The 7th Army of the National Revolutionary Army is the ace of the New Gui clan, from march 1926 reorganization and establishment to 1949 by the Chinese People's Liberation Army completely annihilated, in the history of a total of 23 years, during which 10 people have served as the commander of the army, this article will briefly talk about these 10 commanders.
1. The first commander of the army, Li Zongren, a general of the National Revolutionary Army
From November 1923 to April 1925, Li Zongren and Huang Shaohu led a coalition of 6,000 Dinggui thieves to wipe out 6,000 troops of the old Gui clan, such as Lu Yungao, Lu Rongting, and Shen Hongying, and then defeated Tang Jiyao's 70,000 Dian army with less than 20,000 men, unifying Guangxi.
In October 1925, Li Zongren led his troops into Guangdong and assisted Sun Yat-sen in eliminating 30,000 rebels. In March 1926, the troops were reorganized into the Seventh Army of the National Revolutionary Army, with Li Zongren as the commander, Huang Shaohu as the party representative, and Bai Chongxi as the chief of staff.
Li Zongren
In the Northern Expedition War, the Seventh Army, the Fourth Army and the Eighth Army, as the main forces of the Northern Expeditionary Army, made important contributions in the Northern Expedition War, so it also gained the reputation of "Seventh Army of Steel". Li Zongren's subsequent experience is basically known to everyone, and he successively served as commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army, director of Guangxi Appeasement, commander of the Fifth Theater, director of the North Parallel Battalion of the Military Commission of the National Government, and acting president of the Republic of China.
In 1935, Bai Chongxi was awarded the rank of general of the National Revolutionary Army, and although he held a high position in the Kuomintang for a long time, he never fought with Chiang Kai-shek, and was expelled from the party and dismissed from all posts by Chiang Kai-shek on the charge of "rebellion against the party-state". After the defeat of the Kuomintang in Taiwan, Li Zongren went to the United States, returned to the motherland in 1965, and died of pneumonia in Beijing in 1969 at the age of 78.
2. The second commander, Xia Wei, was a lieutenant general in the National Revolutionary Army with the rank of general
A native of Wuzhou, Guangxi, Xia Wei graduated from the Third Infantry Section of the Baoding Army Officer School, and served in the Gui Army for a long time after graduation, xia Wei served as the brigade commander of the Sixth Brigade of the Seventh Army at the beginning of the Northern Expedition, and then succeeded Li Zongren as the commander of the Seventh Army in June 1927 for his military achievements. During his tenure as commander, Xia Wei participated in the Battle of Qixia Longtan, the Ninghan War, and the First Jiang Gui War.
Xia Wei
After the commander of the Seventh Army, Xia Wei also served as the commander of the 15th Division (the Seventh Army was downsized), the commander of the 15th Army, the commander of the 48th Army, the commander of the Eighth Army, the commander-in-chief of the 16th Group Army, the commander-in-chief of the 11th Army, the chairman of the Anhui Provincial Government, and the deputy commander-in-chief of the Central China Suppression Army.
In 1936, Xia Wei was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and on May 14, 1937, the rank of general was added. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he led his troops to participate in the Battle of Guinan and the Battle of Guiliu. In 1950, Xia Wei went to Hong Kong and lived in Hong Kong for a long time, and died in a car accident in Hong Kong in 1975 at the age of 82.
3. The third commander, Li Mingrui, was a member of the Communist Party
Li Mingrui was a native of guangxi and was an outstanding general in the early days of our party and our army. In 1920, after graduating from the Guangdong Shaoguan Branch of the Yunnan Daowutang, Li Mingrui was assigned to Yu Zuobai as a platoon leader. After the start of the Northern Expedition in 1926, Li Mingrui served as the commander of the Second Brigade of the Seventh Army, and in the Northern Expedition, Li Mingrui was a pioneer and brave in battle, and was known as a famous general of the Northern Expedition.
Li Mingrui
After the defeat of the first Jiang Gui War in 1929, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and others fled from the wilderness, Xia Wei also fled in a hurry due to defeat, and the remnants of the 15th Division (reorganized from the Seventh Army) were partially absorbed by Li Mingrui and partly by Zhang Fakui and Xue Yue. After that, Li Mingrui returned to Guangxi with his troops to serve as the commander-in-chief of appeasement in Guangxi Province, and his old cousin Yu Zuobai served as the chairman of the Guangxi provincial government.
