Chapter 2 〇1. Nanjing Presidential Palace: the old era

Among the many places where many changes took place in 1949, the Nanjing Presidential Palace has a symbolic significance due to its special status: the end of the old era and the beginning of a new era. Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu Province. It was called Jinling in ancient times and is known as the "Ancient Capital of Six Dynasties".The Nanjing Presidential Palace, located at No. 292 Changjiang Road, Nanjing, has witnessed the development of the entire modern history.The location of the Nanjing Presidential Palace used to be the Guidehou Mansion and the Hanwang Mansion in the Ming Dynasty; the Jiangning Weaving Department, the Jiangnan Governor's Office, the Liangjiang Governor's Office in the Qing Dynasty, and the palace where Emperor Kangxi and Qianlong went south to Jiangnan; it was also the "Heavenly King's Mansion" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime. . In 1912, Sun Zhongsan was sworn in as the interim president here and established the interim government of the Republic of China.Since then, the Nanjing Presidential Palace has become a holy place for the Kuomintang. After the establishment of the national government in 1927, it worked here. In 1937, Nanjing fell to the hands of the Japanese army, and the national government avoided Chongqing. In 1946, Nanjing was "returned to the capital" again. On May 20, 1948, after Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren were elected president and vice president respectively in the "Constitutional National Congress", the National Government was renamed the Presidential Palace. In 1949, the Nanjing Presidential Palace was occupied by Communist troops crossing the river.Because of the special significance of the Nanjing Presidential Palace as the office of the national government, it became a starting landmark for the next 60 years, an old era was buried, and a new era began.

They entered Nanjing in the early hours of the morning and walked through the streets and alleys of the ancient city under the night before dawn.The envisaged fierce battle turned out to be without suspense.Meeting almost no resistance, they arrived at the presidential palace at 292 Changjiang Road in Nanjing. The three large iron gates were closed.But the soldiers who arrived found that the iron door was only plugged in with a bolt, and it was not locked.The losers may be as eager as the winners. For them, the knock of fate will reach the eardrums at any time. The arrival of the occupiers is as inevitable as the sunrise, but it is impossible to know exactly when they will come.Anxious waiting makes people suffer.Therefore, it is not difficult to explain that when the occupiers came to the gate of the presidential palace, "there was an immediate reaction inside. Soon, two or three people came out and opened the gate very cooperatively," Guan Yuquan recalled.

It was April 23, 1949. Guan Yuquan, a 28-year-old boy from Shandong, led the troops into Nanjing and reached the presidential palace.He served as the battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 312th Regiment of the 104th Division of the 35th Army of the Sanye Seventh Corps, which was the advance force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to participate in the battle of crossing the river. The young soldiers who poured into the presidential palace quickly occupied this huge building built in the era of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.It has always been a symbol of power. During the Ming Dynasty, it was the residence of the princes. The descendants of the emperors who lived in it inevitably faced the subsequent weakening of power and threats from their brothers; The office of the Governor and Jiangnan Weaving, where the famous officials in the late Qing Dynasty who served as the Governor of Liangjiang used to live in it. From Lin Zexu, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang to Zuo Zongtang and Zhang Zhidong, they witnessed an empire here. To avoid the decline of the world, but he was a minister, worried, but unable to return to heaven; after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupied Nanjing, Hong Xiuquan, the "Chinese son of God", expanded it into the palace of the king of heaven. This Luoju who was born in a remote mountain village in Guangxi, China Xiucai established a religious regime in Nanjing that was equal to the central government, but in this glorious palace, there was an intrigue that was not inferior to that in Beijing's Forbidden City. , committed suicide, leaving his son to break out of the siege under the cover of the brave and loyal king; on January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen, who hurried from Japan to the meeting, was sworn in here as the interim president of the Republic of China. The outbreak of the situation turned the entire empire into a country of millions of rebels, and he was a well-deserved leader. This place became the new center of China, but even Sun Yat-sen was unable to stop the northward shift of the administrative and military center of gravity. In terms of power struggle, relatively Sun Yat-sen was still a beginner to Yuan Shikai, a technocrat and military careerist in Beijing; but part of his dream was realized by his chosen successor, General Chiang Kai-shek, who emerged from the warlord struggles that followed Yuan Shikai's death to complete the China was united in name, and he himself became the supreme military and administrative leader of the Republic of China. This place became the seat of the Nanjing National Government; new challenges followed. Unlike the previous owners of No. 292 Changjiang Road, General Chiang Kai-shek faced Unprecedented challenges from the outside - he and his government are facing a huge threat of subjugation.

In 1937, Japanese troops captured Nanjing, the seat of the Republic of China government.In the eyes of the Japanese, this was the price General Chiang Kai-shek had to pay for standing up to the imperial army, the humiliation of being expelled from his own capital.The government of the Republic of China at No. 292 Changjiang Road, Nanjing, has successively become the seat of the Japanese regiment headquarters and the puppet government.However, what happened next in Nanking shamed the entire human civilization.To this day, historians from China, Japan and the West still debate the number of victims of the Nanjing Massacre.When British writer Simon Winchester traveled along the Yangtze River to Nanjing, he was struck by the city's melancholy.He even felt that the historic city was behaving like a rootless city.His friend explained, "You know, Nanking is like your Irish town. There's only history here. It looks new on the outside, with hotels and shops and pretty girls. It looks like Hong Kong, but if you stay here for a long time, you You will find that they are fundamentally different. People here seem to be trapped by the city's past. Its tragic past makes this city more sad than other places."On every anniversary, there are always people with tears in their eyes, who say they want to do good to those who hurt this city.This is what most foreign tourists see.

