In November 1948, Shen Zui, the head of the Yunnan Station of the Secret Bureau, received an urgent telegram from Mao Renfeng, asking him to immediately go to Nanjing to carry out his mission. After arriving in Nanjing, Shen Zui met with Mao Renfeng at the agreed place, but Mao Renfeng gave him an amazing task - to assassinate Li Zongren, the deputy of the Kuomintang.
All this was Chiang Kai-shek's instructions, however, Li Zongren did not know anything about it until he returned to China 16 years later, when he saw an article about it in his days of seclusion.
In the spring of 1926, for the Northern Expedition, Li Zongren, commander of the 7th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, came to Guangzhou. The Zhongshan ship incident has ended, Wang Jingwei has gone abroad, and Chiang Kai-shek has become the main figure of the Guangzhou people.
When Li Zongren arrived in Guangzhou, Chiang Kai-shek came to visit him as soon as possible. For this meeting, Li Zongren still remembers it vividly in his later years. He said: "This day was May 11, I met Mr. Jiang for the first time, and he made a very deep impression on me. He is very serious, restrained, and ruthless, and I am afraid that it is not easy to get along with. It was not long before Chiang Kai-shek was appointed commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army. As the Northern Expedition was about to begin, the exchanges between the two gradually increased.
Despite the economic difficulties at that time, in order to win over Li Zongren, Chiang Kai-shek took the initiative to allocate 1,000 guns, four heavy machine guns, two radio transmitters, and 200,000 military expenses.
At the military meeting, Chiang Kai-shek even took the initiative to appoint Bai Chongxi as the acting chief of the general staff of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which deeply shocked the officers and soldiers of the Gui family headed by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, and believed that Chiang Kai-shek could work together.
When Li Zongren discussed the details of the Northern Expedition with Chiang Kai-shek at the General Headquarters, Lao Chiang enthusiastically made him a cup of tea. Lao Jiang suddenly asked Li Zongren: "Comrade Delin, how old are you this year?" ”
Li Zongren replied: "I was born in 1891 and am 37 years old this year. Lao Jiang continued: "I am four years older than you, 41 years old this year!" He took out a "Lan Pu", handed it to Li Zongren, and invited him to worship as a brother.
Li Zongren was surprised by this, but still refused, saying that he was Lao Jiang's subordinate and did not dare to accept this proposal. However, Chiang insisted on his proposal and said that sworn brotherhood would not affect the revolution.
Li Zongren was moved by Lao Chiang's sincerity and finally agreed to the proposal to bow down. A few days later, Lao Jiang again proposed to Li Zongren to pay homage, but Li Zongren found an excuse to delay and officially changed the post the next day.
Lao Chiang excitedly said that in the future, they would be comrades and brothers, living and dying together for the revolution.
Because both were staunch opponents of communism, Chiang took the initiative to seek a political alliance with Li Zongren. He hoped that by co-opting Li Zongren, he would form his own political group and let Li Zongren work for him.
However, this was their only honeymoon period, and for decades afterward, Chiang regarded Li Zongren as a thorn in his side, and the Gui faction led by Li Zongren became the most powerful warlord in the region.
Lao Chiang established Nanjing ** in 1927 to suppress dissidents, causing dissatisfaction and doubts from all sides. After that, Gui's attitude towards Lao Jiang gradually deteriorated. When Lao Chiang asked Li Zongren to send troops to Wuhan to fight, Li Zongren rejected the proposal, believing that this would kill each other and the Chinese people would not understand.
On the other hand, Wuhan once again launched an eastward crusade against Chiang, but there were not many troops that Lao Chiang could command, and only the 1st Army and the 7th Army were strong, and the others were miscellaneous armies with weak combat effectiveness, but the main force of the Gui Department was around Nanjing.
For the sake of his own future, Lao Jiang personally came to the military headquarters of the 7th Army, hoping that Li Zongren could help, but Li Zongren still chose to refuse.
Chiang Kai-shek resented Li Zongren and the Gui faction, but the warlord Sun Chuanfang, with the support of the Feng faction, led a heavy army south, and due to the lack of support from the Gui faction, Xuzhou was conquered, and the north bank of the Yangtze River fell again.
