat what those guys are going to do, and rob them of it......
Just when Zhu Rui was in a low mood because of this incident, another message came from the headquarters. It turned out that before the Soviets invaded the northeast, many Japan soldiers were unwilling to lose, but they were also powerless to resist, so they took advantage of the gap to dismantle a large number of weapons and ammunition and throw them into the valleys and rivers in the northeast, in short, not to the Soviets. At present, many troops in the northeast do nothing and pick up weapons in the mountains all day long.
It is said that the weapons and ammunition were thrown all over the mountains and could not be picked up. No one wanted the large ground artillery at all, and they couldn't lift it, and they were all thrown there and no one wanted it.
When Zhu Rui heard the news, he immediately became interested, and immediately ordered all the teachers and students to speed up and go to the northeast to "pick up guns". The majority of teachers and students originally received an order to go to the northeast to receive Japan artillery, but how did they become "picking"?
After Zhu Rui led these more than 1,000 people into Shanhaiguan, he went all the way north, constantly asking where there was an arsenal of the Japanese and where the Japanese threw their arms.
The Japanese are also bad, in order not to let the Soviets capture their ground artillery, dismantle the artillery to pieces, throw a little here, put a piece there, mess up.
Zhu Rui and the others found a cannon barrel at the beginning, but they couldn't find a gun wheel, and the parts on the gun carriage were incomplete, and it took several days to put this gun together.
Zhu Rui later understood that this was a deliberate ghost by the Japanese, and if he installed the cannon like this, he would not be able to pick it up in three years. So Zhu Rui ordered everyone to carry back all the parts and components related to the artillery, and gather them together to be sorted and assembled.
In this way, the efficiency is greatly improved.
Zhu Rui divided more than 1,000 people into several groups and went to different directions to search for artillery, and then left a group of people in the camp to be responsible for repairing and assembling artillery.
To say that the Japan devils are really bad, they not only dismantled and threw away artillery parts, but also directly smashed some vulnerable small parts, and there was no way to assemble them.
There were also artillery shells, some of which did not have a fuse at all, and some of the propellants did not match the warhead, and later these problems caused great trouble for the teachers and students of the artillery academy.
However, all this is difficult for our "artillery encyclopedia" General Zhu Rui, as early as the Red Army period, Zhu Rui collected information everywhere and found out the types and components of the Japanese artillery. Many soldiers saw some strange metal components on the mountain, and they didn't know what they were used for, but Zhu Rui recognized them at a glance as the key parts of a certain type of artillery.
In this case, Zhu Rui will ask everyone to stop, come and observe this kind of part, explain its structure and use in detail, and let everyone remember that they must not let go of this kind of part or something similar to it in the future.
Zhu Rui and everyone "picked up the rags" on the mountain in the early stage, and in the later stage, he could only assemble and repair the artillery in the camp. Because the Japanese threw too many weapons and ammunition in the mountains, far beyond Zhu Ruidi's expectations.
When Zhu Rui saw this scene, he became more and more happy. Because many artillery academy cadets have come into contact with very few artillery, and some have never touched the cannon at all, and by going up and down the mountain and down the river to "pick up artillery", they can not only identify novices in artillery by relying on the barrel, but can guess the artillery model by only the parts of the veterans.
Especially for these hard-earned cannons, teachers and students cherish them even more, and they take special care of every part of their bodies, and even have feelings.
Through identification, assembly and maintenance, teachers and students can learn about all the structures of various artillery grounds, which is much more effective than teaching theory in the classroom. Many of the recruits, after a few months of artillery loading, turned out to be more skilled than some of the veteran artillerymen who came to the support.
There was once a group of Kuomintang artillerymen who surrendered to the front line, and they were later assigned to Zhu Ruidi's men, and after these old artillerymen came, they wanted to show their hands in front of the People's Liberation Army. Therefore, from the very beginning, they started to operate artillery and wanted to compete with the People's Liberation Army, and the results were shocked.
These recruit teams are not only proficient in handling guns, loading, aiming, and even dismantling and repairing each one. They were not only familiar with one type of artillery, but also knew all kinds of artillery in Japan. Impressed these old Kuomintang artillerymen and gave them a thumbs up.
Despite Zhu Rui's brilliant record, he has to admit that "picking up guns" is not an easy job. The People's Liberation Army did not have trailers or cranes, and the Japanese threw these things down casually at a high place and scattered them freely, without thinking about picking them up later.
Zhu Rui could only take the students to use ropes, wooden sticks, and shoulder to carry these big guys weighing tons from the ravine. Regardless of the cold or summer, Zhu Rui has never stopped for more than a year.
Because they often went up and down the mountains and rivers, there were more and more artillery in the camp, and they could not move with the large army, and the logistics supply was intermittent, and the logistics troops could not find them at all.
So much so that later, their military uniforms were worn out to the point that they could not wear them, so they could only buy ordinary people's clothes and continue to "pick up cannons" everywhere. On several occasions, he was arrested as bandits by the PLA troops.
The efforts of Zhu Rui and the teachers and students of the artillery school were not in vain, and in more than a year, they collected, assembled, and repaired more than 700 heavy artillery pieces of the artillery unit of the Northeast Field Army. In addition, they have also collected more than 100,000 rounds of artillery shells suitable for use, and have become a veritable large artillery unit.
Lin Biao's fierce generals Han Xianchu and Zhu Rui were good friends, and in the early stage of the Liaoshen Campaign, he heard that Zhu Rui had picked up a few good cannons, so he personally went to borrow them. But Zhu Rui just didn't give it, so Han Xianchu and Zhu Rui, two old enemies, quarreled a lot.
In fact, it was not that Zhu Rui was reluctant to give it to him, the cannon was originally intended for the front-line soldiers. It's just that at that time, these guns had just been fished out of the cold river water, and they had not yet been overhauled, and the life of the barrels had not yet been clarified.
Operating the cannon looks simple, but in fact, there are many things that the artillery should pay attention to, and it is necessary to adjust it according to the different conditions of the gun body. Moreover, Han Xianchu's battle was a campaign battle, which needed to be moved quickly, and these guns were too big, and there was no special artillery truck to pull them at all, even if they were pulled to the battlefield and fired a few cannons, if the position was not captured, these guns were not given to the enemy, and they had to find a way to blow them up, which was too risky.
However, in the later stage of the Liaoshen Campaign, the number of fortified cities in our army gradually increased, and artillery units also appeared on various battlefields. On the one hand, Zhu Rui had already assembled the entire batch of artillery and equipped it with enough artillery shells, and on the other hand, considering the needs of the battlefield, except for a few large-caliber heavy artillery, most of the medium artillery pieces were medium, so Zhu Rui applied to his superiors to set up a special artillery horse team.
With this powerful ground horse team, Higashino's artillery units can move with the main force at any time to support the attacking troops.
In one year, more than 700 artillery pieces, more than 500,000 shells, 12 tanks, and 23 vehicles were forcibly "picked up" by "picking up foreign falls."
Have you heard of the feat of relying on these equipment to form 10 artillery regiments, 6 battalions and 22 independent companies directly under our army, totaling more than 80 artillery companies? The hero behind this feat is the man who laid the cornerstone of our army's Dongye and even the national artillery force, the Chinese artillery marshal hand-picked by Chairman Mao, and Zhu Rui, the top general of our army who died in the War of Liberation.
What is the relationship between Chairman Mao and Zhu Rui? What is the story hidden in his body?
A warrior with a bad fate
In 1905, Zhu Rui was born in a scholarly family in Zhu Daxingzhuang, Suqian County, Jiangsu.
His parents attached great importance to Zhu Rui's cultural education, but unfortunately, when Zhu Rui was 8 years old, his father died of illness.
Zhu Rui's mother had to take several children on the road to escape, although life was difficult, she still insisted that Zhu Rui receive cultural education, and Zhu Rui was also very competitive.
In 1924, at the age of 19, he was admitted to Guangdong University and joined the Socialist Youth League.
After coming to the Soviet Union, Zhu Rui's performance has been very impressive, and he also achieved the first place in live ammunition shooting when he graduated. In 1928, 23-year-old Zhu Rui joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and later became a member of the Communist Party of China, and returned to China two years later to join the revolution.
However, at that time, our party was in a stage of urgent development, and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army lacked armed forces and did not have the conditions to organize artillery units, so there was nowhere to apply the knowledge he had learned, so the organization could only invite Zhu Rui as a special commissioner of the Central Committee.
Since then, Zhu Rui's official position has grown more and more with his outstanding work performance - in January 1934, at the age of 29, Zhu Rui was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic, and has been entrusted with important responsibilities ever since.
Looking back on the trust and awards given by the organization along the way, Zhu Rui is also grateful for his mother's hard work.
In 1937, when Japan's war of aggression against China broke out, Zhu Rui served as the secretary of the Military Commission of the Central Northern Bureau, commanding the soldiers to fight against the enemy.
It was also here that the 33-year-old Zhu Rui met his first wife, Chen Ruoke, who was personally taught by Principal Zhu Rui at the school, and Chen Ruoke was immediately fascinated by Zhu Rui's personality and knowledge.
Zhu Rui was also attracted by the perseverance and patriotism of this little girl, and she organized local women comrades to run schools and compile teaching materials, so that everyone could read books and read words.
The two became revolutionary partners on August 1, 1938 with the help of everyone, and it was not easy to form a family in that year of fire, and Zhu Rui also cherished this relationship very much.
However, tragedy occurred in the third year of their marriage.
In November 1941, when the anti-Japanese work in Shandong was in full swing, the frenzied Japanese invaders announced that they would carry out a "three-light sweep" in the Yimeng Mountains.
