He was a tough general who was slowly promoted from a creep to a local warlord. During the Central Plains War, it had the largest territory in its hands and the largest number of troops, and became the cover of the American "Time Magazine". But surprisingly, less than 2 months after the start of the war, he lost a mess and never turned over again. This warlord was Feng Yuxiang.
Feng Yuxiang, born on November 6, 1882, character Huanzhang, formerly known as Jishan, was originally from Chao County, Anhui Province (now Chaohu City, Anhui), born in Qing County (now part of Cangzhou City, Hebei), a warlord in the northwest, and a general of the first class in the army. It is known as "General Christ", "General of Defection", and "General of Cloth".
Feng Yuxiang's father, Feng Youmao, was a low-ranking officer in the Qing army, who was dismissed in his prime due to his illness on the battlefield. In order to support his family, 15-year-old Feng Yuxiang overcame his father's lack and became a Qing soldier.
With the help of his uncle Lu Jianzhang (nephew and son-in-law), Feng Yuxiang, an adult, was promoted to the third battalion of the 80th standard of the 20th town (division) of the army (battalion commander). Later, he participated in the Luanzhou Uprising and served as the chief of staff of the Revolutionary Army.
In 1913, Feng Yuxiang was appointed commander of the Beiyang Army. The following year, he led his troops to Henan and Shaanxi to participate in the suppression of the Bailang rebel army, and was promoted to the commander of the 16th Mixed Brigade.
In 1915, when he was ordered to lead his troops to fight against the Nationalist Army Cai Yi, he changed his thinking and gradually became a real revolutionary.
In 1922, Feng Yuxiang was awarded the rank of general of the army (this rank of general and the rank of general of the army in 1935 are completely different concepts), and served as the chairman of Henan Province and the inspector of the northwest border defense, entering the ranks of local officials. He was appointed to establish a revolutionary army in Wuyuan, responded to the Northern Expedition, pinned down a large number of troops in the north of the Beiyang Army, and made great contributions to the victory of the Northern Expedition.
In May 1930, because of the irreconcilable contradictions in the formation and dismantling of the army, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Tang Shengzhi, Li Zongren and other local forces united to challenge Chiang, which was the "Central Plains War" in history. The two sides participated in the battle with more than one million troops (more than 800,000 miscellaneous troops and more than 600,000 Chiang Kai-shek's central army) and fought in the Central Plains for half a year, which ended in Chiang Kai-shek's victory.
Before the Start of the Central Plains War, Feng Yuxiang's territory was the largest (Henan, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shandong), and the largest number of troops (320,000), for which he was also named a cover figure by Time Magazine. But when he fought against Chiang, he lost in less than two months.
It turned out that although Feng Yuxiang had a large territory and a large army, he was a barren land in the northwest, and he was so poor that he clanged. Moreover, Feng Yuxiang was born from the old army, the military law was strict, and the military division commanders under his hands had to bow down when they met, which was quite feudal and patriarchal, which made some high-level officers of the army very disgusted. After the outbreak of the Jiang Feng War, Jiang took aim at the weaknesses of the Northwest Army, drew a salary from the bottom of the cauldron, and directly sent people to the Northwest Army waving check books and letters of appointment to plot a rebellion. The poor and frightened generals of the Northwest Army, such as Han Fuqu, Shi Yousan, Sun Dianying, Pang Bingxun, and others, turned against each other in front of the sugar-coated shells, and the three pavilions of the Northwest Army went to two pavilions, and they failed before they really began a fierce battle.
This is also the fundamental reason why feng Yuxiang lost the most in the Central Plains War.
Other warlords in the Central Plains War, such as Yan Xishan and Li Zongren, lost but still retained their own army and territory, while General Feng da da lost everything, became a wanted criminal of the Nationalist government, fled to the Soviet Union, and the hundreds of thousands of troops loyal to him were reorganized by Zhang Xueliang, that is, the 29th Route Army (commander Song Zheyuan), a famous anti-Japanese heroic unit.
In 1935, Feng Yuxiang served as vice chairman of the Military Commission of the Nationalist government and was awarded the rank of general of the first class in the army. But everyone knows that his "vice chairman" is a decoration.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, although General Feng Yuxiang did not personally lead his troops to kill the enemy, he still made great contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japan under the circumstances of his ability, so after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was awarded the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun No. 159. The old departments of the Northwest Army, such as Song Zheyuan, Tong Linge, Zhao Dengyu, Zhang Zizhong, Lu Zhonglin, Feng Anbang, Pang Bingxun and others, all made great contributions to the country in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In 1946, General Feng Yuxiang went to the United States to investigate the construction of water conservancy facilities and prepared to contribute to the development of the country's infrastructure. On July 31, 1948, Feng Yuxiang returned from the United States by the "Victory" ship with the help of Pan Youxin, the Soviet ambassador to the United States. At noon on September 1, when the Victory arrived at the port of Odessa in the Soviet Union, Feng Yuxiang was unfortunately killed at the age of 66. The public cause of death was a fire on board.