Although Su Yu participated in the Nanchang Uprising and participated in the revolution early, Su Yu's development was very slow during the Red Army period, and his position was not high.
Although he became the chief of staff of the Red Seventh Army Corps before the Red Army's Long March in 1934, the Red Seventh Army was a non-main force, and the number was not large, only equivalent to the size of a division, and it was also the task of responding to the main battle.
Soon, the Red Army began the Long March, and it was to break through to the west, and the anti-Japanese advance team was to fight in the northeast, so that the distance between Su Yu and ** was even farther.
The position is not high, and he was injured in the battle and recuperated for a period of time, so he has no chance to make any great contributions, in the star-studded ** revolutionary base area, Su Yu, who is taciturn and has a low-key and humble personality, will naturally not attract the attention of the top leadership, and the chairman will naturally not know Su Yu so well.
But it doesn't matter, Su Yu will soon make a name for himself thousands of miles away.
Although the anti-Japanese advance team in the north carried out the task of responding to the main force of the Red Army and was a partial division, it was also surrounded and intercepted by the superior enemy because it penetrated deep into the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, the center of Kuomintang rule, and was unable to gain a foothold, and finally the whole army was annihilated, leaving only Su Yu and a few hundred people to survive.
After more than two years of arduous guerrilla warfare, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, Su Yu's department was reorganized into the second detachment of the New Fourth Army, Su Yu served as the deputy commander of the second detachment, at that time the New Fourth Army had four detachments, equivalent to four regiments, the commanders were Mr. Chen, Zhang Dingcheng, Zhang Yunyi, Gao Jingting, the whole army has a total of more than 10,000 people, and a detachment is about 2,000 people, which is equivalent to a regiment of the Eighth Route Army, and Su Yu is equivalent to the deputy regimental level.
Therefore, in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, Su Yu was only equivalent to the deputy head of the regiment, and he could not be regarded as a senior commander, let alone attract the attention of the top leaders who were thousands of miles away.
At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Su Yu's first battle of resistance against Japan was only a guerrilla war on the scale of 100 people, and although the victory was won by the Japanese transport convoy in Weigang, it was only a small victory, and it could not be compared with large-scale sports warfare such as the Pingxingguan victory and the Guangyang ambush with thousands of people participating in the battle.
Since then, Su Yu has fought some ambush battles in a row, such as the surprise attack on the official steep gate, and the continuous accumulation of small victories, not only captured a large number of **, but also accumulated rich combat experience.
In this way, Su Yu's fame in the Third War Zone became more and more famous, and Gu Zhutong, the commander of the Third War Zone, specially sent someone to ask Su Yu to teach guerrilla warfare courses, which also made Su Yu famous in the Kuomintang army in the Third War Zone, but at this time his fame was limited to the Third War Zone.
In August 1939, after the Anti-Japanese War entered the stalemate stage, Su Yu's military career ushered in a turning point, and the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army decided to merge the first detachment and the second detachment to form the Jiangnan Command.
The main force and local armed forces led by the Jiangnan Command Headquarters totaled more than 14,000 people, which was already equivalent to the size of an army, and the second detachment where Su Yu was originally located alone grew to the scale of 6,000 people, and the army size increased to fight a larger-scale battle.
Later, the Jiangnan Command crossed the river and was renamed the Northern Jiangsu Command, but soon in January 1941, the Southern Anhui Incident broke out, the New Fourth Army Military Headquarters and its main force of more than 9,000 people were completely annihilated, and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party completely tore their faces, and our army rebuilt the military headquarters in Yancheng, Jiangsu, with the first as the acting commander, and the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army in the south were combined into 7 divisions, and Su Yu served as the commander of the first division and the commander of the Soviet-Central Military Region.
This was also another turning point in Su Yu's military career, as he began to lead a large army and was in charge of a strategic area alone, with three brigades under his command totaling 1With 20,000 people, Su Yu began to take charge of the New Fourth Army, and after more than two years of guerrilla warfare and more than three years of experience in the War of Resistance Against Japan, Su Yu's level of command and combat became more and more superb, and no one could hide his brilliance anymore.
Su Yu mainly fought against the Japanese army's sweep of the base area in the Soviet Union and China, and successively contributed to the Battle of Sancang, the Battle of Fengli, and the "Battle of the Ten Regiments" against the winter sweep.
Su Yu's brilliant performance finally attracted the attention of the top level of our party, and the secretary of the Central China Bureau of the Communist Party of China summed up in a conference report: "In the New Fourth Army, the troops of the First Division fought the most and achieved the greatest results."
Su Yu can be said to be like a fish in water in the Soviet Union and Central China, and he has won successive battles, and his performance in the construction of base areas is very impressive, both in terms of war results and army building, and the manpower, material resources, and financial resources under his control and reserves rank first in Central China.
