Chapter 55 May 4th, "Lian Feng discussing Feng" and "Lian Feng discussing Feng"

When Guo Songling fought hard with the Feng army, the changes or blind moves of his allies were also an important reason for Guo Songling's failure to fight back.According to the agreement between Guo Songling and Li Jinglin, Li Jinglin should obtain the territory of Zhili and Rehe, but after Guo Songling raised his troops, Feng Yuxiang immediately sent Song Zheyuan's troops to take Rehe directly, while Deng Baoshan's troops of the National Second Army captured Baoding and tried to seize other areas in Zhili. territory. The change of the National Army immediately aroused Li Jinglin's dissatisfaction and vigilance. The reason why he joined the Guo-Feng Alliance was mainly to expand his power and become independent from the Feng faction. Even survival has become a problem.At this time, Zhang Zuolin sent a representative Xu Lanzhou to lobby, advising him to leave the Guo-Feng Alliance, and to let go of his previous telegram against Feng.

After weighing the interests, Li Jinglin decided to break with the national army and return to the embrace of the Feng clan. Then he sent all the Feng army generals Guo Songling had handed over to him to be imprisoned back to Shenyang to show his loyalty to Zhang Zuolin.According to the previous agreement, the national army should assist Guo Songling in the attack, but now it has become a turf battle among allies. Instead of helping, it has dragged Guo Songling back.The behavior of the National Army to poach the corners of its allies is actually a short-sighted move to fish in troubled waters. This not only pushed Li Jinglin to the opposite side, but also made the previous grand strategy a complete failure.

Now that the National Army and Li Jinglin have broken off, the two sides will tear their faces apart and start a war in the Tianjin area. The outcome of the battle will determine the ownership of Zhili.While Guo Songling was approaching Shenyang, Zhang Zhijiang's and Zheng Jinsheng's Departments of the First National Army, Deng Baoshan's Department of the Second National Army, and Xu Yongchang's Department of the Third National Army attacked Li Jinglin's Department in Tianjin from the North Road and South Road respectively. The areas around Machang and Luofa fought repeatedly, causing heavy casualties to each other. However, after several days of fierce fighting, the outcome was still undecided. Instead, the diplomatic corps of the foreign powers took out the provisions of the "Xin Chou Treaty" that no troops should be stationed along the Beijing-Tianjin line to fight. But at this time, the military situation is on fire, who will take into account whether you have a treaty or not.

Seeing that Tianjin could not be attacked for a long time, Feng Yuxiang transferred Song Zheyuan and Li Mingzhong from Rehe Suiyuan, and Li Jinglin also hurriedly asked Zhang Zongchang in Shandong to mobilize reinforcements.When Guo Songling was finally defeated, the national army fought a decisive battle with Li Jinglin and Zhang Zongchang's Zhilu coalition forces in Tianjin. In the end, Li Jinglin's troops were defeated and abandoned Tianjin, retreating to Cangzhou and Dezhou, while Li Jinglin himself fled into the concession first. Then he arrived at Jinan by sea via Qingdao, and continued to command his remnants who had retreated into Shandong.

Although the national army won the war against Li Jinglin and seized the territory of Rehe and Zhili, from the overall point of view, this breach of contract was essentially a missed opportunity to eliminate Zhang Zuolin's forces.After Guo Songling was defeated and killed, Zhang Zuolin quickly regained his vitality and wanted to find the National Army to settle the general score. As a result, the entire battle situation in the north has undergone major changes: Guo Songling was defeated and killed, Zhang Zuolin's Feng army was not in danger; the National Army occupied Tianjin and Zhili territory, Li Jinglin and Zhang Zongchang formed the Zhilu coalition army; "Lian Feng to seek Feng" has changed to "Lian Feng to seek Feng"... It seems that Wu Peifu hates Feng Yuxiang's defection and is bound to take revenge.

After the end of the war, the national army reached its peak. They had more than 400,000 troops and occupied large territories in Beijing, Tianjin, Zhili, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Rehe, Suiyuan, and Chahar. The largest force among the warlords.However, after this change, Fengjun Zhang Zuolin, Zhilu Allied Forces, and Wu Peifu are bound to join forces to deal with the Nationalist Army, which will make them face the enemy. The overall situation is very unfavorable to them. It is a pity that the national army is not unified, and various factions are fighting for power. For example, after Zhili was defeated, Yue Weijun's second national army and Sun Yue's third national army wanted to bring Zhili under their control. In the end, there was a lot of trouble, and even Feng Yuxiang was caught in the middle and had no choice.

