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"There is nothing wrong with not resisting the 918 incident, and I still think so today. ”
This sentence was actually said by Zhang Xueliang in an interview with Japan in his later years.
You must know that in the 918 Incident, in the face of the Japanese invasion of the three eastern provinces, Zhang Xueliang, as the young marshal of the Northeast, not only did not lead the troops to resist the Japanese invasion, but also gave an order to let all the soldiers not move, so that the Japanese devils quickly occupied the entire territory of the Northeast without spending a single soldier.
However, when facing an interview with the Japanese in his later years, Zhang Xueliang still believed that there was nothing wrong with not resisting in 918 back then, and said that he had been patriotic since he was a child.
What makes him even more controversial is that he donated all his hundreds of millions worth of inheritance to Columbia University in the United States, why is this?
Patriotic since childhood?
Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang, his three major actions are enough to affect the development of modern Chinese history.
The reason why it can have such a big impact is largely because Zhang Xueliang has a very good father, that is, Zhang Zuolin, the king of the Northeast.
Zhang Xueliang himself once said: "If it weren't for the patriotism of our Zhang family, would there have been such an end?"
Although Zhang Zuolin can be called a generation of heroes, he is indeed patriotic, and he is never weak and confused in the affairs of his family and country, no matter how the Japanese tried to win him over before, he was always unmoved.
As early as 1916, the Chinese army and the Japanese army clashed in Zhengjiagou, when the Japanese Kwantung Army wanted to take advantage of the fire and loot and station Japanese police and military advisers in the three eastern provinces, but Zhang Zuolin did not hesitate and directly chose to refuse, because he knew that once he agreed, it would be no different from indulging Japan's invasion of mainland territory.
After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan planned to colonize Northeast China through immigration. Unexpectedly, Zhang Zuolin also fought poison with poison and frantically emigrated to Japan, and the number of people who moved to Japan was even much higher than the number of people who moved from Japan, which made Japan's colonial plan fall through again.
Therefore, although the wolf-ambitious Japanese have always been eyeing the three northeastern provinces, they do not dare to act rashly because of the powerful warlord Zhang Zuolin in charge.
And Zhang Xueliang in this period, as the saying goes, has not yet opened his mind, relying on the identity of the eldest son of Zhang Zuolin, the king of the Northeast, as a blessing, no matter where he goes, he has his own halo.
In addition, Zhang Xueliang is handsome and handsome, born in a wealthy family, and is ranked among the "Four Sons of the Republic of China", surrounded by all kinds of warblers and swallows, and he is also indulged in gentle township, being a swinger brother, there is no extra mind to make contributions, thinking that his father can give him ready-made anyway, and he doesn't have to worry about it himself.
Until 1928, because Zhang Zuolin always refused to recognize Japan's privileges in Northeast China, the Japanese planned the Huanggutun Incident and killed him.
Since then, Zhang Xueliang had to end his prodigal career as a playboy and was forced to provoke the king of the Northeast.
But Zhang Xueliang himself knew that although he sat on the throne of the commander of the Northeast Army, most of the generals under him did not believe in him and felt that he was unworthy.
In particular, Yang Yuting, who was quite prestigious in the Northeast Army, often disobeyed Zhang Xueliang's orders, which made Zhang Xueliang often feel a threat.
Zhang Xueliang knew that he couldn't control the field with his own strength alone, and seeing that the Northeast Army was no longer as strong as it used to be under his leadership, he simply decided to give up the position of the king of the Northeast and let Lao Jiang help him control the field.
Soon, he telegraphed the whole country to declare the Northeast Army, which would be subordinated to the Nationalist government in Nanjing, led by Chiang Kai-shek.
To this end, Zhang Xueliang also ordered that all the five-color flags of the Beiyang Government hoisted in the northeastern provinces be replaced with the red flags of the national government, which was known as the "Northeast Change Banner" in history.
And this is the first major thing Zhang Xueliang did.
Ninety-one-eight does not resist
The Northeast changed banners, and Chiang Kai-shek was naturally overjoyed, after all, there was no need to lose troops and scrap a soldier, and he picked up such a big bargain in the Northeast for nothing, which is really a pie in the sky.
For Zhang Xueliang, this is also a good way to avoid the Northeast Army from continuing civil strife, and from now on, the Northeast Army, which belongs to the Kuomintang government in Nanjing, can also eat a stable imperial grain and military salary, and no longer have to worry about the financial problem of self-financing.
