Li Zhenya, formerly known as Li Rong, also known as Li Bochong, Li Cong, and Li Chong, was born in 1908 in a poor peasant family in Dafen Village, Jinji Town, Tengxian County, Guangxi. When he was young, his parents died one after another, and he was raised by his grandfather. After two years of private schooling, he dropped out of school due to his poor family, so he left home and went to Wuzhou to work as a handyman, and later as an apprentice tailor. In 1926, he joined Li Mingrui's army as a soldier. In 1929, he served as an adjutant in the Fourth Brigade of the Guangxi Garrison. On December 11 of the same year, he participated in the Baise Uprising led by Deng Xiaoping, and served as an adjutant in the military headquarters of the Red Seventh Army, in charge of logistics work. In the same year, he joined the Communist Party of China.
In the winter of 1930, the Red Seventh Army was ordered to go north, and Li Zhenya served as the adjutant of the 58th Regiment, and moved to the border of Guangxi, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces with his troops. At that time, the troops marched through the Kuomintang-ruled areas, and it was extremely difficult to supply military supplies. On the eve of each march, Li Zhenya always asked each company to check the guns, ammunition, straw sandals, and rain hats one by one, and if any deficiencies were found, they immediately tried to replenish them. In the years when the Red Seventh Army went north to fight, Li Zhenya was most afraid of missing two things, one was an iron pot and the other was salt. At that time, salt was very difficult, and one tael of salt was sold in the market for a silver dollar. Every time the army marched and fought, people always saw Adjutant Li bending over and carrying a heavy canvas bag containing table salt, and the commanders and fighters of the regiment called him a "good adjutant."
On February 5, 1931, when the Red Seventh Army rushed to cross the Lechang River in northern Guangdong, it was intercepted into two sections by the Guangdong army. When a cook delivered food to the front, he found that a regiment of the Cantonese army was rushing to the military headquarters by land, and the main force of the Red Army was engaged in a fierce battle with the Cantonese army rushing by airboat from the water, and the situation was very critical. Li Zhenya immediately reported the situation to the military headquarters, and at the same time led the cooking squad to covertly approach the enemy from the right side. When he was more than 100 meters away from the enemy, he found that the commander of the enemy was holding a telescope and looking in the direction of our military headquarters. Li Zhenya raised his gun to aim, and with a "bang", the enemy officer fell in response, and the other commander was so frightened that he lay on the ground and did not dare to move. The enemy lost command and panicked. After a while, the enemy commander who was lying on the ground saw that there was no movement around him, and he stood up again with courage and commanded his troops to press towards the military headquarters of the Red Seventh Army. Li Zhenya raised his gun to aim again, and with a "bang", the enemy commander's hat was knocked off. The enemy, believing that the Red Army had set up an ambush, retreated in confusion and retreated to the village. The military department won time and transferred safely. On the way to transfer, the cooking squad lost a pot and three bags of rice, Li Zhenya went to the military headquarters to prepare for a review, and when Commander Zhang Yunyi saw him, he looked up and down at this young man of medium stature and a thin face, and said with a smile: "You are really not simple, two shots will scare away the enemy a regiment." After the Red Seventh Army arrived in the Central Soviet Region, Zhang Yunyi recommended Li Zhenya to study in the command department of the Ruijin Red Army School. Due to his excellent academic performance, he stayed in school as a battalion commander. During this period, he led the whole battalion of cadets to participate in the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" operation, and achieved remarkable results, and was rated as a "model commander."
In October 1934, when the Red Army carried out the Long March, Li Zhenya served as the commander of the first battalion of the cadre regiment of the column of the Central Military Commission, and was responsible for the tasks of reconnoitering the enemy's situation, removing obstacles, and ensuring the safety of the Party Central Committee. In the famous battles of the Red Army, such as breaking through the natural danger of the Xiangjiang River, crossing the Chishui River four times, capturing Loushan Pass, rushing to cross the Jinsha River, and forcibly crossing the Dadu River, he made many military exploits.
On May 25, 1935, after the main force of the Red Army occupied Anshun Field, one of the important crossings in the upper reaches of the Dadu River in the central part of Shimian County, Sichuan Province, the Central Military Commission ordered cadres and regiments to cover the main force to seize the Huding Bridge. At this time, a vanguard brigade of Liu Xiang's reinforcements of the Sichuan army rushed to meet him, and the situation was critical, and the Military Commission instructed the cadres and regiments to hold out for at least one day. The 1st Battalion was responsible for the defense of the main positions, and Li Zhenya commanded the troops to build fortifications on some dangerous positions to block the enemy. He told the company commanders: "We must hold our positions to the death, and we cannot take half a step back without orders." If I die, a company commander will take over the command, and it will be a victory to withstand the enemy!" At 10 a.m., the enemy, relying on the superiority of large numbers and excellent equipment, launched a series of attacks, and the battle was very fierce. Li Zhenya braved the rain of bullets and bullets, covered in dirt, and commanded and blocked the enemy from this company position to that company position. After learning that the second company commander had died and the position had been breached, he jumped up and led the reserve team to charge bravely against the enemy, and launched a white-knuckle fight, forcing the enemy down. He was wounded in the left leg, and his comrades persuaded him to go down, but he still insisted on commanding in the forward position, repelled five enemy attacks in succession, and finally completed the task of holding out for one day, covering the central organs and the main force of the Red Army to cross the Dadu River. In mid-June of the same year, after the Central Red Army and the Fourth Front Army met in Maogong, Sichuan, Li Zhenya was transferred to the post of chief of staff of the 33rd Army of the Red Fourth Front Army. Later, due to his opposition to Zhang Guotao's split of the Central Committee, he was dismissed by Zhang Guotao and transferred to the Entertainment Unit of the Political Department as the head of the unit. In late October 1936, Li Zhenya, who served as the chief of the operations section, crossed the Yellow River west from the Jingyuan area of Gansu Province with the Western Route Army and marched towards the Hexi Corridor. Due to the lone battle, the ammunition and food were exhausted, and they were defeated in the Qilian Mountains in March 1937. After the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Li Zhenya was rescued by the Party Central Committee and returned to Yan'an, where he was transferred to the Chinese Anti-Japanese Military and Political University as the leader and instructor of the Fifth Squadron of the Third Brigade.
