As the "three major battles" were carried out one after another, the Kuomintang soldiers were defeated, the general situation was gone, Chiang Kai-shek was defeated and retreated to Taiwan, and began to plan the construction of political power in Taiwan; at the same time, the Communist Party of China was also facing the problem of taking over the national power. Therefore, for both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, it is imperative to gather a large number of talents. Therefore, on the eve of liberation, the two parties launched a war in the field of talent without smoke of gunfire -- a war for talent.
Fu Si Nian
Chairman Mao, who has always been far-sighted, issued a slogan to commemorate the "May Day" International Labor Day in the name of the Communist Party of China as early as the eve of the "May Day" International Labor Day in 1948, calling for the unity of intellectuals, democratic parties, and social elites throughout the country to fight to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek and establish a new China.
The "May Day" slogan issued by the Communist Party of China has received a warm response from various democratic parties, people's organizations, and social elites, who have expressed their resolute support for the CPC's call for the establishment of a democratic coalition government. As a result, the social elites of all sides successively went north and gathered in the Liberated Areas.
Annoyed and indignant about this, Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered the Kuomintang agents to do everything possible to obstruct people from all walks of life from entering the liberated areas through such means as "threats, stalking, arrest, assassination, and abduction.", but the obstruction of the agents was to no avail. These concentrated representatives and top talents of Chinese intellectuals are still constantly entering the Liberated Areas.
From this point on, in fact, it has already foreshadowed that in this battle for talents between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the Communist Party has gained the lead and won the initiative, and the defeat of the Kuomintang is inevitable.
On the one hand, Chiang Kai-shek continued to find ways to obstruct people from all walks of life from rushing to the Liberated Areas; on the other hand, he instructed his henchmen to formulate a "plan for rescuing mainland scholars" in a vain attempt to win back defeat in the battle for qualified personnel.
The list in the "Plan for Rescuing Mainland Scholars" was drafted by the famous scholar Fu Sinian and included four types of rescue targets: the heads in charge of various academies and universities, such as Tang Yongtong and Rao Zongtai; those who had to leave the mainland for political reasons, such as Mao Zishui; academicians of the Academia Sinica; and academic contributors.
Hu shi
Among them, Hu Shi, who is both the president of Peking University and a former important position in the National Government, is the first person on this list. According to this "plan for rescuing mainland scholars," all mainland scholars will be sent to Nanjing and then transferred to Taiwan after being rescued, or simply sent to Taiwan by plane.
At that time, the Pingjin Campaign was not yet over, and Chiang Kai-shek secretly ordered a special plane to give priority to rescuing scholars from all walks of life in Peiping; at the same time, he also secretly ordered Mao Renfeng to arrange secret agents to monitor, co-opt, and mobilize the heads of various democratic parties and relevant famous figures.
The Party Central Committee has long had insight into Chiang Kai-shek's dirty deeds, and Zhou Enlai instructed Li Kenong, Hua Kezhi, Pan Hannian, and others to do a good job in the work of well-known personalities through the underground party and help them get rid of the control of Kuomintang agents and rush to the Liberated Areas in a timely manner.
At that time, the presidents and professors of Peking University and Tsinghua Universities in Beiping were the first people on the Kuomintang's "rescue list," and on November 13, 1948, Chiang Kai-shek specially sent two special planes to Beiping, naming Hu Shi and Mei Yiqi, as well as Chen Yuan, Chen Yinke, Mao Zishui, Qian Siliang, and other famous scholars, to Nanjing first.
At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party was also actively fighting for Hu Shi, and even promised that as long as Hu Shi did not follow Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Communists promised that after the liberation of Peiping, Hu Shi would continue to serve as the president of Peking University. Regrettably, however, Hu Shi had long distrusted the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China, was indifferent to the chinese Communist Party's struggle, and still flew to Nanjing with chen yinke, Mao Zishui, Qian Siliang, Ying Qianli and other famous professors on a special plane sent by Chiang Kai-shek.
On December 17, shortly after the arrival of Hu Shi and his wife in Nanjing, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Peking University and the 57th birthday of Hu Shi, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife specially set up a birthday banquet for Hu Shi at the official residence, and prepared wine for Hu Shi for the first time (Chiang Kai-shek usually never prepared wine even when he invited guests), in order to express their special respect for Hu Shi.
Soup with Tong
Six days after Hu Shi, Chen Yinke, and others left Beiping, 24 well-known scholars, including Mei Yiqi, president of Tsinghua University, and Yuan Tongli, director of the Beiping Library, also flew to Nanjing as the second batch of "rescue personnel" of the Kuomintang. Wu Han, a professor at Peking University who had been cultivated by Hu Shi, chose the Communist Party and entered the Liberated Areas as early as October 1948 and was cordially received by Chairman Mao.
After Hu Shi left Beiping, Tang Yongtong was elected chairman of the school committee and became the de facto president of Peking University, and in May 1949, Ye Jianying, director of the Beijing Municipal Military Control Commission, sent Tang Yongtong a letter of appointment, officially appointing Tang Yongtong as the chairman of the Peking University Committee. At the same time, Feng Youlan, dean of tsinghua university's faculty of letters, was elected as the interim chairman of the university council, and soon after, Feng Youlan announced that Tsinghua University would secede from the national government.
In early December 1948, the People's Liberation Army controlled Nanyuan Airport with artillery fire, and Fu Sinian switched to Dongdan Airport to transport Beiping scholars, but most people had lost confidence in the Kuomintang government, and there were very few applicants.
Hu Shi arranged a special plane to fly to Beiping in Nanjing, named to pick up a group of friends, he personally waited at Nanjing Airport, waited until the plane landed, the hatch opened, witnessed that the plane only picked up a few people or two, most of the people he wanted to pick up did not come, Hu Shi was disappointed, out of control, collapsed and cried on the spot.
Even Chen Yinke, a famous historian and professor at Tsinghua University who arrived in Nanjing with Hu Shi, only stayed in Nanjing for one night and quietly went to Shanghai the next day. In January of the following year, Chen Yinke transferred to Guangzhou and entered Lingnan University to teach, and Chen Yinke's arrival caused a sensation.
Fu Sinian still tried his best to win over mainland scholars in Beijing, such as Tang Yongtong, Feng Youlan, Rao Yutai, Ye Qisun, Qian Sanqiang, and Shen Congwen, but to his disappointment, none of them listened to him. In 1949, Hang Liwu, the kmt's newly appointed minister of education, dragged Finance Minister Xu Kan to Lingnan University to win chen Yinke, but he was disappointed.
Chen Yinke and his family
The result of this white-hot "war for talent" between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party came to an end at the end of September 1949, and the result of the contest between the two sides was that most of the Beiping scholars voluntarily stayed behind to participate in the construction of a new China led by the Communist Party, and even those who had taken the opportunity to leave Peiping rarely went to Taiwan as Chiang Kai-shek wished, and most of them went to other places or simply ran to Europe and the United States.