In June 1949, seeing the defeat of the Kuomintang army and feeling that the general trend had gone, He Yingqin weakly removed his title of "chief executive" and decided to migrate from Nanjing to Taipei to settle down.
In that year, Zeng Youzhong, a staff officer who had followed him for many years, had already come to Taiwan ahead of schedule under his orders to be responsible for the belongings transported from Zhang Luohe Yingqin's family.
By the time He Yingqin first moved into his new home on Jinling Street in Taipei, it was the end of 1949.
At this time, he had removed all his titles and left only the chairman of the Strategic Advisory Board, and his office was located on the third floor of the "Presidential Palace".
There, it was very close to Chiang Kai-shek, but it was very far from the core of power.
He Yingqin
Because the strategic advisory committee that He Yingqin is responsible for is actually a position that has no authority, nothing to do, only needs to come once a week, and is not usually used.
He Yingqin, who is far away from the political stage, what will he do in ordinary times?
His only daughter, He Lizhu, once recalled:
At that time, Sun Liren lived in the Army Guest House in Nanchang, very close to our home, he often came to our house to chat, in front of my house lived Gui Yongqing, he was huangpu phase I, these people would come after dinner, chat, complain.
I don't know if He Yingqin felt in his heart that the historic moment when he was once the commander-in-chief of the Army in the Chinese Theater of Operations accepted Japan's surrender was the most glorious moment in his life.
Now he can only sit at the door of the house with the senior Kuomintang generals who have also been stripped of their military power, reminiscing about the past and complaining.
Although He Yingqin has the aura of "general who was surrendered to the Anti-Japanese Resistance", it is still impossible to avoid that he has attracted a lot of controversy in the history of the War of Resistance.
Especially after the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan,
At the ceremony of accepting Japan's surrender, He Yingqin actually smiled and stood up, bent forward, and received the surrender book with both hands.
In September 1945, He Yingqin received a scene of the Japanese surrender instrument in Nanjing
From the photos, this move shows that He Yingqin bent down to take over the surrender book, which caused an uproar.
According to the convention, He Yingqin should not have stood up and answered, just received the surrender letter with one hand, but why did he bend down to accept the surrender letter?
This has to say about the background of He Yingqin's stay in Japan.
He Yingqin was born in Yixing, Guizhou, to a business family, he ranked third among the five brothers, at the age of 18, he was sent to wuchang army middle school, in the autumn of the same year, he went to Japan to study, and joined the League.
He Yingqin, who entered the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, became Chiang Kai-shek's disciple.
Later, after Chiang Kai-shek became the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, he Yingqin, who was 3 years younger than Chiang, became the chief instructor of the military academy under the recommendation of his friend Wang Boling.
In the Northern Expedition, He Yingqin had been serving in Chiang Kai-shek's concubine troops, and in this way, he grew step by step with the old Chiang Kai-shek, and also climbed all the way, and was called "Fu General" by his subordinates.
It can be said that He Yingqin was able to rise to the top, and naturally he had his superiority, that is, he was very good at handling the balancing technique of the master-servant relationship with Chiang Kai-shek.
In February 1935, the Japanese headquarters secretly sent a telegram to the Kwantung Army Headquarters, in order to create an excuse for expanding the war of aggression against China, after repeated planning, the commander of the Kwantung Army, Nanjiro, decided to assassinate He Yingqin in order to anger Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese north China defenders.
The two assassinations planned by Nanjiro were unsuccessful, but He Yingqin, who was burdened with the hatred of the country and the family, not only did not fight back, but still obeyed Chiang Kai-shek's orders and compromised with Japan.
In May, the Japanese army used the Chinese army as an excuse to violate the Tanggu Agreement and mobilized a large number of troops to enter the customs and threaten Pingjin.
In June, Umezu Mijiro, commander of the Japanese North China Garrison, formally submitted a memorandum to He Yingqin.
The memorandum demanded that the Kuomintang abolish its party headquarters in Hebei, Beiping, and Pingjin, and withdraw the troops stationed in Hebei.
In the face of this unreasonable demand, He Yingqin finally chose to agree after receiving the letter, and signed a famous traitorous agreement with the Japanese side -
Ho Mei Agreement.
Although many people know that the signing of the agreement was approved by the highest level of the National Government, He Yingqin was only a pawn.
But it still left him with a lifelong infamy.
Contents of the He Mei Agreement
What is speechless is that although He Yingqin was insulted, he was extremely good at playing with power, but he went all the way to the first level general of the Kuomintang Army.
In April 1935, according to the new rank hierarchy established by the Nationalist government, the senior generals were awarded a military rank ceremony.
