Chapter 19 19. Beijing Coup: Feng Yuxiang Soars to the Sky

As the first Chinese to appear on the cover of Time Magazine in the United States, Wu Peifu was considered the most promising military general to unify China. He received a heavy blow without warning, which was Feng Yuxiang's sudden defection in the Second Zhifeng War.Someone may ask, who is Feng Yuxiang? Feng Yuxiang, courtesy name Huanzhang, was originally from Chaoxian County, Anhui Province. His father joined Liu Mingchuan's Ming Army in his early years. He participated in the suppression of the Taiping Army, the Nian Army, and the Shaanxi-Gansu Hui Rebellion. Later, he traveled thousands of miles with Zuo Zongtang's troops. Momo Huangsha went to Xinjiang to quell the Agubai Rebellion. During the eight-day journey, every soldier carried raw sweet potatoes as rations. Perhaps he ate so much this time that Feng’s father later saw them selling sweet potatoes on the street. Baked sweet potatoes can't help but feel sick and sour.After the reign of Emperor Guangxu, the world was peaceful, the Ming army was disbanded, and Feng's father also returned to the field. However, his years of military service made him unwilling to engage in other industries. In the end, he joined Li Hongzhang's Huai army and was stationed in Zhili and other places with the army.

During the Guangxu period, the supply of the army was extremely meager. Feng Yuxiang's father was only a low-level officer in the Huai army (later changed to army training), and there were many children in the family, so Feng Yuxiang's life was very difficult when he was a child.In his memoirs, he described the unbearable days in this way: the house in his home is very small, and sometimes there is no place to sit when the guests come; When eating, as soon as the lid of the pot is lifted, the dust on the top will fall like autumn leaves... When he was young, Feng Yuxiang often followed his elder brother to pull weeds and collect firewood to help with the family.In summer, Feng Yuxiang would spend a whole day in the sorghum field when the sorghum leaves were falling, and sometimes he was so tired that he couldn’t even eat. He did not wear new shoes, but only wore refurbished "second shoes"; due to the hardships of life, Feng Yuxiang often went to pawnshops to pawn household items (because adults were too embarrassed to go there), in order to barely make ends meet.Because of this life experience, Feng Yuxiang hated the Qing court and the old society extremely.

Feng Yuxiang's real name is Feng Jishan, and the name "Yuxiang" is quite interesting.At that time, most of the soldiers in Baoding were father-son soldiers (the father retired and the son made up for the camp). Although the salary in the army was meager, they had a fixed income after all. .Therefore, there is a vacancy for a year and a half, and there are many people fighting for it.Feng Yuxiang's father was in a difficult situation at that time, which his comrades knew very well. Once there was a vacancy in the camp. At that time, a supervisor surnamed Miao said, "This time, fill in the son of Mr. Feng." The person next to him asked, "Then what's his name?" Miao Guandai couldn't remember it for a while, so the man said, "Let me ask." Afraid that he would waste time by asking, Miao Guandai waved his hand Said "I know, there is no need to ask", and then wrote "Feng Yuxiang" on the paper.As a result, Feng Jishan became "Feng Yuxiang".

Feng Yuxiang was only 11 years old when he became a soldier, but he was tall and burly since he was a child, and he was born to be a soldier.As an adult, Feng Yuxiang was more than 1.9 meters tall, with big arms and a round waist. He was known as "Big Feng".However, the Feng family did not have any prominent background, and Feng Yuxiang received limited education when he was a child, so he did not go to a military school like other military officers, but relied entirely on his own efforts to fight in the army. Gradually upgraded over the years.Because of this, his daily style is very simple, and he has never been contaminated with some of the bad habits of the time, such as opium smoking, gambling, prostitution, etc., which is completely different from other senior generals.

Because the army training at that time was already weak, Feng Yuxiang later switched to Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Youjun.The Wuwei Youjun at that time was the best in terms of training and treatment. Due to Feng Yuxiang's tall stature, when the Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Luan from Xi'an, Feng Yuxiang also met the Empress Dowager Cixi in Baoding as a guard of honor. That hate).In Yuan Shikai's army, Feng Yuxiang was gradually promoted from deputy head, main head, whistle chief, team officer, etc., and became the battalion management belt of the 20th town at the end of the Qing Dynasty (the standard was Fan Guozhang, before the town control was Chen Huan, later Zhang Shaozeng).

