Born in December 1900 in Lujiang, Anhui Province, Sun Liren was admitted to Tsinghua University in his early years with the first place in Anhui Province, and after graduation, he went to the United States to study, and after obtaining a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Purdue University, a world-famous institution of higher learning, he was hired as a design engineer by the American Bridge Company.
In 1925, Sun Liren chose to throw pens from Rong, was admitted to the American Virginia School known as the "Southern West Point Military Academy" to study military, and joined the Central Party Affairs School as a training instructor after returning to China.
At that time, the Huangpu department was in the middle of the Kuomintang army, and the warlords of the Baoding Military Academy faction were also in their own faction, and Sun Liren belonged to a minority of the American faction, coupled with a temper of geng and unwilling to attach to people, he was never able to find a suitable place.
Sun Liren
One day in November 1928, Sun Liren heard that the Kuomintang army was going to set up a tax police corps, which was fully equipped with German weapons and was also an adviser sent by Germany to guide the training of the team, which was the only multi-service modern unit in the Kuomintang army at that time.
Sun Liren could not hold back any longer, he felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so he approached Chiang Kai-shek and asked to transfer himself to this new army.
Sun Liren, who was 1 meter 85 meters tall, looked full of energy in military uniform, and Chiang Kai-shek felt that the young man in front of him was quite similar to his youth, so he immediately asked several questions, and he could answer them fluently.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to Sun Liren's request at that time and transferred him to the Taxation Police Corps as a platoon commander of the third company of the engineer battalion. Because of the full use of his training skills, he was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel of the third battalion of the third regiment of the infantry regiment of the army instructor.
At the end of 1941, Sun Liren was ordered to lead the New 38th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force into Burma, and in the Battle of Ren'anQiang, he repelled several times his own Japanese army with less than a thousand troops, and successfully rescued 7,000 British troops besieged by 3,000 Japanese troops, as well as about 500 missionaries and journalists who were captured.
Chinese Expeditionary Force
The Great Victory of Ren'an Qiang commanded by Sun Liren was recognized by the Allies as the only victory of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the first operation into Burma, and was called an "epic battle" by posterity.
The Desperate British army gave a thumbs up to Sun Liren, and even shouted "Long live China", and under the propaganda of the rescued foreign journalists, Sun Liren's name spread all over the world for a time.
Even the Queen of England awarded Sun Liren the Imperial Commander's Medal, becoming the first foreign general to receive the medal.
Since then, Sun Liren has annihilated a total of 33,000 Japanese troops in the two Sino-Burmese and Indian battles, and has been called "the Rommel of the East" by European and American military experts.
In May 1945, Sun Liren received a personal letter from General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, an invitation to visit the battlefields in Europe, and he was the only Nationalist general to receive this honor during World War II.
However, there is one person who is not happy, and he is Chiang Kai-shek.
It turned out that this invitation letter was sent directly to Sun Liren by Eisenhower who crossed Chiang Kai-shek and sent it directly to Sun Liren, who also specifically asked Chiang Kai-shek for instructions on this matter, but could not wait for his approval.
Seeing that the agreed time in the letter was approaching, under the repeated urging of Eisenhower, Sun Liren had to board the plane to Europe.
Chiang Kai-shek learned that Sun Liren had gone alone to visit the European battlefield without permission, and he decided that this was completely stealing his own limelight.
Sun Liren was once a resident of the United States, able to speak fluent English, coupled with his talent for military command, favored by the Americans, including General Stilwell, chief of the general staff of the Allied China Theater of Operations.
However, one of the Americans whom Chiang Kai-shek hated the most was Stilwell, because he never took Chiang Kai-shek in his eyes, and gave Chiang Kai-shek a nickname called "peanut rice", which refers to "people with great ambitions and poor ability" in American slang.
Stilwell
In early 1946, the Soviet Red Army withdrew its troops from northeast China, handed over changchun, Harbin, Qiqihar and other central cities to the Northeast Democratic United Army under the leadership of the Communist Party, and established the Northeast Military Region Headquarters, which won the opportunity for victory in the War of Liberation.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek, who was well aware of the importance of the northeast region, used the strength of the United States to transport a large number of elite troops to the northeast, ready to wait for the opportunity to seize the northeast.
