Among the founding generals, there is a relatively special existence, he has been recuperating since the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, but after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was still awarded the rank of great general, and ranked second among the ten generals, this person is Xu Haidong. In fact, the reason why Xu Haidong was awarded the title of general is also very simple, Chairman Mao once commented that Xu Haidong was a person who "made great contributions to the revolution", so the rank of great general is also well-deserved for Xu Haidong.
The main reason why Xu Haidong left a deep impression on Chairman Mao was that he once "sent charcoal in the snow" to Chairman Mao. This matter should start from the Long March, during the Long March, Xu Haidong served as the commander of the Red Twenty-fifth Army, under the command of him and Cheng Zihua, the Red Twenty-fifth Army was the only Red Army in the Long March that did not reduce its number, and it was also the first Red Army unit to reach northern Shaanxi.
In October 1935, the chairman led the Red Army to northern Shaanxi, the Red Army was the original Red Army of the Central Soviet Region, most of the fighters were southerners, mainly from Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei. When I first arrived in northern Shaanxi, the autumn was still high and the climate was pleasant, but with the passage of time, the winter in the north gradually arrived.
The northern Shaanxi region is different from the south, the water drips into ice in winter, the soldiers in the south are not adapted to such a climate, and the base area in northern Shaanxi is not large, and there are tens of thousands of people at once, which leads to great problems in the logistics supply of the Central Red Army. In Northern Shaanxi in November, it was already feeling obviously cool, but many Red Army soldiers were still wearing single shoes from the grass, and the chairman was very worried: How did the first winter come when I arrived in northern Shaanxi?
The chairman called yang Zhicheng, director of the logistics department of the Red Army, and asked him how much money he needed to survive the winter safely. Yang Zhicheng told the chairman that about two or three thousand silver dollars were needed. This amount of money is not a small amount, the Red Army has just arrived in northern Shaanxi, life is not familiar, it is difficult to raise such a large amount of money. After all, the Red Twenty-fifth Army arrived in northern Shaanxi earlier than the Central Red Army and had a certain foundation, so the chairman decided to borrow money from Xu Haidong for the winter.
The chairman wrote an IOU, and Yang Zhicheng took the IOU to Xu Haidong, who immediately found his logistics minister and asked him to take out 5,000 silver dollars and give it to the Central Red Army. At that time, the Central Red Army was using money, and these 5,000 silver dollars immediately solved Chairman Mao's urgent needs and were a real sense of charcoal in the snow. Chairman Mao has always remembered Xu Haidong's kindness, and many years later said that "it was Xu Haidong's 5,000 yuan that helped the Central Red Army a lot and allowed the Central Red Army to survive the first winter in northern Shaanxi safely."
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Haidong's body was overwhelmed by years of conquest, and he began to take a long-term sick rest, but Chairman Mao always remembered Xu Haidong's great deeds, and he personally wrote a letter to Xu Haidong, telling Xu Haidong to "recuperate with peace of mind and leave the sky falling" in mind, which shows that Chairman Mao always remembers Xu Hai's move of "sending charcoal in the snow."
At the first ceremony after the founding of New China, Xu Haidong was awarded the rank of grand general for his great achievements during the revolutionary period and became the founding general. As the saying goes, the father of the tiger has no dog, and Xu Haidong's son Xu Wenbo's achievements are also very high. Xu Wenbo was born in 1937, and in 1962, Xu Wenbo joined the army. After transferring from the army, he entered the Political Department of the Second Branch of the Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry.
In 1976, Xu Wenbo returned to work as the provisional deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Revolution Museum, and since then Xu Wenbo has been deeply involved in the field of culture, successively serving as the director of the Department of Cadres of the Ministry of Culture and the vice minister of culture. In his later years, Xu Wenbo, who had been living in Beijing, died of illness in 2020 at the age of 83.
Resources:
"Biography of General Xu Haidong" Zhang Lin