After the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, the revolutionary party lurking in the twentieth town (stationed in Luanzhou) also started to move. There are battalion leaders Wang Jinming, Shi Congyun, Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Shusheng, Zhang Zhijiang, Lu Zhonglin, Li Mingzhong, Gong Boling, Shang Zhen, Shi Jingting, Liu Ji and other colleagues or subordinates.In fact, even Zhang Shaozeng, the governor of the town, was inclined to revolution, which also triggered the later "Luanzhou military remonstrance" and forced the Qing court to announce the "Nineteen Creeds". It is a pity that because Zhang Shao was indecisive and asked to resign, the twenty towns had to be organized by low-level military officers such as Wang Jinming and Shi Congyun. At this time, the Qing government was already prepared and sent Wang Huaiqing, the guard envoy of Tongzhou, to suppress it. The uprising failed in the end. Fourteen revolutionaries including Wang Jinming and Shi Congyun were killed, while Feng Yuxiang and other participants were dismissed from the military and escorted back to their hometowns.

Coincidentally, when the people from the Military Law Department escorted Feng Yuxiang through Beijing, they happened to meet the former old superior Lu Jianzhang.It turned out that after Yuan Shikai came back, he no longer had the ability to absolutely control the Beiyang Army he had compiled and trained before, so he was eager to form a direct line army loyal to him, which was the subsequent five-way backup army.At that time, Lu Jianzhang was transferred back by Yuan Shikai from Chaozhou, Guangdong, to serve as the commander of the left army. He had a good impression of Feng Yuxiang leading the troops back then, but he was in urgent need of excellent mid-level and lower-level officers, so he immediately decided to ask Feng Yuxiang to stay and help.

Lu Jianzhang followed Yuan Shikai all the time when he was training in Xiaozhan. It can be said that he is an old senior of the Beiyang Department. The officer who escorted Feng Yuxiang at that time was also his former subordinate.Lu Jianzhang said bluntly: "You are my subordinate, and Feng Yuxiang is also my subordinate. None of your officers, from Xietong to Biaotong, is not my old department. If you hand over the person to me, this matter will be settled like this .” As a result, Feng Yuxiang stayed in Lu Jianzhang's left reserve army as battalion commander, and was later promoted to regiment commander.During the "suppression of white wolves" in the early years of the Republic of China, Feng Yuxiang was promoted to brigade commander and entered Shaanxi with Lu Jianzhang.After Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor, Feng Yuxiang's 16th Mixed Brigade was ordered to march into Sichuan to fight against the Chinese army, but within half a year, Yuan Shikai died of illness.

At this time, Lu Jianzhang, the governor of Shaanxi who was loyal to Yuan Shikai, was also expelled by the Anhui warlord Chen Shufan, Feng Yuxiang lost his backing, and the 16th Mixed Brigade was almost disbanded.Fortunately, when Zhang Xun made a fuss about the restoration, the 16th Mixed Brigade came in handy, and was retained by Duan Qirui, the reinstated prime minister.However, after all, Feng Yuxiang was not Duan Qirui's Anhui branch, nor was he a direct line of Feng Guozhang, Cao Kun, and Wu Peifu, so he was often excluded, and sometimes he couldn't even pay his military salary.Fortunately, Feng Yuxiang himself came from a poor background, was always hard and simple, and shared joys and sorrows with the soldiers. Therefore, the troops he led were very united and cohesive, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

After Wu Peifu took control of the direct line of power, Feng Yuxiang was pushed out from the Henan Warlord to the position of an army tour envoy with positions but no powers, and the conflict between the two arose from this.As early as before the Second Zhifeng War, Feng Yuxiang contacted the Feng faction through his subordinates and conspired to jointly fight against Wu.After Zhang Zuolin learned that Feng Yuxiang was extremely distressed and embarrassed in Beijing, he immediately decided to join forces with Feng Yuxiang and donate some weapons and money to Feng's department to form an anti-Wu alliance.