At this time, the child in Chen Ruoke's womb was more than 8 months old, this was the second child of her and Zhu Rui, and the previous child died in the process of the Japanese army's sweep.
So this time, the friends around him persuaded Chen Ruoke to find a place to hide quickly, and it was not too late to rush back after the production.
But Chen Ruoke said that he wanted to stand with his team, as Zhu Rui's wife and a cadre leading the work, how could he abandon the team because of his personal safety?
However, in the process of transferring, Chen Ruoke fell behind due to physical exhaustion, and was soon discovered by the Japan invaders who came to "sweep".
Because she was resolute and not very flustered when she was arrested, this made the Japanese officers suspect Chen Ruoke's identity, so they tortured her and forced her to ask her about the transfer of our army, but Chen Ruoke still closed his lips in the face of the red soldering iron and the hard horse whip, and preferred to die.
The day after the torture, Chen Ruoke gave birth to her daughter in a black prison with difficulty, and the devil threw the newborn baby into a pocket containing horse grass and threatened Chen Ruoke.
But Chen Ruoke was still unmoved, she knew that no matter whether she said it or not, their mother and daughter would not be able to escape from here, not to mention that she would never betray the organization for the sake of her children's personal affairs.
On this day, the Japan soldiers brought a bottle of milk and wanted to use Chen's infant daughter to soften her heart, after all, Chen Ruoke after several days of torture, where is there milk to feed the child, this bottle of milk is simply a lifesaver for her daughter.
Staring at the bottle of milk, countless sadness surged into Chen Ruoke's heart, she said sorry to the little daughter in her arms ten thousand times in her heart, and then held back her tears and said firmly to the translator: "If you want to kill, you can kill, if you want to cut, you don't come to this set!" ”
Seeing that the woman was so stubborn, the Japanese decided to put her to death, and at night, she held her daughter who was waiting to be fed in her arms, knowing that her time was short, so she could only bite her fingers and squeeze out the blood and put it on the child's mouth to apologize:
"I'm sorry child, I couldn't take care of you in this life, and you have to sacrifice with your mother before you open your eyes to see this world, and you will ...... in the next life I'll be your mother for the rest of my life......"
November 26, 1941. Chen Ruoke's mother and daughter were taken to the execution ground, and no matter how the onlookers cried and pleaded, the Japanese were unmoved.
In the end, this great heroine took her daughter, who was just 18 days old, and died heroically under the 27 bayonets of the Japanese at the age of 22.
When the villagers sent the bodies of Chen Ruoke's mother and daughter to the base overnight, Zhu Rui, who rushed to the base after hearing the news, turned pale and no longer saw the high spirits he once had.
Some of the villagers wept and some cursed the Japanese loudly, but Zhu Rui couldn't hear any sound, couldn't make any sound, just looked at the bloody and mutilated bodies of his wife and daughter, as if he had lost his soul.
On July 7, 1942, the fifth anniversary of the "77 Incident", Zhu Rui published "Mourning Comrade Chen Ruoke", which read: "A tooth for a tooth, blood for a blood, let us fight until the final victory!" ”
Having said that, the fact that both his wife and daughter died still made Zhu Rui depressed, and it was not until the organization came forward to match him with Pan Caiqin, the school of the Youth Cadre School at that time, that Zhu Rui's already frozen heart regained a sense of warmth.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1942, Zhu Rui and Pan Caiqin invited several old comrades-in-arms to their home for dinner.
Soon after marriage, Pan Caiqin has become a teacher from a student, and needs to follow the Shandong Branch Party School to the Huaihai area, the two are sorry to say goodbye, in September 1943, Zhu Rui also returned to Yan'an to participate in the Central Party School to study and prepare for the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
In the long process of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhu Rui never forgot his dream of forming a Chinese artillery regiment, and he sorted out his thoughts day and night, waiting for the opportunity to come.
"Pick up" the foundation of the artillery regiment
Chairman Mao personally talked to him, but Zhu Rui said: "I am studying artillery, and I hope to concentrate on artillery construction and train more talents in this area for the party and the army." ”
Chairman Mao admired Zhu Rui's foresight and high demeanor very much, and praised: "The Soviet Union has an artillery marshal, so you should be the artillery marshal of China!" In this way, Zhu Rui became the acting principal of the Yan'an Artillery School.
After Japan surrendered in August 1945, a large number of artillery weapons were left in Tohoku. Zhu Rui knew that his dream of building an artillery force for China was about to come true.
Therefore, he immediately proposed to "disperse cadres, collect weapons, develop troops, and establish family business", and a large number of teachers and students were sent out to collect weapons in the vast area from Suifenhe in the east, to Manchuria in the west, from Changchun in the south, and to Muling in the north.
It was the middle of winter, the northeast was so cold that it could freeze people's ears, according to the memories of the veterans of the year, their group was in the snow forest, every foot could be submerged to the waistband of their pants, the outside of their clothes was ice, and the inside was sweat, so they still had to continue to look for it, and they ate snow when they were hungry and thirsty.
With this indomitable spirit, from the end of 1945 to July 1946 in less than a year, under the organization and leadership of Zhu Ruihe and the Party Committee of the Artillery School, and through the joint efforts of all teachers and students, the Northeast Field Army collected more than 700 artillery pieces of various kinds and more than 500,000 shells.
They also found 12 tanks, 23 automobiles and a large number of spare parts, with which Zhu Rui formed 10 small artillery regiments, a total of 80 artillery batteries and 1 tank brigade, and the foundation of the Dongye artillery was thus built.
Subsequently, Zhu Rui suggested that the Northeast Military Region change the name of the Yan'an Artillery School to the Northeast Military Region Artillery School, and based on what he had learned in the Soviet Union and the experience of on-the-spot observation on the battlefield over the years, he proposed a series of tactical courses exclusive to artillery units.
In a short period of two years, more than 2,000 artillery cadres have been sent to our army, and under his instructions, our troops have also adopted a policy of preferential treatment for captured enemy artillerymen, hoping that after ideological transformation, these artillery personnel will be brought into their accounts.
Zhu Rui knew in his heart that if he wanted to achieve real peace, he had to grit his teeth and get through the Liberation War.
In 1946, the Kuomintang army launched an attack on our party, but because of the continuous factional disputes within it, the military power of the Kuomintang army in the northeast region was weakened to varying degrees.
It took less than two years for our army to occupy a comprehensive advantage in the northeast region, and the Kuomintang army was pushed back to Shenyang, Changchun, and Jinzhou, and the Liaoshen Campaign was about to break out.
The ultimate goal of the Liaoshen Campaign is to take Shenyang, if you want to take Shenyang, you must first take Jinzhou, and if you want to open the gate of Jinzhou, you need to first pass the test of Yixian County on the periphery of Jinzhou.
The leaders of the military region originally wanted Zhu Rui to stay in the rear to preside over the work, but Zhu Rui took the initiative to ask Chairman Mao for war, preferring to be demoted and to go to the front line with the artillery he had trained.
Audiences who have watched the old movie "The Great Battle - Liaoshen Campaign" must still remember the shocking scene of hundreds of cannons lined up and thousands of cannons fired at that time.
At 9:30 a.m. on October 1, after a comprehensive review and arrangement, the artillery commander Zhu Rui immediately ordered, "Concentrate on the artillery!" ”
For a long time, the Kuomintang army had regarded the communist troops as wild roads and broken equipment, so where did they expect that there would be artillery fire of this intensity?
After only one hour and 40 minutes of fierce shelling, the city wall 300 meters north of the east gate of Yixian County was blown open with a large gap of more than 20 meters wide, and the fortifications of Yixian County, known as "impregnable", collapsed instantly, allowing the tiger general Han Xianchu's subordinates to penetrate in.
However, Commander Zhu Rui failed to see the final victory of the Liaoshen Campaign.
In order to confirm the power of the 150mm United States howitzer used for the first time, at the moment when the front line was in full swing, Zhu Rui decided to personally go to the breakthrough to observe the effect of the shelling and collect accurate shooting parameters in preparation for the next attack on Jinzhou.
Han Xianchu, the commander of the Third Column, and Luo Shunchu, the political commissar, couldn't persuade him, because once time passed, the gap in the howitzer would inevitably be destroyed, and he would not be able to get the data, so Zhu Rui didn't care about so much and took the lead out of the city gate.
However, he was still discovered by the enemy hiding in the castle at the city gate, and in an instant, the sound of strafing was everywhere, and the ground was stirred up by stray bullets in waves of smoke and dust.
Zhu Rui was concerned about the comrades who were left behind, and turned around to beckon everyone to quickly find cover to hide, but he accidentally stepped on an enemy mine, and the 43-year-old Zhu Rui died on the spot.
The bad news spread all over this and that artillery command post in an instant, and with great indignation and sadness, it took only 12 hours for our army to successfully take Yixian.
Two weeks later, on October 14, 1948, the main force of Dongye took Jinzhou in only 31 hours, annihilated more than 100,000 enemies, captured the Kuomintang general Fan Hanjie alive, and closed the door for the Northeast Kuomintang to withdraw from the inland to the Guannei.
These feats are inseparable from Commander Zhu Rui's far-sighted artillery education and armed accumulation.
Wife and daughter continue to write the dream of a strong army
Not long after that, Gao Gang, then deputy commander of the Northeast Military Region, sent someone to pick up Pan Caiqin, hesitated again and again, and then said with tears in his eyes: "Comrade Zhu Rui was seriously injured and died!" ”
Although Pan Caiqin had been mentally prepared for her husband's injury, she never expected that she would be separated forever, and she couldn't help crying for a while.
Early in the morning of October 6, Pan Caiqin, who had lost weight overnight, took Huaibei and Northeast China to Harbin Railway Station with grief and welcomed back Zhu Rui's coffin.
