Xue Yue, born in 1896 in Lechang, Guangdong, because his father admired Yue Fei, so he named him Xue Yangyue, and later he found that he could not just "look up" Yue Fei, but also "do" Yue Fei, so he changed his name to Xue Yue. Since he was a child, Xue Yue had not liked to form gangs and factions, and it was reasonable to say that his personality should have been very ostracized in the Kuomintang army, but unexpectedly, he relied on his military ability to make outstanding achievements in many battles, and he had to rise up in the top level of the Kuomintang with many factions and internal corruption.
Call the Red Army's most troublesome general
During the Kuomintang Northern Expedition, Xue Yue successively served as regimental commander, division commander, and military commander, and in April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "Qing Communists", which led to the division of Ninghan and Han. In August of the same year, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down, and Xue Yue chose to continue to support Chiang Kai-shek to complete the National Revolution. After the completion of the Northern Expedition, Xue Yue was ostracized by he Yingqin, the minister of military affairs, and his troops were reorganized and "scattered", and the 4th Army was also demoted to the 4th Division. Xue Yue, who had made remarkable achievements in the battle, was ready to resign, and he ran to Nanjing to submit his resignation report to Chiang Kai-shek, saying goodbye by the way. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek's words made him feel cold: "It is not that I am not bad for you, it is that He Yingqin does not understand you." Disheartened, Xue Yue returned home and planned to study in Germany.
Not long after this incident, Chiang Kai-shek launched the fifth "encirclement and suppression" of the CCP. At this time, it happened that Song Ziwen was going to the United States to buy cotton, so he communicated with Chiang Kai-shek about the purchase of cotton before leaving. After talking about the purchase of cotton, Chiang Kai-shek and Song Ziwen talked about the fifth "encirclement and suppression of communist bandits," and Song Ziwen immediately said to Chiang Kai-shek: "It is best to use Xue Yue to suppress the Communists; when Sun Yat-sen was alive, he fought a bloody battle against Chen Jiongming in order to protect Sun Yat-sen and his wife in the presidential palace and resist Chen Jiongming; later he also participated in many armed operations such as the Eastern Crusade, the Northern Expedition, and the Qing Communists. After hearing this, Chiang Kai-shek agreed, and urged Song Ziwen to quickly call Xue Yue to find him, but fortunately Xue Yue was studying German in Hong Kong before he went out.
Xue Yue, who met with Chiang Kai-shek, was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the Third Army to assist Chen Cheng in "suppressing bandits." From 1934 onwards, Xue Yue's unit began to use fortress countermeasures to encircle and suppress the Red Army, causing serious losses to the Red Army. Later, the Red Army broke through to the west, and Xue Yue followed its footsteps, and Xue Yue once said in his diary that this road was "no public opinion and no car" for more than 20,000 miles. By November, the Red Army had the most difficult period, when the Red 5th Army fought fiercely with Xue Yue's troops on the border of Xiangguiqian for two days, with more than half of the direct casualties and losses of many cadres at or above the regimental level; a formed division of the Red 8th Army was also completely wiped out. Although the main force of the Red Army desperately crossed the Xiang River, the battle of the Xiang River alone caused the original 86,000 Red Army to lose as many as 50,000 people.
Later, Xue Yue said in his recollection: This is still the Xianggui Army coming a little late, if it reaches the west bank of the Xiang River earlier, it will directly annihilate the main force of the Red Army on the west bank. But in 1935, Chiang Kai-shek made a major strategic mistake that completely changed the fate of the Red Army. At that time, due to internal disagreements, the CCP decided to divide the troops into two routes. One route led by Mao Zedong to northern Shaanxi to meet the Red Army in northern Shaanxi; the other route led 70,000 or 80,000 people south to attack Sichuan by Xu Xiangqian, Zhu De, and others. Chiang Kai-shek saw that the situation in Sichuan was in crisis, and quickly ordered Xue Yue to transfer troops from Shaanxi to support Sichuan, and this support just lost the best opportunity to attack the CPC Central Committee, which had just entered northern Shaanxi and had not yet gained a foothold, and sowed the seeds for Chiang Kai-shek's subsequent defeat.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he became the Chinese general with the largest number of annihilators of the enemy
In 1937, the Japanese army began a full-scale invasion of China, at one point clamoring to eliminate China within three months. In September of the same year, Xue Yue was appointed commander-in-chief of the Nineteenth Group Army and rushed to Shanghai Anting to command the operation, and after analyzing the situation of our army's Shanghai battlefield, Xue Yue, who arrived at the front, quickly changed the one-word defensive strategy to a deep defense line, and the entire front echoed from north to south, greatly strengthening the defensive capability.
At about 9:00 a.m. on October 31, the Japanese army began to advance in the form of infantry-tank coordination, when more than 20 Japanese tanks were on the roof of the front toward our army, and when it was more than ten meters away from our army's position, Under the order of Xue Yue, our army's machine guns, mortars, and grenades launched a counterattack at the same time, instantly destroying several Japanese tanks, and the infantry coordinated behind them were also killed and wounded. The Japanese army quickly reinforced mechanized troops into the battlefield, and our army could only use its flesh and blood to resist the enemy's steel torrent.
At that time, Xue Yue's Fourth Army fought with the enemy with light weapons on the front line, repeatedly charging with the Japanese army and seizing positions. Later, the Japanese army saw that it was impossible to attack, so it dropped tear gas on the battlefield, and as a result, the wind suddenly changed and blew smoke into the camp of the Japanese army, and Xue Yue quickly organized a counterattack when he saw it, and the Japanese army held its head and scurried.
Xue Yue, who was on the front line, gradually grasped the japanese army's offensive methods, and whenever the Japanese army carried out a coordinated attack of infantry and tanks, he bombarded with artillery frenzy, and after successfully resisting the enemy's attack, he immediately organized personnel to carry out artillery bombardment and counter-charge, giving the Japanese great casualties. Originally, the Japanese were clamoring to destroy China in three months, but they did not expect that under the command of Xue Yue, Shanghai alone would block the Japanese army for half a year. Subsequently, Xue Yue also successfully won three victories in the Battle of Changsha, annihilating more than 100,000 Japanese troops in total, becoming the Chinese general who killed the japanese army the most during the War of Resistance Against Japan. In 1946, the United States also awarded Xue Yue the "Medal of Freedom" in recognition of his outstanding contributions during the War of Resistance.