In the 3rd and 40s of the last century, there was a very magical department in the Kuomintang regime. On the surface, it was only a subordinate body of the Kuomintang Military Commission, but because it directly served Chiang Kai-shek, the chairman of the Military Commission, it became the highest political center in China at that time. It is precisely for this reason that the bigwigs of the Kuomintang, including Dai Li, the head of the big secret service, are quite jealous of this department. This department is Chiang Kai-shek's chamberlain.
Why does the chamber have so much energy? To put it bluntly, it is not unusual, because it serves only one person, and that is Chiang Kai-shek.
The word "attendant" in Chinese refers to a person who serves the emperor. It originated in the Han Dynasty, and in the Book of Han, there is "tired of inheriting the Ming Dynasty, and working for the servants." and the record of "the queen is driving, and the attendants are very prosperous". Judging by the name Chiang Kai-shek gave to this institution, Chiang Kai-shek regarded himself as the emperor of China.
One
In March 1932, after Chiang Kai-shek was elected chairman of the Military Commission at the Second Plenary Session of the Fourth Central Committee of the Kuomintang, he began a large-scale "encirclement and suppression" of the central Soviet area.
In order to facilitate command, Chiang Kai-shek set up the "Chairman Nanchang Camp" in Nanchang to command military operations in a unified manner. Chiang Kai-shek's adviser Yang Yongtai suggested to Chiang that the accompanying staff officers and security personnel should be organized into a new department in order to carry out the work of "encirclement and suppression." Chiang Kai-shek adopted Yang Yongtai's suggestion, and the "chamber of attendants" came into being.
The full name of the chamber is the "chamber of the chairman of the Military Commission of the National Government", and when it was first established, there were only one chamber and four groups, with Yan Daogang as the director of the chamberlain, and the four groups were the security group, the secretary group, the investigation group and the general affairs group.
In January 1936, Chiang Kai-shek reorganized the chambers. After the reorganization, the Guard Office consists of three systems: the First Guard, the Second Guard, and the Chief of Guard, and has six groups under its jurisdiction, which are in charge of party affairs, government affairs, military affairs, foreign affairs, and security affairs.
The security department under the control of the chief of guard is an independent subsystem, and its status is alongside that of the directors of the first and second divisions, and is directly responsible for the security of the Jiang couple. He is in charge of the military and is in charge of making major military decisions, as well as the army's operational command, troop training, transportation, logistics and supply, and personnel management. Even the reports of military and political officials from all over the country had to be reviewed by them before being submitted to Chiang Kai-shek.
The Second Division is in charge of political, party and secretarial affairs, and its jurisdiction includes all ministries, ministries, and commissions under the Executive Yuan, the Supreme Council of National Defense and the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, as well as special organizations such as the "Central Unification." The documents and telegrams reported by the administrative heads of the provincial and municipal local governments to Chiang for instructions were also handled by the four groups.
In 1938, Chiang Kai-shek decided to merge the intelligence business of the First and Second Divisions and set up a separate Sixth Group, that is, the Intelligence Group, to grasp the personnel situation of the Kuomintang government and military personnel. The appointment and dismissal of government officials, from the central to the localities, must be examined and studied in advance by this department, and personnel materials must be submitted to Chiang Kai-shek for personal examination and decision.
In the later stage of the Anti-Japanese War, at the suggestion of Chen Guofu, Chiang Kai-shek set up the third department of the chamberlain's office, which was in charge of personnel investigation. At this point, Chiang Kai-shek's chamber of service reached its peak of power.
The directors of the three divisions of the chamber were all senior military and political members of the Kuomintang, and those who served as directors of the chamberlain were Yan Daogang, Qian Dajun, Lin Wei, He Yaozu, and Zhang Zhizhong, all of whom were influential figures in the Kuomintang regime. Chen Bui, director of the Second Division, was even more known as Chiang Kai-shek's "courage", and even Kong Xiangxi, the "God of Wealth" who was in charge of the Kuomintang's financial power, did not dare to offend him in the slightest. As for Chen Guofu, the director of the Third Division, he is the leader of the C.C faction in the Kuomintang and has always been in charge of the party power of the Kuomintang.
Two
At the beginning of its establishment, the Chamberlain's responsibilities were clarified: "To maintain close contact with the Office of the Military Commission when the Chairman is stationed, to convey confidential information, and to accompany the Chairman when he is acting to provide assistance." In fact, the reorganized chamber has become a ruling body in charge of military, party and government, and personnel power. Although its scale is not large, its position is extremely important.
