On September 27, 1955, the Chinese People's Liberation Army awarded the title for the first time, and selected ten marshals such as Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and ten major generals such as Su Yu and Xu Haidong.
Figure | Su Yu
In the ranking of generals, although Su Yu ranked first among the ten major generals, whether this matter was placed at that time or now, many people thought that Su Yu was awarded the rank of great general a bit "stubborn", they believed that Su Yu's combat ability was good, his battle record was outstanding, and he should at least be evaluated as a marshal.
Even Chairman Mao's appraisal of him was that "on merit, on talent, on history, Su Yu can be awarded the rank of marshal!" During the Liberation War, who did not know about Su Yu in the East China Battlefield? ”
So, what is the record of such a "god immortal" General Su Yu, who has made Chairman Mao so praised? Why did Su Yu "rub shoulders" with the rank of marshal?
In 1907, Su Yu was born in a small village in Huitong County, Xiangxi, Hunan, his family is also one of the largest households in the local area, the family has a hundred acres of good land, but also do some timber business, excellent family conditions let him eat and wear from childhood, he has loved to use his brain to think about problems since he was a child, and he can always win when playing games with his friends.
For example, he and his friends are playing hide-and-seek, he will judge the location of others according to the footsteps of others and the direction of hiding, if this trick does not work, he will unexpectedly ask the friends: "Are you hiding well?" ”
Without thinking, a group of people replied, "Hide it!" ”
The ending naturally developed as he expected, he effortlessly arrested a group of people, the little friends felt that this was a good way, but also wanted to learn to use, but the little tricks he used, other small partners to use it again is completely ineffective!
Su Yu's father was a xiucai who fell into the old society, and attached great importance to Su Yu's education, when Su Yu just turned 6 years old, his family sent him to a private school to study, and in a few years, he studied classical books such as "The Book of Poetry", "Zhongyong", and "Three Character Classic".
When he was learning about old knowledge and old culture, Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University, had begun to promote a new educational model to the whole society, and for a time, various new-style schools were opened all over the country, and Chen Duxiu launched a new cultural movement to widely publicize new culture, new ideas, and new knowledge.
Not far from Su Yu's house, a new style of school was opened, which did not teach students the classical books of China, but opened a trendy course in arithmetic, gymnastics, geography, Chinese language, etc. Su Yu wanted to go there to learn new knowledge, but his father insisted on disagreeing, thinking that he should read traditional literature such as the Four Books and Five Classics.
So Su Yu could only go to the New Style Academy (The Eighth National School) to observe their classes in his spare time, and watched his friends there play games, which made him very envious.
Figure | Republic of China Academy
Once, he was in a class in a private school, Mr. In class selflessly singing books, Su Yu and the friends next to him exchanged glances, one by one sneaked out, they ran to the new school next door to watch them do gymnastics, and when Mr. Private School was tired of singing, he looked back and saw that a student in the class was gone, and he was so angry that he smashed the books on the table.
When Su Yu and the others came back after reading it, they saw mr. Waiting for them at the door of the classroom with a ruler, and everyone was hairy in their hearts, not knowing how to face this storm. Only Su Yu walked up to mr. Su Yu with a relaxed look and said, "Sir, I took them to the new-style academy, we didn't do anything bad, you just beat me up, this matter has nothing to do with them!" ”
Seeing that he was so brave and responsible, and that he would be able to show his ambitions in the future, he let them go, shook his head, and said, "Whatever, whatever!" ”
Su Yu's father was not satisfied with Su Yu's doing this, but he also knew that Su Yu had been very stubborn since he was a child, and what he wanted would definitely be obtained, and he would not give up halfway, and since he was fascinated by the new teaching method this time, he would definitely fight endlessly, and he would agree to let him go to the new style school.
When he arrived at the New Style Academy, Su Yu began a real enlightenment education, and he learned about the field he had never set foot in before. At the age of 11, he entered the Huitong Prefectural No. 1 Higher Primary School and studied arithmetic, geography, history, current affairs, astronomy and other courses.
More importantly, the propaganda of revolutionary ideas here is to eradicate the backward and decadent feudal forces, to gather the strength of the people to overthrow the old warlords, and to drive out the imperialist forces, which made Su Yu refreshed his eyes, let him germinate revolutionary ideas from here, and save thousands of dawns in the water and fire.
