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1975, Chiang Kai-shek was about to reach the end of his life. When his life was in danger, he finally summarized the reasons for his long-term house arrest in Zhang Xueliang in four words. Song Mei-ling After listening to it, she burst into tears because she knew that she could not fulfill her promise to Zhang Xueliang.
So, why did Chiang Kai-shek put Zhang Xueliang under house arrest for a long time? What promise did Soong Mei-ling make to Zhang Xueliang? This starts with Zhang Xueliang's family background.
Zhang Xueliang was born in Anshan, Liaoning in 1901. His father is the famous " Northeast King " Zhang Zuolin . Zhang Zuolin has been strict with him since he was a child, not allowing him to act like a rich man and train him as a successor, hoping that he can become a hero of a generation. Zhang Xueliang has served in his father's army since 1917, and later entered the Army Military Academy of the Three East Provinces . He had very good grades and won the first place in the artillery department. After graduation, he became the commander of the second regiment of the Third Mixed Brigade of the Northeast Army, and later became the commander of the brigade.
However, although Zhang Zuolin strictly demanded Zhang Xueliang and asked people around him not to treat him particularly favorably just because Zhang Xueliang was his son, Zhang Xueliang still developed many bad habits and became a typical "rich young master" and "romantic young master".
This is because Zhang Zuolin himself has many bad habits and has not played a good role as a role model.
On the other hand, Zhang Zuolin himself is a warlord who controls one side, and his power is not restricted. Naturally, there will be a group of people trying their best to curry favor with Zhang Xueliang and trying to gain power by pleasing Zhang Xueliang. After all, the warlords missed a little benefit, which is enough for these people to live for the rest of their lives. Under the influence of these two factors, Zhang Xueliang's early life was quite debauchery.
Zhang Xueliang is drunk, has a good female sex, and likes gambling. He often keeps Zhang Zuolin singing every night. Later, Zhang Zuolin discovered it and punished Zhang Xueliang severely, but this still failed to get rid of these hobbies of Zhang Xueliang. After Zhang Zuolin's death, Zhang Xueliang lost his restraint and was even more uncontrollable. He also became addicted to smoking opium and loved to smoke opium, and he became more and more frequent.
However, it is worth mentioning that after the age of 30, Zhang Xueliang gradually began to quit these bad habits, and in the end he actually changed all of these bad habits. This may be because Zhang Xueliang is mature himself, or it may be because he has become the leader of Northeast Army , and he has a heavy responsibility, so he has a sense of responsibility. However, being able to quit these bad habits that have defeated many people by relying on one's own perseverance also shows that Zhang Xueliang's perseverance is indeed stronger than ordinary people.
And, it has to be said that although Zhang Xueliang has so many bad habits, he is indeed an excellent military leader. He led his troops to participate in the Zhifeng War twice, made many military achievements, and won surprises many times, severely hitting the Zhifeng troops, witnessing the Fengtian strength reaching its peak. After the Second Zhi-Feng War, the Fengtian clique controlled , Peking and Tianjin, and its influence was unprecedentedly strong.
You should know that the enemy does not recognize Zhang Xueliang. Fengtian officers may give Zhang Xueliang a little face in internal exercises and evaluations, but the direct warlords, as the enemy, will not give Zhang Xueliang a face, and may even beat him more ruthlessly after learning about Zhang Xueliang's identity. Zhang Xueliang was able to lead a few troops to win many times in this situation, which shows that his command ability was indeed very excellent, which is probably one of the reasons why Chiang Kai-shek was afraid of him later.
However, extreme joy leads to sadness. The "peak moment" of the Fengtian clan was not long. In 1926, the Northern Expedition War began. The two warlords of Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang were successively eliminated, and the "Fengtian clan order" was shaken. However, because Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup to seize power, the Northern Expedition of was stopped for a while, which made the Fengtian clan survive in the Pingjin area for another period of time.
In 1928, the " Second Northern Expedition " began. Fengjun retreated step by step, retreated from Shandong to Beiping, and under the pressure of Northern Expedition , he had to give up Peiping and retreat outside the pass. Zhang Zuolin took the train back to Shenyang in a daze, but this was not the lowest point in his life. On his way back to Shenyang, the Japanese army created the "Huanggutun incident" and Zhang Zuolin was also bombed to death.
Why did the Japanese army blow up Zhang Zuolin who had been supported before?
may be because they felt that Zhang Zuolin had lost his value from the defeat of the Fengtian army, or it may be because they felt that Zhang Zuolin was "unfaithful" to them and had too strong independence.
But no matter what they thought, this move did cause considerable chaos within the Fengtian clique, and some even wanted to take the opportunity to seize power and replace Zhang Zuolin's position. But Zhang Xueliang cleared the situation at this time, calmly brought in allies from various factions, and finally consolidated his position and successfully took over the power of the Fengtian faction.
