For many years, people have almost pointed the mastermind of Liao Zhongkai's assassination to Hu Yisheng, Lin Zhimian, Mei Guangpei, and other so-called "Kuomintang rightists," and the direct murderers have also pointed to Zhu Zhuowen and his subordinates. These seemingly authoritative "conclusions" are actually a blinding method carefully designed by Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek. In order to grasp the power of the party and the army, Wang and Jiang did not hesitate to distort evidence to crack down on the forces of Hu Hanmin and Xu Chongzhi, and for this reason they deliberately spared Huang Fuzhi, the "mastermind and the right murderer" in the Liao case.
In a series of articles such as "Visibility of the "Liao Case," Professor Zeng Qingliu of the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee revealed the despicable tricks of Wang and Jiang in using the Liao case to attack Hu Hanmin and Xu Chongzhi. (Zeng Qingliu: The National Revolution and Guangzhou) Professor Zeng Qingliu's important progress has been made by an in-depth study of the records of the first to seventh interrogations of the Liao case published in the Guangzhou Republic of China Daily. Inspired by this, the author has comprehensively sorted out the records of the seven interrogations, examined them in detail, and is convinced that Wang and Jiang have deliberately let go of the intentions of Huang Fuzhi, the "chief plotter" and the murderer.
Liao Zhongkai
Confession of the murderer Chen Shun
At about 9:50 a.m. on August 20, 1925, Liao Zhongkai drove to the Kuomintang Central Party Headquarters (Huizhou Guild Hall on Yuexiu South Road in Guangzhou), got out of the car and walked through the head door, and when he was stepping on the steps of the second gate, he was attacked by four or five murderers, shot to the ground, and died on the way to the hospital.
Liao Zhongkai's guards wounded the murderer Chen Shun on the spot, found a pistol on his side, and searched for gun photos, "silver singles" and other items. Chen Shun was then sent to Xingong Hospital (now the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University) for treatment, and at first he was unconscious due to a gunshot wound, but after being treated by doctors, he gradually woke up after using stimulants and analgesics. (National News, Guangzhou, August 31, 1925)
The Huizhou Guild Hall where Liao Zhongkai was assassinated was later renamed the All-China Federation of Trade Unions
Portrait of Liao Zhongkai
In emergency situations, the trial failed to follow normal legal procedures. The first person to ask Chen Shun to confess was not a professional from the Public Security Bureau and the Procuratorate, but Liao Zhongkai's younger brother, Liao Langru. Li Yixin, a guard of Liao Zhongkai, retrieved a piece of paper from Chen Shun's body, with the names of Chen Shun himself, Liang Bo, Wu Pei, and Feng Can, and each of them corresponded to a different amount. This piece of paper was later identified as a "silver order" for buying a murderer, and Li Yixin handed it over to Liao Langru.
Liao Langru summoned Ou Yushu, director of the Guangzhou District Procuratorate, and Chen Zhaoshen, a procurator, to interrogate Chen Shun with Chen Shuren, secretary general of the National Government (a famous painter of the "Lingnan School"), but on the first day Chen Shun was sometimes unconscious and sometimes awake, and did not get much. The next day, Ou Yushu and procurator Wen Zhuang went to the Xingong Hospital again to interrogate Chen Shuren, mainly by Chen and District, and Wen Zhuang recorded, thus forming a "re-interrogation record." ("Details of yesterday's Liao trial", Guangzhou Minguo Daily, January 26, 1926) This transcript is one of the most important historical materials of the Liao case, and the full text cannot be seen today, but some of the contents were disclosed during the trial. The murderer, Chen Shun, died on August 24, giving Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek a great deal of room to manipulate Liao's interrogation.
