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Chen Cheng, known as the second-in-command of the Kuomintang known as "Little Chiang Kai-shek," was an extremely important figure in the modern history of the mainland.
The reason why he can be reused by the suspicious Chiang Kai-shek is that in addition to having extraordinary talents, it is also because he is loyal to the old Chiang Kai-shek and has no two hearts.
This general, who was once an official and vice president of the Kuomintang, once wrote a memoir, which can be described as a rich and detailed record of many internal party decisions and core secrets, which is extremely helpful for us to review history.
He died of liver cancer in 1965 and left a last wish to his wife. Unexpectedly, his wife's expression changed suddenly after reading it, what did he explain? #长文创作激励计划#
01 was appreciated to enter the Whampoa Military Academy, and received a double harvest of Jiang's heavy career and love
Before decryption, let's take a look at why Chen Cheng has such a great charm to win the favor and trust of Chiang Kai-shek, look back on history, explore the past, all of this has to start from Chen Cheng's life experience.
Chen Cheng was born into a wealthy family in Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, so his father was also well-educated and a well-informed talent respected by everyone.
But the dynasty in which my father lived was the last years of the Qing Dynasty, when the sweeping wave of revolution had already caused the Qing government to exist in name only, and correspondingly, Chen Cheng's father was of no use in the imperial court.
However, not seeing hope in yourself does not mean that you will neglect your child.
In order to give his son a chance to get ahead in the future, he strictly supervised Chen Cheng when he was very young, and Chen Cheng did not live up to his father's expectations, studied hard and finally achieved good results, and was admitted to his favorite Baoding Military Academy.
During the period of studying at the military academy, Deng Yanda took a fancy to Chen Cheng, who had performed well in all aspects, and invited him to be an instructor at the Whampoa Military Academy.
If Chen Cheng had rejected him, it would have obviously missed all kinds of intersections with Chiang Kai-shek, and there would have been no series of thrilling historical moments in the future. Chen Cheng was obviously very willing to go, and when he met Chiang Kai-shek at the Whampoa Military Academy, he was attracted by the other party's speech and demeanor.
However, the initial relationship between the two was like a gentleman's friendship, and they had some good feelings for each other and could talk, but they didn't reach the point of talking about everything.
Later, in the battle of "Battle of Cotton Lake", Chen Cheng led the army to make great achievements, and Chiang Kai-shek also paid great attention to this person, and had a good impression of him before, so he promoted him heavily.
Facts have proved that Chiang Kai-shek's vision of knowing people is still somewhat accurate.
Because in the follow-up battles, Chen Cheng still exerted his strength and repeatedly achieved gratifying results for Chiang Kai-shek. This also gave Lao Jiang the idea of cultivating him as a descendant cadre.
"He is from Zhejiang like me, and he is a ...... of the Whampoa department" Considering this, Chiang Kai-shek resolutely appointed Chen Cheng as the commander of the 11th Division of the Kuomintang, and since then, Chen Cheng's career development has become more and more smooth.
When his career was in full swing, Chiang Kai-shek did not forget to give him the "icing on the cake" and introduced his wife Song Meiling's goddaughter Tan Xiang to Chen Cheng.
Tan Xiang is Tan Yanmin's daughter, not only has a strong political background, but she is also a beautiful woman with both talent and appearance, Chen Cheng naturally can't ask for it.
However, Chen Cheng, who started dating Tan Xiang, seems to have forgotten that he also has an arranged wife Wu Shunlian in his hometown.
02 Arranged marriages cause tragedy, and which is right and which is wrong is controversial
What's going on with this Wu Shunlian?
It turned out that she was the sister of Chen Cheng's former classmate Wu Ziqi, and because Chen Cheng often played with this person when he was studying, he also knew Wu Ziqi's family.
Wu Ziqi's family is also a well-known family in the local area, and Wu Ziqi saw that Chen Cheng was very good, so he concluded that he would definitely have an unlimited future in the future.
Driven by selfishness, he introduced his sister Wu Shunlian to him, and the two didn't get along for long before they held a wedding at the urging of each other's parents.
