Du Yuming was one of the few good generals in the Kuomintang, and one of the few who transformed from a senior Kuomintang general into an excellent communist. It's the prodigal son turning back!
Tough General Du Yuming
Born in 1904 in Mizhi, Shaanxi Province, Du Yuming was brilliant and lively since he was a child. When his peers were still playing with mud, Du Yuming loved to dance with guns and sticks, and when he was 12 years old, he entered a private school under the guidance of his cousin. Because of his good education from an early age, Du Yuming knew how dark the era in which he lived was, when the government was corrupt and incompetent, the warlords were divided, and the people were not happy. This series of dark social phenomena made the thoughtful Du Yuming germinate an idea - to serve the country with revolution.
Deeds speak louder than words, Du Yuming accidentally saw the news of the enrollment of the Whampoa Military Academy in a progressive magazine - "New Youth", and after thinking about it, he firmly believed that he could enter the Whampoa Military Academy to study, improve himself, and at the same time, he could also let himself serve the country and improve the social atmosphere. In this way, Du Yuming resolutely applied for the Whampoa Military Academy.
However, the road to applying for the Whampoa Military Academy was not smooth. After Du Yuming arrived at the location of the Whampoa Military Academy, he missed the exam perfectly, and later took the make-up exam under the recommendation of his father's friend Yu Youren's Baoju to enter the Whampoa Military Academy.
Whampoa Military Academy classrooms
During his studies at the Whampoa Military Academy, Du Yuming loved to dance with guns and sticks since he was a child, so he was very devoted and focused on the study of military courses, and his performance in the same period with many students who enrolled in the military academy at the same time can be said to be very outstanding. Because of this, Du Yuming was able to stand out and was assigned to the Whampoa Student Army Teaching Corps as a probationary officer after graduation.
In the spring of 1925, under the orders of the military academy, the campaign against the rebellious Guangzhou warlord Chen Jiongming was launched, and Du Yuming was a platoon leader in the Eastern Crusade Army. In the face of Chen Jiongming's stubborn resistance, Du Yuming once again responded to the call of the military instruction regiment of the military academy and the famous general Of the same period, General Chen Geng, organized a death squad, and the duties of the death squad were: as the vanguard unit, it carried out offensive and climbing operations, directly inserted into the heart of the rebels, and finally coordinated with external comrades to form a pinch between the inside and the outside of the rebels. During the siege of the city, no matter how strong the rebels' firepower was, Du Yuming did not fear but faced the difficulties. Under the perfect combination of brain power and physical strength, Du Yuming took the lead in entering the city, and opened the city gate, allowing the commander of the Eastern Crusade army to drive straight into and defeat Chen Jiongming's rebels, and finally won a great victory. After the battle, Du Yuming was praised by Chiang Kai-shek, then the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, for his bravery in battle, and Chiang Kai-shek paid more attention to Du Yuming.
After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's attention, Du Yuming became even more prosperous. After the victory of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek monopolized power, and Du Yuming was also highly valued, and he jumped from a trainee officer to a major general deputy division commander. However, Du Yuming's ability to go from an unknown probationary officer to a division commander of the Kuomintang must have his superiority and was by no means a waste of time.
Du Yuming and Chiang Kai-shek
In November 1939, by this time the All-Out War of Resistance Against Japan had broken out. The Japanese invaders' Hiroshima Division forcibly landed in Qinzhou, Guangxi, and in the face of a strong Japanese attack, Bai Chongxi, then the commander of the Kuomintang garrison, lost many places due to a misjudgment of strategy, including the capital Nanning. After the fall of Nanning, Chiang Kai-shek realized the seriousness of the problem, because Nanning was a strategic place in the southwest and was praised by the Kuomintang as the "southwest international communication line". Once the Japanese army held firm, it not only cut off the southwest international communication line, but also directly threatened Chongqing.
Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek strictly ordered the troops to recover the lost territory. At this time, Du Yuming became a life-saving straw for Chiang Kai-shek, and the Fifth Army led by him was the elite of the Kuomintang army, and the Fifth Army was equipped with a large number of Soviet-style equipment, in addition to conventional heavy artillery and tanks, as well as motor troops, armored vehicle units, and so on. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek placed high hopes on Du Yuming and appointed him as the main commander of the attack. After Du Yuming received the order to attack, he first launched a fierce artillery attack on the Japanese troops stationed at Kunlun Pass, and after 18 days of fierce fighting, Du Yuming's troops killed more than 4,000 people, including Masao Nakamura, commander of the Japanese 12th Brigade, and severely damaged the Japanese 5th Division, known as the "Steel Army", and won the Kunlun Pass Victory. Du Yuming also became famous for the Battle of Kunlun Pass and became a famous anti-Japanese general of the Nationalist army, and Chiang Kai-shek also attached more importance to Du Yuming and gave him a heavy responsibility.