Photo of the killer, Chen Shun, unconscious in the hospital
Wen Zhuang said in court: "But I only asked Chen Shun who was the main instigator of the murder, and after Chen replied who made the confession, I did not ask Chen again, and the rest of Chen Zhi's confession was interrogated by Secretary General Chen Shuren and the District Chief Procurator, and then chen and district two people transmitted it, and I recorded the confession." During the fourth and seventh interrogations, Lu Xingyuan disclosed the key contents of the "re-interrogation record": "Chen Shun confessed that when he was in Macao, Huang Fuzhi led the execution of Minister Liao, and made Huang Ji exercise him and Wu Pei, Feng Can, Liang Bo, etc., and allowed him to give 10,000 yuan."" The murderer Chen Shun confessed that in Macau, Huang Fuzhi was the main envoy, he made the horizontal hand movement me, and initially promised 10,000 yuan, which was to exercise me and Wu Pei, Feng Can, Huang Ji, Liang Bo, and so on. (The Fourth and Seventh Trials of Liao's Case, Guangzhou Republic of China Daily, March 11 and 16, 1926)
The only person responsible for the murder mentioned in Chen Shun's confession was Huang Fuzhi, and said that Huang Fuzhi instructed his cronies Chen Shun, Wu Pei, Feng Can and others to assassinate Liao Zhongkai in the Huangji (Huangji) movement, promising to pay 10,000 yuan after the completion of the matter. Liang Bo and Zhu Zhuowen were listed as suspects because Chen Shun had called out their names in a coma. However, what is puzzling is that the "Republic of China Government Order" issued on August 25 alleges that "in the past few days, Hu Yisheng, Lin Shuwei, Zhao Shixiao, Wei Bangping, Lin Zhimian, Zhu Zhuowen, and others have been found to have major suspects in the sniper case, and have instigated the army to take advantage of the opportunity to endanger the government.
On January 14, 1926, during the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang, at the strong request of He Xiangning and others, Chen Gongbo, a member of the Liao case procuratorial committee, made a report on the "Liao Case Procuratorial Experience". The report said: "As for the people involved in the case, there are Zhu Zhuowen, Mei Guangpei, Zou Dianbang's servant, Wang Senru, Huang Ying, Liang Ti, Liang Bo, Guo Minqing, Huang Ji, Tan Zuo [Zhuo], Zhao Shiwei, and Lin Xing. (Historical Materials of the First and Second National Congresses of the Chinese Kuomintang, p. 306) Of the 13 people involved, 9 of whom were quickly ascertained were not related to the case. In the list of 13 people, there is the name of Huang Fuzhi's close confidant Huang Ji, but Huang Fuzhi is spared. According to Chen Shun's confession, Huang Ji was responsible for recruiting the killers and coming from Macau to Guangzhou to conduct on-site command. Chen Gongbo quoted Chen Shunkou as saying: "He originally did not know that Liao Zhongkai, but later Huang Lai instructed Fang to recognize and shoot. ”
On June 2, when Chen Gongbo submitted his "Argument" (indictment) to the court, he vaguely mentioned that "in addition, Zhu Zhuowen and Huang Fuzhi were the main conspirators in the Liao case, and should petition the military police under the government to strictly limit the punishment of the case" ("Liao Case Yesterday's Announcement Details", Guangzhou Republic of China Daily, June 3, 1926). Why did the Nationalist Government, in the course of trying the Liao case and pursuing the murderer, gently let go of the "chief conspirator" Huang Fuzhi? This involves Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek's consideration of the interests of the Liao trial.
On June 3, 1926, the Liao Case Procuratorial Committee "On the Accusation"
Huang Fuzhi was suspected of assassinating Deng Hao
Huang Fuzhi was the chief detective of the Guangdong Army under Chen Jiongming, a native of Huiyang, Guangdong. In 1918, Chen Jiongming led the newly formed Cantonese Army to Fujian, at this time, Huang Fuzhi served as the commander of the Cantonese army. Before the Second Crusade in 1925, Chen Jiongming promoted Huang Fuzhi to commander of the 12th Division of the Fourth Army.
On March 21, 1922, deng hao (Deng Zhongyuan), chief of staff of the Cantonese army, was assassinated, followed by a rupture between Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming, which had a great impact on modern history. There are two factions with very opposing views on the truth of this matter, and many scholars believe that it was done by the Sun faction, but the faction represented by Li Jiezhi, the former general of the Cantonese Army, insisted that chen Juemin and Chen Dasheng were the main envoys of chen jiongming's people, and the specific organizers were Chen Shaopeng, commander of the Guangdong Army, and Huang Fuzhi, chief detective of the Guangdong army. Li Jiezhi's article once mentioned that Chen Juemin was arrested and shot by the National Revolutionary Army in 1928, but later many people proved that Chen Juemin was not dead and became a traitor, and Li Jiezhi's claim was doubted. From the "Declaration", the author found a telegram from He Yingqin in 1926, reporting that Chen Juemin, a close confidant of Chen Jiongming, had been arrested in Lufeng and had been executed by firing squad. (October 7, 1926, October 12, 1926 " Declaration " ) Li Jiezhi only wrote the wrong year , and other content still seems to be reliable. As for the later appearance of a traitorous Chen Juemin, whether He Yingqin killed the wrong person at that time or had another person with the same name did not affect the authenticity of Li Jiezhi's account.