On October 9, 1948, in the Harbin Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery, a solemn public memorial ceremony and funeral ceremony were held.
Zhang Wentian, Li Fuchun, and other leading comrades of the party, government, and military in Northeast China all came to the scene with extremely heavy feelings to pay their respects and bid farewell to this old comrade-in-arms affectionately.
In order to commemorate him, the Central Committee named the Northeast Artillery School "Zhurui Artillery School".
Pan Caiqin's two daughters also continued their father's dreams - daughter Zhu Huaibei worked in the Second Artillery Equipment Research Institute and was a senior engineer; The second daughter, Zhu Dongbei, worked in the Artillery Research Institute of the General Staff and was engaged in the research of artillery rapid response topics.
Looking back on that year, at the opening ceremony of the Yan'an Artillery School, Zhu Rui solemnly swore that "I will dedicate my life to the artillery, and I will be "old and final".
Yes, in this land he loved, Zhu Rui and his family have fulfilled this promise, and they have also cast the glory of Chinese artillery with their own blood.
Zhu Ruidi's sacrifice was a major loss to our party and our army, and the ground artillery school he founded single-handedly became the cradle of training our army's artillery, and his students were the first batch of artillery in New China. The textbooks he compiled by himself have become important materials in the history of our army's military teaching, and have even been used as references by foreign military academies.
General Zhu Rui is the highest-ranking general of our army who sacrificed his life in the War of Liberation, and he contributed everything he had to the revolution and New China. We should remember the heroic deeds of the revolutionary martyrs and continue to struggle for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!
General Zhu Rui's family letter
Mother, Brother:
I came from Yan'an to the northeast in October of the 34th year of the Republic of China, and in December of the same year, Caiqin took Huaibei to the northeast. We have been in the Northeast for more than two years, and we are all in good health. Caiqin gave birth to another daughter, whose name is "Northeast", very similar to Huaibei, who is about to leave and is full of health. Caiqin was not in good health before, but it was well maintained after being born in the Northeast, and now it is very strong and fat, please do not read it.
I work as an artillery worker in Yan'an, and I like it because I studied artillery in the Soviet Union. After arriving in the Northeast, the people's artillery developed greatly, and I worked happily, my health was better than in the past, my work energy was greater, and my work was smooth.
The Northeast is developing rapidly, and I think we will soon enter the customs and join North China. Victory, this time is a real victory to meet with the hometown, hopefully!
Mother, brother, sister-in-law and nephew are all healthy, and it is good to be reunited.
There are a lot of wars in northern Jiangsu and Shandong, and I heard that my hometown is very bad, but I don't know how my family is?
If your mother is healthy, if your brother and sister-in-law are healthy, please write to me if possible. Because Shandong, northern Jiangsu, and northeast China can be mailed, you can send a letter to it, but it doesn't matter if it's slow.
Only when the peasants turn over can the country become strong. My family's land is leased, this is the landlord, and the land should be automatically dedicated to the peasants, and this is a veritable revolutionary family. I think my mother and brother must have done it sooner. I remember that when I was in Shandong, my mother and my brother said that my family had participated in the revolution, and it was useless to ask for land. That's right.
Northern Jiangsu and Shandong ran against Shijie, Kun Yi and Xiaoling all went to the northeast, and later found us, and now they are assigned to work in Harbin (Harbin Nangang District Public Security Bureau), they are all good. In the northeast, Kunyi gave birth to another son, named Qiqi (because he was born on the seventh day of the seventh month), and everything was fine. There are also Zhu sisters who went to the northeast, but I didn't find them, and later they all went back to Shandong and northern Jiangsu. I only received one letter from Zhu Aihua, who wrote to me to tell me that she had gone back to Shandong. I haven't seen her either.
Listening to Kunyi, Da Zhuo was lost in the run, has he found it now?
Does the mother still live with the second sister? What is the situation of the second sister's family? What is the situation of relatives and friends? Please let us know.
Because of the memory of his mother and sister-in-law, he sent people to Shandong in June last year to send letters and photos to his family, but because of the war in Shandong, they were not delivered.
As for the nephews and nephews, I still hope that they will all be pushed out to participate in revolutionary work or study, so that they will not fall behind the times and even do things that are unfavorable to the people. The elder brother is responsible for leading them.
Wish:
The whole family is friendly and friendly
Respectfully
September 8, 1948
The noble feelings shown in the family letter
General Zhu Rui's family letter is simple and simple, showing the high demeanor of a communist. Savor it carefully, the emotions expressed in the general's family book are also the most intuitive feelings of a communist's family and country.
The heart of the party with the heart of the party and the heart of following the original intention. General Zhu Rui is a representative of outstanding Communist Party members, and in his family letters, General Zhu Rui profoundly shows the ethics and persistence of a Communist Party member. Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has regarded the liberation of the Chinese people as its goal of struggle. As a veteran Communist Party member, General Zhu Rui was still concerned about the issue of his family's fields when the Liaoshen Campaign was in full swing, emphasizing that "the land should be automatically dedicated to the peasants, so that it can be regarded as a veritable revolutionary family," and adhered to the position of a Communist Party member.
Throughout his life, loyalty to the party and not forgetting his original intention were General Zhu Rui's most distinctive attitude towards the party. After returning from the Soviet Union, he lost contact with the party organization for two months, and he persevered in his search for the party organization, showing a firm pursuit of faith. From the secretary of the Shandong Branch of the Communist Party of China to the principal of the Yan'an Artillery School, from the command organ of the rear headquarters to the commander of the artillery column, General Zhu Rui has always maintained a firm belief that the party's work will go wherever it is needed. This is the Communists, this is our General Zhu Rui.
Serve the country with his body and unswervingly serve the country. Comrade Mao Zedong once highly praised General Zhu Rui as the "father of artillery" of our army and spoke highly of General Zhu Rui's contributions to our army's artillery cause. In his letter to his family, General Zhu Rui wrote affectionately: "I do artillery work in Yan'an, because I learned artillery in the Soviet Union, I like this work very much. After arriving in the Northeast, the people's artillery developed greatly, and I worked happily, my health was better than in the past, my work energy was greater, and my work was smooth.
I don't forget my hometown and my loved ones. During the years of the revolutionary war, it was the norm to switch to the north and the south, and many revolutionary martyrs named their children after their hometowns to remember. Zhu Rui's two daughters, one is called Huaibei and the other is called Northeast, Huaibei is the general's hometown, and the northeast is the place where the general is fighting.
In the letter, General Zhu Rui also expressed his concern for other relatives in the family. Among them, there are not only children and nephews, but also sisters and brothers of the same generation, and more thoughts about the situation of "relatives and friends". In the face of poor communications, the general was deeply "uneasy". This kind of "uneasiness" includes unfamiliarity with the situation at home and guilt towards family members. It is this kind of ordinary earnest words that expresses the deep emotions in General Zhu Rui's heart.
The revolutionary family style of teaching by word and deed. In the last part of his letter, General Zhu Rui made arrangements for the future of the younger generations in his family: "All the nephews and nephews still hope that they will all be urged to come out to participate in revolutionary work or study, so that they will not fall behind the times and even do things that are unfavorable to the people." The elder brother is responsible for leading them. This is not only a sincere admonition to the children and nephews of the family, but also a manifestation of the good family style and family education of a proletarian revolutionary.
In the construction of revolutionary family style, General Zhu Rui said and did so. In the face of difficulties, he was not afraid of danger and still adhered to his original intention; Faced with a choice, he gave up his favorable conditions and chose the needs of the country and the nation. It was in this perseverance that the general set a good example for future generations.
The deceased is gone, but the spirit is immortal. Today, we revisit General Zhu Rui's family letter to learn from his lofty ideals and beliefs that he still stood firm in the face of difficulties. It is to learn from his great mind of serving the public regardless of personal fame and fortune; It is to learn from his good family style and family education construction that teaches the younger generations by word and deed, and the revolutionary spirit is passed on from generation to generation. These fine qualities expressed in General Zhu Rui's family letter are a true portrayal of his life, and they are worth learning from every member of the Communist Party.
The veteran general of the former General Political Department recalled Zhu Rui: He said that he was a pioneer of the anti-Japanese national united front. Zhu Rui was the founder of the artillery of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the only senior general of our army who died on the battlefield in the Liberation War, and one of the "100 heroic and exemplary figures who made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China." In fact, as early as 1936, he was appointed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to take the lead in carrying out the important task of carrying out the united front work with the Northeast Army, and was a veritable pioneer and practitioner of our party's anti-Japanese national united front policy.
Save the Ningdu uprising from danger
In the 20s of the 20th century, Zhu Rui studied at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow and Krasin Artillery School in the Soviet Union, and returned to China with excellent grades in 1930, serving as a staff officer of the General Staff Section of the Central Military Commission, and the following year he was appointed as the chief of the Military Transport and Sabotage Section, working under the direct leadership of Zhou Enlai. In the same year, the Central Military Commission held a military movement training class, presided over by Zhu Rui, and began to train three underground party members, Yuan Hancheng (later renamed Yuan Xueshu), Wang Chao and Li Su, to prepare to be sent to the Kuomintang 26th Route Army to organize an uprising.
The training class is located in the basement of the China Hotel on Erma Road and the Zhenhua Hotel on Sima Road in Shanghai, and mainly trains ideological and political and military movement business, and Zhu Rui personally teaches ideological and political classes. In the first class, he clearly pointed out: "The Central Committee has decided on the task of your trip to Jiangxi this time, that is, to win the 26th Route Army of the Kuomintang to the revolutionary side. There are direct revolutionary factors in the 26th Route Army, and the magnitude of the victory will depend on your efforts to go to Jiangxi." He also introduced Lenin's theory on armed uprising, and distributed relevant books such as "The Communist Manifesto" and "State and Revolution".
