In Chiang Kai-shek's eyes, the main reasons for the Kuomintang's defeat and retreat to Taiwan were corruption, incompetence in the army, and factions. These words may have been only occasional complaints to Chiang Kai-shek, but listeners such as Yan Xishan were deeply touched by them.
As the former "King of Shanxi", Yan Xishan knew that he was lacking in love of money, incompetence and factionalism. He once grabbed two large boxes full of gold bars because of his greed for money, and even caused the plane to be overweight, making it impossible for many Kuomintang dignitaries to take off.
Under the reproach of everyone, although Yan Xishan put down the box, he chose to leave a few guards, which undoubtedly deepened people's negative evaluation of him again.
Yan Xishan's performance on the battlefield was remarkable, but after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, he provoked a war because of the struggle for the territory left by the Japanese. As a result, he lost 370,000 troops, which made him a laughing stock throughout the country.
In addition, Yan Xishan was also criticized for forming a faction, he once fought against Chiang Kai-shek, and also formed the "Thirteen Taibao of the Jin Sui Army". If you want to select the most popular figure in the Kuomintang, Yan Xishan can undoubtedly be at the forefront.
Although Yan Xishan was not liquidated by Chiang Kai-shek in his later years, he lived a hard life, living in seclusion all day long, and no longer had the prestige of the "King of Shanxi".
However, Yan Xishan's predicament also brings another question, that is, where did the "Thirteen Taibao" go? Why didn't any of them show up to support Yan Xishan when he was at his most down?
Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang's "Thirteen Taibao" are significantly different. Yan Xishan's "Thirteen Taibao" are all high-achieving students, reflecting his background and elite consciousness as a student sent to Japan by the Qing Dynasty and graduated from the Japanese Army Academy.
And Feng Yuxiang's "Thirteen Taibao" are all from the army, reflecting his identity and military tradition as a big boss and a soldier.
However, after all, the international students are only a minority, and it is difficult to find thirteen equally excellent people. Yan Xishan was operating in North China at the time, and with the advantage of his geographical advantage, he began to maintain close ties with the Baoding School, and a group of his loyal supporters gradually formed in the college.
In the "Thirteen Taibao of the Jin Sui Army", they are all graduates of the Baoding Military Academy, of which Yang Chengyuan and Sun Chu are in the first phase, Liang Peihuang is in the second phase, and the fifth phase has the most graduates, including Fu Zuoyi, Li Shijie, Wang Jingguo, Li Fuying, Zhao Chengshou, Chu Xichun, Lu Yinglin and Dong Yingbin.
The youngest, Chen Changjie, is a graduate of the seventh phase of Baoding.
Due to the special relationship of the alumni, the "Thirteen Taibao of the Jin Sui Army" was more united than the "Thirteen Taibao of the Northwest Army", and they followed Yan Xishan back to their hometown Shanxi.
Although Chen Changjie is not a native of Shanxi, he has always had a good relationship with several seniors. Yan Xishan is very attentive to the management of Shanxi, which has a complete industrial system, among which the Taiyuan Arsenal is famous throughout the country.
Therefore, the Jin Suijun and its "Thirteen Taibao" eventually became a force to be reckoned with during the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation. Although nominally, Yan Xishan was Chiang Kai-shek's subordinate at this time, but in Shanxi, he was the complete "King of Shanxi".
In any period of peace, Yan Xishan's position in Shanxi can be said to be as stable as Mount Tai. However, fate has no ifs. In 1937, the Japanese army invaded, Yan Xishan's Jin Sui army was about to face an unprecedented setback, and the life of the "Thirteen Taibao" would also go to the storm.
In 1937, when the Chinese nation was facing a critical moment of life and death, Chiang Kai-shek was always hesitant to resist Japan. He pinned his hopes on the international community to mediate, and although there were many officers and soldiers in the Kuomintang who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the country, this kind of upright anti-Japanese resistance became a luxury.
The Northeast Army was the first to be affected, and although Zhang Xueliang repeatedly expressed his determination to resist the war, he was stopped by Chiang Kai-shek, emphasizing that "the overall situation is important". As a result, the Northeast Army lost the three eastern provinces without firing a single shot, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers were displaced in the Central Plains, which were finally digested by Chiang Kai-shek's ** army.
Now, after the Japanese army captured Pingjin, the guns were already aimed at the neighboring Shanxi. In September 1937, the Japanese army broke through the Tianzhen defense line of the 61st Army of the Jin Sui Army and captured Datong, the capital of Shanxi.
At this moment, Yan Xishan understood that he could no longer pretend to turn a blind eye, otherwise the entire Jin Sui Army would also become the Northeast Army and be used by Chiang Kai-shek.
Under his push, the Battle of Xinkou began. In this battle, the Jin Sui army did its best and was supported by the Eighth Route Army and the ** Army, and they sent 10 artillery regiments in the Battle of Xinkou, which can be said to be going all out.
Through the efforts of many parties, the Battle of Xinkou successfully annihilated 20,000 enemies, breaking the record of enemy annihilation in the North China battlefield. Theoretically, the members of these 10 artillery regiments have all made meritorious contributions, and if there are no accidents, they will continue to rise through the ranks on the road of defending their homeland and country.
The fall of the "Thirteen Taibao" of the Jin Sui Army originated from an unexpected battle. In this battle, the boss Li Fuying fought fiercely with the Japanese army in Tianzhen County for ten days and successfully stopped the Japanese invasion.
