In 1945, after determining the strategic policy of "defending to the south and developing to the north," the headquarters of the Yan'an Military Commission in northern Shaanxi issued the highest instructions to the troops in southern Jiangsu, eastern Zhejiang, and northern Anhui: from late September to early October, there was a planned withdrawal to the north of the Yangtze River.
On October 25, Chairman Mao personally issued an order for the establishment of the Central China Military Region, with General Su Yu as the commander of the military region and Comrade Zhang Dingcheng as deputy commander. However, after Su Yu saw the letter of appointment sent by the Central China Bureau, his mood was uneasy, and he wrote four times to ask for resignation, and the commander of the Central China Military Region was appointed.
Indicating that Zhang Dingcheng was more suitable than him to serve as the commander of the main post, Su Yu was willing to serve as the deputy commander and become Zhang Dingcheng's deputy. What's going on? The contents of this issue are a useful history, deciphering why Su Yu took the initiative to write a letter to resign four times after he was appointed commander of the Central China Military Region by Chairman Mao. Who is Zhang Dingcheng? Why would Su Yu, a god of war who had made great achievements in battle, willingly become his deputy?
Chairman Mao made Su Yu commander, so why did Su Yu write to him four times to resign?
Zhang Dingcheng, whose ancestral home is Yongding, Fujian Province, joined the Communist Party after the defeat of the Great Revolution in 1927, against the background of the white terror that was well known throughout the country, although Zhang Dingcheng was 29 years old at the time, he was immediately entrusted with a heavy responsibility after he joined the army and joined the party.
In 1928, with the cooperation of Deng Zihui and other comrades, he led the peasant armed uprisings in Longyan, Yongding, Shanghang and other places in Fujian and western Fujian, went deep among the masses to fully mobilize the common people to actively join the army, and pulled up a red army camp, with Zhang Dingcheng personally serving as the battalion commander.
He actively waged guerrilla war with the Kuomintang reactionaries, established a Soviet red revolutionary regime, and vigorously engaged in the agrarian revolutionary movement of "cracking down on local tyrants and dividing up the land." He successively served as a member of the Fujian Special Committee, the head of the organization, and the deputy commander-in-chief.
Held up a corner of the sky in the south
In 1929, after zhang Dingcheng and Chairman Mao's victory, he served as a member of the Minxi Special Committee, the secretary of the Central Military Commission, and a representative of the Red Fourth Army, and in December of the same year, Zhang Dingcheng participated in the "Gutian Conference" held in Shanghang, Fujian.
At this meeting, we systematically summed up the experience and lessons of our party in carrying out revolutionary struggle since the founding of the army in 1927, thoroughly demarcated the boundaries between the workers' and peasants' Red Army and the old feudal warlords, further established the party's leadership principles, emphasized the importance of propaganda work of political work, strictly enforced party discipline and military discipline, and once again reaffirmed the importance of party branches.
After the Gutian Conference, Zhang Dingcheng led his troops to follow Chairman Mao and General Manager Zhu and successively went to Gannan in Jiangxi and Guangdong and northeastern Guangdong to fight back against the joint suppression launched by the Kuomintang reactionaries against our party and our army.
Beginning in 1930, Zhang Dingcheng was transferred to Fujian for a long time, successively serving as chairman of the Government of the Western Fujian Soviet, member of the executive committee of the government, land commissioner, minister, political commissar of the Red Army School in Fujian, Guangdong, Gansu, and Gansu, and chairman of the Fujian Provincial CPC Committee, and made incomparably significant contributions to the development and construction of our party's development of the people's armed forces and the creation and consolidation of base areas.
During this period, Zhang Dingcheng actively supported Chairman Mao's correct revolutionary ideas and waged a reasoned and resolute struggle against the erroneous ideas and lines of Wang Ming and others. In 1934, the Red Army lost the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression operation and was forced to carry out the 25,000-mile long march.
Zhang Dingcheng also wanted to go north with the army, but Chairman Mao specifically talked to him: Comrade Dingcheng, you still continue to go back to Fujian and western Fujian, where you have done a very good job over the past few years, where you are most familiar with it, and you can completely uphold and develop it.
After the Long March of the main Red Army, Zhang Dingcheng was appointed chairman of the Military and Political Committee of Southwest Fujian, and during those extremely difficult years, he fought a guerrilla war with Comrades Deng Zihui and Tan Zhenlin and the Kuomintang reactionaries for three years.
