Chapter 35 35. The Mystery of the "Zhongshan Ship" and Chiang Kai-shek's Power

For a long time after the death of his brother Chen Qimei, Chiang Kai-shek's status within the Kuomintang was not high, and he was far away from the core leadership.Until 1922, because of Chen Jiongming's betrayal of the revolution, Sun Yat-sen was trapped on the Yongfeng ship. After hearing the news, Chiang Kai-shek immediately flew from Shanghai to the ship to share the difficulties. The brochures used the form of touting Sun Yat-sen to raise their social status, and thus became a very small number of members Sun Yat-sen relied on. After Chiang Kai-shek visited Russia and returned to China, the "big one" conference for the reorganization of the Kuomintang was held in Guangzhou, but none of the 24 central executive members and 17 alternate central committee members elected by the conference had Chiang Kai-shek's name, while communists Lin Boqu, Zhang Guotao, Qu Qiubai and the others were impressively on the list.Chiang Kai-shek, who had been appointed as the organizer of the Whampoa Military Academy at that time, left a letter to resign in a fit of anger, and "walked away" without Sun Yat-sen's approval. It was not until two months later that he returned to Guangzhou to officially take over the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy.

Visiting Soviet Russia and becoming the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy was an important opportunity for Chiang Kai-shek to improve his status, especially after Sun Yat-sen formulated the "Alliance with Russia" policy and the Soviet-Russian adviser consolidated his position in the Guangdong Revolutionary Government, Chiang Kai-shek was the biggest beneficiary of it (For example, the funds for Soviet aid and the distribution of weapons).At that time, Chiang Kai-shek was also very active. In his public speeches, he often shouted beautiful slogans such as supporting the "United Russia" policy and opposing imperialism. This also greatly appreciated the Soviet representative Borodin and the leftists of the Kuomintang. Think of it as someone you can trust.

At the end of 1924, Sun Yat-sen was invited by Feng Yuxiang to go north to discuss the unification plan. Wang Jingwei and Bao Luoting also went with him; in March of the following year, they became witnesses to Sun Yat-sen's will after his death.After Sun Yat-sen's death, Hu Hanmin, Wang Jingwei and Liao Zhongkai were the ones who had the most voices to inherit his leadership position, but Hu Hanmin's rightist position weakened his influence to a certain extent; Wang Jingwei, as the actual executor of Sun Yat-sen's will, wanted to succeed Sun Yat-sen very much However, Wang Jingwei was indecisive and lacked charisma, so he did not get much support; Liao Zhongkai was also a popular candidate at the time because he actively cooperated with Soviet Russian experts.Excluding the above three, General Xu Chongzhi of the Cantonese Army and Chiang Kai-shek, the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, were the next-ranked candidates.

But the development of the situation after 1925 has greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.First of all, the great victory of the first Eastern Expedition, which made Chiang Kai-shek, who was not very well-known at first, suddenly a well-known hero; then, Chiang Kai-shek returned to the army to put down the rebellion of Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan. As a result, the scale has also been greatly expanded, becoming an armed force that cannot be underestimated. In addition to the victory, the revolutionary government of Guangdong was transformed from a military government with a generalissimo system into a national government with a committee system. During the reorganization, he failed to become the chairman of the National Government logically, but only served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs; Wang Jingwei became the chairman of the National Government under Borodin's secret plan and became the number one figure in the party.

Chiang Kai-shek, who was regarded as a military expert, did not gain much in this reorganization. He failed to enter the National Government Committee and was only elected as one of the eight members of the Military Committee.However, the revolutionary government of Guangdong subsequently reorganized the various armies. Chiang Kai-shek's "School Army" and a part of the Cantonese Army were organized into the First Army, ranking first among all armies (Tan Yankai's Second Army, Zhu Peide's First Army, etc.) Three armies, Li Jishen's Fourth Army, Li Fulin's Fifth Army, Cheng Qian's Sixth Army, after the unification of Guangdong and Guangxi, Li Zongren's department was organized into the Seventh Army).In addition to serving as the commander of the First Army, Chiang Kai-shek also served as a member of the Military Commission, the principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, the commander of the Guangzhou Garrison, and the commander of the Changzhou Fortress.However, these positions were all military positions, and Chiang Kai-shek had not yet been able to gain a foothold in the party and government at that time.

