In 1948, when Chiang Kai-shek was deploying the Battle of Huaihai, chiang kai-shek and general Badawi, the head of the US advisory group, had a big quarrel over disagreement, and General Badawi left the table in anger. Old Jiang looked at Badawi's distant back and scolded: This American is too arrogant, and the tone he just said is like a suggestion, it is simply an order! The Americans, I can see through it, actually did some things to cross the river and tear down the bridge. What contradiction does old Chiang have with the Americans? So much so that in the end, the noise broke up! All this also needs to start at the beginning!
Mr. and Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell
Why did Chiang Kai-shek choose to cooperate with the Americans?
In 1935, in order to reorganize the war and to build a new Chinese army, Chiang Kai-shek purchased a large number of German-made weapons, and hired a large number of senior German military generals to serve as military advisers, and rebuilt the new wehrmacht with the equipment and training system of the German army. Because in the view of lao Chiang Kai-shek, the tactical quality and tactical quality of the Chinese army are generally low, the individual quality and armed equipment are far behind other military powers, and the comprehensive quality of the Japanese army alone is stronger than that of the Chinese army. At this time, the Japanese army was deploying troops in the northeast region, eyeing north China and the central plains, and could launch an all-out war of aggression against China at any time.
In order to cope with this uncertain factor, Lao Jiang spared no expense in inviting senior German generals to take charge of the reorganization of the army, and used the German training method and the equipment of the German army to reorganize the Chinese army, and dispatched the 87th and 88th divisions, the most powerful combat strength in the nationalist army, the central teaching and guard division, and other units to accept the equipment of the German army, and to reorganize these units in accordance with the training methods of the German army, and these units were the "German mechanic divisions" that would later be famous on the Songhu battlefield. The symbols of these German mechanics are the Mauser rifle and mauser pistol (also known as the barge gun and the box gun), and the M35 steel helmet. The German mechanic division shined in the later "Battle of Songhu on August 13", which made the Japanese army exclaim that german troops appeared in the Songhu battlefield, but soon these German mechanic divisions suffered heavy losses in the crazy attack of the Japanese army!
German mechanic
When Old Jiang heard the news that the German mechanics had almost completely destroyed the army in the Songhu battlefield, Old Jiang was so angry that he almost fainted, because these German mechanics were the lifeblood of Old Jiang. But Chiang soon realized that now was not the time to be sad, and needed to find another big tree to rely on, and at this time, Germany had just provoked World War II, and it was unlikely that he would continue to aid Chinese weapons. What to do? Old Chiang thought of the Soviet Union, a former ally (during the Whampoa Military Academy, old Chiang and the Soviet Union had a brief honeymoon period of cooperation), and Old Chiang sent a delegation to Moscow to meet with Stalin to discuss military assistance with the attitude of trying it out, but Stalin did not expect stalin to agree to old Chiang's request for military assistance.
We may not know the content of the negotiations at that time, but it is certain that the Soviet side wanted to rely on the strength of the Chinese army to contain the main force of the Japanese army, so that the Japanese army could not go out of the northeast to invade the Soviet Far East. The Soviet side promised to assist Chiang Kai-shek with 20 divisions of Soviet armament. As a result, a large number of Soviet weapons appeared on the anti-Japanese battlefield, the most representative of which was the DP Teggarev roulette light machine gun. Among them, the 200th Division, the first mechanized division of the Chinese army, is a typical representative of Soviet armament. But soon because the Great Patriotic War broke out on the Soviet side, the Soviet side was too busy to take care of itself, and it also interrupted its assistance to China.
