In March 1961, the secretary informed Chiang Kai-shek that the founding general Chen Geng died in Shanghai.
Chiang Kai-shek and General Chen Geng are enemies, but at this moment, Chiang Kai-shek's mood became extremely heavy. Listening to the secretary's report, Chiang Kai-shek was also sad and crying.
This reaction scared everyone who accompanied him. Everyone hurriedly stepped forward to persuade him, but he couldn't help but he couldn't help him. Chiang Kai-shek became more and more sad. He also said to his son Jiang Jingguo : "Five Hu Zongnan is not as good as one Chen Geng!"
Even Chiang Kai-shek also set up a mourning hall in Taiwan to pay tribute to him. The dead Chen Geng cried and said bitterly: "Without Chen Geng, there would be no me!"
Huangpu Teachers and students
The relationship between Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Geng was a bit complicated. At the beginning, Chiang Kai-shek liked this Huangpu First class student very much, and even wanted to recruit him as his confidant for a time.
Chen Geng's ability is of course stronger than any general on the Kuomintang side. However, the Kuomintang is acting against the enemy and is very unpopular. The sober Chen Geng is not willing to make accusations for the tiger.
Chen Geng could not use it for himself, which became a lifelong regret for Chiang Kai-shek.
As early as when Chen Geng was admitted to Whampoa Military Academy , he had already attracted Chiang Kai-shek's attention.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek observed in class and noticed that the student was very sharp in his conversation, extremely smart, very knowledgeable about military tactics, and ranked among the top in training. He was a veritable civil and military genius.
Chiang Kai-shek believes that it would be better if such a talent could be loyal to him.
After graduating from Whampoa Military Academy, Chen Geng quickly entered the army and became the company commander.
Not long after, it caught up with the second Eastern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army . Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to this battle. He sent a large number of cadets from the Whampoa Military Academy to the battlefield, and even he himself came to the front line to command.
Because of this battle, Chen Geng was transferred to Chiang Kai-shek and became the guard company commander.
Chen Geng
The main target of the National Revolutionary Army's attack was the warlord Chen Jiongming . Driven by many outstanding generals, the National Revolutionary Army was almost unstoppable and soon came to the city of Huizhou , and it took only one day to successfully capture Huizhou City.
This made Chiang Kai-shek feel proud and feel that victory is right in front of him, so he commanded the troops to continue to advance.
But Chiang Kai-shek's command level is well known that under normal performance, most of the battles commanded by Chiang Kai-shek are unsatisfactory, and this time is no exception.
Although the army had just won the victory, the soldiers had not yet recovered. The joy of victory blinded everyone's minds, so that the army had not undergone stable deployment when it continued to move forward.
Even Chiang Kai-shek himself had no clear plan for the next step.
The army advanced to Huayang area in a daze, and as soon as they arrived here, they were besieged by the enemy. Chiang Kai-shek himself was also trapped in the encirclement, and the morale of the army was in chaos. Now, Chiang Kai-shek was panicked.
The enemy has no way to retreat, so naturally it has a hundred times stronger combat power than before, and the National Revolutionary Army was defeated and retreated step by step. Seeing that the army was defeated, Chiang Kai-shek decided to personally rush to the front line to command.
But this decision is obviously very stupid. The result of Chiang Kai-shek's personal command was that the Northern Expedition Revolutionary Army was defeated faster.
So, Chiang Kai-shek issued another order, and everyone who fled was shot. The platoon leader escaped and killed the platoon leader, and the battalion commander escaped and killed the battalion commander.
But the problem is that the enemy is coming in full force. Even if Chiang Kai-shek issued such a killing order, he still failed to stop the speed of the army's escape. In the end, there was no killing, and the enemy had approached the hill where Chiang Kai-shek's General Command was located.
Chiang Kai-shek suddenly lost his mind. He saw the enemy rushing up like a tide, worried that he would be insulted after being captured, so he drew his gun and planned to kill himself.