Under the precarious situation in which the enemy is strong and we are weak, the future is uncertain, and the strength of the enemy and our forces is extremely disparity, Zhang Dingcheng led his troops to smash the nationalist army's conspiracy to suppress and eliminate the kuomintang on many occasions, thus preserving the vitality of our party's revolution.
It also greatly supported the strategic plan of the main Red Army to go north to resist Japan, and single-handedly supported the southern corner of the sky, made outstanding military achievements, and had a very high status and prestige in the army.
Japan was defeated and surrendered, and the War of Liberation broke out
In 1936, after Zhang Xueliang, the young marshal of the Feng clan, and General Yang Hucheng, director of the Shaanxi Appeasement Office, launched the Double Twelve Xi'an Military Advice Incident, Zhang Dingcheng actively implemented Chairman Mao and the party group headquarters organs.
The supreme instructions issued on the establishment of an anti-Japanese national united front have always adhered to the principle of independence and self-determination of our party and our army in negotiations with the western and southern Fujian regions and the kuomintang local governments.
In the end, through unremitting efforts, the establishment and development of the first detachment of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army that obeyed the party's command, had a fine work style, and was able to win battles played a very positive role in promoting and promoting the second in-depth cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communists and the united front to resist Japan.
Chairman Mao, who was far away in Yan'an, northern Shaanxi, received the outstanding achievements made by Zhang Dingcheng in leading the guerrilla struggle in southwest Fujian and southwest Fujian for three years, and gave him a very high evaluation: Comrade Zhang Dingcheng won a very great victory in Fujian.
In 1937, after the Japanese army suddenly launched the "July 7 Incident" at Lugou Bridge and opened a full-scale war of aggression against China, Zhang Dingcheng was transferred to the second detachment of the New Fourth Army in Jiangnan as the commander, and he galloped across the southern part of Jiangsu, dealing a heavy blow to the Japanese invaders, and was the leader of Su Yu's direct superior, and the relationship between the two was very harmonious.
From May 1941 to February 1942, Chairman Mao made a document report entitled "Transforming Our Study," "Rectifying the Party's Work Style," and "Eight Units of the Opposition Party" at a meeting of high-ranking cadres in the Yan'an base area, and personally advocated launching the first large-scale rectification campaign in the history of our Party.
Zhang Dingcheng stepped down from his post as commander of the second detachment of the New Fourth Army and was ordered to return to Yan'an in northern Shaanxi as director of the second department of the Yan'an Party School, faithfully supporting Chairman Mao's ideas and conscientiously carrying out the rectification instructions of the headquarters organs.
Defying the mighty powers, persisting in punishing those who have done wrong, resolutely resisting and resisting the erroneous ideas of the "rescue movement," and making use of the outstanding experience in mass struggle to grasp both "clarifying the mind" and "uniting comrades," chairman Mao and the head of the plausibus department have been highly commended by Chairman Mao and the head of the plaster department.
In 1945, the Japanese Emperor signed the "Treaty of Potsdam" on the throne, announcing Japan's unconditional surrender and complete withdrawal from the Chinese battlefield, and after 14 years, the arduous War of Resistance Against Japan finally ended with the comprehensive victory of our Chinese soldiers and civilians.
From the end of August to the beginning of October, Chairman Mao, accompanied by Premier Zhou, personally flew to Chongqing on a special plane and held 43 days of negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government, and the two sides reached agreement on the concept of armistice and peaceful nation-building, and signed the Chongqing Double Ten Peace Agreement.
For the years of war and turmoil, the Chinese people ushered in the dawn of hope for recuperation, peace and democracy, and unity, but less than a year after the signing of the Chongqing Double Tenth Agreement, Chiang Kai-shek resolutely stood against the people of the whole country, unilaterally tore up the peace agreement in June 1946, openly provoked a civil war, and the 3-year Liberation War broke out.
The Central China Military Region was ordered
In fact, Chairman Mao had long been aware of Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy of "fake peace and real civil war." Therefore, during the Chongqing peace talks, the strategic decision of "developing to the north and defending to the south" was made, and the troops of the New Fourth Army in central China were instructed to begin to cross the river in a planned way and go north, and the sooner the better.
