During the Republican period, due to various historical factors, many large and small warlords appeared in Sichuan; At the end of the Liberation War, their choices were also different, some chose to abandon their armor and flee the mainland, while others made the right decision.
It stands to reason that Wang Zhanxu also made the right decision during the Liberation War and should have been fang, but he later went to the opposite side and paid for his actions.
The former anti-Japanese fierce generals
At that time, Wang Zhanxu was also regarded as the first batch of talents in the modern history of the mainland, and he was admitted to the Sichuan Army Accelerated School in 1908, and among the friends of the same school, there were many important figures such as Yang Sen and Liu Xiang.
Liu Xiang was later known as the "King of Sichuan", and Wang Zhanxu played an important role in Liu Xiang's unification of Sichuan.
Especially after the establishment of Kuomintang rule throughout the country, the open and secret struggles within the Sichuan warlords became particularly fierce, the most striking of which was the competition between Liu Wenhui and Liu Xiang; Liu Xiang's slogan at that time was "Support Jiang Tongchuan", while Liu Wenhui supported the Yunnan army Hu Ruonan to return to Yunnan to support Wang Jialie to dominate Guizhou, and supported Feng Yuxiang and others.
In 1931, Liu Wenhui spent 2 million yuan to buy a batch of weapons from Britain, Japan and other countries, but he did not expect to be detained by Liu Xiang in Wanxian Port, Liu Wenhui was very anxious, and personally went to Chongqing to negotiate, but did not expect that Liu Xiang was unwilling to return it.
In order to get the weapon back, Liu Wenhui even secretly spent money to bribe Liu Xiang's subordinates, and what he didn't expect was that people were still unwilling to do things after taking the money, which became "the last straw that crushed the camel."
In a fit of anger, Liu Wenhui ordered his troops to cut off Liu Xiang's food source, which made the contradictions between the two irreconcilable, and from the night of October 1, 1932, this vigorous "Battle between the Two and Liu" was completely launched.
At that time, Wang Zhanxu held the post of commander of the fourth division under Liu Xiang, and also had the position of Sichuan salt transport envoy, making huge profits by manipulating salt prices, that is, the war between Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui largely determined Wang Zhanxu's financial path.
In addition, Wang Zhanxu was originally called brother and brother to Liu Wenhui, so the goals of the two were also extremely consistent, and in the war, Wang Zhanxu led the division headquarters all the way to capture the Leshan line, and made great achievements in the process of Liu Xiang's hegemony.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, Liu Xiang strongly advocated the resistance, while Wang Zhanxu's 4 divisions remained in Sichuan.
No one expected that when Liu Xiang died of illness in January 1938, who could take over the important post of "chairman of Sichuan Province" would become an important issue, and all major factions were aiming at this throne, and the related struggles were complex and fierce.
It seems that only Chiang Kai-shek can decide this matter.
Because Wang Zhanxu had the same political views as Liu Xiang, he naturally gained Chiang Kai-shek's trust, so the Executive Yuan announced the personnel news that Wang Zhanxu was acting as chairman of Sichuan Province.
Wang Zhanxu was also very clever, and he was also "modest" and called Chiang Kai-shek to say that he was not qualified for this position, or ask the old man to find another person to come to Gao; In this way, on the contrary, Chiang Kai-shek's trust in him was considered the most suitable candidate.
During that time, under the command and leadership of Wang Zhanxu, the Sichuan army did indeed fight many beautiful battles, which made Zhu Dedu, the commander-in-chief of the 18th Group Army at that time, write a letter praising the Sichuan people: Wuchuan has made many contributions to the country and the nation, and the athletes in various provinces have marched hand in hand with friendly forces across the country in the battlefields in the north and south, defending the homeland with their heads, adding a lot of brilliance to the Sichuan people.
1938 can be said to be the most tense year in the Anti-Japanese War and the busiest year for Wang Zhanxu.
The position of Sichuan Province in the rear of the country had been determined, and Wang Zhanxu not only had to provide food for the conscription of troops, but also continuously accepted refugees from the occupied areas, and all kinds of contradictions were extremely intensified, all of which required Wang Zhanxu to personally coordinate.
No way, the others can't talk, and he has to come.
During this period, Wang Zhanxu's status was very high, and his reputation among the military and civilians was also very good.
For example, when the "Zhongjiang Incident" broke out that year, more than 2,000 villagers directly surrounded the county town, which had to arouse Wang Zhanxu's great attention, and after a detailed and meticulous investigation, he found that there was fraud in the conscription and grain collection work in the county, which aroused the common indignation of the people.
