On December 9, 1949, the Sichuan generals Liu Wenhui and Deng Xihou jointly telegraphed an uprising, and Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in a hurry, leaving his Huangpu protégé Hu Zongnan in Chengdu to face the siege of the People's Liberation Army. Hu Zongnan repeatedly requested a breakthrough, but Chiang Kai-shek did not approve it, and Hu Zongnan had no choice but to sit still.
On December 18, when the People's Liberation Army was already in the city, Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly approved Hu Zongnan's breakthrough plan of "forming two major corps and attacking from the east to the west", and asked Hu Zongnan to personally command the breakthrough. Hu Zongnan said in public at the meeting of commanders at and above the military level: "I also have the determination to sacrifice for the party-state. Who knew that the day after the meeting, he threw off the troops, climbed on the plane that had been prepared, and sneaked to Hainan Island.
As a result, Hu Zongnan's main force was completely annihilated within a few days, and Chengdu was liberated. Chiang Kai-shek was half dead, and sent Gu Zhutong to Hainan Island to "investigate and deal with it", frightening Hu Zongnan half to death, so he had to fly from Hainan Island to Xichang on December 28 to "make meritorious deeds". Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram from Taiwan with "100,000 urgent needs," asking him to hold on to Xichang for three months and wait for changes in the international situation. However, no matter how he collected the remnants, he only collected more than 10,000 remnants of the defeated soldiers. Hu Zongnan, who once commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, could only master more than 10,000 troops in the end, and what he might not have imagined at this time was that this was the most troops he could grasp in the remaining years.
On March 12, 1950, Hu Zongnan's old Huangpu classmate Chen Geng led some two-way attacks on Xichang. Hu Zongnan was restless and wanted to escape, but he was afraid that Chiang Kai-shek would rebuke him, and if he did not leave, he was afraid of falling into the hands of the People's Liberation Army. On March 24, when Chen Geng's troops were only one day away from Xichang and he ordered his men to hold out for a few days, everyone invariably thought of the precedent of his troops fleeing in Chengdu regardless of the fact that they were dead, and one by one they forced her to ask: "Do you want to leave Xichang immediately?" Hu Zongnan was not embarrassed, so he had to stagger his words and said, "You can concentrate your troops and hold out for two or three days, right?" ”
In fact, Hu Zongnan's intention was to let his subordinates stay for another four days. Of course, there will be no "changes in the international situation" after four days, but it will be delayed until March 28, four days later, and he will be able to make a difference to old Chiang Kai-shek if he escapes. On March 26, the People's Liberation Army surrounded xichang regiments, and Hu Zongnan, seeing that the general situation had gone, secretly fled to Taiwan by plane with more than ten of his henchmen via Haikou, leaving the chief of staff and more than 6,000 remaining officers and men. Before fleeing, Hu Zongnan also played a mental game with Chiang Kai-shek, and drew up a telegram saying that the three-month period had arrived, and he was going to Taiwan to report for duty, so that Luo Lie would re-issue it in the early morning of the 27th, while he himself had fled as early as the evening of the 26th. 、
As soon as Hu Zongnan arrived on Hainan Island, the Chiang Kai-shek authorities ordered the abolition of the "Southwest Military and Political Governor's Office" and the transfer of Hu Zongnan to the post of "Strategic Adviser to the Presidential Office." This was a vacant post created by Chiang Kai-shek to resettle the "elders." After the end of the three major battles, Chiang Kai-shek went to the wilderness, and the capital he relied on was tang Enbo in the southeast of the Tun army, that is, Hu Zongnan, the "king of the northwest" who held hundreds of thousands of troops. However, both of them disappointed him. Chiang Kai-shek hated Hu Zongnan for leading his troops to be incompetent and had lost his division and land, and what was even more hateful was that because of Hu Zongnan's negligence and dereliction of duty, the Communist spy Xiong Xianghui had been lurking in his headquarters for a long time, causing extremely serious consequences. It is precisely for this reason that Chiang Kai-shek wanted Hu Zongnan to coexist and die with Xichang, and to die in battle or be captured.
