introduction
"Send Xie Yong": "Xie Jialan tree has Qingfen, but every time chengjiang is recited, it remembers the jun." Thinking of the long summer of the mountain villa, the stone bed sleeps to see the wall clouds. In fact, due to the continuous war in the Republic of China, many Chinese have gone to the battlefield and devoted themselves to the revolution to defend the country. Although there were parties at that time, everyone still hated each other throughout the War of Resistance. As a military task, it is natural to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, and the number of meritorious deeds is reflected in the ranks.
01
The Kuomintang army was the first to apply and popularize the rank system in the history of the development of China's army, especially during the Liberation War, the rank hierarchy within its army was relatively standardized and more stringent. From generals to school officers to the most basic level of lieutenant officers are very clear, and they already have the appearance of a modern military rank system. However, due to various historical reasons, military ranks were not so clear when they were implemented, and even in the late stages of the Liberation War, they began to have a tendency to flood, which made people puzzled.
▲Kuomintang officers take pictures
Among the many ranks, the most commonly used and the most widely spanned of all military positions is the "lieutenant general" in the Kuomintang army. For example, in the mid-1940s, division commanders, military commanders, deputy commanders and commanders of corps of the Nationalist army, and even regional military and political commanders, called commanders-in-chief, were awarded lieutenant generals. In the political activities of that time, if you did not know the clear rank of the other side, then the general would not be wrong. Why is this happening?
▲ Kuomintang officer
Although the rank is a manifestation of a person's status and merit in the military, sometimes it cannot be directly exchanged for military power, but only as an honor or treatment. For most soldiers, the rank is of course favored, but once you reach the position of lieutenant general, it is difficult to move up. The main reason is that the rank of lieutenant general is not fixed in the army, but the general is different, and there are clear quantitative regulations.
02
Looking at the development process of the Kuomintang army, the addition of generals was often accompanied by the departure or death of the previous generation, and the number of generals in the Kuomintang army in the late liberation war including additions, posthumous gifts, and formal grants was only a few dozen. Under such a system, there is no doubt that the number of lieutenant generals will grow exponentially. Let's take a few examples of this. First, let's look at the situation in which the commander becomes a lieutenant general. Generally speaking, it is difficult to award the rank of division commander to a lieutenant general, after all, the regimental commander is the school officer, and under normal circumstances, the division commander is the rank of major general.
▲Zhang Lingfu
However, after 1946, in order to adapt to the changes in the battlefield situation, the Kuomintang army carried out reforms and established a number of new-style reorganized divisions, and many lieutenant generals and division commanders appeared. For example, Zhang Lingfu of the 74th Division, Zhong Song of the 36th Division, Yang Wenquan of the 72nd Division, and so on. Although these generals were nominally division commanders, they were in fact in the same position as the commanders in the regular army. In addition, the division commanders of the ordinary field army are still major generals.
▲Zhong Song
In addition to the division commander of these elite Kuomintang divisions with the rank of lieutenant general, a large part of the military commander was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. For example, Li Tao, commander of the New 6th Army, Xiong Xiaosan, commander of the 5th Army, and so on. Of course, there is an exception, that is, a military commander who has just been promoted to a less senior level and has not yet established a major meritorious service will temporarily suspend the rank of major general. There is little doubt that the commander is a lieutenant general, so would you be surprised to say that an officer who is one rank older than the commander is still a lieutenant general?
03
Within the structure of the Kuomintang army, the rank of military rank higher than the commander was the deputy commander and commander of the corps, of which the appeasement area was equal to that of the large corps. Usually, a regiment of the Kuomintang will have 3 to 5 military-level units with a total strength of about 100,000 people, of course, there are exceptions, such as the 9th Corps stationed in Beiping, which will have several more regiments than the normal legions, and the number of people will reach 120,000.
▲Kuomintang garrison
According to normal thinking, the head of the corps is naturally much older than the army in terms of military power, and the number is much less than that of the military commander, which should be awarded to the general, right? According to the "Examination of the Development of Modern Ranks", "the actual situation is that the chief officers of these corps are also the rank of lieutenant general like the commanders." For example, Qiu Qingquan, Li Wen, Liu Jiashu and others.
▲ Du Yuming
Further up the level, there are military positions such as deputy commander and acting commander of the General Suppression Army, such as the famous anti-Japanese general Du Yuming, whose rank is also lieutenant general. In short, it will be difficult to be rated as an admiral. So what kind of military rank can be rated as a general? Generally speaking, in addition to the honorary awards and posthumous gifts, if you want to be rated as a general in the front-line troops, at least you have started at the level of the commander-in-chief, such as Wei Lihuang and Fu Zuoyi, which is compared with the level of the commander-in-chief of the field army, which shows how difficult and rare it is.
epilogue
The rank system was not invented by China, it originated in Europe in the 15th century, and because the implementation of the rank system can effectively improve combat effectiveness and facilitate the management of the army, it will soon be popularized worldwide. The Kuomintang army was the earliest army in China to use the rank system in a complete and systematic manner, and it also played an important role in carrying forward the military rank system from top to bottom, and played a reference value for the implementation of the rank system in the People's Liberation Army after the founding of New China.