In April 1948, after a vote, Chiang Kai-shek became the president of the Republic of China Congress, and Li Zongren, who finished second in the total vote, became vice president. During his inaugural speech, Chiang Kai-shek made a small move, which made Li Zongren very embarrassed and laid the groundwork for the contradiction between the two.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to learn from the Presidential System of the United States, his presidency was nailed down, and the vice president still had suspense, and at that time, the candidates including Li Zongren, Sun Ke, Cheng Qian, Yu Youren, and so on, were all big men in the Kuomintang. In addition, there are two non-party figures, Mo Dehui and Xu Fulin, who have only come to make up the numbers.
Among the candidates, the most qualified were Li Zongren and Sun Ke, while Chiang Kai-shek wanted Sun Ke to be elected, and he had privately persuaded Li Zongren to give up running. However, Li Zongren was not convinced and rejected Chiang Kai-shek on the spot, which made Chiang Kai-shek hold his breath.
Li Zongren also made a bloody payment in order to be elected, and he gave away a lot of gifts alone, and also pulled Bai Chongxi and other Gui generals as his backing. At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek also used all his connections to solicit votes for Sun Ke, which gave Sun Ke a certain advantage in the early stages of the campaign.
After the results of the first round of election were announced, Sun Ke had 540 votes, while Li Zongren had only 479 votes, even worse than Yu Youren, who had 512 votes. As a result, after the end of the fourth round of voting, Sun Ke had 1295 votes, while Li Zongren overtook Sun Ke with 1438 votes. Li Zongren finally became vice president as he wished, but Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that he blushed and his neck was thick.
Chiang Kai-shek thought of a way to humiliate Li Zongren, and before the inauguration, he called Li Zongren and asked Him to wear a military uniform the next day. Li Zongren, who came from a military background, did not have any opinion on this, but he did not understand what the significance of Chiang Kai-shek stressing to himself about wearing a military uniform was, so he asked Chiang Kai-shek before hanging up the phone and asked him what he was wearing to attend the ceremony, and Chiang Kai-shek replied that he would also wear a military uniform.
But the next day, Chiang Kai-shek did not wear a military uniform, but a long robe. When the two were not standing together, there was nothing special about it. But when Chiang Kai-shek spoke, Mr. Li had to stand behind him because he was wearing a military uniform, so he looked like Chiang Kai-shek's lieutenant. This made Li Zongren at the scene very embarrassed, especially because Chiang Kai-shek was rebellious, and Li Zongren was even more dissatisfied with Chiang Kai-shek.
Therefore, after Chiang Kai-shek lost the three major battles, Li Zongren immediately seized this opportunity to oust Chiang Kai-shek from power and became the acting president of the Republic of China.