In the military circles of the Republic of China period, there has always been a saying of "three and a half military experts", that is, Jiang Baili, Yang Jie, Bai Chongxi, plus "half" Liu Fei.
Today's people may not be very familiar with Jiang Baili and Yang Jie, but as long as you look at Bai Chongxi, who ranks third, you will know the status of the two of them. Among the thousands of generals in the Nationalist army, Bai Chongxi was absolutely a bull, and even Lin Zong said: "I think Bai Chongxi is the most talented of the generals of the Nationalist Army, and this sentence can be said to be not an award." Needless to say, he had many years of military experience, and his command was superior to that of other generals in the Nationalist army. And Jiang Baili and Yang Jie can be ranked in front of him, which shows the strength of the two.
Today,I want to talk about Yang Jie, who ranked second.
Yang Jie is a native of Dali, Yunnan, born in 1889, and celebrities of his age include Li Dazhao, Li Siguang, Zhang Qun, and Hitler, Nehru, and Chaplin abroad.
Yang Jie was a classmate of Chiang Kai-shek when he was in the preparatory school of the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, but his grades were much better than Chiang Kai-shek's, and two years later, Chiang Kai-shek was sent to the army, and Yang Jie continued to be admitted to the official Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School for further study.
After returning to China, Yang Jie became a guest of honor for warlords everywhere, but he also witnessed the various drawbacks of warlord melee and felt confused and helpless. In 1921, Yang Jie was appointed as the superintendent of students studying in Japan in Yunnan Province, and came to Japan again with a group of students.
After arriving in Japan, Yang Jie said to the students:
"If you come to Japan to study, if you only pay attention to the practice of the profession and forget the future development of the country and its ambitions for neighbors, it will be difficult to adapt to the future needs of the country even if you return to Japan after completing your studies."
Moreover, Yang Jie himself applied for the Japanese Army University, hoping to continue his studies. However, at that time, the Japanese Army University had a rule that the students who applied for the examination must have the rank of lieutenant and lieutenant colonel, and Yang Jie was already a lieutenant general. Yang Jie did not hesitate, and resolutely gave up the hard-won rank of lieutenant general and changed to lieutenant colonel.
During the Second Northern Expedition in 1928, Yang Jie was appointed chief of staff of the First Army, and the commander of the First Army was Chiang Kai-shek. In this Northern Expedition, the reason why Chiang Kai-shek established Qigong, Yang Jie's role can never be ignored.
Two years later, the Central Plains War broke out, and Yang Jie was appointed chief of the general staff of the Army, Navy and Air Command, assisting Chiang Kai-shek in accomplishing his great cause.
In December 1931, Yang Jie was appointed president of the Army University. Please note that during the period presided over by Yang Jie, the Army University was equivalent to the advanced version of the Whampoa Military Academy, and the students of the Whampoa Military Academy could only enter the Army University for further study after reaching a certain level. Therefore, don't blow Whampoa anymore, in fact, the Army University is the highest military institution in the Republic of China.
It was during this period that Yang Jie wrote military works such as "New Theory of National Defense," "Military and National Defense," and "The Study of Commanders of Large Armies," which became an essential reading for every senior officer at that time and also laid the foundation for Yang Jie's title of "military expert." It is said that even many famous generals of our army are reading these works.
In 1933, the Nationalist government sent a military expedition to Europe to investigate the military, and Yang Jie was the leader of the expedition. During his time in Europe, Yang Jie became a guest of honor at the heads of state, and Stalin called him a "strategic expert" and asked him to direct the cavalry units of the Soviet Red Army. The British Defence Secretary also called him a "military hero" and asked him to correct the omissions in the British defence plan.
After returning to China, Yang Jie strongly recommended that Chiang Kai-shek should focus on the national defense industry and overcome the shortcomings of relying on foreign weapons.
"Otherwise, as soon as the end of the world war begins, all countries will not be able to take care of themselves, and the enemy will block our coast, and although they will be able to pay tens of thousands of dollars, they will not be able to seek weapons against the enemy."
Unfortunately, Chiang Kai-shek had other plans and did not listen.
Although Yang Jie is only eight buckets high, his temper is very urgent, and he has offended many people, so he has not been reused. For example, Chen Cheng was scolded by him as "a pig", and He Yingqin's war plan against Japan was also denounced by him as a "bullshit plan".
Even Chiang Kai-shek did not pay attention to it, and once Chiang Kai-shek said at a meeting: "My surname Chiang Kai-shek does not resist Japan, and the people of the whole country condemn him." As soon as the words fell out, Yang Jie stood up and said: "I went around the foreign countries and saw that all countries were busy, Germany was busy, the Soviet Union was busy, Italy was busy, and Japan was also busy, as if swallowing my three eastern provinces was not satisfied, and I was going to destroy China in a menacing manner." However, when I returned to Shanghai, there were idle people everywhere, officials were even more idle, eating, drinking, and having fun all night, simply putting behind the shame of the fall of the three eastern provinces, and hoping that the government would effectively come up with anti-Japanese measures! ”
Such a person can imagine what kind of consequences there will be.
After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many people were very negative because the disparity in strength between China and Japan was too great, believing that China had no chance of winning, but Yang Jie, who had a deep study of Japan, said:
"At present, Japan has a dispute between warlords and chaebols, between the navy and the army, between the young and strong factions and the old school, the whole country is not one heart, with a small country approaching a big country, and cannot do everything in its power to attack, diplomatically offendIng Britain and the United States, committing a great taboo of soldiers, so it is not difficult to defeat Japan."
Today, these views are already a consensus, but at that time, it was absolutely earth-shattering and accurately pointed out the death pit of the Japanese.
However, the ambitious Yang Jie did not get the heavy use of Chiang Kai-shek, and even the chief of the general staff he valued most fell on the head of He Yingqin.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek shouted that "the main force of the enemy army will be crushed in three months." But Yang Jie told reporters: "Three months? If the contradictions between the United States and the Soviet Union are not resolved, let alone three months, I am afraid that ten years may not be able to be broken, and thirty years will not be resolved. ”
On September 18, 1949, Yang Jie was preparing to attend the new CPPCC session, but was assassinated by Mao Renfeng, who lived for 60 years.