Bai Chongxi fell in love with a nurse in his later years, and after dying violently overnight, he was bruised, and Gu Wenzheng: drank too much tonics. This sentence is puzzling, what exactly happened? Is there some unknown conspiracy behind the fate of a military general with outstanding military achievements in his later years? Did Bai Chongxi's lifelong pursuit of glory and loyalty finally come to such a tragic end? The scene when he was dying that day was chilling. Is it really as Gu Wenzheng said, just an accident caused by a simple "tonic overdose"? Or is there something else that needs us to continue to find the truth?
The Times: Bai Chongxi
Bai Chongxi, a warlord-born general, has experienced vicissitudes in his life. He worked hard step by step from an ordinary soldier to the top of the position, and finally became the famous "Little Zhuge of the Kuomintang". During the Northern Expedition, he fought side by side with Li Zongren, the leader of the Gui family, and made the name of "Guangxi Wolf Soldier" resounding all over China. The two fought their way through the gates, and finally extended the front of the National Revolutionary Army beyond Shanhaiguan.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Bai Chongxi's military command ability was even more fully displayed. He was not only good at using guerrilla tactics, but also bravely killed the enemy in the victory of Taierzhuang, which terrified the invaders. Even Chairman Mao Zedong had to praise him as "China's most cunning warlord".
However, just when this wise and brave general was most likely to show off his might, fate began to turn his back on him. The Liberation War entered a white-hot stage, and Bai Chongxi began to weigh it repeatedly between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. At the beginning, he united with Li Zongren to force Chiang Kai-shek three times and asked him to go into the wilderness. But soon, he betrayed his word and went to Taiwan alone to defect to Chiang Kai-shek.
This decision doomed him to spend the rest of his life under Chiang Kai-shek's vigilance and suppression. Bai Chongxi thought that he could live a free life in Taiwan with his past military exploits, but it backfired. Chiang Kai-shek regarded him as a thorn in his side and a thorn in his flesh, and never really trusted this old enemy. As a result, the incidents about Bai Chongxi's cold reception and insults were unveiled.
Chiang Kai-shek and Bai Chongxi were entangled in grievances
The reasons behind Bai Chongxi's final decision to defect to Chiang Kai-shek are quite complicated. In 1949, faced with the pincer encirclement of the People's Liberation Army, Bai Chongxi had no place in Guangxi. Just as he fled in embarrassment, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly extended an olive branch, not only wrote a letter inviting him to "discuss a great plan", but also sent a large amount of gold and silver treasures.
For a while, Bai Chongxi was greatly moved by this old enemy. After repeated considerations, he finally left Hainan at the end of 1949 and went to Taiwan Province to "face the saint". In order to show his determination, Bai Chongxi even broke up with Li Zongren, an ally of the Gui family, and announced that the two had parted ways since then.
However, Bai Chongxi soon tasted the bitter fruit of defecting to Chiang Kai-shek. At first, Chiang Kai-shek appointed him deputy director of the "Strategic Advisory Council," but in reality it was only a fictitious title. Half a year later, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Bai Chongxi as a member of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang Reform Committee, completely keeping him away from the center of power.
What was even more unacceptable to Bai Chongxi was that when the Seventh National Congress of the Kuomintang was held in 1952, all the members of the Sixth Standing Committee of the Kuomintang in Taiwan were elected as "councilors", but he was the only one who was left out in the cold. Although the elders around him repeatedly interceded for him, Chiang Kai-shek was always perfunctory and always wary of this old rival.
Chiang Kai-shek's cautious and cautious nature stemmed largely from the many frustrations he had with Bai Chongxi. The conflict between the two can be traced back to the Northern Expedition, when Chiang Kai-shek conspired to "pull Hu and overthrow Gui" in an attempt to eliminate the threat of Bai Chongxi. And Bai Chongxi is not a saint, he not only united with Li Zongren three times to force Chiang Kai-shek, but also sent a "Hai Jing telegram" in Hankou to ask Chiang Kai-shek to go to the field.
In this way, Chiang Kai-shek was naturally wary of Bai Chongxi. Over time, this vigilance escalated into suspicion and hostility. Especially at the instigation and instigation of Gu Wenzheng, a spy, Chiang Kai-shek's hostility towards Bai Chongxi finally brewed into a conspiracy against his life.
A murder plot surfaces
Chiang Kai-shek's wariness and suspicion of Bai Chongxi were not groundless. Since the beginning of his defection to Taiwan, Bai Chongxi has been repeatedly plotted and humiliated.
Initially, Chiang Kai-shek's henchman Gu Wenzheng had hatched a conspiracy to plant a bomb on Bai Chongxi's special plane. Fortunately, this plan was discovered by Bai Chongxi's cronies, and a catastrophe was averted.
But that's just the beginning. In 1951, Gu Wenzheng instructed agents of Taiwan's Secrecy Bureau to poison Bai Chongxi's food. Because Bai Chongxi happened to be out of town at the time, this conspiracy did not succeed.
