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1936 After the Xi'an Incident ended, Zhang Xueliang was tragically imprisoned.
originally thought it was a "temporary punishment", but no one expected that Zhang Xueliang had been imprisoned for 54 years.
During his years of imprisonment, countless people ran for him, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to give in and the reason was not announced until his death, which also made Soong Mei-ling cry.
What is the beginning and end of the Xi'an Incident that shocked the country and abroad? Why did Chiang Kai-shek refuse to release Zhang Xueliang, which eventually made Soong Mei-ling cry?
is both a teacher and a friend, nor is it as good as the family and country
928 Zhang Zuolin was killed, Zhang Xueliang was just a 27-year-old young master. Although Zhang Xueliang quickly took office as the supervisor of Fengtian’s military affairs, the regime in Northeast China was unstable, and internal and external troubles were intertwined, so he was persuaded by Chiang Kai-shek and carried out the “ Northeast China Changing Banner ”.
Since Chiang Kai-shek did not regard Zhang Xueliang as a threat, he was very tolerant of him. Even if Zhang Xueliang sent someone to arrest and beat the people from the Xi'an Provincial Party Committee and beat him up, Chiang Kai-shek only scolded Zhang Xueliang for "recklessness" and had no actual punishment.
It can be said that the relationship between two people is both a teacher and a friend.
If the relationship is so good, how could the Xi'an Incident happen?
This has to start with September 18th Incident .
After the September 18th Incident in 1931, Zhang Xueliang followed Chiang Kai-shek's advice and implemented the non-resistance policy , which led to the fall of the Northeast. He deeply blamed himself for it.
Later, the Japanese were eyeing him, and Chiang Kai-shek continued to adopt the practice of "to calm the country before fighting foreign countries" and carry out dictatorship, which made Zhang Xueliang increasingly dissatisfied with him.
On October 29, 1936, when Chiang Kai-shek celebrated his birthday in Luoyang , Zhang Xueliang went to celebrate his birthday, and kept talking about stopping the civil war during the meal.
However, Chiang Kai-shek refused to listen at all. Not only did he loudly scold Zhang Xueliang, but he also firmly rejected his proposal to go north to fight against Japan. This also made Zhang Xueliang gradually disappointed him.
Finally, the Xi'an Anti-Japanese Parade in late 1936 became the fuse.
At that time, the students advocated fighting back to the Northeast, but the police shot and injured the students, which made Zhang Xueliang very angry.
After some thought, he discussed with Yang Hucheng and seized Chiang Kai-shek who came to supervise the war and forced Chiang Kai-shek to unite in anti-Japanese war with "military advice". This is the famous "Xi'an Incident".
also suffered some twists and turns in the process of seizing Chiang Kai-shek.
When the soldiers arrived at Chiang Kai-shek's residence, they found that the building was empty and found a shoe by the wall next to Huaqing Pool.
The soldiers hurriedly searched the mountain and, with the confession of Chiang Kai-shek and his servant, intercepted Chiang Kai-shek at the mountainside. After being arrested, Chiang Kai-shek even wrote a suicide note when he saw that he had no hope of escaping.
However, Zhang Xueliang did not want to kill him, so Soong Mei-ling actively organized people to rescue him, and this suicide note was not useful in the end.
But it is not a big deal to always keep Chiang Kai-shek, so Zhang Xueliang wrote a letter to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou to ask them about the solution to the matter.
Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou believe that the current joint anti-Japanese war is a major event, and how to deal with Chiang Kai-shek is second.
Finally, Premier Zhou personally brought people to Xi'an, which promoted the second cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the anti-Japanese national united front , and Chiang Kai-shek was able to regain his freedom.
In order to show his sincerity, Zhang Xueliang ignored the dissuasion of his subordinates and personally sent Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing, but what he did not expect was that this time he would go to the tiger's mouth.
As soon as he arrived in Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek restricted Zhang Xueliang's freedom.
Then he even signaled to the Nanjing Military Court to start a trial of Zhang Xueliang, and finally sentenced to 510 years in prison.
drag again and again, dragging the father and son to death,
Zhang Xueliang was initially convinced of the court's verdict, and he also wrote a confession, waiting to survive the ten years of imprisonment.
But he didn't expect that this was actually just Chiang Kai-shek's delaying strategy. After
seized Zhang Xueliang, Chiang Kai-shek quickly took action against Northeast Army .
On the one hand, Chiang Kai-shek transferred from Yang Hucheng and asked Yang Hucheng to study abroad, gradually depriving Yang Hucheng of his military power.
On the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek quickly recruited the Northeast Army, placed people in it, and sent the original soldiers and generals to all parts of the country, greatly weakening his strength.
