As the leader of the Kuomintang in modern China, Chiang Kai-shek made many big mistakes in his life, but he was personally very strong and refused to accept defeat.
However, when he was dying in his old age, Chiang Kai-shek, who had been stubborn all his life, left a last word, saying: He only admired one person in his life, but he was afraid of two people.
So, who is Chiang Kai-shek admiring, and who are the two people he is afraid of?
Chairman Mao, Chiang Kai-shek's "Enemy of Life"
Not surprisingly, the first person to frighten Chiang Kai-shek was Chairman Mao.
From 1927 to the founding of New China in 1949, for 22 years, Chairman Mao can be said to have caused Chiang Kai-shek the most headache.
At the time of the "April 12 counter-revolutionary coup," Chiang Kai-shek was already the supreme commander of the Kuomintang army of more than 100,000 troops, and Chairman Mao at that time was only the acting propaganda director of the Kuomintang who had no real power.
After the Nanchang Uprising broke out, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party moved toward the road of military confrontation, and Chiang Kai-shek, relying on his own power plot, constantly integrated the forces within the Kuomintang, and once forced the Red Army to a situation of near desperation.
But with the Zunyi Conference, Chairman Mao began to lead the Red Army, and everything changed.
The Hundreds of thousands of troops of the Kuomintang were forced to be treated as decorations by Chairman Mao, crossing the Red River in four directions, leading the Red Army in a twenty-five-thousand-mile long march, breaking through Chiang Kai-shek's encirclement and suppression blockade several times, and so on.
In the three-year civil war that followed, he defeated millions of well-equipped Kuomintang troops with fewer victories and more victories, and drove Chiang Kai-shek to the mainland island of Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek has encountered countless opponents in his life, but most of them can be summarized by "Mei Susun snow is three points white, and the snow loses Plum a piece of incense", that is, each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
For Chiang Kai-shek, the opponent of Chairman Mao, it is simply an all-round crushing, and no matter how much advantage Chiang Kai-shek has in his hands and exhausts all kinds of means, once he confronts Chairman Mao, he will completely fail.
It was precisely because he could not fight Chairman Mao no matter how he fought, that he became afraid of Chairman Mao in his heart.
The root cause of this fear is actually unknown, and it is from his standpoint that I cannot understand how Chairman Mao has overcome himself.
For our descendants, the reasoning for this is both complex and simple, and to put it bluntly, it is because Chiang Kai-shek has always been engaged in power plots, he has not really understood China, and he has not represented the interests of the majority of Chinese peasants.
But for Chiang Kai-shek, the class he came from, the environment in which he grew up, and his later experience in running the country all determined that he could only think from the perspective of the big bourgeoisie and the big comprador class.
If we have to make an analogy, Chiang Kai-shek's fear of Chairman Mao is actually the capitalists' innate deep fear of the organization and the country that can unite countless workers and peasants at the lowest level without relying on interests.
It is only in modern China that this fear and dread have been condensed in the bodies of Chairman Mao and Chiang Kai-shek.
Deng Yanda, a rival among the Kuomintang
In addition to Chairman Mao, the second person who made Chiang Kai-shek afraid was a person that many people did not know, his name was Deng Yanda.
If Chiang Kai-shek's fear of Chairman Mao carries a hint of class, then his fear of Deng Yanda is purely a fear of competitors.
Deng Yanda is rarely mentioned now, but during the Period of the National Revolution, he was the elder leader of the Kuomintang who could be called together with Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei.
When Chiang Kai-shek was the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, Deng Yanda was the chief education officer.
When Chiang Kai-shek came to prominence in the First Northern Expedition and received Sun Yat-sen's weight, Deng Yanda also received Sun Yat-sen's weight.
When Chiang Kai-shek was the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army, Deng Yanda was the director of the General Political Department.
It can be said that before Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution, Deng Yanda was Chiang Kai-shek's biggest rival within the Kuomintang.
Like Soong Ching-ling, Deng Yanda was the leader of the Left Wing of the Kuomintang. Of particular importance is the fact that this is a Kuomintang leader who, like Chairman Mao, is truly aware of the root cause of China's problems, namely, the land and population problems.
As mentioned above, Chiang Kai-shek was a politician who relied on power to ascend to power and rule by power.
For him, if the opponent is a politician who also relies on power to ascend to power, such as Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and the like, he is not afraid at all.
Because Chiang Kai-shek is familiar with how to rely on power and strategy to defeat his opponents, a competitor like Deng Yanda who relies on his foresight and personal ability to ascend to the top is an object that Chiang Kai-shek absolutely needs to be vigilant against.
