Chapter 54 Five Three, Guo Songling defected, and the Feng Faction was in chaos

Although Fengjun was defeated by Sun Chuanfang's coalition of five provinces, he was not injured after all, and Sun Chuanfang had no intention of capturing Xuzhou, and the situation in the south has basically stabilized.At this time, Zhang Zuolin had to deal with a more powerful enemy, which was Feng Yuxiang's national army. According to Wu Peifu, Sun Chuanfang, and Feng Yuxiang's previous plan to deal with Fengjun, Sun Chuanfang cut off the head, Wu Peifu cut off the middle, Feng Yuxiang cut off the tail, and wiped out the Feng faction forces in one fell swoop.In this regard, Zhang Zuolin also has his own way to deal with it, that is: for Sun Chuanfang's interception, Feng's army retreated to Shandong to temporarily avoid confrontation; for Wu Peifu's interception, because Wu's army is not strong, the danger is not great; Du Feng Yuxiang's national army is the deadliest, a little carelessness will lead to the annihilation of Feng's army.

Therefore, Zhang Zuolin believes that if he wants to go south to the south of the Yangtze River and rule the world, he must first eliminate the most dangerous enemy around him, that is, the National Army entrenched in the Northwest and Central Plains. It may be cut off by Feng Yuxiang, and finally fell short. Because of this, Zhang Zuolin did not send the most elite troops of the Feng army south, but placed them in Luanzhou, Tianjin, and set up the Jinyu Garrison Command to monitor and guard against Feng Yuxiang's national army.But just when Zhang Zuolin was about to fight a big battle, suddenly there was a big disturbance inside the Fengjun without warning, which is what is called "Guo Songling's defection" in history.

Who is Guo Songling? Guo Songling, courtesy name Maochen and nicknamed "Guo Guizi" by others, was born in Shenyang, Fengtian in 1883.Guo Songling entered the Fengtian Army Primary School at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and later entered the Crash School. After graduation, he was sent to Beiyang No. 3 Town as a trainee, and then returned to Shengjing General Yamen to work. He won the trust of the commander Zhu Qinglan. Later, Guo Songling was transferred to Sichuan with Zhu Qinglan, and participated in the revolution in Sichuan after the Wuchang Uprising. However, due to the exclusion of Sichuan people, Guo Songling returned to Fengtian and entered Beijing General School Research Institute and Chinese Army University successively in the early years of the Republic of China. Graduated Later, he was hired as an instructor by the Beijing Lecture Hall, and he belonged to a typical academic background in the military.

After Yuan Shikai failed to proclaim himself emperor, Guo Songling once went south to Guangdong to defect to Zhu Qinglan, the former leader and governor of Guangdong at the time, and served as the commander of the Guangdong Army Guard Battalion. Unfortunately, there are many factions and conflicts in Guangdong, and Guo Songling has no way to display it. His talent finally returned to his hometown in Fengtian. Under the introduction of Qin Hua, a classmate of the Army University (the then chief of staff of the Fengtian Governor’s Office), Guo Songling first entered the Governor’s Office as a major staff officer, and then was transferred to the instructor of the Lieutenant Colonel of the Jiangwu Hall in the three eastern provinces. It's the young marshal Zhang Xueliang.Zhang Xueliang was born in 1901. In 1919, he entered the lecture hall of the three eastern provinces to study military affairs at the age of 19.

Zhang Xueliang is Zhang Zuolin's son-in-law, and it is inevitable that he has the atmosphere of a dandy, so the other instructors relaxed their demands on him and even let him go. Only Guo Songling did not believe in this evil. He treated Zhang Xueliang like other students without distinction, and also gave him strict Require.Since Guo Songling came from an academic school and indeed had a few talents, Zhang Xueliang was soon overwhelmed by his profound knowledge and solid foundation, and respected him as a teacher and treated him as a friend, thus establishing a relationship of trust. A year later, Zhang Xueliang graduated from the lecture hall, and was appointed by Zhang Zuolin as the brigade commander of the guard brigade.The first thing Zhang Xueliang did after he took office was to transfer Guo Songling to be the chief of staff and concurrently the head of the second regiment. Guo Songling also became a military officer and was promoted repeatedly in his military career...and progress with the young commander. !

