At the end of 1948, at the beginning of the Huaihai Campaign, Chiang Kai-shek deeply felt that the general trend of the Kuomintang had gone and began to plan for his future. Two of his subordinates coincidentally proposed a strategy of retreating to Taiwan, one took the initiative to offer advice to Chiang Kai-shek, while the other secretly passed on the news to ***, suggesting that Taiwan be received first, and then Chiang Kai-shek should be eliminated.
He was a classmate and friend of Chiang Kai-shek, why did he choose to secretly help the Chinese Communist Party? At the critical moment when Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan, whose advice made him make this decision?
What is the final fate of this warrior who secretly sent a message to ***?
In mid-November 1948, Chiang Kai-shek's right-hand man Huang Baitao's corps and Xuzhou were tightly surrounded by our army. Prior to this, Chiang Kai-shek's most elite troops had been annihilated by our army in the northeast, and he had hoped to fight a decisive battle with our army in the Xubang area in order to turn the tide of the war, even if it could not be ruled by dividing the river.
However, the situation between the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek was not optimistic. Defeat on the battlefield was like a mountain, the economy was on the verge of collapse, politically the people were inclined to the Communists, and diplomatically because of their support for Truman was disliked by the newly appointed American ** Eisenhower.
At this time, the Kuomintang could be said to be in decline, and the wise man had already seen that the defeat of the Kuomintang was decided.
There were also people within the Kuomintang who urged Chiang Kai-shek to plan early. Chiang Kai-shek desperately needed to find a way out for himself. He had three options in front of him: Hainan, Southwest, and Taiwan.
Having hesitated between these three options, one of his thinkers made a suggestion: retreat to Taiwan. This think tank knew little about military affairs, but his advice Chiang Kai-shek never ignored, because this person was Zhang Qiyun, known as the "founder of Chinese humanities geography", China's top expert and historian in geography, who could provide Chiang Kai-shek with strategic analysis and advice from a geographical and historical perspective.
Zhang Qiyun, born in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province in 1901, was admitted to the Department of Geohistory of Nanjing Higher Normal School after graduating from middle school, and became an outstanding student recognized as the "No. 1 University in the South".
After graduating, he joined the Shanghai Commercial Press and began to edit middle school textbooks, among which "High School Geography", which he independently edited, became one of the three major textbooks in the country. At the Commercial Press, he met Chen Bui, the editor-in-chief of the Commercial Daily, and the two had a deep friendship.
So, how did this leader in the field of geohistory get acquainted with Chiang Kai-shek? In 1927, Zhang Qiyun's friend Chen Bui joined the Kuomintang and became one of Chiang Kai-shek's think tanks.
In the ensuing war, Chiang Kai-shek was faced with the question of whether to pursue the victory. Chiang Kai-shek did not want to exterminate these warlords, but if he could not take the opportunity to catch them all, it might also become a hidden danger.
Chen Bui's matchmaking gave Zhang Qiyun the opportunity to analyze the topographical characteristics of Guangxi and Shaanxi provinces with Chiang Kai-shek. Zhang Qiyun pointed out that the risk of pursuit is too great, and once something goes wrong, it is possible to fall into passivity.
After hearing this, Chiang Kai-shek decisively gave up the plan to pursue and left Zhang Qiyun as his own think tank. In the later stages of the Liberation War in 1948, the Kuomintang was defeated and retreated under the attack of the Communists, and the situation was grim.
Chiang Kai-shek knew that the tide was turning, and he had to find a way out for himself as soon as possible. At this time, two different voices emerged within the Kuomintang: one advocated retreating to the southwest, and the other advocated retreating to Hainan.
Chiang Kai-shek preferred the southwest because of the difficult terrain and easy to defend, with natural barriers such as the Yangtze River to keep the enemy at bay. In addition, the southwest still belongs to the mainland, which is very important for Chiang Kai-shek, who wants to **.
