Chapter 2 Why did Chiang Kai-shek insist on making Nanchang his capital?

The mood and expression of Chiang Kai-shek, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition Army, when he arrived in Nanchang has never been revealed since the establishment of Huangpu School.It's like a happy brow.And the hotness of power.And the desire to look at the bowl and think about the pot. Americans (former President Nixon) who like to generalize history believe that when Chiang’s army set off to the Northern Expedition and tried to unify China by military means, some parts of China were in the hands of foreigners, some parts were ruled by warlords, and some parts were in chaos. Anarchy.Chiang gradually amassed the most powerful army in China as he advanced, and a few years later, China was unified and he was proclaimed ruler.However, this unity is more in name than in reality.Chiang overwhelmed his opponents, but did not subdue them.

Nixon deeply remembers his first impression of talking with Chiang Kai-shek: "Jiang often wears a straight black cloak and has a shaved head. He is serious and unsmiling in private meetings. He has a habit: after I finish speaking, he always rushes him to say 'OK, OK', which makes people think he is a little nervous. .But there was a look of confidence and determination in his eyes, and occasional gleams in his dark eyes. He looked around the room before we started talking, but he kept his eyes on mine throughout the session.” And the Soviets who described more than commented (C. A. Darling, the representative of the Eastern Department of the Young Comintern to China at the time) gave a timetable of this period:

On December 8, 1926, the Kuling (Lushan) Conference ended.The next day, everyone went down the mountain to Jiujiang.Chiang Kai-shek seemed to be very caring and considerate, and he spent a lot of time arranging the sedan chairs for the government committee members and guests. He seemed to be a "gentleman of integrity", and he was the last one to sit on the sedan chair. On the night of December 10, the government moved from Jiujiang to Wuhan.Everyone came to the pier, where the ship had already stopped.It was cold at night, and the government committee members were already sitting in the cabin.When Chiang Kai-shek came, he was relaxed and happy, with a smile on his face, and he was very polite with everyone. He extended his hand to everyone and bid farewell to everyone, because he will not go to Wuhan, but will stay in Nanchang.

In the early morning, the ship sat back and set sail for Wuhan.Leave one center of government on the banks of the river in Nanchang, and pull another center of power toward Wuhan. On December 10, members of the government were grandly welcomed by 100,000 demonstrators in Wuhan.On this day, the struggle between Nanchang and Wuhan began. On December 15, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a ban on strikes in Hankow, followed immediately by an order to disarm the workers.Orders were sent from Nanchang one after another.Various methods were developed against the working class and peasants.Nanchang became the center of the Kuomintang rightists and counter-revolutionaries, led by Chiang Kai-shek.

Why did Chiang Kai-shek stubbornly insist on making Nanchang his capital? In 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of illness.Behind him is the "Three People's Principles", a successor Chiang Kai-shek who has long been addicted to China's power struggle. After Chiang Kai-shek returned from a visit to Moscow in 1924, he was appointed principal of the Whampoa Military Academy.This gave him the laurels of a mentor on his head.According to the Chinese tradition: a teacher for one day, a father for life.He became a pivotal figure in the Kuomintang by virtue of the control over the army that came with the post of headmaster of the Whampoa Military Academy.Unlike Sun Yat-sen who won the loyalty and respect of others with his personal actions and political agitation, he won people's hearts with visible money and an invisible future.He was thin, eloquent without exaggeration, with alert black eyes that rolled around and seemed to see through everything.His greatest ability is not in military affairs, but in political speculation. He can skillfully play balance and play tricks among various political forces.

After Sun Yat-sen's death, no one came to restrain the Kuomintang, and the conflict between the right wing and the left wing in the party was completely open. Chiang Kai-shek was the right-wing leader.The Kuomintang saw its opportunity in the surging anti-imperialist wave and declared itself the national government of China in July 1925.The contest for Sun Yat-sen's succession was not yet clear.Chiang Kai-shek served as the commander-in-chief of the army.Another politician, Wang Jingwei, who looks as good as he talks, serves as political party chairman, and they share party leadership in a tenuous partnership.

