Chapter 372: Step by step, dangerously entering the endgame
November 1, 1927, Xiyuan, Nanjing.
Li Zongren, who looked tired, was sitting on the Western-style high-backed soft chair where Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek once sat. He kept rubbing his swollen temples with his hands, supporting his elbows on the large table, with two elbows placed directly in front of him.
An open copy of "Eastern Outlook" weekly magazine.
In the past half month, the situation has changed dramatically. Ten days ago, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi took advantage of the Northern Expedition to lead two armies to march northward. When Tang Shengzhi relaxed his vigilance and considered whether to take the opportunity to attack Nanjing, they suddenly turned around and headed east to attack Tang Shengzhi's sudden advance.
The two armies launched a siege and wiped out tens of thousands of enemies in the blink of an eye. In one fell swoop, more than 60,000 officers and soldiers of He Jian and Liu Xing's armies were driven out of Wuhu and Anqing, achieving a huge military victory.
Just when Tang Shengzhi was protesting the Guangxi clique's undeclared war in the Wuhan media, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi pulled He Yingqin and immediately convened a special committee military meeting, announcing that Tang Shengzhi would be permanently expelled from the party and military, and called on the national revolutionary army to fight against the "new warlords and revolutionaries"
traitor"
Tang Shengzhi launched a crusade; the next day, the other two giants of the Guangxi clique, Huang Shaohong and Li Jishen, also defeated Ye Ting. After that, He Long sent a message to the whole country, responded to the call of the Nanjing Special Committee, launched an army to crusade against Tang Shengzhi, and announced that it would march into Hunan from the junction of Hunan and Guangdong to attack Tang Shengzhi's
Lair.
After returning to Guangzhou, Zhang Fakui and Huang Qixiang, who proposed the slogan "Cantonese people rule Guangdong", successfully controlled Guangzhou and surrounding areas. After forcing Li Jishen, the veteran of the Guangdong army, whose ancestral home was Wuzhou, Guangxi, to make concessions, they also announced a high-profile attack on Tang Shengzhi, who had squeezed himself out of the Lianghu area.
crusade.
Feng Yuxiang, who dominated Henan, Gansu and Shaanxi, was not to be outdone. He was already resentful because Tang Shengzhi had withheld more than two million munitions and medicines given to Feng Yuxiang by the corrupt Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek before leaving. When he got this rare opportunity, Feng Yuxiang immediately showed his spirit of beating up the fallen dog.
A telegram was sent to the whole country, indicating that the 300,000 soldiers of the Northwest Army fully supported the decision made by the Nanjing Special Committee and would send troops south from that day to attack the new warlord Tang Shengzhi who had betrayed the revolution.
Tang Shengzhi, who was originally domineering and domineering, was attacked on several sides and was exhausted. Although he had strong troops, he could only temporarily retreat to the east of Hubei. He was huddled within the two lakes and could no longer pose a substantial threat to Nanjing.
However, successive military victories could not save the fate of political defeat. The Nanjing coalition government that Li Zongren had finally formed quickly split. Wang Jingwei, who had no military power and was squeezed out by Li Zongren and Tang Shengzhi, ignored the special committee's repeated attempts to stay and refused to return.
When he was a puppet of the Guangxi clique, he angrily walked away on the 25th, rushing to Guangzhou via Shanghai, and returned to Zhang Fakui and Huang Qixiang who were waiting for him.
Wang Jingwei, who returned with hatred, did a great job. The day after returning to Guangzhou, he teamed up with seven military and political veterans, including Zhang Fakui, Chen Gongbo, and Huang Qixiang, to send a nationwide telegram and announced that the fourth plenary session of the Central Committee would be held in Guangzhou and that the executive committee would be restored at the same time.
Committee, established the Secretariat of the Standing Committee, the Central Executive Supervisory Committee and other institutions, which is obviously an open plan to establish a new central government and dismantle Li Zongren's platform.
When Tang Shengzhi, who was beleaguered and almost in dire straits, saw Wang Jingwei's call, he seemed to be grasping at straws to save his life. He even followed suit and agreed with the correct decision made by the party leader Wang Jingwei. He also took out the dusty party constitution and criticized Li Zongren's decision.
The Nanjing Special Committee has no legal basis and declares that tens of millions of soldiers and civilians in the two lakes areas will never recognize the legitimacy of the Nanjing Special Committee.
Seeing the opportunity, the pro-Chiang people who controlled the finance and media in Shanghai also launched an attack on the special committee controlled by Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and He Yingqin. The target of the attack was chosen very accurately and cleverly. Almost all newspapers published articles on Li Zongren's special committee. The Jiangsu and Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce and the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce announced that they could not accept this unguaranteed rigid allocation. Major newspapers continuously published reports from all walks of life in Jiangsu and Zhejiang against the Nanjing Special Committee's public debt for "damaging industry and commerce and intruding on the people." Sharp criticism turned the tens of millions of public bonds in the hands of the new Shanghai Mayor Zhang Dingfan into a pile of waste paper. The Guangxi clique's hope of trying to get out of the military expenditure dilemma through public bond issuance was instantly dashed.
