Among the generals of the Nationalist army, there was a lieutenant general named Zhang Kexia, who had the reputation of "General of the Sword". His sword was called the Zhongzheng Sword. When you hear the name of the sword, I think everyone knows who it is related to. Yes, this sword was specially made by Chiang Kai-shek in order to win over his own henchmen, and was used to reward meritorious men.
Chiang Kai-shek's name is Zhongzheng and The character Jieshi, using his own name to name the sword, is enough to see the cult of personality he advocates in his heart.
Not only that, the sword body is also engraved with the four characters of "Successful Chengren", and the handle of the sword is engraved with the words "Principal Jiang Zhongzheng Gift".
Because of its excellent production and the name of Principal Jiang, the status of this sword in the ranks of the national army is very high. Whoever can get such a sword is the glory of the foot.
But what Chiang Kai-shek did not expect was that when he gave the sword to Zhang Kexia, Zhang Kexia had secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party five years ago.
What was even more unexpected by old Chiang Kai-shek was that in the Battle of Huaihai, Zhang Kexia led more than 23,000 officers and soldiers to revolt at a critical moment. This move completely disrupted the original deployment of the Nationalist army, which made Huang Baitao even more frightened. It was also Zhang Kexia's successful uprising that helped the People's Liberation Army achieve its "first victory" on the Huaihai battlefield.
Secretly joined the Communist Party
On October 7, 1900, Zhang Kexia was born in Houlingtun Village, Xianxian County, Hebei Province. With the support of his family, he completed his primary and secondary school classes in Beijing. Subsequently, at the age of sixteen, Zhang Kexia was admitted to the Qinghe Army Officers' Preparatory School, and five years later he was successfully promoted to the Baoding Military Academy. Most of the officers who came out of here made outstanding achievements in the anti-Japanese battlefield afterwards, and Zhang Kexia was no exception.
After graduation, Zhang Kexia took the initiative to apply for assignment to Feng Yuxiang's department. On February 9, 1924, Feng Yuxiang's ex-wife died, and after that, he married Li Dequan, the sister of Zhang Kexia's wife Li Depu. According to the generational calculation, Zhang Kexia and Feng Yuxiang became brothers-in-law. Overnight, to outsiders, Zhang Kexia seems to have the opportunity to soar, but Zhang Kexia is not willing to climb the elite. In order to avoid suspicion, he refused Feng Yuxiang's invitation, broke away from the Beiyang army, and went to Guangzhou alone.
Guangzhou is the birthplace of the Chinese revolution and has a deep revolutionary spirit here. After coming here, Zhang Kexia served as an instructor in the Guangzhou Daowu Hall, and then responded to the domestic situation and participated in the Northern Expedition.
During the Northern Expedition, the two parties cooperated closely, and Zhang Kexia also came into contact with Marxism at this time and was deeply attracted to it.
In early 1927, on his way to Moscow's Sun Yat-sen University for further study, Zhang Kexia proposed that he wanted to join the Communist Party of China. What he did not expect was that only a few months later, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" coup d'état, wantonly arresting and slaughtering communists, and the two parties of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party have since broken up.
The breakdown of the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party naturally affected Zhang Kexia's desire to join the party, and he had to hurry back to China after failing to join the party. After returning to China, there was no place for him to stand in other places, and he could only join Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army.
Although his plans to join the Party were temporarily thwarted, he never gave up joining the Communist Party of China. After returning to China, Zhang Kexia continued to send secret intelligence within the Nationalist army to the Communist Party, repeatedly helping them resolve crises.
The Communists have always kept this kindness in mind.
In July 1929, Zhang Kexia received a secret letter from the Communist Party, and he came to Shanghai according to the instructions on the letter.
After a rigorous review, Premier Zhou received him and approved him to become a special member of the CCP. The word "special" indicates the special identity of Zhang Kexia, in short, he is a secret agent of the Communist Party, and his identity is only known to a small number of high-level camera officials.
