The predecessor of the Second Field Army of the People's Liberation Army can be traced back to the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with division commander Liu Bocheng and political commissar Deng Xiaoping. The 129th Division was reorganized from the 4th Army, the 31st Army and the Red Army in Northern Shaanxi, with the 385th Brigade, the 386th Brigade and the direct subordinate units under its jurisdiction.
This heroic unit made outstanding achievements in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and trained countless generals for the Chinese revolution, and Xiang Shouzhi was one of them.
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Xiang Shouzhi was born on November 28, 1917, to a poor peasant family in Nanba, Xuanhan, Sichuan. He has an older sister and four older brothers, and he is the sixth oldest.
For as long as he can remember, the misfortunes in the family have been one after another. The eldest brother died early, and his father died of illness at the age of 50. The 3 older brothers were arrested and taken as Zhuang Ding, and have not been heard from since. Her sister married away and died 40 days after giving birth. There was only his mother and him in the family.
In order to survive, Xiang Shouzhi gave the landlord a long-term job, was bullied all day, and he and his mother lived a lowly life.
On October 19, 1933, the Red Fourth Front liberated his hometown, and Xiang Shouzhi first served as the leader of the Young Pioneers and later as the leader of the guerrillas, fighting local tyrants, dividing up the fields, and supporting the Red Army.
In July 1934, Xiang Shouzhi joined the Red Army with more than 100 guerrillas, and his mother made him a pair of coarse cloth socks and straw shoes overnight, and asked him to follow the Red Army to do a good job. What he did not expect was that this farewell was a farewell to his mother, and he never saw each other again in this life.
After joining the Red Army, Xiang Shouzhi was assigned to the machine gun company of the 76th Regiment of the Red 9th Army as a soldier. Since he was a guerrilla leader, he could be a platoon leader directly, but he had to start as a Red Army soldier.
Because of his bravery and hard-working fighting against Xiang Shouzhi, in September 1935, he was selected to study at the "Anti-Great Infantry School". After graduation, he was assigned to the machine gun company of the 1st Battalion, 771st Regiment, 386 Brigade, 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army as a deputy company commander, and soon became a company commander, and from then on began a brilliant military career with Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xiang Shouzhi successively participated in the Battle of Huangyadi and the ambush battles of Shentouling, Xiangtangpu, and Lingshitun, and each time he commanded the company to use The Maqin heavy machine guns to severely damage the Japanese army with ferocious firepower.
Throughout the course of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xiang Shouzhi successively served as battalion commander and deputy regimental commander of the 771st Regiment, and commander of the 10th Regiment of the Taihang Military Region, and successively participated in the Battles of Linnan, Yuanyu, and Zanhuang in attacking the Japanese puppet army, and in the battles of Ci (County) Wu (An) and Lin (County) against the Kuomintang diehards, all of which won victories.
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In July 1945, at the age of 28, Xiang Shouzhi married Zhang Ling, then secretary of the Pingdong County Party Committee in Shanxi Province, and lived together for the rest of his life, and their romantic love story was once rumored to be a good story in the Taihang Mountains.
In March 1919, Zhang Ling was born in Kaifeng, Henan Province, in a very civilized family, his father was a very cultivated old soldier, and his mother was the first teacher training student in Kaifeng.
All the women in this big family are self-absorbed in poetry and books, and they are very eager for the spirit of independence, and Zhang Ling is no exception. From an early age, her grandmother and mother taught her that "intellectual women should be at the forefront of reform." ”
In 1935, at the age of 16, Zhang Ling participated in the "12.9" student movement in Kaifeng, lying on the railway tracks with her classmates to exert pressure on the Kuomintang authorities, and persisted for seven days and seven nights in the wind and snow.
In 1937, Zhang Ling and her classmates risked being caught by the Kuomintang, crossed the enemy-occupied areas, came to the Taihang Mountains led by the Communist Party, and joined the Communist Party, successively serving as cadres of the county party committee, the women's committee, and the leader of the Women's Rescue Association.
Because Of Zhang Liang's fair skin, red lips, and large and shiny eyes, he often rode a white horse with an armed belt around his waist, which was particularly eye-catching in the crowd, known as "a flower in the Taihang Mountains".
In December 1945, she and Xiang Shouzhi studied at the Party School of the Taihang District Committee at the same time, and Xiang Shouzhi happened to be her captain.
One is a commander who has just come down from the battlefield, the other is a local women's work leader, Lang Cai is a woman, and Xiang Shouzhi is also a talent with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and the two gradually developed feelings in the process of studying together.
After that, the two opened their relationship to everyone and submitted marriage applications to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping.