Guo Songling is tall, with piercing eyes, and he is clearly a man of great ambition.In normal life, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, Guo Songling is always in uniform, with a serious face, his style has always been well-organized, and his life is relatively simple.Guo Songling's wife, Han Shuxiu, is a graduate of Yenching University, and she is close friends with Feng Yuxiang's wife, Li Dequan. After the Zhiwan War, Zhang Xueliang served as the brigade commander of the third mixed brigade of the Fengtian Army, and Guo Songling served as the brigade commander of the eighth brigade. Since Zhang Xueliang held other positions, the two brigades worked together, and their training and personnel management were all handed over Guo Songling was in charge, and people at that time called it the "38th Brigade".

During this period, the relationship between Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling was very close. Zhang Xueliang was suspicious of Guo Songling and had no doubts about employing people. He completely let Guo Songling train the army; and Guo Songling also sincerely supported Zhang Xueliang and obeyed him. .Just like the relationship between Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, Zhang Xueliang often said: "Guo Maochen is me, and I am Guo Maochen." Zhang Xueliang basically supported Guo Songling's decisions and actions. Under the sincere cooperation of Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling, the "38th Brigade" performed well in the first Zhifeng War, which also won Zhang Zuolin's great attention.After the defeat of Zhifeng in the First World War, Zhang Zuolin reorganized his army and prepared military forces. One of the measures was to turn the troops of Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling into the trump card army (the "Second and Sixth Brigade") in the Feng army.

In the second Zhifeng War, the Fengjun was organized into six armies, but the elite troops were the first army and the third army (that is, the "First and Third Allied Army"). However, since most of the cadres of the "First and Third Allied Army" were trained by Guo Songling, the most elite troops of the Northeast Army were actually under the command of Guo Songling. In contrast, Guo Songling rose to the top thanks to the young marshal Zhang Xueliang, and the rise of his faction will inevitably lead to conflicts with other old factions.The Feng Faction at that time could be divided into three factions: the first faction was the "Green Forest Veteran School", such as Zhang Zuoxiang, Zhang Jinghui, Tang Yulin and others. They were originally a group of green forest heroes transformed into military veterans. The status is deeply rooted; the second faction is the "Japanese non-commissioned officer faction", such as Yang Yuting, Jiang Dengxuan, Han Linchun and others. It is not uncommon to see people in China, such as Li Liejun, Cai E, Yan Xishan, etc., can all be included in this faction; the last faction is the "Beiyang Lu Da faction" headed by Guo Songling. Including the students trained by the "Northeast Lecture Hall", among them are Wei Yisan, Liu Wei and other middle and senior generals.

From ancient times to the present, Chinese people like to form cliques when they are together. There are parties and factions almost everywhere. There are parties in the party, and there are factions in the party.As a rising star, members of Guo Songling's faction were young, aggressive, and advanced in thinking, so they inevitably had conflicts with those "Green Forest Veterans" and "Japanese Non-commissioned Officers".Furthermore, the "Green Forest Veteran Faction" and the "Japanese Non-commissioned Officer Faction" were already in power at that time. If Guo Songling's faction wanted to take over, it would inevitably arouse the vigilance and resentment of the other two factions, and intensify the conflict.

Among these people, Guo Songling and Yang Yuting had the greatest conflict.First of all, these two men are self-willed, proud of their talents, and no one takes anyone seriously; secondly, Yang Yuting was the general councilor and chief of staff of Fengjun at that time. Whether it is government affairs or military affairs, Zhang Zuolin relied heavily on him. He is an extremely prominent figure, and Guo Songling has mastered the Fengjun force, backed by the young marshal Zhang Xueliang, which can be said to be evenly matched; therefore, apart from Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Xueliang, the most fierce competition in the Feng army is Yang Yuting and Guo Songling, and the political views of the two have always been at odds , because of the usual power struggle and deep grievances.

