Chapter 44 10. Comments on the merits and demerits of thousands of years

Sometimes, one feels that history is made up of clouds of fog.Maybe what you guessed is not the real answer.People always guess new answers to riddles over and over again.Sometimes you even feel that maybe the mystery of history has no answer in the first place. What does Chiang Kai-shek think of the 10th Army, which fought bloody battles, was almost wiped out, and finally raised a white flag to surrender to the enemy? According to historical records, on December 14, 1944, Jiang met Fang Xianjue at his villa in Huangshan, Chongqing and hosted a banquet for him. Rao Shaowei also mentioned that Jiang met him at Zengjiayan after returning to Chongqing.

Inspired by Chiang Kai-shek, a grand welcome party was held in the name of the National Condolences Federation.At the meeting, Fang Xianjue and his "Five Tiger Generals" were each awarded a Blue Sky and White Sun Medal and a condolence gold of one million yuan.The major newspapers across the country set off a huge wave of publicity again. "Welcome the Return of the General of Hengyang", "Cheers to Commander Fang Xianjue", "Hengyang, Stalingrad", "Commander Fang is Worthy of Zhang Suiyang" (Zhang Xun, the prefect of Suiyang in the Tang Dynasty, fought against the hundred rebels of Anlu Mountain with thousands of soldiers) Wan, fought hard for half a year, the city was destroyed and died, so he became famous) and so on.Just by looking at these titles, one can imagine how hot the content is.

After a short-term recuperation, Fang Xianjue was appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief of the 37th Group Army and also served as the commander of the 207th Division of the Youth Army formed during the "One Hundred Thousand Youth One Hundred Thousand Soldiers" boom of young students joining the army.It is well known in the military that one division of the Youth Army is equivalent to a military system. Because of the uniform American equipment, it has the status of the direct line in the eyes of the Chinese people. Therefore, Fang Xianjue's appointment is generally considered to be the re-use of real power.

Zhou Qingxiang, the commander of the 3rd Division, was promoted to the deputy commander of the 10th Army and the commander of the 3rd Division. There is absolutely no suspicion of being untrusted.Sun Mingyu was appointed as the commander of the new 36th Division, and he also stood in the position of leading the troops and taking power.Rao Shaowei was named by Chiang Kai-shek and arranged to go to the army university for further study, while Ge Xiancai and Rong Youlue remained as major generals of the Military Commission. I still have to ask, how did Chiang Kai-shek settle the matter of the 10th Army's temporary and fake defection to the enemy in his heart?

When meeting Rao Shaowei, Chiang Kai-shek said: "You are not responsible for the fall of Hengyang. You have done your best." Comparing the whole process of the Hengyang defense battle and the performance of various reinforcements, this should be what Chiang Kai-shek said in his heart, and it is also a fair word. From May 5 to 21, 1945, the Kuomintang held its Sixth National Congress in Chongqing.During a break between meetings, the delegates walked and discussed in twos and threes.A well-known veteran of the Kuomintang talked about the Battle of Hengyang to everyone.He said: "In the battle of Hengyang, was Commander Fang Xianjue's merit or demerit? If it is true that he surrendered to the enemy, then the demerit outweighed the merit. Rewarding meritorious deeds and punishing demerits are natural, but if merits and demerits are not distinguished, how can we win the trust of the people of the country?"

Unexpectedly, Chiang Kai-shek happened to be in the adjacent lounge at that time, and he didn't know which nerve of Chiang's nerve was touched by this open-minded discussion, so he immediately rushed out of the lounge angrily and shouted: "Who said that just now? How much do you know about Hengyang? What is the difference between this and the slander by traitors? You simply don’t know the general idea, it’s disgusting!” A thunderous sting hit his head and face, and the elder of the party and country blushed in embarrassment. Except for eating, his mouth never opened until the end of the meeting.

On October 2, 1948, Chiang Kai-shek presided over a military meeting on the fourth floor of the "Suppression General" building in Shenyang.When he tried his best to persuade the group of generals in front of him who had been defeated in the Liaoshen battlefield, he mentioned the Battle of Hengyang and Fang Xianjue.This detail makes one think of what the Hengyang defense battle that lasted more than 40 days and Fang Xianjue left deep in Chiang Kai-shek's heart. Chiang Kai-shek said: "The failure in the past was that you didn't listen to me." (Republic of China—Note by the author) When the isolated city of Hengyang was in danger in the 33rd year, Commander Fang sent a telegram to me and said: "This is the last call for fear." , See you in the next life. 'During the war of resistance, did you say 'see you in the next life'? If this battle fails, I'm afraid everyone will see you in the next life too!..."

