Chapter 30 The "capital reorganization" behind the "Ninghan Confluence"

On April 9, 1927, Wang Shouhua, chairman of the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions and chief commander of the workers' picket team, received an invitation from Du Yuesheng, inviting Wang Shouhua to a banquet at Du's mansion on April 11, and discussing important matters .Because Wang Shouhua often dealt with the Qinghong gang, he thought that "they still show loyalty", so he decided to go to the appointment. At around 8 o'clock in the evening on April 11, after Wang Shouhua came to Du's mansion, an ominous premonition suddenly came to his mind, but Du Yuesheng did not show up.The thugs approaching around had murderous looks in their eyes.Wang Shouhua screamed that something was wrong, turned around and wanted to leave, but it was too late.Several thugs rushed up, knocked it to the ground skillfully, neatly packed it into a sack, stuffed it into a car, and transported it to the suburbs of Longhua for burial alive.

Immediately afterwards, at 3 a.m. on the 12th, Du Yuesheng's Green Gang hooligans were equipped with pistols, formed a detachment with specific targets, and wore workers' uniforms with the word "工" on their armbands, and rushed out of the French Concession, the headquarters of the Green Gang, by car.At the same time, hundreds of soldiers from Bai Chongxi's troops also crossed the public concession in disguise and went to Zhabei, Nanshi, Huxi, etc., and attacked the station of the Nanshi workers' pickets.Zhou Fengqi's troops of the 26th Army had already moved into positions close to the gathering place of the workers' pickets and the headquarters of the Federation of Trade Unions at night. At this time, in the name of maintaining order and mediating conflicts, the workers' pickets were forcibly disarmed.

At noon of the same day, the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions launched a general strike of workers throughout the city, marching and demonstrating to protest the atrocities.As a result Chiang Kai-shek's "National Revolutionary Army" began shooting at the marching "Nationals", and the massacre began.In two days, 300 workers were killed, 500 were arrested, and 5,000 "disappeared".Subsequently, large-scale bloody suppressions occurred in Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Guangdong, Changzhou and other places, and about 25,000 communists and leftists were massacred.Everyone in China knows that Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, has blatantly betrayed the National Revolution.

When the news reached the Wuhan Nationalist Government, it immediately triggered a political earthquake.In the name of the Kuomintang Central Committee, Wang Jingwei, chairman of the Wuhan Nationalist Government, announced that Chiang Kai-shek would be immediately relieved of all positions, expelled from the Kuomintang party, and issued a warrant to arrest Chiang Kai-shek.At this time, the Wuhan Nationalist Government was faced with a major strategic choice: either continue the Northern Expedition and eliminate the Beiyang warlords who were still entrenched in the Yellow River Basin and North China and Northeast China;

Most of the powerful soldiers under the Wuhan government, such as Tang Shengzhi and Zhang Fakui, had factional conflicts with Chiang Kai-shek, so they advocated the conquest of Chiang, hoping to take the opportunity to get rid of Chiang Kai-shek and annex China's most affluent Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions.The Soviet political adviser Borodin and the CCP leaders Chen Duxiu and Zhou Enlai advocated the continuation of the Northern Expedition, and after the Beiyang warlords were overthrown, they turned their guns to deal with Chiang Kai-shek. Borodin believed: "It is impossible for our existing forces to advance eastward...Eastward advancement will not only prompt Chiang Kai-shek to openly form an alliance with imperialism and even the northern warlords, but also we will be overthrown and eliminated." [22] Borodin's concerns It makes sense.

As far as the military situation is concerned, the Wuhan government is in an unfavorable position of being besieged on all sides.To the north are the undefeated Zhili clique and the still-strong Feng clique, to the east the richest provinces are occupied by Chiang Kai-shek and his ally Li Zongren's troops from the Guangxi clan, and to the south Guangdong and Guangxi are controlled by the Guangxi clan and pro-Chiang Li Jishen , the above-mentioned enemies are all sharpening their knives, ready to pounce at any time.Most of the troops under the command of the Wuhan government sided with the Wuhan government out of some practical considerations. They either needed food and pay from the Wuhan government, or because of factional conflicts and ambition conflicts with Jiang, but in fact, most of them Agree with Chiang Kai-shek's anti-Communist "Qing Party", as long as the price is negotiated, you can sell the revolution like Chiang Kai-shek at any time.Only Ye Ting's division can truly share the same breath and fate with the Wuhan government.

