Chapter 38 38. Tang Shengzhi's Great Ambition and Small Skills

On November 11, 1937, after the defeat in the Battle of Songhu, Chiang Kai-shek convened all senior generals to discuss the issue of the defense of Nanjing.At the meeting, most of the generals said that Nanjing was a place of World War Three (only the Yangtze River is in the north), easy to attack and difficult to defend, while the morale of the Japanese army was high, and it was useless for the Chinese army to defend it. It is better to declare it as an "undefended city" to protect the Civilians are not harmed by war.After pondering over and over again, Chiang Kai-shek said that Nanjing is the state government and the mausoleum of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and he must not retreat without a fight.When the generals were silent, Tang Shengzhi suddenly stood up and shouted loudly: "The tomb of the Prime Minister of the Nanjing Department is located. In the face of this great enemy, if one or two generals are not sacrificed, how can we be worthy of the spirit of the Prime Minister? I personally advocate sticking to Nanjing and fighting the enemy to the end. !"

Tang Shengzhi's statement was stern and righteous, so Chiang Kai-shek went down the slope and appointed Tang Shengzhi as the commander of the Nanjing garrison to plan and direct the defense of Nanjing.As a result, nearly 100,000 Chinese troops under the command of Tang Shengzhi began the extremely tragic defense of Nanjing.In fact, Chiang Kai-shek knew that Nanjing could not be defended, but after all, Nanjing was the seat of the Nationalist government, and easily abandoning it without resistance would seriously damage the morale of the War of Resistance, and it was also unjustifiable in terms of national integrity. Chiang Kai-shek has a chance to save the siege, otherwise he really won't be able to step down.

Therefore, even though Tang Shengzhi vowed to live and die with Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek still sent a telegram to Tang Shengzhi on December 11, telling him that "if the situation cannot last, you can retreat at any time." As a result, the retreat was extremely chaotic, causing tens of thousands of officers and soldiers to be stranded inside and outside Nanjing and were captured or killed by the Japanese army. Tang Shengzhi should bear considerable responsibility for this. In fact, when Tang Shengzhi made a generous speech a month ago, Li Zongren, who attended the meeting, secretly speculated that Tang Shengzhi was "quiet and eager to move" and wanted to take the opportunity to seize a part of military power. This view was agreed by some historians, because Tang Shengzhi was only A "training director" who has no real power, his initiative to fight at this time is largely due to his unwillingness to be lonely and out of consideration for fame.In his memoirs, Li Zongren also insinuated that Tang Shengzhi's statement of "living and dying with the city of Nanjing" was nothing more than a "empty check"!

Tang Shengzhi’s debut history is not considered prominent, but he also had a big scene in the late period of the Northern Expedition, but unfortunately the opportunity was fleeting and he didn’t grasp it, so he always regretted it and tried to come back, which is also reasonable , don't be harsh, but in troubled times, with great ambitions but too little ability, it is unavoidable to harm the country, people and yourself. Tang Shengzhi, courtesy name Meng Xiao, was born in 1889 and was originally from Dong'an County, Hunan Province. His grandfather Tang Yougeng followed Hunan Governor Luo Bingzhang to suppress the Taiping Army and captured Yi Wang Shi Dakai on the banks of the Jinsha River.Perhaps because of killing too many people and being too shady, Tang Yougeng married fourteen concubines in a row, but there was only one seedling, Tang Shengzhi's father, Tang Chengxu.Tang Shengzhi was taught by his grandfather since he was a child. He successively studied military affairs in Hunan Military Equipment Academy and Hubei Third Army Middle School. After the Republic of China, he entered Baoding Army Officer Academy. After graduating in 1915, he joined the Hunan Army. is considerable.