In January 1926, Zhang Zuolin publicly called Wu Peifu to express his understanding, and raised the issue of jointly dealing with the National Army.After receiving the call, Wu Peifu immediately agreed, and returned the call from the bottom of his heart to scold Feng Yuxiang: "Feng Yuxiang's rebellion in the past made me sad; now Guo Songling's rebellion, I think you are also very sad. What I hate most in my life are these capricious villains. , now I am willing to help you." As a result, Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu smiled and turned from enemies to friends. Under the pressure of the direct line and the Feng line to join hands again and the internal conflicts and entanglements of the national army, Feng Yuxiang once again retreated and announced his resignation. On January 4, 1926, after leaving the mess to his subordinates Zhang Zhijiang, Lu Zhonglin and others, Feng Yuxiang transferred to the Soviet Union to visit and study via Kulun.It is a pity that Feng Yuxiang's retreat not only did not change Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu's gnawing hatred for the National Army, but instead plunged the National Army into a passive situation without a leader.Ten days later, wars broke out in Shanhaiguan, Shandong, Henan and other places between Zhang Zuolin's Fengjun, Zhilu Allied Forces, and Wu Peifu's troops. This is the so-called "Guofeng War."

When Guo Songling was defeated, there was still an elite unit that remained intact, and that was the Fifth Army led by his best friend and former artillery brigade commander Wei Yisan.The reason why Guo Songling failed to transfer Wei Yisan's Fifth Army to the front line was mainly because Li Jinglin had broken his contract and surrendered. In order to prevent Li Jinglin from attacking from behind, he left Wei Yisan's army in the Shanhaiguan area to monitor Li Jinglin's army. But what Wei Yisan never imagined was that Guo Songling's failure came so quickly, and his situation was very dangerous now.Although Zhang Zuolin expressed the hope that Wei Yisan would return to the Fengjun regardless of previous suspicions, Wei Yisan finally went south to Baoding to join the National Army and accepted the banner of the "National Fourth Army".

Therefore, the first target of the Fengjun crusade was Wei Yisan's "National Fourth Army".After the Feng army launched the offensive, Lu Zhonglin of the National Army immediately led Han Fuju, Tong Linge, Zheng Jinsheng, Sun Lianzhong and other troops to Luanzhou to deploy defenses to prevent Feng Jun from driving straight into the pass. In addition, Song Zheyuan and other troops also dispatched at Xifengkou and other places to Contain Fengjun's retreat. On the Shandong side, the Zhi-Shandong Allied Forces were divided into two groups. One was led by Zhang Zongchang's troops to attack Li Jicai's Department of the National Second Army, which was still in the southwest of Shandong, and the other was led by the Zhi-Shandong Allied Forces to launch a counterattack in the direction of Tianjin, trying to regain Tianjin and Zhili territory. .In the southwestern battlefield of Shandong, because Wu Peifu's Jin Yun'e Department received Zhang Zongchang's help with military equipment and food, Zhang Zongchang's and Jin Yun'e's Department formed a north-south pincer attack on Li Jicai.

In a critical situation, Yue Weijun ordered all the troops in Shandong to withdraw to Henan to protect themselves, and Zhang Zongchang, after clearing the Second Nationalist Army in Shandong, then joined forces with Li Jinglin's troops to go northward, preparing to retake Tianjin.The counterattack by the Zhi-Shandong Allied Forces was very large-scale, with a total of seven armies, including three armies of Li Jinglin (a total of one division and eight mixed brigades), and four armies of Zhang Zongchang (a total of nine divisions and two mixed brigades). Set off, attack Tianjin all the way, and attack Baoding all the way. In mid-to-late February, the Zhishan-Shandong Allied Forces had successively captured Cangzhou and Machang, forming a confrontation with the National Army and waiting for the final general offensive.

On the battlefield in Henan, Wu Peifu's troops mainly fought against Yue Weijun's Second Nationalist Army.At the very beginning, Yue Weijun did not fall behind. He first appointed Li Yunlong as the commander-in-chief of southern Henan, transferred Jiang Shijie, the commander of the 11th Division, to guard Xinyang, Li Jicai to guard Guide (now Shangqiu), and Tian Yujie to return to Zhengzhou to welcome Wu Peifu. attack.Although Wu Peifu's army was limited in strength, he had previously bought off the remnants of the Zhensong Army defeated by Yue Weijun and the local Red Spear Club in Henan, so as to attack from inside and outside.Wu Peifu's own troops were divided into two groups, one led by Kou Yingjie, who attacked from northern Hubei into southern Henan, and the other led by Jin Yun'e, who attacked from Shandong into eastern Henan.The third route was the remnants of the Zhensong Army led by Liu Zhenhua and Zhang Zhigong, who invaded western Henan from Shaanxi.These troops launched a fierce attack on the Nationalist Second Army from three directions, and they must put them to death and hurry up. Although Kou Yingjie's troops under the command of Wu Peifu were blocked when they attacked Xinyang, the Wu army under Jin Yun'e made smooth progress and captured Guide, Lanfeng and other places one after another. Then Wu Peifu also changed his strategy, bypassed Xinyang and marched northward, and captured Zhumadian one after another. , Luohe, Yancheng and other places, and finally formed a siege of the main force of Yue Weijun's troops.At this time, the Mi Zhenbiao Department of Yi Army, which was originally attached to the Second National Army, also defected to Wu Peifu. Yue Weijun finally had to abandon Zhengzhou on March 2 and retreat to western Henan and northern Henan respectively. After Jin Yun'e's troops and Kou Yingjie's troops joined forces in Zhengzhou, they divided into two groups and continued to pursue Yue Weijun's Second Nationalist Army.In the end, Deng Baoshan's troops withdrew to northern Henan, and finally joined Feng Yuxiang's First National Army. After Yue Weijun escaped from Luoyang, under the pincer attack of Wu Jun and Zhensong Army, the main force of the once-prominent Second National Army was wiped out, and Yue Weijun himself was also killed. Yan Xishan's troops going south were captured. In this war, the siege of Xinyang was the worst.Due to the high, thick and strong walls of Xinyang City, the Wu army was unable to attack for a long time, and Jiang Shijie's division failed to break through. As a result, the war was protracted.Due to lack of fuel, all the trees in the city were cut down, and the doors, windows, beams and columns of public places such as temples and halls were also dismantled.After the siege was lifted, garbage piled up in the city like a mountain, and feces were everywhere, and the plague spread for several years, and the people of Xinyang suffered! After the war in Henan ended, Wu Peifu appointed Kou Yingjie as the supervisor of Henan, and Jin Yun'e as the governor of Henan, which is considered to have regained his old territory.Prior to this, Xiao Yaonan, the governor of Hubei who once betrayed Wu, died of a sudden illness on February 14, 1926 (this day happened to be the first day of the first lunar month) (it is said that Wu died of poisoning). Wu Peifu's confidant. The Henan battlefield wiped out the Second National Army, but this was only a small battlefield. The real main decisive battle was still in the final confrontation between the Feng Army, the Zhilu Allied Forces and Feng Yuxiang's First National Army. In early March 1926, the Zhilu Allied Forces resumed fighting with the National Army in the south of Tianjin, and the fighting was extremely fierce.In order to make full use of their naval superiority, the Zhi-Shandong Allied Forces sent the Bohai Fleet to Dagukou to harass and try to land in order to cut off the national army's retreat. In order to prevent the Zhishan coalition forces from using foreign ships as cover to land, the national army blocked the sea around Dagukou, turned off the beacon lights, and set up mines to prevent ships from passing through.The behavior of the National Army was immediately strongly protested by the diplomatic authorities of the powers. They believed that the behavior of the National Army violated the "Xin Chou Treaty" that Tianjin Port was not fortified, and demanded that the warring parties immediately stop military operations. In the midst of disputes between China and foreign countries, the powerful warriors were not intimidated by the false intimidation of imperialism, so the war continued. In late March, the Feng army and the Wu army launched fierce attacks in the north and south directions respectively to cope with the battle of Tianjin in the middle.Under the fierce attack of the Feng army, the national army retreated steadily, retreating from Luanzhou, Tangshan and other places one after another, and Wu Peifu's army also went north and occupied Shijiazhuang, approaching Gyeonggi. At this moment, Yan Xishan, the governor of Shanxi who