As a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek, he was not only awarded the rank of General of the Kuomintang as early as 1936, but later participated in the command of the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Wuhan, and served as the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
Even after following Chiang Kai-shek's defeat and retreat to Taiwan, he did not "fall out of favor," but once achieved the position of governor of Taiwan Province and vice president of the Kuomintang.
It is reasonable to say that this person should be "of the same heart and one mind" with Chiang Kai-shek, so why did his suicide note arouse Chiang Kai-shek's displeasure? What four words did his wife change color for?
Four-word suicide note
After the defeat of Taiwan in 1949, many Kuomintang generals were snubbed by Chiang Kai-shek, such as Yan Xishan, Bai Chongxi, and so on.
However, Chen Cheng, who had previously lost the war in the northeast and was placed in Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek in advance, was not affected, and it can even be said that Chiang Kai-shek relied heavily on him.
In March 1950, Chiang Kai-shek arranged for Chen Cheng to become the president of the Executive Yuan of the Kuomintang government in Taiwan, a position that did not seem particularly high, but had great power.
And it can do that
"Right to no name"
Most of the people in the position are favored by their superiors and are ready to be reused in the future.
This is exactly the case, Chen Cheng became the vice president of Taiwan in 1954, and in November of the same year, he also took the same position
"Restoration Continental Design and Research Committee"
of commissioners.
At the peak of his position in October 1957, he was elected by Chiang Kai-shek as vice president of the Kuomintang.
During this period, he also gave full play to his talents and abilities in administration, which not only greatly alleviated the contradictions between the Kuomintang and the Taiwanese peasants.
At the same time, he also actively carried out land reform, vigorously promoted education, and promoted the construction of water conservancy projects, so that during his term of office, he successfully made the Kuomintang gain a foothold in Taiwan, which can be said to be a perfect fulfillment of Chiang Kai-shek's entrustment to him.
However, there is one point that they have never been able to agree on, and that is
"Counter-offensive to the mainland"
。
Chiang Kai-shek has always dreamed of counterattacking the mainland, otherwise he would not have installed a large number of secret agents on the mainland before leaving.
However, Chen Cheng was more sober than Chiang Kai-shek, and he profoundly realized that counterattacking the mainland had become a dream of Huang Liang, and in vainly trying to use the strength of the United States to achieve this goal, he was even more setting himself on fire and setting himself on fire, and if he was not careful, he would become a sinner for eternity.
If things continue to develop in this way, perhaps Chen Cheng will be able to find an opportunity to persuade Chiang Kai-shek, but unfortunately his time is short.
Since 1963, Chen Cheng was forced to fight against "liver cancer", and after two years of treatment, he not only failed to drive away the disease on his body, but made his body more and more weak, seeing that time was running out, Chen Cheng began to prepare his own "will".
It has to be said that it is extremely difficult for the dying person to leave a warning to the living, but Chen Cheng finally left a will with the help of his son, most of which was dictated by him and written by his son, and not long after the will was completed, Chen Cheng passed away unexpectedly.
When the people left, the suicide note was left behind, and it was this suicide note that caused the family to change color, and Chiang Kai-shek was displeased. In fact, there is nothing wrong with the key content of this suicide note, the main thing is to call on everyone to unite and follow the pace of leadership, but there are two points that people are not very satisfied.
The first point is that there is no mention of anything in this suicide note
This was contrary to Chiang Kai-shek's position at that time, and seeing that Chen Cheng did not compromise with himself on this issue until his death, Chiang Kai-shek was naturally unhappy.
As for the second point, it is the four words left by Chen Cheng, that is, "Chen Death and Cremation", and it is these four words that have caused Chen Cheng's wife and family to change color.
It should be known that at that time, the Kuomintang still paid attention to the importance of going into the soil for safety, and only the Communist Party on the far mainland appealed
"Cremation"
Chen Cheng this choice
What does that mean?
After reading Chen Cheng's will, many people sensed Chiang Kai-shek's displeasure, so they all proposed to add the words "counter-attack on the mainland" to it, and even some people said that Chen Cheng should be buried, which can be said to be a group of flattering people.
Chen Cheng's family also felt very nervous, because they could not disobey Chiang Kai-shek's decision, but surprisingly, Chiang Kai-shek finally chose to respect Chen Cheng's last wishes, announced that no one was allowed to change his will, and then personally arranged for someone to cremate Chen Cheng.
Chiang Kai-shek, who has always been arbitrary and arbitrary, chose to respect Chen Cheng's choice after his death, which is undoubtedly a testimony of friendship.
And to figure out that the two accept a deep friendship, we have to start from the previous decades of entanglement.
Decades of entanglement
Chen Cheng's first encounter with Chiang Kai-shek was in 1924, when the identities of the two of them were very different.
