At the First Constituent Assembly of the National Assembly in April 1948, Chiang Kai-shek was elected as the The President of the Republic of China with a vote of 2430 votes as he wished, fulfilling his dream of "presidential dream", while at the same time, Chiang Kai-shek's good brother Li Zongren was elected vice president of the Republic of China with 1438 votes. Become a president who remotely controls the state affairs of the Republic of China. Then, why would Chiang Kai-shek, who was unwilling to make mistakes in everything, be forced to step down and cede the presidency to Li Zongren?
After losing the three major battles, the anti-Chiang Kai-shek voice within the Nationalist army became louder and louder
From September 1948 to January 1949, in the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin fought with the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the National Revolutionary Army under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek unexpectedly lost three major battles under the premise of absolute superiority in the number of troops and superiority in weapons and equipment, and in the course of more than 4 months of fighting, the Chinese People's Liberation Army annihilated nearly 1.55 million Kuomintang people with an armament posture of strong enemy and weak enemy, and at the same time as losing these three major battles, Chiang Kai-shek also lost the support of the nationalist army for him. It even shook the confidence of the United States that Chiang Kai-shek would continue to act as an agent of support.
Therefore, after the end of the three major battles, Chiang Kai-shek was actually in a difficult position among the internal clique forces of the National Revolutionary Army, and even without the existence of the great threat of Li Zongren, Chiang Kai-shek would have to spend great energy to maintain stability among his subordinates and give a decent account to the US side. If it were not for Chiang Kai-shek's "imperial technique", it is indeed very good, and it may be as early as after losing the three major battles, Chiang Kai-shek will be kicked out of the core leadership of the Kuomintang.
Li Zongren was assassinated several times
"Chiang Kai-shek, whether militarily or politically, is a second-rate commodity of ten by ten, but when it comes to power and skill, there is no right person in the world who is chiang kai-shek." This sentence comes from the mouth of Chiang Kai-shek's good brother Li Zongren, and it has to be said that Li Zongren has studied Chiang Kai-shek's personal disposition very thoroughly, and can use "second-rate goods" to describe Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren himself also has a certain military undertone, and it is precisely because of this that Chiang Kai-shek is so jealous of Li Zongren and has carried out many assassinations of Li Zongren. It was precisely because of the growing gap between the two ostensible brothers that Chiang Kai-shek finally made the decision to be forced to go to the wilderness.
In 1926, when Chiang Kai-shek became the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, he and Li Zongren had the opportunity to move around, when Chiang Kai-shek was pinned down by Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin, unable to further grasp more real power within the Kuomintang, and the increasingly powerful Gui clan allowed Chiang Kai-shek to see Li Zongren's excellent military ability, and Chiang Kai-shek, who was weaker in the army at that time, repeatedly threw olive branches to Li Zongren and generously gave weapons and materials. In the end, under chiang kai-shek's initiative, the two became brothers.
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek's power plan did contribute greatly to his future position as president of the National Congress, and Li Zongren also lived up to the expectations of the people to let the military strength of the Gui warlords continue to grow, and eventually became a strong and powerful military support on the road of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship. In 1929, Chiang Kai-shek saw the dawn of dictatorship, so he held a meeting on the reorganization of the whole army in Nanjing, trying to release the military power with a glass of wine, but with little effect, at this time, Chiang Kai-shek clearly felt that only by taking Li Zongren's knife could he completely press the voice of other troops, at this point, Chiang Kai-shek began to arrange for the assassination of Li Zongren, and Li Zongren finally stood against Chiang Kai-shek in order to protect himself.
The power of the Gui clique behind Li Zongren cannot be underestimated
So, why did Li Zongren become a strong support on the road of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship, and why was he regarded by Chiang Kai-shek as a thorn in his eye in the later period? One of the most important reasons is that the strength of the Gui clique behind Li Zongren is already so strong that even Chiang Kai-shek is very jealous, and it has to be said that Li Zongren's military ability is indeed above Chiang Kai-shek.
The historical Kuomintang revolutionary army experienced the era of warlords in Beiyang warlords and the era of the National Government, and the so-called "Gui clan" is a title inherited from the beiyang warlord era, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi became the military leaders of the new Gui clan after taking over the power of Lu Rongting, although Li Zongren only graduated from local military academies, but showed excellent military leadership ability in the army, the famous "Battle of Dinggui" is Li Zongren's military commander-in-chief, after the unification of Guangxi, Li Zongren accepted the leadership of the Nationalist government in Guangzhou, reorganized the New Gui Army into the "7th Army of the National Revolution", and participated in the Northern Expedition, that is, from this time on, Chiang Kai-shek saw Li Zongren's strategic significance in the military.
