Chapter 49 48. The first battle of Zhifeng, Wu Peifu shocked the Central Plains

In the second half of 1920, the political arena of the Republic of China was relatively peaceful, and various places cultivated and thrived. Soldiers trained and trained, politicians sharpened their lips, and literati published articles and engaged in the New Culture Movement. As for workers and peasants, they did what they should do. .All in all, the world is peaceful and nothing happens for the time being. If you have to say something is wrong, you have to mention two strange things. One is that Jiangsu Governor Li Chun died suddenly in the Jiangsu Governor's Office on October 12 of this year; the other is that in August of the following year, the new Shaanxi Governor Yan Xiangwen Also suddenly committed suicide in the Warlord's Office.

This is really strange.Ordinarily, each of the warlords is the emperor of the earth, who can't control them, and doesn't dare to control them. They are not afraid of the sky and the earth. Why can't they live happily and play the trick of committing suicide together? Let me talk about Li Chun, the governor of Jiangsu. He was only 46 years old when he died. He was in the prime of life but died suddenly.In his memoirs, Feng Yuxiang said that Li Dujun had "thick eyebrows, big eyes, a straight nose, and a handsome appearance", and he was clearly a "diligent, meticulous, shrewd and capable" character. It is doubtful how to say that he will die.

Li Chun is a native of Tianjin. When he was young, he studied in the Tianjin Armed Forces Academy. Shortly after graduation, he followed Yuan Shikai to organize and train the new army. He came from a standard professional class and was a member of the small station team. Has been promoted to the sixth town control, it can be said that he is young and promising, and the opportunity is favored. After the "Second Revolution", Li Chun was promoted to the governor of Jiangxi because of his merits in suppressing it. After Feng Guozhang went to Beijing to become the president in 1917, he was transferred to the governor of Jiangsu... He became the governor of Liangjiang in his early forties. The Qing Dynasty can be regarded as the speed of promotion like flying through the clouds.

According to official news, Li Chun committed suicide angrily because of the division of the country and failure to maintain political affairs, and left a will as evidence.However, Li Chun has been smooth sailing in the officialdom, and has made money in the business world. It is really hard to see why he should be so concerned about the country and the people, and then take such drastic actions. The official statement is unreliable, but gossip is flying all over the place. One is that Li Chun's concubine had an affair with his Ma Bian (sometimes said to be the adjutant of the staff), but was discovered by Li Chun. In a panic, Ma Bian shot Li Chun to death. Another person said that Li Chun died violently because he was appointed by the Beijing government as a tour envoy to Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi, but Anhui and Jiangxi refused to obey the control. Li Chun was stimulated by this, and he became mentally disturbed, so he shot himself; there is another theory that is even more evil It is said that Li Chun had an affair with his adopted daughter, and the adopted son-in-law was unwilling to be humiliated, so he stabbed him to death angrily; some people even said that it was so complicated, that Li Chun was actually killed by his subordinates, and the most suspect was that Qi Xieyuan, the designated successor in the will and deputy in charge of military affairs.

What happened to Li Chunzhi's death, there are different opinions, no one can tell, and the dead can't speak, so it can only be regarded as an unsolved case in the Republic of China. Li Chun's death benefited his subordinate Qi Xieyuan, allowing him to take over the post of Jiangsu Governor.Qi Xieyuan was from Ninghe, Zhili. He and Li Chun were fellow villagers.When Li Chun was in charge of the sixth town, Qi Xieyuan was the chief of staff. He followed closely all the way, and it really paid off, and finally he was successfully appointed as the governor of Jiangsu. Another warlord who committed suicide was Yan Xiangwen under Cao Kun. He was originally the brigade commander of the Zhili Second Mixed Brigade. After the Zhili War, he was promoted to the commander of the 20th Division of the Army.Since Chen Shufan, the governor of Shaanxi at that time, was a member of the Anhui clan, and his direct clan wanted to expand the territory after the great victory, and wanted to drive Chen Shufan out of Shaanxi, and let his own people take the position of the governor.