You must know that in the previous warlord melee, the huge military expenditure has seriously affected the economy of the Northeast, resulting in serious inflation, heavy government debt, and the people of the Northeast are full of complaints, Zhang Xueliang and the Northeast Army really do not have the strength, and continue to fight with the Kuomintang.
So instead of killing each other, it is better to shake hands and make peace.
More importantly, Zhang Xueliang's move also promoted the realization of the great cause of China's reunification at that time in advance, and avoided the consumption of national strength and the suffering of the people due to the civil war, so at least from this point of view, Zhang Xueliang is indeed patriotic.
However, it didn't take long for Zhang Xueliang to go from a patriotic soldier who promoted the reunification of the motherland to a national sinner and a "general who does not resist".
Before the September 18 Incident, Chiang Kai-shek, who "could not tolerate two tigers on one mountain," was devoting all his energy to dealing with the Communist Party.
After the September 18 Incident, in the face of Japan's invasion of China, Chiang Kai-shek still did not take the Japanese devils seriously, and he even threatened that "if you want to fight outside, you must first settle inside", and he did not hesitate to allow the Japanese army to invade China, but he exterminated our party as a compatriot.
However, Zhang Xueliang also surprisingly cooperated with Chiang Kai-shek's absurd arguments, and as soon as he learned of the Japanese invasion of China, he actually ordered the entire army in Northeast China not to resist or move, and to confiscate the gun storage.
The result of this move was naturally that Zhang Xueliang almost did not let go of a single shot, and he lost the three northeastern provinces. And the Japanese occupied the entire northeast in an instant, almost without a single soldier.
It was precisely this decision to implement the policy of non-resistance during the September 18 Incident that nailed Zhang Xueliang to the pillar of shame in history forever.
Because if they hadn't chosen not to resist in the September 18 Incident, perhaps the Japanese would not have looked down on China so much, and then launched a full-scale war of aggression against China so quickly, and even arrogantly threatened to "destroy China in three months"!
In the face of popular anger and protests, Zhang Xueliang fell silent.
It wasn't until later in life that when he was asked again why he adopted a policy of non-resistance to the September 18 Incident at that time, Zhang Xueliang sighed and said: "I want to know that the Japanese devils are really doing it, how can I not resist?"
Perhaps it was precisely because Zhang Xueliang's life was too prosperous and smooth sailing in his youth that he failed to fully understand the sinister nature of the people's hearts, so he had an overly optimistic attitude towards the Japanese invasion of China, and even pinned his hopes on Japan that it would be jealous of the immediate interests of other powers in China, so that he would not dare to act rashly.
Therefore, when the September 18 incident occurred, Zhang Xueliang really thought that Japan was just testing and did not dare to really fight. Even after discovering that Japan was not a test this time, but really wanted to fight, Zhang Xueliang still pinned his hopes on international forces such as the League of Nations to help them deter Japan and mediate.
Of course, more importantly, Zhang Xueliang did not dare to disobey the "basic national policy" set by Chiang Kai-shek of "first securing the inside of the country", not to mention that Zhang Xueliang was not optimistic about the strength of our Chinese army at all, and felt that he could not defeat the Japanese army at all, so he immediately decided to use "non-resistance" to preserve his strength.
And this idea also shows some of the old warlord Xi retained by Zhang Xueliang, that is, he regards soldiers as more important than the people.
After not resisting, although the soldiers under Zhang Xueliang did not suffer much losses, the tens of millions of people in the northeast suffered a great disaster, and before they even had time to react, they inexplicably became slaves and prisoners of the country, and were burned, looted and enslaved by the Japanese army.
Fortunately, Zhang Xueliang came back in time to remedy it, and did the last major event in his life that was enough to change the course of modern history: launching the Xi'an Incident, coercing Chiang Kai-shek to give up the civil war and cooperating with our party to resist Japan, thus contributing to the establishment of the anti-Japanese united front, which can be regarded as making a great contribution to the anti-Japanese resistance, which can also be seen Zhang Xueliang's patriotism.
However, the Xi'an Incident also made Lao Jiang hold a grudge against Zhang Xueliang from then on, and it didn't take long for him to manage to imprison Zhang Xueliang, and this captivity was nearly sixty years.
Sixty years of freedom in exchange for the establishment of the anti-Japanese national united front can be regarded as a kind of atonement for Zhang Xueliang's "non-resistance" in misjudging the situation back then.
But in this case, why did Zhang Xueliang still think in his later years that it was not wrong for him to "not resist" during the 918 incident?
