Chapter 16 General Su Yu

I have long wanted to write an article mourning Comrade Su Yu.This is not only because he was the first general among the generals awarded in 1955. He had a legendary life. He was a victorious general in the Chinese Revolutionary War. We watched dramas together... In short, I have a deep respect for him in my heart. Before joining the army, I kept seeing Comrade Su Yu's military life from the history books about China's revolutionary war; The admiration and legend of some miraculous stories make him more familiar with the brilliant and magnificent war masterpieces he planned and directed during the Chinese Revolutionary War.He joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 20 and participated in the Nanchang Uprising. During the revolutionary struggle in Jinggangshan and the Central Soviet Area led by Mao Zedong, he successively served as company commander, battalion commander, regimental commander, division commander, and chief of staff of the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army. Against "encirclement and suppression".He persisted in guerrilla warfare for three years when he served as the chief of staff of the Red Army's northward anti-Japanese advance team, the commander of the advancing division, and the commander of the Fujian and Zhejiang military regions.During the Anti-Japanese War, Su Yu, who was only 30 years old, developed the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Anti-Japanese Base Area when he held an important position in the New Fourth Army and the commander of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region. Su Yu, who was only 30 years old, commanded the Battle of Huangqiao, which almost wiped out Han Deqin's elite troops, and wiped out the Japanese army. The Cheqiao battle with more than 460 people below, and the Tianmu Mountain battle to wipe out the enemy's 25th Division, which was responsible for the blood debt of the "Southern Anhui Incident", made the Japanese invaders and the KMT stubborn and hypocritical.During the War of Liberation, during his tenure as commander of the Central China Field Army, deputy commander, acting commander of the East China Field Army, and deputy commander of the Third Field Army, he commanded countless major battles that shocked China and the world either alone or with comrades such as Chen Yi: The Battle of Central Jiangsu, where more than 53,000 enemies were wiped out in seven victories; the Battle of Subei, where more than 20,000 enemies were wiped out; the Battle of South Shandong, where two enemy divisions and a fast column were wiped out; the Battle of Laiwu, where Li Xianzhou was completely wiped out in 6 hours of fierce fighting; The bloody battle of Menglianggu, which wiped out the 74th division of the ace army with the decision of "tiger digging out its heart"; the battle of eastern Henan, where more than 30,000 enemies were wiped out with the ancient capital Kaifeng as the main battlefield; And named the Battle of Huaihai, which wiped out more than 550,000 enemies; the Battle of Crossing the River, which occupied Chiang Kai-shek's presidential palace; and the Battle of Songhu, which is famous for the movie "Battle in Shanghai".

Among the more than a thousand generals of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Su Yu ranks first, and he can be called the number one general of the People's Army.During the 22-year war of the Chinese revolution, Mao Zedong's military thought nurtured him, and the practice of the Chinese revolutionary war forged his military command ability.He gave full play to Mao Zedong's military thinking in battles and campaigns.Comrade Zhu De once said: "Comrade Su Yu is a model for learning Mao Zedong's military thought. In the Battle of Central Soviet Union, more enemies were eliminated than his troops." The Jinggangshan period was an important stage for him to learn war command when he was a grassroots cadre.Mao Zedong's military strategic thought of establishing rural base areas had a profound influence on him. Mao Zedong was the enlightenment teacher of military command he admired.Later, Su Yu established the Southwestern Zhejiang Base, Northern Jiangsu Base, and Tianmu Mountain Base, all of which were the crystallization of his study and development of Mao Zedong's thoughts on the base.In the first three anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaigns in the Central Soviet Area, Su Yu, who had served as a division commander and was well-known in the Red Army, correctly implemented Mao Zedong's guerrilla tactics of "luting the enemy to go deep and being flexible and maneuverable", making his command skills more and more proficient.During the three years of guerrilla warfare in the mountains of southwestern Zhejiang, Mao Zedong's theory of the sixteen-character tactics of guerrilla warfare was creatively developed in the hands of Su Yu.The enemy built a blockade line under the mountain that was stronger than the Jinggangshan bunker, in an attempt to wipe out the guerrillas in the base area.Su Yu led the main force to quickly jump out of the enemy's encirclement and rush towards the Zhejiang-Fujian border.When the troops were at the right time, they specially exploited the enemy's weak links to find opportunities to attack the weaker enemy first, so that the guerrillas could almost fight on their own, and shattered the enemy's delusion to destroy the Red Army.Although the tactics of the seven battles of the Soviet Central Campaign were different, their basic strategies all used Mao Zedong's military thought of "concentrating superior forces to annihilate the enemy one by one".Mao Zedong once said emotionally to Su Yu: "You fight one battle better than the other." During the Liberation War, Su Yu commanded many battles that made immortal contributions to the birth of New China.For example, the Battle of Menglianggu, where Zhang Lingfu, commander of the 74th Division of the enemy, was killed, and the Battle of Huaihai, where Du Yuming's escape direction was accurately predicted.Some people say that on the map of General Su Yu's front line in Huaihai, whichever part of the Kuomintang army he encloses will be doomed;As Chen Yi once commented: "General Su Yu's campaign command has always maintained its record of constant victories.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Comrade Su Yu served successively as Deputy Chief of General Staff, Chief of General Staff, Deputy Minister of National Defense, and member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission of the People's Liberation Army, making great contributions to the modernization of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. At the enlarged meeting of the Military Commission in 1958, the outstanding general Su Yu was wrongly criticized for nearly two months as a military dogmatist and was treated unfairly for a long time.Later, under the attention of Chairman Mao, he was transferred to the vice president of the Academy of Military Sciences and the first political commissar.

