Xu Haidong (1900.6.7~1070.3.25), a native of Huangpi, Hubei Province. He joined the Communist Party of China in April 1925. In 1926, he participated in the Northern Expedition. After 1927, he was assigned by the party organization to organize armed struggle in the Dabie Mountains of Hubei Province, and served as the leader of the Peasants' Self-Defense Force in Hekou District, and led the team to participate in the jute uprising in November. In the struggle to create the Eyu-Anhui Soviet District, he successively served as the secretary of the CPC District Committee, the commander of the county Red Guards brigade, and the commander, regiment leader, and division commander of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. In the autumn of 1923, after the main force of the Fourth Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army left the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region, together with other leaders remaining in the Soviet Area, under extremely difficult circumstances, successively served as deputy commanders and commanders from the Jianhong 25th Army and the Red 28th Army, and persisted in guerrilla warfare in northeastern Hubei and western Anhui. In November 1934, he was reappointed as the deputy commander of the Red 25th Army, and led the troops to make strategic transfers with the commander Cheng Zihua and the political commissar Wu Huanxian. After arriving in northern Shaanxi in September 1935, the 25th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, together with the 26th and 27th Armies, was organized into the 15th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and served as the commander of the corps.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as the brigade commander of the 334th Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, led his troops to participate in the Battle of Pingxingguan and the anti-"Nine Road Siege" operation in southeastern Jin, and commanded the battles of Machidian and other battles. In September 1939, he went to Central China to serve as the deputy commander of the Jiangbei Headquarters of the New Fourth Army and the commander of the 4th Detachment, leading the unit to carry out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in Central China, further accumulating experience in relying on the masses of the people to uphold and develop guerrilla warfare. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as a member of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission and a member of the National Defense Commission of the Central People's Government. He was awarded the rank of Grand General in 1955.
The main contents of General Xu Haidong's military thinking are:
I. The people's army shall be absolutely subordinate to the party's leadership, and Communists in the army shall not fight for their personal military power.
The people's army under the leadership of the Communist Party is an instrument of revolutionary struggle, and the army with the Communist Party as its backbone should be the iron army that can withstand the double test of defeat and victory. Revolutionary soldiers must always be loyal to the Party, the people and the communist cause. The fundamental reason why the Red Army was able to defeat an enemy stronger than itself was not because of the ability of an individual commander, but because the Red Army was a class-conscious unit led by the Communist Party. It is necessary to continuously strengthen party building in the army and give full play to the role of party branches in fighting and defending strongholds and the vanguard and exemplary role of party members. Communists in the army cannot fight for their personal military power, are not allowed to have "official addictions," and must be able to move up and down. To do the main post, it is necessary to actively work, and when the deputy post is still to march ahead, the combat initiative should propose plans. Commanders of the people's army under the leadership of the party should bear the overall situation in mind in war, and have the courage to sacrifice personal and local interests of their own units for the sake of the overall interests. Taking into account the overall situation is the embodiment of party spirit and class nature, and it is glorious to sacrifice for the overall situation.
Second, practice erratic guerrilla tactics and accumulate small victories into big victories
In order for the weak Red Army to develop and grow, it should avoid the strong enemy in combat and practice guerrilla tactics that are erratic. Fighting a big war greedily, only wanting to attack the city and seize the town, and fighting hard is a military self-destruction. In a situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, guerrilla warfare is a good trick. You can use the tactics of "eagle catching chickens" to attack the west and attack the west, make a surprise attack, quickly transfer after catching it, do not love war, do not covet the results of the battle, and accumulate small victories into big victories. In general, a strong enemy who is besieged by multiple roads should adopt the countermeasure of "first tired and then fighting.", the enemy moves first, and the troops make full preparations; when the enemy approaches two or three roads, make a surprise attack on the enemy's empty place, leave the enemy behind, drag the enemy around in circles, and drag it to a certain extent. For the enemy who is stubbornly scattered, it is generally advisable to take a siege point to provide reinforcements, that is, to first encircle him at one or more points, to lure the enemy reinforcements, to use the favorable terrain to set up an ambush, and to annihilate them.
Third, the people's army is the people's children and soldiers, and it must always love the people and connect with the people at all times
The relationship between the people's army and the masses is the relationship between fish and water, and it is dependent on each other. The army relies on the help of the people everywhere for food, clothing, and lodging; marching and fighting are inseparable from the support of the masses at all times. In order to win the support of the masses of the people, the army must strictly abide by the three major disciplines and the eight points of attention, cherish the interests of the masses everywhere, and not infringe on the masses in the slightest. The commanders and fighters of the army under the leadership of the Communist Party first make themselves people's fighters, and the common people will truly regard the army as the people's army. In the most difficult times, we should pay more attention to the relationship with the masses. The army would rather starve itself than fight the masses for food; the army would rather freeze itself than enter the houses of the people. The troops must constantly carry out the cultivation of "I am the son of the people," so that every commander and fighter deeply knows that no matter where they go and whenever they go, the people's army and the masses of the people are a family that breathes and shares a common destiny. We must wage an unremitting and resolute struggle against acts that violate the discipline of the masses.
Fourth, the people's army should have the spirit of arduous struggle and self-reliance
Only an army that can bear hardships and stand hard work can have combat effectiveness; only an army that can survive in the most arduous and difficult environment can finally defeat the enemy. When the enemy creates a "no-man's land" in a vain attempt to trap and starve the revolutionary armed forces, the troops under the leadership of the Party must carry forward the spirit of "carrying grain bags on their shoulders and sickles on the back of their butts", fill their hunger with wild vegetables, cut their own grass and build huts, and sew their own clothes to protect themselves from the cold. In the case of difficult sources of weapons, equipment, and supplies, we should resolutely implement the principle of self-reliance put forward by Mao Zedong, feed the war with war, and seize the enemy's weapons and materials to supplement ourselves. This spirit of arduous struggle and raising war with war is the embodiment of the essence of the people's army.
General Xu Haidong's military thinking played a certain role in the formation and development of Mao Zedong's military thought, in winning victory in China's revolutionary war, in guiding the people's army and national defense construction, and in guiding the construction and development of the troops mainly under his leadership and in the victory of operations.