Therefore, he issued a circular asking public servants at all levels to "remove the glitz and set an example for the people", which quickly quelled the people's anger.
In addition, he also introduced a series of new policies, such as thoroughly investigating past accounts, severely punishing corruption, and reducing taxes, which to some extent accomplished what Liu Xiang did not accomplish.
Because before Wang Zhanxu came to power, the whole of Sichuan was in a disorderly state; Under the various policies promoted by Wang Zhanxu, the whole Sichuan was on the right track, and the media reports that year also praised Wang Zhanxu's various behaviors, and a set of specific data reflected his political achievements.
Many old forces in Sichuan originally thought that they could eat and drink spicy food after Wang Zhanxu came to power, but they did not expect that Wang Zhanxu's persistence completely moved their "cake", and in the face of the "old ministers" who did not contribute and "invited merit and reward", Wang Zhanxu's reply was quite resolute: You still want to get benefits if you don't go to the front, and I want to report to Chiang Kai-shek to remove you from your post.
When the National War of Resistance turned into an important period of "strategic offensive", Wang Zhanxu believed that the situation in the rear was under control, so he asked to "resign as provincial chairman and go out of Sichuan to fight the war."
The Nationalist government was also very satisfied with his behavior and agreed to let him come to the front, and the post of chairman of Sichuan Province was personally held by Chiang Kai-shek in the rear.
Later, Wang Zhanxu's performance did prove that he was not just talking.
In January 1940, the 13th Division of the Japanese Army stormed Changshoudian, Wangjiadian and other places, and Wang Zhanxu quickly gathered troops to confront it, and there were great casualties on both sides.
The heavy Japanese army turned to attack the areas of Xiangyang, Shuanggou and Zaoyang, which put Wang Zhanxu's headquarters in danger; Considering the actual situation, Wang Zhanxu led the 29th Army to attack the Japanese invaders who invaded Dahongshan and held the northwest of Dahongshan.
In specific battles, he personally went to the front line and took the lead, and in the process of opening a passage, he also annihilated more than 5,000 Japanese troops.
At that time, his troops also faced an extremely difficult situation: the mortar battalion had only four cannons, each with only ten shells, and food supplies were also very difficult.
Under such circumstances, the army still withstood the repeated "encirclement and suppression" of the Japanese invaders, and also recaptured the position one after another.
Until the autumn of 1941, the Japanese army sent aircraft artillery left and right to cover, directly into the nuclear mountain temple in Dahongshan, Wang Zhanxu persisted for a year and four months, and finally dragged the road of the Japanese invaders to the west and smashed the Japanese invaders' battle plan.
This series of anti-Japanese war process, known by the locals as "the old king of Dahongshan", also caused a sensation throughout the country.
Right or wrong is only in a split second
To talk about the War of Resistance, Wang Zhanxu also fought a real war of resistance, and he came out of the military academy in his early years, and he also realized the importance of education to China's future.
In his early years, he opened a private school in Chongqing, which has the best educational facilities in the entire southwest, books are purchased from Shanghai and other places, and all equipment is very advanced.
His idea was to change the backward educational landscape of the southwest and implement a new educational ideal.
After the "July Seven Incident", a sign with the slogan "The country breaks mountains and rivers" was also hung in the middle of the school auditorium, in order to alert the teachers and students of the school.
In 1939, due to the repeated bombing of Chongqing by Japanese planes, the school was also damaged three times in a row, but this did not dampen the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the teachers and students of the school, everyone would sing songs such as "March of the Great Sword" when they ran exercises, and all classes were named after the fallen provinces.
As long as conditions permit, the school will resume classes as soon as possible, and many well-known figures from the military, political and business circles have also come to the school to give speeches.
By the eve of the liberation of the country, the school had developed into a complete education system integrating kindergarten, primary, middle and high school, and occupied a leading position in the entire Sichuan Province.
After the total victory of the War of Resistance, the Nationalist government returned to Nanjing, the Chongqing garrison headquarters was reorganized, and Wang Zhanxu was appointed deputy director of Wuhan Xingyuan.
In fact, from this time on, his status in Chiang Kai-shek's heart slowly declined, perhaps, this has an important relationship with the fact that Sichuan is no longer the great rear.
During those days, Wang Zhanxu lived mainly in Chengdu, playing with literati and antiques experts every day, and taking pleasure in chanting poetry.
Chiang Kai-shek did not expect him during the Liberation War, but after fleeing to the island of Taiwan, he was given the post of "guerrilla commander of the first route in the southwest", and the rank was the highest general.
