In 1930, the battlefield spread to the whole country and participated in more than one million warlord melee- the Central Plains War, which ended with the victory of the Central Army. Since then, Chiang Kai-shek has established his orthodox status.
The Three Giants of the Central Plains War: Feng, Jiang and Yan
Although Chiang Kai-shek has since gone into the wilderness many times, the Nationalist government and China's most powerful Central Army have always been firmly in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek, while Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren, Yan Xishan, and others, who were once on an equal footing with Chiang Kai-shek, have been defeated.
After the defeat in the Central Plains War, Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang, and others who had suffered a crushing defeat were electrified and sent to the wilderness, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi were defeated and retreated to Guangxi, Yan Xishan fled to Dalian after leaving the wilderness, and Feng Yuxiang was forced to live in seclusion in Shanxi.
After this, however, the fates of several losers of the Central Plains War were completely different. Although the two attempts against Chiang kai-shek failed, the leaders of the New Gui clan, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, still firmly controlled Guangxi Province, and Li Zongren's Gui army had always been one of the strongest warlord forces in China.
The new Gui system of the three giants
Yan Xishan in Shanxi was no exception, and Yan Xishan quickly made a comeback after a brief retreat to Dalian, and the Jin Sui army under his command quickly returned to its command. It can be said that after the defeat of the Central Plains War, although Li Zongren, Yan Xishan, and others completely lost the possibility of competing for the whole country, the foundation of these two major forces, that is, their old nests, Guangxi Province and Shanxi Province, were still firmly in their hands, and they never lost the most fundamental strength of the warlords - the army.
However, there was one person who became an exception, that is, Feng Yuxiang, the leader of the Northwest Army. Before the Central Plains War, Feng Yuxiang was the most extensive warlord force among the four new warlords of the Kuomintang.
At that time, Feng Yuxiang, who was sitting in the six provinces of Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong, not only had the most extensive territory, but also the Northwest Army, with a total strength of more than 400,000, was also the most warlike unit among the various warlords in China.
Feng Yuxiang
However, even this large-scale and quite strong combat effectiveness was wiped out after the Central Plains War, and Feng Yuxiang completely lost his military power. After that, although Feng Yuxiang held important positions many times, most of them had no power, and Feng Yuxiang was no longer the warlord leader who was in the limelight.
Why were Yan Xishan and Li Zongren able to make a comeback after the defeat of the army, but Feng Yuxiang was completely defeated?
In fact, after the Battle of the Central Plains, although the Northwest Army suffered a crushing defeat, it did not completely disappear. At that time, Han Fuyu, who was born in the Northwest Army, became the chairman of Shandong Province, divided Shandong and had 100,000 troops. More than 20,000 remnants of the Northwest Army were stationed in Chahar under the leadership of Feng Yuxiang's old subordinate Song Zheyuan.
Song Zheyuan
Ma Hongkui, Ma Bufang, and others, who were originally under the command of the Northwest Army, occupied Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and other provinces. As for the forces of the other Northwest Army, such as Shi Yousan and others, they all had tens of thousands of troops, becoming a relatively independent warlord force in the north.
These warlord leaders from the Northwest Army still had a fairly strong military strength, and if these people, like the Jin Sui Army and the Gui Army, were still loyal to the old chiefs, Feng Yuxiang could easily make a comeback.
The provinces of Hebei, Chahar, Shandong, and Henan occupied by the old headquarters of the Northwest Army were even more superior than the barren lands such as Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai, where the Northwest Army had been based before the Great War. Therefore, Feng Yuxiang could even easily surpass Li Zongren and Yan Xishan, once again becoming the second largest warlord force of the Kuomintang after Chiang Kai-shek.
Northwest Army
However, unlike the choices of the generals of the Jin Sui Army and the Gui Army, Song Zheyuan, Ma Hongkui, Han Fuyu, Shi Yousan and others turned a blind eye to their old commander Feng Yuxiang. They either chose independence or relied on one side, but they did not choose to return to Feng Yuxiang's command. Although they still have a respectful attitude towards Feng Yuxiang on the surface, in essence, most of them have adopted the attitude of "respecting ghosts and gods and staying away".