As for the economic situation, it is even more difficult.In fact, Wuhan is also seeking support from Shanghai's financial and industrial circles.On March 27, the Wuhan National Government dispatched Minister of Finance Song Ziwen to Shanghai to handle financial affairs with full authority, and ordered all the finances of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to be in charge of it. All taxation and fundraising from Chinese commercial banks must be handled by finance Minister unified management. 【23】Song Ziwen arrived in Shanghai on March 29, and negotiated with Chiang Kai-shek on the unification of Jiangsu and Zhejiang finances the next day.However, Chiang Kai-shek has already established a relationship with Shanghai's financial circles and business circles. On the 31st, the General Headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army established the "Jiangsu and Shanghai Finance Committee", with Shanghai's financial leaders in charge of specific affairs.As a result, after Song Ziwen arrived in Shanghai, the work could not be carried out for a while.

After the "April 12" coup, Chiang Kai-shek completely turned his back on the Communists and the leftists of the Kuomintang, and Song Ziwen's personal safety was once threatened, let alone financing the Wuhan government.In the end, even Song Ziwen himself was instigated by Kong Xiangxi and Song Ailing and his wife, and took refuge in Chiang Kai-shek. Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek formally established the Nanjing National Government on April 18, began to publicly deny the Wuhan government, and then issued an announcement on the 28th, stating that he would implement an economic blockade against Wuhan with the foreign powers.The Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols, who control the lifeline of China's finance, have already sat on the side of Chiang Kai-shek and cut off all financing channels for the Wuhan Nationalist Government. All banks, money houses, and ticket offices in Shanghai have stopped remittances to Wuhan, waiting for the Wuhan government to fall.

At this time, prices in Wuhan had risen to astronomical figures, and various currency coupons and credits issued by the Wuhan government plummeted.The monthly income of the government is only 1.5 million silver dollars, and the expenditure reaches 13 million silver dollars!The unemployed population and their family members in the city have exceeded 1/3 of the total number. In addition to the revolutionaries and refugees from various provinces who came to Wuhan, as well as tens of thousands of wounded soldiers from several battles, the entire Wuhan government has reached a critical moment of besieged and precarious. .

In Wuhan, whether it was the Soviet Union, the CCP, or Wang Jingwei, they all bet on Feng Yuxiang's National Army in the north. Feng Yuxiang is a typical strong man of Yanzhao. He was brought up in the arms of foreign missionaries at the beginning. After becoming a warlord, he ordered the whole army to be baptized and believe in religion. The blueprint formulates military regulations, so it is called "Christ General" by world public opinion.However, the Christian general gained the territory in the Northwest by virtue of his fickleness and perfect timing. In 1924, he found that the Soviets were very generous to subsidize others, so he defected to the embrace of the Soviet Union.

