In May 1991, , Lu Zhengcao, once Zhang Xueliang's old subordinate , came to Zhang Xueliang's mansion in the United States to meet with his former old leader.
This time they met after an absence of more than 40 years. When they saw the old person, they both sighed.
After three rounds of drinking, Lu Zhengcao brought the topic to the right track: "In addition to meeting the old leader, I also have a mission for Comrade Xiaoping. I hope you can return to the mainland."
Hearing Lu Zhengcao's words, Zhang Xueliang smiled. ： "I also want to return to the mainland, but you have to agree to three conditions."
What are these three conditions? And will Zhang Xueliang eventually return to the mainland?
was under house arrest for 54 years
When he was young, Zhang Xueliang was both talented and beautiful. As the son of Zhang Zuolin , his status and abilities were almost impeccable.
However, Zhang Xueliang only did two major things in his life that are enough to be remembered by people. The first was the loss of three provinces without firing a single shot, and the second was the Xi'an Incident.
However, it was precisely because of this Xi'an Incident that Zhang Xueliang fell into 54 years of house arrest.
On December 24, 1936, less than two weeks after the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek was still restricted to Xi'an by Yang Hucheng and Zhang Xueliang.
Although Chiang Kai-shek has agreed to the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Yang Hucheng believes that Chiang Kai-shek is a changeable man and cannot easily let him go.
If Chiang Kai-shek is released, the narrow-minded Chiang Kai-shek will definitely not let Yang Hucheng and Zhang Xueliang go, so they must be placed under house arrest for a longer period of time.
But this is contrary to Zhang Xueliang’s idea.
At that time, because of the house arrest of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang sent 200,000 troops to prepare to attack Xi'an. The smell of gunpowder filled the entire city of Xi'an.
Zhang Xueliang believed that he had committed a treason by launching the Xi'an Incident. If Chiang Kai-shek continued to be under house arrest, it would most likely lead to deepening conflicts between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the idea of jointly resisting Japan would become yesterday's news.
So Zhang Xueliang would rather break with his close friend and resolutely send Chiang Kai-shek to Nanjing.
He not only had to put Chiang Kai-shek on the plane, but also accompanied Chiang Kai-shek all the way to Nanjing.
In desperation, Yang Hucheng could only watch his former best friend leave Xi'an with Chiang Kai-shek on December 25.
But he didn’t know that this would be his last meeting with Zhang Xueliang.
After Zhang Xueliang left, his guard battalion commander quickly contacted Premier Zhou because he was worried about Zhang Xueliang, hoping that Premier Zhou could rescue Zhang Xueliang.
But unfortunately, it was too late for Premier Zhou and his party to receive the news. When they arrived at the airport, Zhang Xueliang and Chiang Kai-shek had already left by plane.
A few days later, Zhang Xueliang wrote two letters, one was an apology letter to Chiang Kai-shek, and the other was a safe report to Chairman Mao , saying that he would go back in a few days.
But what followed was not Chiang Kai-shek's forgiveness, but a 10-year prison sentence .
After that, Chiang Kai-shek changed the fixed-term prison sentence to "strict control" and completely placed Zhang Xueliang under house arrest.
In 1949, Li Zongren had planned to release Zhang Xueliang, but was opposed by Chiang Kai-shek. In September of the same year, General Yang Hucheng was executed by the Kuomintang.
After receiving the news, Zhang Xueliang burst into tears.
If there was anything he regretted in his life besides not firing a single shot and losing three provinces, it might be Yang Hucheng's death.
In the following time, Zhang Xueliang was kept under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek.
Chiang Kai-shek's wife Soong Meiling , although she felt guilty for the incident and apologized to Zhang Xueliang many times, she could not disobey Chiang Kai-shek's decision and could only watch Zhang Xueliang be placed under house arrest.
Even after Chiang Kai-shek passed away in 1975, he still told his son Chiang Ching-kuo not to release Zhang Xueliang.
It was not until 1990, two years after Chiang Ching-kuo's death, that Zhang Xueliang, who had been imprisoned for 54 years, was finally freed.
But the world had changed at that time, and even in Taiwan, Zhang Xueliang had no place to live.
The Road Home
In 1991, after learning that Zhang Xueliang had regained his freedom, the central government began to want to bring this national hero back to the motherland.
Zhang Xueliang himself also wanted to return to the mainland, but considering the problems between the mainland and Taiwan, he hesitated again.
At this time, one of Zhang Xueliang’s old subordinates contacted him. He was Wang Ji, then chairman of the Policy Foundation.