However, although the Wu family was very dedicated to Chen Cheng - they brought a lot of dowry and sponsored Chen Cheng to continue his studies after marriage.
But Chen Cheng was not satisfied with this wife in his heart, and he had to marry her for the sake of face at that time, in fact, he didn't think that the other party was his wife.
With such thoughts, he wanted to stay away from Wu Shunlian as much as possible, even on a beautiful wedding night, Chen Cheng did not have a room with him. Poor and neglected Wu Shunlian, her love ended before it began.
Some people think that Wu Shunlian is not ugly, and her family is still wealthy, why can't she get into Chen Cheng's eyes?
In fact, an important reason why Chen Cheng looked down on him was that Wu Shunlian had wrapped her feet since she was a child, which was very difficult for Chen Cheng, who had accepted the influence of the ideas of the new era.
Yes, this made Chen Cheng feel ashamed.
Even from the current point of view, Chen Cheng is indeed an out-and-out "scumbag" in terms of the relationship between men and women, in fact, he can completely refuse in the face of forced feelings.
But he didn't, but said goodbye to this marriage by escaping - he wanted to go north alone to become a teacher. However, the social environment at that time was relatively turbulent, and Chen Cheng decided to serve the country as his ultimate ambition after thinking about it repeatedly.
Later, as mentioned above, Chen Cheng attended the Baoding Military Academy and then met Chiang Kai-shek in Whampoa......
Now that Lao Jiang wants him to marry Tan Xiang, what about his undivorced wife Wu Shunlian? At this time, Chen Cheng's father died of illness in his hometown, and Chen Cheng hurriedly went to the funeral.
Wu Shunlian was very happy to see Chen Cheng coming back, and greeted her warmly, she very much hoped that Chen Cheng could stay with her.
Although the two have not seen each other for seven years, Chen Cheng is still indifferent to him, he made some kind of determination, and said bluntly to him: "Let's divorce." ”
This was like a thunderbolt from the sky, which shocked Wu Shunlian's mind and then heartbroken, she also secretly cut herself off for this, but fortunately she was found by her family and received timely treatment and saved her life.
The decisive means still failed to save Chen Cheng, and he left his hometown without looking back two days later.
Wu Shunlian's tragedy can't help but remind us of that era, especially for women, the involuntary "words of the parents' order matchmaker" is an invisible feudal weapon, stabbing the body and heart of women in the old era, making people sigh and hate......
And Chen Cheng, a general who is bent on saving the country from dire straits, although we don't like his attitude towards feelings, we can also see his enthusiasm for joining the army to save the country, and we are moved by his dedication.
Soon, Chen Cheng became close to Tan Xiang as he wished, and the latter's strong connections weaved a stable and solid career network for Chen Cheng, making his career smooth.
03 retreated to Taiwan, and his ability to be too strong was always questioned
However, with the change of social and political situation, Chen Cheng, who had always been trusted by Chiang Kai-shek, still ushered in the darkest moment of his career.
In 1947, the mainland experienced a difficult war of liberation, and the Kuomintang troops at that time were worried about external and internal troubles.
During the Liaoshen Campaign, our army launched a fierce offensive against the Kuomintang troops stationed in the northeast, and the latter was out of breath.
Seeing this, Chiang Kai-shek asked Chen Cheng to take charge of the defense work in the northeast region without saying a word, in a vain attempt to use his command skills to completely turn the tide of the war.
But everyone knew that Lao Jiang was just resisting stubbornly at this time, and it was very obvious which way the balance of victory was tilting.
Although Chen Cheng was like a mirror in his heart, he would never refuse Chiang Kai-shek, let alone oppose this decision, so he was still ordered to go.
As a result, it was already expected that Chen Cheng's arrival would obviously not change the situation of the Kuomintang army at that time. Subsequently, the entire territory of Northeast China was liberated by our army, and the "riddled with holes" Kuomintang troops fled to Taiwan.
Chen Cheng also went to Taiwan with a large army, determined to develop the local economy.
