Chapter 77 "Old Comrades in Jinggangshan" Su Yu

On January 10, 1972, at the memorial service for Comrade Chen Yi, Su Yu met Mao Zedong. At that time, in an atmosphere of grief, Mao Zedong looked around and saw Su Yu. He said affectionately to Su Yu: "There are not many old comrades in arms from the Jinggangshan period." What an affectionate name for an old comrade in arms during the Jinggangshan period!Chen Yi is, and so is Su Yu.They are all comrades who fought side by side with Mao Zedong, Zhu De, etc. in the Jinggangshan base area. Su Yu didn't know Mao Zedong until he went to Jinggangshan, and under the leadership of Mao Zedong, he gradually grew from a grassroots commander of the Red Army to the number one general of the Republic.

As a general of the Republic, Su Yu's illustrious military exploits and outstanding military command ability for the founding of New China are well-known and universally recognized.However, the general himself never shy away from saying that his military talents were learned from Mao Zedong during the most difficult years of the Red Army. In other words, Su Yu's military learning from Mao Zedong began with the struggle in Jinggangshan. Although Su Yu is from Hunan, he did not know Mao Zedong before he went to Jinggangshan. Su Yu was born in a feudal landlord family in Huitong County, Hunan Province in 1907. After graduating from high school in 1925, he was admitted to the Hunan Provincial Second Normal School in Changde. Influenced by progressive ideas, he joined the Chinese Communist Party in November of the following year. Youth League. In May 1927, he left the Second Division and went to Wuchang. He joined the teaching team of the 24th Division of the National Revolutionary Army led by the Communist Party of China, served as the squad leader of the students, and soon became a member of the Communist Party of China.From then on began his long military career.

After the failure of the Great Revolution, Su Yu participated in the Nanchang Uprising with the teaching team of the 24th Division.After the uprising troops went south to Guangdong and failed in Chaoshan, they followed Zhu De and the rest of the Nanchang Uprising led by Chen Yi and fought hard in the border areas of Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi.In the battle to attack Wuping County, he was seriously injured and fell behind, but he caught up with the team with his firm belief and tenacious perseverance.When some unsteady officers and soldiers in the uprising army were shaken by the revolution and left the army one after another, Su Yu's performance was highly valued by Zhu De and Chen Yi and praised by his comrades.

In late October, when the rest of the rebel army arrived at Xinfeng in southern Jiangxi, they carried out a reorganization and reduced the troops into a column with 9 companies under its jurisdiction. Su Yu was appointed as the political instructor of the fifth company. In January 1928, Su Yu followed the uprising army led by Zhu De and Chen Yi to Yizhang, Hunan, and participated in the Southern Hunan Uprising. In April, he went to Jinggangshan with the First Division of the Workers' and Peasants Revolutionary Army led by Zhu De, and successfully joined forces with the Autumn Harvest Uprising troops led by Mao Zedong.

From then on, Su Yu, as a party representative in the Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants, followed Mao Zedong to learn to swim in the ocean of the revolutionary war.Su Yu admired Mao Zedong's great talent and general idea of ​​building an army superior to others.He studied hard, figured it out carefully, and made progress quickly. In just two years, he grew from a company-level cadre to a division commander. At the first company-level cadre meeting held after Zhu Mao joined forces, Su Yu personally listened to Mao Zedong's speech on the principles of building a new type of people's army.At the meeting, Mao Zedong wrung his fingers and talked about the Red Army's "three major tasks", "three major disciplines, and six points of attention" one by one.

The venue was silent.The popular discourse and brand-new ideological content fascinated the people present. Some basic principles of army building expounded by Mao Zedong deeply attracted Su Yu, making him feel fresh and refreshed.Especially for the "Three Major Disciplines and Six Points of Attention", Su Yu believed that it correctly solved the problem of the relationship between the army and the masses, and it was a creation of Mao Zedong, which had a profound influence on him. Soon, Mao Zedong held another party representative meeting above the company on the issue of army building.At the meeting, Mao Zedong fully promoted democracy and asked everyone to express their opinions.As a grassroots cadre, Su Yu was also deeply influenced by the style of the old army, often relying on the command of the chief to act and punishing soldiers who did bad things.Mao Zedong's adoption of this democratic method of soliciting opinions reflected a brand-new spirit, which made him very educated.