However, Li Fuying received an unexpected order - to retreat. Although he was puzzled by this, he eventually chose to obey orders, which led to the loss of Tianzhen and the decline of the "Thirteen Taibao of the Jin Sui Army".
At Yan Xishan's side, Li Fuying wanted to know the truth, but was arrested by the guards and finally executed by Yan Xishan for retreating without authorization. Due to Chiang Kai-shek's emphasis on the "policy of non-resistance", Yan Xishan was greatly troubled between protecting his territory and obeying **, and finally shot Li Fuying on the grounds that he had escaped from the battle.
Li Fuying, the founder of the 13th Taibao of the Jin Suijun, unfortunately died in cannibalism. Li Fuying's death was an insurmountable obstacle for everyone, and it also revealed the contradictions within the Jin Suijun.
Although the Jin Sui army had a good foundation under many years of operation, it was defeated and retreated in the following battles, and even lost most of the territory of Shanxi Province. In the end, there were only seven county towns and an army of less than 40,000 people who controlled the Jin Sui army, which made the originally united Thirteen Taibao fall apart at this moment.
Chen Changjie chose to go to Nanjing, and the people were no longer willing to be under the jurisdiction of Yan Xishan. Among the remaining eleven people, Fu Zuoyi led half of the members of the Thirteen Taibao to break away from the Jin Suijun system, create the Suiyuan Army, and develop independently.
used to be the Thirteenth Taibao, but now only Yang Chengyuan, Wang Jingguo, Zhao Chengshou, Sun Chu, and Liang Peihuang are by Yan Xishan's side, and Yan Xishan's prestige is not as good as before.
Although Fu Zuoyi did not publicly sever relations with Yan Xishan, the rift between the two was already very obvious.
Yan Xishan's loss of power made Chiang Kai-shek very happy, but with the decline of the strength of the two sides, Yan Xishan had no possibility of opposing Chiang, and he began to follow Chiang Kai-shek, giving up the original idea of being the king and hegemon.
After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, in order to show loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek and also to expand his sphere of influence, Yan Xishan used the excuse of the surrender of the Japanese army to clash with the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi Province.
Yan Xishan once dreamed of turning over through war, but reality shattered his hopes again, and tens of thousands of troops were lost. Realizing that the end was near, he frantically built bunkers as a last resort.
On the other hand, Fu Zuoyi, who broke away from the Jin Sui army back then, his life was thriving. Fu Zuoyi was the most capable of fighting in the "Thirteen Taibao", because of the military exploits accumulated over the years, he was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the commander-in-chief of the 12th theater, and later became the commander-in-chief of North China, in charge of all defense in North China, including Yan Xishan's Shanxi Province.
At this time, his status had surpassed that of Yan Xishan. Another transcendent point of Fu Zuoyi is his thoughtfulness. In January 1949, he realized that Chiang Kai-shek was hopeless, so he made a decision - an uprising.
This move led to the peaceful liberation of Beiping, avoided the displacement of millions of people, and protected countless precious monuments in the city. At the same time, it also left a way for other members of the "Thirteen Taibao of the Jin Sui Army" to survive.
With the peaceful liberation of Beiping, Fu Zuoyi and his followers such as Chu Xichun and Li Shiping chose to accept the peaceful adaptation. In contrast, Yan Xishan's"Thirteen Taibao"But it was ill-fated.
During the War of Liberation, members of the Thirteenth Taibao, such as Zhao Chengshou, were defeated by their former friend Xu Shuai in the Battle of Jinzhong and became prisoners of the People's Liberation Army; After Liang Peihuang was captured by our army in the Battle of Linfen, he was sent for reform; Sun Chu and Wang Jingguo, as the commanders of Taiyuan's city defense, were captured by our army in the Battle of Taiyuan......And Yang Chengyuan, who was once known as Yan Xishan's right and left hand, was also captured by our army in the Battle of Luliang.
After Yang Chengyuan was captured, he actively underwent reform, became aware of the situation in the country, and reflected on his mistakes. At the end of the Taiyuan Campaign, he took the initiative to ask Ying, hoping to enter the city to persuade Yan Xishan to surrender.
His request was agreed to by the PLA generals. However, what people didn't expect was that when Yang Chengyuan found Yan Xishan and was about to say his intentions, he was immediately disarmed and captured by Yan Xishan, and sent to Nanjing for detention on the charge of "collaborating with the enemy".
Yang Chengyuan was the second core figure of the Thirteenth Taibao after Li Fuying's death, and he was also the core figure of several other people around Yan Xishan, and he was always loyal to Yan Xishan.
Yang Chengyuan's loyalty, in exchange for Yan Xishan's ruthless abandonment, to a certain extent, the glory of the Thirteen Taibao has faded. Fortunately, soon after, Shanxi was liberated, followed by Nanjing, and Yang Chengyuan was rescued from prison by PLA soldiers, and he has been living in Beijing ever since, enjoying his old age.
After Yan Xishan retreated to Taiwan, he has been trying to curry favor with Chiang Kai-shek through various means in order to realize the desire of the "** mainland". However, his efforts were not recognized by Chiang Kai-shek, and he did not return until his death in 1960.
Yan Xishan's defeat did not come from the Japanese army, the Communists, or Chiang Kai-shek, but from his own decisions and actions.
Yan Xishan's"Thirteen Taibao"One of them, fought bloodily in Tianzhen in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and was later sentenced to death after being ordered to retreat.