On April 1, 1935, Chairman of the National Government Lin Sen awarded Chiang Kai-shek the rank of special general.
Chiang Kai-shek exclusively enjoyed the rank of a special general for 40 years. Until his death in 1975, no one in the Kuomintang army has won the rank of a special general.
During the period when the Kuomintang ruled the mainland, there were only three women who won the rank of lieutenant general of the Kuomintang army, namely Soong Mei-ling, Qi Junfeng, and Ba Yunying.
Song Mei-ling is Chiang Kai-shek's wife. Like this, the husband is the general and the wife is the family of the lieutenant general. There is also a family in New China, namely, Marshal Nie Rongzhen's daughter Nie Li (Lieutenant General) and son-in-law Ding Henggao (General).
Ding Henggao and Nie Li and his wife
But Chiang Kai-shek's family has more generals, and their two sons Jiang Jingguo and Jiang Weiguo are also generals.
Chiang Kai-shek's eldest son Chiang Ching-kuo was born in 1910, 12 years older than Chairman Mao's eldest son Mao Anying. Both of them studied at the Soviet Union's Military and Political University. They all obtained the rank of Soviet Union, and Mao Anying was awarded the rank of lieutenant, while Chiang Ching-kuo was awarded the rank of lieutenant.
But after returning to China, the situation between the two was dramatic.
Cheng Ching-kuo only joined the Kuomintang in 1936, and he returned to China from the Soviet Union in April 1937. In January 1938, Chiang Ching-kuo became the deputy director of the Security Department of the Jiangxi Provincial Government. He was a major general and was only 28 years old.
In 1944, Chiang Ching-kuo served as the director of the Political Department of the Youth Army's Training and Training General Department, and was promoted to Lieutenant General.
After Mao Anying returned to China to meet his father Chairman Mao, his father said to him: I have great rights, but I only have one right to give you, that is, to participate in productive labor and receive training at the grassroots level.
Mao Anying became a farmer and his hands were grinded with calluses. Later, he went to the Korean battlefield and devoted himself to the just cause of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea. Until his death, he was still a confidential secretary, with a very low position.
In January 1949, after Chiang Kai-shek declared his "resignation", Chiang Ching-kuo accompanied his father to retreat to Xikou, and later boarded a plane to Taiwan in Chengdu.
In Taiwan, Chiang Ching-kuo served as chairman of the Kuomintang Taiwan Provincial Party Committee, director of the General Political Department of the Kuomintang’s “Ministry of National Defense”, deputy minister, minister, vice president of the “Executive Yuan”, president, and the highest leader of the Taiwan region. He has a military rank of second-level general.
The former commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Air Force Zhou Zhirou arrived in Taiwan and was promoted to a first-level general, and was announced at the same time as Chiang Ching-kuo's second-level general. One day, Zhou Zhirou complained to the person who came to congratulate him and said, "Don't congratulate me. Now, even those who have never fought can become generals. And I have been fighting on the battlefield for decades before I became a first-class general in the Air Force. There is nothing to be happy about thinking about it!"
Zhou Zhirou mocked Jiang Jingguo.
The year Chiang Kai-shek died, that is, in 1975, his second son Jiang Weiguo had the rank of lieutenant general, which was the 14th year he became a lieutenant general.
According to the regulations of the Kuomintang, if a lieutenant general who has been in office for 14 years has not been promoted to general, he should be forced to retire and his military rank will be cancelled. The general is a lifetime system.
Jiang Weiguo naturally wanted to be promoted to general, so he went to find his brother Jiang Ching-kuo, who was in charge of Taiwan, and cried for this.
Song Mei-ling also asked Chiang Ching-kuo for the promotion of Chiang Wei-kuo.
Jiang Ching-kuo agreed to find a way to solve it.
According to the system of awarding ranks in Taiwan at that time, only "Minister of Defense, Chief of Staff, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, President of the Three Armies University, Director of the General Political Department, Commander-in-Chief of the Joint Logistics" and other people can be awarded the rank of general. If you want to award General Chiang Weiguo, you have to change one person's position.
Soon, Yu Boquan, president of the Three Military University, took the initiative to write a letter to Chiang Ching-kuo, saying that he was old and wanted to get rid of his family and live in his old age. He also recommended Chiang Wei-kuo to take over the position of president of the Three Military University.
In this way, Jiang Weiguo successfully took over the Three Military University and was successfully promoted to second-level general.
Maybe even the Jiang brothers thought it was a bit too much, so they did not officially announce it to the public. Later, people learned about Jiang Weiguo's promotion to general after reading the newspaper.
To be fair, Chiang Ching-kuo did a lot of things during his tenure in Taiwan, which made Taiwan’s economy develop rapidly and became one of the “Four Asian Little Dragons”, which is worthy of praise. His biggest mistake was to let a Japanese take over his position, making Taiwan increasingly out of date and its status decline. (Liu Jixing)
