After the defeat of the Songhu Nationalist Army in 1937, the Japanese army pursued All the way to Nanjing. At this time, whether Nanjing was defended or not became a problem. Tang Shengzhi, then director of the Executive Department of the Central Military Commission, advocated holding on to Nanjing at the meeting, which coincided with Chiang Kai-shek. Eventually, he became the commander of the Nanjing garrison and was responsible for the defense of Nanjing. After the fiasco in the defense of Nanjing, some people believed that Tang Shengzhi wanted to regain military power and took the initiative to take responsibility. However, according to Tang Shengzhi's own recollection, he was sent by Chiang Kai-shek to the army, and as the director of the executive department, he could not take the lead in disobeying the order, and took over the burden of guarding Nanjing. this
It has been 83 years since the defeat of Nanjing, and it is still controversial, but what is the truth?
The city gate that was blown up by the Japanese army
The process of deciding who to defend the city
The question of whether to guard Nanjing or not, and who to send to guard it, was decided by the meeting of senior staff of the State Government, and the participants probably included Chiang Kai-shek, He Yingqin, minister of military affairs, Xu Yongchang, minister of military orders, Bai Chongxi, deputy chief of the general staff, and Tang Shengzhi, director of the executive department.
According to Liu Fei's recollection, the decision to make Tang Shengzhi commander of the Nanjing garrison probably went through three meetings, which were in mid-November. The first meeting discussed the question of keeping or not keeping,
Liu Fei's proposal was to send a small number of troops, symbolically resisting and then withdrawing
。 He Yingqin, Bai Chongxi, Xu Yongchang, and others all agreed with his views, and Chiang Kai-shek believed that Nanjing should be defended, but how to defend it did not clearly express its position. At the second meeting, Tang Shengzhi believed that Nanjing must be firmly held, and Jiang still did not make a clear statement, only saying that Tang's opinion was very correct, and then studied and studied it. At the third meeting, Tang Shengzhi still advocated defending, and Chiang Kai-shek explicitly agreed with his views.
Then I asked who was in charge of guarding, and no one made a sound at this time. Tang Shengzhi stood up and said that he was willing to take responsibility, and said that he would "resolutely stick to it and coexist with Nanjing" (
Liu Fei, "The Defense of Nanjing in the Early Days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression")
After the Japanese captured Nanjing, the municipal government sign was demolished
Reminiscence materials are generally written decades after the fact, and the specific details or words of that year may not be 100% accurate. However, the contents of the diary of Xu Yongchang, who witnessed it, can be roughly confirmed with Liu Fei's recollection. The diary was recorded at that time, and there were many privacys in it, generally for their own eyes, and they did not expect to be made public in the future, so the authenticity of their contents was much higher than that of historical materials such as memoirs. Xu Yongchang recorded that this decision-making process also went through three meetings:
On November 14, at eight o'clock, He (Ying Qin), Yu (unknown), Tang (Sheng zhi), Bai (Chongxi) and so on all came, and the time was all unrealistic to defend Nanjing, and on the delay, Tang Mengxiao (Tang Shengzhi character Meng Xiao) asked himself to swear to defend the city to the death, and quoted the Japanese broadcast Taiyuan Shoucheng incident to self-discipline, shame Yisheng (Fu Zuoyi) could not die with the city.
On November 15, at eleven o'clock, Mr. Jiang convened a meeting, Yu Arrived First, and He, Tang, Bai, Qian (Qian Dajun), and Liu (Unknown) followed, and decided to try to resist the method of covering the relocation of the capital.
On November 16, a meeting was held at six o'clock to decide on the way to defend the city, and Tang Mengxiao served as the chief for three months or even a year.
(The above is quoted from Xu Yongchang's diary, parentheses are the author's note)
Xu Yongchang's diary also mentioned that it was Tang Shengzhi who asked himself to take responsibility for defending the city. The memories of the above two people also corroborate Bai Chongxi's memories:
Asked at the meeting who would like to assume defensive responsibilities, Tang Shengzhi stood up and spoke, made a generous statement, and volunteered to defend. He criticized the many sacrifices of middle and lower non-commissioned officers since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, but did not see any senior officers who died, and he was willing to take on defensive responsibilities and coexist with the city
。 (Memoirs of Bai Chongxi)
Xu Yongchang
In his memoirs, Tang Shengzhi also did not shy away from his view of advocating the defense of Nanjing, but with regard to the post of commander of the Nanjing garrison, he recalled that at first he did not express his intention to defend himself, but that Chiang Kai-shek talked to him privately and took his army. That morning, Chiang Kai-shek took him to Gui Yongqing's position to inspect the fortifications and said: "There should be a way to this terrain. Tang Shengzhi expressed it euphemistically. In the afternoon, Chiang Kai-shek went to him again and threw out the words "If I stay, if you stay," Tang Shengzhi finally agreed. (Tang Shengzhi, "The Story of garrisoning Nanjing")
So is it possible that Chiang Kai-shek first privately persuaded Tang Shengzhi before he took a stand at the meeting?
