On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded. In the past few decades of revolutionary struggle, countless brave and good generals have emerged, who have made great achievements in the battlefield.
In recognition of the merits of these generals, in 1955, the Chinese People's Liberation Army held a grand conferment ceremony in Zhongnanhai. Liu Yalou, then commander of the Air Force, was awarded the rank of general and ranked among the top 55 generals.
However, Liu Yalou had been studying in the Soviet Union during the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and did not directly participate in leading the Chinese army and resisting the Japanese invaders, which means that he did not make great achievements during this period. Why was Liu Yalou, who was absent from the entire period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, awarded the rank of general? Has he been questioned about this?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" >, noble people help to participate in the revolution</h1>
Liu Yalou was born in 1910 to a poor peasant family in Wuping, Fujian Province, but his birth did not bring much joy to the family because his mother died the day after he was born. Although his father was industrious and simple, he still lived a poor life by chopping firewood, and because he did not have breast milk, the newborn Liu Yalou almost died.
At this time, his father's good friend Liu Dexiang took him home to raise him, and Liu Yalou, who was helped by nobles, survived, because his adoptive father's family was slightly more prosperous, so Liu Yalou had the opportunity to enter the school.
The adoptive father found that Liu Yalou was smarter than the average child of the same age, and he learned things very quickly at a young age, because the family could not afford the cost of two children's study, so the adoptive father Liu Dexiang let his children withdraw from school and gave him the opportunity to go to school.
At the age of 16, Liu Yalou was admitted to Changting First Middle School, and from the perspective of living in peace, it seems that this is not a difficult task, but in such an era of warlord chaos, the people live a precarious life, and if they have the opportunity to go to middle school, it is appropriate to be an intellectual.
At this time, Liu Yalou was actually still calling his original name Liu Zhendong, and the principal had high hopes for him, so when he was introduced to the party as an introducer, he changed his name, hoping that he would "go to a higher level" for the revolutionary cause! Of course, judging from Liu Yalou's achievements, he did not live up to the high expectations of the old principal and grew into an excellent general of our army.
In 1929, Liu Yalou joined the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, became a soldier of the Red Army, and entered the Red Fourth Army Camp School in December of the same year. In just three years, Liu Yalou grew from an ordinary soldier to the political commissar of the Red Second Division, when he was only 23 years old.
In the past three years, he participated in many "anti-encirclement and suppression" battles in the Central Soviet Region and made many military achievements. In the first "anti-encirclement and suppression" battle, the superiors formulated a battle plan to "lure the enemy deeper", and in order to implement this strategy, Liu Yalou led the soldiers of the 35th Regiment to deliberately discard some personal belongings on the road when retreating, in order to create an illusion of defeat and escape.
The enemy's troops, Zhang Huizhuan, were indeed successful in their plans, and they pursued them all the way, and when they reached Jiucailing, Liu Yalou suddenly led his troops to kill a "Hui horse gun" to encircle and annihilate the enemy troops, and also captured Zhang Huizhan alive. After the war, Mao Rewarded Liu Yalou with a captured watch.
Liu Yalou repeatedly led his troops to charge into battle, which made him pass the ghost gate several times. One of the most thrilling ones was the Battle of Shicheng in the third "anti-encirclement and suppression", when Liu Yalou was unfortunately shot and injured very badly, and the soldiers thought that he had lost too much blood and died, so they put him in a coffin to prepare for burial, but Wang Liang found that Liu Yalou's hand was still moving, and Liu Yalou only recovered a life under the rescue of the doctor.
In 1934, due to the defeat of the fifth "anti-encirclement and suppression" in the Central Soviet Region, the Central Red Army was forced to move to northern Shaanxi, where the enemy's military strength was weak, and the Red Second Division led by Liu Yalou served as the pioneer of the Central Red Army during the Long March, repeatedly undertaking urgent, difficult, dangerous and heavy tasks, breaking through the four blockade lines, forcibly crossing the Wu river, capturing Zunyi, and taking the lead in crossing the snowy mountains for the whole army.