In March 1926, Chiang Kai-shek tentatively launched a conspiracy attack on the Communist Party, provoking the Zhongshan ship incident.Because the time was not yet ripe, the original intention of purging the Communist Party failed.Killing three birds with one stone did not drive away the Communist Party, but drove out the old and young members of the Kuomintang: Hu Hanmin and Wang Jingwei, which also pleased Chiang Kai-shek.Removed two more stumbling blocks in his corridor of power.There were also conflicts between Hu Hanmin and Wang Jingwei. By coincidence, the two met unexpectedly when changing ships in Hong Kong, and had to pull down their hats to hide their faces. Now Wang Jingwei, who is revered as a "leftist", has returned.However, the Communists did not arouse enough vigilance due to the Zhongshan ship incident. They were still passionately revolutionizing, active in Hong Kong, which was boycotting British goods, and organizing farmers' and trade unions everywhere.The party representatives of the Whampoa Military Academy also went to all levels of the army under the leadership of Zhou Enlai, director of the political department.Their slogans can be seen everywhere on the walls: "Down with imperialism! Chinese laborers must rise up! Down with foreign cultural aggression! Break up unequal treaties!" On the wall of the Whampoa Junzhi Auditorium are three propaganda posters of foreign oppression of China: one It is the burning of opium in 1842; the other is the massacre of Boxers with guns and bayonets by foreign troops when they entered Beijing in 1900;

In the spring of 1926, two progressive leaders from Guangdong and Guangxi, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, joined the ranks of the revolution, and thus the Kuomintang gained the base and strength it needed to carry out the Northern Expedition and seize national power.The Northern Expedition, which Sun Yat-sen worked so hard but failed to launch, finally arrived. The Northern Expedition officially started in 1926, and the first stage targeted Hankou, Nanjing and Shanghai, the three major cities in the Yangtze River Basin.The Kuomintang army has less than 100,000 people. Although Chiang Kai-shek is the commander-in-chief, he cannot completely control this army.Their opponents are armies of all kinds of troops.The imminent danger brought these old and incompatible rivals into an intriguing alliance.These include Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, and Sun Chuanfang, a warlord of the five provinces in Shanghai, and Zhang Zongchang, a warlord in Shandong who has "the body of an elephant, the brain of a pig, and the temper of a tiger."Yan Xishan, a warlord in northwest China, and Feng Yuxiang, a Christian general, watched and bided their time.Yan Xishan wanted to stand with the other warlords, but had not yet made up his mind, while Feng Yuxiang planned to form an alliance with the National Revolutionary Army.There were a large number of Communists in the troops of the Northern Expedition. They still followed the credo of not disturbing or plundering the people.In less than half a year, it controlled the 4 most important provinces and rushed to the Yangtze River Basin.As expected, the rapid expansion of the revolutionary area caused the intensification of internal contradictions in the National Revolutionary United Front.There was a struggle among the military and political leaders over the question of where the new capital of revolutionary China, that is, where the government of Canton should now be located.Everyone understood that it was necessary to relocate the leading organs to central China, otherwise the government might become a Guangdong provincial organ that would not have a major impact on the revolutionary process.From all perspectives, the new center is naturally the liberated Wuhan.But Chiang Kai-shek firmly opposed this.

The successive victories of the Northern Expedition made Chiang Kai-shek wear an even more glorious halo.The fortune teller said that this is "one righteousness suppresses three evils".What is "one positive"?That is to say, Chiang Kai-shek's "Jie" character is an upright character, and there are two pillars underneath, that is, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party; while Zhang Zuolin's "Zuo" character, Wu Peifu's "Pei" character, and Sun Chuanfang's "Chuan" character are all a " The word "evil person" means destiny, which cannot be saved by manpower.Chiang Kai-shek became famous.An enthusiastic female reporter even wrote an article in the newspaper: I only have two heroes in my mind recently (you know that women always have heroes in their minds), one article and one weapon.It goes without saying that the literary hero is Hu Shi, and the military hero is also Chiang Kai-shek.

Chiang Kai-shek felt hot.It's not all because of this infatuated woman spitting out lotus flowers.As the leader of the right wing, what he cares most about is his political future.He wanted the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee to push the army to Nanking and Shanghai.What took Wuhan was not a military force controlled by Chiang.After the capture of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek counted on establishing contacts with and gaining support from the imperialist powers in order to suppress the Communist Party and the nationalist movement, causing the popular movement he hated to fade away under the government's clutches.