However, many officials within the Kuomintang could not face the reality, and they even directly pointed the finger at Chen Cheng, believing that the reason for the defeat of their army was because of Chen Cheng's improper command.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek also knew the reason for the defeat in his heart, but since Chen Cheng was once a highly valued general, he did not say much; On the contrary, if other generals were criticized by everyone, this old Jiang Tie would definitely deal with him immediately to vent his anger. It can be seen that he really attaches importance to Chen Cheng.
However, Chiang Kai-shek's heart was not particularly big, and as Chen Cheng made more and more contributions to Taiwan's economy at that time, he began to have the outrageous idea of "unstable status".
Through Chen Cheng's single-handed management, Taiwan's port transportation and people's income have made a qualitative leap in two years, and the people have praised Chen Cheng as a capable leader.
Naturally, these words also reached Chiang Kai-shek's ears, making him extremely unhappy, as if the current "boss" was Chen Cheng.
In short, Chen Cheng was firmly in the position of the second-in-command of the Kuomintang at that time, and his extraordinary ability and strength also made Chiang Kai-shek's son Chiang Ching-kuo feel threatened.
He thought: When his father is there, he may be able to suppress this person, in case his father is gone, this kind of veteran-level person will be very powerful in rebellion!
Although Chen Cheng did not have any idea of seizing power from beginning to end, he still could not change the minds of most Jiang family members. Subsequently, Chen Cheng, who expressed his attitude, still took the initiative to resign from the post of executive premier, so that the other party could relax.
04 Eager to return to his roots, he has always adhered to the one-China principle
In his later years, Chen Cheng's old injury recurred and was admitted to the hospital, which made people feel sad and incredible, at this time, he had no position and could not pay the hospitalization medical expenses!
Later, Chiang Kai-shek learned about it and arranged for him to be admitted to the hospital with guilt. In March 1965, Chen Chengqiang, who was suffering from liver cancer, endured the pain and called his son to prepare to explain.
With trembling hands, he wrote down his last words in 66 words and said to his son: "You must give it to your mother." He paused and continued to write the words "cremate me."
In fact, the general meaning of those 66 words is to hope that the successors will be united.
Wife Tan Xiang opened the suicide note and looked at it, and her face changed drastically in an instant, you must know that there was no cremation in Taiwan at that time, and her husband proposed this and the 66-word last words, which is nothing more than wanting to finally "return to the roots"!
Tan Xiang wanted to hide this thought, but then he thought about it: This is the concern of her husband's life, if I don't let him see the light of day, won't I become a sinner of the times? After thinking about it again and again, she still told Chiang Kai-shek about this last wish.
As expected, Chiang Kai-shek categorically would not let his generals return to the mainland, and he claimed that as long as they were Kuomintang soldiers, they would have to be buried in Taiwan, otherwise it would not be conducive to stabilizing the morale of the army!
In this way, Chen Cheng still failed to do so, and was finally buried in Taipei by Chiang Kai-shek.
When the news of Chen Cheng's death reached Beijing, Premier Zhou burst into tears when he heard it, and bluntly said that if Chen Cheng's physical condition had been better and he had stayed in the second-in-command position for a longer time, perhaps the political situation would have been different.
In Chen Cheng's life, he has failed an infatuated woman in terms of feelings, and he is a real "scumbag" in the eyes of everyone.
However, in the eyes of his wife Tan Xiang, he is a good man who cares for his family, loves his wife and is patriotic, and has become a "successful politician" in the hearts of everyone......
There are thousands of views on the mountains and rivers in the natural world, not to mention the complex human beings and human nature, although Chen Cheng is indeed the "cold-blooded husband" in Wu Shunlian's heart.
However, it is undeniable that this talented general, who holds the "one-China" principle, has done many practical things that have benefited the people during his lifetime.
His political reforms have effectively revived the economy of Taiwan Province and made our treasure island more vibrant since then, which is really admirable!
Bibliography:
Sichuan Online official website released on January 28, 2010 (the memoirs of Chen Cheng, a senior official of the Kuomintang, were published in full in mainland China without changing a word)