In October 1949, New China was officially established. But at that time, the Greater Southwest of China was still within the rule of the Kuomintang. When all parts of the country were immersed in the celebration of the founding of New China, Deng Xiaoping, Liu Bocheng, Chen Geng and others still led the People's Liberation Army to encircle and suppress the remnants of the Kuomintang in the southwest region.
In December 1949, Lu Han, a senior Kuomintang general, led his troops to revolt in Kunming, and also sent a telegram across the country to announce the peaceful liberation of Yunnan. Although Lu Han put down the 8th Army commander Li Mi and the 26th Army commander Yu Chengwan , these two troops were not willing to join the uprising team. Subsequently, under the instigation of the Kuomintang Army Chief of Staff, the 8th Army and the 26th Army were preparing to send troops to Kunming to rescue their old army commander.
fleeing south in a hurry
In order to prevent Kunming from being surrounded, Lu Han took the initiative to release Li Mi and Yu Chengwan, hoping that they could persuade the two armies to take the initiative to revolt. However, after Li Mi returned to the 8th Army, he was ready to continue leading his army to capture Kunming. However, Yu Chengwan asked the 26th Army to stop the attack and move towards southern Yunnan. Seeing that the 26th Army was unwilling to cooperate, Li Mi had to give up attacking Kunming and follow Yu Chengwan's troops to move south.
At this time, the generals of the Kuomintang army in Yunnan also thought it very clearly. They drove their troops to the Yunnan border. Even if the PLA army was approaching, they could still escape to Myanmar and Vietnam if they could not defeat it. Therefore, starting from December 22, Li Mi divided the 8th Army into three columns, carrying a large amount of baggage and family members quickly evacuated southward.
As the 8th Army and 26th Army of the Kuomintang accelerated their escape to the south, the Fifth Corps of the People's Liberation Army commanded by Liu Deng advanced from Bijie, Guizhou to Yunnan Xuanwei . Chen Geng's Fourth Corps also set out from Nanning, Guangxi, and was preparing to form a siege against these two armies. In order to prevent being caught by the People's Liberation Army, the 8th Army immediately ordered the troops to throw away heavy supplies and speed up the marching. By the end of December, the 8th Army and the 29th Army finally arrived in the Jianshui and Mengzi areas and met Tang Yao, the chief of staff of the National Army who had been waiting for a long time.
At this time, due to the extreme tension in the war in the southwest, Tang Yao had been appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief of the army and chief of staff by Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan. He also served as the commander of the 8th Corps, with the 8th Army and the 26th Army under his jurisdiction. In other words, Tang Yao was already the highest general of the national army who stayed in Yunnan at this time.
A match for teachers and students
Tang Yao, a native of Hefei, Anhui Province, has studied in Anhui Martial Arts School and Army University . After the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy, Tang Yao served as a weapon instructor at the Whampoa Military Academy. It is worth mentioning that Chen Geng was once Tang Yao’s student during this period. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Tang Yao served as Chief of Staff of the 32nd Army and Chief of Staff of the Logistics Command. By 1948, Tang Yao was formally appointed as Chief of Staff of the Army General Command by the National Government.
From his military resume, it can be seen that although Tang Yao was born in a regular military school, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Tang Yao basically made suggestions in the army as an aide and seriously lacked the experience and ability to lead the army. By 1944, Tang Yao began to enter Yunnan, but his position was only the deputy commander of the Logistics Command of the China Expeditionary Force to Myanmar. Let a general with a lot of experience in the administration of the logistics department command these defeated soldiers, which shows that Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan has reached the point where no one is available.
Let’s take a look at his former Huangpu student Chen Geng. Chen Geng is a student of the first phase of the Whampoa Military Academy. In 1926, he went to the Soviet Union for further study. After returning to China, Chen Geng participated in the Nanchang Uprising , and was one of the earliest veterans of our army. During the Red Army's Hyper 2 period, Chen Geng served as the most important cadre regiment commander of the Red Army and completed the epic 25,000-mile Long March.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Chen Geng served as the brigade commander of the 286th Brigade of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army. led and directed famous battles such as the Qigan Village ambush and the 6th Route in Southeast Jin. served as the commander of the 4th Column of the Nakanoya during the War of Liberation, and participated in a series of major battles including Huaihai Battle .Chen Geng has a reputation as a civil and military strategist in the army, and is good at command and dispatching various tactics. With his great contribution to China's liberation, Chen Geng attended the top ten founding generals at the founding of the country in 1955.
was finally captured
0 Chapter 0 After saying that, when Li Mihe and Yu Chengwan led their troops to Tang Yao's residence, Tang Yao immediately flew back to Taiwan from Meng Zi and reported the situation in Yunnan to Chiang Kai-shek. However, Chiang Kai-shek still wanted to manage Yunnan and use it as the base for the national army to counterattack. Therefore, he asked Tang Yao to return to Yunnan and continue to resist.
But at the same time, Chiang Kai-shek was also very clear that with Tang Yao's qualifications in the army, he could not control the remnants of the National Army in Yunnan. So Chiang Kai-shek prepared to send Chief of Staff to Yunnan with Tang Yao. Gu Zhutong is an old fox and is very clear about the situation in the southwest region. How could Li Mi and Yu Chengwan alone stop the various army of the Communist Party? But Gu Zhutong couldn't tell Chiang Kai-shek these ideas. In order to stay in Taiwan, he came up with a good solution.
Gu Zhutong found Tang Yao and said that Yu Chengwan had intended to surrender. Therefore, the Chairman decided to bring Yu Chengwan and the 26th Army back to Taiwan, and all the baggage and weapons left behind were handed over to the 8th Army. But Tang Yao felt that it was impossible for the 8th Army to stop Chen Geng and Liu Deng's troops without the 26th Army alone. However, Gu Zhutong said that Taiwan will support weapons and materials, and you can develop and strengthen your team in Yunnan.
Of course, everything Gu Zhutong said was nonsense, and he didn't think that Tang Yao and Li Mi could block the Communist army at all. Although Tang Yao was the deputy commander-in-chief of the army, he had almost no experience in leading troops in war. It would be a dream to ask him to pull out a unit to fight against the Communist army. But Gu Zhutong didn't care about this. He just needed to stay in Taiwan. As for the military ethics and charisma, he left all the things behind him.
Perhaps it was forced by the Chairman's order, or perhaps it was the commander of the Eighth Corps and the deputy commander-in-chief of the Army who still missed him. Tang Yao finally returned to Mengzi, Yunnan. Of course, Tang Yao also stayed for himself. Later, once the situation changed, he immediately took a plane to Taiwan.
However, Tang Yao did not expect that Chen Geng and Liu Deng had already set up a big net for him. In Tang Yao's judgment, it took at least 1 month for the Communist army to arrive at Mengzi. However, Chen Geng's Fourth Corps marched urgently and arrived at Mengzi in just 14 days, and completed the encirclement of Mengzi. By the time Tang Yao realized, the only escape route, Mengzi Airport, had been occupied by the People's Liberation Army.
When Tang Yao was arrested, Chen Geng also met the former instructor and asked: Teacher, what about the student’s trick? In response to this, Tang Yao just smiled bitterly, didn’t expect the People’s Liberation Army to arrive so quickly, and he didn’t expect you to surround us from the south. The teacher is really ashamed of himself.
