In December 1966, major newspapers and periodicals published a heavy news - on the 2nd of that month, a senior Kuomintang general who had been praised by the public as "Little Zhuge Ge"
Bai Chongxi
He died suddenly at the age of 73.
According to people familiar with the matter, Bai Chongxi died in his bed, and when the body was found, its surface showed a strange pale green, and there were many obvious traces of scratching on the sheets behind him. The death of a once high-ranking and powerful general was so tragic, and this scene is really regrettable.
On the 9th of that month, the children of the Bai family, with a sad mood, held a grand memorial service for Bai Chongxi in a funeral home in Taipei. What is shocking is that as the ruler of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek was actually the first guest to arrive at the scene at the memorial service! More importantly, after attending this memorial service,
Chiang Kai-shek
He also wrote a diary specifically for this purpose, saying
"He was lucky to end well"
What's going on here?
What exactly is the grudge between Bai Chongxi and Chiang Kai-shek? Why did Bai Chongxi end up like this?
Pictured| Bai Chongxi
Bai Chongxi's growth history
Bai Chongxi was born on March 18, 1893, and is a native of Shanwei Village, Nanxiang, Guilin County, Guangxi. According to relevant records, Bai Chongxi's ancestors were originally scholars, but because there were no more capable people in the family, the Bai family gradually declined, passing to Bai Chongxi's father's generation, and the Bai family has long been reduced to an ordinary poor family.
Bai Chongxi's father was named
Bai Zhishu
In the early years, Bai Zhishu worked in a grocery store in Guilin, and later began to make money in foreign business, and after accumulating a certain amount of capital, he opened a small shop in the local area, married his wife and gave birth to a number of children, including Bai Chongxi.
Perhaps influenced by the implicit influence of his ancestors, Bai Zhishu attached great importance to the education of his children, and in 1898, at the age of 5, Bai Chongxi was sent to a private school and began to study traditional enlightenment books such as wuyan poems and the Three Character Sutra under the guidance of his teachers.
In the early years of study, Bai Chongxi laid a solid cultural foundation, and because of this, in the future study career, Bai Chongxi always achieved excellent results. In 1907, guangxi army primary school recruited students, thousands of people in the province applied for the examination, Bai Chongxi was admitted with a good result of the sixth place, and began to learn military knowledge.
In 1909, Bai Chongxi entered the Guangxi Provincial Junior Normal School with the second place, and during his time in school, he was repeatedly admitted to the first place in the school and was designated as a "foreman" by the school leaders.
Long-term study not only increased Bai Chongxi's knowledge, but also exercised his courage very well, and in those dark years, Bai Chongxi's desire to make meritorious achievements intensified.
In October 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and Bai Chongxi immediately signed up to join the Guangxi Northern Expedition Student Army Death Squad, no matter how much the elders in the family opposed, they could not shake his determination. On the day of the departure of the student death squad, the elders who received the news rushed to the Guilin North Gate City and tried to stop it, but Bai Chongxi had already made relevant preparations, and when the elders found the team, they found that he had quietly circled out from the Guilin West City Gate and could no longer be found.
After leaving Guilin City, Bai Chongxi joined the Northern Expedition student death squad and marched with a large army to Hankou, Hubei Province. In Hankou, Hubei Province, the death squad members were received by the Kuomintang superiors, and they were incorporated into the camp of the Southern Army and began to fight with the Northern Army.
Not long after, the two sides successfully negotiated peace, the student armies of various provinces were disbanded one after another, and Bai Chongxi was incorporated into the Nanjing Army for training. Half a year later, he was sent to the Wuchang Army Preparatory School for further study.
In 1914, after graduating from school, Bai Chongxi was sent to the 10th Division of the Beiyuan Army for internship, and in October, he was promoted to the Baoding Officer School.
In 1916, Bai Chongxi, a recent graduate, was appointed sergeant, and after a brief analysis of the situation, he proposed to his superiors the idea of voluntarily distributing apprenticeships to Xinjiang, but because Shaanxi was an enemy of the Nationalist government at the time, he failed to get what he wanted.