During his tenure in the Academy of Military Sciences, General Su Yu had an excellent environment to study future warfare.This research work has been with the general for the rest of his life without interruption.Especially in the 1970s, I heard from my comrades-in-arms that in order to do a good job of research, Comrade Su Yu often went to the icy and snowy northern borders in a jeep, trekking in the north and south of the river and island fishing villages where he had fought... across the north and south, across the east and west area for field visits.Sometimes I live in a simple guest house for a long time without returning to Beijing.He also conducted a scientific analysis of the Normandy landing site he visited and other battlefields where the Allied forces won victory in World War II, and explored the laws and characteristics of modern warfare. In 1972, Su Yu wrote an article on the operational issues of the future anti-aggression war and reported to Chairman Mao.This is the result of his years of deliberate thinking and research, which was highly appreciated by Mao Zedong.

As the head of the general, Su Yu has a deep affection for the soldiers.Whenever he had free time, he would go to the security squad to chat with the soldiers, asking about the health and well-being, and telling battle stories from the war years, without any airs of a general.Modesty and amiability, without arrogance, is the common praise of the soldiers in the security squad for this outstanding general who has fought countless vicious battles.Every Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Army Day, National Day and other major holidays, General Su Yu used his own money to improve the food for the soldiers in the security squad.Later, due to the discipline in the garrison area, the guards stationed by the chief were not allowed to accept money from the chief, so Comrade Su Yu sent someone to buy pork and other food with his own money and give them to the comrades in the guard squad to improve their holiday life.During the many years of security work for the chief, the soldiers of our security squad have changed one crop after another, but they have all formed a deep revolutionary friendship with this veteran general who has experienced many battles.

In 1973, the whole army responded to Marshal Ye Jianying's call and set off a new upsurge in military training.In the middle of the summer of this year, I was transferred to the training team of the regiment headquarters of Beijing University of Political Science and Law (because most of the students of the school went to the mountains and went to the countryside, the troops temporarily borrowed the school playground for military training).The training at that time was very strict.Among other things, the set of catching the enemy boxing that the guards often train is practiced according to the standard movements until it is proficient and standardized, and each of them was beaten until their legs hurt and their arms were swollen.Some have had their palms covered in small blood blisters due to the tiny slag that fell down countless times before, and they couldn't even hold their chopsticks firmly when eating.After dinner one day, the higher-ups notified everyone in the training team to go to the small auditorium of the General Political Department to watch a drama.Not long after we were seated, Li Desheng, then vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and director of the General Political Department, and General Su Yu, and Tian Weixin, deputy director of the General Political Department, entered in turn.A deputy head of our regiment who was already waiting at the door saluted the three heads of our regiment's guards.When the deputy head accompanied the three chiefs to the front desk, Li Desheng, who was walking in front, saw that no one was sitting in the front row, and said with a smile: There are so many empty seats for us.After the three well-dressed military leaders greeted all the officers and soldiers of our regiment's training team, they took their seats respectively.This was the first time I met General Su Yu, a military strategist and campaign commander whom I had always admired.Su Yu, who is of middle to upper stature, still has a straight body, maintaining the demeanor of a professional soldier; his thin rectangular face is covered with a few wrinkles, which testifies to the hardships of the war years; some silver hair already tells him that he commanded thousands of troops The wisdom and painstaking efforts that have been devoted to winning countless battles; his piercing eyes still see through the sharpness of the year when he saw the ever-changing battlefield and immediately captured the fighters; A natural emotion that is formed without showing emotion in peacetime.The General Political Drama Troupe performed three small dramas that night, some of which reflected the support of farmers during the war years, some of which reflected the scientific research carried out on army farms, and some of which reflected the support of the wife of the army for her husband to take root in the frontier and stand guard.Among them, the moving plots of the heroes and heroines of the two small dramas caring for each other and establishing love at work attracted everyone's attention.Although talking about love is not the main line in the play, it is only a "seasoning", but in the political climate where the eight model plays dominated the world at that time, it brought a refreshing sense of relaxation to the officers and soldiers in the audience, and made people see The spring breeze in the literary and art circles, and the excellent performances of the actors won rounds of applause.After the performance, Li Desheng, Su Yu and other heads came to the rostrum to shake hands with the actors and took a group photo to congratulate the success of the performance.

Although General Su Yu has left us for more than 20 years, his illustrious military exploits and noble character will remain in people's memory forever.