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It is said that after January 1949, that is, after the "three major battles" were fought, the old Chiang clique almost entered a collapse mode, and the Chiang family dynasty was crumbling and weakening day by day.
At that time, many commanders of the corps with heavy troops, as well as commanders and division commanders, chose to "lead the masses to revolt" in order to find a way out for themselves and find a good future.
So that in 1949, when the Southwest Campaign broke out, the Second Field Army of our army, when facing more than 900,000 defeated soldiers of the Nationalist Army, had to inform some senior generals of the enemy army before the war that under what circumstances, it could only be regarded as surrender, and could not enjoy the so-called "uprising" treatment.
However, despite the general trend of the collapse of the Old Chiang Clique, there are still some high-ranking generals with quite personalities in the Lao Chiang Clique who are "loyal" to their principal! As the editor will introduce to you below: he will never surrender, never commit suicide, and will never obey orders! This general was none other than Lieutenant General Song Xilian of the National Revolutionary Army.
In 1907, Song Xilian was born in a wealthy peasant family in Xiangxiang, Hunan Province, and attended a private school for one year in his childhood, and also attended five years of primary school, often taught ancient Chinese by his father, etc. In 1924, he was admitted to the first team of the Huangpu First Phase.
Song Xilian was a man of great military talent and command ability, and his personality was also extremely prominent, in 1937, at the beginning of the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, Song Xilian had become one of the commanders of the five most elite German mechanized divisions of the Central Army in the combat sequence of the National Revolutionary Army.
After he served as the commander of the 36th Division, he participated in several major battles, escaped from the death of the Nanjing guards, and also pointed a gun at the fleeing division commander Sun Yuanliang to forcibly force him to return to the front line to resist the Japanese, which shows the fierceness of this man's blood.
Later, Song Xilian was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the commander of the 71st Army and the commander of the 11th Group Army, and led his troops to a great victory in Longling, which even more severely damaged the Japanese army's southwest transportation hub in China, and made outstanding military achievements.
However, Song Xilian also had a "stain" in his early career, that is, he executed Mr. Qu Qiubai, a former teacher and friend, under the threat of Old Jiang, and until Song Xilian's old age, he still regretted it.
To say that Song Xilian's personality was extremely prominent at the end of the Liberation War in 1949, his maverick personality is even surprising.
At that time, the northern battlefield of the old Chiang clique had almost completely collapsed, and Song Xilian was appointed director of the Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, and Appeasement Offices, and controlled the 14th and 20th Corps of the National Revolutionary Army, with more than 140,000 soldiers and horses.
After he took power alone, the real situation he was in at that time was extremely difficult. On the one hand, most of his troops were old, weak, sick and disabled, and their combat effectiveness was very poor; on the other hand, old Chiang Kai-shek ordered him to die and must stick to Chuandong to deal with the overwhelming Second Field Army.
Song Xilian continued to issue combat orders under such an absolute disadvantage, and the result was bound to be a series of defeats, and finally only more than 10,000 remnants were left, and at this time, Lao Jiang still asked him to stick to the last moment.
However, in 1949, when Song Xilian was at the end of his rope, his long-deposited anger finally broke out, and his disappointment with the old Chiang authorities reached its extreme, and a decision was made in anger.
Severing any contact with Shangfeng and not accepting any orders issued by Lao Jiang, he also ordered his subordinates not to surrender and never to commit suicide.
So, what exactly is Song Xilian going to do? He told his men that they must strive to break through to the Xikang area, and then rely on materials to fight guerrilla warfare on the spot, waiting for the outbreak of World War III, and then make a comeback. This practice is very similar to a "self-reliant portal".
However, to be fair, with the old, weak, sick and disabled in Song Xilian's hands, this fantasy of his is almost impossible to realize, and among all the defeated generals of the National Revolutionary Army, Song Xilian is a unique wonder.
In the end, Song Xilian was discovered by our army when he crossed the Dadu River at the end of the mountains and rivers, and he wanted to draw his gun and commit suicide on the spot, which was stopped on the spot by the soldiers of our army, and he became a prisoner of war for a while, until he was pardoned and released from prison in 1959, and died of kidney failure in New York in 1993 at the age of 86.
References for this article: "Eagle Dog General - Song Xilian's Self-Description", "Liberation War", "Baidu Encyclopedia Related Terms - Song Xilian, Liberation War, etc."