Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

Chen Boda, once Mao Zedong's "pencil", raised such a question in his book "Chiang Kai-shek-An Enemy of the People": "Where is the way out for Chiang Kai-shek?" He said: "In fact, his 'great mentor' Zeng Guofan arranged for him a long time ago, that is: "Make peace with foreigners and make enemies with the people." " Mao Zedong later told Edgar Snow that one of the major mistakes made at the time was that the Communist Party did not unite with the Fujian Army against Chiang Kai-shek. We can definitely point out that Chiang Kai-shek made the biggest mistake of his life on a certain day.

It was September 11, 1931, when he ordered the young marshal Zhang Xueliang to avoid any conflict with the Japanese as much as possible.As expected, exactly one week later, the Japanese army launched the so-called "Shenyang Incident" to attack the Northeast. Zhang Xueliang asked Chiang Kai-shek: "What should I do?" Chiang Kai-shek's answer was clear: "In order to avoid any expansion of this incident, the policy of non-resistance must be resolutely implemented." As Chiang Kai-shek faced constant challenges from the opposition forces of his countrymen, he had made a decision on the order of solving military problems: first eliminate the domestic opposition forces, and then deal with foreign invaders.

This decision ultimately sealed Chiang Kai-shek's own fate. Kuomintang sources deny that Chiang Kai-shek used the term "non-resistance policy," but they do not deny that Chiang ordered the young marshal to avoid conflict with the Japanese army. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Kuomintang and the self-proclaimed successor of Sun Yat-sen's revolution, and China's fighter against imperialist plunder, was widely believed to lead the country in the war of resistance. To be fair, he really wants to fight the war, but he thinks this is a secondary goal. The first thing is that China must be unified under his leadership.

His miscalculation consisted in disappointing the people—intellectuals, peasants, and soldiers—with the result that his undisputed self-proclaimed leadership of the nation was undercut. At the moment of national peril, most people think that it is wrong for Chinese to beat Chinese. Had Chiang Kai-shek decided otherwise, the warlords would have put aside their differences and united under his banner.But instead, widespread distrust of him further undermined his rule, and, in the end, the Communists would declare themselves the true defenders of Chinese territory against the Japanese invaders.

Chiang Kai-shek was neither able nor willing to ascertain the truth of this fact in the late summer of that year and in the subsequent years of the war. All he could see was that because China was divided and weak, it could not resist the attack of a well-trained Japanese army.It is impossible for him to realize that China's division is one of the basic reasons for its weakness, and that in the face of enemy attack, it can be unified under his leadership through a patriotic call. According to Wu Dingchang, Chiang Kai-shek's secretary-general from 1944 to 1948, Chiang Kai-shek misjudged the Japanese attempt in September 1931 and ordered Zhang Xueliang to retreat because he mistakenly believed that the Japanese army did not really want to occupy Chinese territory.

It took three years for Chiang Kai-shek to believe that the Japanese really wanted to invade China and possibly wanted to conquer China.However, he did not change his original order of solving military problems because of this, and still followed the consistent policy of the rulers of the past dynasties: "To fight against the outside world, we must first settle the inside."From the content of this sentence (from the Chinese character "An"), it can be clearly understood that the use of force is required to calm down the domestic situation. Chiang Kai-shek has always admired General Zeng Guofan, who suppressed the Taiping Rebellion. Many Chinese believed that Zeng Guofan should first deal with the invasion of Western powers at that time, but this hero in Chiang Kai-shek's mind had other plans.Chiang Kai-shek followed his example.

A few years later, Chen Boda (who was once the "pen" of Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party) In his book "Chiang Kai-shek - An Enemy of the People" he raised such a question: "Where is Jiang Geshi's way out?" He said: "In fact, his 'great mentor' Zeng Guofan arranged for him a long time ago, that is: 'Make peace with foreigners and make enemies with the people.' " For the Japanese, they know exactly what they want and how to get it. The famous "Tanaka Memorandum" of July 25, 1927 clearly stated their thinking.

Although most scholars believe that this memo is a fake, this is not enough to deny the above point of view, because it is generally believed that whether the later Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Tanaka - is the real author of this memorandum, and regardless of whether it is China Man forged, all this is irrelevant. It is said that Yoshihide Tanaka presented it to the Emperor of Japan as a plan for Japan to conquer the Northeast and Mongolia. The Chinese distributed this memorandum throughout the country to prove Japan's aggressive intentions.Of course most readers believed the document to be genuine, and as time went on it became increasingly clear that the Japanese were doing exactly what the memo thought.

The memorandum outlined the economic resources of the Northeast and advocated the implementation of the "iron and blood" policy. "It also stated unabashedly: "Acquisition of actual rights in Manchuria and Mongolia is to use this as a basis to penetrate into other parts of China under the pretext of trade and commerce. Obtaining these rights will guarantee us the possession of the resources of the whole of China, and the possession of the resources of the whole of China will enable us to further conquer India, the Southeast Asian islands, Asia Minor, Central Asia, and even Europe,"

The Japanese have been looking for excuses to implement their own strategic plans. In June 1931, the Chinese arrested four Japanese spies in a military restricted area, and the Japanese army used this as an excuse to start a war.Chinese soldiers executed the four spies on July 1, but the "September 18th" incident was planned for a long time. When the incident happened, the young marshal was fighting a civil war, but he was by no means powerless against the Japanese.In fact, he had an army of 400,000, which greatly exceeded the number of invading Japanese troops. But Chiang Kai-shek ordered that any use of force be prohibited.Chiang decided not to resist the Japanese attack.

