In the early days of the Liberation War, the enemy army invested many aces and elites to focus on attacking the Shandong region, because there were two main forces of our army active here, one was the Shandong Field Army with Chen Lao as commander and Li Yu as the political commissar, and this unit was formed in January 1946 by the troops transferred from the New Fourth Army to Shandong and the troops of the Shandong Military Region. At that time, the Shandong Field Army had the 1st Column, the 2nd Column, the Independent Seventh Division, and the Independent 8th Division, with a strength of about 74,000 people.
The other was the Central China Field Army, with Su Yu as commander and Tan Zhenlin as political commissar, which was reorganized from most of the New Fourth Army that remained in the central Soviet region after the first part of the New Fourth Army was transferred to Shandong at that time. At that time, under the battle sequence of the Central China Field Army, there were four columns (the sixth column, the seventh column, the eighth column and the ninth column), with a strength of about 50,000 people. The famous "Seven Victories in the Seven Battles of central Jiangsu" was fought by the Central China Field Army.
In January 1947, with the development of the war situation, in accordance with the orders of the superiors, the Shandong Field Army and the Central China Field Army were merged into the East China Field Army. This heroic unit has fought against a series of strong enemies and created various classic battles, such as the Battle of Menglianggu and so on. The team has developed and grown through a short period of time, the strength has been greatly enhanced, and in the later period, it has under the jurisdiction of 4 corps, a total of 16 columns, with a total strength of more than 800,000 troops, and on the battlefield against the enemy can be called the autumn wind sweeping leaves, has eliminated the opponent's 3 and a half corps, annihilated hundreds of thousands of elite forces. He made great achievements for the liberation of the whole country.
Therefore, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the commanders, deputy commanders, chiefs of staff, directors of the political department, and deputy directors of the political department of this field army were all awarded high-level military ranks such as marshals and generals; even the commanders of the columns and divisions under the jurisdiction of the field army were also awarded to generals, lieutenant generals, and some became founding fathers and served as senior cadres at the central level.
However, there was a political commissar of the field army named Li Yu, who was appointed by his superiors as the director of the Shanghai Labor and Wage Department on February 29, 1952, after the founding of the People's Republic of China. You may ask, as such a high-level leader, why did you become a small commissioner? What exactly did he do during this time?
Li Yu, also known as Li Xingtang, was born on May 12, 1906 in Chen Zhao Ye Zhuang, Cheng County, Shanxi (now Dong Ye Zhuang, DaNiu Dian Town, Yuanping City, Shanxi Province). His grandfather, Li Yuxiu, was an honest and honest farmer who led his uncle to get up early every day and work in the dark fields. In the winter leisure time, they would catch the cattle to the Xuangang area, which was sixty or seventy miles away, to drive coal, and then drive to the town of Yuanping the next day to sell it. The family's economic situation is relatively generous, there are seventy or eighty acres of land, hired a brother of his own clan to do long-term work, can also be regarded as a rich peasant.
Li Yu's father first worked as a clerk in Suiyuan's grain store, and then returned to his hometown to work as a clerk in the town's grocery store, usually dealing in some cloth, cotton and other groceries, and also returning home to help do some farm work when the farmer was busy. When he was ten years old, he attended private schools and primary schools in his village, and later was admitted to the town's senior primary school and county middle school, and during his school studies, he actively participated in the student movement and propagated advanced revolutionary ideas.
After completing his studies, Li Yu successively worked in Beiping, Tianjin, Hebei, Tangshan and Jiluyu Border District, and served as secretary of the municipal and county party committees, inspectors, and secretaries of special committees. During this period, Li Yu did a lot of fruitful work for the restoration of the organization and the development of the work of the workers and peasants, and also accumulated rich experience for him to take charge of Shandong in the future. The "anti-imperialist strike of more than 30,000 people in the Kailuan Minmetals General Alliance" that broke out in early 1934 was organized when Li Yu was the secretary of the Tangshan Municipal Party Committee, which also fully reflected his excellent leadership skills.
In 1936, Li Yu, who had been engaged in underground work in the Bai District for a long time, was sent by his superiors to Shandong to preside over the work and appointed as the secretary of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, this year, he was just 30 years old, and began to rule Shandong for thirteen years.
After Li Yu served as the secretary of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, the "July 7 Incident" broke out, the Japanese army launched a full-scale invasion of China, and the large areas of land such as North China, East China, Central China, and South China quickly fell, of which the Tenth Division of the Japanese Army went south along Jinpu Road after the fall of Pingjin and entered the territory of Shandong on September 30. At this time, Han Fuqu, chairman of the Kuomintang Shandong Province, gave up the Yellow River defense line in order to preserve his strength and almost without a fight, and although he was defeated by the Xuzhou Battle of Taierzhuang and inflicted a large number of casualties on the Japanese army, he finally withdrew from Xuzhou and the whole territory of Shandong fell.
