1939 I just turned 16 years old. I attended a training course for guerrilla cadres held in Nanyue. I was attracted by a general in this activity. Because I know how to write, I am diligent and honest, and he wants me to be his valet. In this year, I bid farewell to my parents, brothers and sisters, and left my hometown in Hengshan, Hunan Province, where I lived for more than ten years, holding only a few photos of my parents and family in my arms. After that, my father entrusted me to this general. Looking at my father's fading back, I remembered his words before he left: wait on him, and listen to his uncle's teachings. I started as a soldier, and in the next 1 1 year, I followed this general, risking my life and never leaving! Even after I got married at the age of 28, I still lived near his apartment, respected him like my father, and he always treated me like family. In that turbulent time, I was lucky because I grew up from a teenager to a young man with General Yu Chengwan.
& lt& lt general profile > >
Yu Chengwan, 1902 ~ 1955, a native of Taishan, Guangdong. He was born in a wealthy family in Taishan, Guangdong. He received a good education from an early age and graduated from Panyu Normal School in his early years. 1May, 924, he was admitted to the first team of Huangpu Military Academy. At the age of 23, he became one of the few students with a junior college diploma in the military academy and graduated at the end of the same year 10. After graduating from the Department of Political Science of Sun Yat-sen University, he entered the first-phase research department of Army University for further study. Yu Chengwan was promoted to the rank of Major General on February 5, 1936 at the age of 33. He and Yu Jishi are both graduates of Huangpu Phase I (Yu Jishi belongs to the second team). They were Huangpu classmates from different teams in the same period. Although they are all subordinates in the 74th Army, Yu is a little older than Yu, so in private, Yu is called the senior, Wang is the third phase of Huangpu, and Zhang is the senior. They even call themselves old-timers
General Yu Chengwan in 1936
& lt& lt The First Samurai > >;
1939, Major General Yu Chengwan, deputy commander of the 49th Division, was transferred to the 57th Division of the 74th Army as deputy commander (under Shi Zhongcheng). The 57th Division was originally the headquarters of Chen, an elite soldier of Anhui Department. After the Central Plains War, it was expanded by 55 divisions, and under the leadership of Shi Zhongcheng, it made outstanding achievements. After being incorporated into Wei Chi's 74th Army, it became the main force of this elite central army.
1940, Yu Chengwan was promoted to the 57th division commander. In the battles of Songhu, Wuhan, Nanchang, Gao 'an, Shanggao, Changsha and Quzhou in eastern Zhejiang, he showed his talents again and again, and won the appreciation of Shi Zhongcheng, the former 57th division commander, Yu Jishi, the commander of the 74th Army, and Wang, the successor commander. Especially in the Battle of Shanggao, he commanded the 57th Division to stick to the position of Xiapiqiao, and fought bloody battles with the 34th Division of the Japanese Army under the blazing fire, which made great contributions to the victory of the Battle of Shanggao. His tenacious will and excellent command ability won the honorary title of "Tiger" for the 57th Division.
1942 After the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Battle in September, in view of the fact that the Japanese army was familiar with our army's designation and could decipher the activity information of our various ministries, the 74th Army changed its designation. The designation of the military department and its directly affiliated departments was changed to "Brilliant", the division of 5/kloc-0 was "Wenchang", the division of 58 was "Yulin" and the division of 57 was changed from "Xuwen" to "Hubin". The word "Tiger Ben" comes from the "On Grazing Oath" in the Book of Songs, which records: "The King of Wu has 300 chariots and 300 tigers." In the future, the title of "Tiger Ben" became the highest honor of the invincible army of heroes in previous dynasties.
1943 at the beginning, I am 20 years old. This photo was taken in a photo studio in Changde City. The left breast of the uniform is marked with the word samurai.
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1943, in order to cooperate with the Pacific battlefield and stop China's army from moving to Myanmar, Japan formulated a new operational outline, requiring the Japanese army 1 1 army to launch the Changde campaign after the western Hubei campaign (which took place in late May/943). Changde, located in the northwest of Hunan Province, has always been the hub of land and water transportation, with the Yangtze River in the north, Yichang in the upper part, Guangdong-Han Railway in the east and Guizhou-Sichuan in the west, which has an important strategic position. Therefore, on the occasion of the Battle of Western Hubei in May 1943, the "Tiger" Division came here to deploy troops, step up the construction of fortifications and actively prepare for war. During the Battle of Changde, the main cadres of the 57th Division were (1 Military Academy), Li Yan, deputy division commander, Colonel Chen, chief of staff (No.4 Military Academy), Chai Yixin, head of 169 regiment (1 Luda special class), and head of 170 regiment (Mr. Yu) to mobilize all the officers and men. Yu Xiansheng deployed the city in an orderly way, and defended the enemy in three stages: suburban defense, city wall defense and city street defense.