After fleeing to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek did not receive Hu Zongnan, nor did Chen Cheng, who was already at odds with him. After Hu Zongnan hurriedly finished his routine in Taipei, he took his wife and young son and ran to hualien beach to rent a room and live and recuperate. The 54-year-old Hu Zongnan went from being the "King of the Northwest" with unlimited scenery to such a desolate place in the end, how could he have thought of it before?
Back then, Hu Zongnan, who was less than 1 meter 6 tall and unassuming, was the older of the Huangpu classmates, and was close to the age of standing when he graduated. In the end, with his own patience and means, he became the "first protégé of Tianzi", and in the indispensable Huangpu window, he was the "first": the first commander, the first corps commander, the first group army commander-in-chief, the first theater commander-in-chief, and the first and only person who received three general stars before leaving the mainland, which is legendary. However, when he lost to his former classmate Chen Geng and fled to Taiwan in a hurry, all this no longer existed.
Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan, was full of thoughts about how to realize the small dynasty of the Chiang family that "succeeded the father to the son," and everything that posed a threat to Chiang Ching-kuo was naturally eradicated, and a powerful faction like Hu Zongnan, who had deep roots in the army, was the first to bear the brunt. Beginning in 1950, chiang kai-shek's authorities carried out a campaign with great fanfare to "straighten out senior military and political officials who had neglected their duties." For a time, the wind was loud and the wind was loud, and everyone was in danger.
Of course, Hu Zongnan did not escape this "rectification." Shortly after he fled to Taiwan, Taiwan's major newspapers carried a startling news article titled "Li Mengbiao Impeaches Hu Zongnan." Li Mengbiao was an elderly man during the Xinhai Revolution, acting as the governor of Shaanxi Province, and in his later years was elected as a member of the Supervision Committee of the First Supervision Yuan of the Constitution. Hu Zongnan was stationed in Shaanxi for a long time, but what he did made Li Mengbiao, a Shaanxi man, very indignant. As early as October 1949, Li Mengbiao had drafted a letter of impeachment against Hu Zongnan, but at that time Hu Zongnan still had heavy troops, and he temporarily gave up under the balance.
In May 1950, Led by Li Mengbiao, more than 50 pseudo-"Supervisory Commissioners" jointly proposed impeachment against Hu Zongnan, and the impeachment document criticized him as improper and scolded him to the point of bloodshed. At the same time, Li Mengbiao and others mimeographed dozens of copies of the impeachment documents and sent them to major newspapers in Taiwan and Hong Kong for publication.
During that time, many of Hu Zongnan's staff and friends traveled for him in many ways, moving around, trying to persuade Li Mengbiao and others to withdraw their impeachment. But Li Mengbiao was not moved, and he was overwhelmed with annoyance, so he wrote a note and pasted it on the wall of the entrance door, writing: "When your distinguished guests come, if you are a lobbyist for Hu Zongnan, please keep your mouth shut, so as not to exonerate people." ”
Hu Zongnan himself did not take any action, he lived in seclusion and never publicly defended his own activities or justifications. Having been favored by Chiang Kai-shek's side for so many years, Hu Zongnan was well aware that such an impeachment case would not have any results unless Chiang Kai-shek made his attitude clear. Sure enough, the impeachment case was in turmoil for a while, and Chen Cheng, as the person in charge, did not move, Gu Zhutong began to maneuver from it, and Chiang Ching-kuo also helped to intercede. The final result was that 108 pseudo-"legislators" wrote to Chen Cheng, made a good appraisal of Hu Zongnan's merits, and demanded that talents be cherished.
In fact, the so-called "impeachment case" is just a common means used by Chiang Kai-shek to suppress powerful figures, and Bai Chongxi also had the same encounter. The final result was almost the same, and after a while, Chiang Kai-shek came forward to express his position, but finally failed. The most crucial thing is that Chiang Kai-shek achieved his goals, whether it was Bai Chongxi or Hu Zongnan, whether it was a concubine or a non-concubine, he was ultimately deprived of real power.