Next, Zhu Rui led everyone to analyze the contradictions between the 26th Route Army and Chiang Kai-shek, and the commander-in-chief Sun Lianzhong, as well as their internal contradictions, so that the students could grasp the internal reasons that could be used to launch the uprising. At the same time, they taught them the methods of military movement work, such as the routines of winning over enemy troops, enlightening the class consciousness of poor soldiers, alienating the relationship between officers and soldiers, and sweeping away the prestige of enemy officers. The trainees were also sent to Whampoa Wharf to experience the hardships of dock workers and increase their feelings for the working class. At the end of the training, Zhu Rui sent the activity funds, and clarified the location and code of the connection between Jiangxi and the party organization. Before leaving, Zhu Rui advised: "If you need to report to the central government for instructions, you can write to Zhang Xuesen of Fudan University, and the other party will convey it on your behalf." In case of emergency, if you don't have time to ask the Central Committee for instructions, you can go directly to the Central Soviet District to contact the Red Army, and the code is 'Zhu Rui sent me.'" ”
Entering Ningdu, where the 26th Route Army was stationed, Yuan Hancheng and others quickly threw themselves into their work, and when they encountered principled or thorny problems, they asked the party Central Committee in Shanghai for instructions according to the regulations, and Zhu Rui gave guidance according to the specific situation. With regard to the targets of rebellion, Wang Chao and others held that many officers of the 26 th Route Army were affected by the Great Revolution and were entirely likely to throw themselves into the revolution, and it would be more advantageous if they could win them over, but the policy of "asking for soldiers rather than officials" in the central policy of military movement did not conform to the reality here. Juri replied in agreement, but demanded that they must focus their main efforts on the lower ranks. In accordance with this directive, quite a number of ideologically advanced officers, such as Luo Yaping, director of the translation and telegraph command of the 26 th Route Army (a close confidant of Zhao Bosheng, chief of staff of the army), and Wang Zhenduo, captain of the law enforcement team of the general headquarters, joined the party organization one after another and became an important force in organizing the uprising.
Just as the underground party organization of the 26 th Route Army was developing rapidly, an incident suddenly occurred in which two officers and party members violated party discipline and threatened to quit the party, which seriously affected the safety of the underground party organization. Zhu Rui pointed out that "the development of the party in Ningdu has a tendency to be an official line," and instructed Yuan Hancheng and Li Su to go deep among the soldiers, strictly enforce the discipline of secret work, and set up party branches according to the division of party members into officers and soldiers, and the two branches work independently without contact with each other. After properly handling the incident of quitting the party, the 26th Route Army set up a special branch committee of the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as the "special branch"), with Liu Zhenya (a staff officer of the captain of Dong Zhentang's department and a secret member of the CCP) as secretary, directly leading the officers and soldiers branch, which then became the core force leading the uprising.
After the September 18 Incident, Zhu Rui instructed the special branch: "Chiang Kai-shek adopted a policy of non-resistance and handed over the great rivers and mountains of the Northeast to the devils of Japan...... Educate the vast number of soldiers...... Taking advantage of the anti-Japanese and anti-Chiang sentiments of the people and the soldiers is an excellent opportunity for you to carry out your work as soldiers. According to Zhu Rui's instructions, the special branch carried out fruitful propaganda and education, and soon some high-ranking officers of the 26th Route Army also expressed their willingness to join the Communist Party of China, and the representative figures were Zhao Bosheng and Dong Zhentang, and Zhao Bosheng was the chief of staff of the army. During the period of "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army in Jiangxi, Sun Lianzhong, commander-in-chief of the army, hid in Nanjing and Shanghai under the guise of curing a disease to enjoy himself, and all the routine affairs of the general headquarters were handed over to Zhao Bosheng, who was the de facto supreme commander, and if he could win over, he would play a key role in the success or failure of the uprising. Dong Zhentang is the commander of the 73rd Brigade and a powerful figure with heavy troops. For the sake of prudence, the special branch asked the people around him to carefully screen them, discussed their motives for joining the party many times, and reported to their superiors on the inspection situation and their application for joining the party. Zhu Rui quickly reported to the head of the Provisional Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for approval. In May 1945, Zhu Rui talked about this matter at the meeting on the hill of the Red Fifth Army in Yan'an...... After weighing and comparing, the Central Committee decided to approve Zhao Bosheng to join the party. Later facts showed that Dong Zhentang was a good comrade who yearned for revolution and was very loyal to the party. Because there was no such understanding at that time, only Zhao Bosheng was approved alone."
At the beginning of December 1931, Wang Chao was accidentally arrested in Nanchang when he went to Shanghai to report to work, and the secret documents he was carrying were intercepted by spies. The telegram was intercepted by Luo Yaping and sent to Liu Zhenya, and the special branch immediately decided to riot immediately, and Zhao Bosheng sent a reply telegram of "do it as soon as the order is followed" to delay the time, plan the specific matters of the riot with Dong Zhentang, and try to win over Ji Zhentong, the commander of the 74th Brigade, to revolt together; Yuan Hancheng was sent to search for the party organization in the Central Soviet District in accordance with Zhu Rui's instructions on "going directly to the Central Soviet District to find the Red Army" in case of emergency. Yuan Hancheng quickly entered Pengpai County in the neighboring Central Soviet Region from Ningdu, and connected with Huo Buqing, secretary of the county party committee, with the phrase "Zhu Rui of the Central Military Commission asked me to come," and was later sent to the Red Army General Headquarters in Yeping, where he directly reported the situation to Zhu De.
On December 10, Zhu De, Mao Zedong, and Zhou Enlai rushed to Qiuxi Village, Shicheng County, and after research, it was decided to send the first part of the Red Fourth Army to Ningdu and Guangchang to clamp down on the Kuomintang army and respond to the uprising troops; Zuo Quan, Liu Bojian, and Wang Jiaxiang were sent to Pengpai County with radio stations to direct the uprising, and the local party organizations were arranged to make relevant preparations for the reorganization of the uprising troops in the Soviet area.
With the strong leadership of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, the uprising was held as scheduled on the evening of the 14th. That night, Zhao Bosheng "invited" all the brigade and regiment commanders of the 26th Route Army to participate in the so-called "invasion and suppression banquet" and controlled the opponents of the uprising on the spot. With the three signal flares breaking the dark night sky and the Ningdu Uprising, which shook the whole country, Zhao Bosheng, Dong Zhentang and others led more than 17,000 officers and soldiers and all weapons and equipment to the central Soviet area, and the glorious Red Fifth Army Corps was born.
Build a bridge of cooperation with the Northeast Army
In November 1935, the 1st and 3rd Red Army Corps were merged, and Zhu Rui served as the director of the Political Department of the newly formed Red 1st Army Corps. In January 1936, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, Ye Jianying, Nie Rongzhen, Zhu Rui and others jointly published the "Letter to All Officers and Men of the Northeast Army Willing to Join Forces with the Northeast Army to Resist Japan". In April, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Xueliang reached an agreement on joint resistance against Japan and national salvation, and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China immediately established the "Northeast Army Work Committee" headed by Zhou Enlai and formulated the "Guiding Principles on the Work of the Northeast Army." After the outbreak of the Western Expedition, the central authorities set up two leading organs under the "Northeast Army Working Committee" on the Eastern Front and the Western Front, and Peng Dehuai and Zhu Rui were responsible for the united front work of the Northeast Army on the Western Front.
Zhu Rui presided over the drafting of the "Instructions on the United Front Work in the Western Expedition", which placed the anti-Japanese national united front and the elimination of the enemy in an equally important position. In view of the ideological reality that the commanders and fighters of the Red Army generally hated the Kuomintang reactionaries, he put propaganda and education in the first place and helped officers and men to have a correct ideological understanding of the united front. In the First Army Corps, Zhu Rui presided over the formulation of the "Work of the Political Department of the First Army Corps on the Anti-Japanese United Front Department in the Western Expedition", and according to the spirit of this document, the Political Department of the Army compiled and printed targeted textbooks for company education; The company and organs respectively set up anti-Japanese united front groups to inspect and supervise the work of winning over friendly forces, and laid down slogans and slogans on the battlefield, march, and camp, such as "the Red Army that does not fight against Japan," "the United Red Army fights Japan," and "the United Red Army fights traitors." At the same time, officers and men were organized to distribute leaflets and mail letters to the Northeast Army through various means, and extensively plunged the commanders and fighters of the 1st Red Army Corps into united front work.
Zhu Rui also attached importance to conducting propaganda and education for the Northeast Army to enhance its patriotic consciousness. In accordance with his instructions, the Political Department of the 1st Army Corps of the Red Army printed and distributed a large number of materials such as the "Letter to the Officers and Soldiers of the Northeast" and tried every means to deliver them to the officers and men of the opposing side, and sent letters to He Zhuguo and other generals of the Northeast Army on many occasions, expressing the Red Army's willingness to unite against Japan. Zhu Rui also personally did the work of senior officers on the other side, and often ventured to meet with the chief of staff and regimental commander of the division in the field. The 105th Division of the Northeast Army confronted the 1st Red Army across the Qingshui River and was the key target of Zhu Rui's united front. He successively talked with Dong Yanping, chief of staff of the division, and several regiment commanders, exchanged views on the Sino-Japanese war, exposed Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy to deceive the Northeast Army to fight the Red Army, and expressed his sincere desire to develop a situation of joint resistance against Japan in the northwest with the other side. The other side felt our sincerity and expressed their approval of joint resistance against Japan. For those officers of the Northeast Army, who despised the Red Army and resolutely carried out Chiang Kai-shek's policy of "encirclement and suppression," they carried out the necessary counterattacks to promote peace. At the same time, whenever the officers and men of the Northeast were captured by us during the battle, the 1st Red Army not only gave them preferential treatment in life, but also organized them to visit our garrison and asked them to send a letter to the commander of the unit to explain the sincerity of the Red Army in uniting against Japan.
