The most eye-catching thing about General Su Yu's life was the remarkable victory he achieved on the battlefield by commanding hundreds of thousands of troops.
As a generation of outstanding generals, General Su Yu's military achievements will forever be recorded in the annals of history.
But Su Yu was reluctant to write a memoir at first, even under the persuasion of his wife Chu Qing, Su Yu never opened his mouth, and did not agree to his wife's request until his old age.
"This may be the last bit of work I have done for the party."
Picture | Su Yu and his wife Chu Qing
< H1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > the military career of General Su Yu</h1>
Su Yu's hometown is Maple Tree Foot Village, a small village in western Hunan Province, which is a beautiful place.
The reason why it is called Maple Tree Foot Village is because there is a maple forest in the village, and in Su Yu's memory of the same year, he once had a deep attachment to his hometown:
"There is a maple forest in the village, and there are more than twenty maple trees behind my house, with tall trunks and lush foliage, covering the roof. Maple Foot Village probably got its name from this. ”
General Su Yu's family was not poor when he was young, and he should even be considered a large household, so Su Yu could receive a good education at an early age.
However, the feudal customs still overwhelmed Su Yu.
His father was bent on cultivating Su Yu into a feudal landlord successor, letting him keep accounts with his housekeeper, and he couldn't help but say that he had a relative, and his fiancée was also the daughter of a local rich farmer, who had been wrapped in small feet since childhood.
Su Yu was very disgusted with such a life and had experienced some advanced education, so he had the idea of wanting to go outside to see.
Because of this idea, Su Yu walked out of this small village and gradually grew into a general with great military achievements.
Of course, I also harvested a perfect love.
Leaving aside the latter words, su Yu at this time still had a long way to go before he was a general with great achievements.
Pictured| Su Yu when he was young
In 1925, Su Yu was admitted to the Second Normal School of Hunan Province and came into further contact with revolutionary ideas, when the principal of the Second Normal School, a progressive intellectual, was later persecuted, su Yu these progressive students could not stay in the school, and later secretly transferred to Wuchang.
After Su Yu arrived in Wuchang, he was assigned to the Ye Ting 24th Division to teach the brigade and became a cadet squad leader.
From this point on, Su Yu's study career officially ended, the military career officially began, of course, the military career is also a special study career, at least let Su Yu realize what is called war.
Su Yu is not a Whampoa student, has no military school experience, but can be compared with many military academies graduates of the generals, this can not but be said to be a miracle.
In 1926, Su Yu joined the Communist Youth League of China and joined the Communist Party of China in 1927.
After Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 coup, Su Yu followed Ye Ting's troops and participated in the Nanchang Uprising.
After many years, Su Yu still remembers fondly the experience of teaching the brigade at Ye Tingshi.
In his later years, Su Yu was most disgusted with his children while talking and eating slowly:
"Before I participated in the Nanchang uprising, in the Wuchang Yeting troop teaching team, the requirements were very strict, the meal was also very tense, one by one wolfed, sometimes the instructors of the teaching team would mix hair and sand in the meal, and if you had to pick and choose, you would not be able to eat enough."
After the Nanchang Uprising, the rebel forces marched south to Guangzhou to prepare to rebuild the revolutionary base camp, but they were besieged and suppressed by heavy enemy troops and failed. Su Yu followed the scattered personnel who had withdrawn from Chaoshan and rendezvoused with the Sanheba blockade force led by Zhu De.
During the fierce battle between Wu Ping and the enemy, Su Yu was wounded, and the temporal bone of the upper side of the right ear was broken, fortunately, it did not hurt the point, but even so, Su Yu's injury was not light, and he fell motionless in a pool of blood.
The platoon leader caught up from behind, and when he saw Su Yu's appearance, he couldn't care about the rescue, so he took off the shell gun on his body and left.
Su Yu woke up from the pain, struggled to catch up with the troops, rolled down the hill, and encountered several rebel soldiers, which luckily escaped.
Picture | Group photo of Chen Yi, Su Yu, Fu Qiutao, Zhou Enlai, Zhu Kejing and Ye Ting at the Yunling Headquarters of the New Fourth Army in 1940
Su Yu suffered very serious injuries to both of his left and right arms.
In 1933, Su Yu, then chief of staff of the Red Eleventh Army, led his army to a fierce battle with Xu Kexiang's troops in The Saltpeter Village of Jiangxi.