Wang Ji and his father, one is Zhang Zuolin's general counselor, and the other is Zhang Xueliang's chief of staff, it goes without saying that they have a relationship with Zhang Xueliang and his son.
After hearing that Zhang Xueliang had regained his freedom, Wang Ji immediately contacted Zhang Xueliang and prepared to meet with him.
When old friends met, they both burst into tears and hugged each other tightly. Then they sat down and started talking.
Zhang Xueliang has a relatively straightforward temperament. Not long after he sat down, he expressed his inner thoughts: "I want to go back to the mainland, but I don't know if the mainland wants me."
When he heard this, Wang Ji was also stunned.
He knew that Zhang Xueliang definitely wanted to return to the mainland and wanted to see the place where he lived in the past.
But he still feels guilty for the September 18th Incident and thinks that the mainland will not accept him.
Wang Ji took a sip of water and hurriedly explained : "You're just kidding, how could the mainland not welcome you? Back then, the leaders held a commemorative meeting on the founding of the Xi'an Incident, and Premier Zhou called you an eternal hero."
As he spoke, Wang Ji said jokingly: "You are so hesitant, you are not like the all-powerful young marshal back then."
Hearing Wang Ji's words, Zhang Xueliang also laughed.
After that, the two began to miss the past and chatted for several hours.
Until Wang Ji left, Zhang Xueliang asked him to go to the mainland again, and asked the leaders of the mainland to write a letter of invitation.
It stands to reason that there is no need for an invitation letter at all for Zhang Xueliang to return to the mainland.
Zhang Xueliang believed that the leader of Taiwan at that time was kind to him by releasing him, so if he wanted to return to the mainland, he had to explain it to him with an invitation letter.
Wang Ji accepted the commission without hesitation, and Yang Shangkun, who was the president of the country at the time, was extremely happy when he heard that Zhang Xueliang wanted to return to the mainland. He immediately wrote an invitation letter in his own hand and sent it to Zhang Xueliang.
I thought that with the invitation letter, Zhang Xueliang could go home, but his journey home was far more difficult than imagined.
After the invitation letter was sent to Taiwan, it was intercepted by people under the Taiwanese leader .
Not only that, they also angrily accused Zhang Xueliang, thinking that this was Zhang Xueliang's betrayal of his .
Zhang Xueliang, who was already in his nineties, felt extremely ashamed to be accused in this way. He postponed his return to the mainland due to the obstruction of the Taiwan authorities.
We don’t know how the old man was hurt at that moment, but later Zhang Xueliang said in an interview with reporters: “I want to go back to my hometown in the Northeast, but I can’t go back now.”
Once again Invite
After experiencing the failure of returning to the mainland for the first time, Zhang Xueliang understood that he no longer had a foothold in Taiwan.
So he got on a plane to the United States and prepared to spend the rest of his life with his children.
On the second day after Zhang Xueliang flew to the United States, Zhang Xueliang's niece and Yang Hucheng's son came to the hospital together.
Their trip was to visit Zhang Xueliang's old subordinate Lu Zhengcao, and they also hoped that Lu Zhengcao could help persuade Zhang Xueliang to return to the mainland.
The relationship between Lu Zhengcao and Zhang Xueliang is not only a superior-subordinate relationship, but also a close personal relationship between master and disciple.
When Lu Zhengcao was just a new soldier, the person responsible for educating him was Zhang Xueliang.
After the Xi'an Incident, Lu Zhengcao had been paying attention to Zhang Xueliang's movements. Even without the persuasion of the next generation, Lu Zhengcao was prepared to talk to Zhang Xueliang about this matter.
However, Lu Zhengcao cared more about Zhang Xueliang's feelings than political affairs.
So he did not agree to the matter, but just told the children: "If he wants to come back, I will definitely pull him back."
On the other side, Comrade Xiaoping was also very concerned about Zhang Xueliang, and specifically approached Lu Zhengcao for this purpose. , I hope Lu Zhengcao can help connect in the middle.
After his health improved slightly, Lu Zhengcao boarded a plane to the United States under the delegation of the central government and met with Zhang Xueliang, who had been away for nearly 50 years and was both his teacher and friend.
At this time, Lu Zhengcao was already 87 years old, , and Zhang Xueliang was about to celebrate his 91-year-old birthday. , the two old people were getting older little by little with the development of New China.
When Lu Zhengcao saw Zhang Xueliang who came to greet him at the door of Zhang Xueliang's residence, he couldn't believe that the young marshal back then had completely become an old man.
