On April 25, 1971, Song Ziwen unfortunately choked to death at a friend's banquet. As Chiang Kai-shek's brother-in-law, Soong Ziwen once held an important position in the Kuomintang, but did not follow Chiang Kai-shek and his wife to Taiwan, but chose to stay in the United States.
Nixon was very concerned about the death of Song Ziwen, and even personally invited the three Song sisters to the United States to attend the funeral. However, it is regrettable that on the day of the funeral, the three Song sisters were unable to attend as scheduled.
Song Ziwen: The low-key son of the Song family, but behind it is an idol drama-like love experience and excellent financial management ability. After graduating with a doctorate in 1917, he began his career with the help of his eldest sister, Song Ailing, as a secretary of the Shanghai office of the Han Yeping Company.
Sheng Aiyi was the daughter of Sheng Xuanhuai, a Qing Dynasty businessman who had been trusted by Li Hongzhang to establish steamships, railways, banks, steel companies and many other enterprises, becoming the richest family in Shanghai.
By chance, Sheng Aiyi was deeply attracted by Song Ziwen, who was sent to Sheng's house to study English, at the age of 17. One day, Song Ziwen accidentally touched Sheng Aiyi's hand during teaching, Sheng Aiyi blushed with shame and wanted to withdraw her hand, but was held tightly by Song Ziwen.
Song Ziwen confessed his heart, and the two eventually became lovers.
Sheng Aiyi's mother soon noticed this, and she looked at Song Ziwen's politeness and talent, and she was deeply fond of it. However, as the richest man in Shanghai, she could not easily marry her daughter to him, so she ordered her subordinates to investigate Song Ziwen.
The results of the investigation disappointed Sheng Aiyi's mother, who turned out that Song Ziwen's father was only a missionary, and although he later ventured into the business world and achieved a certain amount of wealth, it was really nothing compared to her family.
Therefore, Sheng Aiyi's mother resolutely opposed the two falling in love and transferred Song Ziwen to Hanyang.
After learning of the Sheng family's contempt for him, Song Ziwen angrily quit his job and hoped that Sheng Aiyi would elope with him. However, in Sheng Aiyi's heart, the importance of her parents is far greater than that of her boyfriend, so she gave Song Ziwen a handful of gold leaves to express her expectations: "I'm waiting for you to come back." ”
Sheng Aiyi's thoughts are very simple, she believes that Song Ziwen has the ability to change her fate, as long as he is developed one day and comes to her again, her parents will agree to their marriage.
However, the reality disappointed Sheng Aiyi, and Song Ziwen finally chose a woman named Zhang Leyi.
At that time, the young Song Ziwen served as the finance minister of Nanjing, and once when he was in Lushan for a summer vacation, he was attracted by the coolness here and wanted to build a villa for his mother.
Under the recommendation of the relevant departments, he got acquainted with Zhang Mouzhi, the owner of the construction factory. When he visited Zhang Mou's house, he was attracted by Zhang Leyi, who had an elegant temperament and was generous.
The two then fell in love and married in 1928. However, at that time, Sheng Aiyi's mother had died, and Song Ziwen had become famous and wealthy. At this time, Sheng Aiyi was still anxiously waiting for Song Ziwen's marriage at home, but he didn't know that he had entered the palace of marriage with others.
Sheng Aiyi and Song Ziwen's first love: Sheng Aiyi attracted much attention due to illness, and Song Ziwen felt guilty and decided to add the word "Yi" to his daughter's name. Although Sheng Aiyi has a crush on Song Ziwen, she refuses to have excessive contact with married men and eventually marries someone else.
In 1924, he served as the president of the National Bank in Guangzhou, and took effective measures to increase the total monthly turnover of the bank by 25 times in one year.
Before Sun Yat-sen died, he asked Song Ziwen, who was a witness to Sun Yat-sen's will and later served as Minister of Finance. He successfully increased Guangzhou's national finance by 75 million, mostly for the Northern Expedition.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek**Nanjing was founded**, and Song Ziwen did not support or serve him. But his eldest sister and brother-in-law often advised him to form an alliance with Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1928, Song Ziwen was implicated by his sister Soong Meiling and brother-in-law Chiang Kai-shek and began his career as a finance minister in the Kuomintang. The marriage between Song Meiling and Chiang Kai-shek not only brought the relationship between the four major families closer, but also made the relationship between them inseparable, forming a situation of both prosperity and loss.
