Wen 丨 Unknown handsome
Editor丨Unknown handsome
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preface
In December 1949, next to the flower bed on the left side of the "Dai Gong Ancestral Hall" in Chongqing, PLA soldiers were renovating the flower bed with shovels, and as the depth of the renovation deepened, two corpses and an urn were suddenly found, which caused various speculations in the society for a while.
After multiple verifications, it was learned that this unrecognizable corpse was patriotic general Yang Hucheng and his family, General Yang Hucheng was because of the "Xi'an Incident", and was also the planner of the "Xi'an Incident", Zhang Xueliang was only imprisoned for 54 years, Yang Hucheng was not only imprisoned but also brutally killed, why is the situation of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng very different? Why are a generation of patriotic generals tied up and buried here?
Yang Hucheng's early experience
Looking at the life of General Yang Hucheng, the history of his struggle can be said to be the life of national righteousness, from the beginning of the Pucheng uprising, to rebelling against the Qing Dynasty, begging Yuan to protect the law, and finally moving to Guanzhong to guard Xi'an, wielding the Northern Expedition, forced into civil war, and finally until calling for a war of resistance, to Zhang Yang's hit it off, implementing "military advice" against Chiang Kai-shek and forcing Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan.
In the semi-feudal and semi-colonial old China, Yang Hucheng contributed his own modest efforts to the construction of the new China with his own strength, and even endured 12 years of imprisonment until his wife and children were killed with him. One of the most admirable was on December 12, 1936, when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to resist Japan for the cause of the nation's war of resistance, and he gave Chiang Kai-shek "military advice" in Huaqingchi, Xi'an.
General Yang Hucheng came from a humble background, was born in a peasant family in Shaanxi, and when the nation was in danger, he had no background, with his patriotic feelings, he threw himself into the Xinhai Revolution, and then followed Sun Yat-sen and broke out of his own world in the national army. During his lifetime, he experienced three marriages and had 4 sons and 6 daughters.
The third wife, Xie Baozhen, accompanied Yang Hucheng through 12 years of imprisonment by Chiang Kai-shek, and finally was unwilling to endure the prison-like life, failed suicide one after another, and finally died by injection of unknown liquid by secret agents at the age of 36. After Xie Baozhen's death, Yang Hucheng was unable to buy an urn for him, so he could only simply make an urn out of a few old door panels, and then carried it with him, and the urn was buried next to General Yang Hucheng in this discovery.
The Xi'an Incident - the reason for the different "treatment" of Zhang and Yang afterwards
On December 12, 1936, a gunshot broke the tranquility of the early morning, Chiang Kai-shek, who was still asleep, was awakened by the sound of gunfire, Chiang Kai-shek was resting in a room in Huaqingchi at this time, but the bullet had already broken the window and embedded into the wall, Chiang Kai-shek did not have time to put on clothes at this time, fled all the way to Lishan next to Huaqingchi, in a pavilion in Lishan, was chased by Zhang Yang and the two, and implemented "military advice" on him.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek, under the military pressure of Zhang and Yang, had to agree to Zhang Yang's attitude towards the war at that time, abandon the plan of "bringing in the outside world must first settle the inside", and instead agree to the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to unite against Japan.
In the eyes of outsiders, Zhang Yang's move was a move based on national righteousness, but for a jealous Chairman Jiang, who was undoubtedly a black spot in his life, he was actually loved by his two subordinates to carry out "military advice", which can be described as a great shame, and in his eyes, this move is a rebellion. Therefore, after the "Xi'an Incident", Chiang Kai-shek-style retaliation was launched against the two.
Chiang Kai-shek's policy towards Zhang Xueliang
With the "Xi'an Incident" Chiang Kai-shek agreed to stop the civil war and has been announcing foreign resistance to Japan, Zhang Xueliang at this time said that he would escort Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing, who knew that as soon as Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Nanjing, Zhang Xueliang was put under house arrest, and Zhang Xueliang began his 54-year confinement career, until Zhang Xueliang finally recovered his freedom and died of natural causes after Lee Teng-hui came to power in 1990.
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek can also be said to hate Zhang Xueliang, from an order before his death, we can know that when Chiang Kai-shek died of a heart attack in Taipei in 1975, but before his death, he did not forget to issue the last order of his life to Zhang Xueliang, who was in captivity, and let his son Chiang Ching-kuo imprison Zhang Xueliang for another 15 years.
However, although Zhang Xueliang was imprisoned for so long, he still left Zhang Xueliang alive in the end, he was not so kind to Yang Hucheng, who was also a participant in the "Xi'an Incident".
Chiang Kai-shek's policy towards Yang Hucheng
Chiang Kai-shek's imprisonment policy towards Zhang Xueliang can be said to be a small witch for Yang Hucheng, and after the "Xi'an Incident", Chiang Kai-shek sent Yang Hucheng to Europe and the United States for an investigation, which actually deprived Yang Hucheng of his military power.
Because after the "Xi'an Incident", Chiang Kai-shek could not help but be afraid that for a general with huge military power and the experience of rebellion, and letting him hold military power was a huge hidden danger to the execution of his future orders, so he must be deprived of his military power, which is also understandable.
