On March 19, 1947, the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division of the 1st Army of the National Revolutionary Army led the way to Yan'an, announcing the "restoration" of Yan'an.
This task was undertaken by the 1st Brigade of the 1st Army Division, but it was intentionally arranged by Hu Zongnan - this is his unique sense of ritual.
After the National Army entered Yan'an City, Hu Zongnan immediately sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek who was far away in Nanjing to report his victory:
"After seven days and nights of fierce fighting, the 1st Brigade finally occupied Yan'an on the 19th. He captured more than 50,000 enemies and seized countless weapons and ammunition. He is under investigation."
Bases established by the Communist Party of China across the country have always been Chiang Kai-shek's heart, especially the northern Shaanxi base where the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is located. Chiang Kai-shek has regarded it as a thorn in his flesh and a thorn in his throat for many years.
Therefore, after receiving the good news from Hu Zongnan, Chiang Kai-shek was overjoyed and immediately called back:
"Yan'an was recovered as scheduled, and the shame of the party and the country for twenty-one years was comforted. My brother worked hard and sincere, loyal and brave, and God will repay it. When I read the good news, I have no way to be relieved."
Old Jiang was so happy that he paced back and forth in the room, and excitedly said to the staff: "If you have free time, you must visit Yan'an!"
occupy an empty city, Hu Zongnan lied to report his record
However, what Jiang didn't know was that the good student Hu Zongnan sent him was extremely watery. None of them was true, whether it was "fighting for seven days and nights", or "capturing more than 50,000 prisoners", or "capturing countless weapons and ammunition".
Things start from more than a month ago.
In February 1947, Chiang Kai-shek flew to Xi'an. It is said that Xi'an is the unlucky place for Chiang Kai-shek. It was here ten years ago that Chiang Kai-shek almost killed his life because he forced the local warlords too tightly.
However, Chiang Kai-shek did not seem to have learned any lessons from this. Now that he has come to Xi'an, he once again summoned the Central Army and local warlords from the northwest region to gather together.
The Central Army Hu Zongnan was the main force, Ningxia Ma Hongkui , Qinghai Ma Bufang, and Deng Baoshan cooperated to mobilize 34 reorganized brigades, a total of 250,000 troops, supplemented by more than 100 aircraft, attacking Yan'an from the south, north and west directions.
Chiang Kai-shek made a harsh statement at the meeting, demanding that this time, must be "plied in the courtyard and swept the holes, effectively occupied it, and completely resolve the Northwest problem."
At this time, our party’s army in northern Shaanxi was mainly the Northwest Field Army, with less than 30,000 people.
Faced with such a huge gap in the military strength comparison, it is obviously unrealistic to defend hard. Our army decided to avoid its edge and evacuate from Yan'an.
Many comrades feel unacceptable to this and are unwilling to give up this "revolutionary holy land". Mao Zedong said: "When people are left, people and land are lost. When people are left, people and land are lost."
Therefore, the party and government organs in Yan'an began to evacuate in an orderly manner under the cover of the Northwest Field Army, and Xiye also evacuated Yan'an on March 18 after completing the cover mission. did not have a tragic offensive and defensive battle with Hu Zongnan's troops at all.
What Hu Zongnan said about "capturing 50,000 prisoners" is even more outrageous. Our troops guarding Yan'an are less than 30,000.
Of course, Chiang Kai-shek was not aware of the water of these achievements, or he felt that this kind of false reporting was harmless. Anyway, Yan'an City was indeed "recovered". Chiang Kai-shek was overjoyed and ordered the blue sky and white sun flags all over Nanjing and Xi'an to hang firecrackers and set off firecrackers to celebrate this victory.
and Hu Zongnan was even more highly praised. Chiang Kai-shek not only awarded him the Yunhui Medal , but also promoted his military rank from lieutenant general to general.
Hu Zongnan is a student of the first phase of Huangpu. He has always been one of the "disciples" that Chiang Kai-shek values the most. Hu Zongnan is feeling about this and has always wanted to make some achievements to prove himself in front of the principal.
Now "restoring" Yan'an. Although the record is flooded, after receiving Chiang Kai-shek's reply, Hu Zongnan still happily sent it to his subordinates Pei Changhui, Xue Minquan and others, saying: "Look, Mr. Jiang is so happy that our army is capturing Yan'an!"
However, after a while, Hu Zongnan received another telegram from Nanjing, and the telegram stated that a reporter group would be arranged to go to Yan'an soon to report on the grand occasion of the "Shaanxi-North Shaanxi Victory".
Now Hu Zongnan felt agitation, as if a little boy lied that his homework was at home. Although the teacher believed it, he planned to go to the boy's home to check his homework...
Chiang Kai-shek's trip to Yan'an
Hu Zongnan was worried. After all, the prisoners of war and the seized weapons and ammunition were completely false. Once the reporter team came, Hu Zongnan's false record would have to be missed.
