According to Chiang Kai-shek's instructions, on March 27, 1947, Zhou Fohai was sentenced to life imprisonment and taken into Laohuqiao Prison. There have always been three theories about Zhou Fohai's eventual "pardon order" from Chiang Kai-shek:
It is said that Chen Bray was an old friend of Zhou Fohai, and Yang Shuhui approached Chen Bray and asked Chen to try to arrange for her to pay homage to Chiang Kai-shek and plead with Chiang Kai-shek to use the privileges conferred by the Covenant Law (then the "Constitution") as head of state to "pardon" or commute Zhou's sentence. Although Chen Brei acted in a disciplined and law-abiding manner throughout his life, he valued his old feelings, and he could not stay out of the matter no matter what, Zhou Fohai, the chief assistant who had been in deep friendship and got along day and night, and when he saw death, he did not save him, but took advantage of Chiang Kai-shek's request to Chiang Kai-shek when he summoned him. And Jiang Nian and Zhou Fohai's diligence in those years and the merits of helping to defend Beijing and Shanghai after the war could not be completely indifferent. Therefore, under Chen Brei's arrangement, on a certain day in February 1947, Zhou's wife was accompanied by Mao Renfeng, director of the Secrecy Bureau, to the official residence of Huangpu Road in Nanjing to meet Chiang Kai-shek. As soon as Yang Shuhui saw Chiang Kai-shek, she fell to her knees, sobbed incessantly, and did not say a word. Chiang Kai-shek frowned, looked at Yang Shuhui, who was kneeling on the ground, pondered for a long time, and then said to Yang in a low tone: "Get up, go back in peace, let him rest in it for another year or two, I will definitely let him come back again." Yang got Jiang's promise, lay on the ground and prostrated 3 more sincerely grateful heads, and with tears in his eyes, he followed Mao Renfeng out of the official residence.
Second, it was Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu brothers who helped him. Chen Guofu, Chen Lifu and Zhou Fohai are all old colleagues and friends, with strong personal friendships. Erchen found Chiang Kai-shek, and before and after the victory of the Zhou Fohai War of Resistance, he was able to secretly arrange military arrangements according to the government's plan, so that the "state government" could completely retake Shanghai and smoothly return the capital, not without little merit, and asked Jiang to approve a commutation or a suspended sentence.
There is also a saying: Zhou's wife Yang Shuhui let out a strong voice and said: "If old Jiang reneges and insists on sentencing Fo Hai to death, I will call him infamous!" During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the chairman of the committee gave Fo Hai several handwritten instructions, and I took pictures and stored them in the safe deposit box of a foreign bank in Hong Kong. If Fo Hai is executed, I will publish it in the newspapers so that the people of the world can see how Jiang Ren, who prides himself on being the leader of the War of Resistance, colluded with the traitors! ”
Jiang Wen knew that in order not to damage his "leader's personality," he issued a "pardon order" to change Zhou's death sentence.