In January 1917, Bai Chongxi entered the Third Regiment of the First Division of the Lu Rongting Department of the Gui Army as a probationary officer, and a few months later, he was promoted to the Model Battalion as a second lieutenant company attached. In 1919, Bai Chongxi was promoted to captain of the first company of the second regiment of infantry of the First Division of the Guangxi Army, and followed the large army into the Zuojiang River Valley to suppress bandits. In the process of suppressing the bandits, Bai Chongxi shot more than eighty bandits who should be taken prisoner, and the cruel methods were intimidating.
In 1921,
Sun Yat-sen
Mr. Rong Ting, who was in power of the old Gui warlords in Guangzhou, was not willing to submit to the people, and was opposed to Mr. Guangdong, and was attacked by the Cantonese army, and could only retreat to Guangxi, and the situation in Guangxi fell into chaos.
At the same time, Bai Chongxi, then commander of the first battalion of the Old Gui Model Regiment, and Huang Shaohu, the brigade commander, saw the situation clearly, and after discussion, the two decided to rebel against their superiors, resolutely supported the Guangzhou revolutionary government headed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and appointed Bai Chongxi as a representative to go to Guangzhou to show loyalty to Sun Yat-sen.
Pictured| Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen believed that according to the current situation, it was the best choice to first unify the two provinces and then the whole country, so he appointed Huang Shaohu as the commander-in-chief and Bai Chongxi as the chief of staff to jointly handle the Guangxi issue.
After Bai Chongxi secretly returned with a letter of appointment, he informed Huang Shaohu of the news, and soon after, the two rebelled against the then brigade commander of the Cantonese Army
Li Zongren
The three of them unified their purpose and marched into Nanning, so that Lu Rongting in Guilin was not allowed to flee in the direction of Hunan, and the two cantons were thus unified. Bai Chongxi, who made great contributions to it, was also respected by the Kuomintang generals.
In 1926, Gui shi joined the ranks of the nationalist army and was officially renamed the Seventh Army of the National Revolutionary Army, with Li Zongren as the commander of the unit and Bai Chongxi as the chief of staff. It was then that Bai Chongxi began to have the opportunity to contact Chiang Kai-shek, which also laid the groundwork for their subsequent contradictions.
Bai and Jiang formed a vendetta
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek, without the consent of all the generals, privately created a Nanjing Nationalist Government in Nanjing, and as soon as this news came out, it immediately caused an uproar. At that time, he was the chairman of the National Government in Wuhan
Wang Jingwei
Indignant at this, he immediately ordered Chiang Kai-shek to "go down to the wilderness", and if he did not comply, he would send an iron army to flatten Chiang Kai-shek's territory!
Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi thought that it was profitable, so they forced the palace. Under their siege, Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to announce his resignation. The hatred between Bai and Jiang was thus concluded,
Chiang Kai-shek was stingy by nature, and now that he has suffered such a big loss, how can he possibly give up? So, as soon as Chiang Kai-shek took over the reins of office, he retaliated by holding a military conference in early 1929 and demanding that Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi surrender their military powers.
Pictured| Chiang Kai-shek
Li and Bai understood that they were in a dangerous situation, under such circumstances, how could they easily surrender their military power? In this way, a fierce battle broke out between Jiang and Gui.
Chiang Kai-shek's power, after all, was greater, and with the support of countless generals, he soon won the battle, and the Gui army was defeated, and in order to preserve the strength, it had to flee to the Vietnamese region.
The Gui army recuperated in the shadows for a year, and after a year, the local warlords finally decided to unite against Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorial behavior, and the Central Plains War was about to break out. Bai and Li saw this as a good opportunity to counterattack Chiang Kai-shek, so they also joined the battle.
When the Central Plains War broke out, Bai Chongxi received orders to lead an army of 30,000 to March to Hunan in an attempt to engulf the city. Unfortunately, however, after only two months, the Gui army was defeated by Chiang Kai-shek's troops, and Bai Chongxi and others had to retreat to Guangxi again.
