In the northeast of Shanxi Province, at the junction with Hebei Province, there is a small county town named Wutai County, which is named after the famous Buddhist mountain Wutai Mountain in the territory.
Wutai County has a long history, humanities gathered, and a large number of influential figures have appeared in modern history, such as Yan Xishan, who is known as the "King of Shanxi", and Xu Xiangqian, who we are going to talk about today, Xu Xiangqian is the founding marshal of the Republic, ranking eighth among the top ten marshals, and the only northerner among the top ten marshals.
Let's talk about Xu Xiangqian's story.
Xu Xiangqian was born on November 8, 1901 in Yong'an Village, Wutai, Shanxi Province, to a talented family, and in his early years, Xu Xiangqian studied in his hometown for several years, but the family's collapse forced him to leave school in 1917 and go to a grocery store as an apprentice.
Xu Xiangqian did not succumb to fate, and relied on his own efforts to be admitted to the Shanxi National Normal Crash Course, and became a primary school teacher after graduation.
In the twenties of the last century, when China was in the dark Beiyang era, there were warlords fighting between warlords and imperialist humiliation outside.
In this case, Xu Xiangqian made a life-changing decision: abandon the pen and follow Rong.
In 1924, Xu Xiangqian was admitted to the first phase of the famous Whampoa Military Academy, and after graduation, he stayed in the school as a platoon commander and participated in the first crusade against the warlord Chen Jiongming.
After reading the articles of Lenin, Qu Qiubai, and Lu Xun, Xu Xiangqian realized that the Three People's Principles could not save China, and only Marxism could save China.
As a result, Xu Xiangqian gradually moved closer to communism.
In March 1927, when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were on the eve of the breakdown of their cooperation and faced a major choice, Xu Xiangqian officially joined the Communist Party of China under the introduction of Fan Bingxing and Yang Dekui.
On November 7, 1931, with the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet District troops as the main force, the Red Fourth Front Army was established in Qiliping, Huang'an, Hubei, and Xu Xiangqian served as the commander-in-chief, becoming the supreme military commander of the main force of the Red Army.
Due to the failure of the fourth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Red Fourth Front Army was still forced to leave Hubei, Henan, and Anhui and move to the Sichuan-Shaanxi area.
In mid-June 1935, the Red First Army and the Red Fourth Front Army successfully joined forces in Maogong, Sichuan, at that time, the central government's strategy was to go north and create a Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu base area, but Zhang Guotao relied on the strength of the people and horses to ask the central government for power.
The Left Route Army was composed of the 9th, 31st, and 33rd Armies of the Red Fourth Front Army and the 5th and 9th Army Corps of the Red Front Army, led by Zhu De and Zhang Guotao, and the Right Route Army was composed of the 1st and 3rd Army Corps of the Red Front Army and the 4th and 30th Armies of the Red Fourth Front Army, led by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao, Zhou Enlai, and Xu Xiangqian.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Guotao actually violated the decision of the Central Committee, led the Left Route Army south, and sent a secret telegram to Chen Changhao, ordering Chen to lead the Right Route Army to the south, at that time Chen Changhao was making a report, this telegram fell into the hands of Ye Jianying, the former chief of staff of the enemy's General Headquarters, Ye Jianying saw the content of the telegram, realized the seriousness of the matter, and immediately reported to the Party Central Committee.
After seeing the telegram, Chairman Mao found Zhang Wentian, Bogu, Zhou Enlai, Wang Jiaxiang and others for discussion, and they agreed that the Party Central Committee should immediately go north without hesitation.
At that time, the Party Central Committee had been working hard to win over Xu Xiangqian, and for this reason, on the evening of September 9, 1935, Chairman Mao specially found Xu Xiangqian to talk, what was Xu Xiangqian's attitude at that time?
Xu Xiang前后来回忆道:
"I'm conflicted inside. On the one hand, I have been unhappy to work with Zhang Guotao and Chen Changhao for several years, and I want to leave them as soon as possible. After the two armies met, I told Chen Changhao that I wanted to go to the central authorities to do some specific work, and this was indeed what I said from my heart. On the other hand, if the Right Route Army went north alone, it would be tantamount to dividing the Fourth Front Army into two halves, and it would not be willing to do so. The Four Front Army has developed since I was a child, and everyone has worked hard and shed a lot of blood and sweat to form such a team, which is really not easy! Splitting into two halves and going one side on the other side is intellectually and emotionally difficult for me to accept, and this may be my weakness. ”
Finally, Xu Xiangqian said:
"Since the two armies have already met, it is not appropriate to separate them again, but it is probably not good to divide the four armies into two halves."
After learning about Xu Xiangqian's attitude, Chairman Mao led the 1st and 3rd Army Corps and the Military Commission column of the Right Route Army to quietly leave that night, and arrived at the Russian border in Diebe County on the southern border of Gansu two days later.
When the soldiers of the Red Fourth Front Army of the Right Route Army found out that the Central Red Army was leaving, they immediately asked Chen Changhao and Xu Xiangqian for instructions on the question of "whether to fight or not." Only then did Xu Xiangqian say the classic sentence "How can the Red Army fight the Red Army."
However, Xu Xiangqian did not go north this time, but carried out Zhang Guotao's decision to go south, which still made him regret it so much that in his later years, he still thought that he had "made a mistake that he would be ashamed of for the rest of his life".
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao still entrusted Xu Xiangqian with important responsibilities regardless of his previous suspicions, appointed him as the chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, and also let Xu Xiangqian serve as vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission in 1954, and in 1955, Xu Xiangqian was awarded the rank of marshal and became a banner of the Red Fourth Front Army.
In 1966, Xu Xiangqian was reappointed vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, a position he held until 1988, and in 1978, Xu Xiangqian also served as vice premier and minister of national defense, and participated in leading the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam.
In 1988, Xu Xiangqian actively responded to Deng Xiaoping's policy of making cadres younger, and took the initiative to resign from the posts of vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and vice premier of the State Council, and died of illness on September 21, 1990 at the age of 89.