Xu Kexiang secretly ordered the second echelon to copy the rear road of the Red Army, caught off guard, Su Yu's left arm was shot, blood flowed like a flood, due to the heavy injury, coupled with limited medical conditions, at that time the doctor suggested amputation to save his life, Su Yu insisted on not allowing, although later healed, but Su Yu's left arm was left with a lifelong disability, and he could only do some auxiliary actions
The following year, Su Yu led the Red Army north to the anti-Japanese advance team to the north, and when he was transferred to the Anhui and Gansu provinces, he was unfortunately wounded in his right arm, and after this injury, the bullet remained in his right arm for many years, and it was not taken out until after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
But in Su Yu's brain, there were still three shrapnel pieces that could not be removed.
On February 7, 1930, in order to develop the revolutionary base area in southwest Jiangxi, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ordered the Red Fourth Army and the Red Sixth Army to launch an attack on the Kuomintang army in the areas of Shuinan, Wanxia and Futan in Jishui County, Jiangxi.
Chiang Kai-shek heard of the presence of the Red Army in the area east of Jishui County, and in addition to ordering the local defenders to hold on, ordered the independent 15th Brigade to be transferred into Gansu.
The Red Army took advantage of the strategy of luring the enemy to go deeper, focusing on attacking the independent 15th Brigade of the Kuomintang Army, and Su Yu, who was then the political commissar of the detachment, led his troops to engage the Kuomintang army in a fierce battle.
After being carried off the battlefield, three pieces of shrapnel remained on the head due to limited medical conditions.
Picture | Group photo of Chen Yi, Su Yu and others during the Battle of Lunan in 1947
In addition to the left arm being disabled by being hit by the middle artery, the three shrapnel pieces on the head have the greatest impact.
The headache and dizziness caused by shrapnel in his head had tormented Su Yu for decades and brought him great pain. Usually the pain is too unbearable, he will use cold water to rinse his head, or wear a brain device on his head to relieve the pain. We looked at him in pain, anxious and helpless. ”
Su Yu's wife Chu Qing recalled:
"The headache was unbearable, so the guards repeatedly pressed their heads, or flushed their heads with cold water, or used to look at the map to disperse the pain and direct the battle with illness."
Su Yu's secretary Ju Kai also recalled that the trauma to Su Yu's head had caused great inconvenience to his life.
"When the general has a headache, his hair can't be touched or touched. Touch it, like a pinprick. His face was always flushed, and he often said that his head was swollen. No one could have imagined that he would have shells in his head, and we all thought that it was caused by the high tension of the war, and he suffered from high blood pressure and heart disease. ”
Even so, Su Yu still used his outstanding wisdom to fight dozens of battles and annihilate countless enemies from the beginning of the agrarian revolution to the period of the Liberation War.
The year 1947, during the War of Liberation, can be said to be the most crucial year for changing the situation on the battlefield. The change of the Kuomintang army from an all-out offensive to a key offensive marked a gradual change in the strength of both sides.
During the Battle of Eastern Henan |, Su Yu commanded the battle at the command post
Considering that the enemy's strength had not yet undergone a fundamental change, Chairman Mao of the Party Central Committee considered sending Su Yu to lead no less than three columns of troops to fight south, just as Liu Deng's army had done when it advanced into the Dabie Mountains, making a nail wedge into the Kuomintang-ruled areas. In order to alleviate the pressure on the major battlefields and strive for greater initiative.
As Su Yu prepared to go south, he already had a bigger idea in his mind. Su Yu believed that on the battlefield of the Central Plains at that time, in terms of the actual strength of our army, it was enough to fight a strategic decisive battle with the Kuomintang army.
This bold idea was already in January 1948 when Su Yu led his army to recuperate in Puyang, Henan, and Su Yu recalled in his later years:
"This plan to fight a big battle is well thought out, but he still has great concerns about whether to make suggestions to the central authorities or not."
After all, from a strategic point of view, contrary to the strategy of the central authorities, Su Yu thought twice and decided to reflect to the central authorities.
So there was a later boldness.
Chairman Mao's adoption of Su Yu's suggestion laid the foundation for the subsequent Battle of Huaihai.
The Battle of Huaihai also became the most eye-catching battle record of Su Yu's life.
Chairman Mao later mentioned it more than once:
"In the Battle of Huaihai, Comrade Su Yu made the first contribution."
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > "You are a warrior, you must raise your body well and prepare for a big battle."</h1>
In early June 1950, Su Yu attended the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and Chairman Mao announced that Su Yu was still in charge of the campaign to attack Taiwan.
Chairman Mao had great trust in Su Yu, and when the Korean War broke out, Chairman Mao's first thought was also Su Yu, and after the formation of the Northeast Border Defense Army, Su Yu became the commander and political commissar of the Northeast Border Defense Army.
However, Su Yu caused severe headaches due to the high-intensity pressure during the Liberation War, so at the end of 1950, accompanied by Chu Qing, Su Yu went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment and recuperation.
It was not until September 1951 that Su Yu returned to China.
