Chapter 46 Four or five, the old Duan also made a gun

During the crusade against Zhang Xun's restoration, Duan Qirui did not have a single soldier by his side. He mainly relied on Li Changtai's Eighth Division, Feng Yuxiang and Cao Kun's troops to successfully conquer the rebellion... To use a popular saying, this It is simply an "empty glove white wolf", completely relying on personal prestige to "turn over the salty fish", which cannot but be said to have an element of luck. During the Hunan-Hubei War, Duan Qirui originally counted on the Beiyang army to help him realize his dream of "unification by force", but the front-line troops were not his own soldiers after all, so how could they help you out of the fire?Therefore, the Hunan-Hubei War was attacked twice, but in the end it was nothing, and Duan Qirui also felt the pain of having no soldiers in his hands.

It stands to reason that Duan Qirui had successively served as the commander of three Beiyang towns when training the new army in the late Qing Dynasty, and served as the supervisor of several military schools when he was training at Xiaozhan. After all, he should have his own soldiers, but After Yuan Shikai came to power in the Republic of China, although Duan Qirui was appointed as the chief of the army, he broke away from the direct relationship with the army. It has been a long time and it is inevitable that the command will not move. From this, it can be said that Duan Qirui should be regarded as a soldier throughout his life, not a warlord, because he does not have his own army, so he cannot use it to support himself, and these two points happen to be the main characteristics of a warlord.However, Duan Qirui originally had this condition, but unfortunately he was unlucky and did not do well.

Where does this start? Speaking of this, we have to start with the declaration of war on Germany.Everyone on the earth knows that China and Germany are far apart, and the German devils in Shandong were also killed by the Japanese devils. In addition, Germany has shown signs of decline after 1917. At this time, declaring war should be a good thing that is sure to make money.However, in response to an old Chinese saying that "good things take time", on November 7, 1917, Russia, which was originally in the same group as China, suddenly fired a "October Revolution", which was more powerful than that of the Wuchang Uprising But it was much bigger. The Wuchang cannon only affected China, but the Russian one shocked the world...

After the revolution, the Lenin government endured the humiliation and signed the "Brest Peace Treaty" with Germany, which was absolutely humiliating and humiliating, and unilaterally announced the peace, and then withdrew from the Allied Powers and the First World War.According to the "Brest Peace Treaty", Soviet Russia had to cede territory of millions of square kilometers (parts of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and all of Latvia and Belarus) and pay 3 billion rubles (about 6 billion marks), but Soviet Russia However, it won peace and its precious breathing time, which played a great role in consolidating the nascent Soviet Russian regime.As for the treaty, it was all empty talk. Germany was defeated and surrendered soon. Who will accept it?

Trading space for time, this kind of diplomacy requires great courage and determination, which is beyond the capabilities of ordinary people.Of course, traitorousness is still a good diplomacy. This is their business. Let’s talk about the Republic of China here. There is no need to go so far. After the Soviet Union and Russia withdrew from the war, the Allied Powers panicked. The big guys blindly oppressed Soviet Russia to continue fighting against Germany, otherwise they would be held accountable and regarded as an enemy country. When Feng Guozhang's government got the news, it was also infected by panic. Wouldn't it be troublesome if Germany came to retaliate?Therefore, there is also a reason why Duan Qirui was appointed as the supervisor of the war... Who let you cause the disaster?I have no choice but to ask you old Duan to make it up for himself.

At this time, the Japanese offered an olive branch to Lao Duan, saying that Russia's separate peace with the enemy would threaten the security of the Far East. Since China and Japan are the same group and are close neighbors in the Far East, why not take precautions and jointly deal with Soviet Russia?To this end, Japan proposed extremely favorable terms, that is, Japan would borrow 20 million yen to provide military pay and purchase ordnance, and to help China train a participating army. Duan Qirui was surprised and delighted when he got the news. He completely forgot the conspiracy behind the Japanese, so he sent the Chief of Staff Jin Yunpeng to be in charge of the Sino-Japanese negotiations, trying to make this profitable deal.Jin Yunpeng lived up to expectations, and at this time Lao Duan was reinstated as Prime Minister, and everything went smoothly, so China and Japan signed a joint defense military agreement for the army and navy in mid-May. Purchase ordnance and pay for military expenses, and send military personnel to help train Chinese troops to join the war.

