Introduction: Awesome! He is second only to Chiang Kai-shek in status, and his height is less than 1.6 meters; Marry a daughter, and you will master the Hunan army
Although Chen Cheng was short, he gradually climbed to a military and political position second only to Chiang Kai-shek. How did he gain control of the Hunan warlords through a marriage? And by what kind of ability did he win the reuse and trust of Chiang Kai-shek? Let's find out.
1. Seven years of soaring, ordinary background and extraordinary strength
In 1898, Chen Cheng was born in an ordinary peasant family in Qingtian, Zhejiang. Due to the poverty of his family, he needed to work diligently to help support his family since he was a child. Although he is short in stature, he has been studious and intelligent since he was a child. In 1917, after graduating from Zhejiang No. 11 Normal School, he wanted to continue his studies, but because of his poor family, he could only choose to make a living in the army.
Chen Cheng started from the grassroots level and rose through the ranks step by step with his outstanding military talent and outstanding leadership ability. In 1922, Chen Cheng graduated from the artillery department of the Baoding Military Academy and was immediately assigned to serve in the artillery unit. He loves to learn, is diligent and inquisitive, and knows the theoretical knowledge of artillery well. At the same time, he also delved into tactics and strategies, studied new weapons and equipment, and soon showed outstanding military command ability.
In 1923, Chen Cheng joined the National Revolutionary Army and accompanied Sun Yat-sen to the counter-revolutionary forces of Shen Hongying, but was wounded in battle, and since then he has formed a revolutionary friendship with Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionary leaders. After recovering from his injury, he continued to work diligently and made many achievements. In 1929, Chen Cheng was promoted to division commander, and in just 7 years, he was promoted from a small sergeant to a division commander.
In the Central Plains War in 1930, Chen Cheng made great achievements and was valued by Chiang Kai-shek, and then was soon promoted to army commander and became Chiang Kai-shek's confidant. Although Chen Cheng was short, he was outstanding in military command, brave and shrewd in battle, and had no disagreement with Chiang Kai-shek, which won Chiang Kai-shek's trust. Soon, Chen Cheng jumped from an obscure petty officer to an ace general of the National Revolutionary Army.
Throughout Chen Cheng's growth process, it is not difficult to find that although he was born poor, he was hardworking, studious and self-motivated since he was a child, and had superhuman military talent. It is precisely this persistent pursuit of the military cause and excellent military quality that made him rise from a small sergeant to Chiang Kai-shek's confidant and general in just seven years, which can be described as a typical representative of the latter.
Second, Sun Yat-sen's cronies formed a revolutionary friendship when they saw Chiang Kai-shek
In 1923, at the age of 25, Chen Cheng joined the National Revolutionary Army. At that time, Sun Yat-sen led the masses of the people in a fierce struggle against the imperialist powers and the warlords of the north. Although the young and promising Chen Cheng was born in a poor family, his blood was boiling, and he was extremely yearning for Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary cause, and he joined the revolutionary army without hesitation.
Soon, Sun Yat-sen discovered Chen Cheng, a great young general, and assigned him to his side. Since then, Chen Cheng has become Sun Yat-sen's confidant and confidant, and he is always by the master's side. In May 1923, Sun Yat-sen personally led the revolutionary army against the counter-revolutionary Shen Hongying. Chen Cheng followed Sun Yat-sen and launched a hard-fought battle with Shen Hongying.
In this operation, Chen Cheng repeatedly made meritorious contributions, and he did not hesitate to risk his own life, personally driving an armored vehicle to open the way, and turned the tide. On the battlefield full of artillery fire, Chen Cheng bravely killed the enemy, but was unfortunately wounded. Although the wound was painful, it did not affect Chen Cheng's loyalty and love for the revolutionary cause. After recovering from his injuries, he continued to fight on the front line of the revolution, fighting side by side with Sun Yat-sen.
The years with Sun Yat-sen gave Chen Cheng a deeper understanding of the revolutionary cause. He learned revolutionary theories, strategies and tactics from Sun Yat-sen, and at the same time learned Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary spirit and revolutionary will. Under the influence of Sun Yat-sen, Chen Cheng gradually grew into a pure revolutionary soldier.
In 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen unfortunately passed away, and Chen Cheng was immersed in great sorrow. However, even after the death of the great leader, Chen Cheng's pursuit and belief in the revolutionary cause never wavered. On the contrary, he took Sun Yat-sen's legacy to heart and threw himself into the torrent of revolution even harder.