At the same time, Zhu Rui also attached great importance to the united front work against the lower-level officers and soldiers of the Northeast Army. In June 1936, he crossed the Qingshui River with the head of the Liaison Department of the Political Department and others to the 105th Division's garrison to publicize our party's anti-Japanese stand and the anti-Japanese national united front policy to the grassroots officers and soldiers of the opposing side. Zhu Rui's speech was full of emotion and reason, which deeply moved the officers and men of Northeast China at the scene, and many of them shouted slogans on the spot, such as "fight back to their hometown in Northeast China" and "Resist Japan together with the Red Army." As a result of the above-mentioned efforts, the 1st Red Army and the 105th Division of the Northeast Army were ostensibly hostile, but the two sides had frequent private contacts and even had heart-to-heart talks, and sometimes held social gatherings together. Even when the officers and men of the other side came to visit, Peng Dehuai, Nie Rongzhen, and Deng Xiaoping personally greeted them and made reports.
During the western expedition, the Ningxia warlord Ma Hongkui sent troops to attack the Red Army many times, when his cavalry attacked Yuwang Fort, was severely attacked by our army and surrounded two battalions, the panicked Ma Hongkui asked Chiang Kai-shek for help, and Chiang Kai-shek sent the 105th Division to rescue. This made Zhang Xueliang and Liu Duoquan, the commander of the 105th Division, very difficult, because they were neither willing to attack the Red Army nor dare to offend Chiang Kai-shek. After Liu Lanbo, an underground party member of the 105th Division, reported the situation to Zhu Rui, after discussion, our side proposed to adopt the method of acting on both sides, with the Northeast Army pretending to attack, and the Red Army giving way to a passage to let it go. On the same day, the 105th Division sent heavy troops to attack Yuwang Fort under the cover of aircraft and artillery, while the Red Army fired at the air on both sides of the passage. Zhu Rui also arranged for the Political Department to post slogans on both sides of the passage, organize mass condolences and propaganda team performances, and seize the opportunity to give a political lesson to the Northeast Army. From then on, the two sides had a new way of cooperating: Whenever Chiang Kai-shek sent people to monitor or supervise the battle, he would discuss the time, route, and direction of the attack in the same way, and conduct a "military exercise" according to the agreement during the battle, and the Northeast Army would also take the initiative to send ammunition to make up for the lack of the Red Army "after the war."
In 1936, the Red Second and Fourth Front Armies met to prepare for the meeting of the three main forces of the Red Army through Ganbei and north, and the Central Committee decided that the Red First Army (Red First Army) would go south to respond. At this time, Zhang Xueliang went to Nanjing to attend the Second Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the Kuomintang, and He Zhuguo of the Northeast Army implemented Chiang Kai-shek's plan to "suppress the Communists", but was fiercely counterattacked by the Red First Army. When Zhang Xueliang returned to Xi'an, although He Zhuguo stopped the offensive, his troops controlled Guyuan, Haiyuan, and Tongxin County, and became a major threat to our army's westward and southward advance. Therefore, Zhu Rui disguised himself and carried Peng Dehuai's handwritten letter, went deep into Guyuan County to talk with He Zhuguo many times, and frankly told the other party about the number, location and northward route of the Red Second and Fourth Front Army, because these situations were roughly the same as the situation grasped by He Zhuguo, and finally won the trust of the other party, He Zhuguo ordered the troops to give way between Haiyuan and Tongxin County, and the Second Division of the Red First Army was able to move south smoothly, and the soldiers successfully joined the Red Second Front Army at Jiangtai Fort on September 22.
After the three main forces of the Red Army met, Zhu Rui was appointed director of the Political Department of the Red Second Front Army in December. In the Second Front Army, Zhu Rui continued to maintain and carry forward the might of the united front, and on behalf of He Long and Guan Xiangying, he often traveled back and forth between the 109th and 120th Divisions of the Northeast Army in the surrounding areas, so that he could always maintain good cooperative relations with the Red Second Front Army. In July 1937, Zhu Rui was transferred to the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China, and Guan Xiangying wrote a parting message: "You have built a bridge of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the Northeast Army, and I hope you will open up another avenue to recover the Northeast." ”
Ordered to lead the "83 righteous acts" in danger
In 1939, in order to strengthen the unified leadership of the anti-Japanese base areas in Shandong, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a series of adjustments to the party, government, and military leading organs in Shandong. Zhu Rui was successively appointed as the political commissar of the first column of the Eighth Route Army, the secretary of the Shandong Military and Political Commission, and the acting secretary of the Shandong Branch of the Communist Party of China, and began to lead the anti-Japanese war behind enemy lines in Shandong. In addition to the anti-Japanese armed forces led by our party, there were more than 240 contingents of all kinds under the banner of resistance against Japan, with more than 20 people, which were subordinate to Xuezhong's Lusu Theater and Shen Honglie's Shandong Provincial Government. Zhu Rui inherited and developed friendly relations with the Northeast Army, encircled Yu Xuezhong to attack Shen Honglie, and gradually disintegrated the forces of the diehard Shen Honglie, thus laying a good foundation for the development and growth of our party and our army behind enemy lines in Shandong.
In 1942, the 111th Division of the 57th Army of the Northeast Army broke out in the "83 Righteous Move", and whether or not it could properly handle this emergency became a test of the united front relationship with the Northeast Army. The reason for the righteous act was that in 1940, Miao Chengliu, the commander of the 57th Army, secretly defected to the enemy and treason, and was discovered by Wan Yi, the commander of the 333rd Brigade and a secret member of the Communist Party of China. However, two years later, the Kuomintang launched a second anti-communist upsurge, and some officers of the division turned reactionary, and senior officers headed by Chief of Staff Tao Jingkui suddenly launched an incident and arrested Wan Yi and Peng Liang, the chief of the Democracy Movement Section of the Eighth Route Army stationed in the division, Wan Yi was imprisoned, and Peng Liang was killed. On August 2, Chang Enduo, who had been ill for a long time, felt that his time was running out, and he was worried that the troops would become reactionary, so he discussed with Guo Weicheng, the chief of the political affairs department of the Lusu Theater, who had been friends with him, and decided to change the name of the troops to the "Northeast Advance Army" and send them back to his hometown in the Northeast. The officers and soldiers of this division should be noted" was handed over to Guo Weicheng. It was also on this day that Wan Yi was convicted of "collaborating with the enemy, being an accomplice to the Xi'an Incident, and being a suspected traitor". Guo Weicheng came to the prison to inform Wan Yi that he was about to start an accident, and then he would rescue him from prison, hoping that Wan Yi would help him master the army. Wan Yi felt that the matter was very important, so he escaped from prison and rushed to the Shandong branch that night to report the situation. On August 6, the 111th Division rose up under the leadership of Chang Enduo and Guo Weicheng and was renamed the "Northeast Advance Army".
In Zhufan Village, where the Shandong Sub-Bureau was stationed, Zhu Rui convened the leaders of the sub-bureau to listen to the report of Wan Yi and others, believing that this incident was forced out by the diehards' anti-communism, separatism, and retrogression, and that our side should help the friendly forces get out of the control of the diehards, so it was decided that Zhu Rui would lead the command group and get close to the division with Wan Yi and others to help. After the uprising, the 111th Division lacked strong leadership, and some of its personnel fled under the leadership of reactionary officers, showing a trend of mutiny and collapse, and Chang Enduo had to order to march to the base area of the Eighth Route Army. On the 9th, Zhu Rui rushed to the division's headquarters, Chang Enduo had died, and the situation became even more critical. Zhu Rui immediately proposed to Guo Weicheng that the number of the 111th Division be restored immediately, give up the title of "Northeast Advance Army", no longer mention any slogans, only mention unity in the War of Resistance, and resolutely maintain the stability of the troops. On behalf of the Shandong Branch, he proposed that the news of Chang Enduo's death should not be released for the time being, and that he should continue to use his customs defense and seal to issue orders, with Wan Yi and Guo Weicheng as deputy division commanders, and that they should agree on the nomination of brigade and regiment commanders and report to the Shandong Branch for approval. After the troops initially stabilized, Zhu Rui instructed Wan and Guo to take them to our coastal base area for rest and recuperation.
Zhu Rui held that the ownership of the volunteer troops was of great importance, and if it was immediately reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, it would not only be easy for the Kuomintang diehards to undermine the united front, but would also easily lead to the suspicion of friendly forces. At this time, some officers and men of the division believed that only one-third of the men and horses had been brought over from this charity act, and they were pessimistic and disappointed. Zhu Rui told a story about the defeat of the German army by the French army, and danced happily, but suddenly someone shouted, why do we have no heads, and someone replied that "our heads were taken by the Germans." Zhu Rui further explained that this shows that although the French army won the war, it did not gain much, just like our incident, although the number of people brought over was not large, but the division commander Chang Endo was with us, he was our head, and this was the biggest victory. Hearing this story, the officers and men laughed one after another, and their spirits were lifted a lot. Zhu Rui and the leaders of the sub-bureau also visited the officers and men of the division on many occasions to explain the difficulties faced by the troops after the uprising and our policies, and arranged for the local government to ensure the livelihood of the troops.
