October 14, 2001
, Honolulu, Hawaii, usa, once a young marshal of the Northeast Army,
Zhang Xueliang, deputy commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang army, died
died on December 31, 2011 years old. The news of Zhang Xueliang's death soon spread throughout China and abroad, and people also became interested in the ownership of the huge legacy left by Zhang Xueliang. Everyone is curious, but when Zhang Xueliang's will was announced, the whole world was shocked.
So who inherited Zhang Xueliang's huge inheritance?
Why are people shocked! Let's take a look at the life of the young marshal and the inheritance of the property behind him.
Zhang Xueliang, born in 1901 in Liaoning Province, Northeast China, the son of Zhang Zuolin, the leader of the Feng clan warlords, graduated from the Lecture Hall founded by Zhang Zuolin in 1920, and then entered the Northeast Army to hold important positions. June 4, 1928,
The Japanese Kwantung Army plotted to assassinate Zhang Zuolin at Huanggutun,
Zhang Zuolin was unfortunately killed on the spot, and the whole of China also shook Zhang Zuolin's death, Zhang Xueliang, with the support of a number of warlords of the Feng clan, successfully took over the three eastern provinces and served as the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Security Army. Because his father was assassinated by the Japanese, Zhang Xue hated Japan very much in his conscience, insisted on not cooperating with the Japanese, and on December 28 of the same year, he publicly sent a telegram to the whole country, announcing that the Northeast would abide by the Three People's Principles from now on, obey the National Government in Nanjing, and change the flag.
Since then, modern China has been formally unified again,
And this incident is also known as "changing the flag and changing the flag",
Zhang Xueliang has since accepted the leadership of the National Government in Nanjing. Zhang Xueliang's resolute attitude also greatly annoyed the Japanese, on September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army launched the "918 Incident" and Zhang Xueliang was under the order of Chiang Kai-shek's "no resistance".
Led 300,000 northeast troops to withdraw without a fight, and the three eastern provinces fell.
After the fall of the northeast, Zhang Xueliang, under the orders of Chiang Kai-shek, moved to the northwest, and at the same time was ordered to encircle and suppress the Red Army that had been transferred here after the Long March.
Our party called for an end to the civil war, joint resistance to Japan, and sent people to communicate with Zhang Xueliang.
In the face of national hatred and family hatred, Zhang Xueliang quickly accepted the proposition of the Chinese Communist Party and also contacted Yang Hucheng to advise Chiang Kai-shek to cooperate in resisting Japan
However, Chiang Kai-shek not only severely reprimanded the two men, but also personally went to the front line to urge them to continue to "suppress the bandits." Zhang Yang and his men were forced to jointly launch the Xi'an Incident, to consult Chiang Kai-shek, and later, with the efforts of the Communist Party of China and social democrats, they finally agreed to the propositions of Zhang Yang and yang, and put aside their political views and cooperated in resisting Japan.
However, Chiang Kai-shek deeply hated Zhang Yang and the two who dared to launch military advice, so in 1938 they negotiated against Japan
Zhang Xueliang was lured to Chongqing and then placed under house arrest for fifty years!
After the 1949 Battle of the River Crossing, the People's Liberation Army liberated Nanjing, and Chiang Kai-shek was forced to flee to Taiwan, but before leaving, he ordered Kuomintang agents to forcibly bring Zhang Xueliang to Taiwan, and from then until Lee Teng-hui came to power, Zhang Xueliang lived in Taiwan.
In 1990, Lee Teng-hui came to power, and then ordered Zhang Xueliang's house arrest to be lifted, and agreed that Zhang Xueliang should go out to settle in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
In 1995, Zhang Xueliang came to Honolulu after forty-five years of living in Taiwan.
He lived there until his death in 2001. In 2001, Zhang Xueliang passed away, and the news of Zhang Xueliang's death caused widespread concern at home and abroad, among which people were most curious about who would inherit Zhang Xueliang's huge legacy?
However, when the will was announced, there was a shock at home and abroad, because this inheritance was neither left to his children, nor to the mainland, let alone to Taiwan.
