Today, let's take stock of the 6 "firsts" in the history of our army created by the founding marshal Xu Xiangqian during the Red Army period!
1. Xu Xiangqian was the first Whampoa student to serve as the military chief of the Front Army.
In April 1924, Xu Xiangqian was admitted to the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy. In 1929, he served as a member of the Special Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Hubei-Henan Border and Chairman of the Military Committee of the Hubei-Henan Revolutionary Committee. In 1931, he was elected as a member of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese Soviet Republic, and served as the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army and the commander of the Fourth Army.
2. Xu Xiangqian is the youngest commander of the Front Army
In 1931, when Xu was the former commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front Army, he was only 30 years old.
3. The great victory in Sujiabu commanded by Xu Xiangqian was the first glorious example of the most successful encirclement and reinforcement during the Red Army period.
From late March to early May 1932, the Red Fourth Front Army encircled and reinforced the Kuomintang troops in the Sujiabu area of western Anhui, which lasted 48 days, annihilated more than 30,000 Kuomintang troops, captured the enemy's commander-in-chief Li Shiding and 5 brigade commanders, and more than 18,000 officers and soldiers below 12 regiment commanders, captured more than 15,000 rifles, 250 machine guns, 44 artillery pieces, and 5 radio stations, shot down 1 enemy plane, and liberated the vast area east of the Weihe River. This battle created an unprecedented victory in the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Region with the largest scale, the largest number of captures, the smallest cost, and the greatest results.
Fourth, the "anti-six-way siege" in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet region commanded by Xu Xiangqian was the largest number of enemies annihilated in the history of the Red Army.
In October 1932, Liu Xiang, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan "Suppression of Bandits", organized the warlord troops in Sichuan into six routes, distributed in the eastern, southern, and western surrounding areas of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, and launched an attack on the Red Army with an absolute superiority of troops (about 200,000 people). Xu Xiangqian commanded 80,000 Red Army troops to meet the attack, creatively using the tactics of "tightening the position" and adopting the operational policy of "actively defending and luring the enemy into depth" to defeat the Sichuan troops from all directions, killing and wounding more than 60,000 prisoners and surrendering more than 30,000 guns. This was a battle in the history of the Red Fourth Front Army that was "the largest, the longest lasting, and brilliantly successful."
The "tightening of the position" tactic used by Xu Xiangqian in the anti-six-way siege was invented and successfully practiced for the first time in the history of Chinese warfare.
5. Among all the Red Army generals, the number of troops commanded by Xu Xiangqian is the largest!
The Red Fourth Front Army commanded by Xu Xiangqian had more than 80,000 Red Army members, the Red First Army Corps commanded by Lin Biao and the Red Third Army Corps commanded by Peng Dehuai did not exceed 20,000, and the Red Second Army Corps commanded by He Long was less than 10,000.
6. Xu Xiangqian was the first senior commander of the Red Army to command an airplane operation.
In March 1930, the Red Army captured a lost German two-winged Junkers trainer and pilot of the Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang at Xuanhuadian, which was later named "Lenin"! On August 9, 1931, the Lenin flew over Wuhan for reconnaissance. In November of the same year, in the battle of the Red Fourth Front Army attacking Huang'an County, the Lenin carried mortar shells into the air and bombed the headquarters of the 69th Division of the Kuomintang.
It is worth noting that in the spring of 1931, Yue Weijun's 34th Division of the National Revolutionary Army was surrounded by the Red Fourth Army in Shuangqiao Town, Dawu County, and was completely annihilated, and the headquarters of the 34th Division, its three regiments, an artillery battalion and a special service company were completely annihilated, more than 5,000 people were captured, more than 2,000 guns and 14 guns were captured, Yue Weijun was captured alive and executed the following year. This was the first example of the Red Army annihilating an entire division of the Kuomintang army.
Most netizens believe that the victory of Shuangqiao was commanded by Xu Xiangqian, but according to military historical data, the commander of the Red Fourth Army at that time was Kuang Jixun, the political commissar was Yu Dusan, the chief of staff was Xu Xiangqian (concurrently the commander of the 73rd Division), and the director of the Political Department was Cao Dajun, and the secretary of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Special Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Military Commission at that time was Zeng Zhongsheng! The commanders of this campaign should be Zeng and Kuang, and Xu should only be assisted! Therefore, I don't think this "first" should be counted as Xu Xiangqian's creation!