Chapter 34 34. How was Chiang Kai-shek’s gun barrel made?

When the Whampoa Military Academy was opened, there were very few ordnances. Later, Chiang Kai-shek obtained 500 rifles from the Ishii Arsenal through personal connections. The first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy enrolled 499 students on June 16, 1924, and graduated on November 30 of the same year. There were 456 people, and these 500 rifles and the first batch of trainees became the first capital of Chiang Kai-shek's fortune. During his visit to the Soviet Union, Chiang Kai-shek devoted his energy to inspecting the various arms of the Soviet Red Army, military academies, arsenals, and the establishment, management, political work, and party representative system of the Red Army. Some of the experience was also used, but this is not the most important.For Chiang Kai-shek, the experience of visiting the Soviet Union laid a solid foundation for him to become the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, and opened a thoroughfare for his subsequent prosperity.

Among the revolutionary groups led by Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek did not rank high, but the few people in front of him, such as Hu Hanmin, Liao Zhongkai, and Wang Jingwei, did not have military experience. level of military experience (he served as chief of staff in Xu Chongzhi's Cantonese Army several times).Xu Chongzhi was an early graduate of the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer School and had become a member of the Association in the late Qing Dynasty (his uncle was the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian). In terms of qualifications, he was much older than Chiang Kai-shek, but his excessively extravagant warlord life style was a good example for the party. People don't like it.

At that time, the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy might not be considered a particularly prominent position in the Kuomintang, but his potential was endless. On January 24, 1924, after Chiang Kai-shek was appointed as the chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Army Military Academy, Sun Yat-sen went to inspect the proposed school site in person, and finally set the school site on Huangpu Island, which was the former Guangdong Army School and Guangdong Naval School. The new military academy is also known as "Whampoa Military Academy" (the official name should be "National Revolutionary Army Army Officer Academy").

Huangpu Island is located in the lower reaches of the Pearl River, more than 20 kilometers away from Guangzhou. There is a Cheung Chau Fortress on the island, which is surrounded by water. Although the environment is quiet, it is an important waterway that defends Guangzhou.Sun Yat-sen believed that learning and training in such a military center really complemented each other, which was also in line with Chiang Kai-shek's school-running philosophy at the time: "Don't think that learning and fighting are two different things!" According to Wang Boling, the director of the Professor Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, when the military academy was preparing, everyone believed that the training period would be at least one year, but Chiang Kai-shek said it would be three months, and said that if it was delayed, China might have perished during this period; , it was only a compromise of six months.At the beginning of the establishment of the military academy, Chiang Kai-shek devoted almost all of his time and energy to it, from the selection of instructors, the content of teaching, to the training of students, the management of school affairs, and even the design of military uniforms, and the sanitation of the school buildings. After Chiang Kai-shek's personal participation and decision.

Chiang Kai-shek often said, "The first batch of students can be said to be mostly guided by me personally." Because of this, the first batch of Huangpu students are the most valued by Chiang Kai-shek. Among them, there are many outstanding students, such as Song Xilian, Hu Zongnan, Yu Chengwan, Guan Linzheng , Jiang Xiaoxian, Huang Wei, Wang Yaowu, Zheng Dongguo, Du Yuming, Sun Yuanliang, Li Xianzhou, Li Mo'an, Fan Hanjie, Chen Mingren, Zhong Wei, He Zhonghan (the above are from the Kuomintang), Zuo Quan, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Geng, Zhou Shidi, Hou Jingru, Xuan Xiafu (the above are for the Communist Party), etc. In January 1926, less than a year and a half after the first batch of students in Whampoa graduated, Chiang Kai-shek revealed in a speech to the next few batches of students: "The first batch of students originally had only 460 students, but even the second, third, and fourth batches Today there are 5,440 students who have graduated and have not yet graduated. However, there are only 140 students left in the first batch of students, and the rest are either dead or injured.” Chiang Kai-shek’s words are also reflected from the side. It reveals the cruelty of military promotion.

Economically, the Whampoa Military Academy was also extremely difficult at the beginning.At that time, although Liao Zhongkai was a party representative in name, his actual task was to raise funds for the Whampoa Military Academy.According to Liao Zhongkai's wife, He Xiangning, the Whampoa Military Academy often had no food for the night when it opened. In order to raise funds for rice and dishes, Liao Zhongkai often had to be busy until more than two o'clock in the night before returning.Once, Liao Zhongkai didn’t come back until four o’clock in the morning, and he said: “I was at Yang Ximin’s house at night, and I won’t get the thousands of dollars until he finishes smoking opium. Otherwise, the students in Huangpu will have no food in two days. "Wang Bailing also said that Chiang Kai-shek often went out to borrow money in person in order to raise funds, and once borrowed money from the private savings of Wang Jingwei's wife, Chen Bijun, on the condition that it would be doubled in the future!

