Zhang Fakui was an important figure in the history of the Chinese revolution, and he once said something shocking that caused people to be puzzled and confused. His brilliant military exploits earned Sun Yat-sen's trust, but he expressed regret at a great investiture ceremony, believing that he could have become the leader of the founding marshals.
Born in 1896 to an ordinary family in Shaoguan, Guangdong, this man experienced an accident at the age of 16, which caused him to leave his hometown and struggle to survive alone at the bottom of society. It wasn't until he joined the Cantonese Army that his fate took a turn.
Zhang Fakui entered the Guangdong Army Primary School in 1912 to study Xi and showed excellent talent. He was later admitted to the Wuchang No. 3 Army Middle School, during which he also joined the League, which laid a solid foundation for his future rise in the Kuomintang.
After completing his studies, he returned to the army as a platoon commander and participated in the battle against the Gui warlord Lu Rongting. Zhang Fakui showed indomitable strength on the battlefield and won Sun Yat-sen's appreciation, so he was recruited into the guard regiment of the ** government base camp and was highly expected by Sun Yat-sen.
Zhang Fakui was deeply moved by Sun Yat-sen and was loyal to him, seeing him as a mentor and leader. In 1922, Zhang Fakui had been promoted several times and became Sun Yat-sen's right-hand man.
In June of that year, Chen Jiongming rebelled and led his army to attack Sun Yat-sen's station, and Zhang Fakui escorted Sun Yat-sen to retreat safely and engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy.
Chen Jiongming tried to win over Zhang Fakui, and repeatedly asked his primary school teacher Weng Shiliang to write letters to persuade him, although Zhang Fakui felt some emotion in his heart, he paid more attention to Sun Yat-sen's trust and praise for him. Therefore, he resolutely rejected Chen Jiongming's kindness, saying that he could not forget Sun Yat-sen's kindness and could not betray the revolutionary ideals.
Since then, Zhang Fakui and Chen Jiongming have waged a protracted war. In February 1923, after Sun Yat-sen returned to Guangzhou, he paid more attention to Zhang Fakui.
In the following battles, Zhang Fakui performed well, and was promoted from battalion commander to commander of the 12th Division of the Northern Expeditionary Army, mainly active in Hunan and Hubei, laying a solid foundation for the Northern Expedition. The morale of Zhang Fakui's troops was greatly boosted, and then the city of Wuchang was captured.
As a result, he was promoted to commander of the Fourth Army, which under his leadership became a world-famous iron army. During the Great Revolution, some Kuomintang members were influenced by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and hoped that the two parties could live in harmony, and made a lot of efforts to achieve this, and Zhang Fakui was one of them.
These experiences gave him a certain understanding and good impression of the Communist Party, and made the leaders of the party feel that he was a person to fight for. On April 12, 1927, Chiang staged a counter-revolutionary coup d'état and brutally suppressed the Communists.
At such a critical moment, Zhang Fakui rescued our party's comrades and protected their lives on many occasions. Such an act strengthened our party's trust in him, and he even went to him personally, hoping that he could join forces with our party to overthrow the warlords and the Chiang Wang clique and achieve the goal of the revolution.
Although Zhang Fakui does not really subscribe to the Communist Party's beliefs, his choice suggests that his attitude towards the Communist Party is actually ambivalent, one that does not stem from faith but rather from some sympathy for the Communist Party.
Zhang Fakui was talented and ambitious, but the Communist Party's grand goals were hard for him to accept. Perhaps deep down, Zhang Fakui admired the Communists who risked their lives to realize their ideals, but he did not believe that their sacrifices could be exchanged for success.
Therefore, Zhang Fakui, who has already seized power, is unwilling to join the Communist Party, but instead bets all on an unknown future. Almost at the same time, Wang Jingwei, who was disgruntled with Chiang Kai-shek, approached Zhang Fakui, hoping to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek and gain his support.
