He was resourceful and courageous;
He is cunning and strategic;
He is extremely intelligent, has an amazing memory, and is good at capturing battlefield dynamics;
He is good at flexible use of strategy and tactics, and often creates the track of winning more with less.
As a result, he won a series of titles: Changsheng General, Xiao Zhuge Ge, Present Zhuge Ge, Contemporary Zhang Liang, Modern First Junmin Soldier and so on.
This man was Bai Chongxi, China's most cunning warlord and a Guishi courtier known to the Japanese army as the "God of War".
It is such a laurel figure who wears countless laurels on his head, but his later years are extremely miserable.
How miserable was Bai Chongxi's old age?
His old age can be described in six words: depression, nesting, and desolation.
"The living dead, the living coffin."
In his later years, Bai Chongxi once laughed at himself: "the living dead" lay in the "living coffin".
Bai Chongxi, who wanted to be the "chief executive," had just arrived in Taiwan when he was secretly monitored by agents sent by Grand Duke Jiang.
The surveillance point of the agents was located opposite the White Mansion, and as soon as Bai Chongxi's car was discharged from the hospital, a jeep would quickly follow him.
He can't meet normally, even if he plays Go with people, hunts, even if it is to go to a café for a cup of coffee, there will be people who will follow him and stay away.
What's more, one day in 1952, a group of spies suddenly broke into the white mansion, and they turned the white mansion upside down, and even the floor was pried up.
Unable to bear it, Bai Chongxi went to Grand Duke Jiang to protest, but was told: "Everything is to protect the safety of Mr. Jiang", and dismissed it lightly.
Therefore, Bai Chongxi lived a cautious life in Taiwan, and there was no personal freedom, which was not much better than "being grounded and going to jail."
Torment in fear
At the behest of Chiang Kai-shek, the Hubei "NPC deputies" opened fire and impeached Bai Chongxi for two major crimes:
Embezzlement of military expenditures and serious military dereliction of duty.
Both of these crimes were extremely dangerous, especially the latter one - supporting the soldiers to respect themselves, resisting military orders, and refusing to rescue Xuzhou, resulting in the failure of the "Battle of Xu Beng".
These accusations are like a "ghost head knife" on Bai Chongxi's neck, and with chiang kai-shek's order, any one of them will kill Bai Chongxi.
Bai Chongxi shouted loudly, but he could not argue with a hundred words.
What made Bai Chongxi even more uneasy was that the "ghost head knife" was always hanging high above his head, and he didn't know when it would fall.
Therefore, Bai Chongxi has lived in fear for a long time, and this suffering is extremely painful, and it is better to live than to die.
Danger is everywhere and always there.
When bai Chongxi was bored in his old age, going hunting in Alishan was one of his ways to get rid of loneliness.
However, after several "accidents", Bai Chongxi had to put away the shotgun and settle for "grounding".
Bai Chongxi's body is weak, and every time he goes up the mountain to hunt, Bai Chongxi usually takes a cable car down the mountain.
On this day, Bai Chongxi went up the mountain to finish hunting and took the cable car down the mountain as usual.
Due to the inconvenience of his legs and feet, Bai Chongxi did not catch the first cable car, so he took the second cable car with the adjutant.
Bai Chongxi's cable car skipped a slope, not far from the cliff, and the cable car in front of it suddenly tilted, then broke away from the steel cable and fell directly off the cliff.
Saying that it was too late, it was fast, and the lieutenant accompanying Bai Chongxi had a quick eye and used all his strength to push Bai Chongxi out of the cable car.
Bai Chongxi fell to the slope and survived, while his lieutenant fell off a cliff with the cable car and died.
Facing the loose screws on the cable car and looking at the fleshy and bloody corpse of the adjutant, Bai Chongxi shuddered, and his vest was in a cold sweat.
After some days, Bai Chongxi went hunting in Alishan again, and this time, Bai Chongxi no longer dared to take the cable car.
However, the danger still happened, on the way to Alishan, a car crashed head-on into Bai Chongxi's car, and the two cars collided violently.
Fortunately, Bai Chongxi "did not die" and once again picked up an old life.
Bai Chongxi, who was extremely clever, realized at this time that someone was going to "take" his life.
Bai Chongxi never left home.
The death is unclear
On the evening of December 1, 1966, Bai Chongxi died suddenly.
The doctor and his lieutenant recalled that Bai Chongxi's death was very painful, his limbs twisted and his sheets torn apart.
Officials claimed that Bai Chongxi had "died of a sudden heart attack."
There are many people who do not agree with this conclusion, believing that Bai Chongxi died of murder, and there are many opinions as to who is the murderer and who is behind the manipulation.
There is a saying that the "plot" is full of "peach".
It is said that Bai Chongxi was lonely in his later years and fell in love with a young and beautiful nurse.
Due to old age and physical decline, Bai Chongxi has been supplementing chinese medicine to maintain physical vitality.
Therefore, Bai Chongxi would often send people to the Chinese Medicine Association and ask Lai Shaoling, the chairman of the board, to prepare "tonic medicines" for him.
However, Lai Shao soul was bribed, and he increased the dose of "tonic"...
Someone broke the news that on the night of the incident, the nurse who Bai Chongxi was in love with stayed overnight in the White Mansion.
However, after Bai Chongxi "died naked" on the bed, the beautiful nurse evaporated in the world and disappeared without a trace.
Therefore, some people speculate that the beautiful nurse has a great future, and she is the "culprit" of Bai Chongxi's violent death.
However, the official and Bai Chongxi's family are consistent, insisting that Bai Chongxi died of a "sudden heart attack" and will not continue to pursue.
Bai Chongxi said goodbye to the world in this way, and walked unclearly.
