Chapter 75 Luo Ronghuan, who started as a company representative

Luo Ronghuan met Mao Zedong for the first time when he joined forces in Wenjiashi during the Autumn Harvest Uprising.It was at the meeting on the playground of Liren School that Mao Zedong used vivid language to explain many revolutionary principles in simple terms and pointed out the future of the army after defeat. This made Luo Ronghuan standing in the queue feel like he was thirsty after a long time Drink into the sweet spring, very carefree.At that time, he was extremely anxious about the lack of a clear direction for the troops after the defeat of the uprising.Mao Zedong's words gave him hope and added confidence.

Luo Ronghuan led the Peasant Self-Defense Forces in Tongcheng and Chongyang, Hubei to participate in the Autumn Harvest Uprising. Luo Ronghuan is not from Tongcheng, Hubei.He was originally from Nanwan Village, Yuxing Town, Hanshui Township, Hengshan County, Hunan Province (now part of Hengdong County), and was born on November 26, 1902.His original name was Shenzhen, his style name was Yahuai, and his nickname was Zongren.The name Ronghuan was changed for him by the principal when he was in primary school. Luo Ronghuan entered a private school when he was 8 years old, and later entered Luoshi Yueying Primary School to study in high school, and gradually accepted some new knowledge and patriotic ideas such as natural science; in 1919, he went to Changsha, the provincial capital, and entered Xiejun Middle School. In the school where Liu Zhixun, the secretary-general of the Hunan Provincial Farmers Association, was the principal, Luo Ronghuan not only learned a lot of cultural and scientific knowledge, but also was influenced by the surging patriotic movement. It was at this time that he became myopic. , put on glasses.

In the summer of 1923, Luo Ronghuan went to Beijing and participated in a cram school in the Hunan Guild Hall. One year later, he was admitted to the preparatory course of Shandong Private Qingdao University. In the past two years in Qingdao, Luo Ronghuan not only witnessed the Japanese imperialism showing off its power on Chinese soil, but also experienced the tempering of the "May 30th" anti-imperialist patriotic movement.The political atmosphere in Qingdao is too dull, and Guangzhou, the center of the national revolution, is so deeply attracted to this young man with great ambitions to serve the country.Finally, in June 1926, Luo Ronghuan left Qingdao and went to Guangzhou.

In Guangzhou, myopia gave him a dilemma. He gave up the idea of ​​applying for the Whampoa Military Academy, so he had to write a letter to persuade his younger brother Luo Xiang to come to Guangzhou to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy. Luo Ronghuan returned to his hometown Hengshan, which had been occupied by the Northern Expedition. At this time, at the climax of the peasant movement in Hunan, Luo Ronghuan actively participated in the work of the peasant association in his hometown and was baptized by the battle of the Great Revolution. On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" coup, openly betraying the revolution, and the situation deteriorated day by day.After that, Luo Ronghuan came to Wuhan, the center of the revolution at that time.

This is the night before the storm. When some people retreated and fled under the dangerous and harsh environment, Luo Ronghuan faced the storm and joined the Chinese Communist Youth League in May, and soon became a member of the Communist Party of China. The severe moment finally came. On July 15, Wang Jingwei "cleaned up the party" in Wuhan, and the vigorous revolution failed.At this time, Luo Ronghuan was sent by the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China to Tongcheng County to carry out the work of the peasant movement. Luo Ronghuan quickly organized a peasant self-defense army in Tongcheng. Soon, the peasant self-defense army of Chongyang County came to Tongcheng. Army, Luo Ronghuan served as the party representative of this team.

The Self-Defense Forces got in touch with the security regiment of the Second Front Army General Headquarters of the Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army stationed in Xiushui, Jiangxi.However, when the Self-Defense Forces were on the way to Xiushui, they were ambushed by the enemy, and the team was suddenly dispersed, and only about 100 people remained after gathering. Just when Luo Ronghuan led the team to continue to Xiushui, a small accident happened. At that time, Luo Ronghuan, who was born as an intellectual, was carrying a box containing his belongings and two or three hundred dollars.Due to the hot weather and rugged mountain roads, Luo Ronghuan, who was carrying the suitcases on the march, was very struggling, and kept changing the hand carrying the suitcases.

Another big mountain was about to be climbed. When Luo Ronghuan was worrying, two peasant soldiers ran up to him, pointed to the box and said, "Sir, let us carry it for you." "No, I can mention it myself." Luo Ronghuan quickly waved his hand. A soldier took a step forward, snatched the box from Luo Ronghuan, and said, "Your husband can read and write, so you can't carry it. Let us carry it for you." Luo Ronghuan saw that they were his brothers, so he didn't insist anymore and let them take the box. In the evening, Luo Ronghuan couldn't find the two soldiers at the campsite. It turned out that the two soldiers had already fled.

