Chapter 179 178. Wu Peifu made great strides in the two lakes

Before and after the withdrawal of troops in Hengyang, Wu Peifu called for peace and always put the interests of the country and the nation first, which was applauded by the whole country.But after the Zhiwan War, he became a militant soldier. He advocated the unity of force, just like Duan Qirui.Since he led the army to Hubei, the Hunan Army has repeatedly expressed its willingness for peace, and the whole country does not want to see another war in Hubei.Li Yuanhong, Xiong Xiling and others from Hunan and Hubei who were in Tianjin sent telegrams to advise Cao Wu not to be superstitious about force.Liang Qichao called Wu Peifu and said: "Don't take the dirty clothes from Anfu and put them on your shoulders." Wu Peifu turned a deaf ear to these advices.

On the 16th, Wu sent Du Xigui, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, to lead Jianzhong, Jiangyuan and other ships to assist Zhang Keyao and Wang Duqing's two brigades to attack the left wing of the Hunan Army that had already reached Baotazhou and Jiayu. After all the arrangements of the Zhijun Army were in place on the front line, Wu Peifu ordered Zhang Fulai to be the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, and ordered Zhao Hengti's representative to be detained. It turned out that Zhao's representatives Zhong Caihong and Tang Yibin knew that something was wrong when they saw Wu Peifu dispatching troops. , Nai quietly left Hubei and turned back to Hunan, leaving only Xiao Guangyi waiting to see Wu in Hankou.When Wu turned his face, he accused Xiao Guangyi of fabricating false information to deceive Zhao Hengti, which caused the Hunan-Hubei War.At the same time, Wu put forward two counter-conditions to Hunan: (1) the Hunan Army should completely withdraw from Hubei; (2) punish Song Hegeng and Lu Diping, the commanders of the Hunan Army who caused the war.As for the appointment of Jiang Zuobin as the governor of Hubei, Wu said that Beijing can consider it, and other issues such as the abolition of governors, self-government, and compensation cannot be discussed.

Zhao Hengti was shocked to learn that Wu Peifu had turned his back on him. On August 19, he went to Puqi to hold a military meeting. The lower-level officers and soldiers recommended representatives to meet Zhao and ask for another fight. Therefore, Zhao issued another attack order on the 22nd.In this battle, the soldiers and officers of the Hunan Army made an oath of "Never retreat in life or death". Supervisor. For the direct army, Wu Peifu also organized a supervisory team to set off with the army, only allowed to advance and not to retreat. On the 22nd, the two armies of Xiangzhi and Zhisi launched a battle at Tingsi Bridge. The Hunan army was blocked by the strong artillery fire and could not advance. At this time, Zhao Hengti had already boarded the train and was about to return to Changsha. He came to organize a death squad, each rewarded 20 oceans, braved the artillery fire to charge forward, and seized four machine guns from the Zhijun Army in one go. The Zhijun Army was intimidated by the Hunan Army's brave offensive and had to retreat.

Zhao Hengti saw that the Zhi army had retreated, so he boarded the train back to Changsha again. On the 23rd, the direct army reinforced the counterattack, and the battle was fierce. On the 24th, the Hunan Army once again exerted its power and oppressed the Zhijun to the north of Tingsi Bridge, so the Tingsi Bridge Railway Station fell into the hands of the Hunan Army again. On the 25th, Jin Yun'e's Brigade was surrounded by the Hunan Army, but an accident happened on the battlefield. Because the Zhi Army abandoned many guns, the Hunan Army competed for these weapons one after another, so the Zhi Army took the opportunity to counterattack. Pu Qi and Zhao Liqiao retreated.At the same time, Yi Zhendong, commander of the right-wing independent brigade of the Hunan Army, suddenly led his troops to defect, shaking the right wing of the Hunan Army, and quickly retreated towards Tongcheng. He joined the Hunan Army and was promoted to the commander of the railway garrison. Before the Hunan Army "aided Hubei", Zhao Hengti sent him to meet Wu Peifu to inquire about Wu's attitude towards the Hubei issue. Wu kept Ge.At the beginning of the Hunan-Hubei War, the Railway Guard was reorganized into an independent brigade, and Zhao Hengti took Ge's cousin as the commander of the independent brigade.

