Guo Rujie Picture from the Internet
After the Battle of Huaihai, Guo Rujie felt bad. Because according to his past experience, Chiang Kai-shek is a person who blames others, and in this Huaihai War, as the director of the third department of the Kuomintang "Ministry of National Defense" and in charge of combat, if Chiang Kai-shek wants to shirk his responsibility, he will certainly not be able to run. Instead of sitting and waiting for Chiang Kai-shek to bear the pot, it is better to quickly resign and perhaps escape the disaster. Moreover, the Kuomintang agents were everywhere, and if the information on their intelligence for the Platon Army was leaked, their fate would be in danger.
To this end, Guo Rugui took advantage of He Yingqin's resignation from the post of "Defense Minister" and also offered his resignation.
At the same time, Guo Rugui also proposed to his contact, Ren Lianru, that he hoped to leave Nanjing and go to the Liberated Areas.
As for Guo Rugui's wishes, Ren Lianru replied after asking his superiors that instead of going to the Liberated Areas, it was better to go to the Great Southwest. After arriving in the Great Southwest, we can seize the favorable opportunity to revolt, and the role will be far greater than that of the Liberated Areas.
After a series of twists and turns, Guo Rujie finally became the commander of the 72nd Army
With the task, Guo Rugui found Gu Zhutong, the then "chief of the general staff" of the Kuomintang, and expressed his willingness to serve as a commander in the front-line troops. However, it was rejected by Gu Zhutong.
Since the outbreak of the civil war, the senior generals of the Kuomintang have been captured and captured, and those who have been killed in battle, and now the commanders and division commanders of the front-line troops are no longer the positions that senior officers are competing for, although the hot hands are still hot, but they have changed from the hot hand in the past to the hot potato, and everyone avoids it.
Under the circumstance that everyone was unwilling, Guo Rujie actually did the opposite, and Gu Zhutong did not understand. But Guo Rugui came with a task, and he made a generous statement in front of Gu Zhutong, saying that it was in the face of this dangerous situation that my generation should turn the tide of the tide even more.
Seeing that he could not persuade Guo Rujie, Gu Zhutong had no choice but to ask Chiang Kai-shek for instructions.
Seeing that his purpose was expected to be realized, Guo Rugui was very happy. But it turned out that Guo Rugui was too happy too soon.
On January 6, 1949, Guo Ruzhi received a gossip that Gu Zhutong's order to sign himself as commander of the 10th Army had been rejected by Chiang Kai-shek. Immediately after, another gossip came that Gu Zhutong had signed his order as a military commander and had been instructed by Chiang Kai-shek.
Image from the web
Since Chiang Kai-shek instructed Gu Zhutong to sign himself as commander, why was the order vetoed by him?
For a moment, Guo Ruzhen fell into deep thought. Could it be that in the process, someone made a rumor to Chiang Kai-shek? Chiang Kai-shek began to doubt himself?
On January 10, just when Guo Rugui was unsettled, Hu Lian came to the door and invited him to be the commander of the 18th Army.
After the Battle of Huaihai, Chen Cheng's 18th Army was destroyed. For the collapse of such an ace force, both Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Cheng were deeply saddened. Fortunately, Hu Lian was still there, and he had good luck and escaped from the battlefield in a broken tank. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Hu Lian to rebuild the 18th Army. In the army, Guo Rugui has always been known for being resourceful and good at managing troops, which is why Hu Lianli invited Guo Rugui to be the commander of the 18th Army.
On January 11, After meeting Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Lian came to see Guo Rujie again:
"The president has approved your appointment as commander of the 18th Army, and hopes to arrive at your post as soon as possible and revitalize the military prestige of the 18th Army."
After hearing this news, Guo Ruzhen couldn't believe his ears, how could this be? Chiang Kai-shek would not even give himself the position of commander of the 10th Army, so why should he now give me such a crucial position as the commander of the 18th Army? In Guo Rugui's view, Chiang Kai-shek trusted Hu Lian, otherwise he would not have agreed to Hu Lian's recommendation, but Chiang Kai-shek did not believe in himself, even if he served as the commander of the 18th Army, he probably would not be able to stay long.
