During the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek set up a total of 12 theaters, each of which set up a supreme commander, of course, they were not a lifelong system, if they made a mistake, the battle needs can be replaced by generals, this kind of thing is very common in the war years.
However, there are exceptions to everything, for example, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the commanders of various major theaters were constantly changed, but the commanders of the Second Theater were not replaced, and it was always Yan Xishan, the tu emperor of Shanxi.
Yan Xishan has always been known as a tumbler in the history of the Republic of China, from the Beiyang period to the victory of the Liberation War, he has always been the leader of the Jin Sui Army, although there were several times in the middle, but it did not take long to return to power, like the Gui warlord leader was originally Lu Rongting, and later replaced by Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and the Dian warlord was also Tang Jiyao before, and later Tang was ousted by Long Yun, Long Yun became the leader of the Dian clan, not to mention the Sichuan army warlords, the chief was frequently replaced. Even Chiang Kai-shek was supposed to step down, but he, like Yan Xishan, did not take long to take office again.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yan Xishan was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the commander of the Second Theater, and the Jin Army at this time was reorganized into two group armies, led by Yang Aiyuan and Fu Zuoyi, two famous generals of the Jin Army.
It should be known that with the needs of the war, the division of the theater and the commander will be changed and adjusted, in January 1938, the Japanese army occupied the entire north of China, so the second theater of operations was changed, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Suiyuan and other places, the second theater was demarcated, but the commander was still Yan Xishan, but at this time, Chiang Kai-shek in order to prevent Yan Xishan's family from becoming dominant, assigned his love to Wei Lihuang to the second theater, as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy on the south road, and fu Zuoyi, the former commander-in-chief of the enemy on the north road, thus dispersing the rights of Yan Xishan.
After the victory at the Changsha Campaign, China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression had entered a stalemate stage, and at this time the Japanese army's combat capability had been brought to its limit, and it could no longer be greater; this was Chiang Kai-shek's re-division of the national theater, but no matter how Yan Xishan was divided into commanders of the Second Theater, and had six army groups under his jurisdiction. They were the 14th Group Army (Wei Lihuang), the 4th Army (Sun Weiru), the 5th Army (Zeng Wanzhong), the 6th Army (Yang Aiyuan), the 7th Army (Fu Zuoyi), and the 18th Army (Zhu Laozong).
In 1944, the second theater was divided for the fourth time, adjusted, and the commander was still Yan Xishan, but at this time, most of the generals in the second theater were generals of the Jin Sui Army. The Sixth Army, the Seventh Army, the Eighth Army, and the 13th Army were all generals of the Jin Sui Army.
At this point, the War of Resistance was nearing its end, the enemy army began to turn to the key defense, coupled with the successive defeats of the Japanese army in the Pacific War, the Japanese army at this time had reached the end of the crossbow, which was a metaphor for the grasshoppers after the autumn could not jump for a few days. Therefore, later in the Second Theater of Operations, there were some adjustments, but the changes were not very large, and Yan Xishan was still the commander-in-chief until the end of the victory of the War of Resistance.
Yan Xishan had always served as the commander of the Second Theater during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and this experience was probably the first person in the history of the Republic of China, and even Chen Cheng had successively served as the commander of the sixth station of the Ninth Theater, but Yan Xishan remained unchanged