On October 19, 1949, ***, who had been recuperating in Qingdao since the Battle of Taiyuan, suddenly received a new appointment to the post of chief of the General Staff. 
The chief of the general staff is responsible for leading the operational command and combat readiness building planning of the whole army, and the burden is not insignificant. For this appointment, ** also felt a great responsibility, but he was afraid that he would be ill for a long time and it would be difficult for him to go to his post, which would delay his work in the army. He expressed to Beijing that he hoped that more capable comrades would take over his work. For ***'s request, the great man's reply is also very clear: recuperate with peace of mind, recuperate before going to work, the work of the General Staff can be temporarily arranged by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, which is equivalent to telling the position of the Chief of the General Staff belongs to him, and he will not be replaced by someone else if he is temporarily empty. 
For the next 5 years, the work of the General Staff was held from *** until 1954, when *** was promoted, and the post of Chief of the General Staff was taken over by someone else. Because of his health, he has never really presided over the work of the General Staff, which is also a big pity. And it is also incomprehensible why the great man is so persistent, preferring to leave such an important position vacant for 5 years, rather than having the idea of "changing the commander" halfway?In November 1931, the Red Fourth Front Army was formally established and assumed the post of commander-in-chief. Under the leadership of ***, the Fourth Front Army continued to grow and develop in Hubei, Henan and Anhui, and the troops expanded to more than 40,000 people. Huang'an and Shanghuang won several major battles. In 1932, he once again led the vanguard of the Fourth Front Army to cross the Shu Road and go straight down to the Tongjiang River to create a Sichuan-Shaanxi base area. In the face of several encirclements and suppressions by the enemy, ** launched three offensive campaigns in a row, besieged by six routes, annihilated more than 80,000 enemies, and developed the Sichuan-Shaanxi Red Army to its heyday. 
When the main Red Army failed in the fifth anti-encirclement and suppression and was forced to make a strategic shift, it was the first to lead his troops to forcibly cross the Jialing River, break through several interception lines, and successfully join forces with the Red Army in Maogong, western Sichuan. Later, some people were dissatisfied with the Red Army's northward advance policy, and when they forced the Fourth Front Army to go south, they continued to fight on the basis of reason, and finally promoted the rendezvous with the Red Second Front Army, and the two divisions went north together, so that the three main forces of the Red Army finally successfully joined forces in Huining, drawing a perfect end to the Long March. 
It can be said that whether it is the creation and expansion of the Fourth Front Army, or the support of the main force of the Red Army in the predicament, it has made great contributions. Without this commander-in-chief of the Red Army, who was not confused about major matters, the final Long March might have to go through a lot of arduous twists and turns. A veritable master of tactics *** was born in the famous Huangpu Phase I, and his strategic and tactical level is second to none among his fellow brothers. Many military fans are accustomed to listing "Peng Lin Liu Xu Su" as the "Five Tiger Generals" who fought last in our army, and *** is one of the more special ones. 
Also because of physical reasons, since the late stage of the Anti-Japanese War, ** has been recuperating from illness, and did not come back until a year after the Liberation War, which also made his "performance" time much less than that of the other military commanders of the field army. But it was in such a limited period of time that ** won three battles and three victories in Linfen, Jinzhong, and Taiyuan one after another, and played the most dazzling results with a "partial division". His superb command art is destined to leave a strong mark in the history of the Liberation War. In the public and "private", both are worthy of being equal to the public, ** are the fathers of the army, and their achievements and prestige are enough to serve the public. For personal gain, he saved the Red Army several times and turned the tide at critical moments. It is precisely for this reason that, no matter from which point of view, ** is the most suitable candidate for the first Chief of the General Staff. And to let *** recuperate with peace of mind, the post of chief has actually been vacant for 5 years, which is actually a kind of trust and affirmation of the great man to ***. If you can't go to work, you can work by the deputy chief of the General Staff, but as the needle of the sea, you can't change it, which is also the courage of the great man to employ people.