In the War of Liberation, Chiang Kai-shek, with a huge advantage, was utterly defeated in just over three years. In the War of Resistance Against Japan, although the Nationalist army was often defeated, it persisted for eight years. Why did Chiang Kai-shek lose so quickly in the War of Liberation? Famous artists from all walks of life gave many answers. I would like to talk about this issue only from a military point of view.
One of the reasons for Chiang Kai-shek's defeat was a mistake in military strategy, confusion and incompetence in command operations, and a lack of first-class military staff officers and generals under his command. In the command center and front line of the Nationalist army, it was full of mediocre talents such as Gu Zhutong, Liu Zhi, and Hu Zongnan, and how to respond to Qin and Chen Cheng did not perform well. Is it that the nationalist army does not have excellent generals? In fact, there are many famous generals in the Nationalist army, many of whom have served under Chiang Kai-shek, but because they are not their own concubines, Chiang Kai-shek lacks trust in them. Chiang Kai-shek did not have the mindset, charisma, and political foresight that a leader should have, could not know people and do good job, and could not attract outstanding generals for his own use. Let's see which famous generals of the Nationalist army Chiang Kai-shek have missed.
Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi
Li and Bai can be said to be the most prestigious generals of the Nationalist Army, and they have performed well in many battles.
In the war to unify Guangxi, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu defeated shen hongying and Lu Rongting, two major warlords. Later, the Yunnan warlord Tang Jiyao sent troops to attack Guangxi. The Dian army was strong in strength and deep in foundation, while Li, Bai, and others had an unstable foothold in Guangxi, and all sides were not optimistic about them. However, the Gui army eventually defeated the invading Dian army and unified Guangxi.
During the Northern Expedition, the Gui Army (Seventh Army) performed well and was known as the "Steel Army". In the Battlefield of the Two Lakes, the Gui Army fought jointly with the Fourth Army and the Eighth Army, defeating Wu Peifu's army. After that, the Gui army entered Jiangxi to fight, and Chiang Kai-shek's First Army suffered consecutive defeats in Jiangxi, relying on the Gui army to win three battles and three victories to stabilize the situation. After the reinforcements of the Fourth Army arrived, the various units together defeated Sun Chuanfang's main force.
In August 1927, Chiang Kai-shek personally led the army to attack Xuzhou, and the whole army was once again defeated, retreating more than 700 miles, and Chiang Kai-shek went down. Sun Chuanfang led an army to counterattack Nanjing, and at a critical juncture, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and He Yingqin jointly commanded the army to fight and won the Battle of Longtan.
Bai Chongxi
In October 1927, Li Zongren and others led an army to attack Tang Shengzhi and defeated him.
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Zongren commanded the troops and won the Battle of Taierzhuang.
Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi belonged to the top generals of the Nationalist Army, but Chiang Kai-shek did not have the heart and charm to make them use them for themselves, but made them his political enemies. How did Chiang Kai-shek lose the support of these two men?
This may date back to the time of the Northern Expedition. During the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek served as commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army. However, in the early days of the Northern Expedition, the First Army of his concubines was arranged as a reserve, and it was the Fourth Army, the Seventh Army, and the Eighth Army that fought in the two lakes. These three units achieved brilliant results, continuously attacked the city and were invincible. Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek took his concubine's First Army to the battlefield.
Before Chiang Kai-shek's arrival, the Fourth Army, the Seventh Army, and the Eighth Army were coordinated, the offensive was smooth, and the losses were very small. However, after Chiang Kai-shek, the commander-in-chief, came, there were many problems in the whole army. First, Chiang Kai-shek fought for power with Tang Shengzhi, the commander-in-chief of the former enemy of the Northern Expeditionary Army and commander of the Eighth Army. Later, under the condition of insufficient preparation, Jiang rushed to capture the city of Wuchang, resulting in serious casualties among the various armies.
After that, Chiang Kai-shek left Hubei in a daze and wanted to go to the Jiangxi battlefield to save face. Under the city of Nanchang, Chiang Kai-shek did not listen to Bai Chongxi's persuasion and insisted on besieging the city and attacking hard, which once again led to a major defeat of the whole army. Instead, the Seventh Army won successive victories in the Jiangxi battlefield.