But at this time, Chen Geng, who was standing by, stopped Chiang Kai-shek. Chen Geng said to Chiang Kai-shek: "You are the commander-in-chief. Your life and death will affect the entire situation of the war. Please leave here quickly. It will be too late if you don't leave!"
life-savior
More than ten years later, someone blamed Chen Geng for this matter and asked Chen Geng: "What did you do to save Chiang Kai-shek at that time? If you didn't save him, how could so many things happen now?"
Chen Geng laughed and said: "If I don't save him, wouldn't he become a revolutionary martyr?"
This is of course a joke. The relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was still in a cooperative relationship, and it was not a life-and-death situation. Chiang Kai-shek was nominally the commander of this army. For the sake of the overall situation, of course, Chiang Kai-shek could not be allowed to die on the battlefield.
However, Chen Geng's persuasion did not work. Chiang Kai-shek's mind was already in a mess and he had to commit suicide on the spot. Seeing that Chiang Kai-shek could not be persuaded, Chen Geng pulled him up directly, carried him on his back, and rushed out all the way.
Fortunately, the enemy had not been completely surrounded by him at that time. Chen Geng found a breakthrough in the chaos. He ran for countless miles on his back, and then crossed a small river and finally arrived at a safe territory.
Outside, the enemy was still besieging, so Chen Geng took Chiang Kai-shek to hide in the grass for several hours. It was dark and finally a reinforcement army came and sent Chiang Kai-shek out.
Then, Chen Geng asked Chiang Kai-shek to write a letter of help, ran away by himself, handing the letter to He Yingqin , asking him to lead troops to rescue, and in this way, the current crisis was finally resolved.
He Yingqin
From then on, "Chen Geng's legs" were famous in the Whampoa Military Academy, and Chiang Kai-shek has always been thinking about Chen Geng's life-saving grace.
As the saying goes: A drop of water can be repaid with a spring of water. Although Chiang Kai-shek has always been a kind person, he is still quite proud of his complacent disciples now that his life has been saved.
He also wants to continue to promote Chen Geng through this matter until he trains Chen Geng to become his confidant.
Soon, Chen Geng was promoted to a staff officer around Chiang Kai-shek, and could enter and exit Chiang Kai-shek's office at will to help Chiang Kai-shek handle various confidential incidents.
But there is one thing that has always been a thorn in Chiang Kai-shek's heart. Through intelligence, he learned that Chen Geng had joined the Communist Party through the introduction of Zhou Enlai and others a few years ago.
Zhou Enlai
Although the two parties have not yet broken up, in Chiang Kai-shek's heart, the Communist Party is its number one enemy and has to be eliminated.
This student Chen Geng actually joined the Communist Party, which is really confused. Even though Chen Geng saved his life, Chiang Kai-shek felt uncomfortable when he thought of Chen Geng's identity as a Communist.
He once made various explicit and hinted, hoping that Chen Geng could withdraw from the Communist Party and join his own side.
Chen Geng is not stupid. He can understand what Chiang Kai-shek means, but he will never be such a treacherous villain.
Between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the balance in Chen Geng's heart has always been biased towards the Communist Party, because he knows well that only the Communist Party can truly save China's current situation.
Chen Geng resolutely joined Huangpu back then, in order to save the country and the people. If he leaves the party organization because of the little interest in front of him, wouldn’t that violate Chen Geng’s principle of being a human being?
Seeing that Chen Geng was not in trouble, Chiang Kai-shek had the idea of transferring him back to Huangpu. Even the life-saving benefactor would not work. Once Chiang Kai-shek's core interests were touched, he would ignore anything.
Crisis is everywhere
Chen Geng felt that the crisis was approaching the Communist Party. He found a list in Chiang Kai-shek's office, which circled the names of all Communist Party members with a red pen. These Communist Party members usually study or work in the Whampoa Military Academy.