It was also during the reign of Li Mingrui and Yu Zuobai in Guangxi that our party provided a very convenient space for its activities, so that the Baise uprising led by Deng Xiaoping, Zhang Yunyi, and others was able to occur smoothly, and Li Mingrui also joined the Communist Party of China during this period. After that, he served as the commander-in-chief of the Red Seventh Army, the commander of the Red Seventh Army, and the standing committee member of the former committee of the Red Seventh Army. In 1931, Li Mingrui was wrongly killed during the purge campaign at the age of 35.
4. The fourth military commander Yang Tenghui
Yang Tenghui is a native of Shanglin, Guangxi, who entered the Guangxi Army Lecture Hall in 1919 and served in the Second Army of the Guangxi Protectorate Army after graduation. In 1926, during the Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army, Yang Tenghui served as the commander of the 14th Regiment of the Seventh Army, participated in the capture of Hesheng Bridge, the siege of Wuchang, and the battles of Wuning and Zhenxi in Jiangxi, and was later promoted to brigade commander of the Seventh Brigade for his military achievements.
Yang Tenghui
After the First Jiang-Gui War in March 1929, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and others were defeated and fled, and Yang Tenghui served as the commander of the 57th Division, and after Li Zongren returned in November of that year, Yang Tenghui was appointed as the commander of the Seventh Army. Yang Tenghui was accustomed to the Qin Dynasty, and in 1930 he privately accepted Chiang Kai-shek's letter of appointment during the Central Plains War, but failed to conceal Bai Chongxi, who later invited Yang Tenghui to Nanning, stripped him of his military powers, and appointed Liao Lei as the commander of the Seventh Army.
After that, Yang Tenghui quit the military to buy land in his hometown, and died in Hong Kong in 1939 at the age of 49.
5. Liao Lei, the fifth commander of the Army, was a second-class general of the National Revolutionary Army
Liao Lei, a native of Luchuan, Guangxi, graduated from the Baoding Army Officer School, and after graduation, served in the Xiang Army, serving as the deputy commander of the Fourth Division of the Eighth Army during the Northern Expedition in 1926, and returned to Guangxi after 1929 to surrender to the Xingui clan against Chiang Kai-shek, serving as the chief of staff of the former enemy headquarters of the "Party Protection And National Salvation Army". After Yang Tenghui was stripped of military power by Bai Chongxi in 1931, Liao Lei served as the commander of the Seventh Army.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Liao Lei served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the 21st Group Army and the commander of the 7th Army, and in October of the same year, he was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the 21st Group Army and the commander of the 7th Army, leading his troops to participate in the Battle of Songhu. In September 1939, Liao Lei was also the chairman of Anhui Province, and the commander-in-chief of guerrillas in the Yu'e-Anhui Border Region. He died of cerebral hemorrhage in October 1939 at the age of 49 and was posthumously promoted by the Nationalist government to the rank of second-class general of the Army.
6. The sixth commander, Zhou Zuhuang, held the rank of lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army
A native of Lingui, Guangxi, Zhou Zuhuang served in the Xiang Army in 1914 after graduating from the Baoding Army Officer School, and in 1925 served in the Seventh Army of the New Gui Clan as a regimental commander. After that, he participated in some wars during the Republic of China period, such as the Northern Expedition War and the Jiang Gui War.
Zhou Zuhuang
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, after Liao Lei was promoted to commander-in-chief of the 21st Group Army, Zhou Zuhuang took over as the commander of the Seventh Army and participated in the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Xuzhou. Later, Zhou Zuhuang also served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the 16th Group Army. During the Liberation War, Zhou Zuhuang had been serving in Guangxi, and at the end of 1949, Zhou Zuhuang signed a peaceful reorganization plan with the People's Liberation Army, leading more than 5,000 people under his command to accept the reorganization.
After the founding of New China, Zhou Zuhuang served as a member of the Guangxi People's Government, director of the Provincial Counselor's Office, and standing committee member of the Second CPPCC Autonomous Region, and died in 1959 at the age of 70.
7. Zhang Gan, the seventh commander of the army, held the rank of lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army
Zhang Gan, a native of Guilin, Guangxi, served as a soldier under Lu Rongting in the old Gui clan in his early years, and was recruited by Li Zongren after the defeat of Lu Rongting's army, after which he successively served as a lieutenant colonel of the Seventh Army, a colonel adjutant, chief of staff of the Eighth Army, and chief of staff of the Forty-eighth Army.