In desperation, Chiang Kai-shek returned to Nanjing to organize his troops, and at this time, the eastern expedition against Chiang's army was divided into three routes and marched towards him. In the face of the attack of many strong enemies, Chiang Kai-shek felt extremely panicked and had to ask Li Zongren for support again.
However, Li Zongren called Feng Yuxiang and proposed: "Ninghan and Han sides are unanimous, since they are like-minded, please reach a cooperative relationship." Subsequently, Li Zongren sent a telegram on behalf of Nanjing, expressing his willingness to cooperate with Wuhan.
In desperation, Chiang Kai-shek chose to go to the field by electricity, and Li Zongren was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army. However, without the support of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang chaebols, Li Zongren was quickly deflated.
In the spring of 1928, Chiang Kai-shek seized supreme power in the Kuomintang and used the Gui system to dominate the north. However, he has always been afraid of the Gui family, and after taking advantage of them, he began to "unload the mill and kill the donkey".
In January 1929, Chiang Kai-shek organized a long-awaited reorganization meeting, and the Gui faction bore the brunt of the cutdown and dismissal.
Chiang Kai-shek unilaterally stripped Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and other Kuomintang members of the party in March, and ordered the conquest of the Gui lineage. It didn't take long for him to use political means to disintegrate several teams of the Gui family, and Bai Chongxi lost his military power and fled in a hurry.
Li Zongren also persevered for a short time, and went into exile in Hong Kong in May. In 1930, Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang issued a telegram against Chiang, and Li Zongren responded positively and joined the anti-Chiang alliance, but because Zhang Xueliang joined Chiang, the Central Plains War ended with Chiang Kai-shek's victory, and Li Zongren's team withdrew to Guangxi and joined forces with the Guangzhou warlord Chen Jitang to establish an anti-Chiang alliance.
As the strength of the Red Army grew, Chiang Kai-shek focused on the "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army, which gave the Gui family a respite. Li Zongren carefully governed Guangxi, and after five years of construction, Guangxi prospered and became a model province in China.
In June 1936, Chen Jitang united with the Gui faction to oppose Chiang again because Chiang Kai-shek did not resist the Japanese, but with the establishment of the united front of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the Gui faction chose to support the Kuomintang.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zongren was entrusted with important tasks and successfully led the Battle of Taierzhuang and achieved a major victory. During the Battle of Wuhan, he thwarted the Japanese army's crazy attacks three times in a row, made great achievements for the War of Resistance against Japan, and won wide praise from the people, but was jealous and transferred from Chiang Kai-shek.
After the end of the war, although Li Zongren had no real power during his tenure in the Northern Parallel Battalion, he won the reputation of "democratic general" and "revolutionary figure" by virtue of his political wisdom and unique charm.
In 1947, the U.S. special envoy Weidemeyer visited China and expressed extreme disappointment with the corruption and incompetence of the Kuomintang, believing that China's rejuvenation needed a new leader with a sense of mission and responsibility.
The U.S. ambassador to China, Stuart Leiden, said that with the decline of Chiang Kai-shek's status, Li Zongren's popularity is gradually increasing. Since then, Li Zongren's name has frequently appeared in American newspapers and magazines, and has been well received in Europe.
In March 1948, Li Zongren publicly announced his participation in the deputy ** election and sent Bai Chongxi to investigate the situation. However, Chiang Kai-shek was not happy about this, and he did not support Li Zongren's candidacy.
However, since the Nationalists were about to implement a constitutional government and everyone could run freely, Chiang Kai-shek could not prevent Li Zongren from running for election. However, behind his back, he supported Sun Ke's campaign and made it seem that he would definitely win.
According to common sense, Sun Ke is very likely to be elected deputy because of the support of CC and Huangpu Department. However, unexpectedly, in three consecutive elections, Li Zongren surpassed Sun Ke in the number of votes, but because there was no more than half, it was necessary to continue the election.
Before the fourth vote, Chiang Kai-shek made a killer move, visiting the homes of various delegates overnight, saying that supporters would receive official positions and money, while opponents would have their futures destroyed.
When Li Zongren learned of the news, he immediately withdrew from the race, claiming that the election was not democratic, which caused an uproar from all sides. When Chiang Kai-shek heard the news, he immediately panicked, he found Bai Chongxi and expressed his support for Li Zongren's candidacy.
