Among the founding generals of new China, which general has a super high standard of the memorial service after his death and enjoys the same treatment as the party and state leaders?
This person is Liu Yalou, the first commander of the Air Force.
Speaking of Liu Yalou, why can he have such a high treatment?
Some people say that Liu Yalou was the third person in the Northeast Field Army during the Liberation War. Although he is a general, he is far more highly valued than the average general, otherwise he would not have been appointed as the commander of the air force.
Like Xu Guangda and Xiao Jinguang, who served as commanders of armored troops and navies, they were all ranked as great generals.
Those who have the above views are not correct.
From the perspective of the war years, Liu Yalou's battle record was only in the Red Army and the Liberation War, and there were not a few people who had higher merits and greater achievements than him.
Speaking of being the commander of the Air Force, it is only because he studied in the Soviet Union, knows Russian, and can better communicate in cooperation between the two militaries. The same is true of Xu Guangda and Xiao Jinguang, which have nothing to do with military ranks at all.
Liu Yalou's greatest contribution was not in the war years, but in the construction of the air force in peacetime.
After the founding of New China, the Air Force had only a few Kuomintang uprising aircraft, and in order to develop and build the Air Force, it was necessary to train pilots and introduce Soviet equipment.
With the efforts of Liu Yalou, 6 aviation schools were established. The total number of the Air Force has increased from a few thousand to more than 30,000 after three months of development, and organizational structures at all levels have been established.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, the US military had absolute air supremacy, which made the volunteer army suffer a lot of losses. In order to curb the arrogance of the US military, pilots who had been in the aviation school for several months began to fight. Pilots are not skilled in driving technology, commanders are not good at commanding, and how to fight with the United States must be practiced diligently.
In this Korean battlefield, let the US military try to be powerful in the new Chinese air force. Although the pilots did not have much combat time, with the spirit of not being afraid of sacrifice, they injured the US Air Force and won victories again and again.
After the end of the Korean War, the Taiwan side continued to send reconnaissance planes and bombers to the mainland, especially the US U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance planes. Such a reconnaissance plane flew at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, and under the deployment of Liu Yalou, the ground-to-air missile unit shot a plane in Nanchang, which was very remarkable. At that time, U-2 reconnaissance planes were scouting in the Soviet Union, and they were only warnings about U-2s. It can be said that the ground and air forces of the Air Force have been continuously strengthened, and the territorial airspace of New China has been guaranteed.
Liu Yalou is very strong in his work and is not willing to fall behind. The Air Force has become a pacesetter for the whole army, and the Central Military Commission has come forward to summon responsible persons of all general departments, major military regions, all armed forces, branches of the armed forces, and military academies to learn from the experience of the Air Force.
In 1965, Liu Yalou was hospitalized due to illness and died of worsening illness.
His memorial service was of high standard and was no longer a general.
His ashes are placed in Zhongshan Hall in Zhongshan Park on the west side of Tiananmen. According to the regulations, only party and state leaders, such as vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, vice premiers of the State Council, vice chairmen of the National People's Congress, and vice chairmen of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, can use the Zhongshan Hall.
As an air force commander, Liu Yalou could not reasonably enjoy such treatment, but the central authorities' decision to give him such a high treatment fully shows that his contribution to the new Chinese air force is enormous.
Not only that, at the memorial service, in addition to Chairman Mao's absence, Liu Shaoqi, Premier Zhou, General Manager Zhu, Lin Biao, Deng Xiaoping, and all the marshals and vice premiers, as well as the principal responsible persons of the headquarters of the Central Military Commission, all branches of the armed forces, and military regions, were almost all present.