Everyone knows the August 1st Founding Day, but do you know how the Founding Day came about? In fact, the Founding Day was established to commemorate the August 1st Nanchang Uprising in 1927. The Nanchang Uprising fired the first shot of armed resistance to Kuomintang rule and played an important role in China's modern history.
Although the Nanchang uprising ended in failure, it pointed out the direction of our party's armed resistance to the Kuomintang rule and pointed out the way out for the revolution. However, the Nanchang uprising also produced many pseudo-revolutionaries who were disloyal to the revolution, who were frightened by difficulties in the face of difficulties and eventually defected to the revolution, such as Ou Zhen.
Ou Zhen was also a "revolutionary" who participated in the Nanchang Uprising, and at that time his position was not low, and he held the position of regimental commander. However, at the critical moment of the Nanchang uprising, Ou Zhen chose to turn against the revolution and defected to the revolution, causing heavy losses to the revolution. After the founding of New China, Ou Zhen did not dare to stay on the mainland and fled to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek in a gray and slippery manner, so what happened to this traitor of the Nanchang Uprising in his later years?
Born in 1899, Ou Zhen was a native of Guangdong, determined to join the army and serve the country in his early years, joined the Cantonese army as an adult, became a platoon commander of the Cantonese army, and served under the account of Zhang Fakui, the commander of the Cantonese army. Ou Zhen performed well in the Guangdong Army, so he was sent to the Guangdong Army To study military affairs, and after graduation, he entered the Ye Ting Independent Regiment and served as a battalion commander.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12 Counter-Revolutionary Coup" and began to arrest revolutionaries on a large scale. During the Nanchang Uprising, Ou Zhen served as the commander of the 71st Regiment of the 24th Division, and was also a senior officer in the uprising team, according to the plan at that time, Ou Zhen followed Ye Ting's troops south to Guangdong and attacked the troops of Chen Jitang and Xue Yue of the Cantonese army.
At first, Ou Zhen did not show any clues of rebellion and revolution, he followed Ye Ting and began to attack Xue Yue's troops, Xue Yue faced the menacing rebel army, after a little resistance, he was defeated, the rebel troops quickly defeated Xue Yue's troops and surrounded Xue Yue's division, if the situation continued to develop in this way, the rebel army would achieve a big victory.
However, at the critical moment when Xue Yue's division was about to be destroyed, Ou Zhen, as the leader of the rebel army, suddenly turned against the rebel army and became a traitor. Xue Yue's division also escaped the disaster, and the morale of the rebel army was greatly affected after Ou Zhen's rebellion, and the entire army was soon destroyed. It can be said that Ou Zhen's rebellion had a significant impact on the final outcome of the Nanchang Uprising, and without Ou Zhen's rebellion, the failure of the Nanchang Uprising would still be unknown.
Of course, after the rebellion, Ou Zhen was also highly used by the Kuomintang reactionaries, who became Xue Yue's subordinate and followed Xue Yue to participate in the fifth war of "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army. In 1935, Ou Zhen was awarded the rank of major general by the Kuomintang for his "outstanding performance", and was promoted to lieutenant general the following year, serving as the commander of the 90th Division of the Kuomintang.
In 1937, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Ou Zhen successively participated in many battles such as the Battle of Songhu and was promoted to the commander of the Fourth Army, after which he continued to go south, serving as the commander-in-chief of the 20th Group Army, participating in the Battle of Changde, and hitting the Japanese army in the Battle of Changde, which can be said to be a hero of the anti-Japanese resistance who contributed to the nation.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Ou Zhen served as the commander-in-chief of the 10th Army. During the Liberation War, he served as commander of the Third Corps and participated in the Battle of Menglianggu, but was defeated by the East China Field Army, after which Ou Zhen left the front line. After the Kuomintang moved its capital to Guangzhou, Ou Zhen served as the commander of the Guangdong security and the deputy commander of the Hainan defense, but at that time, the general situation was already determined, and Ou Zhen did not dare to stay on the mainland because of the choice during the Nanchang uprising, and he fled to Taiwan with the remnants of the Kuomintang.
After fleeing to Taiwan, Ou Zhen had nothing to do, and his military power was also revoked by Chiang Kai-shek, and he only served as a member of the "National Security Committee" Construction Planning Committee and other idle posts. In his later years, Ou Zhen often missed his hometown, especially his relatives on the mainland, so he often called for cross-strait peace, and he also did a lot of basic work for cross-strait peace, which can also be regarded as his repentance for the choice he made during the Nanchang uprising. In 1969, Ou Zhen died of illness in Taiwan at the age of 70, and after his death, he was posthumously promoted by the Kuomintang to the rank of second-class general in the army.
Resources:
Biography of Senior Generals of the Republic of China