Luo Ronghuan was very upset about this.When he mentioned this matter later, he once said: "At that time, my thinking was very simple. I thought that everyone came to the revolution, and they were all the same comrades! There is a way out, there are plenty of people. At that time, we were all 'scholars' rebelling, and we couldn't get rid of the bookishness. An intellectual can't become a firm revolutionary without going through some training." Later, when he was in Yan'an, Mao Zedong heard about this from Luo Ronghuan's wife Lin Yueqin. He laughed and said, "You see, he is very honest. This is indeed a great feature of Comrade Luo Ronghuan. However, he is also very good at Summing up the experience, he realized a truth from this incident. Therefore, he is very clear about right and wrong, right and wrong."

Of course, these are things for later. After losing the suitcase and the money, although Luo Ronghuan was a little depressed, he followed the team to Xiushui energetically.Here, the Peasant Self-Defense Forces of Tongcheng and Chongyang were reorganized into the temporary special agent company of the First Division, and during the Autumn Harvest Uprising, they were reorganized into the First Division Special Agent Company of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.Luo Ronghuan served as the party representative of the company. The Autumn Harvest Uprising broke out, and Luo Ronghuan led a spy company to participate in the uprising.However, the spy companies that accompanied the division had not yet fought any battles, and the uprisings failed one after another.After several twists and turns, Luo Ronghuan and his troops came to Wenjia City in Liuyang.

Here, Luo Ronghuan met Mao Zedong, whom he had admired for a long time, for the first time, and also listened to Mao Zedong's speech. From then on, Luo Ronghuan began his revolutionary career following Mao Zedong in the North and South. Luo Ronghuan stayed behind for the Sanwan adaptation. He saw with his own eyes that this dying army was revived under the leadership of Mao Zedong. He admired Mao Zedong for injecting a new political soul into the old army, and he saw hope. When Shuikou established the party, Luo Ronghuan, as a party representative, participated in the party joining ceremony of the first batch of new party members presided over by Mao Zedong himself.Afterwards, he actively responded to Mao Zedong's call for training and developing new party members among the soldiers in accordance with the requirement of "building the branch on the company", and soon developed 8 new party members in the secret service company, and when the troops marched to Dafen, Suichuan , presided over the party admission ceremony.Mao Zedong not only attended the party joining ceremony, but also personally led the new party members to take the oath.

