At the end of June 1950, the "United Nations Army" led by the United States crossed the 38th Line, nominally to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula, but in fact wanted to put pressure on China.
Chairman Mao delivered a speech calling on: "The people of the whole country and the whole world should unite to fight against any provocation by US imperialism." ”
On July 13, 1950, the Central Military Commission issued the "Decision on Defending the Northeast Border Defense", and a total of more than 255,000 people from various units were drawn to form the Northeast Border Defense Army.
In October 1950, Kim Il Sung requested China to send troops to help, and after careful consideration, the Party Central Committee decided to form the Chinese Volunteer Army to enter the Korean War, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea immediately broke out.
The ancients said: "A thousand armies are easy to get, but one will be difficult to find." Who will command these hundreds of thousands of volunteers has become one of the difficult problems that the Party Central Committee needs to solve. This person needs to be on his own and control the overall situation, and ordinary military and division-level generals are incompetent.
In the end, after two days and two nights of reflection, Chairman Mao decided to ask Peng Dehuai to take command. Mr. Peng did not fail in his mission, led the Chinese Volunteer Army to finally defeat the US army, dealt a fierce blow to the arrogance of the enemy, and promoted the prestige of our country.
According to the rumors on the Internet, Chairman Mao originally hoped that Lin Biao would serve as the supreme commander of the Korean battlefield, and Su Yu and Chen Geng would be other popular candidates, but why did the post of commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army fall on Peng Dehuai's body?
The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was the first large-scale modernization war encountered by the PLA at the beginning of the founding of New China, and the opponent was the US military, which claimed to be the strongest in the world. If the war is unfavorable, not only will the US military oppress the northeast frontier with yu wei, but in terms of international public opinion, our side will also be completely inferior.
Based on various considerations, Chairman Mao certainly hoped to select a marshal with outstanding military command ability and good at coordinating the overall situation to serve as the commander-in-chief of the volunteer army, so as to increase the chances of victory by a few points.
In fact, at that time, Chairman Mao's mind had already preliminarily decided on the candidate. Judging from the existing data and the situation that all the main forces in the four fields were on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Lin Biao should be the first commander-in-chief in Chairman Mao's heart.
Even in the second half of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Deng Hua acting commander-in-chief of the Volunteer Army can be seen as Chairman Mao's hope that Lin Biao will be able to shoulder a major responsibility. In addition to Lin Biao, Peng Dehuai, Su Yu, and Chen Geng are all candidates.
So why did Chairman Mao's beloved Lin Biao not eventually take command of the expedition to Korea?
According to the current more mainstream answer, Lin Biao's body could not eat. Because of the extremely bad weather in north Korea, the temperature has reached minus tens of degrees. Lin Biao already had old wounds on his body, so before the battle to liberate Hainan Island, Chairman Mao asked Lin Biao to go to the Soviet Union to recuperate.
In fact, according to the recollections of people around Lin Biao, after the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Lin Biao was basically in a state of "picking and choosing". Nominally, he left his work with old problems such as fear of light, water, and wind, but in fact Lin Biao had his own ideas.
He believes that not long after the founding of New China, the country is in ruins waiting to be rebuilt, and the people's livelihood economy, including industrial construction, is in a state of poverty and poverty. The Americans, on the other hand, not only had advanced aircraft and cannons, but also dozens of aircraft carriers.
It is true that the crossing of the 38th Line by the US military is not good for our country. But Lin Biao still wanted to "value peace" as much as possible, and he could lead Siye to garrison near the Yalu River and closely monitor the every move of the US army. As a last resort, there is no need for the PLA to agree to kim Il Sung and the US military to go to war for the sake of a momentary quickness, which is not good for itself.
The idea in Lin Biao's mind was contrary to Chairman Mao's strategy of taking the initiative, and he did not want to take troops to Korea at all, so he found a reason to fly to the Soviet Union for medical treatment.
This was also reflected in the Battle of Jinzhou in the Liaoshen Campaign, when Siye led by Lin Biao had absolute superiority. He just had too many worries, and it was always difficult to make up his mind whether to attack Jinzhou or turn his horse head back against Shenyang.
