Taiwan and its affiliated islands have been the sacred and inviolable territory of the Chinese nation since ancient times.
Although the area of Taiwan Island is only 36,000 square kilometers, as the largest island in China, due to its special location, it has always been a place of contention for soldiers.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, the imperial court established Penghu and officially included it in the territory of China, which was under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture in Fujian Province. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, an inspection department was set up in Penghu to administer Taiwan. In 1624, Taiwan was occupied by the Dutch.
Taiwan Island
In 1661, the national hero Zheng successfully resisted the Dutch invaders and successfully recovered Taiwan, and soon after Zheng Chenggong died young. In 1683, the Kangxi Emperor recovered Taiwan in one fell swoop.
In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, which was one of the worst naval battles in modern China.
In 1895, the late Qing government signed the treaty of Maguan with Japan, which ceded Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago to Japan, and Japan began to rule Taiwan.
On August 15, 1945, the final victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was won, and more than two months later, in Taipei, Taiwan Province, the Chinese theater of operations, the Allies held a surrender ceremony, and Taiwan once again returned to the embrace of the motherland.
In 1949, after the Battle of the River Crossing, the Kuomintang was gone. In December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and other remnants of the Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan with a large amount of gold.
Chiang Kai-shek
In many struggles for Taiwan's rule and control, Chiang Kai-shek's defeat and retreat from Taiwan has become an important reason for the tension in Taiwan's relations with the mainland in the nearly 70 years since the founding of New China.
Then many people will have questions: Why did Chiang Kai-shek defeat Taiwan, who helped him come up with the idea, and who was in charge of Taiwan before?
First, why did Chiang Kai-shek choose to defeat Taiwan? Does he have any other options?
In the kuomintang civil war, after the end of the three major battles of Liaoshen, Pingjin, and Huaihai, the strength of the Kuomintang army had been basically eliminated, and the defeat of the Kuomintang clique was doomed.
Chiang Kai-shek, of course, was also very aware of his situation, and he had already begun to consider a retreat. In fact, at that time, Chiang Kai-shek had several retreats, so let's take a look.
According to the mainstream theory, in addition to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek also had several places in the southwest, Hainan, and abroad that could retreat, but where did he go? Chiang Kai-shek hesitated, and there were differences of opinion within the Kuomintang.
01. Retreat to the Great Southwest
Compared with Hainan, Chiang Kai-shek himself actually prefers the great southwest centered on Chongqing and Chengdu. The reason is simple, China's great southwest is mostly lofty mountains, militarily easy to defend and difficult to attack.
There are Qinling Mountains in the southwest and north, three gorges of the Yangtze River in the east, and Hengduan Mountains in the south, etc. The terrain is dangerous, there are many barriers, and there is room for retreat.
The terrain of the Great Southwest is complex and rich in resources, which is enough for the Chiang Kai-shek clique to resist for a period of time, or to "make a comeback."
But this plan was quickly rejected, and it can be said that Chiang Kai-shek's idea was too "naïve" or "a fool's dream."
First of all, although the southwest has many natural advantages in geography, the warlord forces in the southwest region have not yet been eliminated, and the people's hearts are scattered, and it is difficult to unify command.
You must know that within the Kuomintang, the open and secret struggles between warlords are very obvious. On the surface, they all say that they are loyal to the Kuomintang, but in fact, they all have a ghost fetus, and Chiang Kai-shek himself cannot command these forces in a unified way.
Secondly, with the strength of the People's Liberation Army at that time, it was impossible to stop them just by passing through a few mountains or a few woods in the great southwest, and it was only a matter of time before the great southwest was liberated and the Kuomintang forces were completely eradicated.
Chiang Kai-shek once vainly tried to trap the People's Liberation Army with the natural danger of the Yangtze River, but the result was that he ended up running away in a daze. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek's retreat to the great southwest will certainly be attacked by the enemy on his stomach and back, and he will be worried about internal and external troubles.
02. Retreat to Hainan Island
Retreating to Hainan Island was originally a good choice, when the strength of the People's Liberation Army Navy and Air Force was still relatively weak, and Hainan Island was separated from the mainland by the Qiongzhou Strait, and the People's Liberation Army was difficult to conquer in a short time.
Map of Hainan Island
In addition, Hainan Island has a warm climate and spring in all seasons, and if Hainan Island is really attacked, it can also retreat south to the Philippines or flee to foreign countries, which looks good.
However, there is a deficiency that the cultivated land on Hainan Island is limited, the resources are not rich enough, mainly light industry, and the future development space is very small.
Therefore, retreating to Hainan is not the best choice, in fact, the Northeast Field Army of the People's Liberation Army liberated Hainan in less than half a month, which became a miracle in the history of Chinese naval warfare.
