General Xu Shiyou learned martial arts since he was a child, and only joined the Red Army at the age of 22, which was considered a relatively late entry into the army among the founding generals. However, Xu Shiyou is talented after all, although he joined the army late, he made very fast progress, and became a platoon commander in the second year, and by the time he was 30 years old, he had become a military commander. However, there is a strange thing, that is, Xu Shiyou was very beautiful during the Red Army, but after the establishment of the Eighth Route Army, his name was not seen, what is going on?
You must know that in 1935, after the Red First Army and the Red Fourth Front Army met in Maogong, the commander of the First Army was General Lin, the commander of the Third Army was General Peng, and the commander of the Fourth Army was Xu Shiyou. When the Eighth Route Army was established, Peng Lao was always the deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and Lin was always the commander of the 115th DivisionOf course, it was not that he disappeared, but that Xu Shiyou had a major problem, and he was still under prison at the time, so naturally he would not be assigned a position. Speaking of which, I have to mention Zhang Guotao. Zhang Guotao is also a very important figure in the history of our party, but during the Long March, he had a different heart and opposed the Red Army's northward march in an attempt to start anew. This was a very serious problem, so Zhang Guotao was quickly punished and lost his power. 
In April 1937, when Xu Shiyou was studying at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, he found Wang Jian'an, Hong Xuezhi and others, planning to run away together and go up the mountain to fight guerrilla warfare. Fortunately, Wang Jian'an's political consciousness is still very high, and after hearing about this incident, he felt that the problem was very serious, and immediately reported it to his superiors, and Xu Shiyou and others were arrested. Subsequently, after the verdict, Xu Shiyou was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. However, the chairman had a clear mind and specially found Xu Shiyou and explained the truth of the revolution to him openly and honestly, and Xu Shiyou suddenly realized that he had done something wrong, and he was very grateful to the chairman from then on. Later, after the chairman's arrangement, Xu Shiyou became the deputy director of the school affairs department of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University and temporarily left the army. Therefore, when the Eighth Route Army was established, Xu Shiyou was still serving his sentence, so naturally he would not have been assigned a position. 
Of course, for such a fierce general, the Eighth Route Army will not waste it in vain, and when the sentence is over, Xu Shiyou was arranged by Mr. Zhu to be the deputy brigade commander of the 386th Brigade of the 129th Division. At first, when Xu Shiyou learned that he was only the deputy brigade commander, he was a little unhappy, but when he heard that the brigade commander was Chen Geng, he immediately accepted it, after all, in front of Chen Geng, Xu Shiyou was still very convinced. In this way, Xu Shiyou returned to the army to fight against the Japanese invaders, and was later transferred to Shandong to serve as the commander of the Jiaodong Military Region, the commander of the Huaye Ninth Column, and the commander of the Shandong Corps, and made great achievements. When the title was conferred in 1955, Xu Shiyou and Wang Jian'an and Hong Xuezhi, who were in a mood together, were all awarded the rank of general, which also shows that our army is very generous and does not blame the past.