Sichuan Warlord Liu Xiang
Liu Xiang (1889-1938), named Liu Yuanxun and styled Fucheng, studied in private schools and county primary schools when he was a child. He joined the army in 1906 and was admitted to the Sichuan Armed Forces Academy, and later to the Sichuan Army Training Institute and the Sichuan Army Crash Academy. After graduating in 1909, he was assigned to the 33rd Mixed Brigade of the New Army of the Qing Dynasty as a trainee officer. From then on, he began his military career.
After the Revolution of 1911, Liu Xiang's unit was changed to the First Division of the Sichuan Army, and Liu Xiang had been promoted from platoon leader to battalion commander at this time.Since then, Liu Xiang has been continuously promoted because of his hustle and bravery, bravery in battle, and repeated military exploits. In 1918, during the Dharma Protection War, Liu Xiang was promoted to the commander of the First Division of the Sichuan Army and became a major general in the Sichuan Army.
During the melee period of the Beiyang warlords, Liu Xiang, a professional soldier, continued to strengthen his status through contests and melees with various local warlords in Sichuan. Commander in Chief. In 1920, Liu Xiang and other Sichuan warlords expelled the Yunnan-Yunnan warlords and declared Sichuan to be self-governing. Liu Xiang was promoted as the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army and in charge of civil affairs as the commander-in-chief of the Second Army and the commander-in-chief of the former enemy armies.At the same time, President Xu Shichang of the Beiyang government also appointed Xiong Kewu as the governor of Sichuan and Liu Xiang as the army guard in Chongqing. In 1921, Liu Xiang was elected by the Sichuan army as the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan armies, and was elected by the Sichuan Provincial Assembly as the governor of Sichuan.
So far, Liu Xiang has grown from a professional soldier to the supreme ruler of Sichuan.
After that, Liu Xiang clashed with Xiong Kewu, the former ruler of Sichuan, and was forced to resign by telegram in May 1922, and returned to his hometown in Anren Town, Dayi to live in seclusion.A year later, Liu Xiang made a comeback with the support of Yang Sen and other Sichuan warlords, led the Sichuan army to defeat Xiong Kewu, and took over the Sichuan army and political power as the aftermath supervisor of Sichuan.Then, Liu Xiang defeated Yang Sen and Yuan Zuming in the melee of warlords successively, consolidating his rule in Sichuan.
In 1926, the Guangzhou Nationalist Government organized the Northern Expedition. Liu Xiang also followed the historical trend at this time and announced his participation in the Northern Expedition. He sent a telegram to attack Wu Peifu.Soon, Liu Xiang was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition Army, as the commander of the 21st Army of the National Revolutionary Army and the chairman of the Sichuan Kang Suifu Committee.In the second year, he was appointed as the commander of the 21st Army and the chairman of the Sichuan Provincial Government.
During the period of the Nationalist Government, on the one hand, Liu Xiang joined forces with Chiang Kai-shek and actively participated in the Kuomintang’s anti-communist and anti-people civil war. He created the "March 31" tragedy in 1927 and encircled and suppressed the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army; on the other hand, he fought a civil war in Sichuan. Launched the Eastern Sichuan War, defeated Yang Sen, Luo Zezhou, and his uncle Liu Wenhui, and finally dominated Sichuan and became the "King of Sichuan". Separatist situation.
After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Liu Xiang followed the trend of the times and actively participated in the Anti-Japanese War, transforming from a feudal warlord into a patriotic general. In August 1937, at the National Defense Conference, Liu Xiang published the rhetoric of "Sichuan can send 300,000 troops, supply 5 million strong men, and supply several loads of grain", which greatly encouraged the anti-Japanese fighting spirit of the people across the country and promoted the Kuomintang Central Committee's efforts. Anti-Japanese determination.Then, in the name of the director of Chuankang's appeasement, he published the impassioned "Letter to the Army and the People of Chuankang", and actively organized the Sichuan army to go out to fight in Sichuan. In 1937, when the national government moved from Nanjing to Chongqing, Sichuan, Liu Xiangxian, as the commander-in-chief of the seventh war zone and the commander-in-chief of the 23rd Army, personally led more than 100,000 Sichuan troops to Nanjing to fight against the Japanese.Before leaving, he said to his subordinates: "The wars I fought in the past for decades were all civil wars. Now that the enemy is facing us, and we have the opportunity to resist the war, I just try my best to serve the country, gain trust from the people of the country, and leave a name in history. "
In order to get rid of his confidant's troubles, Chiang Kai-shek further controlled Sichuan.In the name of the Anti-Japanese War, he wiped out the Sichuan army with the hands of the Japanese devils, and ordered Liu Xiang, the commander of the Sichuan 21st Army, to come out of Sichuan to fight against Japan, and appointed Liu Xiang as the commander-in-chief of the seventh theater.
Chiang Kai-shek did not provide supplies such as guns and ammunition, food, clothing, and medicine to the Sichuan army, and did not send troops to support them in times of crisis.Liu Xiang's Sichuan army was defeated again and again, and the soldiers in the army suffered heavy casualties.In the end, Liu Xiang retreated from Nanjing to Hankou.At this time, Chiang Kai-shek dismissed Liu Xiang as commander-in-chief of the Seventh War Zone and completely deprived Liu Xiang of his military power because of Liu Xiang's incompetence in command and ineffectiveness in combat.At this time, Liu Xiang further saw through Chiang Kai-shek's conspiracy to disintegrate the Sichuan army and use the War of Resistance to completely wipe out the Sichuan army, so as to achieve the goal of ruling Sichuan.Liu Xiang is determined to return to Sichuan and regroup against Chiang.But Chiang Kai-shek was also aware of Liu Xiang's plan to return to Sichuan.Then he secretly ordered Dai Li to send special agents to monitor, and at the same time issued three instructions to deal with Liu Xiang, namely "recover from illness, bury him at death, and escape and kill".