In August 1925, a major event occurred, which suddenly changed the political situation in Guangdong. This was the "Assassination of Liao Zhongkai".Liao Zhongkai was born in an overseas Chinese family in the United States in 1877. He met Sun Yat-sen while studying at Waseda University in Japan in 1902, and thus embarked on the road of revolution.Liao Zhongkai once served as an officer of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Tongmenghui and the president of the Chinese Student Association in Japan. During the failure of the "Second Revolution" and Sun Yat-sen's exile in Japan, Liao Zhongkai became a staunch follower of Sun Yat-sen.

Liao Zhongkai's ancestral home is Guangdong, and he is a fellow villager with Sun Yat-sen. He is not tall and has a thin face. His appearance is older than his actual age due to years of travel and fatigue.However, Liao Zhongkai is a man of great determination, perseverance, and ability to endure hardships. He has been responsible for the most difficult and tedious economic matters in the party (such as raising funds for the Whampoa Military Academy, and he is called "Whampoa's Loving Mother") , whose contributions are well-known in the party. After Wang Jingwei became the chairman, the real power was controlled by Liao Zhongkai, because he was a staunch ally of the Soviet representative Borodin, and Borodin's position in the Guangdong revolutionary government at that time was very special.Borodin also lived in the United States for a long time before the "October Revolution" in Russia. There was no language barrier between him, Sun Yat-sen and Liao Zhongkai. Rotin discussed.

For Sun Yat-sen's "United Russia Policy", Liao Zhongkai was a staunch supporter and the most powerful supporter from the beginning to the end; Hu Hanmin was neutral at the beginning, but in the end he became a representative of the right who opposed the "United Russia Policy".As for Chiang Kai-shek, perhaps because of his visit to the Soviet Union, he was the biggest beneficiary of the "Alliance with Russia Policy", because the Whampoa Military Academy and the First Army were always the top priority for Soviet aid. The "Assassination of Liao Zhongkai" case was serious, and the Kuomintang Central Committee soon established a special committee headed by Wang Jingwei, Xu Chongzhi, and Chiang Kai-shek to investigate.In the process of investigating the "Liao case", some generals of the Cantonese army and rightists were found to be involved, and Hu Hanmin's cousin Hu Yisheng was also suspected (he was also the middleman for Liao Zhongkai to meet Sun Yat-sen).Judging from various facts, although Hu Hanmin was not directly involved in the case, he was aware of the assassination. Therefore, he did not defend himself afterwards but took the initiative to ask for protection.During the execution, Chiang Kai-shek hypocritically said to Hu Hanmin: "Everyone thinks that you are related to this case. But brother, you should also understand our difficulties, and we can't provide evidence that you are not involved, so we have to wrong you." A month later Later, Hu Hanmin was sent to the ship "Mongolia" in the name of going to the Soviet Union for "investigation", but he was actually expelled from Guangdong.

Who is the murderer behind the assassination of Liao Zhongkai is still a mystery.Of the two direct murderers at the scene, one was killed by Liao Zhongkai's guards on the spot, and the other was seriously injured and died soon after, leaving no valuable clues behind.As for some suspicious figures, such as Hu Yisheng, Zhu Zhuowen, and Wei Bangping, they had already fled to Hong Kong after hearing the news. Buy murder to kill, Zhu Zhuowen also lived in the United States). At the same time, Liang Hongkai and other generals of the Cantonese army under Xu Chongzhi were also involved in the "Liao case", and Xu Chongzhi fell into an embarrassing situation. On September 20, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly ordered the Whampoa student army general Xu Chongzhi to be placed under house arrest, and his Guangdong Army was demobilized or reorganized.Xu Chongzhi, Zhang Jingjiang, and Chiang Kai-shek were friends of eight worshippers, and Chiang Kai-shek had been the chief of staff of Xu Chongzhi's department for many years, but as time went by, the conflict between the two deepened.Xu Chongzhi's warlords had a strong habit, and their military pay far exceeded that of other troops. Xu Chongzhi himself "gambled wildly" in Guangzhou and was notorious for embezzling public funds and withholding military pay. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek's actions were not criticized at the time.

