As we all know, in the later stage of the Liberation War, the defeat of the Kuomintang was decided, but there were still some Kuomintang generals who could not defend the city in an attempt to turn the tables against the wind. However, as the situation deteriorated repeatedly, the generals also knew that the general trend had gone and it was beyond human power to change.
Under these circumstances, in order to peacefully liberate China and protect the masses of the people from the suffering of war, many high-ranking generals of the former Kuomintang, under the persuasion of our army, resolutely abandoned the darkness and turned to the light, led their subordinate units to revolt peacefully, and finally made great contributions to the victory of the War of Liberation.
So, what is the final outcome of this group of high-ranking Kuomintang generals who abandoned the dark and turned to the light, and who among them has the highest position and whose military rank is the highest?
Abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and revolt peacefully
Among the many Kuomintang generals who abandoned the darkness and turned to the light in the later stage of the Liberation War, Cheng Qian bore the brunt of the matter. As a veteran Kuomintang member who had personally participated in the Xinhai Revolution, Cheng Qian was second to none within the Kuomintang in terms of qualifications and merits.
In 1939, in the Kuomintang award ceremony, he was awarded the rank of first-class general of the army, during the Liberation War, in order to shackle the Gui troops, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Cheng Qian to return to Hunan to govern, during the Hunan government, Cheng Qian did not focus on the dispute between the two parties like Chiang Kai-shek, but did a lot of practical things for the people of Hunan.
For the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, although Cheng Qian expressed his position, but he has not been very much in agreement with this, after ruling Hunan, he is very light on the Vanity Fair, perhaps because he has experienced too many wars, has seen too many displacements, and the people are not living, so Cheng Qian, who returned to Hunan, almost put all his thoughts on the goal of ensuring the people's stable life.
For this reason, when our army was about to attack Hunan, some people suggested that we should first strive to win over Cheng Qian, understand his feelings, move him with reason, and strive to liberate Hunan peacefully.
In fact, in the face of the irretrievable general trend, for the sake of the stable life of the people of Hunan, Cheng Qian decided to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and lobbied his students, and Chen Mingren, the commander of the Changsha garrison at the time, participated in leading the peaceful uprising in Changsha with him.
The reason why the two chose to revolt was not for personal interests, but because they didn't want the people of Hunan to experience another attack by war, not to mention, in Cheng Qian's eyes, Chiang Kai-shek was indeed powerless to return to the sky, and even if he went to war, he couldn't change anything at all.
As a first-class general of the Kuomintang, Cheng Qian has many close friends and even students within the Kuomintang, and his abandonment of darkness and surrender to the light is of great significance to our army. Therefore, when Cheng Qian was invited to participate in the CPPCC meeting, Chairman Mao personally greeted him to show his solemnity.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Cheng Qian successively served as the governor of Hunan Province, vice chairman of the National People's Congress and other positions, during his tenure, he did a lot of measures for the people of Hunan to benefit the people, it can be said that the land of Hunan can be a stable transition to the period of socialist construction, Cheng Qian's contribution is indispensable.
Among the generals who abandoned the darkness and turned to the light, the second to mention is the "famous" Li Zongren, who, as the leader of the Gui warlords, had been awarded the rank of first-class general by the Kuomintang as early as 1935, and within the Kuomintang, he was Chiang Kai-shek's biggest "rival".
In March 1948, Li Zongren was still elected vice president of the Kuomintang despite many obstacles, and in January 1949, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down, and Li Zongren served as the acting president of the Kuomintang. After Chiang Kai-shek launched the civil war, the first enemy for him may be the Communist Party, and the second enemy may be his "subordinate" Li Zongren.
Li Zongren took office as acting president for less than a month, and the Kuomintang government existed in name only, and Li Zongren's idea of dividing the river with our party did not succeed. After the end of the Liberation War, Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, Li Zongren did not dare to stay in the mainland or go to Taiwan, so when he went to the United States and went into exile, Li Zongren did not think of returning to Taiwan and shaking hands with Chiang Kai-shek, but missed his hometown all the time, so he secretly sent people back to China to get in touch with the mainland government, and finally returned to China in July 1965.
After returning to China, Li Zongren was received by Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and other state leaders, and then was carefully taken care of by the party and the state, and later settled in Beijing. In January 1969, Li Zongren died of pneumonia in Beijing.
This famous anti-Japanese general who once commanded the Battle of Taierzhuang and the Battle of Xuzhou had ups and downs in his life, chasing fame and fortune, and finally returned to his homeland.
Li Zongren was not the Kuomintang general who chose to revolt during the Liberation War, but in the choice between the Kuomintang and our party, he finally chose the bright side, even if this choice was made a little later.
The third senior general of the national army we want to talk about is Tang Shengzhi. Unlike several other Kuomintang generals who rebelled, Tang Shengzhi was one of the few high-ranking Kuomintang generals who had never fought with the PLA.
As a famous general during the Northern Expedition, Tang Shengzhi's prestige in the Kuomintang army once made Chiang Kai-shek feel guilty, which also led to frequent disagreements between the two in their work.
However, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army's navy, land and air forces attacked Nanjing, Tang Shengzhi took the initiative to ask for orders to defend Nanjing, and in the face of the Japanese army that far exceeded the strength of his own troops, Tang Shengzhi fought bloodily, but in the end he withdrew from Nanjing City because he was outnumbered.