At this time, the Party Central Committee had already decided to transfer Su Yu to the general staff.
General Su Yu was |
On October 31, 1954, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued another notice that Su Yu was appointed chief of the general staff.
In his post as chief of the general staff, Su Yu made many contributions to the construction of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
However, due to a series of differences and estrangements, Su Yu's work is difficult to carry out, coupled with a series of influences.
In 1958, Su Yu was transferred to the Vice President of the Academy of Military Sciences and the First Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, responsible for the standing work of the Academy.
Even after leaving the army, Su Yu was still concerned about the construction of the army and expressed great concern about the idealism and metaphysical thinking of the army.
Su Yu pointed out:
"It is inappropriate to reduce Chairman Mao's military thinking to a few fixed formulas, to express the complex course of war as the wise plan of the commanders, and to use these to educate the next generation.
This is Chu Qing persuading her husband:
"Since you are not satisfied with some of the existing views, why not write down your own experience of the war?"
However, unexpectedly, Su Yu did not answer
Su Yu has always been reluctant to write memoirs, and rarely mentions his historical merits.
Even though Chu Qing mentioned it several times later, Su Yu was still unmoved.
As a general, Su Yu was eager to work in the front line.
In September 1955, Premier Zhou awarded Su Yu and Huang Kecheng the rank of great generals
In November 1965, Ye Jianying went to Shanghai to visit Su Yu, who was recuperating from illness, during which Su Yu proposed that he hoped to return to the Academy of Military Sciences to work, Ye Shuai said:
"The Academy of Military Sciences asked Song Shilun and Zhong Qiguang to do it, you are a general, you must raise your body well, and you are ready to fight a big battle."
Not only that, Ye Jianying also asked the Academy of Military Sciences to form a team and follow Su Yu to the troops to conduct research.
In 1969, Li Desheng and Ji Dengkui, commanders of the Beijing Military Region, invited Su Yu to go out of the mountains to investigate the Sino-Soviet border.
At that time, Sino-Soviet relations were in a state of tension, Su Yu spared no effort, with a team of several military staff officers, traveled all over the mountains and rivers of the Sino-Soviet border, and after returning to Beijing, Su Yu made a detailed defensive operation plan according to the actual situation, and after the plan was submitted, it received great attention.
In June 1970, Su Yu led a Chinese military delegation to visit Congo and visit the Normandy landing site through France.
Along the way, Su Yu kept asking the Chinese military attaché in France Han Kaihe, some specific information about the Normandy landing, and when he stopped at the Normandy landing site, Su Yu couldn't stop asking the tour guide, some professional questions, which embarrassed many people.
Even so, Su Yu's interest was still very strong, and after returning, he said to General Huang Zhen, the ambassador to France:
"It was a really good trip, the Normandy landings were spectacular."
According to the accompanying Founding Major General Duan Suquan, who later explained:
"General Su Yu has been thinking about how we will liberate Taiwan in the future, and the landing operation is an indispensable campaign operation, and he wants to get inspiration from the Normandy landing operation."
Then the crowd suddenly realized.
Tu | Suyu inspected the Kazakh military industry on September 11, 1957.
Su Yu has always wanted to return to the front-line work, but later this idea has never been realized.
In the winter of 1969, Premier Zhou approached Su Yu and told him:
"You're with me now, do some work at the State Department."
General Su Yu requested: "I have fought all my life and will not do local work. ”
"If you can't do it, you can learn it."
In the face of Premier Zhou's good intentions, Su Yu chose to accept, but at the same time said:
"Premier, report to Chairman Mao on your behalf, once the war starts, I will still go to the front."
< h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > decided to write a memoir</h1>
After 1970, Su Yu's physical condition deteriorated, and Chu Qing consulted with her husband: "I will still transfer back to your side to work." ”
After Chu Qing wrote the report and sent it, it did not take long for it to be approved, and Chu Qing was transferred back to the Academy of Military Sciences.
In October 1975, Su Yu caused pericarditis, pleurisy, pneumonia due to heart disease, and in January 1976, he suffered another myocardial infarction.
In view of the deteriorating physical condition, Su Yu considered that he should still leave some written materials to summarize the past war experience, Su Yu said to his wife:
"You have repeatedly hoped that I myself will write about the battles and battles I have personally experienced, but I have never been prepared to write them, and now that I have solemnly considered them and decided to write them, this may be a little work that I can do for the party under the current circumstances."
Chu Qing had hoped that her husband would thank her for the past, and this time of course she also supported unconditionally.
Since 1976, Chu Qing has begun to sort out little by little according to her husband's dictation. Even so, the work of writing the memoir was slow.