After the second Zhifeng war, Li Jinglin became the supervisor of Zhili, Zhang Zongchang became the supervisor of Shandong, Yang Yuting became the supervisor of Jiangsu, and Jiang Dengxuan became the supervisor of Anhui. Guo Songling, who contributed the most, was in the middle of the land distribution after the war No income.Zhang Zuolin's idea is of course the traditional seniority ranking and taking care of the old comrades first, but for Guo Songling and his group, this is unfair rewards, which naturally aroused their strong dissatisfaction. Zhang Zuolin originally planned to arrange Jiang Dengxuan as Jiangsu supervisor and Guo Songling as Anhui supervisor, but Yang Yuting suddenly jumped out and snatched the position of Jiangsu supervisor, so Jiang Dengxuan replaced Guo Songling as Anhui supervisor.Guo Songling had already sent a brigade to Bengbu, Anhui, and was ready to serve as the supervisor of Anhui. Who knew that in the end, it was all in vain, and the anger in his heart can be imagined. Zhang Xueliang also understood Guo Songling's mood at the time. He once said to Wei Yisan, Guo's chief of staff: "In the future, if he (Guo) wants a territory, Heilongjiang and Jilin will let him choose. However, now is not the time, and we need to be less restless. By then This issue will definitely be resolved.” However, Guo Songling couldn't bear it at this time and didn't want to wait any longer. After the Second Zhifeng War, most of the troops who went to various places to occupy the territory were the secondary troops of Fengjun. One division, two brigades, two artillery brigades, and one extra-processing regiment, with a strength of 75,000, are the most elite part of the Feng army, and the military power is held by the young marshal Zhang Xueliang, with Guo Songling as his deputy.When Zhang Xueliang held too many concurrent positions, the military power was actually in the hands of Guo Songling. Due to the special relationship between Guo Songling's wife Han Shuxiu and Feng Yuxiang's wife Li Dequan, Feng Yuxiang's "Beijing coup" will inevitably have an impact on Guo Songling.Guo Songling is different from ordinary Beiyang soldiers. He participated in the revolution during the Revolution of 1911, and his experience was similar to that of Feng Yuxiang. Therefore, he was not used to the style of the warlords. This is probably the so-called "revolutionary" impulse. In addition, after Feng Yuxiang successfully defected, his power expanded rapidly, which actually set an example for Guo Songling.Comparatively speaking, Guo Songling's status and strength in the Fengjun are far superior to Feng Yuxiang's in the direct lineage. Since Feng Yuxiang can achieve such a great success, he will also engage in "anti-Feng and Zhang" and become a Northeast leader himself. Wang, the chances of winning should be great. It is said that there is another reason for Guo Songling's defection, that is, when he was sent to Japan to watch the exercises, he accidentally learned of the secret agreement between Japan and Zhang Zuolin, and angrily defected out of patriotic enthusiasm.Feng Yuxiang also sent his subordinate Han Fuqu to watch the exercises in Japan this time, so Guo Songling reached a secret agreement of seven offensive and defensive alliances with Feng Yuxiang through Han Fuqu, and jointly fought back.At the same time, Guo Songling reached a tacit agreement with Li Jinglin, who was also excluded, and was ready to cooperate. On November 22, 1925, Zhang Zuolin suddenly called Guo Songling to return to Shenyang to discuss the issue of combat against the National Army.Guo Songling thought that the matter had been leaked and the time could not wait, so he immediately decided to turn against the enemy, and sent three telegrams on the same day, announcing the refusal of the war, and asked Zhang Zuolin to step down, ask Zhang Xueliang to take charge, and severely punish the culprit of the main war, Yang Yuting, etc. . That night, Guo Songling convened a military meeting in Luanzhou. Nearly a hundred officers from the "First and Third Allied Forces" attended the meeting. Guo's wife Han Shuxiu also attended the meeting.At that time, the atmosphere of the venue was tense and the guards were heavily guarded. The guards were armed with live ammunition and patrolled back and forth.After Guo Songling announced that he would oppose Feng and Zhang, all division