Immediately afterwards, the newly launched "Oriental Outlook" weekly published a series of interviews and reports on the emerging industrial and commercial base in Nanchang, Jiangxi, and published the full text of Jiangxi Provincial Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, General Zhu Peide, in a prominent position The "Declaration of the Northern Expedition" released reported in detail the excellent equipment and high morale of the Third Army of the National Revolutionary Army in the form of pictures and texts. It also published an interview with Zhu Shigui, Commander of the New Third Army, and Jin Handing, Commander of the New Ninth Army. The exclusive interview caught everyone's attention.
The newly launched 50,000 copies of "Oriental Outlook" were distributed free of charge to the markets of Shanghai, Nanjing, Nanchang, Wuhan, Suzhou and Hangzhou. Everyone was surprised to find that this beautifully printed magazine actually contained Yu Youren, Cai Yuanpei, With autographs written by Zhang Jingjiang, Wu Zhihui and more than a dozen celebrities in the political, educational and cultural circles, the magazine is extremely rich in content, covering all aspects of politics, economy, diplomacy, culture and education. The first issue included "Booming Jiangxi Industry and Commerce", "China's Diplomacy" Dilemmas and Thoughts", "Strongly Opposed to the U.S. Government's Loan to Japan to Acquire the Middle East Railway" and other articles that exposed many inside stories and were written in sharp and pungent ways immediately aroused strong sensation and resonance among the public. The back cover page of the magazine grandly launched "Celebrating Chinese Youth The news of the establishment of the Journalists Association also attracted a lot of attention from the Chinese press, intellectuals, business and political circles.
Li Zongren endured the discomfort in his head and pondered for a long time. He found it difficult to accept Zhu Peide's choice to expand the army and openly confront the Xingui clique at this time, and at the same time he was very disappointed. He never expected that this good old man would get angry when pressed, and He was so ruthless when he attacked, and two armies suddenly appeared. It seemed that he had underestimated him before.
"Ta-ta!"
There were two knocks on the door of the office. Before Li Zongren could say please come in, the door was pushed open from the outside. He looked up at Bai Chongxi who strode in. He nodded and exchanged a few words, then turned around in front of him. "Eastern Outlook" was pushed to Bai Chongxi: "Jiansheng, have you read the reports on it?"
"Having seen it, I can only say that I am very surprised. The Shanghai Oriental News Agency, which suddenly appeared, has received the support of so many elders and celebrities. It is really unexpected!
It can be seen that this news agency headquartered in the French Concession in Shanghai has a profound background, and I even suspect that the unyielding old Chiang Kai-shek may be behind the scenes."
Bai Chongxi picked up the magazine, flipped through two pages and put it down.
Li Zongren frowned slightly, nodded slightly, and after a while said meaningfully: "Yes, Brother Yu also had this suspicion, but judging from the content, there is no obvious political tendency. Strictly speaking, the magazine He is thoughtful and insightful, objective and practical, and his opinions are very pertinent. Several articles are very well written, and even I resonated with them after reading them... The emergency investigation report sent by Shanghai stated that the president of this news agency was originally a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He Jing, a reporter at the Daily News Agency, and the vice president is the bearded old man who took our photo. Judging from the composition of the shareholders of the news agency, the situation is very complicated. Among the three shareholders, there is a woman named Sharapova. Americans claim that the news agency has obtained registration approval from the California state government and has also obtained registration and distribution approval from the French Concession Board of Directors. We cannot conduct in-depth investigations even if we want to.
However, according to gossip in the news circle, before He Jing and others founded the news agency, they received strong support from the new rich man An Yi in Nanchang in September. It is rumored that An Yi lent He Jing and others two shares at once.
A huge sum of millions of dollars was invested, which led to a series of large-scale investments in this suddenly emerging news agency. Now the agency is so talented and powerful that many newspapers talk about it sourly."
Bai Chongxi's eyes widened and he asked in surprise: "Is An Yi involved?"
"Yes! This kid doesn't seem to be very peaceful. I don't know how he persuaded Zhu Peide to stop the mining and trading of tungsten ore in Jiangxi from the beginning of September, causing the price of tungsten ore to rise by 30% in two months. Europe and the United States
Business officials from various countries had very different opinions during private conversations with us. This time we wanted to ask Mr. New
After becoming the Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, I intervened in this matter. Now it seems that this wish will never be realized. Mr. Niu submitted his resignation to me last night, unwilling to take up the position of Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee. It seems that Zhu Peide five days ago
The violent reaction has made the party and military generals see something from it, and the impact is extremely bad!
I now regret my carelessness. If He Jingzhi's newly established Ninth Army had been renamed, perhaps the current deadlock would not have occurred. If we properly showed our sincerity to Zhu Peide, we might be able to issue 500 yuan in wealthy Jiangxi.
Public debt of 10,000 to 10 million... Alas, it's too late to say anything now, the road in Jiangxi has been completely blocked by ourselves." Li Zongren let out a long sigh.
