Li Zhilong may sound like an unknown name, but during the first period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, he had a very good relationship with the "Huangpu Sanjie" (Chen Geng, Jiang Xianyun, and He Zhihan), and he also won the trust of President Jiang, and even the young officer who was the first among the Communist Party members to be awarded the rank of "lieutenant general" by the Nationalist government; on the other hand, during the Whampoa Military Academy, Zhou Enlai was his teacher and guide, and Dong Biwu was his introducer to the party, and he could be said to be an early member of the Communist Party who was "rooted in Miao Hong".
Photo: Portrait of Li Zhilong
However, the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" changed the trajectory of his life, and under the joint influence of Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang Guotao and others, Li Zhilong's membership as a member of the Communist Party was revoked, and he finally died at the gunpoint of the Kuomintang. Decades later, when his family wanted to apply for the honor of "martyr" for him, but was severely rejected by Premier Zhou Enlai, was there really a problem with Li Zhilong himself? In fact, he was an extremely complex, yet extremely simple man.
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In 1897, Li Zhilong was born in an ordinary peasant family in Qiuyang, Hubei Province. Although the family was not wealthy, his father took Li Zhilong to Wuchang for primary school at an early age. What made his father proud was that Li Zhilong's academic performance was very good, he could be said to be the top student in the class, after graduating in 1912, he was admitted to the English class of Wuhan Foreign Language College for school, which coincided with the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, but the fruits of the victory of the revolution were stolen by Yuan Shikai.
Photo: Lee Jo-yong Memorial Hall
Although Li Zhilong was still very young at this time, the turmoil in society also ignited his inner impulsive enthusiasm for serving the country, and in 1913, Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing, and others who had completely seen Yuan Shikai's true face launched a "second revolution", and Li Zhilong, who was only 16 years old, followed his uncle Li Guoliang to Hukou and participated in the "Hukou Uprising" launched by Li Liejun. After the uprising was suppressed by Yuan Shikai, Li Zhilong, who had been lost, returned to the school to continue his studies, but was soon expelled from the school because of the demonstration of "anti-principal and people", and began his journey to study everywhere.
Photo: Old photo of Li Liejun
In 1916, Li Zhilong came to the Naval Academy in Yantai, where he was determined to build a strong navy for China, to fight for the coastal defense of the motherland and all his life, and he was very concerned about the political situation. He once organized the students of the school to support the "May Fourth Movement" and began to accept the influence of communist ideas, which also laid the foundation for him to join the Communist Party of China.
In 1921, Li Zhilong introduced himself to Dong Biwu, Chen Tanqiu and others, the early leaders of the Communist Party of China, and then joined the Communist Party of China and became a proletarian fighter. At the request of the early Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Li Zhilong was ordered to return to Wuhan to organize a workers' strike movement and participated in the famous "February 7" general strike movement. In order to suppress the workers' movement, wu Peifu, a warlord of the Republic of China sitting in Wuhan, brazenly ordered the shooting and suppression, more than 50 people were unfortunately killed, hundreds of workers' representatives were arrested, workers' activities temporarily turned into a low tide, and Li Zhilong was also wanted by Wu Peifu.
Pictured: The February 7 Strike
In view of the severe situation, Li Zhilong could only go to Hankou to secretly lurk, and also joined the Chinese Kuomintang, with dual party membership. In 1924, Li Zhilong was transferred to Guangzhou to work as an English translator for Borodin, a military adviser to the Soviet Union, and in April he was admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy with excellent results and became a cadet of the second team of Whampoa first-term students. In July, the Special Party Department of the Kuomintang Whampoa Military Academy was established in Guangzhou, and among the members of the first executive committee, in addition to Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Fusheng, Li Zhilong, Jin Fozhuang, Yan Fengyi and others were all members of the Communist Party.
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Judging from Li Zhilong's early political experience, both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were extremely co-opted and cherished him. After Li Zhilong graduated in November 1924, Chiang Kai-shek, who was the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, cherished Li Zhilong's talent and left him in the school's political department to continue his work. Subsequently, Li Zhilong participated in the First Crusade, made great contributions to consolidating the revolutionary base area in Guangzhou, and was promoted to the rank of major general by President Jiang.
Photo: Old photos of the Whampoa Military Academy
In addition to President Jiang's hospitality to see him, Wang Jingwei, who was then the chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government, also appreciated him very much, and after the Soviet officers returned home, Wang Jingwei promoted him to vice admiral and also appointed him as the captain of the "Zhongshan Ship", thus becoming the first young officer among the students of the Huangpu Phase I to be awarded the general star. At first glance, Li Zhilong is also a member of the Communist Party of China, and he is also deeply valued by the Kuomintang, and if he can develop well in the future, even if he cannot achieve fame, he will at least be able to leave a name in history, but the biggest shortcoming of Li Zhilong is that there are no shortcomings.