In this way, Zhang Kexia began his lurking career and plunged into the heart of the Kuomintang reactionaries like a nail!
Resist the War of Resistance to save the country and aid the Communist Party
In 1930, Zhang Kexia served as the chief of staff of the Thirty-eighth Division in the Kuomintang army. After the outbreak of the September 18 Incident, Zhang Kexia's troops stationed on the north China front and the Japanese army in north China fought one fierce battle after another. After six years of fighting, the Lugou Bridge Incident ensued, and Zhang Kexia was serving as the deputy chief of staff of the 29th Army. Immediately after the outbreak of the incident, Zhang Kexia ordered the troops to prepare for battle and evacuate the masses.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhang Kexia traveled to various parts of North China, condensing and uniting many anti-Japanese forces, and injecting new strength into the War of Resistance Against Japan.
He mainly did three things: first, to resolutely resist Japan; second, to contact the Nationalist government to provide support to the Miscellaneous Northwest Army; and third, to unite with the Communists to resist the Japanese army.
Zhang Kexia struck hard at the Japanese invaders through one battle after another, and became famous among the anti-war troops. By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, Zhang Kexia had been appointed deputy commander of the 33rd Army.
At the same time, he also received chiang kai-shek's attention. Chiang Kai-shek admired Zhang Kexia and tried to pull him into his tent.
In order to win the hearts of the people, Chiang Kai-shek customized a batch of "Zhongzheng swords" from Germany and gave this sword, which symbolizes honor, to Zhang Kexia in recognition of his meritorious service in resisting Japan. Because of this, Zhang Kexia is known as the "Sword General".
Shortly after Japan's surrender, Zhang Kexia's 33rd Army was renamed the Third Appeasement Zone. One day, Zhang Kexia was busy with official business, and suddenly someone outside asked to see him.
The person who came to see him took a letter with Chen Yi's signature written on it. After Zhang Kexia saw it, he immediately learned that this was Mr. Chen who needed his help.
After reading this letter, Zhang Kexia made his attitude clear. He said to the person who came to deliver the letter: Please go back to see Comrade Chen Yi and convey your respect and greetings on my behalf. I asked Comrade Chen Yi to send trustworthy cadres to meet with me, and I have important information to convey.
Soon after, Chen Yi, who had received the message, sent Song Shilun to have a secret meeting with Zhang Kexia.
After the two men met, Zhang Kexia said to Song Shilun: As far as I know, every soldier of our 33rd Group Army and the Sixth Route Army supports peace and is unwilling to fight a civil war, so the People's Liberation Army can rest assured of these two units.
Chen Yi was very excited after learning this news, originally he wanted to divide his troops into three roads, but now with Zhang Kexia's intelligence, he only needed to concentrate on dealing with the enemies along the way.
This piece of information came in time and helped Chen Yi a lot. Under the instruction of the intelligence content, Chen Yi learned of the enemy's weakness and immediately carried out a targeted platoon deployment. The course of the battle was also unusually smooth due to the full preparation in the early stages.
Huaihai Battlefield Uprising
After Chiang Kai-shek launched a full-scale civil war, the Communist army resolutely resisted. Time flew by in the middle and late stages of the Liberation War, and Chen Yi and Su Yu fought the Battle of Huaihai on the land of the Central Plains.
On November 2, 1948, He Jifeng, a red agent of the Communist Party of China, was thinking about the uprising in the front-line command post of the Third Appeasement Zone of the Kuomintang Army. He was always unsure of the timing of the uprising. Just as he was thinking, the phone suddenly rang, and it was Zhang Kexia who called.
On the phone, Zhang Kexia mentioned that Liu Zhensan did not want to revolt and withdrew from the army! There was about to be an uprising, and he suddenly withdrew, what can be done? Don't worry if he'll tell us!
