In January 1947, the two units of the Central China Field Army and the Shandong Field Army were officially merged into the East China Field Army under the instructions of the ** Military Commission, which is also known as "Huaye". Mr. Chen served as the supreme person in charge of Huaye, but it was Commander Su who actually commanded the war, and Mr. Su had outstanding military talent, and in 1947 he led the Huaye army to win successive battles, and even eliminated the Kuomintang's number one ace unit and reorganized the 74th Division. But in the summer of 1947, Mr. Su lost two battles in succession: the battles of Nanma and Linqu.
Mr. Su has won the admiration of many people in terms of daily troop scheduling and military strategy. However, after the two defeats, Huaye lost tens of thousands of soldiers, and some comrades who were not familiar with Mr. Su before began to have opinions and even doubts about him. A famous general in Huaye wrote a long letter of thousands of words questioning General Su's command style and ideas, and said in a very loud tone: "I think I have to give you some help now." It is said that in terms of military command ability, there is no one in Huaye who can surpass Commander Su. This comrade dared to question just because of the two partial defeats, and his tone was still so tough, why didn't Commander Su get angry after reading the letter, and did not reply to the past?
It was none other than General ***, who was then the deputy political commissar of the East China Field Army. **The reason why he dared to criticize Mr. Su straight to the point was determined by his status and qualifications. During the period of the Red Army, the position of ** was higher than that of Commander Su, and even after the establishment of the East China Field Army, he and Commander Su were still at the same level in 1947, because at this time, General Su was not the acting commander and acting political commissar of the East China Field Army, but only the deputy commander of the field army, and the deputy political commissar was a cadre at the same level. Giving advice to your peers openly and honestly is theoretically fine.
**Within Huaye, he has always had the nickname of "Boss Tan", although he is not tall, he is bold and domineering, majestic, and has great prestige in the team. For poorly performing generals and troops, ** sometimes burst out with excitement and guide according to their own ideas. Therefore, "Boss Tan" gave advice to President Su, not to find fault, but out of serious consideration for the construction of the army and concern for Commander Su.
From his 47-year-old opinion letter to Mr. Su, it can be seen that he still respects Commander Su in his heart. In the letter, he first affirmed that Commander Su "is a rare commanding genius of our army in recent years" and expressed the hope that the comrades in East China will show more concern for him, so that this genius will make rapid progress and maturity, give full play to his abilities, and win more battles. In response to General Yu Su's command problem, he said, "You are sometimes not careful enough, and you only look at one or two steps in the face of problems, which leads to underestimating the enemy and suffering defeat." He hoped that improvements could be made in the future.
In fact, ** was the only person in the War of Liberation who dared to formally give advice to Commander Su at the military level. You must know that Su is always a famous "god of war" in the history of our army, and his courage to "guide" Commander Su shows that his vision and courage are extraordinary. In terms of qualifications and combat experience, ** is also at the level of a general, but he did not participate in the evaluation later, and he does have the capital to be on an equal footing with Mr. Su. During the period of the New Fourth Army, he served as a division commander and personally led front-line troops, and he has the ability to actually lead troops to fight. Therefore, he did not look at the problem on paper, and Commander Su himself knew this very well.
It was also for the above reasons that after receiving the letter from Deputy Political Commissar Tan, Commander Su carefully read and thought about and analyzed, and gave written replies to several questions raised by the other party, and thanked *** for his opinions and advice. The personal relationship between Mr. Su and *** has become more and more harmonious since then, and both of them have become members of the General Front Committee of the Huaihai Campaign, commanding the troops to annihilate the main force of **Jiangbei. For Commander Su's increasingly superb command art, ** is also sincerely admired and admired.
Until after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the two still maintained a very good comrade-in-arms relationship. It can be seen that whether it is a generation of famous generals or ordinary people, a true friend can put forward his opinions openly and honestly, without any unnecessary taboos, this is a friend who treats each other with all sincerity. ** In the later period, he was promoted quickly, and in 1956 he served as the deputy prime minister. Commander Su became a vice-state-level cadre in the early 80s of the last century.