General Su Yu was known as the "God of War", he once commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, crisscrossing in Shandong, and beating the Kuomintang army with their heads in their hands. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the General Staff Officer of the People's Liberation Army, in charge of troop dispatch and operations, and was a pillar figure in the People's Liberation Army. When the title was conferred in 1955, everyone thought he could be a marshal, but he missed out on this honor.
First of all, let's take a look at some of the detailed rules for awarding titles at that time, which clearly stipulate that there are two criteria for awarding marshals, one is to participate in the creation of Soviet districts during the agrarian revolution, and the other is to serve as a cadre at the level of the Red Army regiment or above. Su Yu joined the red camp during the Great Revolution, and after the outbreak of the Agrarian Revolution, he resolutely held high the banner of righteousness and followed Mr. Zhu, Mr. Chen and others to Jinggangshan to join forces with ***.
In 1932, he had been promoted to political commissar of the main division and became a leader among the young cadres of the Red Army. In 1934, he was transferred to the Red 10th Army as chief of staff, and was ordered to lead his troops north to resist Japan. However, it is a pity that the unit was besieged by the enemy in the border area of Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, suffered heavy losses for a while, and was forced to cancel its number, and the rest of the unit moved to northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang to persist in guerrilla warfare.
Later, General Su participated in the guerrilla war for three more years, during which he suffered a lot, and almost died under the encirclement and suppression of the enemy several times. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was incorporated into the New Fourth Army and went to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to resist the enemy. To sum up, Su Yu was a cadre at the corps level, but he did not create any Soviet districts, and he did not meet the conditions for the award of marshals.
In addition, Mr. Peng's report to ** also mentioned a hard criterion for being a marshal: a member of the Military Commission, at that time, the Military Commission had not been expanded, and there were only 11 members, and Su Yu was not among them, so he was not qualified to receive the rank of marshal. It is worth mentioning that Su Yu is very appreciative and trusting, at the beginning, Su Yu was transferred to the Fuzhou Military Region by the air force of the Shenyang Military Region without authorization, which caused a storm in the city for a while, and some people made a big fuss about it, accusing him of being undisciplined, and asked him to be severely punished. At the critical moment, ** stepped forward to save Su Yu and save him from the pull of the political storm.
Later, when the title was conferred, Su Yu was not among the marshals, but he was considered to have made great contributions in the Liberation War, so he was included in the list of marshals by exception. When Su learned of this, he immediately wrote and resigned, saying that he was not qualified to be a marshal. **Seeing his resolute attitude, he complied with his wishes and "demoted" him to a general.
There is another interesting detail about the rank of the marshal, that is, Mr. Zhu, who is the head of the marshal, has a military rank number of 001, but 004, and this "top spot" was specially approved by Mr. He. If this matter is to be investigated in depth, it must be traced back to 1927, when *** and other manpower were discouraged and persuaded *** to abandon the "right" line, establish their own army, and engage in armed revolution.
In late July, he secretly ordered a number of National Revolutionary Army controlled by the CCP to assemble in Nanchang City, and instructed Mr. He to serve as the commander of the uprising. At that time, Mr. Zhu had just been relieved of military power, and there was no soldier in his hands, so he asked him to feast the Kuomintang guards in Nanchang City to paralyze the enemy and ensure the smooth holding of the uprising.
It can be seen that He Lao is always the most important founder of the people's armed forces, and his historical status and contribution are incomparable to others, even if he did little during the Liberation War, but *** still resolutely awarded him the number of 001. But unfortunately, Mr. He was violently impacted during the turbulent period, physically and mentally devastated, and his health deteriorated sharply, and finally died of illness in 1969 at the age of 73.
And Su Yu also did not avoid the impact, he was under great pressure during the turmoil, and was frequently slandered and accused. Fortunately, Ye Shuai and Xu Shuai have been secretly protecting him from being beaten. After the turmoil, he was elected as a member of the Central Advisory Committee, and at the same time served as a member of the ** committee, and in the early 80s, he took a back seat and no longer participated in the country's military and political decision-making in principle. In his later years, he wanted to write a memoir to record his career in the past few decades, but who expected that he had just finished collecting information and had not yet started to write, when he suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. In 1984, he sadly passed away, and his memoir was later ghostwritten by his wife, which can be regarded as the fulfillment of his last wish.
General Su Yu is a rare general, he knows how to make good use of people, is proficient in the art of war, and has never encountered an opponent in his decades of service. During the Liberation War, he won successive battles in the Soviet Union and Shandong, and was rumored to be a good story for a while. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he assisted the Central Military Commission in reforming the PLA, transforming the PLA from a single branch of the armed forces into an armed force with multiple arms and strong comprehensive strength.