In the spring of 1925, he officially entered the Second Normal School of Hunan, where he came into contact with Marxism and participated in the progressive student movement with a group of intellectuals, opening the way for him to save the country and the people. Two years later, he abandoned his pen and congrong, and under the arrangement of the party organization, he and a group of progressive young people moved to Wuchang to join the Ye Ting 24th Division Teaching Brigade, Ye Ting felt that this young man was full of vitality and was full of culture and martial arts, so he made him a squad leader, and thus Su Yu began his military career.
Figure | Members
In November 1926, he joined the Communist Youth League, and under the leadership of the party organization, he organized the student movement several times and prepared for the arrival of the Northern Expeditionary Army.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek brazenly launched the "April 12 Coup", countless Communists were arrested and killed, and our Party prepared an armed uprising in the face of desperation.
On July 27, Zhou Enlai infiltrated Nanchang in disguise and served as the secretary of the Former Enemy Committee, on this trip he was responsible for planning the nanchang armed uprising, and Su Yu served as the head of the guard squad of the General Headquarters and was responsible for the defense of the Former Enemy Committee.
Once Su Yu was patrolling the door of the Jiangxi Grand Hostel (Nanchang Uprising General Headquarters) and saw a door open, and the person who appeared at the door was recognized by Su Yu at a glance, after all, he always remembered Zhou Enlai, who had come to his teaching brigade to give a report, and he still remembered the pair of glowing eyes under Zhou Enlai's thick eyebrows.
He hurried forward to give Zhou Enlai a military salute and asked, "Secretary Zhou, do you have anything you need me to do?" ”
Zhou Enlai saw that the young man in front of him was in his early 20s, looked very prosperous, smiled and talked to him, asked Su Yu about his past experience, his views on the current situation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and what kind of action the troops would take after they came to Nanchang.
In the process of talking with Zhou Enlai, Su Yu found that as a senior cadre of the Party Central Committee, Zhou Enlai could patiently listen to the speech of a grass-roots soldier and fully consider his suggestions, which was really rare, and he admired Zhou Enlai's frankness and open-mindedness.
Su Yu then asked Zhou Enlai: "May I ask Secretary Zhou, are we going to start acting again in the next few days, and this time are others beating us?" ”
Zhou Enlai shook his head, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Don't worry, wait for instructions from your superiors!" ”
Figure | Zhou Enlai
Although he did not receive a positive answer, Su Yu could hear from Zhou Enlai's words that he had firm confidence in victory. For several days, he waited anxiously for instructions from his superiors to wipe off his weapons and ammunition, until the afternoon of July 31, when his guard received "Wipe the guns, prepare enough ammunition, pack your backpacks, and go at any time!" " command.
At 10 o'clock in the evening, the news of the uprising was leaked by the traitors, and Zhou Enlai decisively decided to advance the uprising by two hours. At midnight on August 1, the battle officially began, Su Yu knew that "soldiers who do not want to be generals are not good soldiers", dared to be the first in the battle, followed the whole army of 20,000 horses to launch an attack on many enemy troops in Nanchang City, the battle continued until dawn, annihilating more than 3,000 enemy troops and capturing more than 5,000 guns.
When the sound of artillery fire completely disappeared, Su Yu and the others rushed back to the Jiangxi Grand Hotel, the guards shouted at them: "Password? ”
Su Yu shouted excitedly, "Return me Heshan!" ”
This inspiring slogan immediately resounded throughout Nanchang, marking the official beginning of the armed struggle under the independent leadership of the Communist Party of China.
After the Nanchang Uprising, the troops were divided into troops and went south many times, and were scattered by the Kuomintang troops, but Su Yu did not give up his ideals in life and came to the Jinggangshan revolutionary base area, and soon After, Su Yu grew up rapidly, and he later recalled this unforgettable period, saying:
"I followed Comrades Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi, Peng Dehuai, and other comrades to learn a lot of new knowledge, that is, war has its deep-seated laws, and if you want to win, you must know yourself and know each other, and find the laws and methods for winning according to the actual conditions of both sides.
