text | Shiji Qiwen
editor | Shiji Qiwen
In the early days of the founding of New China, our country faced many urgent problems, one of which was the issue related to the construction of the New China Air Force.
If we want to build the Chinese Air Force well, we need talents with experience in this field. Chairman Mao thought about it and finally decided to choose Liu Yalou. Why did
choose Liu Yalou? What kind of profound revolutionary friendship existed between Chairman Mao and Liu Yalou?
01
Practice frugality
Liu Yalou was the first commander of the Air Force of the People's Liberation Army of my country. He was a general of the People's Liberation Army of China and a great proletarian revolutionist and military strategist.
Liu Yalou received many honors in his life. He did not procrastinate in doing things, was decisive, and dared to take action. He made great achievements in the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation. Some people called him a "wise general."
Liu Yalou, a famous general of the generation, is very frugal in his daily life. In his heart, he always believes that doing a good job is the most important thing.
He personally does not advocate the bad habits of living in luxurious houses and driving expensive cars. If a person pursues luxury and enjoyment too much, it will be difficult to focus on doing a good job.
In life, Liu Yalou always saves money when he can. When his clothes are torn, he patches them up and wears them again. When his car is broken and old, he sends it to a repair shop, repairs it and then drives it again.
Historically, our country has experienced three years of difficult times. At that time, China was facing very severe economic difficulties. Grain production dropped sharply. There was not enough food, so people dug wild vegetables to eat.
In order to overcome the difficulties, the central government called on all party members and cadres to take the lead and reduce their food rations. Liu Yalou was no exception. He often thought in his heart: If he eats less, the people will eat more.
At that time, the whole country worked together to hope that the crisis could be overcome as soon as possible. But during this period, something happened that made Liu Yalou very angry.
The incident happened in a sanatorium in Qingdao. There was an Air Force cadre who was recuperating in the sanatorium. He was going to return to Beijing after his recuperation. Before leaving, he asked the sanatorium for a few kilograms of pork.
Not long after, Liu Yalou learned about this incident, and he immediately found the cadre. The cadre did not know what happened at first, and thought Liu Yalou had something important to explain.
After he arrived, he found something was wrong in the atmosphere, and immediately realized that he must have done something inappropriate. Then, Liu Yalou explained to the cadre with a serious face that China was currently in a difficult period, and people across the country were tightening their belts.
After hearing this, his face turned red and his head lowered unconsciously. Immediately afterwards, Liu Yalou criticized him for asking for pork from the nursing home, which had a very bad impact.
Liu Yalou then told him that the country's economy is in a very difficult period. What cadres can do is to save money and save money when they can. Even Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou live frugally, and we cadres cannot be special.
After realizing his mistake, this cadre made a public review. Some people thought that this matter was a bit of a fuss. However, in Liu Yalou's view, nothing can be ignored. Only in this way can the work be done well.
02
Integrity and Justice
Another incident happened when Liu Yalou returned to Beijing. That year, Liu Yalou was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense for his outstanding performance at work. The relevant departments of the Ministry of National Defense, in accordance with organizational regulations, prepared to replace Liu Yalou with a new car.
After Liu Yalou learned that the relevant department wanted to replace him with a new car, he politely declined, and also specifically gave instructions to the office director that he could not change the car without his consent. On the day
returned to Beijing, the director of the office came to greet him personally. As soon as Liu Yalou got off the plane, he saw a brand new and shiny "Dahongqi" car from a distance.
Liu Yalou, who was originally happy, frowned and his face dropped when he saw the car. The "Big Red Flag" car that came to greet him this time was not an old car that Liu Yalou was familiar with.
The office director who came to greet him quickly explained to Liu Yalou that the old car was currently being overhauled. Before he could finish his explanation, Liu Yalou replied that he would not take that car.
Liu Yalou always believed that cadres should focus on their work. Until the end, he insisted on not getting on the bus, but took a ride back to his place of residence.
Liu Yalou, who was usually diligent and frugal, also had a very good relationship with Chairman Mao. The two had an in-depth discussion on the issue of building the New China Air Force.
In 1949, the newly founded New China had many things that needed to be built and improved economically and militarily in order to enhance the happiness of the people and protect the lives, health and safety of the people.
Among many things, one thing is extremely important, and that is the issue of air force construction. After the founding of New China, our country's airspace is still threatened by other countries.
Improving the power of the air force and ensuring airspace security became an urgent problem to be solved at that time. The task of building the air force was arduous and great. Who would do this work? Who can do this job well? Both Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou fell into deep thinking.
03
Building the Air Force
At this time, there was an urgent need for someone who not only had rich combat experience, but also had a good understanding of the Air Force to step forward. Chairman Mao thought about it, and finally, he personally named Liu Yalou to be the commander of the Air Force, and gave him a fatal order: a group of powerful Air Force must be trained in the shortest possible time.
The reason why Chairman Mao made up his mind to choose Liu Yalou was because he had studied in the Soviet Union for a long time. At first Liu Yalou was not good at Russian, so he was determined to work hard to learn it well.
Liu Yalou worked very hard while learning Russian. In the end, it only took a short time to master the language. After learning Russian, Liu Yalou went to the Frunze Military Academy of the Soviet Union to study.
During his studies in the Soviet Union, Liu Yalou came into contact with a lot of professional aviation knowledge and met many seniors in aerospace and aviation . His learning ability was not bad, and with the guidance of professionals, Liu Yalou made rapid progress.
The above are part of the reasons why Chairman Mao chose Liu Yalou. In terms of air force construction, Liu Yalou was not very confident at the beginning.