Although Zhang Zuolin has long supported Zhang Xueliang, it is also closely related to Zhang Xueliang's calmness and calmness. It can be said that Zhang Xueliang has a strong control over the situation and is very good at winning over people. This is exactly what Chiang Kai-shek is worried about.
Zhang Xueliang not only quickly took over the power of the Fengtian army, but also gradually ruled out the influence of Japan within the Fengtian army. Previously, Japan had long supported , Fengtian warlord , and had considerable influence within the Fengtian army. Therefore, it tried its best to prevent Zhang Xueliang from turning to Chiang Kai-shek and trying to turn the Northeast into a private land for Japan. Although Zhang Xueliang was also afraid of Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese army killed his father, which was a direct revenge for killing his father.
The Japanese army tried to embezzle the Northeast by influencing the Fengtian army, which was an urgent territorial crisis. Under the influence of national hatred and family hatred, Zhang Xueliang finally decided to terminate his cooperation with Japan and turn to Chiang Kai-shek, hoping to use Chiang Kai-shek's influence to expel the Japanese army and avenge his father.
Under the guidance of this idea, in December 1928, Zhang Xueliang rejected the temptation from Japan and suddenly announced the " Northeast Change Banner " and joined the National Government controlled by Chiang Kai-shek. Previously, Zhang Xueliang and the National Government had always had an opposition on the surface and were disobedient to Chiang Kai-shek's management. At this time, the Northeast changed its flag, which meant that the whole country had been reunified on the surface.
Zhang Xueliang was able to withstand internal and external pressure and make such a major decision, which shows that Zhang Xueliang has strong decision-making ability and is never ambiguous in doing big things. This is also one of the reasons why Chiang Kai-shek was afraid of Zhang Xueliang, because Zhang Xueliang dared to do big things, which is likely to pose a threat to his power.
However, if a wise person thinks a lot, he will make a mistake. After Zhang Xueliang changed his banner in Northeast China for more than two years, he also made a mistake in the decision-making process in the " Middle East Road Incident ", which laid the groundwork for cowardice at the critical moment afterwards.
By September 18, 1931, this day that Zhang Xueliang and countless Chinese people will never forget. The Japanese army finally couldn't help but attack the Northeast. Previously, they controlled the Northeast by supporting the Fengtian faction and tried to gradually take over the Northeast of our country through a gradual approach. As a result, it was found that both Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Xueliang were "disobedient", so they decided to solve the problem directly by force. The Japanese army launched a large-scale attack on the Northeast Army's garrison Beidaying , but falsely accused the Northeast Army of attacking the Japanese army first.
At this time, Zhang Xueliang was not in the Northeast, but was recuperating in Peking. However, such an important situation was naturally reported to Zhang Xueliang as soon as possible. Next, it was Zhang Xueliang's turn to make a decision. Afterwards, Zhang Xueliang made the decision that he regretted for his life - not to resist.
Of course, some people say that the order that does not resist was given by Chiang Kai-shek, but if you understand Zhang Xueliang's power in the Northeast before, you will know that even if Chiang Kai-shek gave the order, Zhang Xueliang would be able to refuse to execute it. At that time, most of the Northeast Army generals still obeyed Zhang Xueliang's orders, and if Zhang Xueliang ordered, they could have fought. But Zhang Xueliang may have recalled the painful experience in the "Central and East Road Incident" and finally chose to compromise, so the Northeast quickly fell into the hands of the Japanese army.
It is said that Zhang Xueliang regretted it not long after that, but it was too late. The Northeast Army lost the Northeast and became a rootless duckweed. Zhang Xueliang's reputation also plummeted and became the target of criticism from many people.
Because the Northeast Army lost its "old nest", Chiang Kai-shek began to cultivate his own power within the Northeast Army and compete with Zhang Xueliang for the leadership of the Northeast Army. Zhang Xueliang was extremely dissatisfied with this. On the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek was also indifferent to the Japanese invasion. Putting aside the September 18th Incident, Chiang Kai-shek's attitude in "128 Shanghai War of Resistance " was also extremely weak, and he repeatedly compromised with Japan, the reason was the so-called "to calm the country first when fighting foreign countries", which made Zhang Xueliang even more dissatisfied.
Subsequently, the Northeast Army was sent by Chiang Kai-shek to "encircle and suppress" the Red Army , which was not only to eliminate the Red Army, but also to weaken the strength of the Northeast Army. Zhang Xueliang did not want to fight a civil war, but at this time the reputation and influence of the Northeast Army had been greatly reduced, and he had to obey Chiang Kai-shek's orders. As a result, the Northeast Army was defeated by the Red Army many times in the battle, and suffered heavy losses. Zhang Xueliang really didn't want to fight the Red Army anymore.
