Yan Xishan is undoubtedly a legend during the first period, able to firmly control the territory of a province for 38 years, from the Xinhai Revolution to the founding of New China, across the entire history, Yan Xishan has almost achieved the ultimate that a warlord can do.
Yan Xishan. As we all know, the reason why the warlords, who are no different from the Emperor of the Soil, are able to occupy a place and control all the power in the local area is because he has a private armed force that belongs entirely to him. These armies, which were completely loyal to the warlords themselves, also became the basis for the existence of a warlord.
However, human nature itself is extremely complex, in the ** period when there is a gun is the king of grass, although every warlord hopes that his subordinates will be loyal to him, but, as the generals under the command of the same military power, as their strength continues to grow, these small military leaders will invariably have the idea of "he can take his place", in fact, this is the ** period of most warlords**.
Therefore, the phenomenon of warlords defecting during the ** period abounded. Countless warlords who once dominated the world were finally overshadowed because of the defection of their subordinates. Among them, the most famous is Feng Yuxiang, the leader of the Northwest Army.
Feng Yuxiang. In 1928, Feng Yuxiang appeared in the American "Time" magazine, and at that time, "Time" magazine called Feng Yuxiang "the master of the world's largest private armed forces". Feng Yuxiang in 1928 was indeed beautiful. Feng Yuxiang, who owns several provinces in the northwest and controls more than 400,000 Northwest troops in one hand, almost has the strength to win the whole country.
However, it was such a large and very warlike Northwest Army, and when facing Chiang Kai-shek's Jinyuan offensive during the Central Plains War, many generals of the Northwest Army who could fight well led their troops to defect. In the end, Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army was wiped out, and Feng Yuxiang completely lost his power and territory.
And examples similar to Feng Yuxiang's defection by his subordinates abound. However, Yan Xishan was an exception among these many warlords. Since the Taiyuan Uprising in 1912 and became the ruler of Shanxi, Yan Xishan and his Jin Sui army have not been smooth sailing, and they have also experienced many ups and downs.
Yan Xishan. Especially after the outbreak of the Liberation War, the Jin Sui Army, which had never been known for its strong combat effectiveness, was almost defeated in the face of the PLA. However, even if the army was lost and the generals were defeated, even if it was defeated for thousands of miles, the Jin Sui army never had a large-scale surrender or uprising like other Kuomintang troops on the battlefield in Shanxi.
Therefore, although the Jin Sui Army, the warlord army with the longest history, cannot be called the first in combat effectiveness, the loyalty of the Jin Sui Army to Yan Xishan is definitely one of the best. Why has Yan Xishan always been able to firmly control this Jin Sui army?Why are the generals of the Jin Sui Army so loyal to Yan Xishan?
Although warlords do everything they can to turn an army into a private force, they can do so in a few ways: they can use personal relationships such as teachers, students, classmates, relatives and friends to strengthen their control over the army;or reuse family or clan relatives to enhance the allegiance of military generals to themselves through blood relations;Or take advantage of the relationship of the hometown, distinguish the region, and use the hometown people as a link to control the army. Some warlords have even resorted to religious and Taoist means.
Warlord leaders.
Yan Xishan is naturally no exception. For Yan Xishan, the most trustworthy thing is, of course, the family and clan relatives who are related to him by blood. Therefore, after Yan Xishan took control of Shanxi, he constantly arranged family members and clan relatives in various key positions.
For example, one of Yan Xishan's most important cronies, Liang Huazhi, who served as Yan Xishan's confidential secretary, the director general of the Sacrifice League, and the acting chairman of Shanxi Province, is Yan Xishan's aunt and nephew.
In addition to reusing his family and clansmen, Yan Xishan also made full use of his interpersonal relationships, and Yan Xishan made a large number of personal relationships during his business, study, and military career. After the rise of Yan Xishan, these people gradually became Yan Xishan's cronies and were arranged to all walks of life in Shanxi.
Yan Xishan. In addition, as a typical Shanxi person, Yan Xishan is naturally from his hometown in Shanxi. However, even if they are from Shanxi, there are still relatives and distances in Yan Xishan's Jin Sui military system.