However, the Japanese offer is conditional, that is, after the Sino-Japanese alliance, once Japan launches a war against the Soviet Union in Siberia, China must cooperate with Japan in the military operation area to provide each other with weapons, equipment and military supplies; Participating in the Siberian operation must obey the command of the Japanese headquarters; when Japanese troops and munitions are transported via the Northeast Railway (the South-Manchuria Railway and the Middle East Railway, the former is controlled by Japan, and the latter belongs to Russia), China and Japan should cooperate with each other.

The harm here is that Japan can enter the Northeast of China at will under the pretext of defending against the enemy, which also provided an opportunity for Japan to send troops to North Manchuria and seize the right of way to the Middle East Railway. On August 2, 1918, Japan declared war on Russia, and then occupied Vladivostok all the way, and occupied Chita all the way north along the railway, thus occupying a large amount of Soviet Russia's territory in the Far East.However, a large part of Japan's military operations needs to be transported through Northeast China, which actually laid an important foreshadowing for the later "September 18th Incident" (after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan turned South Manchuria into sphere of influence, this time taking advantage of the Russian Revolution to covet North Manchuria again).

In fact, during the period when Duan Qirui was in power, he borrowed far more than this time from Japan. For example, the famous Nishihara loan was as high as 145 million yuan (the Bank of Communications borrowed 25 million yuan, and Cable Telecom borrowed 20 million yuan. Ten thousand, Jihui Railway borrowed 10 million, Jiheilin Mine borrowed 30 million, Manchuria Fourth Railway borrowed 20 million, Shandong No. The loan is 30 million, the Gyeonggi flood loan is 50 million, and the ordnance loan is 32 million. The total amount is close to 280 million yen. Some people will say, why are the Japanese so willing to lend money to China?Of course there is a reason for this.It turned out that at that time, due to the European War, Japan’s trade exceeded a large amount. As a result, it accumulated a large amount of financial assets and needed to find a way out. A high return investment.

In addition, the loan also played a role in matching Japan's expansion in China, especially due to the frequent changes of the Chinese government during the Republic of China, many loans often became a mess. No one can tell now.Therefore, the issue of borrowing can easily lead to political and even military conflicts. But it is a pity that Duan Qirui seemed to be completely unaware of this at this time. At that time, his mind was completely on the preparation and training of the participating troops, but he did not know that the sugar-coated shells sent by the Japanese were poisonous...and extremely poisonous. .