Instead, it was all handed over to Columbia University in the United States.
So why is that? First of all, why is it not left to Taiwan, after all, Zhang Xueliang's life, most of the time spent in Taiwan, so there is a great chance to leave it for Taiwan to preserve, but why not in the end?
This involves the composition of the legacy left by Zhang Xueliang, as we all know, Zhang Xueliang is the young marshal of the Northeast Army, the heir of Zhang Zuolin, and Zhang Zuolin was known as the "King of the Northeast"
According to Zhang Zuolin's own published property information, he holds more than 51 million silver dollars, which is not counting antique gold.
Therefore, the assets left by Zhang Zuolin to Zhang Xueliang are all estimated to be about 100 million silver dollars, but with Zhang Xueliang's generosity and profligacy, the liquidity of this must have been consumed by most of them. Especially after 9/18, Zhang Xueliang withdrew from the northeast, and his real estate must have suffered serious losses
It should be known that Zhang Zuolin himself loves calligraphy and painting antiques, but many things have been left behind under the evacuation of the emperor, and so far, Japan still has a large number of zhang Zuolin's antiques. In addition, later, Zhang Xueliang was friendly with our party, and when he learned that our party's capital turnover was difficult, he did not hesitate to make generous donations, and he assisted our party with huge sums of money and also donated a large amount of arms.
Chiang Kai-shek fled in defeat and forced Zhang Xueliang to go with him, so he was bound to leave a lot of property behind, and the Kuomintang clique in Taiwan never gave Zhang Xueliang any support.
Later, it was Zhang Xueliang's original partner who continued to help him to live.
Therefore, at this time, Zhang Xueliang's legacy was dominated by antique calligraphy and paintings, and there were other properties donated by his original wife, and Taiwan's humid climate was not suitable for preserving these antique cultures.
The second reason is that Zhang Xue's conscience deeply hates Chiang Kai-shek, and after Chiang Kai-shek's death, Zhang Xueliang once said so
"Mr. Jiang is a man, I criticize him, he wants to have a chance, he really dares to be the emperor." His ideas are very stubborn, old ideas, not contemporary ideas"
In addition, Taiwan has always been under the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek's father and son, and the political pressure is extremely high, so Zhang Xueliang does not like Taiwan very much, so he did not choose Taiwan. And why was it not given to the mainland? Didn't he want to go back to his hometown? In this regard, Zhang Xueliang once said that he was very eager to return to his hometown and hoped to set foot on the land of the mainland again.
However, he had no face to see the fathers and people of the three eastern provinces again.
It is also understandable that after the September 18 Incident, Zhang Xueliang obeyed Chiang Kai-shek's order to "not resist" and led 300,000 northeast troops to withdraw from the northeast, resulting in the fall of the three eastern provinces in less than a year, and the people of the three eastern provinces have since lived in deep trouble and deeply poisoned by the Japanese Kou. At the national level, this is an order from Chiang Kai-shek, and Zhang Xueliang is only an executor
However, Zhang Xueliang, as a young marshal of the Northeast Army, actually retreated in the face of the great national righteousness, resulting in the loss of the country, which is also a sin that he can never wash away. Therefore, even if Zhang Xueliang wants to return to his hometown and return to his homeland, I am afraid that he will not have the face to see the people of the three eastern provinces again, so he will not be left to the mainland.
As for why he did not leave his children, Zhang Xueliang himself had explained before his death, he said that his heritage is a cultural treasure of the Chinese nation, and his children have grown up in the United States and received An American education
So I was worried that they wouldn't pay much attention to these precious cultural treasures at all, so they didn't leave them.
One of the reasons why it chose to donate to Columbia University is that the university has perfect preservation facilities to preserve these cultural classics to the greatest extent possible, and will not eventually be damaged or lost. The second is that Columbia University also has deep exchanges with modern China Since the Qing Dynasty, Columbia University has maintained official ties with China Cixi has also donated, so Zhang Xueliang will choose Columbia University as the ultimate inheritance of the estate.