After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, a civil war broke out between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and although the People's Liberation Army under the leadership of the Communist Party won a complete victory, there were still several extremely effective units within the Kuomintang army, which were called the five aces of the Kuomintang, namely Sun Liren's New First Army, Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, Qiu Qingquan's New Fifth Army, Liao Yaoxiang's New Sixth Army, and Hu Lian's Eighteenth Army; then everyone may be curious, known as the "First Army under Heaven" After all, as Chiang Kai-shek's housekeeping unit, this unit is much higher than that of other units of the Central Army in terms of equipment, grain, and so on; in addition, most of the officers in this unit are Huangpu students, which can be said to be a proper "Royal Forest Army.", which also makes Hu Zongnan, who is in charge of the First Army, often claim to be "the first protégé of Tianzi."
Hu Zongnan
In fact, the reason why the First Army was not included in the five aces was, in the final analysis, because of the two words of achievements; although Chiang Kai-shek gave unparalleled preferential treatment to his starting troops, all kinds of new equipment, military salaries, and other priority supplies, it was still unable to come up with brilliant achievements, and even so, Chiang Kai-shek still trusted this unit as always, but this unit, under the leadership of the last commander, Chen Ju Brigade, almost let Chiang Kai-shek be surrounded by the People's Liberation Army in Chongqing, which was also a big surprise.
Chen Ju Brigade was selected by Hu Zongnan in 1949 to be promoted to the commander of the First Army, Chen Ju Brigade was a cadet of the Fifth Infantry Section of the Whampoa Military Academy, after graduation he went to Hu Zongnan's men, in the 22nd Division as a grassroots officer, and later the 22nd Division was merged into the First Division, Chen Ju Brigade also followed Hu Zongnan in the battle, and in 1936 in the battle against the Red Army outstanding performance, thus receiving Hu Zongnan's appreciation, which is also one of the reasons why Hu Zongnan later promoted him to the commander of the First Army.
Chen Ju Brigade
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the First Division of Chen Ju's Brigade was deployed in the Tongguan area for a long time, and there was little chance to fight with the Japanese army, and the Chen Ju Brigade had always been the brigade commander of the First Brigade; after the outbreak of the civil war, Chen Ju's brigade led its troops to fight against the People's Liberation Army in North China, and in June 1948, Hu Zongnan transferred chen Ju's brigade to the reorganized First Division to take over as the commander of the division, but the reorganized First Division suffered repeated defeats since the outbreak of the civil war, even if Hu Zongnan promoted chen Ju brigade to the commander of the first division, it did not help; in May 1949, the Kuomintang army in the northwest was difficult to support. At that time, Chen Ju's brigade had become the deputy commander of the 5th Corps and the commander of the 1st Army, and the First Army at that time still had a relatively complete combat effectiveness, and when Chiang Kai-shek personally came to Chongqing, Hu Zongnan specially transferred the First Army to Chongqing to serve as Chiang Kai-shek's guard.
However, it was precisely because of Hu Zongnan's deliberate mobilization this time that he originally wanted the First Army to show his face in front of Chiang Kai-shek, but he did not expect that because the First Army did not have enough vehicles, it could only go to Chongqing in batches, and was eventually broken by the People's Liberation Army, and Chiang Kai-shek was almost surrounded in Chongqing City. At that time, the First Army, under the leadership of Chen Ju's brigade, retreated from the northwest to Sichuan, just when Chiang Kai-shek went to Chongqing for inspection, Hu Zongnan thought of letting his First Army show his face in front of old Chiang Kai-shek, and after the order was given to the First Army, Chen Ju's brigade went to the 44th Supply Division of the Joint Logistics to secondse cars, because the First Army had a large number of personnel, it could only go to Chongqing by car, but the commander of the 44th Supply Division of the Joint Logistics Brigade was not optimistic about the future of the Kuomintang and had the intention of leading the troops to revolt, so he delayed the secondment of the car for the Chen Ju Brigade and delayed in assigning it. In desperation, the Chen Ju Brigade could only allocate all the cars to the 78th Division first, let the 78th Division rush to Chongqing first, then the 167th Division went on foot, and the 1st Division finally pulled out, so that the marching distance between the various units of the First Army was widened, and the Plasu Army found the opportunity to break them one by one, and the Chen Ju Brigade could only take the remnants of the First Army to retreat to Chengdu, and the matter of going to Chongqing to serve as Chiang Kai-shek's personal guard was also in vain.
After the First Army retreated to Chengdu, it failed to go to Chongqing according to the established time, but instead left Chiang Kai-shek alone in Chongqing, fortunately, the Secrecy Bureau opened the road to the airport through various means, and Chiang Kai-shek was able to leave Chongqing by plane, otherwise Chiang Kai-shek would really be captured by the People's Liberation Army. Chen Julu's hand operation sold his boss Chiang Kai-shek clean, but because of the lack of Kuomintang talents at that time, coupled with Hu Zongnan's mediation, Chen Julu did not receive any investigation, and it has to be said that Hu Zongnan's first protégé still had a great influence on Chiang Kai-shek.
Although the First Division has been stationed at Tongguan and has not had many opportunities to fight with the Japanese army, judging from the only few encounters, the soldiers of the Chen Ju Brigade are still bloody, and they are also pioneers in the battle with the Japanese army, and dare to fight and fight, but after the outbreak of the civil war, the Kuomintang troops were defeated and retreated on all fronts, and Chen Ju Brigade's own heart was also full of wandering, and he did not hold any hope for the victory of the Kuomintang. Therefore, it also had the meaning of going with the flow, and in December 1949, Chen Ju's brigade ordered the First Army to lay down its weapons and surrender under the siege and interception of the People's Liberation Army.
After the surrender of the Chen Ju Brigade, he was sent to study in the senior class of the Southwest Military and Political University, but Li Wen, Feng Long, and Zhou Shiying, who surrendered with the Chen Ju Brigade, fled one after another, and the Chen Ju Brigade was implicated and arrested, and in 1952, the Chen Ju Brigade died of illness in Chongqing Prison.
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