And Kong Xiangxi, one of the four major families, as a descendant of the 75th generation of Confucius, not only has a prominent identity, but also is a businessman with great business acumen, relying on his wisdom to become the richest man in Shanxi.
Soong Ailing and Kong Xiangxi were eager to enter business and politics in order to protect the family's interests to the greatest extent, so they promoted the marriage between Soong Meiling and Chiang Kai-shek. However, Soong Qingling strongly opposed the decision.
There are two reasons for her opposition: one is because Chiang Kai-shek once had an original wife, and he was often domestic violence, and he was also addicted to Flower Street and Willow Lane; The second is because Chiang Kai-shek went against Sun Yat-sen's wishes and wantonly attacked the Communist Party, causing the White Terror.
Although Song Ziwen served Chiang Kai-shek, he had many disputes due to disagreements with Chiang. In 1928, in order to confront the Communists and suppress the Gui warlords, Chiang frequently launched civil wars, squandering people's financial resources, and even used Soong Ziwen's hard-earned wealth for military spending, which made Soong Ziwen deeply angry.
Song Ziwen hated war and believed that only peace could bring the greatest fiscal and tax revenues, so that the country's wealth continued to grow. However, when his proposal to reduce the army was rejected in August 1929, he chose to resign.
Chiang Kai-shek understood that the war needed money and did not want to lose this God of Wealth, so he tried his best to keep him.
Soong and Chiang Kai-shek still belonged to the same interest group, and Soong had no real intention of leaving. Therefore, in December 1931, he resigned as Minister of Finance, but not because he had a conflict with Chiang Kai-shek, but because he agreed to Chiang Kai-shek's initiative to go to the field, and the two men advanced and retreated together.
At this time, the Japanese army launched the "918" incident, but Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang Xueliang not to resist, resulting in the Japanese army invading the northeast, and the people lived in dire straits.
Therefore, the domestic ** criticized Chiang Kai-shek, and competitors such as Wang Jingwei and Li Zongren also took this opportunity to send troops to crusade against Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek, who realized that he was at a disadvantage in terms of ** and strength, took the initiative to go into the field and let Sun Ke and others take over his position.
Chiang Kai-shek had made arrangements before he left the wilderness, and still controlled the military and financial power of the Kuomintang, so Sun Ke was unable to cope after coming to power and was forced to invite Chiang Kai-shek back.
During this period, Soong Ziwen actively assisted Chiang Kai-shek in arranging his reinstatement, and with Chiang Kai-shek's reinstatement, he also returned to office. However, in June 1932, Soong Ziwen offered his resignation for the second time, because Chiang Kai-shek only wanted to confront the Communists and was unwilling to resist Japan.
Song Ziwen believed that the Japanese should be resisted first, and then the Communist Party should be eliminated. He also openly expressed his opinion that Chiang Kai-shek's tactics towards the Communists were incorrect, and that if he could have been more tolerant economically and politically, he would not have to make a big military move.
However, after Chiang Kai-shek heard Soong Ziwen's speech, he was angry with him, which made Soong Ziwen very angry, so he once again offered to resign.
In October 1933, Soong Ziwen resigned for the fourth time, and although Chiang Kai-shek had slapped him twice in anger because of Soong's strict budget, Chiang Kai-shek persuaded him to come back and be willing to cut military spending, considering the importance of Soong Ziwen's diplomatic efforts to raise military spending in the United States.
Song Ziwen saw Chiang Kai-shek's kindness and decided to return to his post. However, before he left office, the controversy became more intense. The treasury budget left by Soong Ziwen was secretly misappropriated by Chiang Kai-shek, which made Soong Ziwen very angry.
Soong's return to China aroused strong resentment from Chiang Kai-shek, who questioned why Soong had embezzled funds and used them against the Communists. Chiang Kai-shek expressed extreme disappointment with Soong's behavior, calling him a "stubborn man", and the two sides quarreled so much that it eventually led to Soong's resignation.
