Wen | Jinsheng
In March 1948, the "Constitutional Congress" organized by the National Government was convened, and one of the important agendas of the meeting was the election of the "president" and "vice president". This is the first presidential and vice presidential election in China's history. In this election, the highlight should have been the president, and the vice president was only a reserve position, with no authority. But in fact, the most eye-catching thing is the vice presidential election, because the presidential election is only Chiang Kai-shek singing a "one-man show", and the election is just a formality.
Elections are looming, and the parties have begun to frantically solicit votes
Elections are looming, and the parties have begun to frantically solicit votes. During the campaign, Li Zongren spent more than 1,000 gold bars (more than 10,000 gold bars) for hospitality, and Sun Ke used not a few dollars. Yu Youren "the election aid committee has shared more than 20 billion yuan, all of which have been donated by the party and the cultural circles, and compared with the rest of the people, it is very shabby." According to the "Observation" magazine, on the evening of the 22nd, that is, on the eve of the vote, Sun Ke sent huge advertisements to various newspapers, opening 30 million yuan in advertising expenses, Cheng Qian 22.5 million, Li Zongren is equivalent to this. Yu Youren also sent people to various newspapers to say that he was supported by official newspapers such as Peace and the Central Committee.
On April 23, the "National Assembly" officially held a vice-presidential vote, and when the deputies entered the voting, Li Zongren and his wife stood on the side of the gate and greeted the deputies with a cordial greeting, and their attitude was extremely humble, so that because the handshake was too hard, their hands were swollen and painful when they returned to the apartment, and it was difficult to even raise their hands. In this regard, although Sun Ke and his wife also concocted the same method, after all, the shelf could not be put down, and they were also weak when shaking hands, which made people feel that Li was more modest and sincere in comparison. Coupled with the behind-the-scenes actions of Chen Lifu and others under Chiang Kai-shek's command to suppress people, the deputies were disgusted, and as a result, indignant slogans appeared at the meeting venue: "The party wants to support him, but I prefer not to elect him" and "We support people that the party does not support." As a result, Li Zongren voted 754 votes, Sun Ke 559 votes, Cheng Qian 522 votes, Yu Right Ren 493 votes, Mo Dehui 218 votes, and Xu Fulin 214 votes. Although Li Zongren temporarily ranked first, he did not have the legal number of votes (1325 votes). Therefore, the "National Congress" also has to hold a second round of voting for the top three candidates.
/ Sun Ke, who is giving a speech at the campaign luncheon. On the right is Sun Ke's wife, Chen Shuying
At the time of this round of voting, big news broke out. The front page of the "National Salvation Daily" published on the same day carried the secret story of Lanni and Sun Ke. Lan Ni is a famous socialite in Shanghai Beach, and met Sun Ke at a social banquet in Shanghai in 1935, Sun Ke first made Lan Ni his confidential secretary, and soon decided to marry Lan Ni as the second lady. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Lan Ni and Sun Ke went to Chongqing. In 1940, Lenny returned to Shanghai alone to take care of her daughter. In the Shanghai social circle, Lan Ni has extensively interacted with people from all walks of life, and has also been very close to the traitors Chen Gongbo, Zhou Fohai and others. The article of the "National Salvation Daily" disclosed that after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang Central Trust Bureau confiscated a batch of pigments imported from Germany in Shanghai and disposed of them as enemy and counterfeit property. Sun Ke personally wrote to the bureau for this reason, saying that the paint was "our family Lanni".
At this sensitive moment, this news undoubtedly caused Sun Ke's efforts to create a "gentleman's demeanor" to collapse in an instant. After the report was published, Sun Ke did not defend Lanni, but only washed himself. This move infuriated the stubborn Lenny, thus completely ending the 13-year married life with Sun Ke. In addition, because Gong Debai, editor-in-chief of the "Salvation Daily," and Cheng Qian, were fellow villagers, according to the recollection of a Fujian "NPC deputy" who was also a presidential election supervisor at the time, the scandal that originally reported sun Ke in the newspapers and periodicals had already adversely affected Sun Ke, and then Zhang Fakui, Xue Yue, and other Cantonese figures took the lead in destroying the newspaper, causing even more discord among the Xiang and Yue deputies.
When Sun Ke was behind in the first round of voting, Chiang Kai-shek summoned He Zhihan and Yuan Shouqian and "instructed them to immediately assist Cheng Qian in the election and allocate a considerable amount of campaign fees for them to dispose of," with the aim of "asking Cheng to divide Li's votes and make Sun Ke elected."