Zhang Qiyun opposed the previous plan and suggested that Chiang Kai-shek move to Taiwan. Taiwan's climate and environment are very suitable for agricultural development, so there is no need to worry about food problems; In addition, the industry and infrastructure left by Japan in Taiwan are sufficient to support economic and military construction; At that time, our party's navy and air force were at a disadvantage, and Taiwan was naturally isolated by the Taiwan Strait, and the CCP did not dare to attack easily.
After careful consideration, Chiang Kai-shek decided to follow Zhang Qiyun's advice and retreat the Kuomintang to Taiwan. Before leaving, he arranged for the secret transportation of **bank** to Taiwan, and sent convincing people to Taiwan to prepare first.
At the beginning of December 1948, the first batch of ** arrived in Taiwan, and then in 1949, countless **, jewelry, calligraphy and painting and other valuables were shipped to Taiwan one after another, of which only ** reached 3 million taels.
Whether from the perspective of international strategic position or internal public sentiment, this is of great benefit to the Kuomintang.
Chang's suggestion proved to be completely correct for the next 20 years, as Chiang Kai-shek successfully protected himself in Taiwan and lived until his death.
When Chiang Kai-shek was busy transporting Taiwan's materials and talents to Taiwan, Chairman ** unexpectedly received a long letter, in which he suggested that Chairman *** recover Taiwan as soon as possible and cut off Chiang Kai-shek's back road.
The letter was written by Yang Jie, a Kuomintang veteran and president of the Army University at the time, who was a senior staff officer to Chiang Kai-shek and helped Chiang Kai-shek achieve a major victory in the new warlord melee.
How could the senior generals under Chiang Kai-shek help the chairman deliver such a message?
Yang Jie, a military science giant in the ** period, was known as "China's half chief of staff" along with Jiang Baili, Bai Chongxi, and Liu Fei. In 1889, he was born in Dali, Yunnan, and was born in the Yunnan army.
Later, he gave up the rank of lieutenant general and went to study at the Japanese Army University. In Japan, he commanded military exercises as a cadet, demonstrating great military talent, for which he received the Imperial Saber from the Emperor of Japan.
During that time, he met Chiang Kai-shek and became friends. During this period, he was deeply influenced by Sun Yat-sen's democratic ideas, joined the China League, and actively supported policies such as "uniting Russia, uniting the Communist Party, and supporting peasants and workers".
In the Northern Expedition, he fought side by side with the communist generals, deeply felt the ideals and dedication of the communists, and developed a deep admiration for him. After reading the Communist Manifesto, he found his spiritual sustenance.
Chiang Kai-shek, a friend for many years, forgot his original belief after reaching the pinnacle of power, was driven by the ** of power, and wanted to monopolize power. He rejected Yang Jie's anti-Japanese plans one by one, and he adopted a policy of "non-resistance" for the Japanese army invading China, but he turned his back on his compatriots at a critical moment.
When he found out that Chiang Kai-shek was beginning to turn his guns on the Communists, Yang Jie found it unacceptable. Seeing that his former friend gave up the righteousness of his family and country for the sake of power, he began to vigorously promote the concept of "opposing the civil war and resisting Japan by the whole people", but in Chiang Kai-shek's view, this was tantamount to "betrayal".
Angry Chiang Kai-shek began to alienate Yang Jie, trying to weaken the power in his hands, and even planned to retaliate against him, but because he was afraid of Yang Jie's status as a veteran in the Kuomintang, and many high-ranking generals had been taught by Yang Jie, Chiang Kai-shek did not dare to act rashly, and could only disguise a "hypocritical" face.
At the end of the Liberation War, Yang Jie had insight into the overall situation and understood that the Communist Party was the best person to lead China, which was an inevitable choice of history. He knew Chiang Kai-shek's intentions inside out and knew he would look for a way out.
Therefore, Yang Jie began to study Chiang Kai-shek's possible retreat route and prepared to remind the PLA to prepare for a response. In his letter to ***, he used the theory of the US-Soviet dispute between sea and land to expound the importance of Taiwan as an important naval power base in the East, so as to infer that Chiang Kai-shek would retreat to Taiwan.