Give your inheritance to the United States
Especially in the case that the Japanese have a "hatred for killing his father" against Zhang Xueliang, it stands to reason that Zhang Xueliang should not hate the Japanese even more?
Zhang Xueliang, in his later years, said in an interview that the reason why he did not feel that there was anything wrong with implementing the policy of "non-resistance" in response to the September 18 Incident was because he was afraid that once the Chinese army rose up to fight back at that time, it would be equivalent to giving the Japanese army a justifiable reason to officially launch a war of aggression against China.
After all, something like this did not happen before the 918 incident. At that time, the Japanese army had frequently made many provocative and harassing actions in Northeast China, just like in the "Nakamura Incident", a Japanese spy incited the Japanese military and people to invade China by slandering the Chinese army for executing a Japanese captain for no reason, so as to play on the topic.
Zhang Xueliang felt that if he chose to "fight back and scold", at least he would not leave any excuse for the Japanese invasion of China and an excuse for expanding the war, and he could justifiably stand in the perspective of the victim and condemn Japan's aggression.
It's just that what he didn't expect was that the Japanese devils were really so ferocious, and they didn't care about the excuse of invading China or not, so they went straight to work.
As for the Northeast Army that was shot by Zhang Xueliang, it was naturally impossible for them to stand in place and wait for death so stupidly, so they could only retreat, so they created a situation of abandoning the city and fleeing, giving up the three northeastern provinces.
However, with the fall of the three northeastern provinces, the warehouses that stored the weapons confiscated by the Northeast Army also completely fell into the hands of the Japanese, making the Northeast Army almost completely lose its combat capability.
Therefore, on the whole, no matter whether Zhang Xueliang's original intention of choosing "non-resistance" was good or bad, whether those so-called "errors in judgment" are worthy of being forgiven by history, and the results of "non-resistance" will be devastating to the people of the three northeastern provinces and even the whole country.
Therefore, no matter how Zhang Xueliang defended himself, he did not resist, but only made a mistake in judgment, and there was no doubt that he was only whitewashing his weakness back then.
However, although he was not willing to admit that his "non-resistance" was wrong on the surface, he still felt quite guilty about the consequences of non-resistance, and it is not difficult to see from the paragraph he publicly said on his 90th birthday:
"I have spent 90 years in vain, and I have made no contribution to the country, society, and people... I'm a sinner, I'm not just a sinner, I'm the culprit of sinners, and I'm ashamed of myself. ”
When talking about the September 18 incident, Zhang Xueliang also said:
"I am a bold person, and if I had known at that time that the Japanese had really come to invade China after the September 18 Incident, I would definitely have fought hard with Japan. ”
And the Xi'an Incident after the "non-resistance" was that he used practical actions to make up for the mistakes he made because of non-resistance.
Just like his patriotism, there is no doubt about it, in his later years, he still said in countless interviews: "It is the same to this day, if the country wants to use me, I will not hesitate." ”
However, it is regrettable that after the restoration of freedom, Zhang Xueliang did not return to the mainland of the motherland he longed for until his death, and even the inheritance worth hundreds of millions of dollars was donated to the United States.
After the death of the Chiang family father and son one after another, Lee Teng-hui became the head of the new generation of Baodao, and in order to conform to the "democracy and freedom" argument of Baodao at that time, he decided to release Zhang Xueliang.
However, Lee Teng-hui had one condition when he released Zhang Xueliang at that time, that is, "he could only travel back and forth between Taiwan and the United States." Therefore, in fact, Zhang Xueliang did not have real personal freedom, but was still greatly restricted, and once he went to places other than Taiwan and the United States, his personal safety was very likely to be threatened.
As for Zhang Xueliang's inheritance donated to Columbia University in the United States, one is the money left to him by his ex-wife Yu Fengzhi, not his own. The second is some important historical documents and antique calligraphy and painting collections, even if he wants to donate them to the mainland, he is afraid that the people on the other side of the island will not allow it, so he would rather donate to the United States than to donate to the treasure island.
It is precisely because of so much helplessness and regret that Zhang Xueliang's evaluation has always been full of merits and controversies, but it is undeniable that his contribution to launching the Xi'an Incident is undoubtedly huge.
As far as our party is concerned, the success of the Xi'an Incident is even directly related to the life and death of our party, so our mainstream official evaluation of Zhang Xueliang has always outweighed his merits, at least his patriotism is beyond doubt.