always likes to add insult to injury, also took the opportunity to send troops to Jinghan Road, threatening the rear of the national army, and the national army immediately fell into a desperate situation besieged on all sides. On March 21, Zhang Zhijiang, Li Mingzhong, Lu Zhonglin and other generals of the national army issued a call for peace, and ordered a general retreat the next day, withdrawing all the troops on the Jinpu line and the Beijing-Han line to the Gyeonggi area. Take Tianjin. Under the pressure of the Feng army, the Zhilu coalition army, and the Wu army, the National Army tried to win over Wu Peifu to deal with Zhang Zuolin's forces. Jin Yun'e and others under Wu Peifu also believed that the Feng faction was the biggest enemy. At first he proposed the policy of "joining Feng to discuss Feng", but Wu Peifu hated the National Army too much in his heart. Not only did he reject Jin Yun'e's proposal, but he also had only one sentence to the representatives of the National Army who came to negotiate peace: "There is nothing to do except disarm. other ways." On April 15, the Feng army occupied Tongzhou, the Zhi-Shandong allied forces occupied Nanyuan, Beijing, and Wu Peifu's troops also arrived in Xiyuan.On the same day, the rest of the national army withdrew from Beijing and retreated to Nankou. Although the national army has withdrawn from Beijing, its strength is still there. Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu will never let them go easily.In order to defend against the attacks of Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu's troops, Zhang Zhijiang divided the national army on the front line of Nankou into two groups: Lu Zhonglin, commander-in-chief of the East Route Army, led Zheng Jinsheng, Fang Zhenwu, Xu Yongchang and other troops to defend the line from Duolun to Nankou; Commander-in-Chief Song Zheyuan led Han Fuju, Shi Yousan, Shi Jingting and other troops to defend the northern Shanxi area, and took an offensive against Yan Xishan's Jin army. The Nationalist Army was defeated by the Zhifeng Allied Forces, and it was about to move westward to seize the territory of Shanxi. This scared Yan Xishan, who had always been opportunistic, into a panic.Yan Xishan has occupied Shanxi for more than ten years since the Revolution of 1911. In order to prevent the entry of foreign forces, he even made the railway tracks in Shanxi narrow gauge, in order to prevent the troops from other provinces from driving straight in.However, at this moment, the national army is in a panic. Although Yan Xishan "I will not offend", the national army "will offend me", so what can I do? Yan Laoxi's Jin army's combat effectiveness is obviously not at the same level as that of the National Army. Shi Yousan and Han Fuju's troops then easily invaded Datong and Yanmen Pass, which made Lao Yan very anxious.Fortunately, at this time, Feng Jun and Wu Peifu's direct army had resolved the internal crisis, and could launch an attack on the Nationalist Army at Nankou at any time, which rescued Yan Xishan from the crisis. It turned out that when the national army was attacking the city in Shanxi, there were different voices within Zhang Zuolin's Feng family and Wu Peifu's direct family. They opposed the continued attack on the national army. Jin Yun'e.After Wu Peifu negotiated with Zhang Zuolin, Jin Yun'e was dismissed, and the dissident Li Jinglin was disarmed by Zhang Zongchang. The two giants of the direct alliance agree that they must completely solve the national army. At the end of June, Wu Peifu issued a general attack order to launch a general attack on the National Army in Nankou, but at this time Wu Peifu's troops were no longer the trump card third division of the year, so the attack did not improve for half a month. At this time, Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zongchang I couldn't bear to look at it from the sidelines, so I had to switch to the Fengjun and Zhilu coalition forces as the main attack task. On August 1, 1926, the Fengzhi Allied Forces launched a general attack across the board. Zhang Xueliang, Zhang Zongchang, and Wu Peifu all came to the front to command in person, and the battle was extremely tragic.Although the national army resisted bravely, it finally collapsed across the board due to the outnumbered enemies, and abandoned the south entrance on August 13 to retreat. The army was defeated like a mountain, and the National Army was chased by the Fengzhi Allied Forces and Yan Xishan during the retreat. Finally, the National Army was beaten into nothing. Han Fuju and others defected to Yan Xishan, while Zhang Zhijiang and others led the way. The remnants fled to Suiyuan, Gansu and other directions, and in the end there were only 50,000 to 60,000 people left. But it doesn't matter, Feng Yuxiang has returned from the Soviet Union at this time. Although his old army suffered a disastrous defeat, the basic team is still there after all. With the help of the Soviet Union and the Northern Expedition Army in the south, it is not impossible for the National Army to make a comeback.