Although Zhang Xueliang is a person who has a lot of controversy, he is still good in terms of being a person, and most of his subordinates are also loyal to him, such as Yu Xuezhong, Lü Zhengcao, Tan Hai, etc., who still have great respect for Zhang Xueliang after he was placed under house arrest, and do not abandon him.
However, there are also some people who choose to leave Zhang Xueliang and throw themselves into Chiang Kai-shek's account, such as Zou Zuohua, who is going to talk about today.
In the book "Steel War of Resistance: A History of Chinese Field Artillery", Zou Zuohua has been described in detail, who graduated from the first place in the artillery department of the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School that year, and his use of modern artillery is very accurate, which can be called the pioneer of Chinese artillery.
Zhang Xueliang once said:
"The most powerful thing in the Northeast Army is the artillery. At that time, China's artillery could be said to have not been formally trained, and it was only after the Northeast Army that it had formal training, which was all due to Zou Zuohua. ”
However, in addition to being unique in artillery combat training, Zou Zuohua also has another characteristic, that is, his mind turns extremely quickly, and he can always make key choices at key moments and soar all the way.
On November 22, 1925, the Fengzhi general Guo Songling mutinied and turned his gun to Zhang Zuolin's old lair Fengtian. Because of Zou Zuohua's proficiency in artillery, Guo Songling regarded him as a key talent training, cared for him, and always regarded him as a confidant, and when he opposed Feng, he also made him the chief of staff.
Zou Zuohua had always been very grateful to Guo Songling for his promotion, and he was also determined to follow him, but he never expected guo Songling to rebel, because whether in terms of strength or ability, he felt that Guo Songling was completely risking with his head. Thinking about it, Zou Zuohua couldn't think of any reason why Guo Songling would succeed, so he superficially supported and secretly prepared to oppose the water.
Guo Songling was well prepared, and his troops were all elite in the Northeast Army, and after the mutiny, he advanced quickly, and he was about to directly attack Zhang Zuolin's old lair. However, Zhang Zuolin, who was like a bird of fright at first, suddenly began to calmly counterattack, and finally defeated Guo Songling in one fell swoop.
Why did Zhang Zuolin fight back? The reason for this lies in Zou Zuohua.
It turned out that Zou Zuohua was in control of all of Guo Songling's artillery at that time, and just when Guo Songling's troops were about to advance to Fengtian, Zou Zuohua secretly sent two companies of engineers to remove all the fuses of the shells and sent someone to secretly report to Zhang Zuolin that although these shells would hit the target, they would not explode. After Zhang Zuolin received the secret report, he immediately organized a counter-offensive and won a great victory.
From then on, Zhang Zuolin's father and son thanked Zou Zuohua and trusted him, entrusted all the artillery in the northeast to his training and management, and appointed him as the commander of the Fengjun artillery. And Zou Zuohua naturally thanked Zhang Zuolin's father and son and repaid him faithfully.
But at the end of 1936, after Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the Xi'an Incident, Zou Zuohua made another choice.
As early as several years ago, Chiang Kai-shek was amazed when he saw the construction of artillery in the Northeast Army, and was very impressed with Zou Zuohua's professional quality of artillery, so he asked him to set up an army artillery school to train artillery talents. Zou Zuohua's trust in Chiang Kai-shek was naturally grateful to Shu Zero.
After the Xi'an Incident, Zou Zuohua was shocked and at a loss for a moment; on the one hand, Zhang Xueliang, the former boss of the Northeast Army, and on the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek, who promoted and reused him, was also confused about which side he should fall to. After several days of internal struggle, Zou Zuohua finally decided to fall to Chiang Kai-shek.
This morning, while calling a meeting of reporters, he loudly shouted for the protection of Chiang Kai-shek, and in order to show his loyalty, he also gathered all the northeastern teachers and staff of the artillery school and led everyone to see He Yingqin, all of whom knelt on the ground and voluntarily pleaded guilty, expressing unconditional loyalty to the Nanjing government.
After the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek learned of Zou Zuohua's performance during the incident, and he was very relieved in his heart, and from then on he trusted Zou Zuohua even more, even to the point of being called a brother.
After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zou Zuohua was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the national artillery, made countless military achievements, and was promoted to a second-class general in the army, reaching the peak of his military career.
Regarding Zou Zuohua's evaluation, it is actually difficult to have a conclusive conclusion, for example, his two choices, although they are somewhat unauthentic in character, are actually very wise choices, at least in terms of results to avoid greater war.
For example, in the Xi'an Incident, if Zou Zuohua chose to support Zhang Xueliang, then Chiang Kai-shek would certainly not reuse him again, and his talent in artillery would not be able to be displayed, which was undoubtedly a great loss to China's cause of resistance.