preface
Among the 10 generals who were awarded the rank of general in 1955, Chen Geng and Su Yu were friends with each other.
Chen Geng is humorous and witty, and Su Yu does not smile and has a delicate heart.
Chen Geng was born in Huangpu, a secret agent military all-round talent; Chen Gengke was born in the Hakka family, and he slashed countless military industries with one knife and one shot.
Such two people, with diametrically opposite personalities, why can they become best friends?
The reason for this can only be the consistency of conscience and ideals in the heart.
Chen and Su were separated very early, but they met very late. During the Liberation War, they all became the "Five Tiger Generals" in Chairman Mao's heart.
Chen Geng was born in the first phase of Huangpu, and in contrast to the taciturn words of his disciple Lin Biao at the military academy, he was active by nature, very active, and because of his military and political integrity, he was outstanding, and together with his classmates Jiang Xianyun and He Zhihan, he became one of the well-known "Huangpu Three Masters" at that time.
Figure | General Chen Geng
In his early years on the battlefield of the Second Crusade of the Whampoa Student Army, he saved the life of Chiang Kai-shek, the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy and commander-in-chief of the Eastern Crusade Army, and quickly carried Chiang Kai-shek, who was preparing to commit suicide when he was defeated, off the battlefield and out of danger.
Chiang Kai-shek was very serious about Chen Geng who had the "virtue of regeneration", and later the Kuomintang became a rival in a life-and-death struggle, and Chen Geng, who went to Shanghai to treat his war wounds, accidentally became Chiang Kai-shek's prisoner for a while. Chiang Kai-shek did not particularly embarrass Chen Geng either, and When Soong Ching Ling and others came forward to intercede, they pushed the boat along the water and released Chen Geng on a horse.
In addition to saving Chiang Kai-shek's life, Chen Geng's peculiarity is that he was also an alumnus of Mao Zedong (together with a high school in Xiangxiang, Hunan Province) and a student.
As early as 1921, before entering the Whampoa Military Academy, Chen Geng worked half-time and "self-taught" at the Hunan Self-Study University founded by Mao Zedong in Changsha, and soon joined the CCP organization, becoming one of the earliest party members and belonging to the young "elders".
Mao Zedong said to him: "When you join the party, we will change from fellow countrymen and alumni to comrades-in-arms and comrades." ”
In front of Mao Zedong, he often did not dare to do anything.
One day during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, When Mao Zedong made a report at a meeting of military and political cadres in northern Shaanxi in Yan'an, Chen Geng suddenly stood up, walked up to the rostrum in full view of everyone, drank the water from the teacup on Mao Zedong's desk, and then smiled and said: "When you are thirsty, borrow the chairman's water to moisten your throat." ”
There was a moment of laughter on and off the stage, including Mao Zedong. This kind of treatment, which is high-ranking in the upper echelons of both sides of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, is owned only by Chen Geng alone.
He is 4 years older than Su Yu, a fellow countryman, and the two met later, but their fate was very early. Both of them participated in the Nanchang Uprising of August 1927 and were both junior officers of the "pawns of the revolutionary army".
Figure | Su Yu
Su Yu commanded Ye Ting's troops in the former enemy and then served as the guard squad leader of the rebel headquarters; Chen Geng commanded He Long's troops, the third rank of the officer, and was the commander of a battalion.
They all left a trace of pride in the "first shot" that was enough to be proud for life, and the rebel troops withdrew from Nanchang to guangdong in the south, and the two were wounded for the first time.
However, in the team of more than 30,000 people, they are in the headquarters and the front-line troops, the tasks are different, the war is extremely fierce and frequent, and the two have never met each other.
After the failure of the uprising, they quickly went their separate ways. Su Yu studied war with Zhu De and Mao Zedong in the Red Army ranks of Jinggangshan and the Central Soviet Region, and Chen Geng first followed Zhou Enlai in Shanghai to preside over the work of the CPC Central Committee, and later began to command troops under Xu Xiangqian in the Eyu-Anhui Soviet Region.
