Li Da was a well-respected founding general, and he had a very interesting nickname, that is, "Chief of Staff for Ten Thousand Years". The nickname comes from his 13-year tenure as chief of staff, during which he assisted five field marshals. So why did Li Da serve in the post of Chief of Staff for so long?What does this have to do with his eventual award to the rank of general?Li Da was born in 1905 in a poor family in Yaxia Village, Meixian County, Shaanxi Province. In order to earn a living, he began working as a landowner at the age of 5. This difficult living situation gives a deeper understanding of his tenacity. At the age of 11, his family was in debt to provide for his education, hoping to change his fate. During his time at the Provincial Normal School, he was exposed to new ideas and participated in progress*** After graduation, he briefly returned to his hometown as an elementary school teacher. However, the turbulent times and the lack of livelihood of the people prompted him to decide to join the army. In 1926, he was admitted to the Second Military Academy of the Northwest Army founded by Feng Yuxiang and embarked on a military command career. After graduating, he successively served as a platoon commander, company commander, and regiment commander, and also participated in the Ningdu Uprising, and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1932.
However, since then, he has begun his career as "Chief of Staff for 10,000 Years". He successively served as the chief of staff of the Red 8th Army, and then followed the Western Expedition of the Red 6th Army of Marshal ** and served as the chief of staff of the Red 6th Army. After the corps and the ** marshal's Red 2nd Army Corps met, he was reappointed as the chief of staff of the Red 2nd Army Corps and became Mr. He's right-hand man. Perhaps many people will think that having served as the chief of staff of so many corps and accumulated a wealth of command experience, they should be able to be promoted to commander, or at least become a brigade commander. However, his career as chief of staff was far from over, and in 1937, he became chief of staff of the Western Army. After the start of the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he resolutely went to the front line of resistance against Japan and actively participated in the counterattack of the Taihang Military Region against the "Six-Way Siege" and the battle against the "Nine-Way Siege" in the southeast of Shanxi. During the Anti-Japanese War, he successively served as the chief of staff and chief of staff of the 129th Division Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. Since then, he has formed a deep friendship with Marshal ***. Since 1937, he has been stationed for a long time at the side of Marshal *** as Chief of Staff. During this period, although he briefly served as the commander of the Taihang Military Region, due to limited time, he was only appointed unofficially.
With the adjustment of Liu Shuai's position and the reorganization of the troops, his position has also changed, but he has always been inseparable from the post of "chief of staff", and has successively served as chief of staff of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region, the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army, the Central Plains Military Region, the Central Plains Field Army, the Second Field Army, and the Southwest Military Region. This was the case even after the founding of the state. In 1950, the situation in Northeast Asia underwent major changes, and the Volunteer Army entered Korea to fight in a low-key manner. In 1953, Li Da also received an order to quickly go to North Korea and serve as the chief of staff of the Volunteer Army. Looking back on this legendary experience, from 1932 to 1953, he was re-elected as chief of staff of various units for 21 years. Although his status has been continuously promoted, he has never left the post of "chief of staff" and has not become a battlefield commander. Such an experience is extremely rare in our army. As for why he failed to be promoted to the rank of commander in chief, this of course involves the principle of employing people in our army, and it is also related to the command style of Marshal ***. First of all, we must affirm that the abilities of General Li Da are absolutely sufficient, otherwise he would not have been the chief of staff for a long time. For such a resourceful comrade, who is good at organizing and coordinating all parties, it is natural that he should be properly placed. Marshals are known for their unique command style.
Unlike other commanders, the general style is bold and straightforward;** Sometimes cautious, sometimes rough and flexible;Su Yu's style is calm and sophisticated, and he will consider more comprehensively when giving tasks. Different styles of managers obviously need different types of chiefs of staff. Some commanders attach great importance to the role of the chief of staff, while others prefer to personally check the gates, weakening the role of the chief of staff. And Marshal *** is a commander who attaches more importance to the chief of staff. At every operational meeting, he would talk about a lot of tactical and theoretical contents, but the commanders at the grassroots level might not be able to fully grasp them. Therefore, he needed a chief of staff who understood his style to re-elaborate and better convey the operational ideas to the commanders at the grassroots level, and Li Da undertook this task. In "Selected Works of Li Da", a meeting of the chiefs of staff of units above the regimental level of the Taihang Military Region was recorded in July 1941. The meeting was prepared in advance, and Li Da accurately conveyed Liu Shuai's requirements to the cadres at the meeting, hit the nail on the head, and ensured that Liu Shuai's instructions could be put in place. In addition to assisting the coach to convey the task, Li Da also shared a lot of pressure on Liu Shuai during the operation.
For example, in the series of battles in southwest Lu, due to the complexity of the enemy situation, each unit needs to flexibly decide its own fighting style, some are responsible for attacking the city, some are responsible for defense, some are responsible for annihilation, and some are responsible for containment. Li Da played an important coordinating role in ensuring that the actions of the various units were not chaotic. In this battle, two of the five trump cards of the Jiang army were defeated, and the number of enemies destroyed was about the same as the battle of Meng Lianggu, which caused the enemy to suffer a great loss. Therefore, Liu Shuai has been reluctant to let Li Da leave him. In contrast, although he could be assigned to be a commander in the corps, he could play a greater role in the post of chief of staff. As a result of his long tenure as Chief of Staff without any progress, General Li Da was still affected despite his outstanding ability and military exploits, and this influence was also shown in the ranks of the military at the time of promotion. Although he was eventually awarded the rank of officer of the regular corps, he did not have an advantage over General Xu Guangda's second-class military commander and commander of the armored corps (although General Xu Guangda was also awarded the rank of regular corps). Compared with General Xiao Ke and General ** of the Red Second Front Army, General Li Da has no advantage in terms of qualifications and rank (even inferior to General Xiao Ke).