At that time, in Guangdong, the Dongjiang area was controlled by Chen Jiongming's forces, the South Road had the warlord Deng Benyin, and the tax revenue in the Guangzhou area was controlled by the Yunnan warlord Yang Ximin and the Guangxi warlord Liu Zhenhuan.Fan Shisheng, a general of the Yunnan Army, once described the scene in Guangzhou to Li Zongren: "Sometimes we were smoking on the couch, and suddenly our subordinates came to report that 'the generalissimo is coming', so we put down our pipes, went out to meet the generalissimo, and returned to the city. Sit down in the smoke couch room, and ask the Generalissimo for his instructions. If Tan Yankai or Hu Hanmin come to visit, we will sit up from the smoke couch and ask them to sit down and discuss. Sometimes Chiang Kai-shek also comes, and we continue to smoke opium in the smoke couch. He didn’t even sit up.” After hearing this, Li Zongren felt infinitely sad, but he also admitted that what Fan Shisheng said was true.At that time, Sun Yat-sen's Grand Marshal's Mansion had no government financial resources, and sometimes even had no rice for food. One can imagine the hardships of the Whampoa Military Academy.

Entrepreneurship is certainly difficult, but the period from the establishment of Huangpu School in 1924 to the Northern Expedition in 1926 was a critical period for Chiang Kai-shek to build his own cadre team and develop and expand his direct army. During this period, there are four major events that are remarkable. That is to put down the rebellion of the Guangzhou merchant group, the first Eastern Expedition, the suppression of the rebellion of the warlords Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan, and the second Eastern Expedition. In early August 1924, shortly after the Whampoa first-term students entered school, a foreign ship "Harvard" flying the Norwegian flag sailed from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. After investigation, there were nearly 10,000 long and short guns and more than 3 million rounds of bullets on board. The business group ordered from Nanli Matheson in Hong Kong.After this incident, the firearms were confiscated, and the Guangzhou business group launched a strike protest, demanding the return of the firearms.

After the strike, the Dian Army, which relied on intercepting Guangzhou and Foshan’s tax revenues, intervened in the mediation. It asked the authorities to return the guns on the condition that the business group pay the government 500,000 yuan. However, because of the outbreak of the “Jiangsu-Zhejiang War” a few days later, Sun Yat-sen Thinking that the time for the Northern Expedition had come, and then personally led the base camp to the north, it was impossible to return the firearms, because some firearms and bullets had been transferred to the north (the reason why the Northern Expedition team must use new firearms).In order to raise military expenses for the Northern Expedition, the Grand Marshal’s Mansion proposed that the merchant group must raise an additional 3 million yuan in funds for the Northern Expedition as a condition for the return of the ordnance. When the two sides could not agree, the Guangzhou Business Group contacted Guangzhou and more than 100 counties and towns in early October. The second strike.

During this period, Sun Yat-sen ordered Chiang Kai-shek to lead the students of the Whampoa Military Academy to go north to Shaoguan to participate in the Northern Expedition, but Chiang Kai-shek refused. Chiang Kai-shek replied: "The Pu school is in danger, and Zhongzheng is determined to defend the isolated island, waiting for Mr. to return to the division as soon as possible to help. The reluctance to give up the stronghold has left our party without a foothold. Zhongzheng expects that the rebellious enemy will soon counterattack Shaoguan, and all armies must prepare to go south to defeat the rebellious enemy.

