Civilians usually refer to officers who lead soldiers to fight as generals, which is just an honorific. Strictly speaking, in the modern army, officers above the rank of general can be called generals. The general view is that there are many generals in the national army, the division commander is a major general or above, the brigade commander is a major general, and even some regimental commanders are also major generals. When Nanjing was still the capital, there was a popular folk saying that "there are as many major generals as dogs, and lieutenant generals walk all over the streets" to describe the generals of the Nationalist army at that time who were not valuable.
But the facts are very different from the general view. According to the article "Outline of the Kuomintang Army System (Continued)" written by Shi Shu, deputy commander of the newly compiled 7th Army of the Nationalist Army:
The generals and officers who go through the appointment procedures of the Quanxu Hall shall be issued gold (copper alloy) collar badges by the Quanxu Hall, and numbered on the back. I saw that the number of major generals was only more than five hundred.
History refers to the fact that before the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there were more than 500 people in the Nationalist army with the rank of major general, and at that time, the Nationalist army had nearly four million troops. One figure that can be compared is that when the PLA first conferred the title in 1955, there were 800 major generals on the list. Although the combat effectiveness of the two cannot be said to be the same, the staffing can be roughly referred to. It can be seen that the generals in the national army are not as many and cheap as the folk legends.
More extreme is Liao Yaoxiang's military rank. In August 1947, Liao Yaoxiang became the commander of the 9th Corps of the Nationalist Army. By May 1948, Liao Yaoxiang Corps was expanded into a mobile attack corps, under the jurisdiction of 6 corps (New 1st Army, New 3rd Army, New 6th Army, 71st Army, Prefectural 49th Army, 58th Army) and another division, with a total strength of more than 150,000 people, and the 5 aces of the Nationalist Army occupied 2, known as the strongest corps. But at this time, Liao Yaoxiang's official rank was only cavalry colonel, and according to the customs of various countries, he was only worthy of being a regimental commander. It was not until the end of September that Liao Yaoxiang was officially promoted to major general, but he did not seem to be a general and was captured about a month later.
The above rank of colonel has been working as a lieutenant general for a year, which is indeed far from the impression that there are many generals in the national army. To answer this question, we must first start with the rank system of the national army.
The rank system of the Nationalist army was slowly formulated after the establishment of the Republic of China, and the content was basically copied from the Japanese army. Because among the neighboring countries, the Japanese army is the most powerful and worth learning. In addition, since the end of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of Chinese students have studied military affairs in the Japanese army, have a considerable understanding of the military system of the Japanese army, and are very admired. Finally, Japan also uses Kanji, which is basically the same culture, and it is easier and more convenient to translate and use.
On March 10, 1912, Sun Yat-sen, in the name of the President, promulgated the Draft Order for the Appointment of Additional Officers in the Army and the Draft Order for the Dismissal of Officers of the Army. In the same year, after Yuan Shikai came to power, he successively promulgated the "Rank Table of Officers and Soldiers" of the army and navy. These documents initially establish a relatively complete system of military ranks, in which the ranks of officers are mainly 6 levels and 16, including:
Generals: Admiral, Lieutenant General, Major General
Colonel: Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major
Lieutenants: Captain, Lieutenant, Second Lieutenant (Platoon Commander to Deputy Battalion)
Warrant Officer
Sergeant: Sergeant, Sergeant, Corporal
Soldiers: First Class Soldiers, First Class Soldiers, Second Class Soldiers
However, after Yuan Shikai's death, there was a long-term warlord division in China, and the military rank system began to be chaotic. The warlords recruited their own troops, paid their own food, and of course arranged the rank of officers themselves, in fact, many warlord troops at that time did not have a rank system. This situation could not be changed even after Chiang Kai-shek completed the Northern Expedition, the northeast was changed, and China formally completed reunification, because the local separatist forces still existed, the old Chiang still could not intervene, and even the military rank became a tool for the old Chiang Kai-shek to win the hearts and minds of the people.
How chaotic were the ranks of this period? In 1932, the northwestern warlord Ma Bufang appointed his 12-year-old son, who was still in elementary school, as the chief of staff of the colonel of the Qinghai Southern Border Region Garrison Command, and reported it to Nanjing.