Tang Shengzhi's father was the director of industry under Zhao Hengti, governor of Hunan Province, and Tang Shengzhi soon joined Zhao Hengti's Hunan army as the head of the regiment. Both father and son were appreciated by Zhao Hengti. In 1920, when Tan Yankai, the former governor of Hunan, fought against Zhao Hengti, Tang Shengzhi was promoted to brigade commander and defeated Tan Yankai in this battle. He became the commander of the 4th Division of the Hunan Army and was stationed in southern Hunan.At this time, Tang Shengzhi was only in his early thirties, but with more than 30,000 guns in his hand, he seemed to be a small warlord.

No matter how big or small a warlord is, it is inevitable that he will be king and hegemony. Therefore, Tang Shengzhi soon had an unhappiness with his leader Zhao Hengti, and finally simply forced the palace by force, driving Zhao Hengti out of Changsha, who had been operating in Hunan for five or six years, and became a Hunan provincial governor himself. long.However, Zhao Hengti had four division commanders, and Tang Shengzhi was only one of them. Although Zhao Hengti stepped down, the other three division commanders Ye Kaixin, Liu Jia, and He Yaozu did not buy into Tang Shengzhi's account. Drive Tang Shengzhi back to southern Shonan, and even the old land may be lost.Under such circumstances, Tang Shengzhi decided to join the Northern Expedition.

At the beginning, the revolutionary government of Guangdong did not believe that Tang Shengzhi would really join the revolution. For example, Tan Yankai, who was defeated by Tang Shengzhi, said to Li Zongren, who persuaded Tang Shengzhi to join the Northern Expedition, in a tone of complete disbelief: "You want Tang Shengzhi to join the revolution." Revolution? I’m afraid he’s unreliable?” Cheng Qian, another of Tang Shengzhi’s defeated men, said, “You think Tang Shengzhi can join the revolution? He used to rely on Beiyang warlords to beat us, but now Wu Peifu beats him. You want us to save him?” The implication seems to be that he is brooding over the past and still angry with Tang Shengzhi.

However, Tang Shengzhi may not have thought at the time that this move he made by mistake turned out to be very good.With the help of Zhang Fakui's Fourth Army and Li Zongren's Seventh Army, Tang Shengzhi's Eighth Army quickly defeated Ye Kaixin and other troops and occupied the whole of Hunan. On August 14, 1926, Chiang Kai-shek, the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, inspected the Seventh and Eighth Armies in Changsha. During this period, a small accident happened, which made Tang Shengzhi have a big fantasy. The thing is like this, more than 20,000 troops were inspected by the commander-in-chief at the large school field outside the east gate of Changsha. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek was riding a tall maroon horse. More than a dozen senior generals also followed on horseback and inspected together.According to the sequence, the Seventh Army was the first to be reviewed. Chiang Kai-shek rode forward slowly, sometimes raising his hand in salute. The captain of the army immediately ordered to play music, and more than a dozen trumpeters blew their horns, only to see a flash of golden light, and the sound of the trumpet was loud. Suddenly, Chiang Kai-shek's mount was frightened, hissed suddenly, its front hooves were raised high, and it galloped forward.

Chiang Kai-shek was probably not good at riding a horse, so he couldn't rein for a while, but was thrown off the horse by his mount. As a result, his hands and feet were turned upside down, his right foot was still in the pedal, and he was dragged forward by the horse, which was extremely dangerous!Li Zongren and others who were following behind were shocked when they saw this, but the incident happened in a hurry and there was no time to react. Fortunately, Chiang Kai-shek was ordered to be a great fortune. , Chiang Kai-shek crawled on the ground and escaped unharmed, otherwise, the chairman of the general committee might be reimbursed for this.

Seeing Chiang Kai-shek lying on the ground, Li Zongren, Tang Shengzhi and others hurriedly got off their horses and helped the commander-in-chief who was still in shock.In front of the inspection team of thousands of people, the scene was embarrassing. Chiang Kai-shek's military uniform was covered with mud, his hat was off, his military boots were taken off, and his white gloves were covered with mud. The situation was very embarrassing.However, Chiang Kai-shek's follow-up reaction was quite calm. He then limped and led the generals to complete the military parade on foot, and he was able to cope with it.

