In 1985, Deng Xiaoping toured south through Nanjing and met Xu Shiyou by name: I will bring you 80 years of Moutai wine

preface

Turning over the revolutionary course of General Xu Shiyou, whether it was during the war years or after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he and Deng Xiaoping did not have many opportunities to work together, but there were three major intersections.

The first was during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when Deng Xiaoping served as political commissar of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army and Xu Shiyou as deputy brigade commander of the 385th Brigade of the 129th Division; the second was the counterattack against Vietnamese self-defense; Deng Xiaoping's position in the army was vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and chief of the general staff, and Xu Shiyou was the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region; the third was the establishment of the Central Advisory Committee in 1982, with Deng Xiaoping as the director and Xu Shiyou as the deputy director.

Figure | General Xu Shiyou

Although there were not many opportunities to work together, for Deng Xiaoping, Xu Shiyou had heartfelt respect and support. The same was true of Deng Xiaoping.

Chairman Mao personally changed Xu Shiyou's name

Xu Shiyou, formerly known as Xu Shiyou, was born on February 28, 1906 in a poor peasant family in Xujiawa Village, Macheng, Hubei Province. At the age of 8, he entered the Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts, and at the age of 16, he came out of the mountain. In August 1927, Xu Shiyou joined the Liuxiang Peasant Volunteer Brigade in his hometown, serving as the captain of the brigade and the captain of the artillery team. Subsequently, the volunteer brigade was reorganized into the 1st and 2nd brigades of the 7th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army.

During the Red Army period, Xu Shiyou fought bravely and tenaciously, often holding a large knife in his hand to lead the team to rush to the enemy position. In November 1933, in the anti-Chiang Kai-shek "Six-Way Siege", he was already the deputy commander of the Red 9th Army and the commander of the 25th Division, and at the last moment, he held a special ghost head knife and led the reserve team to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Liu Xiang's Sichuan army, and became famous in one battle. In July 1934, after the defense of Wanyuan in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Su District, the 28-year-old Xu Shiyou was promoted to the commander of the Red 4th Army.

Figure | Chairman Mao and Xu Shiyou

In June 1935, the Red Fourth Front met the division in Maogong and the central Red Army. Soon, Xu Shiyou met Mao Zedong for the first time. When Mao Zedong met, he asked, "I have always heard of your name, but I have never seen you as a person." What are the words in your name? ”

Xu Shiyou said: "I have the word 'Shi' on the family tree, and people in the family named me Xu Shiyou, hoping to become an official. After joining the Red Army, I changed myself to 'soldier friend', which means friend of soldiers. ”

Mao Zedong was very fond of Xu Shiyou and laughed heartily: "Your 'scholar friend' is good, but your vision is not long-term." Let's discuss it again, you can change 'Shiyou' to 'Shiyou', The Friend of the World. This time, we are going north to resist Japan, and we must take a long-term view and look at the world! From then on, Xu Shiyou's name was truly fixed.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he cooperated with Deng Xiaoping for the first time

On July 7, 1937, Japanese imperialism created the Lugou Bridge Incident, and the all-people War of Resistance broke out. The kuomintang and the communists negotiated an agreement, and the main force of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which had the 115th, 120th and 129th Divisions under its jurisdiction. From the end of August, they successively went to the anti-Japanese front in North China.

In January 1938, Deng Xiaoping was appointed political commissar of the 129th Division. At this time, Xu Shiyou was still studying at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, and after graduating from his studies, he stayed at the Anti-Japanese University as the deputy director of the School Affairs Department. In January 1939, Xu Shiyou went to the front battlefield of the Anti-Japanese Front and was appointed deputy brigade commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. With the division commander Liu Bocheng and political commissar Deng Xiaoping marching into southern Hebei, the commander of the 386th Brigade was the founding general Chen Geng.

The first battle against Japan in which Xu Shiyou participated was the Battle of Xiangchenggu. Xiangchenggu is located in a small village in the southeast of Wei County, Hebei Province, which is naturally suitable for ambush warfare. With the approval of Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, Xu Shiyou and the brigade commander Chen Geng fought a beautiful deception ambush. At noon on February 10, 1939, eight cars full of a reinforced Japanese infantry squadron came out of the county seat of Wei county. Xu Shiyou first sent 40 cavalry to lure the Japanese into pursuit, and after the Japanese army entered the ambush circle of Xiangchenggu, the Eighth Route Army quickly opened fire. In just half an hour, it was a big victory. After the war, more than 200 Japanese troops were annihilated, 8 people were captured, and all equipment was captured.