Later, Chiang Kai-shek sent a letter to Xu Chongzhi, in which he listed his crimes for many years, and advised him to "resign from office" voluntarily, in order to deal with "the prime minister's spirit in heaven"; "Personal plan", and promised Xu Chongzhi to "temporarily leave the territory of Guangdong, with a period of three months, leave the Yangtze River, return to the town, and restore his command name." Ask about politics. In the months after Liao Zhongkai's assassination, Wang Jingwei and Chiang Kai-shek tacitly cooperated closely to drive political enemies Hu Hanmin and Xu Chongzhi out of Guangdong one by one.Judging from the results, Wang Jingwei certainly achieved his wish to become the "four in one" (Chairman of the National Government, Chairman of the Political Committee, Chairman of the Military Committee, and Chairman of the Central Executive Committee), integrating the power of the party, government and military, but in the long run, the biggest The beneficiary was Chiang Kai-shek.Because if the "four in one" had no military support, the so-called "leadership" would be nothing but a political puppet.

Wang Jingwei is a smart man, of course he doesn't understand this. At the beginning of February 1926, after the closing of the "Second National Congress" of the Kuomintang, Borodin temporarily left Guangzhou because he wanted to return to China to report on his duties. At that time, Jishanjia, who was acting as the temporary general adviser of the Soviet side, had conflicts with Chiang Kai-shek on many issues, while Wang Jingwei, who was the chairman of the National Government, followed closely behind Jishanjia. The contradiction between Jiang and Jiang rose sharply, and their political honeymoon came to an end. The conflicts between Ji Shanjia and Chiang Kai-shek were mainly in the following aspects: First, the issue of the Northern Expedition. Chiang Kai-shek hoped that the Northern Expedition could be carried out as soon as possible, but Ji Shanjia believed that the Northern Expedition should be delayed due to insufficient preparation in all aspects; second, the issue of military organization and funding. The Military Commission decided on February 6 to allocate 300,000 yuan to the Whampoa Military Academy and 120,000 yuan to Wang Maogong’s Second Division, but on the second day, it was suddenly changed to 270,000 yuan for the Whampoa Military Academy and 150,000 yuan for the Second Division. Yuan, this made Chiang Kai-shek very disturbed, because although the second division was controlled by him, the division commander Wang Maogong was Wang Jingwei's man. Separated from the First Army. At this time, the Guangxi Army was reorganized into the Eighth and Ninth Armies. Counting the original Sixth Army in Guangdong, the establishment of the Seventh Army was empty. This made Chiang Kai-shek even more suspicious that Wang Jingwei and Ji Shanjia wanted to let The Second Division was upgraded to the Seventh Army.For this reason, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly detained Wang Maogong on February 26, and reassigned his confidant Liu Zhi as the commander of the second division (in a sense, this is actually a preview of the "Zhongshan Ship Incident". Of course, this It still belonged to Chiang Kai-shek's purview, and later the Guangxi army also received the number of the Seventh Army). At the beginning of 1926, Feng Yuxiang's national army fought against the troops of Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu and Zhang Zongchang in Nankou. The national army suffered a disastrous defeat because Feng Yuxiang was visiting Soviet Russia at this time. Unwisely, Ji Shanjia proposed to go by sea The plan to transport troops to Tianjin to aid the national army and suggest that Chiang Kai-shek go to the north to help Feng Yuxiang train troops made Chiang Kai-shek even more suspicious. He believed that this was a plot by Wang Jingwei and Ji Shanjia to drive him out of Guangzhou. In order to ease the pressure, Chiang Kai-shek resigned from the post of commander of the First Army during this period (he Yingqin was replaced by his cronies), and then proposed to resign from the post of member of the Military Commission and commander of the Guangzhou Garrison. The Military Commission appointed him as the director of the National Revolutionary Army. Not working.With regard to Chiang Kai-shek's resignation, Wang Jingwei deliberately stayed in the Central Committee and did not approve or retain it. This made