General Su Yu has been a commander three times, selfless dedication, and has also made meritorious service, morality, and speech, and is a model for the whole army.
In particular, during his tenure as chief of the General Staff, General Su Yuda made extremely outstanding contributions to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people, which is enough to shine in the annals of history; the strategic general reserve force he envisioned has become a reality after more than half a century, and this has also pushed our army to a higher level.
Do your best to build a new army
During the years of the Revolutionary War, especially the War of Liberation, Su Yu thoroughly demonstrated his superb command art, and he also made outstanding contributions to the Chinese Revolution.
Su Yu, known as the "God of War", fought many great victories in the East China Battlefield, including the Battle of Laiwu, the Battle of Menglianggu and even the later Huaihai Campaign, which mainly relied on Su Yu, and the military once believed that Su Yu was a genius who commanded a large corps to fight.
Therefore, when the situation in the country gradually stabilized, it was a matter of Chairman Mao's mind to consider who should be appointed to the post of chief of the General Staff.
Some comrades recommended Gao Gang and others, but these people were all vetoed by Chairman Mao, and some comrades recommended veteran revolutionary qualifications, but Chairman Mao still had his own considerations.
The reason why Su Yu was chosen can be said to be overwhelming.
Su Yu participated in the Nanchang Uprising, but also participated in the Jinggangshan struggle, although the time of the revolution was very early, but did not go through the Long March, he would fight alone in the south, later, he stayed alone in the southern battlefield, and the intersection with other well-known generals is relatively small, it can be said that his communication with Peng Dehuai, Nie Rongzhen and other generals is insufficient.
The General Staff is the command center of the Chinese armed forces and plays an extremely important role, which cannot be determined solely by military capabilities.
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was Xu Xiangqian who served as chief of the General Staff, and Xu Shuai said: "Learning from the world's advanced experience and technology is an important means for the rapid development of China's armed forces. ”
For this reason, he also personally proposed to Chairman Mao that a general staff should be established, so that the relations between the various arms of the armed forces could be better coordinated and the overall effectiveness of the Chinese army could be improved; this line of thinking was also completely correct in China at that time; in a state where everything was in ruins, studying was itself the quickest way, and it stands to reason that Xu Xiangqian should have been focusing on this work from now on.
However, Xu Shuai's physical condition at that time was not good, he felt mentally exhausted due to long-term fatigue, and various illnesses on his body were also getting worse.
Su Yu joined the General Staff in 1952, during which time he also handled a large number of military affairs and made important contributions to the strategic and tactical development of the Chinese army.
In 1954, the First National People's Congress decided to establish the Ministry of National Defense in the State Council, and Peng Dehuai served as Minister of National Defense and Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission from September 1954.
At that meeting, the leadership structure of the armed forces did not change, and the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China was still directly responsible for leading the general departments and commanding the armed forces.
As a result, some troublesome things are bound to arise.
Once, General Zhang Zhen sent documents to Su Yu and found that this battle-hardened general was crying, so he hurriedly went up to ask the reason.
It turned out that after Peng Dehuai presided over the executive work of the Central Military Commission, Su Yu took into account some factors and showed Peng Dehuai a lot of documents to be submitted to Chairman Mao, but Peng Dehuai said unhappily: "If you want to send documents, you can send them yourself, and I will not be your correspondent." ”
So, Su Yu took the documents to Chairman Mao again, Chairman Mao read them and asked Peng Dehuai for his opinions, but Peng Dehuai didn't read these documents at all and didn't know how to express his opinions, these things made Su Yu very sad, and he didn't know which information needed to be reported directly to Chairman Mao and which information should be conveyed to Peng Dehuai in advance.
Moreover, Chairman Mao also asked Peng Dehuai to carry forward the role of the Ministry of National Defense, and some unclear documents Su Yu did not know whether to issue them in the name of the General Staff Department or in the name of the Ministry of National Defense, and was often criticized by Peng Dehuai.
These things add up to make Su Yu even more depressed, he can be strong in the face of strong enemies in the past, but this battle-hardened general doesn't know how to deal with interpersonal relationships at all.
Chairman Mao took into account the problem of coordination of the work of the generals, so he asked Chen Geng to be Su Yu's deputy.
Chen Geng's identity at that time was the dean of the Military Engineering Academy and deputy chief of the general staff, Su Yu and him were close friends, so he often asked him to take over his responsibility of "in charge of operations", even if it was an important matter, Su Yu was completely at ease with Chen Geng.
On one occasion, Su Yu arranged for Wang Shangrong, vice minister of the Operations Department of the General Staff Department, and others to accompany Soviet experts and advisers to a banquet at the Quanjude Restaurant in Beijing; at the same time, when the East China Military Region was preparing to commend the outstanding performance of the First Division, the Xinhua News Agency planned to issue a report and contacted the War Department for review.