It should be known that Lao Jiang is also a diary-keeping demon, and everything big and small must be recorded, but only in his November diary can not find a record of private persuasion of Tang Shengzhi. On November 26 and 27, the "inspection fortifications" were mentioned in the scheduled items for two consecutive days, but for various reasons the trip could not be carried out. It was not until the diary of the 29th that the inspection fortifications were reflected: "This morning I inspected the fortifications around Tianbao City and the foothills of the Purple Mountain. In the afternoon, the Yuhuatai fortifications were inspected. "The Purple Mountain is the position of Gui Yongqing that Tang Shengzhi said.
Chiang Kai-shek asked Tang Shengzhi to see the position after he was appointed commander of the Nanjing garrison, and it can be speculated that it was Tang Shengzhi who deviated from his memory, so there was a contradiction with the memories of many people.
Bai Chongxi
Why did Tang Shengzhi risk his life to defend Nanjing?
Combing through the trajectory of Tang Shengzhi's life, we found a more interesting phenomenon, once he gained power, he was bound to oppose Chiang Kai-shek, but every time he opposed Chiang Kai-shek, he ended in failure. Since 1926, he joined forces with the Gui clan to drive out his old leader Zhao Hengti and became the leader of the Xiang clan.
His career as a soldier has always been spent in such circles as fighting for military power - opposing Chiang Kai-shek - losing military power - fighting for military power
。
In August 1927, Tang Shengzhi led his troops to attack Chiang Kai-shek in the east and failed, and in November of the same year, he lost his military power in the field. In 1928, he defected to Chiang Kai-shek, was sent to collect the old troops that had originally defected to the Gui clan, regained military power, and in November of the same year conspired with Yan Xishan and others to oppose Chiang Kai-shek. Later, a coalition government was formed with Wang Jingwei, this time with 300,000 troops, but the result was still unsuccessful, and the electricity was once again electrified. After that, Tang Shengzhi never had the opportunity to lead the army again.
Tang Shengzhi
Tang Shengzhi's several anti-Chiang Kai-shek campaigns did not involve either the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communists, nor the struggle between the anti-Japanese struggles to save the people, but the struggles of factions within the Kuomintang.
It can be seen that Tang Shengzhi wants to compete with Chiang Kai-shek and even replace him. Bai Chongxi often dealt with Tang Shengzhi and was a classmate of the Baoding Military Academy, he believes in his memoirs
Tang was "very ambitious and had high political desires."
In fact, in the situation at that time, there was no right to speak without military power, and sooner or later it would be marginalized. As a warlord who once dominated one side and had great ambitions, he naturally did not want to be lonely and wanted to fight for military power at all times.
In addition, Tang Shengzhi once believed that the Japanese army would not attack Nanjing, which may be an important reason why he dared to take over the defense of Nanjing. Xu Yongchang's diary on November 24 wrote: "
At the eighth o'clock meeting, Tang Mengxiao decided not to come to Nanjing, and this judgment seemed to be beyond military politics. Wen Meng Xiao learned tantra, quite a few ordinary people do not know, faith.
Tang Shengzhi judged whether the reason why the Japanese army would not attack Nanjing was military politics, and even Xu Yongchang could not understand it thoroughly, and could only judge that it was related to his beliefs.
Stills of the Japanese army
At the meeting of senior staff members, there were very few people who advocated defending the city, and as a result, when Chiang Kai-shek asked who was willing to defend the city, everyone was silent. In this case, Tang Shengzhi could only take the initiative to stand up and practice his own ideas.
epilogue
In fact, there has never been a question of keeping or not keeping in Nanjing, which is the political center of the country, where the mausoleum of the former Premier Sun Yat-sen is located.
Whoever stood in the decision-making position at that time would make the decision to defend the city. The question of Nanjing is actually only a question of who to send to guard and how to keep it.
From a large number of historical materials, it can be seen that Tang Shengzhi's proposition of defending Nanjing coincides with Chiang Kai-shek's, and it cannot be said that Tang Shengzhi misled Chiang Kai-shek to make a wrong decision. And he took the initiative to take over the task of defending the city, and he also took the initiative to stand up under the premise that no one was willing to undertake the task of defending the city. From this point of view, Tang Shengzhi, as a person from an old warlord background, still has a certain amount of responsibility and patriotic enthusiasm. Of course, this may be accompanied by their personal selfish desires, after all, people are not sages, and you can't expect everyone to be selfless.
Stills from "Jinling Thirteen Chao"
In the defense of Nanjing, the strength of the enemy and us was very different, but in the early stage, some momentum was still played, and the bravery of the soldiers was also recognized by the Western media. After the Zhonghua Gate was broken, the Japanese army rushed into the city. In fact, there was no loophole in Tang Shengzhi's retreat order, and the time and direction of each unit's breakthrough were clearly stipulated. After Tang Shengzhi left, the various ministries did not carry out his orders, but rushed to Rujiangmen to escape for their lives.
The reasons for this phenomenon are also complex. You said that Tang Shengzhi fled ahead of schedule, he did receive Chiang Kai-shek's retreat order and arranged a plan for the retreat of the troops before leaving, moreover, in all the wars in history, when there were crises, the commanders withdrew first. To say that he did not escape, his departure did cause the troops to lose control, and eventually led to a fiasco.
Bai Chongxi also had a very pertinent evaluation of this: "Tang's mistake is that he failed to know himself and the other in advance, carefully considered, planned in detail, and hastily assumed the heavy responsibility of defending the city. ”
After taking over this position, it is natural to carry this pot.