Author: Xiao Ming
Link: https://www.zhihu.com/question/623567314/answer/3577163668
Source: Zhihu
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Because during the Anti-Japanese War, there was a commander who couldn't be killed no matter how hard they tried, while Li Zicheng died unexpectedly due to bad luck. Chiang Kai-shek had at least dozens of close calls and hundreds of assassination attempts throughout his life, but he never died once. In the end, he lived to be 88 years old, making him the most extraordinary person in the history of China's five thousand years. If you carefully examine his life, you will find that every time was particularly coincidental, and it cannot be explained by mere coincidence. Most people would have died even with ten lives, but he always narrowly escaped death. It's completely different from someone like Castro, who was supposedly assassinated hundreds of times but was never actually close to being killed. During the Battle of Songhu in the Shanghai-Nanking Campaign, a Japanese spy named Huang Jun passed information to the Japanese that Chiang was planning to take the British ambassador to the front lines in Songhu. The Japanese bombed the British ambassador's car, but Chiang happened to change his plans and didn't get on the car, thus escaping the attack. Before the Battle of Songhu, two unidentified men tried to assassinate Chiang at the Central Military Academy, but they ended up fleeing in a car. On July 23, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling were speaking in the temporary command post in Wuchang City when suddenly they heard the sharp air raid alarm, and the Japanese planes began another round of bombing. The Japanese planes probably knew in advance where Chiang Kai-shek was, so this time they flew directly over the command post building and bombed it relentlessly, turning the command post into a sea of smoke and fire in the blink of an eye. After the alarm sounded, the couple and several guards had already taken cover in the air-raid shelter downstairs, but since the Japanese planes had come with a purpose, they wouldn't stop easily. After almost reducing the building to ruins, a bomb fell accurately next to the air-raid shelter, and after a loud explosion, everyone was knocked down. Before the bomb hit the ground, the guards had already thrown themselves on Chiang and Soong Mei-ling. Soong Mei-ling was knocked unconscious, and several guards were killed on the spot. When Soong Mei-ling woke up and saw that all the guards had been killed, she burst into tears. During the Battle of Tai'erzhuang in 1938, Chiang personally went to the front lines, but Li Zongren couldn't stop him. The Japanese only needed one assault to reach them, and there was no time to retreat. Chiang's command post was located at the Nan Station in Tai'erzhuang, within earshot of the sound of gunfire. The Japanese tried to eliminate him in Chongqing, bombing his villa, but he didn't die. However, several of his guards were killed. During the Battle of Wuhan, Chiang was in Wuchang, and as soon as he left, it fell to the Japanese. Luckily, the weather was bad, and he narrowly escaped being captured by the Japanese. During the war, Japanese planes bombed and targeted Chiang several times, with records showing seven times. One time, Chiang Kai-shek watched the dogfight between Chinese and Japanese planes from a balcony and formulated new air combat tactics as a result. Chiang Kai-shek wrote in his diary, "The bombing today was the most intense in the past two years. I am overwhelmed with worry and anger. I don't know how the victims of the disaster are being rescued. I can only think of their suffering." In the afternoon, Chiang Kai-shek passed on his research findings, writing in his diary, "I have studied the methods of dealing with enemy fighter planes and given instructions. I don't know if they will be effective, but I have done my best and will leave the rest to fate." There was also a time when Wang Yaqiao's subordinates attempted to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek, but Chiang didn't show up, resulting in Wang Jingwei being assassinated instead. Later, Wang Jingwei died early due to his injuries. During the Second Northern Expedition, the Jinan Incident occurred, and the Japanese cannons directly targeted Chiang himself, almost killing him. During the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang's soldiers rushed into Chiang's bedroom and started shooting without any intention of leaving survivors. Chiang's guards sacrificed themselves to protect him, and all the guards died so that Chiang could escape. Yang Hucheng and Zhang Xueliang killed hundreds of Chiang's bodyguards, and many of Chiang's subordinates were also killed, including his nephew. Chiang's older brother was so scared by the Xi'an Incident that he died of fright. Zhang Xueliang captured Chiang Dingwen, Chen Cheng, and Wei Lihuang, but Chiang Kai-shek was not killed (Zhang Xueliang later killed Yang Hucheng for other reasons). During the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army in Jiangxi, the Red Army was only 100 meters away from Chiang's command post, and he only had about 100 people in his command post, so there was no way to resist. However, this was never discovered. When Chengdu was liberated in 1949, Chiang was still in Chengdu, and the People's Liberation Army had already entered the airport, which was only a few hundred meters away from him. His plane took off just in time, thanks to the efforts of his subordinates from the Whampoa Military Academy. At the beginning, in order to protect Chiang Kai-shek, Hu Zongnan mobilized six regiments with heavy weapons and launched an attack directly on the Wuhou Temple, allowing Chiang Kai-shek to leave the city safely. In the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, he served as the captain of a suicide squad and captured Hangzhou. One hundred revolutionaries wiped out ten thousand Qing dynasty troops. At that time, the Qing dynasty was extremely ruthless, and the governor of Zhejiang would vivisect and disembowel captured revolutionaries while they were still alive. This is what they call, "No matter what, in a battle, one hundred Han against ten thousand Manchus, the advantage is ours!" He also liked to personally charge into battle. Even when he was already the commander-in-chief during the Northern Expedition, he still personally charged into battle. Historically, generals who liked to do this often didn't end well, but he was completely unharmed. In 1916, when Chen Qimei was assassinated by the Beiyang warlords, no one dared to collect his body, so Chiang Kai-shek did it. In 1926, he was targeted for assassination twice, with one assassin being tackled by a bodyguard right in front of him, and another time his car was smashed. Chiang Kai-shek's diary also recorded that one time an assassin sneaked into his bedroom and scared Soong Mei-ling into having a miscarriage, which resulted in her being unable to have children for the rest of her life. During the Battle of Central Plains, he was on the front lines and almost captured by Feng Yuxiang's troops, but he managed to escape by running with all his might. During the retreat led by Chen Gong, they suffered a major defeat and Chiang had already resigned himself to his fate, lying on the ground and not wanting to move. He first asked Chen Gong to leave, and then asked him to kill him, to maintain his integrity. In the end, Chen Gong carried him on his back and they escaped together. And so on and so forth... Zhang Zuolin was only assassinated once in his lifetime, and U.S. President Kennedy was only assassinated once, but Chiang Kai-shek was targeted for assassination hundreds of times and narrowly escaped death dozens of times, yet he was completely unharmed. If only Li Zicheng could have been like that, no matter how hard they tried to kill him, they wouldn't have been able to, and he would have been able to defeat the Qing dynasty just the same.