Su Yu (; August 10, 1907 – February 5, 1984), Courtesy name Yu (裕) was a Chinese military commander, a general of the People's Liberation Army. He was considered by Mao Zedong to be among the best commanders of the PLA, only next to Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao and Liu Bocheng. Su Yu fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War and in the Chinese Civil War. He commanded the East China Field Army (renamed 3rd Field Army in 1949) during the Chinese Civil War. One of his most notable accomplishments was the capture of Shanghai. After the Communist victory in the civil war, he held important posts in the new People's Republic of China, including that of PLA Chief of General Staff (1954–1958). Early life Su Yu was born in Huitong County, Hunan province on August 10, 1907, to an ethnic Dong family. He was the third child among six siblings. Su's father was Su Zhouheng (粟周亨), his mother was Liang Manmei (梁满妹), and the family depended on their 30 mu of inherited farmland for survival. By the age of 18, Su Yu entered the Hunan Provincial 2nd Normal School at Changde for his post-secondary education. Encirclement Campaigns and the Long March In 1926, he joined the Communist Youth League of China, and in 1927 joined the Communist Party of China. He took part in the Northern Expedition and later the Nanchang Uprising. He emerged as one of the ablest guerrilla commanders in the Jiangxi Soviet during the 1930s. He did not join the Long March because he was tasked to fight against the Nationalist troops for a delaying action, and stayed in the south of Zhejiang until 1937. Second Sino-Japanese War After the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Su Yu was appointed Deputy Commander of the 2nd Detachment, and then in April 1938 commander of the Advanced Detachment of the New Fourth Army. During the war, Su won the Cheqiao Campaign against the Japanese Army, where his troops won a victory in the first battle against the Japanese troops at Weigang. After this, he had some other campaigns in Central Jiangsu against the Japanese aggressors in Nanjing, Wuhu and Lishui. During the war, Su Yu was the commander of the New Fourth Army's first division. He established himself as one of the Communist armed forces' most capable commanders, winning a series of skirmish campaigns against overwhelming enemies