In 1965, Li Zongren returned to the motherland and greeted him personally. In the face of ***'s hospitality, Li Zongren was moved to tears: "I have been away from China for 16 years, and I never thought that I would be able to come back, let alone be greeted by ***." ”
** Smiled and replied: "It's good to come back, do you have anything you want to do now?" Li Zongren thought for a moment and said with some embarrassment: "I want to find General Zhang Yunyi to apologize." ”
What is the past between Li Zongren and Zhang Yunyi? Why did the first thing he do after returning to China was to apologize to Zhang Yunyi? Behind all this, there is a life full of ups and downs and achievements.
In 1891, Li Zongren was born in an ordinary family in Guilin, Guangxi, and the family's few acres of fertile land enabled him to spend his childhood carefree and get the opportunity to study.
However, Li Zongren was not interested in studying, and before graduating from primary school, he went to work as an apprentice in a local textile factory. Until 1908, at the age of 17, he had feelings of worrying about the country and the people, so he was admitted to the Guangxi Army Primary School and prepared to devote himself to the military career.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Li Zongren successively studied in the Guangxi Army Accelerated School and the Nanning General School, and after graduation, he became a member of the Yunnan Army and participated in the Patriotic War, the ** War and the Guangdong-Guizhou War.
However, what happened between him and Zhang Yunyi during this period?
Although the fledgling Li Zongren relied on his keen battlefield instincts, he achieved notable achievements in the army and rose to senior positions. In 1923, he was fortunate to get acquainted with Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and through the recommendation of Li Jishen and others, he became a member of the Kuomintang.
In the following 1924, Li Zongren led the Dinggui Bandit Coalition to defeat the Gui warlord Lu Rongting, so he was appreciated by Sun Yat-sen and became the first commander of the Guangxi Army.
In the years that followed, Li Zongren fought in the Guangxi region and gradually became the core figure of the Gui warlords. As the Northern Expedition unfolded, Li Zongren performed well in the war.
However, as his status increased, Li Zongren's desires also swelled more and more.
In April 1927, before the Northern Expedition ended, Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 coup. Among the many generals, Li Zongren was the first to stand up for him, thus gaining the favor of Chiang Kai-shek.
Li Zongren did not care about the final result, he only valued Chiang Kai-shek's position. In August of the same year, Li Zongren, with the improvement of his strength, united with Bai Chongxi and others, forced Chiang Kai-shek to go into the wilderness and obtained Chiang Kai-shek's power.
However, Li Zongren was still slightly inferior to Chiang Kai-shek, and in less than half a year, Chiang Kai-shek regained power. After that, Li Zongren launched the Chiang-Gui War and continued to compete with Chiang Kai-shek for power, but ultimately failed.
After the failure of the second seizure of power, Li Zongren lived a quiet life until after the September 18 Incident, when he regained his vitality and accepted the post of director of Guangxi's appeasement.
Although Li Zongren was as tyrannical to his compatriots as Chiang Kai-shek, his sense of justice was even more prominent in the face of foreign invasion. Since the September 18 Incident, he has always adhered to the concept of resisting Japan, and has repeatedly put forward the idea of going north to resist Japan.
In the face of Chiang Kai-shek's passive attitude towards the war of resistance, Li Zongren carried out several coups. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was stationed in Xuzhou as the commander of the Fifth Theater and devoted himself to the anti-Japanese struggle.
In the past few years of fighting, Li Zongren put aside the political disputes within the Kuomintang and devoted himself to resisting Japan. He successfully commanded the Battle of Xuzhou and the Battle of Taierzhuang, and made important contributions to the anti-Japanese cause of the Chinese nation.
Since then, he has participated in many battles such as the Battle of Wuhan and the Battle of Southern Henan, and can be called a famous anti-Japanese general.
His outstanding performance brought him back to the heart of Kuomintang power. Although he won a lot of accolades in the Sino-Japanese War, after the surrender of Japan, he turned his attention to the country.
As soon as the overseas refugees had ended the war against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek immediately stirred up a dispute, and Li Zongren was a staunch supporter of Chiang Kai-shek's civil war. At first, both Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren thought that the civil war would soon end with the victory of the Kuomintang, so Chiang Kai-shek's command appeared somewhat haphazard.
However, in order to achieve his goals, Li Zongren rarely devoted himself to fighting. Over time, however, the situation of the War of Liberation changed. Especially after the end of the three major battles, the once invincible Kuomintang seemed to be declining.
In this context, Li Zongren once again stood up and forced Chiang Kai-shek to resign, and he became the *** of the Chinese Communist Party However, Li Zongren had realized at this time that the Kuomintang was no longer an opponent of the Communist Party, so he sent envoys to conduct peace talks with the Chinese Communist Party.
** and others were unwilling to continue the civil war and agreed with Li Zongren's idea. However, when the treaty was signed, Li Zongren suddenly changed his mind, which led to the breakdown of the peace talks. Although Li Zongren resisted stubbornly, a year later, Guilin and Guangzhou were liberated one after another, and he lost the ability to resist and was finally defeated.
After the defeat of the Kuomintang, Bai Chongxi was deceived by Chiang Kai-shek to go to Taiwan, and Li Zongren secretly fled to the United States by plane because he knew that he was competing for power with Chiang Kai-shek and that the other party would not let him go.
