In 1937, more than half a year had passed since the "Xi'an Incident", and the joint resistance of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was imminent.
The situation at home and abroad was precarious, but Chiang Kai-shek always had a vague attitude, fearing that the Communist Party would expand its power in the name of cooperation between the two parties, and he was reluctant to let go.
In desperation, Cai Yuanpei went on a hunger strike to protest, and did not eat a drop of water for three days, waiting for a response with the determination to die.
Cai Yuanpei
While Chiang Kai-shek hesitated, the war spread everywhere, and even the Nanjing government was almost affected.
Feng Yuxiang and others persuaded again and again, and looking at the mountains of cooperation letters and war telegrams on the table, Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly agreed, "I can only give them the establishment of three divisions, and all of them will be reorganized into the National Revolutionary Army." ”
On August 22, the main force of the Red Army was officially reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, referred to as the Eighth Route Army.
This number alone is enough to see that Chiang Kai-shek has bad intentions and hidden scheming, but unfortunately our army will definitely not let him succeed.
Chiang Kai-shek stills
What's the secret behind this?
1. The reorganization of the Red Army was full of difficulties
In fact, the "Eighth Route Army" was the old name of the Guangdong Army during the Northern Expedition War, and the whole army was commanded by Li Jishen and Chen Jitang.
can get this number, and it is inseparable from Chiang Kai-shek's behind-the-scenes efforts. Li Jishen is an extreme idealist and cares about irrelevant trivial matters.
It is necessary to follow the example of the past and the present, give the troops a good name, and win a good omen.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek "kindly" thought of an allusion to "the Eighth Route Army came out together to save Wu Anguo", which was the heroic record of the Eighth Route Army that fought against Dong Zhuo's thieves during the Three Kingdoms period.
As soon as Li Jishen heard that the Eighth Route Army had defeated Lu Bu, he praised it again and again, and immediately chose this number.
As everyone knows, Chiang Kai-shek's choice of this number has another deep meaning, he is not thinking about the Eighth Route Army that killed all sides in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but the deeds of the 88th Eighth Route Army in "Water Margin" who were defeated and fled.
The Northern Expedition had already complicated the situation, and the division of warlords in various places had exacerbated the chaos.
Among them, the power of the Cantonese army is not trivial, not to be underestimated, Li Jishen did not take Chiang Kai-shek seriously at all, opposed his dictatorship, and once aroused Chiang Kai-shek's dissatisfaction.
Since he couldn't do it from the light, Lao Jiang could only play clever in the dark.
As a result, Chiang Kai-shek, who was quite literate and ink-like, took the opportunity to sell this name to the Cantonese army, suggesting that Li Jishenxing would lose everything if he made a wrong move, which would severely damage their spirit.
Sure enough, since the Guangdong army hung up the banner of the "Eighth Route Army", it was not as brave and good at fighting as before, but it was really as Chiang Kai-shek expected, losing and retreating one after another, and not gaining the upper hand.
In 1936, Hu Hanmin died. All of a sudden, the Liangguang region fell into an embarrassing situation of being leaderless.
Hu Hanmin
Chen Jitang was unwilling to send people under the fence and wanted to "stand on his own", so he joined forces with Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi to launch the "Liangguang Incident" in an attempt to raise troops against Chiang and seize power.
In this regard, Chiang Kai-shek had long anticipated it, and resolved the crisis without much effort, and even took this opportunity to annex Chen Jitang's troops, depriving him of the number of the "Eighth Route Army", and easily dismantling the dilemma of being forced into the wilderness.
Since then, the Guangdong army has been scattered and extinct, and the name of the Eighth Route Army has been idle.
Wave after wave of unsettled problems, domestic problems have not yet been resolved, and the Japanese army has attacked again and again, and China is in a precarious situation.
For the sake of national interests, the Communist Party expressed its willingness to take the initiative to join the National Revolutionary Army and fight with the National Army, regardless of past suspicions.
This should have been a good thing for everyone to be happy about, but Chiang Kai-shek grasped the issue of the reorganization of the Red Army and did not agree to the Red Army's private headquarters, which could only retain 10,000 people.
The Communist Party was not even allowed to set up an independent command, and all fighters were under the command of the Kuomintang authorities.
In the face of such an unreasonable demand, it was absolutely impossible for the Red Army to agree, and the negotiations once again reached an impasse.
The iron hooves of the Japanese army had already stepped into Shanghai, and for a time threatened the Nanjing government, and the situation was urgent, and public opinion from the outside world was everywhere.
No matter how ambitious Chiang Kai-shek was, he had to bow to reality and reorganized three divisions of the Red Army, which were subordinate to the 115th, 120th, and 129th divisions, and collected nearly 50,000 troops.
II. "Ill-Favored" Numbers
At first glance, there is nothing wrong with the numbers of these three divisions, but anyone who is well versed in history will be able to see the difference.
The 115th, 120th, and 129th divisions were all under the command of the Northeast Army and were known as "waste wood troops".
When Chiang Kai-shek reorganized the Northeast Army, he directly revoked their number because of his poor performance.
Now, on the surface, it is a name for the Red Army to replace this vacancy, but behind the scenes, there is a "curse" that Chiang Kai-shek can call vicious.
Chiang Kai-shek
Lao Jiang thought that Chairman Mao would viciously refuse when he saw that his army was given such an inauspicious name, and when the time came, he could use the topic to play, criticize the Communist Party, and earn a wave of goodwill.
Unexpectedly, Chiang Kai-shek's wishful thinking came to naught. Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and others didn't care about these at all, not only did they receive all the numbers sent by Chiang Kai-shek, but also sent a telegram to express their approval.
This made Chiang Kai-shek, who had prepared the writing team in advance and wanted to make a big fuss, a little confused, so he could only find another "opportunity" and demarcate the Red Army to the second theater of operations, which was the focus of the Japanese army, in order to eradicate the Red Army with the help of the Japanese army.
Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou
However, the Red Army endured hardships and stood hard work, and was not afraid of hardships, and when it came to the battle to kill the enemy, it was obviously different from the Kuomintang army that could only wail, and it was simply a clear stream, which was recognized by the common people, not to mention, and more and more young people joined the ranks of the Communist Party, and the name of the Eighth Route Army became louder and louder.
The 115th, 120th, and 129th divisions, which were often defeated, became more and more courageous under the leadership of generals such as He Long and Liu Bocheng, and not only got rid of the infamy of the past, but also won the title of "strong division", with brilliant achievements and outstanding contributions.
By the time Chiang Kai-shek realized that something was wrong, the name of the Eighth Route Army had already become an existence personally recognized by the Nationalist Government, an existence feared by the enemy, and an existence in the hearts of the common people that could truly lead them to a better life.
At first, he scoffed at Chairman Mao's insistence on using the "Eighth Route Army" number, and then he realized the deep meaning, but it was too late to change it, and he could only regret it.
Whether it is from the number of the Eighth Route Army or the three divisions under its jurisdiction, there is a hidden scheming of Chiang Kai-shek who is full of hope for the demise of our army.
Unfortunately, this set of methods against the warlords did not work for the Red Army, and all the tricks were nothing more than the self-destruction of the Kuomintang.
At the critical moment, the Red Army was willing to accept change, changed its military uniform, showed an unusual spirit and faith, and embarked on the correct Chinese path.
Despite the eventful years, the exploits of the Red Army will still be remembered by future generations.
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