On the surface, everyone is their own people, but it is obvious that Chiang Kai-shek has been guarding against them in secret. Thinking of Chiang Kai-shek's recent series of actions, Chen Geng believes that he cannot continue to stay with Chiang Kai-shek.
So, Chen Geng compiled a reason and proposed that he would quit his job as a staff officer, which was exactly what Chiang Kai-shek wanted.
If he drove Chen Geng away himself, he would be said to be put on the wrong side. Chen Geng took the initiative to leave, and outsiders could not say anything. Chiang Kai-shek agreed to Chen Geng's resignation application very happily.
And shortly after Chen Geng left, a big thing happened.
1926, Chiang Kai-shek took advantage of the Zhongshan ship incident and asked all Kuomintang members and Communist Party members to disclose their identities.
Moreover, some party members who join two parties at the same time must give up their status as Communist Party members and can only be loyal to the Kuomintang.
Chiang Kai-shek forced everyone to withdraw, which aroused the anger of many people.
Chen Geng stood up directly and publicly announced that he was a Communist Party member. At the same time, he announced that he would give up his identity as a member of the Kuomintang and draw a clear line with the Kuomintang.
Chiang Kai-shek was very annoyed by such an obvious behavior that he had done against him, and he wanted to punish Chen Geng immediately, but it was still because of his previous life-saving grace that he couldn't have a straight attack.
However, a bigger conspiracy is unfolding to all Communists.
1927, Chiang Kai-shek insidiously created the April 12th coup, arresting and harming a large number of Communists.
White terror spread, the number of Communist Party members plummeted, and the rest of Communist Party members had to go underground for their own safety and began to think about the next line of action. There is no permanent peace between
and the enemy, and the only truth is the only truth.
So, Chen Geng quickly rushed to Nanchang to participate in a series of matters related to Nanchang Uprising . Unfortunately, although the Nanchang Uprising was successful, the enemy's counterattack became stronger. Nanchang was lost and the party members were trampled on all sides.
Chen Geng finally settled in Shanghai and became one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China's special sciences. Together with Zhou Enlai, he established a huge underground intelligence network.
Because of Chiang Kai-shek's cruel behavior, the Communist Party members all left Huangpu one after another. But what made Chiang Kai-shek feel the most regretful was Chen Geng's departure, because Chiang Kai-shek knew very well that Chen Geng was a rare talent.
For a long time, he regarded Chen Geng as his favorite disciple. But now, Chen Geng has expressed his attitude with practical actions, which has stimulated Chiang Kai-shek.
On the one hand, he still cherishes Chen Geng's talent and is grateful for his life-saving kindness back then; on the other hand, he wishes to get rid of Chen Geng as soon as possible. Because according to Chiang Kai-shek's principles, if Chen Geng could not use it for himself, it would be better to disappear in this world.
failed to persuade surrender
The intelligence work carried out by Chen Geng in Shanghai is one of the most dangerous tasks. Shanghai is the enemy's base camp, and spies are everywhere, so our party's underground intelligence personnel are likely to be arrested.
But the more dangerous it is, the more someone must take on this responsibility. Chen Geng is an excellent intelligence officer. In order to cover up his eyes, he has used more than 20 fake identities. He is good at disguising. Even under the nose of the spy, there are many ways to escape from the tiger's den.
, even, because of the fake identity, the spies also made a joke of "Please ask Chen Geng to capture Chen Geng".
Because superiors have been asking spies to arrest Chen Geng, but spies really don’t know where Chen Geng is. At this time, they heard that there was a Mr. Wang in Shanghai who was very good at learning, so they spent a lot of money to ask Mr. Wang to come and discuss.
But unfortunately, Mr. Wang was actually pretending to be Chen Geng, which is one of his fake identities in Shanghai.
The spies didn't understand why, and thought they had found the right person, so they thanked Chen Geng himself. In the end, they naturally gave the CCP's special departments a free fund for the activity.
