A gentle gust of wind awakens the body that has been sleeping for a thousand years; a gentle gust of wind blows away the mysterious veil of history. Standing on the shoulders of time, I talk to history.
In 1988, Chiang Ching-kuo died in Taiwan, and two years later, Zhang Xueliang, who had been imprisoned by Chiang for more than half a century, finally regained his freedom. As the former deputy commander of the Army, Navy and Air Force of the Republic of China and the commander of the Northeast Border Defense, the news that Zhang Xueliang was freed immediately attracted the attention of the world.
Many media and journalists rushed to his residence to conduct interviews with him, including many foreign journalists, especially Japanese media reporters. Some people speculate that perhaps Japanese media reporters want to learn from the mouth of this former "king of the Northeast" the truth of the many unsolved mysteries left by China and Japan in the northeast region. Zhang Xueliang, who is nearly 90 years old, seems to be in a good mood because of his regaining his freedom, and he does not refuse to visit reporters.
Once, a reporter from Japan's NHK television station asked Zhang Xueliang in an interview: "If you can return to the mainland in your lifetime, who is the first person you want to meet?" ”
People present at the time thought that Zhang Xueliang must have wanted to see the descendants of the Zhang family, or the former general of the Northeast Army, the founding general Lü Zhengcao, who was still alive. But to everyone's surprise, Zhang Xueliang thought for a moment, but said the name of a traitor- Sun Mingjiu.
Sun Mingjiu, formerly known as "Sun Mingjiu", a native of Xinmin County, Liaoning Province, joined the Northeast Army in his early years, and later because of his intelligence and studiousness, he was sent to the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School for further study, and in Japan, Sun Mingjiu changed his name to Sun Mingjiu. After graduating from military school, he was transferred to Tianjin as an instructor.
After Zhang Xueliang took charge of the northeast, he was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the navy, army and air force, and in 1931, he went north from Nanjing to Beiping to take up a post, and when passing through Tianjin, his younger brother Zhang Xueming sent Sun Mingjiu as his bodyguard to escort Zhang Xueliang all the way to Beijing. Along the way, the young and promising Sun Mingjiu left a deep impression on Zhang Xueliang, especially his patriotism of advocating fighting against The Japanese invaders and regaining the three eastern provinces, which deeply touched Zhang Xueliang.
Soon after, Zhang Xueliang transferred Sun Mingjiu to his side and served as the battalion commander of the guard battalion and a personal confidential staff officer. Since then, all the way to the Xi'an Incident, Sun Mingjiu was a close confidant of Zhang Xueliang and one of the representatives of the Young Zhuang faction in the Northeast Army, advocating the anti-Japanese resistance and the recovery of the northeast. Before the Xi'an Incident, many of Zhang Xueliang's anti-Japanese speech materials and slogans in the Northeast Army were written by Sun Mingjiu.
On December 12, 1936, in order to force Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan, Zhang Xueliang joined forces with Yang Hucheng to launch the Xi'an Incident, in which Sun Mingjiu captured Chiang Kai-shek alive. In the early morning of the same day, Zhang Xueliang sent his guards, under the cover of the 17th Route Army, to surround Huaqingchi and prepare to capture Chairman Jiang alive.
However, when the guard battalion entered Huaqingchi, it was counterattacked by Jiang's personal bodyguards, and the two sides were unable to distinguish between victory and defeat for a while, at this critical moment, Sun Mingjiu led a large army to arrive and defeated the bodyguards guarding Huaqingchi in one fell swoop. Although the bodyguards were all killed, it also bought time for Jiang to escape, and when Sun Mingjiu and others rushed into Jiang's bedroom, they found that he had jumped out of the window and escaped.
If Jiang was allowed to escape, the consequences would be unimaginable, not only the Guard Battalion, but even Zhang Xueliang, Yang Hucheng and others would probably die without a place to die. At this critical moment, Sun Mingjiu led his subordinates to search the mountain despite the night, and finally captured Chairman Jiang alive behind a large stone.
Later, under the mediation of many domestic forces, the Xi'an Incident was resolved peacefully, and Chairman Jiang returned to Nanjing to take power, and soon after found a reason to put Zhang Xueliang under house arrest. As the "hero who caught Chiang Kai-shek" at that time, Sun Mingjiu naturally became the "most wanted criminal" of the Nanjing government. Both the military and the central government regarded him as the target of assassination.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Jiang still did not give up the pursuit and killing of Sun Mingjiu, in order to survive, he could only hide in Tibet, one in Tianjin, one in Shanghai, but he was assassinated by secret agents many times, fortunately, Sun Mingjiu was extraordinary in his skills, in order to escape death. Finally, in desperation, he fled to Wuhan, defected to the Wang puppet regime, became a counselor and military attaché, and was later transferred to the Shandong battlefield as the deputy commander of the pseudo-security.
From a hot-blooded young man who advocated anti-Japanese resistance to a traitor who was spurned by everyone, Sun Mingjiu's life was forced to a dead end step by step. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Sun Mingjiu was absorbed by the reactionaries, and later captured by the People's Liberation Army in the northeast, but was released after reforming, and has been living in Shanghai and changing his name to Sun Mingjiu.
Zhang Xueliang and Sun Mingjiu have a very good relationship, in public, the two are superiors and subordinates, but in private, the two are called brothers and brothers. And because of the Xi'an incident, Sun Mingjiu was implicated, making Zhang Xue feel guilty, and he would never forget his subordinates and brothers in the past.
After interviewing Zhang Xueliang, a reporter from Japan's NHK Television interviewed Sun Mingjiu in Shanghai and broadcast a video of Zhang Xueliang's interview for him. When he learned that the person the young marshal most wanted to see was himself, looking at the young marshal who had not seen him for decades on the screen, the old man over 80 years old burst into tears.