He and Lao Jiang are fellow countrymen, or alumni, second only to Lao Jiang in achievement, and are called "the second person"
Baoding Army Officer School, the first regular military school in modern China, was founded in 1912 and discontinued in 1924. In the past 12 years, a large number of outstanding military talents have been trained for the Chinese revolution, including Lao Jiang, Bai Chongxi, Fu Zuoyi, Ye Ting and others.
After graduating from the Baoding Military Academy, most people joined the Kuomintang, and lao Chiang was undoubtedly the most accomplished person, so who was the second highest achiever? He is Chen Cheng.
Chen Cheng was not a good student, so he did not enter middle school, and there was no hope of doing academic research, so he chose another path, that is, to enter the military school. However, the military academy also has requirements for cultural level, which must be a secondary school graduate, and Chen Cheng spent money to get a fake diploma.
The written test had passed, but he was relatively short, the interviewer stopped him, and finally Du Zhiyuan left him with an exception, and finally became a student of the eighth period.
After the outbreak of the Zhiwan War, the military academy was suspended, and Chen Cheng went south to Guangzhou, joined the Third Regiment of the First Division of the Guangdong Army as a soldier, and joined the Kuomintang, thus participating in the revolution. After the military school resumed, he returned to school and graduated in 1922.
In 1923, Chen Cheng followed Deng Yanda to Guangzhou to participate in the revolution, and he was a lieutenant aide-de-camp of the Third Regiment of the First Division of the Cantonese Army, in charge of the guards of the Grand Marshal's Office. At that time, Old Jiang was the chief of staff of the Grand Marshal's Office, and the two had met, but they were not familiar with each other.
In 1924, the Whampoa Military Academy was established, with Lao Jiang as the principal, and began to cultivate his own concubines. Chen Cheng and Lao Jiang were both from Zhejiang and had the ability, so Lao Jiang attached great importance to him and often entrusted him with heavy responsibilities.
Chen Cheng was also loyal to Old Jiang, so his officials became bigger and bigger. Chen Cheng participated in a series of important battles such as the Eastern Expedition, the Northern Expedition, and the Battle of the Central Plains, and made outstanding achievements in battle, showed excellent military ability, and gradually entered the inner circle of Lao Chiang.
He has the ability and good looks, so Song Meiling has matched him with a marriage, his wife is called Tan Xiang, the daughter of the Kuomintang big man Tan Yanmin, and also the dry daughter of Song Meiling, with the help of these people, Chen Cheng has always been smooth sailing in the nationalist army.
In the spring of 1929, the old Chiang appointed Chen Cheng as the commander of the Eleventh Division, and after the End of the Central Plains War, he was promoted to the commander of the Eighteenth Army, and it was by these two teams that the status of the Nationalist Army was determined, so Chen Cheng's own force group was called "Civil Engineering Department", which after being dismantled was the meaning of "Eleventh and Eighteenth".
There are many factions in the Kuomintang, such as the civil engineering department and the Huangpu department, and the most powerful one is the civil engineering department, which is also the main pillar of the old Chiang Kai-shek Central Army, so many famous generals have emerged, such as Huang Wei, Guo Huairu, Qiu Xingxiang, Li Shuzheng and others.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Shanghai and Nanjing fell one after another, the military and government organs were successively moved to Wuhan, and the Wuhan Garrison General Headquarters was established, with Chen Cheng as the commander-in-chief, and also served as the chairman of the Hubei Provincial Government, the director of the General Political Department of the Central Military Commission, and the education chief of the Central Training Corps.
Chen Cheng held important positions, so within the Kuomintang he was called "the stand-in for old Chiang Kai-shek" and "the second person." The power of the civil engineering department was getting bigger and bigger, and Chen Cheng's status was indeed second only to old Jiang, and even Hu Zongnan was not comparable.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighteenth Army made great achievements in battle and dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army, so it was deeply valued by old Chiang Kai-shek. During the Liberation War, he was appointed as the director of the Northeast Expedition and sent to the Northeast Battlefield, but he was also powerless to stop the Four Wild Army.
In 1948, Chen Cheng was sent to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek to preside over government affairs, serving as chairman of the Taiwan provincial government, and in 1954 he was elected vice president.