In 1949, after losing the three most decisive battles of the Liberation War, Liaoshen, Pingjin, and Huaihai, Chiang Kai-shek finally had to recognize the reality and choose to retreat to Taiwan with a large Kuomintang force on July 16 of that year. Then why did Chiang Kai-shek choose to retreat to Taiwan? Who came up with the idea? Who was running Taiwan before?
The Great Southwest and Hainan are preferred
As early as October 1948, after the Liaoshen Campaign came to an end, Chiang Kai-shek could not sit still and began to think about the future retreat in anticipation of a comeback.
For the situation at this time, Chiang Ching-kuo, who loved to write a diary like Lao Tzu, once wrote in his diary
：
"My father had recently carefully considered the issue of retirement, and under the pressure of internal and external affairs, he started a new stove to re-establish the foundation of the revolution and win a new life.
The father and son of the Chiang family were already like this, and some other high-level members of the Kuomintang were naturally even more panicked and argued endlessly about the places to retreat.
Most of them proposed that they could move to Sichuan and devote themselves to running the Great Southwest, as in the War of Resistance Against Japan. Indeed, the southwest has a very superior geographical location, its central location is Chongqing and Chengdu, the east has the Yangtze River Three Gorges as a partition, the south of the Hengduan Mountain Range as a barrier, the north also has the Qinling Mountains this barrier, retreat can be defended, attack can be attacked, since ancient times is easy to defend and difficult to attack the blessed land. If Chiang Kai-shek still wanted to stay on the mainland, only this part of the great southwest could still resist the plausible PLA attack.
Therefore, at the beginning, Chiang Kai-shek himself was more interested in this place in the southwest of China. However, some kmtone high-level members proposed to retreat to Hainan, on the grounds that the barrier between Hainan and the mainland across the Qiongzhou Strait would not only resist the PLA's offensive, but also retreat to the Philippines and other Asian countries close to Hainan if the PLA was really pressing forward.
After that, the top level of the Kuomintang on both sides who had different opinions said that it was justified and that the mother-in-law was justified, and neither of them was willing to back down:
Proposed retreat to the Great Southwest, said
The area of cultivated land in Hainan is insufficient
, not suitable for long-term development to live; proposed to retire to Hainan, said
Sichuan does not have as much as Hainan's retreat
。
Chiang Kai-shek was also hesitant by their quarrels, could not sleep at night, and often stayed in the study of the Presidential Palace for one night.
On this day, Chiang Kai-shek, who had stayed up all night in the study, was ready to go to the garden to breathe, change his brain, and then think about the way back in the future. However, after going to the garden, he found Zhang Qiyun who was already there. Zhang Qiyun had been a professor at National Central University, now Nanjing University, until he retired to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek.
Although chiang kai-shek was also invited by Chiang Kai-shek to discuss the future retreat of the Kuomintang, it was not taken very seriously at the meeting. Chiang Kai-shek really couldn't think of a better way, after seeing Zhang Qiyun, no matter what three seven twenty-one, he stepped forward and became bitter.
Who knows, after Zhang Qiyun listened, he ignored Chiang Kai-shek's impatience and calmly said something to him. These words shocked Chiang Kai-shek and at the same time, it was like a daigo empowerment. What exactly did Zhang Qiyun say to Chiang Kai-shek?
The opinion of a university professor
As soon as Zhang Qiyun came up, he denied the two alternative retreats of the Great Southwest and Hainan, and directly proposed that retreating to Taiwan was the best way. Zhang Qiyun believes that although the Great Southwest has the natural danger of the Yangtze River, it can be used as a barrier to resist the attack of the People's Liberation Army under certain circumstances. But the KMT still underestimated the strength of the PLA and ignored the current pace of development of the PLA Party.
Moreover, after the end of the Liaoshen Campaign, the number of troops of the People's Liberation Army has completely surpassed the Kuomintang army (after the Liaoshen Campaign, the total strength of the Nationalist army fell to 2.9 million, and the total strength of the People's Liberation Army rose to 3 million).
。 Therefore, the Idea of the Kuomintang wanting to retreat to the Great Southwest and Hainan is actually not highly reliable. The Platon Army will absolutely not agree, and will certainly try its best to engage in confrontation, and then the Kuomintang army will once again be caught in the flames of war.
Compared with these two places, Taiwan is a treasure land of feng shui, first of all, Taiwan is not only with the mainland
Across a strait, much larger than the Qiongzhou Strait across Hainan, it can be used to stop the Plakmen's pursuit
In addition, the communist navy and air force strength was not superior to that of the Kuomintang at that time, and even if a war broke out, the Kuomintang army also had a place to compete; and the vast territory of Taiwan, which spanned temperate zones and the tropics, had a pleasant climate, which was very suitable for the production of various crops, and could fully meet the needs of the military and the people after the Kuomintang came to Taiwan; in addition, Taiwan also had an industrial base established by the Japanese, and transportation was also very developed, which was conducive to the comeback of the Kuomintang.
Most importantly, Taiwan, as China's largest island, is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, which is not only the only way for China to enter the Pacific, but also the main battlefield for maritime operations.
In such an important strategic position, if the Kuomintang really fights with the People's Liberation Army after retreating to Taiwan, the United States will certainly stand on the side of the Kuomintang.
Zhang Qiyun's remarks were reasonable and well-founded, and could be said to have taken into account all of Chiang Kai-shek's concerns, so Chiang Kai-shek quickly put the matter of retreating to Taiwan on the agenda and began to order people to secretly put the National Government treasury in the country
More than 4.26 million taels of gold were sent to Taiwan in 6 batches
to prepare for a long-term stay in Taiwan in the future.
Why was Zhang Qiyun, a university professor, invited by Chiang Kai-shek to discuss such an important matter as the kuomintang's retreat, and why did he see Taiwan's strategic position so thoroughly and other aspects?
In fact, this is related to the direction that Zhang Qiyun has been studying. Zhang Qiyun first engaged in it
Compilation of secondary school textbooks
He was involved in the compilation of geography, physics and English textbooks that were common throughout the country at that time, especially geography textbooks, and he was also the editor-in-chief.
After 1927, Zhang Qiyun, who had in-depth research in geography, was hired for it
Professor of Geography, National Central University
, lecturer on Chinese geography. Zhang Qiyun can be regarded as a pioneering master of Chinese literature and geography, and his natural understanding of Taiwan's strategic location is more thorough than that of ordinary people.
Later, Zhang Qiyun was hired as a commentator of the first Central Council of the Academia Sinica, which deepened his understanding of current politics and gave him the qualifications to participate in the discussion meeting of the Kuomintang retreat.
It was precisely because of Zhang Qiyun's outstanding proposal this time that after Chiang Kai-shek withdrew to Taiwan, Zhang Qiyun was highly valued by Chiang Kai-shek and was successively appointed as the director of the Propaganda Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee and the minister of education.
July 16, 1949
Chiang Kai-shek formally ordered the Kuomintang troops to gradually begin to retreat to Taiwan. And before the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan,
Taiwan was run by Sun Liren, a second-ranking general of the Kuomintang Army, who was known as the most annihilated Japanese army among the generals of the Chinese army during the War of Resistance Against Japan
"Jungle Fox"
Because of sun Liren's help, Chiang Kai-shek's plan to retreat to Taiwan was successfully implemented. Sun Liren not only helped to reorganize the chaotic Kuomintang army that had been hurriedly retreating to Taiwan, but also established it
Perfect system of military service and system of reserve officers
This laid a good foundation for the kmt's later development in Taiwan.