In 1929, he followed Mao Zedong and others to the junction of Jiangxi and Fujian to create the Central Soviet Region, and participated in five anti-"encirclement and suppression" battles, and because of his repeated military achievements, he was successively promoted to the chief of staff of the Red Fourth Army and the director of the political department of the Red First Army. Su Yu, on the other hand, accumulated an extremely keen sense of combat situation in one battle after another, and also formed a unique command style.
In 1934, in order to ensure that the Central Red Army was freed from the encirclement and blockade of the Kuomintang army and was able to strategically transfer, Su Yu served as the chief of staff of the Red Tenth Army and Comrade Fang Zhimin rushed to the outer line to fight, and in February of the following year, he lost the battle in the Tanjiaqiao area, and when he withdrew to Huaiyushan, he was surrounded and annihilated by the enemy.
Subsequently, Su Yu continued to maneuver with the enemy army, dragging down tens of thousands of regular Kuomintang troops, providing valuable time for the strategic transfer of the main force of the Red Army. However, he led his subordinates to fight guerrilla warfare in the southern Zhejiang region for 3 years, never returned to the large troops of the Central Red Army, and had no support, and insisted bitterly under the situation that the enemy was strong and we were weak, and persisted until the two parties negotiated and reached an agreement to "stop the civil war and coordinate with the anti-Japanese resistance" before he rushed to the anti-Japanese front.
Figure | Group photo of guerrilla members in southern Zhejiang
At that time, when his troops were surrounded and annihilated by the Kuomintang troops, the top level of the Party Central Committee thought that he had made a glorious sacrifice and was very sad, but when he learned that Su Yu had been fighting guerrilla warfare in southern Zhejiang, Chairman Mao clapped his hands and said quickly: "This Su Yu is still alive, which is really good news for our party!" ”
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Central Committee decided to send a group of New Fourth Army troops to the Jiangnan area to first investigate the situation of the Japanese army and create an anti-Japanese base area in southern Jiangsu. Chairman Mao sent a telegram to Xiang Ying, deputy commander of the New Fourth Army, asking him to pick out a suitable candidate.
On April 24, 1938, Su Yu led the detachment to the Li (lì) water area for an early reconnaissance, he found that the people here were numb because the previous Nationalist army was beaten by the Japanese army and did not have the strength to fight back, there was no confidence in the war of resistance in this area, the will was very depressed, he felt a heavy responsibility, he must fight a victory as soon as possible to stimulate the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the common people, by the way, break the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army, and pour out their arrogance.
In the early summer of 1938, Su Yu launched the Weigang Ambush Battle after many reconnaissance preparations, because this battle suddenly broke out, the Japanese army did not expect that the Chinese side still had the courage to attack them, so we achieved a stage victory, killing more than 10 Japanese officers, wounding several soldiers, and capturing a lot of booty.
Although the scale of this ambush battle is not large, it has extraordinary significance, which not only made the Japanese army's operations in the Lishui area somewhat restrained, but also greatly encouraged the people's hearts and the hearts of the army, so that the people in the Jiangnan area had a new understanding of the image of the New Fourth Army, and this battle also had a great impact on the kuomintang top level.
Chiang Kai-shek's government specially sent a telegram to the New Fourth Army to praise Su Yu: "Su Yu's surprise attack on Weigang in this battle has achieved good results and is particularly commendable!" ”
Figure | Chiang Kai-shek
In 1944, Su Yu created two records in the anti-Japanese battlefield for capturing the most Japanese troops and capturing the highest number of Japanese officers, which is the famous "Battle of Cheqiao".
At that time, in view of the anti-Japanese situation in the late stage of strategic stalemate, Su Yu decided that the entire army should shift from adhering to the main task and focusing on development, and it was time to launch a major campaign against the enemy army, so at the meeting of the party committee of the central Soviet Region held in February, the party committee decided to launch the Cheqiao Campaign, and Su Yu was responsible for serving as the commander-in-chief.
On March 5, the battle officially began, Su Yu ordered several regiments of troops to carry out a long-distance attack on the enemy, avoiding the outlying strongholds of the Japanese army, storming the bridge, and with the cooperation of the artillery, several combat groups as units to carry out surprise attacks, gradually eliminating multiple fire points of the Japanese army.