In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zhenya was transferred to the staff of the Military Department of the Yangtze River Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. In February 1939, he accompanied Ye Jianying to Hunan, where he served as a colonel instructor in the Nanyue guerrilla cadre training class of the National Revolutionary Army as a senior staff officer of the 18th Group Army. In the autumn of the same year, after graduating from the first batch of trainees, Li Zhenya was ordered to go to Shabo Village, Pingshan, Huiyang, through the Shaoguan Office of the Eighth Route Army in Guangdong, to serve as the director of the Dongjiang guerrilla training class, where he taught guerrilla strategy and tactics and political work.
In early September, Li Zhenya was introduced by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China to serve as chief of staff of the Dongjiang Anti-Japanese Military and Political Committee. At the beginning of October, he went to the Fourth Theater of Operations to set up a military training class on the basis of a peasant's house borrowed a peasant's house in Shabo Village (the base was in Pingshan, Huiyang, and was also called the Pingshan Guerrilla Force, and gave lectures in person). During the lecture, the drawing was explained in simple terms, which was well received by the students. He is approachable and often goes deep into the team to tutor the students, and eats and lives with the students. During his six months in the Dongjiang Mountains, he laid the foundation for the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare among the guerrillas and local party and government cadres. Li Zhenya's work style and talent deeply absorbed Wang Chunhong (later renamed Wang Chao), a young overseas Chinese guerrilla who returned from Malaysia. The flower of love blooms in the tense and hard guerrillas. In early February 1940, Li Zhenya and Wang Chao held a war wedding and became revolutionary partners.
In late August 1940, Li Zhenya and his wife were ordered to work in the Qiongya Corps on Hainan Island from Hong Kong. They pretended to be returned overseas Chinese businessmen, carried radio stations, and secretly traveled from Hong Kong on wooden sailing boats with several underground workers to drift forward in the vast sea. After Li Zhenya and his entourage landed on the Lingao Beach, they were picked up by the local party committee and transported to Meihe Township, Chengmai County, the base of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps led by Feng Baiju.
On 7 September, shortly after Li Zhenya arrived at the Independent Corps of the Anti-Japanese Guerrillas in Qiongya, Guangdong Province, Zhuang Tian (cadres of the Red Army of the Long March), Qin Wei (cadres of the Red Army of the Long March), Liu Yadong, radio station operator and aircraft operator, Zeng Hui, a radio operator, Yun Yong, a graduate of Kang University, Wang ××, a technician who made mines and grenades, Cao ××, and Lin Liming, who had been specially assigned to Yan'an, also arrived at the Meihe base area. According to the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the work of Qiongya, everyone elected Feng Baiju as secretary of the special committee and Lin Liming as deputy secretary. The organs of the corps have also been reorganized and strengthened. Feng Baiju served as the first independent chief captain and political commissar, Zhuang Tian served as the deputy chief of chief, Li Zhenya served as the chief of staff, and Qin Wei served as the chief of the operations section of the General Staff Office. Li Zhenya, who also served as chief of the staff department, personally drew up various work regulations for operations, training, reconnaissance, communications, and so on, and established a crack military command structure.
In order to consolidate the anti-Japanese base area behind the enemy, the Qiongya Special Committee sent Li Zhenya to the Qiong (Shan) Wen (Chang) area in December 1940 to carry out work. On December 15, 1940, the third day after Li Zhenya left the headquarters, the Kuomintang Qiongya authorities concentrated more than 3,000 security forces and attacked the Qiongya headquarters in five directions. The fighting was very fierce, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and the special commission organs and the headquarters headquarters were forced to withdraw from the United States and move to Qiongzhong. Li Zhenya knew very well that Wang Chao, who was six months pregnant, would have many inconveniences in transferring with the troops, so he sent a letter to Commander Feng Baiju and said: In order to preserve the strength of the troops, they will not hesitate to sacrifice all costs and move quickly.
On November 7, 1940, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a telegram to the Qiongya Special Committee, pointing out: "The mountainous areas around the Wuzhi Mountains will be the last reliable base for our long-term war of resistance." To establish the Wuzhishan Base Area, it is necessary to train a group of cadres who have revolutionary consciousness, are able to fight guerrilla warfare, and can do mass work. Li Zhenya proposed to the special committee a plan to establish a military and political school to improve the quality of cadres, which was supported by the Qiongya special committee of the CPC. In the autumn of 1941, Li Zhenya concurrently served as the principal, and in accordance with the teaching method of "Kang Da", he insisted on integrating theory with practice, and learned in combat and practiced in battle. He compiles his own teaching materials, lectures and exercises, and sometimes helps other instructors prepare and teach lessons. From the winter of 1941 to November 1942, the Anti-Japanese Military and Political School was held in two phases, with more than 300 people in each period. After graduating from the first batch of trainees, Li Zhenya temporarily returned to the independent corps headquarters.
