Among the founding generals, Marshal Xu Xiangqian seems quite mysterious, and the mystery here is not to say that he is mysterious, but to say that his achievements, for example, compared with the four generals of Lin, Peng, Liu, and Su, Xu Shuai's influence on the record is obviously much lower than these four.
However, this does not mean that Xu Shuai's military ability is weak or unable to fight, but because of physical limitations, Xu Shuai did not have many opportunities to play during the Liberation War.
In the battle to liberate Shanxi, Xu Shuai not only embodied superb command art, but also showed his original unique skill to the fullest, even if it was as strong as Mr. Lin, Liu Shuai and even Su Yu, no one could grasp the essence.
What is the unique job? This conversation has to start with Xu Shuai's early highlight moments.
One
As early as the Agrarian Revolution, Xu Shuai led the Red Fourth Front Army to gallop on the battlefield, and during this period, Xu Shuai's highlight moment was the battle against the six-way siege in the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet District.
Since February 1933, under the leadership of Xu Shuai, the Red Fourth Front Army has won many victories in battles, including Yinan, Yingqu, and Xuanda, and the Eastern Sichuan Guerrilla Army has also merged with the Red Fourth Front Army, so that the size of the army has not only expanded to more than 80,000 people in five armies, but also the scale of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area has also developed greatly.
This was naturally a good thing for the Red Fourth Front Army, but it made it difficult for the warlords in Sichuan to sleep.
You must know that when Xu Shuai first came to the Sichuan-Shaanxi border with his troops, he only had 20,000 people under his command, and his combat power was quite limited, but with his limited strength, Xu Shuai keenly seized the opportunity of the Sichuan warlords to fight continuously, not only established the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, but also defeated the many attacks of the enemy Tian Songyao's troops, and completely gained a firm foothold in Sichuan-Shaanxi.
By August 1933, the strength of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area had reached the scale of more than 80,000 troops in five armies.
From the data alone, it cannot fully reflect how strong Xu Shuai's ability is, and the reaction of the enemy at that time profoundly interprets this point.
At the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi, there were still more than ten large and small warlords in Sichuan at that time, such as Liu Xiang, Liu Wenhui, etc., and the warlords were constantly fighting and fighting in the years because of their territory and interests.
However, with the continuous expansion of the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area and the expansion of troops, these warlords could not sit still, and it happened that Liu Xiang, who was the strongest at that time, had an advantage among the warlords, so he proposed that everyone might as well stop the internal strife for the time being and work together to deal with the Red Army first, otherwise, no one would be able to sleep soundly.
This proposal was not only approved by a group of warlords, but also agreed by Chiang Kai-shek, and in this way, an "alliance" led by Liu Xiang was born.
In order to completely exterminate the Red Army, Chiang Kai-shek also vigorously supported Liu Xiang, allocating more than 2 million yuan for military expenses alone, and countless other types of weapons, with only one purpose, that is, to completely exterminate the Red Army led by Xu Xiangqian.
After that, Liu Xiang gathered more than 200,000 troops, and the army was divided into six routes, and they came towards the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area.
can make the warlords with different hearts "unite" together, and put on a six-way siege posture, which is enough to show how strong Xu Xiangqian's military ability is, otherwise, the warlords would not have gone to such great lengths and just attacked directly.
Therefore, Liu Xiang, who was strong and strong, confidently believed that with this well-planned six-way siege, it would be difficult for him to fly forward, but the final result was that the "six-way siege" was completely bankrupt, and Liu Xiang returned in embarrassment after paying the losses of more than 80,000 people.
How did Xu Xiangqian achieve victory? To sum it up in eight words, it is to lure the enemy into depth and resist step by step.
Of course, it is easy to say, but it is very difficult to do, and if you want to lead the enemy without having an advantage in troops, and at the same time be able to make the right response in each link, you need to have a very high ability to control the situation.
And Xu Xiangqian happens to have this superb ability to control the situation.
For example, at the beginning of the war, Xu Xiangqian's response strategy was to first move and defend, and then in the process of defense, combined with the actual situation of each unit, he fought in a purposeful and rhythmic manner, so as to constantly attrition and exhaustion of the attacking enemy.
In the first stage of the offensive, the Red Fourth Front Army accurately seized the time when the enemy crossed the river to half-cross, and annihilated more than 3,000 enemies in one fell swoop.
Similar examples can be seen everywhere in the counter-six sieges, from the first stage of the operation to the fourth stage of the operation, such tactics as "detour", "surprise attack", "flank attack", "luring the enemy into depth" and so on abound, and it was precisely the proper use of these tactics that ultimately led to the victory of the Red Army.
And we all know that tactics are not too uncommon and profound, but anyone who has been in the army for several years can almost say one, two, three, even ordinary people, influenced by traditional culture, can also say one or two.