Not only are there so many middle- and low-ranking officers, but even there are too many high-ranking officers such as generals to count, and the generals are becoming less and less valuable, and even old Jiang himself feels that the generals are flooded and the quality is reduced. In 1933, during a memorial week at the CSKA Officer School, he said:
The promotion of classes in our army is all too easy. For example, the students who graduated in Whampoa, no matter which one, at most are in their thirties, have now been promoted to the rank of major general or even general... It is also common for officers of other countries not even to be promoted to captain in their lifetime... The higher our individual class, the lower the status of the state.
In order to rectify the military personnel system, the National Government decided to re-evaluate military ranks. Minister of Military Affairs He Yingqin sent people to Japan to investigate and formulated a series of measures. On April 26, 1934, it became the Military Commission's Quanxu Office, which was specifically responsible for re-evaluating the work related to military ranks. At the beginning of 1935, He Yingqin proposed that "the rank of army officers is excessive, and it is not respectful of the way of famous weapons", and suggested that the number of generals be reduced, and some generals should be reclassified as lieutenant generals. In March, a new military rank list was promulgated, which basically followed the previous 6th class 16th level system in terms of rank, but changed the general to a first-class general, a second-level general, and a special general.
This special general was of course tailor-made for Chairman Chiang Kai-shek to distinguish himself from the others, and from its establishment in 1935 to its abolition in 1980, this rank was awarded only to Chiang Kai-shek alone.
The new regulations impose strict limits on the amount of promotion, especially at the rank of general, with a total limit of about 60 people, and the first level will be controlled between one-third and one-quarter, and only when there is a vacancy can the next rank be substituted.
Specific provisions have also been made for the length of service of officers in a certain class, that is, the "suspension year" system, which can be understood as the minimum number of years of service required before promotion. For example, non-wartime status: lieutenant promoted to lieutenant for one and a half years; lieutenant promoted to captain for two years; captain promoted to major for four years; major promoted to lieutenant colonel for two years; lieutenant colonel promoted to colonel for three years; colonel promoted to major general for four years. In addition, the age of officers has also been restricted, and those who have not been promoted beyond the limit age are required to retire.
According to this rule, it takes at least seventeen and a half years to rise from second lieutenant to colonel (the wartime status has been reduced to a certain extent), which is still very strict if the career is smooth.
The Nationalist army began to implement this new regulation in April 1935, but as proposed by He Yingqin earlier, some admirals were demoted to lieutenant generals, which naturally caused dissatisfaction. In order to reconcile the contradictions, at the beginning of 1936, the National Government promulgated a "Provisional Regulations on the Rank of Lieutenant General of the Army", which stipulated that qualified lieutenant generals could be attached to the rank of second-level general, enjoy the same treatment, and give priority to hiring when there was a shortage. In the National Army, the requirement of a rank was only available at the rank of Lieutenant General.
The new system implemented by the Nationalist army has a good starting point and is conducive to managing the chaotic and rampant ranks. At the same time, the power to appoint and dismiss personnel in the army was transferred to the central authorities to a certain extent, because only officers who were approved by the central authorities would be paid corresponding salaries, which played a positive role in restricting local forces. However, after the implementation of the new system, there were still officers with higher old ranks, and the old Chiang had to call on everyone to lower their ranks:
"If you reflect on it, is your academic ability and experience comparable to that of a foreign military commander, division commander, or even a regimental commander?" You and the general senior generals of foreign countries are socializing in one place, do they treat you as a military commander and division commander, but show sincere respect? It is a real shame to say that the academic ability of a commander of our army is not only inferior to that of their commander, but also inferior to that of their division commander and regimental commander! This disgrace does not live up to its name, and we must all reflect on it and realize it. ”
However, not long after the implementation of the new system, the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out in an all-round way, and the army was expanded on a large scale. In addition, in the war, a large number of middle- and low-ranking officers suffered a large number of battle losses, and out of the need for rewards for meritorious personnel, there were large-scale changes in officers, and the original rank system could not keep up with the changes in reality. For example, a company commander continues to make meritorious contributions on the battlefield and is promoted to regimental commander, but his rank often does not meet the requirements of "suspension of the year". If officers of the same rank have different ranks, there will be great problems in cooperation and command in the future.
