How did chen cheng's shame of "General Sanchang" come about? Why is he so aggrieved?
Chen Cheng followed Chiang Kai-shek all his life, and when the Whampoa Military Academy was founded, he was Chiang Kai-shek's confidant, and he was known as the chairman of the small committee, and then he created the "Department of Civil Engineering", and later he took charge of the government in Taiwan, and made many achievements in the fields of people's livelihood, military, and economy. But Chen Cheng's life was not very perfect, at least he had the shame of "General Sanchang", or rather, it was imposed on him by others.
In 1940, the Battle of Zaoyi ended with the defeat of the Chinese army and the firm control of Yichang in the hands of the Japanese Kou, and like almost all other operations, after the battle, the time came for the Chinese army to comprehensively sum up the lessons of the battle, reward the meritorious personnel, and punish the officers and men who were ineffective in the battle.
It is naturally a good thing to be able to conduct a fair and comprehensive review of the defeat of the campaign in the spirit of accumulating experience and learning lessons. However, since the official establishment of the National Revolutionary Army, this army has always been full of factions, senior generals because of their different hills and unable to fully trust and cooperate with each other, problems and mutual blame, with credit always want to take their own, so that post-war reviews often become a weapon against dissidents, creating a lot of new troubles.
Because of the loss of Yichang, and since the end of the Songhu War of Resistance, Chen Cheng, when he was the commander of the 9th Theater, first lost Wuchang, and then lost Nanchang, so that Wuchang, Nanchang, and Yichang, three important towns with "Chang", were snatched from him by the Japanese Kou, and people gave him a hat of "General Sanchang".
So, should the shameful hat of "General Sanchang" be worn on Chen Cheng's head?
Let's start with Yichang
According to the operational course of this campaign, divided according to the objective situation of changes in the command system and its combat sequence, the Battle of Zaoyi can be roughly divided into two stages:
Phase I: All combat operations conducted under the leadership of Li Zongren, commander of the 5th Theater of Operations, before the fall of Yichang;
The second stage: a series of battles under the command of Chen Cheng, commander of the 6th Theater, around the defense and reconquest of Yichang.
The undeniable fact is that Yichang was indeed lost at the hands of Chen Cheng; when Yichang fell into the hands of the Japanese Kou, Chen Cheng organized many counterattacks, but he could not recover this important gateway to the capital, and he should bear a great responsibility for this.
However, Li Zongren, commander of the 5th Theater, also had an unshirkable responsibility, and after the loss of Xiangyang, he misjudged the actions of the Japanese Kou and forced Guo Chen to transfer all the 75th Army and 94th Army guarding Yichang to Xiangyang, resulting in Yichang becoming an empty city, so that when Chen Cheng took over the defense of Yichang, the Chinese army lost the opportunity.
The conclusion is that the loss of Yichang must not be borne by Chen Cheng alone, to hit the board, at least, Li Zongren's ass should be as many boards as Chen Cheng.
So, how much does the loss of Wuchang and Nanchang have to do with Chen Cheng?
It is true that when these two cities were lost, Chen Cheng was the commander of the 9th Theater and was responsible for directing the combat operations in both aspects. However, in the Battle of Wuhan, the 5th Theater and the 9th Theater jointly assumed the responsibility of defending Greater Wuhan, and the 9th Theater fought even more brilliantly in the combat operations against the Japanese Kou. The Great Victory of Wanjialing was fought by Xue Yue, commander of the 1st Corps under the 9th Theater. The 18th Army, which Chen Cheng had pulled up, played a very important role in this battle, although it was not the main force.
The reason for abandoning Greater Wuhan was the established policy of the Nationalist Government, with the aim of preserving the strength of the War of Resistance in order to fight a protracted war against the Japanese and Kosovo. Under such a general trend, how can Chen Cheng be held responsible for losing Wuchang? As for pushing the responsibility for the loss of Nanchang to Chen Cheng, it is even more ridiculous. At that time, although Chen Cheng was still nominally the commander of the 9th Theater, he was no longer in his position, but Xue Yue acted as the commander of the 9th Theater and specifically commanded the combat operations of the departments under the 9th Theater.
If the responsibility for the loss of Wuchang, Nanchang, and Yichang is blamed on Chen Cheng's head, then he is really very wronged.
In fact, even if Chen Cheng was Chiang Kai-shek's confidant, it did not make this review truly fair and just, but because Yichang was the superficially unchangeable fact that Chen Cheng had lost, Chen Cheng became the main target of the attack of He Yingqin and others.
The person sent by the Military Commission to be in charge of the review was Bai Chongxi, deputy chief of staff. This person was the head of the Gui army with Li Zongren, and his relationship with Li Zongren was extraordinary. His arrival could not have been reviewed by Li Zongren; but he was also well aware of Chen Cheng's close relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, and he could not openly point out Chen Cheng's problems.
After Bai Chongxi came to Laohekou, where the headquarters of the commander of the 5th Theater was located, he immediately convened a review meeting for the Battle of Zaoyi. The venue was held in Yang Linpu, on the southern outskirts of Laohekou, and attended by Li Zongren, some senior staff members of the commander-in-chief of the 5th Theater, and personnel at or above the level of commander-in-chief, commander-in-chief, and division commander of various group armies.
There will be a set of fixed procedures for the review, starting with Bai Chongxi's lecture on behalf of the Military Commission; followed by the commanders-in-chief of the various army groups, as well as the commanders and division commanders, to report on the course of the operation, the lessons learned, and the current situation of the troops; subsequently, Li Zongren conveyed the zaoyihui order for rewarding and punishing the meritorious deeds:
Most of the commanders of the Liu and Ding departments of the 39th Army recorded meritorious service;
Huang Qixiang, commander-in-chief of the 11th Army Group, was transferred to the post of commander-in-chief of the Reserve Army, and the number of the 11th Group Army was abolished;
Wang Zhiyuan, commander of the 122nd Division of the 41st Army, escorted Chongqing to the military for trial, and many other officers of the remaining units were punished with demerits.
Later, in accordance with the orders of the Military Commission, Chen Cheng convened a meeting of all the generals of the 6th Theater of Operations in Sandouping to sum up the experience of this operation. Before the 5th Theater Review Meeting, Chen Cheng did as follows, rewarding and punishing combatants according to their merits:
Zhou Yan, commander of the 75th Army, was promoted to commander-in-chief of the 26th Army;
Xiao Zhichu, commander of the 26th Army, was ineffective in battle, dismissed from the post of commander, and was succeeded by Ding Zhipan, commander of the 41st Division of the army;
Zhang Shixi, commander of the New 33rd Division of the 2nd Army, and others were ineffective in battle, and escorted Chongqing to the military law for trial.
He Yingqin saw that Chen Cheng's punishment list did not have any punishment for the generals of the 18th Army, let alone explain what kind of responsibilities Chen Cheng himself should bear, and immediately jumped out and fanned the flames everywhere. Chen Cheng relied on Chiang Kai-shek as his patron and paid no attention to all the actions of he Yingqin and other political enemies.
However, half a year later, Chen Cheng felt that the long-term continuation was bound to have an adverse impact on the subsequent War of Resistance, and in order to calm the situation, only by sacrificing his subordinates, he dismissed Guo Chen, the commander of Jiangfang, on the charge of "losing Yichang" and handed him over to the military law for interrogation; Peng Shan, commander of the 18th Army, was dismissed. However, Chen Cheng did not let his cronies suffer, and then he took Guo Chen to the 6th Theater as chief of staff, and Peng Shan was transferred to the Hubei Military District Lieutenant General's Chief of Staff.
Source: "The Eighteenth Army's War of Resistance"