At the beginning of 1942, because the United States, Britain, France and other anti-fascist countries hoped that China would be able to contain more Japanese troops in the Far East battlefield and achieve its goal of attrition. After deliberation, it was decided that Chiang Kai-shek (then the supreme commander of the Chinese region) would send troops to Burma to fight against Japan. After careful consideration, Chiang Kai-shek decided to let Du Yuming complete this arduous task. After Du Yuming first entered Burma, he led his army to fight against 5 japanese companies with several times more troops than himself. However, even in the face of transnational and strong enemies, Du Yuming was not inferior, and he rarely achieved victory with less victory on the anti-Japanese battlefield.
Kunlun Pass Victory
But the victory was short-lived, and the supreme commander of the Burmese battlefield at that time was the British Stilwell, who, due to his misjudgment of the situation on the Burmese battlefield, led to the defeat of Du Yuming's expeditionary force step by step. Du Yuming had to return to China with the remnants of his troops in the face of the tragic situation of the defeat of the army. After returning to China after many hardships, he confronted Chiang Kai-shek with his own command incompetence, which led to a fiasco. However, Chiang Kai-shek was naturally well aware of the situation on the battlefield, and he knew that the reason for the defeat was not Du Yuming, but after hearing Du Yuming's statement, he felt more and more that Du Yuming was a soldier with a sense of responsibility and backbone, and dared to endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens and take responsibility. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek not only did not punish Du Yuming, but on the contrary, he was more serious and promoted him to commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Fifth Army. Chiang Kai-shek's move du Yuming's position in the Kuomintang army was once again elevated. Du Yuming's appreciation for Chiang Kai-shek was also grateful, so he was more loyal to Chiang Kai-shek.
Expeditionary force
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek turned to civil war for the sake of profit. During the civil war, Du Yuming once again became an important leading figure in Chiang Kai-shek's mind because of his early military achievements, and was successively appointed as the commander-in-chief of the northeast security and the commander-in-chief of the Xuzhou Bandits, and fought against the People's Liberation Army. However, Du Yuming in the Liberation War disappointed Chiang Kai-shek, who was very important to him.
On January 6, 1949, after eliminating the two corps of Huang Baitao and Huang Wei in the Battle of Huaihai, the People's Liberation Army launched a general attack on Du Yuming's group with the strength of 10 columns in the east, north and south. Du Yuming, in accordance with Chiang Kai-shek's orders, led an army of 300,000 to carry out a defensive battle. Although he knew that he should evacuate, Chiang Kai-shek told him that to withdraw was not to dare to resist, so he must hold out. In this way, the 300,000-strong army led by Du Yuming was attacked by the People's Liberation Army and soon vanished. Knowing that his soldiers were defeated, Du Yuming disguised himself as a soldier and tried to escape the fate of searching and being captured, but failed.
Although Du Yuming was a senior general of the enemy army after being captured, because the People's Liberation Army has always given preferential treatment to prisoners, he is naturally no exception. But one thing, Du Yuming is unusual, he is very different from other captured Nationalist generals. That is, Du Yuming was very self-aware, he knew that his sins were deep, coupled with the shame of being captured as a professional soldier, so during the period of captivity, he sought self-liberation many times. But fortunately, every time he was rescued from the hands of the God of Death by the PLA medical personnel. However, Du Yuming's abnormal behavior would obviously be taken seriously by our army, so Su Rong, then a confidential staff officer of the Fourth Column of the East China Field Army, was sent by the organization to understand his situation and enlighten him.
Du Yuming, who was captured
Du Yuming was a person who missed his old feelings very much, and when Su Rong learned that he was a student of the First Phase of Huangpu, he asked him about the deeds of General Chen Geng. Du Yuming is naturally no stranger to Chen Geng, he is not only his classmate, but also participated in the Eastern Crusade Chen Jiongming's death squad. Therefore, for Chen Geng, Du Yuming still has great admiration. In this way, Du Yuming's heart was slowly opened, and later, with the help of the People's Liberation Army, he entered the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center for reform. In the war criminals management center, Du Yuming began to change his view of the past. In 1959, the state pardoned war criminals, and Du Yuming was pardoned by the first batch of amnesties because of his excellent performance in the process of receiving reform and his conscience.
After the amnesty, Du Yuming chose to stay on the mainland because he gradually learned about the Communist Party and the new China, so he wanted to do something for the motherland he loved. After learning of his idea, the central government greatly appreciated it. Soon after, Du Yuming was invited by the people's government to become a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. After Du Yuming was invited, his heart could not be calm for a long time, and he never imagined that the leaders of New China would have such a broad mind. Therefore, he also strengthened the idea of serving the people. Because of his outstanding work, Du Yuming successively served as a deputy to the Fifth National People's Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and the deputy head of the military group of the Literature and History Materials Research Committee.
The prodigal son turned back
Although Du Yuming once stood against the party and the people, and although he was once deeply valued by Chiang Kai-shek, as the saying goes, "the prodigal son will not change his head," he eventually not only repented and rehabilitated, but also served the country and the people. Therefore, I think that Du Yuming is still a Chinese with a conscience, and of course he is also a good general and an excellent communist!