The division changed the main commander three times, and the successor was not the original division commander, which was unique in military history
Generally speaking, if there is a vacancy in the position of the chief officer in a unit, it is usually necessary to promote and supplement the deputy post of the unit; of course, it can also be directly assigned by the superior leading organ to take over. However, the proportion of the latter situation occurring is not high. It is acceptable for a small number of military commanders to be appointed by their superiors, but in the war years, in the course of a division-level unit, in the course of combat, the divisional and brigade-level chief officers were either killed or injured, and all of them were sent by other divisions to take over, and none of them were directly promoted by the division's personnel, which was very strange. This strange thing happened precisely in the 67th Division.
On the battlefield, if the chief officer is killed or injured and leaves office, if he is not taken over from the deputy post, or if a candidate for the chief officer is selected from the unit, but is transferred from a foreign unit to take over, then it is bound to be difficult for the successor to quickly familiarize himself with the situation of the department, and it is even more impossible to clarify the situation of the enemy in front of him in a short period of time, so as to formulate a realistic combat plan, lead the subordinates to put into combat operations, and achieve the combat objectives. This has always been a major taboo in the art of war. A division-level unit, division and brigade commanders have been vacant one after another, and all of them have been parachuted in from other places, which is not only a big taboo, but also a completely unimaginable thing!
The unthinkable happened, it happened in the 18th Army, it happened in the 67th Division.
So, how did the commander of the 67th Division and the brigade commander change hands? Since entering the Songhu battlefield, the 67th Division first killed the commander of the 201st Brigade, and Yang Bo, commander of the 84th Regiment of the 14th Division, was sent by the military department to take over as the brigade commander; subsequently, the division commander Li Shusen was injured and left his post, and the commander Luo Zhuoying sent Huang Wei, who had just returned from studying in Germany, to take over the position of division commander; then, the commander of the 199th Brigade was injured and replaced by Hu Lian, the commander of the 66th Regiment parachuted in from the 11th Division. In one battle, the 67th Division changed its commander three times, and the successor was not the original division commander, which was unique not only in the 18th Army, but also in the entire Kuomintang army, and it is difficult to find the same example even in the global military history.
It is understandable to say that the replacement of the brigade commander of the 67th Division at this time was the personnel of the 11th Division of the core unit of the 18th Army and the 14th Division of the sub-core unit. Then, after the end of the Battle of Songhu, until the Battle of Wuhan, the 67th Division remained within the formation of the 18th Army, but it was always under the leadership of the 23rd Group Army, which was even more incredible. However, at this time, the division commander was no longer Huang Wei, but had already been replaced by Mo Youshuo. Perhaps knowing that the 67th Division was a child raised by his harem, Mo and Shuo were somewhat heroic and short-tempered, leading the officers and men of the 67th Division in the 23rd Group Army, successively under the command of Chen Wanling, commander of the 23rd Army, and Guo Xunqi, commander of the 50th Army, without showing the slightest disrespect and hesitation.
The 67th Division was certainly not treated because it was a miscellaneous unit of the 18th Army. In fact, the 67th Division was too large because the 11th Division was too large, and the 11th Division, which was separated from the 11th Division, was from the beginning a pure-blooded civil engineering personnel. Before Chen Cheng firmly controlled the 11th Division, the 11th Division was a veritable miscellaneous unit. Chen Cheng took control of it, completely transformed it into Chen Cheng's own concubine unit, and then upgraded it to the 18th Army, which was then the 11th Division. Later, Chen Cheng adopted the practice of incorporating miscellaneous troops and other Chiang Kai-shek's concubines, which led to the continuous expansion of the army into several divisions, and all the units under the 18th Army became Chen Cheng's concubines, and developed into the strongest civil engineering department in the Kuomintang army.
Source :Blood Battle of Wuhan