After the Red Army had gone through all kinds of hardships and dangers to win the Long March, old Chiang Kai-shek could not sit still, and quickly dispatched troops to once again want to "suppress" the Red Army. Judging from the data, the troops mobilized by Lao Jiang this time are very strong, and the Northwest Army, the Northeast Army, as well as the troops of Hu Zongnan and Mao Bingwen, have a military strength of more than 100,000 people. Old Jiang served as the "commander-in-chief of the suppression" and Zhang Xueliang served as the deputy commander.
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After three encirclements and suppressions, the Northeast Army suffered heavy losses. Old Chiang Kai-shek was very angry that the Northeast Army's combat strength was so weak, in fact, the Northeast Army could not even defeat the Japanese from the northeast, let alone the Red Army with strong combat effectiveness.
Old Chiang always did not believe in those warlords, but in fighting with the Red Army, Old Chiang would not use his own troops. Therefore, he asked Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army to fight, hoping to open the route to Yan'an and prevent the Red Army from expanding further south. He even wanted to attack from north to south in an attempt to destroy the Red Army.
But old Chiang Kai-shek did not know that at this time the Red Army was different from the Red Army before the Long March, it was like being reborn, the combat effectiveness was stronger, don't look at the northeast army, the northwest army is large, but it can not defeat the Red Army at all.
In the Battle of Zhiluo Town, Chairman Mao personally commanded and directly destroyed a regiment of the Northeast Army, captured more than 5,000 people, and also crushed Lao Jiang's attempt to encircle and suppress the Shaanxi-Gansu region for the third time.
Zhang Xueliang saw that the losses of the Northeast Army were so huge, and he could not bear it, if he continued to fight, the old father Zhang Zuolin would have to let him toss and clean up the little foundation left behind, and he would also be ashamed of his father and elder in the northeast.
Zhang Xueliang was dissatisfied with Old Chiang Kai-shek, and in the face of the losses of the Northeast Army, Old Chiang had no pity at all, not to mention increasing the expenses of the Northeast Army, and even cutting the military expenditure of the Northeast Army. This move greatly displeased Zhang Xueliang and his subordinates.
In Zhang Xueliang's view, if you turn to your old Jiang, you actually don't give enough money, and you still have to cut it. Lao Tzu was the king in the northeast, what did he want, and when he ran to the northwest, he didn't even have enough money to spend.
At this time, the Northeast Army also had the phenomenon of wavering military morale, and some people wanted to return to their hometown in the northeast to resist Japan. This is because the old Chiang Kai-shek's practice of "taking out the outside must first be safe inside" is unpopular. In the face of Japanese aggression, they actually did not fight the Japanese invaders, but engaged in nest fighting.
Zhang Xueliang also saw this public opinion, and his generals also had centrifugal tendencies toward him. The brothers of the Northeast Army did not want to fight for the old Chiang Kai-shek anymore, and they preferred to fight the Japanese rather than their own compatriots.
At this time, Yang Hucheng of the Northwest Army also had this idea, he had long believed that the great enemy was fighting in the nest and would sooner or later destroy the country. Therefore, he and Zhang Xueliang talked about their ideas, and Zhang Xueliang agreed. The two men discussed contact with the Red Army, stopped fighting each other, and established an anti-Japanese united front. Because at this time, the Red Army had already raised the banner of "going north to resist Japan".
After Zhang Yang and the two men came into contact with the Red Army, they realized that they must resolutely oppose the old Chiang Kai-shek's strategy of "taking out the outside world before settling in the interior," believing that this strategy would not work and would not be popular with the people. Only a joint resistance to Japan is the way out.
However, Zhang Yang's approach made Lao Jiang dissatisfied, and Lao Jiang knew through secret channels that Zhang Yang and the Two had contact with the Red Army, so he sent his sideman Ren Yandao as the chief of staff of the Northwest "Suppression General" in fact, to monitor Zhang Yang and the two.
At this time, Li Zongren and Chen Jitang in the south joined forces to launch the "Two Guangdong Incident", and Li Zongren asked the old Chiang Kai-shek to go north to resist the Japanese, changing the Gui Army to which he belonged to the "National Salvation Army".
