During his time in the mainland, Tang Enbo, who was finally promoted to lieutenant general and general, has always had a much higher negative evaluation than a positive evaluation, which has almost become a consensus.
Let's take a look at the judgments and subordinates of the cronies who have followed the Tang family for a long time, and see if there is a discrepancy between their eyes of Tang Enbo and everyone's perception.
Ge Tian, born in the sixth phase of Whampoa, served as Tang Enbo's "chief of internal affairs" from 1938 to 1949, successively serving as adjutant director, director of office, and director of general affairs.
Tang Enbo in the eyes of Ge Tian and others is extremely afraid of death, crazy about accumulating money, extremely cruel, flattering to the principal, and "kneeling and licking" who has surrendered to the Japanese army.
The Tang family he said was afraid of death, which was mainly manifested in two ways: First, he was afraid of the Japanese air raid and often found another house to live in a few kilometers outside the headquarters;Second, during the period of commanding operations, they did not fix their positions, ran around in a disorderly manner, and in the name of personally commanding the front, but in fact they were worried that the headquarters would have too big a target and would be more dangerous.
In 1943, when he served as the director of the 31st Group Army's office in Chongqing, Ge Tian was ordered by Tang to personally purchase **5,000 taels, and finally handed over all of them to Tang's wife Wang Jingbai for storage. In 1947, he also handed over 500 million yuan of legal currency generated by running a business for Tang's to Tang's hands.
Mr. and Mrs. Tong ran a business empire that involved cigarettes, steamship transportation, import business, underground banks, iron works, brick factories, food and chemical factories, restaurants, primary and secondary schools, etc., and made a fortune on a frenzy.
The Tang family owned a large number of mansions in Nanjing, Chongqing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou and other places, and often donated real estate to Chen Yi, Hu Zongnan, and US military advisers, which also became one of his tricks to win people's hearts.
As for brutality, Ge Tian gave a few examples. The most representative is that he assassinated Bao Gang, who was the lieutenant general and deputy commander of the 13th Army, because of personal grudges, and then blamed the new fourth, but it was unexpectedly unexpected.
In addition, he shot countless low-ranking officers and soldiers in his department for playing cards in private and stealing villagers' fruits. A young boatman who was in charge of burning firewood on a small steamer was brutally shot by Tong after being delayed for half an hour because of a temporary fire.
Tang's brutality was even more evident in the heinous crimes he committed in Hubei, Henan and Anhui in 1932. Thousands of unarmed civilian men between the ages of 15 and 60 were killed en masse. For this reason, Tang also proudly said that he should have "a bodhisattva's heart and a butcher's method", which is too shameless.
Diametrically opposed to the brutality of his subordinates and opponents, Tang Enbo turned into a sheep in front of Principal Jiang. He once said to Ge Tian more than once, "I only recognize the principal, only listen to his orders, and ignore all others."
He said this and did the same, such as the Battle of Taierzhuang and the Battle of Suizao, he ignored the orders of the commander of the Fifth Theater many times, and did not start to act until he received a warrant from President Chiang.
As for the "kneeling and licking" of the Japanese generals who had surrendered, it occurred during the period when he presided over the reception of Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou and the centralized repatriation of Japanese troops as the commander of the Third Front Army.
During this period, he tried to prepare a large number of Chinese and foreign ships to transport the Japanese troops back to Japan, and the efficiency was so high that even the allies were quite staggering. He also relaxed the weight limit on the carry-on luggage of the Japanese army, which made the Japanese people grateful.
It is precisely because of this series of preferential treatment of the Japanese army that in the 1950s, Tang went to Japan for treatment and after his death from illness in Japan, he was courteous to the former Japanese generals and the Japanese side. Of course, there is also a saying that the Tang family died in the Japanese assassination.
In addition to Ge Tian's memories, Zhang Wenxin, who was the deputy commander and acting commander of the 85th Army of the Tang Department, Gao Hefei, who was the deputy commander of the Songhu garrison of the Tang Department, and Li Youwu, who was the chief of staff of the 89th Division, etc., can basically agree with each other, perhaps this basically restores Tang Enbo's original face.