On that day, Chiang Kai-shek, who was inspecting the campus as usual, found Chen Cheng, who was running on the playground, so he stopped him and chatted twice, and only after a chat did he find out that this was very good
"Spirit lad"
It is actually a Zhejiang native, which remembers Chen Cheng's name.
Chen Cheng's time at the Whampoa Military Academy was really not eye-catching, and the direct reason for this situation was his height.
Although it is said that the appearance is quite decent, but everything is afraid of comparison, in a group of lofty and tall Huangpu practitioners, who will care about Chen Cheng?
If he had been following this trajectory, chen cheng would have been a mid-level officer most of his lifelong mix, because objectively speaking, his military ability could not be regarded as particularly outstanding, it could only be said that he was above the average line, and it was difficult for an officer of this level to mix his head in that era of brilliant stars.
However, chen cheng's one trait eventually won his favor with Chiang Kai-shek, that is, seriousness.
During Chen Cheng's tenure at the Whampoa Military Academy, although he was not a student, he worked harder than many students, and every night he would light the lamp and read a book and see it very late.
Once, after he returned from work in Guangzhou, it was already late, but he still lit the lamp and looked at it, but he did not expect to run into Chiang Kai-shek patrolling the campus.
"What book are you reading at this late hour?"
When Chiang Kai-shek was patrolling outside, his glasses were so late, and there were still lights in this room, and he thought that there were students here who were not good at studying well, and they wanted to come in and reprimand them.
However, as soon as he came in, he saw Chen Cheng sitting there holding the book in a dignified posture, so he asked with great interest.
"The report to the principal is the Three People's Principles."
Nodding slightly, Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied in his heart, but he did not show it, but instead casually raised a few military questions to test Chen Cheng, and for those more basic questions, Chen Cheng can be said to be answering like a stream, and Chiang Kai-shek was more satisfied, nodded, and walked out of the room.
At that time, Chen Cheng did not know that he had already entered Chiang Kai-shek's "legal eye", and Chiang Kai-shek, who was very satisfied with Chen Cheng, did not forget to reuse him, and when he later obtained the support of a batch of artillery and formed a artillery battalion, Chiang Kai-shek directly promoted Chen Cheng to a company commander.
It was also with this artillery unit that Chen Cheng officially opened his own way to take off.
First of all, when Chen Jiongming was on the Eastern Expedition, he set three cannons on jiangshan, and during the Great War in the Central Plains, he led his troops to repeatedly defeat the enemy and take the lead in capturing Zhengzhou.
His performance was seen by Chiang Kai-shek,
In order to reward him, Chiang Kai-shek also specially sent him 200,000 silver dollars, but Chen Cheng, who had an upright and honest personality, did not keep a dime, and even gave all of the 200,000 silver dollars to his soldiers
Especially those soldiers who died in the war, their families received a large pension.
As the saying goes, it is the mule that is the horse out to walk, the 200,000 silver dollars, Chiang Kai-shek immediately saw Chen Cheng's pattern, this is even more determined, he wants to entrust Chen Cheng with a heavy responsibility, and then he also praised Chen Cheng's sincere heart and deep righteousness in public many times.
In addition to sharing the same blessing, the two people have also been
"Sharing Afflictions"
This friendship between each other is naturally deep and unattainable by others.
Presumably, the famous Xi'an Incident is no stranger to everyone, and whenever they see people praising Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng's patriotism, everyone will undoubtedly understand Chiang Kai-shek's embarrassing situation.
However, the truth is that Chiang Kai-shek was not alone at that time, and Chen Cheng was also imprisoned in Xi'an with him.
Others may panic when they encounter such a moment, and in order to save their lives, there may be many people who may choose to surrender, but Chen Cheng is extremely firm, and he always sticks to Chiang Kai-shek's side.
While stabilizing Chiang Kai-shek's mind, he also carefully analyzed the situation for him at that time, and because of this, after the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek's trust in Chen Cheng grew day by day, and even confidently handed over the Kuomintang ace army to his hands.
It is a pity that Chen Cheng's military talent is really not top-notch, and he holds the Kuomintang ace army in his hand, but the battle record he has played is difficult to say, so that at that time, the call for severe punishment of Chen Cheng within the Kuomintang was very high, but what about this?
Instead of punishing Chen Cheng, Chiang Kai-shek arranged for him to go to Taiwan to stabilize the situation and let him pave the way back for himself.
Although it is said that Chen Cheng holds the ace army in his hands and his achievements in the northeast are not good, people in later generations still recognize him more, because at least he is loyal to his duties, honest and not corrupt, and he is a very small part of the Kuomintang generals who sincerely do practical things for the people.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this that our Premier Zhou will pertinently evaluate him as "a patriotic person."