From March 29 to April 29, 1948, Chiang Kai-shek, against the will of the people, single-handedly convened the "Constitutional National Congress" to elect the president and deputy of China. During the meeting, there was a turbulent and dangerous election storm, which was mainly caused by Li Zongren's participation in the election.
Li Zongren, as the leader of the Gui family, has a deep grudge with Chiang Kai-shek, why did he also participate in the deputy ** election? It all started in 1945.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zongren was appointed chairman of the Military Commission and director of the Northern Parallel Yuan, which governed 5 provinces and 3 cities, this title seemed to be high and powerful, but Li Zongren did not have much real power, and Chiang Kai-shek interfered or controlled many political, military and personnel matters. In the winter of 1947, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Fu Zuoyi as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Suppression of Bandits in North China", and Li Zongren became the "empty director".
Li Zongren. Li Zongren also felt that it was boring to continue doing this, so he proposed to Chiang Kai-shek to resign, but Chiang Kai-shek refused to allow it. Li Zongren thought about it and felt that he had only two paths:
The first is to make positive plans, stand up, and join the democratic reform of the Kuomintang regime that has completely corrupted to turn the tide of the tide;
The second is to make a negative plan, if you can't do the first one, you will be disarmed and returned to the field, and you will be left alone.
Just when Li Zongren felt entangled, he suddenly heard that the "Constitutional National Congress" was going to elect the chairman and deputy **, and he knew that it was unrealistic for him to compete with Chiang Kai-shek for the first **, but if he ran for the deputy **, he still had a chance. If the election is successful, you can make positive plans; If you fail, just make a negative plan, and you can take the opportunity to return home.
Li Zongren first told his old partners Bai Chongxi, Huang Shaohong and others about his idea, but he didn't expect to be unanimously opposed by them. Bai, Huang, and others believed that Chiang Kai-shek would certainly not support Li Zongren's candidacy for election, and if Li Zongren insisted on running for election, it would inevitably cause serious friction between him and Chiang Kai-shek. Huang Shaohong said directly to Li Zongren: "If you can't eat mutton, why bother to get into trouble?" ”
Huang Shaohong. Another important reason for the opposition of Bai, Huang and others is that several of Li Zongren's competitors are very strong, and there are still so many people who also decided to run for deputy **:
Sun Ke: He is the eldest son of Sun Yat-sen, then the vice chairman of the Kuomintang, the president of the Legislative Yuan, and the deputy candidate in Chiang Kai-shek's mind;
Cheng Qian: At that time, he was the director of Wuhan Xingyuan and a veteran of the Kuomintang;
Yu Youren: At that time, he was the president of the Supervision Yuan, and he was also a veteran of the Kuomintang, and the Supervision Yuan where he worked was in Nanjing, so he did not have to come from afar, and had the advantage of geographical advantages;
Mo Dehui and Xu Fulin: Neither of these two people is a member of the Kuomintang, so they have little influence, but the possibility of disrupting the situation cannot be ruled out.
After listening to the persuasion of Bai, Huang and others, Li Zongren couldn't help but hesitate. After his wife Guo Dejie learned about it, she said this to him:
Election campaigns should be determined early in order to gain the upper hand and gain an electoral advantage. This is like us women looking for a partner, if we are ashamed to answer like a country girl, and we dare not speak up if we have infatuations in our hearts, how can we get Ruyi Langjun? For example, when you pursued me in Guiping, if I hadn't shown you a resolute attitude, how could the two of us have a happy marriage today?
Guo Dejie. His wife's words finally made Li Zongren firm in his determination to run for election, so he immediately sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, indicating that he would participate in the election of deputy **, and asked him to approve it.
After Chiang Kai-shek received the telegram, he felt very embarrassed: if he refused, he had said that "this National Congress is a free election, and everyone can participate in the election", and it is not appropriate to change his words immediately; If he agrees, Jiang Gui has always been very deeply contradictory, and if Li Zongren is elected, wouldn't the threat he face be greater? He thought about it and simply ignored it.
Li Zongren waited left and right, but he never saw Chiang Kai-shek's reply, and he was so angry that he scolded: "Fuck, if you don't agree, do it!" Therefore, Li Zongren first organized a campaign office in Beiping, and then held a press conference for Chinese and foreign reporters on March 11 to formally express his campaign position.
At the beginning of the election, Li Zongren was not favored, and the ranking of candidates in the newspaper was in the order of Yu Youren, Sun Ke, Li Zongren, and Cheng Qian; The first two are named "politicians" and the last two are "military strategists". Although the ranking is not counted, it has a subtle impact on the representative voters.