It was not until May 1933 that Chen Geng rushed to Ruijin, Jiangxi, in the Central Soviet District, to serve as the principal of the Red Army Infantry School, and was in the same war zone as Su Yu, then chief of staff of the Red 7Th Army, but still only known each other and never met.
Soon, Su Yu, Xun Huaizhou and others led the anti-Japanese advance team formed by the Red 7th Army to the east, while Chen Geng followed the main force of the Central Red Army of the Long March to the west, and from then on, they fought on different battlefields for a long time.
The first time we met was in December 1947. At this time, Su Yu was already the deputy commander in charge of the campaign command of the East China Field Army, that is, the actual military commander of the field army. Because commander Chen Yi soon left Huaye headquarters, he also independently commanded the main force of Huaye equivalent to two corps.
Chen Geng was the commander of the 4th Column under Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army, but more often than not, his unit was used by Mao Zedong as a small front, the well-known "Chen Xie Army" (including the 9th Column of the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Field Army), which for a time was directly under the command of the Central Military Commission.
In the past 20 years, the positions of squad leader and battalion commander have changed, Chen Geng has become a subordinate, and Su Yu has become a superior. Both have become well-known rising stars, galloping across the battlefield of liberation and making many military achievements.
Chen Yi, a veteran, told Mao Zedong: "I don't think our party has created many outstanding military experts in the past twenty years. Recently, Su Yu and Chen Geng have stood out one after another, and have a great future, and will advance side by side with Peng (Dehuai), Liu (Bocheng), and Lin (Biao). This was the "Five Tiger Generals" in Chen Yi's eyes, and Mao Zedong gladly called back and said: "What I have seen is very much, and I completely agree." ”
During the Liberation War, the two fought all over the fairy war and felt sorry for each other
In September 1947, Su Yu, who had transferred from Shandong to the Central Plains Battlefield, led the main force of the East China Field Army, and together with Liu Deng and Chen (Geng) Xie (Fuzhi), two large armies, passed through the Central Plains in the shape of a character and began to fight side by side with Chen Geng.
Three months later, Su Yu keenly discovered that Chiang Kai-shek had concentrated his forces, first to crush Liu Deng's army in Dabie Mountain, and then to attack the other two roads, and immediately asked Mao Zedong for war, saying that he would work with Chen Geng to cooperate with Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping for a long time to break Chiang Kai-shek's intentions. Mao Zedong immediately agreed, and also instructed Su Yu to unify the command of Chen Geng's men and horses, "along the Pinghan to the south to force Wuhan", chen Geng thus became Su Yu's direct subordinate.
Su Yu commanded two large armies and launched the Pinghan campaign, successively destroying more than 45,000 people of Chiang Kai-shek's reorganized 3rd Division, breaking more than 400 kilometers of roads, and conquering more than 50 important towns such as Xuchang. After Su Yu and Chen Geng met the teacher, they were very close to each other.
Chen Geng said, "It's better to be famous than to meet, I used to hear how powerful Su Yu was, but when I saw it today, I really got it." Su Yu was very modest, saying that Chen Geng was great.
Although they had only been together for more than 20 days, the two formed a deep friendship in the battle of blood and fire, and immediately infected the subordinates of both sides. The commanders and fighters of the two armies who cleaned up the battlefield pushed each other for the spoils of war. Chen Geng's subordinates said: We have only stopped in the front, and the actual credit should go to Comrade HuaYe. The officers and men of Huaye, on the other hand, happily assigned the best captured weapons to Chen Geng's troops according to Su Yu's orders.
What the heroes see is often slightly the same, and Su Yu and Chen Geng are no exception.