For just as Chairman Mao finally led the proletarian revolution and defeated Chiang Kai-shek, this is a field with which Chiang Kai-shek is completely unfamiliar.
Similarly, Deng Yanda's profound understanding of the Chinese question, as well as his emphasis on the peasant question within the Kuomintang, meant that there was no need for scheming and no need to compete with Chiang Kai-shek for the support of the warlords.
As long as Deng Yanda can spread the idea of attaching importance to the peasants and mobilize the peasants to participate in the revolution, he will be able to defeat Chiang Kai-shek from another track.
This has been proved feasible by the later Chairman Mao.
Unfortunately, as a member of the Kuomintang, Deng Yanda did not have the same firm revolutionary ideas as Chairman Mao.
Although he also recognized that the most fundamental problem in China was the problem of peasants and land, he did not have the courage to directly lead the peasant revolution, or did not have this understanding.
Deng Yanda felt that he could reconcile the contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the peasants at the top of the Kuomintang and adhere to the "line of the Three People's Principles" determined by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation and the principle of the United Russia and the Communist Party.
In a manner similar to bourgeois reform, the final victory of the revolution was achieved and the peasant and the question of the land was solved.
This trust in the Kuomintang also laid the groundwork for him to be killed by Chiang Kai-shek later.
In 1927, after Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei and others openly betrayed the revolution, Deng Yanda and other Leftists of the Kuomintang, electrified to draw a clear line with Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei and others, and prepared to re-establish the Kuomintang Central Committee, so they were persecuted by Chiang Kai-shek and eventually had to leave Germany to study.
Three years later, he returned from studying abroad. At this time, Japan's invasion of China was becoming more and more obvious, but Chiang Kai-shek vigorously promoted the "suppression of the Communists" and ignored the powerful foreign enemies, and Deng Yanda once again opposed Chiang Kai-shek and demanded that he actively resist Japan, thus causing Chiang Kai-shek to be angry.
Around the time of the "9.18 Incident," Deng Yanda was lured to Nanjing by Chiang Kai-shek, and was finally secretly shot and killed because he was unwilling to support Chiang Kai-shek's policy of "foreign countries must first be safe inside."
On the surface, Chiang Kai-shek was afraid of Deng Yanda because he had deep seniority and wide contacts within the Kuomintang, especially among the generals from Huangpu, and had a deep influence, which caused Chiang Kai-shek to be jealous.
But in fact, there are still many people within the Kuomintang who have experience in Huangpu, and no matter how deep Deng Yanda's influence among the Huangpu generals is, it is impossible to go deeper than Chiang Kai-shek, which is nothing to be afraid of.
What really scared Chiang Kai-shek was Deng Yanda's profound understanding of Chinese society and his thinking on the problems of Chinese peasants. Allowing Deng Yanda to continue to develop is an "ideological danger" element that is not controlled and influenced by Chiang Kai-shek at all.
Chiang Kai-shek himself could not do anything to mobilize the peasants, but he was well aware of the threat posed to him by this ability, so he was jealous of Deng Yanda.
The last person whom Chiang Kai-shek admires the most is still a member of our Party.
The only person who impressed Chiang Kai-shek: Zhou Enlai
The person Chiang Kai-shek admired most was Premier Zhou Enlai and Zhou Enlai. In fact, this point was not only said before his death, but also expressed a similar meaning in a dialogue between Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo as early as after the defeat of Taiwan.
As a proletarian revolutionary, although Premier Zhou worked with Chiang Kai-shek in the early days of the Chinese revolution, the two sides had different beliefs, were far apart in revolutionary ideas, and even had been enemies for a long time.
The story begins in 1924.
At that time, the National Revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen was in full swing, in order to better cultivate talents and prepare for the Northern Expedition, in 1924, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party cooperated in the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy.
In November of the same year, Zhou Enlai was recommended to be the director of the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy, and Chiang Kai-shek was the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy at that time.
The Whampoa Military Academy, unlike ordinary schools, is a paramilitary institution, and the internal implementation of school rules is actually military regulations.
In this context, Chiang Kai-shek, as the principal, is actually the "general" of this quasi-army, and he can gain the respect of the cadets, and a big reason is that the discipline of the army is at work.
Zhou Enlai, as a "civilian" in a military academy, actually did not have the aura of Chiang Kai-shek's strict discipline of "obeying orders as his duty" and brought about by him.