After the Chongqing negotiations ended and Chairman Mao returned to the Yan'an base area, the rumors of Chiang Kai-shek plotting to sabotage peace and provoke a civil war shook every inch of land in our party's liberated areas along with the cold winter current that arrived early this year, and the military and people in central China, under the command and leadership of Su Yu, were also nervously making preparations to oppose Chiang Kai-shek's reactionaries.
On October 25, Chairman Mao, in the name of the headquarters of the Central Military Commission, personally issued an order to the Central China Bureau: The Central China Military Region should be established, with Su Yu as the commander of the military region, and Comrade Zhang Dingcheng immediately went south from Yan'an to serve as deputy commander of the Central China Military Region, and cooperated with Su Yu in overall management of the daily training and combat work of the troops in the Central China Liberated Areas.
However, after Su Yu received the telegram from the Central China Bureau, he was excited and uneasy. What was excited was Chairman Mao's trust in his own ability, and what was disturbing was that he was still young in seniority and could not convince the masses, lest he fail to live up to the expectations of the party.
Moreover, Zhang Dingcheng has always been his direct superior since the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, with profound revolutionary qualifications, and he also participated in leading the creation of the fujian and western Fujian revolutionary base areas, but he could only be his own deputy, so for a while Su Yu felt some sincere trepidation.
Su Yu wrote to the commander of the Central China Military Region four times
Therefore, Su Yu, who had never been greedy for merit and power, and who was humble and low-key in nature, immediately informed the administrative business department that the appointment letter would be temporarily suppressed and not issued to the whole army without his permission. Then, with a sincere attitude, he wrote to the Central China Bureau three times and asked him to resign as the commander of the Central China Military Region.
He said that Comrade Zhang Dingcheng should serve as the commander of the military region, and he could be the deputy commander to cooperate in commanding the daily training tasks of the whole army. However, Huazhong did not agree, and resolutely rejected Su Yu's request.
Su Yu locked himself in his room and thought about it for a night, always feeling that the old leader Zhang Dingcheng was an old party member comrade who was loved by the military and the people and had a deep prestige, whether in the party and government system or in the army system.
Su Yu has always had great respect for him, and if Zhang Dingcheng were to serve as the commander of the Central China Military Region, it would also be of great benefit to the future work, but it was absolutely impossible for him to be his deputy, and it was not appropriate to reason.
Therefore, after repeated deliberations, Su Yu crossed the level and reported it to Chairman Mao directly: After reading the telegram order that the head of the headquarters let me take up the main post and Comrade Zhang Dingcheng take up the deputy post, he was overwhelmed with trepidation.
With my ability, I am afraid that it will be difficult to take on this great task; Comrade Zhang Dingcheng is far superior to me in terms of talent and seniority, and since the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he has always been my elder and the leader of his direct superiors.
Therefore, I have pleaded three times with the Central China Bureau to make Zhang Dingcheng the commander of the military region, and I have served as the deputy commander of the military region to cooperate with the daily work, but I have not been allowed.
First of all, I sincerely request the head and chairman of the headquarters, for the sake of prudence and for the sake of better carrying out the united front work in central China in the future, I hereby send a telegram requesting that Zhang Dingcheng be appointed as the commander of the full post, and I will be the deputy, and I will do my best to assist and assist and complete the glorious tasks entrusted by the General Military Commission of the Party.
After Chairman Mao received the telegram in Yan'an, he was greatly moved in his heart, believing that Su Yu proceeded from the perspective of the party, the army, and the people, recognized Allah and sincere letter to Jean Xian, and asked him to resign as commander, which reflected the lofty ambitions of a proletarian Communist Party member and the selfless and sincere heart of a great duke.
Therefore, on October 29, he personally wrote a telegram and issued the Central China Bureau, signaling them to agree to Su Yu's request, and Zhang Dingcheng was reappointed as the commander of the Central China Military Region. Su Yu served as deputy commander of the military region and informed the whole army.
However, the glorious deeds of Su Yu's four-time letter and courtesy of giving up the post of commander soon spread throughout the Central China Military Region, and the vast number of cadres and masses praised Su Yu's humble behavior of putting the overall situation first, which was spread as a good story in the army. On November 10, 1945, Chairman Mao decided to establish the Central China Field Army under the system of the Central China Military Region, with Su Yu, deputy commander of the Military Region, personally serving as the commander of the field army.