On 24 March, Li Zongren and Guo Dejie came to Nanjing, where they set up a campaign base camp and set up a campaign assistant team, which consisted of various departments such as general affairs, finance, communication and publicity, and intelligence, and also set up a decision-making organ to help the election, and launched a vigorous campaign campaign.
Money opens the way and bribery and inducement are the usual means of bourgeois democratic elections, and Li Zongren is naturally no exception; he specially chartered the Anle Restaurant in Nanjing, and frequently hosted banquets for the deputies of the "National Congress" in order to buy their feelings and win votes. Guo Dejie and Bai Chongxi's wife, Ma Peizhang, also had an ingenious ingenuity to fly a rice noodle machine from Guilin to Nanjing, where they invited the wives of the "National Congress" deputies to eat Guilin rice noodles with rich characteristics, and gave each of them a gold ring, so that they could go back and blow the "pillow wind" and win the votes of their husbands for Li Zongren.
Li Zongren's methods of wooing were very effective, and his call for election became louder and louder. Chiang Kai-shek was very anxious, on April 3, he simply summoned Li Zongren at his official residence, and said straight to the point: "Brother Delin (Li Zongren's word Delin), **deputy** are all soldiers, and they are not very good after all, I hope that the future deputy ** is better to be a literati, and the candidate is Sun Ke, I hope you will take into account the overall situation and withdraw from the election." ”
Li Zongren replied: "Zongren has already consulted for opinions, and the chairman of the NPC National Committee has clearly told the world that all comrades in the party can run for election freely. Now that I have announced my candidacy, it is difficult for me to quit halfway. ”
Chiang Kai-shek asked again: "Why?" You tell me. ”
Li Zongren said: "Chairman of the National Committee, this is just like a singer, and it is very easy to ask me not to sing before I go on stage. Now that I have appeared on the stage, the gongs and drums and strings have all been dingdong and are about to open their mouths to sing, and the audience is about to cheer, how do you tell me to suddenly turn around and escape to the backstage in the excitement of gongs and drums? ”
Chiang Kai-shek knew that he was unreasonable, but he still insisted: "It's better for you to give up automatically, you have to give up!" ”
Chiang Kai-shek. Li Zongren did not back down: "Chairman of the committee, this matter is very difficult to do!" ”
Chiang Kai-shek was finally furious: "I don't support you, I don't support you, you can still be elected?" ”
This sentence deeply hurt Li Zongren's self-esteem, and he also became angry: "It's hard to say!" ”
Chiang Kai-shek became even more popular: "You must not be elected!" The conversation between the two ended unhappily.
On April 20, Chiang Kai-shek was successfully elected to the "National Congress". On April 23, the General Assembly officially began the election of the deputy **. On this morning, after the delegates entered, they found that there was a copy of the "National Salvation**" newspaper published that day, and there was an article written by Huang Shaohong "My Dependents Lanni", which wrote about a romantic affair between Sun Ke and his **Lanni, which attacked Sun Ke as a bombshell, causing an uproar at the venue.
After the voting results of the day came out, Li Zongren got 754 votes, Sun Ke got 589 votes, Cheng Qian got 522 votes, Yu Youren got less than 500 votes, and Mo Dehui and Xu Fulin got more than 200 votes respectively. Although Li Zongren took the lead, he received less than half of the required votes, so according to the election law, the next day's vote will be held in the top three.
Delegates vote.
On April 24, after the results of the second round of voting came out, Li Zongren received 1,163 votes, Sun Ke received 945 votes, and Cheng Qian received 616 votes.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek had realized that it was difficult for Sun Ke to compete with Li Zongren, so he summoned Cheng Qian that afternoon and asked him to transfer his ticket to Sun Ke. Cheng Qian was very disgusted by this, and he publicly announced at 8 o'clock in the evening: I have been ordered to give up continuing to run for deputy **.
Chiang Kai-shek saw that it would not work to win over Cheng Qian, so he decided to use ** to suppress Li Zongren, and under his arrangement, rumors spread in Nanjing for a while: Li Zongren's election campaign had other political intentions; The Gui department is ready to force the "leader to go abroad" after Li Zongren is elected; Li Zongren's campaign expenses were scavenged from Anhui by Li Pinxian of the Gui family with security funds; Li Zongren was ...... in BeipingThere is a great tendency not to make a stink, and Li Zongren will not give up.