It was at this time that Chiang Kai-shek began to emerge as the most high-profile rising star in the ranks of the revolution. In Zhaoqing in 1923, Chen Cheng first became acquainted with Chiang Kai-shek. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek went to visit the wounded in Chen Cheng's hospital, and the two formed an initial revolutionary friendship. Since then, Chen Cheng has had a deep revolutionary friendship with Chiang Kai-shek.
A few years later, during the Great War in the Central Plains, Chen Cheng, as the backbone of Chiang Kai-shek's revolutionary army, won the victory for Chiang Kai-shek. In this way, the revolutionary friendship between the two became deeper and deeper, and they became Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted confidants. It can be said that if it were not for the precious years between Chen Cheng and Sun Yat-sen, it would be difficult for him and Chiang Kai-shek to form such a deep revolutionary friendship.
Third, Song Meiling matched Lang with affection, and Tan Yanmin's widow entered his door
In 1917, Chen Cheng married Wu Shunlian, the sister of his classmate Wu Ziqi, in his hometown of Qingtian, Zhejiang. This is a family affair, which is arranged by the orders of both parents and the words of the matchmaker. At that time, Chen Cheng was still young and did not have much opinion about this marriage. Soon after his marriage, Chen Cheng left his hometown and went to other places to study and join the army.
A few years later, Chen Cheng has made some achievements in the army. However, Wu Shunlian has been doing housework alone at home all these years and has suffered from loneliness. She had been away from home for too long because Chen Cheng had been working outside for a long time, and she was lonely, and she tried to commit suicide but was saved by her family. Wu Shunlian felt helpless about her husband's coldness and indifference, and her married life was on the verge of breaking down.
In 1930, Chen Cheng, who had made great achievements in the Central Plains War, was favored by Chiang Kai-shek and was soon promoted to army commander. As Chen Cheng's status in the army continued to rise, some speculators close to the powerful began to appear around him. At this moment, a gorgeous family affair was born.
It turned out that after Tan Yanmin, who also belonged to the National Revolutionary Army, was killed, his daughter Tan Xiang became an orphan under the fence. Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Meiling, in order to win over the warlord forces of the Tan family, decided to choose a good family for Tan Xiang, and looked for Chen Cheng as Tan Xiang's husband.
So, Song Meiling personally said that she was in this family affair. She hinted to Chen Cheng that if he married Tan Xiang, his future in the army would be bright. Chen Cheng was confused by this heavy profit and resolutely decided to divorce Wu Shunlian.
Although Wu Shunlian knows her husband's ambitions, she still loves Chen Cheng deeply. When deciding to divorce, Wu Shunlian only made one request: "You can't be the same in life, but you must be in the same hole after death." In order to seek greater power, Chen Cheng readily agreed.
Tan Yanmin was originally a veteran of the National Revolutionary Army and commanded the Hunan Front. After his death, his daughter Tan Xiang became an orphan girl under the fence. In order to win over the Hunan armed forces under Tan Yanhong, Chiang Kai-shek decided to allocate the dry and find a noble son-in-law for Tan Xiang in the army.
In the end, Chen Cheng, a Red Army officer, fell into the eyes of Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Meiling. First, Chen Cheng has made some achievements in the army; Second, Chen Cheng and his wife's married life are at an impasse and are at a juncture of matchmaking. So, Song Meiling personally went out to string for this marriage.
On New Year's Day in 1932, Chen Cheng and Tan Xiang held a grand wedding under the witness of Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Meiling. The groom's official Chen Cheng is both civil and military, with rich experience; The bride Tan Xiang not only has a good family background, but also is a new-style woman who has received higher education and studied abroad for United States. The two are indeed quite a good match.
After marriage, Chen Cheng was very fond of Tan Xiang. Tan Xiang gave birth to 4 sons and 2 daughters for Chen Cheng, and the two had a harmonious relationship. It was this logical family affair that allowed Chen Cheng to gain another layer of identity - the son-in-law of the Hunan warlord Tan Yanhong.
Tan Yanmin ordered the Hunan side before his death, and his subordinates submitted to him. However, after Tan Yanmin's death, the Hunan armed forces were leaderless and lost their unified command. At this time, Tan Xiang and Chen Cheng got married, and Chen Cheng suddenly got an excellent opportunity to control the Hunan army.