Therefore, in the fourth election, Li Zongren was democratically elected as a deputy **. And when Chiang Kai-shek was following the election in front of the radio, he was very angry when he learned that Li Zongren had been elected as deputy **.
In 1948, after the Liaoshen Campaign, the People's Liberation Army successfully annihilated more than 500,000 elites of the ** army, and ** lost one after another in major battlefields. The United States began to be disappointed with Chiang Kai-shek, believing that his personal abilities were not enough to cope with the current situation and that a different person was needed to lead the Kuomintang.
This person is Li Zongren. One day in mid-November 1948, U.S. Ambassador to China Stuart Leiden visited Li Zongren late at night. Although Li Zongren is already a deputy **, due to Chiang Kai-shek's intentional suppression, he has been idle for a period of time, and he is playing with his wife every day.
However, Li Zongren longed for the throne in his heart, and he knew that Situ Leiden wanted to support himself on the throne. The two had an in-depth conversation about the crisis of the Kuomintang and the current strategic situation, and Li Zongren also boasted that his Gui family still had 500,000 troops and horses, and still occupied half of the country in the southwest region, and as long as the United States provided it, he could continue to confront the CCP.
Situ Leiden nodded in support, saying that he would definitely actively run for him and seek support, which made Li Zongren full of confidence in this. However, Li Zongren did not know that Chiang Kai-shek had planted many eyeliners around him, and his every move was under the surveillance of the Secret Bureau.
Chiang was originally wary of Li Zongren, but now the American ambassador took the initiative to visit him, which made him even more panicked. He feared that the Americans would support Li Zongren to come to power, so he had murderous intentions.
At this time, Li Zongren quickly transferred his Gui troops to the vicinity of Nanjing, and had Bai Chongxi stationed along the Yangtze River, showing a tendency to force the palace to Lao Chiang. Chiang Kai-shek, who had never been so threatened, decided to get rid of Li Zongren in order to eliminate the hatred in his heart and consolidate his political position.
Shen Zui is one of the "Three Musketeers of the Military Command", and since the Jiang clan had the intention of killing Li Zongren, he specially assigned Shen Zui to carry out this task. The reason is that in 1946, the king of military command, Dai Li's plane crashed, and his whereabouts are unknown, and Dai Li has a lot of military intelligence, if he is captured by the People's Liberation Army, the consequences are unimaginable.
At this critical moment, Lao Jiang asked Mao Renfeng to send general-level spies to carry out the search mission, but due to the danger of the mission, most of the general-level spies were reluctant to go, and only Shen Zui stepped forward.
Although Dai Li's body was quickly found, this task was not carried out, but Lao Jiang praised Shen Zui very much, and the first thing he thought of when he carried out a major mission was Shen Zui.
After receiving Mao Renfeng's telegram, Shen Zui immediately rushed to Nanjing. He was arranged to live in a place where high-level ** people can live - "Chenglu". He knew that only people who performed important tasks were qualified to live here.
It didn't take long for Mao Renfeng to hand over the task of "assassinating Li Zongren" to Shen Zui, and took him directly to Lao Jiang's residence. However, Lao Jiang was in a meeting at the time, and they waited two hours to see him.
Lao Jiang changed his serious image and cordially inquired about Shen's family and work. After some heart-to-heart exchanges, Lao Jiang changed his words and said: "It is more difficult to deal with civil strife than to fight against the Communist Party. The reason for you to carry out this task is to unite us internally, so that we can be consistent with the outside world. ”
Lao Jiang said again: "You must make arrangements quickly, wait for my orders, and resolutely complete the task, even if you sacrifice yourself, you can't let the mission fail." This has a bearing on the safety of the party and the state, and secrets must not be divulged. ”
Lao Jiang's words deeply touched Shen Zui, and he said that he must complete the task and not disappoint the chairman of the committee. Lao Jiang was very satisfied after hearing this, and said to Mao Renfeng: "This comrade is loyal, if he has any difficulties in life, we must try our best to help him." ”
Then, Mao Renfeng organized a "special operations group", and their tasks were twofold, one was to carry out assassination, and the other was to prevent Li Zongren from leaving Nanjing. The specific plan of action was in charge of Shen Zui and Ye Xiangzhi, and after a week of research, Shen Zui presided over the assassination operation, and his assistants were two famous sharpshooters, Wang Hanwen and Qin Jingchuan.