The reorganization of Sanwan and the activities of "building branches on the company" laid the foundation for the creation of a new type of people's army. Luo Ronghuan, who has been engaged in political work in our army since then, deeply understands its meaning. In 1956, Luo Ronghuan, who had already served as the director of the General Political Department of the Central Military Commission, once commented: The party branch is built on the company, and the team goes deep into the squad. It seems nothing now, but from the perspective of summarizing historical experience, the significance is great.In the National Revolutionary Army during the Great Revolution, some party representatives were Communists, and some troops also had our party organization, but the party's grassroots organization did not go deep into the company.Chen Duxiu didn't pay attention to military work, even opposed military work, and gave up the party's leadership over the army. As a result, the party representatives were kicked out later. Platoons and direct contact with the masses played a decisive role in strengthening the party's leadership over the army. Establishing the branch on the company is an important measure to strengthen the party's leadership over the army, and the key to whether the branch can truly play the core role of political leadership lies in the party representatives.Mao Zedong pointed out in the article "The Struggle in Jinggangshan": "Facts have proved that which company has a better party representative, which company is more healthy, and it is not easy for the company commander to have such a big role in politics." During the Jinggangshan struggle, Luo Ronghuan was an outstanding party representative who played an active role in politics. In November 1927, Luo Ronghuan was transferred to the party representative of the Ninth Company of the Third Battalion. Luo Ronghuan, who is tall, wears a pair of glasses, and doesn't talk much, looks a little majestic. Some soldiers from the Ninth Company were really a little scared when they first came into contact with him.A few mischievous fighters who liked to give people nicknames called Luo Ronghuan "big shell" behind their backs. The company commander was very annoyed when he heard about it, and called the soldiers who liked to nickname him to reprimand them. Luo Ronghuan didn't care, he told the company commander not to criticize those soldiers.He said that although he was not in favor of nicknames, he did not feel that calling them would affect the dignity or prestige of cadres.In Luo Ronghuan's view, as a party representative, one must have prestige to do a good job, but to be convincing, the key is to play one's exemplary and pioneering role. This is the basic condition that a party representative must possess.If there is no such thing, it will not be able to establish prestige. Luo Ronghuan set an example for the soldiers with his silent actions: when fighting and charging, he stood shoulder to shoulder with the company commander at the forefront of the team, and was responsible for covering at the back when retreating; when marching, he often carried several guns on his shoulders. When camping, he insisted on checking the shop and covered the soldiers' quilts one by one; when some soldiers were sick, he had to ask for their health several times a day, and ordered the sick to cook, but he himself was sick , but often kept silent, gritted his teeth and persisted. Luo Ronghuan won the trust of the soldiers with his exemplary actions. Not only did no one call him his nickname anymore, but everyone thought he had a very good temper and had no airs at all, and everyone was willing to contact him. Luo Ronghuan established the prestige of the party representative in Jiulian, and Jiulian became a strong company. In March 1928, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was training in Zhongcun, and Luo Ronghuan was transferred to the Eighth Company, where he was still a party representative.He worked hard and soon made a significant change in the appearance of the eighth company. In May, the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops and the Nanchang Uprising troops joined forces to form the Fourth Red Army, and Luo Ronghuan was promoted to be the party representative of the third battalion of the Red Thirty-one Regiment. "Failed in August", the third battalion has withstood a severe test.Mao Zedong led the third battalion to southern Hunan to welcome back the Red Army brigade. They traveled hundreds of miles and fought more than a dozen battles. No one in the whole battalion deserted. Since then, the third battalion has been the main force of the Red Army and moved to the Jinggangshan base area. No matter how dangerous the environment is, no matter how difficult the conditions are, the third battalion not only rarely deserts, but also maintains a strong fighting spirit. For all of this, Luo Ronghuan put in a lot of effort. Mao Zedong wrote in "The Struggle in Jinggang Mountains": "The material life of the Red Army is so meager, and the battles are so frequent, but they can still maintain it. In addition to the role of the party, it is to implement democracy in the army." In the third battalion, Luo Ronghuan did a lot of work to eliminate feudal remnants and advocate democracy. Beating and scolding soldiers is a bad habit of the old army.Some people in the Red Army are still affected by this bad habit, thinking that "three words are worth a slap", and "good soldiers come from under the whip", so beating and scolding soldiers happened from time to time. One day in early winter, a cold northwest wind suddenly blew up in the evening, and the temperature dropped sharply.The soldiers of the fourth squad of the Ninth Company came back from sentry, but they were too cold to sleep because there was no fire.Regardless of the stop of the squad leader Huang Yongsheng, a soldier took a bundle of firewood from the old watch yard and lit a fire. Huang Yongsheng ordered the soldiers to put out the fire and send the firewood back. The soldier ignored it and continued to add firewood to the fire. Huang Yongsheng grabbed the firewood from the soldier's hand, threw it on the ground, and then began to scold him.The soldier refused to accept, stood up and confronted Huang Yongsheng. This is not bad!Huang Yongsheng was so angry that he reached out and slapped the soldier. The next day, Luo Ronghuan called Huang Yongsheng: "I heard that you beat someone last night? Why did you beat someone?" Huang Yongsheng argued: "That soldier violated the discipline of the masses and disobeyed orders, so I slapped him." Luo Ronghuan patiently listened to Huang Yongsheng's explanation, and then said: "I ask you a question, I don't know if you have thought about it, if you are the monitor, if you don't beat people, is there any way to lead the whole class well?" Huang couldn't answer. "What? You haven't thought about it, have you? Let me ask you again, if you are a soldier and you make a mistake, and the squad leader beats you, will you feel better?" Huang lowered his head and couldn't say a word. Luo Ronghuan went on to say: "Commissioner Mao has repeatedly said that relying on fists to replace education will not solve the problem. Comrades have shortcomings and mistakes, and we must repeatedly reason with them so that they understand why they are wrong. We must convince them with reason." Humans cannot be persuaded by strength. Convincing is worse than oral. Only when you are convinced can you consciously abide by discipline. From now on, you should not beat people no matter what. Go back and think about it carefully to see if what I said is right." After Luo Ronghuan's patient education, Huang Yongsheng realized his mistake. Relying on such political education and ideological work, Luo Ronghuan united the officers and soldiers of the entire battalion and ensured the combat effectiveness of the troops. During the struggle in Jinggangshan, Luo Ronghuan successively worked in the positions of company and battalion party representatives, and worked hard to practice Mao Zedong's thought on building a new type of people's army. Starting as a representative of the Lian Party, Luo Ronghuan has since formed an indissoluble bond with the political work of the People's Army... In 1950, Luo Ronghuan became the first director of the General Political Department of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission. In 1955, Luo Ronghuan was awarded the rank of Marshal of the People's Republic of China.