Site where part of Comrade Su Yu’s ashes were scattered

Site where part of Comrade Su Yu’s ashes were scattered

The site where part of Comrade Su Yu’s ashes were scattered is a classic red tourism attraction.

Su Yu (1907–1984) was from Huitong County, Hunan Province. In 1926, he joined the Communist Youth League of China, and in 1927, he became a member of the Communist Party of China. He participated in the Nanchang Uprising and the Xiangnan Uprising. Starting in 1935, he led the Red Army Advance Detachment into combat in Pingyang, and in 1936, he led the Advance Detachment to successfully rendezvous at Geteng Lake and Bao... on the Ping-Rui border with the South Zhejiang Red Army guerrilla forces. In October 1937, he led the Advance Detachment to be reorganized in Fenglin, Pingyang, as the Min-Zhe Border Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Detachment of the National Revolutionary Army, serving as its commander. In January 1938, he founded the Min-Zhe Border Anti-Japanese Salvation Cadre School (abbreviated as “Anti-Japanese Cadre School”) in Shanmen, Pingyang. In March of the same year, he led the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Detachment of the New Fourth Army (formerly the Red Army Advance Detachment) from Pingyang to the anti-Japanese front in southern Anhui. He later held positions such as commander of the 1st Division of the New Fourth Army, commander of the Su-Zhe Military Region, commander of the Central China Field Army, and acting commander of the East China Field Army. In 1954, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, and in 1955, he was awarded the rank of Grand General. In 1980, he became Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

During the three years of guerrilla warfare in southern Zhejiang, General Su Yu formed a deep revolutionary bond with the people of Pingyang. He once said that southern Zhejiang’s Pingyang was his second hometown. He deeply cherished the land of Pingyang where he had fought, and in his will, he requested that part of his ashes be scattered in the places where he had fought and worked in Pingyang, so that he could remain with the people of Pingyang forever. On February 5, 1984, the legendary general Su Yu passed away in Beijing. In accordance with his wishes, part of his ashes were scattered on the land in Pingyang where he had fought and worked.

The site where part of Comrade Su Yu’s ashes were scattered is located at Shanmen Primary School in Shanmen Town, Pingyang County. The People’s Government of Pingyang County erected a 1.8-meter-high, 0.8-meter-wide memorial stele in the osmanthus grove at the former site of the Anti-Japanese Cadre School, engraved with the 12 Chinese characters: “Part of Comrade Su Yu’s ashes were scattered here.” In 2000, Huang Xianhe, a fellow soldier of the general and former vice principal of the Anti-Japanese Cadre School, passed away in Hangzhou. Part of his ashes were scattered beneath the osmanthus tree next to the memorial stele where the general’s ashes were scattered.

The site where part of Comrade Su Yu’s ashes were scattered is part of the national classic red tourism attraction — the Historic Sites Cluster of the Southern Zhejiang (Pingyang) Revolutionary Base, and is also a national patriotic education base.

Source: Party History Research Office of the Wenzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC