Historically, Chiang Kai-shek's strategy against Li Zongren's Gui and Yan Xishan's Jin Sui army was still successful, not only greatly weakening the strength of the Gui and Jin Sui armies, but also making them unable to resist the central government after the Central Plains War.

Historically, in July 1929, Yu Zuobai took office as chairman of Guangxi Provincial Political Axe in Nanning, and Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohong were defeated and left Hong Kong and forced to leave Guangxi. If it weren't for Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui, who disobeyed Chiang Kai-shek's order to "fundamentally eradicate" the Gui family, they incorporated the remnants of the Gui army. In order to prevent Chiang Kai-shek from annexing Guangxi, the Guangxi Formation and Dispatch Divisional Teaching Corps [led by Zhang Yunyi, commander of the Nanning garrison], was established to train junior military and political cadres. Deng Bin (Deng Xiaoping), a representative of the Central Committee, was given the opportunity to instigate an uprising. In September, he did not heed the persuasion of Deng Bin (Deng Xiaoping), the representative of the Central Committee, and responded to the anti-Chiang war of Zhang Fakui of the Guangdong Army, and appointed Wang Jingwei as the commander-in-chief of the South Road to "protect the party and save [***]", and marched into Guangdong with Li Mingrui, the commander of the Guangxi appeasement, and was defeated by Chen Jitang and other Guangdong generals, resulting in a great loss of strength, and had to rebel against Deng Xiaoping, Zhang Yunyi, Yu Zuoyu and other leaders in December of the same year and February of the following year, and served as the commander-in-chief of the 7th and 8th armies of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

Because Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohong were in exile at that time, and Yu Zuobai and Li Mingrui participated in the anti-Chiang uprising, there was a power vacuum in Guangxi, and local officials and people from all walks of life in Guangxi were unwilling to let the central government send personnel to Guangxi, and they were collectively willing to call on Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohong to return to Guangxi to take charge, and Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to agree, which gave Li Zongren and others the opportunity to take charge of Guangxi.

Yan Xishan has been even more honest since the Central Plains War, and he has never openly provoked any incidents except for secretly doing something passive against the central government.

But for the Northwest Army, in addition to completely depriving Feng Yuxiang of his military power, (to a large extent, it was the generals of the Northwest Army themselves who were unwilling to accept Feng Yuxiang's leadership.) For example, when Feng Yuxiang contacted these generals later, there were few responders. The generals of the Northwest Army, such as Han Fuyu, Song Zheyuan, Sun Lianzhong, and Sun Liangcheng, were all like this. The problem of the Northwest Army was not completely solved. As a result, these generals of the Northwest Army subsequently defected to Chiang and opposed Chiang several times.

If Chiang Kai-shek did not completely digest the Northwest Army in eliminating the threat of the Gui system, the Northwest Army, and the Jin Sui Army, this can also be said to be Chiang Kai-shek's biggest failure. If the Northwest Army can be thoroughly digested, it will definitely be a very effective force during the Anti-Japanese War.

If, during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi's Gui faction, Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, and Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army were still as strong as they are today, the central and local cadres were weak and strong, and the threat to Chiang Kai-shek had not been eliminated, China would still be in this state of nominally unified, but in fact still fragmented, just like in the late Tang Dynasty. Song Zhewu can say with certainty that the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression will never last for eight years.

In this state, there will definitely be a certain group that will take the lead in falling to Yue himself, and even before the Han Dynasty annihilates Wang Jingwei and others. As long as he provided sufficient weapons and ammunition, the army would not even have to invest huge troops on the Chinese battlefield as it did in the War of Resistance in the past, so that there would be a shortage of troops in the later operations in the South Seas and the Pacific. Chiang Kai-shek could absolutely not resist the central forces led by Chiang Kai-shek alone with the troops of these people who had taken refuge in them. Once Chiang Kai-shek is defeated, with the current people's low degree of recognition of the Nanjing political axe led by Chiang Kai-shek, there will soon be a chain reaction among the powerful factions in various localities......