When the two met, they didn't say anything extra. They just held each other's right hands and looked at each other for a long time.
Immediately afterwards, Lu Zhengcao first took out the birthday gifts prepared by the central government and the birthday gifts prepared by himself, and congratulated Zhang Xueliang on his 91st birthday.
It was just that there were too many people present, so Lu Zhengcao did not mention returning to the mainland, and Zhang Xueliang understood it well and did not ask about it.
The next afternoon, the two met in a private place.
This time without the influence of outsiders, the two old men were finally able to talk to each other intimately.
However, Lu Zhengcao's temperament is the same as Zhang Xueliang's. They are both people who speak their minds directly.
He first took out the letter sent by Premier Zhou's wife Deng Yingchao: "If it is convenient, come back to visit your hometown, sweep the tombs, reminisce about the past, and there is nothing wrong with settling down."
When he heard that it was from Mrs. Deng Yingchao, Zhang Xueliang quickly took out his reading glasses, put his eyes on the letter paper and read it carefully.
While reading the letter, Zhang Xueliang's face was full of nostalgia.
But after reading it, he sighed.
Lu Zhengcao saw Zhang Xueliang's reaction and asked quickly: "Is there anything wrong?"
Zhang Xueliang shook his head: "My eyes are getting worse, so I want to go back to the mainland to have my eyes checked."
Hearing this, Lu Zhengcao was extremely happy: "It's good to come back, we will welcome you with the highest standards."
These words were not only said by and Lu Zhengcao, but also by the central government.
In order to show sincerity to Zhang Xueliang, the central government also planned to celebrate Zhang Xueliang's 91st birthday in June, and sent people to repair Zhang Xueliang's former residence and Zhang Zuolin's mausoleum to facilitate Zhang Xueliang's return trip.
It can be seen that our party attaches great importance to Zhang Xueliang's return to the mainland.
But when he heard the words "the highest standard of greeting", Zhang Xueliang got angry: "Don't say that, I am an ordinary citizen now, how can you waste time and money to welcome me!"
Then, Zhang Xueliang said again ： "I return to the mainland You have to agree to three conditions: , . The first is that you must not do this. Secondly, I will not accept interviews from reporters. The last point is that I hope everyone can meet me normally. "
These three requirements are the requirements of the elderly Zhang Xueliang. A kind of humility, but also a consideration of cross-strait relations and oneself.
If he returns to the mainland and accepts such a welcome, he would be a bit sorry for the Taiwanese leaders who released him.
I have to say that even if he is 91 years old, even if the time has come to 1991, Zhang Xueliang's nature is still the same as that of the Xi'an Incident.
His unwillingness to accept a high-standard reception was no different from sending Chiang Kai-shek to Nanjing in person.
After fully understanding these three requirements, Mr. Lu Zhengcao nodded in agreement.
Now that the serious topic was finally finished, the two old men who had not seen each other for a long time began to drink heavily.
sometimes talked about the former warlord Zhang Zuolin, and sometimes talked about the development of New China. The two old men, who together were nearly 200 years old, laughed like two children that afternoon.
Returning home became a pity
After Lu Zhengcao’s trip to the United States ended, many people were waiting for Zhang Xueliang’s return.
After all, the conditions have been met. Zhang Xueliang must be very eager to return to the mainland.
But unfortunately, until Zhang Xueliang passed away in 2001, people could not wait for Zhang Xueliang to return to the mainland.
There are different opinions on the reason why he did not return to the mainland. Some people said that he and his wife were in poor health and could no longer travel hard, while others said that Taiwan was causing trouble.
But in fact, the biggest possibility is the old man's own political thinking.
The old man should be worried that his return would lead to another stalemate between the mainland and Taiwan. That's why he couldn't make up his mind to return to the mainland no matter what.
Zhang Xueliang's life is a legendary life, but it is also very difficult.
As a member of the Kuomintang, although he was old friends with many of our party's leaders and had a deep relationship with our party, in the end he was caught in a dilemma.
How could Zhang Xueliang not want to return to the mainland? This is his home and the traces of his life. Even if he just goes home to visit his father's grave, I believe this old man will be very happy.
Only he himself can know the pain in Zhang Xueliang's heart.
In fact, there are many people like Zhang Xueliang. Some of them later got the opportunity to return to the mainland to see their families, while others failed to return to the mainland and closed their eyes forever because of the passage of time.
hopes that Taiwan can return to the embrace of mainland mothers as soon as possible, so that those who are in a dilemma like Zhang Xueliang can no longer embrace their families as much as they want.
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