When the PLA General Political Department screened the internally translated film "General Patton" in 1975, everyone said: "What's so strange? We also have such a character, including Major General Zhong Wei!"
Indeed, General Zhong Wei has extremely high military talent. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a genius in leading troops to fight. But at the same time, General Zhong Wei is also famous for his "violent temper". The Anti-Japanese War drama " After "Bright Sword" became popular, many people speculated that the protagonist Li Yunlong in the play was based on Zhong Wei. Although the crew denied this, they had to admit that Li Yunlong's character traits in the play were indeed somewhat similar to General Zhong Wei!
On the afternoon of September 27, 1955, a medal ceremony was held at the Ziguangge State Council Auditorium in Zhongnanhai. Zhong Wei was awarded the rank of major general, the August 1st Medal of Level 2, the Medal of Independence and Freedom of Level 2, and the Medal of Liberation of Level 1 , it can be seen from the medal level that Zhong Wei's military exploits were mainly concentrated during the War of Liberation.
After the medal ceremony, Zhong Wei was dissatisfied with his military rank and shouted that he wanted to hang the medal on the dog's tail. He also vowed not to wear the major general uniform or the rank of major general for the rest of his life. Chairman Mao's response is thought-provoking.
Chairman Mao said:
Mr. Zhu on the side responded:
In fact, it is understandable that Zhong Wei has complaints. He was the commander of the 12th Column in Dongye back then. When he was a member of the army, Huang Yongsheng was also the commander of the column. Later Zhong Wei became the army commander in the four fields, and Liang Xingchu was also the army commander. However, when it came time to award honors, Huang Yongsheng was rated as general and Liang Xingchu was rated as lieutenant general. Zhong Wei could not help but feel a little bit in his heart. unbalanced.
Chairman Mao also knew at that time that Zhong Wei’s rating was a bit low, but after all, it was the first time he was rated, and there were so many people who wanted to rate it. It was obviously a bit difficult to satisfy everyone. Not realistic.
Song Renqiong and Luo Ronghuan were worried about something like this happening. In order to evaluate the title, they were very busy, running around all day long, searching for information, and trying their best to satisfy everyone. Chairman Mao also knew that it was not easy for everyone, and decided to comfort Zhong Wei in his own way.
Chairman Mao not only personally named Zhong Wei as the chief of staff of the Beijing Military Region, but also improved Zhong Wei’s salary. Naturally, Zhong Wei understood the chairman’s good intentions and never mentioned the matter again, remaining unknown in his workplace. dedicated efforts.
General Zhong Wei's life experience is very legendary. He disobeyed General Lin three times and won great victories. Later, he spoke up for Peng Dehuai, but was implicated. Peng Dehuai always chanted Zhong Wei's name before his death.
Zhong Wei was born in 1911 in a farming family in Jiashan Village, Pingjiang County, Hunan Province. Pingjiang County is a place where heroes are born. More than 60 generals have emerged and made great contributions to the country. Among these more than sixty generals, Zhong Wei is the most famous!
People in Pingjiang feel very proud every time they mention Zhong Wei. They affectionately call Zhong Wei "Mengzi", which means that General Zhong Wei has a strong personality and is good at fighting.
When Zhong Wei was born, China was in turmoil. The outbreak of the Revolution of 1911 brought an unprecedented huge impact to China. The revolutionary wave quickly spread across the country, ushering in China's half-century-long war era. .
In 1928, Peng Dehuai, Teng Daiyuan and other revolutionary fighters launched the Pingjiang Uprising. Gunshots rang through Pingjiang City, and panicked people fled out of the city. Among the crowds, a teenage boy went upstream. And up, hurriedly ran towards the city.
This young man is Zhong Wei. Zhong Wei's trip is to help Yuan Keqi, an underground party hiding in his home, to understand the situation in the city. This is also the first time Zhong Wei hears gunshots.
It is precisely because humans are afraid that bravery has meaning. Zhong Wei was extremely frightened when he heard the gunfire all over the city. He knew very well that an ordinary stray bullet could take his life. But Zhong Wei finally chose to move forward bravely and complete his mission.
In 1928, Zhong Wei joined the Communist Youth League of China. In 1930, he joined the Red Army and the Communist Party and became a true proletarian fighter.
Zhong Wei was only 19 years old when he joined the Red Army. Although he was not the youngest Red Army member, he was still considered a very young group. Since Zhong Wei's cultural level was higher than others, he went directly to the Political Department to work as a propagandist after entering the army.
Although he was not a big official, Zhong Wei worked harder than anyone else. He was soon promoted because of his outstanding work ability and served as political commissar of the company and political commissar of the regiment, all the way to the political commissar of the 72nd Division. Department Director.