General Chiang Kai-shek moved his government into the vast hinterland of China.He established a provisional government in Chongqing and continued to resist the aggression from neighboring countries tenaciously.And his former colleague, Wang Jingwei, another veteran of the Kuomintang, entered his government residence at No. 292 Changjiang Road, Nanjing, and established a puppet regime with the support of the Japanese army.It wasn’t until Japan announced its unconditional surrender in 1945 that this Zhejiang general, who worshiped Zeng Guofan, believed in Christianity, and became a leader of a big country from a commoner, either wearing a military uniform or a Chinese-style robe, returned here and continued to lead his government and army.

China has changed.Chiang Kai-shek was facing a brand new domestic situation.He no longer needs to use his flexible wrists to appease, win over or suppress those arrogant local princes.After a long war, most of the strength of these warlords has been exhausted.But the new opposition has grown enormously strong.Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek and other Kuomintang generals accused the Chinese Communist Party of constantly taking the opportunity to strengthen its military muscles during the Anti-Japanese War.As the legal government of China, the Kuomintang government consumed a large amount of military power on the frontal battlefield of fighting the Japanese army.Even historians of the Communist Party admit that the War of Resistance against Japan changed the balance of power among the various political parties and factions in China.

At the same time, although General Chiang Kai-shek has been successful in winning the support of the United States—he even forced President Roosevelt to bring back General Stilwell, a distinguished general with whom he disagreed, World War II also brought China's other socialist neighbor The USSR was militarily stronger. Western observers, including Theodore White, believe that the United States is engaging in impatient and hypocritical mediation.Ambassador Hurley, the mediator sent by President Roosevelt to China, has always been hostile to communism. When Hurley returned home and the US government began to sincerely want to solve the Chinese problem, it was too late. In the two countries, the stubborn Kuomintang government believed that it had an overwhelming advantage, and General Chiang Kai-shek certainly hoped that with the support of the United States, the unruly rebels would be completely wiped out. Since they were unwilling to surrender their troops, they would be captured without a fight.

At the same time, in order to seek political legitimacy, the Kuomintang government began to hold political consultative conferences and unite various parties to jointly formulate the constitution. At the end of 1946, in the absence of representatives of the Communist Party of China, the Kuomintang convened a National Assembly and promulgated a new constitution; at the end of 1947, the general election of national representatives was completed; in May 1948, the National Congress was held to elect the president of the government.While all this political maneuvering was going on, government troops in American equipment went toe-to-toe with Communist troops everywhere.

When Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren were elected as the president and vice president respectively, No. 292 Changjiang Road was officially renamed the Presidential Palace.At the inauguration ceremony of the president and vice president on May 20, 1948, Chiang Kai-shek, who was dressed in a Chinese-style mandarin jacket, and Li Zongren, who was dressed in military uniform and covered with medals, walked down the red carpet into the auditorium of the Presidential Palace proudly. Next, he delivered an inauguration speech to government officials and national representatives.Although Chiang Kai-shek assumed the presidency without any suspense, the competition for the vice-presidential position revealed dissension within the political party, and the shadow of the old warlords still loomed over the presidential palace.Li Zongren later complained to Tang Degang, the recorder of his oral autobiography: Chiang Kai-shek asked him to wear a military uniform, which made Li Zongren, who was walking a step and a half behind Chiang Kai-shek, look like the president's aide, not the vice president.

On January 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek announced his resignation, with Vice President Li Zongren as acting president.This situation was due both to the military retreat of the Kuomintang troops and to the growing pressure on him within the party which, although never able to shake Chiang Kai-shek's deep roots in the Kuomintang and the army, prompted him to act like Take a step back, as you have done in your political career, hand over titles and duties to your hapless successors, sit on the sidelines, and wait to come out and clean up the mess. But this time the wily politician never returned to his office at 292 Changjiang Road.After Li Zongren failed to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party to divide the river, the Chinese People's Liberation Army launched the Battle of Crossing the River.The Yangtze River natural moat did not bring much sense of security to the presidential palace. On April 23, 1949, the People's Liberation Army occupied the presidential palace.

When they entered the presidential palace, they encountered no resistance of any kind.The dozen or so remaining guards of the presidential palace were also unarmed.The only gunfire occurred when young PLA soldiers saw the portrait of Chiang Kai-shek hanging on the wall. Two soldiers pointed their guns at the portrait design. They had long been instilled with anger and hatred for the general. Then, they quickly moved to the top of the building of the presidential palace, lowered the blue sky and white sun flag that was still flying in the morning light, and replaced it with a red flag that symbolized the victory of the revolution.Later, the painter Chen Yifei created his masterpiece "The Capture of the Presidential Palace" based on this scene. In the picture, soldiers in yellow uniforms struggled to raise the bright red flag on the flagpole. However, at that time, Zou Jiandong, a photojournalist accompanying the army, had already taken the famous photo of soldiers lining up on the gate tower of the presidential palace to celebrate the victory. He wanted to use this scene to represent the changes of the times.Indeed, although the People's Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949, the moment the flag was lowered and raised at the presidential palace, the transition of regime had been completed.After Mao Zedong heard the news of the occupation of Nanjing, he excitedly wrote a poem about it.He knew that he and his party had succeeded in burying a bygone era.