In game terminology, tank means meat shield, which refers to the character responsible for taking damage and attracting enemies, usually with high health and strong defense, such as Xiang Yu and Arthur in the Glory of Kings.
If the Northern Expedition is regarded as a game of battle, then Feng Yuxiang's Second Army (Nationalist Army) is the strongest "tank" in it.
It attracted the most hatred and the greatest harm from the Beiyang warlords, Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu both suffered its losses, hated it so much that it hated it with itchy teeth, its health value was very high, how to besiege it could not be killed, its defensive power and field combat ability were strong, and it turned to most of China, from Suiyuan to Shaanxi and Gansu, to Henan and Shandong, and finally into Hebei to approach Beijing, the stronger it became.
At the beginning of the Northern Expedition, Feng Yuxiang's nationalist army resisted the siege of Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, Zhang Zongchang, Li Jinglin, Yan Xishan and others at nankou, attracting and containing almost all the Beiyang troops in the north with 160,000 troops, and the total strength of these Beiyang troops exceeded 500,000.
After the victory of the Northern Expedition in 1928, the three giants went to Nankou to mourn the sacrifice of the Nationalist soldiers
In the south, the Northern Expeditionary Army commanded by Chiang Kai-shek rushed forward in Hunan, and by the time Wu Peifu led the main force back to the two lakes battlefield, the Northern Expeditionary Army had advanced to Hubei.
Wuyuan Oath Division, Feng Yuxiang made a comeback, turned thousands of miles, swept through Shaanxi and Gansu, went east out of Tongguan, and joined the Northern Expeditionary Army in Wuhan to join the Central Plains. Then, Ning and Han confronted each other, and Feng Yuxiang fought alone on the Longhai Line against Zhang Zongchang and Chu Yupu, and the two Lanfeng battles severely damaged the main force of the Zhilu coalition army.
During the Second Northern Expedition, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Xueliang fought a major battle at Zhangde in northern Henan, and the elite army of the Feng army was forced to retreat in its entirety. Later, Feng Yuxiang's army defeated Sun Chuanfang's main force at southwest lu (Sun Chuanfang's main force was eliminated many times, but he was quick to return blood), clearing the way for Chiang Kai-shek's First Army to capture Jinan.
Feng Yuxiang (far right)
Feng Yuxiang's army turned to the Great Northwest, Longhai Line, Beijing-Han Line, And Jinpu Line, with high defense and high output, and was the most dazzling main force in the later stage of the Northern Expedition.
01
On September 16, 1926, Feng Yuxiang returned from Moscow and came to Suiyuan Wuyuan.
Suiyuan was nominally Yan Xishan's territory, but the Suixi garrison was mostly Feng Yuxiang's old division. Prior to the Battle of Nankou (when Feng Yuxiang was not in the country during the fierce battle at Nankou), the Nationalist army was beaten to pieces, some were absorbed by Yan Xishan, some planned to withdraw to Gansu, and some were dazed and did not know where to go, scattered in the east and west.
Feng Yuxiang's arrival, like a magnet, brought together the Nationalist generals scattered everywhere.
Feng Yuxiang's role in the Nationalist Army is not only the commander-in-chief, but also the godfather and the patriarch, he usually greets the soldiers warmly, and also helps the soldiers wash their feet, cut their feet and nails, and cut their hair, which is very popular with the military. Many Nationalist soldiers heard of Feng Yuxiang's return, just as their sons heard the return of their long-lost old father, rejoicing and tearful, desperately trying to return to him.
On September 17, Feng Yuxiang swore an oath in Wuyuan, announcing that the Nationalist Army and the Kuomintang would unite into one, obey the Three People's Principles, and participate in the National Revolution. After that, various departments of the Kuomintang successively set up party departments and political departments to engage in ideological and political work.