In 1934, in order to block the Red Army in the Long March, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Bai Chongxi:
"If your ministry can do its best to block the border between Hunan and Guizhou, and cooperate with the central army to annihilate the Red Bandits between Guanyang and the whole county, then the credit lies with the party-state." The required salary and ammunition, Zhongzheng does not dare to be stingy. ”
Bai Chongxi was not stupid, he saw through Chiang Kai-shek's plan at a glance, and the reason why Chiang Kai-shek sent this telegram during the confrontation between the two sides was nothing more than to see that the Gui Army and the Red Army were both defeated and injured, and to reap the benefits of the fisherman himself. If they really obeyed Chiang Kai-shek's instructions, they would most likely kill themselves. Therefore, when Chiang Kai-shek was still immersed in a beautiful dream, Bai Chongxi had already issued his own instructions to his subordinates: If the Red Army did not have the tendency to move toward the Gui Army garrison, then make a "blind eye" and let the Red Army troops pass through Guangxi smoothly.
At that time, there were still people in the Gui army who expressed their confusion about this, and Bai Chongxi explained to him:
"Chiang Kai-shek hates us even more than Zhu and Mao, so it is better to keep them so that we have the opportunity to continue to grow and develop."
After the Red Army successfully crossed the Xiang River, Chiang Kai-shek, who had received the news, understood that his ruse had not succeeded, and angrily sent a condemnatory telegram to the Gui army troops, accusing them of letting go of the "communist bandits." In the face of this accusation, Bai Chongxi did not panic in the slightest, and he unceremoniously returned a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek:
"Junzao holds a million people in his hands, and when he is tired and has not yet had time to breathe, he will be annihilated in one fell swoop between Ningyuan and Daoxian, but he will not move forward, or what does it mean?" Do you have to take the gui as a barrier? ”
Chiang Kai-shek was blocked by his words, and although he wanted to punish him, there was nothing he could do.
After this, the two sides coexisted in such a strange state, which lasted until the period of the all-out War of Resistance.
During the period of all-out resistance against Japan, in order to resist the common enemy of the Chinese and the people, Chiang Kai-shek and the Gui clan temporarily put aside their previous grievances and grievances, cooperated with each other, and jointly resisted the enemy. Bai Chongxi also served as a front-line commander, leading his subordinates to the front line and commanding a number of important battles. In particular, the strategic plan he envisioned as "accumulating small victories into big victories, exchanging space for time" played an important role in the final success of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
However, because they were too obsessed with power, after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the relationship between the Gui clan and Chiang Kai-shek was once again in deep trouble, and Bai Chongxi's plan at this time was:
Let Chiang Kai-shek and the Communist Party fight each other, and the Gui clan will watch the battle in silence, ready to start another stove at any time.
During the Battle of Huaihai, Chiang Kai-shek was inferior, so he sent instructions to the Gui clan asking them to assist the front-line troops, but Bai Chongxi ignored this and refused to send troops to go on the expedition, making Chiang Kai-shek angrily scolded "Niang Xipi".
Travel to Taiwan
By the end of 1948, the defeat of the Nationalist army was a foregone conclusion. Bai Chongxi, who held great power, sent two telegrams to Chiang Kai-shek, forcing him to go to the field again and let Li Zongren take office as acting president. For various reasons, Chiang Kai-shek finally agreed to this request.
After Li Zongren took office, he very naively proposed to our side a plan to "rule by crossing the river." In this regard,
Chairman Mao
The response said:
"We can't do it without crossing the river, and no matter what, the People's Liberation Army will cross the river."
Immediately afterward, Chairman Mao again said:
"In the future, when the peace talks are successful and the National Defense Force is formed, the Communist Party can allow Bai Chongxi to remain in the army and command 300,000 troops."
In our opinion, the terms for the peace talks put forward by Chairman Mao can be said to be quite rich, but Li and Bai do not think so.
When he learned that the Communist Party would not agree to the plan of "ruling by drawing the river," Bai Chongxi was very angry, and at the same time, he began to make up his mind that he must fight our party to the end.
Our army did not habitually look at him, seeing that he was still on the opposite side of the people, and in early November 1911, the People's Liberation Army began to attack Guangxi. With the support of the people, the PLA's operation went very smoothly, and at the end of November, Guangxi was liberated, and Bai Chongxi retreated to Hainan Island. During this period, fearing that Chiang Kai-shek would murder him, Bai Chongxi was ready to flee overseas.
Facts have proved that Bai Chongxi's worries were completely superfluous at that time, and although he no longer had many troops, Chiang Kai-shek would certainly not embarrass Li Zongren when he had fled to the United States and he still had use for Chiang Kai-shek.
