After the three major battles, the PLA has basically wiped out the main force of the Kuomintang reactionaries, and there will be no large-scale fighting north of the Yangtze River.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was unable to successfully win assistance from the United States under the unfavorable situation of the war, so Li Zongren, the leader of the Gui faction in the party, successfully forced Chiang Kai-shek to go into the wilderness.
Chiang Kai-shek returned to his hometown of Fenghua, Zhejiang, and before retreating to Taiwan, the patriarch of the township once asked Chiang Kai-shek when he would return to his hometown, and Chiang Kai-shek stretched out three fingers.
What do Chiang Kai-shek's three fingers represent? In the end, did Chiang Kai-shek's wish come true?
Chiang Kai-shek went into the field for the third time
On January 9, 1949, the Battle of Chenguanzhuang in the Huaihai Campaign ended, Du Yuming's 260,000 people were all annihilated in this battle, and Du Yuming himself was captured by the People's Liberation Army.
Chiang Kai-shek sat down in his chair like a deflated balloon when he learned about this, he knew that the Huaihai Battle was basically over, and he knew better that his political future would face great challenges in the future.
Chiang Kai-shek, in order to salvage the situation, decided to ease the current tense situation through diplomatic means.
He first found Sun Ke, Zhang Qun, Zhang Zhi and others and asked them to hold peace talks with the Chinese communists.
Later, he found Foreign Minister Wu Tiecheng and asked him to send envoys to the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France, hoping that foreign forces could exert pressure on the CCP.
But at this time, the American side had lost confidence in Chiang Kai-shek, after all, such a good hand could be played to a pulp, and all the American side hoped to be able to re-establish a proxy to deal with the current situation in China.
In this regard, the Gui faction is also actively pushing Chiang Kai-shek to step down behind the scenes, hoping to let Li Zongren take over the presidency.
On January 16, Li Zongren saw that Chiang Kai-shek did not plan to step down, so he planned to launch a campaign with Bai Chongxi to force Chiang Kai-shek to step down.
Chiang Kai-shek, faced with internal and external troubles, had no choice but to accept the fact of stepping down, and he first held a meeting at his official residence on Huangpu Road, which was attended by high-ranking party officials such as Sun Ke, Zhang Qun, Wu Zhongxin, Wu Tiecheng, and Chen Lifu.
At the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly said that he had decided to go into the wilderness, and then he put forward two suggestions: "Let the German neighbor go to the peace talks with the Chinese Communists, and then go to the wilderness after the negotiation is completed, or I will go to the field now, and all affairs will be presided over by the German neighbor." ”
After listening to Chiang Kai-shek's words, everyone looked at each other and fell silent, and they felt sad about Chiang Kai-shek's downfall.
Chiang Kai-shek also lamented that he was not defeated by the CCP, but by other forces within the Kuomintang.
But there was nothing left to do at the moment, and Chiang Kai-shek decided to leave the opposition on January 21, leaving all the rest of the affairs to Li Zongren.
At 10 o'clock in the morning of the 21st, Chiang Kai-shek held a meeting in the party, and he said in an extremely heavy tone that he was about to retire, and then Li Zongren came to power to act as the sole authority for all affairs.
Many people wept on the spot after hearing this, and then Chiang Kai-shek took out a retirement proclamation for Li Zongren to sign.
Li Zongren was very excited in his heart, he didn't have time to see what was written inside, and immediately signed his name, and Chiang Kai-shek's third descent into the field was officially completed.
However, the scheming Chiang Kai-shek would not hand over power so simply, and he was also actively planning the way back after going into the wilderness, for which Chiang Kai-shek made three ruthless moves.
First of all, gold and cultural relics, he first exchanged all the gold yuan notes for gold and foreign exchange, and then shipped all the assets to Taiwan.
According to statistics, Chiang Kai-shek shipped a total of 2775358 taels of gold, 15.2 million silver dollars, 15.37 million US dollars, jewelry, and a large amount of foreign exchange from Shanghai, with a total value of about 500 million US dollars.
In this way, after Li Zongren came to power, he was faced with a situation of empty treasury. Not only that, Chiang Kai-shek also shipped all the cultural relics and ancient books in many museums on the mainland to Taiwan.
The second move was the transfer of personnel, and Chiang Kai-shek installed seven radio stations in his hometown of Fenghua, so that Chiang Kai-shek could command all affairs outside.
Subsequently, he arranged for his cronies to serve as responsible persons of all provinces across the country, with Chen Cheng as chairman of Taiwan Province and Chiang Ching-kuo as director of the Taiwan Provincial Party. took all the important armed forces of the country at that time into his own hands, and let Li Zongren be a single commander.