Mao Zedong once praised Liu Yalou for daring to fight and rushing at Hadapu and for his outstanding military achievements. However, when such a general who had made outstanding military achievements was preparing to make new contributions on the battlefield after the Red Army would meet in northern Shaanxi, Mao Zedong transferred Liu Yalou to the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University as the director of the Training Department. Liu Yalou, who returned to the "rear", was not a taste in his heart, and repeatedly wrote letters to the organization asking to return to the front line to lead the troops to fight.
At this time, Mao Zedong called him in and had an in-depth conversation with him.
"You think staying in the back didn't work?" That line, I decided not to let you go to the front line for 10 years! Mao Zedong's words made Liu Yalou a little alarmed." Looking at the long term, education is fundamental, and there will always be moments to shine in the future! Mao Zedong saw him look panicked and added.
Mao Zedong's words inspired Liu Yalou, who decided to work hard to complete the tasks entrusted to him by the organization, so he saluted Chairman Ma with a standard military salute: "Rest assured Chairman, I promise to complete the task!" Since then, Liu Yalou has left the front line of the battle and started education work in the rear with peace of mind.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > Second, the Soviet Union was forced to study</h1>
The absence during the War of Resistance Against Japan was due to the fact that in 1939, Liu Yalou was sent to the Soviet Union by the organization to study military theory at the Frunze Military Academy. Throughout the war of resistance against Japanese Aggression, Liu Yalou stayed in the Soviet Union.
At that time, Liu Yalou was already a senior general in our army, and he graduated from the Red Army University, which was also a high degree, but after coming to the Soviet Union, he found that what he had learned was only at the level of primary school students. Having to learn from scratch, Liu Yalou, who is in his thirties, is like a young man, he needs to complete homework and answer papers every day, and at night, his group often picks up lights and fights at night, memorizing formulas and memorizing theorems.
Because Liu Yalou felt that he now represented the country and the party, he did not dare to relax at all, which also brought him a lot of pressure. In addition, the language barrier in the Soviet Union became the biggest problem, which brought a lot of trouble to Liu Yalou and made a lot of jokes.
Soon after arriving in the Soviet Union, Liu Yalou suffered from acute appendicitis and needed surgery because of the water and soil. Before the operation, the doctor asked him if he needed anesthesia, but Liu Yalou could not understand Russian, nodded and shook his head, the doctor felt that he meant that he did not need anesthesia, so the whole process of Liu Yalou's operation was carried out without anesthesia.
At that time, Liu Yalou clutched the armrest of the hospital bed in pain, and the sweat of the bean went straight out, and after that, he secretly vowed to learn Russian. After the operation, during the hospitalization, Liu Yalou wanted to ask for another pillow, so he called the nurse, patted the pillow on the bed, stretched out two fingers to compare a "2", the nurse immediately blushed and ran away, and called the dean, it turned out that the nurse misunderstood Liu Yalou, she felt that he meant to let her sleep together, which instantly caused everyone to laugh.
During the Soviet Union, coinciding with Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, the next target of the German army was Moscow, and at this critical juncture, many generals, including Stalin, felt that Hitler would invade Moscow through Ukraine like Napoleon in the past.
Liu Yalou had a different view, he believed that the German army at this time was fully prepared and the speed of the march was extremely fast, and this time the Soviet Union was not facing Napoleon two hundred years ago, and would not make the same mistake again.
Liu Yalou found Lin Biao, who was recuperating in the Soviet Union at this time, and after discussion, the two felt that Napoleon chose to attack Moscow from Ukraine because the French army had more cavalry, the road was relatively smooth, and the march was more convenient.
Today's German army does not have to take this road, because Belarus is closer to Moscow, and Hitler, who is good at blitzkrieg, must want to make a quick decision. Liu Yalou and Lin Biao wrote to the Comintern, but because they were talking softly at this time, their suggestions were not adopted.
