1949, after the mainland defeat, Chiang Kai-shek did not go directly to Taiwan’s island, but temporarily lived in Penghu Islands . He was unfamiliar with Taiwan, and at that time, there were many forces against Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan surging underground, so he did not dare to fly to Taiwan for the time being.
It was not until May 21 that Chen Cheng and other Taiwanese military and political officials went to pay homage to Chiang Kai-shek in person, which made Chiang Kai-shek officially transfer to Taiwan’s main island.
However, he did not go to Taipei where Chen Cheng is, but to , Kaohsiung , where Sun Liren is located.
The reason why Chiang Kai-shek went to Sun Liren was because he knew that Sun Liren was much better than Chen Cheng. Only with him can one be safe.
After Chiang Kai-shek's special plane arrived in Kaohsiung, Sun Liren personally led his troops to greet him.
However, at this time, Chiang Kai-shek was shocked and said that he would not get off the plane. For this reason, Sun Liren had to enter the cabin in person to invite him.
As soon as Chiang Kai-shek opened his mouth, he asked, "Am I safe here?"
Sun Liren replied, "With me here, don't be afraid! Everyone here is my own people."
Chiang Kai-shek felt relieved after hearing this, and then with the help of Jiang Jingguo , he walked down tremblingly. After he came down, Chiang Kai-shek solemnly patted Sun Liren on the shoulder to show comfort.
At this time, Sun Liren could not have thought that the President Jiang, who seemed to have trusted him, would put himself under house arrest in the future, and this confinement lasted for a full thirty-three years...
1. The anti-Japanese general
1900, Sun Liren was born in a family of aristocratic families in Lujiang, Anhui. His family has a close relationship with the Tongcheng School literati and the modern Huai Army system.
1909, Sun's father went to Shandong to become an official, so he moved to Qingdao, Shandong with his family.
One morning in Qingdao , the young Sun Liren picked up colorful stones on the beach to play with. The stones he had finally collected were snatched away by three passing German children indiscriminately.
At that time, Qingdao had become a colony of the Germans, so these German children naturally treated Sun Liren who came to argue with a master's attitude. Not only did they ignore it, they even turned around and slapped him twice in the face. This incident caused heavy damage to Sun Liren's heart and became a lifelong shame for him. He vowed that he would make the country prosperous and strong in the future so that the Chinese would no longer be bullied by foreigners!
From then on, Sun Liren began to study hard. Five years later, he was admitted to Tsinghua as the first in the province, and was admitted to the United States to study after graduation. During this period, Sun Liren never forgot his dream of becoming a strong country, so he later transferred to the famous American Fergent Military Academy.
It is worth mentioning that at that time, he was still a classmate with the famous five-star general in the United States, Marshall .
1928, after graduation, Sun Liren, who traveled to Western countries to inspect military affairs, returned to work and began his military career.
Sun Liren's unique American style was soon appreciated by the Secretary of Finance Song Ziwen , who also has an American educational background. Not long after, he was appointed as the head of the Fourth Regiment of the Tax Police Corps formed by Song Ziwen.
Sun Liren, who was deeply influenced by Westernization thought, was quite dissatisfied with the training and style of the National Army at that time, and with the strong support of Song Ziwen, he carried out drastic training reforms on the Tax Police Corps.
In this way, Sun Yishou built the Tax Police Corps into an elite force with high cohesion, excellent combat quality and high cultural level.
1937, all elite troops gathered on the battlefield in Songhu to resist the Japanese invaders, and an elite team like the Tax Police Corps is no exception.
Sun Liren fought bravely in battle and led by the way, so he was once in a terrible death due to excessive injuries.
As Sun Liren recovered from injury, the Tax Police Corps was also adapted several times, and was later adapted into New 38th Division in November 1941. Sun Liren also became the major general commander of the new 38th Division, and thus entered the ranks of senior Kuomintang generals.
In 1942, the new 38th Division was incorporated into the 66th Army and went to Myanmar as a member of the Expeditionary Force .
In the battle of Ren'anqiang, Sun Liren led his troops to a small number of enemies and successfully rescued the besieged British army, bringing a glimmer of light to the Allies' war situation in Myanmar, which was in a trough and showed great reputation internationally.
