The Battle of Taierzhuang, which began in March 1938 and lasted until April, was the first major victory of our army after the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the significance of this victory was very great, greatly increasing the morale of our army, and at the same time it also struck a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese, so that the people at that time had confidence in the final victory and knew that even the Japanese army could be defeated. It is precisely because this war is so important that Li Zongren, who commanded this battle and finally won the victory, has also become famous, but we are not talking about him this time, but a more controversial figure in this battle- Tang Enbo, who was the commander of the 20th Army of the Nationalist Army at that time, and the army under his jurisdiction was nearly 80,000 people, and the entire army was an elite division, and the combat effectiveness was very strong, and he was also sent to join this battle, but why did he passively avoid the battle?
Regarding this man, the point of controversy about him has always been that he had always been a passive and war-avoidant attitude before the war. At first, everyone noticed this problem because Li Zongren mentioned this matter in his memoirs, saying that at that time, he had severely asked Tang Enbo to hurry south and attack the enemy army with himself, but after he issued many orders, Tang Enbo still did not carry out the order, or wandered around the guba Mountain. Because of Li Zongren's outstanding performance in this battle, everyone believed his statement, but later Tang Enbo denied his negative statement, which was just a strategy used to deal with the Japanese army at that time, so there were many people who supported him later, and until now there is no statement that can fully convince the two sides.
People who think that Tang Enbo did something wrong believe that it is mainly because Tang Enbo cannot avoid the battle, even if it is a critical moment, he does not send troops, which led to the later occupation of Teng County by the enemy army, and the officers guarding the local area were martyred, at that time, the situation in Teng County was already very critical, and li Zongren and many generals repeatedly asked Tang Enbo to send troops to support, but they were rejected. Tang Enbo refused to obey the orders of the above, abandoned Teng County, and prepared to attack the enemy from the south, which eventually led to the fall of Teng County. Moreover, on the other hand, when Li Zongren was in a fierce battle in Taierzhuang, he repeatedly and severely asked Tang Enbo to come to support him, attack from the south, and join forces with himself to attack the enemy army, but Tang Enbo was always looking for various reasons to shirk and did not send troops.
However, those who supported Tang Enbo believed that the reason why he did not support Teng County was because he encountered a large number of Japanese troops when he was heading north, and the two sides were directly facing each other, and Tang Enbo was repelled because there were fewer cases than the other side, which did not free up the army to support. Moreover, the main strength of the Japanese army was also because he was restrained at this time, so he was unable to participate in the subsequent battles, which greatly reduced the pressure at that time and contributed to the victory of the final war.
But in fact, this support statement is not correct, and later a chief of staff of the Fifty-second Army told the real situation at that time when writing his memoirs, the Fifty-second Army was indeed able to fight with the Japanese Army Law at that time, but the number was not as many as Tonn bo said, they were not able to advance because of the excessive number of enemy troops, at that time they did not face a lot of enemies, Tang Enbo soon ended the battle, after the battle, the commander of the 52nd Army once asked him for cooperation, together to resist the main force of the Japanese army, But it was rejected. At this time, the main strength of the Japanese army had been attracted to the front of Taierzhuang, and at this time, Tang Enbo only needed to meet with the large troops, which was very favorable to the situation on our side at that time, but he did not choose to do so, but chose to find a place to hide and take the opportunity to avoid the battle.
In the 1880s, Yao Guojun, chief of staff of the Fifty-second Army, wrote in detail in his memoirs about the process of Tang Enbo's avoidance of war, so that everyone knew about this history and ended the related controversy.