Looking back, Su Yu said, "I commanded the Huaihai Campaign," and the secretary pulled his clothes, don't talk about it
Su Yu was a modest and low-key general who did not like to compete for merit all his life. In his later years, he once said frankly: "I commanded the Huaihai Campaign. Such a statement is undoubtedly his true confession of that period of history.
In the early morning of September 24, 1948, Su Yu sent a secret telegram full of determination to **. Soon, this telegram reached ***, and after careful review, he agreed to Su Yu's proposal in the message.
In the afternoon of the next day, the telegram drafted by ** himself was delivered to Su Yu. After learning that *** supported his idea, Su Yu was excited. From that moment on, the Huaihai Campaign, a great drama that changed China's fate, officially kicked off.
In fact, Su Yu had long ago harbored the desire for a decisive battle with the main force of the Kuomintang. In the past, due to the limited strength of the troops, he had been waiting for the opportunity to come. With the successive victories of the People's Liberation Army in the Liaoshen and Jinan campaigns, the opportunity for the Huaihai Campaign has finally arrived.
Despite repeated defeats of the Kuomintang in other theaters, Chiang Kai-shek still held a strong main force. When Su Yu put forward the idea of the Huaihai Campaign, he fully understood the great challenges of this campaign.
In the telegram sent by Su Yu to **, he made an important suggestion: please coordinate with *** to command this battle. This proposal formalized the decision to coordinate the command of the two field armies.
After the discussion between *** and ***, it was decided that *** and Su Yu would form the Huaihai General Front Committee. Thus, the command structure of the Huaihai Campaign was formally established.
Su Yu began one of the most glorious battles of his life. By January 6, 1949, with the general offensive of the People's Liberation Army on Du Yuming's group, the Huaihai Campaign entered the final stage.
After several days of fierce fighting, Du Yuming's group was completely defeated, and the Huaihai Campaign was a great success. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) wiped out nearly 560,000 of the main Kuomintang forces.
Chiang Kai-shek's accumulated family funds were completely emptied, except for a few ** generals who escaped, Du Yuming, Huang Wei and other major generals were either captured or killed by the People's Liberation Army. The victory in the Battle of Huaihai announced the demise of the Kuomintang to some extent, and Su Yu, as the main commander, also became famous in one fell swoop.
The victory of the Huaihai Campaign caused a huge sensation at home and abroad, and the satisfaction with this victory was beyond words, and he especially praised Su Yu's outstanding performance in this battle, and attributed the success of the Huaihai Campaign to this outstanding general.
After this news reached the Soviet Union, Stalin also praised the victory in the Huaihai Campaign, believing it to be a military miracle. The Soviet Union was not the only country to be amazed by the outcome of the Huaihai Campaign, and other countries also expressed their surprise at China's success in the campaign, and offered to know the details and experience of the Huaihai Campaign.
The Battle of Huaihai thus became one of the classics in the world's military history, and the impact of this battle was not limited to China, but transcended national borders and became a high-profile piece of history in the world. Su Yu emerged in this process, and became a well-deserved military god because of his outstanding command ability and military wisdom.
Su Yu himself has kept a low profile about the success of this campaign. Even after the Battle of Huaihai, he was still active in the front-line battlefield and continued to command the Liberation War, but this victory caused great wear and tear on his body.
When directing battles, Su Yu often stayed up all night and ate very briefly, and it was not until after the victory that his body was able to rest for a while. This huge attrition left Su Yu with sequelae, which made his physical condition gradually deteriorate.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to physical and other reasons, Su Yu missed important battles such as the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and could not continue to show his demeanor on the battlefield. Despite leaving the front-line troops, Su Yu did not give up his love for the military.
He has been committed to research in the military field, and has summed up many combat methods based on his past battles, which has provided important resources for the PLA to train military talents.
Regrettably, Su Yu rarely mentioned the Battle of Huaihai in his later years, deliberately avoiding the topic in both interviews and memoirs. According to Su Yu's wife, Chu Qing, he stayed away from articles, books, and movies about the Huaihai Campaign.
This may be because the hardships brought about by the Huaihai Battle made him feel uneasy, or it may be out of respect for that special period. Despite this, Su Yu's silence on the Huaihai Campaign does not mean that he has forgotten the battle, and he still uses the experience of the Huaihai Campaign to teach the students vividly, showing a deep understanding of that period of history.
