However, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was a shortage of manpower in all aspects, so in fact, seven of the 1 1 deputy chiefs of staff were not on the job. Even the four people who arrived at the post, most of them left their posts quickly because of the transfer. Relatively speaking, Zhang Aiping served as vice president for a little longer.
Zhang Aiping has had close cooperation with Su Yu, Huang Kecheng, Luo Ruiqing, etc., and its ability is also outstanding. However, there is another episode. 1when Luo Ruiqing became the chief of staff in September, 959, Zhang Aiping immediately wrote his resignation, saying that he wanted to work in the first-line army.
So that Luo Ruiqing smiled bitterly after reading the letter: Don't you just want me to be the chief of staff? Why on earth is this? Are they wronged?
In fact, Zhang Aiping wanted to leave ZongCan, not because he had a bad relationship with Luo Ruiqing. On the contrary, he and Luo Ruiqing are friends of brothers. Both of them are Sichuanese, and they communicate very cordially.
According to John Zhang, the son of Zhang Aiping, as early as the Red Army University, they had a very good relationship, and both of them could tell some little-known or even personal jokes. In the early days of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, they also went to Wuhan as representatives of the Eighth Route Army to attend the political work conference held by the National Government, leaving many photos.
And one of them is just a photo of the two of them. Luo Ruiqing wrote "Remember for my little brother Ai Ping" on it and gave it to Zhang Ai Ping.
Since it's not a personal relationship, why does Zhang Aiping behave so abnormally? In fact, it was mainly related to the personnel transfer of the General Staff at that time.
At first, Zhang Aiping and Su Yu worked together in ZongCan and were old comrades-in-arms. At the beginning of the liberation war, both of them were in the Central China Military Region, and they had a lot of contacts during that time.
Later, Zhang Aiping went to the Soviet Union for treatment due to injury, and soon after returning to China, he became a member of the Front Committee of the Third Field Army and continued to cooperate with Su Yu. He admired Commander Su's past achievements and working ability.
In his later years, Zhang Aiping told his children that the most smooth and efficient period of the General Staff was when Su Yu was the chief of staff. I can see that he really wanted to cooperate with Su Yu, but this most satisfying period did not last long. 1958, commander su was pushed to the forefront.
At that time, Mr. Peng's attitude towards Su Yu was the strongest, which made Zhang Aiping very embarrassed, because he came from the Red Third Army Corps and belonged to Mr. Peng's clique in the eyes of many people, and he also respected Mr. Peng.
Both sides can be called good comrades and old superiors to Zhang Aiping, and it is difficult for him to express his position in the middle, so he basically kept silent in public. However, he still hopes that the two sides can resolve the contradictions. He visited Su Yu many times and suggested that Su Yu could have a heart-to-heart talk with Mr. Peng to eliminate misunderstandings in his work.
At that time, Zhang Aiping did everything, and he couldn't control the final direction of things. After Su Yu took a back seat, Huang Kecheng succeeded him as chief of staff. Huang Kecheng is also a member of the Red Sanjuntuan. When he was the director of the Political Department of the 4th Division of the Red Sanjuntuan in Zhang Aiping, Huang Kecheng was already the director of the Political Department of the Red Sanjuntuan and his immediate superior.
During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, Huang Kecheng was the commander of the Third Division of the New Fourth Army, and Zhang Aiping was the deputy commander. They cooperated very closely. Zhang Aiping's wife, Li Youlan, recalled: They often quarreled about things at work and even slapped each other, but after the incident, they were as close as brothers!
After decades of war friendship, the promotion work is naturally quite smooth. But unfortunately, Huang Kecheng didn't work long in the post of chief of staff. At a meeting in 1959, Mr. Peng and Huang Kecheng were greatly affected and were dismissed from military posts.
This result disappointed Zhang Aiping, because he knew Peng and Huang very well and knew that they wouldn't shoot at random. Although he didn't speak for Mr. Peng directly at the meeting like Deng Hua, Hong Xuezhi and Wan Yi, he also expressed his support for Mr. Peng with actions-
After the meeting, no one dared to fly back to Beijing with Peng Lao, only Zhang Aiping boarded. Even though Mr. Peng advised him to go many times, he still insisted on going back to Beijing with him. Zhang Aiping's open style can be seen from this incident.
The frequent transfer of the staff of the General Staff Department, coupled with the accidents of three heads respected by Zhang Aiping, made him gradually reluctant to work in this department, preferring to go to the front line, so as to stay away from many problems. His words showed his intention:
"I'm too lazy to attend any activities and meetings that have little to do with me and I can't attend. I don't listen, don't ask, and don't participate in the matter that the donkey kills the horse and the horse kills the donkey. "
In other words, no matter who takes over as chief of staff, Zhang Aiping will resign. He has no problem with Luo Ruiqing, but Luo Ruiqing happens to be the man.
But when Luo Ruiqing said, "Don't you want me to be chief of staff?" Zhang Aiping realized that he was too reckless. Originally, the general staff were unstable, but when the new official took office, the former deputy general manager had to resign. What do outsiders think? Is Zhang Aiping going to give Luo Ruiqing a duel? How to carry out the work in Luo Ruiqing in the future?
So after a long talk, Zhang Aiping withdrew his resignation and apologized, and the two men still worked happily together.
Luo Ruiqing didn't feel unhappy because of this incident. He gave Zhang Aiping the greatest support in his future work. Zhang Aiping also spoke highly of Luo Ruiqing. In his later years, he told his children that Luo was an enterprising, determined and efficient person. He trusted me and let me go.
Zhang Aiping's temper has always been straightforward. He thinks that the right things will be supported and the wrong things will make noise. For so many years, he has never said a bad word about his superiors. Even though he was treated unfairly, he still kept his honest style.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he has long been engaged in the leadership of national defense science and technology and national defense industry. Zhang Aiping has made contributions to national defense weapons such as "two bombs and one satellite" and missile forces.
At the end of 1970s, Zhang Aiping, who had been tried and tested, came back to work and continued to pay attention to sophisticated weapons such as intercontinental missiles and submarine missiles. Later, he served as Minister of National Defense, surpassing Su Yu, Huang Kecheng and Luo Ruiqing in his post.