From March 29 to April 29, 1948, Chiang Kai-shek violated the will of the people and held the " Constitutional National Congress " to elect the president and vice president of the Republic of China. During the meeting, there were waves and dangers in the vice presidential election. This storm was mainly caused by Li Zongren's election.
As the leader of the Guangxi clan, Li Zongren has a deep grudge with Chiang Kai-shek. Why did he also participate in the vice presidential election? This has to start in 1945. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zongren was appointed as the Chairman of the Military Commission and the Director of the Beiping Headquarters. The Beiping Headquarters governed 5 provinces and 3 cities. This title seems to be of high power, but Li Zongren did not have much real power. Chiang Kai-shek intervened or remotely controlled many political, military and personnel matters. In the winter of 1947, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Fu Zuoyi as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Bandit Suppression in North China", and Li Zongren became the "short director".
Li Zongren
Li Zongren also felt it was boring to continue like this, so he proposed to resign to Chiang Kai-shek, but Chiang Kai-shek refused. After thinking about it, Li Zongren felt that he had only two ways:
First, make positive plans, stand up, join the central government, and make democratic reforms to the completely corrupt Kuomintang regime to make a living, to turn the tide;
Second, make negative plans, if you can't do the first one, you will get rid of your own country and keep it safe.
Just when Li Zongren was struggling, he suddenly heard that the "Constitutional and National Congress" wanted to elect the president and vice president. He knew that it was unrealistic for him to fight with Chiang Kai-shek to be president, but if he ran for vice president, he still had a chance. If the campaign is successful, you can make positive plans; if you fail, you can make negative plans and you can take the opportunity to retire and return home.
Li Zongren first told his thoughts to his old partners of the Guizhou clan Bai Chongxi , Huang Shaohong and others, but unexpectedly they were unanimously opposed. Bai, Huang and others believe that Chiang Kai-shek will definitely not support Li Zongren in the election. If Li Zongren insists on running, it will inevitably cause serious friction between him and Chiang Kai-shek. Huang Shaohong said to Li Zongren directly: "If you can't eat mutton, why bother to make you smell like a mutton?"
Huang Shaohong
Another important reason why Bai, Huang and others opposed it was that Li Zongren's competitors were very strong. At that time, there were still a few people who decided to run for vice president:
Sun Ke: He was Sun Yat-sen's eldest son, and he was the vice chairman of the Kuomintang government and president of the Legislative Yuan at that time, and was also the vice presidential candidate in Chiang Kai-shek's mind;
Cheng Qian : At that time, the director of the Wuhan headquarters, he was a veteran of the Kuomintang;
Yu Youren : At that time, the president of the Supervision Office, he was also a veteran of the Kuomintang. Moreover, the Supervision Office where he worked was located was in Nanjing, so he did not have to come from afar, and he had the advantage of a good location;
Mo Dehui , Xu Fulin: Neither of these two people are Kuomintang members, and the impact is very little, but it is not ruled out that there is a possibility of disruption.
After listening to the persuasion of Bai, Huang and others, Li Zongren couldn't help but hesitate. After learning about his wife, Guo Dejie said this to him:
should make up his mind early in the campaign to win the lead and gain the advantage of the campaign. In this way, if we women find a partner, if we are as shy as a country girl, and have a foolish thoughts but dare not speak out, how can we get the best man? For example, when you pursued me in Guiping , if I had not shown you a firm attitude, how could we have today’s happy marriage?
Guo Dejie
His wife's words finally made Li Zongren firm in his determination to run for election, so he immediately sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, stating that he would participate in the election for vice president and asked him to approve and agree.
After receiving the telegram, Chiang Kai-shek felt very embarrassed: if he refused, he had said, "This National Congress is a free election, and everyone can participate in the election." It is not advisable to change his words immediately; if he agrees, Jiang Gui has always had deep contradictions. If Li Zongren is elected, wouldn't the threat he faces greater? After thinking about it, he simply ignored it.
Li Zongren waited and waited, but never saw Chiang Kai-shek's call. He was so angry that he cursed: "Damn it, do it if you don't agree!" So Li Zongren first organized the election office on Beiping , and held a Chinese and foreign press conference on March 11 to officially express his campaign proposal.
At the beginning of the election, Li Zongren was not favored. The ranking of candidates in the newspapers was Yu Youren, Sun Ke, Li Zongren, and Cheng Qian; the first two were named "politicians", and the last two were "military strategists". Although the rankings are not counted, they have a subtle influence on the representative voters.
htmlOn December 24, Li Zongren and Guo Dejie came to Nanjing and opened a campaign base here, established an election support team, with general affairs, finance, social publicity, intelligence and other election support departments, and also set up election support decision-making agencies to carry out a massive campaign event.