In ancient times, when a general went out to fight, if the banner was broken by a strong wind, it was often considered to be extremely unlucky or even an ominous omen.Chiang Kai-shek fell off his horse in front of the army parade, which is unsightly, but it was just an accident after all, but the superstitious Tang Shengzhi didn't think so, especially after "monk Gu" added fuel and jealousy, he became even more delusional. Tang Shengzhi kept a "Monk Gu" in his curtain, who was able to pinch and count, and was said to be very effective. Therefore, Tang Shengzhi honored him as "Teacher Gu", obeyed his advice, and highly respected him. "Monk Gu" is actually a flowery monk who comes here to eat, drink, prostitute and gamble, but he seems to be quite proficient in Yin and Yang divination. After Chiang Kai-shek fell from his horse, he certainly couldn't give up this excellent opportunity to speak to Tang Shengzhi. According to "Monk Gu", Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition is bound to be a disaster, and the most important thing is that he will not be able to overcome the Eighth Army, and he will definitely be defeated by the Eighth Army in the future; therefore, Army Commander Tang should take care of himself, Cherish the opportunity, if Chiang Kai-shek fails in the future, Tang Shengzhi must be the one who will replace him.After Tang Shengzhi heard this, he was naturally very excited, and the idea of ​​"he can replace him" secretly came into his heart. After the Northern Expedition took Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian and other places in one fell swoop, all armies expanded, but Tang Shengzhi's Eighth Army expanded the most. One army expanded into four armies. Li Pinxian, Ye Qi, He Jian, and Liu Xing, the former division commanders of Tang Shengzhi's Department, were all promoted to army commanders, and their power swelled several times in an instant, and it became impossible to lose. At this time, there was also a split within the Northern Expeditionary Army. First, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12 Coup", followed by the "Anti-Communist Purge", and then there was the "Ning-Han Confrontation". Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei had a great fight Almost.Originally, Tang Shengzhi's qualifications were relatively low in the revolutionary camp, but at that time he had four armies under his command and controlled the territories of Hunan, Hubei, and Anhui provinces, so he became a pivotal figure, especially after Chiang Kai-shek's resignation. Even more ambitious.On the one hand, he supported Wang Jingwei's Wuhan Nationalist Government to fight against the Nanjing Nationalist Government, and on the other hand, he also colluded with Sun Chuanfang, the main target of the Northern Expedition, intending to use Sun Chuanfang's power to eliminate the "Ningfang" forces and create conditions for himself to become big. The "Battle of Longtan" broke out under such a background. Tang Shengzhi moved eastward, and at the same time communicated with Sun Chuanfang, with the purpose of seeking Nanjing.Sun Chuanfang, who was previously defeated by the Northern Expedition, made a desperate move after receiving the support of Zhang Zongchang, the Zhilu coalition army, and led his army across the river to raid Nanjing, but his entire army was wiped out in the Battle of Longtan.After the "Battle of Longtan", evidence of Sun Chuanfang's collusion with Tang was also found among the prisoners of Sun Chuanfang's department. Sun Chuanfang's combat order contained words such as "A certain unit of friendly Tang has arrived at a certain line". After the Battle of Longtan, the Northern Expeditionary Army decided to conquer Tang Shengzhi westward to relieve their confidants. On October 20, 1927, the Nanjing Tang Army marched westward along the north bank of the Yangtze River with the Seventh Army led by Li Zongren as the main force; He Yingqin led the First Army to defend the Fenglu Army on the Jinpu Line and cover the Western Expeditionary Army; Feng Yuxiang's National Second Army went south along the Ping-Han Line to threaten Wuhan. Under the pressure of various armies, Tang Shengzhi's troops were quickly defeated, and finally had to be electrified and went to the field, and sneaked to Japan for refuge.According to Li Pinxian and others, Tang Shengzhi brutally strangled Zhang Guowei, commander of the First Division of the Eighth Army, to vent his anger before leaving the