After eliminating the threat from the Northeast Army, Chiang Kai-shek lost patience with Zhang Xueliang and just locked him up. Even if his sentence expired, he had no intention of letting him go.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Xueliang asked someone to tell Chiang Kai-shek that he could give him a fishing rod. This is actually expressing that he wants to go out and show his strength.
Chiang Kai-shek understood it, but did not let him go. Instead, he gave him a telescopic fishing rod made in the United States. The moment he got the fishing rod, Zhang Xueliang knew that Chiang Kai-shek had not yet calmed down, so it was naturally difficult to mention the matter of requesting pardon.
Later, the 10-year sentence was over. Seeing that no one was released, Zhang Xueliang asked someone to send a famous watch to Chiang Kai-shek, which means "the time has come."
But he didn't expect that Chiang Kai-shek actually sent back a 1936 calendar and a pair of slippers.
calendar is to tell Zhang Xueliang that the Xi'an Incident in 1936 has not yet passed by Chiang Kai-shek.
As for those slippers, it means that Chiang Kai-shek remembered the shame of running away in a panic.
However, at that time, the War of Resistance Against Japan had won, and the domestic demand for the release of Zhang Xueliang was also very high, and Chiang Kai-shek could not ignore it.
So he found a way to change the nature of the matter to "family affairs", and sent Zhang Xueliang to Taiwan in 1946 and continued to be imprisoned.
Speaking of which, it was just imprisonment of Zhang Xueliang, which was already a relatively "moderate" method for Chiang Kai-shek.
In contrast, another patriotic general in the Xi'an Incident, Yang Hucheng.
When the Kuomintang was defeated and fled Taiwan in 1949, Yang Hucheng's family was assassinated by Mao Renfeng, and even the young child was not escaped. Behind this was Chiang Kai-shek's instruction, which shows how cruel Chiang Kai-shek was.
When he arrived in Taiwan, Zhang Xueliang did not give up on saving himself. He sent someone to send birds to Chiang Kai-shek, hoping to be free.
But Chiang Kai-shek quickly sent him a larger bird cage and sent someone to bring him a message,
"You can catch it, there are many bird cages here."
Zhang Xueliang's desire for freedom has been broken again and again. No matter how Zhang Xueliang hints, Chiang Kai-shek insisted on continuing to imprison him.
Chiang Kai-shek passed away in 1975. Everyone originally thought that Zhang Xueliang would regain his freedom, but later Jiang Jingguo followed his father's order and refused to release Zhang Xueliang.
Until Jiang Jingguo's death in 1988, and since 1990, Zhang Xueliang has fully restored his personal freedom.
It has been 54 years since he was detained.
Thinking back to the beginning, he was only imprisoned Chiang Kai-shek for 2 weeks, but in the end he was imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek for nearly 20,000 days. When
was escorting Chiang Kai-shek to Nanjing, Zhang Xueliang was still in the prime of spring and autumn .
When he got rid of Chiang Kai-shek's nightmare, he had entered the age of turtle. Such an experience is truly regrettable.
So why did Chiang Kai-shek never want to release Zhang Xueliang? Is it really just for revenge?
This requires the answer from Chiang Kai-shek's last words.
last words caused Soong Mei-ling to burst into tears when he first arrived in Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek still had fantasies about his wolfish ambitions.
However, as he was plagued by illness and his body became increasingly declining, Chiang Kai-shek became powerless.
When some people asked to release Zhang Xueliang and the other advocated continuing to detain him, Chiang Kai-shek called Chiang Ching-kuo to his death and reminded him,
"You must not release Zhang Xueliang, this is letting the tiger return to the mountain!"
When Chiang Kai-shek said this, Soong Mei-ling was also beside her. When she heard this, her tears fell, perhaps she was crying for Zhang Xueliang's situation.
Soong Mei-ling and Zhang Xueliang first met in 1925.
At that time, one of them was the daughter of the Song family who had just returned to China, and the other was the young marshal of the Zhang family who was full of enthusiasm. It can be said that they had similar ambitions and had a lot of talks.
Even Zhang Xueliang admitted that
"If I had not already had a wife at that time, I would have to chase Miss Song San."
Although the two had not become married, they became good friends. It was even under the help of Soong Mei-ling that Zhang Xueliang and Chiang Kai-shek would become brothers.
During the Xi'an Incident, many people advised Zhang Xueliang to get rid of Chiang Kai-shek to eliminate future troubles.
But Soong Mei-ling told Zhang Xueliang that she could keep Zhang Xueliang safe if she let go of Chiang Kai-shek.
When Chiang Kai-shek sent someone to assassinate Yang Hucheng's family, he might not have no intention of getting rid of Zhang Xueliang.
