Chapter 17 Chapter 3 Power comes out of the barrel of a gun

Section 1: The Northern Expedition of Tying Ducks to the Shelves In his later years, Sun Yat-sen always dreamed of the Northern Expedition. He once visited Shaoguan in northern Guangdong to supervise the army, but his wish never came true.The so-called Northern Expedition refers to the unification of force from south to north, and Wu Peifu's grand plan of military unification from north to south. Although the doctrine is different, the use of force is the same.Due to successive years of wars and the people's livelihood, many local leaders advocated self-government, starting with provincial self-government, then inter-provincial self-government, and finally achieving a confederative-style peaceful unification.Chen Jiongming fell out with Sun Yat-sen because he advocated federal self-government.

Chiang Kai-shek was by no means the only one who inherited Sun Yat-sen's legacy of the Northern Expedition. All Sun Yat-sen party members, whether left or right, wanted the Northern Expedition to unify China.The Soviet Union's military aid to the Chinese Kuomintang was to strengthen the military power of the Northern Expedition.The question is whether there is the power to unify by force.The debate between Chiang Kai-shek and the Russian adviser Kisanka was not about whether to take the Northern Expedition.If the Russians opposed the Northern Expedition, why would they send military advisers?What is the purpose of sending a large number of Russian-made munitions?Therefore, Li Yunhan said in the book "Calmly Communism to the Qing Party" that Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly proposed the Northern Expedition, but it was "repeatedly obstructed by Russian advisers and Communists", which is unreasonable.The Russian adviser just felt that it was not the right time for a large-scale Northern Expedition, and Jiang's argument with Ji Shanjia was just one of many excuses for creating the Zhongshan Ship Incident.

In fact, until the eve of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek was still very hesitant about the Northern Expedition.In May 1926, the Guangxi army was already under heavy artillery fire in the Hengyang area. Li Zongren arrived in Guangzhou on the 10th and persuaded Jiang to make a northern expedition. How can we talk about the Northern Expedition now?" Li and Jiang debated repeatedly for a long time, but Jiang's attitude was still very hesitant. (See "Li Zongren's Memoirs", pages 200-201) Later, Li Zongren persuaded Li Jishen, the commander of the Fourth Army, to fuel the momentum of the Northern Expedition.At the same time, Li Ming informed Jiang and elected him as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition.In fact, the most powerful recommender for Chiang was the Russian advisor Borodin.

After the Zhongshan Ship Incident, Consultant Bao deliberately appeases Chiang Kai-shek for the sake of "unity".In May, Jiang forced Hu Hanmin to leave, arrested Wu Tiecheng and Ouyang Ge as scapegoats, and detained them together with Xiong Kewu and others in the horizontal fortress of Humen Fortress. (See "Guo Ruhuai's Memoirs", page 17) Of course Borodin was very pleased and reported to Moscow: "The rightists have been severely hit and have to give up their plots." (Yang Tianshi "Seeking the Mystery of History", page 4 69) So Borodin vigorously mobilized Chiang to be the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army.Jiang "resigned with fear and shame"! The Russians did not understand the traditional Chinese culture of "resign with shame and resignation." (See "Chiang Kai-shek's Diary Class Copy Military Affairs" June 3, 1926) Although the Central Committee of the Kuomintang appointed Chiang Kai-shek as the commander-in-chief on June 4, there was still no sign of the Northern Expedition, and the Northern Expedition was not launched until July 1. The mobilization order; the large-scale swearing-in ceremony was not held in Guangzhou until July 9. Sun Ke held the portrait of Sun Yat-sen, the chairman of the government Tan Yan granted the seal, and the supervisory member Wu Zhihui presented the flag; Chiang Kai-shek did not leave Guangzhou until late July, and Bao Luo At the farewell banquet, Ting still called for "under Comrade Jiang, advance together and defeat the enemy." (See Shanghai "Republic of China Daily" July 20, 1926)

When Chiang Kai-shek was swearing in vigorously in Guangzhou, Li Zongren had already instigated Tang Shengzhi to become the commander of the Eighth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and had already occupied southern Hunan.Li Zhi's Seventh Army then went to Hunan to aid Tang, and on July 10 they conquered Changsha.When Li and Tang met in Hengyang on July 15, Chiang Kai-shek had not yet left Canton.As an American scholar said, the oath was made in Guangzhou after the Northern Expedition had been successful. (See Jordan, The Northern Expedition, P.73) In other words, Li Zongren's Seventh Army, Li Jishen's Fourth Army, and Tang Shengzhi's Eighth Army had already won battles in Hunan before Chiang Kai-shek left his army.