Historically, due to its limited resources and lack of room for development, Japan determined to annex the Korean Peninsula and the three eastern provinces after the Sino-Japanese War of 1899-1895, so as to immigrate to settle and eventually merge with Japan to establish a new "Great Japanese Empire."This established strategy can be derived from the fact that the Black Dragon Society and the Japanese military supported the Revolutionary Party of 1911 to split China into eighteen provinces and Manchuria. It has been proved in a series of historical facts such as the establishment of the puppet Manchukuo during the 18th Incident. During the Sino-Japanese War, the Beiyang Fleet really lacked some luck in the battle in the Yellow Sea, which also reversed the national fortunes of China and Japan in modern history.However, God is fair, and Japan is not infallible.After 1937, they invaded China in an all-round way. The so-called "snakes swallow elephants without people's hearts" eventually came to naught, a complete failure, and half a century of business management came to naught (soldiers are often more stupid than politicians, and more eager for quick success).Otherwise, a "Great Japanese Empire" that merged Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan will surely become a nightmare for the Chinese people for at least 500 years or even forever.All of this, given time and step by step, is not impossible; but it is normal for the ambition to be too big and the ability to be lacking, to lose everything. Historical observation often lies in the deliberation of details, and long-term historical observation can better reveal the ultimate truth of history.Japan's strategic intentions, which have lasted for nearly half a century, are reasonable both in terms of historical facts and logic.A well-known historical figure who was in it couldn't see the plot in it, and claimed many times that Manchuria could be leased to Japan after the success of the revolution, which is an extremely paradoxical thing. In August 1918, the Training Office of the Participating Army was established, responsible for handling the formation and training of this new army. Jin Yunpeng served as the supervisor concurrently. An officer teaching group and a sergeant teaching group were also established, led by Chen Wenyun and Qu Tongfeng respectively.According to the agreement, the military expenses of the participating troops were all borrowed from Japan, and the weapons and equipment they used were also purchased from Japan, and even the training methods were completely adopted from Japan.The Army’s Officer Training Corps is mainly composed of outstanding graduates from the Baoding Military Academy and junior officers who are close to the Anhui Department. After training, they are assigned to the participating army as junior officers; Excellent soldiers are drawn to come for training, and after three months of training, they are assigned to the participating army as sergeants.There are six battalions in the Sergeant Teaching Corps, with a total number of about 3,200 people. Duan Qirui attached great importance to the preparation and training of the participating troops. At the opening ceremony of the sergeant teaching regiment, he came to speak in person with great interest.Old Duan was very happy to see the neat and vigorous military posture of the sergeant training regiment. He pointed to the supervisor Jin Yunpeng beside him and said to everyone: "Look! Jin Dulian was originally an artilleryman when I was training at the small station. You are the supervisor of the participating army! You must train well and obey orders, and your future prospects will be limitless!" When Jin Yunpeng was told by the old Duan, he swallowed the precepts he had prepared, so he could only continue what the old Duan said: "That's right! When I was training at the small station, I was just a soldier under the supervision of Duan. Today I Being able to stand here is all cultivated and promoted by Supervisor Duan, and you have become the students of Supervisor today, and you will have a bright future in the future!" After the training of the Officers' and Sergeants' Training Groups, they went to Anhui, Shandong, Henan and other places to recruit more than 30,000 new recruits, and formally formed the army in January 1919.The participating army was divided into three divisions. The commander of the first division, Qu Tongfeng, was stationed in Beiyuan, Beijing; the commander of the second division, Ma Liang, was stationed in Jinan, Shandong; the commander of the third division, Chen Wenyun, was stationed in Nanyuan, Beijing. Since all the weapons and equipment of the participating army came from Japan, they were considered very advanced in the country at that time. For example, the first division of the participating army had two infantry brigades, one artillery regiment, and one cavalry regiment. There is a battalion of machine guns each, with a total strength of more than 10,000 troops.The basic equipment of the first division, the infantry all use Japanese 38 big covers, and the guns are also mountain guns and field guns produced in Japan.The artillery regiment governs three battalions, each battalion governs three companies, and each company has four artillery pieces.There are four companies in the machine gun battalion, each with six heavy machine guns. In terms of training, the participating troops also followed the model of the Japanese military academy, with subjects such as step-by-step, artillery, riding, engineering, and stabbing. More than one hundred Japanese instructors were appointed to guide the daily training of the participating troops. Therefore, judging from the weapons and equipment, training level, and personnel quality at that time, the participating army was not only the best in the domestic army, but also the "ace army" that Duan Qirui was proud of.However, there is a major hidden danger in the army participating in the war, that is, the time to become an army is too short, and most of the middle and lower-level officers among them are military school students who have