In 1928, the Northern Expedition ended victoriously, Zhang Xueliang announced the "change of banner", and Lao Chiang achieved great unification on the surface, but in fact it was still a situation where the heroes stood side by side.
The 1st Group Army, with Lao Chiang as the commander-in-chief, had troops distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and other provinces, with a total strength of about 500,000 people; The 2nd Group Army, with Feng Yuxiang as the commander-in-chief, had troops distributed in Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and other provinces, with a total strength of about 400,000 people; The 3rd Group Army, with Yan Xishan as the commander-in-chief, had troops distributed in Shanxi, Chahar, Suiyuan, Beiping, Tianjin and other provinces and cities, with a total strength of about 200,000 troops; The 4th Group Army, with Li Zongren as the commander-in-chief, had troops distributed in Guangxi and Hubei provinces, as well as Beiping and Tianjin, with a total strength of about 200,000 troops; In addition, there was Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army, which controlled the four provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Rehe, with a total strength of about 400,000.
Cutting the feudal domain has always been the top priority after the boss ascended to the peak, and the cutting of the feudal domain in all dynasties, whether it is to come to martial arts or to use literature, there are many thrilling things, and there is little harmony, it seems that only Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's "cup of wine releases military power", solved the problem with one meal, and it didn't take much trouble.
In fact, at that time, the ** was even worse than the Three Kingdoms, except for Lao Jiang, the four major warlords, all of them were ambitious, like wolves and tigers, and Lao Jiang wanted to successfully cut down the domain, but it was difficult to ascend to the sky.
But at that time, the old Jiang Zhi was here.
It is said that after the completion of the Northern Expedition, Yang Yongtai, Lao Chiang's most trusted adviser, immediately presented the "strategy of cutting the feudal domain", the main points of which were: to disintegrate Feng Yuxiang's 2nd Group Army by economic means, to solve Yan Xishan's 3rd Group Army by political methods, to solve Li Zongren's 4th Group Army by military methods, and to deal with Zhang Xueliang's group by diplomatic methods.
Yang Yongtai is known as the first poisonous Zhuge , he has broken through each of his hands, specializing in the Achilles heel of the four major warlords, and his skills are indeed profound.
Zhang Xueliang once commented that Lao Jiang has a rough lack of talent, at this time, Lao Jiang's general outline is very distinct, but when it comes to doing it, it does give people a sense of being rough and unclassified, and his rank in the field of talent is indeed not high.
Lao Jiang cut the domain, played the salute first and then the soldiers, and advocated the so-called "cutting troops to save the country", but the content was really despicable, and there was no real hero.
On July 6, 1928, after completing the ceremony of memorializing the prime minister, Lao Jiang convened Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Zhang Qun and others for a conversation at Li Shizeng's villa next to Biyun Temple in Xiangshan, Beiping.
At the meeting, Lao Jiang threw out his "Military Aftermath Case": Of the 300 divisions in active duty across the country, 250 will be cut and 50 will be retained, with 1 for each division50,000 troops, a total of 800,000 troops are retained, divided into 12 military regions, each military region retains troops in proportion, and each group army is handled separately.
The mystery of this plan lies in the fact that the four group armies of Lao Chiang, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, and Li Zongren each occupy one military region on the surface, but Lao Chiang can use the name of ** to directly or indirectly control the other eight military regions. Although Chiang's troops were large, they were scattered across nine military regions, and the number of people in each military region was small. As a result, his 1st Group Army not only did not reduce troops, but also increased troops, while Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi all had only one military region, and they all needed to reduce a large number of troops.
Among them, Feng Yuxiang suffered the most.
Feng Yuxiang was originally a big thorn, and he was very scareless.
Seeing that Lao Jiang was so harmful to others and self-interested, he seized the weakness of Lao Chiang's army and instantly threw out a plan to scare Lao Chiang.
What were the weaknesses of the old Chiang's army at that time?
In addition to the 1st Army of Lao Chiang's lineage, most of them were Beiyang surrender or defection troops that had been incorporated into the Beiyang Army, while Feng Yan and Li Bai's troops were mostly subordinate soldiers, and they had made great achievements in the Northern Expedition.
Feng Yuxiang seized this point and issued a telegram saying that he opposed "the equal or proportional reduction of all group armies" and clearly put forward the criteria for reducing troops, which were completely different from those of Lao Chiang: "Those with incomplete guns should be cut, those who are old and weak will be cut, those with poor discipline will be cut, and those who are too short of training will be cut." ”
According to Feng Yuxiang's standard for reducing troops, his 2nd Group Army did not need to reduce troops at all, and only Lao Chiang's 1st Group Army had to be cut.
When Lao Jiang saw this plan, his face turned green.
However, when it comes to this round of games at that time, it was Bai Chongxi of the Gui family who really had the great talent.
Bai Chongxi also put forward a plan, referred to as the "real edge" strategy.
What is the "solid edge" method?
Bai Chongxi proposed that the total strength of the four group armies is only 6 or 700,000, and it is better to dismantle these four group armies and combine them into four national defense armies, which will be stationed in the four frontiers.
Bai Chongxi said that at that time, France had a population of 42 million and more than 700,000 Wehrmacht; Germany has a population of more than 64 million and a standing army of 850,000. Our country has 47,000,000 people, and if we calculate according to the ratio of the population of Germany and France to the number of troops, we need at least 4 million troops, and now we have only 6,700,000 revolutionary troops left, which is a very valuable military force, and there is no need to reduce them, and it is wise to divide them into the frontiers in order to consolidate national defense.
In doing so, we can not only resettle the meritorious soldiers of the Northern Expedition and avoid the tragedy of "hiding all the birds with their bows," but more importantly, by moving all the troops to the frontiers, we can avoid many internal disputes and prevent a civil war.
Bai Chongxi is a Hui ethnic group, and at that time he proposed that he was willing to lead troops to Xinjiang to defend the border and build the frontier.
Bai Chongxi's proposal once won the support of many bigwigs in the DPRK and China, but Lao Jiang's determination to "cut the domain" has been decided, in his opinion, Bai Chongxi's move is very easy to become bigger, and when the time comes, it will be strong and weak.
Lao Jiang was ruthless enough, and just when Bai Chongxi wanted to actively promote this discussion, he was already preparing a plan to eradicate the Gui family militarily, including even taking Bai Chongxi's life.
Lao Jiang eradicated Li Bai of the Gui family, because the disintegration methods were used well, and the result was surprisingly smooth, which made Lao Jiang have a serious misjudgment, thinking that it would be okay to engage in several other families.
With this optimism, the Central Plains War broke out.
Some people commented that in the Central Plains War, although Lao Chiang finally won, his troops were also exhausted, and when the "918" incident broke out, they had no strength to fight back.
If Bai Chongxi's strategy had been used at the beginning, the civil war might not have broken out, and the course of history might have changed.
Bai Chongxi had several resentments in his life, and this was the first one.