Tianxue Miscellaneous Talk was founded by the former university faculty member Tianxuan, welcome to pay attention.
There is a very strange phenomenon in the Kuomintang army: the generals trusted by Chiang Kai-shek are basically not very good at fighting, and the military generals who are particularly capable of fighting are basically not trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, which is an important reason why Chiang Kai-shek eventually lost his heavy army.
Chiang Kai-shek
Xue Yue, Sun Liren, Chen Mingren, Bai Chongxi, and others were all recognized by the Kuomintang army as military generals who were relatively capable of fighting, but they were not trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, and they were all later transferred from their command posts and finally disappeared into the long river of history.
And Hu Zongnan, Liu Zhi, Chen Cheng, Gu Zhu and other military generals were all trusted and relied upon by Chiang Kai-shek; these people were not very good at fighting, but they were all able to talk on paper, saying that military command could gush rivers and rivers and go on endlessly, and if in peacetime, these people would absolutely be able to occupy high positions and not fall, but under the conditions of war they would be beaten back to their original form.
Among these military generals trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Zongnan was a trump card in Chiang Kai-shek's hand, and he was both the military general that Chiang Kai-shek trusted the most and the military general that Chiang Kai-shek most admired. Because of this, Hu Zongnan holds several impressive records among Whampoa students:
The first to step into the ranks of generals;
The first to become a military commander;
The first to be the commander of the theater of operations;
The first to be promoted to general.
What is hu Zongnan's superiority, that he can gain Chiang Kai-shek's trust and appreciation and rise step by step?
Hu Zongnan was born on April 4, 1896 in an old mansion in Zhujiatanglou, Chenjiapu, Zhenhai, Zhejiang, and then went to live with his business father in Xiaofeng County, Huzhou, and in 1958 Xiaofeng County was merged into Anji County.
The economic environment of the Hu family is good, but Hu Zongnan is strong, but his stature is relatively short, and he studied private school in his early years, focusing on the Four Books and the Five Classics.
At the age of 13, Hu Zongnan was admitted to the Xiaofeng County Higher Primary School. At the age of 17, he was admitted to Huzhou Public Wuxing Middle School. After graduation, he returned to Xiaofeng County High School and worked as a teacher of Chinese language, history and geography.
Hu Zongnan's tutor was strict, his father was a person with strong feudal ideas, and although Hu Zongnan became a teacher, his father still disciplined him very strictly.
This made Hu Zongnan very rebellious, he always wanted to go to the outside world to break in, he used the opportunity of the school winter and summer vacation to visit Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Zhenjiang, Nanjing and other places, his salary as a teacher was basically spent by his visit.
At that time, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou were all economically developed places, and the prosperity was far greater than that of xiaofeng, which made his idea of going out and wandering more and more intense, but he could not make up his mind when he already had a job.
Soon, the young Hu Zongnan fell in love with a girl named Ah Ying, Ah Ying was beautiful, but the family was not well off, and Hu Zongnan's father strongly opposed the marriage, because the door was improper, the household was not right, and it did not help his business.
His father forced him to marry a vulgar woman in the countryside of Kangkou who smoked and drank, which belonged to a commercial marriage, and Hu Zongnan, who had a strict tutor, had to obey, but on the wedding night, he accidentally found that the woman was no longer a virgin, felt fooled and deceived, and fell into bitterness from then on.
In the spring of 1924, he ran away from home and went to Shanghai, and with the help of Tong Xuchu, the president of the Shanghai Maozhu Bank, he went to Guangzhou to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy.
Whampoa Military Academy
Hu Zongnan is an authentic science student, and has read a lot of books, the results of the cultural class are quite good, when applying for the Whampoa Military Academy needs a re-examination, when the examiner of the re-examination sees that Hu Zongnan's height is less than 1.6 meters, and 1.6 meters is the minimum height to apply for the Whampoa Military Academy, the examiner eliminated him according to the regulations.
Hu Zongnan was very clever, he ran to the gate of the Whampoa Military Academy and cried loudly, because he knew that the big people of the school must enter the school gate through the gate, and sure enough, Hu Zongnan expected that just when he felt tired of crying, a middle-aged man with the same short stature came over and asked him why he was crying bitterly.
