During the years in the command headquarters of the Volunteer Army

Author: Yang Di
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: Mao Zedong once wrote in "Strategic Problems of China's Revolutionary War": "The stage of a military strategist's activities is built upon objective material conditions. Yet, with this stage, the strategist can direct many vivid and majestic dramas." Commander-in-Chief and Political Commissar of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, Peng Dehuai, along with the deputy commanders and the command headquarters, faced an enemy equipped with advanced weaponry and possessing absolute superiority in naval and air forces. Although our army's equipment was much better than during the domestic liberation war, compared to the "United Nations Command" led by the United States, we were still at a significant disadvantage. Adding to this, the specific narrow terrain of the Korean Peninsula, surrounded by the sea on three sides, provided the stage for the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to direct the "vivid and majestic" drama of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
In this war, as I worked in the operations department of the Volunteer Army command headquarters and frequently accompanied the Volunteer Army leaders to the front lines, I had more contact with them. Therefore, I focus on recalling the command art of the "brave and wise generals" and "heroic and prudent figures" (as described by Mao Zedong) who led this war. I recall these deeply respected commanders and their staffs, and the scene of how our army's wartime command headquarters organized and directed the first modern war after the founding of New China. Due to the passage of nearly half a century, many details cannot be recalled in full, and my limitations prevent me from depicting the entire war. With a sense of responsibility to history, I have approached this great and majestic War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea with objectivity and truth. Therefore, I have not invited anyone to write a preface or introduction, nor have I written a self-introduction. I leave it to the readers to judge and let history speak.
Peng Dehuai, Commander-in-Chief and Political Commissar of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, and his deputy Deng Huai, Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Deputy Political Commissar, left this world prematurely due to well-known reasons. I also pay heartfelt respect and deep remembrance to the late Volunteer Army leaders, my colleagues, and the soldiers and officers who sacrificed on the Korean battlefield.
On October 24, 1998, the centenary of Peng Dehuai's birth, I felt a strong desire to express my sentiments of mourning and commemoration for Peng Zong. I read a poem and a ci (a traditional Chinese poetic form) written by Yang Difu, former Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in memory of Peng Zong. His emotions were deeply sincere because he was one of the oldest victims of Peng Zong's (unjust and false case) in Hunan Province, enduring persecution until his complete exoneration in 1980. Yang's poem and ci expressed his profound affection for Peng Zong, which resonated with me.
Yang, an elder who guided me into the revolution (now 87 years old), kindly permitted me to borrow his commemorative poem and ci to express my own feelings of mourning and my tribute to Peng Zong on his centenary.
Man Jiang Hong · In Memory of Peng Dehuai, Marshal:
Scattered fragments still record his great achievements.
In those days, the flames of Jinggang Mountains blazed, and the Yanhe River echoed with the sound of arrows.
He led the Volunteer Army in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression,
And guarded the sun across the snow-capped mountains and grasslands.
With a general who stood firm with his sword in hand,
Invincible and all-conquering.
The fate of the world, its rise and fall,
Rests on the choice of wise rulers.
With a heart full of loyalty,
He spared nothing for the cause.
His undying spirit is praised through the ages,
Few can match his lifelong integrity.
But the "Four Evils" ruined the great wall,
And the people and army wept in sorrow.
This year, a bronze statue stands in Peng Zong's former residence.
Poem:
A hundred-year-old marshal, his bronze statue stands tall,
A man of great achievement in life, a hero in death.
The world is in turmoil, the winds of change rise,
Remembering his unparalleled contributions in aiding Korea.