As Tan Yanmin's only daughter, Tan Xiang naturally inherited her father's prestige in the Hunan army. And Chen Cheng inherited this prestige as well. The Hunan officers and soldiers used to fear Tan Yanhong's commanding authority, but now they also obediently embraced Chen Cheng. In this way, Chen Cheng took control of the Hunan warlord forces in one fell swoop.
With the rank of groom's officer and the identity of his son-in-law, Chen Cheng gained absolute power to drive the Hunan army. Since then, the whole of Hunan has become his base and private domain. Relying on this powerful military force, Chen Cheng's status and influence in the army soared, and he was known as a "first-class powerful faction" second only to Chiang Kai-shek.
Fourth, the tide of rebellion rose at the mouth of the Pearl River, and the general refused to fall
In June 1936, a large-scale warlord rebellion broke out in the originally peaceful city of Guangzhou. The rebellion was instigated by two leaders, Chen Jitang, the former chairman of Guangdong Province, and Lu Yinting, the governor of Guangdong, and was also involved in the Nationalist government troops stationed in Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta at the time.
The rebellion was fierce and unusual from the beginning. In the middle of the night on June 9, Lu Yinting's confidant Tan Shaowen led his cronies to raid Chen Jitang's official residence. Chen Jitang was shocked and immediately sounded the alarm and called on his cronies to fight with arms. The two sides engaged in a fierce gun battle around Chen Jitang's residence, and the scene was very chaotic for a while.
Soon after, the officers and men of the Fourth Group of the Army stationed in Guangzhou also joined the battle group and clashed with Chen Jitang. Since most of the main forces of the garrison inside and outside Guangzhou at that time were from Hunan, Chen Cheng's control of the Hunan army was naturally involved in this civil strife.
In the face of the sudden warlord rebellion in Guangzhou, Chen Cheng also led the Hunan army from Hunan to reinforce Guangzhou as soon as possible. As soon as he arrived in Guangzhou, he personally deployed the strategy and tactics of the entire counterinsurgency operation.
Although the rebel forces revolted one after another, Chen Cheng's Hunan army was known to be invincible. Under the strong command of Chen Chengjian, a large number of Hunan officers and soldiers stepped forward and engaged in fierce exchanges of fire with the rebels. The two sides engaged in a series of fierce barricade encounters throughout Guangzhou.
In the smoke of artillery fire, Chen Cheng's Hunan army was mighty and majestic. Not only did they take a powerful blockade attack, but they also divided their troops to attack the base areas of the two major rebel leaders, Chen Jitang and Lu Yinting. Under the devastation of the army, the resistance of the rebels gradually collapsed.
Although under Chen Cheng's strong suppression, the rebellion was already at the end of the crossbow. However, the leaders of the rebellion, Chen Jitang and Lu Yinting, still refused to give in and rebelled against the Nationalist government and Chiang Kai-shek.
Chen Jitang was arrogant and arrogant, and even insulted Chiang Kai-shek as a "Pi Guoge elder" who was "pointed out by thousands of people in Anhui Province" and "lived by the warlords of the northwest". At the same time, he also made wild statements, vowing to "destroy the Kuomintang in Guangzhou, move out of Guangzhou to restore the Kuomintang, and destroy Chiang Kai-shek."
Lu Yinting, as another rebel leader, is not a gentle person. He not only cursed on the radio station to "put Chiang Kai-shek on fire," but also personally shelled the positions of the National Revolutionary Army, killing and wounding many innocent civilians.
In the face of the absurd and unreasonable actions of the two rebel leaders, Chen Jitang and Lu Yinting, Chen Cheng was furious. He was determined to vigorously suppress these two rebel leaders, who had no military honor, and resolutely maintain the rule of the Nationalist army in Guangzhou.
Although the rebel leaders Chen Jitang and Lu Yinting spoke wildly, under Chen Cheng's fierce blows, their rebel forces eventually collapsed. The fighting in various parts of the city of Guangzhou subsided one after another, and the dominance of the Hunan army was completely consolidated.
In order to completely eliminate the remnants of the rebellion, Chen Cheng's Hunan army continued to hunt down bandits throughout Guangzhou. At the end of June, Lu Yinting was finally arrested in the Panyu area, and Chen Jitang was also arrested in early July. At this point, the shocking Guangzhou warlord rebellion was completely quelled.
After suppressing the rebellion, Chen Cheng took the lead in Guangzhou and maintained the rule of the Nationalist government in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. He has repeatedly performed miraculous feats and is known as the hero of the "second pacification of Guangdong Province". For the next few years, Chen Cheng remained the supreme ruler of the Nationalist government in Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta region.
