Chiang Kai-shek, whose original name was Chiang Kai-shek and whose character Jieshi was a figure to be reckoned with in the first half of Chinese history in the first half of the last century.
(Chiang Kai-shek's military uniform photo)
He was the child of a salt merchant, born in the grassroots, and was favored by Sun Yat-sen by chance, and then counterattacked all the way to become a brief ruler of the Chinese land.
Although Chiang Kai-shek was the supreme ruler, his talent and ability were not outstanding, and Zhou Enlai once commented on Chiang Kai-shek: "He is a clumsy tactician and a qualified strategist."
Although Chiang Kai-shek has a unique view on strategy, he cannot use it flexibly, which has led to his own defeat, and there are many aspects that can be proved:
First, the training and supervision of the Kuomintang troops was not strict, and it can be said that there was no positive preparation for the gradual defeat and retreat of the early stages of the War of Resistance, but in the later period, especially when Japan was greatly weakened by the joint suppression and its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced, the Kuomintang was still defeated by the Japanese army for thousands of miles.
(Japanese devils humiliate Chiang Kai-shek's bronze statue)
What's more, when the Kuomintang troops in Henan surrounded the masses and surrendered their weapons, Chiang Kai-shek himself admitted: "An army like ours can only fail!" Because the corruption of the army is extreme, there is no discipline, and when retreating, some officers and men even plague the people and make the people miserable! ”
As the supreme leader of the Kuomintang, he can try to clear his responsibilities by accusing the army of fighting strength, but is it useful? After all, the soldiers bear one, will bear a nest.
According to records, Kong Xiangxi once served as the finance minister of the Kuomintang, and he and his subordinates embezzled nearly 17 million US dollars.
(Photo by Kong Xiangxi)
However, Chiang Kai-shek only removed Kong Xiangxi from his post and said: "It is simply inconceivable that we must make a quick decision so as not to have too many dreams in the night and be left behind by others."
Even when the united front was established, Chiang Kai-shek even openly stated: "The biggest key to the success or failure of the War of Resistance is how to sanction the New Fourth Army!" ”
Chiang Kai-shek's vision is really short-sighted in doing things that make his relatives and enemies happy, and all of this is inseparable from personal experience and personality.
First, the lonely stunned qing
On October 31, 1887, Chiang Kai-shek was born in Xikou Town, Fenghua County, Zhejiang Province, and her biological mother Wang Shi had a brief marriage, after her first husband died of illness, she married Jiang Zhaocong, chiang kai-shek's biological father.
However, before that, Jiang Zhaocong also had two marriages, and his second wife, Sun Shi, who married wang after his death, formed a "remarried family".
(Chiang Kai-shek's mother and the elderly Chiang Kai-shek)
After Wang gave birth to Chiang Kai-shek, his grandfather Jiang Siqian named him "Ruiyuan", which symbolized "Xiangrui" and "Yuanjia", which was quite allegorical.
Who knows, Chiang Kai-shek has become a small scoundrel who is unknown to everyone in the town and no one knows, and his parents are worried about it.
The most representative is that according to local customs, the Jiang family worships the ancestors every year, and every child can receive sesame cake after the event.
In order to get the sesame cake first, little Chiang Kai-shek deliberately rolled in the mud pile, made a body of mud, and then crowded into the crowd with force, and everyone looked at it and hid from it, and Chiang Kai-shek got the first piece of sesame cake in this way.
This incident shows that although Chiang Kai-shek has a brain, he is not great wisdom, but a little wisdom, and he will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals.
(Dancing with his hands after the middle lift)
After that, Chiang Kai-shek entered a private school at the age of 6 to receive a traditional feudal exam-taking education, and began to study the obscure Four Books and Five Classics at a young age, and it is unknown whether he had succeeded in his studies, but when the examination was approaching, the Qing government announced reforms and abolished the eight shares.
Previously, at the age of 9, Chiang Kai-shek lost his father, coupled with the setbacks of studying, the young Chiang Kai-shek formed an introverted, wooden, withdrawn personality, and his eloquence was also very bad.
According to his teacher Mao Sicheng's recollection, the teenager Chiang Kai-shek would cry every time before leaving home for school, and his voice alarmed his neighbors, and even secretly wiped his tears in school, becoming an "outlier" among his classmates.