Zhong Wei is an unattractive person, but he has a very fiery personality and performs tasks vigorously and efficiently. His comrades all said this about Zhong Wei:
From this passage We can see that Zhong Wei's figure is slim and lean, and his appearance is relatively ordinary. Most people will not be too impressed by him when they see him, but Zhong Wei only needs to open his mouth to speak, and his aura comes out, and he is confident. , eloquent.
But again, if such a person does not send someone with an equally strong personality and a higher level of speaking and doing to lead him, it is indeed easy to cause trouble (lǒu).
In 1939, Zhong Wei came to the Henan-Hubei Independent Guerrilla Force led by Li Xiannian. Zhong Wei served as the political commissar. However, because he could not get along with the detachment leaders, he angrily "ran away from home" with his wife, children and the security squad. , Zhong Wei did not consider the cost of this trip. He took his wife and children to eat and sleep in the open and went through many hardships along the way.
In order to avoid the enemy, Zhong Wei and his team could only stay in day and night, running all the way from Hubei to Northern Jiangsu, and took refuge with their old leader Huang Kecheng. Zhong Wei respected and trusted Huang Kecheng very much, and Huang Kecheng understood After learning the cause and effect, he reprimanded Zhong Wei, but still took in his family and made Zhong Wei the commander of the 28th Regiment of the 10th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the New Fourth Army.
If Zhong Wei was taken back by Li Xiannian at that time, the consequences could be either big or small. In serious cases, he might be shot as a deserter by Li Xiannian.
After coming to Huang Kecheng's place, Zhong Wei finally found his talent, and his combat command talent was also put into good use. In the battle to capture Gaogou in northern Jiangsu, Zhong Wei fought very hard. Beautiful, this battle has become a typical example of offensive tactics, which was brought to its extreme in the Liaoshen Campaign.
Our army during that period was actually not good at attacking fortified battles. The Gaogou terrain was special, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack. The enemy relied on the five-meter-high wall to defend the city, and dug deep holes under the wall. In the trenches, the enemy took advantage of the terrain to hide behind the city wall and shoot. Our army, which seriously lacked heavy weapons, was helpless against the enemy in this situation.
In addition, the enemy also built a large number of fortifications such as gun towers, bunkers, and barbed wire. The guards of the four detachments attacked three times in a row, but all ended in failure. The company commander asked the soldiers to cover their heads with tables. The quilt was used as a mobile bunker to resist enemy artillery fire, but it still didn't help.
The commander of the guard company ordered to prepare for the fourth storm. Zhong Wei quickly stopped him and said: "You can't just fight with all your strength. You still have to use your brains to fight!"
After that, Zhong Wei let him go. The soldiers withdrew and held an emergency meeting. Based on the current situation, Zhong Wei decided to use tunnel operations and shelling as the main offensive methods to reduce unnecessary casualties as much as possible.
Zhong Wei's tactic is also called "digging trenches to get close to the enemy". It was specially developed for attacking tough battles. The soldiers first dug tunnels under the city wall, and then placed explosives to blow up the city wall. This tactic was later used to great proficiency by the People's Liberation Army. This tactic of "digging trenches to get close to the enemy" was used in many famous battles. Especially when liberating Jinzhou, our army used this tactic to successfully capture this impregnable city. city.
In the battle to conquer Huaiyin City, Zhong Wei once again shined. Huaiyin City has been a well-known place since ancient times that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Tang, the governor of water transportation, built a solid city wall with stones in order to defend against the enemy. The height of the city wall could reach more than five meters, and 20 Multiple forts.
After Japan surrendered, the 28th Puppet Division in Huaiyin City relied on the strong city wall to resist stubbornly and refused to surrender. Pan Qianchen, the commander of the 28th Division, occupied such a favorable location, which was extremely arrogant. . In order to make the city more difficult to break, he ordered all four city gates to be built into urn (wèng) gates. The city wall was once again raised to 8 meters, and hidden shooting holes were set up on the wall.
In the eyes of ordinary people, Huaiyin City at this time is impregnable and there is basically no possibility of breaking through it. However, Zhong Wei is a person who likes to challenge the impossible. Looking at the eight-meter-high city wall in front of him, Zhong Wei Another plan.
Since the enemy likes to build higher, let’s “compete” with them. Zhong Wei built a shooting platform outside the city that is higher than the enemy’s wall, and hits the enemy hard from the high ground. .
After this battle, the 29th Regiment led by Zhong Wei became famous and was known as the "Qingjiang Troops". Zhong Wei was promoted to brigade commander. It didn't take long for Zhong Wei to follow Huang Kecheng into the Northeast. , was incorporated into the 5th Division of the Second Column of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army, with Zhong Wei serving as the division commander.
Zhong Wei has always had high standards and strict requirements for himself, especially for his subordinates. When fighting the Japanese army in northern Jiangsu, we encountered two enemy artillery towers. One was quickly knocked down, but the other could not be knocked down alive or dead. The company commander was newly transferred, and he was not sure about Zhong Wei's temper. Know how to keep fighting.