Although the Guangzhou warlord rebellion was disturbed for a while and a half, Chen Cheng demonstrated the absolute military superiority of the government army with his heroic, composed, sharp and powerful command. The Hunan army led by him was invincible and overwhelmed, and the rebellion was completely wiped out. The pacification of the rebellion of the warlords in Guangzhou further strengthened Chen Cheng's transcendent position in the military and political circles, and also demonstrated his supreme loyalty to the Nationalist government and Chiang Kai-shek.
Fifth, he betrayed the nest and ran away, and his wife took the opportunity to escape from the army
In July 1937, the all-out war of resistance began. The Japanese troops who poured into North China from all directions wreaked havoc and looted, brutally killing innocent civilians. In the face of the brutal atrocities of the Japanese army, Chiang Kai-shek decided to use all possible force and resolutely defend himself.
In order to concentrate the strength of the whole army to rush to the North China battlefield, Chiang Kai-shek urgently summoned Chen Cheng to send reinforcements from the Hunan army. As Chiang Kai-shek's confidant general, Chen Cheng did not hesitate and immediately led the Hunan army to the interior.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, his wife Tan Xiang also took the opportunity to leave Guangzhou with the army. After all, in his hometown of Guangzhou, Tan Xiang has left too many painful memories that cannot be looked back. She now prefers to fly away and follow her husband to lesser-known hinterlands where the warlords have never been stationed.
Who knew that the good times would not last long, and the internal and external troubles that were approaching step by step followed. Soon after, a terrifying civil war broke out between Chiang Kai-shek and his subordinate Zhang Xueliang stationed in the Xi'an area.
This civil strife, known as the "Xi'an Incident", shocked the entire land of China. Zhang Xueliang's troops openly mutinied and detained Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an to force peace. The situation is on the verge of breaking out, and Chen Cheng may be trapped in Xi'an at any time and be held hostage by Zhang Xueliang.
Tan Xiang, who was traveling west with the army at that time, did not expect this civil war. She couldn't bear to see her husband implicated, so she immediately decided to flee the camp with her children to avoid his attack. While Chen Cheng was left on the outskirts of Xi'an by Chiang Kai-shek, Tan Xiang fled all the way to Dangyang with a few children in his arms.
In the process of escaping to Dangyang, Tan Xiang pinched cold sweat for safety all the time. She was always panicked, for fear that Chen Cheng would be implicated in the Xi'an Incident and become a prisoner. What made her even more panicked was that at that time, Xiang Jun had left his hometown in Guangzhou and had nothing to lose. If there was a case, she and her children would be homeless.
So, Tan Xiang decided to take refuge in his relative sister-in-law Hu and temporarily live in her house. Sister-in-law Hu is Tan Xiang's aunt, and her family is small and wealthy, so she can temporarily avoid the limelight.
After arriving at Sister-in-law Hu's house, Tan Xiang lived a relatively safe life there. Sister-in-law Hu not only provided them with good food and shelter, but also did not take a penny. What made Tan Xiang feel extremely relieved was that Sister-in-law Hu treated them like daughters and did not put outsiders on the shelf at all.
After living in Hu's sister-in-law's house for more than half a year, the Xi'an incident finally settled. Chen Cheng finally got rid of this internal worry unharmed and re-involved in the smoke of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Tan Xiang left his hometown, but fortunately with the help of his relatives, he was able to get through this period safely.
However, after this series of accidents, Tan Xiang's trust in Chen Cheng has been evaporated. She thinks that her husband, as a general, can't even protect his family, isn't it a big dereliction of duty? For the sake of his own safety and that of his children, Tan Xiang resolutely decided to completely break with Chen Cheng.
Since then, she would rather raise her children alone in a family home as a divorced widow than embark on the road of no return shrouded in war. Tan Xiang once went to Chen Cheng's house because of Song Meiling's hands, and now he can leave Chen Cheng's home because of the thoughtful kindness of relatives and friends.
In the face of his wife's determination, Chen Cheng could only let go with tears in his heart. For the sake of the country and the people, he had to embark on a new journey and go to the battlefield filled with gunpowder. Although the wife is separated, at least the children have a home to live in.
People's hearts are small, and they move from time to time. Song Meiling said that a family affair was peaceful, but it broke up unhappily. If there is an afterlife, Chen Cheng may really find it difficult to fulfill his wife's old wish that "you can't be together in life, and you must be in the same hole after death".