In 1929, the then division commander Wu Guanghao was killed in a mission, at this time, the superior ordered Xu Xiangqian to take this position and become the commander of the Red Army division. Just as he became a division commander, he encountered the second encirclement and suppression of the Red Army by the Kuomintang.
In this encirclement and suppression, the Commander of the Kuomintang opposite was Liu Zhi, who had been Xu Xiangqian's teacher, not only courageous and strategic, but also deeply trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, who had fought countless victories in the Northern Expedition, and what no one expected was that he was actually defeated twice at the hands of his own students.
In this encirclement and suppression, Liu Zhi was ready to trap the Red Army regiment by means of a four-sided attack, and then carry out the suppression, and the wishful thinking in his heart fought very well, but in the actual battle, what he did not expect was that he actually failed. When Xu Xiangqian faced Liu Zhi's four-sided attack tactic, he adopted the method of not fighting him head-on, but circling with him in a roundabout way, depleting the army led by Liu Zhi and making it slack, at this time, Xu Xiangqian suddenly adopted the method of fighting him head-on, dodging his attack, and in the middle of the circling, the two divisions of the Red Army were able to meet, making the army led by Liu Zhi dizzy, and there was no way but to "fight the road back to the house", and for the first time, Xu Xiangqian's confrontation with his "teacher" ended in the retreat of his "teacher".
A few months after Liu Zhi's retreat, he ushered in the third encirclement and suppression of the Kuomintang, and Liu Zhi thought about the last retreat, and he was forced by his own students, and naturally he was unwilling in his heart. Therefore, this time he changed tactics and made a surprise attack, trying to catch Xu Forward by surprise, and when Xu Qianqian was preparing to retreat, he found that the large troops were missing, coupled with the fierce attack of the enemy, and in less than a while the troops were scattered, and Xu Xiangqian was also missing.
At this time, such an emergency occurred, naturally everyone was anxious, but at this moment, suddenly a soldier shouted: "Commander Xu is back", everyone looked up, at this time, Commander Xu was limping, but his spirit was very high, everyone came up to ask him what was wrong, it turned out that after he was discovered by the enemy, he ran to the surrounding grass to avoid the enemy and sprained his foot.
After Xu Xiangqian returned, the morale of the warriors was high, and they vowed to defeat the enemy, and Xu Xiangqian made full use of finding a gap in the movement, catching the enemy off guard. In this battle, the Red Army won again. Liu Zhi had to face the failure again, and went back in ashes.
After two encirclements and suppressions, Xu Xiangqian's battle record was even more fruitful, and he later served as the commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he also became the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and became one of the ten founding marshals.