So, on September 23, the fifth day after the Japanese invasion, he announced that China would turn to the League of Nations. It is said that Chiang Kai-shek believed that the League of Nations could do something. Someone used this wonderful irony: "He didn't realize that the League of Nations was like Westminster Abbey - almost a sanatorium for great statesmen." In a speech rife with "patriotism"—a speech that would carry more weight if it showed greater determination—Chiang Kai-shek called on the entire people to unite under the leadership of the central government. However, unification under Chiang Kai-shek, who enforced a policy of non-resistance, did not have much appeal. Chiang Kai-shek's emissary went to Guangzhou and expressed his willingness to reach a compromise with the southern forces for the benefit of the nation. The South agreed to hold a "peace conference" in Shanghai. In October, Wang Jingwei, Sun Ke and other leftists held talks with Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Hanmin and other factions.However, the Guangzhou government has no intention of backing down. They believe that the easiest way to negotiate a peace is for the Nanjing government to hand over the power to rule China to the Guangzhou government.Hu Hanmin, although representing the Nanking government, sided with the left on this issue and believed that Chiang Kai-shek should leave China. According to Jiang's consistent habit of resigning, he was going to step down, but he would not leave China. What follows is a useless quarrel.In the end, the meeting decided to hold the "Four Great Congresses" of the Kuomintang in Nanjing and Guangzhou respectively. Chiang Kai-shek promised to resign as soon as a new government was formed.Both conferences were held in November as scheduled, and when it became clear that the conferences had yielded nothing, Chiang Kai-shek resigned from all positions.That was on December 15, 1931. Around this time, about 70,000 college and middle school students flooded into Nanjing.These people came from all over the country, and their arrival brought the disturbance caused by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria to the extreme. These students—ranging in age from twelve to sixteen—started completely spontaneously in various cities to protest, demanding an immediate declaration of war on Japan.They use various methods to cry out that the aggressors must be driven out. During a student riot, Foreign Minister Dr. Wang Chonghui was seriously injured. At the end of November, some 12,000 students arrived in Nanjing and camped outside government buildings.They demanded to see Chiang Kai-shek and no one else. It was very cold at that time, and Chiang Kai-shek thought that staying outside for 24 hours in this weather would freeze the students to death, so he went to a balcony and delivered a long speech to the students. He said that the students' demands on the government are harmful and unreasonable, they should go back to school, and the government will deal with the Japanese in due course. Cold and disappointed, the young men went home. However, the calm is short-lived. After clashes between students and police, many students were arrested. Soon, more students came to Nanjing from Hankou.Chiang Kai-shek similarly "educated" By doing so, he told the students, they would be used by the Japanese. The December student movement was larger and its leaders more determined.Some students from Peking stormed the Kuomintang party headquarters and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Other students stormed the Chung-Ang Ilbo Building, destroying the printing house and newspaper office.The situation has gotten out of control. Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Nanking garrison to surround the students occupying the Central University; the young rebels were forced to leave the capital in small groups under military escort. At this moment, Chiang Kai-shek "resigned".Accompanied by Mrs. Jiang, he left Nanjing and flew to an undisclosed place. Finally, he returned to his hometown in the mountains of Zhejiang. As usual, Chiang Kai-shek's "retirement" worked miraculously. On January 2, 1932, the government solemnly requested Chiang Kai-shek to return to Nanjing immediately, and even the students invited him back.Chiang Kai-shek, who lived peacefully at his home in the mountains, was busier than usual.Politicians sent a flood of telegrams to Chiang Kai-shek.Two other outgoing Kuomintang leaders—Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin—also sent telegrams.These telegrams all have a common purpose: it is urgent to formulate a "new policy towards Japan". In what the Japanese insisted was called the "Incident," the Japanese quickly took control of the three eastern provinces. The Japanese plotted one incident after another, each hinting at a larger war. The Japanese claimed that a similar incident had taken place at Longhua Airport on the outskirts of Shanghai, in which some Chinese - whom the Japanese did not identify for convenience - allegedly killed a Japanese seaman.The Japanese consulate immediately made a series of pre-planned demands to the Chinese authorities.The Japanese fleet was ordered to come to this big city.It was clear that Shanghai was in danger of Japanese invasion. Both Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek were taken aback. Wang Jingwei had gradually recovered in a hospital in Shanghai. At this time, he set off for Hangzhou. Chiang Kai-shek came down from the mountain to meet with Wang.In the end, the two reconciled.The two old rivals talked for a few days in Hangzhou, and then announced that they were going to Nanjing together. On January 25, Sun Ke resigned from the position of President of the Executive Yuan, and Wang Jingwei succeeded him.Chiang announced that he would not hold any post for the time being.But his appearance undoubtedly played a calming role.In addition, it is also beneficial for him not to hold office, because his previous orders not to resist Japan can now be ignored. On the 28th, the Japanese army launched a military attack on the Chinese army stationed in Shanghai.The Nineteenth Route Army fought back and fought back bravely.Facing resistance from Nanking, they fought for 33 days due to lack of material aid and growing supplies, only to be forced to retreat when enemy reinforcements arrived. The commanders of the Nineteenth Route Army were Chen Mingshu, Cai Tingkai and Jiang Guangnai. Soon their names were compared with those of Washington and Nelson, and they were included in the ranks of the world's greatest national heroes. Cai Tingkai's name became a brand of cigarettes and a trademark of some other goods. Donations poured in—some 40 million Chinese donated—from across the country and overseas Chinese organizations in support of the heroic 19th Route Army. On March 4, an armistice agreement was signed in Shanghai. The agreement was very unpopular, and those who signed it were violently attacked by the students. Chiang Kai-shek in Nanking watched all this with mixed feelings of sadness and poignancy: sad that the Japanese attack on China brought new shame; above. Two days after the Shanghai Agreement was signed, Chiang Kai-shek was elected chairman of the Kuomintang Military Committee and the natural commander-in-chief of the National Army.As soon as he took office, he transferred the 19th Route Army to Fujian-perhaps he secretly hoped that they would die with the Communist Party. The Nanking government did at least one thing. It has at least announced a boycott of Japanese imports for fear of armed resistance.This movement has received a general response from merchants and ordinary consumers. From September to December 1931, Japan's exports to China amounted to only one-sixth of the usual amount. However, no matter how well this economic boycott policy was implemented, it could not contain the Japanese attack. The floods of 1931 were even more helpful to the Japanese, as the floods thwarted the efforts of some local military chiefs to aid the Northeast defenders in spite of Chiang Kai-shek's order not to resist.At the same time, it also shows the importance of the central government to alleviate the suffering of the people. Ordinary people, who are customarily called "common people", suffered unprecedented hardships in this year's floods and famines. After the torrential rain, the Yangtze River, which broke its embankment, joined the Han River, and a large area of ​​land was submerged.The streets of Hankou were also once flooded.Over a period of nearly two months, approximately 2 million people drowned.In this "rainy day", all villages were swallowed up, and only tens of thousands of families were rescued.After the floods receded, dysentery, famine, and cholera began to prevail. Amid this disaster, many people were puzzled by the status quo of the "people's livelihood doctrine", while the KMT had sworn allegiance to Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles. While tens of thousands of people are dying, KMT politicians are quarreling endlessly for positions and power. Emerging intellectuals believed that Chiang Kai-shek refused to fight against Japan, so they began to oppose Chiang Kai-shek and his colleagues. The peasants did not understand the complexity of politics, they only understood the government's indifference, so they did not hesitate to support Mao Zedong. He seemed to point out a way for people way out. With the arrogance unique to imperial soldiers, the Japanese continued to add difficulties to China. On February 18, 1932, they declared the independence of "Manchukuo", which included the three eastern provinces and Rehe. In order to legitimize their rule, they made Fu Yi the puppet emperor. This young man was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He was kicked out of the palace by Feng Yuxiang in 1924. He did not like the Chinese. On November 10, 1931, at the request of the Japanese, he set off from the residence of the Japanese ancestors in Tianjin and took a Japanese bus. The ship went to the "Imperial Palace" in Manchuria.Two years later, he took over the "throne" from the Japanese. Around the time Puyi arrived in Manchuria, the Chinese Communist Party held a "Congress of Soviets" in southern Jiangxi. On November 7, 1931, they adopted a provisional constitution declaring the establishment of a "Soviet Provisional Central Government".The Soviet regime in Jiangxi was not unique; about five similar regimes were established in other parts of China. The Soviet regime was under the leadership of Mao Zedong, and Zhou Enlai and Zhu De were Mao's main assistants.As usual, Chiang Kai-shek was more worried about Communist activity than Japanese invasion.He decided to personally command the anti-communist war. This war has been called the "Battle of Suppressing Bandits" before and after.This pejorative is intended to be confusing. Chiang Kai-shek's only idea was to annihilate the Communist Party in one fell swoop.At a military council on June 9, he ordered the army to move.In Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, Communist Party members were attacked, but Mao Zedong's Soviet government in Jiangxi remained undisturbed. The bickering among politicians is still endless.An irreconcilable disagreement caused Jiang and Wang to part ways, and Wang offered to resign, accusing the young marshal on August 6 of being solely responsible for the loss of the Northeast.His resignation may have been unprovoked, but it did not trouble Chiang Kai-shek. Three days later Chiang threatened to retire again if Wang Jingwei did not withdraw his resignation. Now it is Zhang Xueliang's turn to resign. "In a telegram to Wang on August 4th, Chiang Kai-shek assured Wang that he could move freely in North China. Wang Jingwei was a patient, suffering from diabetes and other diseases. So he no longer offered to resign, but asked to leave his job temporarily for treatment. Chiang Kai-shek himself replaced Zhang Xueliang as commander of the North China Army. On October 22, Wang Jingwei sailed from Shanghai to Europe, and Song Ziwen acted as the dean of the Executive Yuan. Chiang Kai-shek was once again the undisputed political leader, but only in Nanking, and not for long. The Communists were not included, they never fully surrendered to him. Another group of people also began to challenge Chiang Kai-shek in Guangzhou.They are heroes against the Japanese army - the 19th Route Army. Three anti-Japanese heroes—Cai Tingkai, Chen Mingshu, and Jiang Guangnai—controlled the Guangzhou branch of the Political Affairs Council, which operated