Soviet roulette machine gun
Chiang Kai-shek and the honeymoon period of cooperation between the United States
In order to meet the needs of the War of Resistance, Old Chiang urgently needed to find a partner who could provide greater military assistance. At this time, the United States is the world's largest arms export base, and it is impossible to turn a blind eye to the huge Chinese market. Old Chiang entrusted his brother-in-law Song Ziwen to go to the United States to negotiate arms assistance. The US military supplied a large amount of arms to Lao Jiang, which coincided with the outbreak of the Pacific War, and the US Government needed Lao Chiang to contain a large number of Japanese troops in the Chinese war, so it assisted Lao Chiang with a large number of American weapons, formed a Sino-US coalition army in the Yunnan burma region to jointly deal with the Japanese army, and promised Lao Jiang to help him train and equip 20 US mechanic divisions, as well as sending Stilwell, a senior US general, to serve as chief of staff to Lao Jiang, and Stilwell also has a layer of identity as the spokesman for the United States. At this time, the US side can be said to be responsive to chiang kai-shek's needs, and it can be said that it is the honeymoon period of cooperation between Chiang Kai-shek and the US side.
The source of the conflict between Chiang Kai-shek and the United States
U.S. aid to China's weapons
However, the US side always wanted to control Lao Chiang kai-shek and turn him into a puppet, but it was impossible for Old Chiang to listen to the words of the US side, and this was the root cause of the contradictions between Lao Chiang and the US side that broke out later. Old Chiang Kai-shek has repeatedly warned Stilwell not to interfere with his command, I am the commander-in-chief of the Sino-Burmese Theater of the Sino-US coalition army, and you Stilwell is only my chief of staff, you only need to do your job well. Stilwell, on the other hand, believed that Chiang Kai-shek would not command and interfered with the command, and that laymen commanded the insider blindly, and complained to US President Roosevelt that chiang kai-shek was too authoritarian. The two quarreled many times over this, and subconsciously the United States and Stilwell wanted to fully control Lao Jiang, but Lao Jiang was ambitious and assertive, and it was not something you could control if you wanted to.
So old Chiang and Stilwell broke out into irreconcilable contradictions, in fact, Stilwell also represents some ideas of the United States, so it can also be understood that this is a contradiction between old Chiang kai-shek and the United States! These contradictions gradually evolved into a struggle for military power in the Burmese battlefield.
At that time, Du Yuming was leading an expeditionary force in Burma to prepare for a battle with the main Japanese army on the line from Tonggu to Yangon. However, there would be a serious disagreement between Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell in the direction of the war, and Du Yuming did not know who to listen to for a while!
In the eyes of old Chiang Kai-shek, I think that you Stilwell and the United States have no troops in the north of Burma, only a small number of air forces, so why command my ace troops? Stilwell, on the other hand, believed that Chiang's hesitation and intervention in the battlefield had delayed the fighter. Old Jiang and Stilwell quarreled over disagreements on several occasions.
This can give Du Yuming a headache, these two are his bosses, who is listening to? Stilwell is in charge of the U.S.-China coalition in the Burma theater anyway, and he should have listened to Stilwell. But after all, Lao Jiang was the commander of the Nationalist army and the principal of Du Yuming, and Du Yuming had a characteristic of absolute obedience to Lao Jiang's orders.
The most taboo thing on the battlefield was hesitation, and just when Du Yuming did not know who to listen to, the Japanese army began to attack the Chinese army and cut off the back road of the Chinese army. The expeditionary force had to retreat to avoid its sharp edge.
Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell were at odds with each other
In the direction of retreat, chiang once again had serious disagreements with Stilwell—chiang advocated the retreat of the main force of the expeditionary force to China, while Stilwell believed that the expeditionary force should be withdrawn to India for American reorganization. The two did not give in to each other, and the contradictions became more and more noisy, but the Japanese army could not care about you, and detoured back to the back of the expeditionary force to catch the expeditionary force by surprise, and the expeditionary force had no choice but to divide into two roads, one way back to the country through the Savage Mountain, and the other way Sun Liren's new 38th Division and Liao Yaoxiang's new 22nd Division came to Ramga, India, to accept the American army.
The defeat of the Savage Mountain once again aroused the contradiction between the old Chiang Kai-shek and the United States, the United States believed that the old Chiang kai-shek would not fight at all, and then defeated the Nationalist army in the frontal battlefield at home, and the Americans openly questioned the old Chiang was wasting the aid provided by the United States.
