Speaking of Bai Chongxi, many people are particularly familiar with him, he is the representative of the Gui warlords. Bai Chongxi was born in 1893, a native of Guilin, Guangxi Province, and because Guangxi is referred to as Gui for short, Bai Chongxi is also known as the representative of the Gui warlords.
Bai Chongxi was resourceful, and his loudest title was "Little Zhuge Ge". The reason why Bai Chongxi is called Xiao Zhuge refers to the fact that Bai Chongxi has the wisdom of Zhuge Liang, and Bai Chongxi is not ashamed of his title, his military career is almost unsuccessful, and he is a famous general who is always victorious.
Speaking of Bai Chongxi, we have to mention his partner Li Zongren. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi were classmates and had similar interests, so they became partners in their military careers. In 1925, in the First Yunnan-Guizhou War, Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren worked together to defeat Shen Hongying and Wang Jiexiu, subordinates of the Yunnan warlord Tang Jiyao.
After that, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi unified Guangxi, and it was this battle that made Bai Chongxi famous, because Bai Chongxi's amazing command ability allowed Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi to defeat Shen Hongying and Wang Jiexiu with fewer victories. After this battle, Bai Chongxi's nickname of Xiao Zhuge spread throughout the north and south of the great river.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Bai Chongxi also made important contributions to China's anti-Japanese cause. In 1937, after Japan invaded China in an all-round way, because of the gap in national strength between China and Japan, most people were not optimistic about China, and even Chiang Kai-shek at that time felt that China "will perish in three days", so he had no intention of resisting the Japanese.
At that time, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi were young and vigorous, and they did not want to see the Japanese running amok in China, so they took the initiative to attack and confront the Japanese. In the Battle of Taierzhuang, Bai Chongxi cooperated with Li Zongren to achieve the great victory of Taierzhuang, which made the people of Taierzhuang raise their eyebrows and break the myth of the invincibility of the Japanese army, and the entire battle process was almost entirely commanded by Bai Chongxi, after this battle, Bai Chongxi was called the God of War by the Japanese.
After the great victory of Taierzhuang, Chiang Kai-shek also believed that China had the possibility of resisting Japanese aggression, so he began to mobilize the Nationalist army to resist the Japanese invaders in the frontal battlefield. It can be said that it was precisely because of Bai Chongxi's great victory in Taierzhuang that the Nationalist army had the courage to resist the Japanese invaders, and only then did they have a frontal confrontation with the Japanese invaders.
Bai Chongxi also put forward many military policies throughout the War of Resistance Against Japan, such as "accumulating small victories for big victories, exchanging time for space", which were adopted by Chiang Kai-shek and played a decisive role in the situation of the war of resistance. Moreover, as we said earlier, Bai Chongxi is resourceful and commands rarely loses wars, and because of his resourcefulness, the Japanese are particularly afraid of direct confrontation with Bai Chongxi, and behind his back, they call Bai Chongxi the god of war.
However, it is such a military genius who is called the god of war by the Japanese, but after going to Taiwan with old Chiang, he is not reused by old Chiang. It turned out that Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren had always been representative figures of the Gui warlords, and after they unified Guangxi, they had not dealt with Lao Jiang very well, nor did they obey Lao Jiang's dispatches. Bai Chongxi even did not rescue the main force of the Nationalist army in the Battle of Huaihai, which greatly annoyed Old Jiang and believed that Bai Chongxi intended to oppose him.
After Bai Chongxi followed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan, because the two had been unhappy before, Chiang Kai-shek did not reuse Bai Chongxi, but only gave him some idle posts and no real power. In 1966, Bai Chongxi died of illness in Taiwan, the cause of death was heart disease.
Resources:
Outline of Modern Chinese History, 2010 edition, Bai Chongxi's Oral Autobiography, Battle of Taierzhuang