Chapter 829 828 [Inside Story]

On September 5th, Chengdu Shaocheng Park was crowded with people and flags were flying. Representatives from all walks of life in Sichuan and ordinary people spontaneously came to send their children out of Sichuan to fight the war.

Liu Xiang, Deng Xihou and others spoke one after another. When it was Tang Shizun's turn to speak, he pushed away the microphone and shouted with his voice: "This trip is determined to avenge the shame of the country and win glory for the nation. If you fail, you will be benevolent. Lost ground will never be restored. I swear not to return to Sichuan! I wrote a poem recently to express my determination to resist the war: The man is determined to go out of Kuiguan, and he will not return the Japanese pirates if he is not destroyed. There is no need to bury the bones, there are green mountains everywhere in life!"

"Crack, clap, clap!"

There was thunderous applause in the park, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were excited.

Zhou Hexuan seemed to be watching a tragic and tragic drama. Although many generals of the Sichuan Army present today were generous and heroic, they all had their own little calculations.

Take Tang Shizun, who is famous for his poems, this gentleman is nicknamed "Tang Wenzhu", and he is as famous as Fan Shaozeng in Sichuan. A Tang Wenzhu (stupid pig) and a Fan Haer (stupid), together it means "the pig is not plagued, Ha'er is not ha".

Tang Shizun and Liu Xiang have had friendship for nearly twenty years and are regarded as Liu Xiang's absolute supporters. But when Liu Xiang was seriously ill on the front line, he immediately colluded with Lao Jiang, trying to squeeze out Liu Xiang's confidant Pan Wenhua, and seek to seize the military command of the Sichuan Army.

Tang Shi followed this, but what about Liu Xiang?

Often when we talk about the Sichuan Army, we can't help but be taboo for the venerable, and portray Liu Xiang's image as majestic and upright. In fact, Liu Xiang also made many small moves during the War of Resistance. For example, in order to continue to control the Sichuan Army, he secretly united with Song Zheyuan and Han Fuju to check and balance Chiang Kai-shek.

One of the important reasons why Han Fuju was killed by Lao Jiang as a target was that he had colluded with Liu Xiang.

At that time, because Lao Jiang's methods were too vicious, and the various Sichuan troops were torn apart, Liu Xiang was forced to choose to resist. Liu Xiang's plan is: the Sichuan army closes the main roads to Sichuan and prevents Chiang Kai-shek from leading his troops into Sichuan. Han Fuju led his troops to retreat to Nanyang, Xiangfan and Hanzhong, while Song Zheyuan retreated to the west of Tongguan, and the three forces jointly sent a telegram to overthrow Chiang.

All these were seen by Lao Jiang, so Liu Xiang was placed under house arrest, Han Fuju was shot, and Song Zheyuan was dismissed.

Fortunately, Liu Xiang died of illness at a critical time, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable, and the situation of the Anti-Japanese War would inevitably fall into an even more unfavorable situation. So much so that after Liu Xiang died of illness, the senior officials of the Central Army mourned deeply and rejoiced at the same time. They think that if Liu Xiang dies, the War of Resistance will be victorious, and Liu Xiang's survival is the biggest trouble in the War of Resistance.

In the original words of Xu Yongchang, Minister of the Military Order Department: "The recent death of Liu Xiang is the will of God to leave life for the people of the country."

At the beginning of the Sichuan Army's Anti-Japanese War, Liu Xiang did not come out of Sichuan to command in person. He had to stabilize the rear first. In order to force Liu Xiang to leave his lair, Lao Jiang transferred the two armies of the Sichuan Army from the establishment. Liu Xiang was so frightened that he flew to Nanjing and asked to be the commander-in-chief of the seventh theater.

At that time, Liu Xiang was already dying of illness, and Secretary-General Deng Hanxiang advised him to rest in peace of mind and not go to the front line in person.

Liu Xiang replied in this way: "In the past, we fought civil wars for many years, and our face was not very honorable. Now that we have the opportunity to resist the war, we must do our best to serve the country and strive for our own space in history. Moreover, the troops I have transferred this time account for about 100,000 people. More than half of all. If I don't personally command, I will be divided and eliminated by Lao Jiang in less than half a year."