Song Zhewu really didn't dare to make such a terrible imagination again, even if it was a hypothesis. Because in real history, during the Anti-Japanese War, there were still many generals who surrendered to the army and became Han annihilation. For example, Qi Xieyuan, commander-in-chief of the North China puppet security army, once served as the deputy commander-in-chief of Wu Peifu's 14 provinces to fight against thieves and the Jiangbei envoy to Yan Xishan. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, he surrendered to imperialism and successively served as the chief of the puppet North China Provisional Political Axe Public Security Department, the superintendent of the puppet North China Political Affairs Committee, and the commander-in-chief of the puppet North China Appeasement Army, cooperating with the Yue army to "sweep" and kill the Chinese; Sun Liangcheng, commander-in-chief of the puppet Second Front Army. Sun Liangcheng was the deputy commander-in-chief of the 39th Group Army of the Kuomintang, and in April 1942, he led his troops to surrender and became the commander-in-chief of the puppet 2nd Front Army, the director of the puppet Kaifeng Pacification Office, and the director of the puppet Northern Jiangsu Pacification Office; Wu Huawen, commander-in-chief of the puppet Third Front Army. At the beginning of 1943, he surrendered to the Chinese army and was reorganized into the Third Front Army of the puppet army, and served as the commander. It has created a "no man's land" in the Linqu area of Luzhong; Pang Bingxun, commander-in-chief of the puppet 24th Group Army, and Sun Dianying, deputy commander-in-chief. Pang Bingxun was formerly the commander of the 40th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and Sun Dianying was formerly the commander of the newly formed Fifth Army of the National Revolutionary Army; Rong Ziheng, the commander of the puppet temporary 15th Army. Rong Ziheng was originally the commander of the 112th Division of the Kuomintang, and in the spring of 1943, he led his troops to surrender to the enemy in the Lunan Fei County area; Cai Xiongfei, commander-in-chief of the puppet East Asian Imperial Allied Army. Cai Xiongfei was the deputy division commander of the 19th Army of the Kuomintang, and led his troops to surrender to the enemy in 1938.

In addition, the miscellaneous armies of Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi provinces. For example, Qi Zixiu of the Shandong Puppet Eighth Division (Qi Yuan was the commander of the Fifth Division of the Kuomintang Shandong Security, and led his troops to surrender to the enemy in the summer of 1943), the puppet 31st Division Wen Dake, the puppet 11th Division Zhang Dongyun, the first division of the Puppet Imperial Association Zhang Buyun (Zhang Yuan was the commander of the Kuomintang's provisional Second Division, and led his troops to surrender to the enemy in Zhucheng, Shandong in July 1943), Qi Jianying of the Anti-Communist Army (Qi Yuan was the commander of the Fifth Division of Shandong Security, and led his troops to surrender to the enemy after the Anti-Japanese War), Liu Chen of the Northern Lu Army, Feng Shoupeng of the Communist Army in Southern Lu, and Wu Lianjie of the 28th Division of the Peaceful Rescue. Roussy [***] Commander-in-Chief Bendeguan. Heping Jian[***] Yang Mufan, Jin Nanjian [***] Jin Fuzhong. Hebei has the puppet appeasement autonomous army Li Baosen, and the joint defense and rescue [***] Zhang Yingyi. The first division of the Suixi Defense Communist Party, Hao Genwu, and so on, are not listed.

The more famous generals of the Northwest Army include Zhang Lanfeng, Sun Liangcheng, Wu Huawen, Pang Bingxun, Hao Pengju, Shi Yousan, Zhang Weixi, etc. Among them, Shi Yousan, Zhang Weixi, and Sun Liangcheng are Feng Yuxiang's so-called "Thirteen Taibao".

Song Zhewu looked at Chiang Kai-shek's back and thought about it: "Therefore, Zhewu thinks that there are four points to pay attention to in order to deal with Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army: first, the chairman of the committee should appease Yan Xishan, so that he will not join forces with Feng Yuxiang to deal with the Central Committee when the Central Committee and the Northwest Army are at war; Second, not only Feng Yuxiang is not credible, but Yan Xishan is also not credible, so we must be prepared for Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang once they join forces; Third, at the beginning of the war, it is necessary to adopt the strategy of defending in the north and attacking in the south. In other words, the central army was mobilized to concentrate on the border between Hubei and Henan and Anhui and Henan to take a defensive position, and first solve Sun Liangcheng's army in Shandong with superior forces. After the troops of Shandong solved Sun Liangcheng, they waved their troops north, marched west along the Longhai and Jinghan roads, and the two armies of the southeast combined to attack the troops of the Northwest Army in Henan; Fourth, step up the rebellion against the internal generals of the Northwest Army, and Han Fuyu, the chairman of the committee, is very clever in this move; Fifth, once the Central Army wins victory, it is necessary to reorganize the Northwest Army, and the Central Committee must be thorough in its reorganization. For example, it is best to deal with Hu Zongduo, Tao Jun, Ye Qi and other ministries this time, otherwise it is inevitable that there will be another confrontation with the central government. If such reintegration is not possible, at the very least, middle- and lower-ranking officers of the units receiving the reintegration should be given training by the central authorities, and they should be forced to accept officers from the Central Military Academy to serve in their units. This is a little foolish opinion of Zhewu, and if it is inappropriate, please ask Chairman Haihan. ”