About a year later, on March 17, 1951, he suddenly received an order from Chiang Kai-shek to go to the Dachen Island area in the southeast sea of Zhejiang Province to organize and command coastal guerrilla forces and form the "Jiangsu and Zhejiang Anti-Communist Salvation Army."
It turned out that after chiang kai-shek's government collapsed, there were still many scattered soldiers who fled to the islands on the southeast coast, and they each occupied the island as the king, and the various departments did not belong to each other, and everyone regarded themselves as commanders. Chiang Kai-shek's authorities originally did not attach importance to these scattered soldiers, but after the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States believed that these troops could be used. After the Agreement between the US side and the Chiang Kai-shek authorities, the United States will provide equipment to gather these scattered troops. Who will be sent to rectify and command these scattered soldiers? Chiang Kai-shek thought of Hu Zongnan.
In this way, Hu Zongnan, who had once served as the military and political commander of the theater, gladly led the order to go to several desolate islands and command the scattered troops to travel bravely. Under the pseudonym Qin Dongchang, he went to Dachen Island to take up his post, and once commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, and it was more than enough to rectify the thousands of scattered soldiers in this area. Just after the reorganization of the troops, Hu Zongnan wanted to try his combat strength, and after launching many attacks on the coastal islands, he actually succeeded in a sneak attack. At this time, Hu Zongnan played the old trick of occupying Yan'an in the past, reported to Chiang Kai-shek that he had won a great victory, and also sent some guns to Taipei, saying that they had been captured, which can be said to have done enough propaganda.
After this "great victory", Hu Zongnan also ushered in the last "glory" of the Taiwan period, received the "knighthood of the official", and was appointed "chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Government" at the end of 1952, but his "provincial government" only had jurisdiction over a few small fishing islands. Even such "brilliance", Hu Zongnan did not enjoy it for long. With the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the People's Liberation Army also began to draw troops to strengthen its military strength along the southeast coast, and Hu Zongnan's small fishing islands naturally could not be defended. In early July 1953, Chiang Kai-shek's authorities abolished the headquarters of the "Jiangsu-Zhejiang Anti-Communist National Salvation Army", and Hu Zongnan was transferred back to Taiwan, still serving as a "strategic adviser to the Presidential Office".
After returning to Taiwan, Hu Zongnan repeatedly approached Chiang Kai-shek and asked for a specific post, but he was soon ordered to enter the "National Defense University" for further study. Hu Zongnan, who has been riding on the battlefield for most of his life, is more than half a hundred years old but wants to sit down and study, he is very unhappy, helpless in the land of Taiwan's projectiles, he has no territory, no soldiers and one pawn, can only obediently obey the arrangement, pretend to read books.
In February 1954, after graduating from the National Defense University, Hu Zongnan returned to his status as a "strategic adviser" to study military politics at home in Taipei. The so-called study of military and political affairs is only a long-term idleness, and Hu Zongnan is very depressed in his heart, but he has no choice. More than a year later, in August 1955, Chiang Kai-shek summoned Hu Zongnan several times, and he repeatedly asked for a post. Chiang Kai-shek casually gave him the post of commander of the Penghu defense, and everyone thought that hu Zongnan would have prestige and would never be a small defensive commander. Unexpectedly, as soon as Hu Zongnan received the appointment, he gladly accepted it and went to Penghu to take up his post.
Soon after, Peng Mengji, the new chief of staff of the Kuomintang government, made an inspection in Penghu, and Hu Zongnan, as the commander of the defense, personally went to the airport to greet him and respectfully saluted Peng Mengji. As a descendant of the Huangpu Fifth Phase, Peng Mengji even said that he did not dare to be a fool, but his heart was very proud. When Hu Zongnan was at his peak, he dared to brazenly confront Chen Cheng, the boss assigned by Chiang Kai-shek, but when he was old, he had to pay homage to a descendant of a descendant, and the taste of this was really difficult to say.
Peng Mengji
In October 1959, Hu Zongnan's term as commander of the Penghu Defense expired and he was ordered to return to Taipei, where he remained "Strategic Adviser to the Presidential Office" as well. Just reading the newspaper every day, writing articles, and passing the time, many people in Taiwan can no longer find out from this short, taciturn old soldier that he used to have the style of the "King of the Northwest." At the end of the year, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Hu Zongnan to enter the so-called "National Defense Research Institute" and served as the first researcher. Therefore, Hu Zongnan, at the age of 64, served as a student again.
