After graduating from huangpu in the first term, he served as a member of Sun Yat-sen's Grand Marshal's Guard, 27 years old as the commander of the Red Army division, 30 years old as the commander of the Red Army, the commander of the front army, and the first chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army after the founding of New China. Of the ten military leaders who were awarded the rank of Marshal of the People's Republic of China in 1955, he was the only one from the North, and this person was Xu Xiangqian.
Xu Xiangqian was born on November 8, 1901 in Yong'an Village, Wutai County, Shanxi Province. His father, Xu Maozhun, was a late Qing Dynasty Xiucai, and his mother, Zhao Jinluan, was a typical housewife.
In 1917, he dropped out of school due to poverty and worked as a grocery store apprentice. In the spring of 1919, he was admitted to the Shanxi National Normal Crash Course. After graduating in 1921, he worked as a primary school teacher in Yangqu County and Wutai County's Riverside Village, but was dismissed by the school for promoting patriotism and anti-feudal ideas to students. In September, he was incorporated into Sun Yat-sen's guards and went to Shaoguan to participate in the Northern Expedition.
In April 1924, he was admitted to the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy and began his revolutionary career.
When I first entered Whampoa, I was obscure, and it was very hard to practice and work every day. However, Xu Xiangqian's experience since childhood has long honed the spirit of not being afraid of suffering and not being afraid of tiredness. Because of his solid cultural skills, he has a deep understanding of all kinds of books and major events that have happened in the authorities. Xu Xiangqian also showed a very strong interest in the four major military tutorials, conscientiously studied them, and studied them diligently, which laid a certain theoretical foundation for him to gallop on the battlefield in the future.
It was such an obscure cadet who could have imagined that after just 7 years he would become the commander-in-chief of one of the three main red army forces of the Communist Party. Anyway, Chiang Kai-shek at that time did not expect it.
As the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, Chiang Kai-shek took advantage of his position to often interview some cadets in order to cultivate his cronies. However, he has a great defect in looking at people, and often regards gold as stone.
One day, it was Xu Xiangqian's turn to be summoned. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Chiang Kai-shek sitting on a chair, armed with a sword, and a serious face, which made Xu Xiangqian, who had never seen the world, a little overwhelmed. The two talked in their own dialect, zhejiang Fenghua accent to Shangshan western dialect, think of that scene is also a bit funny.
Sure enough, due to Xu Xiangmune's personality and mechanical answer, the conversation ended quickly. Therefore, in Chiang Kai-shek's initial impression, Xu Xiangqian was a "non-outstanding" student. Chiang Kai-shek also misjudged Marshal Lin Biao in this way. Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek estimated that his nose was distorted by his own anger.
It was such a student who "did not show up", and later as the supreme military chief of the Red Army, the troops he led were wiped out by him one by one from the anti-"encirclement and suppression" operations in the Dabie Mountains of Eyu and Anhui, to the creation of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, to the arduous western expedition, and more than 100,000 Kuomintang troops were destroyed by him one by one.
Such a meritorious marshal, living a very simple life, dressed in "rustic style", known as "marshal of cloth".
In 1949, Xu Xiangqian led the People's Liberation Army to liberate Taiyuan City. Some relatives and friends in my hometown wanted to help them find an official and a half-job through Xu Xiangqian, but Xu Xiangqian refused and patiently preached. But there are still some people who do not understand, thinking that he is "not close to people, and the six relatives do not recognize."
Not only relatives and friends, his own sister, he is the same.
One day, Xu Xiangqian's two sisters came to him, hoping that he could help him in life, which made Xu Xiangqian a little troubled. Xu Xiangqian said to his sister, "I am a poor commander with an empty name!" We in the Communist Party all do things for the common people, and we cannot do things for ourselves. You come, you can only stay for a few days, I don't have anything to eat, you eat whatever I eat. I don't have anything to give you, everything is public! ”
The "poor commander" who did everything for the public created many firsts in the history of the People's Liberation Army.
During the Red Army period, among the Huangpu students of the Kuomintang and Communist Armies, Xu Xiangqian was the first to become the military commander of the Front.
Xu Xiangqian was the youngest of the front commanders during the Red Army period, and became the commander-in-chief of the front army at the age of only 30.
The first time the Red Army annihilated a whole division of the Kuomintang, it was the Battle of Shuangqiao Town commanded by Xu Xiangqian, and Yue Weijun was captured alive.
The Great Victory of Sujiafu commanded by Xu Xiangqian was the first shining example of the most successful encirclement point assistance during the Red Army period.
The anti-six-way siege was the largest number of enemy annihilations in the history of the Red Army, Xu Xiangqian used 80,000 people against the Sichuan army of more than 200,000, and finally defeated the Sichuan army of 200,000 and annihilated 100,000.
Among all the Red Army generals, Xu Xiangqian had the largest number of troops under his command, commanding 80,000 male divisions of the Red Fourth Front.
Xu Xiangqian was the first senior PLA general to command the plane.
The "tightening the position" tactic used by Xu Xiangqian in the anti-Six-Way Siege was the first time xu Xiangqian invented and successfully practiced it in the history of Chinese warfare.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Battle of Xiangtangpu commanded by Xu Xiangqian was the battle in which the Eighth Route Army destroyed the most Japanese cars at that time.
During his tenure as commander of the First Column of the Eighth Route Army, Xu Xiangqian was the commander of the Eighth Route Army with the largest number of troops and the highest status equivalent to that of the military commander at the level of the Front Army (he also commanded the communist armies of Shandong, Northern Jiangsu, and Huaibei, including the Shandong Column and the 115th Division).
The Battle of Linfen was one of the largest examples of the use of tunnel blasting tactics to capture cities in the Liberation War.
In the Battle of Jinzhong, Xu Xiangqian annihilated the enemy with 60,000 people a month and 100,000, which was one of the most successful examples of the most successful use of flexible and mobile movement tactics to win more with less in the entire Liberation War.
The Battle of Taiyuan was the most heavily fortified, the strongest position, and the most difficult urban offensive battle of the Kuomintang army conquered in the Liberation War. At the same time, it was also the first time in the Liberation War that the PLA had fewer troops than the Kuomintang army (about 100,000 in the People's Liberation Army: 130,000 in the Kuomintang army), and its firepower was far inferior to that of the Kuomintang army, but it dared to take the initiative to attack the city and was able to achieve a long-term siege of the city.
Xu Xiangqian spent a year and a half with 60,000 local troops to completely annihilate nearly 300,000 enemy troops in Shanxi.