On April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched a counter-revolutionary armed coup in Shanghai, and on behalf of the New Right of the Kuomintang, he massacred Leftists and Communists of the Kuomintang, which caused dissatisfaction among the Leftists, Communists, and some revolutionary elders of the Kuomintang.
On April 17, 1927, the Nationalist government in Wuhan organized an extraordinary meeting for the actions of Chiang Kai-shek and others, and the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee unanimously decided to expel Chiang Kai-shek from the Party and dismiss him from all military and political posts. The Nationalist government in Wuhan enumerated Chiang Kai-shek's twelve major crimes, the most important of which was:
Massacre of the people and suppression of Communist Party activities.
By this time, the National Government of Wuhan ordered
All the officers and men of the National Revolutionary Army and the revolutionary mass organizations arrested Chiang Kai-shek and returned him to the Central Committee and punished him according to the regulations on counter-revolutionary crimes. This series of punishment decisions has been unanimously supported by people from all walks of life in Wuhan.
Notices of arrest and punishment of Chiang Kai-shek were circulating everywhere. On the wanted list, there is a reward for Chiang Kai-shek:
If Chiang Kai-shek is captured alive, a reward of 250,000 yuan will be awarded; if Chiang Kai-shek is killed, a reward of 100,000 yuan will be awarded.
The heavy blow of the Nationalist government in Wuhan did not make Chiang Kai-shek panic, let alone wait. Chiang Kai-shek was not a simple commodity to be manipulated, and as soon as wuhan punished him, he immediately set up a new national government in Nanjing. Convened under the auspices of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang right-wing elements held an emergency meeting in Nanjing from April 15.
The biggest suspect in the assassination of Liao Zhongkai, the leader of the Kuomintang's left wing, Hu Hanmin, who was once one of the three giants of the Kuomintang, returned from the Soviet Union. Hu Hanmin returned to China not to oppose the condemnation of Chiang Kai-shek, but to support his anti-communist work. On 15 April, Chiang Kai-shek instructed the police and army to surround the trade unions and the Kuomintang office in Guangzhou, arresting more than 2,000 people, including Soviet advisers, and several Huangpu students who had been confirmed to be Communists, and were ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to be executed in public.
Chiang Kai-shek's behavior can be said to have caused an uproar in China and the world at that time, and no one could have imagined that Chiang Kai-shek, who boasted of being the successor of Sun Yat-sen, would be so unscrupulous and vicious. On April 18, the day the Kuomintang in Wuhan officially offered a reward for the capture of Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek showed an extremely tough attitude and established a Nanjing government in Nanjing that was opposed to the Wuhan Nationalist Government. Hu Hanmin was pushed to the front of the stage by Chiang Kai-shek and became the chairman of the central political conference of the new government.
Therefore, from beginning to end, the National Government in Nanjing was not a central orthodoxy, but a self-reliant pseudo-regime. History:
"Ninghan split."
Chiang Kai-shek issued a lengthy official document indicating his attitude, which means:
"We have to break with the Communist Party."
Before the world had been defeated, it began to cause infighting and kill heroes.
Chiang Kai-shek's actions and the establishment of the National Government in Nanjing once again plunged China into a state of aimless darkness and chaos. Nanjing and Wuhan, a government founded by the left wing of the Kuomintang and a government established by the new right wing of the Kuomintang, all claim to be orthodox, and it is they who truly inherit the revolutionary legacy of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. In the north, Zhang Zuolin was in power and the most powerful. At this time, China was caught in a new round of infighting, with three governments in one country. Revolutionary revolution, from two governments to three governments, is there still hope for the Chinese revolution?
The smooth establishment of the National Government in Nanjing greatly increased Chiang Kai-shek's confidence, believing that he could launch the Northern Expedition again and thus gain great prestige and status. On April 24 in Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek held an army meeting and formally proposed a proposal to re-expedition the North. After all, the Proposal of the Northern Expedition was stillborn, and the Nationalist Government in Wuhan would not tolerate the wanton behavior of the Nanjing side. The revolutionary army loyal to Wuhan was advancing towards Nanjing; Chiang Kai-shek also arranged for troops to march towards Wuhan.
Complicated situation, strange balance, if there is a real war, there will be a lose-lose meat grinder situation. The only one who can change this situation is the wavering Feng Yuxiang, who can have the upper hand on which side Feng Yuxiang falls, and it is easy to achieve a crushing victory. Feng Yuxiang enjoyed this sense of controlling the fate of millions of people, and he commanded his troops to occupy the eastern section of the Longhai Line, posing a threat to Both Nanjing and Wuhan. Therefore, these two forces must first move closer to Feng Yuxiang.