In 1942, the Japanese army signed the "Mutual Defense Agreement" with Wang Yi, commander of the Kuomintang Hainan garrison, and others. The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Hainan entered the most difficult stage. In the summer of this year, more than 9,000 Japanese, puppeteer, and stubborn personnel were dispatched to cooperate with the land and air, and opened the road with armored vehicles and tanks, and carried out a large-scale "sweep" from the east, west, and south roads to the Qiongya anti-Japanese base area. In order to smash the enemy's "sweep," Li Zhenya, who was also the commander of the third detachment, adopted the strategy of "luring the enemy into depth, dragging the enemy down, attacking from the outside, and waiting for an opportunity to annihilate the enemy" in accordance with the situation of the enemy being outnumbered and outnumbered. One day, Li Zhenya led an assault team of several dozen people to trek through mountains and rivers, crossed the enemy's blockade line and drove to the Ling (Shui) Bao (Ting) area, disguised himself as ordinary people, and infiltrated the Shiling Japanese stronghold to work and reconnoiter the enemy's situation. That night, they cut the barbed wire, crossed the trench, and rushed into the enemy fort with lightning speed, and opened fire with long and short guns and grenades, destroying all the more than 10 Japanese defenders. From then on, the attacking team appeared in the heart of the enemy-occupied area out of nowhere, attacked military vehicles, uprooted strongholds, burned down military depots, distributed leaflets, posted notices, wrote slogans, exposed the criminal acts of the Japanese puppet army, and called on Li and Miao compatriots to mobilize to resist the enemy together, causing the enemy to tremble and be on guard day and night, exclaiming: "The main force of General Qiong has drilled into our back." The Japanese puppet troops that dispatched to "encroach" were forced to retreat. Mr. Qiong once again smashed the plan of the Japanese puppet "sweep".
In the autumn of 1944, according to the order of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, the First Independent Corps of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Guerrillas in Guangdong Province was renamed the "Independent Column of the Qiongya People's Anti-Japanese Guerrillas in Guangdong Province", with a headquarters with Feng Baiju as commander and political commissar, Zhuang Tian as deputy commander, Li Zhenya as chief of staff, Wang Bailun as director of the Political Department, and Chen Shi as deputy director of the Political Department. In December of the same year, the leading organ of the Qiongya Party and Army moved from the Fifth District of Danxian County to Wenhao Village, Fulong Township, Baisha County, to directly lead the work in Baisha. In late June 1945, in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee on further expanding the central base area of Baisha and welcoming the final victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Qiongya Special Committee combined the main brigades of the first, second, and fourth detachments into an advance detachment, and appointed Li Zhenya as the head of the advance detachment, Fu Rongding as the political commissar, Zhang Shiying as the deputy detachment leader, and Wang Zhuoqun (later Lin Ming) as the director of the political department"Teacher. After a month and a half of fighting at Wuzhishan, Li Zhenya and others led the advance detachment to defeat the second and sixth regiments of the recalcitrant army, eliminate the local reactionary forces, and lay a solid foundation for the establishment of the Wuzhishan base area.
During the six-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression on Hainan Island, the Qiongya anti-Japanese guerrilla column captured more than 100 cities and strongholds, annihilated a total of 5,848 Japanese puppet troops, shot down a Japanese plane, and captured 2,274 guns and 18 artillery pieces. Two-thirds of the island's land was liberated, a democratic political area with a population of more than 1 million was established, and the anti-Japanese armed forces in Qiongya grew to more than 10,000 people.
In August 1945, after the unconditional surrender of the Japanese army, Li Zhenya was ordered to lead his troops west to Nanfeng, preparing to receive the weapons of the Japanese puppet surrender and defend the fruits of the victory of the anti-Japanese resistance. However, in order to snatch the fruits of the victory of Qiongya's resistance against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek conspired to eliminate our army, and on February 27, 1946, he ordered the 46th Army to attack Liuqin Mountain, Chengmai County, where the leading organ of the Qiongya Special Committee was stationed in three ways, with three regiments. Li Zhenya led the advance detachment to fight with the enemy around Liuqin Mountain, and adopted the operational policy of dispersion, concealment, and concentrated annihilation of the enemy. After three months of arduous struggle, nearly 200 battles were fought, more than 1,470 enemy personnel were killed or wounded, and a large number of weapons were captured, thus completely smashing the enemy's plan to "wipe out."
In August 1946, Chiang Kai-shek transferred the 46th Army out of Hainan to reinforce the mainland, and ordered Cai Jinjun of the Guangdong Kuomintang to lead five main security regiments and 150,000 local reactionary forces to adopt the tactic of "filling in the blanks" to "clear and suppress" the Qiongya Column. In late February 1947, Li Zhenya led the advance detachment to ambush the enemy at Hongtukan, Gaotianpo, and Quangouling. On March 2, it attacked Qinghe at night and destroyed more than 200 enemies. On April 27, they set up a formation in Fengjiao Village, ambushed and surrounded the enemy's Sixth Brigade, and annihilated two companies of the enemy. Cai Jinjun was defeated in successive battles, suffered heavy losses, and was demoralized, so he had to stop the "comprehensive purge", and was finally removed by Chiang Kai-shek for "ineffective suppression of bandits".
On March 12, 1947, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent a telegram to the Qiongya Special Committee: Li Zhenya and Wu Kezhi were appointed as the first deputy commander and the second deputy commander of the Qiongya Column respectively. On May 9, at the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of China in Qiongya, the Qiongya Special Committee was changed to the Qiongya District Party Committee, and Li Zhenya was elected as a member of the District Party Committee. On 21 October, the Qiongya Column held its first all-army representative meeting, at which Li Zhenya made a report entitled "Summing Up Our Army's Tactical Development and Experience Over the Past 10 Years." During the meeting, the Central Military Commission ordered that the Qiongya Column be renamed the Qiongya Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, with Feng Baiju as commander and political commissar, and Li Zhenya as first deputy commander (and first commander-in-chief and political commissar) In the summer of 1948, the Qiongya Column shifted from strategic defense to strategic offensive, and in order to cooperate with the nationwide strategic decisive battle, the special committee decided to launch the autumn offensive and appointed Li Zhenya as the commander-in-chief and political commissar of the autumn offensive front.