After thinking about it, I had to use lies to cover up the lies. Hu Zongnan urgently ordered people to build many fake tombs along the banks of the Yan River in the northeast of Yan'an, and ordered 10 "Prison of War Management Offices" to be established within 20 miles of Yan'an. The people in charge of building prisoners of war camps were puzzled, why don’t prisoners of war build so many prisoners of war camps? Hu Zongnan had his own tricks.
Hu Zongnan ordered the arrest of 500 strong men from many villages around Yan'an, and selected 1,500 sensible soldiers from the reorganized 135th Brigade responsible for Yan'an city defense, and gathered 2,000 people to let them all change into clothes similar to the People's Liberation Army and play captives, each with one yuan per day.
solved the problem of prisoners of war. Where can I find the seized weapons and ammunition? Under the reminder of the staff, Hu Zongnan remembered that the 17th Division of the National Army stationed in southwest Yan'an was adapted from the former warlords in the northwest, and later received a batch of equipment from surrendering to the Japanese army. Therefore, the 17th Division's weapons were very diverse, including many Japanese 38 styles and domestic Hanyang made.
Isn’t this what the Communist Army often uses? Hu Zongnan borrowed them all.
trophy is not enough to have rifles alone, but also heavy weapons. Hu Zongnan drew several heavy machine guns and small steel cannons from the 135th Brigade.
All these weapons, Hu Zongnan asked people to tag them in groups and write them on the fabricated time of seizure and the location of seizure. Then Hu ordered the construction of a "Region Exhibition Hall" to display these "trophies".
Not long after finishing all this, a joint reporter team composed of 39 newspapers and news agencies at home and abroad arrived in Yan'an. I don’t know if it was because Hu Zongnan’s fake was enough to make the real difference or if he gave the reporters any benefits, but after a walk around Yan'an City, the reporters were "scamd" one after another. The major newspapers soon published articles reporting on the grand occasion of the "Great Victory in Northern Shaanxi".
However, what Hu Zongnan did not expect was that these reports of caused him more trouble.
When these reports were released, Chiang Kai-shek was escaping the summer heat in Lushan. After reading the newspaper, Chiang Kai-shek was excited and had the idea of going to Yan'an in person.
Without waiting for Hu Zongnan to come up with reasons to stop him, on August 7, 1947, Chiang Kai-shek flew to a simple airport outside Yan'an on a special plane of "Meiling".
Chiang Kai-shek said this was a "re-visit": "Two years ago, I invited Mao Zedong to Chongqing. It was impolite to come and not to go. Since he did not invite me, I would come without invitation!"
Hu Zongnan of course welcomed him in person at the airport. As soon as Chiang Kai-shek left the cabin door, the people who were welcomed in line at the airport sang "The east is red, the sun rises, China has a Jiang Zhongzheng ..."
This was specially arranged by Hu Zongnan, and Lao Jiang was very helpful to him. In fact, he also realized that this was Hu Zongnan's flattery, but he still pretended to wave to the people who were forced to sing.
Chiang Kai-shek was very curious about some places in Yan'an, First of all, he planned to visit the cave where Mao Zedong lived.
Surrounded by a group of followers, Chiang Kai-shek passed by a jujube orchard. Seeing that the jujube orchard was not far from Mao Zedong's residence, Chiang Kai-shek asked the old farmer who was attending the jujube orchard if he had ever seen Mao Zedong.
The old farmer replied that he had met him, and Jiang asked where he saw him. The old farmer replied: "He likes to eat dates and has bought dates from me."
Chiang Kai-shek was very eager to find some "black materials" from the Communists, so he asked: "Does Mao Zedong buy your dates and give them money? "
The old farmer replied: "Give me money, and he also gave me his peppers. "
Chiang Kai-shek walked to another field without saying a word when he heard this. The old farmer pointed to the field and said: "Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai have also planted land here! "
, accompanied by Hu Zongnan, Chiang Kai-shek came to the cave where Mao Zedong lived. Chiang Kai-shek was not as psychologically prepared for Mao Zedong's housing conditions as he had, but he was still very surprised when he walked into the cave.
Because the cave where Mao Zedong lived was just like the local farmers, the house was empty now, with only one bed and one table left.
, Chiang Kai-shek approached the table and found that the table was very worn and bumpy. Chiang Kai-shek had read several Mao Zedong's articles, and now he learned that the articles were written on such a table. Chiang Kai-shek was very surprised.
Walking out of Mao Zedong's residence, Chiang Kai-shek found an spinning wheel in the yard outside the cave. Chiang Kai-shek asked his followers: "Is this Mao Zedong's thing? " Hu Zongnan replied: "Yes, the army had besieged the city before, and the Communist army had difficulty in supplies, so Mao Zedong had to spin the yarn himself! "
Chiang Kai-shek tried to shake the spinning wheel, and his face was very gloomy when he got up.
Leaving the yard, Hu Zongnan pointed out to Chiang Kai-shek the cave where Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi and others used to live, but Chiang Kai-shek did not visit again, but went to the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University run by our army in Yan'an.
Anti-Japanese Since its establishment, Da has sent a large number of talents to the People's Army. It is a place that countless aspiring young people in the country yearn for. Chiang has also heard of this, so he specifically proposed to visit the Anti-Japanese University.