Feng Yuxiang's first partner was Wang Jingwei of the Wuhan Nationalist Government, because he believed that Chiang Kai-shek was too treacherous and cunning to be trusted; and Chiang Kai-shek was completely demoralized, causing anger and resentment, and cooperating with him was easy to ignite. Feng Yuxiang asked the Wuhan Nationalist government to send people to Zhengzhou for consultations and negotiations, but until June 13, no substantial progress had been made. Wang Jingwei only promised some empty checks, which made Feng Yuxiang very dissatisfied.
Gradually, Feng Yuxiang lost confidence in Wuhan, so he personally went to Xuzhou on June 19 to meet with Chiang Kai-shek. The two sides negotiated for 2 days and successfully reached complete agreement. In this regard, Feng Yuxiang completely fell to the Nanjing side and began to take the initiative to exert military pressure on Wuhan. It is not difficult to see from the matter of winning over Feng Yuxiang that Chiang Kai-shek is a far more intelligent politician than Wang Jingwei.
The situation was grim, and Chiang Kai-shek agreed to all of Feng Yuxiang's demands; he knew that he would not be able to pass this hurdle and would not be able to talk about anything later; as for these promised things, he did not have the final say. On the other hand, Wang Jingwei only cared about the small profits of the fly in front of him. At the same time, Wang Jingwei received a telegram from Stalin from Moscow, the Soviet Union, which roughly read:
The Communist takeover of power is the only way to broaden the prospects of the revolution, and it is hoped that Wang Jingwei will move forward hand in hand with the Communist Party.
This made Wang Jingwei, who was already sensitive and anxious, even more uncomfortable, what did the Soviet side mean? Is this a threat? Do you want to remotely control yourself and make yourself a puppet? Stalin's telegrams did not make the Situation of the Chinese Communist Party worse, but worse. On July 15, Wang Jingwei also staged a counter-revolutionary coup d'état; the next day massacres of Communists in his territory began, forcing Soviet advisers to leave Wuhan.
Wang Jingwei persecuted the Communists for counter-revolution, but it did not mean that he was on the side of Chiang Kai-shek, and Wang Jingwei ordered his troops to accelerate their march towards Nanjing. Sun Chuanfang, who had just been defeated, saw the Kuomintang's infighting and thought that he had another chance to make a comeback, so he gathered his old troops and launched an attack on the area occupied by Chiang Kai-shek on the north bank of the Yangtze River. Chiang Kai-shek suffered from the enemy on his stomach and back.
Out of his own interests and Chiang Kai-shek's promise of his own terms, Feng Yuxiang intervened to mediate between the two sides. Feng Yuxiang's mediation was tendentious, and Wang Jingwei, who was forced to be helpless, had to agree to peaceful reunification and agree to the proposal to move the capital to Nanjing. In early August, Wuhan and Nanjing reached a cooperation agreement, and the Wuhan Nationalist government also stopped working, but Wang Jingwei did not stop anti-Chiang Kai-shek actions, creating a wave of public opinion that was larger than a wave.
In order to stabilize the situation again, Chiang Kai-shek actually began to exclude dissidents, and his eyes were fixed on the real-power generals Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, which caused dissatisfaction among the two famous generals of the Northern Expedition who had made great achievements in battle. As a result, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi's attitude toward Chiang Kai-shek first changed from support to silence, and then from silence to reaction. In order to save his reputation, Chiang Kai-shek personally went to the front line to command the jinpu line, but failed miserably.
At this time, the anti-Chiang Kai-shek voices inside and outside the Kuomintang were getting louder and louder, and Chiang Kai-shek knew that it would not be conducive to him to hold on any longer, so he decided to retreat into advance and announced his resignation on August 13. After Chiang Kai-shek stepped down, the pace of cooperation between Nanjing and Wuhan accelerated. The Wuhan National Government was officially merged into the Nanjing National Government, but Wang Jingwei had no place in it, so he had no choice but to go down on September 13.
The day before the announcement of his retirement, Chiang Kai-shek returned to his hometown of Fenghua with more than 200 bodyguards. Here, although Chiang Kai-shek still receives a large number of letters and cannot be separated from the trivialities of managing the country, his heart is given a rare peace. Chiang Kai-shek, who took off his military uniform, began to think about the first half of his life and his future. Chiang Kai-shek's first wife, Mao Fumei, brought him only one son, Chiang Ching-kuo; Chiang Kai-shek disliked Mao Fumei very much, and in his original words: it was almost unbearable to bear her footsteps and figure.