The last move was to transfer all the domestic naval and air forces to Taiwan, weaken Li Zongren's defense forces in the Yangtze River area, and promote the downfall of Li Zongren in Nanjing.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was fully prepared, he had already planned to abandon the mainland and retreat to Taiwan, and at the same time he also hoped that the forces of the Gui faction would be wiped out by the People's Liberation Army, so as to prevent himself from being threatened after going to Taiwan.
It can be said that Chiang Kai-shek's three moves were all ruthless moves, and in the end, things were as Chiang Kai-shek expected, Li Zongren soon became unable to hold on to the mainland, and soon faced the situation of stepping down.
Life in Fenghua's hometown
After Chiang Kai-shek went into the wilderness, he got up and flew to Hangzhou on the same day, intending to return to his hometown of Fenghua to continue manipulating government affairs behind his back.
Chen Yi, the chairman of Zhejiang Province at that time, received Chiang Kai-shek in Hangzhou, and Lao Chiang looked at his favorite hometown dish West Lake vinegar fish in front of him, but he refused to move his chopsticks.
Chen Yi also saw that Chiang Kai-shek was preoccupied, and he did not know the current affairs, and he persuaded Chiang Kai-shek to let go, and Chiang Kai-shek was furious on the spot after hearing this, which shows that Chiang Kai-shek has always been worried about the matter of going to the field.
Chiang Kai-shek, who returned to his hometown in Fenghua Xikou, stayed in the cemetery of his hometown that night, and during this period of time, Chiang Kai-shek was also very leisurely.
Chiang Kai-shek traveled every day, eating fresh crucian carp from his hometown, and lived like a retired old man.
Chiang Ching-kuo also wrote in his diary that this period of time was a rare tranquility for many years, and after his father returned to his hometown, he felt a warm nostalgia, and the family enjoyed the joy of family.
However, all this is only the surface, Chiang Kai-shek seems to enjoy retirement, but in fact he has been secretly manipulating the affairs of Nanjing.
The small town of Xikou suddenly became lively, and many important military and political officials of the Kuomintang came to visit one after another, waiting for the orders of the former president.
Xikou was once known as "China's first town", and the reason was naturally because Lao Jiang was here. Although Chiang Kai-shek promised not to interfere in political affairs for five years, this was just talking, and Li Zongren was an out-and-out single commander at this time.
First of all, Sun Ke, the president of the Nanjing Executive Yuan, was under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek, and all the political affairs of the Nanjing government had to go through Chiang Kai-shek's instructions, and basically did not go through the hands of Li Zongren, and Chiang Kai-shek even had the power to appoint the chairmen of the provinces.
The second is Gu Zhutong, the chief of the general staff, who takes all the army into his own hands, although he can't fight a war, he is still absolutely loyal to President Chiang, and all the troops are under Chiang's command, and Li Zongren can only command the Gui troops in his own hands.
In the face of this situation, Li Zongren himself was also very helpless, after all, Chiang Kai-shek's seniority in the party was too deep, and it was not something that he Li Zongren could shake.
In this regard, Li Zongren also said very angrily: "Mr. Jiang is the real emperor!" ”
However, the result of the internal struggle was unfavorable to the outside world, and under Chiang Kai-shek's repeated manipulations, Li Zongren had no resistance to the PLA at all.
Chiang Kai-shek's self-proclaimed impregnable defense line on the Yangtze River was also breached by the People's Liberation Army within three days, and then a million heroes crossed the river and occupied the presidential palace in Nanjing.
The Chiang clique, which had ruled China for 22 years, completely collapsed, and no matter how Chiang Kai-shek manipulated it behind his back, it would be useless.
Jiang's father and son naturally can't continue to stay in their hometown, they will fly to Taiwan soon, although they are very reluctant in their hearts, but they also know that once they leave this time, they will never have the opportunity to return to their hometown again.
At the time of parting, Chiang Kai-shek took his family to his mother's mausoleum to bow down, he was very sad in his heart, "I don't know when and when I can come to worship the mausoleum again."
At this moment, Chiang Kai-shek, who was once in the limelight, also became a filial son who was reluctant to give up his mother.
Then Chiang Kai-shek also got up to leave his hometown in Xikou, and when he said goodbye to everyone, the old patriarch of the village asked when Chiang Kai-shek would come back after leaving this time?
Chiang Kai-shek thought for a moment and then stretched out three fingers.
Jiang Xiaoyong returned home
Chiang Kai-shek's three fingers mean that he will return to his hometown of Fenghua in three years, and indeed after he went to Taiwan, he was planning all the time to counterattack the mainland one day and return to his hometown.
However, all this will be just an illusion, and Chiang Kai-shek, who is on the side of peace, will not succeed in carrying out his plan in the end, and will spend the rest of his life on the island.