Therefore, even with the Qiongzhou Strait Graben, Hainan Island has also been taken by the People's Liberation Army, and the defensive pressure in Hainan is not small.
03. Retreat abroad
If Chiang Kai-shek had chosen to retreat abroad at that time, the better choice would have been Burma. Geographically speaking, Myanmar has many deep mountains and old forests, which are sparsely populated and are indeed a good place to hide.
It would be nice to say that it was only a few people around Chiang Kai-shek, but Chiang Kai-shek was retreating with a group of people, and a place like Burma is not suitable for the stationing and development of large troops, that is, it is not suitable for long-term residence.
In addition, Myanmar lacks food, industry and agriculture, and transportation is not developed. Even if you move there, you will soon sit on the mountain and eat the sky, and in a few years, everyone will be starved to death.
Besides, as the supreme leader of the Kuomintang, if you wander abroad, this taste will definitely be uncomfortable, and others will not necessarily accept you, but will only let yourself live a life of exile and displacement.
What about fleeing to other countries? For example, Vietnam, or the United States, this is even more unreliable, at that time the Kuomintang was strongly supported by the United States, and the relationship with Vietnam was actually not too good, at least neither side was cold.
The United States is more than 20,000 kilometers away from China, and there are 1-2 million people under the Chiang Kai-shek clique, which is not very realistic to go to the United States.
04. Retreat to Taiwan
Chiang Kai-shek's first thought was not Taiwan, but was introduced to him by people around him.
Compared with Hainan, Taiwan is farther from the mainland, the People's Liberation Army is difficult to attack, and after Taiwan became a japanese colony, the industrial base is good. Chiang Kai-shek's choice of Taiwan in the end has become one of the most important reasons for Taiwan's separation from the mainland in decades.
Second, why Chiang Kai-shek finally chose Taiwan: the suggestion of a humble little man
Chiang Kai-shek was hesitant at the beginning, and the internal debate was very fierce, and it was difficult for Chiang Kai-shek to make up his mind where to go. It was not until the appearance of a single person that Chiang Kai-shek made up his mind to go to Taiwan completely.
Who is this person? He is Zhang Qiyun. From a personal point of view, it is not an exaggeration to say that this Zhang Qiyun changed history.
Logically speaking, a person who helped Chiang Kai-shek make such a big decision must be an important strategist around Chiang Kai-shek, or a high-ranking official in the army.
But in reality not. Even Zhang Qiyun did not participate in any military struggle.
He was just an ordinary scholar who had been focusing on academic research, so how could such an academic researcher recognize Chiang Kai-shek? How can we persuade Chiang Kai-shek to retreat to Taiwan?
This Zhang Qiyun was introduced to Chiang Kai-shek by Chen Bray, who was a strategist at Chiang Kai-shek's side. He was the spokesman for Chiang Kai-shek's "pen pole", and for a long time he was at Chiang Kai-shek's side to advise him and draft some important documents and letters and orders.
Zhang Qiyun
In 1948, Chen Brei committed suicide, but Zhang Qiyun was appreciated by Chiang Kai-shek. He strongly recommended Chiang Kai-shek's retreat to Taiwan, and analyzed many reasons for Chiang Kai-shek, and the head was the Tao, so that Chiang Kai-shek had no reason to refuse.
Although Zhang Qiyun is not a military expert, he is a complete "geographical expert." His advice to Chiang Kai-shek was:
Retreating to Taiwan is the best option.
Zhang Qiyun believes that:
Although there are three gorges of the Yangtze River in the southwest and east, hengduan mountains in the south, and Qinling Mountains in the north, the terrain is dangerous, and it is geographically easy to defend and difficult to attack, which on the surface seems to be a good choice, but in fact it is not.
Although the Great Southwest has unique geographical advantages, the Southwest is very closely linked to the interior, and the warlord relations in the Southwest are complicated and difficult to manage.
Imagine that the natural barrier of the Yangtze River is difficult to stop the mighty momentum of the People's Liberation Army, not to mention these mountains on the southwest land? Chiang Kai-shek also agreed with this reason.
Hainan certainly has unique geographical advantages, but Hainan is too close to Guangdong, the Qiongzhou Strait is too narrow, in the case of downwinds, fishing boats can reach Hainan in one day, the People's Liberation Army is fully capable of attacking Hainan, and it is not advisable to retreat to Hainan.
Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Qiyun
On the whole, the advantages of retreating to Taiwan are undoubtedly revealed, and Taiwan is separated from the mainland by a Taiwan Strait. The widest point is about 410 kilometers, and the narrowest place is more than 120 kilometers, which is not enough to carry out large-scale sea crossing operations under the navy and air force conditions of the People's Liberation Army.