Moreover, in order to make better use of Bai Chongxi, Chiang Kai-shek would even give him high treatment and strive to win him "return to the team."
In order to express his importance to Bai Chongxi, Chiang Kai-shek specially dispatched
Zhang liang
When he came to Hainan, he distributed military expenses to his remnants of the troops, and at the same time assigned Roach to send his own handwritten letter inviting him to Taiwan to "discuss the aftermath." Luo Qi also told Bai Chongxi that when Chiang Kai-shek was reinstated, he would let him (Bai Chongxi) serve as the "chief executive".
After receiving this letter, Bai Chongxi was very hesitant, he understood what Chiang Kai-shek's purpose in inviting him to Taiwan was, and he did not intend to go there, but he really wanted to be the "chief executive." Finally, he planned to let his subordinates go to Taiwan first to explore Chiang Kai-shek's falsehood, and then make plans later.
After his subordinates arrived in Taiwan, they quickly sent a telegram to Bai Chongxi saying that Chiang Kai-shek had invited him to take up a post in Taiwan with great sincerity. Bai Chongxi no longer hesitated, and on December 30 of that year, he flew to Taiwan.
When he first arrived in Taiwan, Bai Chongxi was treated well, on January 16, 1950. He also sent a telegram to Li Zongren conveying several suggestions made to him by Chiang Kai-shek.
Li Zongren neither resigned nor did he come to Taiwan, which made Chiang Kai-shek very embarrassed. Finally, seeing that Li Zongren did not give an answer for a long time, Chiang Kai-shek could not care about what tradition was not traditional, and announced a notice on March 1 of this year to formally "reinstate" him.
The news soon reached the United States, and when Li Zongren learned of it, he immediately organized a press conference in the local area to accuse Chiang Kai-shek of violating the law by reinstating him. Chiang Kai-shek could not help Li Zongren, so he poured his anger on Bai Chongxi's body. Since then, Bai Chongxi's position in Taiwan has plummeted.
In October 1952, Taiwan held the Seventh National Congress. The six members of the Standing Committee who attended the meeting all became members of the deliberation committee, with the exception of Bai Chongxi. Obviously, chiang kai-shek's act was to embarrass Bai Chongxi. For a time, there was a lot of public opinion in the outside world, and some Kuomintang elders thought that Chiang Kai-shek's behavior was somewhat unfair to Bai Chongxi, so they elected two elders who were "highly respected and respected" and asked them to intercede with Chiang Kai-shek.
On that day, two elected Kuomintang elders came to Chiang Kai-shek's office on crutches, and when they saw them, Chiang Kai-shek immediately stood up to greet them and asked with a smile:
"How did you get here?"
The elders did not bend with him, and said directly:
"Bai Chongxi has made many contributions to the party-state, and it is too unfair to him that you are doing so now."
After hearing this, Chiang Kai-shek's face immediately darkened, and he said impatiently:
“
Jiansheng thing, I know. ”
Although he said so, there has been no other movement in the matter since.
In 1954, Taipei held the second session of the first session of the "National Congress", and at this meeting, someone reported Bai Chongxi under his real name. There were three crimes reported: one was to privately take 70,000 taels of gold from the central bank; the other was to privately take more than 3.7 million taels of silver from the central bank of Hankou; and the third was to disobey the instructions of his superiors and support the army in the Battle of Xuzhou.
Bai Chongxi reacted quickly, sending a relevant document to every participant in the room, rejecting the impeachment of the man.
Hong Kong's "Business Times" also published this document shortly after, and caused quite a stir in the country, and it is obvious that the public opinion in the world is also more biased towards Bai Chongxi's side.
Since there was not enough evidence, the case was closed, however, according to insiders, the incident was actually ordered by Chiang Kai-shek.
What is even more frightening is that Chiang Kai-shek not only instructed others to impeach Bai Chongxi, but also asked him to take a stand on the issue of deposing Li Zongren, deliberately making him embarrassed.
Pictured| Li Zongren
Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren went from unifying the two provinces to running east and west, and in the past few decades, the two people have lived and died together, shared weal and woe, and formed a deep friendship. The old comrade-in-arms fled to the United States alone, which was miserable enough, and now he had to add another fire!