Later it turned out that the two young men were right. As they expected, Hitler did indeed turn the offensive route to Belarus, and Liu Yalou left a deep impression on Stalin and gradually gained attention in the Soviet Union. The news spread back to China, but it became that Stalin wanted to exchange five divisions for Lin Biao, and Liu Yalou did not mention this misunderstanding.
During his studies in the Soviet Union, Liu Yalou repeatedly gave valuable advice to the Comintern. In addition to the 1941 Moscow Defense War, he also participated in the Stalingrad Defense War as a "major" in the Soviet Army, and put forward many opinions in this campaign.
The leadership of the CPSU greatly appreciated Liu Yalou's military talent and repeatedly proposed to give him Soviet citizenship, but Liu Yalou did not agree.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" >3, the Tianjin Campaign I is justified</h1>
In August 1945, China and the Soviet Union reached an agreement, the Soviet Red Army sent troops to the northeast to fight against the Japanese army, Liu Yalou returned to China with the Soviet army, and then in the following years with Lin Zong's southern expedition to the north, participated in the command of the three battles of Jiangnan and Sibao Linjiang, the most famous of which was the Liaoshen Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign. Lin Zong once praised: "One Liu Yalou can top three chiefs of staff!" ”
On the eve of the Liaoshen Campaign, Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission formulated the "Operational Guidelines on the Liaoshen Campaign," and according to the battlefield situation at that time, Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan put forward a battle plan for capturing Jinzhou.
However, in early October, Lin Biao, fearing that he would be caught in the middle of the attack of the enemy forces in Shenyang and Jinxi, was undecided about the attack on Jinzhou, so he privately sent an urgent telegram to the Central Military Commission in the name of the three members of the Northeast Field Army, demanding that the plan to attack Jinzhou be abandoned.
However, after carefully analyzing the war situation, Liu Yalou and Luo Shuai persuaded Lin Biao: "The Kuomintang troops from Huludao and other places are not enough to have a major impact on our army, and there is no need to change the strategic decision for this purpose." ”
Under their persuasion, Lin Biao decided to attack Jinzhou and immediately sent a telegram to Mao Zedong, who called back to express his good feelings for their decision to attack Jinzhou.
Before attacking Jinzhou, in order to confuse the enemy and have an unexpected effect, Liu Yalou came up with a strange move. First of all, he drew the strength of several divisions from the Northeast Field Army, marched from Siping to Changchun with great fanfare during the day, and ordered radio stations at all levels to receive frequent telegrams, creating the illusion that our army was preparing to attack Changchun.
At night, I let these troops return by train, and so on, which made the Kuomintang army convinced me that I was about to attack Changchun.
In order to cope with the Kuomintang's surveillance of our army's radio, Liu Yalou ordered all the troops participating in the battle to camouflage all the radios, and in the face of the enemy's aerial reconnaissance, they used trains to transport troops, which was more concealed and more efficient.
For such a big military operation, Liu Yalou did not notify the commanders of the columns, so that they were always in the dark, and the play was more realistic.
During the attack on Jinzhou, Liu Yalou asked Su Jing to lead his troops to defend Tashan, even if the blood flowed like a river, he could not let the enemy advance half a step. On October 10, the Kuomintang dispatched the three armies of the navy, army and air force to launch a fierce attack on the Tashan position of our army, which had no danger to defend and was easily breached, and the position changed hands several times, and was finally retaken by our army.
In the fierce battle of six days and nights, the 4th Column of our Northeast Field Army resisted the attack of at least 100,000 shells from the enemy army, dragged the Kuomintang army Hou Jingru to the Tashan area to death, and could not go to jinzhou to help.
In the subsequent Siege of Tianjin in the Battle of Pingjin, Liu Yalou also fought an extremely beautiful battle. In January 1949, Liu Yalou was appointed commander-in-chief of the Tianjin front.