In mid-September 1948, the Autumn Offensive began. In less than 10 days, Li Zhenya commanded five detachments to set out from Zuguancun and march toward Lingshui County, sweeping through the enemy's troops, and in less than 10 days, they successively uprooted enemy strongholds in Gangpo, Wushi, Xinglong, Lizhaitang, Miruitang, and Zhongxing, killing and wounding more than 300 enemy people, and connecting the Wuzhishan guerrilla zone with the Lingshui and Wan (Ning) liberated areas, accounting for four-fifths of the entire island's area. On September 27, 1948, Li Zhenya led his troops to besiege the enemy stronghold of Niukou in Wanning County. The sky was overcast, and the rain couldn't stop the ground. Draped in a raincoat, he went to the forward position to direct the battle. In order to find out the enemy's hidden bunker fire point, he casually picked up a machine gun and fired several bursts to conduct fire reconnaissance. Suddenly, the enemy in the bunker fired a string of bullets from a hidden hole, one of which pierced his left chest, and he opened his eyes for a moment, and then passed out, and died on the morning of the 28th, at the age of 40.
When the bad news spread, the leaders of the column, ordinary soldiers, and the masses of Li and Miao all wept bitterly. After seven days and seven nights of arduous trekking, more than a dozen soldiers overcame many difficulties, crossed mountains and mountains, and finally returned Li Zhenya's body to the Maozhan Headquarters in the Wuzhishan Base Area. On October 15, Qiong Zong held a memorial meeting for Li Zhenya. Li and Miao compatriots rushed to worship and bow down in their customs and in their own way, expressing their deep reverence and love. At the time of the burial, guard Chen Dexin saw that Li Zhenya was still wearing the old military uniform with nails mended, and cried and said: Deputy Commander Li usually lets us wear the new military uniforms, and he wears the old clothes with nails, and now that he has died, let him wear good clothes! He then took off his clothes and put them on to Deputy Commander Li. A squadron leader also replaced the sneakers he wore with a pair of self-made six-eared "rubber shoes" made from wheel tires on Deputy Commander Li's feet. Qiong Zong's commander Feng Baiju personally buried Li Zhenya in the arms of Wuzhi Mountain. The CPC Central Committee sent a telegram of condolences on 27 November: Comrade Li Zhenya's heroic sacrifice during the Lingwan Campaign offensive "is really a loss in the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people, and I would like to express my condolences and hope that all comrades in Qiongya will continue to work hard to persist in liberating Qiongya in order to commemorate Comrade Li Zhenya's immortality." In September 1988, the Party Committee and the People's Government of Tengxian County, Guangxi Province, held a meeting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the martyr Li Zhenya's sacrifice and the unveiling ceremony of the martyr's statue.
When he grew up, he joined the army as a soldier in the Li Mingrui Department of the National Revolutionary Army, and later served as an adjutant in the Fourth Brigade of the Guangxi Garrison, and then transferred to the Guangxi Teaching Corps. In December 1929, Li Zhenya participated in the Baise armed uprising led by Deng Xiaoping and Zhang Yunyi, and was appointed as an adjutant of the military headquarters of the Red Seventh Army, and joined the Communist Party of China after the Baise uprising. From 1930 to 1931, he fought with the Red Seventh Army on the borders of Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Guangdong, and Jiangxi, and participated in the third anti-"encirclement and suppression" in the Central Soviet Region. At the beginning of 1932, Li Zhenya was sent to study at the Red Army School and stayed on to work after graduation. In September 1933, Li Zhenya was transferred to the commander of the first battalion of the Gongluo Infantry School, and led his troops to participate in the third, fourth, and fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations in the central revolutionary base area, and was rated as a model commander. In 1934, he participated in the Long March and served as the commander of the first battalion of the Central Military Commission Cadre Regiment. He led a battalion to serve as the avant-garde, reconnoitring the enemy's situation, removing obstacles, opening up passages for large troops, and repeatedly made meritorious contributions in famous battles such as breaking through the Xiangjiang and Wujiang rivers, crossing the Chishui River four times, capturing Loushan Pass, rushing to cross the Jinsha River, and forcibly crossing the Dadu River. In July 1935, Li Zhenya served as the chief of staff of the 33rd Army of the Red Fourth Front Army. In November 1936, he was ordered to be transferred to the Western Route Army to participate in the Western Expedition. In March 1937, the Western Route Army suffered a setback, and Li Zhenya was unfortunately arrested while serving as chief of staff of Bi Zhanyun's detachment. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated for the second time, and Li Zhenya was rescued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and returned to Yan'an, where he entered the third phase of study at the Chinese Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, and remained at the school as the captain and instructor of the fifth squadron of the third brigade. In the same year, Li Zhenya was transferred to the headquarters of the 18th Group Army as a staff officer. In November, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to send a group of cadres to work in the south to strengthen the backbone of the anti-Japanese struggle in South China. Li Zhenya was ordered to stay in Hengyang temporarily to assist Ye Jianying in organizing the Nanyue guerrilla cadre training class. In May 1939, Li Zhenya was ordered to work in Guangdong and was appointed chief of staff of the Dongjiang Military Commission. In July 1940, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to send Li Zhenya to Qiongya to participate in and lead the anti-Japanese struggle on Hainan Island. In August, Li Zhenya and his wife Wang Chunhong, who is engaged in radio work, arrived at Meihe, the station of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps, and were warmly welcomed by Feng Baiju, the chief of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps, and others. Li Zhenya was appointed chief of staff of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps.