After consideration, Zhang Fakui thought that the idea was good, and that both he and Wang Jingwei were loyal followers of Sun Yat-sen, so he quickly agreed to Wang Jingwei's request, thus changing his position and no longer being friendly to the Communists.
Fortunately, ** and others were keenly aware of Zhang Fakui's changes, and withdrew Zhang Fakui's troops in time before the Nanchang Uprising broke out, and began their own revolutionary road. In 1927, his position changed.
When the Nanchang Uprising broke out, he did not lend a helping hand, but participated in the suppression of the Guangzhou Uprising at the end of the year, which was the first time he made a complaint to our party.
However, Zhang Fakui did not decisively attack our party, and in the following years he showed a hesitant attitude, sometimes opposing Lao Chiang, sometimes supporting Lao Chiang, and losing his decisiveness and bravery in the past. Mingzhu secretly invested, Lao Jiang is the stumbling block in Zhang Fakui's life.
After the 918 incident, he found himself in an unprecedented predicament. He saw the cruelty of the Japanese invaders to the Chinese people, which once again aroused patriotism and hatred for the enemy in his heart, and longed to wave the saber again and defend the dignity of the country.
He persuaded Lao Chiang to resist the Japanese, but Lao Chiang always considered destroying the Red Army and consolidating his rule. Lao Chiang not only refused to provide Zhang Fakui with any support, but also disbanded his troops and forced him to fight a civil war.
Zhang Fakui felt deep disappointment and helplessness, he was unwilling to betray his conscience and beliefs, so he fled from the place that made him feel cold under the pretext of going abroad for an investigation. During his time overseas, Zhang Fakui felt the love of the local overseas Chinese for the motherland and their desire to fight against the Japanese invaders.
His patriotic fervor was once again aroused, and he was determined to return to the motherland and persuade Lao Chiang to give up the civil war and fight against Japan with all his might.
However, his determination was met with practical indifference, and after he set foot on his homeland in 1935 and until the eve of the Battle of Songhu launched by the Japanese army in 1937, he tried many times to persuade Lao Chiang, but was only vaguely excused.
In order to appease Zhang Fakui, Lao Jiang gave him a nominal position and put him in charge of building fortifications. At the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, Zhang Fakui served as the commander of the Eighth Army of the Kuomintang and the commander-in-chief of the Right Wing Army. He led the right-wing troops in a bloody battle against the Japanese invaders, and the right-wing front was impregnable.
However, it is a pity that Lao Chiang did not fully support the anti-Japanese cause, but instead set up many obstacles in it, causing the left-wing troops to retreat one after another. Although Zhang Fakui rushed to the left-wing area in time to try to save the situation, it was a drop in the bucket. Subsequently, Zhang Fakui moved to Guangxi and participated in many anti-Japanese battles.
Although the scale is not very large, it has important strategic value and lays a solid foundation for the liberation of Nanning, Longzhou, Qinzhou and other places.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Fakui served as the surrendered officer in the Guangzhou area and personally received the command knife of the Japanese invaders, which was an affirmation of the highest honor he had paid for the country and the nation for many years. However, Zhang Fakui later abruptly changed his stance and actively opposed the Communist Party.
However, his posture did not win the trust and reuse of Lao Jiang, who always looked on coldly and did not give him any important positions and tasks.
With Chiang concentrating his energies north of the Yangtze River and ignoring South China, Zhang Fakui survived the final stages of the War of Liberation in inaction and self-doubt. In July 1949, Zhang Fakui left the mainland and went to Hong Kong to spend the rest of his life in discouragement, and has since faded from public view.
He also did not express any views on the construction of New China and the brilliant achievements of the People's Liberation Army. It wasn't until 1955 that his name was brought up again with a remorseful remark. He said that if he had promised *** at that time, then he would have been the head of the founding marshals. Epilogue.
If he had agreed to ***'s invitation, perhaps what he said would have come true, but unfortunately history is not a hypothesis. It is an undeniable fact that Zhang Fakui made contributions to the War of Resistance Against Japan, but it is a pity that such an outstanding general did not firmly fight side by side with the Communist Party.