For the Pingjin Campaign, the Central Military Commission originally planned to capture Tanggu first, and then attack Tianjin. After investigation, Liu Yalou found that Tanggu was facing the sea in the east and was surrounded by canals and salt ponds on three sides, so that such a terrain could not form an encirclement of the enemy army.
Moreover, if Tanggu was attacked first, the enemy troops stationed in Tianjin and Beiping might break through to the south, so he suggested that only a part of the troops should be used to monitor Tanggu, and the main force would attack the city of Tianjin with all its strength, and the Central Military Commission approved this plan.
At this time, the garrison in Tianjin was Chiang Kai-shek's concubine Chen Changjie, he had a force of 130,000 troops, he vowed to coexist and die with the city of Tianjin, after decades of Japanese and Kuomintang garrisons, the fortifications of Tianjin city were intact, and there were more than 300 pillboxes built in the city, supported by huge firepower.
In addition, Chen Changjie also used 100,000 migrant workers to dig a 10-meter-wide moat along the tianjin city wall. Forty thousand mines were planted within a 10-kilometer radius outside Tianjin, creating a vacuum.
In order to deter Fu Zuoyi, who was guarding Peiping, and promote the peaceful liberation of Peiping, the Central Military Commission asked the Northeast Field Army to take the city of Tianjin in three days, but Lin Biao only gave Liu Yalou 48 hours.
After careful consideration, Liu Yalou formulated the following operational policy: "Advance from east to west, cut off the waist, and first go south and then north." On January 13, when our army Chen Bing was under the city of Tianjin, Liu Yalou urged Chen Changjie to go out of the city and surrender.
In order to delay time, Chen Changjie sent 4 tianjin senators out of the city to conduct "peace talks" with our army, and Liu Yalou understood at a glance that he had no intention of peace talks, but only to find out the truth.
So he made a plan and met with the personnel who came to the peace talks in the north of Tianjin City, but in fact, the headquarters of our army was not here at all, but only to confuse the enemy.
In fact, Chen Changjie originally had no intention of peace talks, and the natural results of the negotiations were not reached. In order to make the defenders of the city, convinced that our army would attack from the north of the city, Liu Yalou fired several cannons from the north of the city. Chen Changjie was sure to make a plan, and in order to strengthen the strength of the northern part of the city, the main force of the 151st Division was transferred from the center of the city to the north of the city.
On the morning of the 14th, Liu Yalou ordered a fierce attack on tianjin city, and after only ten minutes our army opened a breakthrough and attacked the city from three sides, east, west, and south, and it took only 13 hours to completely annihilate the 130,000 defenders of Tianjin City.
Liu Yalou used the Tianjin Campaign to show everyone outstanding military talent and extremely strong military command ability.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" >4. Build an air force from scratch</h1>
Sending Liu Yalou to study in the Soviet Union was not to suppress him or just by chance, but Mao Zedong deliberately cultivated it for future reuse. However, Liu Yalou, who was flesh and blood at that time, did not understand, and it was not until after liberation that he understood Chairman Mao's true intentions.
In the early days of the founding of New China, the establishment of China's own air force had become extremely urgent, and Chairman Mao's first reaction was to think of Liu Yalou. First of all, Liu Yalou was the principal of the Northeast Aviation School, and secondly, he studied in the Soviet Union and mastered the Russian language, and at that time, the formation of the air force definitely needed the help of the Soviet Union.
Mao Zedong said to Liu Yalou: "Liu Yalou, you fought well, now let you go from land to heaven, how about you become the commander of the air force?" Liu Yalou, who has been leading troops to fight, was bottomless after listening to it: "Chairman, when I was in the Soviet Union, I mainly studied the army, so I didn't understand the air force at all. ”
"I just want you, the one who thinks you can't do it." Mao Zedong said with a smile. Subsequently, Liu Yalou was appointed as the first commander of our army's air force.