In July 1927, the Kuomintang was divided and turmoil was raging. The Beiyang Army took the opportunity to counterattack and captured Xuzhou, and the Northern Expeditionary Army began to retreat. Li Zongren vigorously advocated the retreat of the whole army to the south, firmly holding the Huai River and waiting for the peace between Ning and Han before attacking. However, Chiang Kai-shek personally led his troops to counterattack Xuzhou in spite of various unfavorable factors, and as a result, the Northern Expeditionary Army was defeated, and within 13 days it collapsed more than 700 miles, and Sun Chuanfang's army fought all the way to the Yangtze River and approached Nanjing.
Chiang Kai-shek's incompetence and stubbornness in military command were all seen by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi as comrades-in-arms.
Li Zongren
In fact, as a leader, it is normal for you to fight at a level that is not as good as your subordinates. For example, Liu Bang's ability to lead troops is far inferior to Han Xin's, and Liu Bei's is not as good as Guan Yu. As long as the leader is broad-minded, knows people well, and has clear rewards and punishments, he can still get the support of his subordinates. How can a person like Chiang Kai-shek, who is anxious to make meritorious contributions to safeguarding his own prestige, who is stubborn in his own opinions, and who cannot listen to his opinions, convince his outstanding subordinates?
Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai
Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai were famous generals of the Fourth Army. They participated in the Northern Expedition and later defected to Chiang Kai-shek. They helped Chiang Kai-shek defeat the combined forces of Gui and Zhang Fakui, and also participated in the Battle of the Central Plains, helping Chiang to capture Jinan from Yan Xishan's army.
Their most famous achievement was that in the 1932 128 Incident, they led the 19th Route Army to heroically resist the Japanese invasion in Shanghai. The combined strength of the Nineteenth Route Army and Zhang Zhizhong's Eighth Army was only more than 40,000 people, but the attacking Japanese army had 70,000 or 80,000 troops, and there were also naval and air forces to help. However, they heroically resisted the Japanese army for 33 days, won many victories, killed and wounded more than 10,000 Japanese troops, and suffered tens of thousands of casualties. Comparing the performance of the Chinese army against the Japanese army in the later War of Resistance Against Japan, we know how rare the results of the 19th Route Army were.
Jiang Guangnai Cai Tingkai
The two generals originally supported Chiang Kai-shek, but because they insisted on resisting Japan and disobeyed Chiang Kai-shek's orders, they were hated by Chiang Kai-shek. Later, the 19th Route Army was sent to Fujian, and Chiang Kai-shek attempted to eliminate this army by the hand of the Red Army. Under the persecution of Chiang Kai-shek, the 19th Route Army embarked on the road of opposing Chiang Kai-shek and resisting Japan. In the end, under the siege of Chiang Kai-shek's army and the rebellion of the secret agents of the military command, this army collapsed.
In addition to the above four famous generals, there are many generals that Chiang Kai-shek missed. Listed below.
Hero
checkmate. Yang Jie was a famous military figure during the Republic of China period, served as the chief of general staff of Chiang Kai-shek, participated in the Chiang-Tang War and the Central Plains War, and was once highly valued by Chiang Kai-shek. He is an expert on national defense issues and is the author of "New Theory on National Defense" and "Military and National Defense". In the later period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Yang Jie joined the anti-Chiang camp because of his opposition to Chiang Kai-shek's passive anti-war policy. On September 19, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek sent agents to assassinate him.
Zhang Fakui, Huang Qixiang
。 They were all famous generals of the Fourth Army and made many contributions in the Northern Expedition. However, because they were not Jiang's concubines, they were not trusted, and they all embarked on the anti-Jiang road.
Zhang Fakui
Chiang Kai-shek did not have the mind and charm of an outstanding leader to subdue the generals of his side. He really trusted and valued the Huangpu generals.
Outstanding leaders from ancient times to the present day have not only used their own concubines, but also widely reused talents. For example, Liu Bang reused not only Fengpei's fellow villagers, but also Han Xin, Peng Yue and others. Li Yuan was able to reuse Li Jing, a former opponent. Huang Zhong and Wei Yan defected to Liu Bei very late, but they were still reused. If you can only use the concubine lineage, but not the non-concubine lineage, it is impossible to achieve great achievements.