Without saying a word, Zhong Wei called the guard company commander and said, "Go and tell him that if we can't defeat him within an hour, come and see him!"
Guard company commander The commander hurriedly ran to inform and said to the new company commander: "Hurry up and fight. If you can't fight down, you will be shot!"
When the company commander heard this, he understood Zhong Wei's style. Immediately he led his team to charge bravely, and he really knocked down another gun tower. Zhong Wei's troops have always been able to win battles, and they can fight tough battles, but their style is also quite "barbaric"!
During the War of Liberation, whenever Zhong Wei encountered a siege and was sure of victory, he would write down a lot of "Captured by the Fifth Division" seals, and then distribute them to his troops. When an enemy city fell, Zhong Wei's soldiers would put seals on the supplies and food they encountered.
The brother troops who participated in the battle were unconvinced and went to Dongye headquarters to complain. Zhong Wei always replied plausibly: "There is a seal as proof!" This left others with no way to do anything.
Later, two ammunition trucks from the Dongye headquarters passed by Zhong Wei’s troop station. At that time, Zhong Wei was worried about ammunition. The army was seriously short of ammunition. As soon as he saw the ammunition trucks, Zhong Wei ran over and waved to stop them. , directly called a company of soldiers to unload all the ammunition from the vehicle. The cadres escorting the vehicle complained while stopping people: "How can you tell me to go back and explain!"
Zhong Wei was also afraid. The cadre was embarrassed, so he wrote him a receipt and said with a smile to the cadre escorting the car: "When you go back, tell me that I, Zhong Wei, accepted it. They are all from the Eighth Route Army and are attacking the Kuomintang. What is yours and mine?"
I wonder if the things Zhong Wei did are familiar to everyone. Isn’t Li Yunlong in "Bright Sword" such a "domineering" style? But I have to admit that they have indeed won many battles!
At that time, many people complained to Huang Kecheng. Huang Kecheng would severely criticize Zhong Wei every time, but on the battlefield, Zhong Wei had to be reused. In terms of fighting, Zhong Wei was indeed very good. talent.
Soldiers have a bounden duty to obey orders, but Zhong Wei is a little different from everyone else. He often says: "A soldier's bounden duty is to win the battle. If anything goes wrong, I will be responsible!" This also led to Zhong Wei Although Zhong Wei repeatedly "disobeyed orders" on the battlefield, it turned out that the tactical changes made by Zhong Wei based on the adaptability of the battlefield did bring us a huge victory.
In the "Three Expeditions to the South of the Yangtze River" in 1947, Zhong Wei led his troops to cross the Songhua River south. His main task was to cooperate with the first and sixth columns to encircle and annihilate the New First Army Department of the New National Army.
Zhong Wei drove all the way in a hurry. When he arrived at Kaoshan Tun, he suddenly found that Jiangjiatun in the southwest was noisy and busy with people coming and going. Zhong Wei immediately sensed something was wrong and sent troops to conduct reconnaissance. As a result, he found the enemy's Two battalions are stationed here.
At this time, Zhong Wei had a combat mission, and his superiors did not order him to attack these two battalions. However, Zhong Wei thought this was a great opportunity to kill the enemy, and the political commissar immediately intervened to stop him. He denounced Zhong Wei for blatantly disobeying his superiors’ orders!
The political commissar paid more attention to the overall situation and believed that Zhong Wei should strictly obey the orders of his superiors. Even if the two battalions in front of us were eaten by us, it would probably delay the fighter plane and delay the tasks assigned by his superiors. Zhong Wei observed it unwillingly for a long time. He believed that fighting here was better than marching eastward, and the chance of winning was greater. Finally, Zhong Wei said: "That's it! Stay here and fight! I will bear the responsibility of beheading the head. We must fight." ! ”
Just do it, Zhong Wei immediately surrounded the enemy. Mr. Lin sent three telegrams to Zhong Wei to go eastward, but Zhong Wei ignored them all. Mr. Lin knew that Zhong Wei stayed here to besiege the enemy. Quite dissatisfied, but understandable about General Zhong Wei's unwillingness to accept military orders abroad. General Lin said in the telegram:
After Zhong Wei surrounded the enemy, the enemy's 87th Division came to reinforce and fight The situation became more and more intense. Zhong Wei directly reported to his superiors to request for support. He replaced others and openly disobeyed orders. He did not dare to raise these requests again. Zhong Wei was different. He knew that Mr. Lin was always persistent and the military orders issued were extremely difficult. Change, let alone Zhong Wei's disobedience three times in a row.