According to the recollections of his middle school teacher Dong Chengguang, during middle school, Chiang Kai-shek was reluctant to spend time talking to others, he always ran away alone, and then in a daze in the corner.
After the Qing government abolished the eight shares, his teacher tried to put the treasure on the policy, but unfortunately, the final examination was a new study, so the mess of Chiang Kai-shek's examination after 10 years of hard study became a joke among the candidates of the same age, and the blow to him can be imagined.
(Young Chiang Kai-shek)
In order to avoid being delayed by the teachers behind closed doors, his mother sent her to Fenghua to study until she was 20 years old, but it was still useless.
Chiang Kai-shek's mother was a little shaken, after all, the child was not young, and she also wanted to hold her grandson as soon as possible, so her mother arranged a marriage for him.
(The middle woman is Chiang Kai-shek's original Mao Fumei)
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was very entangled, and there was a wife and an old mother in the family, plus 24 acres of good land and a bamboo forest, and he went back to continue to eat ancestral meals.
At the moment of wavering, a teacher surnamed Gu, who had been gilded in Japan, pointed out a way for him, although this teacher was an embarrassing acid Xiucai, he was eloquent, and he blew his past experience into the sky, which also made Chiang Kai-shek, who was not more troubled, yearn for studying abroad to the extreme.
But for a stunned young man who grew up in a closed environment, how difficult it is to go abroad! He went back to his mother's and other family's work repeatedly, and he made up his way to Tokyo by boat, naively thinking that he could go to a Japanese school with all he had to pay for, but he was beaten hard by reality.
At that time, Qing Dynasty students needed to be dispatched by the government to study in Tokyo, and for his behavior, they were directly treated according to smuggling, and they still had some savings at home, Chiang Kai-shek bought a passport, and then attended a training class on the spot to learn Japanese, until he was called back to his hometown by his mother within a year.
Second, interesting facts when studying abroad
Although the first time he went abroad to study failed, Chiang Kai-shek's changes were tremendous, he changed his lonely personality and became keen on communication, and although his poor eloquence was not completely corrected, it also improved a lot.
In Japan, he became acquainted with Chen Qimei, the eldest brother of the future revolution, and after being introduced, he realized that Sun Yat-sen, who was famous inside and outside, could be described as a salted fish turning over.
Soon after returning to China, Chiang Kai-shek was very lucky and was directly admitted to the Baoding Army Academy, and after a year of study, just three Japanese non-commissioned officers who studied abroad beat each other and were expelled, and the Japanese side agreed to add three more students from the Baoding Academy.
Chiang Kai-shek, relying on the "strengths" of learning Japanese and the attack of money, went to study at the Japanese military academy as he wished, and officially began his military career.
In Japan, he was ready to completely change his solitary personality, he was more enthusiastic about making friends and actively participating in various parties, but no matter how much he changed, he could never change his temper and personality that was easy to lose control.
As early as the age of 17 in Fenghua school, this rural child was once encouraged by other classmates, foolishly used as a gun, he publicly reprimanded the principal at the school, demanded better teaching, and was almost expelled.
(Chiang Kai-shek while studying in Japan)
When he was in School in Japan, a Japanese instructor openly ridiculed china in class for having only 40,000 micro-worms, and the other Chinese students all bowed their heads and did not say a word, Chiang Kai-shek rushed to the podium, smashed the chalk box to pieces, and then quarreled with the instructor, not knowing how to restrain his temper, but at this time he may have a trace of justice in his heart.
While studying in Japan, he was introduced to the League, and his main job was to buy maps in the gang.
According to Chiang Kai-shek's compatriot Yang Zhichun, Chiang Kai-shek often bought strategic maps of various parts of China, but such maps were mainly marked and annotated on the basis of the original large map, and did not have much strategic significance.
(Map of China drawn by the Japanese)
But Chiang Kai-shek often bought them and sent them to the League, and Yang Zhichun asked, "How much is one of these pictures?" Chiang Kai-shek said: "Generally, it takes dozens of yuan, the expensive ones are hundreds of yuan, and the cheapest ones are also a few yuan." ”
Yang Zhichun exclaimed: "You have been deceived by Japanese devils, these things are very common in Shanghai, and a map is only a dollar at most." After Chiang Kai-shek listened, his face was very ugly.
