In 1985, Xu Shiyou was diagnosed with liver cancer, but he refused to go to Beijing for treatment and refused to be hospitalized in Nanjing.
At Xu Shiyou's home at No. 8 Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, he did a strange thing: he hung a broom upside down on the wall. The staff around him didn't understand what this meant, and Xu Shiyou told them: "This is a custom in our hometown, hanging the broom upside down on the wall, you can avoid evil spirits, fight ghosts, and bless the master with safety and safety, and no illness......"
Among the party's senior generals, General Xu Shiyou is a very special one, and many of his "characteristics" have made him a legend among the founding generals: he has a Shaolin martial arts, is a member of our army, is a fierce general, has a hot and straightforward temperament, and is addicted to alcohol and moderation.
However, the more we get to the later years, the more we can see the background color of General Xu Shiyou's personality - a simple and sincere peasant mentality.
In 1973, Xu Shiyou was transferred to the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region. After his arrival, the relevant departments in Guangzhou set up a banquet to welcome him, which was set up at the Dongfang Hotel, the most exclusive hotel in Guangzhou at that time. After Xu Shiyou learned about it, he stubbornly refused: "What Oriental Hotel, Western Hotel, are all bourgeois sets, I won't go!" He also told the accompanying staff: "You are not allowed to go, there is a world of flowers, and you have been poisoned and myrrhed!" ”
Xu Shiyou also once warned his children: "Guangzhou is in turmoil, and there are many bourgeois things." You are not allowed to wander around the streets and buy things indiscriminately......"
After commanding the Sino-Vietnamese self-defense counterattack in 1979, Xu Shiyou was transferred to the Standing Committee of the Military Commission. However, at this time, Xu Shiyou had already found that his body could not keep up with the needs of work, so he proposed to the central government that he would not adapt to the humid climate of Guangzhou, nor would he enter Beijing, and wanted to return to Nanjing to recuperate, and he was approved.
Under the arrangement of the Party Central Committee, Xu Shiyou lived in No. 8 Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, which was built by Sun Ke when he was the premier of the Kuomintang, and the main building was a Western-style two-story building. The living room has 100 square meters and semi-circular floor-to-ceiling windows. The yard has lush lawns and lush trees.
But as soon as Xu Shiyou moved in, the small western-style building completely turned into a farm compound. Xu Shiyou had a two-story building built in the northeast corner of the courtyard wall, which was a guard building designed by himself. Although it looks a little strange like a warehouse and a bunker, you can observe all sides of the courtyard from the guard building, and you can overlook all corners of the courtyard without dead ends, and the first floor is used for the guard squad to live.
Xu Shiyou thought that it was a waste to use dozens of acres of land to grow grass, so he shoveled all the lawns and turned them into grain fields and vegetable gardens. A row of hospitalizations was built under the courtyard wall, plus the original three or four acres of ponds, which could feed pigs and raise fish.
Under Xu Shiyou's transformation, the Western-style villa was transformed into a self-sufficient farm compound that was both a soldier and a farmer. Xu Shiyou personally served as the "village chief", leading the secretary, security officer, guard, and administrator to start farm work, and under his leadership, each comrade performed his own duties, planting land, growing vegetables, feeding pigs, and feeding fish, and each comrade had his own exclusive responsibility. Xu Shiyou also arranged farm work for himself, he was responsible for raising more than a dozen rabbits, and also called himself "Commander Rabbit".
Once, when it was raining heavily, he returned home from inspecting work in Wuxi, got out of the car and went straight to the fish pond, and sure enough, he found that the water door outside the fish pond was not opened. Xu Shiyou was so anxious that several guards hurriedly jumped out of the fish pond to open the water door, and Xu Shiyou was relieved.
Afterwards, Xu Shiyou told everyone that the trees in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum were sprayed with pesticides, and he was worried that the rainwater with pesticides would flow into the fish pond and kill the fish.
Every year, after harvesting autumn vegetables, Xu Shiyou personally uses the methods of his hometown to make several large vat pickles, and will give them to friends and troops. Xu Shiyou's eldest son, Xu Guang, has been working in his hometown of Xinxian County, and once he traveled thousands of miles to Nanjing to visit his father. Before leaving, Xu Shiyou stuffed a sack of sweet potatoes in his son's luggage, and said proudly: "This is what I planted, you can take it back and eat it slowly." Xu Guang told his father that there is no shortage of grain in his hometown now, and sweet potatoes are sometimes used to feed pigs. Xu Shiyou thought about it, replaced the sweet potato with pickled vegetables, and emphasized: "I grew it myself, and pickled it myself." ”
In his later years, Xu Shiyou always maintained the living habits of farmers and was based on frugality. He doesn't pay attention to food and clothing, and he eats what the cook does, and he is never picky. All year round, he wore a fat military uniform, and the cuffs of his shirt were worn out, so he cut and wore them again. The only Zhongshan suit was made when he visited Albania in the 60s, and in his later years, Xu Shiyou was fatter and couldn't wear it, but he never bought decent civilian clothes again.
Xu Shiyou also does not wear leather shoes, he is usually used to wrapping his feet with cloth, putting cotton socks on the outside, and wearing cloth shoes and straw sandals all year round, saying that he raises his feet in this way. The cloth shoes worn by Xu Shiyou were made by him according to the method of making shoes from the farmers in his hometown, and the fabrics were all leftovers bought from the factory. Because this kind of cloth shoes was comfortable and affordable, the leaders of Nanjing at that time were very fond of wearing this kind of shoes.
In his later years, Xu Shiyou's life was a little lonely, and because he had emphasized for many years that his children were not allowed to touch his light, he lived alone in the residence arranged for him by the state. The children have their own jobs and families, and it is rare for them to come back to visit him. Every time the children came, he would prepare fried twist flowers for his little granddaughter in advance.
Xu Shiyou loved wine all his life, and his monthly salary was 400 yuan in his later years, most of which was used to buy wine, especially Moutai. Xu Shiyou also pays attention to the distinction between public and private when drinking, because the wine invited to the official banquet is kept by the administrator, and he usually buys the wine he drinks and keeps it by himself. Because of drinking, he has gout, long-term joint pain, and his daily activities can only be walking and riding in the car. Later, he learned from the staff that the country was short of gasoline, so he waived the "bump".
Xu Shiyou is very filial and has a deep nostalgia for his mother, he once sent his eldest son Xu Guang 50 yuan before his death, so that his son could buy a coffin after his death, not cremated, but buried next to his mother's grave.
On October 22, 1985, Xu Shiyou died of illness at the General Hospital of Nanjing Military Region at the age of 80. For the burial he requested, the Party Central Committee issued a special permit, emphasizing that it was "a special case within a special case, and not an example."
Xu Guang added some money on top of the 50 yuan given by his father and bought a few pine pieces to make a coffin. But the pine coffin was not used, and Xu Shiyou was buried with a nanmu coffin carefully selected by the founding major general You Taizhong.
On November 9, 1985, Xu Shiyou was buried in his hometown of Xinxian. The general's tomb is only 30 meters away from his mother's grave, and there is only a granite stone monument. The inscription does not crown the job, does not remember the merits, does not narrate the history, only the seven big characters written by the famous calligrapher and painter Fan Zeng: the tomb of Comrade Xu Shiyou.
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Bibliography:
Party History World Magazine "Chengmagang · China's First General Township"
"Xu Shiyou's Later Years in Nanjing" Author: Li Wenqing
2015-03-25 08:36, source: Phoenix History, staff recalled Xu Shiyou in his later years: Fortunately, he walked ahead of the price of tobacco and alcohol