On September 30, 1985, at No. 8 Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing, an elderly man fell asleep in a hospital bed.
Under the torment of illness, he suffered from severe edema all over his body, and the skin of his legs had obvious bruising marks; and the ensuing incontinence and mobility incontinence trapped him in the sickbed, and even basic physiological needs had to be solved by nursing staff.
The old man who has been issued a "critical illness notice" several times is the founding general Xu Shiyou.
Yang Shangkun, then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, personally went to Nanjing to visit him, and the accompanying person put it in his ear and shouted: "Vice Chairman Yang Shangkun of the Central Military Commission has come to visit you!" It's from Beijing! I came on behalf of Chairman Deng Xiaoping! ”
However, Xu Shiyou was still in a comatose state and did not react to the shouting. It wasn't until much later that a few vague words came out of his throat and he said, "I'm finished!" ”
After experiencing the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Xu Shiyou has long been accustomed to living with his head tied to the waistband of his pants, and he never talks about death, nor is he afraid of death. Such a person saying "I am finished" shows the seriousness of the disease.
At 16:57 on October 22, 1985, Xu Shiyou died of illness at the General Hospital of Nanjing Military Region at the age of 80.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > born in Shaolin and a military wizard</h1>
In 1906, Xu Shiyou was born into a poor family in Xujiawa, Xinxian County, Henan Province. In order to save the family rations and learn the skill of standing on the ground, at the age of eight, Xu Shiyou entered the Shaolin Temple of Songshan under the door of a martial monk and learned eighteen martial arts and the art of flying cornices.
When he returned to his hometown to visit his mother, Xu Shiyou, who was flesh-and-blood, had to bid farewell to his mother and master because he had accidentally killed the bully in the village. Coinciding with the warlord melee, Xu Shiyou, who had no way out, saw the warlord Wu Peifu recruiting troops, and he began his career as a horseman.
The unique experience of learning martial arts at the Shaolin Temple made Xu Shiyou dare to charge forward in the battle, and at the same time, he had a deep understanding of combat strategy, not only brute force.
Soon after joining the army, Xu Shiyou was promoted to company commander, but he was very unhappy with the trend of pursuing promotion and wealth in the warlord army, and he longed for the communist ideology of representing the interests of the people.
Under the influence of Fu Mengxian, a member of the Communist Party of the same regiment, Xu Shiyou joined the Communist Youth League of China in September 1926 and officially transferred to the Communist Party of China in August 1927.
Whether before joining the Communist Youth League or the Communist Party, some people told Xu Shiyou: Joining the Communist Party is not a joke, and you must be prepared to go to jail and lose your head.
Xu Shiyou said without hesitation: "I am also a tough man, killing the head is not a big scar, 20 years later I am still a good man!" You are not afraid, what am I afraid of? He added: "If I had been afraid of death, I wouldn't have come to the party organization." ”
Since the establishment of the Communist army, it has been forced to fight against a powerful enemy with inferior armaments. Through flexible and mobile strategies and tactics, the Communists created countless classic examples of the victory of the weak over the strong.
However, with the advancement of the course of the war, the army after the counter-offensive should frequently carry out offensive battles, especially the urban offensive, and Xu Shiyou is one of the generals who are good at attacking tough problems in line with the trend of history.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Shiyou, who served as commander of the Jiaodong Military Region, led his troops to participate in the battles of Laiwu and Meng Lianggu and achieved good results. But his military talents really came into play from the beginning of the War of Liberation.
After the War of Liberation entered the stage of strategic offensive, the Party Central Committee made the strategic decision to advance into the Central Plains, which meant that the offensive battle was inevitable.
Xu Shiyou was appointed commander of the independent command structure established by the East China Field Army's Inner Line Corps, the first corps commander in the history of the People's Liberation Army.
In the previous offensive campaign, the East China Field Army was defeated by the Kuomintang army and suffered heavy losses, and Chiang Kai-shek declared that this Jiaodong Operation would be an important turning point in the war situation.