After graduating from the so-called "National Defense Research Institute," Hu Zongnan asked Chiang Kai-shek to take on a substantive job, but he still failed to do so. Chiang Kai-shek only instructed him to serve as the president of the "National Defense Research Institute" graduation alumni association, but added an extra false post. During that time, Hu Zongnan often traveled with his wife and children, looking leisurely and relaxed. But every day in his diary, he remembered that "this afternoon I accompanied my wife to the movies" and "this afternoon I accompanied my wife to play bridge" and so on. For a person like Hu Zongnan, who once had unlimited scenery, when all his life was left, how painful it should be in his heart.
According to Hu Zongnan's son Hu Weishan, when his father accompanied him to climb the mountain when he was a child, he often shouted alone in the mountain. At that time, Hu Weishan still felt that it was very faceless to be with such a father, and when he grew up, he understood that this was because his father had suppressed it too long and too deeply.
On February 7, 1962, Hu Zongnan became seriously ill and was hospitalized. On February 8, Jiang Jingguo went to the hospital to offer condolences, and Hu Zongnan smiled at this Zhejiang compatriot who was 15 years younger than himself: "We call people's deaths a braid in the Eastern Zhejiang proverb, and I am afraid that I will have to braid this time." Before leaving, Chiang Ching-kuo told Hu Zongnan that Chiang Kai-shek would come to visit him personally on Sunday, which flattered Hu Zongnan.
Early in the morning on Sunday, Hu Zongnan had eaten something and asked someone to help him go to the bathroom to wash his face and shave his beard. The lady was afraid that he was too tired, and advised him not to shave his face, and he said angrily: "How can it be done, like this beard is long and long, and the hair is messy, how can you see people?" ”
At ten o'clock in the morning, the 76-year-old Chiang Kai-shek entered Hu Zongnan's hospital room, Hu Zongnan struggled to sit up, Chiang Kai-shek signaled for him to lie down, and reached out and touched his forehead. Chiang Kai-shek's move made Hu Zongnan, who was snubbed after fleeing to Taiwan, extremely grateful, to the point that he burst into tears and was unable to speak. Chiang Kai-shek comforted him a few words and left the ward.
Hu Zongnan worked for Chiang Kai-shek for more than 30 years, from a revolutionary youth to a counter-revolutionary executioner, and spared no effort to eliminate dissidents for Chiang Kai-shek. Such a desperate life also made him look like no different, and he could even meet Chiang Kai-shek without a briefing. However, since he fled to Taiwan, the prestige of the past has been swept away, and Chiang Kai-shek has always been lukewarm to him. Until on the sickbed, Chiang Kai-shek hastily visited him, which made him moved to tears. How pathetic!
In the two days after Chiang Kai-shek's visit, Hu Zongnan's mental state was exceptionally good, and his symptoms seemed to have greatly alleviated. But two days later, on the night of February 13, Hu Zongnan fell asleep early, accompanied by his old subordinate Yuan Xueshan in the ward. At 11 o'clock in the evening, Hu Zongnan, who was sleeping, suddenly let out a scream and raised his hands high. Yuan Xueshan hurriedly shouted "Mr. Hu, Mr. Hu", but there was no response.
When Yuan Xueshan went to press Hu Zongnan's raised arms, he found that they were already hard and could not be bent. The doctor injected him with a cardiac injection and an oxygen mask, and he was unable to return to heaven. At about 3 a.m. on the 14th, Hu Zongnan stopped breathing.
After Hu Zongnan's death, Chiang Kai-shek said to a group of high-ranking generals: "It is really remembrant that Hu Zongnan was unable to do as he wished, so that his own life could be killed in a rumbling and glorious battle!" Hu Zongnan, who had worked hard for Chiang Kai-shek all his life, died of a serious illness, and Chiang Kai-shek also "did not think about it" for him to not be killed in the rumbling battle.
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