Zhang Gan
In June 1938, Zhang Gan took over as commander of the Seventh Army and led his troops to participate in the Battle of Wuhan, the Battle of Suizao, the Battle of Zaoyi, the Battle of Henan, and the Second Battle of Changsha. In November 1939, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, and in 1943, Zhang Gan was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of the 21st Group Army, and during the Liberation War, Zhang Gan successively served as the deputy commander of the Seventh Appeasement District, the commander of the Third Corps, and the deputy chief of the Central China Military and Political Office.
In December 1949, Zhang Gan was captured by the People's Liberation Army in Bobai, Guangxi Province, and was later imprisoned in the Gongdelin War Criminals' Camp in Beijing for reform, and died of illness in 1959 at the age of 62.
8. Xu Qiming, the eighth commander of the army
Xu Qiming, whose ancestral home is Huizhou, Guangdong, was born in Liujiang, Guangxi, graduated from the second infantry section of the Baoding Army Officer School, he is an old man of the Seventh Army, and he served under Li Zongren very early. He successively served as the chief of staff of the Fifth Brigade of the Seventh Army, the commander of the 25th Division of the 15th Army, the commander of the 170th Division of the Seventh Army, and the deputy commander of the Seventh Army.
Xu Qiming
In July 1943, after Zhang Gan was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of the 21st Group Army, Xu Qiming took over as the commander of the 7th Army, during which he led his troops to participate in the Battles of Changde, the Battle of Western Henan, and the Battle of Northern Hubei.
During the Liberation War, Xu Qiming served as deputy commander and chief of staff of the Eighth Appeasement District and commander of the Tenth Corps. After the defeat of the Guangdong-Guizhou Border Region in November 1949, Xu Qiming went to live in Hong Kong, practiced medicine in Taiwan in 1954, and died in Taipei in 1989 at the age of 96.
9. Zhong Ji, the ninth commander of the army
Zhong Ji was a native of Fusui, Guangxi, who graduated from the Fourth Infantry Section of the Huangpu Military Academy, and after graduation, he served as the deputy of the Huangpu Fifth Phase District, after which he served as a platoon commander, company commander, battalion commander, regiment commander, brigade commander, etc., and was promoted to commander of the 172nd Division of the Seventh Army in 1942 and chief of staff of the 21st Group Army in 1944.
In September 1946, Zhong Ji took over as the commander of the Seventh Army, and on the eve of the Battle of Huaihai in 1948, Zhong Ji was transferred to the chief of staff of the Third Corps, and went to Taiwan in 1949.
Zhong Ji
10. Li Benyi, the tenth commander of the army
Li Benyi, a native of Rong County, Guangxi, joined the army at the age of 18 and was appreciated by Bai Chongxi and sent to the Nanning Military Academy for further study. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Li Benyi participated in the Battle of Songhu with his troops, and then he participated in the Battles of Xuzhou, the Battle of Henan, and the Battle of Suizao, and his position was constantly promoted, successively serving as the colonel of the 171st Division, the commander of the 138th Division of the 48th Army, the commander of the Tenth Column of the Edong Guerrilla Army in the Fifth Theater, the commissioner of the Sanhe Administrative Region of Anhui, and the commander of the 176th Division.
Li Benyi
In the spring of 1948, Li Benyi took over as the commander of the Seventh Army, during the Battle of Hengbao, the army headquarters and its subordinate units were completely annihilated, the chief of staff Deng Dazhi, division commanders Zhang Ruisheng, And Liu Yuejian were captured, and after the commander Li Benyi led his remnants to flee into Guangxi, he was ordered to reorganize the 7th Army and its 171st and 172nd Divisions and to incorporate the 224th Division that had not been damaged in the Battle of Hengbao. On August 24, 1951, Li Benyi was sentenced to death in Hefei by the Anhui North Bureau People's Court for "killing 30,000 people" during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and was taken to the execution ground for execution.
Brief summary:
The 10 commanders of the Seventh Army of the New Guizhou Gang were all from Guangxi, and except for the third commander, Li Mingrui, the other nine had all made meritorious contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, but they had also committed mistakes in the civil war. Today, when we look back at the history of that year, we should look at it with a dialectical thinking. The third commander, Li Mingrui, was an outstanding general in the early days of our party and our army, who made important contributions to the revolution, but he was also killed in the purge campaign.