To say that Li Zhilong, this young man, his appearance is still very dashing, not only his appearance is charming, but also has a very good ability to debate, and no one can debate him at the Whampoa Military Academy. At that time, Li Zhilong became an academic society called the "Youth Federation" in the school, which was specially in direct confrontation with He Zhihan's "Sun Wen (Sun Yat-sen) Society", and whenever the debate competition began, Li Zhilong was always the leader of the society. When li zhilong expressed his views, just a few minutes after Li Zhilong took office, the colleagues of the "Sun Literature Society" could not sit still, and they all went up to the stage to forcibly put him down, because Li Zhilong's speech was too powerful, as long as he listened to a few more words, the people of the "Sun Literature Society" would betray He Zhihan in the blink of an eye and join Li Zhilong's society.
Pictured: Li Zhilong in the film and television drama
Unfortunately, Li Zhilong did not know how to restrain his talents, and he was exactly in response to the old Chinese saying: the gun hits the head bird. When Li Zhilong was at his most beautiful, he was very isolated, because he did not do a good job in dealing with the world. When Li Zhilong was in Guangzhou, his career development was smooth and smooth, and he almost never encountered any setbacks, so he regarded himself as high and did not know how to be an official, not only never visiting the door, but also not taking care of the respective feelings of the three factions. In fact, he should not forget that even if he became a vice admiral, he was still a very ordinary student under President Jiang.
Pictured: Statue of Chen Zhaoying
In fact, Li Zhilong usually did not take President Jiang in his eyes, and was very unwise in handling chen Zhaoying's issue. Chen Zhaoying is actually a very powerful person, in 1919, Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Zhaoying married Jinlan, and the two also made an oath to "love the same flesh and bones, vow to live and die together", which shows the depth of the two feelings. In 1924, he was appointed by Sun Yat-sen as the commander of Humen Fortress, but this guy was usually ghostly and engaged in smuggling and trafficking, and as a result, this matter was stabbed to Li Zhilong.
To say that in fact, according to the situation at that time, Chen Zhaoying's private violation of party member discipline is not false, but who can not make a mistake? In addition, Principal Jiang had already greeted Li Zhilong, saying that his brother Chen Zhaoying, who was usually fine, liked to fish for extra money when he had nothing to do, hoping that he could take more care of him. As a result, Li Zhilong did not care about anything, and directly removed Chen Zhaoying, the commander of a Humen Fortress, and from then on he held a grudge against Li Zhilong.
Pictured: Li Zhilong oil painting
Seeing Li Zhilong's behavior of "not knowing how to lift", someone once reminded Li Zhilong: "In the future, the brain should be flexible in doing things, don't always drill the horns, and report to President Jiang when encountering major things." As a result, Li Zhilong replied in a contemptuous tone: "Now that he and I are no longer a system, is it necessary to ask him for advice?" I was ordered by Chairman Wang to do so, and President Jiang couldn't do anything about me. ”
Another incident in which Li Zhilong offended Chiang Kai-shek occurred in March 1926. At that time, Li Zhilong and his wife Pan Huiqin were happily married and invited many people to their wedding, but Li Zhilong did not invite Chiang Kai-shek to attend. So Chiang Kai-shek, in a fit of rage, summoned Chen Zhaoying, who had been reinstated as an official at this time: "Go and arrest him at night!" ”
Photo: Old photo of Chen Zhaoying
The enraged Principal Jiang finally poisoned his students. What was supposed to be the night of the cave flower candles, But Li Zhilong was tied up by five flowers and brought to the interrogation room, and Chiang Kai-shek specially found some people who had a vendetta against Li Zhilong to interrogate him, and the first of them was Chen Zhaoying. Chen Zhaoying, who was holding a leather whip, forced him to confess to the crime of attempting to rebel, and then said to Li Zhilong in a sarcastic tone: "Director Li, you didn't expect to have today!" Dare to oppose me Chen Zhaoying, there is only one way to die, you don't go to the street to inquire, who does not know my relationship with Principal Jiang? ”
Li Zhilong was very depressed, he wouldn't be so stingy as Principal Jiang, but he didn't invite him to the wedding, so he wouldn't kill me, right? Later, Li Zhilong figured out that the original problems all lay in the problem of the "Zhongshan Warship" dispatching without authorization.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Chiang Kai-shek and the "Zhongshan Ship" incident</h1>
On March 18, 1926, Chiang Kai-shek, in the light of the fate of the military academy's office in Guangdong Province, sent someone to Li Zhilong's home to convey an order, saying that the headmaster hoped to have the Naval Bureau send zhongshan and Baobi warships to Huangpu. After Receiving the order, Li Zhilong began to order the two warships to sail to Whampoa as ordered to wait for dispatch, and at the same time asked Deng Yanda, the chief of education of the military academy, what important combat tasks were available. Deng Yanda had always hated Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship, so he replied: "I have never heard of any mission." ”
Pictured: Group photo of some naval officers of the Zhongshan warship
This made Li Zhilong feel confused: the phone call was obviously made by Deng Yanda himself, how could he not know what the task was? In fact, Li Zhilong did not know that although Chiang Kai-shek's order was conveyed on behalf of Deng Yanda's order, Deng Yanda himself did not know that there was such a thing. So Li Zhilong let the two ships return to Guangzhou that afternoon according to the regulations.