Siping is located in the northeast central plain, is the intersection of the medium and long railway, the Sitao railway and the Simei railway, since ancient times there is a saying that "those who get siping get the northeast, and those who get the northeast get the world".
Wu Zhihui, an elder of the Kuomintang, also once said: "If you don't go to the northeast, you don't know how big China is; if you don't go to the northeast, you don't know the dangers of the northeast." ”
At that time, the railway traffic in the northeast was very developed, accounting for almost half of the total length of the country's railways, and Siping, which ran through the various railway intersections, naturally became a place of contention between the Two Parties of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
However, Chiang Kai-shek sent two ace units of the Kuomintang New First Army and the New Sixth Army, which fought bitterly for a whole month, but failed to take Siping City.
In desperation, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly remembered a person, this person was Sun Liren, who was then the commander of the New First Army, so he immediately called Sun Liren and asked him to return to Nanjing immediately.
As early as January 1946, Sun Liren was sent by Chiang Kai-shek to the United States to attend the meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the United Nations, and it had been four months since this time, and he did not pay any attention to the urgent telegram sent by Chiang Kai-shek in the United States or living in a dashing life.
Chiang Kai-shek was already anxious to burn his ass, but he could not wait for Sun Liren's reply, so he could only send an urgent telegram again, urging him to return to China quickly.
And Sun Liren was really able to hold his breath, but still did not pay attention to Chiang Kai-shek and ignored his telegram.
Chiang Kai-shek
Seeing this scene, Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to endure the anger in his heart and once again sent a third telegram, this time Sun Licai finally left from the United States to return to China.
Under the leadership of Sun Liren, the morale of the new Kuomintang First Army was greatly enhanced, and it took only three days to seize the key areas outside Siping City one after another.
On May 18, Sun Liren personally drove a tank to lead the New First Army into Siping City first, while Liao Yaoxiang and his New Sixth Army were still far outside Siping City at Tazi Mountain.
On May 19, the Nationalist government's JoongAng Daily carried a headline on the front page: "Liao Yaoxiang, commander of the Kuomintang New Sixth Army, has captured Siping. ”
This news made Chiang Kai-shek overjoyed, and just when he was thinking about how to reward this meritorious minister, Sun Liren, who was not willing to accept the robbery of his military merits, immediately called and said: "It was not Liao Yaoxiang who won Siping, but me." ”
Despite sun Liren's defense, Chiang Kai-shek only sent a small message with a small square in the JoongAng Daily the next day. The initiator of this military feat by Zhang Guanli Dai was Du Yuming, who was then the commander of the Northeast Security.
In fact, as early as the time when the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma, Du Yuming and Sun Liren were already incompatible.
When the Chinese Expeditionary Force withdrew from Burma, Sun Liren did not want to sacrifice the lives of his troops in vain, so he disobeyed the orders of his superior Du Yuming and refused to cross the vicious and sinister Savage Mountain, but led the troops to successfully withdraw to India, where Du Yuming and his troops suffered heavy casualties in the Savage Mountains, and dai Anlan, commander of the patriotic general's 100th Division, was sacrificed here.
Sun Liren disobeyed the military order, although he saved his troops, but let Du Yuming lose face, as Chiang Kai-shek's confidant, of course, he also knew that Chiang Kai-shek had long been dissatisfied with Sun Lixin, so he decided to wait for an opportunity to take revenge.
This time, Sun Liren captured Siping, which made Du Yuming feel the threat of the Gong Gao Zhen Lord, and in order to thwart Sun Liren's vigor, Du Yuming lied to Chiang Kai-shek about military merit.
Du Yuming
On foreign battlefields, Sun Liren was far from the shackles of domestic partisan struggles and could freely exert his military command skills. However, on the domestic battlefield, due to too many constraints, there is not much room for him to play.
In the face of the Northeast Democratic United Army, Sun Liren also began to gradually lose the battle, so that there was a saying in the Northeast Democratic United Army: "To eat vegetables, you must eat cabbage hearts, and to fight a war, you must fight a new army." ”
Not only that, at the campaign analysis and combat review meeting, Sun Liren, in order to protect his subordinates, had a fierce quarrel with Du Yuming on the spot, and the relationship between the two of them was completely overturned.
The news reached the ears of Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, and seeing that Sun Liren was not an opponent of the People's Liberation Army today, it was time to solve it well.