Although Feng Yuxiang looks tall and burly, like a military veteran, he is actually bold and careful.After the Second Zhifeng War broke out, Feng Yuxiang left a battalion of troops in the city as an internal response under the pretext of training recruits, while other troops moved out of the city one after another, but their daily travel was only twenty or thirty miles, and their movements were very slow.After Feng Yuxiang's headquarters arrived at Gubeikou, they immediately used an excuse to raise supplies and ordered Lu Zhonglin's troops to practice marching every day, so that the residents along the way would not be surprised, so as not to attract the attention of the outside world when the squadron returned to Beijing. Lu Zhonglin was born as a soldier. When he was in Sichuan, he served as the battalion commander of the 16th Mixed Brigade. He was highly regarded by Feng Yuxiang.Before entering Beijing, he sent two companies into the city each time to pretend to be carrying things, but every time he entered more and left less, so he gathered nearly a regiment of troops in the city one after another. Sun Yue's garrison troops who formed an anti-Wu alliance also turned a blind eye to this. According to Xu Yongchang, who was the chief of staff under Sun Yue at the time, recalled: Feng Yuxiang once said angrily during a conversation with him, "Wang Maoxuan (Huaiqing) is an amphibious bat. How can he be the commander of the infantry? The commander of the infantry should be Someone like Second Brother Sun is right." Yes, Wang Huaiqing had a grudge against Feng Yuxiang, and during the Mutiny in Luanzhou, several of Feng Yuxiang's revolutionary comrades were killed by him.Wang Huaiqing is very superstitious. When his troops leave Beijing, they must leave through Deshengmen, even if they take a detour.However, Xu Yongchang thinks that Wang Huaiqing is good to his soldiers. When the troops make winter clothes, he has to personally inspect them, lest the cotton wool is not thick enough, and the needle and thread are not dense enough. He can be regarded as an old man. On the night of the coup, Sun Yue ordered his battalion commander Geng Rengui to open the gate of the city. Before dawn, he was about to hand over the black flag inlaid with the white moon symbol that he had made with Feng to the troops in the city.As a result, Lu Zhonglin's troops marched into the city in a large scale. Since the soldiers in the front were already guiding the streets, the coup was carried out without anyone noticing it, without even firing a single shot. After the coup, representatives of Feng Yuxiang and Sun Yue went to the presidential palace to ask Cao Kun to abdicate, but Cao Kun refused to agree and lost his temper.After Feng Yuxiang's representative was stunned, Zhao Yuke, Cao Kun's aide, sent him out and asked, "What is Yuxing doing? We think his team is good and trust him. What is he doing now?" Feng Yuxiang's representative Perfunctory said: "Nothing, I just feel that the civil war is endless and the people are in dire straits. I want to ask the envoy Wu not to fight again. Please tell the president to rest assured." Zhao Wenyan said stubbornly, "The president is an old man in his sixties. What's the matter?" Don't worry, he doesn't worry about you." After finishing speaking, he returned angrily. Speaking of which, Cao Kun actually treated Sun Yue well.Sun Yue, courtesy name Yuxing, was born in Gaoyang, Zhili Province in 1878. It is said that after Sun Chengzong, a famous general in the late Ming Dynasty, he was a hero in his early years. He once killed a local bully and became a monk. Lonely, he was admitted to the Artillery Department of the Baoding Armed Forces Academy. After graduation, he was assigned to the Third Beiyang Town under Cao Kun's command. During the Revolution of 1911, Sun Yue served as the town's staff officer.Sun Yue joined the Tongmenghui very early and was one of the important leaders in the north, so he can be said to be an old revolutionary. After the Wuchang Uprising, Sun Yue went south to vote for the revolutionary government because he was involved in the "Luanzhou military remonstrance".After being hit by this, Sun Yue changed from an active revolutionary to a decadent. In the end, he found his old leader, Cao Kun, and got the post of head of the military officer teaching regiment. Later, Cao Kun promoted him to be a daimyo The guard envoy and the commander of the fifteenth mixed brigade. Feng Yuxiang and Sun Yue were acquaintances in the late Qing Dynasty. After Feng Yuxiang planned to launch a coup in Beijing, he confessed to him. Sun Yue agreed after hearing this, and took the initiative to undertake the liaison work with Hu Jingyi and Yue Weijun of the Shaanxi Army.Before the Zhifeng War, because Wang Huaiqing, who was originally in charge of Beijing's public security, was transferred to the front line, Feng Yuxiang recommended Sun Yue to Cao Kun as the deputy commander of Beijing's security.Cao Kun didn't know what it was, so he agreed to Feng Yuxiang's proposal and transferred Sun Yue's department from Baoding to Beijing.Afterwards, Sun Yue smiled and said to Feng Yuxiang: "After a long time, it turns out that you specially brought me here to open the city gate for you!" People under the eaves had to bow their heads. Cao Kun finally had to admit defeat, and Wu Peifu's army on the front line was also defeated.After the end of the Cao Kun regime, Feng Yuxiang pushed out Huang Yu, another revolutionary party and Chiang Kai-shek's brother-in-law, to form a temporary cabinet.However, this interim cabinet was a transitional one. Apart from driving Qingxun Emperor Puyi out of the palace, it was