In 1936, China was at a critical juncture of internal and external troubles, with the constant harassment and provocation of the Japanese army on the outside, and the Kuomintang represented by Chiang Kai-shek competing for power with the Communist Party led by Chairman Mao, but the Communist Party led by Chairman Mao won the support and love of the broad masses, which made Chiang Kai-shek very dissatisfied, so he provoked wars on many occasions.
On December 12 of the same year, the incursion of the Japanese army became more and more serious, and Chairman Mao knew that it was necessary to unify the internal front before they could jointly resist foreign enemies, so he proposed a "truce" to Chiang Kai-shek and sent Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to "advise" Chiang Kai-shek in Lintong.
On December 25, Chiang Kai-shek promised to stop the civil war and jointly resist Japan, which was known at home and abroad as the Xi'an Incident, also known as the Double Twelve Incident.
Decapitated
After the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang felt that he was somewhat ashamed of Chiang Kai-shek, and he insisted on personally escorting Chiang Kai-shek and his wife back to Nanjing, despite the opposition of Premier Zhou and others.
Zhang Xueliang's sudden house arrest led to the sudden arrest of nearly 200,000 Northeastern troops, Zhang Xueliang, who took over the Northeast Army, was only 27 years old, and some veteran soldiers in the Northeast Army who followed his father Zhang Zuolin believed that Zhang Xueliang was too young to be far inferior to his late father Zhang Zuolin in military and diplomatic terms, and they were very unconvinced by the newly appointed young marshal.
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek did not kill Zhang Xueliang because he had 200,000 northeast troops behind his back, and his strength could not be underestimated. However, when Zhang Xueliang took over the Northeast Army, the splitting of the army had already appeared, so that after Zhang Xueliang was captured, the Northeast Army did not take the risk to rescue Zhang Xueliang.
The leaderless Northeast Army also quarreled over whether to rescue the young marshal, and at this time, the Northeast Army took Zhang Xueliang's capture as the fuse and split into two factions.
Internal carnage
The Shaozhuang faction, led by Sun Mingjiu, wanted to go to rescue Zhang Xueliang, but the veteran fighters led by Wang Yizhe believed that the overall situation should be taken into account, and reducing the casualties of the army was the best strategy, and the negotiations between the two sides ended in failure.
Unexpectedly, on February 2, 1937, Ying Detian, Miao Jianqiu, Sun Ming, and others of the Shaozhuang faction killed Wang Yizhe, Xu Fang, Song Xueli, Jiang Bin, and others who held important positions in the Northeast Army.
After the tragedy, Wang Yizhe's close friend Liu Duoquan could not swallow this breath and decided to avenge his brother, so Liu Duoquan led his 105th Division to hunt down the Shaozhuang generals in Xi'an, which directly led to the situation in which the Northeast Army killed each other more and more uncontrollably.
In order to quell this internal dispute, Premier Zhou personally stepped forward to assume the role of "peacemaker", and although the war situation was alleviated, the fundamental problem of the division of the northeast has not yet been resolved.
Later, in July 1937, Chiang Kai-shek proposed the "Eastward Transfer of the Northeast Army", which was quickly endorsed by the generals of the Northeast Army, but this was actually an illusion made by Chiang Kai-shek in order to split the strength of the Northeast Army. Unsurprisingly, after accepting this plan, the Northeast Army was soon dispatched to southern Henan, northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu and other regions.
The Northeast Army was thus dispersed in various regions, and only six armies remained in the reorganized Northeast Army. After the Xi'an Incident, the 106th Division, the 10th Cavalry Division, the 6th Artillery Brigade and the 8th Brigade of the Northeast Army all chose to defect to Chiang Kai-shek.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Northeast Army had been torn apart, and some of them had taken a new path through the uprising. It can be seen from this that the strength of the Northeast Army, which was not divided at the beginning, was so huge, and it is no wonder that Chiang Kai-shek was so jealous of it.
The former 25 men of the Northeast Army were awarded the rank of general
After the division of the Northeast Army, the outcome of the various armies was very different, and the 49th Army was sent to the vicinity of Jinghai in Cangxian County at the end of August 1937 to resist the Japanese southern invasion, and the two sides exchanged fire fiercely, which ended with the 49th Army retreating south.
In October of the same year, the 49th Army went to the Songhu Battlefield, which caused heavy casualties to the 49th Army, and because Chiang Kai-shek ignored its post-war adjustments, Liu Duoquan had no choice but to lead the army to Wuhan to replenish military supplies. Chiang Kai-shek, who learned of this, took this opportunity to replace the senior generals of the 49th Army, and the entire 49th Army was left with only empty shells.
Although Chiang Kai-shek's plan to second and disperse the strength of the Northeast Army on the grounds of actually being implemented was implemented, the 200,000 Northeast Army still made a considerable contribution to the War of Resistance Against Japan.
At the first ceremony after the founding of New China Chinese the People's Liberation Army, there were 25 special people, these 25 people were all generals from the former Northeast Army, after the Northeast Army was split, they went to different battlefields and made great contributions to the overthrow of the Japanese enemy.
The 25 were General Lü Zhengcao, Lieutenant General Wan Yi, Major General Xie Fang, Chen Ruiting, Jia Tao, Sha Ke, Feng Yongshun, Zhao Donghuan, Yu Quanshen, Zhao Chengjin, Gao Cunxin, Li Jue, Xu Ming, Song Xuefei, Jin Zhenzhong, Zhang Zhiyi, Yang Youshan, Zhang Jialuo, Luo Wen, Ji Tingxie, Guan Songtao, Guo Weicheng, Wang Zhenqian, Jiang Chao, and Zhang Xuesi.
Among them, the most outstanding contribution was He Zhuguo, but he was blinded by the enemy in the war, and he was forced to retire, serving as a standing committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and dying in Beijing in 1985.
brief summary:
The division of the Northeast Army is regrettable, so it can be seen that even a strong team needs to have a leader who plans ahead, and if there is no leader's leadership, it will eventually become a scattered sand.
For the leader, leading the team to victory is secondary, the first thing is to help the team establish a sense of unity, so that the team becomes a real whole, the success of the leader will also directly affect the subsequent survival and development of the entire team.
In general, in a team, both leadership and unity are indispensable, and unity exists because of the leader and is destroyed by the leader. A ship can carry a boat, and it can also overturn a boat. To truly understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team, to make full use of the strengths and avoid the weaknesses, and to understand the real thoughts of the subordinates, this is the condition that a good leader should have.