What Chiang Kai-shek said "is at stake" actually refers to the chaos of the merchant group, because the training of the Whampoa Military Academy has just begun, "within three months, there must be a strong army that can be used as the backbone to wipe out all the evils and first try to consolidate the revolution. The base of Guangzhou", once Guangzhou is lost, not only will the Northern Expedition lose its rear base, "our party will never have a foothold."It was precisely because of Chiang Kai-shek's persistence that the Whampoa Military Academy did not become the "Shaoguan Military Academy". From the perspective of later history, Chiang Kai-shek's persistence was correct, and Mr. Sun's Northern Expedition still ended in failure. Fortunately, the first batch of weapons aided by the Soviet Union arrived in Guangzhou on October 7 under the carriage of the "Vorovsky", including 8,000 rifles, 4 million bullets, field artillery, mountain artillery, light and heavy machine guns Such as heavy weapons, business group weapons and strength are insignificant, and it is just the right time to solve the crisis caused by the business group.Under Sun Yat-sen's order, the 3,000 Hunan Army transferred back from Shaoguan by the Grand Marshal's Mansion as the main force, assisted by the militia and the second and third teams of the Whampoa Phase I, launched a final fierce attack on the merchants' armed forces.The battle was not intense this time, and the battle started before dawn, and at night the merchant group was defeated by Qihe (the merchant was reluctant to part with the capital after all).Three days later, the students of Whampoa Phase I held a graduation ceremony. While the cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy were entering the school one after another, Chiang Kai-shek also recruited troops in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and other places (using Chen Guofu's exchange in Shanghai as a transit point), preparing to establish a teaching group.When the students from the first phase of Whampoa graduated, the teaching regiment had also been organized into an army. He Yingqin, the chief military instructor of the Whampoa Military Academy, served as the head of the regiment, Chen Jicheng and Gu Zhutong, the military instructors, were the battalion commanders, and the company commander was the captain among the former graduates. , General graduates serve as platoon leader or squad leader.One month later, the Second Teaching Regiment was established, with Wang Boling as the head of the regiment, and Jiang Dingwen and Zheng Dongguo as the battalion and company commanders.The backbone of this armed force is composed of members of the Whampoa Military Academy, so it was also called the "School Army" at the time. This was also the first team built by Chiang Kai-shek himself, and the subsequent expansion of the army was based on this.Most of the members of this army later became senior generals or officials of the Kuomintang, that is, the cradle of the "Whampoa faction". During this period, Soviet assistance was crucial.After the first batch of ordnance was urgently needed, the Soviet side shipped in the second batch of ordnance after 1925, worth 560,000 rubles. In 1926, four batches of ordnance were shipped in. The first batch included 4,000 Japanese-made rifles, 4 million rounds of bullets, and 1,000 sabers; There are 40 machine guns, 4,000 bullet belts, 12 cannons, and 1,000 shells; the fourth batch is 5,000 rifles, 5 million bullets, 50 machine guns, and 12 cannons.In addition, a certain amount of communication equipment is also provided. Chiang Kai-shek received most of the military equipment and equipment aided by the Soviet Union, but after the Northern Expedition, he also allocated a batch to other troops. For example, Li Zongren's Seventh Army also received 1,000 rifles and a small amount of communication equipment.However, the Soviet Union not only provided military assistance to the Guangdong Revolutionary Army before and after the Northern Expedition, it also provided at least the same amount of weapon assistance to Feng Yuxiang’s National Army in the north.In addition to military aid, the Soviet Union also provided some financial assistance to the Guangdong Revolutionary Government. Among them, the school funding of the Whampoa Military Academy alone may reach as much as 2 million rubles. Thousands of important reasons. In late October 1924, after defeating the armed forces of the merchant group, the famous Soviet military advisor Brucher, also known to the Chinese as General Galen, came to Guangzhou (Galen’s predecessor, the former head of the Soviet Army Ba An Pavlov, who accidentally fell into the water and died when he went to the Dongjiang frontline inspection in July of that year).The arrival of this less political Soviet military general won unanimous praise from Chinese generals including Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren, and his influence was comparable to that of Borodin, the political general adviser at the time.In addition to Galen, the Soviet Union sent more than a hundred instructors of infantry, artillery, and engineers, as well as at least the same number of Soviet political advisers, who were active in various levels of the Guangdong Revolutionary Government. Japan, Japan and other powers falsely claimed that Guangdong was "red" and gave up their excuses. Regarding the support of the Soviet Union in terms of human, material and financial resources, Chiang Kai-shek said half objectively and half gratefully before falling out with the Soviet side: "We are able to eliminate the rebellion today and achieve this goal. spirit, international strength, and revolutionary mission, and sincerely cooperate with our party to help us make the Chinese revolution more effective.” It is true that Chiang Kai-shek’s visit to the Soviet Union could not be said to be full of rewards, but it was undoubtedly the greatest during the period before the Northern Expedition. beneficiaries. In February 1925, Chen Jiongming attempted to counterattack Guangzhou while Sun Yat-sen was heading north.After hearing the news, the