In order to solve this problem, a system of ranks and ranks has emerged. That is, when an officer is appointed to a certain position, the corresponding rank is also conferred, but this rank is not a formal rank conferred by the Quanshu Office, but a temporary rank that follows the change of position. For example, in wartime, if a person is appointed to the post of division commander and awarded the rank of lieutenant general at the same time, in the future, after the reorganization of the army, the person will be reappointed as the brigade commander, and his rank will be reduced to major general accordingly. Only official ranks conferred by the Quanshu Office are not changed with the adjustment of duties.
There is no difference in treatment between job ranks and formal ranks, but it is clear that formal ranks have a higher gold content. In the title is also different, taking the major general as an example, the rank of the post is generally called the rank plus the post, that is, the major general commander. The official military rank is generally called the service plus rank, such as: major general of the army. In formal settings, formal ranks are generally required.
After the emergence of these two different ranks, the ranks of the national army began to be chaotic again, and the numbers of officers with ranks on the post could not be counted at all because they did not pass through the Quanxu Hall. In fact, the average officer only holds a relatively high rank. For example, Dai Kasa has always worn the rank of lieutenant general, but he was officially promoted to major general in 1945 and posthumously awarded the title of lieutenant general. The other was Zhang Lingfu, who was killed in the Battle of Menglianggu, and was also officially awarded the rank of major general in 1945, but he had already been posted with the rank of lieutenant general.
As a result, there were some embarrassing scenes when cooperating with the Allies in the War of Resistance Against Japan. At that time, the highest rank of advisers sent by the United States to the General Headquarters of the National Army was only major general, and the highest rank sent to the military department was colonel, usually lieutenant colonel and major. In these two levels of organs, there are many officers above major general in the national army. This has led to the phenomenon that US advisers are two or three levels lower but have to command high-level national troops.
Tang Shengming, who was sent by Chiang Kai-shek to lurk in the Wang puppet regime, also encountered similar embarrassing things. Tang Shengming was the younger brother of Tang Shengzhi, and although he had little combat experience, he had a strong background and obtained the rank of major general very early. After entering the Wang puppet regime, he was promoted to lieutenant general. However, one day, the General Adviser of the Japanese Army, Major General Shadow Sakai (Major General), came with several Daisa and Nakasa to inspect. Tang Shengming deliberately found a pair of colonel collar badges (equivalent to the Japanese army's Daisa). Because a lieutenant general had to salute the Japanese major general and several big samurai, it was inevitably too embarrassing.
By the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the ranks of the Nationalist army had been completely chaotic, and there had been a situation in which the number of generals mentioned at the beginning was overwhelming. Moreover, these situations were not too late to rectify, and civil war immediately broke out, and finally the Nationalist army withdrew from Taiwan with this chaotic military rank before it had a chance to rectify.
Specifically, Liao Yaoxiang's promotion to corps commander is still a matter of cavalry colonel, who refers to his official rank. Liao Yaoxiang is a graduate of Huangpu 6th term, and his seniority can only be regarded as a small brother among the generals of the Nationalist Army. However, after graduating, Liao Yaoxiang was selected to study mechanized cavalry at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in France, and in 1936, he returned to China to award the rank of cavalry. Soon after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he then joined the Chinese Expeditionary Force, because of his outstanding achievements, he was promoted rapidly, and was already the commander of the New 6th Army, the ace of the Nationalist Army, before going to the northeast.
At that time, du Yuming, the commander of the Northeast Security Command, was Liao Yaoxiang's old superior, and Du Yuming also excluded his main competitors Sun Liren and Chen Mingren. In the future, when the war situation of the Nationalist army was unfavorable, the army was expanded on a large scale, the command personnel were constantly replaced, and Liao Yaoxiang was also continuously promoted, and soon promoted to the commander of the corps. However, his official rank has never been promoted, which leads to the situation where the colonel served as the commander of the corps, commanding 150,000 troops.
Although there are many generals in the national army, most of these people are only temporary medals, thus creating an illusion. According to relevant historical statistics, from the implementation of the new rank system in April 1935 to the retirement of Taiwan in September 1949, a total of 4996 generals were appointed. Among them, there are 160 generals at all levels, 975 lieutenant generals and 3861 major generals. Considering that the time spans 14 years, the number of troops is huge, and it has experienced 2 major wars, this number of posts is definitely not much.
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