At that time, Li and Tang advocated going down to Wuhan, but Chiang Kai-shek wanted them to take a defensive position against Hubei and turn their main force to Jiangxi. Apparently he was afraid of Li and Tang's achievements, so he wanted to set up another battlefield to show that the commander-in-chief had a clever plan.But in terms of tactics, capturing Wuhan and cutting off the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is the best policy after all; strategically, turning to Jiangxi will inevitably enter Sun Chuanfang's territory, and forcing Sun Chuanfang, who was originally neutral, to Wu Peifu is naturally the worst policy.Although Chiang Kai-shek was thirty-nine years old when he took office as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition, his basic military training was extremely limited and he had little combat experience.Just wanting to prevent Li and Tang from taking Wuhan directly has exposed his incompetence in tactics and strategy.Li Zongren also went to Hengyang again on August 9 to welcome Commander-in-Chief Chiang who was going north, and explained the need to go straight to Wuhan. (See "Memoirs of Li Zongren", pages 230-231) Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Changsha on August 12 for a military meeting. Under the influence of the Russian military adviser General Galen, he finally decided on the proposal of Li Zongren and Tang Shengzhi to attack Wuhan . (See "Li Zongren's Memoirs", pages 230-231, 234-235; Yang Tianshi's "Searching for the Mystery of History", page 484)

After the Changsha military conference was over, and all the armies were on standby to set off, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly summoned the Seventh and Eighth Armies on August 14th to hold a military parade at the Grand Campus outside the east gate of Changsha, apparently to show the prestige of the commander-in-chief.Unfortunately, the show of prestige turned out to be a fool.Li Zongren has a vivid description in his memoirs: When the commander-in-chief's mount slowly advanced from the front of the Seventh Army, I followed closely behind, but I saw him slowly raising his hand in salute, inspecting carefully, with a calm and solemn attitude, quite the demeanor of a general.After the inspection of the Seventh Army, the military band at the head of the Eighth Army immediately played music.All the musical instruments were shining with gold and the music was loud. Behind me, I saw that the commander-in-chief's mount was a little bit disobedient.There were more than ten buglers behind the military band. When the commander-in-chief's horse had just passed the ranks of the military band, the captain of the bugler gave a command, and the dozen or so buglers immediately played their single trumpets.The movements were very neat, but there was a flash of golden light, dazzling and blinding, and then the trumpet sounded loudly, sharp and ear-piercing.Commander-in-Chief Jiang's horse was startled by this, and suddenly hissed loudly, raised its front hooves, and immediately galloped towards the center of the school field.Probably Commander-in-Chief Jiang was not used to riding a horse, so he couldn't rein in, and lost his center of gravity in an instant.But his right foot was still caught in the stirrup and was dragged upside down on the ground.When I saw it later, I was shocked and at a loss.Fortunately, Mrs. Jiang was wearing riding boots instead of leather shoes, and they were very loose, and they fell off from her feet when dragged by the horse.The commander-in-chief was dragged two feet away, so he separated from his horse and lay down on the ground.We all dismounted quickly, helped him up, and asked him if he was injured.But seeing the commander-in-chief still in shock, out of breath, his serge military uniform was covered with mud, his hat and boots were off, and his white gloves were covered with mud, he was in a panic.At this time, the trumpeters of the Eighth Army had stopped playing, and the adjutant of the general headquarters also came to pat some of the dirt off Jiang's body.Commander-in-Chief Chiang led us to parade on foot, bouncing and limping, barely finishing the parade. (Page 237)

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the commander-in-chief fell off his horse and fell to the ground, really embarrassed.However, Chiang Kai-shek was quite capable. After falling from his horse, he continued to review the column and gave a speech to the officers and soldiers before finishing.Li Zongren pointed out that Tang Shengzhi was very superstitious, thinking that "Jiang's family could not climb the level of the Eighth Army", and he was delusional. (See "Li Zongren's Memoirs" page 238) In fact, Chiang Kai-shek was not superstitious. He complained in his diary that after entering Hunan, he and Tang Shengzhi "could not refuse, but were unwilling to welcome" (see "Chiang Kai-shek's Diary Class Copy·Military Affairs" 19 August 7, 2006), you can tell that you are useless.