In April 1922, Chen Jiongming withdrew from Guangzhou and retreated to Huizhou because of his opposition to Sun Yat-sen's Northern Expedition. According to the "Declaration", Sun Yat-sen secretly ordered the arrest of Huang Fuzhi on April 23, and sent detectives Song Shaoyin, Zeng Feixiong and more than a dozen others to the organ of Huang Fuzhi on Mailan Street in Guangzhou to arrest people. This time, Sun Yat-sen failed to catch Huang Fuzhi, but he still sent people to search for Huang Fuzhi's detectives many times. In 1923, He Fangzhou, a killer assigned by Huang Fuzhi to assassinate Deng Hao, was arrested and immediately ordered to be shot. (Declaration of 2 May and 4 June 1922, 8 April 1923)
The Trial of the Liao case inadvertently revealed that Sun Yat-sen's cronies had sent Chen Shi, Liang Bo, and others to assassinate Chen Jiongming's brother Chen Dasheng in Hong Kong. Chen Dasheng was assassinated in Hong Kong on July 16, 1922, when Li Jiezhi was the chief minister of the guangdong highway department and Li Jiezhi believed that he was the main agent to assassinate Deng Heng. From the interrogation confession of the Liao case, it was found that Liang Bo, who was listed as one of the murderers in the Liao case, also participated in the operation, and afterwards "received six hundred yuan for it." ("Details of the Third Trial of the Liao Case (II)", Guangzhou Republic of China Daily, March 9, 1926) Chen Dasheng's murder should be seen as Sun Pai's revenge for Deng Hao. Judging from Wu Tiecheng's statement that he wanted to stop talking, Sun Yat-sen was a concubine of Wu Tiecheng and may have participated in organizing this retaliatory action.
At that time, Lu Xingyuan, chief judge of the Liao case, asked Wu Tiecheng in court: "Liang Bo is one of the murderers who killed Chen Dasheng, where did this news come from?" Wu Tiecheng replied: "All the comrades of our party know about this matter, but I do not remember how the news came." This is a credit to the assassin, but it is not convenient to "show the ugly merit" in court. Before Liang Bo's arrest, Chen Shi, the chief gunman under Wu Tiecheng and the main gunman who assassinated Chen Dasheng, often went to the public security bureau and went to the public security bureau on the day Liao Zhongkai was killed, secretly reporting Zhu Zhuowen's whereabouts. From this point of view, Sun Yat-sen has always believed that Deng Hao was assassinated by the envoys of the Chen Jiongming people, and asked Wu Tiecheng and other cronies to wait for the opportunity to avenge Deng Hao. Chen Shi and Liang Bo were ordered by Wu Tiecheng to assassinate Chen Dasheng.
On July 13, 1926, "when Liang Bo was sentenced to death, he cried out for injustice and scolded Wu Tiecheng for being victimized, vowing to die and disobey." (Minutes of the History of the Republic of China (First Draft), April-July 15th year of the Republic of China, p. 546) Judging from the public security bureau check-in book and other information reported by the court, Wu Tiecheng had every way to prove that Liang Bo was not at the scene when Liao Zhongkai was killed. Under the high-pressure policies of Wang and Jiang, Wu Tiecheng sacrificed his subordinate Liang Bo in order to protect himself.
Wu Tiecheng
Why did Wang and Jiang let Huang Fuzhi go?
The trial of Liao's case is actually divided into two parts: "political trial" and "criminal trial", and criminal investigation and trial are subordinated to political trial. Hu Yisheng, Lin Zhimian, and Zhao Shixiao, who were listed as suspects for no reason, belonged to the elders of hu Hanmin's faction, Lin Shuwei and Wei Bangping were generals close to Hu Hanmin, and Liang Hongkai, Zhang Guozhen, Yang Jinlong, Liang Shifeng, and Mo Xiong were generals of Xu Chongzhi's faction. As a result of the "political trial," Xu Chongzhi's faction was completely annihilated, Xu Chongzhi himself was expelled from Guangzhou, Zhang Guozhen and his two brigade commanders Yang Jinlong and Liang Shifeng were shot, and Liang Hongkai and others were all disarmed; Hu Yisheng and others, along with Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek, needed to rally Hu Hanmin to confront the Xishan conference faction, or be acquitted or not prosecuted. By July 2, 1927, the Nationalist government ordered that "all arrested orders issued in Guangzhou shall be cancelled except for Zhu Zhuowen" (July 1927, National Government Decree No. 10).