independently of Nanjing.Hearing his voice before seeing his people, when the 19th Route Army arrived in Fujian in July 1932, the people welcomed them enthusiastically and respected them like gods. The mountains and fields in Fujian are full of green pines and cypresses, and the scenery is beautiful, which has inspired generations of poets and painters, but the people of Fujian are very poor.The ecstatic people welcomed the arrival of the 19th Route Army, hoping that they could alleviate the hardships and hardships of the people, fill their stomachs with food, and eradicate all kinds of grievances that oppressed the people. At least for a while, the Nineteenth Route Army took these demands seriously. Soon they were posting the slogan: "Abolish all exploitative taxes, disband the bandit provincial self-defense forces." There were many revolutionaries in the Nineteenth Route Army.Among them were Trotskyists and Communists.Chen Mingshu is the leader of the so-called "Third Party", which was established in 1927 in the storm of anger against Chiang Kai-shek's "white terror" after Chiang Kai-shek captured Shanghai in early 1927.In their first revolutionary zeal they executed bandits (baiting them before sending them to execution), built roads, abolished many additional and unreasonable taxes, and protected the peasants from all kinds of burdens.In the age of anarchy and chaos, this is what the peasants have long hoped for. The reforms carried out in Fujian were mainly land reforms.In the reform, all land was nationalized and distributed fairly among those who cultivated it.This sounds a lot like Sun Yat-sen's slogan "land to the tiller," but there is an important difference between the two: Sun Yat-sen's idea was to allow individual farmers to own a piece of land, while Fujian's reforms were to make the ownership of the land belong to the government. The reform in Fujian did not completely imitate the Communist Party, because the "third party" did not distinguish between poor peasants, middle peasants and rich peasants at all. The revolutionaries in Fujian were soon to speak out against Chiang Kai-shek, but at the same time events in the north were also attracting Chiang's attention. At the beginning of 1933, the Japanese army was no longer satisfied with the Northeast, they crossed the Great Wall and entered Rehe.The Japanese army quickly occupied the entire Jehol province without much resistance. The signing of the "Tanggu Agreement" on May 31, 1933 indicated the victory of the Japanese army. For young marshal Zhang Xueliang, the loss of Rehe means that his political future has come to an end.He turned his troops over to Chiang Kai-shek, did what a failed warlord can do, and embarked on a long journey abroad, checking himself into a Shanghai hospital on the way to treat his opium addiction. from these events.Feng Yuxiang saw an opportunity to revive his reputation. On May 1, he left his hermitage and announced the establishment of the "People's Anti-Japanese Allied Army". In July, when his army drove the Japanese out of Chahar Province, honor did come to him. In Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek watched the development of the situation with a jealous eye. He was not ready to resist the Japanese, and he wanted to eliminate the Communist Party first.The battle between Feng Yuxiang and the Japanese army disrupted Chiang Kai-shek's life. Chiang Kai-shek need not worry too much.Feng Yuxiang's personality is eccentric and capricious. In August, he disbanded his anti-Japanese army and resumed his seclusion on the mysterious Mount Tai. The Japanese invaded Chahar again. About the time the "Tanggu Agreement" was signed, news of the imminent uprising in Fujian reached Chiang Kai-shek's ears.Apparently Chen Mingshu was the leader of the rebels. He secretly traveled from Shanghai to Europe via Hong Kong, and then returned to Nanjing. At the end of May, Chen Mingshu returned to Fujian. The welcome scene was extremely grand, with colorful flags waving to welcome this "national hero". Hu Hanmin, Sun Yat-sen's conservative follower, probably supported the Fujian Incident only because he hated Chiang Kai-shek. On the other hand, Mao later told Edgar Snow that the Communists had made a major mistake in not uniting with the Fujian Army. It is true that if they unite, they will pose a greater threat to the Nanking government than fighting alone. Holrington Tang was Chiang Kai-shek's own biographer.He belittled the events at the end of 1933 in this way: "The real cause of the so-called Fujian Incident was the desperate need for money by jobless politicians." This was not the case. On November 20, 1933, after a mass rally, the insurgents announced the establishment of the "Fujian People's Revolutionary Government".About the day before, Chen Mingshu sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek in his personal capacity, severely reprimanding him and demanding that Chiang step down.In another telegram, the rebel army requested the governments of Guangdong and Guangxi to jointly send troops to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek. They claimed: "Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship and national crisis have lasted for six years, and people all over the world hate his ugly and improper behavior." On November 22, the insurgents further issued a statement angrily denouncing Chiang Kai-shek for "disregarding the wishes of the nation and acting against the law", and the result was that "the Chinese people will become slaves of Japan". After these emotional statements by the insurgents, a huge anti-Chiang upsurge of the decade followed. As soon as the Fujian army announced their claim, Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered a general attack.His army attacked Fujian in three ways, and Chiang Kai-shek went to the west of Fujian to personally command. The rebel troops abandoned Fuzhou, and the Nanjing government's air force set out from the temporary airfields in Wenzhou and Zhuzhou to harass the rebels with air strikes.More than two weeks later, the rebel forces were defeated. The political leaders of Fujian were hastily withdrawn from Fuzhou. Jiang Jun collected the remnants of the rebel army and reorganized the 19th Route Army. The heroic 19th Route Army has become history.