The situation on the battlefield changed suddenly, Wu Peifu also ordered the navy to flood the Hunan army in Jinkou, and the left-wing Hunan army could not gain a foothold because of this, and quickly retreated from Jizhou and Jiayu to Linxiang. Zhao Hengti learned of the unfavorable situation in Changsha, so he rushed to the front again on the 26th, warned the officers and soldiers not to retreat, and personally executed two regiment leaders who were not effective in fighting.The presence of the commander-in-chief stabilized the position of the Hunan Army. Zhao Hengti used all his strength to deal with the current enemy. He transferred Xie Guoguang, the "Aiding Army" from Guilin, but Cai Juyou and Chen Quzhen, who were in charge of Xiangxi, could not move. The feeling of a great witch.At the same time, there are no weapons and no money. Originally, the Hunan Army wanted to conquer Wuhan, so they could replenish ammunition and military equipment from the Hanyang Arsenal. Now this plan has failed. In addition, the Hunan Army is tired from the long-term battle. It was dwarfed by comparison, and Wu Peifu successively mobilized the navy and army to supplement them one after another, and Ma Teng was full of soldiers.Comparing the two, the Hunan Army is completely at a disadvantage.Zhao Hengti was not very in favor of using troops to "aid Hubei". What he was most worried about was that Wu Peifu might be called to counterattack. Unfortunately, it was expected, and everything was exactly as he had worried.He didn't want to see this military gamble fail. Under the condition of hunger and hunger, he took in Shen Hongying's troops of the Gui army who could not gain a foothold in Guangxi and fled to Yongzhou.Zhang Huizan suggested to Zhao that he should solve Shen Hongying and reorganize his army.But Zhao Zhai was loyal and thought that it would be unjust for Shen to come back poor and execute him.Therefore, he gave Shen Hongying the designation of "The Third Army of Hunan Aid Hubei Autonomous Army" and ordered him to rush to the front line.

At the same time, Zhao Zeng asked Chen Jiongming to send troops to Hunan to help. At this time, the Guangxi faction had disintegrated. In order to fulfill the obligations of the Hunan-Guangdong alliance and consolidate the united front of the Southwest "United Governance Faction", Chen Jiongming organized the Hunan troops in the Guangdong Army as "" Aid the Hunan Army", Hong Zhaolin was sent as the commander-in-chief to go to the aid immediately. However, time was running out. On August 28, Du Xigui led seven warships, carrying the 48th Mixed Brigade of the Beiyang Army, the 1st Mixed Brigade from Shandong, the 4th Mixed Brigade and the 12th Mixed Regiment from Hubei, and followed closely in Japan. Behind the warship, sail up from Luoshan to Yuezhou.Hunan had no navy, and the river defenses were weak, and they did not dare to fire casually for fear of accidentally injuring Japanese warships, so the northern warships passed through Dongting Lake and arrived at Yueyang Tower.

At 4 pm on the 28th, the northern navy bombarded Yuezhou City. The defenders in Yuezhou had only two companies of the Second Mixed Brigade, unable to resist.However, Zhao Hengti, commander of the Hunan Army, was in Yuezhou. Because the Nanjin Port bridge was destroyed by naval artillery fire, the train could not pass, so Zhao Hengti left in a sedan chair.As soon as Yuezhou collapsed, the entire Hunan Army on the front line collapsed like a tide. Zhao Hengti retreated south from Yuezhou by way of Pingjiang, and returned to Changsha on the 30th.At this time, Changsha was in the midst of war. The hospital was full of wounded soldiers with missing limbs and arms, and the streets and alleys were full of defeated soldiers and wounded soldiers who came out of the hospital.The defeated and wounded soldiers once rushed into Zhao's headquarters, and Zhao's medals and military caps disappeared.The policemen were dismissed for lack of pay.Schools and chambers of commerce are on loan from the army.And the defeated soldiers kept coming back from the front, robbing food and money along the way, rural towns were looted, farm cattle, chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep were all slaughtered.

What made Zhao Hengti even more distressed was Chen Guangyuan, the governor of Jiangxi. He always had a smile on his face with Hunan, but now he took advantage of the fire to loot and sent Xiao Anguo's brigade to invade Liling, putting Changsha in jeopardy.Fortunately, Shen Hongying's troops arrived in time, and Zhao Hengti ordered Shen to lead his troops to Liuyang and Liling to prevent blockage. Since Changsha was threatened, Zhao Hengti decided to retreat to Xiangxi. After returning to Changsha, he deployed military operations to retreat to Xiangxi.However, on the second day after he returned to Changsha, the British consul in Changsha paid a surprise visit to Zhao and offered to act as a "mediator".While Zhao hesitated, the British consul suggested that he accompany Zhao to Yuezhou on the British ship "Mignoria" anchored in Changsha to negotiate face-to-face with Wu Peifu.

It turned out that although Wu had gained the upper hand in the military at this time, he had a lot of worries. On the one hand, the pressure from the Feng Faction was increasing. The problem also restrained part of the direct troops, and Zhao Hengti in Changsha didn't know about these situations.Faced with the current situation, Wu Peifu hoped to end the war with the Hunan Army as soon as possible, so he secretly asked the British consul to come forward as a peacemaker, urging Zhao Hengti to come to Yuezhou to meet Wu Peifu, and at the same time sign the Hunan-Direct Armistice Treaty.Wu Peifu wanted to end the Hunan-Zhi war, and in turn use Hunan as a military buffer zone between the north and the south, so that he could free up his strength to rescue western Hubei and relieve the serious crisis of being surrounded by enemies.Wu Peifu assured the British consul that as long as Zhao Hengti was willing to go to the army to negotiate peace, the Zhijun would promise not to attack Changsha and maintain Zhao Hengti's position.