Liu Xiang also knew that Chiang Kai-shek's spies were watching him, and it was difficult to escape, so what should he do?He convened his confidants to discuss, and finally chose to take sleeping pills and return to Sichuan as the "remain" of death.
When Chiang Kai-shek heard the news of Liu Xiang's death, he couldn't believe it.Dai Li, the head of the secret service, accompanied He Yingqin, the political minister of the army, to Hankou to attend the memorial meeting and find out the cause of his death.
Liu Xiang's public sacrifice was held in Hankou City, and the mourning hall was set up in Wuhan No. 6 Primary School.On this day, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly came to the mourning hall.Mrs. Liu knelt down on her knees with a thud, crying loudly.Chiang Kai-shek helped her up and said: "Sister-in-law, I want to open something. Zhongzheng is responsible for making proper arrangements for brother Fucheng's funeral and children's affairs, and guarantees that he will be worthy of Commander Liu, sister-in-law and your whole family."
Liu Xiang's coffin was not covered. Chiang Kai-shek said he wanted to bid farewell to the body, so he went to the coffin, opened the coffin cover and examined it carefully. , you and I have worked hand in hand for many years, we are like brothers and sisters, and our hearts are united. Now, brother Liu is going across the river to the west, and brother Liu is heartbroken!" After speaking, he took out a handkerchief, pretended to wipe away his tears, and reached out to touch it again. Liu Xiang's pulse.Chiang Kai-shek's face suddenly changed. It turned out that Liu Xiang's hands were hot and his pulse was still beating.Chiang Kai-shek left the mourning hall in a hurry and gave Dai Li a secret order when he was about to leave Hankou.Dai Li received the secret order and immediately led a heavy army to guard the coffin, and called general Liu Xiang and Mrs. Liu to a meeting to study the funeral. In addition, he secretly sent special agents to forcibly sew Liu Xiang's coffin with glue, and then nailed it to death with wooden nails. Let Liu Xiang's cronies approach the coffin.In this way, Liu Xiang was smothered to death in the coffin.
After Liu Xiang's wife, children and other generals knew, Liu Xiang was dead.
As the Kuomintang withdrew from Nanjing to Wuhan, Sichuan overlord Liu Xiang realized that the province, which he and a group of other warlords controlled, was now under Chiang Kai-shek's guns.At that time, Liu Xiang had just suffered from acute gastritis and was recuperating at Wan Guo Hospital in Hankou.From his hospital bed, Liu attempted to initiate a tripartite military alliance with Song Zheyuan, commander of the First Army, and Han Fuju, commander of the Third Army.At that time, Song Zheyuan controlled Xinxiang and Puyang in southern Henan. Han Fuju was originally a warlord in Shandong and had garrisons in Nanyang, Henan, Xiangyang, Hubei and Hanzhong, Shaanxi.Liu planned to gather troops around Sichuan to form a blockade, and with the help of the Japanese, he could resist Chiang Kai-shek's entry into Sichuan.
Dai Li has long been wary of Liu Xiang.He instigated Fan Shaozeng, a general of the Sichuan warlord army, to monitor Liu.According to Fan Shaozeng's report, Liu Xiang had issued secret code instructions to his generals, ordering them to dispatch troops to Yichang, Hubei, to link up with Han Fuju's troops fighting against Chiang Kai-shek.Liu Xiang himself also maintained direct contact with Han himself by radio communication.But the military command has not been able to decipher their communication codes.However, Fan Shaozeng sent Dai Li's code translator a copy of the codebook used by Liu Xiang's troops in the early days, which gave Dai Li's people the key to deciphering the message.The results of the deciphering enabled Juntong to obtain sufficient evidence to prove the conspiracy of the two warlords to Chiang Kai-shek.The chairman quickly struck down. On January 11, 1938, Jiang personally went to Kaifeng to convene a meeting of the military committee to lure Han Fuju to the capital of Henan Province, where Dai Li's subordinates arrested him and escorted him to Hankou for trial by a military court. He was executed by the firing squad on January 24. shot.
At the same time, the military commander bought Liu Xiang's nurse and replaced the Sichuan warlord's stomach trouble medicine with poison.Liu Xiang soon died of poisoning on the bed of Wanguo Hospital.
We must be fully aware of the significance of Dai Li making waves in Sichuan during the first six months of the Sino-Japanese War.He and his organization quickly took control of the local warlord's garrisons at the behest of Chiang Kai-shek himself, who ordered every garrison to come under the control of his secret police's inspectorate.Soon, inspection offices were established in every public facility imaginable, including railway stations, steamship terminals, bus stations, hotels, teahouses, restaurants, movie theaters, public bathhouses, and theaters, each manned by a The Inspector General is in charge.In principle, no one could escape the surveillance of the secret police.
The scope of Dai Li's secret rule is thought-provoking: Was he a central figure in the KMT's process of controlling the state power, or did his secret agency form a shadow government that ultimately prevented the 22-year reunification of the Republic of China from being consolidated?For example, when Dai Li established customs checkpoints directly accountable to the central government, was he reasserting China's authority over extraterritorial law?Or is this just a guise of the country, just trying to make a living?