At that time, Li Zongren lived behind Fu Hougang, and the car was slower when turning, which was a good opportunity to shoot. Spy Wu Dehou also set up a used bookstall around the corner to facilitate investigation, and the spies would not be suspected if they gathered here.
In order to prevent accidents in the plan, the action team has also prepared two sets of backup plans. The first set was to let the killer force his car to stop with a vehicle when Li Zongren was out, and then block it; The second set is to create a man-made air crash when Li Zongren is on the plane, so that he can be eliminated without knowing it.
In order to prevent Li Zongren from leaving the airport through the secret passage, the action group deliberately opened a grocery store near the airfield outside Guanghua Gate as a cover, and once Li Zongren was found to be on the plane, they would immediately report it to Mao Renfeng, and activate the air force to destroy the plane with fighter jets.
At the same time, in order to prevent Li Zongren from leaving by train, the action team set up a cigarette stand near Jiangnan Station in order to monitor Li's whereabouts. In addition, the operation team also arranged for people to open taverns on the road from Tangshan to Hangzhou to monitor passing vehicles.
With the end of the Huaihai Campaign, Chiang Kai-shek's ** army elite was completely annihilated, and Bai Chongxi tried to force Chiang Kai-shek ** with the army in his hands. At this time, the special operations team was the most nervous, Mao Renfeng reminded the team members every day to go all out, and at the same time, he also deliberately allocated 2 cars, if Li Zongren left by train or car, they could stop him halfway.
Once Chiang Kai-shek announced the start of the mission, the action group was responsible for carrying it out.
In order to ensure the successful completion of the assassination mission, the three of them prepared two pistols and applied poison to the bullets. This design ensures that no matter where you are hit in the body, any shot will trigger blood poisoning and be fatal.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek also issued an order that once Li Zongren left the city of Nanjing, assassination could be carried out even without his instructions. However, at this time, Chiang Kai-shek was very conflicted.
The Gui family also has hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers in their hands that can be used, and the peace talks with the CCP can also buy them some time, but the peace talks need Li Zongren's participation. Soon, Chiang Kai-shek finally gave up the idea of assassination by the news that was the feud between Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren.
Once the two men began to fight each other, Chiang Kai-shek could reap the benefits of the fisherman. On January 20, 1949, Mao Renfeng told Shen Zui that the assassination mission was canceled, but Qin Jingchuan, Wang Hanwen, and Wu Dehou were brought to Yunnan in case the assassination plan needed to be launched again.
Li Zongren did not think much about it at this time, he believed that with the support of the Americans, Chiang Kai-shek would not act easily. However, Huang Shaohong sensed that something was wrong, and he told Cheng Siyuan: "Recently, the relationship between Jiang and Gui has been very tense, if Du Yuming's army can break through the encirclement, Lao Jiang's political crisis can be alleviated, but there may be problems with the safety of Duke De, so we must tell Duke De and let him act carefully." ”
Of course, Chiang Kai-shek's cancellation of the assassination of Li Zongren was also related to the failure of the trip to the United States. He once wrote to Truman, hoping that the United States would increase its economic and support and support him politically.
However, in fact, the United States and the Soviet Union had reached an agreement not to intervene directly in Chinese affairs, so Truman directly rejected Chiang Kai-shek's request. Later, Soong Meiling went to the United States to ask for assistance, but the United States was still unwilling to help.
Only then did Chiang Kai-shek realize that he had been abandoned. If Li Zongren is killed, there will inevitably be others who will stand up, and he can't kill them all, right?
Chiang Kai-shek's aides suggested that Li Zongren should be used as a negotiator to negotiate with the CCP, while secretly arranging. So, on January 21, Chiang Kai-shek announced his resignation and was replaced by Li Zongren.
However, Lao Jiang still holds real power behind the scenes. Seventeen years later, Li Zongren learned of Lao Jiang's series of assassination plans against him, but he was still skeptical of it, asking: "If Lao Jiang wants to kill me, why do you give me his own car, the 'Meiling'?" ”
It turned out that once Chiang Kai-shek and his wife personally visited Li Zongren and his wife, and during the conversation, the elder Chiang asked Li Zongren how the equipment of the plane was, and Li Zongren replied that it was an ordinary plane. Song, who was on the side, proposed to give the "Meiling" plane to Mr. and Mrs. Li, saying that it was very comfortable and safe.