Yang Jie suggested that the CCP first invade Taiwan, cut off Chiang Kai-shek's back route, and then turn back to eliminate the remnants of the Kuomintang on the mainland. He understood that if Chiang Kai-shek was allowed to flee to Taiwan, the United States would definitely intervene, and the road to the reunification of the motherland would be fraught with difficulties.
Out of deep love for the national righteousness, Yang Jie resolutely wrote this letter to *** regardless of the risk of suffering from Chiang Kai-shek
The liberation of Taiwan is the firm belief of the chairman and the military members. **After receiving the letter, he deeply felt the importance of the Taiwan issue and immediately issued two 4A-level top-secret orders to Su Yu, demanding that the plan for the liberation of Taiwan be fully promoted.
At that time, our army had already successfully liberated the southeastern region, with sufficient troops and high morale. Although there are only 200,000 remnants of troops stationed in Taiwan, the task of liberating Taiwan is still arduous and requires us to go all out. ”
The Kuomintang has an advantage on the islands off the southeast coast, and if the PLA wants to liberate Taiwan, it must first master the technology of crossing the sea and landing operations. The Sanye Army began training for landing warfare on the southeast coast.
However, in the Battle of Kinmen Island in October 1949, due to the weak strength of our navy and air force and the lack of experience in landing warfare, the follow-up reinforcements could not keep up in time, resulting in more than 9,000 soldiers of three full regiments successfully landing and being surrounded by heavy Kuomintang troops.
This battle was the greatest loss of our army since the beginning of the Liberation War. Therefore, in order to attack Taiwan after it has a strong naval and air force, it was decided to temporarily abandon the plan to liberate Taiwan and wait for a more certain opportunity.
It turned out that the PLA was very cautious before the sea-crossing campaign, and it was not until May 1950 that it successfully carried out a large-scale sea-crossing operation. At that time, after Chiang Kai-shek learned that the People's Liberation Army was going to liberate Taiwan, he hurriedly gathered 400,000 troops to prepare for the battle, and the People's Liberation Army was ready to attack Taiwan with 500,000 troops.
However, our army did not have a navy and air force at that time, and the Soviet Union was unwilling to support our army in liberating Taiwan. Then, when the Korean War broke out, our party decided to resist US aggression and aid Korea, while the US Seventh Fleet was stationed in the Taiwan Strait, and our army was temporarily unable to confront it.
As a result, the plan to regain Taiwan was forced to be put on hold until decades later.
Yang Jie, the hero who once delivered important information to ***, what is his fate? After our party learned of Yang Jie's safety, we strongly invited him to go north. However, considering that the rebellion work in the southwest region had achieved some results, Yang Jie decided not to implement the plan for the time being.
When Chiang Kai-shek learned of this, he immediately launched the "Ninety-Nine Purge" and put Yang Jie at the top of the assassination list. He mobilized a large number of killers to hunt down Yang Jie, from Yunnan to Hong Kong.
In the end, Yang Jie was killed in Hong Kong on September 19, 1949, at the age of 46. He greeted the dawn with sacrifice. In June 1982, our party posthumously recognized Yang Jie as a revolutionary martyr to express its deep condolences to him.
Over the past few decades, the change of leadership of the Taiwan authorities has made "the most arrogant and arrogant, but the desire to return to the motherland has never changed, and this is the common expectation of the entire Chinese people."
Although there are some voices among the people calling for the recovery of Taiwan by force, the Communist Party of China still adheres to the path of peaceful reunification. This is because for the well-being of the Taiwan compatriots and to avoid the state and the nation, the Communist Party of China has chosen a more stable and sustainable path of peaceful reunification.
The Taiwan issue concerns China's territorial integrity and any person or force that tries to obstruct our reunification is our enemy. We are fully prepared for these enemies and will safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity with firm determination and strong strength.
As a part of China, Taiwan's reunification is an unavoidable historical trend. The behavior of the motherland is immoral and will surely be spurned by history and the people. We must act now to reclaim Taiwan.
Here, we want to make it clear to the **** elements and the anti-China forces behind them that the determination of the Chinese people is firm: We must liberate Taiwan!