Su Yu

Su Yu was a Chinese Communist military leader. He was considered by many to be among the best commanders of the PLA along with Lin Biao and Liu Bocheng.

Biography

Born in Huitong county, Hunan province to an ethnic family, he fought in the Sino-Japanese War and in the Chinese Civil War. He commanded the East China Field Army during the Chinese Civil War.

The Central Jiangsu Campaign was the first of many of his brilliant works that defined his legacy. The successes of the battle persuaded Mao Zedong to change his military strategy of the Chinese Civil War from a traditional guerrilla style warfare to a more mobile and conventional approach.

He was also the commander of the PLA in the famous and much propagandized Menglianggu Campaign. In this campaign, the elite Nationalist Seventy-Fourth was completely destroyed after Su Yu succeeded in encircling the unit.

He was the major commander during the Huaihai Campaign . It was his suggestion on January 22, 1948 that the two armies of Liu and Su follow a sudden-concentrate, sudden-disperse strategy that lead to this decisive victory in late 1948, with the destruction of five Nationalist armies and the killing or capture of 550,000 Nationalist soldiers. Su's army alone destroyed 4 nationalist armies and was the deciding force in destroying the fifth.

When the Korean War broke out in 1950, it was rumored that Su Yu was the commander that Mao wanted to lead the Chinese Voluntary Army into Korea. However, because of his illness , neither him nor Lin Biao were able to command the CVA. In the end Peng Dehuai was selected after Lin refused to lead the army.

He was made a Senior General in 1955. He served in numerous positions including the Chief of the General Staff of the PLA in the 50s. He died in Beijing in 1984.

Su Yu was married to Chu Qing , and they had three kids, all of them were sent to join the by Su Yu. The eldest was son Su Rongsheng , born in 1942, followed by the second son Su Hansheng , and the youngest is daughter Su Huining , who married Chen Xiaolu in August, 1975. Chen Xiaolu is Su Yu's direct superior during war time, 's son. According to Su Rongsheng, Su Yu was an extremely strict father. When Su Rongsheng was only three years old, Su Yu forced him to learn how to swim by giving him a section of bamboo for flotation, and pushed him into the water in front of his mother, and prohibited anyone from attempting to saving Su Rongsheng. Su Yu's wife, Chu Qing was outraged and asked Su Yu angrily that if he was not worried about Su Rongsheng being drown, but Su Yu answered that Su Rongsheng would never learn how to swim other way and besides, he was not drowning anyway. At age of 20, Su Rongsheng joined the PLA and remained in service for 45 years, rising from an ordinary soldier to a lieutenant general when he retired as the deputy commander-in-chief of Beijing Military District at age 65.