When Zhejiang was liberated in 1949, the People's Liberation Army entered Fenghua, Chiang Kai-shek's hometown, and the people of the whole country hated Chiang Kai-shek very much, but the great man had already given the highest instructions not to destroy Chiang Kai-shek's former residence and ancestral hall.
With the order of the great man, all the cultural relics and monuments in Xikou have been well preserved.
Chiang Kai-shek was also extremely sighed in his heart when he heard that his old opponent could have such a big heart.
In his later years, he missed his hometown so much that he even built his residence in the same style as his hometown, but in the end, Chiang Kai-shek could only pass away with endless homesickness.
After Chiang Kai-shek's death, his son Chiang Ching-kuo took his place as the supreme leader of Taiwan.
However, Chiang Ching-kuo never forgot his father's last wish and went back to Fenghua's hometown to have a look. However, at that time, there were still many crises in Taiwan, and Chiang Ching-kuo had to put aside his trip back to his hometown and concentrate on handling party affairs.
On New Year's Day in 1979, after the National People's Congress issued the "Letter to Taiwan Compatriots", the central government specially renovated the former residence of Chiang Kai-shek, turning it into a tourist attraction, and officially opened to the public in 1984.
At this time, Chiang Ching-kuo still had the opportunity to fulfill his father's wishes, but due to many reasons, Chiang Ching-kuo himself was not able to return to his hometown before his death.
In the end, Chiang Kai-shek's last wish was fulfilled by the third generation of the Chiang family, which also responded to Chiang Kai-shek's outstretched three fingers in a sense, and it was Chiang Kai-shek's grandson Chiang Xiaoyong who finally returned to his hometown in Fenghua.
Jiang Xiaoyong was born in Shanghai in 1948, and among Jiang Jingguo's sons at that time, Jiang Xiaoyong performed relatively well.
Chiang Kai-shek even hoped to train this grandson to become a general of the party-state in the future, so Jiang Xiaoyong followed his grandfather's plan after graduation, and performed very well in the military academy, and achieved excellent results in both theory and actual combat.
It's a pity that during a training accident, Jiang Xiaoyong was accidentally injured and recuperated at home for several months, after which he began to be unable to keep up with the curriculum of the military academy, and in desperation, he could only choose to leave the military academy and enter the Department of Political Science of Taiwan University.
As a result, Jiang Xiaoyong's name began to slowly become known to everyone, and everyone knew that his father was Jiang Jingguo.
If history develops in this direction, Jiang Xiaoyong is likely to become the third generation head of the Jiang family and continue the political career of the Jiang family.
However, Jiang Xiaoyong was not interested in politics, he preferred to follow the path of business, to become a businessman. Although Chiang Ching-kuo was very disappointed by this, he still respected his son's decision.
Jiang Xiaoyong soon made a name for himself in the business world, and he became the chairman of Honglin Company, using his family's resources, coupled with his flexible methods in business management, and soon made the company's interests grow rapidly.
In 1980, Jiang Xiaoyong, who was in his early 30s, had already served as the executive director of the "Federation of Industries" and became a rising star in the business world.
However, the good times did not last long, in 1988 Chiang Ching-kuo died, the situation in Taiwan was very complicated at that time, as a descendant of the Chiang family, Jiang Xiaoyong faced the changes on the island at that time, decided to move his family to Canada to settle down, and joined the Canadian nationality, since then cut off contact with Taiwanese politics.
In 1996, Jiang Xiaoyong was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, in the last days of his life, he recalled the last wishes of his fathers, and the homesickness in his heart spontaneously arose, and he hoped that he would fulfill the last wishes of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo, and return to Fenghua's hometown to see.
At this time, he no longer had any worries and returned to his hometown smoothly, when Jiang Xiaoyong had a cordial conversation with the tour guide along the way, but everyone did not know Jiang Xiaoyong's identity and thought that he was just an ordinary overseas Chinese.
Jiang Xiaoyong left a group photo with his family at the grave of his great-grandmother, which can be regarded as the fulfillment of Chiang Kai-shek's wish, and it took three generations of the Chiang family to finally return to their hometown, and at the end of the same year, Jiang Xiaoyong died of illness at the age of 48.
epilogue
Chiang Kai-shek's merits are evaluated by history, and at the last moment of his life, he was just a homesick wanderer, and the return of fallen leaves to his roots is always the constant emotion of the Chinese.
Returning to his hometown is not only Chiang Kai-shek's wish, but also the wish of many Taiwan compatriots, and Chiang Hsiao-yong's return to Fenghua also indicates the further development of cross-strait relations, and I believe that in the near future, the great cause of the motherland's reunification will be realized!