Hu Zongnan had been a teacher, according to the current words, he had stayed in the workplace, was good at observing the color, he saw that although the people were short in stature, they were extraordinary, very flamboyant, and knew that he was a big person, and he immediately made a generous statement, saying the ideal ambition of applying for the Whampoa Military Academy and serving the country, and then saying that he was not tall enough to be eliminated.
Hu Zongnan is good at acting, and his words are full of pleading and expectation, and he is a hot-blooded young man at first glance. Hu Zongnan successfully impressed this person, who took out a pen and wrote a note:
The National Revolution urgently needs a large number of talents. As long as the grades are good, in good health, and shorter, you should not be not admitted. Liao Zhongkai hurried grass.
It turned out that this person was none other than Liao Zhongkai, the party representative of the Whampoa Military Academy, who was Sun Yat-sen's right-hand man and a high-ranking and powerful figure in the Kuomintang. Liao Zhongkai said to Hu Zongnan, "Take this note and find the examiner!" ”
This is a note that changed his destiny, and it is with this note that Hu Zongnan was very fortunate to become the first student of the Whampoa Military Academy.
The first to fourth phases of the Whampoa Military Academy are the essence of the Whampoa Military Academy, especially the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy, and many generals of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party are from the first period, such as Hu Zongnan, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Geng, Zuo Quan, He Zhihan, Du Yuming, Li Xianzhou, Zheng Dongguo, Yu Jishi, Fan Hanjie, etc.
Chiang Kai-shek, who was then the president of the Whampoa Military Academy, was very good at using this platform to attract the talents he needed, and Chiang Kai-shek would talk to the list of cadets one by one.
Hu Zongnan
More than a month after the start of the school, Chiang Kai-shek talked to Hu Zongnan in the principal's office, and Hu Zongnan attached great importance to this conversation, both excited and nervous, and he knew that this was the time to test his acting talent again.
When Hu Zongnan walked to Chiang Kai-shek's office, Chiang Kai-shek sat behind his desk, Hu Zongnan was saluting, Hu Zongnan looked very energetic, but due to nervousness, the salute was relatively stiff, and his fingers were always stuck to the brim of the hat.
Chiang Kai-shek knew that Hu Zongnan was due to nervousness, which made Chiang Kai-shek very satisfied, because it showed his majesty, and he could not help but laugh:
"Hu Zongnan. What are you nervous about? Principal Ben is not a wolf. Can't you eat it! Boy, sit down. ”
Hu Zongnan's nerves relaxed a little, but at this time he was already sweating profusely, and Chiang Kai-shek saw the situation and busied himself with taking out a handkerchief from his pocket and giving it to Hu Zongnan. Hu Zongnan took the handkerchief and said in a loud voice, "Thank you!" Thank you! So he buried his head and wiped his sweat.
Chiang Kai-shek originally liked people of short stature, because tall people made him feel uneasy from the bottom of his heart, Chen Cheng and Hu Zongnan were very short, but they both won Chiang Kai-shek's trust.
Chiang Kai-shek talked with Hu Zongnan for a long time, the two were fellow countrymen, Chiang Kai-shek instinctively thought that Zhejiang people were smarter than other people, which was similar to Sun Yat-sen, who thought that Guangdong people were smarter than other people.
Since then, Hu Zongnan has become a regular visitor to President Jiang's family.
In the autumn of 1926, under the promotion of Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Zongnan had been promoted to the commander of the Second Regiment of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and the commander of the instructor was Wang Bailing.
At this time, the instructor fought fiercely with Sun Chuanfang's troops in Nanchang, Jiangxi, and Sun Chuanfang's troops had an advantage in numbers, and the instructor was defeated by Sun Chuanfang's troops.
In this situation, Hu Zongnan led his troops to attack the Niuhang station on the outskirts of Nanchang from the front. Niuxing was the gate of Nanchang, and the military position was very important, and Sun Chuanfang sent the commander Li Yanchun to lead more than 20,000 people to defend it.
At this time, The Station was surrounded by strong bunkers, trenches and various fortifications. Outside the station was a field, not even a single big tree, because all the big trees had been cut down by Sun Chuanfang's troops, which was conducive to enemy shooting and defense inside the bunker.