Wuyuan oath master, wearing a leather trench coat is Feng Yuxiang
Wuyuan Oath Master was a turning point in Feng Yuxiang's life, before that, he was an alternative and rising star among the Beiyang warlords. This oath marked his departure from the Beiyang warlords and his official entry into the revolutionary camp.
The Nationalist army took Wuyuan as its starting point and made a comeback, with two roads ahead, one was to attack Beijing along the Beijing Sui Line from the south pass, and the other was to go south to Shaanxi and then go east out of Tongguan.
The first route of the advance was very close and could be directly inserted into Beijing, the core of Zhang Zuolin's rule, but there was great resistance and it would face a joint attack by Zhang Zuolin and Yan Xishan.
The second marching route is very far, it is necessary to go around a large circle, but it is much less difficult, and it can also consolidate the Gansu base area; more importantly, the remnants of the Second and Third Armies (the Second Tiger Guarding Chang'an) that are firmly defending Xi'an at this time have been besieged by The Song Army in Liu Zhenhua Town has been besieged for 8 months, and the grain in the city has long been eaten, and there has been a tragedy of selling human flesh, and it is urgent to break the siege.
After comprehensive consideration, Feng Yuxiang decided to implement the strategy of "consolidating Gansu and aiding Shaanxi and uniting with Jin and Tuyu," that is, consolidating the Gansu base area, assisting the Shaanxi Nationalist Army, uniting with Yan Xishan in Shanxi, and attacking Henan.
Feng Yuxiang in the villain book
Feng Yuxiang served as the Northwest Frontier Defense Inspector and Gansu Governor, which was the territory of the Nationalist Army, and was occupied by the Nationalist general Liu Yufen in Lanzhou. During the Battle of Nankou, Wu Peifu ordered Zhang Zhaogui, the defender of Longdong Town, and Kong Fanjin, the defender of Longnan Town, to attack Liu Yufen, and Liu Yufen only had two divisions, Sun Liangcheng and Zhang Weixi, with less than 10,000 troops, and could only hold Lanzhou.
Soon, Ji Hongchang's brigade rushed from Suiyuan to provide support, and the morale of the Nationalist army was boosted, and it defeated Kong Fanjin and Zhang Zhaokui one after another, and organized the Hui army Ma Qi, Ma Tingxun, Ma Hongbin, and other units into a mixed brigade, and completely controlled Gansu.
It is worth mentioning that at this time, Ningxia and Qinghai had not yet been separated from Gansu, gansu was extremely vast, and Liu Yufen and others pacified Gansu, which not only cleared the way for the Nationalist Army to march into Shaanxi, but also connected the entire northwest except Xinjiang, so that the Nationalist Army had a reliable base area and strategic room for maneuver.
In early October, Feng Yuxiang appointed Sun Liangcheng as the commander-in-chief of the Shaanxi Army and led the Gansu Nationalist Army to march to Shaanxi, and at the same time, appointed Fang Zhenwu as the deputy commander-in-chief to lead the Nationalist army of the Wuyuan side to the south to aid Shaanxi, and the two large armies met in early November.
The morale of the nationalist army was like a rainbow, and the Zhensong army was tired after a long battle, or fled in the wind, or collapsed at a touch, and Liu Zhenhua successively abandoned Xianyang and Xi'an. On November 27, the siege of Xi'an was lifted, and the yellow-faced and thin citizens knelt down to welcome the Nationalist army into the city.
The Nationalist army continued to pursue to the east, capturing Tongguan, and the vanguard reached Lingbao in Henan.
02
After capturing Tongguan, Feng Yuxiang's army did not take advantage of the victory to attack Henan.
The Northern Expeditionary Army in the south was still in the Yangtze River Valley, and if Feng Yuxiang marched into the Central Plains at this time, he would fight alone, which was unwise.
Moreover, Yan Xishan's attitude was uncertain, and he was worried that the Nationalist army's attack on Henan was a false way to destroy The Qi, plotting against Shanxi, and was likely to do things on the side of the Nationalist army.