But what is surprising is that Mr. Lin made an exception and listened to Zhong Wei's opinion. Zhong Wei does have two skills. After the battle, Zhong Wei annihilated an enemy regiment and successfully held back the 87th Division, which came for reinforcements. Lin Biao took the opportunity to order the first and sixth columns to advance westward quickly and capture the enemy's 87th Division. "Three marches to the south of the Yangtze River." The battle was a complete victory.
This time Zhong Wei openly disobeyed the order. Although he won the battle, the merits and demerits were at best equal to the merits. Unexpectedly, Mr. Lin actually called up the Fifth Division and commended him, and also praised Zhong Wei for "the enthusiasm and mobility of the battle." It is worthy of promotion and praise." Zhong Wei has become famous all over the world.
Zhong Wei fought countless victorious battles in his life, among which he was most proud of the Wenjiatai annihilation battle, also known as the "Battle of Gongzhutun". Zhong Wei described this battle as: "a battle won in a lifetime" The most crisp and beautiful battle.
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In November 1947, the Northeast Field Army launched a winter offensive, and all units took action. The winter in the Northeast was very cold, and there was heavy snow for days. Under harsh combat conditions, the Seventh Column and Seventeenth Division The 57th Regiment and the 17th Regiment of the 2nd Column and 6th Division suffered an enemy counterattack at Wenjiatai and suffered heavy casualties.
The enemy's weapons and equipment at that time were much more advanced than ours, including aircraft, artillery, and tanks. There were countless of them, forming a clear gap with our army. Many people suggested retreating, but Zhong Wei stood up and asked for a fight.
Knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, he preferred to go to the tiger mountains. Zhong Wei was very aware of the risks of this battle. , but he is not an ordinary reckless man. Zhong Wei, who has fought for so many years, is very experienced. He figured out a way to fight in the snow, which can suppress the enemy very well, even if the enemy has aircraft and cannons.
When asking for a battle, Zhong Wei made two demands. One was that he should have full command, and the other was that enough artillery must be provided. The Military Commission thought for a long time and finally agreed to Zhong Wei's request, as before. Like the Huaiyin and Gaogou battles, Zhong Wei also held a pre-war meeting this time.
Zhong Wei said in the meeting:
Zhong Wei used "dig" here. The 2.0 version of the tactic of "getting close to the enemy in a ditch" was upgraded to the snow. In addition, it made full use of the violent attack capabilities of the artillery to minimize its casualties as much as possible.
After the battle began, The soldiers successfully dug trenches into the enemy's forward position and used artillery to blow up the enemy's fortifications. After several waves of charges, the enemy was defeated. Zhong Wei led his troops to end the battle as quickly as the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
In the Battle of Wenjiatai, our army eliminated the first corps of the Kuomintang’s central main force. It was also the first large-scale annihilation battle in Dongye involving four columns and powerful artillery units, which provided a great foundation for our army. Subsequent large-scale battles accumulated experience and provided excellent examples.
After the battle, the prisoners of war began to be counted. The enemy officers all disguised themselves as soldiers, put on soldiers' clothes, and mingled among the soldiers. The army interrogated several times but failed to find the "big fish". When Zhong Wei found out, he ordered all the prisoners of war to gather for a run, and those who fell behind were arrested and interrogated. Sure enough, most of the stragglers were officers, including the enemy commander Chen Linda. Among them.
Zhong Wei’s move is both wonderful and harmful. The Kuomintang officers have always been pampered and neglected to train. Their physical strength is naturally not as good as that of ordinary soldiers.
The Battle of Wenjiatai dealt a huge blow to the arrogant Kuomintang army. Before that, the Kuomintang army relied on advanced equipment, aircraft and artillery, and was extremely arrogant. After the Battle of Wenjiatai, our army won successive victories , completely shattering the enemy's strategic defense plan, Chiang Kai-shek was shocked and quickly flew to Shenyang to supervise the war.
In 1948, Dongye formed the twelfth column, and Zhong Wei was directly promoted from a division commander to the twelfth. The column commander was promoted directly from the division commander to the commander. Zhong Wei was the only one in the world!
Zhong Wei is a very interesting person. Many veterans who have followed Zhong Wei for many years recall Zhong Wei with admiration and helplessness. A veteran once wrote in his memoirs:
After the Lushan Conference in 1959, Peng Dehuai was targeted. Zhong Wei stood up and spoke uprightly, scolding those present as having "ulterior motives." For this reason, Zhong Wei was directly taken away. After leaving the venue, he was transferred to the Anhui Provincial Department of Agriculture and became deputy director.
Peng Dehuai was deeply moved by Zhong Wei's righteous speech. Until his death, Peng Dehuai never forgot Zhong Wei and murmured Zhong Wei's name.
On June 24, 1984, Zhong Wei died of illness in Beijing at the age of 73.
Although General Zhong Wei has passed away, his heroic spirit will live on forever. History will always remember this upright and lovely people's hero who was able to win battles, dared to fight tough battles!