In the end, it was Chairman Mao who sent several telegrams in a row, and even finally said harsh words, which made Lin Biao make up his mind. This is not my family's statement, but it is true.
Therefore, Lin Biao is equivalent to voluntarily abstaining, and Chairman Mao will not force others to be difficult, and will send him to the Korean region in a strong way.
Some people may say that Lin Biao is not afraid of Americans. On July 7, 1950, Zhongnanhai Jurentang held a conference to defend national defense issues. At the meeting, Lin Biao publicly stated that he would fully support the formation of the Northeast Border Defense Army. As much as Siye was, he exerted as much force as he could, and completely obeyed the arrangements of Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou.
In addition, Lin Biao also paid special attention to collecting relevant intelligence on the US military and reporting it to the party Central Committee in a timely manner, all of which proves that Lin Biao agrees with Chairman Mao's strategic principle of taking the initiative to attack.
I would like to ask back, since Lin Biao is so in favor of sending troops to Korea and has spent a lot of effort to collect battlefield intelligence, why didn't he personally take command?
To say that Lin Biao is physically ill is indeed true. However, a few months before the outbreak of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Lin Biao still appeared in the front-line army alive and well. Not to mention that the four wild masters are like clouds, lin biao is not alone in battle.
The reason why Chairman Mao let Lin Biao take command was precisely to borrow his prestige to give Siye a reassuring pill, and the specific strategic deployment was planned by his old man.
But even so, Lin Biao was not in favor of sending troops into North Korea and went to the Soviet Union for medical treatment at the time of the outbreak. His attitude has been able to show everything, no matter how beautiful the words are, Lin Biao just does not approve of sending troops into the DPRK. That Lin Biao and Chairman Mao's core ideas are at odds, let alone that he will become the commander of the Volunteer Army.
In addition to Lin Biao, Su Yu, Chen Geng, Peng Dehuai and Liu Bocheng are also popular candidates. Thinking about it, Chairman Mao believes that Chen Geng and Liu Bocheng are not suitable for the expedition.
In February 1950, the Southwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting, and the meeting decided to make the suppression of bandits an important task in the work of the whole region. The First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighteenth Corps of the People's Liberation Army, a total of 13 corps and 37 divisions, were engaged in the fight against bandits.
Liu Bocheng and Chen Geng were the main responsible persons of the Southwest Strategic Zone at this time, plus Marshal Liu Bocheng was a native of Sichuan, familiar with the local terrain and related customs, and could better devote himself to the task of suppressing bandits. Therefore, Liu Bocheng and Chen Geng had more important tasks, and Chairman Mao took the initiative to eliminate both of them.
The only ones left were Su Yu and Peng Dehuai, su Yu's military command ability was well-known throughout the army, and in the Battle of Huaihai, the People's Liberation Army annihilated a total of 550,000 Kuomintang troops, of which 400,000 were recorded in Su Yu's name.
Lin Biao, who was the same age as Su Yu, even said: "Su Yu fights the Immortal War as much as possible, and I envy him." Su Yu, along with Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Lin Biao, and Xu Xiangqian, was called the "Five Tiger Generals" of the People's Liberation Army.
Even when the Party Central Committee discussed who would be the commander-in-chief of the army in North Korea, even Lin Biao, who had his eyes above the top, took the initiative to nominate Su Yu and praised him. Chairman Mao adopted Lin Biao's opinion, and he first decided to appoint Su Yu as commander and political commissar of the Northeast Border Defense Army, Xiao Jinguang as deputy commander, and Xiao Hua as deputy political commissar.
Chairman Mao's move was to hope that Su Yu would go to the northeast for some training, familiarize himself with the environment first, and then go into the Korean region to fight when he warmed up, with half the effort.
However, there was no problem with Su Yu's military command ability. But unfortunately, from July 1950, Su Yu's old disease recurred, and it was difficult for him to look around left and right, and even had to put all the meals in a straight line when eating, otherwise his head would hurt and his physical condition would be very bad.