Among the 8 Kuomintang Army generals,
He Yingqin ranked fourth, behind Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Xueliang.
And behind him
The other four were Li Zongren, Zhu Peide, Tang Shengzhi and Chen Jitang.
After the victory of the War of Resistance, this should have been an opportunity for He Yingqin to be ashamed and raise his eyebrows, but what the world never expected was that he bent down and accepted the surrender, which also brought him endless criticism.
What was the situation like at the time? How did He Yingqin bend down to accept the surrender?
At that time, Wang Jingxi, the English staff officer of any yingqin, sat in the surrendered auditorium demarcated by the Central Military Academy, and he witnessed the historic moment with his own eyes.
On September 9, 1949, the most glorious moment in He Yingqin's life, the signing ceremony of the surrender of the Japanese army in the Chinese theater was held in Nanjing.
He Yingqin, as commander-in-chief of the Chinese Theater Army, accepted Japan's surrender at the ceremony.
Wang Jingxi recalled:
"He Yingqin was surrendered in the great hall, and the surrendered man walked in, bowed, and presented a surrender book like this."
According to the prior agreement, Japanese soldiers are not allowed to carry weapons into the auditorium during the surrender ceremony.
Therefore, at the moment before entering the surrender hall, Okamura Ninji, the supreme commander of the Chinese war on behalf of Japan's surrender, handed over the sword given to him by the Japanese Emperor to He Yingqin (now on the 3rd floor of the Taiwan Military History Museum, the sword of Okamura Ninji at the time of his surrender is displayed)
Okamura Ninji
At the ceremony of surrender, after the two sides stamped the surrender book, there was a very unexpected and historic scene.
When Kobayashi Asaburo, who submitted the surrender letter on behalf of the Japanese side, bowed down, He Yingqin, who should not have stood up and answered, bent forward and took the surrender letter with both hands.
This detail caused a commotion in the audience, and Allied representatives exchanged heads and voices to express their dissatisfaction and protest, and a foreign officer even hissed softly.
The scene where He Yingqin bends down to the enemy to receive the surrender book is also filmed, which makes posterity endlessly suspicious.
Historian Ye Quanhong once believed that:
It was because the surrender table was too big, and He Yingqin himself was short, and he could only get the descending book by leaning forward.
And this scene is just presented in the eyes of the world as a so-called He Yingqin bending over to the enemy.
In addition, people believe that He Yingqin's "courtesy" to the Japanese surrender representatives is not a simple whim, and he can completely accept the surrender letter with one hand.
He Yingqin had some background in Japan and was also a disciple of Okamura Ningji, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese invasion of China.
War criminal Ninji Okamura later wrote in his memoirs about this period of surrender.
At that time, most of the Chinese negotiators were graduates of the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School, and it was convenient to communicate with the Japanese side, and in order not to make the signing site of the letter of surrender feel oppressive, the Chinese representative had thought of making the signature Zhuo into a circle.
However, it was opposed by the representatives of the allied sides before it was stopped.
The surrender ceremony stipulates that Japan, as the surrendering party, must salute and salute the commander-in-chief He Yingqin as soon as it comes to the scene.
The Japanese general saluted again when he received the instrument of surrender.
After the instrument of surrender is signed and sealed, it is saluted again when it is submitted.
In total, the Chinese side must salute three times, and the Chinese side does not have to reciprocate.
In September 1945, the surrender ceremony of Japan in the Chinese theater was held in Nanjing
However, Okamura Ninji clearly wrote in his memoirs that when he accepted the surrender, He Yingqin stood up and replied.
"At the third time when the chief of the general staff of Kobayashi Asaburo presented the surrender letter of salute, Commander-in-Chief He couldn't help but stand up and make a reply, and seeing the greeting character of my old friend, I couldn't help but think that after all, it was Oriental morality... At the venue, I stared at He Yingqin's actions from time to time, and since I surrendered to my closest Chinese friend, He Yingqin, I also had a sense of peace in my heart..."
After an inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood, 100,000 young people and 100,000 troops, after thousands of soldiers generously died for the country and rebuilt the Great Wall defending the motherland with their flesh and blood, the War of Resistance was finally victorious.
However, He Yingqin stood up and answered the enemy at the surrender ceremony and bent down to receive the surrender document.
Okamura Ningji, as the number one war criminal of the Japanese invasion of China, was bound to die, but because of the protection of the Kuomintang government, he was not punished by law, and was finally judged to be "innocent", so that the Japanese aggressors escaped the punishment they deserved.
In 1945, the scene of the surrender ceremony held on the battlefield of China
Judging from his various behaviors, He Yingqin's reputation in the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was controversial, and he was saddled with a certain infamy.