In addition, the Nationalist army pushed all the way flat and made rapid progress, leaving many problems and hidden dangers that needed to be dealt with, and the troops were also tired and needed to rest.
In the following 4 months, Feng Yuxiang rectified the interior, digested the territory, and expanded his strength, while actively improving his relations with Yan Xishan, and the two sides established the Guojin Joint Office to turn enemies into friends.
On April 18, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established the Nationalist Government in Nanjing, and Ninghan was formally divided.
Strictly speaking, Wang Jingwei's Wuhan National Government is the authentic National Government, and Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing National Government is a hypocrite. However, Chiang Kai-shek accused the Wuhan Nationalist government of being controlled by the Soviet Union and degenerating, and the Nanjing government was the original Nationalist government.
The next day, the Wuhan Nationalist Government held an oath ceremony for the Northern Expedition at The South Lake of Wuchang and decided to continue the Northern Expedition.
The Nationalist government in Wuhan swore an oath to the Northern Expedition
The purpose was to eliminate the Feng army in Henan, take Feng Yuxiang out, and then let Feng Yuxiang deal with the Feng army, so that the Northern Expeditionary Army on the Wuhan side could withdraw and concentrate on recruiting Chiang Kai-shek.
On April 26, the Nationalist government in Wuhan appointed Feng Yuxiang as the commander-in-chief of the Second Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and Feng Yuxiang marched to Henan together.
On April 30, Tang Shengzhi and Zhang Fakui led an army of 100,000 troops to advance north in three ways, and their frontal enemies were the Third and Fourth Armies of the Fengzhi Army commanded by Zhang Xueliang and Han Linchun, which were said to be the most elite troops of the Feng Army.
On May 1, Feng Yuxiang held a military and civilian conference in Hongcheng, Xi'an, and announced that he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Second Army group in response to the Northern Expedition in Wuhan.
Feng Yuxiang's army claimed to be 300,000 people, of which no less than 200,000 were from the Yan clan, and they had been recuperating for 4 months, which was quite a strong trend.
The army advanced eastward from Tongguan, along the Longhai line lianke Lingbao, Shaanzhou, Luoning, Shichi, Xin'an, Liu Zhenhua surrendered, and on May 26, the army defeated the Fengjun Wan Fulin and the Zhensong army Zhang Zhigongbu and captured Luoyang.
On May 31, Shi You's three units occupied Zhengzhou, and the Feng army withdrew to the north bank of the Yellow River, blowing up the Yellow River Iron Bridge.
On June 1, the Northern Expeditionary Army on the Wuhan side met Feng Yuxiang's army in Zhengzhou.
The reason why Feng Yuxiang's march was so smooth this time was because the Feng army placed the main force on the Beijing-Han line, while on the Longhai line, only 5 brigades of Wan Fulin and Zhang Zhi's public department totaled 40,000 people, who were on guard.
In the battles of Xiping, Shangcai, Luohe, and Linying, the Northern Expeditionary Army on the Wuhan side, with tenacious fighting spirit, violently attacked the strong positions covered by Fengjun artillery and ironclad vehicles, and won successive battles, beating Zhang Xueliang to tears and tears, and the Northern Expeditionary Army paid the price of 14,000 casualties.
In comparison, Feng Yuxiang's casualties were only more than 400 people, which can be said to have picked up a big bargain.
03
Shortly after the two armies met, Wang Jingwei, Xu Qian, Tan Yanmin, Sun Ke, and other party-state leaders in Wuhan came to Zhengzhou and, together with Feng Yuxiang, held a Zhengzhou meeting.
Front row from left: Sun Ke, Yu Youren, Feng Yuxiang, Tan Yankai, Wang Jingwei, Tang Shengzhi
The big men condescended to come to Zhengzhou for a meeting because they had asked Feng Yuxiang, and they hoped that Feng Yuxiang would support the Wuhan side and deal with Chiang Kai-shek together. If Feng Yuxiang had the support of hundreds of thousands of troops, it would be difficult for the Nanjing side to fight against the Wuhan side.