After that, Zhu Rui, on behalf of the Shandong Branch, put forward the suggestion of "educating soldiers, reforming cadres, and uniting the upper echelons", and tried his best to help this unit return to the anti-Japanese front. After rectification, the 111th Division held a democratic election, with Wan Yi as the division commander and Guo Weicheng as the deputy division commander and director of the Political Department. In 1943, the Kuomintang rebuilt the 111th Division, and the Shandong Branch of the Communist Party of China seized this opportunity to approve the official reorganization of the Volunteer Army into the Binhai Detachment of the Eighth Route Army. Later, this unit fought bravely and skillfully, and became the backbone of the Binhai Naval District, which advanced to the northeast in the early days of the Liberation War, and eventually became the basic force of the 38th Army of the "Long Live Army".
In Shandong, Zhu Rui has always attached importance to uniting and winning the Northeast Army, and in May 1942, the Japanese army carried out a large-scale "sweep" of the Xuezhong Division, and at the time of crisis, the Shandong Branch and the Shandong Military Region took the initiative to let the Yu Division enter our defense area to take refuge, and gave preferential treatment in terms of provisions. Since then, the two sides have maintained closer relations, not only by sending representatives to each other, but also by resuming radio contacts that had been interrupted for many years. In 1943, Yu Xuezhong's troops lost more than half of their troops under the attack of the Japanese army, coupled with their negative anti-communist attitude, Jiang Sui ordered his troops to withdraw from Shandong and be replaced by his confidant Li Xianzhou and the 92nd Army. Zhu Rui and the Shandong Branch seized this opportunity to carry out a lot of work on Xuezhong, persuading him to relinquish the Yilu Mountains and the Zhuriju Mountains on the coast. In the end, Yu Xuezhong resolutely gave up Chiang Kai-shek's order to wait for Li Xianzhou's troops to take over the defense, withdrew from this strategic place in advance, and notified our army to take over the defense. In this way, our army opened up the direct connection between Binhai and Jiaodong, controlled most of the Yimeng Mountains, and gained great strategic superiority in the subsequent struggle against the enemy.
In December 1943, Zhu Rui arrived in Yan'an and participated in the Rectification Movement and the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China. After the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the direct care of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he served as the acting principal of the Yan'an Artillery School, and returned to the artillery major he loved when he was young, and since then he has started a new journey of building a powerful artillery of our army. During the War of Liberation, he devoted all his energy to the construction of the people's artillery and created the Northeast Artillery from scratch. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Rui was selected as one of the "100 heroes and exemplary figures who have made outstanding contributions to the founding of the People's Republic of China".
On the road to the west, the united front is well-organized
In May 1936, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided that the Red 1st Army Corps and the Red 15th Army Corps would be organized into the Western Field Army to carry out the westward expedition, and Zhu Rui, who was then the political commissar of the Red First Army, led the 1st Army Corps to the west. However, when the Red 1st Army Corps was stationed in the areas of Guyuan, Haiyuan and Tongxincheng, it was intercepted by six or seven divisions under He Zhuguo, commander of the cavalry corps of the Northeast Army. In this way, how to do a good job in the united front work of the Northeast Army and strive for it to embark on the bright road of resisting Japan and saving the country is not only an important task of the anti-Japanese national united front, but also an important guarantee for the victory of the Western Expedition. According to the instructions of the Central Committee, under the Northeast Army Working Committee led by Zhou Enlai, two leading bodies for the work of the Eastern Front and the Western Front were established. Peng Dehuai and Zhu Rui were responsible for the united front work of the Northeast Army on the Western Front, and they discussed and decided on major issues, and Zhu Rui was responsible for the daily practical work.
Zhu Rui presided over the drafting of the instructions on the united front work in the Western Expedition and the "Work of the Political Department of the First Army Corps on the Anti-Japanese Front Department in the Western Expedition." Afterwards, he went to the 4th Division of the 7th Battalion of the Qingshui River, which was facing the Northeast Army across the river, to organize and lead the troops to carry out united front work against the Northeast Army. On many occasions, he was not afraid of risks and personally went to the Northeast Army garrison to explain to the officers and men the CPC's united front policy and anti-Japanese proposition.
Zhu Rui also actively did the united front work of the upper echelons of the Northeast Army, went to their stations to liaise with them and dispel their misgivings about the Red Army. He disguised himself as a merchant and entered the enemy camp alone, and on behalf of Peng Dehuai, he held three secret talks with He Zhuguo, the commander of the cavalry army, so that he could give up the passage between Haiyuan and Tongxin, and let the Western Expeditionary Army go to receive reinforcements from the Red Second and Fourth Front Armies. On the fifth anniversary of the "September 18" incident, Zhu Rui went to the Northeast Army garrison to negotiate with the representative of Bai Fengxiang, commander of the Sixth Cavalry Division, and signed the "Agreement of the Political Department of the People's Red Army on the Signing of an Armistice between the Sixth Division of the Northeast Cavalry and the Red Army."
In early December 1936, Zhu Rui was transferred to the post of director of the Political Department of the Second Front Army. While cooperating with He Long and Guan Xiangying to conscientiously do a good job in the political and ideological work of the Second Front Army, he also continued to carry out united front work against the Northeast Army and the Northwest Army in the vicinity. After the "Xi'an Incident," some middle- and lower-ranking officers, instigated by the Young Zhuang faction, became increasingly radicalized, and they expressed that they would not hesitate to fight a bloody battle with the Central Army in order to save the young marshal. Some even listened to the pro-Japanese faction to sow discord and doubted the sincerity of the Red Army. Zhu Rui did not avoid suspicion and disregarded his personal safety, and personally went to work as the commanders of some regiments and battalions of the Northeast Army, made clear to them the consistent stand of our party and the Red Army in striving for a peaceful situation in the country, weighed the pros and cons of peace and war, and reminded them that they must not listen to the provocations of the pro-Japanese faction and must not do stupid things that undermine the Trinity and split the overall strength of the Northeast Army. Guan Xiangying, political commissar of the Second Front Army, wrote in his parting speech to see off Zhu Rui to the anti-Japanese front in North China: "You have built a bridge of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the Northeast Army, and I hope you will open up another road to reclaim the Northeast." This is not only a summary of Zhu Rui's united front work with the Northeast Army, but also an overall evaluation of his united front work with the Northeast Army since his Western Expedition.
Go behind enemy lines to gather strength
After the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, the Central Committee appointed Zhu Duan as the secretary of the Military Commission of the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China. With the consent of Liu Shaoqi, secretary of the Northern Bureau, Zhu Rui went to Xingtai and Handan in early August to mobilize the masses and launch guerrilla warfare. Due to the obstruction of the road, he was stranded in Baoding. At this time, the Japanese army had occupied Beiping, the Kuomintang troops fled south, and many high-ranking generals gathered in Baoding. Zhu Rui took Chairman Mao Zedong's business card and went to visit Liu Xiaonan, Gao Shuxun, Sun Dianying, and others, held talks on behalf of the CCP, explained to them the CCP's anti-Japanese national united front policy, and encouraged them to stay in North China and persist in the War of Resistance. In early September, Zhu Rui was dispatched by Zhou Enlai to serve as the colonel's chief secretary to the political training department of the Kuomintang First Theater Commander's Headquarters. Later, at the invitation of Zhang Zhen, commander of the North Henan Division, he also served as an instructor of the guerrilla training class of the North Henan Division, and used Zhang Zhen's "hat" and the podium of the training class to lose no time in publicizing the Communist Party's anti-Japanese stand and training anti-Japanese cadres. The training class gathered many progressive young people from all over Henan, Hebei and Shanxi.
Soon after, Zhu Rui was appointed by Cheng Qian as the head of the liaison office of the Commander's Headquarters of the 18th Group Army stationed in the First Theater, and he took advantage of this legal status to take the initiative to contact some Kuomintang generals such as Wan Fulin, Gao Shuxun, Sun Dianying, Shi Yousan, Zhang Yinwu, Ding Shuben, and Zhu Huaibing, to discuss the anti-Japanese plan and persuade them to persist in guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines on the spot. The earliest mass anti-Japanese organization established in the country, the "Northern Henan Anti-Japanese People's Mobilization Committee", was also initiated and established by Zhu Rui during this period. At the same time, under his guidance, the Jiaozuo Party organization united with Luo Qi, the commander of the local garrison, and many progressive gentry, and soon established the democratically elected Xiuwu County Government, which was the first anti-Japanese democratic regime in northern Henan under the direct leadership of our party. After the Kuomintang troops withdrew from the Yellow River, Zhu Rui set up the North China Military and Political Cadres School with the trainees of the training class in the northern Henan division as the backbone, recruited exiled students and progressive youths from the southeastern Shanxi, northern Henan, and Zhinan regions, and conducted political and military education and training for them to resist Japan. Through Zhu Rui's meticulous cultivation, the North China Military and Political Cadre School has successively trained more than 2,000 cadets and has become an important backbone force of our party in persisting in the War of Resistance behind enemy lines in North China.
Strive for friendly forces to fight together
In June 1939, Zhu Rui, who studied at the Krasin Artillery Academy of the Soviet Union in his early years, served as the political commissar of the Red Fifth Army Corps, the director of the Political Department of the Red First Army Corps, and the representative of the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China in Taihang District during the Long March, was ordered to follow Xu Xiangqian from southern Hebei to Shandong and became the political commissar of the First Column of the Eighth Route Army under Xu Xiangqian's commander. Soon, Zhu Rui was appointed secretary of the Shandong branch of the Communist Party of China. The situation in Shandong in 1939 was similar to that in most parts of central China; compared with the strength of the Japan invading army and the Kuomintang army, the CCP's strength in Shandong was still relatively weak; Zhu Rui, as the party's top responsible person in Shandong, was well aware of the heavy responsibility he shouldered.