Because of this, Chiang Kai-shek's standards for selecting the personnel of the attendant room were extremely high, and there were "not Huang, Lu, and Zhejiang, who could not enter the door of the attendant room" in the Kuomintang. The "yellow" here refers to the Whampoa Military Academy; "Lu" refers to a graduate of the Japanese Army University, and "Zhejiang" refers to a native of Zhejiang. If you don't touch any of these three, no matter how capable you are, you won't be able to enter the door of the attendant's room.
Even the civilian staff in the chamberlain's office are mostly foreigners. These people were recruited by Chiang Kai-shek into the chamber to study various social issues for him to provide reference for his administration, and at the same time drafted written announcements, speeches and declarations for Chiang.
The chamberlain was Chiang Kai-shek's cronies, and Chiang Kai-shek's most important thing in selecting personnel was the "loyalty" of the personnel. As long as he was loyal to Chiang Kai-shek and obeyed Chiang Kai-shek unconditionally, even if this person was morally corrupt and discredited, Chiang Kai-shek would turn a blind eye. For example, Qian Dajun, who was the director of the first servant, was extremely greedy for money and lustful, and his ability was mediocre, but he was loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, so he stayed in the position of the director of the first attendant for a long time.
In terms of staffing, appointment and dismissal of the chamberlain, Chiang Kai-shek's methods were very clever. The director of the first place has changed frequently, and there have been seven changes of candidates in ten years; The second service department is relatively stable, from the director Chen Bui to the subordinate team leaders have not changed much, why is this?
Chiang Kai-shek believed that he had great power to take charge of military and intelligence operations, to contact various departments of the Military Commission internally, and to issue Chiang Kai-shek's military orders externally in various theaters. Even if they are their cronies, if they stay in this position for a long time, they will inevitably cultivate their own power and even empty themselves. Only by frequently changing the head of a chamberlain and preventing him from overpowering and overstepping his authority can he ensure his dictatorship.
Compared with the first service, the second service is responsible for politics, party affairs, secretarial and other business, has little contact with the army, and its members are mainly literati, which is easy to be controlled by Chiang Kai-shek, so it does not need to be changed frequently. This is also the fundamental reason why Chen Bui, a literati, has been able to serve as the director of the Second Division for more than ten years.
In 1940, Chen Guofu adhered to Chiang Kai-shek's will to establish the Third Division, which was mainly in charge of personnel investigation and assessment, personnel registration, and the communication and investigation of the trainees of the "Central Training Corps". Due to the short period of existence of the three offices, there are relatively few personnel changes, and its director has always been Chen Guofu.
The chamber is a deformed "derivative" of the Kuomintang regime, and its existence is entirely due to Chiang Kai-shek's power-hungry life. With this chamber in hand, Chiang Kai-shek was able to bypass the government's ministries, ministries, and commissions and act arbitrarily according to his own will.
Three
The power of the attendant room is extremely great, and even Dai Li, Chiang Kai-shek's most favored person, also covets the position of director of the attendant room, and sharpens his head to drill into the attendant room. At the beginning of 1939, Chiang Kai-shek decided to merge the intelligence business of the First and Second Divisions to form a separate Sixth Group. After Dai Li got the news, he asked for favors everywhere, looked for relationships, and even found the "national uncle" Song Ziwen, asking Song to go out and tell Jiang Xiang. But Chiang Kai-shek was afraid that Dai Li's power was too big to control, so he never agreed, and let another confidant Tang Zong take this position.
Dai Li failed to become the team leader, knowing that Lao Jiang was jealous of himself, in order to keep his position as deputy director of the Military Command Bureau, he did everything possible to win over and curry favor with Tang Zong. He stressed at many meetings of the military command: Tang Zong, the head of the group, is the "top boss" of the Military Command Bureau, and he requires his subordinates to have special respect for Tang Zong. In 1944 alone, he gave Tang Zong 120,000 yuan in the name of "festival expenses" and "condolence money", and Tang Zong's monthly salary at that time was only 480 yuan.
In addition to the "military commanders", the leaders of the "central command" did not dare to offend the director of the chamberlain. Because Chiang Kai-shek had issued an order to give the chamber the power to evaluate the work of the Central Command and the Military Command, and asked the Attendant Office to establish a supervision network to supervise and control the party, government, and military organs, so as to strengthen the supervision of the Central Command, the Military Command, and the gendarmerie.