commanders, brigade commanders, and regimental commanders who were willing to participate were invited to sign the war participation letter, and those who did not sign were not forced. Due to the sudden incident, these middle and senior military officers looked at each other in blank dismay, at a loss.In the end, Qi Enming, Pei Chunsheng and other four division commanders publicly expressed their opposition. Later, these people were sent to Li Jinglin for house arrest, and most of the others signed the war participation letter, expressing their willingness to follow Guo Songling and turn against him. After the meeting, Guo Songling quickly reorganized the more than 70,000 troops at his disposal into five armies, ready to march outside the customs.At the very beginning, in order to win greater sympathy, Guo Songling signed Zhang Xueliang's name at the same time after the order. It was not until the 30th that he changed the name of the army to "Northeast National Army" and stopped using Zhang Xueliang's name. The news of Guo Songling's defection was like a blockbuster, which almost stunned Zhang Zuolin. Zhang Xueliang was also very surprised and couldn't believe his ears.At that time, Zhang Xueliang was busy trying to appease the Bohai Fleet, so he really didn't expect Guo Songling to mess with him like this behind his back. What's more terrible is that Guo Songling initially opposed Feng in the name of "the side of the Qing emperor" and "supporting Zhang Xueliang's administration", which made Zhang Xueliang appear even more passive. On the night of November 24th, Zhang Xueliang went south by train, but because the land route was blocked, he changed to arrive at Qinhuangdao by sea. He first sent his Japanese consultant Makoto Makoto to talk on the phone with the Japanese doctor Fukumatsu Morita who treated Guo Songling in Luanzhou. I hoped to meet Guo Songling once in person, but was declined. In desperation, Zhang Xueliang had no choice but to ask someone to send Guo Songling a personal letter, which said: "Brother's kindness, support Liang to come to power, but I can't betray the righteousness of my friends, how can I forget my righteousness and betray myself?" What about my father? So brother, who is said to rule and manage the three provinces, can do it for himself, even if I die, I dare not accept my order, lest I be reprimanded as disobedient through the ages." Although Zhang Xueliang has repeatedly assured Guo Songling that as long as the military is stopped, he will be responsible for all aftermath issues, but Guo Songling has already opened his bow at this time and has no arrows to turn back. There is no second way of retreat except to move forward.Under such circumstances, the two sides can only fight each other and compete on the battlefield. Compared with Zhang Zuolin, Guo Songling is not safe in terms of political strategy.For example, Guo Songling declared that he wanted to "clear the emperor's side" and "support the young commander-in-chief" this time. Zhang Zuolin would follow his plan, and soon dismissed Yang Yuting to investigate and let Zhang Xueliang go to recruit him. This trick not only makes these two calls of his own disappear invisibly, but also makes his duplicity "Sima Zhao's heart" known to all officers and men.After all, to serve the "young commander" to attack the "old commander" not only violates the traditional Chinese way of human relations, but also is not very clever in strategy; , I am afraid that it is not easy in the conservative Fengjun. In dealing with the relationship with other Fengjun generals, Guo Songling is also self-willed and aggressive.For example, killing Jiang Dengxuan, a general of the Feng Dynasty, is an example.Jiang Dengxuan is an important member of the "non-commissioned officer faction". This person has always been taciturn, calm and peaceful, and is quite popular among Fengjun.However, Guo Songling had conflicts with him in the second Zhifeng War. Jiang Dengxuan also sued Guo Songling in front of Zhang Zuolin, and Guo Songling held a grudge. On the issue of the Anhui supervisor, although Jiang Dengxuan squeezed out Guo Songling as the supervisor, the reason was not that Jiang Dengxuan wanted to snatch it, but because Yang Yuting snatched the Jiangsu supervisor who should have been appointed by him. Yang Yuting should be mainly blamed for this matter. Instead of venting his anger on