However, the key to implementing Mao Zedong's strategic intention was to have the army in hand, especially the main force that had been tested by war for a long time. In the spring of 1938, Li Yu, the head of the Shandong Party, asked Mao Zedong in Yan'an to send Red Army cadres to Shandong to train and strengthen the anti-Japanese guerrillas led by the local party, and Mao Zedong agreed to Li Yu's request. Zhang Jingwu, a general of the Red Army, led a group of Long March cadres to return to Shandong with Li Yu, and soon formed the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army. After Xu Xiangqian and Zhu Rui entered Lunan, they immediately rendezvoused with the headquarters of the Shandong Column, and on August 1, the first column of the Eighth Route Army was formally established. The authority given to it by the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army was to unify the command of the 115th Division, the Shandong Column, and the CCP's troops in northern Jiangsu. In March of this year, a main regiment and division headquarters of the 115th Division led by Luo Ronghuan and Chen Guang had entered Luxi one after another.
In this way, the CCP had two armies in Shandong: the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and the Shandong Column (the first column of the Eighth Route Army), and a new situation in Shandong's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was opened. The revolution was advancing in great strides, and the chaotic pace of the march was concealed, and the order of the Shandong column stipulated by the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army to command the CCP forces in Shandong and northern Jiangsu was invisibly canceled. The first column of the Eighth Route Army, which was originally served by Zhu Rui as political commissar, was revoked in 1940 and the Shandong Column commanded its subordinate units. In June 1940, Xu Xiangqian was summoned to return to Yan'an, and for a considerable period of time, the anti-Japanese base areas in Shandong failed to achieve centralized and unified military and political leadership.
The command and leadership of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Taihang and the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China in the base areas behind enemy lines in North China and Shandong began to change after Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and Yang Shangkun, secretary of the Northern Bureau, returned to Yan'an one after another.
After the number of the first column of the Eighth Route Army was canceled, Zhu Rui's main responsibility was to lead the Shandong branch of the Communist Party of China. In Shandong, the leadership of the party and the leadership of the army have been separated for a long time, each department has its own share, and the deacons have different perspectives, which inevitably leads to differences of opinion.
In Shandong, there are also special problems: the unified command of the 115th Division and the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army has not been resolved for a long time, and due to the influence of the war environment, the Mountain Column and the 115th Division are in different operational areas, and in fact two centers have been formed to lead the Shandong War of Resistance.
Zhu Rui's study in Yan'an produced a result, which is his "Autobiography of My History and Thought", in which he made a rigorous analysis of his own history. At the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Zhu Rui made a speech entitled "The Experience and Lessons of the Shandong Base Area in the Triangular Struggle," in which he profoundly reviewed his shortcomings and mistakes during his work in Shandong, and enthusiastically praised Chairman Mao's greatness. Zhu Rui's speech full of self-criticism left a deep impression on the participants, and at the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Luo Ronghuan, who was unable to attend the meeting due to work needs, was elected as a member of the Central Committee.
The Yan'an Artillery School is the cradle of people's artillery today. During the Anti-Japanese War, limited by the objective nature of guerrilla warfare, the Yan'an Artillery School was confined to the outskirts of Yan'an for long-term training and production. In the "rescue movement" planned by Kang Sheng, most of the comrades of the Yan'an Artillery School were branded as "spies" and "spies" because of their intellectual background. Zhu Rui restored the artillery school in a short period of time, and then rushed to the northeast battlefield, which was not an easy task. In the Northeast, Zhu Rui sent out the last brilliance of his life. This was the first commander of the grand strategic zone back then, and now he has become the artillery commander under Lin Biao, and he is not a person who directly leads the troops (back then, in the psychology of cadres, they all yearned for direct leadership of troops, and they did not have enough understanding of the importance of technical arms). Under the leadership of Zhu Rui, with the 500 backbones of the Yan'an Artillery School as the seed, in just three years, the Northeast Field Army developed to 16 artillery regiments and an artillery column, with more than 4,700 artillery pieces of various types.
Eager to fight, but impatient to do some map work in the upper organs with complicated personnel relations, this may be the reason why Zhu Rui is reluctant to stay in the Yan'an headquarters, and letting Zhu Rui go to the front also shows the fine style of meritocracy in that era.
It was a revolutionary time. Revolutionaries need to bear all the hardships for their ideals, including the various estrangements and misunderstandings that will inevitably arise within the revolutionary camp, and this so-called "purgatory" of the revolution is also. However, in the revolutionary era, revolution is the highest purpose, the small self is the overall situation, and personal honor and disgrace can be put aside.
In May 1939, Zhu Rui was successively appointed as the political commissar of the first column of the Eighth Route Army, the secretary of the Shandong Military and Political Commission, and the secretary of the Shandong Branch. The four years he presided over the work in Shandong were the most difficult period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression behind enemy lines. In accordance with the central authorities' struggle strategy of developing progressive forces, winning over middle forces, and opposing stubborn forces, and in light of Shandong's specific conditions, Zhu Rui put forward the idea of "supporting (Xuezhong), ignoring Shen (Honglie), attacking Shen's subordinates, cutting off his hands and feet, and isolating Shen Honglie," and then adopted the united front strategy of "striking at Shen Honglie" and "eliminating the diehards" to further consolidate and develop Shandong's anti-Japanese national united front.
Zhu Rui was personally in charge of the united front work of the Northeast Army, and through the radio station of the sub-bureau, he often had direct dialogues with Yu Xuezhong, commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Lusu Theater, and his headquarters. In addition, the sub-bureau and the Eighth Route Army held joint meetings and exchanged representatives to consult with the Northeast Army on major issues in the struggle against the enemy and exchange intelligence. During a counter-"sweeping" campaign, the leading organ of the First Column and the Lusu Theater Command happened to meet in a ravine in the mountainous area of Luzhong, where Yu Xuezhong, Xu Xiangqian, and Zhu Rui held cordial talks and jointly worked out a plan for breaking out of the encirclement.
Chiang Kai-shek appointed Yu Xuezhong as commander-in-chief of the Lusu Theater, originally hoping to use the Northeast Army to resist the Japan invading army in Shandong and carry out anti-communist and anti-Eighth Routes, and at the same time to weaken the Northeast Army and achieve the goal of killing three birds with one stone. Zhu Rui and the Shandong Sub-Bureau under his leadership closely and flexibly grasped the timing and struggle tactics, and took advantage of the gap between Yu and Li to intensify the work of uniting Xuezhong and the Northeast Army. Zhu Rui contacted Yu Xuezhong directly through the radio and made clear to him the attitude of our party and our army: If the Northeast Army is willing to evacuate ahead of schedule, our side will provide necessary conveniences, including the receipt of supplies and safety during the passage, and organize the masses to send them off and express condolences to them in the places where they pass. Under the efforts and sincere inspiration of Zhu Rui, Luo Ronghuan, Li Yu and other responsible persons of the sub-bureau, Yu Xuezhong resolutely ignored Chiang Kai-shek's order to wait for Li to take over the defense, and withdrew on his own without waiting for Li to arrive. The sub-bureau and the military region seized this important historical opportunity in a timely manner and immediately organized troops to launch an important campaign against the enemy to seize the garrison of the Northeast Army. Through the battle, our army basically controlled the Zhuriju Mountain Area, opened up the direct connection between the Binhai District and the Jiaodong District, and controlled all of the Yishan Mountain Area and a part of the Mengshan Mountain Area, covering an area of about 2,250 square kilometers, and finally opened up and changed the inferior situation of our party and our army in the triangular struggle in Shandong for many years, and created the preconditions for the development of Shandong, the country's largest anti-Japanese democratic base area.
Founding Lieutenant General Wan Yi recalled Zhu Rui, secretary of the Shandong Sub-Bureau, and said: Comrade Zhu Rui has left us for many years, and his contributions to the party and the people have forever gone down in history; in particular, at the beginning of the Liaoshen Campaign, in order to sum up and improve the combat experience and combat effectiveness of the artillery, he personally visited the battlefield, conducted on-the-spot investigations, unfortunately shed blood and sacrificed his life, and damaged the glorious historical relics of the land of western Liaoning, leaving a deep remembrance and admiration for the Chinese People's Liberation Army and those who came after him.
I met Zhu Rui in early August 1942, and after that, under his leadership, I worked for more than half a year, which was not a long time, but I received a lot of care and help from him in the cultivation of party spirit, the tempering of work style, and the study of policies, which still make me convinced.
In the early 40s, when China's anti-Japanese battlefield entered a stage of strategic stalemate, the 111th Division of the 57th Army of the Northeast Army, where I was at that time, had three major incidents in less than two years, and Zhu Rui was serving as secretary of the Shandong Branch Bureau at that time. In the end, he personally came forward to solve the problem, adhered to the principles, and implemented the trade-offs. In order to make public to future generations the historical achievements made by Zhu Rui in carrying out the instructions of the Party Central Committee and the decisions of the Shandong Branch, it is necessary to give a brief introduction to the ins and outs of the three incidents that occurred in the unit where I was at that time.
I was a special member of the Communist Party of China who secretly joined the party in the spring of 1938. In the winter of 1939, I was promoted from the commander of the 667th Regiment of the 334th Brigade of the 112th Division of the Northeast Army to the acting brigade commander of the 333rd Brigade of the 111th Division.
In September 1940, the commander of the 57th Army, Miao Chengliu, conspired to commit treason and collaborate with the enemy, and reached an agreement with the Japanese Lujin Division on "exchanging intelligence and jointly defending against the Communists". Due to my lack of vigilance against Han Zijia, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 667th Regiment, who was assigned to carry out the mission, I did not expect him to be an opportunist, so Miao rebelled under his cover and escaped on the 22nd.