Bai Chongxi did not want to do this very much, but he had to do it, and finally, under the persecution of Chiang Kai-shek, he tearfully signed the joint letter of dismissal of Li Zongren.
In order to target Bai Chongxi, whenever the Kuomintang attacked Li Zongren again, Chiang Kai-shek had to let Bai Chongxi serve him, and let Bai Chongxi come out and shout whenever there was any disturbance.
In 1964, Li Zongren published an open letter in a newspaper weekly magazine in New York, asking the American leaders, like France, to recognize the existence of the new China and normalize diplomatic relations between China and the United States.
After the news reached China, he was immediately attacked by Chiang Kai-shek, and Bai Chongxi was also ordered to send a telegram to Li Zongren, asking him not to "privately issue fallacies" and let him "turn back to the shore."
When he first arrived in Taiwan, Bai Chongxi settled in Yuanshan, but after changes, the "Taiwan Provincial Government" provided some houses for the staff members who came to Taiwan from the mainland to live, and Bai Chongxi moved here from his original address. It didn't take long for him to buy the house as his own private home.
Just when Bai Chongxi was removed from Chiang Kai-shek's name, his house was also raided by the "National Security Bureau", who turned the inside and outside of the house upside down, and even the floor was pried open and looked at. Bai Chongxi was very angry about this, and he called Chiang Ching-kuo, the head of the relevant department, and asked him what was going on, but Chiang Ching-kuo fooled him, and he did not know it, so he asked him to ask Chiang Kai-shek directly.
Bai Chongxi then called Chiang Kai-shek again, and Chiang Kai-shek replied to him:
"I know about it, but this behavior is not only directed at you, everyone should look it up like this."
Bai Chongxi was furious with these words, but to no avail.
Not only that, in later life, Bai Chongxi's personal freedom was gradually manipulated by Chiang Kai-shek.
Next to Bai Chongxi's residence, there is a police station, many of the public security personnel in it are spies sent by Chiang Kai-shek, and guests entering and leaving the White Mansion are often monitored and tracked by them. Bai Chongxi loves to play chess, as long as he has time, he will always pull people to play chess with him. After coming to Taiwan, he often invited people to his home to play chess, but because he was always harassed by secret agents, the guests did not dare to accompany him. The distance between Mr. Bai and Taiwan's upper class seems to have been cut off.
Maybe it was too bitter, or maybe he wanted to indulge himself, during the period of being controlled, in order to relieve the boredom in his heart, Bai Chongxi actually launched a passionate love affair with Miss Zhang, a young nurse who took care of him.
In order to better accompany Miss Zhang, Bai Chongxi has never left the body from this medicine, as the saying goes, "it is a medicine that is three points of poison", especially for an old man like Bai Chongxi who is more than an old man. With the frequent use of drugs, Bai Chongxi's body soon ran out of oil.
On December 1, 1966, Bai Chongxi and Miss Zhang rested in the White House as usual, and on this night, the tragedy finally happened! Early the next morning, the staff found Bai Chongxi dead in his bed, the body was eerily green, and there were many scratches on the sheets behind him, and that Miss Zhang was now missing.
On December 9, the children of the Bai family held a memorial service for their father at the Taipei City Funeral Home, and for some reason, after sending the invitation letter, Chiang Kai-shek's staff said that he would come to the scene in person.
At 7 o'clock on the same day, Chiang Kai-shek arrived at the scene as the first guest and at the same time presented a plaque with the inscription "Xuan Nian Xun You".
After a brief silence of silence for Bai Chongxi, Chiang Kai-shek walked slowly to the children of the Bai family and said, as if cordially:
"If you have any difficulties in the future, you can come to the official residence to find me."
Seeing his hypocritical face, the children of the Bai family were full of disdain in their hearts, and the youngest son of the Bai family, who had always been spoiled by Bai Chongxi, could not help but be angry:
"The children of the White Family have no difficulty."
As soon as these words came out, Chiang Kai-shek's face stiffened, and he never came forward to ask for interest in himself again.
After the condolences, Chiang Kai-shek returned home and angrily criticized Bai Chongxi again in his diary, saying that he was lucky to have a good death.
From here, we can also see Chiang Kai-shek's small belly and chicken intestines, and we don't know whether Bai Chongxi, who has become an undead, will regret the choice he made in the past when he hears this.