In October 1947, the Kuomintang Army Training Command was relocated to Fengshan Town, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and Chiang Kai-shek appointed Sun Liren as the army training commander of the Military Commission of the Kuomintang government, thus beginning another period of his life journey, from a famous general with great military achievements to an instructor far away from the battlefield, and back to his "old business".
One of the very important reasons why Chiang Kai-shek made such arrangements was that he believed that the war was close to defeat, and that if he wanted to continue fighting, he would have to obtain assistance from the United States and strengthen communication and ties with the United States.
After three years of civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communists, Chiang Kai-shek finally fled the mainland in defeat.
On May 26, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on a special plane, and it was Sun Liren who greeted him at the airport.
As soon as Chiang Kai-shek got off the plane, he said to Sun Liren: "Am I safe here?" ”
Sun Liren immediately replied, "With my protection, what is unsafe?" ”
As early as the beginning of 1949, the US National Security Council, after many discussions, determined the China policy of "abandoning Chiang Kai-shek," and Sun Liren was undoubtedly a figure of key consideration on the US side.
Five-star U.S. General MacArthur once sent a special plane to bring Sun Liren to Japan, and openly proposed that he "wanted to support Sun Liren to ascend to the throne."
Liberation
After a little thought, Sun Liren replied to MacArthur: "I am loyal to Chiang Kai-shek and cannot turn my back on him in the face of difficulties, and I must take up the heavy task of defending Taiwan under the command of Chiang Kai-shek." ”
MacArthur secretly admired Sun Liren's loyal military integrity in his heart, but he also silently felt sorry for him, and Sun Liren reported the matter to Chiang Kai-shek, but Chiang Kai-shek, who was suspicious by nature, was still half-convinced.
At the beginning of Chiang Kai-shek's arrival in Taiwan, the people's hearts in Taiwan were floating, and there was an urgent need for someone to stand up and help clean up the mess, so he appointed Sun Liren as the commander-in-chief of the Taiwan Army, one could help Chiang Kai-shek clean up the remnants, and the other could improve relations with the Americans through Sun Liren.
However, Sun Liren did not change his outspoken and maverick temper, almost offending the high-ranking officials and ministers of the Kuomintang, and even questioned the political ability of chiang ching-kuo, the "prince.".
In Chiang Kai-shek's eyes, Sun Liren, who was favored by the Americans, had become the biggest obstacle to Chiang Ching-kuo's smooth succession, and even if Sun Liren's relations with the United States were good, he had to get rid of Sun Liren for the sake of the continuation of the Chiang family's dynasty.
On June 6, 1955, at the Fengshan Military Base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, a military parade was declared over five minutes after the first five minutes, and Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly left the parade site.
As early as the eve of the start of the military parade, Chiang Kai-shek had already learned that some people were going to secretly plot rebellion during the military parade.
Sun Liren's old subordinate Guo Tingliang wanted to follow Zhang Xueliang's example at this military parade. After learning this news, Chiang Kai-shek was secretly happy in his heart, because he finally found the opportunity to clean up Sun Liren.
On June 24, Sun Liren was secretly arrested.
On August 20, Chiang Kai-shek dismissed Sun Liren from his post and placed him under house arrest for a long time on charges of "conniving" in the armed rebellion of his subordinates, "harboring conspiracies," and "conspiring to commit crimes."
In order to cope with public opinion in society and even more to block the mouths of the Americans, the Kuomintang secret service forced Guo Tingliang to admit that he was a communist, thus involving Sun Liren, so that the nature of the case changed from "military advice" to "rebellion".
I have to say that Chiang Kai-shek also took pains to get rid of Sun Liren, and this major case that caused a sensation inside and outside the island ended with a paper order from Chiang Kai-shek, who wrote:
"After a long period of military service, meritorious deeds in the War of Resistance, and after the incident, he admitted his own responsibility and deeply regretted it, and he was specially allowed to renew himself, without further discussion, and the Ministry of National Defense will inspect it at any time to see the after-effects."
Since then, Sun Liren, a famous anti-Japanese general who has made great achievements in burma and fought in the war, has been under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek for a long time and has become Taiwan's "second Zhang Xueliang."
It was not until 33 years later, in 1988, that Sun Liren, who was already 88 years old, finally regained his freedom, and he made a special statement: "Today's return of my innocence is not rehabilitation, I have never "opposed", he "ping" there is." ”