The Kuomintang uses the natural dangers in the strait as a barrier to attack and retreat, which is really a non-recognized choice for retreat.
When Chiang Kai-shek heard this, he suddenly realized that when he was the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Expeditionary Army in October 1925, he talked with the Taoist governor all night at the Crispy Mash Temple on Luofu Mountain in Huizhou, and prayed to God for the sign.
Sign the proverbs:
"Victory cannot leave the river, and defeat cannot leave the bay."
In today's situation, does it meet the proverbs of that year? And Zhang Qiyun listed in detail the short-term advantages and long-term advantages of retreating to Taiwan.
First, geographically speaking, there is a Taiwan Strait gap between Taiwan and the mainland.
At that time, the closest distance between the mainland and Taiwan was also 120 kilometers, so far away, at the fastest speed of the People's Liberation Army at that time, it would take a day and a night to reach Taiwan.
Such a distance meant that the PLA had been completely exposed to the blows of the Kuomintang Navy for at least one night, and such exposure was tantamount to disaster for the PLA.
In addition, the PLA's navy and air force have just started, and it is difficult to attack Taiwan, so from a geographical and military point of view, Taiwan is a good choice.
Second, in terms of resources, Taiwan faces the sea, has a pleasant climate, is rich in resources, and can live for a long time.
Under such unique climatic conditions, Taiwan can quickly develop its own agriculture, and long-term self-sufficiency is not a problem. Abundant marine resources also provide good conditions for the development of fisheries.
Third, Taiwan has long been under the Japanese colonies, has a certain industrial and military foundation, to meet the defense needs of Taiwan itself, and it is relatively easy to develop industry.
Fourth, although Taiwan is an isolated overseas island, it has many neighboring countries and the political situation is extremely complicated.
Japan in the north, although surrendered, was basically controlled by the United States and was in fact a "political puppet" of the United States.
Guam in the east of Taiwan and the Philippines in the south were basically within the sphere of influence of the United States, and the Kuomintang received a lot of assistance from the United States during the civil war, although it was finally defeated, but the government-in-exile was set up in Taiwan, and in case of emergency, it could get the support of the United States at the first time.
Map of the United States
Although this practice was tantamount to undermining China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Chiang Kai-shek had to make such a decision in order to preserve his only strength.
Fifth, Taiwan is relatively closed, and the CCP's underground party activities are less, unlike Hainan, where there are local armed forces of the Communist Party such as the Qiongya Column.
After some deliberation, Chiang Kai-shek chose Taiwan as his base for retreat. In December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and other remnants of the Kuomintang retreated to the island of Taiwan with a large amount of gold.
Third, who was in charge of Taiwan before Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan?
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, the Nationalist government listed Taiwan and the Penghu Archipelago as the 15th surrendered area, appointed Chen Yi, a Kuomintang officer, to take over Taiwan, becoming the first person to administer Taiwan after Japan's surrender.
Then, during her tenure, Chen Yi made no contribution to Taiwan. On the contrary, due to his fainting and incompetence, corruption and corruption among the Taiwan authorities and various social problems began to breed.
Food shortages, rising prices, inflation, and unfair treatment have deeply stung the hearts of every Taiwanese people. On February 28, 1947, the people of Taiwan Province launched a mass movement against autocracy, dictatorship, and democracy.
Then, their legitimate actions were bloodily suppressed by the Nationalist government, known in history as the "228 Incident".
The Kuomintang's support in Taiwan at that time was not high, and Chen Yi wanted to surrender to the Chinese Communist Party when he found that the situation was not right, but his intentions were soon discovered, and he was eventually dismissed from office and put under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek.
In order to successfully retreat to Taiwan in the future, Chiang Kai-shek sent his confidant Chen Cheng to take over Taiwan in order to transfer a large number of Kuomintang personnel in the future.
Temporary
Chen Cheng has always been one of Chiang Kai-shek's most trusted people, and his arrival has not disappointed Chiang Kai-shek. After Chen Cheng came to Taiwan, he launched a vigorous reform campaign, which quickly reversed the situation.
He implemented the land reform policy in Taiwan, reduced rents and divided land, and made achievements in the people's livelihood and other aspects, which won the love of the Taiwan people.
At the same time, he advocated that the peasants on the island be self-sufficient, so that more self-cultivated peasants could have land to plant and grain to eat, thus stabilizing the situation in Taiwan in the shortest possible time.
Thanks to Chen Cheng's efforts, the situation in Taiwan has undergone great changes, creating very good conditions for the subsequent retreat of the Chiang Kai-shek clique.