Feng Yuxiang accepted a large gift package from Wuhan: Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu were Feng Yuxiang's defensive areas (territories), and the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Tang Shengzhi withdrew from Henan; the provincial chairman of the three provinces was Feng Shirenma.
Although he took advantage of the benefits, Feng Yuxiang never made a clear statement on the anti-Chiang issue.
During the Zhengzhou conference, Feng Yuxiang told Wang Jingwei that Chiang Kai-shek was also wooing him, but he did not agree, thinking that Chiang Kai-shek was "a wolf's heart and a dog's lungs, something that does not despise human beings."
Feng Yuxiang's move is intended to raise his stature - if your conditions are not in place, I will support Chiang Kai-shek.
Wang Jingwei could not fully satisfy Feng Yuxiang, because what Feng Yuxiang lacked most was grain and equipment, and these things Wang Jingwei also lacked.
Therefore, a week after the Zhengzhou meeting, Feng Yuxiang personally went to Xuzhou to meet Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang Jingjiang, Hu Hanmin, Wu Zhihui, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and other bigwigs in Nanjing.
The Xuzhou meeting welcomed Feng Yuxiang
On the terms of the Zhengzhou conference, Chiang Kai-shek promised to give Feng Yuxiang 2 million yuan a month in military expenses, and Feng Yuxiang promised to support Nanjing and promise to clean up the party.
On June 21, Feng Yuxiang returned to Zhengzhou with the first batch of 500,000 oceans given by Chiang Kai-shek, and soon after, he sent the Communists in his troops to Wushengguan with a large knife team and forcibly dismissed them.
Feng Yuxiang's fall to Nanjing was a very important reason why the Nanjing side eventually overwhelmed the Wuhan side.
Feng Yuxiang did not expect a war between Ning and Han to break out, otherwise, in the north, he would face the blows of Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zongchang alone, which was very dangerous. Therefore, although he supported Chiang Kai-shek, he did not help Chiang Kai-shek to fight Wang, but instead kept mediating the contradictions between the two sides.
After the Xuzhou Conference, Feng Yuxiang once again turned his energy to the inside--there were various armed forces on his territory, bandits, the Red Gun Society, the remnants of the Beiyang Zhang Zhaokui, Jin Yunlu, who plotted to rebel, Fan Zhongxiu, who did not obey orders, and so on.
It was during this period that the Henan Red Gun Society was wiped out, as well as the famous Fengxiang Massacre, in which Song Zheyuan killed all the more than 5,000 captives under Dang Yukun's army, with the purpose of rectifying the interior and consolidating the territory.
The Red Gun Society
In October 1927, Chiang Kai-shek had already stepped down in Nanjing, and Li Zongren was preparing a crusade against Wuhan. Feng Yuxiang could not count on the ning and Han sides, so he had to pull Yan Xishan together to deal with Zhang Zuolin. The two sides agreed that the Jin army would be responsible for the direct subordination and the north, and the Shandong, Longhai line, and northern Henan would be responsible for Feng Yuxiang's army.
04
In early October, Yan Xishan led the Jin army and launched a surprise attack on the Feng army, and the Jin-Feng War broke out.
A few days later, Feng Yuxiang's troops divided into three routes and launched a comprehensive offensive against the Zhilu coalition army.
Among them, the first road, with Lu Zhonglin as the commander and 50,000 troops, attacked Xuzhou from eastern Henan along the Longhai line; the second road was Liu Zhenhua's troops, with a strength of about 80,000 troops, attacking from Kaocheng to Jining, Shandong; the third route, commanded by Sun Lianzhong, attacked from Daming to Dezhou, Shandong, with a strength of 40,000 troops.