As mentioned earlier, Chiang Kai-shek once wrote in his diary on the day he received Hengyang's "last telegram" that "the grief is unprecedented."Perhaps, this is indeed his heartfelt sincere feelings. In Chiang Kai-shek's heart, Fang Xianjue had died heroically and tragically.Since we can "see you" by fate, it seems to be "the next life" in another life.Compared with life and death, what greater things cannot be explained, and what mistakes cannot be forgiven?After all, they escaped back after a narrow escape—they did not stay as puppet soldiers, nor did they hide in other places.

What's more, the real reasons for Chiang Kai-shek's defeat of Hengyang lie in his failure to discern the Japanese army's intentions and make correct overall deployments at the beginning of the war in northern Hunan, his failure to shift the focus of operations in time after the fall of Changsha, and the hesitation of various reinforcements to form a joint force. Forge ahead to clear the siege, he knows it well.It was said that the 10th Army was not responsible for the fall of Hengyang, but it did not say who was responsible. Fang Xianjue himself has always firmly denied the surrender.

Returned from Hengyang to Chongqing to report on the battle situation. Regarding the situation after the defeat, he said that he was captured first and then fled back. As for the various Japanese propaganda, it was all rumors to confuse the public. Of course, public opinion paid more attention to the fact that he returned to Chongqing, so the matter of surrender was shelved. As time went by, many inside stories gradually came out, and it was inappropriate to insist that nothing was done.In 1976, more than 30 years later, Fang Xianjue met with Keiji Furuya, a reporter from the Japanese "Sankei Shimbun" in Taiwan. When describing that year, he said:

On the morning of the 8th, Staff Officer Takeuchi, who claimed to be the envoy of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, came to contact the truce and told him immediately that we had no intention of surrendering. Wounded soldiers, and solemnly bury the dead officers and soldiers and other conditions.Takeuchi said: "Not only the Japanese army here, but also the Japanese emperor and the headquarters have heard of the brave fighting of the Chinese army."Special respect, and fully agree with our conditions.And the Japanese records that we surrendered, and even said that a surrender ceremony was held, are absolutely wrong. I swear on the honor of the soldiers.Nothing like that. Does the existence of history depend on itself or on the words in which it is expressed?Later generations can only understand that period of history from the text.What if different characters appeared in the description of the same period of history? The Battle of Chang (Sha) and Heng (Yang) began on May 27, 1944, and ended with the fall of Hengyang on August 8 of the same year. The Japanese army pushed against the rolling Xiangjiang River from the north to the south of Hunan, which lasted for more than 70 days. The Chinese troops participating in the war consisted of 16 armies with about 400,000 troops, and the Japanese army successively invested more than 200,000 troops in 10 divisions.According to Chinese military statistics, 19,751 enemies were killed and 47,158 were injured in this battle, while 49,370 Chinese soldiers were killed and 41,207 were injured. The 47-day defense battle of Hengyang was the most tragic in the Changheng Battle. Among the more than 17,600 officers and soldiers of the 10th Army, 15,000 people were killed or injured. Not counting those who died of serious injuries and those who were tortured and killed after being captured by the Japanese army, 7,600 people were directly killed in battle. .The casualties of the Japanese army were also very heavy. According to the figures released by the Japanese side, there were a total of 19,380 casualties; among them, 390 generals and officers were killed and 520 were injured. In February 1946, shortly after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Major General Gao Cange Xiancai of the Military Command Department and was given the task of searching for the remains of the fallen soldiers in Hengyang and establishing a cemetery for the fallen soldiers. With the assistance of the local people, Ge Xiancai searched extensively for the bones of martyrs who had been hastily buried in various places.Only one and a half years have passed since the battle, but most of the bones have rotted away.People used baskets to gather all the relatively complete skeletons that could be found in one place, picked out the skulls and arranged them neatly, and the number has reached more than 10,000. There are more than 10,000 skeletons neatly arranged. It was a pair of faces with wide open eyes that would never close, and that was an army that was always mighty and majestic! On March 3, 1983, a 79-year-old man died of illness.According to his last wish, his family buried him next to the "Monument to the National Revolutionary Army's Anti-Japanese War Soldiers" in Wuzhi Mountain, Taipei. The inscription on the stone tablet in front of the tomb reads: The tombstone of Fang Xianjue, a former soldier of the 10th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, has no dates of birth and death, titles, or meritorious service.There are no sacrifices in front of the tomb.