Su Yu wrote his memoirs, not out of thin air, but to seek truth from facts, which at the beginning he said to his wife and the staff around him:
"If you want to write, you must persist in seeking truth from facts and write according to the truth of history." It's been a long time coming. You have to find relevant materials to verify my memories. As for the points, I welcome you to participate in the discussion and give your opinions, but in the end to write them to the extent that I know them. This is seeking truth from facts and assuming responsibility for oneself. ”
Even in his own memoirs, Su Yu did not emphasize his role too much.
In 1978, Su Yu, who was in his old age, had the idea of revisiting his hometown, and he also talked about where he wanted to go.
One is Jinggangshan, Su Yu participated in the Nanchang Uprising in his early years, and after the defeat of the rebel troops, he went up to Jinggangshan with The team of Zhu Laozong and witnessed the development and growth of the Red Army.
There is another one, Huaiyushan and Tanjiaqiao, where the Red Army's anti-Japanese advance team lost the battle in the north. Fang Zhimin, Liu Yuxi, and Xun Huaizhou died here, especially the defeat in the Battle of Tanjiaqiao, which is a pain that Su Yu can never forget in his life.
However, although the plan had been realized, Su Yu's physical condition did not allow him to travel.
Picture | Su Yu went to Jinggangshan in 1978
In the summer of 1979, under the repeated persuasion of doctors, Su Yu reluctantly gave up this idea.
Even so, Su Yu is still constantly trying to complete his memoirs.
Unfortunately, in February 1981, Su Yu suddenly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but fortunately he was spared in time to be rescued by sending him to the hospital, and it was not until two months later that Su Yu's body gradually recovered.
However, in the process of continuing to write his memoirs, Chu Qing developed significantly, and her husband's memory began to decline.
Once Chu Qing tentatively asked, "Do you still want to complete that memoir?" ”
In the face of his wife's inquiry, Su Yu did not hesitate and directly replied with three words: "Of course." ”
Considering Su Yu's physical condition, it was already impossible for him to systematically dictate and sort out, so the two of them changed ways, and Chu Qing asked Su Yu how to answer and sort out and write a memoir.
Su Yu was still able to give a concise reply, and even make a specific account of a certain battle, but with the continuation of his illness later, Su Yu's language and thinking were obviously much duller.
A few months later, Su Yu's cerebral thrombosis recurred.
Picture | Su Yu and Chu Youth took a group photo
After the condition improved, the two continued to write their memoirs, chu qing found that her husband began to be unable to keep up with his rhythm, and sometimes after asking questions, Su Yu just looked at his wife and silently did not make a sound.
The disease had seriously damaged Su Yu's health, which made Chu Qing sad and shed tears.
After a few days, Su Yu said to his wife:
"Don't be in a hurry, I know the question you asked very well in my heart, but my expression ability is very poor now, and slowly I will tell you."
Unfortunately, Su Yu did not wait for his memoirs to be written.
On February 5, 1984, Su Yu died of illness at the People's Liberation Army General Hospital at the age of 77.
On February 13, Yang Shangkun, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, came from Beijing to attend Su Yu's memorial service and talked to Chu Qing on behalf of the party organization:
"Comrade Chu Qing, if you look at any difficulties at home, or if you have any demands, just put them forward."
Chu Qing was very excited and immediately made his own request:
"Vice Chairman Yang, we have no difficulties, I have only one request, Comrade Su Yu still has one thing to complete, that is, his memoirs of the war, he left a lot of oral and written materials, I ask for organizational approval for me to continue this work until it is completed."
Chu Qing's writing of Su Yu's memoirs received support from many quarters, especially some old comrades-in-arms who took the initiative to undertake part of the work, which greatly reduced Chu Qing's burden.
Four years after Su Yu's death, "Memoirs of the Su Yu War" was successfully published, and the only regret is that Su Yu wrote about the experience of the agrarian revolution and the three-year guerrilla war behind enemy lines in a very large space, except for the section on the Huaihai Campaign.
Su Yu's secretary Ju Kai also mentioned that Chu Qing had said, and Su Yu once said a sentence before his death:
"He doesn't write articles about the Battle of Huaihai, he doesn't read books on the Battle of Huaihai, and he doesn't watch movies about the Battle of Huaihai."
Regarding Su Yu's failure to write about the Battle of Huaihai, Zhu Yang, the secretary who had participated in compiling Su Yu's memoirs, remembered that Su Yu had said this to him:
"Let Vice Chairman Deng write about the Battle of Huaihai."
It was not until 1989 that Chu Qing sorted out and published the content of her husband's talk about the Huaihai Campaign before his death. When "Memoirs of Su Yu's War" was republished in 2007, the People's Liberation Army Publishing House added it as an appendix, and the title of the book was changed to "Memoirs of Su Yu".