In 1958, General Su Yu, then chief of the General Staff, was wrongly criticized and was labeled as a "hat", and then he was transferred to the Academy of Military Sciences as vice president, responsible for the standing work of the academy.
The founding lieutenant general who was protected by Su Yu is Zhang Zhen, he is Su Yu's old subordinate, compared to Su Yu, General Zhang Zhen's reputation is not as good as him, but his experience is also legendary, Zhang Zhen is a native of Pingjiang County, Hunan, because his family is poor, he went to work as an apprentice to make a living at a very young age.
In 1930, 16-year-old Zhang Zhen joined the party and became a propagandist of the 2nd column of the Red 5th Army, and later became the captain of the propaganda team.
In the anti-"encirclement and suppression" battle in the Soviet area, Zhang Zhen rushed to the front every time, he was wounded twice, when he was on the Long March, he served as the director of communications, the chief of staff of the regiment, etc., after arriving in northern Shaanxi, Zhang Zhen entered the Kang University to study, and was later transferred to the Eighth Route Army office in Jin.
After the formation of the New Fourth Army, due to the lack of cadres, Zhang Zhen was transferred to the New Fourth Army 4th Detachment to work, after which Zhang Zhen served as a staff officer in the New Fourth Army for a long time, although he and Su Yu were in the New Fourth Army, but the two did not have much contact, until the Liberation War to work under Su Yu.
Su Yu was very satisfied with Zhang Zhen, in the spring of 1948, when the army was reorganized, Su Yu named Zhang Zhen to stay by his side as the chief of staff, and later he followed Su Yu to participate in and command many important battles, and learned real skills from Su Yu, Su Yu was 7 years older than him, and regarded him as a "little brother".
With the improvement of Zhang Zhen's command level, Su Yu handed over a lot of specific command work to Zhang Zhen, in the Jinan Campaign, Zhang Zhen's chief of staff can be fully reflected, under the influence and help of Su Yu, Zhang Zhen's progress was very fast, in 1952, Zhang Zhen was transferred to the General Staff as the head of the war department.
Su Yu, who was the deputy chief of the general staff at the time, personally went to the station to greet his old subordinate Zhang Zhen, which flattered Zhang Zhen, which shows that Su Yu attached great importance to Zhang Zhen.
In 1968, Zhang Zhen was seriously injured due to the impact, and no hospital dared to accept him for **, Su Yu learned the news and personally called *** for help, so that Zhang Zhen got timely ** and saved his life, but Zhang Zhen still lived in the hospital for more than a month.
In December 1970, Zhang Zhen resumed his work and served as the deputy commander of the Wuhan Military Region, in August 1975, he was transferred to the General Logistics Department as a deputy minister, in August 1977, Zhang Zhen was elected as a member of the Military Commission, and the following year he became the head of the General Logistics Department, and his work was recognized by the Military Commission.
In October 1992, Zhang Zhen became the vice chairman of the Military Commission, during which he has been working hard for Su Yu's rehabilitation, and finally in 1994, he published an article with another vice chairman of the Military Commission, rehabilitating Su Yu, at this time it has been 10 years since Su Yu's death.
As an old subordinate, old comrade-in-arms, Zhang Zhen and Su Yu's revolutionary friendship is enviable and admirable, it is worth saying that General Zhang Zhen has 4 sons, the eldest son was awarded the rank of general, and the other three sons are all major generals, worthy of being the son of the general, on September 3, 2015, Zhang Zhen died of illness at the age of 101.