Before Chiang Kai-shek's defeat in Taiwan, he not only successively transported a large number of gold, silver and treasures to Taiwan, but also personally drew up a list of personnel who retreated to Taiwan together, which included the wives of several Kuomintang "big men" in addition to his close confidants.
Who are they? Why did Chiang Kai-shek specifically "name" them and take them away? Are they doing well after they arrive in Taiwan?
Ye Xiazhai: Half life is tortuous, half life is calm
The person Chiang Kai-shek "named" to take away was None other than Ye Xiazhai, the wife of Hu Zongnan, a "first-class general" of the Kuomintang and known as the "King of the Northwest."
Hu Zongnan, a native of Ningbo, was admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924, because he was very "compatible" with Chiang Kai-shek's ideas, and was deeply trusted by Chiang Kai-shek and became Chiang Kai-shek's "concubine unit".
By May 1927, Hu Zongnan, who had only been in the army for three years, had been promoted to the rank of deputy division commander of the 1st Division of the First Army, with the rank of major general.
Subsequently, Hu Zongnan closely followed chiang Kai-shek's steps, and his career was also smooth, and in 1945, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was about to be victorious, Hu Zongnan was appointed commander of the First Theater of Operations, with a total strength of 450,000 troops.
Hu Zongnan and Ye Xiazhai
On October 3 of the same year, Hu Zongnan was promoted to the rank of general of the army, and his total strength reached 500,000, becoming the "king of the northwest" among many people.
However, Hu Zongnan, who was "proud of the official field", was more frustrated in the love field, he had fallen in love with his classmate Fang Aying at the age of 17, but the two could not be together under the yin and yang mistakes, and then led the army to the East and the West for many years and let him miss the marriage.
After Hu Zongnan arrived in Shaanxi and Gansu, Chen Lifu saw that Hu Zongnan was deeply trusted by Chiang Kai-shek and that he was also an official, and he wanted to introduce Kong Xiangxi's second daughter to him as his wife. However, after Dai Kasa heard about this, he was afraid that his friend would be drawn into Chen Lifu's faction, so he persuaded Hu Zongnan to reject this family affair on the grounds that "saving the country is important".
Subsequently, in order to "make up" for Hu Zongnan, Dai Kasa decided to "cut off love" and introduced his secretary and "lover", Ye Xiazhai from zhejiang police academy, to his friends.
Hu Zongnan and Ye Xiaqu
Ye Xiazhai was only in her 20s at the time, young and beautiful, talented and beautiful, known as the "one flower" of the Hangzhou police officers special training class, Hu Zongnan really liked her when he saw her, and because both of them suffered from "arranged marriage", there were some common topics.
However, when Dai Kasa asked Hu Zongnan whether he wanted to marry Ye Xiazhai, Hu Zongnan was worried about offending Chen Lifu because of this, and also refused the marriage on the grounds that "it is important to save the country". Therefore, Ye Xiazhai went to the United States to study.
In 1944, Ye Xiazhai obtained a doctorate and returned to China after completing her studies. Soon after returning to China, Ye Xiazhai wrote a love letter and sent photos to Hu Zongnan, which once again aroused Hu Zongnan's admiration for her.
In the spring of 1947, the 51-year-old Hu Zongnan married Ye Xiazhai when he was promoted to general, and Ye Xiazhai was also 34 years old.
Shortly after the two married, with the defeat of the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek, Ye Xiazhai also retreated to Taiwan in 1949 with the Nationalist army, and Ye Xiazhai held various positions in Taiwan as a special editor of the "Ministry of Education".
But at that time, Hu Zongnan was still fighting in the mainland, Ye Xiazhai was in Taiwan, but he was still very worried about her husband's safety, and in 1950, when Ye Xiazhai saw that senior Kuomintang officials were flying to Taiwan one after another, Hu Zongnan was still on the mainland, and he could not help but worry about her husband day and night.
In March 1950, Hu Zongnan's 500,000-strong army was only about 60,000 people left, and he handed over the command of this unit to the chief of staff, and he quietly fled to Taiwan.
When Ye Xiazhai saw Hu Zongnan appear in his apartment in Taiwan, a hanging heart finally let go.
After that, Hu Zongnan lived a "retired" life, while Ye Xiazhai concentrated on accompanying her husband and gave birth to 2 boys, 1 woman and 3 children for Hu Zongnan.
Ye Xia qu and the child
Hu Zongnan and Ye Xiazhai's peaceful and loving husband and wife life lasted for more than a decade, until February 1962, when Hu Zongnan died of a heart attack at the age of 67.
After that, Ye Xiazhai began to be busy with her own career. Soon after Hu Zongnan's death, Ye Xiazhai began to assist in the establishment of the Chinese Cultural Institute, and served as a professor, director of training, and vice dean.
In 1967, Ye Xiazhai left the Chinese Cultural Institute to serve as the principal of The Taipei Normal College in Taiwan.
Subsequently, he gradually turned to the research of home economics and special education, and also held training courses for teachers of children with insufficient intelligence, served as the director of the Home Economics Research Institute of The Cultural University, and wrote many books such as "Introduction to Home Economics" and "Marriage and Family".
