The Battle of Huaihai was a milestone in the final victory of the Liberation War, but for a long time there was controversy about the true commander of the battle.
For example, General Su Yu was particularly cautious about the Huaihai Campaign, and in General Su Yu's personal war memoirs, he recorded his participation in the army to the end of the Liberation War, but he did not talk about the Huaihai Campaign, which has to make people think that General Su Yu was low-key and humble, and was unwilling to fight for merit.
However, in 1978, the famous choreographer Shi Zhengxian came to ask General Su Yu some questions because he wanted to shoot a war-themed documentary, and when talking about the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu directly stated: "The Huaihai Campaign was commanded by me." ”
In fact, Su Yu never denied that the Huaihai Campaign was commanded by himself, on the contrary, when he was serving in the Academy of Military Sciences, Su Yu liked to use the Huaihai Campaign as a combat example for detailed analysis.
But according to Shi Zhengxian, when Su Yu said that he commanded the Huaihai Campaign, the secretary next to Su Yu immediately tugged at the corner of Su Yu's clothes and reminded him that "if you say too much, you will lose".
As soon as this remark came out, Shi Zhengxian was quite surprised, because *** once said personally: The deployment decision of the Huaihai Campaign was made by me according to the command and auspices of the ** Military Commission.
Was the Huaihai Battle commanded by Su Yu, or was it commanded by ***? For a while, Shi Zhengxian couldn't be sure.
So, who exactly commanded the Huaihai Campaign?
On September 24, 1948, shortly after the outbreak of the Liaoshen Campaign, the People's Liberation Army won victories in the national battlefield.
However, this "Huaihai Campaign" was not the Huaihai Campaign that we are familiar with, but a battle that mainly liberated the two Huai, Haizhou, and three cities.
However, after careful consideration, it was decided to launch a larger campaign, and let the Central Plains Field Army commanded by Liu Deng also join, with the goal of liberating the area north of the Yangtze River and south of North China, which the Kuomintang called the "Battle of Xu Beng", which we called the Huaihai Campaign.
Although the East China Field Army was relatively strong at that time, with more than 400,000 troops participating in the war, the Central Plains Field Army was only 200,000 people, which seemed to be only half of the East China Field Army. (Nakano suffered a large loss due to going to the Dabie Mountain base area).
However, Su Yu knows that with his own qualifications, commanding Huaye still needs to be in charge, and commanding Zhongye is simply not possible, so Su Yu took the lead in expressing his position to ** on October 31, saying that the scale of this campaign is too large and needs unified command, and it is recommended that ** and *** should be unified in command.
In the first stage of the Huaihai Campaign, Huaye and Nakano were still in a state of division of troops, and soon discovered the problem, for this reason, Huaye and Nakano established a general front committee composed of five people on the Huaihai front, ** and *** are standing committee members, ** or secretaries.
**Say to ***: "I give you the command." ”
It can be said that as the secretary of the General Front Committee, *** is the commander-in-chief of the entire Huaihai Campaign.
Many people know Deng Gong as an excellent politician, in fact, **'s military career is also very outstanding, in the land war, that is, the War of Resistance against Japan, and the War of Liberation have commendable points.
Under the command of the General Front Committee, the People's Liberation Army first annihilated Huang Baitao's corps, and then fought Huang Wei's corps, and the balance of victory in the Huaihai Battle began to tilt towards the PLA, and then, the General Front Committee presided over the operation against Du Yuming's corps.
It can be said that there is no doubt that he fully presided over the operation of the Huaihai Campaign.
So, did Su Yu lie when he said that he commanded the Huaihai Campaign?
In fact, Su Yu did not lie, and in the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu also played a huge role.
For example, in the first stage of the Huaihai Campaign, when Huang Baitao's corps was attacked, Su Yu commanded the East China Field Army to serve as the main attack, and Liu Deng's Central Plains Field Army played a coordinating role.
In the encirclement and annihilation of the Huang Wei Corps, the Central Plains Field Army served as the main force, and the East China Field Army cooperated.
By the time of the final attack on Du Yuming's corps, the East China Field Army contributed the most, so Su Yu said that he had no problem commanding the Huaihai Campaign.
It can be said that the command of the first is carried out from the strategic level and has an overview of the overall situation, while Su Yu mainly commands the East China Field Army to conduct operations, and it is more about the specific command at the tactical level.