In the first phase of the Huaihai Campaign in November 1948, after Su Yu commanded the East China Field Army to surround the four corps of Huang Baitao's corps, he reminded the assault group that was responsible for the main attack to strictly distinguish between the fighting style of the moving enemy and the stationed enemy, and also ordered Nie Fengzhi's 9 columns to take close-in operation before the attack. However, the troops moved too quickly, and many preparations could not be completed, and the subsequent attack was blocked by Huang Baitao's tight-knit group of sons and mothers, and suffered no small setback.
Su Yu ordered the attack to stop, and that night summoned several commanders of the main offensive columns of the assault group to a meeting and decided to take several urgent measures, one of which was to clearly change the tactics from field attack to close force operation, and asked to use the dark night to dig the communication trench near the enemy-occupied village, 50 to 30 meters from the enemy's forward position. The officers and men of the assault group were immediately ordered to wield hoes and pickaxes, and the communication trenches that could be attacked and defended were quietly extended forward until they reached about 100 meters in front of Huang Baitao's position. The power of the close-in operation was quickly revealed, and after Hua Ye re-attacked, Huang Baitao's Ming Diao Dark Fort disappeared one by one along with the officers and soldiers inside, and finally the entire army was destroyed.
In the second phase of the subsequent Huaihai Campaign, the Central Plains Field Army of Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, and Deng Xiaoping surrounded and annihilated Huang Wei's corps as the main battlefield. Nakano Command called Mao Zedong and HuaYe: "It is estimated that the battle may be resolved within three days." But they encountered a situation similar to the beginning of Huaye's siege of Huang Baitao: a dense group of sub-mother bunkers and the strong firepower of the opponents, and the field raid-like attack was quickly blocked. Political Commissar Deng Xiaoping and Deputy Political Commissar Zhang Jichun recalled in the "Summary of operations to annihilate the Huang Wei Corps" submitted to Mao Zedong after the war:
In the first two days, we overestimated the depletion and confusion of the enemy's combat effectiveness and the enemy's strong defensive ability, so in combat, we carried out an overly fierce surprise attack, and our casualties were also the greatest in these two days, and the results were very small.
At that time, Chen Geng, who had returned to the command of Nakano Command, was sober. He believes that the most important thing at present is to carry out close-range operations and build strong offensive and defensive positions in order to hide the troops underground before the attack, which not only blocks the attack of the other side, but also reduces the casualties of the troops. At the same time, it is also necessary to gradually push the fortifications forward and compress the encirclement of Huang Wei. Therefore, he ordered the officers and men of the 4th Column to carry out close-in operations.
However, a person in charge of the Nakano Command believed that the progress of the close-in operation was too slow, and had already sent an estimate to the central authorities that "the battle could be resolved in three days", so he kept calling Chen Geng to speed up the attack. Chen Geng knew that it was inappropriate, and finally simply did not answer the phone and ordered to continue the forced operation.
At this moment, the telephone between Nakano Headquarters and Huaye Headquarters was connected, and Chen Yi immediately picked up the microphone to talk to Su Yu of Huaye. Su Yu, who had not seen each other for a long time, had just greeted Chen Yi, and Chen Yi could not wait to interrupt: Don't say it first. I ask you a question: What method did you use to beat Huang Baitao? ”
Su Yu had estimated that after Nakano switched from a mobile battle to a tough battle, the progress would inevitably be slower and the casualties would be larger. After Chen Yi took the initiative to inquire, Su Yu immediately told him: "Dig a pit, force the enemy position, and then suddenly launch an attack to divide and annihilate it." He also detailed the situation of Huaye's siege of Huang Baitao.
Chen Yi was very excited and said to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping next to him: "I think it is a good idea." They decided to "immediately use the 7th and 13th columns of Huaye to join the attack, and their tactics will still use the experience of milling." Liu Bocheng also called Chen Geng and said, "You are on the front line, you know the situation best, and you fight according to your situation!" ”
Chen Geng immediately let go of his hands and feet on the original basis to carry out close-forced operations, and the trenches tightened like a noose to the Huang Wei Corps in the encirclement.
