The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Jiang Baili's military masterpiece is "On National Defense". This book contains half his life's research efforts and was not published until 1937.

Many public intellectuals in later generations spread rumors that Taizu's "On Protracted War" plagiarized "On National Defense" and blatantly shouted: "Give back what you plagiarized!"

Anyone who can say this has obviously not read "On National Defense". This book has nothing to do with the Anti-Japanese War. It is Jiang Baili’s summary of the great powers since World War I, including politics, economy, military, culture, etc., and then absorbs new Western military theories and ancient Chinese military thought to illustrate My own conception of China's national defense construction.

As for the idea of ​​"protracted war", it is not original to Taizu. He said in the first paragraph of "On Protracted War": "But what will the course of the war be like... Many people talk about protracted war." It can be seen that. , at that time "protracted war" had become a mainstream view.

After the outbreak of the all-out war between China and Japan, the thinking of the Chinese people was very complicated. There are those who talk about fighting a "protracted war" and call for a war to the end; there are also many who believe that China must perish, that is, the "theory of national subjugation"; and there are also those who firmly believe in "quick victory" and feel that China can quickly defeat Japan.

The greatness of Taizu was not that he proposed the idea of ​​"protracted war", but that he elaborated on it: how to effectively carry out a protracted war, how to conduct the war of resistance in stages, how to mobilize the masses to carry out a protracted war based on people's war, and how to achieve How to preserve oneself and destroy the enemy while losing both people and land, and how to start a battle focusing on destroying the enemy's physical strength... He even discussed how the international situation will change because of China's protracted war. .

It can be said that Taizu's "On Protracted War" published in 1938 accurately predicted the entire process of China's war of resistance.

The "Three Yang Lines Decisive Battle Theory" proposed by Jiang Baili now is like child's play in front of Taizu's "On Protracted War". The biggest flaw of his theory is that military thinking is still stuck in the "World War I" period, and he wants to turn Hunan into China's "Verdun meat grinder."

Of course, Jiang Baili's theory also has numerous highlights, such as carrying out industrial layout in advance, using the geographical space in the east in exchange for strategic time, and so on. From this point of view, Jiang Baili is already a very good military strategist, and he can at least throw Old Jiang out of several galaxies.

Chiang Kai-shek was not a fool. Although he was also seeking "Sino-Japanese friendship," he knew that this was a delusion and that Japan would come over sooner or later.

Chang Kaishen is already preparing for the national war, but how does he prepare?

Well, Chairman Chiang must first ensure the safety of Shanghai, because Shanghai is the most important city in China and his most important source of wealth. He is unwilling and unable to give up Shanghai easily, so he is secretly improving Shanghai's defense system and wants to build Shanghai into an impregnable fortress...

Well, it turns out that Chang Kaishen's deployment is somewhat useful. If he had not consolidated Shanghai's defenses in advance, the Battle of Songhu would not have lasted more than three months. Although the Battle of Songhu ultimately ended in failure, it shattered Japan's ambition to "annihilate China in three months" and gave hope to many Chinese people with a pessimistic mentality, which greatly strengthened the determination of the people across the country to persist in the war of resistance.

That night, Zhou Hexuan and Jiang Baili discussed repeatedly for two hours, repeatedly revising and adding to the "Three Yang Lines Decisive Battle Theory".

"Mingcheng, come with me to see the chairman tomorrow." Jiang Baili said after collecting the manuscript.

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "I don't have to."

Jiang Baili blinked and said: "Wang Zhaoming wants to make you look bad, so he can mobilize many newspapers and literati to attack you. Your only way is to let Lao Jiang speak for you. At least the Central Daily News will not dare to publish random editorials anymore."

"Okay." Zhou Hexuan shrugged, feeling a little depressed.

Jiang Baili smiled and said, "Actually, you can find someone to help."

"Who?" Zhou Hexuan asked.

Jiang Baili slowly said three words: "Zhu Jiahua."

Zhou Hexuan was suddenly overjoyed, clapped his hands and said, "Yes, how could I forget about Liu Sheng (Zhu Jiahua)!"

Jiang Baili has always given people the impression that he is a professional who only understands military affairs and does not understand politics. But the fact that he could say the name "Zhu Jiahua" shows that Jiang Baili is not ignorant of politics, but does not want to get involved in politics.

Chang Kaishen may not be good at anything else, but he is an expert at playing power and is well versed in political checks and balances.

He clung to the three lifebloods of the army, finance and secret service. On the military side there were Chen Cheng, Hu Zongnan and others, on the finance side there were Kong Xiangxi, Song Ziwen and the Chen brothers, and on the secret service side there were Dai Li, Xu Enzeng and others. Most of these people are from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They check and rely on each other. They will suppress whoever dares to be arrogant.