However, although Chen Geng has always acted cautiously, he was still caught by the spy once.
That happened in 1933. Originally, Chen Geng was performing a mission in another place, but because he was injured, he had to return to Shanghai for recuperation. Unexpectedly, he was betrayed by a traitor just after he returned to Shanghai.
In a cinema, Chen Geng and the spy met head-on. Chen Geng had no time to escape and was arrested by the spy. He was then taken to Nanjing for trial.
When Chiang Kai-shek heard that Chen Geng was arrested, he was overjoyed. He still had the idea of luck, thinking that he could persuade Chen Geng to surrender. In order to express his sincerity, Chiang Kai-shek decided to talk to this former student in person.
Learning that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to see him, Chen Geng knew what the former principal had planned, and he had a solution to it.
A few days later, the former teachers and students met in the office. As soon as Chiang Kai-shek came up, he almost said: "Chen Geng, you are much thinner."
Chen Geng laughed when he heard this, and he retorted: "The so-called thinner I am good at appearance and fattening the world, principal, you are much thinner, but as the leader of one party and one country, the principal has become thinner, and the world is thinner. Why is this?"
When he heard this, Chiang Kai-shek changed his face. He gritted his teeth and held back his anger. He said to Chen Geng: "You were young and ignorant at the time, and it was inevitable that you would go astray, but now, as long as you are willing to go back to the wrong path, you are still my most respected student!"
After hearing this, Chen Geng remained silent. Chiang Kai-shek thought his persuasion had worked, and then struck while the iron was hot and said: "As long as you are willing to issue a statement and have no relationship with the Communist Party, I will definitely give you preferential treatment. The way out you can have is ten times better than now!"
Hearing Chiang Kai-shek's words, Chen Geng took the paper and pen on the table and started writing quickly.
Jiang Jieshi suddenly smiled and leaned over to see what Chen Geng wrote.
As a result, Chen Geng directly raised the words he wrote to Chiang Kai-shek to show them. The reads a series of words such as "destroying Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship" and "There is no good end to dictatorship".
Looking at Chiang Kai-shek's distorted face, Chen Geng laughed and said, "Principal, this is my attitude!"
was in a dilemma
Chiang Kai-shek was furious and slammed the door and left. Chen Geng was naturally sent back to prison. Chiang Kai-shek even had the idea of killing Chen Geng directly at that time, but soon, the idea was dispelled because Chiang Kai-shek discovered that Chen Geng's influence was too great.
Chen Geng was a celebrity in Huangpu back then. Countless officers in the National Government were Chen Geng's classmates or junior brothers.
Back then, Chen Geng was very popular and had friends all over the world, so now that when he was arrested, his relatives and friends were very anxious and came to plead for him. Letters of pleading filled Chiang Kai-shek's office.
even, for Chen Geng's safety, even Soong Ching Ling came forward and went to prison to visit Chen Geng personally, and also issued a statement saying:
"If we allow these revolutionary soldiers to be arrested, imprisoned, or even killed, it is to allow the abominable reactionary forces to destroy the life of the Chinese nation. Release them and release thousands of people like them is to release the inconquering power of the Chinese national revolutionary spirit. Without this power, China cannot be like a country and Survive like a nation." ”
Song Ching Ling met Chiang Kai-shek in person and said to him: "Chen Geng used to be your student. He saved your life in the Battle of Dongjiang. You are now saying that you want to kill him, and ignore the words etiquette, righteousness, integrity and shame . How can you explain to the people? ”
Song Ching Ling's words made Chiang Kai-shek not know how to respond. He knew that this was not Soong Ching Ling's idea alone, but the appeal of most people.
Song Ching Ling
The people also responded a lot to this matter, because everyone knows that Chen Geng is Chiang Kai-shek's life-saving benefactor. It is completely against morality.