Mao Zedong not only established a brand-new equal relationship between officers and soldiers in the Red Army, but also set an example by himself.Su Yu saw with his own eyes that leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and the Red Army soldiers had the same food, clothing and shelter, carried food together, and lived a hard life together. He also saw with his own eyes the great power of the equal relationship between people in the new type of people's army. , so that while he admired Mao Zedong and Zhu De from the bottom of his heart, he also had a deeper understanding of the new army-building principle of equality between officers and soldiers.He later recalled: Today's young people cannot realize the powerful power produced by basic systems such as equality between officers and soldiers and the abolition of corporal punishment, because they grow up in an equal relationship between people.At that time, these basic systems awakened the human dignity of the oppressed who had been suppressed for a long time, inspired infinite hope for a better future, and became a powerful force for everyone to fight and sacrifice for the cause of communism.

Since then, he has changed the old-fashioned military education methods in his company, adopting methods such as persuasion education, ideological work, and the implementation of democracy.At the same time, he took the process of carrying out political education for soldiers as a process of his own ideological transformation, so that his class consciousness, ideological understanding, theoretical level and leadership ability were continuously improved. Su Yu, as the representative of the company party, expressed support from the bottom of his heart for the principle of building an army based on the company's branch that Mao Zedong reiterated repeatedly.According to Mao Zedong's request, he established a party branch in his company, which gave the company a strong leadership core.

From the process of learning Mao Zedong's thoughts on army building, Su Yu quickly grew into an excellent grassroots cadre.During the struggle in Jinggangshan, his work was adjusted many times. When a company needed to strengthen ideological and political work, he was sent as a party representative, and when a company needed to strengthen troop management and improve the relationship between officers and soldiers, he was sent as a company commander.He became a staunch supporter and resolute executor of Mao Zedong's army-building line. When Su Yu devoted himself to the armed struggle in Jinggangshan, he deeply understood Mao Zedong's great theory on the construction of base areas, and established the idea of ​​establishing base areas.

When Su Yu followed Zhu De to Jinggangshan, the construction of the Jinggangshan base area had begun to take shape.The first feeling he felt when he arrived in Jinggangshan was that he had a "home".Under the leadership of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, he actively participated in the construction of Jinggangshan base area. In August 1928, he left Jinggangshan to participate in the adventure of marching into southern Hunan. After experiencing the famous "August failure", he became more aware of the importance of building base areas.From then on, he led the company, no matter where the guerrilla went, he was able to actively mobilize the masses, establish political power, develop local armed forces, and lead the masses to fight against the local tyrants and divide the land according to the tasks stipulated by the superiors. After 1935, Su Yu led the advance division reorganized from the Red Army’s anti-Japanese advance team to the south of Zhejiang. He used the experience of the Jinggangshan base area to establish a guerrilla base in southern Zhejiang. The Ministry was incorporated into the New Fourth Army and went to the front line of the Anti-Japanese War.