But things didn't stop there, after Yang Hucheng returned to China from Europe and the United States, he practiced the same life of imprisonment as Zhang Xueliang, and after the victory of the War of Resistance, he brutally killed Yang Hucheng and his wife and children. Let a generation of patriotic generals fall in this way, did not fight to kill the enemy and died on the battlefield, but was killed by his compatriots, and also suffered a strong acid burning that led to a completely unrecognizable end, for which General Yang Hucheng's wife and children also became victims of Chiang Kai-shek's revenge.
The reason for Chiang Kai-shek's different attitude towards Zhang Yang's policy
The same participants in the "Xi'an Incident", why the two will have such different treatment after the "Xi'an Incident", in fact, it is not difficult to see that as we all know, Zhang Xueliang is the son of Zhang Zuolin, the king of the northeast, and is also known as the "young marshal", after Zhang Zuolin was killed by the bombing, he commanded hundreds of thousands of Northeast troops under Zhang Zuolin, so if Zhang Xueliang is dealt with seriously immediately after the incident, it may cause a mutiny among local troops, and it is not cost-effective for Chiang Kai-shek who is on the occasion of the use of troops.
However, Yang Hucheng is different, he came from a humble background, he grew up into a generation of generals through his own efforts, and he has no strong background, so Chiang Kai-shek's handling of Yang Hucheng can have no worries, because he has no one to "avenge" him after losing his military power.
In terms of the attitude of the two men towards Chiang Kai-shek in the "Xi'an Incident", we can see through the memoirs of Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang that in the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang's attitude towards Chiang Kai-shek only forced Chiang Kai-shek to agree to a consistent foreign policy, and "military advice" was an expedient measure.
Zhang Xueliang, as Chiang Kai-shek's "brother" has always been, still supports Chiang Kai-shek, but Yang Hucheng's attitude is to kill Chiang Kai-shek to avoid future troubles, Chiang Kai-shek learned from the words of people around him Yang Hucheng and Zhang Xueliang's attitude towards him, so although Zhang Xueliang was the real mastermind in the "Xi'an Incident", Chiang Kai-shek opened up to Zhang Xueliang, but only regarded Zhang Xueliang's betrayal as a small friction between brothers.
The relationship between Chiang Kai-shek and Yang Hucheng can be said to be very simple, just a leadership relationship between superiors and subordinates, and there is no deep friendship between the two. And Zhang Xueliang can be said to be a brother of life and death and a "brother-in-law", in Chiang Kai-shek's most difficult time, it was Zhang Xueliang who led troops to follow him, and then because of Song Meiling's mother accepting Zhang Xueliang's wife Yu Fengzhi, Chiang Kai-shek and Zhang Xueliang became "brothers-in-law" again, bringing the relationship between the two closer a step closer.
Yang Hucheng's death
"Joining the revolution is home, and blood and rain deserve an end. Take righteousness into today's affairs, and plant free flowers all over the world. "General Yang Hucheng's life was a life of dedication to national righteousness, but General Yang Hucheng's ending was indeed not very satisfactory, he was killed with a dagger by secret agents, and his wife and children were buried with him.
In November 1937, when General Yang Hucheng was deprived of his military rights and returned to Europe and the United States after the "Xi'an Incident", who would have thought that his trip back to China was not as simple as imagined, as soon as he got off the plane, he fell into the trap set by Chiang Kai-shek, and he was imprisoned as soon as the plane landed, and since then he has begun his 12-year "prison disaster", and in order to better control Yang Hucheng, he also detained his wife and children.
Our party's party organization did not allow a national hero to be treated in this way, so it actively carried out rescue work for a long time, but General Yang Hucheng's detention place was very hidden and often changed, so it was never successful.
Time to 1941, a cry brought a glimmer of hope to the dark prison, Yang Hucheng and Xie Baozhen's love crystallization fell to the ground, and also made the two in prison a little gratified, but in the face of the constant torture of the special agents, no matter how good people have a heart collapse, Xie Baozhen could not bear the torture, attempted suicide and threw things to the special agents in protest, which also gave the special agents a reason to separate Yang Xie and the two, and Yang Hucheng at this time was powerless in the face of this situation.
In 1945, the news of the victory of the War of Resistance reached the residence where Yang Hucheng was imprisoned, and Yang Hucheng held the hope that he could be freed, but things were not so simple, they were not welcomed with freedom but from the current prison to another prison.
In 1949, the Kuomintang army retreated in the whole line, the PLA army was pressing step by step, at this time Chiang Kai-shek instructed Mao Renfeng to kill Yang Hucheng, Mao Renfeng ordered his special agent Zhou Yanghao to carry out the specific implementation, planning to secretly kill Yang Hucheng when transferring him, and talked about studying the use of daggers, the plan to kill Yang Hucheng was listed as top secret, so a generation of patriotic generals died under the daggers of four agents led by Zhou Yanghao and buried in the flower bed on the left side of the "Dai Gong Temple". It was not until December 1949 that General Yang Hucheng's body was found, allowing the hero to rest forever.
epilogue
The wind knows the grass, and the fire refines real gold. A patriotic general who suffered 12 years of imprisonment, many of which were tortured, both psychological and physical, although he experienced the brief joy of victory in the War of Resistance, he did not escape the fate of being killed; Full of the pride and ambition of resisting Japan and saving the country, his life did not end in the battlefield of resisting Japan and killing the enemy, but died at the hands of his compatriots. However, the life principles brought to us by General Yang Hucheng are worth our lifelong use, and in the new era, we will be more aware of our mission and responsibility, and make our own contribution to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the new era.