Later, under the leadership of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, the Gui clan grew into the third powerful military force besides Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek, and it is precisely because of this that Li Zongren would have such a strong confidence when he later ran for vice president, so when Chiang Kai-shek wanted to assassinate Li Zongren, it was bound to alarm the Gui forces behind him, and it was precisely for this reason that Chiang Kai-shek would fail to assassinate Li Zongren three times in a row, but li Zongren would force himself to go to the field twice in a row.
The United States favored Li Zongren in place of Chiang Kai-shek
In fact, the time and time coincide between Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren, including another important factor that eventually forced Chiang Kai-shek to retreat and make a decision to go to the wilderness, is the policy change of the US government to "abandon Chiang Kai-shek and pro-Li", and people familiar with national history know that Chiang Kai-shek has always been pro-American, and it is precisely because of the support of US forces that Chiang Kai-shek was able to quickly gain his own place within the Kuomintang clique, so that he could compete with Wang Jingwei of the pro-Japanese faction. Why did the US Government, which had always supported Chiang Kai-shek as the spokesman for China, turn the spearhead and start helping Li Zongren?
In the final analysis, it is because of the military reason that chiang kai-shek lost the three major battles between the National Revolutionary Army and the People's Liberation Army in that year, if Chiang Kai-shek can win one of the battles, it may not make the US government lose confidence in it, and the total loss of the three major battles makes the United States clearly see that Chiang Kai-shek is indeed not a wise military leader, on the contrary, Li Zongren's step-by-step leadership of the development of the Gui clan is in the eyes of the United States, and whether it is Chiang Kai-shek or Li Zongren. What the United States wants is just a domestic agent who can get itself involved in China's state affairs, and as long as this person is reliable enough, then anyone can change it.
Therefore, at the behest of Stuart Leiden, Li Zongren decided to run for the election of vice president of the People's Republic of China, and it is obvious that Chiang Kai-shek, who is good at scheming, felt this sensitively, coupled with his earlier jealousy of the military forces of the Gui clan, so Chiang Kai-shek made the decision that Li Zongren could not be elected vice president under any circumstances, so Chiang Kai-shek pushed Sun Ke out in a hurry, and wanted to use his dictatorship to make Sun Kenei vice president, of course, in the end, in the matter of running for vice president. Li Zongren's own military prowess, coupled with the secret activities of Stuart Layden, the representative of the US forces, made Li Zongren win a complete victory, and Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to sullenly suffer.
Ming retreated and left Li Zongren to clean up the mess
On New Year's Day at the end of 1948, Chiang Kai-shek issued a "Confession on Guilt and Self", formally resigned from the field, and announced that Vice President Li Zongren would act as president, so far, Chiang Kai-shek was nominally deprived of all real power in the Kuomintang internal clique and retreated to Taiwan, Li Zongren seemed to force the palace to succeed, but Chiang Kai-shek finally made the decision to go to the wilderness, only because the situation forced him, in order to give a more decent account to the Kuomintang and the United States, and in fact, Chiang Kai-shek did not give up his power from then on, but instead retreated and advanced. Pulling Li Zongren to make his own shield.
After Chiang Kai-shek went to the wilderness that year, he almost took away all the silver in the treasury, about 3 million taels of gold and 200 million US dollars of foreign exchange, and when Li Zongren learned of this news, he could only be angry and corrupt but had nothing to do, a president who had no money could not really pocket his administrative power, after all, the officials in the Kuomintang government at that time were all rich, and Chiang Kai-shek knew this very well. Moreover, judging from the current situation in China at that time, the domestic call for peace between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was very high, and the power of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was already incomparable, and in the face of the contradiction between the HOPE OF THE US imperialists for the puppet regime and the desire for peace of the domestic people, Chiang Kai-shek withdrew at this time and hid behind Li Zongren to continue to plan.
Chiang Kai-shek, who retreated behind the scenes with a full of gold, regarded Li Zongren as a puppet manipulated in front of his stage, and in his hometown of Fenghua Xikou, Zhejiang, Chiang Kai-shek installed 7 high-power radio stations and still commanded his central army with great vigor, drawing salaries from the bottom of the cauldron, while Li Zongren, who was sitting on the presidential throne, was running around anxiously for the CCP peace talks.
Looking at the entire process of Chiang Kai-shek's forced resignation, it can be seen that although there are many unfavorable factors surging behind Chiang Kai-shek's sphere of influence, Chiang Kai-shek is still able to turn his hand into a cloud and turn his hand into rain with his excellent power tactics, so that Chiang Kai-shek after going to the wilderness can still grasp the real power of the president for 27 years, until after his death, he will not drop the power of the president to others, for Chiang Kai-shek, many People in China believe that he hindered the pace of China's progress, but from the perspective of personal rights, Chiang Kai-shek is indeed a very good politician, able to hold real power in the face of the complicated political situation under the encirclement and suppression of many forces, and even finally announce the "presidential restoration" after retreating to Taiwan.