The "Sixteen-Character Jue" guerrilla tactics Mao Zedong summed up during his Jinggangshan period were the embryonic form of Mao Zedong's people's war strategy and tactics.Su Yu personally experienced its important role and great power from the battles commanded by Mao Zedong and Zhu De. The use of strategy and tactics is based on whether or not the enemy can be wiped out.Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the Red Army to fight. In order to achieve the goal of annihilating the enemy, they adopted different tactics according to different enemies.For an enemy that will be defeated in one hit, pursue it; for troops with strong combat effectiveness, use roundabouts to encircle.During the second anti-"advancement and suppression" campaign in Jinggangshan, the troops set out from Huang'ao and moved towards Suichuan. The enemy fled as soon as they came into contact.At this time, while Zhu De was leading the troops in pursuit, he kept urging: "Hurry up, hurry up!" Su Yu's 28th regiment chased for 35 kilometers in one go, captured more than 300 officers and soldiers below the battalion commander, and handed them over. 250 guns.Su Yu realized from this battle that the pursuit method adopted by Mao Zedong and Zhu De was no longer a pursuit in the general sense, but an effective method to annihilate the enemy. In the great victory at Longyuankou in late June 1928, Su Yu learned from Mao Zedong and Zhu De the tactics of using roundabout encirclement to annihilate the enemy.At that time, the two provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi mobilized 10 regiments to attack Jinggangshan in two routes. The Hunan enemy Wu Shang's department advanced from Chaling to Ninggang, and the Jiangxi enemy's Yang Chisheng and Yang Ruxuan troops advanced from Ji'an to Yongxin.Mao Zedong and Zhu De decided to adopt the policy of avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, that is, to take a defensive position against the enemy in Hunan and concentrate their forces to fight against the enemy in Jiangxi.The Red Army voluntarily withdrew from Yongxin City, retreated to Ninggang, concentrated its main force, and controlled the new and old Qixiling, which must be passed through the enemy's offensive. The 29th and 31st regiments and one battalion served as frontal blocking, and the 28th and 28th regiments The regiment, the 32nd regiment and one battalion detoured to Longyuankou to cut off the enemy's rear and annihilate the enemy.This battle achieved a major victory in annihilating one regiment and defeating two regiments of the enemy.Under the command of head Wang Erzhuo, the company led by Su Yu first conquered the commanding height of Baibudun in Laoqixiling, and then pursued the enemy across the mountains with a brave and tenacious spirit.In a ravine, they found more than 100 enemies and rushed up immediately, shouting "Put down your weapons, you are captured." The enemies surrendered their guns before they knew how many were coming. This battle demonstrated Su Yu's heroic and tenacious fighting style and witty and decisive command ability. It was the initial result of his study of Mao Zedong's strategy and tactics.In many campaigns and battles he commanded later, he adopted this roundabout and encircling tactics many times to wipe out the enemy. Since then, Su Yu has learned combat methods such as flexibility and maneuvering, grasping the enemy's weaknesses and timely annihilating the enemy in a series of battles commanded by Mao Zedong and Zhu De. During Su Yu's time in Jinggangshan, he learned war through war, learned Mao Zedong's military thought and command art, and greatly improved his command ability, thus winning the title of "young tactician". From the end of 1930, Su Yu took up a leadership position at the division level and participated in the first to fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" wars in the Central Soviet Area.He applied the combat experience and command art learned from Mao Zedong and Zhu De to the practice of war, and achieved a series of impressive achievements. Anyone who is familiar with Mao Zedong's poems will definitely not forget Mao Zedong's majestic "The Proud of the Fishermen: The First Great Encirclement and Suppression" of Mao Zedong: Ten thousand trees are blooming in the sky, and the sky is full of red, and the heavenly soldiers are angry. Fog filled Longgang and thousands of peaks were dark, and they called out in unison, and Zhang Huizan was caught in the front.  Two hundred thousand troops re-entered Jiangxi, and the wind and smoke billowed for half a day. Arouse tens of millions of workers and peasants to work together, and don't mess around with red flags under the mountain. Here Mao Zedong boldly announced that it was none other than Su Yu and his subordinates who captured Zhang Huizan. In December 1930, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 100,000 troops to "encircle and suppress" the Central Soviet Area.Under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhu De, the Red Army adopted the policy of luring the enemy deep and retreated to the central part of the base area.The enemy pounced on the Soviet area at a speed of 35 kilometers per day.Mao Zedong and Zhu De chose Zhang Huizan's 18th Division and Tan Daoyuan's 50th Division as the targets of the first annihilation, but