In the face of the national anti-Japanese upsurge, old Jiang was still obsessed, and he even dispatched troops to attack Li Zongren.
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On October 20, 1936, in order to urge Zhang Yang and his men to fight with Yan'an, Lao Jiang flew directly to Xi'an to supervise the battle. Zhang Yang took the opportunity to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to establish a united front to jointly resist Japan.
Zhang Yang's persuasion of Lao Jiang can be said to be bitter, but Lao Jiang does not listen, accusing Zhang Yang and the two of disobeying the order and telling them to act according to his instructions.
On October 29, the fiftieth birthday of the elder Chiang, Zhang Xueliang flew to Luoyang to wish the old Chiang a happy birthday and once again persuaded Chiang Kai-shek to abandon his original strategy. Chiang Kai-shek is a man who is self-conscious, how can he listen to it? So he accused Zhang Xueliang again.
Until December 4, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng saw that Chiang Kai-shek would not change his style of play, and even sent Wei Lihuang and Chen Cheng to Xi'an to urge Zhang Yang to dispatch troops to northern Shaanxi to "suppress the communists" and let the central army enter the northwest defensive area.
On December 9, 1936, a student demonstration took place in Xi'an, and the students even went to Huaqingchi, where old Chiang lived, to stop the civil war and unite to resist Japan. Old Jiang actually ordered that if the students made trouble, they would shoot, which made Old Jiang lose his morality.
On December 11, 1936, Zhang Yang discussed it and believed that he must force Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan, but he could not be persuaded anyway. The only way to force it was to arrest Old Chiang Kai-shek, which was a "rebellion" at the time, but in terms of national righteousness, Zhang Yang and Zhang Yang did the right thing. So the "Xi'an Incident" broke out, and Lao Jiang's escort troops were crushed, and Lao Jiang originally thought that he would enjoy an imperial life in Huaqingchi, where Yang Guifei lived, but he did not expect a mutiny, he heard the gunshots and jumped barefoot to escape the wall, and finally was arrested.
After the outbreak of the "Xi'an Incident," Zhang Yang sent a telegram to the whole country, abolished Lao Chiang's "Northwest Suppression General" and established the Northwest Provisional Military Commission of the Anti-Japanese Coalition Army, and the anti-Japanese united front was formed.
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But how to deal with lao Jiang, Han Qing's opinion made lao Jiang agree to jointly resist Japan, but Yang Hucheng thought that old Jiang was easy to change. However, under the persuasion of Zhou Gong, Yang Hucheng believed that forcing Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan was the goal, as long as the old Chiang Kai-shek electrified the whole country to unite against Japan. And so a mutiny ended. It can be seen from this that Chiang Kai-shek's life has not been lost, and he should be thanked to Zhou Gong.
Soon Song Meiling arrived in Xi'an with Dai Kasa and others, and Old Jiang had to sign an agreement to settle the matter peacefully. Zhang Xueliang also personally escorted old Jiang back to Nanjing, to which Yang Hucheng repeatedly advised Zhang Xueliang not to go, Zhang Xueliang thought that there was nothing wrong, but as soon as he went, he was detained by old Jiang for decades.
Yang Hucheng was also dismissed from his post by Lao Jiang and forced to leave the country. Later, after the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, Yang Hucheng saw that the country was being invaded, so he sent a telegram to Song Ziwen, asking to return to China to participate in the War of Resistance.
Old Jiang agreed to Yang Hucheng's return to China, but he did not know that this time he actually entered old Jiang's "cage". Yang Hucheng returned to China by boat, and as soon as he arrived at the dock, he was arrested by military agents, and then taken to Nanchang and imprisoned for 12 years.
Zhang Xueliang was later taken to Taiwan under house arrest by Lao Jiang, and was not freed until many years after his death, but he was already old. However, Yang Hucheng was not so lucky, he was imprisoned for 12 years, and before the old Jiang fled to Taiwan, Yang Hucheng was killed in Chongqing.
I have been to the place where Yang Hucheng was imprisoned and killed in Chongqing, the means of killing Yang Hucheng are very cruel, and the old Jiang did not do it authentically, at least he denied the great cause of the anti-Japanese nation, and history did not beat him into the Han traitor series. In the great national righteousness, the old Chiang Kai-shek was too vengeful.
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