Jiang Dengxuan.However, after Sun Chuanfang's army captured Jiangsu and Anhui, Jiang Dengxuan was stopped by Guo Songling on his way back to Fengtian and ordered to be shot on the pretext of "warning the militarists". To say that Jiang Dengxuan was "military" is obviously a bit of a big hat, but shooting and killing an army general without trial made the people in the Fengjun panic and everyone felt insecure.Guo Songling's method of threatening revenge and disregarding human life is really a stupid move to add points to the opponent and reduce points to himself.It is speculated that although Guo Songling killed Jiang Dengxuan because of personal suspicion, it is likely that Jiang Dengxuan was used to "sacrifice the flag" to show his determination to "advance without retreat" (the same should be true for other rebels, and we should not take any chances. heart of). Another reason for Guo Songling's failure was that he overestimated his own strength and rejected the help of other factions in the Feng family.For example, Kan Chaoxi, Tang Yulin and others who also had conflicts with Zhang Zuolin also sent representatives to express contact after Guo Songling raised troops, but they asked for territory in Heilongjiang or Jilin respectively.However, Guo Songling only appointed them as general counselors and other vain positions, and did not say a word about the territory. This made Kan Chaoxi, Tang Yulin and others extremely disappointed, and finally turned to Zhang Zuolin. The army led by Guo Songling is indeed the most elite of the Feng army. Less than half a month after the announcement of the uprising, Guo Jun defeated the guards of Zhang Zuoxiang, Ji Jinchun, and Zhang Xueliang one after another, even though there were many people in his unit who joined the battle. And occupied Jinzhou on December 8. At this time, it is just around the corner to continue to march and capture Shenyang. It is a pity that due to the excessive speed of advancing troops and logistical reasons, Guo Jun was exhausted, and Guo Songling had to order the troops to rest in Jinzhou for three days.Because Guo Jun failed to chase the poor bandits fiercely, Feng Jun got precious breathing time, and reinforcements from Jilin and other areas also arrived continuously at this time, which was extremely unfavorable to Guo Songling. More importantly, Zhang Zuolin took advantage of this opportunity to step up his collusion with Japan, and he did not hesitate to sign a secret agreement to gain the support of the Japanese Kwantung Army.After Guo Songling rebelled, the Japanese side was also extremely concerned. They sent representatives to Zhang Zuolin and Guo Songling to inquire, hoping to obtain information that would be beneficial to them.In this regard, Guo Songling only hoped that Japan would remain neutral, and did not agree to their request for aggression. Under the shadow of failure, Zhang Zuolin made a desperate move, and agreed to Japan's request for land lease and mixed residence rights in Manchuria (this later triggered "Huanggutun incident", Zhang Zuolin paid the blood price for it), the condition is that the Japanese Kwantung Army assists Fengjun to defeat Guo Songling's troops. After receiving Zhang Zuolin's guarantee, Japan immediately mobilized troops to the northeast and warned Guo Songling's troops not to enter within 20 miles of the South-Manchuria Railway, otherwise the Kwantung Army would take extraordinary measures.In other words, the east of the South-Manchuria Railway became Zhang Zuolin's safe zone, while Guo Songling's troops could only go north along Jinzhou to attack Shenyang.Not only that, the Japanese Kwantung Army also spied on Zhang Zuolin's military situation, guided targets, and even sent Japanese troops to wear Fengjun uniforms to help Zhang Zuolin fight. Under such circumstances, after Guo Songling's troops went north to occupy Xinmin, they fought a decisive battle with the Feng army in the Juliu River area north of Shenyang.Since the Feng army was waiting for work at leisure, with the help of the air force and the cavalry of the brigade, Guo Songling's troops had traveled for a long time and had insufficient supplies. At this time, they were at the end of their strength. On December 22, the two sides launched the final decisive battle. Because Guo Songling's chief of staff, Zou Zuohua, had secretly defected to the Feng army, the only artillery