Fourth, the Korean War broke out, and the liberation of Taiwan was shelved
In fact, as early as the end of 1948, when the mainland had not yet been completely liberated, General Yang Jie, a good friend of the Communist Party, who had served as chief of staff of Chiang Kai-shek, chief of education at the Army University, and ambassador to the Soviet Union, wrote to Chairman Mao on many occasions to suggest:
"The Kuomintang-controlled areas on the mainland are already in the bag, and we should first gather heavy troops to capture Taiwan and Hainan in order to break the possible maritime conspiracy between the United States and Japan, and let Chiang Kai-shek become a turtle in an urn, so as to prevent international changes, completely cut off Chiang Kai-shek's back road, and then attack the great southwest and the great northwest."
Chairman Mao attached great importance to this proposal, and later, he specially drafted two 4A-level top-secret orders involving the liberation of Taiwan and sent them to Su Yu, asking him to organize the study of the issue of the liberation of Taiwan.
Su Yu
However, su Yu organized a large number of experts and personnel to carefully study the hydrometeorological data and combat environmental conditions along the southeast coast, and came to a conclusion:
With the navy and air force equipment of the People's Liberation Army at that time, there were great difficulties in crossing the sea.
The Battle of Kinmen in 1949 is a typical example, when more than 9,000 people from three regiments of the 10th Corps of Sanye landed on the island because there were no reinforcements, and they fought alone on the island, and finally the entire army was destroyed.
With the liberation of Hainan Island, Chiang Kai-shek also continuously increased the defense of Taiwan Island, and Su Yu also constantly adjusted his plan to attack Taiwan. By 1950, the entire number of troops attacking Taiwan had reached an unprecedented 650,000.
However, with the outbreak of the Korean War, the Chinese Volunteer Army, at the call of the Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao, crossed the Yalu River with great vigor and vigor and began the Korean War, which lasted for nearly three years, and the liberation of Taiwan was repeatedly shelved.
Not liberating Taiwan also became the biggest regret in General Su Yu's life.
According to Su Yu's son Su Rongsheng, he remembered that his father's study had been hanging a map of Taiwan until his death.
Su Yu once said to him:
"The reason why our army is still called the People's Liberation Army and not the National Defense Force is because Taiwan has not yet been liberated."
Chairman Mao
Chairman Mao's defenders also recalled:
"Since 1953, the chairman has been going to the beach every year, looking at the sea from afar, and saying: 'We must liberate Taiwan.'" ”
Fifth, the wheel of history is rolling forward, and the motherland must be reunified and will inevitably be reunified
Due to various reasons, Taiwan has never returned to the embrace of the motherland, but the state has never given up its efforts and determination to recover Taiwan.
In 1971, the United Nations recognized the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Government was expelled from the United Nations. This is the trend of the times and the aspiration of the people.
In 1972, President Nixon visited China, which was the first U.S. president to officially visit China, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States gradually began.
On January 1, 1979, China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations.
On the same day that China and the United States established diplomatic relations, the Npc Standing Committee issued a "Message to Taiwan Compatriots," formally proposing the principle of realizing peaceful reunification.
After Chiang Kai-shek's death, Chiang Ching-kuo became the main leader of Taiwan. In fact, Chiang Ching-kuo intended to negotiate with the mainland to promote national reunification, and Chiang Ching-kuo even sent an ambassador to Beijing to negotiate, but unfortunately Chiang Ching-kuo died in 1987, and the relevant process was once again stranded.
Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of reform and opening up, once said:
"If Chiang Ching-kuo were alive, China's reunification would not be as difficult as it is now."
At that time, Chiang Ching-kuo's death was indeed a very big loss.
In 1992, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Straits Exchange Foundation held talks in Hong Kong to form the "1992 Consensus" in which "both sides of the Strait uphold the one-China principle," and the pace of peaceful reunification gradually accelerated.
After the "1992 Consensus," however, the KMT candidate was defeated for the first time as the leader of the Taiwan authorities.
In the decades that followed, the political leaders of Taiwan Province were elected many times, and Taiwan's Green Camp has essentially abandoned the "1992 Consensus" and embarked on a shameful road of colluding with foreign countries and attempting to split the country, engaging in the business of "those who are close to each other and those who are enemies are happy."
In any case, the wheels of history roll forward. The motherland must and will inevitably be reunified, which is the trend of the times, and no individual or organization can stop this process.
"Bury me on the top of the mountain, look at my continent."
Countless sons and daughters of China, countless people with lofty ideals, no matter where they are, have always cherished the same dream: national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and national reunification.
"Being a stranger in a foreign land alone, thinking of my relatives every festive season."
On the journey of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and on the road to realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, "one country, two systems, peaceful reunification" is the voice of all the sons and daughters of China.
Taiwan will always be China's sacred and inviolable territory, and the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are also looking forward to the early reunification of the motherland.