This later really came true.But Chiang's current task is to eliminate the leftist forces in Jiangxi and, with the help of Li Jishen, the leftist forces in Guangdong.Chiang used one of his winning tools: creating conflict among factions that were hostile to him, so that he could benefit from the clash of snipe and clam.In this case, Jiangxi Province may become a bait for some warlords.Chiang first wanted to create a split in the "Baoding faction" that was hostile to him, and gained the support of the generals of the Guangxi faction.In all respects, Nanchang was a more ideal capital for Chiang Kai-shek. At that time Nanchang was a peaceful haven for merchants, craftsmen and petty bureaucrats.The city has a total of less than 200,000 inhabitants and is surrounded by thick medieval walls.There is no factory industry here, with the exception of a small power plant.At a peasant congress, Nanchang at that time was said to be "the city of bureaucrats of the present, past and future".When the national movement was carried out in Jiangxi, many landlords and rich men fled to Nanchang from some towns in the province. But Chiang Kai-shek had only one reason for this request. He said that the government should be close to the front line during the period of military operations.However, as early as October, the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang had passed a resolution to move the capital to Wuhan. Therefore, when the first group of members of the Nationalist Government came to Nanchang from Guangzhou on December 3, they held a meeting with Chiang Kai-shek in Mount Lushan three days later. the second batch of members.However, the element of performance in his approach was too obvious, and the first group of committee members sighed. This man will not cry until he sees the coffin, and he will never let Chiang Kai-shek leave Nanchang even if he is not as strong as Mount Tai. In order to confront Chiang Kai-shek, the commissioners attempted to exploit Wang Jingwei's nominal revolutionary prestige.Many at the time believed his disguises and rhetoric.So the committee members invited him back to the government as a symbol of the government's return to the line implemented before the "Zhongshan Ship Incident". In the autumn of 1926, the call for Wang to be the head of the government set off a big wave. In early January 1927, the second batch of members of the Nationalist Government came to Nanchang.Chiang Kai-shek took this opportunity to hold a meeting of the Political Committee of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.He Xiangning, Lin Zuhan (Boqu), Deng Yanda, Tan Yankai, Zhang Jingjiang, Zhu Peide, Chen Gongbo, Gu Mengyu, Finance Minister Song Ziwen, Central Executive Committee Organization Director Chen Guofu and others attended the meeting. Chiang Kai-shek had to play tricks.Hankow was not formally notified of his intentions in advance, and the meeting was not sufficiently representative—the necessary majority was lacking.He wants these people to make the decision to temporarily locate the government in Nanchang.Deng Yanda, who was born in Baoding Military Academy, has always maintained a military posture. Even if he is not walking, his pair of big riding boots will clang with his words.He insisted against making Nanchang the capital.Song Ziwen also enthusiastically favored setting up the government in Hankou.He presumably had his administration in mind.He said that once the capital is moved to Nanchang, the entire finances will fail, and now the economic crisis is already spreading in the areas occupied by the Northern Expedition.Chen Gongfu also agreed to establish Wuhan as the capital. First, he considered the prestige of the government. Second, Nanchang did not have the conditions to establish reliable links with the various areas liberated by the National Revolutionary Army. Moreover, the government had already decided to establish the capital in Hankou last October. Chiang Kai-shek lowered his eyebrows and locked his eyes, and did not shake his head, but his mouth was full of objections.In a long speech, he questioned the October resolution passed in Guangzhou: when this resolution was passed, the Feng faction had not yet occupied Beijing.And now Zhang Zuolin has declared himself the head of the country, and is ready to fight the National Revolutionary Army to the end.The situation in Henan has become very dangerous, and the troops in Hubei are unreliable, so Wuhan is under serious threat. At the same time, wars have already taken place in Zhejiang. It is better to lead the battle in Nanchang, which has been consolidated, and so on.In a word, the Chiang Kai-shek seen here is a cunning talker who is good at using high-sounding rhetoric to conceal his real intentions. Zhang Jingjiang and Gu Mengyu supported Chiang.Tan Yankai was lazy at first. He said that Guangzhou seems to have decided on this issue only in principle. If the situation changes, he can consider re-examining the decision.He then supported the government's temporary stay in Nanchang until the situation was clarified. Lin Boqu tapped lightly on the table.Because the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also opposed the hasty move of the capital to Wuhan, and was worried