Lao Jiang said with a smile next to him: "If you don't say it, I almost forgot, let's take the 'Zhongmei', and this special plane will be handed over to Li Zongren and his wife." ”
Guo Dejie showed a strong interest in the plane, saying that if she had time, she would be willing to take it. However, Li Zongren has always objected to this. He believes that Lao Jiang invited him to take the plane, probably to win him over.
However, he did not understand why Lao Chiang was planning to assassinate him. When Shen Zui heard this, he immediately said that fortunately Guo Dejie did not take this plane, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.
It turned out that this plane had been manipulated by Chiang Kai-shek, and once Guo Dejie took it, Shen Zui would command the fighter jets to attack the plane, resulting in the destruction of the plane and the death of people.
This shocked Guo Dejie, who had always thought that Chiang Kai-shek was protecting her, but she didn't expect it to be a political conspiracy. Although Guo Dejie and Chiang Kai-shek had been political enemies for many years, she had always shown respect for Chiang Kai-shek, and she did not expect that Chiang Kai-shek's invitation turned out to be a conspiracy.
Although Li Zongren faced many difficulties on the way back to China, his love and support for the motherland made him decide to return to the motherland. His idea was supported by Prime Minister *** and he eventually succeeded in returning home.
In the process, he overcame various challenges, including Chiang Kai-shek's obstruction and the pursuit of spies. He made a request to Cheng Siyuan to return to China, and Cheng Siyuan conveyed the news to Prime Minister ***, who immediately gave support.
Li Zongren and his wife successfully returned to the motherland through the arrangement of ***. Although his journey back to China was difficult, our steadfastness and courage made us deeply admire.
On June 28, Cheng Siyuan, Li Zongren and Ms. Guo Dejie met in Zurich to begin their journey back to China, but the crisis in the journey had just begun. Because Guo Dejie sold their house at a low price before flying to Switzerland, this news was reported by reporters, which caused the wrath of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan.
Chiang Kai-shek immediately instructed the spies to carry out the assassination. At 2 p.m. on July 12, Li Zongren and three people boarded the passenger plane. They were warned not to get off the plane when refueling in Geneva, Beirut and other places.
However, the agents of the Secret Service have deployed a large number of agents in Geneva, Athens, Beirut and Karachi. As soon as Li Zongren and his wife got off the plane in these places, they would be shot at point-blank range by the killers.
At half past four in the morning of July 13, Li Zongren's passenger plane landed at Karachi Airport. As soon as the plane came to a standstill, a black sedan and an ambulance drove up to the spiral staircase.
Two heavily armed Pakistani military police officers stepped out of the car, stepped into the hatch, and asked, "Which is Mr. Cheng from Zurich?" ”
Cheng Siyuan responded immediately, and the soldier looked at Li Zongren and his wife and asked, "Are they your companions?" Cheng Siyuan nodded, and the soldier looked at the three of them, and then said, "Please come with us!" ”
In this way, Li Zongren and others quickly got into the police car and immediately left the airport. In the car, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, Ding Guoyu, explained: "Because Chiang Kai-shek has arranged spies under the stairs of the airport building, in order to ensure safety, we asked Pakistani ** to help you pick you up in a police car." ”
In fact, there were indeed two suspicious people in the waiting hall that day, staring intently at the exit, frantically searching for people who got off the plane. After the assassination plot failed, Chiang Kai-shek was furious and asked the spies to investigate the time and route of Li Zongren's plane, and prepared to send fighter planes to intercept it in disregard of international law.
However, after careful planning, on July 17, Li Zongren and his wife quietly left the embassy, boarded the passenger plane returning to China, and arrived in Shanghai safely. After a day's rest, the plane arrived in Beijing, and the premier personally greeted Li Zongren and his wife, and the famous anti-Japanese generals and the new Chinese premier hugged each other tightly.
Without the careful arrangement and careful planning of the first class, Li Zongren may not be able to return to the mainland smoothly. Li Zongren, who learned these details, completely lost confidence in Chiang Kai-shek, and he felt glad that he had chosen to support the Chinese Communist Party and returned to the embrace of the motherland.