In addition, with Han Fuyu, Shi Yousan, Sun Liangcheng, Ma Hongkui, Zheng Dazhang and other units as the general reserve, the strength of about 90,000 troops, assembled in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng on standby.
For various reasons, Liu Zhenhua and Sun Lianzhong did not make much progress on these two roads, and only played some leading roles, and the real war took place on the Longhai line.
Lu Zhonglin's troops were more than 50,000 people, and he was faced with 100,000 people of the Zhilu coalition army commanded by Chu Yupu, as well as white Russian mercenaries and ironclad vehicles to help the battle, Lu Zhonglin could not resist, lost Shangqiu and Guide, and retreated all the way to the vicinity of Lanfeng, and the senior general Zheng Jinsheng was also captured by the Zhilu coalition army.
From left to right: Chu Yupu, Zhang Zongchang, Zhang Xueliang
Feng Yuxiang urgently dispatched Shi Yousan and Han Fuyu to support Lu Zhonglin, concentrated 100,000 troops, and personally commanded the battle against the Zhilu coalition army.
In late October, the Zhilu coalition army marched west along the railway and approached Kaifeng, but unbeknownst to them, they ventured forward with the enemy, and the battle line became longer and longer, and they entered Feng Yuxiang's preset pocket array.
Feng Yuxiang attacked both sides of the railway with the main force, copied the rear of the Zhilu coalition army with cavalry, cut off the railway, and the entire line of the Zhilu coalition army was shaken, forced to abandon the ironclad car and retreat on foot, and on the way, it was chased and blocked, 30,000 people and 5 ironclad vehicles were captured, and the losses were heavy, but the main force withdrew to Xuzhou.
Armored trains were very popular during that time, and Wu Peifu, Zhang Zongchang, Feng Yuxiang, and Chiang Kai-shek were all equipped
Zhang Zongchang heard that the front-line soldiers were defeated and killed Zheng Jinsheng to vent his anger, which laid the groundwork for him to be killed by Feng Yuxiang and Han Fuyu after he went to the field.
At this time, Yan Xishan was beaten back to Shanxi by Zhang Zuolin, struggling to support, the Nanjing side was still tearing up internally, and neither side could give Feng Yuxiang strong support, and Feng Yuxiang did not want to go deep alone, and withdrew the main force to the Lanfeng front.
Zhang Zongchang saw that Feng Yuxiang had won the battle but retreated, speculating that there must be a problem within the Feng army, so he mobilized reinforcements from Shandong, gathered 120,000 troops, and killed him again in eastern Henan.
The Zhilu coalition army attacked in three ways, and Feng Yuxiang also attacked the enemy in three ways, and the two sides had equal strength, fighting in the open area of the Eastern Henan Plain, without the possibility of speculation or luck, and pure hard power.
There is a saying that goes well: war is when both sides make mistakes continuously, and victory belongs to the side that makes fewer mistakes.
Comparatively speaking, the Zhilu coalition army was more complex than within Feng Yuxiang's army, the coordination of the various armies was worse, the generals were wait-and-see, the decision-making was uncertain, and more mistakes were made, and the result was broken by Feng Yuxiang, and the three roads were defeated and returned to Xuzhou.
Red area, battlefield range
When Feng Yuxiang broke the main force of the Zhilu coalition army in eastern Henan, the headquarters of the Zhilu coalition sun dianying counterattacked northern Henan and occupied Weihui, Zhangde, Tangyin and other places, forcing Feng Yuxiang to take a defensive position in northern Henan.
After Feng Yuxiang won a great victory on the Longhai Line, the army approached Xuzhou, and the two armies repeatedly fought in the western suburbs of Xuzhou, and Sun Chuanfang, who was stationed in Suzhou, saw that Xuzhou was in a hurry, and quickly withdrew his troops, and joined Zhang Zongchang's troops.