But these are not enough to attract the attention of the great man, because there are also important strategic areas such as the Shandong base area and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei base area in the country, which are also performing very well, and Su Yu is subordinate to the Central China Bureau and the military headquarters of the New Fourth Army, and does not directly accept the management of **.
Until the eve of Japan's surrender in 1945, a battle finally made Su Yu attract the attention of the great man, and was praised by the great man, and since then he has been the focus of the great man.
At the end of 1944, the countdown to Japan's defeat had begun, and the Central China Bureau decided to advance into Jiangsu and Zhejiang while holding on to the Soviet Union and China, and this time Su Yu served as the vanguard.
On December 27, 1944, Su Yu led more than 10,000 men and horses to cross the river into Zhejiang, and on January 13, 1945, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Region was established, and Su Yu served as the commander of the military region.
At this time, the Japanese army was already at the end of the day, and could only be trapped in the city and did not dare to fight with the New Fourth Army, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were originally the ruling center of the Kuomintang, and of course the Kuomintang could not watch the New Fourth Army come over to grab territory, so it was Gu Zhutong's third theater that could fight with the New Fourth Army.
The focus of the contention is concentrated in the Tianmu Mountain in the northwest of Hangzhou, and the disparity between the forces of the enemy and us is huge, and the Kuomintang army has 12 divisions of about 650,000 people, while all the troops under Su Yu's command only had more than 20,000 people in three columns, and they were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers and equipment.
This is no longer a guerrilla war, but an out-and-out campaign war, and it is a battle with fewer enemies.
From February to March 1945, the Kuomintang troops of the Third Theater launched two large-scale attacks on the troops of our Jiangsu and Zhejiang Military Regions, both of which were crushed by us.
In mid-May, Gu Zhutong, commander of the Third Theater of Operations, in accordance with Chiang Kai-shek's instructions, transferred Li Jue, commander-in-chief of the 25th Group Army, from Fujian to serve as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy.
Li Jue summed up the lessons of the previous fiascos, did not dare to drive straight in, and adopted the tactics of advancing step by step and advancing slowly at the same time, so that our army could not divide and encircle it, and attempted to force us to fight a decisive battle with superior forces. Su Yu saw through the enemy's combat intentions and adopted the method of "holding the enemy by the nose and going around a few times" in order to prevent the enemy from seeing that our army was luring him in.
To this end, Su Yu first ordered his troops to take the initiative to attack and capture Xindeng City (now Chengyang, Xindeng Town, Fuyang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang), and then retreated on his own initiative after repelling eight counterattacks by enemy reinforcements. In order to deceive the enemy, the troops deliberately threw broken military hats, broken military uniforms, rice bags, and rotten straw sandals everywhere when passing through the main road and mountain paths.
Su Yu also instructed people to march with a big red coffin, which convinced the enemy that our army was really defeated, and for a while, the "good news" continued to fly in front of Li Jue like snowflakes. In this way, the enemy unwittingly fell into the layout of our army.
Li Jue divided the troops into two groups, the east and the east, but he did not expect that the 52nd Division of the west group would be in a hurry and move fastThe East Group proceeded step by step, and the distance between the two groups was slowly opened up by about 40 miles, and the 52nd Division became a lone army.
Su Yu seized the fighter plane and concentrated his forces to annihilate the 52nd Division, and then immediately transferred his forces to encircle and annihilate the Eastern Group, and after two days and nights of fierce fighting, the enemy's 79th Division, an all-British assault column with all-British equipment20,000 people were annihilated, and Li Jue was completely defeated.
With this battle, Su Yu finally gained a firm foothold in Jiangnan, and the result of this battle was greatly unexpected by both the CCP and the country.
The New Fourth Army had never fought such a large-scale movement war before, it was a small-scale guerrilla war, and Chiang Kai-shek did not believe that the New Fourth Army had such a strong combat capability.
However, the Central China Bureau and the Yan'an Headquarters did not expect Su Yu to achieve such great results, and they were always worried about the situation of the Jiangnan troops, and they were not relieved until they received Su Yu's war report after the war.
This beautiful movement war, the war of annihilation finally made Su Yu attract the attention of the great man, he saw the potential of Su Yu to command the large corps to fight, at that time the Communist Party of China was holding the Seventh National Congress, Su Yu was elected as the first alternate member, the great man spoke highly of Su Yu, he said: "Su Yu can command four or five hundred thousand troops in the future." ”
In October 1945, the 1st, 4th, and 6th Divisions of the New Fourth Army formed the Central China Field Army, with Su Yu as the commander and commanding the main force under his command70,000, and another 13 troops of the military region50,000 people. Su Yu finally became the commander of the front army.
Later, he led the Central China Field Army to contribute to the Soviet-Chinese seven battles and seven victories, annihilating more than 50,000 enemy troops, the news reached Yan'an, and was praised by Mr. Zhu, he said: "Su Yu destroyed more enemies in the Soviet-Chinese campaign than his own troops."
Since then, Su Yu has become a member of the top management who relies on a general.