Why did these veteran generals of the Northwest Army have such an attitude toward the old commander Feng Yuxiang?
You must know that most of the officers in the middle and upper levels of the Northwest Army were hand-picked by Feng Yuxiang, and many of them were even under Feng Yuxiang's command from the beginning of the soldiers. For example, Han Fuyu, Sun Liangcheng, Sun Lianzhong, Shi Yousan, Liu Ruming and others have had such experiences.
Han Fuyu
Promoted from an ordinary soldier to a senior general, whether it was the traditional concept or the morality of the people at that time, Feng Yuxiang could be called a mountain of kindness to these old generals of the Northwest Army. In fact, this is actually the fundamental reason why Feng Yuxiang has repeatedly encountered ups and downs, but has never lost control of the Northwest Army.
For example, in 1926, after the defeat of the Northwest Army under the joint attack of various warlords in the Northern Beiyang, Feng Yuxiang was forced to declare his resignation and go to the Soviet Union. The Northwest Army, which had suffered heavy losses and ran out of ammunition and food, was in a state of panic.
However, when Feng Yuxiang returned from the Soviet Union, the Northwest Army was immediately very excited, and the generals of the Northwest Army who had left were also reunited around Feng. This was also the reason why Feng Yuxiang was able to summon the old ministry to the Northern Expedition in Wuyuan.
However, all this changed completely differently after the Central Plains War. After the defeat in the Battle of the Central Plains, the old generals of the Northwest Army were no longer willing to return to Feng Yuxiang's command again as before. Why did these veteran generals of the Northwest Army invariably choose to betray Feng Yuxiang after the Central Plains War?
First, from a military point of view, it was because Feng Yuxiang had lost his base in the four northwestern provinces. When the Central War broke out, in order to fight a decisive battle with Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang was different from Yan Xishan, who was afraid of his head and tail, and he almost did his best.
At that time, Feng Yuxiang even had the idea of breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat, and therefore, he transferred almost all the troops of the Northwest Army left in Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and other base areas to the east to participate in the Central Plains War. In the telegram, Feng Yuxiang even said a telegram that "if you win, you will organize a government in Jiangnan, and if you lose, you will not hesitate to die together." This also shows Feng Yuxiang's resoluteness.
However, the decisive battle with all efforts, the victory is brilliant, but the result after the defeat is also very tragic. Due to the collapse of the nest, when the war took a sharp turn, Feng Yuxiang's northwest army could no longer withdraw to the northwest base area. Without a place of roots, the Northwest Army faced a desperate situation of running out of ammunition and eventually fell apart.
Second, it is related to the personal attitude of the senior generals of the Northwest Army towards Feng Yuxiang. Han Fuyu, Song Zheyuan, Shi Yousan, and other senior generals of the Northwest Army were all selected and promoted by Feng Yuxiang from the grassroots level. And Feng Yuxiang, who is good at training soldiers, has always been known for caring about the well-being of soldiers.
However, while caring about his subordinates, Feng Yuxiang was very strict with the senior generals of the Northwest Army that he had hand-picked. Since these people were all pulled up by him, for these officers, Feng Yuxiang was more likely to display the majesty of feudal paternalism, and the way of ruling also adopted the style of feudal paternalism.
For the senior generals of the Northwest Army who were already able to command thousands or even tens of thousands of troops, Feng Yuxiang completely ignored their dignity and still punished them like his sons and nephews and punished them for kneeling or even beating them with military sticks.
Senior generals of the Northwest Army
Obviously, in Feng Yuxiang's eyes, they were no different from the juniors who could be scolded by their elders, but for these senior generals who had become the chief of an army or even the chairman of a province, this was simply intolerable.
