Chiang was very experienced in fighting for party power.
In May 1926, he created the "Case for Sorting Out Party Affairs" to attack our party and take the opportunity to steal part of the party's power.
In April 1927, he proposed the "purging of the party", massacring the Communists and expelling all our members from the Kuomintang from the areas under his control.
This time, he repeated his old trick and put forward the "Bill on Sorting Out the Party Departments in Various Localities" with the aim of seizing all party power in the Kuomintang. However, the target of his attack this time was not the Communist Party, but the opposition within the Kuomintang. In order to manipulate the Third Congress of the Kuomintang, the 187th Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang passed a resolution that the delegates to the three major congresses should not be elected by election method, but should be fixed and appointed.
Chiang's above activities aroused strong resentment among other factions within the Kuomintang. Li Zongren hid in Shanghai, and Feng Yuxiang not only did not attend the meeting in Nanjing, but instead issued a telegram on 12 March to resign from the post of military and political minister. The Kuomintang is facing an even greater split.
Despite such a serious abnormal situation, Chiang Kai-shek still insisted on holding the three major conferences. Chiang Kai-shek wanted to make full use of this short period of formal reunification and hasten to seize the supreme party power so that the opposition could be suppressed in the name of the Central Committee.
On March 15, 1929, the Third Plenary Session of the Kuomintang opened. The presidium is 9 people, namely: Jiang Shi, Hu Hanmin, Tan Yankai, Sun Ke, Zhu Yonghua, Gu Yingfen, Chen Guofu, Chen Yaoyuan, and Yu Youren (who did not actually participate in the conference). The composition of the presidium explained that Jiang and Hu organized the meeting.
The Third Plenary Session of the Kuomintang had two main contents:
The declarations of the First and Third National Congresses ran counter to the program of the First and Second National Congresses of the Kuomintang. Publicly criticize Dr. Sun Yat-sen's three major policies. Calling the Soviet Union "Red Imperialism". He called Mr. Sun Yat-sen a friend, played a vanguard role in the Northern Expedition, and described the Chinese Communists who fought bloody battles as the targets of the Northern Valve Revolution as well as the warlords and imperialism.
The Second and Third Plenary Sessions not only announced the expulsion of the Chinese Communists from the Kuomintang who were members of the Executive Committee of the Second Central Committee of the Kuomintang, but also expelled or suspended the Kuomintang personalities who sincerely carried out the three major policies. Such as Deng Yanda, Peng Zeru, Lu Youyu, Xu Qian, Chen Qiyuan and others. On the contrary, the Xishan Conference faction, which was expelled for openly splitting the Kuomintang, made a resolution at the congress, declaring: "Of the comrades who were expelled from the party for opposing communism, 11 people, including Lin Sen, Zhang Ji, Xie Zhi, Ju Zheng, Zou Lu, and Shen Dingyi, were the first to restore their party membership. On March 21, the congress passed a "Case of Rewarding Comrade Chiang Chung-cheng" to publicize Chiang Kai-shek's "merits." Before the Third Plenum of the Kuomintang, the public documents of the Kuomintang did not claim that Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the whole party. This was the first time that Chiang Kai-shek had been established as the supreme leader of the whole party.
At the Third National Congress, Chiang's benefactors' nephews, confidants Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu, were both "elected" to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. Chiang Kai-shek concurrently served as the head of the organization, Chen Guofu was the deputy minister, and Chen Lifu was the secretary general. Since then, the power of party affairs of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang has fallen into the hands of Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu. At this point, the "Jiang Family Tianxia Ding Family Party" became the "Jiang Family Tianxia Chen Family Party", which was the formation of the so-called "CC faction".
The so-called CC is the pronoun of Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu. Because the English spelling of Chen is the beginning of the word C, two Cs are used instead of two Chen. It can also be said that this is Er Chen's nickname, which is obviously given by others, and it has a disrespectful taste, and it is definitely not Er Chen's own name. ”
The basic contingent of the Kuomintang following Chiang was the right wing of the Kuomintang. Jiang's cronies are from the five types of people: fellow villagers, colleagues, fellow clansmen, classmates, and fellow families. Chiang Kai-shek used the teacher-student relationship to establish his own Whampoa military lineage to control the army; Taking advantage of the relationship between fellow villagers and fellow families, the CC system headed by Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu was established to control the party's power. Relying on and commanding his basic contingent, Chiang began a series of activities to sweep away and crack down on the opposition. When sorting out the party offices in various localities, most of the staff members sent to establish the party offices were CC members. When re-registering party members, those who were not supporters of Chiang were not registered in the name of "suspected communists." Anyone who wished to follow Chiang Kai-shek without asking whether he had party membership or was expelled from the party was accepted to register at a designated place. In this way, the Kuomintang was attempted to turn the Kuomintang into a pure pro-Chiang faction.