At this critical moment, Li Zongren immediately summoned Bai Chongxi, Huang Shaohong and others to discuss countermeasures. Huang Shaohong said: "In my humble opinion, it is better to announce that I will withdraw from the election. ”
Li Zongren was shocked when he heard this, if he withdrew at this time, wouldn't he hand over the fruits of victory to others? Huang Shaohong explained: "The situation is already clear, Chiang Kai-shek is trying his best to support Sun Ke, and he will use any means. If you run into them, you won't be able to eat mutton, and if you announce your withdrawal from the election, and our representatives will not enter the polls, how will the 'National Congress' end? In this way, we will change from reactive to proactive. ”
Bai Chongxi also felt that this method was feasible, he said: "This is a good way, like playing chess, first take them into the army, although they will not die, but their positions are disrupted, the way is easy to think." Now judging from the votes, Sun Ke is not much worse, if you add all kinds of pressure from Lao Jiang, it is possible for Sun Ke to turn defeat into victory. The most important thing now is to repel the pressure that Lao Chiang gave us, and it is a good way to boycott the election. ”
Bai Chongxi. Li Zongren felt that the move was too risky, saying: "We have won three games, and we will definitely win the last one!" ”
Huang Shaohong shook his head and said: "I am a veteran in mahjong, and I often win in the first three rounds and lose in the fourth round." I stood up after the third round and stopped fighting, and I didn't take any money from others, so I'm not still a winner? Why bother to finish the fourth round and be a loser? ”
The consultation did not end until 2 a.m., and Li Zongren finally made up his mind to retreat as advance. On April 25, Nanjing's major newspapers prominently published Li Zongren's statement:
Recently, however, it has become apparent that some people are oppressing the system in the name of the Party, making it impossible for the deputies to exercise their powers of free voting. Running for election in this situation is meaningless. I hereby write to you to officially renounce the election.After Li Zongren and Cheng Qian both announced their withdrawal from the election, Sun Ke had no opponent in the election, and also said that "in order to clear up rumors from the outside world and eliminate misunderstandings", he decided not to run for deputy **.
All three candidates changed their minds, making it impossible for the election to proceed, which was tantamount to declaring the defeat of the "Constitutional National Congress." Chiang Kai-shek was so anxious that he appeased Cheng Qian and Sun Ke, and on the other hand, he summoned Bai Chongxi on the evening of April 26, saying that he was "supporting" Li Zongren's candidacy and asking him to tell Li Zongren to rejoin the campaign.
Bai Chongxi saw that Chiang Kai-shek had already given in, so he pushed the boat down the river and promised to tell Li Zongren to continue to participate in the election. The next day, Bai Chongxi solemnly conveyed Chiang Kai-shek's "will" to the delegates to the National Congress:* was greatly outraged by the rumors about Li Zongren, and solemnly declared that the election campaign was absolutely free, so Li Zongren had expressed his willingness to continue to participate in the election.
After such a fuss and persuasion, not only did the rumors about Li Zongren break down, but also greatly strengthened his position after the election. Afterwards, Huang Shaohong joked: "The president also came forward to persuade Degong to participate in the election, you said how blessed Degong is, this time Degong is not an ordinary candidate, but a candidate who has his 'support'." ”
On the morning of April 28, the third round of voting for the deputy ** election began, and in the end, Li Zongren received 1,156 votes, Sun Ke received 1,040 votes, and Cheng Qian received 515 votes, and Li Zongren continued to lead by a slight margin. According to the rules, if no one receives the required majority in the three elections, only the top two in the third election with the most votes will be able to participate in the runoff. In this way, Cheng Qian was eliminated, and only Li Zongren and Sun Ke were left to fight it out.
Sun Ke. On the morning of April 29, the "National Congress" held the fourth round of voting in the vice-election of **. On this morning, Li Zongren wore a neat military uniform, and Guo Dejie wore a gray short-sleeved cheongsam, and both came to the entrance of the National Assembly hall to wait for the delegates to enter. Whenever a representative came over, they would come up to shake hands with smiles on their faces, and Li Zongren said, "Thank you, please vote for me." Guo Dejie continued: "Please vote for your neighbors and help." ”
After the voting ended, the counting began, at first Sun Keshang was in the lead, Li Zongren's votes followed, and the further he went, the more concentrated the votes were on Li Zongren's side. In the end, Li Zongren defeated Sun Ke's 1295 votes with 1438 votes and was successfully elected as the deputy **.
After Li Zongren was elected deputy **, although Chiang Kai-shek was angry and hateful, he also had to accept this bitter reality. On April 30, Li Zongren and his wife went to Chiang Kai-shek's official residence to "pay their respects," but Chiang Kai-shek deliberately delayed coming out, making them wait in the living room for half an hour.
Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren were inaugurated after their election.
After that, in order to vent his anger, Chiang Kai-shek always looked for opportunities to make things difficult and snub Li Zongren. For example, the chairman of Shandong Province was hit, the entire family of He Siyuan, the mayor of Beiping City, was bombed, his wife and daughter were killed, and he himself survived ......