Because they are no longer an unruly creep. Feng Yuxiang's scolding was a trampling on their dignity, and the longer and more times such experiences were experienced, the more dissatisfied they accumulated in the hearts of these high-ranking generals. Eventually, this discontent erupted in the adversity of the Northwest Army, leaving them to choose to leave the feudal patriarchal leader far away.
Third, the Northwest Army did not have a clear political proposition. This is also the failure lesson that Feng Yuxiang himself summed up. Because he did not study much since childhood, Feng Yuxiang did not actually receive a perfect education, especially military education.
Therefore, Feng Yuxiang, who has been a soldier since he was a teenager and grew up in the military, is very good at military, but he is a typical layman for education and politics.
Due to the limitations of life and educational experience, Feng Yuxiang's mode of thinking is actually quite limited, for example, he has a simple patriotic concept of national salvation, but there is no clear belief and political proposition. His own distrust of scientific and technological and political talents has also made Feng Yuxiang not have a reliable think tank to check and fill in the gaps.
Therefore, in order to control the army, Feng Yuxiang tried his best, but none of them were satisfactory. Feng Yuxiang even adopted a religious approach, which earned him the nickname "General Christ". But none of this will solve the fundamental problems of the Northwest Army. The officers and men of the Northwest Army who did not have a unified political belief could never really unite together, which also made the generals of the Northwest Army generally not optimistic about the future.
Fourth, it also has a lot to do with the barrenness of the Northwest. As we all know, fighting a war is to fight money, just as the so-called cannon is fired, gold is two thousand. This is especially true in modern warfare, which relies heavily on weapons and logistics.
Therefore, in the warlord melee, the importance of money is irreplaceable. Regrettably, however, although it occupied the most extensive territory at that time, the base area of the Northwest Army, which was mainly in the northwest region, was the most barren place in the territory of the four new warlords of the Kuomintang.
Therefore, although Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army was known for its good at war, it was also the poorest equipped and poorest unit among the warlords in the country at that time. The Northwest Army was even called the Flower Army by the local people, because the soldiers of the Northwest Army did not even have a complete set of uniforms, and had to wear tattered civilian clothes.
The most tragic thing is that when the Central Plains War broke out, the Northwest Army had just experienced a rare series of major droughts in a hundred years, which led to disasters in the northwest region and becoming more and more barren. Relying on such a base area, even if Feng Yuxiang tried his best to fish, his military expenditure was far from that of Yan Xishan, Chiang Kai-shek, and others.
Yan Xishan
In many cases, the officers and men of the Northwest Army not only could not get their salaries on time, but also could not even eat enough. In this case, when they encountered the Central Army, which was far above the level of living and treatment, a very strong contrast was naturally formed.
It was also this huge contrast that when Chiang Kai-shek used the advantage of money to launch the Gold Dollar Offensive, the Northwest Army fell under the Golden Dollar Offensive due to its unbalanced mentality. Even if some people did not turn their backs, these unbalanced generals of the Northwest Army were demoralized.
Fifth, it is also related to the officers and men of the Northwest Army who hate warlords and fights and the general pursuit of peace and reunification. The Great War of the Central Plains was essentially a civil war in which the various warlord forces of the Kuomintang competed for interests.
However, Chiang Kai-shek's position in this is the most unique, although he is also for his own selfish interests, but after all, Chiang Kai-shek occupies the central government, has always controlled the National Government, and has always occupied the great righteousness.
Chiang Kai-shek
Under such circumstances, although the prestige of the Kuomintang Central Committee has long been low and cannot be lowered, for ordinary officers and men of the Northwest Army, this is still the central government without doubt.
Therefore, when Chiang Kai-shek called for the cessation of the civil war in the name of the Nationalist government, the officers and men of the Northwest Army, who longed for reunification and hated the civil war, chose to side with Chiang Kai-shek.
Therefore, under the joint action of various factors, Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, which has more than 400,000 troops and occupies the land of the six northwestern provinces, has completely been torn apart, and Feng Yuxiang, who has been in the limelight for decades, has since become the commander of the light pole.