Su Yu

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Su Yu (粟裕)(August 10, 1907 - February 5, 1984) 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. Born in Huitong county, Hunan province, he fought in the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and in the Chinese Civil War.

He commanded the East China Field Army (renamed 3rd Field Army in 1949) during the Chinese Civil War.

The Su Zhong battle 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 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 Meng Liang Gu battle. In this battle, the elite Nationalist Seventy-Fourth division was completely destroyed after Su Yu succeeded in encircling the unit.

He was the major commander during the Huaihai Campaign (1948). 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 (caused by shell fragments in the 1930s), neither him nor Lin Biao(also rumored to be sick)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 (General of the Army) 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.