From the perspective of the People's Liberation Army, since the spring of 1949, a comprehensive military victory has been achieved, including Nanjing, Shanghai and other important cities during the period of the National Government have been liberated one after another, and the national situation has also undergone decisive changes.
The Party Central Committee, considering that national victory was imminent, decided to continue the march and liberate the southwest.
Our army carried out the decision to march into the southwest and set up the "Southwest Service Corps"; when the news came out, the vast cities in the east quickly set off a wave of southward fever, and tens of thousands of progressive young people signed up for the Southwest Service Corps to follow the troops to march.
The march into the southwest is also the "closing battle" of the PLA, and it is also a classic battle in which our army overcomes many difficulties and dangers and grabs the pass.
The momentum of the PLA is also unstoppable, and some units in Siye have to march 60 or 70 kilometers every day, chasing and annihilating the enemy with an indomitable spirit.
The troops on the southern front also crossed the "Baiyun Mountain" and "South Heavenly Gate" and other treacherous terrain one after another, advancing all the way, but many troops passed through places that were inaccessible, and the soldiers could only eat one meal a day, even so, their confidence was still high.
Originally, Chiang Kai-shek had been trying to integrate the more than 900,000 troops entrenched in the southwest, hoping to re-rely on this "big rear" to resist.
But they found that the PLA at this time was no longer the Red Army of the past, and the troops of the Kuomintang instantly became frightened birds in the face of a powerful offensive.
While carrying out military strikes, the PLA has been doing political work, and these have achieved great results.
In particular, many progressives, members of the Communist Party of China, and so on secretly penetrated into the interior of the enemy army in various ways to carry out political struggle work with the generals concerned from various angles, not only doing the work of Lu Han, Liu Wenhui and others, but also doing the work of Chiang Kai-shek's lineage, calling on them to stop resisting and abandon the secret and turn to the open.
Since the march into the southwest was a battle far from the rear, and it was also crucial to get the support of the local people, the local party organization departments in the southwest took action to strengthen their activities, and finally formed a situation in which the PLA "had tea, food, and condolences" along the way, which ensured the needs of the transit troops as much as possible, so that the commanders and fighters maintained abundant physical strength and strong fighting spirit.
Even the residents of the villages in the mountains understood the principles of national unity and equality, as well as the disasters brought by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and the reputation of the People's Liberation Army was lost.
In this context, Wang Zhanxu's resistance has no meaning.
On December 24 of that year, Wang Zhanxu, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army, sent a letter to the Sichuan Military Region Committee of the People's Liberation Army, mentioning that for the sake of the people's desire for peace, he was now doing his best to maintain law and order and waiting for the deployment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
This also shows that Wang Zhanxu at this time hopes to face the PLA in the form of a peaceful uprising.
In fact, from his personal point of view, he is not without choices, he just does not want to leave this land.
Before Chiang Kai-shek fled, he also specially sent his son Chiang Ching-kuo to Wang Zhanxu's home to do work, but Wang Zhanxu did not agree, he knew that the Kuomintang could not win, and the probability of fighting back in the future was almost zero.
Wang Zhanxu, who originally made the right decision, also donated the precious cultural relics he had collected throughout his life to the West Sichuan People's Museum.
After the liberation of Chengdu, Wang Zhanxu was elected director of the West Sichuan Museum and member of the Southwest Military and Political Commission, but he still felt that the position assigned to him by the government was too low, and he was very unhappy in his heart.
In 1956, under the pseudonym Zhang Zhengyan on the grounds of "curing teeth", he wanted to smuggle into Hong Kong, but he did not expect to be caught by border guards when he walked to Shenzhen and escorted to a prison in Chengdu.
The Sichuan Daily also published news of his arrest, but there were no official reports since.
By 1960, Wang Zhanxu had died of illness in the detention center, so the only information that could be searched so far was "absconded from Shenzhen and attempted to cross the border" and "died in prison", and nothing else.
The 2004 textbook of Xichuan Middle School in Sichuan Province also recorded Wang Zhanxu's heroic deeds of resisting Japan, at the very least, he achieved great achievements in the anti-Japanese stage.
Because of a wrong choice, he also lost a lot of opportunities, and finally paid the price, and no one seemed to be able to say clearly what he thought in his heart.
reference
Famous Sichuan Army General Wang Mianxu Zheng Ji The essence of literature and history
Wang Mianxu resigned from the government to resist Japan, Wang Yuzhi Yan Huang Chunqiu