After meeting his second wife, Chen Jieru, Chiang Kai-shek divorced his original partner, Mao Fumei. But Chen Jieru is not the ideal wife in Chiang Kai-shek's mind, and she cannot bring any help to Chiang Kai-shek's career. In 1922, Chiang Kai-shek met a woman in Sun Yat-sen's home who was in line with his own aesthetics, unique and clear views on politics and the situation, and like-minded women.
Moreover, she came from a prominent background, her father was a well-known businessman, both sisters were married to influential figures at the time, and she herself received higher education in the United States. For an ambitious person, to be united with such a woman is a match made in heaven and the perfect couple.
This woman is Song Meiling, and her brother Song Ziwen is
A member of the Kuomintang Standing Committee and minister of finance, she was also an anti-Chiang kai-shek radical; her eldest sister, Song Yiling, was married
Ministry of Industry of the National Government of Wuhan
Minister Kong Xiangxi; her second sister Soong Ching Ling married Sun Yat-sen, the "Father of the Republic of China", and Soong Mei Ling herself also had a lofty political and social status. Song Meiling also has two brothers, Song Ziliang and Song Zi'an, who are calling the wind and rain in Shanghai's financial circles and transportation manufacturing circles.
At that time, Soong Mei-ling was already engaged, but Chiang Kai-shek did not give up and took various actions to bring the relationship closer. Not long after the two became acquainted, Chiang Kai-shek proposed to Song Meiling, who was not interested in Chiang Kai-shek, so he refused, but only agreed to be friends. From 1922 to 1927, Chiang Kai-shek wrote uninterrupted letters to Soong Mei-ling, proposing marriage every three to five minutes.
In May 1927, Chiang Kai-shek proposed to the already shaken Soong Mei-ling again with a solemn ceremony that transcended the past. Regarding this matter, the Song family split into two factions with different meanings, which Song Ziwen resolutely opposed, Song Xialing and his wife approved, and Song Meiling's mother also opposed it because of her bad impression of Chiang Kai-shek. Mother Song disagreed, and it was impossible for Song Meiling to marry Chiang Kai-shek.
In the following months, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling worked together; Chiang Kai-shek made his love for Soong Mei-ling public and published a love letter to Soong Mei-ling in a newspaper; soong Mei-ling also did the ideological work of Soong Ziwen and Soong's mother at home. In the end, Song Ziwen decided not to interfere in this matter anymore, whatever Song Meiling did. After Chiang Kai-shek left the wilderness, he once again proposed to Soong Mei-ling, and Soong Mei-ling readily agreed.
But Soong Mei-ling told Chiang Kai-shek that there was still a major obstacle to the marriage between the two: Mother Soong. Speaking of age alone, Chiang Kai-shek is 11 years older than Soong Mei-ling, and Soong's mother does not want her daughter to marry. Chiang Kai-shek immediately took action and chased him to Shanghai to see Mother Song; but Mother Song did not want to see him, so she ran to Japan; after Chiang Kai-shek found out, he went to Japan to see Mother Song, took out a divorce certificate and said that he was divorced; and finally swore a poisonous oath in front of Mother Song, promising to be good to Mother Song, studying the Bible, receiving baptism, and becoming a devout Christian. When Mother Song saw that she had no reason to object, she nodded her head and agreed to this family affair.
On December 1, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling officially held a wedding, and Wang Jingwei, Chen Guofu, Chen Lifu, Yu Guozhang, He Xiangning, Li Dequan, Tan Yanmin, the American consul, the Chief Judge of the United States, the commander of the British Army and other well-known figures came to attend, which greatly enhanced the reputation of Chiang Kai-shek, who had already stepped down. However, the situation in the Kuomintang government after Chiang Kai-shek stepped down was not optimistic, and it suffered defeats in successive battles. At this time, the top level of the Kuomintang remembered Chiang Kai-shek's goodness again.
With the help of Soong Ziwen, Soong Ching-ling, Kong Xiangxi, and others, Chiang Kai-shek, who was on his honeymoon, received one good news after another, and Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan jointly asked him to preside over the overall situation; on December 10, the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee decided to resume the post of commander-in-chief of Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expeditionary Army. A marriage brought Chiang Kai-shek, who had fallen into a trough, back to the center of power.