If you look at China's modern history, you will find that there is an incredible phenomenon. When the Chinese Communist Party's army competed with the Kuomintang, it was at a serious disadvantage for a long time in terms of the number of soldiers, equipment, and control of the territory, but it became stronger and stronger later. And there are also generals at the god of war level, like **, Su Yu, etc., and even *** was once called the "Oriental God of War" by the US military.
However, the Kuomintang had the upper hand in all aspects, and the strongest army it had ever built had a total strength of 4.3 million men. Not only that, they have also invested a lot in cultivating talents, just like the Whampoa Military Academy was founded for 23 years, but in modern history, among the generals of the Kuomintang army, there has never been a god of war level.
But to be honest, there are still some famous generals in the Kuomintang who have made great achievements. is like Hu Lian, who was once evaluated as cunning as a fox and as fierce as a tiger, he is a general who is most likely to become the god of war. Although he did not make a name for himself during the Anti-Japanese War, he made many major generals of the CCP suffer a lot of losses.
Hu Lian was born in the fourth phase of Whampoa, and he entered the highlight moment when he was 30 years old. At the time of the Battle of Songhu, Hu Lian was a regiment commander under Chen Cheng, and led the 66th Regiment of the 11th Division of the 18th Army of the Kuomintang to guard the Luodian area north of Shanghai. When the Japanese army had the advantage in all aspects, Hu Lian commanded the 66th Regiment but fought extremely bravely, and at the same time recaptured the important strategic location of Luodian, and he also made a name for himself in this battle.
Later, in the Battle of Xiangbei and the Battle of Zaoyi, Hu Lian performed well against the Japanese army. Especially in the 1943 Shipai Defense Battle, Hu Lian was regarded as a brilliant and achieved a great victory in western Hubei, and Chiang Kai-shek also awarded Hu Lian the Qingtian White Sun Medal. By the time of the Liberation War, Hu Lian commanded the 18th Army Corps and the reorganized 11th Division, fighting in Central and East China and the People's Liberation Army many times.
In the battles of Nanma and Linqu, the Huaye troops of the 74th Division also suffered a lot of losses at the hands of Hu Lian after they had just killed Zhang Lingfu. Hu Lian and Liu Deng's army also fought a strong battle in the battle of Zhangsuji, and only used the strength of one regiment to fight against the ten regiments of Nakano, and even ***, who is known as the god of war, also felt that Hu Chain was a difficult master to deal with.
Even in the later battle of advancing into Dabie Mountain, Liu Deng's army tried his best to avoid entanglement with Hu Lian's 11th Division, because they all knew that this guy was a hard stubble. It is not an exaggeration to say that Hu Lian is an out-and-out anti-Japanese general and a fierce general of the civil war among many Kuomintang generals.
Speaking of which, some people may ask, since Hu Lian is so brave, why did he do nothing in the Huaihai Campaign, and was directly defeated by Su Yu, and his life was lost to him?
In fact, before the start of the Huaihai Campaign, Hu Lian could have become the commander of the 12th Corps established on the basis of the 18th Army, but due to the serious factional struggle within the Kuomintang and Bai Chongxi's opposition, Hu Lian did not become the commander of the 12th Corps, but Huang Wei became the commander, and he could only succumb to him and become the deputy commander.
On November 1, 1948, Hu Lian's father died of illness, so he found an excuse to go home for the funeral. At that time, the Huaihai Battle was about to break out, and Hu Lian had foreseen this, and also formulated a set of plans for a showdown with the PLA. When he was leaving, he repeatedly warned Huang Wei that he should maintain mobility and flexibility when fighting with **, and not fall into the situation of siege.
However, it can be seen from here that Hu Lian is really smart and cunning, if Huang Wei really does what he instructs, then the Huaihai Battle may become what kind of ending it will become. However, Huang Wei still lacked Hu Lian's courage and brains, so he could only do things according to Shangfeng, so Huang Wei led the 12th Corps step by step into the trap arranged by the Central Plains Field Army. Even later, after Hu Lian learned of the situation, he urgently took a plane to save the emergency, but the overall situation was decided.