Chiang Kai-shek's series of actions seemed to ignite a powder keg, and the melee of the new military group of the Kuomintang immediately broke out.
The melee of the new military bloc of the Kuomintang began with the war between Chiang and Gui.
On February 22, 1929, the Wuhan Political Branch of the Gui Department issued a resolution to remove Lu Diping from his post as chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government and commander of the 18th Division. At the same time, Ye Qi's Ninth Division and Xia Wei's Seventh Army were sent to Changsha.
Lu Diping was caught off guard and hurriedly fled to Nanjing on a foreign ship. The Gui army controlled Hunan, and so far, the Gui system occupied the two lakes and connected Guangxi, and was bound to be able to attack and defend, advance and retreat, and compete with Chiang Kai-shek. This is the so-called "Hunan case".
The Hunan case occurred on the eve of the Third Plenum Congress of the Kuomintang, and Chiang Kai-shek, in order to maintain the peace situation, held the congress and seized party power, and did not want to immediately use force. Second, military deployments are not ready. Third, I don't know the attitude of Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan. However, although Chiang Kai-shek was busy holding the Three Plenums Congress, he would not relax his deal with the Gui faction. He and his cronies orchestrate a plan to eliminate the Katsura family. They took advantage of the weakness of the Gui lineage, first dismantling the Bai Chongxi Department in Hebei, and then dismantling the Guangdong-Guizhou Alliance. After this set of tactics succeeded, after the end of the Sanquan Conference, the main force of the Gui system will be sent to recruit troops in order to achieve complete victory.
The Jiang clan's method of eliminating Bai Chongxi's department was to take advantage of the contradiction between Tang Shengzhi and the Gui family, use Tang Shengzhi, and expel Bai Chongxi.
Li Pinxian and Liao Lei, which Bai Chongxi brought to Hebei, were originally the main forces of Tang Shengzhi, and Bai Chongxi wanted to stay in Hebei for a long time, but also wanted to develop to the northwest, which caused dissatisfaction among his subordinates. Tang's subordinates all wanted to return to their hometown in Hunan as soon as possible, and they all felt that it was disgraceful to be an officer of the Gui department. Chiang Kai-shek seized on this contradiction and widely disseminated the news that Tang Shengzhi was about to be reinstated. Tang Shengzhi also became active in Shanghai, and sent people to Chiang Kai-shek to express his wholehearted support for the central authorities. Chiang Kai-shek not only promised Tang Ke to re-command the troops, but also rewarded him with a huge amount of money, and urged him to immediately go north to Pingping and Tianjin to recover his old headquarters.
At this time, the battle between Chiang and Gui was already on the string, and Bai Chongxi planned to lead his troops south to Pukou and cooperate with Li Zongren's troops to attack Chiang. But at this time, the troops no longer listened to Bai's command, and posted everywhere "Down with the Gui family!" Down with Bai Chongxi!" Welcome Commander-in-Chief Tang to make a comeback!" and other slogans. Even posted anti-Gui and Tang slogans on the train cars of Beiping and Tianjin. Bai Chongxi could not gain a foothold in the army, so he fled by the Japanese ship from Tanggu in disguise. Coincidentally, this Japanese ship had just brought Tang Shengzhi from Shanghai and Bai Chongxi away.
On March 29, Yan Xishan issued a telegram in response to Chiang Kai-shek's crusade order. Liu Xiang of Sichuan, in order to prevent Chiang Kai-shek from entering Sichuan in the name of pursuing the Gui family, also declared that he was seeking Gui.
In the Jiang-Gui War, Feng Yuxiang adopted a two-sided approach, and the Gui family asked Feng to assist in opposing Chiang, and Feng agreed. Jiang Xu gave Feng the position of administrative premier, and Feng was moved by the benefits and promised to send 140,000 troops to help Jiang seek Gui. However, when Feng Zaibing went to Xuzhou, he printed a large number of rebellion notices, but did not print who the rebels were, but only printed charges such as "corruption and perversion of the law, wanton expropriation, massacre of the people, and persecution of young people". His intention was to fill in the name of whoever Chiang and Gui were defeated, and tried to occupy Wuhan before Chiang Kai-shek. Feng Yuxiang's attitude not only harmed the Gui family, but he was also plotted by the Jiang family and was condemned by both sides.