Su Yu deeply remembered every battle in the Huaihai Campaign, and his summary and experience of this period of history were never interrupted. With the passage of time, Su Yu's silent attitude towards the Huaihai Campaign gradually changed greatly.
China has always attached great importance to the propaganda of the three major battles, especially after the founding of the People's Republic of China, many professionals began to use these battles as prototypes for literary and artistic creation. With the support of the first generation, the relevant departments have also actively carried out film shooting to show the glorious chapter in the history of this period.
On July 27, 1978, Shi Zhengxian, the film and television director of Nanjing Film Studio, came to Su Yu with the heart of visiting "Huaihai Campaign". At that time, Su Yu's physical condition was not ideal, and the doctor told him to rest more and not talk too much, so the staff set a time limit of only 20 minutes for the interview.
Su Yu ignored the time constraints. He said to Shi Zhengxian: "The original time limit is invalid, I will give you 4 hours, and lunch will also be eaten at my place." This generous and open-minded attitude surprised Shi Zhengxian.
Su Yu opened his heart and expressed bluntly: "The Huaihai Campaign was commanded by me. The publication of this sentence shocked everyone present. Su Yu's secretary tried to stop him, but Su Yu remained unmoved and insisted on continuing to talk about all aspects of the Huaihai Campaign.
Shi Zhengxian recalled: "This sentence shocked me, and I made a record at that time. This is because this sentence echoes what *** once said, "The Huaihai Battle was commanded by me". At the time of the Huaihai Campaign, the General Front Committee of the Huaihai Campaign was composed of five leaders, Su Yu and ***, of which *** was the secretary of the General Front Committee and was the supreme leader of the campaign.
So, why did Su Yu say something similar?
First of all, the strategic concept of the Huaihai Campaign was indeed the work of Su Yu. As early as before the campaign, he put forward a strategic plan from "small Huaihai" to "big Huaihai", which was highly recognized by the ** Military Commission.
Secondly, after the outbreak of the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu's contribution cannot be ignored. His proposal and leadership role enabled the East China Field Army to become the main force in this campaign, dispatching powerful troops and displaying outstanding command skills. Su Yu's actual command exploits in the campaign are undeniable and profoundly affect the development of the war situation.
Therefore, Su Yu's statement was not a struggle for merit, but an objective expression of his strategic planning and actual command in the Huaihai Campaign. His open-minded attitude and true review of the battle provided precious historical materials for future generations, so that the heroic deeds of the Huaihai Campaign could be displayed more comprehensively.
Although Huaye showed a strong military and equipment advantage in the Huaihai Campaign, Nakano's command ability and tactical wisdom are equally remarkable. Despite the obvious inferiority in troops and equipment, Nakano achieved unexpected results in the campaign through flexible maneuver and exquisite tactical layout.
Huaye dispatched 16 columns and 4 brigades, with a total strength of more than 400,000 troops, far exceeding Nakano's 200,000. ** In terms of equipment, it was even more overwhelming, with just one artillery regiment having more shells than all the units in Nakano combined, providing strong support for the main offensive mission. This huge number and superiority made Huaye the mainstay of the main attack in the Huaihai Campaign.
The actual results of the Huaihai Campaign also fully proved Huaye's dominant position in the battle situation. They annihilated a total of 440,000 enemies and wiped out four Kuomintang corps, including Huang Baitao's corps, Qiu Qingquan's corps, Li Mi's corps, and Sun Yuanliang's corps. In contrast, Nakano only eliminated 1 corps, the Huang Wei Corps, and it was done with the assistance of Hua Ye. In terms of the number of enemies destroyed, Huaye's exploits were four times that of Nakano.
As the main commander of Huaye, Su Yu made outstanding contributions in the Huaihai Campaign. Although the five leaders of the General Front Committee of the Huaihai Campaign did not coordinate the command together at the beginning, but *** in the Nakano Command, Su Yu and ** in the Huaye Command, they only met for the first time in the later stages of the campaign.
He has highly praised Su Yu's outstanding performance many times, especially in the Huaihai Campaign, ** clearly stated: "In the Huaihai Campaign, Su Yu made the first contribution!" This is a clear recognition of Su Yu's outstanding contribution to the campaign. The success of the Huaihai Campaign was by no means the credit of individual generals, but a glorious victory achieved by the joint efforts and heroic struggle of the two major field armies under the leadership of the two major field armies.
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