In historical materials about the Sichuan Army, only the first half of the sentence is often mentioned, while the second half is omitted.

Liu Xiang's difficult situation was doomed a few years ago. Because he, the "King of Sichuan", did not rely on his own strength to become the king, but Lao Jiang deliberately arranged and supported him. Without the support of Lao Jiang, there would be no "Sichuan King" Liu Xiang.

After the January 28th Incident, Chang Kaishen realized that there was bound to be a war between China and Japan, so he planned to build a "Sichuan-Guizhou-Shanxi Anti-Japanese War Rear Area".

Although Liu Xiang defeated Liu Wenhui at that time, he was unable to destroy other small warlords. He was unable to ascend to the throne of "King of Sichuan", so he could only reluctantly become the "Leader of the Sichuan Army". Deng Xihou, Pan Wenhua, Wang Zanxu and others, although nominally under Liu Xiang's command, have their own independent defense zone and take charge of military and political affairs in the defense zone.

The big and small warlords in Sichuan issued banknotes indiscriminately in their respective defense areas. In the words of the time, this behavior "has a great impact, ten times the disaster."

Sichuan's finances collapsed as early as 1934, and Liu Xiang could only ask Lao Jiang for help.

Lao Jiang took the opportunity to intervene in Sichuan's military and political affairs, backed by the righteousness of the central government and strong force, broke the defense zone system of the Sichuan warlords, and promoted Liu Xiang to the throne of "Sichuan King". And use the central administrative order to rectify Sichuan's finance, unify Sichuan's currency system and taxation-this is the reason why some industrial and commercial taxes in Sichuan need to be turned over to the central government.

The Sichuan army is inherently deficient, and it can be said in one word: poor!

Poor means weak, means no supplies, no weapons, and can only be bullied by others.

Switching to the wealthy Cantonese and Guangxi factions, Lao Jiang would never dare to break up their establishment easily, because the Cantonese Army and the Guangxi Army have tough guns.

There are many factions in the Sichuan army. If Lao Jiang can support one Sichuan king, of course he can support the second. So when the news of Liu Xiang's serious illness came out, people in the front and rear of the Sichuan army jumped back at the same time. Tang Shizun made troubles in the front line, and Wang Zanxu made troubles in the rear, all thinking that he would be able to take over after Liu Xiang's death.

This is warlords, this is politics, and there is always a shadow behind the light.

What deserves our admiration for the Sichuan warlords is that although they fight openly and secretly, they are absolutely unambiguous in fighting devils. Most of the generals of the Sichuan Army, including people like Fan Ha'er, were fighting the Japanese with all their strength, and they didn't know what it was to preserve their strength. Few of them fled the battle or turned to the enemy as traitors.

Even if Liu Xiang was tortured to death by Lao Jiang, the last words left were: "The war of resistance will be unswerving to the end, that is, if the enemy army does not withdraw from the border, the Sichuan army will never return home!"

Only then did Liu Xiang truly become a veritable leader of the Sichuan Army and a spiritual leader collectively recognized by hundreds of thousands of Sichuan Army. Even Yang Sen, who had always been close to Chiang Kai-shek and hostile to Liu Xiang, strongly demanded a state funeral for Liu Xiang.

These Sichuan troops have been bullied miserably, and now the commander-in-chief is dead. They have all become motherless children, and all have become mourners. The blood of the Japanese invaders must be used to wash away the shame. For a long time after Liu Xiang's death, the frontline Sichuan army had to recite Liu Xiang's last words in unison every day to show their determination to fight to the end. They only had to fight to the death and serve the country.

There are too many twists and turns between the central government and Sichuan, and Zhou Hexuan doesn't want to get involved, and he is unable to get involved. After the East Road and North Road Sichuan Army pledged to leave, he returned to Chongqing silently, and finally waited for the first good news after the July 7th Incident.

The machinery and equipment needed to start a sulfa drug factory, together with sixteen Englishmen accompanying them, had already arrived at Chaotianmen Wharf in Chongqing—these people landed in Guangzhou, took the Canton-Han line to Hankou, and then took a riverboat upstream.