Xiao Ke is from Jiahe, Hunan, and he and Lin Biao are alumni of the fourth phase of Huangpu. During the Nanchang Uprising , his position was the same as Lin Biao, that is, company commander. After entering Jinggangshan , Lin Biao began to surpass Xiao Ke in his position. In March 1932, Lin Biao became the commander of the First Red Army Corps. At that time, Xiao Ke was only the commander of the 5th Independent Division. Two years later, Xiao Ke became the commander of the Red 6th Army. Although he was on the same level as Lin Biao in terms of position, the Red 6th Army was incomparable to the Red 1st Army in terms of strength and weapons and equipment.
Later, Xiao Ke joined the Red Second Front Army and basically had no contact with Lin Biao. After the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Lin Biao served as the commander of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, and Xiao Ke served as the deputy commander of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army. Shortly after the Battle of Pingxingguan, Lin Biao was accidentally injured by soldiers under Yan Xishan's command and went to the Soviet Union for treatment. Xiao Ke led the advancing army to open up a base in Pingxi, Pingxi. After the outbreak of the Liberation War, Lin Biao became the commander of Dongye, and Xiao Ke continued to run schools until the end of the Liberation War before returning to the front line.
Throughout the war years, Xiao Ke and Lin Biao did not have many interactions, but he served as Lin Biao's chief of staff twice. The first time occurred in the autumn of 1929, when Lin Biao served as the commander of the Fourth Red Army column, and Xiao Ke served as chief of staff for him for a period of time. A few months later, Xiao Ke was transferred to the commander of the 12th Red Division. The second time he served as chief of staff to Lin Biao occurred at the end of the Liberation War. During the War of Liberation, Lin Biao's chief of staff was originally Liu Yalou, , and the two worked well together. In April 1949, Liu Yalou became the commander of the 14th Corps of the Fourth Field, and the post of 's chief of staff became vacant.
Who will replace Liu Yalou? The superiors chose Xiao Ke after consideration. At that time, he was serving as the vice president of North China Military and Political University. After receiving the order, Xiao Ke did not hesitate for a moment, simply packed his bags and came to Siye to take up his post. While serving as chief of staff to Lin Biao, he assisted Lin Biao in commanding many battles and made considerable contributions to the elimination of the Bai Chongxi Group. Xiao Ke later described this experience in his memoirs: "In the process of entering the Central and Southern China, it was good for me to cooperate with Lin Biao. He trusted me in work and business. Although there were arguments, overall the relationship was good." In the spring of 1950, Xiao Ke received an order to serve as the Minister of the Training Department of the Military Commission. Before departure, Lin Biao bid farewell to Xiao Ke and his wife in East Lake Park and said some words of encouragement to Xiao Ke. After the "Cultural Revolution" began, Xiao Ke was wrongly criticized and sent to work in the "May 7th Cadre School" in Jiangxi, while Lin Biao's status rose sharply. In 1971, when he saw that his conspiracy was exposed, he fled in a panic on the Trident, and eventually the plane crashed and everyone died. So how did Xiao Ke evaluate Lin Biao after the September 13th Incident?
First of all, Xiao Ke admitted that Lin Biao had excellent military command talents. He led the four fields from the white mountains and black waters to the ends of the earth, defeated so many famous national army generals, and eliminated millions of national army elites. This would not have been possible without outstanding military command skills. Xiao Ke has always admired Lin Biao's military talents, and this has not changed because of the "September 13 Incident". In 1993, someone came to Xiao Ke and asked him: "How to write the Battle of Hengbao? Do you want to mention Lin Biao?"
Xiao Ke replied: "It should be written realistically, merit is merit, fault is fault, merit and demerit must be clear." Under the circumstances at that time, it was very rare for Xiao Ke to have such an attitude. In addition to affirming Lin Biao's military talent, Xiao Ke also pointed out Lin Biao's two shortcomings. One was excessive self-esteem, and the second was that he was not tolerant of others. To this end, Xiao Ke also cited an example. He said that just after the Battle of Hengbao, the intelligence department had not yet found out the detailed number of enemy annihilations, so Lin Biao reported the estimated results, saying that the entire Seventh Army plus the 38th Division of the 46th Army had been annihilated.
Soon after, the intelligence department found out that the 38th Division of the 46th Army was not completely wiped out. In fact, only one regiment was wiped out by the four fields. Xiao Ke asked Lin Biao to revise the results in a pragmatic manner, but Lin Biao remained unmoved. For this reason, Xiao Ke deliberately recorded this incident in his memoirs and said: "Lin Biao still did not correct it after knowing it.He exaggerated the results to claim credit, and after finding out the situation, he still did not correct it to save face. I think this is very dishonest! "
