Like other military statesmen of our time, Chiang Kai-shek was fearless, both psychologically and spiritually.But he was a tactician not a strategist.His real genius was political intrigue. Chiang Kai-shek became very interested in Hitler's Nazism and fascism, so he sent his second son, Jiang Weiguo, to Germany for further studies. He was summoned by Hitler twice and formed a fascist organization "Blue Shirts"... Chiang Kai-shek has piercing eyes, he often has a shaved head and a short beard, and he has the demeanor of a soldier. However, his expression is incredible - not because he is not good at words, but because he always has a humble smile unique to Chinese people.

He spoke with a strong Zhejiang accent, with a high-pitched voice and rapid tones.This set him apart from most of his bureaucrats and followers from the provinces. Chiang Kai-shek never bothered to learn the standard Chinese of Beijing, let alone a foreign language, and he had to address the grand Sun Yat-sen Memorial every month after he came to power.Although his dialect was harsh and difficult to understand, the participants had to pay attention.Jiang at this time was not only a typical Chinese, but also a typical Zhejiangese. Chiang Kai-shek rejected foreign influences, but married the American-educated daughter of a Chinese Christian pastor who served as Chiang's personal interpreter.Chiang Kai-shek did not know foreign languages, and Dong Xianguang, his official biographer, taught him English for several months in the late 1920s.

Dong later disclosed: "Mr. Chiang quickly gave up English because of his busy government affairs." Chiang Kai-shek later educated his son Chiang Ching-kuo to learn his lessons and learn foreign languages ​​well. Chiang Ching-kuo quoted several letters from his father in 1922 and 1923 in the book "My Father".These letters required him to master English. In 1943, when Chiang Ching-kuo was thirty-five or six years old, his father sent a letter asking him to spend six hours a week studying English, especially English grammar and reading. Lao Jiang optimistically said: "My son has a good foundation in Russian, and it will be easy to learn English."

Mrs. Chiang's wife Soong Mei-ling was a world-renowned beauty. According to Taiwan's official biography, she was Chiang's second wife. In fact, if one of Chiang's concubines was included in 1912, she could be said to be Chiang's third, or even third. four wives. Chairman Jiang and his wife have indeed established an impeccable image of a happy marriage among the people. When Chiang Kai-shek married Soong Mei-ling in 1927, the fire of his youth was burning brightly. But Chiang Kai-shek in his youth was a well-known romantic figure who knew Shanghai's brothels like the back of his hand.On the one hand, he is unrestrained and uninhibited, on the other hand, he follows Confucianism and insists on self-denial and self-discipline.

He is indeed a Confucian disciple with a strong will.As a result of marrying a Christian, he became a devout Christian again. Among the all-powerful historical figures of his time, such grotesque marriages were not uncommon.In addition, many other things are also key to understanding Jiang's life and character.He participated in the 1911 revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and was a follower of Sun Yat-sen, the "father of the revolution".He therefore called himself a revolutionary. Chiang Kai-shek believed that revolution was nationalism, overthrowing the feudal emperor internally and ending national humiliation externally. However, in other respects, Chiang Kai-shek was a A staunch conservative; some even considered him a reactionary.

Although Chiang Kai-shek participated in the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, he could not understand the courage and unstoppable momentum of the revolution. He tried in vain to prevent the further development of the revolutionary trend, trying to seize power in the melee of warlords and added a yellow robe. Chiang Kai-shek finally failed, he was forced to step down, lost his rule in mainland China, and was forced to flee to Taiwan, where he established his sanctuary. Early Portuguese explorers called Taiwan "the beautiful island".Chiang Kai-shek ruled a miniature "big country" in his later years.He left behind a rich and prosperous industrialized Taiwan.

Every year on October 10, the "President of the Republic of China" presides over the Double Ten Festival to commemorate the nationalist revolution.This was followed by the Chiang family and their followers celebrating Chiang Kai-shek's birthday on October 31st. Every year on New Year's Day, he always issues a statement to the whole people, advocating "counterattacking the mainland".During the last two years of his long career, his legs were paralyzed, and he never saw visitors.His proclamation had to be stopped or sent by someone else. On April 5, 1975, Saturday, the eighty-seven-year-old Chiang Kai-shek died of a heart attack, while the mainland has not yet "recovered".

