In the Kuomintang army, if you want to say who will fight, whether it is from the Northern Expedition to the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression to the War of Liberation, there are many generals who have emerged in the war of sword and fire, but to say that which general is the best at escaping, Sun Yuanliang, commander of the 16th Corps during the Liberation War, is estimated to be the best.
Outdated generals
In the last century, China was in the midst of drastic changes, and we were rapidly transitioning from a deep-rooted feudal society. But when this transformation is mapped into society, there will be ideological and cultural disconnections. In the military field, many generals who lead troops to fight wars have not received real modern military education, and many of them take society as their teacher, and they still have a very strong military style of the old era. To put it simply, many of them still think in the era of cold weapons, and they are obviously very uncomfortable with this ever-changing era.
Why did the generals in the Kuomintang troops have a relatively obvious transition between the old and the new after entering 1945? It is because the environment of fighting for muscle and courage in the twenties and thirties has passed, and what is in front of them is that firepower is king. In the face of absolute firepower superiority, no matter how brave you are, it will look particularly tragic. And this is enough in the war between the United States and Iraq, that times have changed.
Although Sun Yuanliang was always criticized for running away later, how could he be a person who couldn't fight at all if he was produced by the Whampoa Military Academy?
In 1930, Sun Yuanliang participated in the Central Plains War as a descendant of Chiang Kai-shek's Whampoa Military Academy. As the commander of the 1st Brigade, Sun Yuanliang waved his division north, crossed the Yellow River, and rushed to the Hebei front to quell Shi Yousan's rebellion against Chiang Kai-shek.
In the early spring of 1932, the "January 28" incident broke out suddenly. In the face of the Japanese invasion, Sun Yuanliang went to Miaohang Town on the outskirts of Shanghai and threw himself into the fierce anti-Japanese battle. In this battle, which was remembered by later generations as a "great victory in the temple," they dealt a heavy blow to the aggressors with their heroic and fearless spirit and flexible tactics, and greatly boosted the anti-Japanese fighting spirit of the people of the whole country. Therefore, Sun Yuanliang also received the fourth-class Baoding Medal issued by the Nationalist Government as an affirmation of his outstanding contributions, and was subsequently promoted to the deputy commander of the 88th Division.
The soul of Nanjing City is broken
If the time stays before 1937, Sun Yuanliang must be a person with the halo of the protagonist in the novel, high-spirited and promising.
But in 1937, as one of Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted generals that year, Sun Yuanliang was given the task of defending Nanjing with others. This time, Sun Yuanliang saw the really strong Japanese troops, and in the face of the well-equipped and suppressed Japanese army, Sun Yuanliang, who was once full of confidence, was full of bitterness. Sun Yuanliang led the 88th Division under his command to guard the area from Nanjing Yuhuatai to Zhonghua Gate, although he had the intention of killing the enemy, but the gap was too big, and his soldiers suffered heavy casualties. By the time the city of Nanjing was about to fall, Sun Yuanliang's troops had been killed and wounded.
The defeat is decided, and Sun Yuanliang can only lead the remnants to break through. For Sun Yuanliang's breakthrough, many people said that he was fleeing, but in fact, the defeat of Nanjing was decided at that time, and the commander at that time, Tang Shengzhi, had also made an order to retreat, and Sun Yuanliang could be regarded as a blame this time.
If you can't win, you have to run
During the War of Liberation, Sun Yuanliang and Li Mi can be said to be brothers and sisters, both of them were not in the limelight during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and they were angry everywhere with the Zhuangding Corps during the War of Liberation.
In October 1947, Sun Yuanliang was appointed commander of the 47th Army of the Zhengzhou Pacification Office, and then in August 1948, his unit was expanded into the 16th Corps, and he served as the commander of the corps and deputy director of the Zhengzhou Advance Command of Xuzhou. However, in the Huaihai Campaign, the main forces of the Kuomintang troops in the Huaihai Campaign were the three major corps of Qiu Qingquan, Huang Baitao, and Huang Wei, while the two miscellaneous corps of Sun Yuanliang and Li Mi could only be used as mobile corps to respond.
In the Huaihai Campaign, General Su Yu reached the peak, the elite regiment of the Kuomintang was completely defeated, and Sun Yuanliang's troops, as a miscellaneous corps, were wiped out when they broke through, but Sun Yuanliang, as a military commander, escaped in disguise, and his level was still higher than that of Wang Yaowu in Shandong.
Sun Yuanliang is just a wave in the tide of history, some people look down on him and say that he is a runaway general, but the cruelty of war is incomprehensible to those who have not experienced it. Everyone has their own choice when choosing, although Zeng Guofan has also been defeated repeatedly, why should he be forced to be righteous? Besides, didn't Sun Yuanliang, who was defeated and flee, also fight again, and later people commented that the events of the year were somewhat on the shelf