The invasion of Wuhan was set, and Li Zongren's Seventh Army and Tang Shengzhi's Eighth Army marched northward, victorious, conquering Yuezhou on August 22, controlling the railway line leading to Hankou, and capturing Tingsi in a bloody battle on the 27th. bridge.When Chiang Kai-shek passed by by train two days later, he still saw "heavy corpses and sad eyes".The late commander-in-chief called another military meeting in Tujiawan, near Wuchang, on September 4th, but he didn't know the enemy's situation, so he gave the order to capture Wuchang within 48 hours. Li Zongren and other senior generals looked at each other, unable to speak .As a result, the hard attack started at 3:00 a.m. on September 5, and the casualties were too heavy to be released, so the attack had to be ordered to stop.In the end, it was up to the Eighth Army to take Hanyang first, conquer it on September 6, and then occupy Hankou the next day. So far, Wuchang has become a turtle in a urn, surrendering without a fight.The commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition Army conquered the three towns of Wuhan, and the commander-in-chief should be very glorious, but Chiang Kai-shek knew that the military exploits belonged to Li Zongren and Tang Shengzhi, and it was very unpleasant to make a fool of himself in front of Li and Tang, so he decided to "personally supervise the battle of Jiangxi." (See "Chiang Kai-shek's Diary Class Copy · Military Affairs" August 29, 1926)

We can clearly see that Chiang Kai-shek became the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army mainly because of the successful coup d'etat by taking advantage of the Zhongshan ship incident, and because of his successful use of tactics, not because of his military talents.In fact, his military ability is very short.What should not be overlooked is that as late as June 1926, he was still hesitant about the Northern Expedition. Later, the Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Armies had entered Hunan, and the Northern Expedition had become like riding a tiger. Tie the ducks to the shelves.The Northern Expedition was so powerful that it captured the three towns of Wuhan within two months, which can be said to be extremely fast.Although the soldiers of the Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Armies worked hard, such speed was by no means a simple military victory.In fact, in terms of military strength, the Northern Expedition Army was far from comparable to the Beiyang Army. This is one of the main reasons why the Guangzhou Nationalist Government, including Chiang Kai-shek and Russian advisers, was unable to decide on the Northern Expedition.

It is not difficult to see that there are two huge forces behind the Northern Expedition.The first is that since the May 4th Movement, after the May 30th tragedy, the nationwide anti-imperialist patriotic sentiment has been aroused, and nationalism has pervaded China, forming a trend that cannot be resisted.As Borodin said: "We did not create the May 30th tragedy, but others sent it to our door." (See Xiong Shiyi's English Biography of Jiang, p. 222) Help, and the Beiyang warlords bear the brunt of it.The Chinese Communist Party took advantage of this trend to organize workers and peasants, launch a mass movement, and deliberately propagate it.The Northern Expeditionary Army undoubtedly advanced amidst the voices of "Down with imperialism!" and "Down with warlords!"The second is the assistance from the Soviet Union. Both human and material assistance are indispensable for establishing a revolutionary base in Guangdong.Borodin was basically the chief architect of the reorganization of the Chinese Kuomintang in 1924, and Chiang Kai-shek had Russian military advisers by his side in his northern expedition.As for the number of artillery guns in the Russian reinforcements, there is no definite data.But Li Zongren remembered that on the eve of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek told him, "Russia's aid to the revolutionary army has arrived at Huangpu Port. There are about 10,000 rifles, more than 100 heavy machine guns, and dozens of radio transmitters." ("" Li Zongren's Memoirs, page 220) Now we know from secret Russian documents that Russia also provided air force in the early days of the Northern Expedition, which was used in the Jiangxi battlefield, and made an aviation budget for 1927-28, which was US$260 ten thousand yuan. (See Wiburand How, Missionaries of Revolution, p. 781) From this clue, we can get a little idea of ​​the importance of Russian aid.If there is not a lot of Russian-made equipment, even if there is popular support, the Northern Expedition will not be effective.People's support and Russian aid were undoubtedly the two indispensable elements for the success of the Northern Expedition. However, after Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Beijing and Shanghai, he publicly and vigorously opposed the Communist Party and purgeed the party. They are all included in the list of condemnation and exclusion, which is not surprising!