Moreover, he was given the task of seizing the troops and retreating to the Great Southwest to play a greater role in the future. Judging from the strategic deployment of the Kuomintang at that time, the Yangtze River defense line must be undefendable, and the future direction of the 18th Army will definitely be in the direction of Ninghu and Hangzhou, rather than the direction of the great southwest. Because although the 18th Army was rebuilt, its soldiers were composed of experienced officers and veterans drawn from various units, and as long as they were trained a little, they could restore their combat effectiveness, and Chiang Kai-shek wanted to use the 18th Army as the main force guarding Ninghu and Hangzhou, and would never be transferred to the southwest direction.
Most importantly, the formation of the 18th Army had a large number of die-hard secret agents, all of whom were loyal to Chiang Kai-shek and would cause immeasurable trouble to their troops in the future uprising. If the 18th Army is really reached, the most likely situation is that not only will they not be able to complete the task, but they will be coerced by the Kuomintang to go elsewhere.
What if he proposed that he not have the 18th Army and instead serve as the commander of a certain unit in the southwest region? Obviously, this road will not work. Who would let the commander of the first-rate unit be improper and prefer to go to the second- and third-rate troops? This is counterintuitive. If you really do this, then you are not far from being exposed.
Thinking of this, Guo Ruzhen couldn't help but regret it, why did he have to choose to go to the Liberated Areas in the first place?
It turned out that in December 1948, the Kuomintang army decided to rebuild the 44th Army, which had been completely annihilated in the Battle of Huaihai. This unit is the Sichuan Army, which is the old foundation of the veteran general of the Sichuan Army, Wang Zhanxu. In order to win Wang Zhanxu's life to continue to fight for him, Chiang Kai-shek ordered reconstruction. Since Guo Rugui was a native of Sichuan, Wang Zhanxu asked Chiang Kai-shek to send Guo Rugui as a military commander. However, because Guo Ruzhi was bent on going to the Liberated Areas at that time, he did not agree and gave up this fleeting opportunity. If he had taken over the post of commander of the 44th Army, he would have been in Sichuan by now.
On January 21, just as Guo Rugui was struggling with everything, Chiang Kai-shek's cadre Lin Wei came to visit and told Guo Rugui the latest news. Originally, the appointment of the commander of Guo Rugui's 18th Army had been cancelled and replaced by the commander of the 72nd Army. Guo Rujie was asked to immediately form an army and rush to Sichuan immediately.
Hu Lian Pictures are from the Internet
So, why did Chiang Kai-shek change his orders?
It turned out that this was the ghost of Liu Fei, director of the first department of the Kuomintang 'Ministry of National Defense.'
If you want to talk about Guo Rugui and Liu Fei, it is a pair of wrongdoers. During the Liberation War, the two men identified each other as "undercover" of the Communist Party, and the quarrel was boiling over. However, there was no evidence, and in the end, Chiang Kai-shek had to come forward to fight the round field, at the cost of admitting his mistakes before he could calm things down.
However, this time Guo Rugui was appointed as the commander of the 18th Army, and Liu Fei came out to speak again, and the central idea was still that Guo Rugui was suspicious and untrustworthy. The so-called three people becoming tigers could not help but make Chiang Kai-shek not believe it. To this end, with a big stroke of Chiang Kai-shek's pen, Guo Rugui was changed from the commander of the 18th Army to the commander of the 72nd Army. It can be said that it is crooked.
Secret agents of the military command hid around Guo Rujie
Although Guo Rugui was sent abroad to become a military commander, because Liu Fei and Du Yuming's suspicions of Guo Rugui always made Chiang Kai-shek uneasy, a military command agent was sent undercover to guo Rugui's side, he was Guo Rugui's most intimate chief of staff Xu Yayin.
