What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
People familiar with history should know the famous Battles of Changde and Hengyang in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the Chinese generals who led these two battles were General Yu Chengwan and General Fang Xianjue. Yu Chengwan and Fang Xianjue were both important generals of the Nationalist Army, and the experiences of the two were similar. Yu Chengwan guarded Changde, fang Xianjue defended Hengyang, and unfortunately, both of them were defeated and lost.
In the face of the end of failure, Yu Chengwan chose to lead the troops to break through, while Fang Xianjue chose to lead the crowd to descend. According to normal thinking, Yu Chengwan should be praised and Fang Xianjue should be punished; and the fact is that Chiang Kai-shek almost shot Yu Chengwan, but praised Fang Xianjue as an anti-Japanese hero. Why?
War of Resistance
01 Battle of Changde
Yu Chengwan, commander of the 57th Division, was born in the Huangpu I period and was promoted to the rank of major general in 1936 at the age of 33. Huangpu's birth in the first phase is very important, which shows that Yu Chengwan is old, and many famous anti-Japanese generals are his primary school brothers.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek strictly ordered the changde defenders to "succeed, then become ren." Yu Chengwan led the officers and men of the 57th Division, in the case of easy attack and difficult to defend, with 8,000 divisions against more than 40,000 well-equipped Japanese Kou, fought alone for 16 days and nights, and finally almost all the troops were killed, but they also caused major trauma to the Japanese army, leaving tens of thousands of corpses on the outskirts of Changde.
In the end, Yu Chengwan led more than 200 people to break out of the city, and Changde fell into the hands of the Japanese army. After the battle, the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government took Yu Chengwan to Chongqing on the charge of abandoning his subordinates and abandoning the defense of the territory, and Chiang Kai-shek even threatened to shoot Yu Chengwan. Under the intercession of everyone, Chiang Kai-shek demoted Yu Chengwan's rank by two consecutive levels and spared his life.
02 Battle of Hengyang
The Battle of Hengyang was the most tragic battle in the Battle of Yuxianggui, and it was the battle in which Both China and Japan suffered the most casualties and took the longest to attack and defend during the War of Resistance. About 17,000 people of the 10th Army of the Kuomintang Central Army held Hengyang, and the Japanese army gathered nearly 90,000 elites to attack the city, and after 3 general attacks, lasted 47 days, and finally captured Hengyang at the cost of 30,000 Japanese casualties.
Led by Fang Xianjue, the general of the nationalist army guarding Hengyang, he fought a bloody battle, and most of the casualties were inflicted. When the city was broken, Fang Xianjue wanted to raise a gun to cut himself and was saved by his subordinates, and after being persuaded by his subordinates, Fang Xianjue actually sighed in anger: So be it! It's not that we're sorry for the country, it's that the country is sorry for us. It's not that we don't want the state, it's that the country doesn't want us. Fang Xianjue then led his troops to surrender to the Japanese army. Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek even managed to rescue Fang Xianjue, touting him as an anti-Japanese hero, and after being rescued, he was given the rank of knight.
Battle of Hengyang
03 Kill the enemy is demoted, but the enemy is demoted, why?
Normally speaking, Yu Cheng Wan shou Changde hit that part, internal casualties were heavy, there was no reinforcement outside, in the case that Changde really could not hold on, Yu Cheng Wan had to lead a small number of subordinates to fight to the death to break through; compared to Fang Xianjue, who surrendered to save his life after being defeated, Yu Cheng Wan can be called a defeated Yu Rong. On the contrary, Fang Xianjue still had considerable combat strength when Hengyang lost, and he really couldn't win the battle and could learn from Cheng Wan's breakthrough, but he simply took nearly 10,000 soldiers to surrender.
General Fang Xianjue
First of all, Fang Xianjue's campaign command at the Battle of Hengyang was quite high, and later generations said that he had been involved with the Japanese army for more than 40 days and had been overloaded with the task. In addition, Fang Xianjue led ten thousand soldiers to surrender to the Japanese army, not only saved his life, but also saved the lives of ten thousand soldiers. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek praised him and publicized him as a hero.
General Yu Chengwan
Speaking of Yu Chengwan, this is Chiang Kai-shek's Janissaries, and Hu Ben Yu Chengwan held out for 16 days. Well-equipped, although there were not as many personnel as the Japanese army, but it lasted for 16 days before almost the entire army was destroyed, which made Chiang Kai-shek very angry. In addition, at the time of the Battle of Changde, Chiang Kai-shek was attending an international conference in Cairo, and after Changde's defeat, he was very faceless. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek added one class to Yu Cheng's ten thousand sins.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was a process of hardship and bloodshed, and the 8-year War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was not easy to talk about! Some people died for the War of Resistance, leaving their names in history and making a name at home and abroad; some people attacked cities and defended the land, made great achievements, but still had to endure criticism. Yu Chengwan and Fang Xianjue were both anti-Japanese generals who stood tall in the sky, but in the time of life and death, the two people chose different ways. The anti-Japanese deeds of the two heroes are destined to be recorded in the annals of history and praised by future generations. As for the evaluation of the two generals, it is only the benevolent who sees the benevolent and the wise see the wise.