For example, Chen Guofu has been dancing the most joyfully recently, and Chiang Kai-shek is already very unhappy. He will appoint Zhang Lisheng as the Central Organization Head next year. Zhang Lisheng is a traitor to the CC faction and is naturally opposed to Chen Guofu. This appointment is undoubtedly a rope tied around Chen Guofu's neck.

How did Chang Kaishen suppress Wang Zhaoming?

He raised the Secretary-General of the Central Party Committee of the Kuomintang by one level and renamed it the Secretary-General of the Central Committee. He was above the ministers of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang. His status was second only to the vice president and he was in charge of the daily affairs of the Central Party Committee. Such a simple appointment directly removed Wang Zhaoming's power, leaving Wang Zhaoming without any say within the Kuomintang. This move not only restrained Wang Zhaoming, the vice president of the Kuomintang, but also weakened the CC faction of the Chen Guofu brothers. It can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

By the way, this idea was thought up by Dai Jitao. Old man Dai seems to be upright and crazy, but in fact he is very sinister. No wonder he became Chang Kaishen's chief think tank.

As for Zhu Jiahua, whom Jiang Baili just mentioned, he has now become a rising political star and is a popular figure that Chang Kaishen attaches great importance to.

Zhu Jiahua came from an education background. In the past few years, Cai Yuanpei and Li Shizeng had made the education system so chaotic that Chang Kaishen had to serve as the Minister of Education himself.

After Dai Jitao's strong recommendation, Chang Kaishen tried to appoint Zhu Jiahua as Minister of Education. As a result, Zhu Jiahua lived up to expectations and completed the formulation of regulations for junior college education, normal education, primary and secondary education, etc. within one year, which quickly improved the education system of the Republic of China and greatly eased factional struggles within the education system.

Chang Kaishen finally discovered that Zhu Jiahua was a talent, and quickly transferred Zhu Jiahua to the Ministry of Communications as minister. Zhu Jiahua himself was also very effective. It took only two years to reverse the chaotic situation of transportation and greatly improve the efficiency of railway transportation in the Republic of China.

Historically, Chang Kaishen would appoint Zhu Jiahua as chairman of Zhejiang Province in two years.

Everyone knows that Chang Kaishen is from Zhejiang, and his main confidants are also from Zhejiang. The position of chairman of Zhejiang Province is a hot potato. If you are not careful, you will offend any powerful person. Chang Kaishen undoubtedly has high hopes for Zhu Jiahua as chairman of Zhejiang Province.

As soon as Zhu Jiahua arrived in Zhejiang, he immediately reduced and exempted all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. Although he offended the powerful, he won the hearts of the people - and also won the support of Zhejiang businessmen. With the support of local financial groups in Zhejiang, Zhu Jiahua immediately started local reform and construction, and achieved various political achievements that dazzled people.

Chang Kaishen was so happy about this that he completely trained Zhu Jiahua as the "prime minister" and became the third in command of the government under Chang Kaishen and Wang Zhaoming.

Why did Wang Zhaoming later defect to the Japanese invaders and become a traitor?

The big reason is Zhu Jiahua. Zhu Jiahua's ability is too strong, suppressing Wang Zhaoming, Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu to have no sense of existence. After Zhu Jiahua became the Secretary-General of the Central Committee, Wang Zhaoming completely became a mascot-like decoration.

If Wang Zhaoming does not become a traitor but continues to stay in the National Government, then he will have no rights at all, and he will even have to act based on the face of a junior like Zhu Jiahua.

At this moment, although Zhu Jiahua is still serving as Minister of Transportation, he has gained the absolute trust of Chang Kaishen and Dai Jitao.

Chang Kaishen's current diplomatic strategy is to make good friends with Germany, and he specially appointed Zhu Jiahua as the chairman of the "Sino-German Cultural Association". Last year, Hans von Seeckt, the "Father of the Wehrmacht" of Germany, visited China, and Zhu Jiahua was ordered to greet him and accompany him throughout the whole process. Everyone could see how much Chang Kaishen valued Zhu Jiahua.

It just so happened that Zhou Hexuan and Zhu Jiahua had a very good personal relationship, and they had a great time chatting when the education reform was underway. At that time, Zhu Jiahua was still a supporter of Cai Yuanpei, and together with Zhou Hexuan, he opposed Li Shizeng's reform plan at the education conference.

So connections are very important. The little people you met in the past may skyrocket one day.