After entering the Anti-Japanese University classroom, Chiang Kai-shek found that the wooden benches in the classroom were very mottled and worn, and even the ground was not cement.
"Is this the place that those young people yearn for? What exactly are you teaching here? " Thinking of this, Chiang Kai-shek felt exhausted. He looked around and found a relatively clean stool that wanted to sit down, but the small stool was too short. When Chiang sat down, he almost fell to the ground. The Kuomintang officers accompanied him hurriedly helped him, so he didn't let Chiang Kai-shek sit on the ground.
lost again, and regretted it. After the day of visit, Chiang Kai-shek stayed in the best diplomatic hotel in the local conditions. Hu Zongnan had already arranged it. He had all the Western dishes, washbasins, towels, and toilets that Chiang Kai-shek usually used. Hu Zongnan also airlifted the "Imperial Chef" that usually cooks for Chiang Kai-shek.
Entering the hotel, Chiang Kai-shek felt as if he had returned to his official residence in Nanjing. Thinking of Mao Zedong's bumpy desk he saw during the day, Chiang Kai-shek felt an inexplicable sense of urgency and could not be removed.
Chiang Kai-shek, who had been shopping for a day during the day, had no intention of sleeping. That night, he called Hu Zongnan to make some strategic deployment.
Hu Zongnan entered Chiang Kai-shek's room very nervously, but Chiang did not I asked about the prisoners and the seizures, but asked Hu Zongnan that he would not need to take steady steps in northern Shaanxi in the future. He would need to apply a strong medicine and quickly find the "bandit leader".
Chiang Kai-shek issued an order to "find the main force of the Communist Army and Mao Zedong within one month" . Hu Zongnan sang his promises repeatedly, and was glad that Chiang did not pursue the military achievements.
As for the matter of suppressing the Communist Party, in Hu Zongnan's view, the Communist Army has lost its hometown now, what else can it become? It is not enough to worry about...
Chiang Kai-shek took the opportunity to leave the next day. This was the first time Chiang Kai-shek came to Yan'an, and it was the only time. was not that he didn't like to come, but that he wouldn't have a chance to come soon.
In fact, on March 22, shortly after Hu Zongnan happily occupied Yan'an, Peng Dehuai led the Northwest Field Corps to ambush five brigades of the First Army of the National Army in Qinghuabian. The victory of this battle made the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decide to stay in northern Shaanxi. The Yangmahe victory after
made Mao Zedong and the Central Military Commission foresee that the strategic situation of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had already taken a turning point.
Less than half a month after Chiang Kai-shek's trip to Yan'an, on August 22, the 36th Division of Hu Zongnan's troops was annihilated by our army on the way to pursue our army in Shajiadian.
10 In October, the reorganized 76th Division stationed at Qingjian was completely wiped out.
At the end of 1947, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region that had been abandoned before was recaptured by our army one by one.
In fact, before Mao Zedong left on the afternoon of March 18, he left a note for Hu Zongnan on his bumpy desk, which read: "Hu Zongnan will definitely ride a tiger when he arrives in Yan'an. He cannot advance but cannot advance, and he cannot retreat but cannot retreat. What, what can he do?"
In other words, Hu Zongnan swallowed Yan'an like carrying a big bag, but instead lost his initiative, and will eventually be annihilated by our army who had been thrown off the bag.
In February 1948, the People's Liberation Army began to move south from northern Shaanxi to liberate the Guanzhong area. Hu Zongnan lost his troops and lost his territory and retreated step by step. On April 21, Yan'an returned to our army.
Hu Zongnan understood that the achievements he had lied about before, the fake prisoner-of-war camps and fake spoils he had made, have now become laughing stocks.
Hu Zongnan went to Nanjing to apologize to Chiang Kai-shek. When he went there, he had already made the worst plan. Unexpectedly, Chiang Kai-shek only gave him a punishment of dismissal and still asked him to go back to command hundreds of thousands of national troops in the northwest.
This is how Chiang Kai-shek is. He can't believe those who are capable. Only people like Liu Zhi and Hu Zongnan can be valued by him.
The price of doing so was that in July 1949, with the liberation of Baoji , Hu Zongnan was completely driven out of the northwest...
It is said that Chiang Kai-shek said in his later years: "The last thing I regret in my life is to go to Yan'an."
Some people say that what Chiang Kai-shek regretted was that he went to Yan'an. In order to give the national army blind confidence, he despised the Communist Party, which led to failure.
But judging from the night when Chiang inspected Yan'an, he didn't sleep and asked Hu Zongnan for a meeting overnight, the point he regretted might be that this visit shook his own confidence. prevented him from strategically despising his opponents as before, so that he would shrink the island for the rest of his life after his defeat.
Therefore, I sighed that "I regret going to Yan'an".
Of course, in fact, the trajectory of history will not change because he goes to Yan'an or not, because the corrupt and backward forces will eventually perish.
References
1947: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's transition to northern Shaanxi and its strategic turning point "Yanhuang Chunqiu" 2018
