Chapter 31 Plutocratic board fires the rambunctious CEO

For the Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols, Chiang Kai-shek's original sin was that he had too much appetite and was too ugly. It was not easy for Chiang Kai-shek after the "April 12" coup. Cleaning out the unarmed Communist Party was just an "appetizer and dessert" before the meal.After the Nanjing Nationalist Government was formed, it had to maintain the operation of the state apparatus, deal with the Wuhan Nationalist Government, and guard against the Beiyang warlords in the north. However, as capitalists, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols have to count their investment income.The initial financing was forced by the fierceness of the Communist Party, and everyone had to finish the game without any bloodshed.Now I finally breathed a sigh of relief, but Chiang Kai-shek's appetite is getting bigger and bigger, which exceeds the budget of the chaebols, and everyone starts to shrink back from the position of supporting Chiang.

It doesn't matter if the Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebol shrink, Chiang Kai-shek immediately rolled his eyes, isn't this stuck in my neck!If you don't eat a toast, you will have to drink fine wine, so if you say no, you have to be tough.So Chiang Kai-shek used what he used to deal with the Communist Party and trade unions to deal with capitalists. On May 14, 1927, the son of a paint dealer living in the French Concession was arrested on charges of counter-revolution. After the paint dealer promised to "donate" 200,000 silver dollars to the country, his son was released on May 19.Rong Zongjing, the king of cotton yarn and flour, was arrested on charges of "profiteering and funding warlords". Chiang Kai-shek personally ordered the confiscation of the Rong family's flour mill in Wuxi. After Rong Zongjing donated 250,000 silver dollars to the Chiang regime, the charge was cancelled. .The 3-year-old son of Ou Bingguang, the manager of Xianshi Company, was kidnapped. The kidnappers asked him to "donate" 500,000 silver dollars to the party-state cause.The actual result of Chiang Kai-shek's combination of "kidnapping" and "kidnapping expectations" to extort money from capitalists, according to the U.S. Consul in Shanghai, "is a veritable reign of terror among the wealthy class... The attitude of the businessmen and the gentry class is constantly developing into an opposition force against the Kuomintang, which is expropriating and extorting without restraint and causing them great suffering” [25].Chapman, an Australian observer in China, reported: "Wealthy Chinese may be arrested in their homes, or mysteriously disappear on the road... The millionaires are arrested as 'communist members'! ...It is estimated that Chiang Kai-shek used this method to raise a total of 500,000 U.S. dollars, and modern Shanghai has never experienced such a reign of terror under any regime." [26] Chiang Kai-shek's tactics are almost exactly the same as Hitler's later routines.A few years later, Hitler also took Wall Street's "venture capital" to the "GEM".After unifying Germany, they turned around and launched a war against Britain and France, biting the international bankers. The Rothschild family even sat in the Gestapo's black jail.For political strongmen like Chiang Kai-shek and Hitler, consolidating power is the highest principle of action, and everything else is secondary.Regardless of whether it is a banker or a working class, as long as you can use it for yourself, you may wish to work for them and get what you need; once the situation changes, Facebook is faster than Facebook.

The tycoons in Shanghai were really angry, and the consequences were really serious.The tycoons think that Chiang Kai-shek really didn't put himself in the right position. We give you money because we want you to work for us.Now that you are fledgling, you are so arrogant and domineering, and you don't play your cards according to the rules. If you really become a climate in the future, then it's okay! Such dangerous elements must be eliminated.The reason for the delay in taking action is entirely because there is a pro-communist Wuhan government outside the gates of Shanghai Bund. The external pressure has not been completely relieved, and it has to tolerate Chiang Kai-shek.When Wang Jingwei also used his knife against the Communist Party in Wuhan, there would be nothing to worry about.

Thus, Chiang Kai-shek stepped down and entered the countdown. In fact, the Nanjing Nationalist Government that was put together was not monolithic.There is an obvious conflict of interest between the Guangxi faction headed by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi and Chiang Kai-shek's Whampoa faction.Even He Yingqin's support for Chiang Kai-shek was unreliable.Chiang Kai-shek's domineering and domineering created too many political enemies for himself, but he himself was completely intoxicated with the joy of victory. At this delicate moment, Chiang Kai-shek's army was defeated by the troops of the Fengtian warlords during the second Northern Expedition, and even the important city of Xuzhou in East China was lost.Shanghai and Nanjing were in a hurry, and Chiang Kai-shek's prestige plummeted.The Guangxi faction within the Nanjing government took the opportunity to start pressing the palace. The Wang Jingwei authorities in Wuhan, who were negotiating the merger, also repeatedly insisted that the prerequisite for the Wuhan government to move to Nanjing was that Chiang Kai-shek himself must step down. The "Prince Faction" also united to force Jiang to go to the field.And despite gang-style extortionate fundraising in Shanghai, the Nanking government is still financially struggling to make ends meet due to massive military spending.Chiang Kai-shek didn't know that Chai Migui was expensive until he became a family. Without the support of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols for a while, he could only look at the mess and be helpless.

Only now did Chiang Kai-shek understand that there is a difference between ruling a country and pushing a regime, and he can no longer play hooliganism like before. After all, Chiang Kai-shek is a very smart person. Instead of carrying it hard like this, it is better to retreat bravely and put others on the stove at the front desk to roast. Therefore, on August 12, 1927, at a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek proposed that he resign as commander-in-chief and hand over the defense of Nanjing to other generals, and then left Nanjing for Shanghai.Chiang Kai-shek's resignation statement was issued on August 13, and he officially stepped down on August 14.Immediately afterwards, the Wuhan government announced on August 19 that it would move to Nanjing, and Wang Jingwei also arrived in Nanjing in early September.