After the Xi'an Incident was peacefully resolved, Zhang Xueliang followed Chiang Kai-shek to Nanjing.
Before leaving, Zhang Xueliang also knew that his act was more vicious and less auspicious, and the Northeast Army was likely to be leaderless, so he called General Yu Xuezhong and entrusted the Northeast Army to him.
Who is this General Xuezhong? Why can I get such trust and respect from Zhang Xueliang?
Yu Xuezhong was born in 1890 in Penglai, Shandong Province, to a military family, and when he grew up, he joined Wu Peifu's troops and made many military achievements. Later, Wu Peifu was defeated in the Northern Expedition, so he recommended Yu Xuezhong to Zhang Zuolin.
Zhang Zuolin also heard of his name for a long time and said, "I know your loyalty to Wu Ziyu (referring to Wu Peifu), and I hope that you can treat me like you did to Wu Ziyu. ”
Zhang Zuolin arranged Yu Xuezhong in Zhang Xueliang's troops, and soon gained Zhang Xueliang's appreciation and became an important confidant of Zhang Xueliang.
In 1933, Zhang Xueliang was forced to go to the wilderness, went abroad to investigate, and handed over the reorganized Northeast Army to Yu Xuezhong. This is not only trust, but also a hope of shame, and Yu Xuezhong has not lived up to Zhang Xueliang's trust.
Once, the Japanese army openly drove a tank in front of the Hebei Provincial Government to parade troops, and everyone dared to be angry. Yu Xuezhong, who was serving as the chairman of Hebei Province at the time, immediately sent more than a dozen soldiers, covered with explosives, to lie in front of Japanese tanks. The Japanese commander saw the situation and had to go back again.
Subsequently, Yu Xuezhong also held a special press conference and publicly declared:
"If the Japanese army does not stop all sinister actions such as provocations and conspiracies and assassinations, it will fire at the Japanese concession!"
In June 1935, He Yingqin signed the He Mei Agreement with Umezu Mijiro, and the Japanese specifically proposed that Yu Xuezhong be removed from his post as chairman of Hebei Province and let him leave Hebei. For such an unreasonable request, He Yingqin, a soft bone, actually agreed, and yu Xuezhong was so angry that he crushed his steel teeth!
Later, in order not to offend the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek transferred Yu Xuezhong's troops to Xi'an in a vain attempt to let them fight the Red Army. Of course, Yu Xuezhong would not listen to him, but because Yu Xuezhong led the troops to Xi'an, which created favorable conditions for Zhang Xueliang to launch the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek can be said to have lifted a stone and dropped it on his own feet.
After the Xi'an Incident, Yu Xuezhong opposed the release of Chiang Kai-shek, especially Zhang Xueliang's personal sending of Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing. The result was not expected by Xuezhong, and as soon as he arrived in Nanjing, Zhang Xueliang was placed under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek.
After the outbreak of the July 7 Incident, Yu Xuezhong's 51st Army was transferred to Gaomi and Weixian in Shandong to deploy defenses to contain the Japanese army, but unfortunately, because Han Fuyu escaped from the battle, Yu Xuezhong's troops were isolated and helpless, and later under the coordination of Li Zongren, they retreated to the area around Zhongshan in Anhui.
During the Battle of Taierzhuang, Yu Xuezhong's troops were ordered to deploy a 100-kilometer-long defensive line on the north bank of the Huai River to block Japanese support. Although the Japanese army attacked fiercely, Yu Xuezhong's troops always held their positions, resisted the repeated attacks of the Japanese army, and made great contributions to the final victory in the Battle of Taierzhuang!
After the war, Yu Xuezhong and his 51st Army became famous, and the media at the time called him a "great general", and the chairman's book "On Protracted War" also included the Huai River Blockade Battle under his command.
During Yu Xuezhong's tenure as commander-in-chief of the Lusu Guerrilla Theater, the 51st Army and the 57th Army under his command often cooperated with the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army led by our Party to resist the war and became a friend of our Party.
After the Eighth Route Army entered the Shandong region, it aroused the dissatisfaction of Shen Honglie, chairman of Shandong Province, and attempted to expel the Eighth Route Army from Shandong, but Yu Xuezhong opposed it, believing that the joining of the Eighth Route Army would be of great help to the current situation of the War of Resistance. Shen Honglie filed a complaint with Chiang Kai-shek, falsely accusing Yu Xuezhong of colluding with the Eighth Route Army, and Chiang Kai-shek had long wanted to get rid of Yu Xuezhong, so he used this excuse to remove him from military power and give him an idle post as vice president of the Military Senate.
On the eve of liberation in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek wanted him to go with him, but Yu Xuezhong ran to the countryside of Sichuan and went into seclusion to avoid Chiang Kai-shek's invitation.
After the founding of New China, at the invitation of the premier, Yu Xuezhong re-emerged from the mountains, but he only held some idle positions, such as the director of the Hebei Provincial Sports Commission, in his words: "I am a little low-key here, and Zhang Xueliang's life over there will be a little better." ”
On September 22, 1964, Yu Xuezhong died of illness at the age of 74.