In the modern history of the Anti-Japanese War, the Xi'an Incident was undoubtedly an important node, Zhang Xueliang and General Yang Hucheng detained Chiang Kai-shek under house arrest for the sake of national righteousness, and finally promoted the second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, which opened the way for the successful launch of the all-out war of resistance.
However, this also made Chiang Kai-shek resentful of General Zhang Xueliang, who was placed under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek's government from 1937 onwards.
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the people of the whole country called on Chiang Kai-shek to release General Zhang Xueliang, who had made great contributions to the fight against Japan, and Zhou Enlai and other Communist leaders also negotiated with Chiang Kai-shek many times.
However, Chiang Kai-shek was worried that after Zhang Xueliang was released, he would make unfavorable remarks about himself, and he himself was still angry about the Xi'an Incident, so he even ordered someone to secretly send Zhang Xueliang and his second wife Zhao Yidi to Taiwan under house arrest, and this level was more than ten years.
In reports from Taiwan and other regions, Zhang Xueliang and Zhao Yidi lived a paradise-like life next to the Inoue Hot Spring in Hsinchu County, and General Zhang Xueliang, who had been fighting horses for half his life, would even grow vegetables and raise some chickens and ducks in the small yard, as if they were fairy couples, but this was not the case.
In the memoirs of General Zhang Xueliang, he and Zhao Yidi's life during this period is detailed, and although the place where they lived was called Hot Springs, their house was a simple Japanese building.
Not to mention the hot springs, there was not even an electric light, and at that time, General Zhang Xueliang had already suffered from an eye disease, and the dim living environment had caused irreversible damage to his eyesight.
In order to facilitate the monitoring of the lives of the two of them, the Kuomintang agents chose their residence in an extremely remote place, where there was only one road connected to the outside world and the road condition was extremely poor, and once it rained and snowed, the car could not pass at all, so Zhang Xueliang and Zhao Yidi often fell into the dilemma of lack of food and clothing.
In order not to be starved to death, Zhang Xueliang had to plant some vegetables in the yard, raise some chickens and ducks, and Zhao Yidi, who was clothed in fine clothes and food, also began to learn to weave cloth at home, which saved them from hunger and cold.
Compared with the poor living environment, it was the restrictions imposed by the Kuomintang authorities on General Zhang Xueliang's personal freedom that made him the most painful.
During their time at Inoue Hot Springs, Zhang Xueliang and Zhao Yidi's every move was closely monitored by secret agents, and they were forbidden to meet with almost anyone, not even General Zhang Xueliang's younger brother, or even know where they were being held.
In order to pass the time, General Zhang Xueliang began to devote himself to the study of religion, at first Zhang Xueliang wanted to become a Buddhist, but Soong Meiling also interfered with this, and under his influence and "persuasion", General Zhang Xueliang became a Christian.
And his later baptism, as well as his divorce from his wife Yu Fengzhi, to a certain extent, were also his "letter of surrender" to Chiang Kai-shek, which can be seen from the coercion and oppression he was subjected to at that time.
When General Zhang Xueliang was under house arrest, the new Chinese side kept preaching General Zhang's great contributions to the anti-Japanese cause, which made Chiang Kai-shek quite unhappy.
As a result, he began to ask General Zhang Xueliang to write a "memoir" related to the Xi'an Incident, and asked him to express his critical stance against the Communist Party and his "remorse" for his detention.
In the face of Chiang Kai-shek's unreasonable demands, General Zhang Xueliang chose to give in after a fierce ideological struggle, because he was so eager for freedom.
Between 1956 and 1958, he wrote four written documents, in which his attitude toward the Communist Party became more and more intense, and although he knew that "if such a text is allowed to be published, I will henceforth be an anti-communist fighter", but he still had to cater to Chiang Kai-shek's needs for freedom.
These materials eventually led to a change in Chiang Kai-shek's attitude, and with the continued respect that Chiang Ching-kuo had for General Chang Xueliang, he was finally able to leave his remote residence and live in Taipei.
In the end, he chose to build a Western-style two-story house on Fuxing Road in Beitou, a suburb of Taipei City, and finally had his own "home".
However, this does not mean the end of the house arrest of the Taiwan authorities, although Chiang Ching-kuo removed the military and police around Zhang Xueliang's house at that time, he still planted a large number of spies around him in the name of protecting Zhang Xueliang and Zhao Yidi, and wherever Zhang and Zhao went, these spies followed closely like their shadows.
At that time, General Zhang Xueliang liked to visit the house of his fifth brother Zhang Xuesen, but before he entered Zhang Xuesen's house, the spies would take the first step to enter the house to investigate and drive away the people they thought were suspicious.
Sometimes General Zhang Xueliang's niece would express her dissatisfaction with what the spies were doing, but General Zhang always said that she was used to it, and said that it was much better than before, from which we can also guess what kind of life General Zhang had when he first arrived in Taiwan.
In those days, only during the Chinese New Year, General Zhang Xueliang was truly free, and the spies would not interfere with his reunion with his family on that day, which was also the happiest day of the year for him.
On Chinese New Year's Eve, he always pulls his nephews and nieces to play cards together, and although he can barely see the cards, he can still be a big winner just by feeling the cards.
When General Zhang Xueliang's house arrest was just relaxed, the number of people he could visit was very limited, and most of his relatives were non-political friends such as Zhang Daqian.
It was not until after the lifting of the party ban in Taiwan that General Zhang Xueliang finally gained real freedom, and at this time he was already an old man.
After regaining his freedom, General Zhang Xueliang decided to take Zhao Yidi to live in the United States after careful consideration, and after leaving Taiwan, he recalled his life and always said that his life came to an abrupt end at the age of thirty-six, and that year was the beginning of his house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek.
Because Chang's whereabouts in Taiwan were kept strictly secret, many people are ignorant of his early years under house arrest.
With the opening of some of Zhang Xueliang's residences to the outside world, many people mistakenly believe that General Zhang Xueliang has always lived in a privileged environment, and there are no other problems except being grounded.
However, in fact, General Zhang Xueliang was in a very bleak situation when he was under house arrest, and the "memoirs" that Chiang Kai-shek forced him to write became his eternal scar.
These materials have caused General Zhang Xueliang to be criticized for a long time, which is extremely unfair to such a figure who has made great contributions to the national war of resistance.
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