they set up several ambushes, but they all failed. At this time, Su Yu was already the commander of the 64th Division of the 12th Red Army.After he learned that Zhang Huizan's troops were about to enter the Longgang area, he disguised himself as a liaison officer of the enemy's 50th Division and went to reconnaissance in person.After returning, he immediately reported the situation he found to Mao Zedong and Zhu De in person, and suggested that in view of Zhang Huizan's eagerness to win, he should send a small army as bait to lure Zhang Huizan to Longgang, where the Red Army set up an ambush. Annihilated Zhang Huizan's Eighteenth Division in one fell swoop.Mao Zedong and others appreciated this suggestion very much and put it into practice immediately. According to Mao Zedong's intention, Su Yu led the 64th Division to assume the main task of outflanking the left flank. On December 29, Zhang Huizan's troops were indeed brought into Longgang. On the morning of the 30th, Mao Zedong issued a battle order to the Red Army ambushing around Longgang.All of a sudden, there was a burst of gunfire.The fierce battle lasted until 3 pm, and more than 10,000 enemies were wiped out.Mao Zedong sent two correspondents to ask Su Yu, commander of the main attacking division, if Zhang Huizan had caught him.Su Yu said confidently: "Zhang Huizan is in the mountains over there. Our division is searching with all our strength. You go back and report to Mao Zedong first, saying that Zhang Huizan can be caught immediately." Not long after, the joyous shouts of Red Army soldiers resounded all over the mountains and plains in Longgang: "Zhang Huizan has been caught!" After capturing Zhang Huizan, the commander of the enemy division, Mao Zedong said happily: "Okay! Su Yu has a way." While praising Su Yu, Mao Zedong became very poetic, so he wrote the popular poem mentioned above. Since then, in many important battles to defend the Central Soviet Area, Su Yu worked hard to learn Mao Zedong's and Zhu De's fighting strategies and guerrilla tactics against the enemy, creatively performed various tasks, and gradually developed the ability to think independently and see the overall situation. A solid foundation was laid for the revolutionary struggle in the region. Decades later, when Su Yu recalled the experience and experience of fighting under the command of Mao Zedong during the Jinggangshan period, he wrote affectionately: "Comrade Mao Zedong and Comrade Zhu De commanded us to fight a series of victories, which made me realize that when the two armies confront each other, It is not only a contest of troop strength, firepower, and morale, but also a contest of the commanding skills of the commanders on both sides. When the enemy is strong and we are weak, our army is often passive at first, but as long as the commander is good at planning, the field of galloping is still very wide Yes. The art of war command is an endless science." Since July 1934, Su Yu successively served as the chief of staff of the advance team of the Northward Anti-Japanese War formed by the Red Seventh Army, the commander of the advancing division, and the commander of the Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi military regions. The six principles of guerrilla warfare, such as "the enemy enters and we advance", "erratic, and haunting", persisted in the three-year guerrilla warfare in southern Zhejiang. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Su Yu successively served as the deputy commander of the second detachment of the New Fourth Army, the division commander and political commissar of the first division, and the commander and political commissar of the Soviet Central Military Region.In the Battle of Huangqiao, 5,000 New Fourth Army troops were commanded to fight against 30,000 KMT recalcitrant troops. They lured the enemy to penetrate deep, attacked the strong enemy first, and wiped out more than 10,000 enemies in one fell swoop. During the War of Liberation, Su Yu first served as the commander of the Central China Field Army and led his troops to win seven battles and seven victories in central Jiangsu, becoming a shining example of Mao Zedong's combat thinking of "concentrating superior forces and annihilating the enemy one by one".After the establishment of the East China Field Army, he served as deputy commander, acting commander and acting political commissar. Mao Zedong specifically instructed: "The command of the campaign should be handed over to Su Yu's command."Under his command, he successively won victories in the battles of Subei, Lunan, Laiwu, Mengliang, Eastern Henan, and Jinan, and became a famous "ever victorious general" at home and abroad. Mao Zedong praised him for his "first contribution in the Huaihai Campaign".After that, he commanded the Battle of Crossing the River and liberated China's largest city, Shanghai. In 1954, Su Yu served as the Chief of Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. In 1955, Su Yu was awarded the rank of general of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. History has proved that Su Yu was an outstanding military strategist created by China's revolutionary war, and the reason why he became such a military strategist was largely due to the nurturing of Mao Zedong's military thought and the tempering of the Jinggangshan struggle.