From the night of March 19, Chiang Kai-shek began to order a large number of arrests of Communists and disarmed the Zhongshan warship.
Pictured: Old photo of Zhongshan ship
However, although Li Zhilong has some problems in his work style, his backbone is still no problem. Chiang Kai-shek interrogated him for several days, but he did not get what he wanted from his mouth. The problem is that Wang Jingwei watched Li Zhilong being arrested, but he did not say a word, and let Chiang Kai-shek go through the whole thing, in addition to Li Zhilong's work not doing a good job, the bigger reason was because Wang Jingwei himself was indecisive. Originally, Li Zhilong made Chiang Kai-shek unable to step down, and Wang Jingwei could have found an excuse to strongly denounce Chiang Kai-shek, but at the crucial moment he pretended to be deaf and dumb, which was why he later fell after class.
Pictured: Wang Jingwei (left) and Chiang Kai-shek (right)
On the side of the Communist Party, it was Zhang Guotao, who represented the Comintern, who was in charge of handling the matter. When he returned to Guangzhou on behalf of the Communist Party to deal with the matter, he pronounced Li Zhilong's death sentence within the Communist Party in just one sentence: "Li Zhilong is an lawless leader and an impure element in the Party. Why did he command the Zhongshan ship to drive the Whampoa in the first place? And why have they offended so many high-level people within the Kuomintang? These problems must be clearly investigated as soon as possible, and must not be tolerated! ”
However, the political impact of killing Li Zhilong at that time was too bad, and Chiang Kai-shek finally released Li Zhilong under the persuasion of He Xiangning and others. However, "capital crimes can be avoided, living crimes are unbearable", Li Zhilong was dismissed from all posts after that, and during the Northern Expedition War, he served as a propaganda committee member in the Political Department, and has been depressed ever since. Fortunately, Li Zhilong had studied Chu opera in the early years, and when he was idle, Li Zhilong also began to ponder the problem of reform, which can also be regarded as a due contribution to the reform of Chu opera.
Pictured: Zhang Guotao in his youth
When the Northern Expeditionary Army arrived in Wuhan, Li Zhilong, who had left the embrace of the Communist Party, heard that there were Communist Party organization activities nearby and wanted to return to the embrace of the Party. However, after inquiring about it, Li Zhilong found that Zhang Guotao, who was still haunted, was transferred to the head of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, and his wish to resume the party was once again disappointed. Just when Li Zhilong was feeling sorry for not being able to restore his Communist Party membership, Chiang Kai-shek sent people to Wuhan hoping that he would be able to do things for himself, and even before Chiang Kai-shek launched the "April 12" incident, he frequently sent telegrams to Li Zhilong, hoping that he would return to his side.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Li Zhilong after the "Confluence of Ninghan and Han": attempted to plot an anti-naval uprising, but was captured on the spot by secret agents, heroically righteous</h1>
After the failure of the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, although Li Zhilong did not have a communist membership, he was very opposed to Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship in his heart. Since the "Confluence of Ninghan and Han", Li Zhilong began to use his former status in the navy to go to Shanghai in an attempt to plan a secret uprising of warships such as Zhongshan and Baobi. Not long after, these "small moves" of Li Zhilong were discovered by Chiang Kai-shek, and he had to go into exile in Japan.