Chiang Kai-shek neither enter nor retreat. On February 27, Chiang Kai-shek went to see Wang Jingwei and "tell him clearly that if I am not allowed to resign, he will order Ji Shanjia to return to Russia."However, after Chiang Kai-shek made a request to "go to Russia for recuperation", the passports for him and his secretary Chen Lifu were quickly processed.In Chiang Kai-shek's view, there may be a huge conspiracy hidden behind all of this. At this sensitive period, the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" broke out. The "Zhongshan Ship Incident" is also known as the "March 20 Incident" (occurred on March 20, 1926). For a long period of time, this incident was considered a mystery in modern history, and the main parties involved Chiang Kai-shek was also hesitant after the incident, trying to cover up and concealing it, saying that he would wait for him to die and then make the diary public. "At that time, all public cases will naturally be suspicious and exposed to the world." Today, all the parties involved in the incident have passed away, and Chiang Kai-shek’s diary has also been published. Although some historians have done extremely in-depth research on this issue and are close to most of the truth, in view of the decisive role of chance in history, The mystery of this unsolved historical case cannot be said to be completely solved so far. At present, the main point of view on the research on the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" is represented by Mr. Yang Tianshi. Kong Qingrui, director of the general office, was robbed by bandits because of the overseas Ding'an steamer, and asked Zhao Jinwen, chief of the Management Section of the Whampoa Military Academy, to quickly send a cruiser to protect it.The call was received by Li Shiyong, a member of the Transportation Unit of the Management Section. Because the Whampoa Military Academy had no boats to sail, he called on his own initiative to ask the provincial office of the Whampoa Military Academy to send a boat for emergency needs.The person answering the phone at the provincial office was Wang Xuechen, a member of the transportation unit. Because Wang Xuechen couldn't hear the phone clearly, he couldn't figure out whose order it was. One or two cruisers will be used for patrolling." After receiving Wang Xuechen's report, Ouyang Zhong, chief of the transportation unit of the Management Section of the Whampoa Military Academy and director of the provincial office, went to the Navy Bureau to negotiate.Li Zhilong, acting director of the Navy Bureau, was out on business at that time, and Zou Yi, the chief of his subordinate combat department, immediately agreed to send one or two ships to Huangpu to wait for the call.Afterwards, Ouyang Zhong claimed that he "returned to the office immediately", but the "Diary of the Duty Officer" of the Navy Bureau stated that he was brought to meet Li Dai Director, and Li Zhilong's wife also said that Ouyang Zhong came to her home that night and claimed to "serve President Jiang ordered that, in case of emergency, two battleships should be dispatched to Huangpu to wait for President Jiang's dispatch," and left a letter from Zou Yi.After Li Zhilong returned to read the letter, he immediately ordered the Zhongshan ship to be sent there. At 7 o'clock in the morning on the 19th, the Zhongshan ship left the port; on the same day, Zou Yi, the chief of the combat department, asked Ouyang Zhong to make up the official letter for ship transfer, and Ouyang Zhong complied. Therefore, Mr. Yang Tianshi believes that the transfer of the Zhongshan ship was an accidental event. From this process, the following mysteries can be clarified: First, the Zhongshan ship was not "corrected" by Li Zhilong. Wang Jingwei, chairman of the government and representative of the General Party of the National Revolutionary Army, and Kisanka, a Soviet adviser, have nothing to do with the Communist Party.The so-called "conspiracy" theory that Chiang Kai-shek and some people in the Kuomintang have been propagating on a large scale for many years cannot be established.Second, Chiang Kai-shek did not directly issue orders to the Navy Bureau or Li Zhilong to adjust ships.Therefore, the so-called "rectification order" that Chiang Kai-shek ordered and falsely accused Li Zhilong cannot be established.Third, it was added halfway through. It was Ouyang Zhong, the director of the Guangzhou Office of the Whampoa Military Academy who "corrected" Chiang Kai-shek's