Unlike Dai Li, Chen Guofu's wish finally became a reality. In 1940, he adhered to Chiang Kai-shek's will to establish the Third Division, which was mainly in charge of personnel investigation and assessment, personnel registration, and the communication and investigation of the trainees of the "Central Training Corps".
The power of the chamber was so great that it also aroused the dissatisfaction of some people in the Kuomintang, who accused the chamber of "blackmailing the Son of Heaven to order the princes", demanded that the power of the chamber be reduced, and some even directly proposed to abolish the department of the chamber. But how could Chiang Kai-shek agree?
The accusations from within the party also made some people in the chamberlain feel uneasy. In order to appease them, Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly greatly increased their salaries and promoted them to military ranks, so that they could work hard for themselves.
While improving the salary, Chiang Kai-shek also had high requirements for the staff of the chamberlain, and all members must be conscientious and loyal, and they must not slack off a little. On one occasion, the Nanjing Engineer School asked Chiang Kai-shek to issue a precept, and Qian Dajun ordered someone to draft it and submit it to Chiang Kai-shek for review. On another occasion, a certain war zone sent a large and thick battle plan, and Zhang Zhizhong, who was the director of the first office at the time, immediately signed it and submitted it. Chiang Kai-shek criticized a paragraph later: "Show me such a thick book, are you my staff officer, or am I your staff officer?"
Chiang Kai-shek often dealt with problems without going through his brain, which required good judgment from the staff in the chamberlain.
On one occasion, students from the Southwest Associated University took to the streets to march against Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship. Chiang Kai-shek, who was inspecting the front line, was furious and called Chen Bui, the director of the second office, and asked Chen to issue an order on his behalf to dissolve the Southwest Associated Congress. Chen Bui believed that if the UNGA was dissolved, a larger student uprising would definitely break out across the country, so he refused to sign it. Later, Chen Bui found some professors from the Southwest Associated University and told them that Chiang Kai-shek had plans to disband the school and take over the military affairs, and for the future of the school, he asked everyone to come forward to guide the students. Through the combination of soft and hard, this student tide was really disintegrated.
The staff in the chamberlain knew that Chiang Kai-shek was a man who loved to lose his temper. There is no need to take too seriously what Chiang Kai-shek said when he was angry. Once Chiang Kai-shek received a report that someone in the army was using military vehicles to make money, so he was furious and wrote a note to Zhang Zhizhong, the director of the chamberlain, asking him to arrest and shoot the soldiers and passengers who were carrying passengers.
After Zhang Zhizhong saw Chiang's instructions, he added a batch to the end: Whether this person has committed a capital crime or not should be handed over to the Military Law Enforcement Directorate for trial according to law. At the same time, he called Chiang Kai-shek and explained: "The chairman of the committee does not need to be angry, this is not a great thing, and it is enough to be locked up for a few days." And so it ended.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, at the suggestion of the US military advisory group, Chiang Kai-shek abolished the chamber and reorganized its first and second divisions into the Military Affairs Bureau and the Political Affairs Bureau respectively. This reform is just a change of soup and not a change of medicine, it is nothing more than a change of name for the attendant room.
After the Kuomintang was defeated and fled to Taiwan in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek set up the so-called "President's Office" in Caoshan, Taipei, which had seven groups under its jurisdiction, which were in charge of the party, government, military, press, security, research, personnel, and general affairs. This also fully shows that even if he fled to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek would not give up his dictatorship.
Four
It is said that the people who worked in Chiang Kai-shek's chamberlain were all selected by thousands of people, and they should be absolutely loyal to Chiang. What is surprising is that there is a long-term underground CCP member in the attendant's room, who was also in the Liberation War and successfully instigated the uprising of the reserve cadre corps and parachute regiment of the Chiang family's "Royal Forest Army". After Jiang learned of this, he slapped the table in anger and shouted: "Duan Boyu is going to destroy half of my country!" ”
This person's name is Duan Boyu, his father is a member of the old League, and Chiang Kai-shek and Qian Dajun are classmates in Japan, who served in Duan Qirui's government, and later resigned and returned to his hometown to run a school.
Duan Boyu was influenced by his father since he was a child, and his thinking was very progressive. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Duan Boyu went to Yan'an in 1938 and entered the fourth phase of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. On the eve of graduation, the organization talked to him, saying that his identity was rather special and that he wanted to be inserted into the Kuomintang and engaged in underground work.
