Who is Li Mingrui?
Li Mingrui, nicknamed Yusheng, was born on November 9, 1896 in Zhusha Village, Qingwan Township, Beiliu County, Guangxi. He participated in the leadership of the Baise Uprising and the Longzhou Uprising, and served as the commander-in-chief of the Seventh and Eighth Red Army. After the Guangxi Red Army moved north to Jiangxi, the central government established the Hexi General Headquarters to command operations west of the Ganjiang River. Li Mingrui was appointed as the general commander and unified command of the Seventh Red Army, the First Independent Division and the Twentieth Army to participate in the anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle. In May 1931, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China appointed Li Mingrui as commander of the Seventh Red Army. Li Mingrui was a famous general in the Chinese revolution and a loyal communist fighter. During the Northern Expedition and the Agrarian Revolutionary War, he demonstrated his firm proletarian party spirit and superb military commanding abilities.
In 1918, Li Mingrui entered the artillery department of the Shaoguan Branch of the Yunnan Army Lecture Hall. In 1925, Li Mingrui, then commander of the Guangxi Army, led his troops to participate in the war against Guangdong South Road warlord Deng Benyin led by the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government. He worked closely with his brother troops to conquer Huazhou, Gaozhou, Lianzhou and Qinzhou, annihilating Deng Ni and pacifying the army. The South Road consolidated the base areas of the Northern Expedition in Guangdong and Guangxi. During the Northern Expedition, he led his troops to defeat the main force of the Beiyang warlord Wu Peifu in the battles of Tingsi Bridge and Hesheng Bridge. He then directed his troops eastward and wiped out more than 20,000 Sun Chuanfang's main force, forcing Nanchang's defender Kaicheng to surrender. Li Mingrui led his troops to achieve many military exploits and was known as the "Tiger General" in the Northern Expedition Revolutionary Army.
In 1927, the Chiang Kai-shek clique rebelled against the revolution and madly massacred communists and revolutionary masses. Li Mingrui, who was the division commander of the National Army at the time, was very indignant about this. In the winter of 1927, he supported Yu Zuoyu in going south to Hong Kong to find another way out for the Communist Party, and reused Jiang Zuwu, a Communist Party member, as the division secretary. In the winter of 1928, Tong Lusheng, a member of the Communist Party of China, was appointed as the chief of the division's combat section. At a welcome meeting for fellow Guangxi residents in Peiping, he angrily condemned the new KMT warlords' policy of capitulation and treason. Li Mingrui was unwilling to join the ranks of the new Kuomintang warlords who were anti-Japanese and anti-people.
In June 1929, Li Mingrui took office as the top military commander of Guangxi and proactively requested cadres of the Communist Party of China to work in Guangxi. Dozens of party members and cadres, including Deng Xiaoping and Zhang Yunyi, entered Guangxi's military and political agencies and troops. Under the situation of white terror across the country at that time, only Guangxi had a political situation in which the local government and the upper echelons of our party cooperated sincerely. This created favorable conditions for our party to quickly control the army, develop party organizations, expand worker and peasant groups, and strengthen revolutionary forces in Guangxi. condition. Inspired by the education of Deng Xiaoping and Zhang Yunyi, Li Mingrui accepted the proletarian worldview. In October 1929, part of Li Mingrui's army participated in the Nanning Mutiny launched by the Chinese Communists. During this period, Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly sent people with letters of appointment as "Chairman of Guangxi Province" and "Commander of the Fifteenth Army" and huge sums of money to win over "Tiger General" Li Mingrui to serve him. Li Mingrui flatly rejected Chiang Kai-shek's high-ranking official salary. Li Mingrui also rejected the temptation of lobbyists sent by Li Zongren, Wang Jingwei and others.
In November 1929, Li Mingrui read revolutionary books such as "The Communist Manifesto" and "A Brief Introduction to Historical Materialism", and fundamentally realized that China can only prosper under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Only then could there be a way out, and thus completely changed his position, broke away from the warlord camp, resolutely devoted himself to the revolution, accepted the important task of serving as the commander-in-chief of the Seventh Red Army and the Eighth Red Army, and participated in the leadership of the Baise Uprising and Longzhou Uprising. In early 1930, Li Mingrui joined the Communist Party of China. Li Mingrui wrote to his relatives: "I am not an official now, but working for the people." "The revolution may not be successful by itself, but I can only do my best."
Li Mingrui told him The soldiers said: "Revolution, this is the only road we can take."
From September 1930 to July 1931, Li Mingrui, as the main leader of the Seventh Red Army, commanded the troops through Guangxi , Guizhou, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, which lasted 10 months, traveled thousands of miles, fought more than a hundred times, and went through hardships and dangers to realize the plan of "joining Zhu Mao". The Party Central Committee spoke highly of the military exploits of the Seventh Red Army and praised it as the "Thousand-mile Dragon".
In 1986, Deng Xiaoping said: "...the Seventh Red Army fought bravely.
Guangxi is amazing, especially Li Mingrui, who is not only brave and able to endure hardship, but also can lead troops to fight! ...Li Mingrui is a hard-working person! Comrade Xiaoping also said: "Don't publicize me, publicize Li Mingrui more!" ”