He felt that he was not able to do a good job in building the air force. When the chairman found out, he patted him on the shoulder and said earnestly: "Yalou, you are the only one who can do this job well. I absolutely believe in you."
With Chairman Mao's trust, Liu Yalou instantly gained the confidence to do a good job. He confidently told Chairman Mao that he would complete the task and reassure Chairman Mao.
In this way, Liu Yalou was full of confidence and took on the great and arduous task of building the New China Air Force. Building the Air Force requires huge financial and material resources. A little carelessness will cause huge losses.
After Liu Yalou took over the construction work of the Air Force, he knew that every money was hard-earned and not a penny could be wasted. During the construction of the Air Force, he often had to go abroad to deal with various matters, which would undoubtedly involve foreign exchange expenditure issues.
Liu Yalou was very frugal with foreign exchange expenditures. Once, he led a delegation to the Soviet Union for negotiations. Due to work reasons, Liu Yalou had to stay here for about a month and a half.
When it came to eating, Liu Yalou kept things simple. He never ate delicacies from the mountains and seas, let alone drank any high-end wines. During the one and a half months of working in the Soviet Union, Liu Yalou saved more than 1,400 rubles on food expenses alone.
The 1,400 rubles were originally for Liu Yalou's personal use, but instead of spending a penny, he saved them all and asked his secretary to hand over all the money to the government.
Not only did he save money for the country by being frugal in life, Liu Yalou also advocated thrift in building the army. To this end, he also put forward three special regulations:
First, the country is in a difficult economic period, and when making any budgets and plans, it is better to be small than large; second, the expenditure on the construction of the Air Force is only for necessary funds, and other funds can be postponed appropriately; third, the Air Force cannot be too outstanding in material life, and must always take care of the material living conditions of the army.
04
Revolutionary Friendship
In those difficult times, Liu Yalou was not afraid of tiredness or hardship. He would study if conditions allowed, and he would study if conditions were not met. With tenacity and hard work, he established 6 aviation schools in just one month, creating a miracle in the history of world aviation.
Liu Yalou lived up to expectations and successfully completed the tasks assigned to him by Chairman Mao. The story between him and Chairman Mao did not stop there. There was a deeper revolutionary friendship between Liu Yalou and Chairman Mao.
Audiences who have watched the TV series "The East" must have been deeply impressed by the scene in which Liu Yalou saluted Chairman Mao. At that time, Chairman Mao was instructing the investigation and punishment of big corruption criminals Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, and then had a conversation with Liu Yalou.
During the conversation, Chairman Mao suddenly asked Liu Yalou to salute a military salute. Liu Yalou was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding why Chairman Mao suddenly asked him to salute.
After Liu Yalou was stunned for a few seconds, he still followed Chairman Mao's instructions and gave a beautiful military salute neatly. Liu Yalou's military salute was very standard.
After Liu Yalou saluted, everyone's attention was focused on the sleeves of his clothes. Liu Yalou saw that everyone was staring at his clothes, thinking that he was too anxious to go out today and didn't tidy up his clothes.
Liu Yalou immediately reached out to touch his clothes, trying to straighten his appearance again. Chairman Mao looked at Liu Yalou's busy appearance, his nose became sore, and tears instantly filled his eyes, and he couldn't help but shed tears.
It turns out that Chairman Mao discovered early in the morning that Liu Yalou's clothes were full of patches, so he asked him to salute. With this salute, all the patches on Liu Yalou's clothes were exposed.
Chairman Mao wiped away his tears, looked at Liu Yalou affectionately, and asked him how much it would cost to build the air force every year. Liu Yalou replied that hundreds of billions would be spent on the air force every year.
But Liu Yalou, who handles hundreds of billions of military expenditures every year, did not think of making a new set of clothes for himself. Chairman Mao's voice was trembling and said to him: "Yalou, you can put down your work for now. I approve you to make two new sets of clothes immediately."
05
Deep friendship
Over the years, Liu Yalou has always kept Chairman Mao's words in mind, and is determined to build the Chinese Air Force into a powerful air force. In the construction of the air force, Liu Yalou has devoted all his efforts.
In addition, Liu Yalou invested almost all of his military expenditures in key areas of air force construction, without caring whether the clothes he wore were new or old, or whether his food was good or bad.
Another time, during a conversation between Chairman Mao and Liu Yalou, he asked about the situation at home. Liu Yalou replied that everything was fine at home and reassured Chairman Mao. Liu Yalou often told his wife and children to learn more knowledge.
Later, he said: "One day when I, the commander of the Air Force, go to see Marx, my wife and children can live well with knowledge."
Chairman Mao felt very uncomfortable after hearing this. Chairman Mao cherished the revolutionary friendship with Liu Yalou and said to him: "I don't agree with what you said. You have to stay and continue to build our Chinese Air Force. You have to live until I meet Marx before you can leave.""
and Chairman Mao have a deep friendship. Liu Yalou was diagnosed with liver cancer in 1964. Over the years, Liu Yalou had been overworked for a long time. As soon as he started working, he could neither eat nor rest.
When Chairman Mao found out about this, he was very sad and immediately issued an order to Liu Yalou. He stopped all the work he was doing and went to the hospital to receive treatment with peace of mind, but Liu Yalou still worked despite being sick. In the end, he couldn't hold on any longer and was admitted to a hospital in Shanghai.
During his hospitalization, Liu Yalou always cared about the construction of the Air Force. During treatment, he fell into coma several times. Every time he regained consciousness, he continued to talk intermittently about how to do a good job in the Chinese Air Force.
In 1965, General Liu Yalou, who was only 55 years old, left us forever. His spirit of selfless dedication has always influenced generations of Chinese youth. His great contribution to the construction of our country's air force should always be remembered.
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