Yan Xishan is a native of Wutai County, Shanxi, so his closest person is naturally from Wutai County. The senior generals of the Jin Sui Army, such as Yang Aiyuan, Wang Jingguo, Zhao Chengshou and others, were all from Wutai County. Because of this, Yan Xishan's Jin Suijun will have the saying that "they can speak Wutai dialect and hang foreign swords".
Obviously, this statement nakedly exposes the fact that in the Jin Suijun system, talent is not the first, and background is the key factor in deciding whether to be promoted.
Shanxi. In addition to the Wutai people, with Wutai County as the center, the villagers of the surrounding two states and five counties are the people that Yan Xishan attaches second importance to. For example, this is the case of Li Fuying, who was ranked among the thirteenth Taibao of the Jin Sui Army. Secondly, it is a person from the north of Jin.
Of course, as a private armed force, using personal connections to strengthen the bonds with generals is just a routine operation of warlords. As a typical pragmatist, Yan Xishan is best at learning from the strengths of others and applying them to his own.
As a warlord who owns the territory of Shanxi and Suiyuan provinces, although Yan Xishan's strength is not weak, he is not without opponents. After the 918 Incident, Chiang Kai-shek, who occupied the national righteousness, was dissatisfied with Yan Xishan's secession for a long time, and the Red Army that reached northern Shaanxi during the Long March was only separated by a river from Shanxi, and after the 918 Incident, the Japanese invaders, whose ambitions and appetites were increasingly inflated, also began to have ambitions for North China, including Yan Xishan's territory.
Yan Xishan. In this case, Yan Xishan "danced on three eggs" on the one hand, left and right, no one was offended, and on the other hand, he also began to learn the strengths of his opponents, and the focus of Yan Xishan's learning was the Eighth Route Army.
After the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, although Yan Xishan had led the Jin Sui army to fight bloody battles with the Japanese invaders, due to the gap in equipment, organization, logistics and supply, the Battle of Taiyuan ended with Yan Xishan's defeat, and after a lapse of 24 years, Yan Xishan went to Taiyuan City for the first time.
However, this is not the worst, the worst thing is that after a tragic war, the Jin Sui Army, the army that Yan Xishan relied on to maintain power, the situation is even more not optimistic.
Battle of Taiyuan. This Jin Sui army, which had reached a maximum size of 300,000, after a tragic war, when Yan Xishan retreated to the west of Jin, there were only more than 40,000 people left, and many troops were almost wiped out. At the same time, the Jin Sui army also generally had the problem of weak cohesion and weak military morale.
This situation undoubtedly brought a huge challenge to Yan Xishan's rule, and coupled with the great attraction of the Shanxi New Army, which was actually led by the Communist Party, to the people, if this situation was allowed to continue, Yan Xishan was likely to lose the Jin Sui army completely.
Therefore, Yan Xishan decided to learn from the Shanxi New Army and the Eighth Route Army, and he began to establish a strong organization under his control within the Jin Sui Army as the core and backbone, so as to strengthen his control over the army.
Jin Suijun's film and television image.
On February 16, 1938, Yan Xishan convened a meeting of senior military, political and civilian cadres in Linfen, and it was on this meeting that 108 people from Yan Xishan's descendants initiated the organization of the National Revolutionary Comrades Association, which was established under the auspices of Yan Xishan and became an organization leading the military and civil departments of the Second War Zone.
At the same time, Yan Xishan also identified this National Revolutionary Comrades Association as the unified leadership organization of the Advocate of Justice Movement, the Sacrificial National Salvation League, and all other popular salvation groups in the Second War Zone.
Therefore, it is obvious that this so-called National Revolutionary Comrades Association is imitating the Communist Party for the Eighth Route Army, trying to set up a leadership core in the Shanxi Jinsui Army system and the first government departments, so as to strengthen the control over the army and the localities.
Of course, this so-called National Revolutionary Comrade's Association is inconvenient to use the name of openness because it is privately established. Therefore, Yan Xishan took advantage of the opportunity of the Shanxi Branch of the National Anti-Japanese War Spiritual Mobilization established by the people to put the National Revolutionary Comrades Association under the skin of the Spiritual Construction Committee, and set up branches in various regions and counties.