Money leads the way, bribery and temptation are common methods of democratic elections in bourgeoisie , and Li Zongren is naturally no exception. He specially booked Anle Restaurant in Nanjing and frequently invited representatives of the "National University" to buy feelings and win over votes. Guo Dejie and Bai Chongxi's wife Ma Peizhang were also unique. They airlifted a rice noodles machine from Guilin to Nanjing, invited the wives of the representatives of the National Congress to eat the distinctive Guilin rice noodles , and gave each of them a gold ring, asking them to go back and blow " pillow wind " to win their husbands to vote for Li Zongren.
Li Zongren's method of winning over was very effective, and his call for election was getting higher and higher. Chiang Kai-shek was very anxious. On April 3, he simply summoned Li Zongren at his official residence and said straight to the point: "Brother Delin (Li Zongren's name is Delin), the president and vice president are both soldiers, and it is not very good. I hope that the future vice president would be a literati, and the candidates were appointed Sun Ke. I hope you take the overall situation into consideration and withdraw from the election."
Li Zongren replied: "Zongren has already solicited opinions before, and the chairman has also understood and told the world that all comrades in the party are all Can run for free. Now that I have announced my campaign, it is really hard to withdraw from the middle. "
Jiang Jieshi asked again: "Why? Tell me."
Li Zongren said: "Chairman, this is like a performer. It is easy to ask me not to sing before I go on stage. Now I have made a debut, and those who play gongs and drums and those who play string have already ding Dongdong started to fight and was about to sing. The audience in the audience was about to cheer. How could you suddenly turn around and escape to the backstage amid the lively gongs and drums? "
Chiang Kai-shek knew it was unreasonable, but he insisted: "You should give up automatically, you must give up!"
Chiang Kai-shek
Li Zongren did not give in either: "Chairman, this matter is very difficult to deal with!"
Chiang Kai-shek was finally furious: "I don't support you. If I don't support you, can you still choose?"
This sentence deeply hurt Li Zongren's self-esteem, and he became angry: "It's hard to say!"
Chiang Kai-shek became even more angry: "You must not be able to choose!" The two of them broke up in such a bad mood.
htmlOn April 20, Chiang Kai-shek was successfully elected president at the National Congress. On April 23, the conference officially began the vice presidential election. That morning, after the delegates entered the venue, they found that there was a "National Salvation Daily" published on the seats. There was an article written by Huang Shaohong, "My Familiar Lanni" written by Huang Shaohong. The article wrote a romantic affair between Sun Ke and his mistress Lanni . It attacked Sun Ke as a heavy shell, causing an uproar in the venue.
After the voting results of the day came out, Li Zongren got 754 votes, Sun Ke got 589 votes, Cheng Qian got 522 votes, Yu Youren got less than 500 votes, and Mo Dehui and Xu Fulin got more than 200 votes respectively. Although Li Zongren was the leader, he received less than half of the statutory votes. Therefore, according to the Election Law, the voting on the next day will be held among the top three.
delegates voted
htmlOn April 24, after the second round of voting results came out, Li Zongren got 1,163 votes, Sun Ke got 945 votes, and Cheng Qian got 616 votes. Although Li Zongren was still ahead, since no one reached the legal number of elected votes, the third vote must be held.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek had realized that it was difficult for Sun Ke to fight for Li Zongren, so he summoned Cheng Qian that afternoon and asked him to transfer his ticket to Sun Ke. Cheng Qian was very disgusted by this. He publicly announced at 8 pm that he had been ordered to give up on running for vice president.
Seeing that it would not work to win over Cheng Qian, Chiang Kai-shek decided to use public opinion to suppress Li Zongren. Under his arrangement, rumors spread in Nanjing: Li Zongren's campaign had other political intentions; the Guangxi faction was about to force the "leader to go abroad" after Li Zongren was elected; the campaign fee for Li Zongren was found out from Anhui with security funds; Li Zongren was connected to the Communist Party in Peking... There was a great opportunity to not give up if Li Zongren was not slandered.
At this critical moment, Li Zongren immediately summoned Bai Chongxi, Huang Shaohong and others to discuss countermeasures. Huang Shaohong said: "In my foolish opinion, it is better to announce his withdrawal from the election."
Li Zongren was shocked after hearing this. If he withdrew at this time, wouldn't he give up the fruits of victory? Huang Shaoxing explained: "The situation is clear. Chiang Kai-shek is trying his best to support Sun Ke. He is determined to win and will use any means. If he fights with them head-on, he will not be able to eat mutton and make him smell bad. If he announces his withdrawal from the election, his representatives will not enter the voting. How will the 'National University' end? In this way, we will become passive to active."