field, which is outrageous to say the least. The whole story is like this. After the Guangxi army invaded Hubei, Tang Shengzhi once transferred Zhang Guowei's troops to guard the periphery of Hankou to cover the retreat of the army.But Zhang Guowei saw that the general situation was gone and it was useless to stick to it, so he advised Tang Shengzhi to retreat quickly. Tang Shengzhi was very annoyed when he heard this, and called a meeting of army commanders and division commanders in his private house. After the meeting, all the generals went downstairs one after another. Tang Shengzhi suddenly stopped Zhang Guowei: "Mr. Zhang, please stay here, I have something to tell you!" Zhang Guowei stayed after hearing this, and after the other generals walked out of the gate, Tang Shengzhi said to Zhang Guowei: "It's nothing, you can go!" After Guowei walked down the stairs, Tang Shengming, Tang Shengzhi's younger brother, led a few soldiers and jumped out suddenly, holding a hemp rope around Zhang Guowei's neck. Zhang Guowei was shocked. He was pushed to the ground and shouted: " Commander-in-Chief Tang, please spare me!" Li Pinxian and others had just walked not far away, and hurriedly turned to visit after hearing Zhang Guowei's screams, but Zhang Guowei had already been strangled to death on the ground, and his condition was horrific, which showed Tang Shengzhi's cruelty. After Tang Shengzhi lost his basic troops, he was very depressed.However, Chiang Kai-shek later had conflicts with Li Zongren's Guangxi faction. Tang Shengzhi took the opportunity to come back and was ordered to persuade the former subordinates who voted in Gui. But it ended quickly, and Tang Shengzhi failed to make a comeback this time. After the "September 18th" Incident in 1931, Tang Shengzhi returned to the Nanjing government to serve as the President of the Military Senate, and later served as the "Training Director" and other positions, but he has not been given substantial military power. Tang Shengzhi suffered from chronic dysentery when he took office as the commander of the Nanjing Garrison, and his physical condition was not good, but he was determined to fight the war, just as he said to journalists after taking office: "I am ordered to defend Nanjing. I am sure of at least two things. First, the troops I belong to vowed to live and die with Nanjing, and did not hesitate to sacrifice in the defense of Nanjing; second, this kind of sacrifice will definitely make the enemy pay a great price." After Tang Shengzhi took office, he ordered the blockade of Nanjing to Jiangbei However, it must be pointed out that Tang Shengzhi’s move also prevented a large number of civilians from evacuating in time, so that after the Japanese army broke through Nanjing, many civilians and soldiers could not flee to Jiangbei or died due to competition for ferries. drowned in the river. The defense of Nanjing was very short, but one thing should be explained, that is: Tang Shengzhi gave the troops a retreat order after Chiang Kai-shek ordered the retreat, but his command was improper, the arrangement was poor or even no plan during the retreat. As a result, unnecessary large losses were caused.It is said that after Tang Shengzhi issued the retreat order, the officers and soldiers were at a loss and fled separately. However, a few brave troops did not receive the retreat order. They thought that the friendly troops were cowering and retreated without permission. So much so that they can kill each other, which is so tragic. As for Tang Shengzhi, after the order to abandon the city was issued on December 12, he took the motorboat he had reserved to cross the river north. Before leaving, he called his former subordinate Li Pinxian to prepare a train for him in Pukou, and planned to transfer to Longzhou after going through Bengbu and Xuzhou. By sea to Wuhan.After Li Zongren learned that Tang Shengzhi had passed Xuzhou, he personally went to Xuzhou Station to pick Tang Shengzhi up. According to his description, Tang Shengzhi was "depressed, pale, and embarrassed, and he was a different person when he had a meeting with Nanjing." After the Battle of Nanjing, Tang Shengzhi returned to his hometown of Hunan to live leisurely, and later opened a middle school. During this period, he mainly studied Buddhism.At the end of the War of Liberation, Tang Shengzhi led the telegram to support the peaceful liberation of Hunan. In 1970, Tang Shengzhi died of rectal cancer at the age of eighty-one.