The Huaihai War was first initiated by Su Yu. According to Su Yu's line of thinking, the Huaihai operation was limited to Lianyungang and other places, and the main troops were carried out by Huaye.
However, in the interaction between Su Yu and Mao Zedong, as an outstanding grand strategist, Chairman Mao cleverly expanded the scope of enemy annihilation to the enemy in the entire Xuzhou area, and also transferred the Central Plains Field Army commanded by Liu Chendeng to form a major campaign jointly carried out by the two major field armies.
In order to cooperate with the Huaye operation, Nakano, led by Liu Chendeng, took the lead in proposing a plan for Nakano to attack Zhengzhou first and mobilize the enemy forces in East China. This was agreed by Chairman Mao. As a result, Nakano decided that the Battle of Zhengzhou would be commanded and launched by Chen Deng.
When the Huaihai War was about to start, on October 31, 1948, Su Yu took the initiative to send a telegram to Chairman Mao from the overall situation of the Zhunhai battlefield, proposing: "The scale of this battle is very large, please ask Commander Chen and Political Commissar Deng to command in a unified manner." ”
Su Yu proposed this, first, to seek a unified command of the war, and second, to respect Liu Chen Deng (Chen Yi was still the commander of Huaye at this time).
Chairman Mao quickly replied to Su Yu's suggestion. On November 1, Chairman Mao called back and agreed: "The entire campaign is under the command of Chen and Deng. ”
At this time, Liu Bocheng was the commander of the Central Plains Field Army, and among the three "Liu Chen Deng", Liu was the first. Su Yu sent a telegram to Chairman Mao, why did he only mention that Chen Deng was commanded, and did not mention Liu?—— which made many people puzzled later, and even doubted the personal relationship between Su Yu and Liu Shuai.
Actually, that's not the case.
Su Yu only mentioned Chen Deng, mainly because the Zhengzhou Campaign and Kaifeng Campaign, which had been launched in cooperation with Huaye at this time, were all commanded by Chen Deng. Liu Bocheng led two columns to fight in western Henan, not with Chen and Deng, and it is unknown whether he participated in the Huaihai Campaign. It is precisely because of this that Su Yu did not mention Liu.
However, after Chairman Mao determined that the Huaihai Campaign would be jointly carried out by the two major field armies of Huaye and Zhongye, on November 5, Liu Bocheng and Chief of Staff Li Da hurried over from western Henan to join Chen Deng, and Zhongye became jointly commanded by Liu Chen and Deng. Therefore, subsequently, Chairman Mao and others' instructions for Zhongye and even the entire Huaihai Campaign were "Liu Chen Deng" in Zhongye, Liu was still at the forefront, and Liu Bocheng was also ranked first in the ranking of the members of the General Front Committee of the Huaihai Campaign.
Chen Guanren's book "The Ten Marshals of the Chinese People's Liberation Army: The Little-Known History of the Ten Commanders of the People's Liberation Army" published by the CPC History Publishing House recounted the incident, which is the society's annual bestseller and once ranked first on China's military bestseller list (pictured).