Chapter 58: The Shandong Question
In fact, in addition to the defeat in the Hunan-Hubei-Bashu war zone, what gave Dai Jiliang a headache was the Shandong issue.
But there is a difference between the two. The problems in the Hunan-Hubei-Bashu War Zone were caused by Liu Wenhui's unrealistic ambitions and lack of talent, which gave the cunning Okamura Yasuji an opportunity to seize. It was a case of good intentions leading to bad results. The failure of the Jiangsu-Xuzhou-Shandong-Henan-Anhui War Zone in Shandong was caused by the internal friction between Shen Honglie and Yu Xuezhen.
One of Dai Jiliang's important intentions in establishing the Su-Xu-Lu-Yu-An war zone was to rely on the war zone and the 16th Corps of the Northeast Army entering Shandong to unify the command and control of the military and political affairs of Shandong and Xu-Hai provinces as well as northern Jiangsu, northern Huai, and eastern Henan, so as to achieve long-term persistence behind enemy lines and undermine the Japanese army's strategy of fighting to support the war.
To a certain extent, the establishment of the Jiangsu-Xuzhou-Shandong-Henan-Anhui war zone and the entry of the 16th Corps into Shandong also brought a certain degree of stability to the people's hearts in Shandong, which had been affected by Han Fuju's passive resistance to the war.
However, although Yu and Shen were both old members of the Northeast Army and had a basis for maintaining cooperation, they both had a strong desire to control the party, government and military activities in Shandong Province with themselves as the center.
This strong desire not only brought about many barriers and conflicts, negating the effectiveness of mutual cooperation, but also staged a farce.
Shen Honglie's intention to control Shandong was already evident when he began to govern the province in March 1938.
Shen was originally the mayor of Qingdao. After he withdrew from Qingdao, he lost his foothold. When he became the provincial governor, he naturally regarded Shandong Province as his basic support.
Therefore, from the beginning of his rule over Shandong, he devoted himself to rebuilding the paralyzed military and political affairs of the entire province. He tried his best to gather local powerful figures, appoint them to official positions, organize the armed forces in various places, and incorporate them into the security force system under his control.
After Yu Xuezhong entered southern Shandong as the commander-in-chief of the war zone, he stimulated Shen Honglie's desire to control Shandong's military and political affairs with himself as the center.
Shen was eight years older than Yu Xuezhong and had joined the Northeast Army earlier than Yu Xuezhong. Therefore, he began to use his seniority to control Yu.
According to Miao Chengliu's account, after Yu Xuezhong arrived in southern Shandong, Shen Honglie put on airs and refused to meet Yu Xuezhong first, but Yu Xuezhong was also unwilling to see him first.
After a few days, Shen Honglie decided to meet with Yu Xuezhong at the place of He Lizhong, commander of the 49th Army.
So Yu Xuezhong and I went to Commander He’s residence to meet Shen Honglie.
As soon as we met and exchanged greetings, he ordered his Chief of Staff Ning Chunlin to take out a defense map and forced Yu Xuezhong to deploy the troops according to his plan.
Shen Honglie's intention was entirely to protect his provincial government, and therefore he was opposed by Yu Xuezhong.
Shen Honglie said, "Brother, I am a few years older than you, you have to listen to me." Yu Xuezhong still refused to listen, and He Lizhong also disagreed with Shen Honglie's plan at that time.
But Shen Honglie kept pestering Yu Xuezhong and insisted that he listen to him.
He Lizhong said to Xue Zhong, "Don't bother with him, go to hell!" Shen Honglie kept pestering him for the whole day but got no results, so they parted unhappily.
Liu Daoyuan, who was then the secretary-general of the Provincial Government Education Department (acting as the department director), later wrote in his memoirs: "After entering southern Shandong, the Lunan Military and Political Conference chaired by Shen clearly highlighted the fact that Shandong's military and political affairs were 'centered on Shen'. Shen served as 'chairman and entertained the visitors as a landlord' and 'showed that Shandong's affairs were managed by the provincial government and had nothing to do with the war zone'. Yu Xuezhong was dissatisfied with Shen Honglie's actions and also made some small moves on the defense and supply issues of the newly formed Fourth Division Mi Wenhe's troops and Shen Honglie's direct Marine Corps."
Mi Wenhe was the deputy commander of Cao Fulin's 55th Army. Originally, the 55th Army had only one 102nd Division, of which Cao Fulin himself served as the division commander.