However, to Chiang Kai-shek's surprise, Xu Shiyou led the inner line corps to conceal and intersperse through the narrow cracks of the Kuomintang army, jumped out of the encirclement circle in one fell swoop, and after resting well, counterattacked from behind the Kuomintang army, won victories such as the Battle of Jiaohe, the Battle of Jiaogao, and the Battle of Laiyang, regained the initiative in the Shandong battlefield, and effectively boosted morale.
During the Liberation War, the "three major battles" that broke out on the battlefield of Shandong not only changed the balance of forces between the Kuomintang and the Communists, but also achieved the outstanding offensive tactics of the East China Field Army.
After the three major battles of the Battles of Zhoucun and Zhangdian, the Battle of Weixian and the middle section of the Jinpu Line, the inner line corps led by Xu Shiyou liberated almost all of Shandong.
Looking at the land of Qilu, the only one who can pose a threat to the People's Liberation Army is Jinan, which is guarded by the famous Kuomintang general Wang Yaowu, and Jinan's military significance is very important, and this decisive battle on the Shandong battlefield cannot be avoided.
When selecting the commanders of the Jinan Campaign, Mao Zedong believed that no one had a higher level of urban attack than Xu Shiyou.
After the end of the three major battles, Xu Shiyou took a leave of absence to go to Jiaodong for treatment due to a recurrence of a leg injury, and after much thought, Mao Zedong called Su Yu and Tan Zhenlin, conveying the hope that "with Comrade Xu Shiyou's physical permission, please ask him to come back as the main commander of the siege."
Xu Shiyou, who had been instructed, quickly rushed back to the inner line corps, and it was Mao Zedong's wise "point general" and Xu Shiyou's unique tactics that led to the victory in the Battle of Jinan. The Jinan Offensive Battle is a certification that Xu Shiyou's level of attack has reached its peak.
The battle not only successfully conquered Jinan, but also took a short time, far exceeding the expectations of the top brass of both the Kuomintang and the Communists, taking only eight days. The Associated Press called the Battle of Jinan a battle that "shook the foundations of Chiang Kai-shek's regime."
The reason why Xu Shiyou can become a legendary general is not only because of his strategic skills in military operations, but also because of his unswerving belief.
Xu Shiyou's original name was Xu Shiyou, and now this name was changed for him by Mao Zedong. During the Long March, Mao Zedong first met Xu Shiyou, smiled and said that he often heard about his deeds as a person, but he had never seen himself, and asked him what the words were in his name.
Xu Shiyou replied, indicating that he was a "Shi" character in his family, but he did not like its connotation of "being an official", so he wanted to change it to a "soldier" representing the soldiers of the Red Army.
Hearing these words, Mao Zedong proposed: "Why not change into the world of the world?" First, you are now a military commander, and secondly, this "world" is also in line with the slogan of our Communists, "Proletarians of the whole world unite!" ”
Also during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Guotao, commander-in-chief of the Red Fourth Front, caused huge losses to the Red West Route Army because he refused to carry out the central orders and insisted on going his own way, and the party organization criticized him.
Xu Shiyou, then a subordinate of Zhang Guotao, was also criticized by the organization for his insensitivity to the organization, and he even prepared to leave Yan'an for an armed struggle in Sichuan.
However, the escape was leaked to the party organization, and some people thought that Xu Shiyou should be severely punished to set an example, but others thought that it was enough to make him aware of his mistakes.
Faced with two very different opinions, Mao Zedong finally chose to deal with it lightly, and he also came into contact with Xu Shiyou many times, and this hot-blooded and simple general was conquered by Mao Zedong's personality charm from the beginning of his stubbornness and self-determination, which was a major breakthrough in his thinking.