But as time went on, Gu Wenzheng did not stop there, but began to plan a more secretive murder plan. He secretly spied that Bai Chongxi had an unusual relationship with his personal nurse Xiao Zhang in his later years. So, Gu Wenzheng spent a lot of money to buy Xiao Zhang, let her serve Bai Chongxi in the bedroom, and poisoned him at a critical moment.
On the night of December 1, 1962, under the seduction of Xiao Zhang, Bai Chongxi drank a large cup of tonic medicine and finally died. All kinds of physical evidence left at the scene point to an accident of "dying of overindulgence", and Gu Wenzheng took the opportunity to exaggerate this statement in an attempt to cover up the truth.
However, the conspiracy behind it is not hidden here. Later, an insider revealed that Gu Wenzheng had already secretly contacted Lai Shaosoul, chairman of the Chinese Medicine Council, and instructed him to mix an overdose of poison in the tonic. And Chiang Kai-shek, in order to cover up the scandal, had to acquiesce to this statement afterwards.
In this way, the whole process of Bai Chongxi's murder gradually surfaced. As a retaliation and attack, Chiang Kai-shek not only used the hands of Gu Wenzheng to get rid of this great trouble, but also suppressed and drove Bai Chongxi's cronies and family members out of the country one by one in the following years, completely cutting off the family's power in Taiwan.
The cause of death is debated
The cause of Bai Chongxi's death has been controversial since the day it happened. His son, Bai Xianyong, first denied the murder.
Bai Xianyong, who was studying in the United States at the time, couldn't react for a while after hearing the bad news of his father's violent death. He said that he had kept a sleepless night for his father, but he couldn't shed tears. In Bai Xianyong's view, his father was a strong person, and he was just sad about the passing of this era.
As for the cause of his father's death, Bai Xianyong firmly denied the "murder". He believed that his father had suffered from a heart attack for a long time during his lifetime, and that his sudden illness and death were only expected and had nothing to do with any "murder plot".
However, on the other hand, it is directly pointed out that Bai Chongxi did die of "overdose". The first to put forward this statement was Bai Chongxi's personal doctor. The doctor claimed that Bai Chongxi had suffered from male male weakness in his later years, so he took some tonic medicine for a long time. On that fateful night, he may have accidentally drunk an overdose of supplements, which triggered his poisoning death.
And the doctor's statement was quickly echoed by Gu Wenzheng, a special agent of the Secret Bureau. Gu Wenzheng even directly involved Bai Chongxi's lover Xiao Zhang, suggesting that the two may have "overindulged" that night, which led to such a result.
However, despite this, the scene of Bai Chongxi's violent death overnight still leaves people with a lot of doubts. Why is Bai Chongxi covered in bruises, and the pajamas and sheets on his body are torn to tatters? And what ingredients are mixed in that half cup of residual tonic? All of this is foggy, and it seems to hint at some kind of conspiracy.
Historical Response: A Summary
In general, the life of Bai Chongxi can be called vicissitudes. He worked hard step by step from a low-level soldier to the top and made great achievements, but in the end he was ill-fated and suffered an unbearable end.
Looking back on Bai Chongxi's military career, it can be described as thrilling step by step. During the Northern Expedition, he and Li Zongren, an ally of the Gui family, joined forces to expand the front of the National Revolutionary Army to Guanwai. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he repeatedly performed miraculous feats and was praised by Mao Zedong as "the first cunning warlord". It can be described as a wise and brave and well-deserved generation of famous generals.
However, just as Bai Chongxi's career reached its peak, fate suddenly took a turn. The Liberation War entered a white-hot stage, and he began to hesitate between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and finally chose to take refuge in Chiang Kai-shek. This road of fate doomed him to spend the rest of his life under Chiang Kai-shek's vigilance and suppression.
Although Bai Chongxi was full of illusions, he thought that he could live a free life in Taiwan by relying on his past military exploits. But in fact, Chiang Kai-shek never really trusted this old adversary. The contradiction between the two can be traced back to the Northern Expedition, when Chiang Kai-shek conspired to "pull Hu and overthrow Gui" in an attempt to eliminate Bai Chongxi. That's why Jiang is so guarded against this henchman.
At the instigation of Chiang Kai-shek's confidant Gu Wenzheng, this precaution eventually went to an extreme - the murder of Bai Chongxi. After several misses, Gu Wenzheng finally hatched a plot in 1962 to have Bai Chongxi's personal nurse poison him between the bed. In this way, the legendary life of a famous general has suffered a tragic end.
To this day, there are still some mysteries about Bai Chongxi's death that have yet to be solved. However, it is undeniable that Chiang Kai-shek did use some despicable and shameless means when dealing with this old subordinate. This may also reveal Chiang Kai-shek's paranoia and insensitivity to power struggles and personal self-interest.