Xu Haidong (June 17, 1900 – March 25, 1970) was a senior general in the People's Liberation Army of China.
Xu was notable for leading his men from the front lines during the Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War. His exploits earned him the nickname "Tiger Xu". He was wounded in battle nine times; and, after contracting tuberculosis, was partially bedridden for the last eighteen years of his life. Xu opposed the radical policies of the Cultural Revolution, and was persecuted to death by the followers of Mao Zedong, Lin Biao and the Gang of Four.
Early life
Xu was born in the village of Xujiaqiao, Dawu County, Hubei. He was the sixth son in a family of ten children. His father was Xu Zhongben () and his mother is only remembered by her family name, Wu (). When Xu Haidong was born, his father recognized that Xu's mother was too decrepit to nurse Xu, and requested that his mother throw Xu in a pond to drown. Xu's mother refused to kill Xu, and recruited her sister-in-law to nurse Xu.
Xu's family was poor, and Xu did not receive any education until he was nine years old, when he was sent to a primary school where his uncle taught. Most of the students at the school were from rich families, and taunted Xu with the nickname "stinky tofu". When he was twelve, Xu was expelled from school after he injured a rich classmate who was bullying him.
Because his parents were elderly they were unable to support Xu after his expulsion, and he was forced to return home and work at his family's kiln. Xu worked at the kiln for several years. He also raised ducks and worked for periods at a factory to support himself and his family. In 1921 Xu left home and became a professional soldier.
Military career
Early career
After becoming a professional soldier, Xu worked for six years in the service of various military forces established by local warlords, and in the Nationalist Army. Xu joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1925, and participated in the Northern Expedition. After the Shanghai massacre of 1927, Xu escaped the Nationalist Army and begun organizing a guerrilla resistance unit in Hubei.
In August 1927 Xu led a rebellion in his native district of Huangping known as the "Macheng Uprising". Xu's uprising was one of the Autumn Harvest Uprisings, a broader series of peasant rebellions ordered by the CCP Central Committee. Xu was initially joined by 27 local farmers. Xu's first attack was successful in defeating the local militia, capturing local arms and supplies. Forces under Xu rose to 60 men before being defeated by government forces later in 1927. Government forces attempted to capture Xu, but he escaped. With a handful of recruits, he founded the Seventh Red Army. The Seventh Red Army remained on the move for the next few years, slowly growing in strength. In late 1929 Xu and other groups of communist guerillas active around the Hubei-Henan-Anhui border area founded the Eyuwan Soviet.
Chinese Civil War
After Joining the Red Army, Xu rose quickly within the military ranks of the Eyuwan Soviet. Xu's first serious injury occurred in 1931, during a battle with Nationalist forces, when he was shot twice by a machine gun and put into a coma. Xu was promoted to battalion commander, to regiment commander, to division commander, and by the early 1930s was the commander of the 25th Army. In 1934, the Nationalists' fourth encirclement campaign against the Eyuwan Soviet forced Xu and the 25th Red Army to retreat to the Shannxi-Sichuan border area.
Xu was ordered to guard the rear of the Communist retreat during the Long March, but he soon lost contact with the rest of the Red Army after the evacuation began, and he led his forces northward independently. Xu's forces finally evacuated their own base area in September 1934, and reached the Wei River area, around the city of Xi'an, in June 1935. After arriving in the communist base area of Shaanxi, Xu was named the commander of the 15th Army Corps. By the end of the Long March, the Nationalists were offering 250,000 silver dollars for Xu's assassination.