In May 1941, the Qiongya Special Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to establish the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Military and Political Cadres School in the Liulianling Anti-Japanese Base Area in Wanning, and appointed Li Zhenya as the principal and political commissar. Li Zhenya concretely applied a complete set of teaching principles and teaching methods of Yan'an's "Kang Da" to the military and political cadre schools, and personally lectured on military courses and presided over military training. At that time, there were frequent wars, and the Japanese army and the recalcitrant Kuomintang troops often went to the Liulianling anti-Japanese base area to attack and harass, and whenever there was a battle, Li Zhenya led the cadets of the military and political cadre schools and military corps to participate in actual combat training in neighboring units, and after they returned, they promptly summed up the situation, so that the cadets' tactical command level and military skills were rapidly improved. Li Zhenya led the cadets of the Military and Political Cadre School to cooperate with the main force to counter the attack of the Japanese, puppet, and recalcitrant forces on the Liulianling anti-Japanese base area, and after the school's classrooms and school buildings were burned down, they insisted on running schools in various villages in the mountainous area of Liulianling. In the harsh war environment, this "anti-great" style military and political cadre school trained and sent a large number of cadres for the Qiongya anti-Japanese troops and local party and government organs, and supported the development of the Qiongya anti-Japanese struggle. Li Zhenya devoted himself to the construction of the staff work of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps, and the Qiongya anti-Japanese troops gradually embarked on the road of regularization, and their political, military, and strategic and tactical levels were constantly improved, which played an important role in consolidating and expanding the anti-Japanese base areas and leading the masses to smash the "encroachment" and "sweep" of the Japanese puppet army against the Japanese base areas.
At the beginning of 1945, in order to concentrate on opening up the central base area of Wuzhishan, the Qiongya Special Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to draw a main brigade from the first, second, and fourth detachments of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Column to form a Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Column Advance Detachment and march to the Wuzhishan District. Li Zhenya concurrently served as the head of the advance detachment, and Fu Rongding served as the political commissar. Li Zhenya led the advance detachment to march to the hinterland of Baisha County, and then fought in Hekou, Baishuigang, Luoren and other places, winning all battles, laying a solid foundation for the main force of the independent column to advance into the Wuzhi Mountains. In February 1947, Li Zhenya served as the deputy commander of the Qiongya Independent Column, and he commanded the advance detachment of the Independent Column to sweep through the Kuomintang army in Baisha County, and successively captured the enemy strongholds such as Jiacha, Yinggen, Fanyang, and Shuiman, expanding the Baisha Liberated Area, and promoting the establishment and development of the Wuzhishan Central Root. In May, at the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Hongmao Township, Baisha County, Li Zhenya was elected as a member of the Qiongya District Committee of the Communist Party of China. In October, the Qiongya Independent Column held its first congress, and Li Zhenya made a report entitled "Tactical Development and Experience Summing Up of Our Army in the Past 10 Years." According to the Central Military Commission's telegram order, the Qiongya Independent Column was officially named the Qiongya Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and Li Zhenya was appointed deputy commander of the Qiongya Column and commander and political commissar of the First Corps.
In the spring of 1948, Li Zhenya concurrently served as the secretary of the Qiongya West District Committee of the Communist Party of China. In September, the Qiongya District Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Qiongya Column Headquarters decided to concentrate their efforts on launching the autumn offensive against the Kuomintang army, and Li Zhenya served as the commander-in-chief and political commissar of the autumn offensive front command. Li Zhenya commanded the autumn offensive troops to successively uproot the Kuomintang strongholds such as Gangpo, Xinglong, Miruitang, and Zhongxing in the area from Lingshui to Wanning, and connected the Lingshui, Wanning Liberated Areas and Wuzhishan Liberated Areas. On September 27, during the battle to uproot the Kuomintang army's stronghold of Niukou in Wanning County, Li Zhenya went to the front of the position to observe the situation, but unfortunately was hit by the enemy's cold attack from the pillbox. The next day, his injuries worsened, and before he died, he repeatedly instructed his comrades who were guarding him: "Continue the offensive...... It is necessary to do a good job of intelligence...... Do a good job in combat deployment ......". Li Zhenya was 39 years old when he died.
During the Anti-Japanese War, he served as a staff officer of the Military Department of the Yangtze River Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, chief of staff of the Independent Column of the Qiongya People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Regiment, a member of the Qiongya Special Committee of the Communist Party of China and the secretary of the Military and Political Committee of the Qiongya West District. On September 27, 1948, Li Zhenya died in the battle of Wanning on Hainan Island.
Served as an anti-Japanese guerrilla instructor
In October 1936, Li Rong crossed the Yellow River with the Red Army's Western Route Army, and later served as the chief of staff of Bi Zhanyun's detachment, but was unfortunately captured. After the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Li Rong was rescued by the party organization, and returned to Yan'an and served as the captain and instructor of the fifth squadron of the third brigade of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. In February 1939, in his capacity as a staff officer of the Military Department of the Yangtze River Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Li Rong accompanied Ye Jianying, chief of the General Staff of the Eighth Route Army, to Hunan to open a guerrilla training course in Nanyue.
In July 1939, the Party Central Committee instructed Li Rong to work in Guangdong. In the training class for guerrilla cadres, he passed on the strategy and tactics of Mao Zedong's anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare and the good ideas and work style of the Central Red Army and the Eighth Route Army to the comrades in Guangdong.
In March 1940, the Kuomintang besieged the Dongjiang Military Commission in Guangdong, and Li Rong led the troops to break through with the Military Commission. Under the serious situation of the enemy's front blocking and pursuit, he assisted in commanding the battle, preserved the combat backbone of the troops, and laid a solid foundation for the later development of the Dongjiang Column.
Go to Qiongya Column to command the anti-Japanese resistance
The Central Military Commission was very concerned about the anti-Japanese struggle on the isolated island of Hainan, and in order to strengthen the building of the leadership of the Qiongya Column, it sent Zhuang Tian, Li Rong, Qin Wei, and other Red Army cadres who had experienced the Long March and had rich combat experience to work in Hainan.