This is clearly documented in the book "Su Yu Annals". At that time, Su Yu was recuperating in Qingdao, and after learning of the appointment of the central authorities, he was very anxious, and asked his friend Luo Ruiqing to bring a letter to Chairman Mao Zedong explaining his physical condition.
After receiving the letter, Chairman Mao immediately replied: "When comrade Luo Ruiqing received the letter, he was in a critical condition and was very concerned, and you can rest and recuperate with peace of mind until you recover from your illness." ”
Therefore, Su Yu and Lin Biao, the two popular candidates in Chairman Mao's heart, were eliminated one by one, and when they were calculated, only General Peng Da, who was "self-defeating and immediately armed.", was left.
It is not that Peng Dehuai's personal ability is inferior to that of Su Yu and Lin Biao. In terms of seniority, Peng Dehuai was the pioneer of our party, and for decades, he worked hard and complained, was upright, and was also the commander and political commissar of the Northwest Field Army. He has participated in countless battles in his lifetime and has a lot of experience.
But Chairman Mao was still a little worried, because Peng Dehuai's personality was too hot, and he was not like Lin Biao. Such a person can be friends with him, put on the battlefield, and may be caught by the enemy and used.
On the afternoon of October 5, 1950, a meeting of the Politburo was held, which was also a decision-making meeting about who would lead the expedition to Korea, and all the Politburo members who could come at that time came. At the meeting, Lin Biao still adhered to the principle of 'going out without fighting' and stationed troops in northern Korea to see how the situation developed.
Obviously, Chairman Mao did not approve of Lin Biao's statement. When it was Peng Dehuai's turn to speak, he said: "I support Comrade Mao Zedong's idea of sending troops to Korea, we fight with the United States, the fight is broken, it is a big deal that the United States will invade China, at most it will be equivalent to China's liberation a few years later!" If the US military is placed on the Yalu River and Taiwan, it will start a war and can find an excuse at any time. ”
In this way, the burden of leading the army to go to Korea fell on The shoulders of Mr. Peng.
In addition, Peng Dehuai's idea of using troops has always been to strike decisively by means of thunder and to accomplish our predetermined goals at all costs, which has been reflected in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
At the end of the Hundred Regiments War, the Eighth Route Army suffered heavy losses, and Peng Dehuai insisted on fighting Guanjia'an, but Liu Bocheng could not persuade him. Chen Geng almost cried and asked Peng Dehuai to order the troops to be collected, because the casualties of the troops were too large.
After the End of the Hundred Regiments War, Peng Dehuai was criticized by the Central Committee. At the Lushan Conference, Peng Dehuai publicly refuted Chairman Mao, all of which were caused by general Peng Da's character defects.
Peng Dehuai and Lin Biao are like two extremes, Lin Biao is too gloomy in the world, and he seems hesitant. General Peng Da's excesses were somewhat overcorrected, which made Peng Dehuai not the most suitable candidate in Chairman Mao's mind to serve as the commander-in-chief of the volunteer army.
With the defeat of Lin Biao and Su Yu due to various objective factors, Peng Dehuai accepted the task entrusted to him by the party and the people without hesitation, led his troops to the front-line battlefield, and stabilized the situation in a timely manner.
In July 1953, China and the United States signed an armistice in the Panmunjom area of North Korea. At this point, the nearly three-year campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea ended, and the US troops withdrew from Korea in a gray and slippery manner, and there was no longer the arrogance of the past.
After this battle, New China shocked the world, and Peng Dehuai was wise and courageous, dared to meet each other in a narrow way when facing a strong enemy, and defeated the US military, whose weapons and equipment were hundreds of times stronger than China's. From this point of view, Peng Dehuai is much stronger than the "God of War II" MacArthur.
In general, Peng Dehuai is highly qualified and experienced, and obeys all the arrangements of the Party Central Committee. Chairman Mao was most relieved to have him go to Korea, because Chairman Mao was the commander-in-chief of the Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
Shino has a thick base, and after the experience of the Liberation War, it is like a sheathed sword. In this case, choosing a Peng Dehuai who can calm down the whole army is the best choice.