Northern Expeditionary Army
At that time, Hu Zongnan's second regiment lacked heavy weapons, artillery was even more lacking, Hu Zongnan adopted the tactic of sea of people, one battalion after another rushed upwards, followed by a collective charge of the whole regiment, but the attack lasted for a day and a night, still not conquered, and the troops suffered heavy casualties.
Chiang Kai-shek dismissed Wang Bailing and appointed Liu Zhi as the head of the teaching staff, and Liu Zhi asked Hu Zongnan: "You really can't beat Niuhang Station?" ”
Hu Zongnan replied very crisply: "Yes." But I was not convinced, they were just in a favorable position. ”
"When fighting a war depends on the time of day, the location, the people, and the people, they occupy the land for profit, can't you occupy the time of the sky?" Liu Zhi said.
Hu Zongnan knew that there was something in Liu Zhi's words, and Liu Zhi continued: "Zhuge Liang can burn Xinye, can't you burn niuxing!" ”
Jiang was still old and spicy, and Hu Zongnan suddenly understood Liu Zhi's meaning.
Subsequently, Hu Zongnan used a battalion of troops to transport firewood, grass, gasoline, and so on. Stacked southwest of The Niuhang Station, Hu Zongnan ordered people to sprinkle a large amount of peppers and raw water on the firewood grass poured with gasoline. After lighting, fire and smoke suddenly enveloped the Niuhang station.
The defenders of Niuhang Station could not stand the pungent smoke and ran out of the fortifications to run around, Hu Zongnan took the opportunity to command the heavy machine gun fire, and commanded the troops to capture the station.
Hu Zongnan defeated one of Sun Chuanfang's elite divisions with a regimental strength and captured the enemy commander Li Yanchun and more than 8,000 of his officers and men.
It should be said that the success of this battle has a certain degree of serendipity, and the success of this battle is attributed to Liu Zhi's idea, but the credit is all written on the head of Hu Zongnan, who became famous in the first battle, and his command ability was recognized by Chiang Kai-shek.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek was employing people, and the troops he had painstakingly built up must of course be led by people he trusted, and Hu Zongnan was a person who could both trust and fight in Chiang Kai-shek's eyes.
Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan
After Nanchang was conquered, Chiang Kai-shek changed his instructor to the First Division, becoming the core unit of Chiang Kai-shek, and in recognition of Hu Zongnan's merits, Chiang Kai-shek promoted Hu Zongnan to deputy commander of the First Division as a major general in May 1927.
At this point, Hu Zongnan became the first Whampoa student to be promoted to general, and in November 1927, Hu Zongnan was officially appointed as the commander of the First Division.
It can be said that Chiang Kai-shek gave his starting capital to Hu Zongnan, who was well aware of this, and he also knew that his fate was closely linked to Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang Kai-shek stubbornly adhered to the policy of "taking care of the outside world before at home," and although he did not quite agree with this view in his heart, he strictly implemented Chiang Kai-shek's military campaign to suppress the Red Army and acted as the vanguard of Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communism.
In June 1932, Chiang Kai-shek gathered 400,000 troops to attack the Red Fourth Front army in Dabie Mountain, while Hu Zongnan's First Division was the main force in the attack, and he led the First Division through Tongcheng and Shucheng to conquer Lu'an and Huoshan counties.
At this time, under the wrong command of Zhang Guotao, the Red Fourth Front ordered its troops to divide its troops south to Macheng in an attempt to attack Wuhan, and Hu Zongnan seized the opportunity of the Red Fourth Front's division to intercept and encircle the 10th and 12th Divisions of the Red Army in the area east of Hekou Town.
Surrounded by heavy Kuomintang troops, the Red Army suffered heavy casualties, and Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied with this battle, praising Hu Zongnan for "being able to attack the battle."
Although Hu Zongnan lost the Battle of Shan Castle, he attributed the blame to the commander of the 78th Division, Ding Delong, who was also a first-term student in Huangpu and a classmate of Hu Zongnan. Hu Zongnan removed him from his post.
After the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, Hu Zongnan was promoted to the commander of the First Army, and led his troops to pursue the Red Army, as a result, the 78th Division of the 1st Army was surrounded by our army at the mountain castle, most of one brigade was annihilated, and the whole division was defeated.
The Second Brigade of the First Division, stationed at Sweetwater Fort, was also hit hard, with one regimental commander killed and one regimental commander seriously wounded. In order to save face, Hu Zongnan dismissed division commander Ding Delong and brigade commander Liao Ang respectively.