Yan Xishan. With many years of operation in Shanxi and the Jin Sui Army, Yan Xishan quickly penetrated the tentacles of the National Revolutionary Comrades Association into all levels of the army and local counties and districts. The members of these national comrades not only have the task of uniting Shanxi's anti-Japanese war, but most importantly, they are also given the right to report and report secretly, and the targets of the report are often the Shanxi Ximeng Association and the New Army.
Obviously, with the continuous growth of the Shanxi New Army and the continuous decline of the Jin Sui Army, Yan Xishan, who felt the crisis, decided to attack the Shanxi New Army, which was the prelude to the December Incident.
Local control is important, but for a warlord, the military is the key to their life and death. Therefore, at the same time as the establishment of the National Revolutionary Comrades Association, Yan Xishan also set up the Jinsui Army Officers Training Group and the Jinsui Army Cadre Policy Implementation Training Group in Qiulin Town, Yichuan County, Shaanxi Province, where he temporarily lived.
Jin Suijun. Its purpose, of course, was to strengthen the control over the officers of the Jin Sui army. It was at the training regiment at that time that Yan Xishan instructed his confidant and fellow countryman Wang Jingguo to secretly establish the "Iron Army Organization" among the officers who were being trained.
Why was this organization formed?In the words of Yan Xishan: "In today's era of organizational performance, without a strong organization, progress cannot be achieved, and I am determined to build an iron army."
The meaning of the Iron Army is: "If you can't stand it, you will definitely suffer a loss, if you attack, you will definitely be able to take it, but if you defend it, you will definitely not be able to attack it." Moreover, Yan Xishan still has great ambitions for the iron army he established: "If we can complete 100,000 powerful iron army, we can master Shanxi, and if we complete 200,000, we can master the second war zone, and if we complete 300,000, we will definitely be able to support North China."
Yan Xishan. To a certain extent, the Iron Army has indeed greatly strengthened Yan Xishan's control over the army, because, according to Yan Xishan's plan, "everyone and the president have one heart, and all the best lines lead to the president", so the members of the Iron Army organization have the opportunity to reach the heavens and directly contact Yan Xishan, which naturally makes Yan Xishan's control over the army deeper.
At the same time as the establishment of the Iron Army Organization, Yan Xishan also established the Three Three Iron Blood Regiment loyal to him in the Jin Sui Army. There are a total of 28 initiators of this iron-blooded group, known as 28 nights, and the reason why it became the three-three iron-blooded group is because its development model is that one person develops three people, layer by layer, and spreads all over the army.
In 1942, he established the Iron Army Discipline Maintenance Regiment, which directly belonged to the Iron Army organization and further strengthened the control of the Iron Army. In the later stage of the Anti-Japanese War, more than 10,000 people in the Jin Sui Army participated in the Iron Army organization.
Yan Xishan calligraphy.
At the same time, Yan Xishan also stipulated that if the officers of the Jin Suijun were not members of the Comrades Association or did not participate in the Iron Army organization, they had no possibility of being promoted to officers at all. It was through such an organization of the Iron Army, from high-ranking officers to ordinary soldiers, that Yan Xishan greatly strengthened his control over the Jin Sui Army.
In addition to setting up a secret organization in the army to strengthen control, Yan Xishan also fully learned the merits of the Eighth Route Army's emphasis on politics. For example, in Yan Xishan's army, the status of the chief political officer is on par with the military chief, and there is no situation where the military chief leads everything like the ** army.
In this case, although Yan Xishan's senior officers could also command the army, their control over the army was far inferior to that of other warlords' officers, so naturally, they had no possibility of leading the army under their command to defect against Yan Xishan.
Yan Xishan. Therefore, although Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army also had Fu Zuoyi's departure from the Jin Sui Army system and Chen Changjie's fall to Chiang Kai-shek, such a situation was extremely rare, and these few phenomena still appeared when Yan Xishan went into the wilderness.
Even during the Liberation War when the Jin Sui army was defeated, although the Jin Sui army was defeated repeatedly, the phenomenon of large-scale surrender or uprising led by senior generals naturally rarely appeared. It can also be seen that Yan Xishan has great control over the success of the construction of the Jin Sui army.