1943165438+1October 18 The Japanese vanguard troops attacked under the cover of aircraft. Then the main force of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army1100,000 people attacked Changde. Changde's garrison has only 57 divisions and more than 8,000 people. In addition to the disparity in strength, there is a lack of guns, ammunition and materials, and the equipment is not even as good as that of the Japanese army. After 14 days of Japanese bombing, shelling, gas bombs, incendiary bombs, numerous offensive and defensive battles and white-edged charges, the battle has entered a street fight very close to the headquarters of the Central Bank, with less than 100 officers and men who can be counted, but the lost officers and men cannot be counted. In view of the delay in the arrival of rescue troops, all the people sent to meet the reinforcements failed or did not hear from them. On the evening of February 2, 65438, Yu Xiansheng called his generals and announced his decision to break through to meet the reinforcements. 12 3 in the early morning, the sky was dark. Mr. Yu led me and several guards, a total of eight people, to cross the western wall of the south gate with wooden ladders and cross the Yuanjiang River in three small wooden boats left by the Japanese army. I am Mr. Yu's captain's adjutant, and the guards were with him when I was on the same boat. However, there are no oars and rudders on the wooden boat. It happened that a north wind with light rain blew the wooden boat to the south bank. When landing, it was bombarded by Japanese grenades and machine guns on the south bank. Everyone else dispersed to escape. The two of us were forced to flee to the northwest until dawn. We arrived at a small village and stopped to have a rest. Later, officers and men of the 57th Division also gathered in the village. It turns out that after Teacher Yu broke through, only Chai Yixin stayed in Changde, and all assigned schools broke through alone. On February 4th, 65438, Yu Xiansheng ordered me to gather the skirmishers and count them to 83. On February 5th, 65438, Yu Xiansheng led more than 80 people to the southeast Deshan to meet the reinforcements. On the way, I found that the Japanese army was retreating to the north of Lishui. It is estimated that friendly forces may have begun to surround Changde.
On February 8, 65438, Commander-in-Chief Xue Yue ordered Lieutenant General Lu Daoyuan, commander of the 58th Army in Deshan, to recover Changde within a time limit. The advancing New First Division of the 58th Army 1 1 met more than 80 disabled soldiers who broke through Changde. Yu ordered the colonel to gather more than 80 remnants brought out and cooperate with the newly established 1 1 division to counterattack Changde. At that time, the Japanese army that occupied Changde had withdrawn, and Changde became an empty city. On February 9th, 1 1, the new division marched into Changde from the old wharf ferry in Deshan. In the ruins of Changde, more than 300 officers and men of 57 divisions miraculously emerged. Everyone couldn't help crying when they saw the national flag unfurled again in the incomplete central bank building. Changde was recovered, and the battle also bought time for the overall situation, surrounded by reinforcements, and drove the Japanese aggressors back to the north bank of Yuanjiang River.
General Yu Chengwan is at 1943.
& lt& lt was convicted in a bloody battle >>
Just a few days after returning to Changde, Yu Chengwan was thought to have abandoned his subordinates and given up guarding the land. The Military Commission ordered the detention, which was executed by Fu, deputy commander-in-chief of Binhu Garrison. Captain Li Yueshan, a native of Taishan, Guangdong, and I accompanied detained Yu Chengwan to Chongqing. Other commanders who break through and retreat will be treated as if the revolutionary troops were sitting together, and they will never be soft. But only General Yu Chengwan was really punished after the war. Chiang Kai-shek also threatened to shoot Yu Chengwan. General Qiu Weida, who was studying in the Sixth Special Class of the Army University at that time, mentioned in his memoirs that when Chiang Kai-shek presided over the graduation ceremony of this period, he read out the execution order in public. Later, after being tried by the Military Law Executive Director Department (the presiding judge is General Zhang Zhizhong), Mr. Xian decided that Mr. Yu stayed in Changde for 15 days and nights, and his feelings were pitiful. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but he was not allowed by the Military Commission. Later, Yu Jishi, the former commander of the 74th Army, and Wang, the commander of the 74th Army, pleaded with Chiang Kai-shek, and Changde people signed them, and Dai Jiufeng, the county magistrate, appealed. They claimed that the whole city had been razed to the ground by Japanese artillery fire during the Changde War, leaving only the ruined building of the Central Bank. The officers and men of the 57th Division died for their country, ran out of ammunition, and tried their best to defend themselves. Yu Chengwan was released from Chongqing Nan 'an Tuqiao Prison after serving four months. He was immediately appointed as the deputy commander of the 74th Army.
