Author: Little Orange
Xu Xiangqian was the only marshal from the north among the ten marshals of the Republic, born in 1901 in Wutai County, Shanxi Province, to a Xiucai family, and his great-grandfather was Xu Jiyi, a famous late Qing Dynasty minister named Galileo in the East by the New York Times, who served as the governor of Liangguang, and wei Yuan's "Haiguo Tuzhizhi" was the same as the famous ideological enlightenment masterpiece "Yinghuan Zhiluo". Later, the Xu family declined, and his father Xu Maozhun only won xiucai, did not become an official, and the family became poor.
The young Xu Xiangqian set up the ambition of saving the country and the people, went south to Guangzhou to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy, and changed his name to the three characters of "Xu Xiangqian", which is full of enterprising spirit.
Xu Qianqian of the Huangpu Phase I was excellent in his studies, but he was always humble and low-key, and he would not meet the knots, and Jiang, as the principal of Huangpu, had secretly sought out and cultivated his own confidants among the students early on, so he would often privately call students to the office to chat to observe who was more loyal to him.
However, every time Xu Xiangqian saw Jiang Shi, he was not humble and profane, and he had a question and answer, which made Jiang Shi, who was accustomed to judging people by appearance and loving to listen to flattering words, evaluate him as a student who "will not come out".
But where did he know that it was this Xu Who became one of the biggest students of the Whampoa Military Academy in the future, the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, who commanded the Red Army with the strongest strength, and whose command ability far exceeded that of other "protégés" whom Chiang Kai-shek was heavily weighted, and even the chairman once said, "One Xu Qianqian is on top of three Lin Zong."
Although Xu Xiangqian served as the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front army at a young age, his modest and cautious, low-key and calm personality still did not change, there was no official shelf at all, a pot for eating with the soldiers, a compound for accommodation and soldiers, and a piece of cloth cut with the soldiers. Today, we often see the image of the Red Army wearing an octagonal hat and wearing two red collar badges and blue military uniforms, which is actually different from real history.
At that time, there were several Red Soviet areas in China, and the Red Army in different places did not have a unified uniform. Due to the poor conditions, the officers and men of the Red Army in many places did not have standard uniforms, and even many of them only wore the clothes of ordinary people, but wore red streamers around their necks or red armbands on their arms.
However, at that time, the Red Fourth Front was strong and was able to uniformly produce military uniforms. What many people don't know is that Xu Xiangqian not only has superb military command ability, but also has a skillful mind, and can also cut and sew with his hands, and even use two crochet needles to beat the woolen sweater, which is really "martial can command a thousand troops, and Wen can wear needles and lead.". A sweater he knitted, which he wore for more than thirty years, was regarded as an "heirloom" by his children and later donated to the Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution.
It is precisely because of this talent that the design of military uniforms for the front army also fell to Xu Xiangqian's body. As we all know, the officers and men of the Red Army are consistent and have not engaged in the rank system, but abolishing the rank does not mean that there is no need to show the difference in positions, otherwise it is not conducive to command, so a principle of military uniform design is to reflect some job level information.
Xu Xiangqian designed a military uniform that can be seen at a glance whether it is a soldier or a cadre, the uniforms of the officers and men of the Red Army are all made of the same fabric, the only difference is that the soldiers only have jacket pockets, not the bottom two pockets, and the "cadre uniform" also has two large and square pockets below. There was no difference except for this small gap, it was a red five-star hat badge and two red collar badges.
Xu Xiangqian later explained that the reason why cadres have four pockets is also a practical need, because cadres always need to deal with various documents and telegrams, and have more pockets on their bodies, which is convenient for carrying and shelving some commonly used items.
Xu Xiangqian often wears his own tailored military uniform, although the fabric is rough and the tailoring is not very fit, but he always takes care of Li Lisosuo, always revealing the high-spirited and upright temperament of the soldiers.
However, since the Red Army was forced to march, especially after the defeat of the tragic and tragic Western Expedition, Xu Xiangqian relied on begging all the way to avoid the search and suppression of the murderous Ma family army, and came to Yan'an after many hardships, which made him not in a very good state of health, was seriously damaged, and then often fell ill, and Xu Xiangqian's military command was severely restricted, so that the commander-in-chief of the mighty eight sides during the Red Army period did not obtain greater battle achievements, leaving great regrets. To this end, Xu Xiangqian was more modest and low-key, and repeatedly wrote to the organization in 1955 to humble the rank of marshal. However, Xu Xiangqian's contribution to the revolution was obvious to all, and he eventually deservedly became one of the ten marshals.
However, Xu Xiangqian rarely wears a marshal uniform on weekdays, so that his wife Huang Jie has a birthday, Xu Xiangqian asked his wife what her wishes were, and a "non-point request" put forward by his wife was actually to ask Xu Xiangqian to wear a marshal uniform in front of him.
So why doesn't Xu Xiangqian like to wear the marshal's uniform?
It turned out that Xu Xiangqian had been deeply remembering countless sacrificed comrades-in-arms in his heart, and he felt that these sacrificial comrades were the real heroes, and he put on the glorious marshal's uniform, feeling ashamed of his comrades-in-arms and uneasy in his heart.
In addition, there is another reason, that is, Xu Xiangqian, who has always been accustomed to hardship and simplicity, is not very adapted to this system of imitating the Soviet Union. At that time, in order to learn from the Soviet army, our army introduced a series of military etiquette and regulations of the Soviet army almost completely, and although it made great strides in military regularization, many excellent work styles in the revolutionary period were also affected. The officers were dressed in beautiful and straight uniforms, and in order to maintain the military appearance required by the Soviets, they had to take care of their polished leather shoes several times a day. In order to imitate the etiquette of the Soviet Army, the gap between officers and soldiers has further increased, and officers must eat in officers' canteens, which violates the fine traditions of our army.
Marshal He Long was very resistant to this, and on many occasions, despite the persuasion of Soviet advisers, when he left the army, he squatted down with his rice bowl and soldiers to eat, reliving the deep friendship between officers and men during the Red Army period who were blessed and shared bitter burdens. Xu Xiangqian is the same, so he does not like to wear this kind of flamboyant military uniform.
Later, after more objections, the organization also realized this, once abolished the military rank system, and re-adopted the arduous and simple style of the revolutionary war period, which gave birth to the Type 65 military uniform, which was very close to the red army uniform, that is, the red star (hat emblem) and the two red flags (collar badge) that the Chinese people are most familiar with. The difference between cadres and soldiers in this set of military uniforms is exactly the concept designed by Xu Xiangqian: two pockets for soldiers and four pockets for cadres.