Liu Yalou, who was in danger of being ordered, did not dare to slacken off, and immediately set off to take a plane to the Soviet Union to communicate, but he did not expect to fly to the halfway point, and he actually had a situation of airsickness, which not only made the people around him feel funny: "How can the commander of the air force still get airsick?" ”
Through the contacts accumulated during his studies in the Soviet Union many years ago, Liu Yalou gained the trust of the Soviet side and promised to help help our country form an air force.
After returning to China, Liu Yalou, who has always been vigorous, immediately presided over a meeting to discuss the opening of an aviation school, which lasted for more than ten hours, and everyone debated about some issues endlessly.
At this time, Liu Yalou suddenly stood up and said loudly: "The training of Chinese air force pilots is Chairman Mao's order, so the opening of the aviation school cannot be delayed, we must race against the clock, we can no longer delay, only one month, December 1 aviation school must start on time!" ”
Hearing this, the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became serious, and it was difficult to build six aviation schools in just one month. "Opening an aviation school is a test for every cadre, if the school starts on time, then everyone is a hero, otherwise it is a bear, a straw bag!" Liu Yalou's words were sonorous and powerful.
In order to complete the task of building the aviation school on time, the responsible persons stayed up all night, and after more than 20 days of hard work, six aviation schools were finally built, and the school also opened on time.
Liu Yalou during this period was the busiest time in his life, in order to train qualified pilots as soon as possible and form china's own air force, he had to stay up late every day until late at night. In three days, he inspected six aviation schools throughout the country.
In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, the United Nations army entered no man's land and burned the flames of war to the border of our country, the Central Military Commission made a strategic plan to resist the United States and aid Korea, and Liu Yalou accompanied the Chinese People's Volunteer Army into the Korean War.
Before the start of the war, Liu Yalou made a detailed analysis of the war situation, and he believed that the biggest disadvantage of our army was the air force, and at present, the US military relies on a strong air force to dominate the airspace of the DPRK. This also made our army in a passive situation for a long time after entering the DPRK, and at this time Liu Yalou realized that China was rapidly strengthening its air force and adhered to the principle of "building while fighting."
Liu Yalou quickly began to form an air force unit in the northeast region and immediately began training, because the northeast region was protected by the Soviet Air Force, and they could provide relevant experience and necessary help.
It was under such urgent conditions that Liu Yalou trained a group of outstanding pilots for the Chinese Air Force, who immediately threw themselves into the battle on the Korean battlefield, effectively fought back against the US Air Force, and gradually grasped the initiative of the ground battlefield through air supremacy.
In 1955, the Chinese People's Liberation Army held its first award ceremony, and Liu Yalou was awarded the rank of general, which was the greatest recognition of his military achievements. However, these honors are not a capital for Liu Yalou to show off, but a driving force for him to start again.
In order to encourage Liu Yalou and enhance his confidence in building an air force, chairman Mao decided to fly to Guangzhou in 1956 when he inspected the south. For safety reasons, Liu Yalou asked for instructions to rent a foreign plane, but Chairman Mao did not agree: "I will take the plane that Chinese pilot!" ”
In order for the plane to arrive in Guangzhou safely and without error, Liu Yalou made various preparations and did not close his eyes for several days. He was relieved after the plane landed safely.
Chairman Mao praised him one after another, which also made Liu Yalou more confident and continued to fight for the cause of China's air force.
Due to years of working day and night, Liu Yalou's health problems, when he was also tested for liver cancer during his visit to Pakistan.
His superiors asked him to immediately give up his work and receive treatment as he wished, but Liu Yalou resolutely refused, dragging his seriously ill body to fight on the job, until 1965, his body could no longer support it, and Liu Yalou left his unfinished business to die.
Liu Yalou devoted the first half of his life to China's liberation cause, while the second half of his life was busy and tired for the cause of China's air force. After his death, the state held a grand funeral for him, no less than a state funeral, and his ashes were flown from Shanghai to Beijing and then moved to Zhongshan Hall in Zhongshan Park, where the state leader held the funeral.
At that time, the vast majority of Chinese leaders attended the funeral, and more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians spontaneously came to mourn, which was the greatest affirmation of his merits.