In 1958, Commander Su was criticized at an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission. Since General Peng, Nie Shuai, Huang Kecheng, and others who organized the initiation of the meeting were either marshals or generals, few of the generals attending the meeting dared to refute the mainstream views of the meeting and speak out on behalf of Commander Su. Even if someone occasionally spoke for Commander Su, the rank and position were not high. But the way one of them spoke surprised all the people present, and they were interrupted urgently after just two sentences. This general who dared to speak out was Tao Yong, the famous general of the former Mino.
During the Liberation War, Lieutenant General Tao Yong was a direct subordinate of Commander Su, who served as the commander of the Fourth Column of the East China Field Army and the commander of the Sanye 23rd Army, and was the famous Tao in the "Ye Wang Tao" of the Three Wild Tiger Generals. He was also a hot-tempered general, as early as 1949 before the Battle of the River Crossing, he had decisively ordered the shelling of the British warship Purple Quartz in the Yangtze River, this personality commander no matter what the occasion, can adhere to his inner thoughts and judgments, not only decisive, but also talk about human feelings and superior relations. It was difficult for him to frame his old boss, Commander Su. Tao Yong even dared to fight the warships of the world power at that time, Britain, and had not yet received orders from his superiors in advance, and it did not take much courage for such a tough general to speak a few words of truth at the congress.
Because Commander Su's military achievements were too high, especially during the Liberation War, he commanded the Third Field Army to annihilate a large number of elite nationalist troops, and was recognized internally as a senior commander who could be comparable to the four wild forests. Therefore, it is actually somewhat difficult to put the hat of individualism on the head of Commander Su at the enlarged meeting of '58. In particular, the generals within Sanye were born and died with Commander Su for many years, and it was generally recognized that the military command ability and character of the chief were widely recognized, and few people were willing to make up nonsense to attack him.
In this way, if you want to approve commander Su, you must do meticulous work in advance, so that Commander Su's old subordinates will collectively defect at the meeting and actively criticize him. The relevant personnel had private communication with the generals of the Three Wilds in advance, including Tao Yong. Tao Yong was one of Commander Su's most important generals, and almost half of Sanye's battle exploits were closely related to Tao Yong. Therefore, to criticize Commander Su, it is obviously inappropriate for Tao Yong not to open his mouth, and the organizers have focused on Tao Yong's work, hoping that he will "clarify his position and situation."
From this moment on, Tao Yong thought about how to defend his old boss at the meeting. He first pretended to cooperate, and asked the leader who persuaded him to speak at the meeting to arrange for the secretary to prepare a speech, on the grounds that his level of education was too low to say that he could not climb the elegant hall, so he must organize the language in advance, and it was best to find a ready-made manuscript to read. The leader readily agreed, and indeed arranged for the secretary to prepare a long speech for Tao Yong, so that he could read it directly at the meeting. This is precisely Tao Yong's "plan".
When it was The turn of Lieutenant General Tao Yong to speak at the meeting, everyone saw that he had taken out the text of his speech, and at first they mistakenly thought that he really wanted to protect himself and clear his relations with Commander Su. In fact, this is not the case, the next scene is stunned, Tao Yong held the manuscript, actually opened his mouth and said: Because my education level is too poor, I did not recognize a few words since I was a child, so this manuscript was written by the secretary of the leader of so-and-so to help me, if there is something wrong with the reading, please correct it. It is said that Tao Yong is a tough general, in fact, his brain turns very fast, his expression is naturally to defend Commander Su, but also to explain his position, more importantly, insinuately satirize the initiator of the meeting, which can be described as killing three eagles with one stone.
In this way, where else would anyone dare to let Tao Yong do what to report? The organizers quickly interrupted him and made him sit down, and most of the people in the scene laughed. This was a very rare scene in the serious criticism meeting of that year, and although few of the cadres present dared to speak out to defend Commander Su, most of them praised Tao Yong's character in their hearts. Lieutenant General Tao Yong not only refused to fall into the well when the leadership was in danger, but also made a strong rebuttal in a unique way, which is indeed impressive.
Although Tao Yong's rank was only lieutenant general, he was inconspicuous among the many generals attending the meeting. However, at the critical moment, he was able to distinguish between right and wrong, and would not say something against his heart for his own future and situation, and slander his old chief, which made Commander Su in distress very moved. The only regret is that Tao Yong, an upright and brave general, unfortunately died in Shanghai in 1967 and failed to achieve greater development. Fortunately, Commander Su, whom he had actively defended, finally won the rehabilitation of the central authorities in the 1990s, completely restored his former reputation, and did not waste the efforts of General Tao Yong.
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