Later, with the support of Shen Honglie, a new 4th Division was expanded. Although this division and Mi Wenhe remained within the 55th Army, they had actually become independent.
Because the newly formed 4th Division and the Marine Corps were under the dual control of the Jiangsu-Xuzhou-Shandong-Henan-Anhui War Zone and the Shandong Provincial Government.
Therefore, when Shen Honglie met with Yu Xuezhen, he raised the issue of Mi Wenhe's defense area, and wanted to have Mi's troops stationed near the provincial government as Shen's garrison force.
However, Yu Xuezhong transferred the rice department to Jiangyu area of Linqu, far away from the provincial government seat in Donglidian.
Jiangyu is the only way from Yidu to the southern Shandong mountainous area, and it can also be said to be the throat of the southern Shandong mountainous area.
Yu Xuezhen transferred the newly formed 4th Division to defend this place, with the intention of making sure that Mi's troops would be the first to bear the brunt of the attack if the Japanese invaders "raided" this place.
It is good that Mi Wenhe was able to repel the enemy's invasion.
If Mi's troops could not hold out, Yu Xuezhen's headquarters could be transferred calmly.
But this was a heavy blow to Shen Honglie. It not only weakened his defensive power, but also prevented him from directly commanding Mi's troops.
As for the funding issue, since it was directly sent to the Lu-Jiangsu War Zone Command in the Northwest, it was then forwarded to the Shandong Provincial Government and the newly formed Fourth Division by Xue Zhong.
During the forwarding process, when Yu Xuezhong had sufficient funds, he would allocate the full amount.
When funds were insufficient, Yu Xuezhong would make excuses not to send money or send less money.
Yu Xuezhong had the initiative and power in terms of funding, while Shen Honglie was subject to great restrictions and could not pay his subordinates on time, which affected his ruling prestige, and he was very dissatisfied with Yu Xuezhong.
Regarding the division of supply areas, Yu Xuezhong asked the Kuomintang Shandong Provincial Government and the newly formed Fourth Division to raise funds and be self-sufficient at their base.
However, the areas where the provincial government and the New Fourth Division were stationed were barren and the people were poor, making it extremely difficult to raise supplies.
This made Shen Honglie very angry with Xue Zhong, and the conflict between the two sides became increasingly serious.
Apart from complaining to Zhang Xueliang, Shen Honglie pretended to obey the instructions of the war zone headquarters but secretly disobeyed them.
Yu Xuezhong's actions not only intensified the conflict with Shen Honglie, but also pushed Mi Wenhe, who was also affected, to Shen Honglie's side.
After the Shandong Provincial Government moved its seat to Luxiadianzi in Linqu, Shen and Mi joined forces to deal with Yu Xuezhen. They refused to obey orders from the war zone and even opened fire in a fight to collect supplies.
Yu Xuezhen also reorganized Shandong local troops on a large scale in the name of the war zone, which made Shen Honglie even more dissatisfied.
Many of these troops were controlled by Shen or were trying to control them.
For example, Zhang Liyuan, Qin Qirong, Zhao Baoyuan and others are all commissioners appointed by Shen. Their troops have been reorganized into security forces by Shen and are quite strong.
Li Wenli's troops were originally a guerrilla force. After Li was appointed Commissioner of the Eighth District, his troops were reorganized into a security force by Shen.
The above-mentioned troops were reorganized by Yu Xuezhong into guerrilla forces in the war zone.
This reorganization not only weakened the power of Shen Honglie's Security Command, but also forced Shen to reorganize his security forces.
If it was only a conflict between Shen Honglie and Yu Xuezhong, it would be fine. The problem was that Yu Xuezhong did not have a very harmonious relationship with almost all the Shandong indigenous armed forces. It was not known whether it was to expand the power of the Northeast Army or to ensure his own strength. While Yu Xuezhong was taking over the local guerrillas, he tried to digest these miscellaneous forces. This aroused the vigilance of the local powerful groups, and Yu Xuezhong's orders were most likely not implemented.
In addition to the conflict between Yu and Shen, and the conflict between Yu and local powerful groups, Shandong has a third conflict. That is, the local powerful groups are rampant in competing for territory. There have been large-scale military conflicts many times between Zhao Baoyuan's troops and Wang Shangzhi's troops in Jiaodong, between Zhang Jingyue's troops and Wang Shangzhi's troops in Qinghe, and between Sun Huancai's troops, Zhang Liyuan's troops and Zhang Buyun's troops in Binbei, causing extremely heavy casualties.
