In July 1947, the most difficult stage of the War of Liberation, Chiang Kai-shek changed his so-called "counter-insurgency" strategy and changed from an all-out offensive to a key offensive, the first of which were the Liberated Areas of Northern Shaanxi and the Liberated Areas of Shandong.
It was also under these circumstances that in order to seek better development in the Shandong Liberated Areas, Chairman Mao decided to divide the East China Field Army into separate troops and form an internal and external corps to break the deadlock on the battlefield. This is the period of the Liberation War, the history of the East China Field Army, the extremely famous "July Division".
From the perspective of the latter, this large division of troops was extremely correct, not only cooperating with the actions of Liu Deng's army, but also breaking Chiang Kai-shek's key offensive and regaining the initiative in the East China battlefield.
After the division of the troops, Huaye, the two major corps each performed extremely well, Chen Laozong and Su Yu led the outer line corps into the Central Plains, pinned down a large number of elite nationalist troops, and then launched a crucial battle during the Liberation War, which was the Battle of Eastern Henan.
And after the Battle of Eastern Henan, the Nationalist army was no longer able to take the initiative to launch a large-scale attack on the liberated areas, and since then it has fallen into a passive situation, of course, with the combination of the enemy and our forces, the liberation war has officially entered the stage of the great counteroffensive.
The inner line corps, later the Shandong Corps, under the leadership of Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin, swept across jiaoji road for 700 miles, laying the foundation for the future launch of the Jinan campaign.
As for the importance of the Jinan Campaign, it is self-evident that without the Jinan Campaign, there would have been no later Huaihai Campaign, and it was precisely because of jinan's conquest that Su Yu had a plan to fight the Huaihai Campaign, but at this time, Su Yu's plan was only for Xiao Huaihai, and he did not think that this was the final decisive battle.
However, if it were not for Su Yu fighting the Battle of Eastern Henan in the Central Plains and severely damaging the main force of the Nationalist army, Xu Shiyou would not have been able to launch the Battle of Jinan. Because Xuzhou, not far from Jinan, there were still hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops, but these troops were scared by the People's Liberation Army in the Battle of Eastern Henan, so after the Battle of Jinan began, they did not dare to reinforce at all, for fear of being wiped out by the People's Liberation Army halfway.
Therefore, all of this is the result of the joint efforts of all the PLA officers and men, and one victory after another can be described as interlocking, and the causes and consequences are clear at a glance, and finally lay the foundation for the victory of the Liberation War.
However, the main theme we want to talk about today is the inner line corps that remained in the old liberated areas of Shandong after Huaye was divided, that is, the two major soul figures in the Shandong Corps.
When it comes to the Shandong Corps, everyone knows that the two most critical people are commander Xu Shiyou and political commissar Tan Zhenlin, who can be called the soul of the Shandong Corps, so the Shandong Corps is also known as the Xu Tan Corps.
Under the leadership of Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin, after Huaye's main force jumped out of the outside line, the pressure was actually very large, but despite this, Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin calmly responded to the battle, and the results achieved were still brilliant.
It's just that the old partners of Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin separated after the Battle of Jinan. And later broke out the Huaihai Campaign Decisive Battle, Xu Shiyou did not participate, but stayed in Shandong, but Tan Zhenlin not only participated in the Huaihai Campaign, but also was one of the five front committees of the Huaihai Campaign at that time, and together with Deng Xiaoping, Liu Bocheng, Chen Yi, and Su Yu, he commanded the great showdown.
Speaking of this, there is actually a debatable thing, that is, when the rank of general was awarded in 1955, General Xu Shiyou only received the rank of general, so he had a lot of criticism, and also found Premier Zhou, hoping that he would be awarded the rank of general, because General Xu Shiyou felt that he fully qualified as a general.
However, Xu Shiyou's request did not come as he wished, but what was surprising was that in the initial stage of the general' appointment, Tan Zhenlin was a candidate for the general, because the first plan when the title was awarded was that Chairman Mao was rated as a grand marshal, and there were more than ten marshals and generals.
These fourteen people, in addition to the existing ten generals, also added Li Xiannian, Deng Zihui, Zhang Dingcheng, and Tan Zhenlin. However, these four people all left the army at that time, and eventually because Chairman Mao resigned from the rank of grand marshal, all those who participated in government work and left the army also took the initiative to demand that the ranks not be evaluated.
In the end, it was also for this reason that Tan Zhenlin was not awarded the title of general, but it is not difficult to see from this matter that Tan Zhenlin is qualified as a general, which is also recognized by the organization.
However, when General Xu Shiyou was in the Shandong Corps, he was the commander, Tan Zhenlin was only the political commissar, and the two were old partners who commanded the Shandong Corps together. However, when awarding the rank, Xu Shiyou was not selected as a general, but was only awarded as a general, but Tan Zhenlin was once a candidate for a general recognized by the organization.
Perhaps speaking of this, some people will feel that General Xu Shiyou did not participate in the Battle of Huaihai, so that he missed the general. In fact, this is not the case, and Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin, the reason why they are different when they are considered to be awarded military ranks by the organization, there are actually three crucial reasons.
