Welcome to the History column No. 1989. Among the founding marshals of our army, Luo Shuai ranked seventh, while Xu Shuai ranked eighth. This seems a little strange: Marshal was the highest rank in our army at that time, and the qualifications of the finalists were extremely outstanding, except for Zhu Laozong and Peng Laozong, who were respectively the chief and deputy commanders-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army, and naturally ranked in the top two of the top ten marshals, and the other marshals did not seem to have a very absolute basis for ranking. If this is the case, why is it that Luo Shuai, who mainly focuses on political work, ranks ahead of Xu Shuai, who is highly talented in military ability?
In terms of fighting wars and specific battle achievements, Luo Shuai certainly could not compare with Xu Shuai. How high is Xu Shuai's military ability? Liu Shuai, who ranked fourth among the ten marshals, commented: "Among the generals of our army, Commander Xu and Commander Su are the two most capable of leading troops to fight. Liu Shuai is known as the god of war, is the president of the People's Liberation Army Military Academy, his evaluation is naturally very authoritative, Xu Shuai's military talent is not under the well-known marshals Peng and Lin. During the Red Army period, Xu Shuai was the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, and it can be said that he was the originator of the combat experience of the large corps among the generals of our army, and he was stronger than the early command experience of General Peng and Lin Shuai.
In terms of military ability and specific achievements, Xu Shuai did far surpass Luo Shuai, and in the 1948 Jinzhong Campaign, Xu Shuai annihilated the 100,000-strong army of the Kuomintang army with 60,000 weak brigades, which took less than 30 days, and the chairman praised Xu Shuai's ability. However, it is not fair to just compare luo shuai and Xu Shuai with military resumes, and there is a big difference in the division of labor between the two.
Luo Shuai had two achievements, not only Xu Shuai could not compare, but other marshals were also difficult to surpass him. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, Luo Shuai was mainly responsible for the construction of the two major base areas in Shandong and Northeast China, and under his development and management, these two areas respectively became the rear areas of our army with the richest and most outstanding logistical support capabilities during the two wars.
With Luo Shuai's revolutionary qualifications, with the merits of any place in Shandong and Northeast China, he can match the rank of marshal, and the only one whose achievements in this regard are close to Luo Shuai's is Nie Shuai in North China, but it should be said that luo Shuai's political work is still slightly inferior. During the Liberation War, Luo Shuai creatively invented and popularized the construction method of the "second-line corps"; in a short period of time, the strength of our army in the northeast increased by hundreds of thousands, and the scale of the four field army in the northeast was huge. Among the ten marshals, Luo Shuai does not seem to be very dazzling, but his nomination actually has a special significance: the highest representative of the political work system, the number one "political work marshal". And a traditional military commander like Xu Shuai has a number of other representatives among the marshals, and ranks higher.
Although Xu Shuai's command level was extremely high, his physical conditions limited his battle achievements, and many battles should have been commanded by him, but unfortunately he was absent. Xu Shuai's military standards belonged to the highest grade, but his actual battle achievements were inferior to those of Marshals Peng, Lin, and Liu. During the Liberation War, he was only the first deputy commander of the North China Military Region, serving as Nie Shuai's deputy post, which was not entirely commensurate with his early resume; while at the same time, Luo Shuai served as the political commissar of the Northeast Field Army (Siye), which was on a par with Lin Shuai in terms of rank, and the comprehensive strength of Siye was far stronger than that of the North China Liberation Army at that time. This is also an influencing factor when evaluating titles, and Xu Shuai is not superior to Luo Shuai.
During the Red Army period, Xu Shuai belonged to the senior generals of the Four Fronts Army, and the key was that he took his bad luck during the Western Expedition. Due to historical reasons, the number of generals in the four fronts army when evaluating the ranks is not much, but this is not the most important, and Xu Shuai's qualifications will naturally be shortlisted as the representative of the four fronts army. However, Xu Shuai had participated in the Red Army's Western Route Army, which suffered heavy losses, and although it was not his command problem, this incident would also have a certain impact on the level of the rating. Correspondingly, Luo Shuai participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising in his early years, and this uprising was one of the three major uprisings in the early days of the Red Army, or was personally led by the chairman, and the impact on Luo Shuai's future was self-evident.
The reason why Xu Shuai does not rank high among marshals is actually another reason. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the chairman had high hopes for Xu Shuai and appointed him as chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army. The General Staff Headquarters was at the head of the "Eight Major Departments" of our army's headquarters at that time, and the chief of staff was of great importance, and it was indispensable for a high-level general to serve as a general. However, due to his poor health, Xu Shuai has hardly really been on the job during the five years he has been in office, but has been on sick leave for a long time. His work was first represented by Nie Shuai, and later he was simply replaced by Commander Su, who was also superior in military standards. Although the chairman has always understood Xu Shuai's special situation and has always maintained patience to let him recuperate at ease, in the critical period of the first few years of the founding of New China, Xu Shuai has indeed "disappeared".
At the same time, Luo Shuai served as the director of the General Political Department (concurrently serving as the minister of general cadres), and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he and Xu Shuai were at the same level. What is more crucial is that Luo Shuai presided over the two arduous tasks of grading all army cadres and appraisal in 1955 during Xu Shuai's sick leave, and in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, his contribution was obviously greater than Xu Shuai's, which also played a subtle role in the ranking order of marshals. Therefore, it is also reasonable that Luo Shuai, who came from a political worker background, finally ranked ahead of Xu Shuai, the traditional military commander, and ranked seventh among the top ten marshals.
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