Many years later, Xu Shiyou recalled: "Listening to Mao Zedong talk about philosophy, politics, military affairs, and the situation many times at the Kang Da Da has benefited a lot, and I have felt even more that Mao Zedong is the well-deserved wise leader of our party and our army. Since then, I have firmly believed in Mao Zedong Thought and deeply admired Mao Zedong. ”
On September 9, 1976, when Mao Zedong died in Beijing, Xu Shiyou, who learned of the bad news, burst into tears on the spot, cut out the portrait of Chairman Mao in the newspaper pictorial and pasted it on the wall of his bedroom, and then wept against a wall of portraits.
After Xu Shiyou's death, when people sorted out his belongings, they found 12,900 unremarkable Chairman Mao medallions, and his loyalty was amazing. As he said, I have only knelt twice in my life, kneeling to my mother for filial piety and chairman Mao for loyalty.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > have cancer and are positive</h1>
As early as the eve of the Spring Festival in 1985, Xu Shiyou often felt pain in his abdomen, he did not take this seriously, he quietly concealed this situation, afraid that his family would think that he was not in good health.
Unfortunately, in March of the same year, Xu Shiyou was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer while traveling to Huadong Hospital in Shanghai for routine examination.
According to Xu Shiyou's daughter Xu Huashan, although he was told that he was seriously ill, Xu Shiyou still smiled and said that he was just going to see Marx soon, he continued to do his own thing every day, his smile did not decrease, and he could not see the nervous and worried emotions at all.
Because he refused to go to Beijing for better treatment, the General Hospital of the Nanjing Military Region sent elites to form a medical team to go to No. 8 Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, where Xu Shiyou lived, for systematic monitoring treatment.
One day, the medical staff searched for half a bottle of wine under the sofa, and finally found that the owner of the wine was Xu Shiyou. They warned Xu Shiyou that you should not drink alcohol in your current physical condition.
The general smiled awkwardly like a child who had done something wrong, confessing that he was drunk. Since then, medical staff have strengthened supervision, and Xu Shiyou has also done interesting deeds of hiding wine in his coat pocket and secretly drinking two sips when going to the toilet.
The optimistic attitude does not reduce the great pain caused by liver cancer, and Xu Shiyou will use paralysis drugs when the pain is unbearable, but even so, he will still develop resistance, and most of the time he will rely on willpower to survive.
Xu Shiyou was not used to lying down every day and doing nothing, at first he could still insist on getting out of bed and walking thousands of steps, but as his condition worsened, he had to follow the doctor's instructions to lie quietly to prevent liver rupture and bleeding and respiratory failure, and his weight had already exceeded two hundred pounds under long-term edema.
One day, Xu Shiyou, who was often in a coma, proposed to exercise, and finally the crowd moved it to the sofa, and several young men pushed the sofa to "walk" around the house, which was the last time Xu Shiyou moved his body in his life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > Deng Xiaoping "special approval", buried after death</h1>
In the 1950s, Mao Zedong took the lead in demanding that all central leaders be cremated after death, but Xu Shiyou proposed that he wanted to be buried after death, and that he should be buried with his mother for full filial piety. Mao hesitated for a long time, but finally agreed.
In 1985, after Xu Shiyou's death, his last wish for burial was submitted to the Party Central Committee, and eventually came to Deng Xiaoping. According to the funeral system of the time, leaders were cremated after death, and funerals were simple.
After careful consideration, Deng Xiaoping signed the report: "Handle it according to this, and do not take the next example." Wang Zhen, then deputy director of the Central Advisory Committee, went to the Nanjing Military Region to convey Deng Xiaoping's opinion:
"In his sixty-year career as a horseman, Xu Shiyou has made great achievements in battle and died a hundred deaths, and is a special person with a special character, special experience, and special contribution. Comrade Deng Xiaoping signed a special pass, which is a special special. ”
Under the "special pass" signed by Deng Xiaoping, Xu Shiyou's body was transported to his hometown and buried with his mother, and the founding general finally returned home after more than half a century of toil.