Zhu Zhuowen, who was wanted for a long time and fell into the bandit cave because of his escape, died nine times; the other "mastermind" Huang Fuzhi, never entered the Nationalist government's wanted list. Huang Fuzhi was a close confidant of Chen Jiongming and was well known in guangdong's political and military circles at that time. Once the focus is on Huang Fuzhi, the conspirators will eventually be directed at Chen Jiongming, which will also "interfere with the general direction of the struggle" and will not be able to attack the forces of Hu Hanmin and Xu Chongzhi. In order to exclude the Hu faction in order to gain the highest position in the party, Wang Jingwei did not hesitate to make a deal with Chiang Kai-shek, helped Chiang Kai-shek crush Xu Chongzhi's Yue army, and arrested Liang Hongkai and other Cantonese generals on trumped-up charges. Judging from the confessions and evidence disclosed in the seven court reports, there is not a trace of Xu Chongzhi's Yue army participating in the assassination of Liao Zhongkai.
Wang Jingwei
As for who was behind Huang Fuzhi and paid for the murder, no conclusive evidence has been found. On that day, Chen Jiongming was trapped on the East River, and his power was growing, and it was not ruled out that there was a possibility of assassinating Liao Zhongkai to weaken the Nationalist government. At the same time, due to the needs of the development of the provincial and Hong Kong strike situation, from July 10, 1925, the National Government in Guangzhou completely cut off the provincial and Hong Kong traffic and imposed an economic blockade on Hong Kong, the main implementer of this policy was Liao Zhongkai, hong Kong businessmen bought murderers because of the damage to their interests, it was also reasonable, and the task of finding killers was entrusted to Chen Jiongming's cadre Huang Fuzhi.
Chen Shun and others were professional killers who had been under Zhu Zhuowen's command. On the day that Liao Zhongkai was assassinated, a pawn ticket was found from Chen Shun's body, proving that Chen Shun was strapped for money at this time, and that he had been bribed by Huang Fuzhi with money to commit the crime. When Sun Yat-sen was alive, in order to expel the Gui clan and expel Chen Jiongming, Zhu Zhuowen and Mei Guangpei were often used to recruit civilian armed forces, bandits, and other organizations such as the "people's army" and give a letter of appointment. Zhu Zhuowen was dismissed from his post as the governor of Xiangshan County, and introduced his old subordinates Chen Shun and Wu Pei to Mei Guangpei as errand boys. The National Government in Guangzhou was initially established to unify the military, government, and finances, and Mei Guangpei's "First Headquarters on The South Road" was about to be abolished. The murderers Chen Shun and Wu Pei were both victims of the unification of the military, government, and finance, and they held a grudge against Liao Zhongkai, and once someone paid for it, they killed people with their hands, and everything was natural. Huang Fuzhi bribed Zhu Zhuowen and Mei Guangpei's subordinates to kill Liao Zhongkai this time, and his plan was very cunning, which not only successfully diverted attention, but also triggered infighting in the Nationalist government.
Before the official trial of Liao's case, Wang Jingwei manipulated the Central Political Committee and issued a decision not to allow Liao's criminals to hire lawyers. (Guangzhou Republic of China Daily, February 23, 1926) If a lawyer appeared in court to defend this case, according to the legal principle of "suspicion of guilt is only light", Guo Minqing and Liang Bo may not have committed crimes that would lead to death.
Lu Xingyuan, chairman of the Liao Trial Committee, a native of Chaolian Township, Xinhui, Guangdong, was the fourth son of Lu Jiu, the richest man in Macau, studied at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and obtained a master's degree, practiced as a lawyer in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai after returning to China, and was appointed by Sun Yat-sen as the chief prosecutor in 1923, a well-known legal professional at that time. Before the verdict was pronounced, some other members of the adjudication committee "vigorously advocated that Mei Guangpei, Guo Minqing, and others should all be executed." Lu Xingyuan insisted that "the evidence for the murder of Mei, Guo, and others is not conclusive, and it is said that if the government still wants the law, it should be judged according to the law, and if the government does not want the law, Yu does not dare to risk such a big disobedience, and there is still public opinion behind the government, and it is impossible to ignore the public opinion." According to Lu Shi's statement to a certain dignitary, if the verdict is made according to law, Mei ke is not guilty, and although Guo misdemeanored, even if he is guilty, his guilt is very minor. (Minutes of the History of the Republic of China (First Draft), April-July of the Fifteenth Year of the Republic of China, p. 546)
Mei Guangpei followed Sun Yat-sen for many years, had strong Olympic support in the party, and finally paid a fine of 30,000 yuan and was released. Guo Minqing, chief of staff of the First Headquarters of the South Road of the Yue Army, was executed only by issuing a pistol license to the murderer Chen Shun, and was one of the wrongfully killed in the Liao case. Judging from the evidence in court, Guo Minqing only used negligence and did not directly involve evidence in Liao's case.