Chen Shufan has been entrenched in Shaanxi for many years, so he is not willing to be captured without a fight, so the only way to solve the problem is by force. In June 1921, Yan Xiangwen, who was appointed as the governor of Shaanxi, took Feng Yuxiang's 16th Mixed Brigade (which was stationed in Xinyang, Henan Province after being withdrawn from Hunan, and was later renamed the Army's 11th Division) as the forward, and went straight to Xi'an. The Seventh Division entered Shaanxi from Wuguan and Zijingguan to flank Shaanxi, while Yan Xiangwen personally led the 20th Division to follow Feng Yuxiang's troops and prepare to take over by force.Under strong pressure, Chen Shufan's army quickly disintegrated, and he himself escaped from Xi'an in a hurry, and never recovered.Subsequently, the troops of Feng Yuxiang, Wu Xintian, and Yan Xiangwen marched into Xi'an one after another, and Shaanxi fell into the sphere of influence of the direct line.

However, those who are able to be officials are often prosperous, while those who are not able to be officials are exhausted and unbearable. Unfortunately, Dujun Yan is the latter.First of all, there are too many troops in Shaanxi, including Yan Xiangwen's own, Feng Yuxiang's, Wu Xintian's, the Jingguo Army of the Democratic Party, and Chen Shufan's remnants. When there are too many troops, food, grass, and military needs must be supplied locally, and Shaanxi was in the early years of the Republic of China. There were always disasters, and the common people were overwhelmed. Yan Xiangwen was digging all kinds of things, and it was difficult to meet the needs of those soldiers.

Furthermore, after Yan Xiangwen entered Shaanxi, some advisers and councilors under Cao Kun and Wu Peifu followed him in with notes. It is said that the number reached hundreds of people.All of these people have backgrounds. They found Yan Xiangwen all day long, wanting to eat, drink, and be greedy for officials. None of them was easy to deal with. If Yan Xiangwen didn't entertain well, someone would report to Cao and Wu, and they were often reprimanded.Due to the turbulent situation and the increasingly intensified internal conflicts, Yan Xiangwen simply committed suicide by swallowing opium on August 22, 1921, and committed suicide in the Shaanxi Governor's Office.

From this point of view, not just anyone can be an official, especially a thin-skinned person, who cannot be an official! Let's stop here for the bad luck of the two warlords, let's continue to talk about the melee between warlords.After the end of the Zhiwan War, the forces of the Anhui faction were greatly weakened, while the Zhifeng forces ebbed and flowed and were greatly strengthened.However, the distribution of benefits after the war was determined by the strength and contribution of both parties. Therefore, the direct lineage benefited more and the Feng lineage benefited less, and the two factions also secretly clashed, which eventually led to the first Zhifeng war.

From the perspective of territory, the direct influence of Cao Kun and Wu Peifu has expanded significantly.First of all, after Chen Shufan, the governor of Shaanxi, was driven away, Yan Xiangwen, a subordinate of Cao Kun, served as the new governor. Although this unlucky new governor soon reported to Yan Wang, his successor was Feng Yuxiang, the commander of the 11th Division. , can also be regarded as included in the immediate sphere of influence.After the death of his mentor Lu Jianzhang, Feng Yuxiang's army was originally a fringe role that his grandfather did not love and his grandmother did not love. In the past few years, it can be said that he has suffered hardships. I obeyed.