Guo Rugui and Xu Yayin knew each other very early, and when Guo Rugui was the director of the Third Department, Xu Yayin served as the section chief under his subordinates, and was Guo Rugui's old subordinate. Xu Yayin was later sent to the 72nd Army as deputy chief of staff and chief of staff. When Guo Rugui went to Xuzhou to guide the war, he also often came to visit Guo Rugui. The relationship between the two is excellent. During the Battle of Huaihai, the 72nd Army was annihilated, and Xu Yayin and some officers and soldiers escaped. The first person that Guo Rugui thought of when he formed the 72nd Army was Xu Yayin, because Xu Yayin was not only his old subordinate, but also served as the chief of staff of the 72nd Army, knew the situation of the unit very well, and was a suitable candidate.
However, when Guo Rugui tested Xu Yayin's attitude toward the Kuomintang, although Xu Yayin was also dissatisfied with the Kuomintang, he did not show the idea of defecting to the Communist Party, but instead wanted to take the third way.
At that time, Guo Rujie did not know that Xu Yayin was a secret agent of the military command, but only thought that Xu Yayin and himself were just taking a different path, and did not think much about it. Fortunately, he was also very cautious and did not reveal his desire to revolt in front of Xu Yayin.
As long as it is a fox, it will show its tail.
Just when Guo Rugui wanted to appoint Xu Yayin as the commander of the newly organized 34th Division, he received a message that when Guo Rugui led his troops to retreat to Sichuan, Xu Yayin wanted to pull the troops to escape.
Originally, according to the promotion rules of the generals in the Kuomintang army, if a chief of staff wanted to be promoted, he had to serve as a division commander to make enough seniority. However, due to Xu Yayin's lack of qualifications, it was somewhat reluctant to directly become the division commander, so Guo Rugui first appointed him as the deputy division commander and let the others transition first, but this caused Xu Yayin's dissatisfaction.
Du Yuming Picture from the internet
This promotion, Xu Yayin is also facing this problem. What made Guo Rugui feel strange was that Xu Yayin behaved very reasonably, not only inappropriately as the commander of the division, but also taking the initiative to ask to engage in guerrillas.
In fact, these are all illusions made by Xu Yayin. He did not want to leave Guo Rugui's side so that he could monitor Guo Rugui nearby; to engage in guerrillas, he wanted to seize military power. Guo Rujie, on the other hand, was deceived by his "superb" acting skills, believing that he was just going to take the third path. For this reason, Guo Rujie still felt a little sorry for this intimate chief of staff. In fact, Xu Yayin was a military command agent sent by Chiang Kai-shek to monitor him nearby, and he was also equipped with a radio station. As long as Xu Yayin found out that Guo Rujie had any intention of revolting, he would report it at any time.
However, due to Guo Rugui's caution, although he and Xu Yayin walked closely, they never showed the sound of the wind. As for Xu Yayin, because he did not find out what Guo Rugui was doing in secret, and constantly reported to Chiang Kai-shek how Guo Rugui served the Kuomintang, Guo Rugui's uprising was not greatly affected.
It wasn't until after the uprising that Guo Rugui knew that his most intimate chief of staff was actually a secret agent of the military command, and he was suddenly shocked into a cold sweat!
But this does not mean that Guo Rugui has not encountered danger.
In fact, just when Guo Rugui led the 72nd Army to Sichuan, he encountered dangerous situations.
In February 1949, Wang Baozhen, the head of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee in Shanghai, was arrested, but fortunately guo Ruzhen was saved by burning the documents sent by Guo Rujie and dying under severe torture. Guo Rugui's liaison, Ren Lianru, and others also fled to Hong Kong in an emergency to escape the arrest of Kuomintang agents, otherwise there would be no future Yibin uprising.
On December 11, 1949, Guo Rugui led more than 10,000 people of the 72nd Army to revolt in Yibin, and Yibin was peacefully liberated.
General Guo Rugui Picture from the Internet
The beginning of everything