Text/Kingdom Building
From the end of June to the beginning of August 1944, the 10th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, under the leadership of its commander Fang Xianjue, stubbornly resisted the Japanese army for 47 days at the cost of more than 16,000 casualties, causing more than 19,000 casualties to the Japanese army, and exceeding the tasks assigned by Chiang Kai-shek and the theater command (Chiang Kai-shek originally set the 10th Army to guard Hengyang for two weeks). Finally, when the Japanese army had already breached Hengyang City and was exhausted, in order to save the lives of more than 2,000 wounded, they took the initiative to contact the Japanese army to negotiate an armistice. Of course, because the Japanese army did not agree to Fang Xianjue's demand for an armistice, the behavior of Fang Xianjue, who had already laid down his weapons, became unconditional surrender. This stain became a pretext for political enemies to attack Fang Xianjue, so much so that from the beginning of the Liberation War until Fang Xianjue's death, he was rebuked and ostracized by the Kuomintang top brass. So much so that colleagues who sympathized with Fang Xianjue said: "Zishan (Fang Xianjue's word) is good at everything, but only one owes death!" "
From the moment he knew that Fang Xianjue had peace talks with the Japanese army, Chiang Kai-shek's heart was not a taste. As far as the public is concerned, Fang Xianjue and the 10th Army fought hard with the Japanese army for 47 days, exceeded the combat task, and inflicted great casualties on the Japanese army. Privately, Fang Xianjue had clearly sent himself a desperate telegram to coexist and die with Hengyang, and had already made it public, and now Fang Xianjue not only did not martyr himself, but also surrendered to the Japanese army, was this not a slap in the face of the Nationalist government? Chiang Kai-shek was very upset that Fang Xianjue could not kill himself like Zhang Tour of the Tang Dynasty and achieve a good story for eternity. Now creating such an embarrassing situation, the anti-Japanese heroes were cornered and surrendered to the Japanese army, which on the one hand seriously hit the morale of the anti-Japanese soldiers, and on the other hand, it showed the incompetence of the National Government. In order to give an explanation to the Chinese soldiers who fought bloodily, Chiang Kai-shek had to strictly order the military command department to save Fang Xianjue and others at all costs.
On November 19, 1944, with the help of special agents and the pseudo-Hengyang defense commander Wang Weineng and others, Fang Xianjue and others were rescued back to Chongqing, which was warmly welcomed by people from all walks of life, and major newspapers also rushed to report Fang's escape from danger. However, under the glory of this glory, Fang Xianjue's head was still shrouded in a layer of dark clouds. Within the Kuomintang, many people were dissatisfied with Fang Xianjue's behavior, including Chen Cheng, minister of military affairs, and Xue Yue, chairman of Hunan Province, who vigorously rejected Fang Xianjue and transferred him to Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province, far from the battlefield, as the commander of the youth division. Therefore, from the time Fang Xianjue was rescued until Japan surrendered unconditionally, this anti-Japanese general never went to the battlefield again.
After the outbreak of the Kuomintang-Communist War in 1946, Fang Xianjue, who served as the commander of the reorganized 88th Division, became the only unit under the command of Xuzhou (Director Xue Yue) that did not participate in the battle. Why? Because Xue Yue looked down on Fang Xianjue, he left the 88th Division in Xuzhou and sat on the cold bench. Fang Xianjue was indignant, but he asked the military commander Li Yutang (the commander of the reorganized 24th Army) to take the initiative to ask Miao to "suppress the communists." With the mediation of Li Yutang, Xue Yue finally approved the 88th Division's combat mission to rescue Jinxiang. The side also felt unlucky and encountered the famous Nakano generals Chen Xilian and Wang Jinshan, not only failed to complete the combat task of rescuing Jinxiang, but also lost more than half of the troops. Xue Yue was worried that he couldn't find an excuse for the whole party to have xianjue, so you sent it to the door yourself, and with a single order, fang Xianjue, the commander of the 88th Division, and Zhou Yunfan, the chief of staff of the division, were removed from their posts. Fang Xianjue was not convinced, and raised a defense with the Ministry of Defense, accusing Xue Yue of making a mistake in command that caused his fiasco. But what role does this kind of justification play within the Kuomintang, which pays attention to seniority?
In July 1947, Fang Xianjue, who was dismissed from his post, went to the Army University to report on the general class and continued his studies. After graduation, he served as the deputy chief of the 1st Training Division of the Army General Command, the deputy commander of the 1st Formation Training Command (Commander Wang Jingjiu), and the deputy commander of the 6th Corps, responsible for training new recruits.
At the end of 1949, the 6th Corps was wiped out by the People's Liberation Army in Fuzhou, and Fang Xianjue took his family to Taiwan. Soon, a case of Li Yutang and his wife broke out, and both were shot by Orders of Chiang Kai-shek. As a close associate of Li Yutang and the first fierce general under his command, although Fang Xianjue was not arrested, he was certainly suspected, and had to be investigated for several years as a senior staff officer of the Ministry of National Defense. Due to the obstruction of Chen Cheng, Xue Yue and others, Fang Xianjue was never able to be promoted to the main post of the Grand Military Region (from 1947 until 1968, Fang Xianjue served as the deputy of the Grand Military Region for more than 20 years), and naturally could not be promoted to general, so he had no choice but to retire with the rank of lieutenant general in the army. Sympathetic Fang Xianjue's old friends all said: "Zi Shan is good at everything, only one owes one death." The hengyang defense war is really going to die, who dares to take these small shoes for him to wear! "But history has no ifs, and anyone has to face reality."
On March 3, 1983, the famous anti-Japanese general Fang Xianjue died in Taipei at the age of 78. The Taiwan side did not pay much attention to this, but the Japanese devils who were picked up by Fang Xianjue in those years appeared to be more solemn, and not only organized a group to come to Taiwan to participate in General Fang Xianjue's chase and dismissal meeting, but also went to Taiwan to visit the graves on the general's death anniversary every year. Just in response to the words of Zhang Zhaozhong, the bureau seat: The Japanese are a nation that is weak and afraid of hard, and the more you fight it, the more it respects you!