When traveling to Hainan Island and passing through the Qiongzhou Strait, Li Rong changed his name to Li Zhenya. During his more than eight years of work on Hainan Island, he successively served as chief of staff of the independent column of the Qiongya People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Corps, member of the CPC Qiongya Special Committee and secretary of the Qiongya West District Military and Political Committee, first deputy commander of the Qiongya Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, captain and political commissar of the First Corps, and member of the Qiongya District CPC Committee and secretary of the Western District CPC Committee. Li Zhenya gave full play to his talents, assisted the leaders of the Qiongya Column in comprehensively strengthening the military, political, and ideological construction of the troops, and brought the good traditions and work style of the Red Army and the Eighth Route Army to Hainan, so that the Qiongya Column took on a completely new look.
Mobilize the masses to carry out armed struggle
In June 1940, when passing through the Qiongzhou Strait, Li Zhenya and his wife disguised themselves as businessmen, and arrived at the headquarters of the Qiongya Special Commission and the Independent Corps in early July.
After Li Zhenya arrived in Hainan, he served as chief of staff of the Qiongya Column, and together with Zhuang Tian, he assisted Commander Feng Baiju in grasping the construction of the headquarters organs and troops, perfected the political commissar system and political work system, and established a crack staff organization.
Li Zhenya was very concerned about political work, and suggested that the fine traditions of the Central Red Army should be inherited, party building should be strengthened, party branches should be established in companies, and the experience of the Red Army's political work should be explained to the commanders and fighters of the troops. In order to improve the political and theoretical level and command and combat ability of cadres at and above the platoon and company level, Li Zhenya concurrently served as the principal and political commissar of the military and political school. With the teaching tenet of "firm and correct political direction, arduous and simple work style, flexible strategy and tactics" and "unity, tension, seriousness and liveliness" of Yan'an Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, more than 300 students have been trained. Li Zhenya also proposed the establishment of the "Military and Political Magazine," which often introduced Mao Zedong's strategic and tactical thinking and listed typical examples of war in light of the reality of the armed struggle in Qiongya.
During the Anti-Japanese War in Hainan, Li Zhenya led the cadets and troops of the Military and Political School to raid many Japanese puppet army strongholds, hit the Japanese puppet army's transport teams, burned highways and bridges, attacked the traitor maintenance association, and killed the traitor. Li Zhenya extensively mobilized the masses to carry out the anti-Japanese armed struggle, and used flexible and mobile strategies and tactics to win a surprise victory and make the enemy tremble. Later, Zhuang Tian and Li Zhenya led their troops into Baisha, eliminated the local reactionary forces, controlled the hinterland of Wuzhishan, liberated 13 townships in Baisha County, and established the anti-Japanese democratic government of Baisha County, laying a reliable foundation for the establishment and expansion of the Wuzhishan revolutionary base area, and defeating the Japanese "sweep" in the southeast area of Qiongya.
After Li Zhenya's heroic death, the CPC Central Committee sent a telegram of condolence, saying that Li Zhenya's heroic sacrifice "is really a loss in the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people, and I sincerely mourn it, and hope that all comrades in Qiongya will continue to work hard to persist in liberating Qiongya, so as to commemorate Comrade Li Zhenya's immortality!" ”
In 1940, he was appointed by the Central Committee to arrive in Qiongya to participate in the revolutionary struggle, and successively served as the chief of staff of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Independent Corps and the deputy commander of the Qiongya Column. In Qiongya's 8-year career of bullets and bullets, he bravely fought against the Japanese and founded the Military and Political Cadre School, and his legendary footprints were all over Qiongya. He is Li Zhenya, the heroic warrior who crisscrossed the cliff. Li Zhenya, formerly known as Li Rong, Li Bochong, Li Chong, etc., was a native of Tengxian County, Guangxi, and once followed Deng Xiaoping to participate in the Baise Uprising. In 1948, when he commanded the attack on the enemy stronghold of Wanning Niukou, he was unfortunately shot under a kapok tree and died heroically.
In the early winter, the cold air from the south brings a burst of coolness to Hainan, drive along the coastal Yudong Line Highway, when passing through the Niukouxu section of Wanning City, there is a special landscape that is amazing——— a big tree stands abruptly in the middle of the road, it is like an eye-catching road sign, the vehicles and pedestrians passing by are diverted on both sides, and then converge at a point to run into the distance after the detour.
This is the place where martyr Li Zhenya was martyred. Under a kapok tree called the "General Tree" by the local people, there is a monument to the sacrifice site of General Li Zhenya. There are still leftover incense and candles in front of the monument, and I don't know which one of the people who came to pray for the martyrs. The dust-stained candle tears dried on the ground, telling the latecomers' remembrance of the martyr Li Zhenya.
A few days ago, this reporter visited Lai Yongsheng, director of the Party History Editing and Examination Division of the Party History Research Office of the Hainan Provincial CPC Committee, and some Qiongzong veterans, and listened to their stories about Li Zhenya's legendary story.
Vertical and horizontal cliffs
In 1908, Li Zhenya was born in a poor peasant family in Tengxian County, Guangxi. Influenced by revolutionary and progressive ideas, in 1929, Li Zhenya, who served as a soldier in Nanning, participated in the Baise Uprising led by Deng Xiaoping and Zhang Yunyi. In the same year, Li Zhenya joined the Chinese Communist Party.
During the Red Army's Long March, Li Zhenya, who served as the commander of the first battalion of the Red Cadre Regiment, made many meritorious achievements in famous battles such as breaking through the Xiangjiang and Wujiang rivers, crossing the Chishui River four times, capturing the Loushan Pass, rushing to cross the Jinsha River, and forcibly crossing the Dadu River. In 1940, Li Zhenya, who was assigned by his superiors to participate in the revolutionary struggle in Qiongya, continued to show his superb military skills. The "Battle of Wind Foot Village" was a battle directly commanded by Li Zhenya in which the weak defeated the strong.