But these tactics are not unusual, why do some people be able to use them like fish in water, while others have repeatedly suffered defeats? In fact, there is only one core, that is, whether or not they will control the game.
To control the situation wisely, we not only need to have an accurate grasp of information and intelligence, but also need to have a keen grasp of the situation, and at the same time, we must also know the enemy and ourselves well, and only in this way can we make correct countermeasures at the right time.
This is like playing chess, when to lose which piece, and which strategy to use to force the opponent to follow their own ideas, are highly knowledgeable, and must have accurate control of the overall situation, as well as people who have timely and suitable countermeasures.
And Xu Xiangqian, is such a person, he not only has a grand view of the overall situation, but also fine detail control, for the enemy's six-way army, respectively, given different ways of targeting, the use of the terrain to use the terrain, the show of weakness to lure the enemy to show weakness, decisive attack without hesitation, lure the enemy deep when the initiative to give up part of the position, in short, is a variety of different tactics, the use of the extreme.
Therefore, when Liu Xiang met Xu Shuai, he was really unjust.
Two
In the 1938 Xiangtangpu battle, in the face of more than twice the expected Japanese army, Xu Shuai skillfully used ambush encirclement, division and annihilation, the Japanese army was annihilated.
However, whether it is the anti-six sieges or the battle of Xiangtangpu, it is more a reflection of Xu Shuai's ability to command and fight, not all of Xu Shuai's talents, his biggest and strongest place lies in "turning decay into magic", that is, he can turn second- and third-rate troops into trump cards.
This point was extremely well reflected during the liberation of Shanxi during the Liberation War.
In June 1947, Liu and Deng led the main force of the Jincha-Lu-Henan Field Army to break through the Yellow River and enter the Dabie Mountain Mountains.
Liu, Deng, Chen, and Xie almost emptied the troops of Jinchalu and Henan, and the remaining regular troops were pitiful, and at the same time, Yan Xishan, who had an army of 100,000, was still eyeing Taiyuan and could launch an attack on our weak army at any time, so the situation in the Jincha-Luyu Military Region at that time was really not optimistic.
It was in this situation that the situation was quite unoptimistic, that Xu Shuai was ordered to come to the Shanxi-Chahar-Lu-Henan Military Region and took on the important task of liberating Shanxi.
However, relying on a small number of pitiful regular troops and a small number of local armed forces, it is difficult to even keep the existing liberated areas, let alone liberate Shanxi.
What should I do? Just when everyone was scratching their heads and anxious, Xu Shuai made a move.
He first tried his best to expand his troops, and in four months, he expanded the size of the troops of the Shanxi-Chahar-Lu-Henan Military Region to more than 60,000 people, which can be regarded as having a certain strength in his hands.
However, this is only the beginning, and we must know that the vast majority of these 60,000-odd people were formed from local armed forces such as county brigades and guerrilla units, and they are much inferior to the regular troops in terms of combat skills, combat experience, ideological style, and organizational discipline.
Obviously, the combat effectiveness of such troops is very limited, and if these units are sent directly to the battlefield, they will suffer great losses.
Therefore, military training has become a top priority at the moment, but military training is different from other countries in that it takes a certain period of time to complete, but the situation at that time does not allow it to take too long, so how to make soldiers become soldiers with a certain combat awareness and combat ability in a short period of time has become a new topic.
In response to this problem, Xu Shuai, who has many years of experience in leading and training troops, made three actions.
First, adhering to the tenet of "sweating more in training and less bloodshed in combat", strict requirements have been set for the basic training of the soldiers, and the reason for this is because Xu Shuai knows too well what the results of "driving sheep and fighting tigers" will be, so in line with the idea of being responsible for the lives of the soldiers, the training must be increased in intensity and standards.
Xu Shuai formulated detailed standards and requirements for subjects such as night marches, ambush raids, and enemy breakthroughs, and personally went down to the grassroots level to correct problems in training, setting a high standard example for the soldiers by teaching by word and deed.
How can a commander who does not sit in the command room, but trains with the soldiers, not make everyone admire? And with such a flaunt, which soldier will be lazy?
Second, it is to control the training subjects, and the purpose is to train what is needed in actual combat.
As everyone knows, Shanxi is the base camp of Yan Xishan, and under Yan Xishan's many years of operation, the important towns under his control have basically been turned into fortresses.
At that time, our army lacked heavy siege weapons, so if it relied on firepower alone, it was obviously extremely difficult to overcome these fortified fortified cities, and it would also be counterattacked by the enemy because of the long-term attack, and there would be a large number of casualties.