The commander-in-chief of the Red Army at the Battle of Shan castle was Peng Dehuai, which was the first formal confrontation between Peng Dehuai and Hu Zongnan, who had the advantage in weapons and equipment, the number of personnel and logistical support, but was still defeated by the Red Army commanded by Peng Dehuai.
Hu Zongnan was Chiang Kai-shek's hardcore confidant, but he also had his own small calculations, and he knew that if he wanted to become bigger, he could not just have his own army, but he must have his own territory, so that he could gain a firm foothold.
In the middle is Hu Zongnan
In early 1942, Hu Zongnan was promoted to deputy commander of the Eighth Theater, stationed in Xi'an, and the commander of the Eighth Theater was Zhu Shaoliang, who was actually hanging on to a fictitious post and stationed in Lanzhou.
The Eighth Theater consisted of Li Yannian's Thirty-fourth Group Army, Tao Zhiyue's Thirty-seventh Group Army, Fan Hanjie's Thirty-eighth Group Army, and Li Tiejun's Twenty-ninth Group Army, all of whom were under the command of Hu Zongnan, and Hu Zongnan became a party prince in the true sense.
Peng Dehuai did not think much of such a rising star in the Kuomintang army.
At the beginning of 1939, the Kuomintang and the Communists had already cooperated in resisting Japan, but Chiang Kai-shek continued to create friction, and in order to solve the problem of anti-communist friction of the Kuomintang, Peng Dehuai went to Chongqing to talk with Chiang Kai-shek, and returned to Xi'an after the talks.
Peng Dehuai was the deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, and Hu Zongnan, as the king of the northwest, naturally had to receive him; at that time, Hu Zongnan was 43 years old, but he had already held heavy troops and became Chiang Kai-shek's favorite courtier.
After Peng Dehuai returned to the front, someone asked him what his impression of Hu Zongnan was.
Peng Dehuai replied: This person has great ambitions and talents.
Hu Zongnan, who was called by Chiang Kai-shek as capable of attacking battles, was evaluated by Peng Dehuai as a great ambition and a great talent, and facts have proved that Peng Dehuai's evaluation is very accurate and very objective.
There is an idiom in the art of war: proud soldiers must lose. That is to say, as a military general, we must always maintain a modest and cautious heart, self-righteousness and empty-sightedness, which is a taboo for military commanders.
After Hu Zongnan held a heavy army, he basically could not hear any different opinions.
Later, in the Liberation War, Hu Zongnan had a heavy army in his hands, but he was defeated by Peng Dehuai, who had few troops, so that other Kuomintang generals did not understand why Hu Zongnan was repeatedly defeated in battles, and an important reason was precisely Peng Dehuai's evaluation of "great ambition and talent".
Later, Hu Zongnan himself believed that his military ability was at most a regimental commander, and if he gave too many troops, he would feel powerless in command.
Hu Zongnan's command ability is average, so why can he become Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted military general? Because Hu Zongnan will shoot horses and act. Here's another example.
Autumn 1946. Chiang Kai-shek suddenly led Chen Lifu, Bai Chongxi, and others to Xi'an, and also went to hu zongnan's official residence no. 1 in Dongcangmen.
Chiang Kai-shek saw that on the front of Hu Zongnan's living room, there was a group photo of him and Sun Yat-sen on the Zhongshan ship that year. Here is his signature: Chiang Kai-shek presented it. He was very proud in his heart, and Hu Zongnan, a close confidant he had cultivated himself, was following him.
In fact, all this was prepared by Hu Zongnan, and Hu Zongnan's ability to shoot horses and act can achieve "moisturizing and silent", which is difficult for other Kuomintang military generals to learn.
Bai Chongxi originally did not like Hu Zongnan, and when he saw that Hu Zongnan did not spend his mind on the military but on thinking about Chiang Kai-shek, he was very dissatisfied, and privately told people: Hu Zongnan really can shoot horses and act.
However, Bai Chongxi knew that Hu Zongnan's relationship with Chiang Kai-shek was far better than his own, so he did not dare to say this to Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang Kai-shek at Hu Zongnan's funeral
Tianxuan is the author's pen name, who has studied history and philosophy and is welcome to pay attention to it.