In the early summer of 1947, the Kuomintang commander of the Sixth Baoliu Regiment, who claimed to be "Lei Gong in the sky and Yang Kaidong in the underground", led two battalions of soldiers into the area of Fengjiao Village, claiming that he would exterminate the Qiong Zong Advance Detachment operating here. At that time, there were only 5 squadrons (companies) of troops operating in this area. The enemy was outnumbered, and under such unfavorable conditions, Li Zhenya, who was then the deputy commander of Qiongzong, calmly responded and worked out a combat plan of fighting more with less.
Li Zhenya deployed the strength of one squadron in Fengjiao Village, used the old pillboxes and old fortifications built by the Kuomintang to hold on, and deliberately released the wind to lure the enemy's main force to attack, while the remaining four squadrons were concealed and prepared to attack from the enemy's rear at an appropriate time.
After the battle began, the enemy was fooled and drove towards the village of Windfoot. But at this time there was an enemy march that passed right through the position of a hidden squadron. Li Zhenya decisively decided to attack immediately, and he personally led the forces of 3 squadrons to launch a fierce attack on the enemy. After defeating this enemy army, Li Zhenya led his troops to cooperate with the troops of Fengjiao Village to repel another enemy attacking the village. In this battle, one and a half companies of the enemy were annihilated, and 3 machine guns, dozens of rifles, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were captured. ("The Demeanor of the Brave General——— Remembering General Li Zhenya")
A military and political instructor who can write and martial arts
"Li Zhenya is not only good at martial arts, but also able to write." Lai Yongsheng said that although Li Zhenya himself did not go to school for a few years, his level of cultural knowledge improved rapidly through hard self-study. During his stay in Yan'an, Li Zhenya worked in Yan'an Kang Da, serving as the leader and instructor of the Fifth Squadron, and made great contributions to the training of Red Army cadres.
After arriving in Qiongya, Li Zhenya devoted great efforts to the training of red cadres in Qiongya. In June 1941, under the advocacy of Li Zhenya and others, the Qiongya Special Committee decided to establish an anti-Japanese "Qiongya Anti-Japanese Military and Political Cadre School" in Beichang Village, Liulianling, Wanning. Li Zhenya participated in the founding activities of the school, and concurrently served as the president and political commissar. He personally presided over the formulation of teaching plans, the compilation of teaching materials, the main lectures on military courses, and presided over military training.
Li Zhenya attaches great importance to integrating theory with practice in the training of cadets, and he often leads cadets of military units to participate in actual combat training in nearby units. In November 1941, when teaching a lesson on "surprise attack warfare", Li Zhenya personally led several platoon-level cadets and soldiers of the local independent 9th Squadron short gun squad to attack a Japanese stronghold in Xinglong. After reconnoitring and grasping the enemy's situation in advance, Li Zhenya and the soldiers disguised themselves as "Shunmin" and each picked a pair of grain baskets, with millet on top and grenades on the bottom. With the cooperation of the local people's rescue guide, they pretended to send food to the Japanese army in the stronghold. After skillfully camouflaging the sentry post, the soldiers took advantage of the unpreparedness of the Japanese army to attack, attacking the enemy with shell guns and grenades, and won a complete victory, with no casualties among our troops.
From the official opening of the school in June 1941 to the closure of the school in November 1942, the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Military and Political Cadres School was held for two periods, training more than 600 students. These trainees were assigned to the troops and localities, and they all became effective backbones and made contributions to the Qiongya War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
A good leader who is strict with himself
In the memories of many Qiongzong veterans, Li Zhenya was a good leader who was strict with himself and loved the soldiers. Wang Lugui, a veteran soldier of Qiongzong, still remembers that once when the troops were transferred to a new station, Commander Feng Baiju stipulated that the cadres and soldiers of Qiongzong were not allowed to go down to the river to bathe in accordance with the habits of the local masses and in order not to expose the location of the troops. Li Zhenya happened to go out to reconnoitre, and when he came back, because of the hot weather, he took the guards down to the river to take a bath, and he learned that there was this rule after returning to the headquarters after washing. Li Zhenya felt that he had violated the rules and should be punished, so he automatically stood in the middle of the playground, Feng Baiju asked him to come back but refused, and finally stood under the hot sun for an hour.
Li Zhenya is very strict with himself, but he loves the soldiers very much. Xu Shizhun, who was the political commissar of the Seventh Regiment of the First Brigade of Qiongzong, mentioned a "small matter" that he personally experienced in his reminiscences. Once, Xu Shizhun, who was the captain of the struggle team at the time, punished the cooking squad leader Fu Nu Pi with an iron pot because he cooked raw rice in the cooking class. Li Zhenya saw it, and after asking what was going on, he immediately called Xu Shizhun to the scene, pointed to Fu Nu Pihua and said, "She didn't make any big mistakes, you punish her like this." If I punish you like this, you'll feel what it's like. Xu Shizhun realized his mistake and took the initiative to review it with the whole squadron. Afterwards, Li Zhenya took this incident as an example to educate everyone to love the soldiers, "The Red Army's bayonets are majestic, but even more majestic are the Red Army soldiers who fight with bayonets." ”
A little-known history of the coffin
In 1948, Qiongzong decided to launch an autumn offensive against the Kuomintang reactionaries stationed in Qiong, Li Zhenya personally led the troops to swear in Baoting, swept Wanning all the way through Lingshui, and Lianke Zhongxing, Xinglong and other 6 enemy stubborn strongholds, on September 27, when the last stronghold was uprooted, Li Zhenya, who was the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, personally went to the enemy to reconnoitre, and was hit by a cold bullet and fell under the kapok tree. The next day, Li Zhenya's injuries worsened and unfortunately died.
After Li Zhenya's death, the former enemy headquarters transported the coffin back to the "office" (the code name of Mao Gui, the seat of the party, government, and military leadership organ of Qiongya at that time, and now belongs to Mao Gui and Maoxing Village Committees of Maoyang Town, Wuzhishan City) for burial. From Niu Leak to Mao Gui, the whole journey is more than 200 kilometers, to wade through the deep and rapid Wanquan River and Changhua River, over the Wuzhi Mountain inserted into the clouds, this journey is still difficult to walk lightly, carry a heavy coffin to walk, its difficulty can be imagined.