Soon, Su Yu sent Huaye chief of staff Chen Shiyu to lead several columns of Huaye troops to support, including the 18th Army, one of Chiang Kai-shek's five main forces, and the Huang Wei Corps could not hold on, and soon collapsed, and the second phase of the operation ended.
Chen Geng sincerely admired Su Yu, who had repeatedly fought big and vicious battles and was full of wisdom and scheming. During the third phase of the Huaihai Campaign, he and political commissar Xie Fuzhi specially organized a special visiting group to study in Suyu's East China Field Army.
In January 1935, Chen Geng led a cadre regiment during the Long March to repel the sudden encounter with Guo Qixun of the Sichuan Army, and relieved the main force of the Red Army, Mao Zedong happily praised: "Chen Gengxing, you can become a military commander!" Just as Mao Zedong predicted that Su Yu "could command four or five hundred thousand troops in the future", and later served as the acting commander and acting political commissar of the East China Field Army, Chen Geng later served as the commander of the column for a long time, that is, the commander of the army (the column is equivalent to the army).
The friendship of gentlemen is as light as water
Su Yu also had always felt sorry for Chen Geng.
In September 1951, when Zhou Enlai and Zhu De found Su Yu and conveyed to his face the orders of the Central Committee and Mao Zedong to serve as deputy chief of general staff in charge of combat, he recommended Chen Geng and thought that Chen Geng was more suitable than himself, but he failed to do so.
Zhou En: The chairman and we have studied and decided that we want you to work in the General Staff. We have been thinking about this matter for a long time, and everyone thinks that you are the most suitable. ”
Soon after entering the General Staff, Su Yu considered running a high-level military engineering college, so he wrote a report to Mao Zedong. After Mao Zedong approved it, the first problem Su Yu encountered was to choose a suitable principal.
After much hesitation, he thought of Chen Geng again, thinking that Chen Geng had graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and had served as the principal of the "Red Pool" -- Red Army School during the war years, and was the most suitable candidate.
At this time, Chen Geng was still serving as deputy commander of the Volunteer Army and commander and political commissar of the 3 corps in the Korean battlefield, but the warring Sides were engaged in intermittent peace talks between China and the United States, and there was no major war on the front line, so Su Yu proposed to Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai to transfer him back to China, and immediately obtained approval.
Chen Geng immediately rushed back to China with a face of dust and became the first dean of the Military Engineering College. He did not live up to the expectations of his old comrades-in-arms, although he started from scratch, he soon made the Harbin Military Engineering Institute begin to take shape. Qian Xuesen later exclaimed: "Under the existing conditions on the mainland, it is also a miracle in the world to set up such a complete and comprehensive military technical academy in such a short period of time. ”
In October 1954, after Su Yu became the chief of the general staff, Chen Geng concurrently served as the deputy chief of the general staff as the dean of the Military Engineering College, and spent most of his time working in the general staff. Su Yu admired Chen Geng's ability to fight wars, and he also remembered his own recommendation a few years ago, and when the General Staff was working, he let Chen Geng take over his past duties: in charge of combat. When he was not in the General Staff for any reason, Su Yu often designated Chen Geng to act as chief of the General Staff and presided over the General Staff Department for him. After going out, once he thought of some important things, he was relieved to entrust Chen Geng to handle them.
In February 1956, Su Yu, who was recuperating in Guangzhou, learned that the plan to transfer 300,000 troops to participate in national defense projects had not yet been implemented, and immediately called Chen Geng, who was acting as his deputy, to once again recommend this major measure. The next day, he wrote a letter to Chen Geng and Huang Kecheng, secretary general of the Central Military Commission, and finally said: "I still repeatedly suggest that this year we must use about 300,000 people (or 200,000 people) to participate in the construction of the project, so as to buy time and strengthen national defense, just in case." He sent his special secretary to send the letter to Beijing. Chen Geng immediately relayed Su Yu's proposal to the Central Military Commission, and the General Office of the Central Military Commission soon printed and distributed Su Yu's letter to several principal responsible persons of the Central Military Commission.
Between the day and night, their feelings became more harmonious, and the two talked about everything, complemented each other, and became a model of cooperation and cooperation. Zhang Aiping, who is also deputy chief of the general staff, is a witness to this period of history. He later recalled that he missed and appreciated Su Yu's good leadership methods and his sincere friendship with his comrades. He also said: "Comrade Su Yu's period as commander-in-chief was the best period for the General Staff, and it was also the period when I was most happy. It can also be said that it is the best period for army building. ”
Su Yu took the initiative to take responsibility for Chen Geng. Once, he asked the Operations Department of the General Staff Department to come forward to a banquet for Major General Bao Erming, a Soviet expert and adviser to the War Department, and others, accompanied by Wang Shangrong, acting director of the War Department, and others to quanjude for dinner. At this time, the East China Military Region, which Xu Shiyou was actually in charge of, wanted to give a commendation to a division, and the Xinhua News Agency was ready to publish the news, calling the War Department and asking for the review of the news report. Because Wang Shangrong, acting director of the War Department, and others were in Quanjude, the duty officer who answered the phone passed the phone here. Wang Shangrong was inconvenient to handle official business at this time and asked him to relay it to Xinhua News Agency, and he could send the press release to Deputy Chief of General Staff Chen Geng for review.
When Xinhua delivered the manuscript, Chen Geng, who was sick, was already lying down to rest. After he was woken up, he heard the contributor say that the manuscript had been sent with the consent of the War Department, and thought that the War Department had read it, so he said, "Since the War Department has read it, it is okay." So Xinhua published the news the next day. When Liu Shaoqi, who is also the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, saw this, he immediately telephoned Su Yu and said solemnly: The Central Military Commission has already made a decision to praise units at or above the division level, and only the Central Military Commission has this kind of power, and the level of the large military region has no right to approve it. He asked Su Yu to inquire about the matter.
Su Yu only learned the truth of the matter after investigating. Wang Shangrong and others expressed responsibility for this matter, and Chen Geng immediately said that he agreed to it, and the responsibility should be borne by him. Su Yu said indignantly that he was the chief of the general staff and that he should bear the responsibility. After Liu Shaoqi learned of this, he said: "Your spirit is very good, and you can pay attention to it in the future." ”
Su Yu and Chen Geng knew each other and respected each other. At the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission in 1958, Su Yu was suddenly wrongly criticized, and when the mountain rain was about to come and the wind filled the building, Chen Geng was not afraid of pressure and spoke out for it. When he saw a material attacking "Su Yu will not fight at all," he said indignantly: Su Yu will not fight at all, so who else in China will fight, please stand up and let me see and understand. "It was one of the few fair words of the time that was loud and clear.
In February 1961, Chen Geng and Su Yu recuperated together in Shanghai. The two often gathered together to chat about ancient and modern times, and spent time together in illness. A month later, when Chen Geng was writing the book "Summary of Combat Experience", he suddenly had a heart attack and unfortunately died.
The proverbs are in the ears, and the Scythians are dead. Not long ago, there was also a lot of laughter, heroic and compelling friends, and in the blink of an eye, it was already yin and yang, and since then, "the poor and the blue have fallen into the yellow spring, and the two vast places are not seen", Su Yu is naturally very sad. Ignoring his weak body, he staggered to the hospital and saw Chen Geng for the last time. After Chen Geng was cremated, he also insisted on going to the airport with Li Kenong, Liao Zhongkai's daughter Liao Mengxing, and others to send off Chen Geng's ashes to Beijing. Until the plane disappeared into the vast clouds, he still refused to leave for a long time.
23 years later, Su Yu also arrived in heaven. Perhaps, they can cook wine again and talk for a long time.