First of all, the first point is that in fact, Tan Zhenlin's position has always been higher than Xu Shiyou's, although during the period of the agrarian revolutionary war, Tan Zhenlin and Xu Shiyou have always been in different systems, but as far as the revolutionary experience of the two is concerned, Xu Shiyou still cannot be compared with General Tan Zhenlin.
Because Tan Zhenlin was an old revolutionary who came out of Jinggangshan, he joined the party in 1926, and in the early days of the agrarian revolutionary war, he was the military leader of the Central Soviet Region and served as the political commissar of the Red Twelfth Army.
Xu Shiyou, on the other hand, was a Red Army general who came out of the Dabie Mountains of Eyu and Anhui, and in the early days of the agrarian revolutionary war, he served as a squad leader, a platoon leader, and later promoted to regimental commander. And at this stage, Xu Shiyou did not show any dew in Eyuwan, and it was not until the Long March of the Red Fourth Front Army reached the revolutionary base area in Sichuan and Shaanxi that Xu Shiyou was quickly promoted.
Of course, Xu Shiyou was able to quickly stand out, his own ability is part of the reason, but there are also some objective factors, because at that time, Zhang Guotao, the general head of the Red Fourth Front, dismissed many generals who had opinions on him, at this time Xu Shiyou had the opportunity to be promoted, and soon grew from a regimental commander to a military commander.
However, despite this, although Xu Shiyou grew up very fast, his revolutionary experience, that is, the criterion for evaluating military ranks, the three aspects of "morality, talent, and capital", is still quite different from Tan Zhenlin. During the Liberation War, Tan Zhenlin was once the old leader of Su Yu, and Su Yu had great respect for Tan Zhenlin, in this case, Tan Zhenlin would naturally be one of the candidates for the general.
Secondly, let's look at the second reason, in fact, during the Shandong Corps period, the relationship between Tan Zhenlin and Xu Shiyou was not only the relationship between the political commissar and the commander, but actually more like the relationship between Chen Yi and Su Yu.
As we all know, later when the title was awarded, Chen Yi was a marshal and Su Yu was a general, and the reason why Chen Su's two partners had different ranks was because they were in different positions.
Because of Chen Yi's boss, fighting wars is not his strong point, but he joined the revolution early, and his prestige in the ranks is high, and the soldiers all admire him. Although Su Yu can fight a good battle, after all, he is young and difficult to convince the crowd in the revolutionary ranks, so combining Chen Su with him has played a role in making up for each other.
Looking back at Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin, in fact, it is the same reason, because Tan Zhenlin is engaged in political work, and fighting wars is not his strong point, but Xu Shiyou is a rare fierce general in our army, and in this case, it is also the need of the situation to match them together.
In addition, as early as 1947, Tan Zhenlin was the first deputy political commissar of the East China Field Army, Xu Shiyou was only a column commander, and later Huaye had a Shandong Corps, at which time Xu Shiyou was promoted.
Of course, after Xu Shiyou was promoted to commander of the Shandong Corps, his position was also lower than that of Tan Zhenlin, because in addition to the political commissar of the Shandong Corps, Tan Zhenlin was also the former secretary of the Shandong Corps And had the final decision.
However, the Shandong Corps was once called "Xu Tan Corps", which made people mistakenly think that Xu Shiyou was higher than Tan Zhenlin, but the real situation was diametrically opposite, although the two of them were a pair, Tan Zhenlin had always been Xu Shiyou's superior.
Finally, let's talk about the third reason, which is also the key point to consider when awarding the title, which is the current position at the time of the award, when Xu Shiyou was only the commander of the Nanjing Military Region, and Tan Zhenlin was the vice premier of the State Council, and the gap between them was also very large.
Therefore, in the preparatory stage for the award of titles, the generals at the level of commanders of the grand military regions were all generals at that time, which also met the requirements for awarding titles. Tan Zhenlin, Li Xiannian and others were all concurrently premiers of the State Council at that time, and this rank was also equivalent to that of a general, so in the initial evaluation of military ranks, Tan Zhenlin and others were also selected as generals, of course, because of Chairman Mao's humility, coupled with the chairman's proposal that generals who left the army did not award military ranks, this made Tan Zhenlin not receive a rank of general.
Speaking of which, in fact, when conferring titles, the reason why General Xu Shiyou found Premier Zhou and thought that he had the qualifications to be awarded the title of general was also very simple, that is, Xu Shiyou had once served as the commander of the Shandong Corps, so he had the seniority of once serving as the commander of the field army, which made General Xu Shiyou have this behavior, and he also felt that he was qualified.
Of course, the consideration of the central leadership is certainly based on various angles and will not make decisions from a certain aspect. All in all, Xu Shiyou and Tan Zhenlin once commanded the Shandong Corps out of the needs of the situation, but this definitely does not mean that Xu Shiyou's qualifications in the army can be compared with Tan Zhenlin.
But then again, the rank is only a certain embodiment of the value of a general, and it does not explain all the problems, and although General Xu Shiyou did not win the rank of general, this did not affect people's respect for him in the slightest! I don't know what everyone thinks about this, welcome to leave a message below to discuss!