In other words, as the director of the political department, Zhou Enlai was able to gain the respect of the early cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy, entirely by virtue of his personal charm.
Chiang Kai-shek and Premier Zhou worked together at the Whampoa Military Academy for several years and deeply realized this.
Although he himself used his power to seek the throne and was obeyed by the students of the Whampoa Military Academy, he was very much recognized by Premier Zhou, who won the respect of the cadets with sincerity and affinity. In an ancient saying, it can also be regarded as "the body cannot reach, the heart yearns for it".
After 1927, Chiang Kai-shek openly rebelled against the revolution for his own selfish interests and launched the "April 12 Counter-Revolutionary Coup", and the relationship between Chiang Kai-shek and Premier Zhou naturally gradually drifted apart.
But what he did not expect was that after nearly 10 years, he would be able to escape because of Zhou Enlai's turning circle.
In December 1936, Zhang Xueliang, the "young marshal" of the Northeast Army, and Yang Hucheng, a general of the Northwest Army, launched the "Xi'an Incident" to force Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan, of which our Party played an important role.
In addition, before the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to seize Zhang Xueliang's military power in order to force Zhang Xueliang to "suppress the Communists.", and there was a fierce quarrel between the two sides over this, and Chiang Kai-shek scolded Zhang Xueliang and broke up unhappily.
After Chiang Kai-shek was caught by Zhang Xueliang, he knew that in the past ten years or so, he had raised a butcher's knife against the Communists and chased and blocked the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and the hatred between the two sides was very deep, and now that he had fallen into a military coup, he felt that he would not be able to return to Nanjing, and it was inevitable that he would be a little pessimistic.
But what he absolutely did not expect was that when Zhou Enlai went to Xi'an on behalf of our party to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek, he did not show any intention of pulling Chiang Kai-shek down, but instead actively persuaded Chiang Kai-shek to unite with the Communists to resist Japan.
For Chiang Kai-shek in the Xi'an incident, in addition to worrying about his own life and safety, he was also worried about another problem.
In the state of the Mountains within the Kuomintang, if the Xi'an Incident cannot be resolved as soon as possible and the negotiations between the two sides are deadlocked, it is inevitable that some people will want to take Chiang Kai-shek's place.
For a power-hungry politician, such an outcome would have been more painful than killing him.
However, after meeting with Premier Zhou, he found that Premier Zhou did not liquidate his intentions at all, but instead considered him everywhere, did not regard him as a prisoner of the order at all, but still regarded him as the leader of the Kuomintang, and looked at his face everywhere.
This thoughtfulness in detail from the heart has completely won his respect.
After the end of the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang sent Chiang Kai-shek back and was detained, and the "United Communist Resistance Against Japan" that he had promised before was once caught up in the details of the negotiations and could not make effective progress.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Zhou Enlai, asking him to personally go to Hangzhou to discuss the details of the joint anti-Japanese resistance with the Kuomintang.
In the past, when zhang Xueliang was detained, Chiang Kai-shek thought that Premier Zhou did not dare to come.
However, Premier Zhou did not hesitate to go to the Kuomintang area and showed the courage to spare no effort for the sake of the country and the people, which once again moved Chiang Kai-shek, who once said that "Mr. Zhou is truly dedicated to the country and has absolutely no selfless thoughts."
To sum up, Chiang Kai-shek's admiration for Premier Zhou has nothing to do with political ideas, but is purely an admiration for the charisma of other people's personality, and it really begins with character and ends with character.
epilogue
In Chiang Kai-shek's last words, these three people were specially identified. The most admired Zhou Enlai, the most feared Chairman Mao and Deng Yanda.
As a reactionary, Chiang Kai-shek was a representative of the big bourgeoisie until his death, and he seemed to be afraid of Chairman Mao and Deng Yanda, but in fact he was most afraid of the broad masses of the people.
Through his words, it can actually be seen that he himself is aware of his biggest problem; Premier Zhou, who admires his life of being bright and upright, treating people with sincerity, and winning the hearts of the people, naturally regrets that he used his power to plot against the emperor, and finally betrayed his relatives.
The people who were afraid of Chairman Mao and Deng Yanda, who realized that the root cause of China's problems lay in the peasants and the land, proved that in his later years he also realized that although he represented the interests of the big bourgeoisie and the big compradors, it was impossible to solve the problems in China at that time, and it was impossible to rely on the bourgeoisie and the compradors, but could only rely on the peasants.
From this point of view, he is also considered to be the death of a man, and his words are also true.