So what is the reason for this tragic ending?
The Gui clan controlled by "Li and Bai" was the second largest faction in the Kuomintang after Chiang Kai-shek, and after the Central Plains War, the only warlord clique that could threaten Chiang Kai-shek's position was the Gui clan.
During the decades of entanglement between the Gui clan and Chiang Kai-shek, "Li and Bai" took advantage of the danger several times to force the palace, causing Chiang Kai-shek to "go down" three times.
Therefore, the contradictions between the Gui clan and Chiang Kai-shek have a long history and have penetrated deep into the marrow of their bones, and when the Kuomintang regime is crumbling, the contradictions between Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Kai-shek have not eased, but have tended to become white-hot.
In the Battle of Huaihai, Chiang Kai-shek deliberately put Bai Chongxi in command and commanded the two theaters of operations in East China and Central China.
Bai Chongxi agreed with his mouth, but when he was about to take the battle, he suddenly changed his mind, and at the critical juncture of the Huaihai Campaign, Bai Chongxi did everything possible to obstruct Chiang Kai-shek's transfer of troops from central China.
What annoyed Chiang Kai-shek even more was that taking advantage of the heavy casualties of Chiang Kai-shek's troops in the Battle of Huaihai, "Li and Bai" once again forced the palace.
The Gui clan treated Chiang Kai-shek in this way, and the old Chiang Kai-shek's "counterattack" was also unceremonious and fatal.
At the end of the Liberation War, Bai Chongxi's 100,000 men and horses retreated all the way south, preparing to retreat from Guangdong to Hainan Island to preserve their strength and arm their forces.
Old Chiang Kai-shek's order cut off Bai Chongxi's desire to enter Guangdong, and Bai Chongxi could only order his troops to detour westward, only to be chased by the People's Liberation Army all the way, and almost the entire army was destroyed.
If this is the case, how could Bai Chongxi eventually follow Chiang Kai-shek to taiwan?
Bai Chongxi made this choice based on the following factors.
First of all, Bai Chongxi felt that he still had a very good position in Chiang Kai-shek's heart.
Before the Northern Expedition, Bai Chongxi was only the third person in the Gui clan, and during the War of Resistance, Chiang Kai-shek entrusted Bai Chongxi with heavy responsibilities.
Bai Chongxi became deputy chief of staff (acting chief of staff) of the "Central Military Commission," second only to Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek and Chief of Staff Li Jishen.
Although Chiang Kai-shek's decision had elements of reusing Bai Chongxi's military talents, it was also intended to win over the Forces of the Gui clan.
However, the "reuse" of old Jiang still made Bai Chongxi have a wonderful illusion and was quite comfortable.
Secondly, with the rise of their respective status, the relationship between Li and Bai, who "scales do not leave thallium and thallium does not leave scales", began to have a gap.
I think that back then, Li, Bai and Huang fought together in the world, they lived and died together, they had a close relationship, and they once called the wind and rain on the territory of Guangxi and were invincible.
However, after the Gui clan won the crown of vice president and acting president, the relationship between Li and Bai has undergone subtle changes.
Li and Bai have their own small teams around them, each with their own future plans, and the differences between them are becoming more and more obvious.
Therefore, Bai Chongxi did not listen to Li and Huang's persuasion and insisted on following Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan.
In his eyes, the future territory, military strength, and power of the Kuomintang are all in Taiwan, and Chiang Kai-shek's men are all "stupid and mediocre."
Bai Chongxi believed that as long as he counterattacked the mainland, Chiang Kai-shek would definitely reuse himself, and he still had the opportunity to "overturn the market."
Therefore, even though there was an irreconcilable contradiction between the Gui clan and Chiang Kai-shek, and even though Bai Chongxi had already played the "trump card" in his hand, Bai Chongxi still chose to go to Taiwan.
As everyone knows, Chiang Kai-shek has always "used only slaves, not talents," and the most attention is not military talent, but "loyalty to leaders." ”
In any case, in Chiang Kai-shek's view, the three words "loyalty" have nothing to do with Bai Chongxi.
Then, why did Chiang Kai-shek still make a wish to Bai Chongxi and repeatedly persuade him to go to Taiwan?
Chiang Kai-shek's first is to give play to Bai Chongxi's "residual heat", after all, Bai Chongxi's "brand" is still available, and it is of use value to envelop the remnants of the Guizhou family.
In addition, for Chiang Kai-shek, the joint efforts of "Li and Bai" were like "like a fish in the throat", which embarrassed him for many years.
Bai Chongxi went to Taiwan, and naturally broke up the "Li and Bai" alliance.
Chiang Kai-shek once said: The Communist Party only wants my life, and the Gui clan not only wants my life, but also my money, but also my gun.
As soon as he arrived in Taiwan, Bai Chongxi became Chiang Kai-shek's "caged bird."
Whether Bai Chongxi lives or dies is all within Chiang Kai-shek's thoughts, whether he will do it or when he will do it, and the initiative is completely in the hands of Chiang Kai-shek.
The reason why Chiang Kai-shek has been slow to attack Bai Chongxi is because he still has use value.
In 1965, with the return of Mr. Li Zongren to the mainland of the motherland, Bai Chongxi's life also entered the countdown.
Chiang Kai-shek concentrated all his old and new hatred for the Gui clan on Bai Chongxi's head.
In summary, Bai Chongxi's tragic old age can be said to have been created by himself.
It cannot be said that Bai Chongxi is not smart enough, only that Chiang Kai-shek's deception is too high!
Bai Chongxi was not stupid at all, but too clever.
There is a saying: "The organs are too clever to calculate, and they have calculated Qingqing's life", and those who come out of the mix will have to pay it back sooner or later!