Chiang Kai-shek is usually very unpopular. In addition, this incident intensified the conflicts and the various criticisms of the outside world made Chiang Kai-shek very annoyed and even regretted it. If I had known that this would be the situation, it would be better to let Chen Geng go directly.
is good now, but it’s not a human inside or outside.
Since Chen Geng was arrested, Chiang Kai-shek's office has not stopped. From the general to the staff, almost everyone is trying to find a way to plead for Chen Geng.
In the eyes of these officials of the National Government, although the two parties are now alive and dead, Chen Geng was still good to them back then. Everyone was friends, so there was no need to make such an ugly thing.
In this matter, Chiang Kai-shek, who wanted to punish Chen Geng and even kill him, was unilaterally isolated.
Chiang Kai-shek was very helpless about this. He was now being roasted on the fire. Chen Geng's affairs have become a hot potato. If he locked Chen Geng in prison, public opinion would probably be unable to control it.
html In a desperate situation, Chiang Kai-shek transferred Chen Geng from the prison to a small western-style building in the military police headquarters, and also specially ordered the soldiers guarding Chen Geng not to be tortured or abused him, and they should eat, drink and treat him well every day.It is the first time that he has been a prisoner to do this, but there is nothing to be happy for Chen Geng. He still cannot restore his freedom, so he still has to find a way to fight hard.
But Chiang Kai-shek did not intend to let Chen Geng go easily. He thought of various ways, hoping to "educate" Chen Geng. Simply put, it is mental torture, plus various coercion and inducement.
Chiang Kai-shek asked the guard to take Chen Geng to watch operas and parks everywhere, and even sent people to the foreign building to play mahjong with Chen Geng.
Chen Geng felt annoyed by these waves of offensives. He just wanted to gain freedom now, and he was waiting in the small western-style building for the opportunity to escape.
escaped the day
Finally one day, a judge came and said that he was ordered by Chiang Kai-shek to interrogate Chen Geng.
However, during the interrogation, the two people met with a secret code, and the judge was actually sent by the organization to contact Chen Geng. The struggle between Chen Geng and Chiang Kai-shek had spread all over the country, and the party organization spent a lot of effort to finally let the comrade get in.
Chen Geng also learned that two of the military police guarding him were their own people. Three days later, these two comrades would assist him in escaping from the attic.
So, three days later, Chen Geng was waiting upstairs, and suddenly there were several slight noises under the floor. Chen Geng immediately opened the window and escaped from the attic where he was house arrested by two comrades.
The next day, things spread.
However, Chiang Kai-shek felt much more relaxed. In the past few months, he had been thinking about how to deal with Chen Geng, but after thinking about it, he could never think of a solution. Now, Chen Geng ran away by himself, but instead helped him.
Chen Geng himself was also sure that in this incident, Chiang Kai-shek should have turned a blind eye. After all, if Chen Geng didn't run away, Chiang Kai-shek would really have no way to explain to the public.
Killing the benefactor is a harm to Chiang Kai-shek's own reputation, but if Chen Geng is released directly, Chiang Kai-shek's own face will not be able to establish prestige within the government in the future. So, the only way is to let Chen Geng run away by himself.
Of course, the struggle between teachers and students is far from over. They will fight again and again in the subsequent Long March , the War of Resistance and the War of Liberation. Of course, Chiang Kai-shek will always be a loser.
The student Chen Geng suffered too many losses, which made Chiang Kai-shek's resentment deepen and deepen.
But at the same time, he felt sorry countless times. He had imagined that if he could successfully persuade surrender at that time, it might be a different situation. therefore expressed the feeling that "the five Hu Zongnans are not as good as one Chen Geng."
Until Chen Geng passed away, Chiang Kai-shek, who was heartbroken about this, still couldn't figure out how bad he was than the Communist Party?
In fact, if one has the power, he will have many helpers, but if one has lost the power, he will have few helpers. All of this is what he has done.
