Speaking of the title of "Flying General", perhaps most people think of Li Guang of the Han Dynasty, whose swift and windy attack made the Xiongnu people fearful, so he had this reputation.
During the Republic of China period, Sun Yuanliang, a senior general in the Nationalist Army, was called "Flying General", but the "flying" here became a pejorative meaning, referring to the speed of escape too fast.
Speaking of his resume, he has escaped from the battlefield many times, and Chiang Kai-shek has also been angry about it, but Sun Yuanliang can still be promoted afterwards. After the defeat of the Kuomintang in Taiwan, his life was relatively depressed, but he had a very famous son, and he lived a long life, living to the age of 103.
Sun Yuanliang was born in 1904, his original hometown is Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and Chiang Kai-shek is a fellow zhejiang countryman, which is quite important.
His father, Sun Tingrong, was a Zhixian in the late Qing Dynasty, and he had Sun Yuanliang at the age of 67, so he was particularly fond of this child who was acquired in his later years, and was particularly strict in reading.
In the early years, Sun Yuanliang had excellent academic performance, and was successively admitted to the Nanjing Higher Normal School and the Affiliated Middle School of National Southeast University, when the country was in trouble with internal and external troubles, he was influenced by progressive ideas and decided to throw himself into the pen and join the Rong, and in 1924 he was admitted to the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy, and became classmates with Chen Geng, Du Yuming, Xu Xiangqian and others.
It is worth mentioning that the recruitment of the first phase of Huangpu is particularly strict, and every student must be referred, Sun Yuanliang's introducer is Li Dazhao, and his entrance examiner in Shanghai is Mao Zedong!
At that time, new students had to fill out a survey registration form when they entered the school, and Sun Yuanliang wrote on the reason for entering the school: First, he did not solve economic problems, and second, he did not want to be promoted to a higher rank and get rich, and he only believed in the Three People's Principles, and did not use force to promote it indiscriminately.
It can be seen that at the beginning, he still had a sincere heart.
Because Sun Yuanliang looks like a talented person, has a high level of education, and is a fellow zhejiang countryman, Chiang Kai-shek attaches great importance to him. During the Northern Expedition, Sun Yuanliang was already the commander of the First Regiment of the First Division of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army.
The commander of the First Army was Chiang Kai-shek, and Sun Yuanliang's position could be described as a concubine of the concubines. However, the ensuing battle sun Yuanliang's performance was really surprising.
After the Northern Expeditionary Army invaded Nanchang, Sun Yuanliang led the first regiment to be ordered to garrison the Niuxing Station, but when he arrived, he was very lax about defense, giving Sun Chuanfang the opportunity to sneak attack.
When the defensive line of the first regiment was attacked by Sun Chuanfang's troops, Sun Yuanliang did not think about how to reorganize the team to repel the enemy, but instead took the lead and fled. As a result, his subordinates lost their main backbone, which eventually led to a fiasco and the gateway to Nanchang was wide opened.
When Chiang Kai-shek heard of this, he was furious and threatened to bring Sun Yuanliang to justice, but under the intercession of Xue Yue, Liu Zhi, and others, old Chiang still let Sun Yuanliang have a way to live and sent Sun Yuanliang to the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School for further study.
Facts proved that as long as loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek was maintained, the old Chiang Kai-shek would not care too much about other aspects, and Sun Yuanliang continued to serve in the First Division after returning to China, and soon became a brigade commander. In 1932, during the Songhu War of Resistance, Sun Yuanliang still tried his best, and he led his troops to repel the Japanese army at Miaoxing Town, because of this merit, he was promoted to the commander of the 88th Division after the war.
At that time, the 88th Division was one of the most elite German mechanic divisions in the Nationalist Army, and Sun Yuanliang himself was promoted to lieutenant general in 1936.
However, after the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, he returned to the true color of "Flying General".
In 1937, the Battle of Songhu broke out, Sun Yuanliang led the 88th Division to garrison Zhabei, during which some patriotic young women came to comfort the frontline soldiers, and as a result, Sun Yuanliang saw that one of the women was beautiful and moved his mind.