Bai Chongxi also felt that this method was feasible. He said: "This is a good way. For example, playing chess, put them in the army first. Although they will not die, their lineup will be disrupted. The method is easy to think about. Judging from the votes, Sun Ke is not much worse. If Chiang Kai-shek adds all kinds of pressure, it is possible for Sun Ke to turn defeat into victory. The most important thing now is to put the pressure on Chiang Kai-shek to us. It is a good way to fight back. "
Bai Chongxi
Li Zongren felt that this move was too risky. He said, "We have won three games, and we will definitely win the last game!"
Huang Shaohong shook his head and said, "I am a veteran in playing mahjong. I often win in the first three laps, but I lose all the fourth laps. After I finished the third laps, I stood up and stopped playing, and I don't charge other people's money. Am I still a winner? Why do I become a loser after playing the fourth laps? "
This consultation did not end until 2 o'clock in the evening. Li Zongren finally made up his mind to retreat. On April 25, major newspapers in Nanjing published Li Zongren's statement in a prominent position:
, but recently I suddenly found that someone was oppressing the rule in the name of the party, making it impossible for each representative to exercise their power to vote freely. Election in this situation is meaningless. This letter is hereby issued a formal statement that he would give up the election.
After Li Zongren and Cheng Qian both announced their withdrawal from the election, Sun Ke lost his opponent and also said that "in order to clear out rumors from outside and eliminate misunderstandings", he decided not to run for vice president again. All 13 candidates of
html all changed their minds, making the election unable to continue, which is equivalent to declaring the failure of the "Constitutional and National Congress". This made Chiang Kai-shek very anxious. While comforting Cheng Qian and Sun Ke, he summoned Bai Chongxi on the evening of April 26, saying that he "supported" Li Zongren to participate in the election and asked him to tell Li Zongren to participate in the election again.
Bai Chongxi saw that Chiang Kai-shek had made concessions, so he followed the situation and agreed to tell Li Zongren to continue his election. The next day, Bai Chongxi solemnly conveyed Chiang Kai-shek's "order" to the National Congress representatives: the president was furious at the rumors about Li Zongren. He solemnly stated that the election was absolutely free, so Li Zongren had expressed his willingness to continue to participate in the election.
After such persuasion, not only did the rumors about Li Zongren self-defeated, but also greatly enhanced his status after the election. Afterwards, Huang Shaohong joked: "The president has to come forward to persuade Degong to participate in the election. How blessed do you think Degong is? This time Degong is not an ordinary candidate, but a candidate who has received his "support"."
htmlOn the morning of April 28, the third round of voting for the vice presidential election began. In the end, Li Zongren won 1,156 votes, Sun Ke won 1,040 votes, and Cheng Qian won 515 votes. Li Zongren continued to lead by a slight advantage. According to regulations, if no one gets a legal majority of votes in the three elections, only the top two with more votes in the third election can participate in the final election. In this way, Cheng Qian was eliminated, leaving only Li Zongren and Sun Ke to decide the outcome.
Sun Ke
htmlOn the morning of April 29, the National Congress of China held the fourth round of voting for the vice presidential election. That morning, Li Zongren wore a neat military uniform and Guo Dejie wore a tile gray short-sleeved cheongsam. Both came to the door of the National Congress venue, waiting for the representatives to enter. Whenever a representative came over, they would come forward with a smile on their faces and shook hands. Li Zongren said, "Thank you, please vote for me." "Guo Dejie continued: "Please vote for Delin and help. "
After the voting ended, the votes began. At first, Sun Ke was still in the lead, and Li Zongren's votes followed closely. The more they went to the back, the more the votes were concentrated on Li Zongren's side. Finally, Li Zongren defeated Sun Ke's 1,295 votes with 1,438 votes and was successfully elected as vice president.
After Li Zongren was elected as vice president, although Chiang Kai-shek was angry and hated, he had to accept this bitter reality. On April 30, Li Zongren and his wife went to Chiang Kai-shek's official residence to "Thank you". Chiang Kai-shek deliberately delayed coming out, leaving them waiting in the living room for half an hour.
Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren announced their inauguration after being elected
After that, in order to vent his anger, Chiang Kai-shek always looked for opportunities to make things difficult and neglect Li Zongren. Those who supported Li Zongren's election were all in trouble, such as the chairman of Shandong Province was hit, Beiping City Mayor He Siyuan's family was bombed, his wife and daughter both died, and he himself survived...
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