Chapter 37 36. Xu Jishen - Bravely Fighting Against the Enemy, Wronged and Loyal Soul

Xu Jishen (1901-1931) was an outstanding general and military strategist in the early days of the Red Army of Chinese Workers and Peasants.Originally named Shaozhou, alias Danru, and the word Jinsheng. Born in 1901, from Tumen, Qingshan Township, Yu'an District, Lu'an, Anhui, Han nationality. Xu Jishen studied in a private school in his village when he was young. He went to Anqing in 1920 and was admitted to the Provincial No. 1 Industrial School.Soon, he was transferred to Anhui Provincial First Normal School. In April 1921, he joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League.In June of the same year, he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial Student Federation and Minister of the Liaison Department, and participated in leading the patriotic student movement.Under the oppression of the reactionary authorities, he went to Shanghai in October 1923 and attended Shanghai University.

In May 1924, recommended by the party organization, he was admitted to the first phase of Whampoa Military Academy.During the military academy, he studied military affairs hard, read progressive books and periodicals, and transferred to the Communist Party of China in the same year. After graduating from the military academy in November, he stayed at the school and served as the platoon leader of the 2nd New Teaching Regiment. After the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" in March 1926, the Communists were forced to withdraw from the First Army.Xu Jishen was transferred to the second squadron of the political training class as the captain.In July of the same year, under the impetus of the Communist Party of China, the Guangdong Nationalist Government officially launched the Northern Expedition.The Ye Ting Independent Regiment of the Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, directly led by our party and with Communist Party members as the backbone, as the advance team of the Northern Expedition, set off from Zhaoqing, Guangdong in early May for the Northern Expedition.In order to strengthen this force, the party sent more than 30 party and youth battalion, company, and platoon cadres, including Xu Jishen, to work in the independent regiment.Xu Jishen served as the commander of the second battalion, and participated in the famous battles of Pingjiang, Tingsi Bridge and Hesheng Bridge in the Northern Expedition. At the end of August, he was seriously injured in the Battle of Hesheng Bridge and still insisted on commanding the battle.In the winter of the same year, he returned from injury and served as chief of staff of the 73rd Regiment of the 25th Division.

In the spring of 1927, he was transferred to the 72nd Regiment of the 24th Division headed by Ye Ting, the deputy army commander and commander of the Wuhan Garrison. In May, he led his troops to participate in the battle to repel Xia Douyin's rebel army and was wounded again.After the rebellion of the Wuhan Nationalist Government, Wang Jingwei used his position as the head of the Independent Division as a bait in an attempt to instigate Xu Jishen to rebel against the party, but he flatly rejected it.After the failure of the Great Revolution, he engaged in secret party work in Anhui, Shanghai and other places.

In the spring of 1930, the Party Central Committee sent him to the Hubei, Henan, Anhui, and Anhui Soviet Areas to serve as the commander of the First Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.Under the command of Xu Jishen and others, from June to August, the First Red Army successively conquered many towns in western Anhui and the southern section of the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway, killing, wounding and capturing more than 7,000 enemy troops.The Red Army quickly grew from more than 2,300 people when it was formed to more than 5,000 people, which effectively promoted the consolidation and expansion of the Hubei, Henan, and Anhui bases. In September, he led his troops to conquer Guangshan, Luoshan and other towns. In November, he led his troops to annihilate most of the 2nd Mixed Brigade of the 26th Division of the Kuomintang Army.Afterwards, he led his troops eastward to the west of Anhui, conquered Jinjiazhai, Mabu, Dushan, Yejiaji and other places, wiped out more than 3,000 enemies, and disrupted the Kuomintang army's first "encirclement and suppression" deployment of the Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Soviet areas.

In January 1931, the First Red Army and the Fifteenth Red Army were combined into the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.Xu Jishen successively served as the commander of the 11th Division and the 12th Division of the Fourth Red Army. He won the victory in Shuangqiao Town, Xiaogan, and won the first victory of the Red Army in Hubei, Henan and Anhui to wipe out a division of the Kuomintang Army. The second "encirclement and suppression".Later, he concurrently served as the chairman of the Western Anhui Branch of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Revolutionary Military Committee.Since then, he has resolutely opposed Zhang Guotao's wrong military action policy of staying away from the Soviet area and taking risks to attack many times.After being illegally arrested, he always adhered to principles and was utterly loyal to the party. In November 1931, he was savagely framed by Zhang Guotao during the "suppression of counter-revolutionaries", and was brutally killed in Baiqueyuan, Xinji, Guangshan, Henan by torture.

The death of Xu Jishen made the commanders and fighters of the Red Fourth Front Army feel sorry.Soldiers remember him, in addition to admiring this veteran soldier with outstanding military exploits and dedication, there is also another factor, which is to commemorate the thousands of soldiers who were killed together with Xu Jishen in the "Eradication of Rebellion".According to the "War History of the Fourth Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army": From September 13 to mid-November, the Red Fourth Army was successively arrested on trumped-up charges such as "reorganization faction", "third party", and "AB regiment". Among the senior cadres in the army is Xu Jishen, commander of the 12th Division and chairman of the branch of the Western Anhui Army,

"Red and white loyalty and treachery, history has its own judgment." In 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China rehabilitated the martyrs who died in the mistaken suppression of counter-revolutionaries, and Xu Jishen's name was listed as the first in the first volume of the "Revolutionary Martyrs". In 1981, the Lu'an County Committee of the Communist Party of China built a martyr cemetery for Xu Jishen, and Xu Xiangqian personally wrote the inscription "The Tomb of Comrade Xu Jishen, Commander of the First Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". In 1989, Xu Jishen's name was impressively included among the military experts identified by the Central Military Commission.

The martyrs have knowledge in the spring, and they should laugh and comfort their lives.In a short 30 years, he wrote a brilliant chapter in the life of a genius military strategist.His tall and stalwart personality image will always shine in the ranks of the general stars of the Republic.