When the manuscript was delivered, Chen Geng was already resting due to physical discomfort, and after being woken up and informed that the manuscript had been approved by the War Department, Chen Geng approved the release without review, thinking that it had been properly reviewed, and as a result, the Xinhua News Agency published the news the next day.
As soon as this news came out, Liu Shaoqi immediately contacted Su Yu and solemnly pointed out that the Central Military Commission had already stipulated that commendations for units at and above the division level must be directly approved by the Central Military Commission, and that the large military regions had no right to carry out such commendations, and he asked Su Yu to investigate the matter, and Wang Shangrong and other relevant personnel were willing to take responsibility, but Chen Geng immediately came forward and said that he approved it and that he should bear the responsibility; Su Yu, as chief of the general staff, insisted that the responsibility should ultimately be borne by himself.
In addition to Chen Geng, Chairman Mao, in order to increase Su Yu's authority, also assigned Su Yu a number of deputies, including Huang Kecheng, who, like Chen Geng, was awarded the rank of general in 1955.
It can be said that if you want to give Su Yu a deputy position, you must at least have the rank of founding general, and there are no lieutenant generals and major generals.
With "green leaves lined with saffron", Su Yu can wholeheartedly focus on how to reform the army.
A big idea
In the 50s, Su Yu learned a lot about the methods of warfare that took place abroad, and he also knew that the biggest risk in the future would come from imperialism.
The Kuomintang is a strong foreign cadre and a corrupt party, and its defeat is inevitable.
However, the future enemy will no longer be like the Kuomintang, but imperialism armed to the teeth, so it is necessary to strengthen the building of the navy, air force, and army special forces.
This is definitely a heavy burden, and Su Yu also racked his brains for it.
New China has only been founded for a few years, the people's living standards have not yet been fundamentally improved, the country's financial resources are also very limited, and it is impossible to spend too much money on national defense and army building because it has to develop the economy and cope with wars.
Su Yu often pondered and formed his own principle for building arms: Focus on developing the air force, and at the same time build up a capable and efficient navy and army armored and artillery units; no matter how you build a navy and an army, when facing an enemy with superior technology and equipment, only under efficient air cover can you carry out outstanding combat missions.
It is precisely the predicament that is considered behind giving priority to the development of the air force, because the construction period of the air force is short, the investment is small, and it is also possible to directly purchase equipment from the Soviet Union; the construction of the navy is the longest period, and it costs a lot of money, and the time for forming combat strength is relatively long, and it is also very difficult to build a powerful navy in a short period of time, and naval construction should give way to the construction of the air force.
Moreover, in the process of developing the navy, priority should be given to the development of submarines and torpedo boats to meet the actual operational needs as soon as possible.
Since the day the Chinese Navy was founded, it has always taken "coastal defense" as its goal, and it is precisely with Su Yu's efforts that our army has quickly completed the transformation from a single branch of the armed forces to a combined army of various arms.
The Air Force has formed 27 divisions and 74 regiments with more than 3,000 aircraft, and the Navy has formed 23 independent warship brigades, including 6 aviation divisions, 19 coastal artillery regiments, and 8 air defense regiments.
After having these arms, Su Yu was still considering whether to establish a strategic reserve.
The strategic reserve is deployed in areas that are convenient for mobility, and in peacetime it is under the leadership of each military region, but it is not incorporated into the battle sequence of each military region.
At that time, some voices also pointed out: Now the whole country belongs to the PLA, and if war breaks out, then the high command can completely temporarily transfer troops from various military regions to organize reserves.
Su Yu did not fail to consider this problem, in his concept, if the war is started and then temporarily transferred, it will naturally disrupt the operational plans of various military regions, and in addition, if a large-scale war breaks out, the enemy will quickly lose fighter planes after the transportation is destroyed.
Generals with outstanding achievements, including Han Xianchu, Chen Geng, Yang Dezhi, and Chen Xilian, can all be commanders of the Strategic Command.
During the discussion, the Central Military Commission held that the Air Force has not yet organized a regular unit, and it will wait until the Air Force has the conditions to set up a general strategic reserve and a strategic command.
If this strategic reserve is successfully formed, then the operation efficiency of the subsequent Zhenbao Island War, the self-defense counterattack war against India, and the self-defense counterattack war against Vietnam will be even more efficient.
Many years later, on December 31, 2015, the Strategic Support Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was established, which is the fifth largest branch of the military after land, sea and air rockets, and has also become a new combat force for safeguarding national security.
Against the current background, the newly established strategic support force may include five major areas: intelligence, technical reconnaissance, electronic countermeasures, network attack and defense, and psychological warfare, as well as special operations and logistical support.
Su Yu's idea finally became a reality, and the general's forward-looking thinking can also be seen.
Resources
- Su Yu's Staff Contribution to the Modernization of the Army and National Defense in the Early Years of New China Yu Huiduo Cui Luchun History of the Party in Beijing
- General Su Yu wept for what Xie Wushen century