After listening to it, He Jifeng also felt that something was not good, and he said that such a long period of preparation would be a failure. The truth was exactly as they thought, and Liu Zhensan told his superiors about it. After receiving the news, the Nationalists immediately sent a division of troops to try to intercept it
The way out for He Jifeng and Zhang Kexia. Seeing that they were about to be under siege, Zhang Kexia and He Jifeng no longer cared about so much, and simply revolted in advance.
But who would have thought that the leak in the house would rain overnight. Because the uprising was relatively sudden and the internal and external situation was inconsistent, not many people in the People's Liberation Army knew about it. Two PLA scouts, thinking that the enemy was about to attack, exchanged fire on the Third Appeasement Zone. This fight, it is a mess. The two scouts were captured alive, and just as they were shouting that they would never surrender, the Northwest Army of the Third Appeasement Zone asked the two scouts to lead them to the head of the People's Liberation Army.
The scouts were surprised, but in order to have a glimmer of life to return to the PLA troops, they took the Northwest Army to meet Song Shilun. Therefore, under the response of the Song Dynasty, part of the Northwest Army of the Third Appeasement Zone revolted in advance. An uprising would have been a good thing, but an early uprising created some trouble.
At that time, Zhang Kexia and He Jifeng had already discussed countermeasures and were preparing for the uprising, but they did not expect that some of the Northwest Army on the front line had already revolted in advance.
The news caused an uproar in the nationalist ranks, and in order to contain Zhang Kexia, commander Feng Zhi'an held a meeting late at night and drove until eight o'clock the next morning.
Zhang Kexia also understood Feng Zhi'an's thoughts, so he found the opportunity and hurriedly left Xuzhou, rushing to the Jiawang area where the troops were located.
After coming here, Zhang Kexia called Feng Zhi'an to show his attitude. Feng Zhi'an finally determined that he was going to revolt, but it was too late, and there was nothing he could do.
On November 6, 1948, the Battle of Huaihai began. Just two days later, on November 8, Zhang Kexia and He Jifeng led 23,000 officers and soldiers to revolt in the Jiawang and Taierzhuang areas.
At the time of the uprising, the two issued a telegram to the outside world, announcing that they would lead the peace-loving warriors to abandon this dark rule of arbitrary dictatorship and run to the path of light.
This move undoubtedly made a good start for the battle of Huaihai.
Because of the battlefield uprising of the two men, the Xuzhou defense line that was originally carefully arranged by the Kuomintang was suddenly chaotic. The 23,000 people turned their heads upside down, exposing an 80-kilometer opening in the canal defense line in the northeast of the Nationalist army.
The situation on the battlefield was rapidly changing, and the People's Liberation Army quickly ordered three columns to pass through the location of the rebel forces, cutting off the contact between the Kuomintang Army's Huang Baitao Corps and Xuzhou.
Zhang Kexia's uprising made many Kuomintang generals dumbfounded, especially Huang Baitao. No one expected that this Zhang Kexia, who had many contacts in the Kuomintang, would join the Communist Party. Huang Baitao was even more frightened, because behind him was Zhang Kexia's troops, and their sudden uprising immediately put himself in the predicament of being attacked from the stomach and back.
Huang Baitao's corps, which had been cut off from the rear road by the People's Liberation Army, lost contact with Xuzhou. Like a trapped beast in a cage, Huang Baitao's corps fought a final decisive battle with the People's Liberation Army at Nianzhuang. They were embattled and wiped out by the People's Liberation Army in a state of destruction and decay.
Later, the 23,000-strong Nationalist army unit of the uprising was reorganized into the 59th Army and the 57th Army of the People's Liberation Army, and Zhang Kexia served as the commander of the 59th Army.
In the Battle of Huaihai, Zhang Kexia's sudden defection surprised the officers and men of the Nationalist Army. But they all thought that Zhang Kexia's battlefield uprising was a temporary decision. It was not known that this senior general of the Nationalist army had already joined the Chinese Communist Party and had been lurking within the Kuomintang for 19 years.