Figure | Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army ambushed the Japanese

Chen Geng said to Xu Shiyou, "Zhuge Liang was just out of his infancy and burned Xinye; you are a car that has just entered southern Hebei and ambushed the Japanese army!" After seeing the briefing on the victory in the Battle of Xiangchenggu, Deng Xiaoping said happily: "This Xu Shiyou fought this beautiful victory as soon as he arrived at the 386Th Brigade!" ”

In September 1940, in order to adapt to the new anti-Japanese situation and consolidate and open up new revolutionary base areas, Xu Shiyou was appointed as the commander of the 3rd Brigade of the Shandong Column of the Eighth Route Army, and has been separated from Deng Xiaoping ever since.

The counterattack against Vietnamese self-defense was in danger

After the founding of New China, Deng Xiaoping was initially in charge of the southwest direction and later transferred to Beijing; Xu Shiyou was always in the army, first as a commander in the Nanjing Military Region and then as a commander in the Guangzhou Military Region, and the ties between them were not close.

Figure | Deng Xiaoping visited the United States

On January 28, 1979, Deng Xiaoping, who had been back for less than two years, visited the United States. The Chinese leader, who is about to usher in a new era, told US President Carter: "There is a little friend in the south who is disobedient, and it is time to spank!" "This kid is Vietnam. At that time, the Americans all pinched a handful of sweat after listening to it, the US military had just returned from Vietnam and ended in a fiasco, and the People's Liberation Army, which had not fought for more than 20 years, could they do it?

After returning to China, Deng Xiaoping named the direction of Guangxi to be commanded by Xu Shiyou, 73, and the direction of Yunnan by Yang Dezhi, 68. At that time, the commanders who could be selected were also the military god "Liu Bocheng" and the god of war "Su Yu". But Liu Bocheng is too old, 87 years old, and he is almost blind in both eyes. Although Su Yu was only 72 years old, he had suffered severe trauma during the war, and there had been shrapnel in his body that had not been removed, and he had been tortured for many years, and his illness often recurred, and he was really unable to cope with the intensity of command operations.

Figure | Xu Shiyou visited the troops

When Deng Xiaoping designated Xu Shiyou, many people were asking, "Honest and old, can you still eat?" But Xu Shiyou used practical actions to prove to the world that "the old Ji Futuo is determined to be in a thousand miles"!

On February 17, the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam began, and Hsu ShiYou commanded the 41st Army, 42nd Army, 43rd Army, 54th Army, 55th Army and 50th Army to carry out a surprise attack on Vietnam for the Eastern Front Corps, attacking the Vietnamese army and making important contributions to maintaining the security of China's southwest border.

Deng Xiaoping instructed, "Handle it this way, don't take it as an example."

At the end of January 1985, Deng Xiaoping toured south through Nanjing and informed Han Peixin, then secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, in advance that after arriving in Nanjing, he would personally visit Xu Shiyou.

After Receiving the notice, Han Peixin immediately rushed to No. 8 Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, which was Xu Shiyou's residence. After Xu Shiyou knew, he was very touched and made it clear that he must go to the station to pick up Deng Xiaoping. Han Peixin advised him not to take it, but Xu Shiyou sternly refused, and finally had to ask the Central Office.

Figure | Deng Xiaoping

Deng Xiaoping replied: "Please immediately tell Comrade Shiyou that although he is younger than me, his body is not necessarily as good as mine, and the weather in Nanjing is cold, so I will meet at my residence in Nanjing!" ”

On the morning of February 1, Xu Shiyou met Deng Xiaoping at No. 3 Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. When Deng Xiaoping met, he asked with concern: "How is your memoir written?" Xu Shiyou smiled and said, "I wrote my memoirs in Nanjing, or you approved it..."

On the same day, Deng Xiaoping invited Xu Shiyou to dinner, took out Moutai wine, and specially told him: "I know that you love to drink Moutai and have brought you 80 years of aged wine, specially prepared for you." Xu Shiyou said happily: "Great, the older the Moutai wine, the more fragrant it is." ”

Figure | Deng Xiaoping and Xu Shiyou took a group photo

After the meal, Deng Xiaoping and Xu Shiyou left the last group photo, which was also the last time they met. Only five of the photos were washed, and Xu Shiyou sent one to Deng Xiaoping, one for himself, and the other three for the staff.

Soon after the meeting, Xu Shiyou was diagnosed with liver cancer. Xu Shiyou, who was in a hospital bed, knew that his time was short, so he wrote a report to the central government, the content of which was very simple: he left home at the age of 8, and since he joined the revolution, he was not filial enough to his mother, he was loyal in life, and he died filial piety, hoping that the central government would agree to bury him after death and fulfill filial piety by his mother's side.

Figure | Tomb of General Xu Shiyou

After receiving it, Deng Xiaoping directly signed and approved 8 words at the end of the document: "Handle it according to this, and the following is not an example."

On October 22, 1985, a generation of famous generals Xu Shiyou died in Nanjing at the age of 80. Xu Shiyou was buried in Xujiawa, Hepu Village, Tianpu Township, Xinxian County, about five meters away from his mother's grave, meaning to accompany his mother forever.