Since they could not unite as one, the Su-Xu-Lu-Yu-Wan War Zone and the Shandong Provincial Government could only watch as the Japanese army controlled Shandong's major cities and transportation arteries with a small number of troops. The Japanese army, which seemed to be stretched thin, could even occasionally withdraw large numbers of troops to carry out large and small raids on the Shandong Provincial Government and the Su-Xu-Lu-Yu-Wan War Zone.
What is even more worrying for the Northwest is the growth of the Communist armed forces.
Although the Communist armed forces in North China did not receive the designation of regular army because the Northwest and Guiyang were united in their anti-communist movement, Guiyang tacitly approved the Communist Party's activities behind enemy lines in North China in order to disrupt the Northwest.
Regarding the development of the Communist Party's forces behind enemy lines, the provincial governments of Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Xuhai and Anhui provinces under the control of the Northwest and the armed forces behind enemy lines basically adhered to the Northwest's "three no's" attitude of no support, no opposition and no contact. Only Yu Xuezhong showed a different attitude on this issue.
Although to put it in a positive way, this was based on the fact that he wanted to unite all the forces that could be united in the face of foreign enemies, but in the face of the booming Shandong Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army, Shandong Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army, and New Fourth Army Shandong Detachment, the Northwest side had to wear a pair of tinted glasses.
"Hanqing, one of Shen Honglie and Yu Xuezhong must be replaced, otherwise there will be too much internal friction."
Looking at Zhang Xueliang who was also troubled, Dai Jiliang asked calmly.
"Who do you think is better to withdraw?"
Zhang Xueliang had already realized this problem, but he had to be careful. If Dai Jiliang didn't mention it, he wouldn't be able to stop himself. But now that it was mentioned, he had to make a choice: "The Shandong issue is mainly due to inconsistent government orders. Since it is a war of resistance, we still have to focus on military affairs. I can only let Shen Honglie down."
Naturally, Shen Honglie defected to the Fengtian clique earlier than Yu Xuezhong, but Yu Xuezhong was the theater commander, and the Northeast Army system only had one theater commander. If he changed his position, the loss would obviously be greater for the Northeast system.
However, Dai Jiliang was obviously somewhat dissatisfied with the superficial understanding that the War of Resistance was just a military issue. Perhaps in his mind, it was Yu Xuezhong who should be dismissed.
However, the northwest is now in a period of contraction, so Dai Jiliang finally respected Zhang Xueliang's opinion and just asked: "If Shen Honglie is replaced, does Hanqing have any ideas about the position of provincial governor?"
"I won't mention the candidate for provincial chairman."
It was a pity to lose the governing power of Shandong province, but Dai Jiliang had said many times that he wanted the two families to merge, and Zhang Xueliang, who was living under someone else's roof, had to express his opinion.
"Let's listen to the opinions of the presidium."
Listen to the opinions of the presidium? Dai Jiliang wanted Fu Zuoyi to be the provincial governor, but if he did so, the old contradictions would disappear and new contradictions would be born. Therefore, after drinking a sip of tea, Dai Jiliang finally gave up the idea of withdrawing the Shanxi Army out of the province.
"Let Miao Chengliu take over as provincial chairman. This will help to straighten out the relationship."
Dai Jiliang decided.
"Shen Honglie and the Marine Corps are both transferred back. Shen will serve as the chairman of the Navy Committee to make some preparations for the establishment of the Northwest Navy in the future."
Zhang Xueliang had no objection to Shen Honglie being the chairman of the Navy Preparatory Committee or making some preparations for the establishment of the Northwest Navy in the future. He just asked Miao Chengliu to be the chairman of Shandong Province: "Then who will take over as the commander of the 16th Corps?"
"Cancel the designation of the 16th Corps, and form the 7th Reserve Army with the 106th Division and the 4th Cavalry Division. How about Huo Shouyi be the commander of the army, Wang Qifeng be the deputy commander and commander of the 4th Cavalry Division, and Liu Zhonggan be the commander of the 106th Division?"
Not only did they not suffer any loss, but they also got back a military unit number. Zhang Xueliang naturally said, "I will listen to my uncle."
"Well, from now on, the 49th Army will be stationed in Lunan, and the 7th Army will be transferred to Xuhai to assist the 17th Army and the New 1st Army!"
Zhang Xueliang secretly groaned. As a result, the only unit directly under the command of Yu Xuezhong, the theater commander, was the 49th Army. But this could only be regarded as a warning. If he did not change his course on the Communist issue, greater punishment would follow!