According to Ge Tian, then director of the Ordnance Department of the 88th Division and director of the Nanjing Communications Department, he recalled:
The war was already so urgent, the girl was still kind enough to fight for the war, but the result was sun Yuanliang like this, hey. Later, when the Nationalist army was defeated by the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the 88th Division to continue to fight guerrillas in Shanghai and win international sympathy.
However, Sun Yuanliang slipped away at the first time, leaving only a battalion to guard the Sihang warehouse, and he himself led people to Nanjing. Therefore, the bravery of the eight hundred soldiers had little to do with him.
After arriving in Nanjing, before there was time to rest, the 88th Division threw itself into the defensive battle, and sun Yuanliang escaped twice.
The first time was after the loss of the outer positions, Sun Yuanliang and his direct subordinate troops prepared to cross the river to retreat, but at The Gate of Rujiang were blocked by Song Xilian, the commander of the 36th Division and a classmate of the Huangpu Phase I, who asked the supervision team to force them to return and continue the battle with machine guns.
Sun Yuanliang went back to fight for a day and then ran away again, and in order not to attract attention, he escaped alone in disguise. As a result, the remaining troops of the 88th Division lost control in an instant, increasing the speed of defeat.
As for how Sun Yuanliang escaped from Nanjing, there are two theories, one is what Wu Qiujian, then commander of the 523rd Regiment of the 88th Division, said:
Another is found in the "Rabe Diary": for Sun Yuanliang, commander of the Kuomintang 72nd Army and commander of the 88th Division, Rabe is even more concerned about the smallest. Learning that Sun was hiding in a refugee camp, Rabe personally took him to live in the top room of the Jinling Women's Liberal Arts College.
Chiang Kai-shek was extremely angry about this, but the disposition was still "lifted up and gently put down", and Sun Yuanliang was only acquitted after 42 days of detention.
Later Sun Yuanliang was still in a smooth situation, and during the Battle of Huaihai in the Liberation War, he became the commander of the 16th Corps of the Nationalist Army. When Huang Wei's regiment was about to be destroyed, Du Yuming saw the situation and ordered Qiu Qingquan, Li Mi, and Sun Yuanliang to break through in three directions.
After receiving the order, Sun Yuanliang gave full play to the true color of the "Flying General", he knew that his superiors could change the order at any time, so in order not to delay his escape, he cut off all contact with Du Yuming, and even if he was accountable in the future, he could say that he did not know.
Not long after, Chiang Kai-shek did force Du Yuming to continue to rescue, and the other two corps followed the order, but Sun Yuanliang ran with the 16 corps, but it was useless to run, and most of the 16 corps was still annihilated by the Platon Army. Sun Yuanliang himself was very powerful, disguised as a lieutenant lieutenant and escaped alone.
After the collapse of Kuomintang rule on the mainland, Sun Yuanliang followed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan. Later, Chiang Kai-shek intended not to use the elderly, and Sun Yuanliang had a festival with Chen Cheng, so he very wisely chose to retire from the army to do business, lived in Japan in 1956, and returned to Taiwan in 1975.
Of course, this is not to say that there is no shining point in his life, except for the first Songhu War of Resistance, in 1944, the Japanese Kou launched the "No. 1 Operation" plan, which was once only 700 kilometers away from Chongqing. Sun Yuanliang led his troops to quickly reinforce and successfully repelled the Japanese Kou. As a result, he was also awarded the "Blue Sky and White Sun" medal.
In 1985, When Japanese militarism denied the fact that the Japanese had committed many crimes in China after 1931, sun Yuanliang, an 81-year-old witness to the Nanjing Massacre, published a high-profile protest letter in Kaohsiung denouncing militarist lies, which was his last public appearance.
There are shining points and dark spots, which is Sun Yuanliang's life.
In 2007, Sun Yuanliang died of illness at the age of 103, he was the last to die in the first phase of Huangpu's life, which can also be regarded as a farewell to the times.
Sun Yuanliang's life was controversial, but his fifth son, Qin Han, was very prominent.
Qin Han, formerly known as Sun Xiangzhong, is a famous actor in Taiwan, who has won numerous awards, and was once known as "Two Qin and Two Forests" together with Qin Xianglin, Lin Fengjiao and Lin Qingxia, and the fire spread across the strait in that era. He also had a very legendary relationship with Lin Qingxia. During the filming of "Eight Hundred", the director also interviewed him in particular.