In February 1928, Li Zhilong decided to return to China to engage in naval rebellion work, but what he did not expect was that he had just disembarked from Hong Kong and was targeted by Chiang Kai-shek's agents who had been arranged for a long time. Chiang Kai-shek knew that the sooner such an unstable element as Li Zhilong was eradicated, the better, so that night, Li Zhilong was heavily surrounded by Kuomintang agents and came to a "second palace."
Photo: Chen Cezhao
Nevertheless, Chiang Kai-shek did not want to kill Li Zhilong directly at first, and the order he gave was to escort Li Zhilong to Nanjing for disposal. However, Chen Ce, who was the commander of the Navy's Fourth Fleet at the time, was afraid that the night was long and dreamy, and if Li Zhilong was reused, he might retaliate against himself, so on February 8, he found a charge of "plotting against the navy" and executed Huang Huagang. Before his execution, Li Zhilong wrote a family letter to his wife: "My revolutionary road has come to an end, please don't be sad, you must raise your child as an adult, let him inherit my unfinished business." ”
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > coffin conclusive conclusion: In 1951, Li Zhilong's widow applied to identify Li Zhilong as a martyr, why was it ruthlessly rejected? </h1>
After the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, Li Zhilong's two younger brothers began to collect materials and wrote a collection of essays for his brother called "A Brief Outline of Li Zhilong" and presented it to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou. In 1951, exactly 23 years after Li Zhilong's sacrifice, Li Zhilong's widow Pan Huiqin and son Li Guangci formally submitted a report to the Wuhan government, hoping that New China would posthumously recognize Comrade Li Zhilong as a martyr.
After receiving this application report, the Central South China Civil Affairs Bureau, which was in charge of this period, said: "Comrade Li Zhilong is a martyr or a traitor, and the specific details still need to be deeply understood." Subsequently, the Civil Affairs Bureau of the Central South Civil Affairs Bureau successively asked Premier Zhou Enlai and Vice Premier Dong Biwu for verification, and finally gave a clear answer in September 1952 according to Premier Zhou's instructions: "After investigation, Li Zhilong once published a letter of repentance for breaking away from our party in the written newspaper of the Kuomintang after being arrested, and was shot in Guangzhou, which was actually caused by internal contradictions in the Kuomintang, so Comrade Li Zhilong could not be awarded the title of martyr, and his family could not enjoy the treatment of martyrs." ”
Photo: Li Zhilong's former residence
So why can't Li Zhilong be posthumously recognized as a martyr? The proofs and reasons given by Premier Zhou, Dong Biwu and other predecessors are about the following three points:
First of all, Li Zhilong's arrest for the "Zhongshan ship incident" has nothing to do with the CCP. As early as before the "Zhongshan Ship" incident, Li Zhilong was punished by staying in the party on probation, and according to the contents of Comrade Chen Duxiu's envelope to Chiang Kai-shek in June 1926, it can be known: "We once joined the reactionaries because of Li Zhilong, and it was not until we later received a letter from Comrade Zhou Enlai that we learned that he was just caught in the trap of the Kuomintang reactionaries and suffered such a stolen frame out of thin air!" The problem is that in a statement commemorating Premier Sun Yat-sen on June 28, 1926, Chiang Kai-shek also admitted that the "3.20" incident had nothing to do with the Communist Party group. Therefore, his arrest cannot be said to have any direct connection with the Communist Party.
Secondly, on May 18, 1926, after Li Zhilong was arrested, he published a declaration of resignation called "Li Zhilong's Revelation" in the Guangzhou Republic of China Daily, the content of which was to the effect that: "In order to avoid subsequent disputes, [Li Zhilong] specially applied to withdraw from the Communist Party of China and all organizations related to it, using Chiang Kai-shek as a guide, and hoping that the relevant comrades of the Communist Party would be able to understand." ”
According to Premier Zhou Enlai's recollection, only 39 of the First Army controlled by Chiang Kai-shek at that time chose to quit the Communist Party. The so-called "declaration of resignation" issued by Li Zhilong during this period is precisely the most direct problem for him not to be posthumously recognized as a martyr by New China in the end.
Finally, Li Zhilong's activities after the "Ning-Han Confluence" cannot be regarded as participation in the activities of the Chinese Communist Party, but at best a spontaneous act of an individual. Because Li Zhilong did not contact the party organization at that time, he privately carried out so-called "plotting rebellion" and "uprising" and other activities; and after his arrest, Chiang Kai-shek did not want to kill him, but was only "secretly dealt with" by Chen Ce, so Premier Zhou believed that his killing was caused by the internal struggle of the Kuomintang and had nothing to do with the so-called "revolution".