In 1981, shortly after Ye Xiazhai was elected to the Kuomintang's "Central Committee Review Committee," she died of illness and was buried next to Hu Zongnan.
Wang Yuling: If there is an afterlife, choose Lingfu
Another person who was "named" by Chiang Kai-shek and brought to Taiwan was Wang Yuling, the wife of Zhang Lingfu, whom Chiang Kai-shek called the "first martyr."
Zhang Lingfu was brave in resisting Japan, and once created a war miracle of completely annihilating the elite 106th Division of the Japanese Army in the Battle of Wanjialing, and was often used to emulate and learn. However, Zhang Lingfu's love road is not very smooth, before marrying Wang Yuling, Zhang Lingfu had 3 wives, but for various reasons, the 3 marriages did not last long.
It was not until the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, under the introduction of Cheng Qian, the chairman of Hunan Province at the time, that Zhang Lingfu and Wang Yuling were married. In fact, due to the misfortune of the previous marriage, Zhang Lingfu was very cautious about this marriage, and personally ran to "observe" his blind date before the blind date.
At that time, Wang Yuling was washing his hair with his classmates in the barbershop, and when he saw Zhang Lingfu standing behind him and secretly looking at himself in the mirror, he also felt that his actions were very unreasonable, and glared at him fiercely.
After getting married, Zhang Lingfu also joked with his wife that if she had smiled at herself at that time, he would not have married her.
Wang Yuling with children
Wang Yuling was seventeen years old when he married Zhang Lingfu, and after the marriage, the two also gathered less and left more, and occasionally Wang Yuling went to the front line to visit Zhang Lingfu and did not dare to stay for a long time, lest others gossip. However, as long as Zhang Lingfu returns to the city, even if he only has 5 minutes of free time, he must go home to visit his wife.
In 1947, in the Battle of Menglianggu, Zhang Lingfu was killed at the age of 44, while Wang Yuling was only 19 years old at the time, and the two children Zhang Daoyu were born less than 20 days ago.
Under Chiang Kai-shek's arrangement, Wang Yuling went to Taiwan with his mother and children in April 1949.
Wang Yuling was born into a prominent family in Changsha, and was once a "petite lady" who even had to be helped by servants to get dressed, but in Taiwan, she had a rather difficult life, and could only rely on Zhang Lingfu's meager pension and the support of relatives and friends to barely survive. During his time in Taiwan, Wang Yuling, who was widowed at the age of 19, committed suicide by drinking pesticides, but was eventually rescued.
An experience of escaping death made Wang Yuling reborn and decided to change his fate through his own hands. After being discharged from the hospital, Wang Yuling handed over his 5-year-old son to his mother to take care of, and with the personal help of his uncle, 24-year-old Wang Yuling went to the United States to study alone.
Wang Yuling
In 1953, Wang Yuling was admitted to New York University in the United States, studying and working while finally completing his studies. After that, Wang Yuling stayed in the United States, working at Roosevelt Hospital and the Park Rasa Hotel for several years, and Wang Yuling eventually worked for American Airlines for 21 years until his retirement.
During this period, Wang Yuling also brought her mother and son to live in the United States, and she did realize her dream of changing her fate with her hands.
However, wang Yuling, who was in a foreign country, was always nostalgic for the motherland and homeland, and in the autumn of 1973, Premier Zhou, who learned of this from the overseas Chinese population, specially arranged for relevant personnel to invite Wang Yuling to return to China for sightseeing and tourism, and also welcomed her to return to her roots.
However, because Zhang Lingfu had been an enemy of the people before his death, Wang Yuling feared that his return to China would be "auspicious and unpredictable" and had been wavering. It was not until the Chinese ambassador to Canada invited him again that Wang Yuling finally reassured himself, set foot on his homeland after a 25-year absence, and was secretly received by Premier Zhou in Beijing.
Zhang Lingfu, Wang Yuling and their son
Because of the "anti-Japanese" concept he cultivated since childhood, Wang Yuling has always put the interests of the state and the nation first in the face of major issues of right and wrong.
During the occupation of Taiwan, Japan looted the people of Taiwan and purchased two buildings in the bustling area of Tokyo in the name of the Taiwanese government, "Guanghualiao" and "Qinghualiao", until the 1980s, the Japanese were still reluctant to return the property rights of the buildings to the Chinese government.
After learning of this, Wang Yuling ran around and made unremitting efforts, and finally handed over the property rights certificates of the two buildings to Beijing. According to media reports, the lawyer originally wanted to hand over the property rights certificate to the Taiwan side, but was severely blocked by Wang Yuling, who said that there was no official relationship between Japan and Taiwan, and the property rights certificate could only be handed over to Beijing.
In 1997, in order to satisfy the homesickness of her mother Wang Luoxiyun, Wang Yuling took her mother back to her hometown of Changsha, Hunan Province, and she accompanied her mother in her hometown until her death.
In 2005, Zhang Daoyu went to Shanghai to do business, and Wang Yuling also settled in Shanghai. In 2007, Wang Yuling was invited by Su Gangbing, the nephew of General Su Yu, to visit MengLianggu.
