In the early morning of December 12, 1936, Zhang Xueliang, then deputy commander of the Northwest "Suppression General" and Yang Hucheng, commander-in-chief of the 17th Route Army, led their troops to launch a "military advice", and the old Chiang Kai-shek who would supervise the war in Xi'an was detained and opened the curtain of the "Xi'an Incident". Thanks to the efforts of all parties, the "Xi'an Incident" was finally resolved peacefully. On December 25, in order to show his sincerity, Zhang Xueliang ignored the advice of his subordinates and Yang Hucheng and insisted on flying to accompany old Jiang back to Nanjing. As soon as he arrived in Nanjing, he was placed under house arrest. It was not until 1990 that he regained his freedom, and then moved to the United States with Miss Zhao Si and settled in Hawaii.
Zhang Xueliang was interviewed many times in his later years, and when he recalled Yang Hucheng, he made a surprising statement, saying that "the 17th Route Army is useless, and I regret taking Yang Hucheng as a guy." So why did Zhang Xueliang say this? When he accompanied old Jiang back to Nanjing, he did not expect to lose his freedom. On December 28, 1936, when the deceased from the northeast visited him at the Song Ziwen Mansion, Zhang Xueliang also pointed to the northwest and whispered: "If you don't let me go back, can you agree there?" ”
The "over there" in Zhang Xueliang's mouth refers to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Northeast Army and the 17th Route Army who remained in Xi'an, which was a very powerful military force at that time and an important chip for Zhang Xueliang to maintain his own safety. When sending old Jiang back to Nanjing, he handed Yang Hucheng a warrant that read: "When my brother leaves Shaanxi, in case of an accident, please ask your brothers to obey the command of Hucheng and Xiaohou (Yu Xuezhong). Greetings are he, Wang, Miao, Dong, and the commanders of the various divisions. Zhang Xueliang, 25 days. Yang Hucheng acted as the agent of Yu's position, on the same day. ”
In order to prevent the unexpected, Zhang Xueliang gave the Northeast Army to Yang Hucheng's command and asked him to act as his deputy. In Zhang Xueliang's view, as long as the Northeast Army is not chaotic, Old Jiang does not dare to do anything with himself. However, what he did not expect was that Yang Hucheng could not command the Northeast Army at all, and on the issue of how to save Zhang, the Northeast Army had different internal disputes, and eventually civil unrest broke out, which was soon divided and disintegrated by old Chiang Kai-shek. If Yang Hucheng's command of the Immovable Northeast Army is still excusable, then he has also lost control of his own concubine unit, the 17th Route Army, which is a bit unreasonable.
The 17th Route Army was a unit personally formed by Yang Hucheng, initially with only one battalion, but after his painstaking management, it developed into a division. In 1926, Yang Hucheng led his troops to defend Xi'an, and fought hard with Liu Zhenhua's Zhensong army for more than eight months, trying to protect Xi'an from loss, and became famous all over the world. During the Great War of the Central Plains, Yang Hucheng took the opportunity to develop his forces and expand his troops into three divisions, and Old Jiang finally agreed to upgrade Yang's troops to the 17th Route Army. At the time of the "Xi'an Incident", the 17th Route Army had two armies, the 7th and 38th, totaling more than 60,000 people in 28 regiments.
It can be said that the 17th Route Army is a unit pulled up by Yang Hucheng, and it is also the cost of his life. However, he was unable to control this unit in the end, and after Lao Jiang returned to Nanjing, he sent people to divide and buy the 17th Route Army, and Feng Qinzai, commander of the 7th Army and commander of the 42nd Division, led his troops to defect to Lao Jiang, and the remaining troops were reorganized, and Yang Hucheng, who had lost military power, was forced to "go abroad to investigate." Zhang Xueliang handed over his life and back road to Yang Hucheng, but he did not expect that he could not control the troops at all, which may be an important reason why he "regretted taking Yang Hucheng as a guy".