Lieutenant General Yu Chengwan's uniform
To commemorate the Battle of Changde, Yu Chengwan, who was imprisoned in Chongqing Tuqiao Prison at that time, felt obliged to record the heroic deeds of the Battle of Changde, and the famous writer Zhang Henshui also lived in a grassy reed in the mountains near Tuqiao on the south bank of Chongqing. Yu Chengwan sent me to find Zhang Henshui and gave him two packs of newspaper clippings, marching diaries, maps, notes and photos, hoping that he could write down the touching story of the "samurai" army. Zhang Henshui was very excited by the heroic deeds of patriotic soldiers, but he didn't expect to write novels with them at that time. He declined because he had never been to the battlefield and knew nothing about military affairs. Anyway, I have to take care of Mr. Yu in prison and live near Tuqiao with Li Yueshan's staff. From then on, I often went to chat with Zhang Henshui, gave him daily necessities, and dictated some of my experiences in the war to him. Zhang Henshui no longer said no. He should just study the materials first and then write when he has time. Later, he really wrote "Long live the samurai". It's a pity that I collected the original and old version. When I lived in Hong Kong in the 1960s, it was soaked by the hurricane that hit Hong Kong.
& lt& lt post-war occupation >>
August 1945, War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression won. On September 23rd, the 57th Division of the 74th Army, under the command of General Yao Yaoxiang of the New Sixth Army, was airlifted to Nanjing by military transport plane from Zhijiang, Hunan Province, and served as the capital of Nanjing, garrison headquarters. Chen, the division commander of the 57th division, is also the division commander. The division headquarters and its directly affiliated units, the 65438+069 regiment are stationed in Zhenjiang, and the 65438+070 regiment is stationed in Longtan. 1in the winter of 945, the 5th and 58th divisions of the 74th Army sailed from Hunan to Nanjing (the New Sixth Army was transferred to the northeast) to take over the task of the New Sixth Army, and Nanjing garrison headquarters was established, with General Shi Zhongcheng as the commander, and the 57th division under the organizational system, still serving as a guard in Zhenjiang. Yu Chengwan, the deputy commander, and his family moved to Nanjing, and I lived with him, his wife and family in Jinyin Street 12 apartment in Nanjing. At that time, Yu Chengwan gave me the task of decorating and decorating Xue Yue's apartment in Nanjing, and Xue Yue was building a martyrs cemetery in Nanyue. It was also during this period that Yu Chengwan went to Shanghai for a holiday and met his second wife, Ms. Wu Bing.
On 1946, I took a group photo with General Yu Chengwan and his wife in Nanjing.
1in the spring of 946, the 74th Army was ordered to reorganize, and the army was reorganized into a division, and the division was reorganized into a brigade. Each division was reduced by one regiment and reorganized into 5 1 brigade commander Chen Chuanjun, 57 brigade commander Chen, 58 brigade commander, etc. The military expenditure of each brigade does not belong to the division headquarters and is accounted for independently. Redundant officers were transferred to the training regiment, while redundant soldiers were added to various units. This was elitism adopted at that time, in order to save the national treasury expenditure, streamline large units and enrich small units. In the winter of the same year, General Shi Zhongcheng transferred to the second appeasement area of Jinan. General Zhang succeeded as the commander of the 74th Division. General Cai Renjie, the former brigade commander of the 58th Brigade, was transferred to the deputy division commander of the 74th Division, and Lu Xing was transferred to the 58th Brigade as the brigade commander.
1946 general Yu Chengwan
1February, 947, Yu Chengwan, deputy division commander of the BGF 74th Division, was transferred to the commander of the East Guangdong Theater, and I was the main adjutant of his headquarters. In May of the same year, the BGF 74th Division was completely annihilated in Meng Lianggu, while Yu Chengwan "survived". In the war of liberation, Yu Chengwan was "lucky" and I became "lucky" because I followed him.