Not only that, but the People's Republic of China, which he refused to recognize, entered the United Nations, while his own "Republic of China" was driven out, and humiliation and failure followed. Like some military statesmen such as de Gaulle, Franco, and other dictators, Chiang Kai-shek was closely tied to his country. Not everyone agrees with his views, but he did strive his life to realize his ambitions. When Sun Yat-sen died in 1925, Chiang's name was not included in the list of successors.However, he has built his own power base.He is the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, and the graduates of Whampoa were shaped by him into his own ancient Roman guards.The National Army under his command set out from Guangdong and carried out the Northern Expedition. In less than two years, it finally conquered and unified China in name.Some of the warlords who separated the provinces were defeated and surrendered, and some changed their banners to express their attachment.

However, the victory was temporary, and for the next decade, Chiang remained only China's most important leader at the time, but by no means the unchallenged ruler of China. There are two things in Chiang's early life that cannot be ignored. First, at the end of 1923, Chiang led a delegation to visit Moscow. After returning home, he distrusted the Russians and hated communism. However, Sun Yat-sen, the father of the revolution, had a different opinion. He rejected Chiang’s suggestion and turned to Borodin, the envoy of the Bolsheviks, as a consultant to follow the Soviet Communist Party’s reorganization of the Kuomintang.

Another thing that has not been fully disclosed is that during the ten years from 1912 to 1922, Chiang Kai-shek's experience as a stock broker in Shanghai.At that time, Chiang Kai-shek was just an insignificant pawn.But in the early 1920s, Shanghai's stock business was controlled by the Shanghai underworld Qinggang, and Chiang maintained close relationships with those bankers and businessmen (although he did not formally join the Qinggang), so Shanghai became Chiang Kai-shek's second power base. Chiang Kai-shek made a deal with his wealthy protectors: they financed his revolution, and he kept leftists out of government.The marriage of Chiang and Soong Meiling was also a product of this transaction.

In 1927, Chiang destroyed the local Communist regime in Shanghai and Guangdong. Seven years later, under strong pressure from the Kuomintang, Mao Zedong was forced to lead the peasant army on a legendary Long March to the remote cave dwellings in Yan'an. Mao challenged Chiang in the Yan'an cave and eventually defeated the Kuomintang leader. Japan invaded Northeast China in 1931 and began to conquer China again in 1937.Chiang Kai-shek was not a nationalist or a patriot in the face of the Japanese challenge; in his military strategy the first enemy was always the Communists, and the Japanese second. He believes that the Communist Party is a rebel, and they must be conquered first; only when China is settled first and China is unified, can the Japanese be resisted. As a result, this approach led to the Xi'an Incident in 1936.Marshal Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang and asked him to stop "suppressing the Communist Party" and start resisting Japan. Some radicals in Xi'an demanded that Chiang be killed to apologize. Ironically, it was Zhou Enlai, who had been hunted down by the Kuomintang in Shanghai nine years earlier, who had guaranteed Chiang's release, when Chiang promised to resist the Japanese.However, in Chiang's heart, the number one enemy is still the Communist Party. Chiang Kai-shek was at the height of his power and status when Japan invaded China, and he had led the Kuomintang for ten years.Although he has not completely ruled all of China, his power is unmatched by other opponents. When Dong Xianguang's official biography of Chiang Kai-shek was published in 1938, it touted Chiang as "the greatest military-statesman in continental Asia" of our time. However, no statesman in the world has lost his prestige and fame in such a short period of time like Chiang Kai-shek. Eleven years after the publication of Dong's biography of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chiang dynasty was completely crushed by Mao Zedong's People's Liberation Army.The Kuomintang and its troops had to flee to Taiwan for refuge. The two things mentioned above are the root causes of Chiang Kai-shek's catastrophe, but they are not the whole reason.The secret history of Chiang Kai-shek has a dual nature.How did he ascend to the peak of power?How did it fall from the top?In the end, how did he restore his rule on the small island of Taiwan and maintain it for life? To answer the above questions, we must start with Chiang Kai-shek's complex personality and extraordinary characteristics.Like other military statesmen of our time, Chiang Kai-shek was fearless, both psychologically and spiritually. Although he sometimes hesitates when making decisions, once he makes a decision, he will implement it with astonishing speed without scruple.Those who challenged him were executed or imprisoned one by one. In terms of military strategy, Chiang Kai-shek was well trained and battle-hardened, but he was a master tactician rather than a strategist.His real genius was political intrigue.Throughout his life, he always turned factions against each other and was suspicious of his followers.According to the Confucian tradition, he was a man separated from the people. But there are two people who are exceptions to him-his third wife Song Meiling and son Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek only trusts them two.As a result, his staff and his assistants were always panicked and dared not tell him the truth. Although he is always smiling, his temperament is unpredictable and unpredictable.Therefore, people around him are afraid of three-pointers in front of him, and they are always submissive, nodding their heads and saying "yes". It is said that he often bullied his first wife when he was young, and later became moody. Once a movie he watched at home offended him, and he immediately yelled at the projectionist to turn off the projector immediately. Whenever this happened, he would rage, overturn the coffee table, and smash the teacup. Chiang Kai-shek's old-fashioned, violent, and mysterious character is not a fiction.Since 1936, he has been insulated from tobacco and alcohol. Foreign visitors found that Jiang no longer drank Chinese spirits, but changed to plain water.During the war, his breakfast was milk and tea.He didn't like to gamble, and his only entertainment was walking.Usually he likes to wear high-necked khaki underwear, and he does not wear military ranks and badges, looking neat.When young, such attire is indecent in the eyes of the elderly.At that time, he was wearing a long robe and mandarin jacket, and a house cap, like an old scholar. Chiang Kai-shek himself is modest and prudent, with a breeze in his sleeves.But he was tolerant of the corruption around him.This is the case with his wife's family (referring to the Song Ziwen family) and their relatives.Regarding the corruption of lower-ranking officers, Chiang's attitude was completely different. Sometimes he would be furious and order the execution of the relevant personnel. In 1934, seven military officers embezzled state property, and Chiang immediately ordered that they all be shot.In another case, several division commanders pleaded with Chiang to pardon a criminal officer, but as soon as the division commanders left, he ordered the officer to be shot. Some people believe that the decade from 1927 to 1937 was a decade of relatively stable Kuomintang rule, and a decade when Chiang Kai-shek of the Kuomintang established his own dictatorship.During this period, although corruption and inefficiency in the work continued to appear, most officials worked hard.Telegraphs and long-distance telephones have been extended to various regions, including Sichuan, which was not included in the national unity until 1937.Airlines between China and the United States and Germany have been opened.Airlines were opened in some of China's provinces, 75,000 miles of roads were built, and the silver-backed paper money issued in 1934 was stabilized.Three years later, the U.S. Treasury Department agreed to exchange silver for gold through the Peterman Act, thereby helping the Chinese Nationalist government import weapons. In 1932, Mrs. Chiang's elder brother, Finance Minister Song Ziwen, balanced the budget, converted domestic debt, and abolished lijin—a tax hated since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Academic research is revived.Punctuation marks that did not exist in China in the past have also been introduced into modern literature.It was also during this period that the vernacular written by Hu Shi was widely promoted. In 1912, the second year of Sun Yat-sen's revolution, only 2,793,633 children were enrolled in primary schools nationwide, but by 1935 the number had reached 11,667,888.High school enrollment also rose from 52,100 to 500,000. In 1912, there were only four colleges in the country. In 1933, there were forty universities, forty colleges, and twenty-nine junior colleges. This year, the national library collection reached 4.5 million volumes. However, the democracy that should be implemented according to the principles of Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles has not been implemented. On October 4, 1928, the "Organization Law of the Republic of China" enacted by the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang stipulated that the party "guards" the people before the people understand democracy.In fact, "guardianship" is tyranny, a police state. From 1925 to 1929, Chen Lifu, the head of Chiang Kai-shek's secret police, established the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (Zhongtong).After the occupation of Shanghai, until the mid-1930s, security organizations were also established throughout the country. The Bureau of Military Survey and Statistics (Juntong) under the Central Military Commission is more organized and more powerful.Dai Li, the leader of the military command, is known as China's "Himmler".He handled spy cases in the name of the country and implemented a policy of terror.His "eyes and ears" spread across all levels of society and can carry out secret arrests and assassinations. In the KMT's police state, publications were censored and periodicals were licensed.therefore.Many publications died young.Some were suppressed within weeks or months of publication, while many new publications took their place. Out of his early vigilance against communism and his ambiguous relationship with the Shanghai underworld, Chiang Kai-shek studied fascism and Nazism.After Hitler came to power, Chiang Kai-shek sent two officers to Germany to investigate the Nazi model. After the outbreak of World War II, Chiang Kai-shek sent his second son, Jiang Weiguo, to study at the German Military Academy.Jiang Weiguo was summoned twice by Hitler.He is said to have marched to Austria with the German army. As a result of Chiang Kai-shek's interest in the Nazis, he formed a fascist organization—the "Blue Shirts Society" organized by 10,000 members. The whole country was like a barracks, and even kindergartens and cemeteries were militarized. The educational policy of the Blue Shirts is "nationalization, militarization and productionization". The Blue Shirts used violence against those who opposed the KMT government and purged those corrupt officials.They never cared about Sun Yat-sen's democratic principles.The purpose of the Blue Shirts is to centralize control.Although Chiang Kai-shek has always said that he is dedicated to democracy, he is undoubtedly a member of the Blue Shirts.Many members of the Blue Shirts Club are the backbone of Chiang Kai-shek's Whampoa. Although the Blue Shirts Society is well-known at home and abroad, they are only engaged in secret activities.In Chiang Kai-shek's "New Life Movement", the Blue Shirts Club played an important role.The purpose of Chiang Kai-shek's "New Life Movement" was to try to imitate fascism, revive Confucianism, and use this as the basis for uniting the whole country.In addition, he and Song Meiling also incorporated Christianity into the "New Life Movement".The four principles of Confucianism, "loyalty, sincerity, propriety, and trustworthiness" constitute the spiritual foundation of the "New Life Movement".Christian Puritanism was also promoted.The YMCA is actively involved in the movement. In the "New Life Movement", the Blue Shirts played its role.It always forces people to be Puritans and Confucians whether they like it or not.Taverns were forced to close in the middle of the night, dancing was banned, activists were driven out of dance halls and cinemas; people who wore western eyes were doused with acid.Chiang Kai-shek tried to revive the lifeless spiritual tradition of ancient China by setting up role models, but the results of the campaign were dismal: his failure was far more than that. Chiang Kai-shek never worried that power could not be exercised.But many of his initiatives have been stalled in the bureaucracy.In Nanjing, the capital of the Kuomintang, some documents had to go through thirty-six procedures before they could be finalized, and they were often delayed again and again. The reply to a memorandum was sometimes delayed for as long as six months. There are two kinds of officials in this bureaucratic system, one is responsible for specific affairs, and the other is responsible for overall work.Chiang Kai-shek belongs to the second type, and generally does not do specific affairs. During World War II, he is said to have held no fewer than eighty-two positions.Listed below are only a few: Chairman of the Kuomintang Executive Committee, Chairman of the National Government, Chairman of the National Military Commission, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Theater, Chief Executive, Chairman of the Supreme National Defense Committee, Chief Director of the Central Planning Bureau, Political Work of the Kuomintang Chairman of the Review Committee, Director of the New Life Sports Association, Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, Chairman of the Central Training Corps, President of the National Glider Association, etc. In 1937, due to Japan's full-scale war of aggression against China, Chiang Kai-shek's new system was forced to come to a standstill, whether it succeeded or failed.Chiang Kai-shek had studied in Japan, and he knew that although his army had millions of soldiers, its equipment was extremely poor, and it could not be compared with the modern Japanese army.Chiang Kai-shek intended to fight against Japan, but adopted a large retreat strategy. After abandoning his capital Nanjing, he established a wartime capital in Chongqing at the entrance of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River in the west.This place has a strategic position in the military, but in terms of society and politics, it is the beginning of Chiang Kai-shek's end.Vast areas and large populations fell into the hands of the Japanese. The people in the occupied areas look forward to the Communist guerrillas, not the Kuomintang fleeing for their lives, to fight against the invaders and defend their homeland. In the ten years since the establishment of the Soviet base in Jiangxi, Mao Zedong learned a lot.Mao Zedong was good at mobilizing the peasants and exerting their infinite power, but Chiang Kai-shek regarded the peasants as gangsters.Threatening them to tame themselves. Mao Zedong was good at inducing farmers to recognize the essence of the current situation in the countryside.Mao's people's army did not arrest the strong men, did not take the masses for a stitch, and helped the farmers harvest their crops.Mao Zedong also confiscated the fields of local tyrants and redistributed them to farmers.The Kuomintang was just the opposite. They violated Sun Yat-sen's proposition of "land to the tiller".Pushing the dreaded state-owned movement. World War II forged Chiang Kai-shek's alliance with the United States, but it also brought new issues.President Roosevelt believed that the commander-in-chief of the US military leading the Chinese army and the Chinese battlefield should be a person who loves the Chinese people, has an introverted personality, speaks authentic Chinese and is taciturn. Joseph Stilwell, the "Vinegar Ghost", arrived in Chongqing in 1942 and served as the chief of staff of Chairman Jiang. The two had conflicts from the very beginning. Stilwell was a general and hoped that his Chinese allies would go to the front to fight , and advocated to rectify the corruption of military officers and select talents directly from the wartime capital.Stilwell thought that all the institutions of the Chinese government were like a stinking "big cesspool", and he also scorned Chiang Kai-shek as "peanuts".Due to mutual antipathy between the two sides, in 1944, the President of the United States dismissed Stilwell from his post. The previous year, when Chiang Kai-shek, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill attended the Cairo summit meeting as the Big Four, he enjoyed worldwide prestige, and American aid and funds poured in.Various war preparations such as weapons and medicine were transported to Chiang Kai-shek's rear.However, most of the materials flowed into the black market again, and prices began to skyrocket to an astonishing degree that can only be compared with the Weimar Republic in Germany in modern history. At the end of the war, the rule of "Chairman Chiang" was facing a serious crisis.Much of Inner Mongolia and the Northeast are under Communist control.In the last few days of the war, the Soviet Red Army sent troops to China and handed over to Mao Zedong a large number of weapons and ammunition captured by the Japanese. At the end of 1945, President Truman sent General Marshall to China to mediate the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in order to achieve peace.The political intransigence of the two parties is doomed to failure of the mediation.Dark clouds of civil war hung over the country.In fact, the Civil War broke out in 1946. At first, the Kuomintang quickly won a semblance of victory, however, in the spring of 1948, the People's Liberation Army launched an all-out offensive.Morale on Chiang Kai-shek's side was depressed, and Washington eventually grew weary of Chiang Kai-shek's government and refused to supply dollars to the hopeless government.The entire Kuomintang army collapsed. Chiang Kai-shek made a pitiful gesture and formally resigned from the presidency on January 21, 1949, with Vice President Li Zongren acting as president.Jiang returned to his hometown in Zhejiang.Chiang Kai-shek has shown a series of "resignation intentions" since he was young, but only temporarily resigned to give way at the last moment.And each time he resigned, he made his successor appear powerless so that he could make a comeback and regain power. After the Communist Party occupied Nanjing, Guangdong, and Chongqing, Chiang Kai-shek led dozens of elite troops to flee the mainland and came to Taiwan. He lost China.Although he later made great achievements in Taiwan.But it couldn't make up for the catastrophic humiliation of his defeat on the mainland. As an adult, Chiang Kai-shek loved to keep a diary.The man who was pompous and stubborn in public was often deeply critical of himself in his diary.Every day, he and his wife knelt down on their knees and prayed for God's blessing. His last wish, dated March 29, 1975, expresses his dream to live on: "My colleagues and fellow countrymen, at a time when the country is getting stronger and stronger, please don't forget the country's sorrow and hope because of my death. My heavenly spirit will always work with my colleagues and fellow countrymen to realize the Three People's Principles, restore the mainland, and restore My national culture." He also said in a mixed tone of humility and pride: "Since I tied my hair, I have followed the Prime Minister's revolution, and I have always regarded myself as Jesus Christ and the Prime Minister's believers." Chiang Kai-shek died, and his incredible dream was taken to the grave.