English King George VI Later, he personally awarded Sun Liren the medal of "Empire Commander", and no foreign general had ever received this great honor before.
As the expeditionary force failed to retreat, Sun Liren refused the instructions from his superior Du Yuming , and did not return to the country through Savage Mountain , but retreated westward to Lamba, India.
During the rest period in India, with the help of the Americans, Sun Liren began a new round of training.
More than half a year later, Sun Liren led the new 38th Division to launch a counterattack in northern Myanmar. His roundabout tactics and sweeping tactics greatly harmed the Japanese army, greatly improved China's international reputation, and strongly supported the Allied forces' war against Japan.
Sun Liren was promoted to the commander of the new army with his outstanding achievements. He was known as "Rommeel in the East" and has a considerable reputation internationally.
The Japanese are also in awe of this famous anti-Japanese general. Okamura Yasuji even took the initiative to present the treasure sword he wore to Sun Liren at the surrender ceremony in Guangzhou to show respect.
As the smoke of the civil war ignited, Sun Liren led his troops to the Northeast. However, because he had long been in a grudge with Du Yuming, who was in charge of the overall situation of Northeast China, he was soon removed from military power and transferred to Taiwan to train new recruits.
From then on, this tiger general has never been on the battlefield again.
2. Deeply imprisoned in Taiwan
As Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, Sun Liren, who was a member of the Taiwan garrison with Chen Cheng, was increasingly valued by Chiang Kai-shek.
After Chiang Kai-shek "returned" in Taiwan, he immediately granted Sun Gao’s official position and generous salary.
On the surface, Sun Liren is quite trusted and valued by Chiang Kai-shek. However, in fact, he has long been suspicious and suppressed by Chiang Kai-shek and other forces.
Because Sun Liren has a background in studying in the United States and his talent is appreciated by Americans, his relationship with the United States is getting closer and closer.
As early as the end of 1948, the US government had already lost confidence in Chiang Kai-shek, who was defeated, and began to find new alternatives.
Sun Liren, who has friendly relations with the United States, outstanding abilities, and is transcendent to various factions within the Kuomintang because of his background and personality, naturally became the best candidate in the mind of the US government.
In May 1949, the US Embassy Counselor reported to the country: "Sun Liren should be taken as a condition for aiding Taiwan."
In December 1949, the US representative to Taiwan even privately told Sun Liren that as long as he was willing, the United States would fully support him to come to power. Sun was unmoved and declined the other party.
On February 21, 1950, American five-star general MacArthur did not even say hello to Chiang Kai-shek and directly sent a special plane to Taiwan to pick up Sun Liren to meet in Tokyo, talking about the important task of "defending Taiwan".
After the news reached Chiang Kai-shek's ears, he was shocked and angry. He unexpectedly, Sun Liren would have secretly communicated with American politicians without hiding it.
Americans' respect and preference for Sun Liren made Chiang Kai-shek feel huge suspicious and fearful. He was afraid that Sun Liren would one day be in charge of the American instruction, so he planned to get rid of Sun Liren.
In addition, the "Crown Prince" Chiang Ching-kuo was also quite dissatisfied with Sun Liren. Chiang Ching-kuo was deeply influenced by the Soviet Union in military affairs and advocated the use of political and industrial systems to control the army. Sun Liren, who was deeply influenced by European and American military thoughts, naturally hated this and even secretly mocked Chiang Ching-kuo's actions in public as "burying his conscience", which became a major obstacle for Chiang Ching-kuo to control military power.
Sun Liren even had conflicts with Chiang Ching-kuo in public. At a banquet, in order to activate the atmosphere, Chiang Ching-kuo told some vulgar jokes to the senior Kuomintang officials present.
Everyone present laughed happily, but Sun Liren sat quietly in his seat with a serious smile and sighed: "The people here are all people in high positions. How can they be like people in thick markets?"
These words naturally made Chiang Ching-kuo very embarrassed, and also made him hate Sun Liren even more.
If Sun Liren and the father-son of the Jiang family are already very serious, then the senior generals in the Kuomintang army are the last "pusher" that pushes him into the abyss.