The United States renewed its trust in Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek and his wife tour the Chinese Expeditionary Force
However, as the Japanese army approached step by step in the Pacific theater, seeing that the two major fascist camps of Japan and Germany were about to join forces in the Persian Gulf to encircle the Allies, the United States needed Chiang Kai-shek's army to restrict more Japanese troops in the Chinese battlefield and the Burma battlefield, making it unable to march west to meet the German army.
In order to coax Chiang Kai-shek to complete the task of containing the Japanese army, the United States could only increase its assistance to the Chinese army, and promised to help the Nationalist army reorganize 30 reorganized divisions in western Yunnan and send a large number of air forces to assist in the war.
The Allies were preparing to meet in Cairo to study tactics against German and Japanese fascism and the post-war international order. At Roosevelt's strong request, the elder Jiang smoothly attended the meeting. Roosevelt promised to increase military assistance to Chiang Kai-shek at the Cairo conference, which made old Chiang very satisfied, and at Ramga, old Chiang saw that the new First Army was undergoing all-American training, and its combat effectiveness was significantly improved, almost to the naked eye! Old Jiang's joy overflowed into words.
A national army with American equipment
With the support of US aircraft, the New First Army and the New Sixth Army of the Nationalist Army, with the help of all-american armaments and equipment, broke the Japanese army in northern Burma and completely opened the Burma Road from the east and west directions with the West Yunnan Expeditionary Force, laying a certain foundation for the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. It can be said that this is another honeymoon period for old Jiang and the United States to cooperate.
The contradictions between Chiang Kai-shek and the Americans broke out completely
However, the good times did not last long, and in the War of Liberation, the contradictions between chiang kai-shek and the United States broke out completely. The fundamental reason lies in two major contradictions. The first contradiction is that the United States wants to fully control Lao Chiang kai-shek and make him an agent of the United States in China; while Lao Chiang hopes to use US military assistance to help him reunify China. The Americans wanted to control Lao Chiang, but unfortunately they were wrong; the second contradiction was that with the deepening of the War of Liberation, the US side discovered Lao Chiang's incompetence and wanted to abandon Lao Chiang, so it supported Li Zongren and wanted to replace Lao Chiang, this time Lao Chiang and the Americans completely tore their faces, and the US side immediately stopped military assistance to Lao Chiang and instead supported Li Zongren Bai Chongxi's Gui clan, so there was a scene at the beginning of the article in which Old Chiang kai-shek and General Badawi, head of the US military advisory group, confronted each other in the Huaihai Campaign.
Old Chiang hated the two Americans the most
Marshall
Old Chiang kai-shek wrote in his diary an article specifically recalling the Liberation War, in which Old Chiang hated the two Americans to the bone and scolded them the most fiercely. Which two Americans? One of them was Marshall, and the elder Chiang believed that in the early days of the Liberation War, if it were not for Marshall's war of pulling sides, the Nationalist army would have driven the People's Liberation Army to the Soviet Union and unified the northeast. But now it seems that old Jiang lost the northeast to complete the blame, no wonder others are on their heads!
The second American who made chiang kai-shek hate him to the bone was Stuart Layden, the US ambassador to China.
Stuart
In his diary, old Chiang scolded Situ Raiden for seeing profit and forgetting righteousness, and was a capricious villain, seeing that his elite troops had been completely lost in the Battle of Huaihai, he helped the Gui clan to drive himself out of power, and even more scolded the AMERICAN politicians for rebelling and not paying attention to credibility. At this time, old Jiang saw the true face of the Americans even more! When you have use value, you are obedient, when you have no use value, cruelly abandon you, a word has no eternal friends, only eternal interests.
Conclusion
The United States wants to control Lao Chiang kai-shek and use him, they all look down on Lao Chiang, no matter what they say, Old Chiang is a generation of tyrants, not so good to control; in fact, Old Chiang does not really listen to the words of the United States, but just wants to borrow the military strength of the Americans to achieve his goals, the Americans want to let lao Chiang do what they want, that is a fool's dream, the Americans also see through this, and they also know that there have long been many contradictions between them and old Chiang, but they are barely maintaining a relationship for the sake of profit.