The "army" in the national army is generally under the jurisdiction of three divisions, with a strength of between 20,000 and 30,000 people. However, one army was very "perverted", and even had 5 divisions under its command, with a total strength of more than 70,000 people! It can be called the most "perverted" army in the sequence of the national army, which is the 36th Army of the National Revolutionary Army. The 36th Army was founded in 1940 with only two divisions, the newly formed 34th Division and the provisional 15th Division. In July 1945, in order to prevent the Eighth Route Army from "sitting on the throne" in the Shaanxi region after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Hu Zongnan proposed to Lao Jiang to form a special army in order to impose a long-term blockade on the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
There are two advantages to this, one is that it can enhance the strength of the blockade troops, and the other is that it only uses an army number on the surface for yan'an, avoiding the adverse impact of public opinion. In the end, Old Jiang approved Hu Zongnan's proposal, so Hu Zongnan vigorously expanded the 36th Army, and finally concocted this super army. At that time, the army had five divisions under its jurisdiction, namely the 15th, 28th, 48th, 59th and 165th divisions, each division had 4 regiments, and each regiment had 4 battalions, with a total strength of more than 70,000 people in 80 battalions!
So who was the commander of this super army at that time? He is Zhong Song, Hu Zongnan's fellow Zhejiang. Like Hu Zongnan, Zhong Song was originally a primary school teacher, and later threw himself into the Huangpu Phase I, and became an alumnus of the same period with Du Yuming, Guan Linzheng, Hu Zongnan and others. More than a month after the start of school, Zhong Song contracted typhoid fever and was treated for a long time before he recovered. Whampoa Military Academy is a crash-track military school, the study time is only a few months, after Zhong Song's illness, the first phase has been completed, in desperation, he had to follow the second phase of study.
After graduating from the military academy, Zhong Song successively participated in the Eastern Expedition, the Northern Expedition, and the Battle of the Central Plains, and won the trust of Old Chiang with his outstanding military skills. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Zhong Song participated in many important battles and battles, and also went abroad to fight with the expeditionary force, and was awarded the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun for his military achievements. Although Zhong Song's military talent was extremely outstanding, he could not get along with the military commander at the time, Wang Lingyun, and was ostracized everywhere. When Hu Zongnan saw the situation, he decided to help his fellow countrymen, so he transferred Zhong Song to his side.
After that, Zhong Song served as the commander of the super army for nearly a year, during which time the only task was to blockade the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. After the outbreak of the Liberation War, this "perverted" super army was reorganized into the integrated 36th Division, which was reduced by more than one and a half, but still had more than 30,000 people. On the battlefield, Zhong Song fully displayed his military talents and created many difficulties for the Northwest Field Army. We all know that one of the tactics often used by our army in the Liberation War was to encircle the points and provide assistance, and it was tried and tested many times, but Zhong Song broke this tactic of our army twice.
In July 1947, our army surrounded Yulin with the strength of two columns, Hu Zongnan hurriedly sent Zhong Song to break the siege, and General Peng had already planted an ambush in the middle of the road and was ready to encircle the reinforcements. Unexpectedly, Zhong Song was already defensive about this, and he led his troops out of the Great Wall directly into the desert, and after 2 days of arduous marching, he suddenly appeared under Yulin City, leaving our army's reinforcements far behind. Our siege troops were forced to retreat in the face of the danger of the enemy's internal and external attacks. Three months later, Zhong Song repeated his old trick and successfully lifted the siege of Yuncheng and caused certain losses to my besieging troops.
At this time, Zhong Song had become the number one general under Hu Zongnan. Mr. Peng decided to concentrate his forces to shoot him down. However, Zhong Song was very alert, and several times he evaded the ambush of our army. At the same time, he was also a master of grasping fighters, and in the later stages of the Battle of Xifu, Zhong Songyi changed his cautious style and led the reorganized 36th Division to advance at a high speed of 100 miles a day, causing great losses to the rear guard units of our army. Capable of attacking and defending, having a keen sense of smell and good at catching fighters, Zhong Song became Ichino's number one enemy in the northwest battlefield. However, such a fierce general was eventually regarded by Hu Zongnan as a scapegoat for the defeat of Feng Yuan's battle and left the front line. Zhong Song later lived abroad and died in the Netherlands in 1995 at the age of 95.
For more exciting content, come and follow Brother Tsubasa's history class