In 1939, Duan Boyu was arranged to enter the seventh special class of the Army University in Chongqing. After graduation, Duan Boyu was recommended by Qian Dajun, the director of the chamberlain, to work in Chiang Kai-shek's chamberlain.
Qian Dajun appreciated Duan Zhongyu very much, and arranged Duan Boyu in the fourth section of the attendant's room to be responsible for intelligence work. He never thought that Duan Boyu was actually a Communist Party member lurking in.
Soon after arriving at the Fourth Section, Duan Boyu received a piece of information about the transfer of the Dongjiang Column of the Guangdong guerrilla unit of the Chinese Communist Party to North China. The intelligence mentioned that the Dongjiang Column would have to pass through many Japanese-occupied areas to reach Shandong via Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, and Duan Boyu felt that this was a conspiracy to use the Japanese to eliminate the Dongjiang Column. After consulting with his superiors, Duan Boyu proposed that the Dongjiang Column should go north by boat, and pointed out that this would not only prevent them from coming into contact with the masses along the way, but also facilitate surveillance.
Duan Boyu's proposal was agreed by Yu Jishi, director of the Military Affairs Bureau. As a result, more than 2,580 officers and men of the Dongjiang Column sailed north from Guangdong and safely arrived at the Yantai Liberated Area on 5 July, thwarting the Kuomintang's conspiracy to destroy the Dongjiang Column through the Japanese.
In 1948, Duan Boyu was promoted to major general, and at the same time promoted to the chief of the fourth section of the Military Affairs Bureau, responsible for the supply of the three armies of Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, navy, land and air force. Tang Enbo wanted to shoot Duan Boyu's sycophants, so Duan Zhongyu had the final say on general affairs.
Taking advantage of Tang Enbo's trust, Duan Boyu stepped up his efforts to divide the Kuomintang camp. Soon, he rebelled against the Ministry of National Defense Reserve Cadre Training Corps led by Jia Yibin, the Third Paratrooper Regiment led by Liu Nongzhen and other troops, forming a secret front.
In April 1949, Duan Boyu received instructions from the Shanghai underground party of the Communist Party of China: to launch an uprising of the pre-cadre corps, and the rebel troops advanced to Tianmu Mountain through Mogan Mountain, contacted the guerrillas in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui border areas, and coordinated the People's Liberation Army to cross the river. The date of the uprising was set for April 15, and after the uprising, the troops changed their banner to the "Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Anhui Border Region Democratic Alliance Army".
On April 6, Duan Boyu secretly came to Jiaxing to begin the deployment before the uprising.
In the early morning of April 7, Duan Boyu and Jia Yibin led more than 4,000 people from the First Corps of the Reserve Cadre Training Corps to hold an uprising in Jiaxing. When Chiang Kai-shek heard the news, he was furious and hurriedly instructed to send troops to surround and intercept him, wanting to destroy the rebel troops and capture Duan Boyu alive.
Although the troops suffered heavy casualties, they still came to the Tianmu Mountain Liberated Area on the afternoon of April 12 and found the guerrillas in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Anhui border area of the Communist Party of China.
A few days later, Chen Yi met Duan Boyu in Danyang. Duan Boyu was ashamed to report to Chen Yi, saying that he did not bring the rebel troops to the liberated area completely, Chen Yi hurriedly comforted and said: "You have successfully completed the task, I want to ask the Party Central Committee for your credit!" ”
On October 1, 1949, Duan Boyu and his comrade-in-arms Jia Yibin of the uprising boarded the Tiananmen Square viewing platform and honorably participated in the founding ceremony of New China. After liberation, Duan Zhongyu served in the army until 1982, when he retired as a deputy soldier.
Although Chiang Kai-shek's chamberlain did not exist for a long time in history, its status in the Kuomintang was extremely high, especially during the 8-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was even more powerful than all departments of the Nationalist Government. This is the reason why even a spy leader like Dai Li is afraid of the chamber.
Resources:
China Broadcasting Network: "Revealing the Secret: The Mysterious Special Functions of Chiang Kai-shek's Chamberlain (Picture)"
Chinanews.com: The Formation, Development and Evolution of Chiang Kai-shek's Chamberlain
"Friends of the Secretary" magazine: "Chiang Kai-shek's chamber of staff"