In order to seize the great power of the party, government, and army, Wang and Jiang used the investigation and trial of the Liao case as a tool to exclude dissidents, replaced criminal trials with political trials, grossly trampled on the law, and revoked the defendants' right to hire lawyers. Chiang Kai-shek used the Liao case to kick out party leader Hu Hanmin and used the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" to expel Wang Jingwei, thus undermining Sun Yat-sen's principles of "ruling the country with the party" and "uniting the army with the party," and actually turning it into "unifying the party with the army" and "using the army to unify the government." In 1927, the CCP and the Kuomintang left called Chiang Kai-shek a "new warlord," which was very accurate. After the loss of "party unity," the legitimacy of the Chiang regime is bound to be repeatedly challenged. Since then, the Kuomintang generals who have been the most vigorous in opposing Chiang Kai-shek, such as Li Jishen, Chen Mingshu, Chen Jitang, Zhang Fakui, Feng Yuxiang, and Li Zongren, were all old subordinates and partners of Chiang during the Great Revolution. As early as 1925-26, when the Liao case was interrogated and the Zhongshan incident was handled, the Chiang regime had already sown the "seeds of destruction".
Chiang Kai-shek in the Guangzhou era
He Xiangning has always been "unclear about the truth"
He Xiangning most wanted to know who the mastermind of Liao Zhongkai's assassination was, but she had long been misled by Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek, and was kept in the dark in her old age, which was one of the biggest regrets in her long revolutionary career.
In the first year or two of Liao Zhongkai's assassination, He Xiangning, in accordance with the tone set by Wang and Jiang, determined that Zhu Zhuowen, Hu Yisheng, Wei Bangping, Lin Zhimian, and others were the main conspirators, and these people, with the exception of Zhu Zhuowen, were acquitted or had their arrests revoked. In March 1927, He Xiangning spoke at a meeting of the Kuomintang Central Committee, saying that he learned from the so-called Confession written by Lin Zhimian that "those who conspired to assassinate Mr. Liao included Wu Zhaoshu, Wu Tiecheng, Fu Bingchang, Zhu Zhuowen, Zou Haibin, Hu Yisheng, and Chen Qizhen also participated." (The Collected Works of the Two Qing Dynasties, vol. 2, p. 62) After Lin Zhimian was released from prison, he wrote an article to prove that this confession was forged. This list is more reasonable if it is said to be against Liao Zhongkai's pro-communist policy; if these people all conspired to assassinate Liao Zhongkai, it would be a fantasy. He Xiang's eagerness to pursue the victims in the position of the martyr's family is understandable, but this accusation is legally untenable. Distorting the political "anti-Liao" into an action "stabbing Liao" is a trick played by Wang and Jiang, and Professor Zeng Qingliu has already made a detailed argument.
Front row from left: He Xiangning, Tan Yanmin, Liao Zhongkai, Xu Chongzhi, Sun Ke
By 1928, Wei Bangping and his children traveled to Japan and met He Xiangning on the Russian Queen cruise ship. It is said that He Xiangning said to Wei face to face at that time: "When I thought you were suspected of being the mastermind, I should not have said 'I'm sorry for you'." (Wei Xiuling's "Parallel Situation of the Former Emperor Wei Gongbang", quoted from Zeng Qingliu: The National Government and Guangzhou, p. 260)
He Xiangning's granddaughter Li Mei said in the book "Dream Awakening - Mother Liao Dream Awakening Centennial Festival": "In the summer of 1950, I was recuperating in Beidaihe, and my grandmother just went to escape the summer, and we had a lot of time to chat. I once asked her, 'Who killed Grandpa?' Grandma replied, 'Mafia.' That was the first time I heard the term 'mafia', so I was very impressed. Now that I think about it, it may be that in the entire assassination campaign, the Kuomintang has had enough people to perform, but the black hand behind the scenes is not yet clear..." This record shows that He Xiangning still does not know who the real "black hand" behind the scenes is, and in the face of his granddaughter's questioning, he can only use the ambiguous word "mafia" to explain the ridicule. He Xiangning has spoken and written many speeches and articles about the Liao case in his life, and not once has he mentioned Huang Fuzhi, the "mastermind and the murderer". It is difficult to understand the truth of history, and there are such people.