Bai Chongxi did not speak, but picked up the tea cup and drank tea slowly. He heard that although there was no blame in Li Zongren's words, the decision to deprive Zhu Peide of the Ninth Army designation was indeed the result of the insistence of Bai Chongxi and He Yingqin. Another
,Bai Chong
Xi himself did not expect that the good old Zhu Peide, who had always been like Maitreya Buddha and would not offend anyone, would be so tough this time. He originally wanted to put pressure on Zhu Peide and force him to join his camp, but in the end he was self-defeating and turned hostile.
stand up.
Bai Chongxi suppressed the regret in his heart, thought for a while and said: "Things are not that bad. Our Western Expedition is going very smoothly at present. Four of the five generals under Tang Mengxiao are from Guangxi, and they are all from our younger brothers."
Baoding classmates, the contact work is in full swing and has achieved practical results.
Qualitative progress, if nothing unexpected happens, we will be able to capture Wuhan this month and march to the front line of northern Hunan. The development of the situation is very beneficial to us. After Wuhan is captured, Zhu Peide will definitely respond, and we will be able to free up our hands.
If you put some more pressure on him, I won't believe that he won't surrender."
Li Zongren's expression changed and he shook his head decisively: "Jiansheng, we can't make any more defeats! You have to understand that Zhu Peide is no longer what he used to be. After secretly recruiting two batches of new soldiers from Yunnan, his subordinates quickly expanded to three armies.
There are more than 60,000 people, and they are still recruiting troops all over Jiangxi. I think
You must also know that Zhu Peide's Third Army has hired hundreds of retired officers from An Yi's remnant army as instructors since the end of August. Over the past few months, they have frequently visited more than ten counties around the Poyang Lake Plain, carrying out various large-scale operations.
Through military training and confrontation exercises, combat effectiveness has been rapidly improved.
Nanchang area and surrounding areas are a land of plenty. An Yi also attracted the extremely wealthy Kong Xiangxi, Ou Yaoting, Yu Qiaqing and others to pile tens of millions of money in Nanchang and surrounding areas, miraculously creating the industrial and commercial miracle of Nanchang. Now it is
Wuhan under Lian Tang Shengzhi, Shandong under Zhang Zongchang, one
Many wealthy people flocked to Nanchang for investment and trade. Zhu Peide made a lot of money from taxes and became rich. In addition, he seized the precious opportunity of the chaos in southern and western Jiangxi in August and September.
, controlled five of the eight major tungsten mines in Jiangxi Province in one fell swoop, possessing strong financial resources and huge development potential.
Therefore, even if we completely defeat Tang Mengxiao, it will be difficult to deal with him again. Even if we win the battle with a loss of troops and generals, we will still attract criticism from all parties. After all, Zhu Peide's good popularity over the years is not in vain.
What is particularly frightening is that we are also likely to be attacked by several major domestic and foreign consortiums and foreign banks that have invested heavily in Nanchang, which will bring greater economic and political passivity.
Looking back now, we have missed a precious opportunity and did not even see Jiangxi, a land with huge wealth potential. Brother Yu is really ashamed!"
The more Bai Chongxi listened, the more frightened he became. Apart from being ashamed of his short-sightedness in politics, he was also envious of Zhu Peide's good fortune in quietly making a fortune.
After Li Zongren finished speaking, Bai Chongxi sighed and whispered: "I was wrong...Brother, the investigation into An Yi has already begun. He himself wears a scholar's gown all day long and wanders around, either attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony or attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Inviting guests to banquets, cheering before and after entering and leaving,
Spending a lot of money casually, it seems that he is really focusing on doing business. Now, all the remaining troops under his command have joined Zhu Peide's newly formed Nanchang Security Regiment. They have been recruiting new recruits for rigorous training for several months. The number has reached more than 5,000, and they are stationed in Nanchang County.
and Fengcheng, dozens of kilometers to the south.
The secret report said that the security group was sporadically equipped with a powerful new German-made flower machine gun and an American-made Colt pistol. Each squad was equipped with a new Czech-made light machine gun, and the firepower was quite amazing.
Three days ago, Zhu Peide suddenly sent all the newly formed New Third Army to station in Jiujiang. After setting up artillery positions, he immediately began to build permanent fortifications at several strategic locations, cast bunkers and set up outposts. One of Tang Shengzhi's divisions obediently went to work the next day.
Withdrew from Jiujiang and returned to Hubei Province
On the front line, Zhu Peide himself also frequently sent personnel to contact other military generals in our Second and Third Route Armies. Now, at a time when military expenditures are poor and all armies are reaching out to us, if Zhu Peide secretly sends some small favors to win over people's hearts,
It would be quite detrimental to us.”
Li Zongren nodded: "It seems that we can only sue for peace and not reject it. I will send a telegram to Zhu Peide later and take the opportunity of going to Hukou Military Station to inspect the front line to meet with him to clarify the misunderstanding. I believe him
It won’t go to extremes.”
Bai Chongxi nodded and smiled calmly, then picked up "Eastern Outlook" on the table again and slowly read through it.