Then, Wu Peifu took advantage of the Hunan army's attack on Hubei to force away the former governor Wang Zhanyuan, and then went south to conquer in person, and helped his best friend Xiao Yaonan to the position of Hubei governor, so Hubei was embraced by Cao Wu's direct lineage.As for Jiangsu, after Governor Li Chun died unexpectedly, the successor Governor Qi Xieyuan had no stable foundation and Zhejiang Governor Lu Yongxiang oppressed in the south. At this time, he could only take refuge in Cao Kun for asylum. Seeing Cao and Wu attacking cities and villages in various provinces, Zhang Zuolin of the Feng family was very unhappy.Although Zhang Zuolin was born with a beard, he has great ambitions, and his desire is by no means limited to outside the customs.At this time, Ni Sichong, the governor of Anhui, happened to go to Tianjin due to illness and was unable to see things (he died in 1924, said to be schizophrenic... Ni Sichong, a political chameleon, must have gone too far), and the two factions fought against the governor of Anhui. idea. First of all, it was Zhang Zuolin who proposed to let Zhang Xun come to serve as the governor of Anhui, because Zhang Xun was his in-laws, and because of the failure of the restoration, he had been hiding in the Tianjin Concession for a long time. Seeing that the news had passed, Lao Zhang wanted to come out to exercise his muscles and bones again, so he pestered Zhang Zuolin Help him get ahead and find the position of the Anhui Governor. To be honest, Zhang Zuolin's proposal is indeed a bit absurd, so it is normal to be opposed by his immediate family.Without coordinating with Zhang Zuolin, Cao and Wu arranged for Zhang Wensheng, formerly Zhang Xun's subordinate, to serve as the governor of Anhui. Zhang Zuolin had no choice but to learn about it. At this time, there happened to be troubles on the Mongolian border, so Xu Shichang handed over the border issue to Zhang Zuolin and appointed him as the Mongolian economic envoy. A little more psychologically balanced.However, not long after, due to the victory of the Zhijun's southern expedition to Hunan, Wu Peifu was appointed as the patrol envoy of the two lakes, and Cao Kun's Zhiluyu patrol envoy, the territory of the Zhili has been connected. In the previous two years, Zhang Zuolin disregarded the fact that Wu Peifu was the backbone of Cao Kun, and criticized Wu Peifu many times. For example, Wu Peifu sent telegrams to cancel the old and new parliaments and representatives of the North-South peace talks, and established the National Assembly to resolve the issue of the North-South split. Zhang Zuolin did not take it seriously. , He said to others in public: "I know Cao inspector. Wu is just a division commander. There are dozens of division commanders in the country, and I have quite a few under him. If everyone interferes in politics, what's the point?" " Seeing that Wu Peifu has changed from a small teacher to a tour envoy of the two lakes on an equal footing with him, Zhang Zuolin is not to mention how annoyed he is.In order to obtain compensation, Zhang Zuolin threatened to resign from the Mongolian and Xinjiang Economic and Strategic Envoy and quit the Mongolian border issue, and finally forced Xu Shichang to transfer the former Rehe Dutong and veteran Jiang Guiti back to Beijing to serve as an army patrol envoy with positions but no authority. , and Changed to Ji Jinchun, the commander of the 28th Division of the Fengjun Army, as the commander of Rehe, Zhang Zuolin finally took a breath. At this time, the financial crisis of the Beijing government broke out again, and warlords from various provinces came to Beijing one after another to demand the owed military pay. The prime minister of the cabinet, Jin Yunpeng, was devastated and had no choice but to resolutely resign as prime minister.In the absence of anyone to take over, Zhang Zuolin pushed out Liang Shiyi, the chief culprit of the Hongxian monarchy and the backbone of the Anfu faction, and Xu Shichang also hoped to use the good dancing sleeve of this God of Wealth to tide over the current crisis.Cao Kun and Wu Peifu originally disagreed with Liang Shiyi's formation of a cabinet, but Liang Shiyi reluctantly agreed to solve the problem of military pay for the immediate army after taking office. On December 24, 1921, Liang Shiyi's cabinet was established.After taking office, Liang