After this resignation, Chiang Kai-shek did not retain Song Ziwen, and Song Ziwen also said that he would insist on being an upright person instead of becoming a vassal of Chiang Kai-shek. Soong's four resignations show that there is a fundamental difference in the values of the two men.
This divide was even more pronounced after the defeat in the Liberation War, so when Soong was faced with a choice, he chose to go to the United States rather than stay in Taiwan Province.
The three sisters did not come, because in December 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was detained by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng. In order to ensure Chiang Kai-shek's safety, Song Ziwen accompanied his sister Song Meiling to Xi'an for negotiations, and finally successfully achieved a peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Song Ziwen showed his determination to resolutely fight the Japanese to the end, and he served as the first captain and actively went to the United States and Europe to seek foreign aid. In 1942 alone, it won $100 million and £5 million in aid, making a huge contribution to the war effort.
In January 1943, Soong Ziwen signed treaties with the United States and Britain to abolish the privileges of the two countries in China (excluding Hong Kong), and he proudly said in front of **: "This is the first time in the history of Chinese diplomacy." ”
However, because Song Ziwen has been in charge of the financial power for a long time and has a relationship with Chiang Kai-shek, he has served as the Minister of Finance, the chairman of the board of directors of the Bank of China, the chairman of the Economic Committee and other important positions, and opened a number of private enterprises, so some people have questioned his suspicion of ** and making the country difficult to make money.
However, these rumors may just be rumors of the Japanese during the full-scale invasion of China, because it is rumored that his personal assets are as high as $70 million, and he may be one of the richest people in the world.
In fact, he only had more than $5 million at the time of his death, and although he was suspicious, he didn't seem to be as wealthy as rumored.
Song Ziwen was listed as the second on the list of Communist civil war criminals, second only to Chiang Kai-shek, and in order to protect his own safety, he chose to leave the mainland and go to the United States. There, he enjoyed a comfortable life, and his wife Zhang Leyi's three daughters were good-looking, and each married the husband of his choice.
Chiang Kai-shek had repeatedly invited Soong Ziwen back to Taiwan Province, hoping to win foreign aid for him in the United States, but Soong Ziwen ignored it. This angered Chiang Kai-shek, who expelled Soong Ziwen from the party in 1952.
In 1971, when Song Ziwen was attending a friend's banquet in San Francisco, he accidentally swallowed a chicken bone because he was too excited to talk, and it got stuck in his throat.
He tried to hold back, but eventually suffocated to death. Over the years, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Ziwen often quarreled, and Soong Meiling tried her best to mediate many times, but she was caught between her husband and brother and also felt very difficult.
After Soong Ziwen's death, Soong Meiling originally planned to attend the funeral out of family affection, but Chiang Kai-shek feared that it was a conspiracy by the United States and the Communist Party, and its purpose was to"United front", so on the way to the funeral, he sent a telegram asking Song Meiling to return.
Nixon** originally hoped to use the influence of the Song sisters to use this funeral to promote the relaxation of Sino-US relations. Soong Ching-ling was the only one of the Soong sisters who expressed friendship with the Communist Party, and she hoped to go to the United States to contribute to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States.
However, she was unable to attend the funeral because she was not given a ticket to the United States. At that time, China and the United States had not yet established diplomatic relations, so it was not possible to fly directly to the United States, and it was more convenient to travel to the United States from Taiwan Province.
However, the Soong Ching Ling sisters missed this important funeral because one was inconvenient and the other was politically restricted.
Regarding Song Ailing, she and Kong Xiangxi live at home in the United States, and there is no inconvenience in transportation. However, her husband and Soong Ziwen had a conflict over the internal financial work of the Kuomintang, and their business cooperation over the years was not harmonious.
She originally planned to attend the funeral, but decided not to go because of the interests of the Kong family. Nixon wondered when he learned that no one of the Song sisters had arrived at the scene: "Chinese have always paid great attention to etiquette, why don't they show up when their relatives die?" ”
At the funeral scene, Song Ziwen's wife and daughter were a little depressed when they saw that no one was present at the Song family, but they also understood their choice.