Although the "922" hoe rape did not catch Miao Yi, his treason was finally foiled. This rape, known in history as the "922" incident, was a reflection of the political struggle between surrender and anti-surrender after the anti-Japanese resistance entered the stage of stalemate. The 111th Division should have taken advantage of the victory of the war of resistance and treachery, strengthened the political education of upholding the War of Resistance, unity, and progress, and opposing surrender, separatism, and retrogression, so that the troops could advance along the correct road, but at that time, it only mentioned consolidating political victories with military victories, and was content to win one or two battles. In mid-February 1941, the division suddenly reversed its politics with the reactionary "217" incident, which led to the arrest and expulsion of our underground party members and progressives, and I was arrested and detained by them. For nearly a year and a half, the 111th Division openly opposed the Communists and continued to attack the Eighth Route Army and the anti-Japanese democratic regime, completely retreating into a state of serious confrontation with the Communist army.
As early as the "922" incident, Li Yu, a member of the Shandong Sub-Bureau, sent a telegram to the Central Committee and the Northern (Side) Bureau on 23 September, suggesting that cadres who had previously worked in the Northeast Army should be sent to the 111th Division to assist in the work, pay attention to preventing the conspiracy and sabotage of traitors, Kuomintang agents, and unstable elements in the Northeast Army, and assist the division in consolidating its troops. Zhu Rui sent Yu Ke (former cadre of the Northeast Army), section chief of the Social Department of the sub-bureau, to the 111th Division to convey the above-mentioned spirit to the division's Party Working Committee, but unfortunately these instructions of the sub-bureau and the Central Committee were not implemented.
After the "217" incident, it attracted the close attention of the party Central Committee and the Shandong sub-bureau. Zhu Rui immediately sent Gu Mu, who was in charge of the work of the Northeast Army, to lead a company close to the 111th Division's station, "to understand the whereabouts of Wan Yi and other detained comrades and progressives, and to try his best to rescue them." "But the 111th Division is heavily guarded against us and cannot send people in. In recent years, it has become popular to say that Chang Enduo is a member of the Communist Party, and I once asked Gu Mu about this: "Have you heard that Chang Enduo is a member of the Communist Party at that time?" "If I had known that he was a party member, I would have gone in," he said. Zhu Rui never told me that Chang Enduo was a party member. ”
On the afternoon of August 2, 1942, Guo Weicheng, chief of the political affairs department of the Lusu Theater Headquarters of the Kuomintang Army, came to see me in prison, and he said: Chang En, the commander of the 111th Division, had died of illness, and he and Chang agreed to launch a mutiny after Chang died, pull the team out, break away from the Kuomintang army, set up his own number, and implement the "Eight Major Proposals" put forward by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng during the Xi'an Incident. That night, I escaped from the military prison at the headquarters of the Lusu theater of operations. On the morning of August 3, they arrived at Cheyu in Yingnan County, Shandong, which was the station of the 2nd Brigade and 6th Regiment of the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army. On the morning of the 4th, I was sent by the Shandong Branch of the CPC Central Committee to meet with the comrades sent by the Third Realm Leader and the Branch, and on the evening of the 5th, I met Zhu Rui, Luo Ronghuan, and other leading comrades of the Shandong Branch in Zhufan Village. In the evening of the same day, Zhu Rui presided over a meeting of the sub-bureau to listen to a report on the "83 Incident" of the 111th Division of the Northeast Army, which was a meeting held by the Shandong Sub-Bureau to discuss the "83 Incident." The meeting was attended by Chen Guang, Luo Ronghuan, and Li Yu. I attended the meeting as an observer and listened to Zhu Rui's summary of the discussions at the meeting.
After the meeting, Zhu Rui took me and Wang Zhenqian to move closer to the 111th Division. On the way, he rested for a night at the headquarters of the 2nd Brigade of the Mountain Column. Brigade Commander Sun Jixian and Director of the Political Department Kong Fanbin received our delegation. That night, I watched Zhu Rui and Kong Fanbin talking and laughing, and the atmosphere was very lively. At that time, I had just come to the Eighth Route Army from the old army, and I was still a little restrained.
It seems that Juri deliberately created an atmosphere in which I, a newcomer, could relax as much as possible, adapt to the new environment, and get along with everyone quickly. There is another thing that is similar to this. It was some time later, at a gathering of cadres of the 111th Division, and before Zhu Rui spoke, he asked me to read aloud a report on the "August 3rd Righteous Cause" published in the "Dazhong Daily." After I finished reading it, Zhu Rui praised my reading, which was a kind of trust and support for me.
On August 7, one of my former subordinates, Du Rongmin, came to pick me up and take me back to the 111th Division. It is estimated that Zhu Rui is already confident about this, but he still politely asks for my opinion on whether to go back or not, and lets me make my own decision. I said, "I'd better go back, even though there may be all kinds of accidents, it's better to go back." From this incident, I felt that Zhu Rui was cautious in dealing with the problem and respected the opinions of the parties concerned. There's one more thing that's similar to this. When it was decided to revoke the number of the "Northeast Advance Army" and restore the original number of the 111th Division, I drafted a list of leading cadres to Zhu Rui. Zhu asked me: "Have you studied this list with relevant leaders?" I said, "No." Zhu said: "It should be discussed. Don't let one person have the final say. "His constant criticism was a great shock to my habit of having the final say in the commander-in-chief that I had cultivated for a long time in the old army.
After the 111th Division entered our base area, in order to avoid the enemy's "sweep", it once planned to move to Lunan. I had the opportunity to speak with Juri alone. I asked Zhu Rui: "Chang Enduo made a 180-degree turn after the Anhui Incident, which is really incomprehensible, and I have always been puzzled by this." Zhu Rui said: "It is not surprising that Chang Enduo is not a member of the Communist Party, and the sudden change in his attitude is out of legitimate self-preservation."
In the course of the 111th Division's "August 3rd Incident", apart from the fact that he should not publish news for the 111th Division in Shandong's "Dazhong Daily" (in this regard, the sub-bureau has taken back and destroyed all the newspapers in accordance with the instructions of the central government), Zhu Rui's entire decision-making process was in line with the spirit of the central government:
First, Zhu Rui's answer to the question of whether the remaining troops that had undergone the great changes should still adhere to the original name of "Northeast Advance Army" was negative. Zhu Rui once persuaded Guo Weicheng, one of the main planners of the incident, saying: "There are a lot of things going on, and the most important thing at present is to stabilize the troops. For this reason, it was necessary to immediately abandon the number of the Northeast Advance Army and restore the number of the 111th Division. There are not many of your troops left (about 2,000 men), what is it called a 'army'? It's better to restore the original number of the 111th Division. Second, we should not mention so many slogans in the past, but mention unity in the war of resistance, which is conducive to stabilizing the troops, and the common people are familiar with it and are relatively easy to accept." Guo said he accepted.
Second, Zhu Rui did not agree to the request of the 111th Division to demarcate territory in the base area and form its own situation, but instead conducted retraining for the division in the designated area within the base area of the Eighth Route Army, so that it could become a non-Eighth Route peripheral army. In the course of the training, Zhu Rui put forward a three-point proposal of "educating the soldiers, reforming the cadres, and uniting the upper echelons," and asked the Binhai Special Administration to "use all means to ensure our material supply and replenishment of troops," which played an important role in uniting and transforming this unit. Soon after, he and the leaders of the sub-bureau planned to transfer the independent brigade of the 57 th Army (the brigade was originally two companies of the 57 th Army, but after the "922" incident, due to resisting persecution and defection to the enemy from the upper echelons, it broke away from the Northeast Army through my connections, and later developed into an independent brigade of two regiments and 12 companies under the leadership of the party) to the command of the 111 Division.
Third, Zhu Rui attaches great importance to doing a good job in the leadership of the 111th Division. The first is to eliminate the estrangement between Guo and Wan. After the "August 3rd", Guo Xiangzhu said: "Wan Yi's escape almost ruined our major affairs." Zhu replied: "Wan Yi has been arrested twice, and he is a bird with a frightened bow. His jailbreak was understandable. "I expressed my trust in Guo politically, and made him the deputy division commander and director of the Political Department, giving full play to his active role. Second, do a good job of internal unity. After the unit entered the base area for reorganization, a small number of officers were not accustomed to the strict discipline of the Eighth Route Army, and the idea of leaving the unit germinated. There was impatience in the leadership at that time. After Zhu Rui found out, he clearly instructed: "It is not only a friendly army, but also insists on resisting Japan, and comes and goes freely." Don't get out of their guns and cause them to fight in the same room. "We did so and got good results. Later they not only did not break away from the troops, but also showed themselves well in the anti-"mopping-up" battles. This fully reflects Comrade Zhu Rui's firm principle and high degree of flexibility in grasping policies. Otherwise, simply and hastily doing it will inevitably lead to serious consequences.
By December 1942, the Shandong Eighth Route Army had carried out three anti-stubborn battles in Jiazishan, and at the cost of no less than 1,000 casualties, the new 111th Division existed as a peripheral army of the party.
This incident reminds me that Comrade Zhu Rui was ordered to do the united front work of the Northeast Army before the Xi'an Incident, and he has achieved fruitful results in carrying out the work against Wang Yizhe, Liu Duoquan, He Zhuguo, Bai Fengxiang, and other high-ranking generals. Guan Xiangying, the political commissar of the Red Second Front Army at that time, once gave the inscription "You have built a bridge of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the Northeast Army". This fully shows that Zhu Rui has rich experience in handling this work. His demeanor will always be remembered in my heart.