Li Zongren lived in poverty in the United States because of his lack of funds, but because of his strong patriotism, he always longed to return to the motherland. He contacted ** through Cheng Siyuan, expressed his willingness to return to China, and repeatedly called for a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan issue, emphasizing that "Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and the people on both sides of the strait are compatriots."
Touched by his patriotism, he decided to welcome him back. Despite being the No. 2 war criminal of the Liberation War, Li Zongren finally embarked on a journey back to China in June 1965, and although he was unable to return to his homeland immediately due to political reasons, he finally arrived in Beijing on July 20.
After Li Zongren returned to China, the first thing he did surprised everyone was that he apologized to General Zhang Yunyi. The two fought together for the revolutionary cause of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, experienced the baptism of the Patriotic War, the ** War and the Northern Expedition War together, and even fought side by side in the same trench.
However, when the time came to 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 coup, Zhang Yunyi's belief in the Chinese Communist Party made him choose to leave the Kuomintang, and Li Zongren stayed by Chiang Kai-shek's side for his own ambitions.
These two former brothers parted ways because of different choices. After Li Zongren returned to his motherland, the first thing he did was to apologize to Zhang Yunyi, expressing his regrets for the past and his cherishing of friendship.
When the uprising was held in Baise, Guangxi, Comrade Zhang Yunyi and Comrade Xiaoping were suppressed by Li Zongren, which caused a serious situation and temporarily brought the revolution in Guangxi to a standstill.
Despite this, Zhang Yunyi did not blame Li Zongren, because he understood that the positions of the two sides were different and that war was inevitable. Therefore, during the second period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to resist Japan, Zhang Yunyi took the initiative to take over the task of negotiating with Li Zongren, and took the initiative to settle his past suspicions with him during the negotiations.
In the past few years of the Anti-Japanese War, they have cooperated many times, commanding training and fighting together, and have become brothers in life and death back to the past. However, what Zhang Yunyi didn't expect was that Li Zongren, who had experienced danger with him, would stab him in the back.
Before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression ended, Chiang Kai-shek began to adopt a hostile attitude towards the Chinese Communists, and even launched the Southern Anhui Incident, which wiped out the young New Fourth Army. After Chiang Kai-shek's betrayal of the revolution, Li Zongren also followed suit.
Before the Southern Anhui Incident, Li Zongren deliberately contradicted the New Fourth Army on many occasions and arrested and even executed the officers and men of the New Fourth Army and their families on various false charges.
Zhang Yunyi hated this deeply, and he once found Li Zongren to question him. However, Li Zongren said: "If you go back to the Kuomintang, we can still be friends."
But if you insist on doing so, your dependents will be treated the same. In the face of Li Zongren's threat, Zhang Yunyi resolutely refused and immediately sent soldiers of the New Fourth Army to help transfer his family.
However, before Zhang Yunyi's family could reach the safe area, Li Zongren's men found them.
Zhang Yunyi lost all his fighters during the escort mission, while his family was taken hostage. Although he tried several times to resolve the issue through peaceful means, his efforts were rejected.
In the end, it was the help of ** that allowed his family to return safely. This incident brought the grievances between Zhang Yunyi and Li Zongren to a climax. In the War of Liberation, Zhang Yunyi showed a strong desire to fight against Li Zongren.
It was not until 1949 that Li Zongren fled to the United States, and the grievances between the two came to an end temporarily. However, their fate did not end.
I used to have a gap with Li Zongren, but now his return is not only our business, he has also changed a lot. We can try to talk to him. Under the persuasion of ***, Zhang Yunyi finally put the interests of his family and country first, gave up his personal contradictions, and attended the welcome ceremony with ***.
Zhang Yunyi's hatred was not easy to let go, so after the welcome ceremony, he did not communicate much with Li Zongren, but left the scene. And Li Zongren was very surprised when he saw Zhang Yunyi when the plane just landed, and he immediately wanted to apologize to Zhang Yunyi, but Zhang Yunyi didn't give him a chance.
Therefore, he told *** that the first thing he would do after returning to China was to apologize to Zhang Yunyi. A few days later, with the help of ***, Li Zongren came to Zhang Yunyi's door and knocked lightly.
Seeing Li Zongren's arrival, Zhang Yunyi's expression was a little refusal, but he still invited him into the door. As soon as he walked into Zhang Yunyi's door, Li Zongren bowed deeply to Zhang Yunyi and said, "Yunyi, I'm sorry for you." ”
Li Zongren's sincere apology made Zhang Yunyi stunned for a moment, and then he helped Li Zongren up with a smile. Li Zongren also laughed when he saw Zhang Yunyi's smile.
After that, the two sat together at the dinner table, sipping wine, and reminiscing about the story of when they first joined the army. Two former friends, after decades of years, have become friends again.
Although Zhang Yunyi's attitude was a little cold when Li Zongren came to visit, he was also very excited when he learned that Li Zongren was going to see him. On the morning of the agreed meeting, Zhang Yunyi deliberately changed a new set of furniture, and asked his wife to prepare a large table of hometown dishes, waiting for Li Zongren's arrival.
Although Li Zongren made mistakes, but at the critical moment of national life and death, he chose to be good and stubborn, which can be called anti-Japanese heroism. Zhang Yunyi harbors a deep hatred, but he can release his personal hatred in the face of righteousness, and his mind and consciousness can be called a model of a communist.
The two who were once close friends, after decades of grievances, were finally able to work together to build a new China, drawing a successful end to this friendship.