Su Rongsheng (front right) searches for the imprint of his father Su Yu as the principal here at the former site of the "Ninth Branch of the Kang University" in Nantong
In 1942, in the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Su Yu's eldest son Su Rongsheng was born. Su Rongsheng said: "At that time, my father was leading the First Division of the New Fourth Army to carry out frequent anti-'sweeping' and arduous anti-'clearing' struggles. Listening to my mother, I was born and raised in my grandfather's house in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. Grandpa admired my father's fighting career and named me Rongsheng, which my father loved. Later, because there were signs of detection by the enemy, my grandmother personally managed to send me, who was less than two years old, to my parents. ”
Su Rongsheng's early years were spent in the war. At that time, the army set up a nursery school. Wherever the troops hit, the nursery will follow. Su Rongsheng was born in this nursery. He recalled: "My mother told me that the warriors had a flat shoulder, one carrying the radio, and the other carrying me. When I was about two years old, I had horses and mules and were put on them. When I was older, I would go to the East China Nursery School, also called the school. The principal is Li Jingyi's mother, and the vice principal is Deng Liujin's mother. Later, the school went south with the troops, and it was not until the liberation of Shanghai that it was relatively stable. ”
When Su Rongsheng was just 3 years old, Su Yu and his wife Chu Qing took Su Rongsheng to the river to swim, and Su Yu took out the bamboo tube prepared in advance and stuffed it into the child and said: "Hold tight, jump down!" Before the 3-year-old Su Rongsheng could react, Su Yu suddenly picked up the child and threw it into the water, which frightened Xiao Rongsheng. Su Yu shouted from the shore: "Child, don't be afraid, swim by yourself!" Because he was holding a bamboo tube, Su Rongsheng floated on the surface of the water and had to rely on himself to pounce. Chu Qing looked anxious in his eyes and scolded Su Yu and said, "You really are, so you are not afraid of drowning him?" Su Yu said, "It is to throw him into the water, or he will not be able to learn it all the time, how do you see it?" Didn't it flood?"
During the Liberation War, Su Yu and his wife and son Su Rongsheng were born
After Su Yu exercised his son's spirit and will to endure hardships in this way, people spread within the New Fourth Army at that time, and people spread such a sentence after the break: "Commander Su taught his son to swim - throw it in!"
Su Rongsheng said that fathers do not want their children to grow up in a comfortable environment, where there is danger, where it is difficult, the father will find ways to ask his children to exercise in a difficult working environment. The father often encouraged his children this way: "Young people should not covet small families, but only think of sitting in the organs." Therefore, Su Yu always used the "right" of fatherhood to insist that his children be trained in a harsh environment. Su Yu said so and did the same.
Su Rongsheng is famous for his love of guns, and his marksmanship is good. When he was a military commander, as long as he was in the army, he had a constant subject, that is, to compare marksmanship with the divisions, brigades, and regimental commanders. He said that comparing marksmanship with these soldiers is not to be higher than who is lower, but to let these soldiers know the gap. "My marksmanship is accurate. There are very few people who can beat me. They're older than I have to practice. Just imagine, can the commanders of divisions and brigades train hard at the training ground without driving the training of the troops?" Speaking of this, Su Rongsheng smiled slightly, "I have given shooting lessons to many troops, and when I am finished, I will fight." Whoever they choose, they generally can't beat me. ”
As early as the age of 5, Su Yu once gave Su Rong a small pistol and said, "This is a gift for you, you have to learn to shoot well!" This is a small pistol from a landlord's house, with a very close range and no actual combat effect. But Su Rongsheng did not understand the real reason why his father sent the gun at that time was that he hoped that he would set his ambitions from an early age, become a soldier, and be a qualified soldier. However, at that time, Su Rongsheng was very fond of guns. Su Yu often told him that playing a good gun and loving a good gun is the most basic quality of a soldier; Learning to use a variety of guns and being familiar with the performance of various guns is the most basic operational ability of a soldier.
During the war years, Su Yu's gun never left his body, and even if he became a senior commander, he always carried a revolver in his waist. After the liberation of the whole country, the environment changed, and Su Yu still maintained the true color of a warrior and maintained a love of guns. Su Rongsheng said that his father kept several guns captured during the battle, guns made in china, and guns donated by foreign military delegations. "On Sunday, I came home from school, caught up with him, and took us to live-fire. My father's marksmanship was very accurate and he often competed with us. Once, he thought that the chest ring target was too big, so he inserted a branch on the ground with half a ping-pong ball on top, and then asked me and my brother to play first. My brother is a member of the district shooting team, but it is the first time to hit such a small thing tens of meters away. My brother didn't hit, and my shooting result was the same as my brother's. The father smiled, took the gun, pressed the bullet, raised the gun to aim, and the first shot hit the target. ”
Once Su Rongsheng wiped down a few guns his father had saved and removed the scope of the sniper rifle, he was very angry, criticized Su Rongsheng, and then patiently explained the effect of casually decomposing the aiming part on the shooting accuracy. Su Rongsheng said: "Taking advantage of the next opportunity to shoot, we have re-corrected the gun."
Later, Su Rongsheng not only had a good gun, but he was almost proficient in the army's ground weapons. In his living room, four walls of white walls, the furnishings are extremely simple, the only thing that stands out is that behind the sofa there is his own carefully designed wooden partition with the "August 1st" military emblem as the background, which is filled with various weapon models, from gun shells, aircraft tanks to rocket missiles, making people feel like they have mistakenly entered the Weapons Museum. In his study-cum-bedroom, the walls were covered with binoculars, armed belts, military water bottles and other wilderness survival supplies.
Su Yu was with his sons Su Rongsheng (right) and Su Hansheng
Su Rongsheng said that his father liked to keep 4 things in his life: guns, maps, compasses and telescopes. "For example, there is a very old and ugly hard-shell compass, which is only slightly larger than the 5 cent coin, and he also keeps it as a treasure." Among these 4 things, Su Yu's favorite ones are guns and maps.
Su Rongsheng still remembers that after liberation, his father had been staring at the map of Taiwan, and later after the map of Taiwan was moved to the study door, his father was still looking forward to the map.
In planning for the battle to liberate Taiwan, Mao Zedong would ask Su Yu to shoulder this heavy responsibility. In the third plan, Su Yu believed that the troops attacking Taiwan were calculated at 500,000 people, and a total of 575 ships of more than 1,000 tons were needed. The first echelon, calculated at 60,000 people, requires a total of 2,000 landing craft, and the number of ferries collected is less than half of the needs of the first echelon. Therefore, Su Yu proposed: "If there is no absolute certainty in attacking Taiwan, it should not be launched easily, and it is better to postpone it again." Due to the outbreak of the Korean War, the plan to attack Taiwan was not implemented in the end.
Su Rongsheng remembered that his father had promised his children: When the whole country is liberated, I will take you back to your hometown. But later Su Yu never returned to his hometown, su Rongsheng also had no chance to accompany his father to set foot on the land of his hometown, Su Rongsheng speculated: In his father's eyes, Taiwan is not liberated, the whole country is not liberated, so he can not fulfill his promise.
In the army, Su Rongsheng was a general who was supported by soldiers; In life, after retirement, Su Rongsheng strictly demanded himself as an ordinary soldier - what remained unchanged was the true color of a soldier, and what remained unchanged was the true feelings of father and son.