order, and Ouyang Zhong was the nephew of Ouyang Ge, the backbone of the Sun Wenism Society and the vice-principal of the Naval Academy. The Sun Wenism Society is a right-wing organization of the Kuomintang. It has always opposed the policy of "union with Russia" and "cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party." It is hard to guarantee that it has fallen into the ears of Chiang Kai-shek.After the Zhongshan ship departed, it happened that the Soviet Russian mission headed by Bubnov, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), requested to visit the Zhongshan ship. So Li Zhilong asked Chiang Kai-shek by phone to transfer the Zhongshan ship back to Guangzhou. According to Chiang Kai-shek’s diary records, at one o’clock in the afternoon on March 19, he received a call from Li Zhilong requesting to transfer the Zhongshan ship back to the provincial capital for the Soviet-Russian investigation group to visit. He immediately said: “I didn’t ask you to go, If you want to drive back, just drive back, why ask me what to do?" But afterward, Chiang Kai-shek felt that the matter was very strange, "Why didn't I order the Zhongshan ship to go, and why did he come back if he wanted to come back? ask me". "The Zhongshan ship arrived in Huangpu. Because I was not in Huangpu, but in the province, he drove back to the provincial capital. What is going on?" On the morning of the 19th, "a comrade" asked him three times in a row: "You are in Huangpu today. Are you going?" "When are you going?" (This comrade is Wang Jingwei.) Prior to this, Zhu Jingwei neither approved nor retained Chiang Kai-shek's resignation, which made Chiang Kai-shek think that Wang Jingwei was "indirectly suggesting that I leave Guangdong. At this time, we knew that if I did not leave Guangdong, unexpected events would happen It happened. But I resigned without permission. If I voluntarily leave Guangdong, I will be charged with absconding and absconding. It really puts me in a dilemma. On the evening of the 19th, the Zhongshan ship sailed back to Guangzhou. Extremely strict.... This is where the conspiracy broke out. But at the time, I only knew that they were going to rebel and kill me, but I didn't know what their intention was. I didn't know what they were up to until after the rebellion was put down. The plan was to force me to leave Guangdong, sail straight to Vladivostok, and send me to Russia on my way back to the Whampoa Military Academy by ship from the provincial capital of Guangzhou..." Chiang Kai-shek's diary clearly shows that he suspected that Wang Jingwei and others were conspiring to "fuck him" or "drive him away".However, he had previously tried Wang Jingwei by asking him to "go to Russia for recuperation", but Wang Jingwei agreed.As a result, Chiang Kai-shek was disheartened for a while, and planned to leave Guangzhou and retreat to Shantou, where the headquarters of the Eastern Expedition Army was under his control.But at "five o'clock in the afternoon, halfway through the journey", Chiang Kai-shek suddenly decided to return, and took suppression measures against the "Zhongshan ship" (Chen Lifu also said that Chiang Kai-shek had already taken a car to Tianzi Wharf. In the car, he persuaded Chiang Kai-shek to say : "If you have soldiers in hand, why not do it?"). On the morning of the 20th, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the entire city of Guangzhou to be under martial law, arresting more than 50 Communist Party members including Li Zhilong; occupying the Zhongshan ship, surrounding the provincial and Hong Kong strike committees, and confiscating the firearms of the workers' pickets; The guards were disarmed, including Bubnov, member of the Central Committee. On the second day after the incident, Wang Jingwei asked for sick leave from the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, and all duties were temporarily assigned to act on his behalf.According to Mr. Yang Tianshi's judgment in the article "After the Zhongshan Ship Incident", the main reason for Wang Jingwei's quick retreat and complete defeat was the compromise of Soviet Russian advisers, among which Bubnov's opinion was the most effective.Bubnov believes that the cause of the incident was a serious mistake in the military work and political leadership of the Soviet Russian advisers (excessive interference in the internal affairs of the Kuomintang caused the rebound of the Chinese generals). On the 22nd, the Soviet-Russian Consulate in Guangzhou