It is said that Soong Mei-ling personally rushed to Chiang Kai-shek and threatened to leave, so that Chiang Kai-shek was transferred to assassination as imprisonment.
In fact, this kind of thing is not uncommon between the two. When Chiang Kai-shek wanted to get rid of , Soong Ching Ling and , Soong Mei-ling also protected his second sister.
It can be seen from this that Chiang Kai-shek cannot ignore Soong Mei-ling's opinions on such a major event. Soong Mei-ling's guarantee of Zhang Xueliang is also very credible.
In addition, Soong Mei-ling has also told Zhang Xueliang many times that he would find a way to rescue him, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to let go, and he could only delay the matter again and again.
In addition, although Zhang Xueliang was unable to go out casually, he could communicate with people through letters. There are about 500 verified letters in
, of which nearly 1/4 of Soong Mei-ling’s private letters are.
Soong Mei-ling relied on her own to turn Zhang Xueliang in prison into a devout Christian, which also shows that she has never given up on Zhang Xueliang.
However, with Chiang Kai-shek's death, it became even more difficult for Soong Mei-ling to use her influence to rescue Zhang Xueliang.
Because Chiang Ching-kuo and Soong Mei-ling have not had a good relationship, the two are called mother and son, but they actually have little family affection.
In this case, it is a dream to expect Chiang Ching-kuo to order Zhang Xueliang to be released.
The disheartened Soong Mei-ling later left Taiwan and traveled to the United States, and settled there. As for Zhang Xueliang's affairs, she couldn't care.
finally got out of trouble, and my youth was gone forever
After Zhang Xueliang regained his freedom, he went to the United States for a short time and thought about going back to the mainland, but unfortunately he failed to make a trip in the end.
He was in his 90s at the time and was not suitable for long journeys.
In 1995, Zhang Xueliang moved to Hawaii, USA and has been living there since then.
But he never forgot his motherland, which can be seen from the catering industry.
is richer, so he usually goes to better Chinese restaurants. When eating at home, he also eats sauerkraut stew or mutton pot.
It’s a pity that he can’t return to his hometown in the end, and his youth has passed and his youth is gone. Even if he has a wealth of wealth, it will be a little bit of fun.
In fact, in the decades when he was imprisoned, it was not that no one had thought of saving him.
For example, when he was just detained in 1937, Ma Zhanshan, the former chairman of Heilongjiang Province and a famous anti-Japanese general, wrote a handwritten letter to Chiang Kai-shek, hoping to release Zhang Xueliang.
July 7 Incident After the outbreak of the full-scale war, Northeast National Salvation Association also called Chiang Kai-shek and mentioned this matter.
In 1938, General Huang Xiansheng was busy running around to rescue Zhang Xueliang before being arrested.
941, the representative to the United States, Song Ziwen, wrote a letter from Washington to Chiang Kai-shek and pleaded with him for Zhang Xueliang. 944, the CCP sent a letter to Hurley , hoping to put pressure on Chiang Kai-shek to let him release Zhang Xueliang.
1945 victory in the anti-Japanese war, 10th anniversary of Zhang Xueliang's detention in 1946, and even during the negotiations in 1949, our party proposed to release Zhang Xueliang.
, but Chiang Kai-shek "don't get in", suppressing Zhang Xueliang, and spending half his life.
Zhang Xueliang's attitude towards Chiang Kai-shek was also very complicated. When mourning Chiang Kai-shek, he sent someone to send a couplet, which said,
"Carefulness is like flesh and blood; political disputes are like hatred."
Chiang Kai-shek detained Zhang Xueliang for 54 years, how could he say care?
It turned out that although Chiang Kai-shek refused to let Zhang Xueliang go free, he was treated well during his detention, such as servants and drivers, and everything was available.
Even according to Chiang Kai-shek, the team serving Zhang Xueliang at that time had reached 200 people.
But this is just one-sided statement from Chiang Kai-shek, and I don’t know whether it is credible. Even if
is trustworthy, it was a matter of the early years, because Zhang Xueliang later recalled that his later situation in Taiwan was very miserable.
However, the hardships in life are not surprising compared to the loneliness brought by the 54-year imprisonment. No wonder Zhang Xueliang added a sentence later, "It's like a hatred."
However, whether it is the love of flesh and blood or the hatred of hatred, it will disappear as time passes.
Chiang Kai-shek passed away early. On October 15, 2001, Zhang Xueliang also completed his last journey in a hospital in Hawaii, and everything was left to dust.
What is regrettable is that Zhang Xueliang never went back to the mainland to see, and most of his life was spent in waste. In his own words, "My 100 years are only meaningful in the first 36 years."