Su Yu led a group of men and horses to preset a minefield near Lujiatan to intercept the Japanese reinforcements, and after a bloody battle, most of the main forces of the Japanese reinforcements were annihilated.
Figure | Battle of the Bridge
In this campaign, the New Fourth Army not only recaptured the town of Cheqiao, but also annihilated more than 400 people below the post of The Japanese Army, captured 24 Japanese troops, annihilated nearly 500 puppet troops, and captured more than 100 people.
After this battle, Su Yu began the process of strategic counteroffensive against the Japanese army, and this fierce general who had been baptized by guns and bullets on the battlefield heroically led the officers and men of the New Fourth Army to make greater contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Almost all of the battles that really made Su Yu "canonize the gods" took place during the Liberation War.
After all, Su Yu was younger among the many senior generals of our army, whether it was during the agrarian revolution or the war of resistance against Japan, he was accumulating combat experience, just to perfectly display his military ability during the liberation war.
General Liu Huaqing later recalled: "During the Liberation War, Comrade Su Yu brought his military talents to the extreme, and it was also the most brilliant moment of his life, and he fought one breathtaking battle after another in the past few years! ”
In 1946, Chiang Kai-shek openly tore up the "Double Tenth Agreement" and launched an offensive against china's major liberated areas, and the Party Central Committee adopted Su Yu's suggestion of "concentrating the largest troops in the main direction" and transferred the field army in central China to fight in the inner line of central Jiangsu.
The enemy general in this battle was Li Mo'an, who was a cadet of the first term of the Whampoa Military Academy and also a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek; as early as the time of the Whampoa Military Academy, there was a saying in the school that "there was Hu Zongnan in wu, He Zhenghan in Wen, and Li Mo'an in Wen Neng," which showed that this person's reputation in the Nationalist army was extremely high, while Su Yu only fought several small-scale battles during the War of Resistance Against Japan, so he was not very famous in the eyes of the Nationalist army at that time.
And Su Yu did not go to military school, but only from a grassroots squad leader, slowly grew into a general, which made Li Mo'an, who was a high-achieving student in Huangpu, not pay attention to him, but in the Suzhong Campaign, Su Yu used 20,000 horses to fight against Li Mo'an's 120,000 troops, but he was not afraid at all.
Su Yu used flexible guerrilla warfare to win a surprising victory and surrounded and annihilated Li Mo'an's subordinates, and Li Mo'an thought that he knew very well that the PLA liked the tactics of "attacking the west with sound from the east, concentrating the main forces, and annihilating the enemy troops", but he did not know that Su Yu not only had outstanding combat ability, but also could see through the minds of others, and he could accurately judge the enemy's next tactics, so Su Yu used his ever-changing guerrilla tactics to make Li Mo'an dizzy, and our army took full advantage, won seven battles and seven victories, annihilated more than 50,000 enemy troops, and created a miracle in the history of world wars. Thus the gods were enshrined in the first battle.
Figure | The one who took the combat paper was Su Yu
The victory in the Soviet-Chinese Campaign played an overall role in the strategic principle of fighting in the early stage of the War of Liberation, and Chairman Mao even sent a telegram to the major PLA to this end: Comprehensively study the valuable experience of Su Yu and the Central China Field Army!
The Battle of Menglianggu (gù) that comes next is probably known to everyone, and Chairman Mao once said to Su Yu: "You can destroy the 74th Division of the Nationalist Army in such a short period of time, and on the whole country, I am afraid that only I and Chiang Kai-shek did not expect it!" ”
Beginning in March 1947, Chiang Kai-shek abandoned his previous plan to launch an all-out attack on China's major liberated areas and prepared to concentrate superior forces to focus on attacking northern Shaanxi and Shandong, where our army was strongest.
In May 1947, the troops of the East China Field Army received instructions from Chairman Mao, commanded by Chen Yi and Su Yu, to fight a decisive battle with the reorganized 74th Division of the Nationalist Army in the Menglianggu area of Shandong Province.