Therefore, in view of this situation, Xu Shuai did not rigidly train some basic subjects, but on this basis, increased the training of tunnel operations and blasting operations, the purpose of which was to use tunnels and blasting to break the fortified city of Yan Xishan in the process of siege.
And this kind of targeted training did play a huge role in the subsequent battles, such as the Battle of Yuncheng and the Battle of Linfen, in the face of the enemy's solid city defense, our army with fast and accurate tunnel operations and blasting operations, with ground advancement, and finally achieved victory.
Among them, especially in the Battle of Linfen, Yan Xishan was once known as the "copper wall and iron wall" of Linfen City, but with the cooperation of our army's tunnel and blasting, it was completely breached, Yan Xishan lamented afterwards, "I didn't expect Xu Xiangqian to be so powerful."
Third, it is to pay attention to details, especially in the training of cadres.
After Liu Deng's army moved south, it took a large number of cadres with it, and this led to a large number of vacancies in cadres at all levels in the Shanxi-Chahar-Lu-Henan Military Region.
As the so-called train runs fast, it all depends on the headband, and the grassroots cadres in the battle are particularly important, so in order to let the cadres have the corresponding ability, Xu Shuai did not hesitate to drag the sick body to do everything in person, and taught everyone how to fight and command.
After a series of training by Xu Shuai and the dual role of practice in small-scale actual combat, the 60,000 local armed forces of the Shanxi-Chahar-Lu-Henan Military Region have grown rapidly, from a partial division before, to an elite army that can fight tough battles and is good at attacking tough fortifications.
The Yuncheng Campaign, the Linfen Campaign, the Jinzhong Campaign and even the Taiyuan Campaign, one victory after another, is the best proof of Xu Shuai's training results, among which the Linfen Campaign has emerged such a trump card unit as the "Linfen Brigade".
Therefore, Xu Shuai is like a master who is good at "turning decay into magic", and can use his unique training skills under limited conditions to build an average unit with average combat power into an elite division, which is something that few people can do when looking at the whole army.
As strong as Mr. Lin and Mr. Peng, they have always led troops to lead the main force, and the same is true for Liu Shuai, and Su Yu is stronger than the command of the large corps, so it is not an exaggeration to say that this is Xu Shuai's unique "unique skill".
Three
Of course, there are many people in our army who are good at leading troops, and effective ways of leading troops are not uncommon, but why is Xu Shuai the best at "turning decay into magic"?
Personally, I think that in addition to his scientific method of leading and training soldiers, the reason why he will achieve the effect of turning stones into gold is that he has the heart of "loving soldiers and cherishing soldiers".
There are two small examples, which best reflect Xu Shuai's attitude of loving soldiers like children.
The first is that after Liu Deng's army went south, Xu Shuai came to Jinchalu and Henan at the beginning, when the enemy knew that the main force of our army was going south, so he increased the bombing of the organs of the Jinchalu and Henan Military Region, and from time to time he sent planes to come to air raids.
In an air raid, when everyone heard the sound of the plane, they quickly began to hide, but somehow, a sentry was stunned and stood there motionless.
Seeing that the enemy plane had already arrived, standing like this would undoubtedly become a live target, at the moment of emergency, Xu Shuai, who had already been hidden, quickly jumped out, knocked the soldier down, and then quickly grabbed him and rolled to the side.
At the same time, the enemy planes began to strafe wildly, and a long line of bullets hit the place where the fighter had just been standing.
If Xu Shuai hadn't dragged the soldier away in time, I'm afraid that the soldier would have died at this time, and this scene made the people present extremely impressed, not only did Xu Shuai save him in time, but also Xu Shuai, as the commander of the army, still valued and loved an ordinary soldier so much, and did not hesitate to risk his life to save him.
Another example is Xu Shuai's tantrum.
After the Battle of Jinzhong began, because of Xu Shuai's frequent strategies, the troops continued to win victories, but at the same time, one of the brigades caused a lot of losses because of the commanders and fighters' rigid tactics and commands.
After learning of this, Xu Shuai lost his temper and severely criticized the commander, "The peasant brothers finally raised their sons and sent them to the army to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, but we blindly commanded and commanded, like this practice of not cherishing the lives of soldiers, can we, the commanders, sleep?"
And the generals who have followed Xu Shuai also have memories, saying that Xu Shuai is quite strict with the commanders and fighters in terms of the style of leading troops, and what he hates the most is the kind of command style that is brutal and hard-working.
It can be seen from here that Xu Shuai loves soldiers like a son, and it is precisely because of this that he will enjoy a very high prestige in the army, so that the soldiers respect and support him, and with such a foundation, coupled with his scientific and effective way of leading troops, he finally built a partial division into a trump card elite who can fight well, and achieved a series of military miracles in the liberation of Shanxi.