Sun is straightforward by nature and can't stand the corruption and intrigue in the Kuomintang army, and is even more unwilling to be in a position to attract the power. This offended many people, especially the Huangpu generals of Chiang Kai-shek's direct line. The senior generals of the Huangpu Group have long been disgusted with Sun Liren, a maverick and proud "foreigner" who lives abroad, and often excludes and isolates him.
Such as such, Sun Liren's later tragic fate is reasonable.
3. From the commander-in-chief to the "prisoner"
. The current situation of Sun Liren being excluded and suppressed by various forces in Taiwan naturally caused dissatisfaction among his old subordinates of the New First Army.
Major Guo Tingliang was dissatisfied with Sun Liren's failure to serve as chief of staff in 1954, so he contacted his colleagues in the New First Army in private, violating the Taiwanese authorities' order prohibiting gatherings and associations on their own.
On May 25, 1955, Chiang Kai-shek sent someone to arrest Guo Tingliang, calling him a Communist spy, engaged in subversive activities in Taiwan, with the intention of launching a mutiny.
A few days after the incident, Chiang Kai-shek personally summoned Sun Liren.
At the beginning, the two of them were chatting normally. But after a while, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly said angrily: "You are good at training the troops, but you can't fight!"
Sun Liren didn't know what Chiang said meant. He, who had always been proud of his military achievements, naturally could not tolerate such insults, so he immediately refuted with reasonable and well-founded refutation.
After saying that, Sun Liren saluted and left angrily. But he had no idea that this conversation was actually a signal that Jiang had done it to himself.
June 24, Chiang Kai-shek dismissed Sun's position as commander-in-chief of the Army with Guo Tingliang's "rebellion case", and then secretly detained him. On August 20, Chiang Kai-shek first removed Sun from all positions on charges of "rebellion" and then placed him under house arrest.
Soon, Sun's subordinates were also implicated and were suppressed by all parties. The worst is to be dismissed, and the worst is to be imprisoned.
In June 1956, Sun Liren was driven to Taichung to settle down, and continued to live a "prisoner" life under the surveillance of the Kuomintang spies. At this time, Sun Liren not only lost his personal freedom, but also deprived of the minimum treatment of military personnel. He didn't get any salary or subsidies for several years, and he couldn't even enjoy the tuition fee reduction and preferential treatment for his children.
As a serving general, he is not allowed to go out to work. In order to support his family, he had to apply to Chiang Kai-shek for retirement many times. However, it was not until the time of Chiang Ching-kuo that Sun Li was allowed.
For a long time, Sun Liren relied on his wife to sell his jewelry to supplement the household income. Later, life was really unsustainable, and the Sun family had to write a letter to Chiang Kai-shek for help.
Chiang Kai-shek did not want to make himself famous for starving his subordinates to death, so he would allocate living expenses to the Sun family every month to ensure his basic survival.
That's it, the Sun family spent decades of poverty.
However, Sun Liren did not give up hope, and he devoted all his energy to educating his children. His four children did not disappoint them. They all achieved success in studying in the United States and were a pillar of the country.
On March 20, 1988, Sun Liren officially ended his 33-year house arrest. After hearing the news, the old family and relatives and friends of the grandson, as well as people from all walks of life in Taiwan, came to visit them in a steady stream, and they scolded the Jiang father and son on the court for being cruel and ruthless.
Sun Liren has already taken a lot of light at this time, but he feels very guilty about his old subordinates who have been implicated by him: "For my false things, you must have suffered a lot of grievances in the army, which makes me very uneasy."
On November 19, 1990, Sun Liren passed away. The funeral team that saw him off was one kilometer long, and the scale was even comparable to that of the Jiang family father and son.
The last words left by this fierce warrior who has experienced all kinds of ups and downs in the world are: "If you don't bury the mainland, you won't be buried in the soil." He has never seen his hometown again since he sent his father's coffin back to his hometown for burial more than 50 years ago. During the years of imprisonment in Taiwan, his strong homesickness was constantly tormenting him.
However, due to the current situation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the special identity of Sun Liren, his coffin is still parked in the Dongshan Cemetery in Taichung City, and he has not realized his long-cherished wish to return to the mainland to bury.