After the war, Tang Shengzhi almost retired, but during this time, he came into contact with the ideas and beliefs of the Communist Party and began to waver. Until the later stage of the Liberation War, Tang Shengzhi went to Hunan on behalf of the Communist Party many times to persuade Cheng Qian and Chen Mingren to surrender, and finally made great contributions to the peaceful liberation of Changsha.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tang Shengzhi successively served as vice governor of Hunan Province and member of the Central and Southern Military Commission Committee, and made great contributions to the development and construction of New China.
In addition, the senior generals of the national army who abandoned the dark and turned to the light also included Chen Shaokuan, a first-class admiral of the Kuomintang Navy. Chen Shaokuan, who came from the Jiangnan Naval Academy, was a rare naval commander within the Kuomintang, and he was the only naval general among the first-class admirals of the Kuomintang.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to prevent the Japanese invaders from invading the mainland from the sea, Chen Shaokuan kept his fleet out of the mainland at the cost of "annihilation" of his fleet, and paid everything for the War of Resistance.
Later, when the Liberation War broke out, Chen Shaokuan was dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek's behavior of launching a civil war regardless of the stability of the people, and refused to accept the order to attack the People's Liberation Army, so he was reprimanded by Chiang Kai-shek, and was later removed by Chiang Kai-shek.
It was not until the end of the Liberation War that he returned to the political arena under the "three visits to the thatched house" of the secretary of the Fuzhou Provincial Party Committee, and successively served as the vice governor of Fuzhou Province and the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, making his own contribution to the construction of the local people's livelihood.
In the face of their contributions, the party and the state have always kept in mind, and after the founding of New China, they have all been carefully cared for and condoled by the party and the state.
Judging from their military ranks, Li Zongren briefly served as acting president of the Kuomintang during the last period of the Liberation War, and it can be said that he has the highest position among the four.
Other rebel generals
In addition to the above-mentioned four high-ranking generals, there were many other generals within the Kuomintang who abandoned the secret and turned to the light, and they also made great contributions to the peaceful liberation of New China.
For example, General Chen Mingren, who also occupied a very important position in the Changsha Uprising. As the commander of the Kuomintang First Corps, Chiang Kai-shek's protégé was able to stand on the side of the people at a critical moment, which is enough to see his righteousness.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Chen Mingren successively held a number of important posts, such as commander of the 21 st Corps, interim chairman of Hunan Province, and deputy commander of the Hunan Provincial Military Region, and made great contributions to the construction of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. In 1955, in the first award ceremony of the People's Republic of China, Chen Mingren was awarded the rank of general.
In addition to Chen Mingren, Fu Zuoyi, who peacefully liberated Beiping, is also a famous general. In 1947, Fu Zuoyi served as the commander-in-chief of North China, with 600,000 troops, and had absolute leadership over the five provinces and two cities in North China.
Under such circumstances, our party's attitude towards Fu Zuoyi is still mainly based on persuasion, but fortunately, although Fu Zuoyi holds great power, in the final analysis, he does not want the profound Beiping City to really become a place of war. At the end of January 1949, Fu Zuoyi accepted the conditions of our party's peaceful liberation of Beiping and led his troops to revolt, which finally saved this ancient capital from the invasion of war.
After the peaceful liberation of Beiping, it was renamed Beijing and became the capital of New China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Fu Zuoyi successively served as a member of the Central People's Government, the Ministry of Water Resources, and the Minister of Water Resources and Electric Power, making outstanding contributions to China's water conservancy and electric power undertakings.
Tao Zhiyue, who peacefully liberated Xinjiang, as an "old man" who participated in the Xinhai Revolution, although he did not openly support our party when Chiang Kai-shek launched the civil war, when he was the commander of the Xinjiang Garrison Department, he repeatedly dealt with Hu Zongnan for our party members and protected many of our party's lives.
In September 1949, Tao Zhiyue sent a telegram to the whole country, announcing the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tao Zhiyue successively served as the commander of the 22nd Corps, the deputy commander of the Xinjiang Military Region, and the commander of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
In 1955, he was awarded the rank of general at the first award ceremony of the People's Republic of China, and died in Changsha in December 1988 at the age of 97.
In addition, there are Dong Qiwu, Lu Han, Long Yun, Zeng Zesheng, Wu Huawen, etc., all of whom were well-known generals of the Kuomintang, but in the end they all chose the new China under the construction of our party, abandoned the darkness and turned to the light, and walked out of a broad road for themselves and the people.
Of course, among the many generals of the Kuomintang who abandoned the dark and turned to the light, the highest position was Li Zongren. However, Li Zongren's "abandoning the dark and turning to the light" is more of a "last resort" to follow the general trend in desperation, so after the founding of New China, he did not choose to return to China immediately, but went into exile, and finally returned to China due to homesickness after many years, and finally returned to his roots and spent his old age in peace.
Bibliography:
"Winning Shenzhou" Author: Wang Xiaohua
"Decryption of the Archives of Senior Generals of the Republic of China (Volume 1)" Author: Zhang Xianwen
"Dictionary of Chinese Patriotic Celebrities in the Twentieth Century" Author: Song Deci