Before getting married, Zhang Ling solemnly told Xiang Shouzhi about the three chapters of the Covenant Law: we do not marry for the sake of marriage, we are for love; after marriage, we seriously oppose machismo or wifeism; we wash our own clothes...
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On May 25, 1945, Xiang Shouzhi's 10th Regiment received the task of attacking Xiyang County, and the troops stayed for one night in Pingdong County, where Zhang Ling was the secretary of the county party committee.
At more than 6 p.m., Zhang Ling and Xiang Shouzhi were together, and at the same time, they thought that tomorrow they would be separated, and they did not know when they would be able to meet again, and the organization had approved the marriage, so it was better to do the marriage tonight.
Love at that time was so simple, they then announced to their colleagues and comrades-in-arms that they were married tonight.
Due to the simple conditions and no conditions for the banquet, Zhang Ling cleaned up her room, brought a quilt, and spent the wedding night that she would never forget. The next day, Xiang Shouzhi led his troops to the battlefield. Since then, they have been together for a lifetime.
At the beginning of the Liberation War, Xiang Shouzhi successively served as the deputy brigade commander of the 18th Brigade and the 26th Brigade of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army, and successively participated in the Battle of Longhai Road, the Battle of Dingtao, and the Battle of Western Henan.
In the Battle of Luoyang, Xiang Shouzhi commanded 3 regiments of the 26th Brigade, defeated 5 regiments of the Kuomintang Wu Tinglin's army, and completely annihilated 1 main regiment. Chen Geng, commander of the 9th Column, specially invited him to the command post to eat dog meat in recognition of his battle achievements. This classic example of winning more with less and winning the best with the inferior was also incorporated into military textbooks by military academies after the liberation of the whole country.
After that, Xiang Shouzhi participated in the battles of Zhengzhou and Huaihai. In the battle to encircle and annihilate Huang Wei's corps, the 26th Brigade annihilated more than 6,000 Nationalist troops.
According to the order of the Central Military Commission for reorganization, the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army was successively changed into the Central Plains Field Army and the Second Field Army, with Liu Bocheng as commander and Deng Xiaoping as political commissar.
In February 1949, Xiang Shouzhi's Nakano 9th Column 26th Brigade was reorganized into the 44th Division of the 15th Army of The Two Fields, and he served as the division commander and political commissar, and then participated in the Battle of crossing the river.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the 44th Division successively participated in the Battle of Liberating Xichang and the Fifth Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in the Great Southwest, and xiang Shouzhidu commanded the troops to make repeated achievements.
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After returning to China from the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Xiang Shouzhi successively served as chief of staff, deputy commander and commander of the 15th Army, principal of the Xi'an Artillery School, and deputy commander of artillery of the Central Military Commission. In July 1965, Chairman Mao signed an order appointing him as the first commander of the Second Artillery Corps, making great contributions to the development and growth of the Second Artillery.
In September 1977, Xiang Shouzhi was transferred to the post of deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region. In September 1982, he succeeded Nie Fengzhi as commander of the Nanjing Military Region.
During these 8 years of service, he successively organized troops to participate in the Battle of the Two Mountains, formed a composite group army of various services, and took the lead in establishing a professional "blue army" in the whole army.
On September 14, 1988, at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, Deng Xiaoping personally conferred the rank of General Xiang Shouzhi on him, becoming one of the few senior generals to be awarded the rank of general in both 1955 and 1988.
In April 1990, General Xiang Shouzhi retired. In October 1990, the 73-year-old Xiang Shouzhi returned to his hometown with his wife Zhang Ling and his children after a 56-year absence, visiting the graves of his father and mother who had died, and paying homage to his second sister-in-law, who had died for his mother's retirement.
After his retirement, General Xiang Shouzhi often participated in public welfare activities, told the story of revolutionary battles for party and government organs and troops, carried forward the traditional culture and virtues of the Chinese nation, and was successively rated as a healthy elderly in the whole army and the whole country.
After Zhang Ling and Xiang Shouzhi got married, they have been gathering less and leaving more. It was not until April 1954, when Xiang Shouzhi returned from Korea, that he had a real home. They have 4 children, all of whom have successful careers.
In January 2001, Xiang Shouzhi and his wife, who were both in their 80s, traveled to Sanya, Hainan Province, and recalled the days they had struggled together. On September 2, 2017, General Xiang Shouzhi died in Nanjing at the age of 100 due to ineffective medical treatment.
General Xiang Shouzhi, who lived all his life, was a fierce general played by Liu Deng's army, and the love story of him and his wife Zhang Ling's hand and his son and the elderly is even more commendable, and history will never forget these ancestors who made great contributions to China's revolution and construction!