Tang Shengzhi was appointed as the commander of the 8th Army of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and put forward the condition: the 2nd and 6th armies could not enter Hunan

On the eve of the Northern Expedition in March 1926, Tang Shengzhi, commander of the 4th Division of the Hunan Army stationed in southern Hunan, raised his troops from Hengyang and marched into Changsha, expelling his immediate superior, the then commander-in-chief of the Hunan Army and Hunan Governor and the province. Long Zhao Hengti replaced him. In view of Zhao Hengti's long-term support from Wu Peifu, the leader of the immediate line of warlords, in order to avoid Wu Peifu's anger against him in the future, Tang Shengzhi entrusted his principal, namely the principal of Baoding Military Academy Jiang Baili, to speak for himself in advance, hoping that Wu would not be obstructive.

Tang Shengzhi "picked chestnuts from the fire" for Wu Peifu

After learning the whole story, Wu Peifu had no definite answer. But in the eyes of Tang Shengzhi, who is eager to seize power, Wu Peifu's ambiguous attitude has actually acquiesced to his act of driving Zhao. But in fact, Wu Peifu was worried about Zhao Hengti’s nominal "autonomy" sign, and wanted to wait for Tang to drive Zhao, and then add him to the crime of insurrection, and then start a crusade so that he could directly control Hunan. Use this as a springboard to defeat Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou Revolutionary Government.

Sure enough, after Tang Shengzhi entered Changsha and acted as the governor of Hunan Province, Wu Peifu's attitude became clear immediately. He directly sent a representative to Changsha to meet with Tang Shengzhi, asking him to lead his army south to crusade the revolutionary government of Guangzhou, or simply return to southern Hunan. , Set Changsha and other places as non-garrison areas, otherwise the direct naval and land forces will go south from Wuhan to implement armed settlement. Faced with the face-to-face threat from Representative Wu Peifu, Tang Shengzhi did not show any weakness and responded categorically: "Wu Ziyu (Wu Peifu’s word Ziyu) should not underestimate Hunan. He has an army and navy and can be divided into three lines and five lines to attack Changsha. Break through one point and take Wuhan directly!"

Tang Shengzhi was besieged by all forces and was forced to retreat to Xiangnan

So far, Tang and Wu completely tore their faces. Although Wu Peifu’s direct line of troops was busy attacking Feng Yuxiang’s National Army in the north, it was difficult to get away for a while, but he actively supported another force in Hunan, the former Hunan 3rd Division Commander Ye Kaixin, who was entrenched in western Hunan, and appointed Ye as the commander-in-chief of the "Thief Alliance" , And sent a large number of guns and equipment from the Hanyang Arsenal for Yemen officers and soldiers to march into Changsha. Tang Shengzhi lost more than half of his 50,000 guns in northern Hunan. He had to withdraw from Changsha and his hometown Hengyang to the south. While resisting, he sent people to request the Guangzhou Revolutionary Government in the south and the Xingui Clan in Guangxi to send troops for rescue.

At this time, Guangdong and Guangxi have achieved unification, and have been planning the Northern Expedition to eliminate the forces of the Northern Warlords and unify the country. Tang Shengzhi’s request for help was in his arms. The Yin Chenggang Regiment of the 7th Army of the Xingui Department and the Ye Ting Independence Regiment of the Guangdong side successively entered Hunan to aid Tang and reached the Hengyang area. But at this time, Tang Shengzhi’s face-to-face enemies have also been greatly strengthened. In addition to Ye Kaixin, who is in Baoqing (now Shaoyang City, Hunan Province) and other places, the 17th Mixed Brigade of Yu Yinsen of Wu Peifu Department and the 1st Division of Tang Fushan from Hubei , Jiangxi rushed for reinforcements, and the other two important forces of the Hunan Army, He Yaozu 1st Division and Liu Yan 2nd Division, were also eager to try and might join the battle group at any time.

Tang Shengzhi’s department was reorganized into the 8th Army of the Northern Expeditionary Army, but required Hunan site

At this critical moment, Tang Shengzhi, who was originally inclined to revolution, wanted to further urge Guangzhou. The government sent reinforcements as soon as possible and agreed to join the revolutionary camp and reorganized into the 8th Army of the National Revolutionary Army. However, Tang Shengzhi did not want his years of hard work to end up in the end. He made it clear that Hunan's military and political power must be controlled by him. In view of the fact that at this time, the 2nd Army commander Tan Yankai and the 6th Army commander Cheng Qian, who were also in the National Revolutionary Army at this time, had served as the governor of Hunan Province, the governor and the commander-in-chief of the Hunan Army, and their qualifications and prestige Tang Shengzhi is incomparable, so Tang Shengzhi clearly put forward the condition: In the future Northern Expedition, the 2nd and 6th armies shall not enter Hunan, and the Li Jishen 4th Army (adapted from the Guangdong Army) and the 7th Army of the Xingui Line will enter Xiang.

To Tang Shengzhi’s request, Guangzhou immediately agreed. Later, it was also the main forces of the 4th and 7th armies that entered Hunan and repelled Ye Kaixin’s "Allied Forces to Seek Thieves" and fought from Changsha to the city of Wuhan, and eliminated Wu.Peifu has more than 100,000 troops. But Tang Shengzhi's wish to control Hunan was not realized. The following year, Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei established regimes in Nanjing and Wuhan, respectively. The 6th Army of Cheng Qian and the 7th Army of Xingui, which belonged to Nanjing, jointly attacked the two lakes. Tang Shengzhi was defeated and forced to cross Japan east. , But never had a chance to control Hunan.