not yet graduated. The troops lack actual combat experience, and the officers also lack command experience. These negative influences were immediately exposed in the real battle with real knives and guns. Not long after the reorganization of the participating troops, the First World War came to an end, and peace became the mainstream at that time.As a result, Duan Qirui changed the name of the participating army to the National Defense Army, and later changed its name to the Frontier Defense Army. He also changed his name from "War Participation Supervisor" to "Border Defense Supervisor".During the North-South peace talks, the representatives of the South insisted on canceling the border guards, which was flatly rejected by Duan Qirui.Not only will Lao Duan not disband the border guards, but he will also build a second army, the Northwest Army. Speaking of the Northwest Army, we have to start with the interception incident planned by Xu Shuzheng in February 1918.At that time, because Duan Qirui was dismissed as prime minister, Xu Shuzheng planned such a good show in order to help the coach come back and force Feng Guozhang to take the lead.The batch of ordnance that was robbed was originally ordered by Duan Qirui when he was prime minister. Of course Xu Shuzheng was unwilling to leave the fat water to outsiders, so he colluded with Zhang Zuolin from outside the pass to enter the pass suddenly, and after snatching the batch of ordnance, he established Feng Military Headquarters. Because of the heated relationship between Xu Shuzheng and Zhang Zuolin at that time, Zhang Zuolin appointed Xiao Xu as the deputy commander of the Guannei Fengjun (Zhang Zuolin was the commander-in-chief himself), and used this batch of ordnance to form five supplementary brigades, in the name of preparing to support Hunan. The troops of Zhang Jinghui and Sun Liechen on the Hubei battlefield were in charge of the army.For this new army, the senior officers at that time were mainly appointed by Xu Shuzheng and the senior general Yang Yuting of the Feng Dynasty, and these people were basically graduates of the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer Academy. The details of these five brigades are as follows: Fengjun supplemented the first brigade, brigade commander Wang Yongquan (recommended by Xu Shuzheng); Third Brigade, brigade commander Li Ruzhang (relationship unknown); Fengjun Supplementary Fourth Brigade, brigade commander Song Banghan (a classmate of Xu Shuzheng's seventh class of Japanese non-commissioned officers); Fengjun Supplementary Artillery Brigade, brigade commander Song Ziyang (belonging to Xu Shuzheng's seventh Japanese non-commissioned officer) classmate). Later, because Zhang Zuolin discovered that Xu Shuzheng had embezzled Fengjun’s salary to bribe elections in the Anfu Department, the relationship between the two became tense. Under the coordination of Duan Qirui, except for Yu Zhen's brigade who was transferred to the front line of Yuezhou to join the Fengjun headquarters, the other four brigades were all included in the war department... After all, Xiao Xu was on the issue of providing weapons and appointing officers Rather subtle. After parting ways with the Feng faction, Xu Shuzheng began to concentrate on running the Northwest. At this time, because of the Russian Revolution, some former Tsarist Russian military officers planned independence on the Mongolian border and continued to harass the Mongolian border of China.Duan Qirui, who is the supervisor of the border defense, of course did not dare to underestimate it, and then he sent Xu Shuzheng to try to solve the Outer Mongolia issue. At that time, Xu Shuzheng also thought it would be a good choice to base himself in the northwest and seek a territory for Duan Qirui's forces, so he accepted the order happily.However, it is impossible to solve the Mongolian border issue with bare hands, so he sent people to Henan, Anhui and other places to recruit recruits, and then added these recruits to the four brigades that were separated from the Feng faction. After reorganization, except for Wang Yongquan's first brigade, which was reorganized into the 24th mixed brigade and transferred to Fujian to support the Fujian-Zhejiang coalition forces (the Guangdong army was attacking Fujian at the time), the other troops became the four mixed brigades of the Northwest Frontier Defense Army. The order is as follows: the first mixed brigade of the frontier defense army, brigade commander Song Banghan, stationed in Yanzhou; the second mixed brigade of the frontier defense army, brigade commander Song Ziyang, stationed in Tianjin; the third mixed brigade of the frontier defense army, brigade commander Chu Qixiang (a close friend of Xu Shuzheng), stationed in Kulun ; The Fourth Mixed Brigade of the Border Defense Army, brigade commander Zhang Dingxun (a classmate of Xu Shuzheng's seventh class of Japanese non-commissioned officers), stationed in Luoyang; the Fifth Mixed Brigade of the Frontier Defense Army, brigade commander Li Ruzhang, stationed in Nanjing. In June 1919, Xu Shuzheng was appointed as the Northwest Frontier Envoy and Commander-in-Chief of the Northwest Frontier Defense Army. From this, Xiao Xu, who had a heavy army in his hand, was finally about to show his ambitions.At this time, Duan Qirui was also the most smug. He held three trump cards at that time. The first was the frontier defense army led by Jin Yunpeng (that is, the original army participating in the war), the second was the Northwest Frontier Defense Army led by Xu Shuzheng, and the third was the Anfu Congress. Even though Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui resigned at the same time in October 1919, why should the old Duan be afraid if he has these three trump cards in civil and military affairs?The main reason why the previous policy of "unification by force" failed was because Lao Duan had no soldiers in his hands. Now that there are two "ace troops" of the participating army and the Northwest Army at the same time, is it still far away from the realization of the great cause of reunification?