Now, supported by 16 million gold rubles and ammunition, Feng Yuxiang dominates Tongguan, looks at the Central Plains, and waits for the critical moment when China's political balance tilts, betting his own chips. That day is coming soon. In June 1927, Feng Yuxiang and Wang Jingwei held the Zhengzhou Conference.At the meeting, Wang Jingwei listed Chiang Kai-shek's various evil deeds in an attempt to persuade Feng Yuxiang to oppose Chiang.The price offered was to hand over all the party, government, and military power in Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu to him in the name of the Wuhan Nationalist Government.Of course, Feng Yuxiang was not stupid. The above-mentioned three places were already under the actual control of Feng Yuxiang's national army. Wang Jingwei's price tag was just an endorsement after the fact, and Feng Yuxiang did not reap any actual benefits.It seems that Wang Jingwei can't squeeze out any oil and water, so he squeezed the old orange peel of Chiang Kai-shek to see if he could wring out some orange juice. So just one week after the Zhengzhou meeting ended, Feng Yuxiang held the Xuzhou meeting with Chiang Kai-shek on June 20.At the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek urged Feng Yuxiang to submit to the Nanjing Nationalist Government and strictly implement the anti-communist "party cleanup".The price offered by Chiang Kai-shek was to give Feng Yuxiang a monthly subsidy of 2.5 million silver dollars starting from July 1927.After the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek immediately returned to Shanghai to implement the money.Sir Bardon, the British Consul General in Shanghai, said in a report on June 30 that in the last two weeks of June, there was a large-scale fundraising activity in Shanghai.He speculated that this was precisely to implement Chiang Kai-shek's funding of Feng Yuxiang in order to obtain Feng Yuxiang's support and oppose the Xuzhou Agreement of the Wuhan Nationalist Government. [24] Chiang Kai-shek, who was supported by the chaebols in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, really made extraordinary moves. The amount of 2.5 million silver dollars per month far exceeded the price that Wuhan could offer.2.5 million silver dollars per month!It was as if someone had recited the spell "Open Sesame" in front of Feng Yuxiang, and a huge treasure beyond imagination appeared in front of Feng Yuxiang.Without hesitation, Feng Yuxiang immediately decided to throw away the gold ruble, and threw himself at the thick leg that Chiang Kai-shek had just hugged without hesitation.Therefore, Feng Yuxiang accepted all the conditions offered by Chiang Kai-shek, and agreed to use his influence to force the Wuhan government to send the Soviets back to the Soviet Union, cleanse the Communists, and persuade the Wuhan KMT to go to Nanjing to reunify the entire party and form a unified Communist Party. National Government. On June 21, Feng Yuxiang sent an ultimatum-style telegram to Wang Jingwei and Tan Yankai in Wuhan. At this time, Wang Jingwei was very upset.It turned out that on June 1, Luo Yi, a representative sent by the Comintern, came to Wuhan with a copy of the "Resolution on China Questions" (the "May Instructions") of the Executive Committee of the Comintern.Within a few days, Luo Yi conveyed this decision to Wang Jingwei as an "imperial envoy".The resolution of the Comintern is as follows: Resolutely advocate the implementation of land reform from the bottom up, but must fight against excesses, do not touch the land of officers and soldiers, and make concessions to handicraftsmen, merchants and small landowners; · Mobilize 20,000 Communist Party members and 50,000 revolutionary workers and peasants in the Lianghu area to form their own army; · Absorb new workers and peasants leaders from the lower levels to join the Kuomintang Central Committee and change the current composition of the Kuomintang.All those with old ideas will be expelled; Establish a revolutionary military tribunal headed by famous Kuomintang members and non-communists to punish reactionary officers. This is not cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Stalin wanted Wang Jingwei to surrender completely to the Communist Party.Wang Jingwei suppressed his anger after watching it, but still bargained.He proposed that the Soviet Union provide a loan of 15 million gold rubles, while the amount of aid Moscow agreed to provide was only 2 million gold rubles.Stalin went too far. He asked people to sell themselves, but refused to pay enough money for them. Anyone would be upset.At this time, Wang Jingwei received a telegram from Feng Yuxiang urging him to clean up the party and oppose the Communist Party, which really hit his target. Immediately afterwards, Song Ziwen, the finance minister of the Wuhan government who had stayed in Shanghai for the past few months, suddenly returned to Hankou on July 12, carrying a letter from Chiang Kai-shek, and held several rounds of private talks with Wang Jingwei at Wang Jingwei's home. Three days later, the Wuhan Nationalist Government launched a counter-revolutionary coup. Under the slogan "It is better to kill three thousand by mistake than to let one go", a large number of Communists and leftists fell under the butcher's knife. After the cleansing of "communist elements", the principled conflict between the Wuhan and Nanjing national governments has been resolved, and it is only a matter of time before the "Ning Han merge".Chiang Kai-shek, who had won a decisive victory in the Ninghan struggle, seemed to be the logical leader of the new government.However, to everyone's surprise, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down less than a month after Wuhan "divided the Communist Party". With such a weird political situation in China, it is no wonder that even the Foreign Office of the British Empire, which is headed by "venture investment", is puzzled by the turbulent Chinese political situation.However, the answer is actually very simple. There is an old saying in China: "When the bird is exhausted, the bow is hidden, the rabbit is dead and the dog is cooked." But this time the "bow" and "dog" became Chiang Kai-shek, and the person who wanted to "cook the dog with the bow" was Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols.