During the War of Liberation, the main forces of the Kuomintang army were distributed in five major theaters for most of the time, namely the Northeast Suppression Headquarters, the North China Suppression Headquarters, the Xuzhou Suppression Headquarters, the Central China Suppression Headquarters, and the Northwest Theater. The main force of the Kuomintang Army in the northwest is the Hu Zongnan Military Group, with a total strength of more than 200,000 troops, of which the first-class ace unit is the integrated 36th Division, and the division commander is Lieutenant General Zhong Song. This man had good command ability, stubborn and cunning in battle, but his military career was very peculiar: undefeated, undead, unsurrendered, and never uprising.
Because Hu Zongnan's chief secretary Xiong Xianghui is the first of our army, so from the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the War of Liberation, the military operations of the Northwest Kuomintang Army against our army have repeatedly failed, and the commander Hu Zongnan himself is "ambitious and talented", and he personally buried the main forces of the northwest ** one by one, like the powerful commander of the entire 29th Army Liu Jian and the commander of the entire 90th Division Yan Ming, all of whom were killed in the process of fighting with the Northwest Field Army. However, in the Northwest **, which has been defeated repeatedly, the reorganized 36th Division is an exception.
Because Zhong Song's troops were armed with American weapons, and this person was strict in governing the army, the combat effectiveness of the troops of more than 30,000 people was quite strong (in 1945, its predecessor, the 36th Army, even had 70,000 troops, which was the largest army of the Kuomintang). In battles such as the siege of Yulin, Zhong Song showed a high military quality, which repeatedly angered Mr. Peng. Zhong Song clashed with Nishino, was surrounded 3 times and escaped magically 3 times, while his integrated 36th Division suffered little loss, and the overall muscles and bones have been intact. Within the Kuomintang army, Zhong Song was considered one of the most combative front-line commanders in the country, and his ability was not below Zhang Lingfu, Hu Lian and others; Even Mr. Peng of Xiye commented that this person was cunning in battle and "couldn't be killed".
However, in 1948, the fierce-tempered Zhong Song confronted his boss Hu Zongnan head-on at a military meeting. Although Hu Zongnan regarded Zhong Song as a favorite general, he also wanted to regain face in front of his subordinates, and immediately ordered Zhong Song to be suspended, and from then on, Zhong Song handed over his trump card of the entire 36th Division. This may seem like a bad career, but it's not a bad thing. Because Zhong Song was absent from the front-line battle at a critical moment, he was neither killed nor captured. Later, the war situation in the north collapsed, and the Kuomintang army was eager to expand its troops, and Zhong Song was reactivated and became the deputy commander of Pei Changhui's corps. Zhong Song trained several divisions of recruits for the Kuomintang, and seeing that the general trend had gone, his choice was very strange at this time. Zhong Song did not plan to accompany the Kuomintang army to the funeral, but he was also very stubborn: he was not personally defeated, and insisted on not revolting or surrendering. This decision itself was contradictory, so Zhong Song took the opportunity to go to Hong Kong to do business when the fierce fighting in the south was raging in 49, which was unique among the high-ranking generals of the Kuomintang, and it was very strange.
In 1950, when the Liberation War was coming to an end, Zhong Song still did not return to the mainland, but went from Hong Kong to Taiwan, stayed until 1970, and then emigrated to the European country of the Netherlands. In his later years, Zhong Song took his youngest son to visit relatives in the mainland (see picture above) and donated 10,000 yuan to his hometown in Songyang, Zhejiang Province (10,000 yuan was not a small amount in 1988). But he still did not stay, but chose to return to the Netherlands to die of bone cancer at the age of 95. Zhong Song is also one of the few former senior generals who died overseas.