So, a major event that had a far-reaching impact on the fate of Zhang Xueliang, Chiang Kai-shek and even the whole of China - " Xi'an Incident ". In 1936, Japan's ambition to annex China was becoming more and more obvious, but Chiang Kai-shek was still persistent in eliminating the Red Army and launched "encirclement and suppression" repeatedly. In order to urge the Northeast Army and the Northwest Army to eliminate the Red Army, he even came directly to Xi'an to "supervise the battle".
Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng tried hard to persuade each other many times, but Chiang Kai-shek just refused to listen, so the two had to "recommend" and launched a mutiny to arrest Chiang Kai-shek, demanding that the civil war be stopped and the unanimous efforts to the outside world. Under the clever handling of our party, the Xi'an Incident was finally resolved peacefully, and Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the policy of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
But there is no doubt that Chiang Kai-shek hated Zhang Xueliang to the core since then, which is also the most important reason why Chiang Kai-shek was afraid of Zhang Xueliang, because he believed that Zhang Xueliang had "betrayed" him. But in fact, if Chiang Kai-shek had not repeatedly concessions to Japan and insisted on fighting a civil war, how could Zhang Xueliang launch the Xi'an Incident?
So it was not Zhang Xueliang who betrayed Chiang Kai-shek, but Chiang Kai-shek who betrayed the Chinese people. After the peaceful resolution of the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek invited Zhang Xueliang to return to Nanjing with him, claiming that he would "remain from the past." Premier Zhou expressed his concerns about Zhang Xueliang and hoped that he would not go with Chiang Kai-shek, but Zhang Xueliang still went with him. As expected, Zhang Xueliang was placed under house arrest as soon as he got off the plane, and then he began a half-century house arrest career.
After Zhang Xueliang was under house arrest, many people also tried to rescue him, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to take it hard and refused all proposals to release Zhang Xueliang. Chiang Kai-shek was extremely cautious about Zhang Xueliang and put him under house arrest in an extremely remote place and moved him many times.
This includes both the factors that hate Zhang Xueliang because of the Xi'an Incident, and the factors that are afraid of Zhang Xueliang because of his strong ability and high prestige. As mentioned before, Zhang Xueliang has great potential and influence, just like a tiger, so once Chiang Kai-shek gets the opportunity to imprison him, he will never let go.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Xueliang was transferred to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek and was still under house arrest. Chiang Kai-shek tried his best to meet Zhang Xueliang's various material needs and provided all kinds of daily necessities, but he firmly refused any idea that Zhang Xueliang wanted to "go out and get some breath" that might lead him to escape. Soong Mei-ling once promised Zhang Xueliang that once Chiang Kai-shek passed away, Zhang Xueliang's freedom would be restored, which restored some hope.
Zhang Xueliang waited so hard until 1975. Finally, Chiang Kai-shek was terminally ill and his life was not long. But just before Chiang Kai-shek died, he specifically reminded his son Jiang Jingguo : "Don't let the tiger go!" Jiang Jingguo naturally knew that this tiger refers to Zhang Xueliang, so Zhang Xueliang still could not restore his freedom.
Soong Mei-ling originally thought that after so many years, Chiang Kai-shek should have taken these things lightly and did not hate Zhang Xueliang so much. Unexpectedly, he was still thinking about Zhang Xueliang until his death and told Chiang Ching-kuo not to let the tiger go back to the mountain.After learning the news, Soong Mei-ling burst into tears. Her promise to Zhang Xueliang was not realized. I don’t know when he will be able to restore his freedom.
Zhang Xueliang waited for another thirteen years until 1988 when Chiang Ching-kuo also passed away, and he finally saw hope again. Since then, the atmosphere on Taiwan Island has also relaxed, and Zhang Xueliang has restored some freedom.
By 1990, Zhang Xueliang finally completely regained his freedom. Maybe Chiang Kai-shek didn't expect that Zhang Xueliang could live for so long. At this time, Zhang Xueliang was nearly ninety years old. He spent more than fifty years under house arrest and missed the wonderful years of his life. In 1995, Zhang Xueliang went to the United States to settle down and died there six years later.
Zhang Xueliang’s life experience is really touching. He has made huge mistakes and made outstanding contributions. In any case, he will not be in vain for his life. Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to restore Zhang Xueliang's freedom until the last moment, and he was really narrow-minded. You should know that many Kuomintang generals who fought with the Red Army then continued to contribute to the New China! In any case, Zhang Xueliang will eventually be remembered as a national hero.