On March 29, Chiang personally assumed the position of commander-in-chief and went to Jiujiang to command the battle against the Gui family. He Yingqin served as chief of the General Staff. A total of 3 armies were dispatched: Liu Zhi's 1st Army, Zhu Shaoliang's 2nd Army, and Zhu Peide's 3rd Army, and 14 ships cooperated in the operation. Two days before his trip to Jiujiang, that is, on March 27, Jiang issued the "Rebellion and Warning to the Soldiers" written by Shao Lizi. In this article it is written:
"The warlords of the Gui faction are entrenched in the territory of the two lakes and the two lakes, control the finances of the two lakes and the two lakes, and hijack the armies of the two lakes for selfishness. The Fifth Plenum of the CPC Central Committee stipulated that a political branch could not appoint or dismiss personnel in that particular area in the name of a branch, but the Gui warlords dared to appoint and dismiss the chairman of the Hunan Provincial Government and all its members in the name of the Wuhan Political Branch. The reorganization meeting resolved that all troops should wait for review, and that they should not be mobilized without the orders of the editorial committee, and the warlords of the Gui faction dared to transfer troops to attack Hunan and Jiangxi without authorization. Such an act not only exceeds the rights conferred on the political branch by the Central Committee, but also violates the resolution of the Central Committee's Dispatch Conference. It has been clearly revealed that it is a sabotage of reunification. Before participating in the revolution, the warlords not only waited and watched, sat back and watched the success or failure, but also conspired to stop and wantonly destroy. After participating in the revolution, he did not take advantage of opportunism at all times, made his own merits at the sacrifice of others, and did not sow discord at all times, so as to eliminate the forces of the revolution and expand his own territory. In general, his past behavior, his conspiracy is cunning, vicious and sinister, and he is really above the Beiyang warlords. With the efforts of the whole country's soldiers, the people of the whole country voted to beg for this rebellion, and it was not difficult to annihilate it with one blow; However, the warlords of the Gui clan rebelled against the trend of democratic reunification and wantonly committed the atrocities of feudal separatism. ”
Chiang knew that public opinion could crush the enemy's spirit; However, Chiang's best way was to buy off the rebels from within their opponents. Chiang Kai-shek knew that there were factions within factions everywhere, and it was impossible for them to be free of contradictions. Chiang Kai-shek adopted a factionalistic policy to divide and disintegrate from within, taking advantage of the fact that he held the power of the central government, promising refuge with high-ranking officials, and it was often easy to find defectors. This method of dismantling the opponent can play the role of drawing wages from the bottom of the kettle, and the effect is very fast.
After Jiang entered Wuhan, he rewarded Li Mingrui with a large amount of cash. The telegram instructed Hunan He Jian to "purge the remnants of evil, only ask about the first evil, and not ask about anything else". At the mass meeting held in Wuhan, he scolded the rebellion. Accumulating force and prestige is indispensable. Chiang Kai-shek also summoned Feng Yuxiang's subordinate Han Fuyu alone in Wuhan, and the Chiang couple "warmly entertained" him. In person, Xu Han served as the chairman of Henan Province, and gave hundreds of thousands of huge sums of money to begin the work of dismantling the Feng Ministry.
The remnants of the Fourth Army of the Gui family, defeated from Wuhan, under the leadership of Hu Zongze, Tao Jun, and Xia Wei, retreated to western Hubei to contact the Sichuan warlord Yang Sen. Chiang Kai-shek could not allow them to gain a foothold in western Hubei, he ordered Zhang Fakui, Zhu Shaoliang, and Xia Douyin to pursue, and at the same time issued a "Letter to the Gui Army" to appease the Gui Department, saying: "If the officers and soldiers return with the troops, they will be rewarded with 5 yuan each; Officers and soldiers who return with their bare hands are to be contained; If you can kill your rebel commander and return, you will be rewarded with a heavy rank. kill your company platoon commander, and reward 100 yuan for promotion to one level; killed the regimental commander and rewarded 500 yuan in silver, and promoted to 2 levels; Those who kill the division commander and the commander-in-chief will be rewarded with 5,000 yuan in silver and promoted to 3 levels. "Unable to withstand Chiang Kai-shek's two-pronged means of force and money, the Gui Fourth Army has collapsed completely." Beginning in 1929, Chiang formally completed the great cause of reunification, and the Kuomintang established a nationwide regime.
On June 21, 1928, the 154th meeting of the Central Political Conference resolved to change the name of Beijing to Beiping City. This means that the capital of the whole country can only be called "Beijing", that is, Nanjing.