Wang Jiafang, an 87-year-old veteran soldier of Qiongzong, participated in escorting the coffin that year. "I was a squad leader of the three detachments and one brigade of the third general team of Qiongzong at that time." After 51 years, Wang Jiafang's memory is still clear, "When the troops were resting after conquering the Niukou stronghold, the leaders of the team came to me and asked me to take a few soldiers to escort a group of migrant workers back to the 'office' with guns. ”
When he set off the next day, Wang Jiafang saw a coffin made of begonia wood, "At that time, we all understood a little bit in our hearts, although we didn't know who the deceased was, and discipline did not allow inquiry, but we all knew in our hearts that this must be our chief." For a moment, everyone stood silently, silent.
After getting ready, under the escort of Wang Jiafang and other 8 soldiers, 8 hired migrant workers set off with the coffin in a round. "The road was easy to walk for the first three days, but on the fourth day, it became difficult to transport within Qiongzhong." In Wang Jiafang's memory, they walked all the rugged paths, sometimes climbing from low to high, sometimes slippery from high to low, sometimes the passage in the middle of the road was very narrow, on both sides there were thorny bushes, or the thatch above their heads, the migrant workers could not walk in two rows, the four people in front of the four carried in the back, every step was very difficult. After entering the Wuzhi Mountain Area, "the slope is getting steeper and steeper, in order to maintain the balance of the coffin, the migrant workers walking in front can only bend down, or even kneel on the ground, and the migrant workers in the back will try to raise the coffin as much as possible, pushing it up step by step, and the knees of the people in front of them are grinding blood." ”
After a lot of hardships, 8 days later, the team finally arrived in Maogui, and Feng Baiju and many other party, government and military leaders came out to greet them in person. "Only then did we know that the escort turned out to be Deputy Commander Li Zhenya!" Wang Jiafang said.
The evergreen general tree
After the liberation, Hainan expanded the Haiyu East Line Highway, and according to the engineering design, the kapok trees at the site of Li Zhenya's sacrifice were cut down. After the local people heard about this incident, on the day the tree was cut down, people came from all over the world and protected the general tree with three layers inside and three layers outside. When the construction workers with saws and axes saw this, no one wanted to do it. Therefore, this general tree was preserved as a special case, and has been standing in the middle of the road until today, becoming a rare sight in the history of Chinese road construction, with roadblocks left in the middle of the road.
In 2000, a typhoon cut off the kapok tree, and in order to properly protect this revolutionary site, the Wanning Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government commissioned technicians from the forestry department to make technical breakthroughs in the regeneration of the kapok tree. Forestry technicians drilled holes in the middle of the original tree and replanted, and as a result, the replanted kapok tree sprouted on the old trunk and survived. Today, this kapok tree has become a scene in Wanning, and new trees growing from mottled old trunks burst with vitality.
Introduction to the Qiongya Column:
The Qiongya Column is a people's armed force led by the Communist Party of China on Hainan Island, which was formed on the basis of the peasant uprising on Hainan Island in September 1927. This people's armed force endured the tests of protracted and arduous struggles in the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation, and established a revolutionary base area centered on Wuzhishan.
The predecessor of the Qiongya Column was the Qiongya Rebellion Revolutionary Army under the leadership of the Qiongya Special Committee in 1927. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Qiongya Special Committee reached an agreement on unity against Japan in accordance with the anti-Japanese national united front policy of the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang authorities after more than a year of negotiations, and on December 5, 1938, the Qiongya Red Army guerrillas were reorganized into the 14th District Independent Team of the Guangdong Provincial People's Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Corps in Yunlongwei, Qiongshan County, with Feng Baiju as the captain. At the time of the reorganization, there were about 300 people, organized into 3 squadrons.
On February 10, 1939, the Japanese army landed at Tianwei Port in the north of Hainan Island, and the whole island of Hainan fell, and the 15th Regiment of the Kuomintang garrison retreated into the Wuzhi Mountains. When the Japanese army landed, the newly reorganized independent team resolutely went to Tankou, an important ferry crossing of the Nandu River, to prevent the Japanese army from crossing the river. In order to adapt to the situation of the rapid development of the army, in March 1939, the Qiongya Special Committee of the Communist Party of China renamed the independent team as the independent team, with Feng Baiju as the captain and three brigades.
From the landing of the Japanese army on Hainan Island in February 1939 to the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Communist Party of China actively carried out united front work on Hainan Island, independently carried out guerrilla warfare, and successively established base areas in the Qiong (Shan) Wen (Chang), Le (Hui) Wan (Ning), and Cheng (Mai) Lin (Gao) areas. From May to November 1941, the Lewan, Wenchang, Cheng (Mai) Lin (Gao) anti-Japanese democratic governments or offices and the Northeast Qiongya Anti-Japanese Democratic Government were established, and the independent corps also grew from more than 300 people to more than 3,500 people. In addition, mass anti-Japanese organizations were established in many counties, districts, and townships, with more than 50,000 members, thus creating a vigorous development of the anti-Japanese guerrilla war on Hainan Island.
In the summer of 1943, the leading organ of the corps was transferred to Chengmai County to thwart the "encroachment" and "sweeping" of the Japanese and puppet armies. In the autumn of 1944, the Independent Corps was reorganized into the Independent Column of the Qiongya Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Force in Guangdong Province. At the beginning of July 1945, the Baisha anti-Japanese base was established, and then a counteroffensive was carried out against the Japanese and puppet armies.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the independent column of the Qiongya anti-Japanese guerrillas dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese puppet army on Hainan Island. By the time of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the column had grown to more than 7,000 people and liberated three-fifths of Hainan Island.