Yang Zhichun continued to ask, "You bought so much, where did the money come from?" "It turned out that the League did not give him a fee, he completely paid for it out of his own pocket,
Chiang Kai-shek smiled mysteriously, he said that he often pretended to be sick to receive subsidies, and it turned out that according to the regulations, during the period of study abroad, non-commissioned officers who studied abroad could get 3-5 yuan of subsidies when they fell ill.
Some private clinics in Japan often issue various certificates in exchange for kickbacks because of the lack of customers, while Chiang Kai-shek often opens for one or two days, making everyone think that he is weak.
Later, after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, at the call of Sun Yat-sen and others, Chiang Kai-shek took off his school uniform and put on his military uniform and began a life of ups and downs.
3. Assassins who kill them
Shortly after returning to China, Chiang Kai-shek received the first task from his eldest brother Chen Qimei to assassinate the revolutionary Tao Chengzhang.
(Tao Chengzhang)
So what mistake did Tao Chengzhang make? The first is political opinion, the Guangfuhui established by Tao Chengzhang is intended to "restore the Han nationality, return our rivers and mountains", that is, to advocate the establishment of a regime ruled by the Han people.
The alliance led by Sun Yat-sen mainly wanted to overthrow the Qing government and establish a capitalist state, and their political contradictions were difficult to reconcile, and eventually evolved into antagonistic relations.
After the restoration of Shanghai, Chen Qimei planned to raise 250,000 yuan in the local area to open a bank, so he hoped to get the support of Tao Chengzhang, the general counselor of the Zhejiang government, but Tao Chengzhang refused without even thinking about it.
Chen Qimei is also not dead-hearted, at a conference, he suddenly stood up and revived the matter of raising funds to open a bank, and asked Tao Chengzhang why he did not provide help, but Tao tilted his mouth and sarcastically said: "I know that you love prostitutes, give you money, what do you do if you embezzle it?" ”
(Chen Qimei)
Chen Qimei was so humiliated by this, naturally he was furious, he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Tao Chengzhang, he was about to fight, fortunately he was pulled by someone, so he avoided a bloody incident, but the two people also formed a beam.
Another thing was that Tao Chengzhang himself died, and he frequently attacked the leader of the alliance, Sun Yat-sen.
(Sun Yat-sen)
When Sun Yat-sen was raising funds for the revolution, Tao Chengzhang gave speeches in various places, accusing Sun of using the revolution as a pretext for profit, and openly united others in the newspapers to slander and crusade against Sun Yat-sen, and even shouted that Sun Yat-sen should be expelled from the post of premier.
Various factors superimposed on each other, so that Chen Qimei and Chiang Kai-shek made up their minds to kill Tao Chengzhang.
At two o'clock in the morning of January 14, 1912, in Room 205 of Shanghai's Guangci Hospital, Chiang Kai-shek and another Assassin crept into the room, then pushed a sleeping patient with his back to the door and whispered, "Mr. Tao, Mr. Tao!" ”
Tao Chengzhang turned over and said sleepily, "Who?" Before the words could be heard, the gunshots suddenly arose, and the silence of midnight was broken as the bullet shot from the cheek into the brain, and Tao Chengzhang was killed on the spot.
Chiang Kai-shek was once again regarded as a gunman, and although he successfully completed the tasks assigned by the organization, it led to the lack of trust between the emerging revolutionary forces, seriously weakened the revolutionary forces, and also provided an opportunity for Yuan Shikai and other feudal remnants to make a comeback.
Chiang Kai-shek's actions also set a precedent for vicious struggles between revolutionary parties! The behavior is really harmful!
Fourth, dictatorship is incompetent, and democracy is immeasurable
(Chiang Kai-shek)
Later, Chiang Kai-shek miraculously became the supreme ruler of the Kuomintang, but he was not interested in democracy, but he was interested in the party-state, so he began the white terror and suppressed the Communist Party that advocated democracy and freedom.
Since Chiang Kai-shek did not engage in democracy, he should concentrate on dictatorship, but his inferior and withdrawn personality led to his political weakness and incompetence.
He went to the wilderness many times in his life, so why does he have authoritarian authority? At that time, someone published an article in the Ta Kung Pao entitled "Look at Chongqing, Read the Central Plains" to satirize the corruption of the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek's incompetence.
