Chapter 53 Political Action in the North

In order to find someone who not only dared to think but also dared to act, He Yingqin paid attention to Zheng Jiemin under Dai Li, who arranged for the assassination of Zhang Jingyao, a Hunan warlord who was negotiating with the Japanese at the time.At that time, Chiang Kai-shek's representatives were about to negotiate with the Japanese, and the removal of Zhang Jingyao may have played a role in preventing other potential traitors from disrupting the negotiations, at least Qian Guoxun thought so.He later said that this execution "caused everyone Yan and Zhao Haojie to work hard. The society in North China, which was full of feudal pleasures, took a new look. All the traitors such as Wang Kemin, Wang Yitang, Bao Wenyue, etc. were afraid to hide and did not dare to move. Rui and Wu Peifu, the representative Beiyang figures, also conformed to the public opinion and expressed their sincerity to the central government.”

Chiang Kai-shek's chief negotiator was Huang Yu, his senior adviser, former Shanghai mayor and foreign minister.Huang Yu was a classmate of Chiang Kai-shek (as was Yan Xishan) at the Tokyo Military Preparatory School (Shimbu Gakko) in 1908.Although Huang had withdrawn from public life, in 1932 he returned to political positions.In view of the national crisis caused by the war against Japan, he returned to Shanghai and founded the Xinhua Reconstruction Agency, which also published Fuxing Monthly. In March 1933, he was named chairman of the Peking Political Affairs Committee and was assigned by Chiang Kai-shek to participate in the unpopular negotiations with the Japanese.

At the same time, the Japanese strengthened their occupation of Jehol and continued to attack Chahar.Feng Yuxiang decided to come out of Zhangjiakou where he had retired, and fight for the leadership of the country by launching a resistance movement. On May 26, 1933, Feng Yuxiang announced the establishment of the "People's Anti-Japanese Allied Army" and began to call up the army.Five days later, on May 31, Huang Yu finally negotiated a ceasefire with the Japanese.But public opinion seemed to support Feng Yuxiang more, the Tanggu agreement was called a traitor, and Huang Yu was denounced as a pro-Japanese "traitor".At this moment, however, military power, not public opinion, is at stake.Huang Yu and Song Zheyuan (whose forces controlled eastern Hebei) "persuaded" Feng Yuxiang to disband his "People's Anti-Japanese Allied Army" in August 1933, while He Yingqin assembled his troops south of the Beiping-Suiyuan Railway.At the same time, in order to make He Yingqin disperse his forces, Feng Yuxiang handed over the military and political power in Chahar to Song Zheyuan, and returned to his villa in Taishan, Shandong, so Song Zheyuan became the political leader of the Chahar area in Hebei.When he signed the Hemei Agreement in May 1935, he was the commander of the Pingjin Garrison.