that the Second and Sixth Armies had deep old grievances with Tang Shengzhi, and feared that there would be disputes with Tang after the capital was moved to Wuhan.He said to the Nanchang plan that it might be necessary during the war.But soon he dropped that claim. Chiang Kai-shek could smile.He passed the smile on his lips to Zhu Peide who was sitting far away.Zhu Peide smiled back, but very tactfully, he said that he had no well-reasoned opinion. Things were decided in this hazy state of half-push.After the meeting, some of the second batch of members of the government voluntarily stayed in Nanchang, while others actually became senior prisoners of Chiang and Chiang's clique.However, just as Chiang Kai-shek forced government officials to bow down in Nanchang and continued to push forward with all his strength to the historical southern capital Nanjing and financial center Shanghai, Hankou was filled with the fiery atmosphere of international riots. On this day (January 12), Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Wuhan.The national government really welcomed him as the commander-in-chief of "hard work and great achievements".Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets waving small flags.Even North Koreans and Indians attended the popular rally.At the banquet welcoming Chiang Kai-shek, someone made a speech demanding that the Nationalist Government be moved to Wuhan. General Counselor Bao Luoting once influenced Sun Yat-sen with his talent and insight, but this method did not work on Chiang Kai-shek.He was both emotional and sad when he spoke: "Comrade Chiang Kai-shek! I have been working with you for 4 years. If I die tomorrow, the Nationalist government will inevitably give me a funeral - I am a trivial person, I can say without hesitation, I am not an adviser to individual generals, But an advisor to the entire oppressed Chinese people. So far I have been with you in the revolution, so far we have been shooting counter-revolutionaries violently, and now we have to ask questions in a different way. If anyone does not want to listen to us Advice, then the oppressed people of the world will still need our advice.” Chiang Kai-shek listened silently. His heart was boiling like a pot.Borodin, wait and see!But now he endures.Now is not the time to break with the communists, but to consolidate the newly acquired power and status.The united front with the Communists must continue, because the Northern Expedition could not be carried out without the active support of the Soviet Union and the leftists of the Kuomintang. This was especially clear when the National Revolutionary Army developed in depth. Even though he endured it, even when he was surrounded by his "political enemies" in Wuhan, he still publicly publicized his views.He made a speech at the banquet "against class struggle", implying that the Chinese Communist Party has gone too far and has not discussed with the Kuomintang how to lead the people. When he left Wuhan, he borrowed 3 million yuan in "private loans" from the bourgeoisie.On other occasions, he talked about political movements and leadership: "Some of the leaders of mass organizations are not real revolutionaries, perhaps even counter-revolutionaries. For example, workers' organizations wrong way” This is an obvious allusion to the Chinese Communist Party. There are many smart people in the Communist Party of China who are educated and knowledgeable.But their party age is only 6 years at most.A growing child must act according to the eyes of adults.Looking back, during the Great Revolution, it was the Communist International that helped China establish the National Revolutionary Army, and made this army the only armed force of the Chinese revolution.They attached great importance to Chiang Kai-shek and supported Chiang Kai-shek to seek the post of supreme military leader. At the Sixth Enlarged Conference of the Communist International held in February and March 1926, Chiang Kai-shek was also elected as an honorary member of the presidium.On the 5th day after the closing of this meeting, Chiang Kai-shek released an anti-communist and anti-Soviet test balloon-the Zhongshan ship incident.Then there was the case of reorganizing party affairs. Chiang Kai-shek put forward various demands to limit the position of the Communist Party in the Kuomintang, and the Soviet adviser Borodin basically agreed.At that time, the attitude of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was to "unite the leftists to control the centrists and make them lean to the left".The representative of the Comintern, Vikingsky, agrees with this point of view.As a result, the attitude towards Chiang Kai-shek became ambiguous.Before the Northern Expedition, even the Soviet military adviser Galen was confused: Should he help Chiang Kai-shek during the Northern Expedition, or should he weaken Chiang Kai-shek? The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China replied: To oppose Chiang Kai-shek, or not to oppose Chiang Kai-shek. ——Because the Communists still count Mr. Jiang as a centrist.If the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's policy towards Chiang Kai-shek is not clear, then the "far away" international is even more foggy.