Welcome to Shi Yuan's history column No. 2506. Among the founding generals of our army, there was one person who had caused some controversy in the shortlist, and this argument had not changed in the decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and this person was Xu Guangda, who ranked last in the ranks. Many friends believe that his seniority cannot be compared with other generals, and even many founding generals have contributed more than him. Even if Xu Guangda himself proposed to resign his military rank in 1955, it still did not change the view of many people. In fact, Xu Guangda was not really overrated, and he was more qualified to be a general than some generals. Why?
The two ranks of marshal and general add a special consideration to whether they contributed significantly to the early creation of the people's army. In layman's terms, it is the proportion of "primitive shares" in the early days of the revolution. Therefore, some generals who do not seem to have high military achievements can obtain higher ranks, which is largely affected by this factor. However, according to the traditional way of understanding, military ranks such as marshal and general should represent the generals with the highest level of military command in the army.
Among the founding generals, in fact, the only people who dare to say that the specific military level is above Xu Guangda are Su Zong, Xu Haidong, and Chen Geng. Others like Xiao Jinguang and Huang Kecheng may have slightly higher records than Xu Guangda, but the actual command ability is between Bo Zhong, while the other generals have no place to overpower Xu Guangda in terms of specific battlefield performance. For example, General Tan Zheng, who was in charge of political work, did not command any battles at all, and although Zhang Yunyi and Wang Shusheng had excellent seniority in the early uprising, they basically worked in the second line and did not fight a major battle; Luo Ruiqing served as a political commissar and worked more, but in fact he was not responsible for the military aspect. If considered from the perspective of a real general, Compared with some generals, Xu Guangda's access to this rank is completely deserved.
In Xu Guangda's military career, the early position was not high, and the period of real great development was under General Peng, and during the Liberation War, he successively served as the commander of the column (army commander) and the commander of the corps. He was a Confucian general who had great authority in the army. In the Battle of Fumei and the Battle of Lanzhou, he made significant contributions as the main commander. It can be said that in terms of military command and actual achievements, Xu Guangda is still remarkable.
Some friends felt that Xu Guangda's qualifications for evaluating the general were not enough, and the important reason was that he liked to compare some of the generals with outstanding seniority with him. For example, Xiao Ke, who was the deputy commander of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, was not as senior as the founding generals of the People's Republic of China, not just Xu Guangda. For example, Zhang Zongxun, the deputy commander of Yiye, who was Xu Guangda's superior, why did the general evaluate Xu Guangda but not Zhang Zongxun? Xu Guangda is one of the few representative figures in the western Xiang'e base area, and he occupies a great advantage in the appraisal of titles, which needs to be comprehensively considered.
In the early years of the fierce battle, Xu Guangda's head injury shrapnel was not taken out, which was very similar to the situation of the first general Su Zong. Few of the founding generals had suffered such a serious wound as he did. Xu Guangda and General Xu Haidong both received care and arrangements from the central authorities during the war years, and they spent a long time recuperating from their wounds. Xu Haidong has been absent longer than Xu Guangda, and has almost no record in the middle and late stages of his military career. Xu Haidong can be ranked second among the generals, Xu Guangda is not as senior as him, and it is also reasonable to rank tenth.
Some of the founding generals do not have a strong sense of existence, Xu Guangda is already a general with a high gold content, should not be treated with colored glasses, after all, he was once a commander of a corps with sufficient color, no matter whether it is a general or a general, it is very reasonable, compared with some famous and talented generals, he may not be so prominent, but the qualifications for evaluating generals are still available.
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