Caishen actually had no choice but to use the old relationships accumulated in the past to borrow debts and tear down the east wall to make up for the west wall (of course, such methods of tearing down obstacles are not something ordinary people can do).As for the borrower of Liang Shiyi's cabinet, it must be Japan again. In order to win people's hearts, Liang Shiyi issued an amnesty order on New Year's Day, pardoning Duan Zhigui, Qu Tongfeng, Chen Wenyun and others from the original Anhui Clan. Then, he arranged for the pro-Japanese faction Cao Rulin and Lu Zongyu to come back, with the purpose of borrowing money from Japan.Due to the difficulty of borrowing money for a while, the 3 million arrears Liang Shiyi promised to allocate to the immediate army fell through. At this time, the United States, Britain, France, Japan, China and other countries held a meeting in Washington to resolve the pending cases shelved at the Paris Peace Conference, including China's Shandong issue.After some intense diplomatic negotiations, Japan agreed to withdraw from Shandong, but the Jiaoji Railway had to be redeemed by China with money, and Japan had the right to manage it before the redemption. Because Liang Shiyi was eager to borrow money, he fully agreed to this condition, but after the news was announced, he was severely criticized by Wu Peifu, saying that Liang's cabinet "sacrificed the national line and the right of way", no different from Li Wanyong and Zhang Bangchang.A few days later, Wu Peifu attacked Liang Shiyi again, and said that "Liang Shiyi borrowed Japanese money and jointly managed the railway", that is, "the public enemy of the whole country, and all Chinese people should abandon him together." effect precursor". Under such circumstances, Zhang Zuolin could no longer remain silent. He immediately issued a telegram to support Liang's cabinet, and accused Wu Peifu of "not asking questions about right and wrong, but adding attacks."But Wu Peifu was even more aggressive, saying, "If anyone protects the Liang family, he is a public enemy of the people of the country, and he should swear to kill them all to eliminate the traitors of the country." Zhi Feng criticized each other and were at loggerheads, and Liang Shiyi's play could no longer be sung.Fortunately, Liang Caishen still has self-knowledge, he retreated when he knew the difficulties, and asked for leave to leave Beijing less than a month after forming the cabinet, becoming a coward. In the telegraph war, instead of gaining the upper hand, Zhang Zuolin was repeatedly hit by Wu Peifu's unique hidden weapon of "patriotism and righteousness".Fortunately, at this time, the Anhui faction is also trying to make a comeback, and Sun Yat-sen's law-protecting government is trying to make a northern expedition. The enemy of the enemy is my friend. When President Xu Shichang saw that these warriors were going to use knives and guns again, he couldn't help being a little anxious, but he had no real way to restrain these people, so he had to invite veterans Wang Shizhen and Bao Guiqing from the Beiyang faction to go to Fengtian and Baoding respectively to persuade Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zuolin. The two big brothers Cao Kun, please put the lives of the people as the most important thing, and don't make great efforts to fight again. Although the persuasion of several peacemakers calmed both sides, more importantly, the two sides have not yet reached the point of a complete break.On Zhang Zuolin's side, the imaginary anti-straight line triangular alliance came to naught due to various reasons, and Cao Kun is a loyal person after all, and he didn't want to tear himself apart with Zhang's family, because there were many constraints on Wu Peifu. In mid-March 1922, Cao Kun sent his younger brother Cao Rui to Fengtian to celebrate Zhang Zuolin's birthday, and also to find out what Zhang Zuolin's hole card was.However, after Cao Rui arrived in Fengtian, Zhang Zuolin avoided talking about military and political affairs, and only sent his subordinate Sun Liechen to ask: "Our commander wants to ask Fourth Master Cao, is he a subordinate or a relative?" Cao Rui understood the meaning of the words, and he always disapproved of Wu Peifu's style of work, so he replied: "Please tell Marshal Zhang, our Cao family brothers will not do anything to offend relatives!" Only then did Zhang Zuolin put forward his request, that is: 1.Liang Shiyi was dismissed and reinstated; 2.3. Zhijun withdraws from Beijing-Han Railway North Road; 3.Wu Peifu was full-time the tour envoy of the two lakes, and he was not allowed to concurrently serve as the deputy envoy of Zhilu and Henan. After Cao Rui returned to Baoding to report, Cao Kun frowned and said, "I am the patrol envoy of Zhiluyu, and the Beijing-Tianjin area is my territory. How can I withdraw from the Beijing-Hankou North Road?" ? Even the other two items, Ziyu probably won’t agree either!” After learning of Cao Kun's attitude, Zhang Zuolin decided to act first, and then transported troops to the pass, ready to decide the outcome with guns.Wu Peifu was not idle here either, and in the name of celebrating his birthday, he gathered his direct generals to Luoyang to hold a military meeting to discuss fighting against the Feng army. From April 10th, the Feng army continued to enter the pass and was renamed the "Zhenwei Army". Zhang Zuolin served as the commander-in-chief, Sun Liechen as the deputy commander-in-chief, and Yang Yuting as the chief of staff.The headquarters of the Zhenwei Army is located in Junliang City, Tianjin, with 120,000 troops including Zhang Jinghui's 1st Division, Zou Fen's 16th Division, Zhang Xueliang's 3rd Mixed Brigade, and Guo Songling's 8th Mixed Brigade. Under the oppression of Feng Jun, Cao Kun made up his mind to break with Zhang Zuolin. He telegraphed to Wu Peifu and said: "You are me, and I am you. Although relatives are close, it is better to be close. I will do whatever you want. Do it." The staff around him felt that this was too indecent, so Cao Kun waved his hand and said, "Don't change it, just send it like this!" With Cao Kun's support, Wu Peifu also quickly mobilized the army to prepare for the battle.At that time, Wu Peifu's troops were distributed as follows: Wu Peifu, commander of the West Road, led Dong Zhenguo's 13th Mixed Brigade and Sun Yue's 15th Mixed Brigade to attack Changxindian, Zhang Xiyuan's Fourth Mixed Brigade was the reserve team; The 45th Brigade of the 23rd Division of the Ministry and the 6th Brigade of Yang Qingchen of the 3rd Division attacked Xin'an from Ba County; on the East Road, with Peng Shouxin as commander, he led the 14th Mixed Brigade and the troops of the 26th Division. A brigade attacked Baiyang Bridge.In addition, Feng Yuxiang led the 11th Division and Hu Jingyi, Jin Yun'e and other troops to Henan to monitor Zhao Ti, who had colluded with the Feng Faction, and Zhang Fulai and other troops were reinforcements, with a total strength of no less than 120,000. On April 29, 1922, the Zhifeng War officially started.Under Zhang Zuolin's personal command, the Feng army attacked on both the East Road and the West Road.At Changxindian on the West Road, the artillery fire from Zhang Jinghui's troops overwhelmed Wu Peifu's direct army. , Wu Peifu concluded that the opponent's shells were close to running out, so he ordered the direct army to attack and defeated Zhang Jinghui's troops. At this time, Zhang Zuolin dispatched Liang Chaodong's brigade and Zou Fen's 16th Division in time, which stabilized the western front.However, Zou Fen's Sixteenth Division was originally Wang Tingzhen's troops, that is, the Imperial Guards under the control of the old Zhili Feng Guozhang. Soon he turned his back on the direct line (the Imperial Guards were originally used to turn back, this can be said to be a continuation of the glorious tradition).Under this good news, Wu Peifu led the army to attack violently. As a result, the reinforcement Liang Chaodong's brigade was completely defeated, and the brigade commander Liang Chaodong also died. When the army was defeated, Zhang Jinghui saw that the situation was not good, so he had to ask Zou Fen's relationship to intercede, let his troops withdraw to Beijing, and he was willing to be a prisoner in the Zhijun Army.After receiving the order to retreat, the Xilu Fengjun fell apart and panicked. They were soon disarmed by the Zhijun, and Zhang Jinghui became a real "prisoner". On the middle road, Wang Chengbin's troops also defeated Fengjun Li Jinglin. Although Li Jinglin ordered to defend Dacheng, Wang Chengbin persevered and attacked the city nine times, and finally regained Dacheng.After the Xu Lanzhou Department of Fengjun reinforcements arrived, Wang Chengbin divided his troops to resist the enemy, and then retreated, four times before and after, and finally occupied the horse factory, making great contributions to the Zhili victory. After the collapse of the west road and the failure of the middle road, Zhang Zuolin still tried to stabilize the situation. He even drove to Luofa on the east road to take command, but along the way he only saw the soldiers of the Feng army crazily retreating, and the defeated troops were like a tide. Now he finally understood that the general situation was over. .In order to prevent further losses, Zhang Zuolin immediately turned around, issued a general retreat order, and fled back to Luanzhou in a hurry. After Zhang Zuolin returned to Luanzhou, he touched the sweat on his forehead and couldn't help cursing: "Damn it, this battle was really useless! If it weren't for the protection of Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling's brigades along the way, I would I almost finished playing today...Damn it, this damn Wu brat, he really has a lot of tricks!" After the defeat of Fengjun, President Xu Shichang pretended to issue four orders: 1.Want to arrest Liang Shiyi and disband Liang's cabinet (Liang Shiyi has already gone to Japan); 2.The Feng army withdrew from outside the customs immediately, and the Zhi army returned to the original defense; 3.Revoke Zhang Zuolin's part-time job and wait for the central government to investigate and deal with it; 4.Appoint Wu Junsheng as Fengtian Governor. After Zhang Zuolin received the telegram, he laughed and scolded: "What a fool, even the unarmed old Xu has bullied me. Don't say you dismissed me, I still don't want to work under you." After all, Zhang Zuolin found Wu Junsheng and handed him the telegram. After Wu Junsheng saw it, he didn't even dare to dare, and he had to follow the orders of the commander in chief. On June 4, Zhang Zuolin announced the establishment of the Autonomous Security Command of the Three Eastern Provinces, with himself as commander-in-chief, and Sun Liechen and Wu Junsheng as deputy commanders-in-chief.Zhang Zuolin gave it a good name for this kind of independent behavior from the central government, called "inter-provincial self-government"... The central government does not care about my own affairs, and I am a good official. In order to save face, Zhang Zuolin appointed Sun Liechen as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, commanding the Feng army to launch a counterattack in the Qinhuangdao area, and there was a fierce exchange of fire with the direct army Peng Shouxin's department and Sun Yue's department.Fortunately, at that time, the Zhijun Army did not have the strength and preparation to march outside the pass. The two sides announced a truce under the mediation of the consulates of various countries, and agreed to use Yuguan as the boundary line. original defense. As a result, the first Zhifeng war ended, the Feng army was defeated and Wu Peifu made another glory. After the war, the Zhili's strength expanded again.First of all, Zhao Ti, the governor of Henan who secretly acted as an internal response before the war, mistook rumors during the war, saying that Wu Peifu had died in battle (he really thought so), so he rushed out and published a telegram , counting the crimes of Wu Peifu and Feng Yuxiang, and as a result, as soon as Fengjun was defeated in the first battle, he and his brother Zhao Jie's Hongwei army were all disarmed, and Feng Yuxiang took office as the governor of Henan. In the same year, Chen Guangyuan, the governor of Jiangxi, was dismissed due to his ineffective resistance to the southern army. Cao Kun and Wu Peifu asked Cai Chengxun, the former commander of Chahar, to be the governor of Jiangxi, and Zhou Yinren succeeded him as the commander of the 12th Division.The following year, because of the bandit Sun Meiyao's "Lincheng Carjacking Case" (multiple foreigners were taken hostage), under strong diplomatic pressure from ministers from various countries, Shandong Governor Tian Zhongyu was forced to take the blame and resign on October 18 of that year. The governor of Shandong was replaced by Zheng Shiqi (Anhui Department). As a result, Cao Kun and Wu Peifu's direct lineage forces are even more powerful. After getting rid of the Northeast and Southwest, they really have the taste of dominating the Central Plains.