(The hungry people of the old society are cutting tree trunks to eat)
The article was to the effect that the people of the Central Plains were about to eat up all the bark and Guanyin soil, while the Kuomintang magnates in Chongqing were still rich and oily, and they were consuming according to the law.
When Chiang Kai-shek saw the article, he immediately slapped the table and became angry, and he ordered the Ta Kung Pao to stop publishing for three days as a punishment, and then after the resumption of publication for three days, everything was business as usual, and he still did not have the ability to be a dictator.
Fifth, complex emotional experiences
Chiang Kai-shek was very filial, no matter what his mother said, he would nod his head and say yes, in 1921, during his mother's critical illness, Chiang Kai-shek had been serving his mother's side, feeding soup medicine day and night.
In his mother's last days, he heard his mother's painful moans at night, and it was also a painful night that he could not sleep, and then he got out of bed and held his mother's hand to measure his pulse, feel his body temperature, and return to normal before "good heart." ”
(Chiang Kai-shek and his mother)
On the day of his mother's death, he set a guideline for himself: no matter the new calendar or the old calendar, all the death of Mother Jiang, do not move, do not eat meat, and even for life, to express mourning.
Chiang Kai-shek coveted beauty, and while studying in Japan, he openly flirted with other women in the woods next to the school.
A Chinese officer studying abroad passed by, and he listened carefully, and the man actually spoke a fluent Zhejiang accent chinese, and this officer felt that flirting in front of foreign people was detrimental to the image of Chinese, and immediately picked up Chiang Kai-shek. In this way, Chiang Kai-shek met the eldest brother Chen Qimei.
In 1916, Chen Qimei was assassinated by Chiang Kai-shek, and no one dared to claim the corpse on the streets. Chiang Kai-shek lost his voice and cried bitterly, and found a car to collect the body of the eldest brother.
When he arrived at the scene of the crime, Chen Qimei's body lay alone on the ground.
(Sun Yat-sen and Chen Qimei)
Seeing such a scene, Chiang Kai-shek was extremely saddened and cried as he caressed his corpse. Subsequently, he carried Chen Qimei's body back to the car, pulled it back to his home, and as a brother, he draped Chen Qimei in filial piety and solemn funeral.
Soon Sun Yat-sen also rushed back from Japan, and on the spot he issued an exclamation of "losing my Great Wall", and also began to look at Chiang Kai-shek with admiration and intended to promote it.
There is another thing that can also reflect his complex emotions, which is the story of kinship and benefactors.
Chiang Kai-shek's clan relative, named Chiang Miaoyue, was the cousin of Chiang Kai-shek's father and was Chiang Kai-shek's cousin in terms of generations.
At the same time, Jiang Miaoyue's husband is called Sun Qinfeng, which is the brother of Sun Shi, the second wife of Chiang Kai-shek's biological father, so from the perspective of marriage relationship, Chiang Kai-shek also calls Jiang Miaoyue an aunt, and they have multiple relatives, so they can be described as close to each other.
In 1913, Chiang Kai-shek returned to his hometown after the failure of the revolution, and was wanted by Yuan Shikai for a reward of 3,000 oceans, and his situation was very dangerous, so he temporarily hid in Jiang Miaoyue's home.
One day, the pursuing soldiers got the news that Chiang Kai-shek was hiding, so they came to arrest them, and Jiang Miaoyue braved the hardships and dangers, stepped forward, and cleverly led the pursuing soldiers away, and Chiang Kai-shek was able to escape the disaster.
Later, although Chiang Kai-shek got a place to study at the Japanese military academy, at this time the Chiang family was financially embarrassed and unable to pay for studying abroad. After receiving the news, Jiang Miaoyue and her husband sold more than 20 acres of fertile land, gave Chiang Kai-shek enough money, and often mailed a certain amount of living expenses when they went to school. It can be said that Jiang Miaoyue treated Chiang Kai-shek with great kindness.
Since then, Chiang Kai-shek's career has been smooth sailing, and he knows how to repay the favor, and every time he is respectful to Sun Qinfeng and Jiang Miaoyue and his wife.
Every time he returned to his hometown, Chiang Kai-shek went to the homes of the two elderly people to chat and eat a delicious meal made by Jiang Miaoyue, which was a rare and comfortable time, and this habit also affected Chiang Kai-shek's son Chiang Ching-kuo.
(Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo)
Jiang Chingguo often ran to Jiang Miaoyue's house when he had nothing to do, and once, when Chiang Kai-shek arrived at the mouth of the village, he found that Jiang Miaoyue had been waiting here for a long time, and he ran over happily, calling out to his uncle while running, and it could be seen that the feelings of his grandson were very deep.
In 1949, the Kuomintang withdrew to Taiwan, and Chiang Kai-shek took away 80 tons of gold, 120 tons of silver, more than 500,000 rare treasures and more than 600,000 experts and scholars, of course, he could not forget The Jiang Miaoyue family.
But at that time, Jiang Miaoyue was nearly 80 years old, and she said that she was old, could not walk, and did not want to die elsewhere, so she did not follow Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan.
In the 1960s, Wang Rizhang (a distant relative of Chiang Kai-shek, who served as Chiang Kai-shek's secretary and also called Jiang Miaoyue his aunt) went to visit Jiang Miaoyue, and he found that his uncle Sun Qinfeng had been dead for many years, his daughter had been married, and his 95-year-old aunt was unattended, living alone and struggling, in a very bleak situation.
Wang Rizhang was very sad in his heart, so he immediately wrote to Premier Zhou asking the government to take care of him, and after the letter was sent, Wang Rizhang regretted it very much, because he knew that Premier Zhou was busy with work and needed him to worry about a lot of things.
The matter of a lonely and widowed old man should not bother him, Wang Rizhang himself made a effort, taking care of it, so although Wang Rizhang wrote a letter, he did not have great hope in his heart.
(Zhou Enlai)
Unexpectedly, Zhou Enlai wrote back soon after, and he made detailed arrangements, first of all, to urge Fenghua County to make proper arrangements for Jiang Miaoyue's life, and secondly to solicit her opinion on whether to go to Taiwan and be taken care of by Chiang Kai-shek.
Although Jiang Miaoyue is over ninety years old, her body is also tough, and she also has a clear memory of Chiang Kai-shek, and she told the local department that she is willing to go to Taiwan if she has the opportunity.
At that time, the two sides of the taiwan strait were not open for exchanges, and personnel were not allowed to come and go, but under the coordination of Premier Zhou, the mainland finally got in touch with Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek was also an old man in his 70s at this time, and he was very happy after hearing this news, and immediately approved his aunt's application to "enter Taiwan." Later, Jiang Miaoyue, accompanied by her son-in-law, traveled to Hong Kong to Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to the arrival of his aunt, and he sent Chiang Ching-kuo to Hong Kong to accompany him, and he also personally picked him up at the Taiwan airport.
After 17 years, Chiang Kai-shek finally looked forward to the 95-year-old aunt, who was also very happy, she personally cooked and made a bowl of tangyuan for Chiang Kai-shek, so that Chiang Kai-shek could taste the taste of his hometown here.
It is said that Chiang Kai-shek had tears in his eyes at this time, and he gave high praise and gratitude to Zhou Enlai's righteous deeds.
Later, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong Mei-ling took good care of this life-saving benefactor and aunt, giving her a quiet and peaceful old age until the old man's death.
This history was a secret at the time, and it was not revealed until the 1980s, as relations between the mainland and Taiwan improved.
In this history, we can see that Chiang Kai-shek, a selfish, cruel, and weak politician, also has a warm side.
At the same time, through this period of history, we can also witness the efforts and contributions made by great people and national leaders in promoting the reunification of the motherland in the early days of the founding of New China, which is worthy of lifelong learning by future generations.
Resources:
"Sohu.com - Chiang Kai-shek's Early Growth Experience and Personal Characteristics", June 26, 2015.
"Douding Network - Chiang Kai-shek's Experience in Baoding Officers' Studies in His Youth", December 1, 2010 issue.
"Tencent.com - Why Chiang Kai-shek Assassinated Tao Chengzhang", December 15, 2015 issue.
"Phoenix News - Revealing that Chiang Kai-shek did something very much in line with Sun Yat-sen's wishes, assassinating Tao Chengzhang", October 5, 2016.
"Baidu - She is Chiang Kai-shek's savior and relative, but the evening scene is desolate, Premier Zhou personally instructed: just do it! January 7, 2018 issue.