Whether in TV dramas or film and television dramas, "general" is the title of a military expert with a higher status or even a unique one.
According to the military rank system of different countries, generals also have different ranks, most of them are brigadier generals, major generals, lieutenant generals, generals several ranks, special periods or special countries will also have higher honorary titles, such as China once had a general, marshal, the United States also has the title of five-star general, but no matter which country, the general should be rare, not to mention the lieutenant general second only to the general.
However, in the Kuomintang army led by Chiang Kai-shek, "lieutenant generals go everywhere", so why is this situation happening? It turned out that it was because of Old Jiang's four-wave god operation, and the two stars stinked from then on.
The rank system, lieutenant generals everywhere
On the eve of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty completed a complete military rank system, and this military rank system was also a military rank system implemented in several periods after the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, the Beiyang Government and the National Government.
In 1905, the rank of generals in the Qing Dynasty was set from top to bottom as nine grades, including orthodox capital, deputy capital, xiedu, zhengshengling, deputy staff, co-staff, zhengjun school, deputy military school, and co-military school, which corresponded to the nine grades of general, school officer and lieutenant officer, respectively.
Although several subsequent governments had different titles, they were generally revised and revised in the qing dynasty's military rank system.
Originally, no matter which government, the positions of lieutenant general and deputy capital commander should be rare, but in March 1941, there was a funny scene on the highland battlefield - Yu Chengwan, commander of the Kuomintang 57th Division, Lieutenant General; Luo Zhuoying, commander-in-chief of the 19th Group Army, lieutenant general; and Wang Yaowu, commander of the 74th Army, lieutenant general.
A small battlefield, gathered three lieutenant generals, if not their specific positions are different, then how to distinguish their leadership can become a difficult task.
You know, leadership on the battlefield is very important. If the leadership of the army cannot be judged quickly, it is very likely that the war will begin to make many doors, resulting in chaos in the army's combat and weakening of its combat effectiveness.
So what happened when three lieutenant generals with different positions appeared on the same battlefield? Originally, in the Kuomintang army, lieutenant general should also be a grand title, and there will definitely be no situation of "walking everywhere". However, under Chiang Kai-shek's four waves of "divine manipulation," the lieutenant general was finally rotten.
Stop promoting, sprawl
So how exactly did Chiang Kai-shek's four-wave god operation make Lieutenant General "stink the street"? The first was Chiang Kai-shek's first wave of operations, stopping the promotion of Quanxu's military ranks.
Originally, the military rank system before 1935 was mostly judged by position, such as the commander of the army as a general, the division commander as a lieutenant general, and the brigade commander as a major general, and the rank system was very chaotic and bloated.
In 1935, Chiang Kai-shek set up the "Quanshu Hall" in the Military Commission to uniformly confirm military ranks and standardize the rank system. This is a good thing, can standardize the ranks of the army, make the leadership more distinct, and eliminate the scene of leading an army that can call itself a general.
But the arrival of the War of Resistance Against Japan broke this situation - Chiang Kai-shek stopped the promotion of Quanxu's military ranks and turned the formalization process into his own. Since then, the ranks of the Kuomintang army have changed from determining military ranks by judging comprehensive achievements such as judging battle merits to being determined by Chiang Kai-shek's letter of appointment.
This led to chiang kai-shek, who relied on his preference to appoint generals, to increase the number of lieutenant generals, and there was a funny scene of a battlefield and three lieutenant generals of the commander of the army and division commander.
The second wave of operations is the disorderly expansion of the army. Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist army had 182 infantry divisions, 9 cavalry divisions and more than 50 independent brigades, with a total strength of 1.8 million people. But by 1944, the number of Nationalist troops had increased to a staggering nearly 6 million!
You know, the more the better, the more the better. An overly bloated army can seriously affect the passage of government decrees within the army, and even cause problems in terms of command.
What's more, there was a serious shortage of divisional and military personnel in the Kuomintang army, and Guo Rugui had served as the commander of the provisional Fifth Division with the rank of major general, and the total number of soldiers in the division was only 5,000!
You must know that a division should have 10,000 to 12,000 people, and the number of soldiers in the Provisional Fifth Division is only half of the number of personnel! But even if the army is short of quotas, the commander is also the commander, the division commander is also the division commander, and Chiang Kai-shek can only raise their ranks. Therefore, the expansion of the army brought about a large increase in ranks,
As a result, the number of Kuomintang lieutenant generals soared. In addition, there were also many posts in senior command headquarters such as the General Headquarters of the Garrison and the General Headquarters of the Front Army that required the rank of lieutenant general, so the number of lieutenant generals of the Kuomintang increased again and again, and the number was huge.
Retention of military ranks, retirement errors
Chiang Kai-shek's third wave of operations was the chaos caused by leaving generals and not leaving troops. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek incorporated a large number of puppet army units, and the puppet army units of the Wang puppet government were originally false and promiscuous ranks, but in order to buy people's hearts, Chiang Kai-shek still agreed to keep their original ranks.
Who doesn't like to have a few more stars on their shoulders? In this way, these puppet generals retained their original ranks, and the number of Kuomintang lieutenant generals increased again. Although it is still difficult to promote generals, the increase in the number of lieutenant generals has also made the gold content of the general group everywhere, not to mention that there are generals of the puppet army, which can be said to be a "stinky street".
The fourth wave of Chiang Kai-shek's operation is that there is a problem with the retirement system. The Nationalist government also initially had relevant policies, such as a general serving up to seventy years old, a lieutenant general sixty-five years old, a major general sixty years old, a colonel fifty-eight years old, and so on.
Originally, according to the retirement policy, although the number of generals may increase, the speed should be relatively slow, and there will never be a surge. However, in the context of Chiang Kai-shek's various divine operations and the War of Resistance Against Japan, the retirement system naturally cannot be discussed.
Although the Nanjing government released a list of retired officers after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there were still a number of generals who "postponed their retirement." By the time of the War of Resistance Against Japan, there were still more than seven hundred lieutenant generals in the Kuomintang army.
It was precisely under chiang kai-shek's four-wave operation that the two-star lieutenant generals "walked everywhere" and "stinky streets" from then on. It was not until after the defeat of Taiwan, because of the huge gap in the number of troops, that the model of promotion and retirement of military ranks was gradually regularized. But the joke of three lieutenant generals on a battlefield has finally spread to the present.
brief summary:
A good and effective army should have meticulous regulations on ranks and perfect measures, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of soldiers for combat.
However, the Kuomintang army led by the Nationalist Government in Nanjing, led by Chiang Kai-shek, had a battlefield and three lieutenant generals, and even let the lieutenant generals walk everywhere and rot the streets. Even the rank system cannot function properly, let alone combat effectiveness?