replaced by the ruling government organized by Duan Qirui without doing anything.The political situation in the north at that time was not decided by Feng Yuxiang alone, because the Feng army who conspired to defeat Wu Peifu had also moved south at the same time, and Zhang Zuolin's words carried more weight.According to Feng Yuxiang's original intention, he hoped that Sun Yat-sen would come to serve as the head of state, but since Sun Yat-sen's going north was nowhere in sight, Feng Yuxiang decided to recommend Duan Qirui to come out of the mountain to clean up the mess after negotiating with Zhang Zuolin.As a result, Duan Qirui, the Beiyang tycoon who had been lurking for nearly 4 years after the failure of the Zhiwan War, was reintroduced and became the interim ruling of the Republic of China (in view of the frequent fights and conflicts between the president and the prime minister, this time it was not set up at all) . After the "Beijing Coup", the warlord forces in the northern provinces were reshuffled. The territory of the former Zhili and Anhui cliques was gradually divided by Feng Yuxiang's National Army and the Feng Clique. Replacing Wu Peifu's position, he became a first-class role in the political situation at that time.However, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, and the conflict between Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin broke out immediately. Feng Yuxiang also secretly supported Zhang Zuolin's subordinate Guo Songling to oppose Feng, which intensified the conflict between the National Army and the Feng faction. At the beginning of 1926, Feng Yuxiang's National Army and Zhang Zuolin's Fengjun were fighting for territory in North China. In order to ensure victory over the National Army, Zhang Zuolin decided to turn the enemy into a friend, and joined forces with Wu Peifu, who was clearing up the remaining troops in Hubei, to attack the National Army from north to south.Wu Peifu was defeated because of Feng Yuxiang's defection, and finally led more than 2,000 disabled people to flee to the south of the sea, and changed from Shanghai to Wuhan in order to make a comeback.After receiving Zhang Zuolin's suggestion, he called back at that time and said: "I hate volatile villains the most in my life. I didn't expect Feng Yuxiang to appear here. You also have Guo Songling. The rebellion is looking for and the discipline is corrupt. It is really sad and deplorable." .Since you have spoken, I will do my best to help and condemn these traitors together, so that there is no escape for these traitors." After Feng Yuxiang learned that Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu joined forces, he sent someone to lobby Wu Peifu: "I have offended the public before, but now I regret it. I decided to step down immediately, and the National Army will follow your command. The direct enemy is Feng. Army, if we can join hands and unite in time, the enemy will be united in the same hatred, the chances of victory will be feasible, and the whole country will obey the orders of the public, wouldn't it be better!" After Wu Peifu heard about it, he said in a dumb voice: "Does Feng Huanzhang still know that I am a person? He used to be unjust and used external forces to overthrow us. Now that the situation is not good, he wants to use our power to maintain the achievements of his rebellion. Do I Will he be foolish enough to be played by him like this? Now he has been spurned by all the members of my immediate family, which is definitely not something I can tolerate personally. He still talks about unity with me now, people like him repeat Cheng, since he can turn back to the front, who can guarantee that he will not turn back to the back again? If I am deceived by a person like this who is used to deceiving others with hypocrisy all his life, what is the difference between right and wrong and justice? " In the end, Wu Peifu still joined forces with Zhang Zuolin to deal with the national army, and finally defeated them in Nankou.It is a pity that this is already the eve of the Northern Expedition. With the Northern Expedition going north, Wu Peifu's power also collapsed, but throughout his life, he never forgave Feng Yuxiang. Before the "Beijing Coup", a fire broke out upstairs at the Qianmen Tower. The old shopkeeper of a restaurant said: "This is the second time that the ridge of the Qianmen Tower has smoke. The first time was in the 26th year of Guangxu. Soon there was the Boxer Rebellion. The fear of smoke will also lead to chaos."This is not false.The wars during the period of the Republic of China were not large in the early stage, such as the Zhiwan War and the two Zhifeng Wars, and the number of troops invested in each other was only tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Even millions of troops (such as the Central Plains War) fought, so that the homes of ordinary people were destroyed and displaced, which can be described as miserable. It is said that Peng Hanfeng, a well-known fortune teller, once met Feng Yuxiang. He later told people that Feng Yuxiang was "like Liu Bei, talented like Sun Quan, more ambitious than Dong Zhuo, deceitful like Lu Bu, and lucky only Yuan Shao".Feng Yuxiang, who was born as a grassroots soldier, has neither a strong background and backing, nor the origin and organization of the Beiyang faction. Just such a motley crew of "grandpa doesn't love, grandma doesn't love" can develop into a team of 200,000 to 300,000 people. The National Army, this was already a miracle during the brutal warlord period.After all, in the era of warlords with constant melee, either you eat me or I eat you. The word "morality" should not be asked or asked.