At this critical juncture of the nation's life and death, the Shandong party organization responded to the call of the central authorities and played the role of the mainstay of the mainstream of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, actively organizing and mobilizing the masses of the people, waging guerrilla warfare, and establishing base areas. Without the cooperation of the main forces, Li Yu led the Shandong Provincial Party Committee to launch armed uprisings in more than a dozen areas of Shandong in less than half a year. There were the armed uprising of the anti-Japanese resistance in Hebei-Lubian, the armed uprising against Japan in northwestern Lubei, the anti-Japanese armed uprising in Penglai County, Fushan, Jiaodong, the Black Iron Mountain Uprising, the Laoshan Uprising, the Yishui Anti-Japanese Armed Uprising in Juxian County, the Taixi Anti-Japanese Armed Uprising, the Lunan Anti-Japanese Armed Uprising, and the Huxi Anti-Japanese Armed Uprising.
In April 1938, Li Yu, secretary of the provincial party committee, went to Yan'an to report on his work, taking into account that although there were many armed uprisings in the anti-Japanese base areas in Shandong, the names of the anti-Japanese armed forces in various parts of Shandong were different and the names were very chaotic, in order to strengthen management and better carry out the anti-Japanese struggle, because there was a shortage of cadres in Shandong at that time, Li Yu put forward a request to the central high level, begging the central authorities to send a group of backbone cadres to support the Shandong front, and at the same time, send some main forces to Shandong to develop the base area.
In this regard, the central leadership attached great importance to it, and immediately dispatched a number of heavyweight old Red Army members to form, and also set up the Central Shandong Branch Bureau to lead the graduates of Shaanxi Northern Public School and a battalion of armed forces to Shandong to help Li Yu open up the situation in Shandong. A total of 25 regiments had about 24,500 troops, and more than 10,000 local armed forces, with Zhang Jingwu as the commander-in-chief of the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army, Li Yu as the political commissar, Wang Jian'an as the deputy commander-in-chief, Jiang Hua as the director of the political department, and Wang Bin as the chief of staff.
Subsequently, the central authorities issued an order that two regular units of the Eighth Route Army had advanced into Shandong one after another: one was the 343rd Brigade of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and the Jinpu Detachment of the 129th Division, and the Eighth Route Army marched eastward to advance the anti-Japanese column. Xiao Hua served as the commander and political commissar of this column, founded the Jilubian Plain base area, controlled the territory of 15 counties, and had more than 20,000 troops. Second, the headquarters of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and the 685th Regiment were led by Acting Division Commander Chen Guang and Political Commissar Luo Ronghuan, and after merging with the local armed forces, they became the Suluyu Anti-Japanese Detachment, with a strength of about 8,000 troops.
In this largest anti-Japanese base area in the country, Li Yu, as secretary of the provincial party committee and political commissar of the Shandong Column, in the most arduous period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, faced with the problems of how to further consolidate and develop the troops, he and the senior leaders of our army did a series of work together, grasped the improvement of the quality of the troops, inherited the glorious traditions of the Red Army in terms of military and political quality, management education, and fighting style, and strengthened the CPC's anti-Japanese leading force in Shandong. Since then, the anti-Japanese flames have burned on the land of Qilu, and the Shandong column has fought side by side with the troops of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army that entered Shandong, carrying out struggles against "sweeping," anti-encroachment, and against diehards. Li Yu made significant contributions to the establishment and construction of the Shandong Anti-Japanese Base Area.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the superiors made the strategic decision of the New Fourth Army to move north to Shandong, and in December 1945, the Shandong Branch Was reorganized into the East China Bureau of the Central Committee, with Rao Shushi as secretary and Li Yu as deputy secretary. During this period, Rao Shushi criticized Li Yu for practicing "kulakism" and taking the "kulak line" during the Shandong land reform and the three inspections and three rectifications, and labeled Li Yu with "kulakism," "localism," and "shantou doctrine."
Li Yu could not accept Rao Shushi's approach, and he confronted Rao Shushi: "When Wang Ming was in the White District, he used 'kulakism', and you said that Shandong was engaged in 'kulakism', so what exactly is 'kulakism'?" Rao Shushi couldn't say a word. Since then, Rao Shushi has set off an anti-Li Yu struggle in Shandong, giving him a series of "hats". In the face of the imminent war, at that time, Li Yu still attached importance to the overall situation of the war and the unity within the party, checked against his will, and accepted unfair criticism of him.
Then, all his duties were suspended, and although he felt aggrieved, Li Yu put the overall situation first and did not complain in the slightest. Still in charge of finances, grain, and support, and mobilized all manpower and material resources to support the front-line war, he worked tirelessly and day to undertake and complete the heavy logistical support work. As the saying goes, "soldiers and horses go first without moving grain and grass", and the victory of the front-line war is inseparable from Li Yu's work.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li Yu was initially appointed secretary general of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, but the secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee at this time was Rao Shushi, who still believed that Li Yu had opposed him a few years ago, and it was not long before he publicly announced the dismissal of Li Yu as secretary general of the Li Yu Municipal Party Committee and other posts, and was demoted to the director of the Labor and Wage Division of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee.
Li Yu's later years (middle)
Although Li Yu, who became the secretary of the provincial party committee at the age of 30, only became the director of the department, he was still full of enthusiasm for work, serious and serious, adhered to the style of seeking truth from facts, did not tire of hard work, went deep into the grass-roots level to investigate and study, did a good job in the work of his own, and never complained. Later, he was slowly promoted to the post of vice minister of the Ministry of Machinery Industry, making a significant contribution to the development of Agricultural Mechanization in China, and on May 30, 1986, Li Yu died of illness in Beijing at the age of 80.