As soon as Sun Chuanfang withdrew, the Northern Expeditionary Army led by He Yingqin came along the Jinpu Line and attacked Xuzhou with Feng Yuxiang. On December 16, Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang saw that the general trend had gone and withdrew to Shandong.
Feng Yuxiang's army fought on the Longhai Line for three months, and single-handedly annihilated most of Zhang Zongchang's elite troops, and the Zhilu coalition army was devastated from then on.
05
After the great war, it was another few months of rest.
Fast forward to January 1928, Chiang Kai-shek was reinstated, the Northern Expeditionary Army had a unified commander- and commander-in-chief, internal disputes improved significantly, the war process accelerated, and the Northern Expeditionary Armies stepped up preparations for war to completely overthrow Zhang Zuolin.
At this time, the total strength of the four group armies of the Northern Expeditionary Army was close to 1 million, and the An Guo Army (Beiyang Army) under the command of Zhang Zuolin only had about 600,000 people, and the balance of strength between the two sides had been reversed.
Feng Yuxiang practiced
In order to get rid of the passive situation, Zhang Zuolin decided to preemptively attack before the Northern Expeditionary Army launched a fatal blow, and at the same time launched an attack in three directions: Shanxi, the Beijing-Han Line, and the Jinpu Line, with the attack as a defense.
On April 5, 1928, Zhang Xueliang personally led the Third and Fourth Fronts of the An Guo Army to launch a fierce attack on Zhangde in northern Henan.
As mentioned earlier, these two units were the most elite units of the Feng Army, equipped with powerful artillery and aviation troops, and the firepower was very strong, and Lu Zhonglin's troops had to rely on the outer positions of Zhangde to defend, and the battle was very fierce.
Lu Zhonglin
Feng Yuxiang's troops were not well equipped, but their will to fight was tenacious, and they once again exerted their "tank" attributes, fighting to the death without retreating, and the Feng army could never take down Zhangde.
On April 16, Li Zongren sent troops into Henan to take over the defense, and Feng Yuxiang was able to dispatch Han Fuyu to the north, and after Han Fuyu joined the Zhangde battlefield, the Feng army had no possibility of victory.
When Lu Zhonglin and Han Fuyu were attracting fire and carrying damage in Zhangde, Sun Liangcheng, Shi Yousan, and others broke Sun Chuanfang in northern Jiangsu and southwestern Lu and occupied Feng County, Yanzhou, Jining, and other places, so that Chiang Kai-shek's First Army occupied Jinan without encountering strong resistance.
At the end of April, the Anguo army did not make any progress on the Shanxi and Beijing-Han lines, and was gradually defeated and retreated on the Jinpu line, Zhang Zuolin lost confidence and the will to fight, and the Anguo army shrank across the board and prepared for a major retreat.
In May, various Northern Expeditionary Forces poured into Hebei and advanced toward Beijing, and on June 2, Zhang Zuolin issued a general retreat order, and the Northern Expedition entered the tail-sweeping stage.
Feng Yuxiang, this hygienic hu is very interesting
To sum up: the four heads of the Northern Expeditionary Army, Yan Xishan's strength is the weakest, he only participated in the war in the middle and late stages, there were not many Beiyang Army destroyed, and his contribution was mainly to contain the Feng army. Li Zongren played a very important role in the early stages of fighting Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang, but in the later period, he did not contribute much, and Chiang Kai-shek's army participated in the Northern Expedition throughout the whole process, and his performance was very stable, not prominent, and did not collapse.
Feng Yuxiang was a "tank" in the early period (at that time he had not yet responded to the Northern Expedition, belonging to the Beiyang warlord melee), objectively attracted most of the firepower of the Beiyang Army, and then fought horizontally from the great northwest, traversed the whole of China, defeated and incorporated the Zhensong army, crushed the main force of the Zhilu coalition army, and in the later period, once again carried the biggest damage of the Feng army, and also eliminated Sun Chuanfang by the way.
Feng Yuxiang's paintings