Chen Yi was appointed chairman of the Kuomintang Zhejiang Provincial Government in August 1948.
Chen Yi was born in 1883 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, crossed east to Japan in 1902, was admitted to the Zhenwu School and was a classmate of Chiang Kai-shek, and worked in the War Department after returning to China. In 1916, he went east to Japan again to study, studied at the Japanese Army University, and served as a lieutenant general adviser in the Presidential Office of the Beiyang Government. Later, under Sun Chuanfang, he served as the commander of the First Division of the Zhejiang Army and the governor of Zhejiang Province. After the Northern Expedition, he served as the commander of the 19th Army of the National Revolutionary Army and the chairman of the Fujian Provincial Government. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he also served as the commander-in-chief of the Twenty-fifth Group Army and the acting president of the Army University. Chen Yi was also an old qualified figure in the Kuomintang.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Yi served as the chief executive of Taiwan Province and the commander-in-chief of the Taiwan Provincial Police, and during his reign in Taiwan, he was removed from his post due to the "228" incident and transferred to the chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Government.
After he assumed the post of chairman of Zhejiang Province, Chiang Kai-shek's attacks on the Liberated Areas also suffered setbacks, and as an old qualified party-state official with the ability to think independently, he very much disagreed with Chiang Kai-shek's deeds, and he openly wrote an article in the "Southeast Daily" in Shanghai, pointing out: "After eight years of the War of Resistance, following three years of counter-insurgency, the people have suffered the impact of the war, and their lives have been miserable. The people are now unanimous in their demand for peace. It is necessary to know that the people are the foundation of the state, and the cry for peace at this time cannot be ignored and should be accepted by all parties. He then accused the authorities: "It takes courage to win, and it takes courage to admit defeat." He also attacked the "surveying" war launched by Chiang Kai-shek, saying that this question "will be an important evaluation by historians in the future."
Our Party and the Kuomintang revolutionary figures are very concerned about the change in Chen Yi's political concepts, especially after the peaceful liberation of Peiping, Li Jishen of the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee sent people to contact Chen Yi, hoping that he would emulate Fu Zuoyi. Chen Yi also agreed that the uprising was the best way to save the rich and beautiful land of Hangzhou from the scourge of war, and he was willing to be the second Fu general.
But the problem was that Chen Yi had no soldiers under him, so he thought of the students who shared his father and son.
His student was Commander Tang Enbo, then commander of the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Garrison Command. Within the Kuomintang, everyone knows that without Chen Yi, there would be no Tang Enbo now.
Tang Enbo is a native of Wuyi, Zhejiang, who took in the desperate Tang Enbo when Chen Yi was the principal of the Army Primary School, and then funded and sponsored Tang to go to the Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer School for further study, thus making Tang Enbo take a decisive step in his life. In order to thank Chen Yi, Tang Yizi is named to commemorate Chen's grace. After returning to China, he also served as an officer under Chen Yi's troops, and later went from obscurity to Qingyun, thanks to the help of Chen Yi, a mentor.
Because of Tang's close relationship with Chen, Tang's grievances against Chiang Kai-shek always ran to Sishi Chen Yi from time to time to cry and complain, creating an impression of Chen that Tang was very dissatisfied with Chiang.
For example, once, after the defeat in the Battle of MengLianggu in 1947, Tang Enbo was summoned to Nanjing by Chiang Kai-shek by telegram, and in front of the senior generals, Chiang scolded Tang for being "incompetent." It is said that there was a newspaper in Shanghai that Tang Enbo was ordered by Jiang to kneel down and kick and scold, and Tang either rolled out of the room or climbed out. This time, Tang Enbo felt extremely humiliated, and when he returned, he fell on the knee of his mentor Chen Yi and cried: "I Tang Mou have been following the chairman of the committee for so many years to make cattle and horses, and the result is actually inferior to a dog." After this insult, what face will I have to see people again in the future? ...... I might as well kill myself. Chen Yi advised him to oppose Chiang instead of committing suicide. Tang Enbo also said: "I listen to sir, I still have two troops, and after that I will do it with old Jiang..."
Moreover, although the Chen Yi family had many brothers, they had no heirs, so Chen Yi had always regarded Tang Enbo as a righteous son, and Tang called Chen "Sir" without a name, nor a surname, for decades. Based on the personal friendship between the two people, "close as father and son", Chen Yi has absolute self-confidence in opposing Tang Enbo.
As the saying goes, "It is difficult to draw a tiger and paint a skin, and it is difficult to draw a bone, and it is difficult to know the face of the person and not the heart."
In February 1949, when Chen Yi decided to have Tang Enbo, a student of "loving father and son", hold an anti-Chiang uprising, Tang Enbo actually sent all the evidence of Chen Yi's anti-Chiang Kai-shek to Chiang Kai-shek. Until Chen Yi was dismissed by Chiang Kai-shek as chairman of the Zhejiang provincial government, he still believed that Tang Enbo would not betray him. When he left Hangzhou and arrived at his home in Shanghai, he was arrested by agents led by Mao Sen, the chief of the Shanghai Police.
On the eve of the liberation of Hangzhou, Chen Yi was escorted to Taiwan for custody. On June 18, 1950, the Military Tribunal of the Ministry of National Defense of the Kuomintang authorities in Taiwan sentenced Chen Yi to death on charges of "colluding with communist bandits." When she was about to be sentenced, Chen Yi was very calm and relaxed, shouting "one person dies, the spirit does not die" and generously and righteously, and was later posthumously recognized by our party as "a patriot who has contributed his life to the cause of Chinese people's liberation."