with superiority in Guo's army was useless. As a result, under the fierce attack of the Feng army, Guo Songling's troops collapsed across the board, and the rear headquarters was also surrounded by Wu Junsheng's cavalry. In the early morning of December 24, Guo Songling and his wife led a small number of entourages to escape from Baiqi Fort, but were soon overtaken by the cavalry of Fengjun Wang Yongqing. In the chaos, Lin Changmin, Guo Songling's entourage and aide, was shot to death. escaped, but Guo Songling and his wife disappeared. Lin Changmin was a well-known political activist in the early years of the Republic of China. He was already a star figure when he was studying in Japan, and he was very famous among foreign students.It is a pity that the political arena of the Republic of China is based on the barrel of a gun. People like Lin Changmin and Liang Qichao have wisdom and ideals. It is to rely on others, and it is difficult to pay for aspirations.During the May 4th Movement that year, it was Lin Changmin, then chief of affairs of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Presidential Office, who first disclosed the news of the failure of diplomacy in Beijing's "Morning News", which eventually caused an uproar.After Guo Songling raised his army, Lin Changmin was invited by Guo Zhi and gladly entered the scene, but it was a pity that he suffered such a disastrous defeat and died in the rebellion.Lin Changmin was a native of Minhou, Fujian Province. He had a daughter named Lin Huiyin and a son-in-law named Liang Sicheng (son of Liang Qichao), both of whom were talented men and women in the Republic of China. As for Rao Hanxiang, it has been mentioned many times before that he was originally Li Yuanhong's main aide, and he was also known as "literary courage", and his original parallel style telegrams were all the rage.After Li Yuanhong failed and quit the political arena, Rao Hanxiang also retired with him, but for some reason, this time he also participated in Guo Songling's rebellion, and drafted many telegrams for it.After Guo Songling was defeated, Rao Hanxiang escaped by chance and died two years after returning home. As for Guo Songling and his wife, they hid in a farmer's vegetable cellar at that time, but they were reported later, and they were both arrested.After the report was approved by Zhang Zuolin, Guo Songling and his wife were shot dead on the banks of the Liaohe River on December 25.Before the execution, Guo Songling said: "I advocate righteousness, but it doesn't help, and death is a fixed point." His wife Han Shuxiu said: "My husband died for the country, and I died for my husband. My husband and wife can have no regrets!" The day Guo Songling and his wife were killed happened to be Christmas in the West, and the land outside the pass was covered with snow and the wind was whimpering.That year, Guo Songling was 42 years old and Han Shuxiu was 34 years old. Guo's failure was not accidental when he took the soldiers of the Zhang family to rebel against the old Zhang family.In the early years of the Republic of China, traditional Chinese concepts such as "lord, minister, subject", "loyalty, filial piety" and other "feudal morality" were still the mainstream at that time. Zhang Zuolin had run the Northeast for decades. Xiang, still in the old Zhang family, which can be seen from the fact that Guo Songling's troops continued to defect to Fengjun during his march.Since Guo Songling couldn't win Fengtian in one go, his defeat in Maicheng should be a certainty. After Guo Songling and his wife were killed, Zhang Zuolin ordered his body to be dragged to Shenyang for three days, and then Zhang Xueliang sent someone to take him in and cremate him.The fate of life is elusive, and so is history.It took only one month for Guo Songling to start the army and fail. His experience was like a shining meteor across the night sky. Although it was a flash in the pan, it left a dignified mark in history.Guo Songling's failure was not only his personal tragedy, but also a heavy blow to Zhang Zuolin and his son.Zhang Zuolin originally hoped to rely on the elite teachers of Zhang Xueliang and Guo Songling to help him achieve the great cause of unification by force, but Guo Songling's rebellion shattered this dream.As a result, the Feng family has turned from prosperity to decline, and its spirit is not as good as before.