sent someone to ask Chiang Kai-shek: "Is this a question about people, or about Russia?" Chiang Kai-shek said, "It's about people, not Russia," and expressed the hope that Borodin would return to Guangzhou as soon as possible. On the 24th, the Bubnov mission left Guangzhou, and Kisanka returned to Russia on the same boat.As a result, Wang Jingwei completely collapsed. He later claimed that he was sick and moved to seek medical treatment, and said that he would no longer be politically responsible (Wang Jingwei secretly left Guangdong for France on May 11).In this strange change, Chiang Kai-shek won a complete victory. He said in his diary on March 26: "Political life is all about tricks, and morality cannot be questioned again!" Mr. Yang Tianshi believes that under the general background at that time, the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" has both an accidental side and an inevitable side; as far as Chiang Kai-shek misbelieved the rumors of the Sun Wen Doctrine Society and others, the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" had its accidental nature. But in terms of the fierce struggle within the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek's thoughts at that time, it was inevitable. In a sense, the "Zhongshan Ship Incident" was actually an incomplete coup d'état, and it was also a political speculation and temptation by Chiang Kai-shek. However, due to the concessions of other parties (the Soviet Union and Wang Jingwei, etc.), Chiang Kai-shek did not receive any resistance. And it ended in a complete victory. What Chiang Kai-shek said, "the so-called politics is all about power and strategy", is to the effect.There are still many similar events waiting to be staged during the reign after Chiang Kai-shek.However, although Chiang Kai-shek forced Wang Jingwei away and seized the military and political power of the Kuomintang through the "Zhongshan Ship Incident", his ruling position was not stable. The way out is the so-called "externalization of the problem". Supplement: Chen Gongbo said in "Bitter Laughter Records": "At that time, an English book was published in the British Biefa Bookstore in Shanghai. It was Zhang Zuolin who raided the Russian embassy in Beijing, confiscated many secret documents, and translated it into English. It was published as a kind of propaganda against the National Revolutionary Army. There was no record in it of the conspiracy before the March 20th Incident. Only after March 20th, when the Russian Advisory Group held a secret meeting in Dongshan, that Discussions and resolutions are clearly recorded. At that time, the Russian advisor of the Whampoa Military Academy, Spanov, reported the events of March 20 at the meeting. For this reason, Russia should still use Chiang Kai-shek. Even the Russian embassy’s report to Moscow contained the same proposal. For this matter, I wrote a long letter to Mr. Jiang. First, I explained that I had interviewed him in Wuhan Mr. Wang, Mr. Wang tried his best to deny this matter, and proved that Wang and Jiang depended on each other for their lives. Even though Wang was very stupid, he would not come out of this. Second, explain that Biefa Shuzhuang has these Russian secret documents. If Mr. Wang and Jiang The Russian adviser had murdered him, so there was no trace of it. After March 20, the Russian adviser still advocated using him.... Finally, I asked him to buy this English booklet and read it, because Mrs. Soong Meiling is a Know English." (Biefa Press is one of the famous printing institutions in China since modern times. It was founded by British businessman Biefa Foreign Firm in 1870. That set of documents refers to the "Compilation of Soviet-Russian Conspiracy Documents and Evidence", but this set of documents It is not complete, because when Zhang Zuolin sent troops to rush into the Soviet Russian embassy, ​​some documents had already been burned, and some secrets might have been reduced to ashes, and the inventory of documents was not complete, because "documents were piled up in two rooms, and it was not easy to check. The part of the article needs to be translated one by one, and the procedure is very expensive, and it has been published by the police department repeatedly, and there are many lists of catalogs." "Compilation of Documents and Evidence of Soviet-Russian Conspiracy" is also included in the book "Selected Materials of the Communist International and the Chinese Revolution (1925-1927)" Excerpts are available.)