Figure | Zhang Lingfu
Su Yu believed that the Nationalist army adopted the method of making a breakthrough in the middle and directly attacked the headquarters of our East China Field Army, and the situation was not optimistic; our army was ready to encircle the enemy's 74th Division with five times the enemy's strength and use the method of intermediate breakthrough to destroy it, but Zhang Lingfu not only did not retreat, but instead ordered the troops to put all their heavy weapons and equipment in the town of Duozhuang, and the rest of the troops all went to Menglianggu, and after many rounds of attacks, our army finally occupied Duozhuang and cut off the retreat route of the 74th Division.
Subsequently, the East China Field Army surrounded the 74th Division with 5 columns of troops, while the Nationalist Army used 10 integrated divisions to rush to the aid of the 74th Division, and even several divisions of men and horses were only 1 day away from the besieged place, so our army was in danger at all times.
Figure | Where Zhang Lingfu was killed
Our army must race against time and immediately launch a general offensive against Meng Lianggu, multi-line columns poured into the 74th Division from many places like a tide, launched a surprise attack, the 74th Division resisted, the two sides repeatedly competed for every position, changed hands several times, and after a day and a night of fierce fighting, the East China Field Army finally occupied the hills of Menglianggu, completely annihilated the reorganized 74th Division, Zhang Lingfu was killed on the spot, and our army respected him as an anti-Japanese patriotic general, so it bought a coffin and buried him.
In this campaign, Hua Ye completely annihilated all the troops of the reorganized 74th Division and a regiment of the 83rd Division, totaling more than 30,000 people.
The victory in the Battle of Meng Lianggu instantly reversed the entire situation in East China and defeated Chiang Kai-shek's most elite troops, just like abolishing Chiang Kai-shek's "one arm." Afterwards, the Kuomintang government was extremely shocked, and did not expect that the 74th Division, which had extremely strong combat effectiveness, was completely annihilated. ”
And Lin Biao in our army also sighed at this battle: "Comrade Su Yu really can fight any hard battle!" ”
Chen Yi said: "Comrade Su Yu's battlefield command ability has always maintained a record of constant victory, and it is really a sword that takes a side, and the more he fights, the more he fights, the more god he is!" ”
Su Yu's pinnacle is also the Battle of Huaihai (the largest of the three major battles), in which the nationalist army invested more than 800,000 troops, our army had 600,000 horses and horses to participate in the battle, in the case of no superiority, our army annihilated more than 170,000 enemy troops, captured more than 300,000 prisoners, and accepted surrender and reorganization of more than 60,000 people.
Figure | Su Yu (oil painting)
Su Yu, as the first person to propose the launch of the Huaihai Campaign, led by the East China Field Army destroyed more than 400,000 enemy troops (including killing, capturing, and reorganizing), playing a very crucial role in the entire war situation. ”
Su Yu made great contributions in the Battle of Eastern Henan, the Battle of Jinan, the Battle of Lunan, the Battle of Crossing the River, and the Battle of Shanghai. However, even though he had such great achievements and contributions, he never arrogantly and arrogantly, but maintained a modest and cautious, bright and honest, hard and simple attitude.
Before the first ceremony of awarding titles in New China in 1955, there was a procedure for evaluating the list of marshals, and when Su Yu learned in advance that he was in the ranks of the list of marshals, he told the party Central Committee and the top level of the Central Military Commission that he could not be this marshal; after all, the existing rank of grand general was already high enough, but Chairman Mao said: "Comrade Su Yu, sometimes you should not be too modest, no matter from any point of view, you are in line with the conditions for being awarded the rank of marshal!" ”
Figure | Chairman Mao
When Su Yu repeatedly refused the kindness of Chairman Mao and the comrades of the Central Military Commission, Chairman Mao said: "Su Yu is really rare, and it is a great blessing for our army to take the initiative to resign three times!" But to make him a general, and it must be the first of the ten great generals! ”
It can be seen from this that it is not that Su Yu's record is not prominent enough, but that Su Yu's own work style is excellent, he regards fame and fortune as a floating cloud, he knows that his own qualifications cannot satisfy everyone, and he wants to let people with more seniority and prestige in the army hold high positions, so that all the work of the troops can be better carried out.
Although he is not a marshal, it does not affect the praise of the world for him, he is the real "god of war" of our army, and our party is fortunate to have him!