Song Zhewu's proposal can be said to be basically the same as Chiang Kai-shek's plan, and even the first few items are the same, but Chiang Kai-shek already has a complete plan and is more detailed.

Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied with Song Zhewu's answer, not only because Song Zhewu's suggestion was very good, but more importantly, because he was very satisfied with Song Zhewu's attitude towards this matter. In Chiang Kai-shek's mind, he wanted to solve not only Li Zongren's Gui faction, Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, and Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army, but also Chen Jitang in Guangdong, He Jian, who had recently defected to the central government in Hunan, Long Yun in Yunnan, Fang Zhenwu in Anhui, the warlords in Guizhou headed by Zhou Xicheng, the warlords in Sichuan headed by Liu Wenhui and Liu Xiang, and Tang Shengzhi, who was used against his will to deal with the Gui faction, and even Zhu Peide and this Song Zhewu in Jiangxi. He believes that all the powerful local factions that have an army have bad intentions.

It's just that Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang, and Yan Xishan have strong military force, and they not only secretly resist the orders of the central authorities, but also dare to open their heads, and there is no other way to deal with them except by force. Since it has been decided to solve the problem by force, it is necessary to cut through the mess quickly and must not drag the mud and water. As long as these three forces are enough to confront the powerful faction of the central government, as long as the others do not push them too much, no one will have the courage to confront the central government.

To deal with the remaining petty warlords, it is enough to use a three-pronged approach of politics, economy, and military, as long as they grasp it properly, gradually divide and disintegrate, and finally achieve the complete absorption of their army without causing a major resistance. Of course, there are times when the threat and even coercion of strong force is necessary.

These local powerful parties both supported and guarded against Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang, and Yan Xishan, and although they did not dare to openly support these people, they did not want them to be dealt with by the central government in this way. In that way, they are afraid that the central government will free up its hands to deal with them.

In Chiang Kai-shek's view, Song Zhewu should also have this kind of mentality, and he would not be willing to see him Jiang Zhongzheng smoothly solve the Gui faction, the Northwest Army and Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army, because Song Zhewu is also a warlord in his bones, and he is also a warlord with great development potential, he should definitely not want to see Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army successfully resolved. Once Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army and Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army were both eliminated, he would inevitably suffer from the pond fish. This time, he supported the central government's crusade against the Gui family very hard, but he just wanted to ask for more benefits, hoping that he Jiang Zhongzheng would finally hand over Shanxi to him.

He asked Song Zhewu to provide advice on dealing with the Northwest Army, just to see what kind of thoughts this Song Zhewu was hiding from Song Zhewu's words. If Song Zhewu was also like those warlords who thought and didn't want to see him Jiang Zhongzheng wipe out Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, then he wouldn't mind even cleaning up with him Song Zhewu when he dealt with Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army next. He, Jiang Zhongzheng, was unwilling to spend money and mind to eliminate an old warlord and at the same time support another new warlord.

But this Song Zhewu not only fully supported the Central Committee and supported him Jiang Zhongzheng to deal with Feng Yuxiang, but even completely stood on his Jiang Zhongzheng's position to give him advice, which surprised him! Isn't he afraid that he will deal with him next? Chiang Kai-shek felt that he was increasingly unable to see through this capable young man.

After being silent for a long time, Chiang Kai-shek decided to test Song Zhewu again, if Song Zhewu's answer could not satisfy him, after solving Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, he could not only prevent and suppress Song Zhewu, nor could he first solve Yan Xishan's Jin Sui Army, but the next one was to deal with Song Zhewu's Fourth Route Army first. This young man is really outstanding, and if the time comes, he must be the central government, and of course he is also a strong opponent of Jiang Zhongzheng.

(To be continued)