Although Su Yu and Zhang Lingfu had been enemies in the confrontation between the two armies, Wang Yuling still accepted the invitation, and she wanted to see the cave where her husband died. Because although Wang Yuling built a crown tomb for her husband in the Rose Garden in Shanghai, she always hoped to find her husband's body in Meng Lianggu.
In Meng Lianggu, Wang Yuling laid a wreath in the cave where Zhang Lingfu died. Later, when mentioning this matter, Wang Yuling once said that she had never said "I love you" to Zhang Lingfu, and she had always regretted it, wondering why she was so "miserly" and could not even say a simple word.
When asked, "If there is an afterlife, will you still choose Zhang Lingfu", Wang Yuling once replied that "it should be", but in fact, after being widowed at the age of 19, she never thought about remarrying, and she had already explained her intentions.
On October 9, 2021, Wang Yuling died peacefully in Shanghai at the age of 94.
In his later years, Wang Yuling
Cai Ruoshu: 30 years of waiting, the tragedy ended
The wife of the last Kuomintang "big man" to be mentioned is not so lucky, her life can be said to end in tragedy, she is Huang Wei's wife Cai Ruoshu.
Huang Wei himself was not as famous as Hu Zongnan and Zhang Lingfu, but he was also one of Chiang Kai-shek's most favored generals in the Nationalist army, and was a member of Chiang Kai-shek's concubines.
In the Battle of Songhu, Huang Wei led the 67th Division to fight the Japanese army, and after a week of life, the number of people was counted, and the living people could not even get together a regiment, after which Huang Wei became famous in the first battle.
Huang Wei and Cai Ruoshu are free to love and get married, and after they get married, they are also very affectionate.
However, in 1948, Chiang Kai-shek sent an urgent telegram to recall Huang Wei to Wuhan, and when the military order was difficult to violate, Huang Wei entrusted Cai Ruoshu and his children to Lian Xiang and went to the Huaihai Battlefield.
Cai Ruoshu
After the defeat of the Huaihai army, Huang Wei was captured alive, but in order to boost morale, the Kuomintang side claimed that Huang Wei had "died" on the battlefield and held a "memorial meeting" for him.
With Chiang Kai-shek's total defeat, Cai Ruoshu and his children also came to Taiwan. But in the early 1950s, when Cai Ruoshu heard that Huang Wei was still alive, he secretly took his child back to the mainland via Hong Kong.
At this time, Cai Ruoshu had just turned 30 years old, and he found a job in a library in Shanghai to support a family, while waiting for Huang Wei, who was imprisoned and reformed at the Gongdelin War Criminals Management Center in Beijing, to be released from prison.
In 1959, the first batch of war criminals was pardoned, and because Huang Wei evaded reform, he did not appear on the list, which caused Cai Ruoshu to be so devastated that he developed symptoms of schizophrenia and often had severe auditory hallucinations.
But in order to wait for her husband to be released from prison, Cai Ruoshu has been trying to restrain and take her medication on time, and wait patiently while continuing to work.
After that, Cai Ruoshu survived the turbulent years, survived expectations and disappointments again and again, and finally waited until Huang Wei was released from prison in 1975.
Cai Ruoshu and daughter
At this time, 27 years have passed since Cai Ruoshu and her husband were separated, and the years have polished the big lady who was gorgeous by the West Lake into a fat old lady with short hair and white.
When Huang Wei was released from prison, Cai Ruoshu took his whole family to Beijing to pick him up, and later the daughter of the two recalled that at that time, her parents were light, and there was no great joy or sorrow. Perhaps after experiencing too much despair, the final blandness is the portrayal of the feelings of the husband and wife.
Everyone thought that after Huang Wei was released from prison and was arranged to work in the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Cai Ruoshu's life should have improved, but in fact, it did not.
It is said that after Huang Wei was released from prison, Cai Ruoshu was often worried that someone would arrest her husband, so every day at noon and evening, Cai Ruoshu would definitely wait downstairs in the CPPCC and wait for her husband to come out of work, and sometimes Huang Wei was a few minutes late from work, and Cai Ruoshu would feel fear and nervous.
Huang Wei and Cai Ruoshu's family photo
But Huang Wei had a hard time understanding Cai Ruoshu's pain, and often ignored his wife's feelings because he was addicted to the study of "perpetual motion machines".
This made Cai Ruoshu feel remorseful and painful, so she took sleeping pills to commit suicide, but did not succeed.
Until one day, Cai Ruoshu could no longer bear this pain, and took advantage of Huang Wei's absence to jump into the Yongding River to commit suicide, and Huang Wei cried bitterly when he saw his wife's body.
Cai Ruoshu survived for 27 years, waiting for her husband to be released from prison, and no one thought that in the end, what she waited for would be such a tragic ending.
Resources
"Hunan Literature and History", 2002.05, Li Jianhua, "The Tragic Marriage of Hu Zongnan, King of Northwest China"
China News Network, "The Widow of Zhang Lingfu, a Famous Kuomintang General: If There Is an Afterlife, Choose Lingfu"