revolutionary government of Guangzhou made a decisive decision and decided to use the "School Army" of the Whampoa Military Academy as the right path, Yang Ximin's Yunnan Army and Liu Zhenhuan's Guangxi Army as the left path, to the Dongjiang area controlled by Chen Jiongming's forces (today's east of Huizhou to Shantou) Launched the offensive, which was called the "First Eastern Expedition".At that time, the "School Army" of the Whampoa Military Academy had only two teaching regiments and not many troops, but its backbone was all graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy. When the soldiers of the Eastern Expedition came to Changping, Chiang Kai-shek made a masterpiece of "Changping Station Feelings": "I personally led three thousand soldiers, and the cranes did not stop this Eastern Expedition. The difficult revolution turned into loneliness and anger, and wept into the sky." This time the Eastern Expedition Zheng is the first major test faced by Chiang Kai-shek and the students of the Whampoa Military Academy, and there is no room for hesitation and mistakes.In the Battle of Tamsui, Sun Liang, the commander of the 1st Company of the 2nd Whampoa Regiment, retreated without authorization because he could not resist. Chiang Kai-shek ordered the execution on the spot; Shen Yingshi, the commander of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Teaching Regiment, who was in charge of the main attack, fought bravely and could not go out of the line of fire due to injuries. Chiang Kai-shek immediately promoted him He is the head of the 2nd regiment.Under the brave fighting of the disciples, the Right Route Army won a complete victory in the Battle of Tamsui, surrendering more than a thousand enemies and surrendering more than a thousand guns, laying the foundation for the victory of the first Eastern Expedition. But when the Right Route Army was triumphant all the way, Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan from the Left were not only slack in fighting, but also secretly colluded with Chen Jiongming's Department, which put the Eastern Expedition Right Army in danger. In mid-March, the Right Route Army under the personal command of Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Jiongming's general Lin Hu fought fiercely in the Mianhu and Lihu areas. also surrounded).After struggling for a day, reinforcements such as the 2nd Teaching Regiment and the 7th Brigade of the Guangdong Army arrived in time, and the main force of Lin Hu's department was wiped out in one fell swoop.The two teaching regiments of Huangpu "School Army" consisted of 2,000 people, plus 500 Huangpu students who accompanied the army. In this battle of Mianhu, a total of 600 people were killed, and 300 people were killed in battle with only one teaching regiment. It is worth mentioning that Sun Yat-sen died at 9:30 on March 12, 1925 during the fierce battle between the two armies. This news was blocked until the end of the Battle of Mianhu.At this time, the Yunnan warlord Tang Jiyao colluded with Yang Ximin, Liu Zhenhuan and other warlords in an attempt to go eastward and seize the territory of Guangdong and Guangxi. Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan were originally old warlords who originated in Yunnan and Guangxi. When Chen Jiongming rebelled, they drove Chen Jiongming out of Guangzhou with the Cantonese Army led by Xu Chongzhi in early 1923. Guangzhou is a fief, and it has become a cancer of the Guangdong revolutionary government to amass money wantonly by protecting tobacco and gambling.After Tang Jiyao captured Nanning, Guangxi, Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan also led their troops back to Guangzhou to prevent chaos.Under such circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek expanded the two teaching regiments into the 1st Brigade of the Party Army (Brigade Commander He Yingqin), and marched towards Guangzhou in mid-May.With the assistance of Tan Yankai, Zhu Peide, Li Jishen, Li Fulin and other friendly forces, Yang and Liu's rebellion was suppressed in one fell swoop. A total of 17,000 people were captured and 16,000 guns were handed over in this battle. On June 13, Chiang Kai-shek led his troops to a triumphant return and was immediately appointed as the commander of the Guangzhou Garrison. Through the large number of soldiers (captives), weapons and silver dollars obtained from the first Eastern Expedition and the suppression of Yang and Liu's rebellion, Chiang Kai-shek quickly expanded his force into two divisions, with He Yingqin and Wang Maogong as the division commanders respectively. The First Army of the National Revolutionary Army was established. In September, Xu Chongzhi was placed under house arrest and expelled by Chiang Kai-shek, and his Guangdong Army was disbanded or reorganized (one of them was reorganized into the Third Division, which belonged to Chiang Kai-shek's First Army). In October, the Guangdong Revolutionary Government formed the Eastern Expedition Army with the First Army and the Fourth Army as the backbone, and once again attacked Chen Jiongming, with the intention of completely eradicating him.By the end of November, all the more than 30,000 people under Chen Jiongming's troops were wiped out, except for seven or eight thousand people who defected to the Zhilu coalition forces in Shandong. the whole of Guangdong. On the gate of the Whampoa Military Academy, there are four big characters written by Chiang Kai-shek himself: "Dear and sincere"; on both sides of the Erdao gate, there are also couplets written by Chiang Kai-shek in his handwriting "The blood of the martyrs, the flower of doctrine"; "Please go elsewhere for promotion and wealth. If you are greedy for life and fear death, don't enter the door." Although the doctrine is good, it is all bought by blood and life.The so-called "grasp the gun in troubled times", Chiang Kai-shek is on the right path to run a military academy.Thirty years ago, Yuan Shikai, a generation of tyrants, created his own "Beiyang Department" by training the new army. Isn't this the same as the "Whampoa Department" created by Chiang Kai-shek?