On September 1, Zhao Chengying arrived in Yuezhou, and Wu Peifu arrived first in Jiangzhen.The British ship was moored in the middle of the river, and the British consul accompanied Zhao Hengti to visit Wu's ship in a small boat. This was the first time that the two old friends met, and they were very happy.Wu expressed his admiration to Zhao in an excited tone, hoping that the friendship between the two would not be hurt by this war.At the same time, please rest assured that the Zhijun will never invade Hunan, let alone occupy Changsha. When Wu and Zhao met this time, it is said that when the two were talking cordially, a long-faced man suddenly jumped out of the back cabin, grabbed Zhao's arm and shouted: "Okay! I really want to settle accounts with you today, why did you violate me for no reason?" Hubei." Zhao was taken aback, and when he looked back, it turned out to be Sun Chuanfang, an old classmate of the Japanese non-commissioned officer. The first is Song and Lu, don’t blame Yanwu (Zhao Hengti).” Actually, this is not true, Wu’s army is very strict, Wu and Zhao will have talks, how dare Wu’s subordinates break in casually.

The two held a door-to-door meeting for an hour, and Wu proposed that Hunan cancel its autonomy and punish Song Hegeng and Lu Diping as the culprits.Zhao firmly disagreed.Wu also proposed to direct the army to garrison Yuezhou. After a long debate on this issue, Zhao only agreed to designate Yuezhou as an undefended city, and neither side would garrison troops, and Wu refused to agree. In the end, Zhao finally accepted the nine clauses of the armistice treaty that surrendered Yuezhou.Including the two sides using the Miluo River as the boundary, the direct army withdraws to Huangjie and Changdong Street, the Hunan army withdraws to Xiangyang Baishui, the eastern Hunan and western Hubei armies withdraw to the original defense, Wuchang, Zhuping two roads and Jiangxi traffic are all restored Wait. After the Xiangzhi armistice treaty was signed, Wu returned to Hankou on the same day to deploy the military in western Hubei, and Zhao also returned to Changsha to deal with the military aftermath.Zhao Yi connected to Chen Jiongming and sent nine "million urgent" telegrams to inquire about the situation of the war ahead. Due to the establishment of the Hunan Straight Armistice Treaty, the Guangdong Army's Hunan aid troops stopped their departure. Later, some people reviewed the war and believed that Wang Zhanyuan was fooled by Zhao Hengti, and Zhao Hengti was fooled by Wu Peifu. Zhao hesitated again and again, and some people blamed Zhao for losing the opportunity to capture Hubei in one fell swoop because of his hesitation, so Wang Zhanyuan's accusation of Zhao Hengti was incorrect.Zhao's aid to Hubei was not entirely based on ambition. At that time, Zhao did not have the ambition to devour Hubei.As for Wu Peifu, although he is dissatisfied with Wang Zhanyuan, Wang is still the direct lineage. He has become the leader of the "new lineage".So of course he will lead his troops into Hubei. After Wu Peifu lifted the frontal war in Hunan, he returned to his division to deal with the Sichuan army that had entered western Hubei. It turned out that due to internal disunity, Sichuan also needed to develop outward to eliminate internal strife, so the "Sichuan Aid Hubei Army" was formed, and Liu Xiang was promoted as the commander-in-chief and commander-in-chief of the first route, but Mao Xin was the deputy commander-in-chief and the first commander-in-chief. Commander-in-Chief of the Second Route.Liu Xiang was originally the commander of the third army of the Sichuan Army, but Maoxin was the commander of the first army. After Xiong Kewu stepped down, Liu Xiang succeeded the commander-in-chief and governor of Sichuan. , "Aid Hubei" is to ease this tension. The "Sichuan Aid to Hubei Army" was composed of a number of mixed troops drawn from the first and second armies of the Sichuan Army, and Pan Zhengdao, a general from Hubei, was sent as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy. The Sichuan Army's "aid to Hubei" has not been publicly announced. The Sichuan army went down the Yangtze River. After occupying Badong and Zigui on August 18, the troops were divided into three groups, attacking Yichang along the Yangtze River along the Yangtze River, attacking Dangyang from the north bank of the Yangtze River, and attacking Yidu from the south bank of the Yangtze River.The overall goal is to encircle Yichang. On September 2, the Sichuan army arrived at the south bank of Yichang. Lu Jinshan, the commander of the 18th Division guarding Yichang, and Zhao Ronghua, the commander of the 18th Mixed Brigade, couldn't resist, and urgently called Wu Peifu for help.Wu adopted the policy of quick battle and quick decision (flooding the Seventh Army) against the Hunan Army, and the means of bombarding Yuezhou City, and the British Consul came forward to win over Hunan to solve the pressure on Hunan. The date of the appointment was exactly when the Sichuan Army soldiers were approaching the city of Yichang. It is a pity that Zhao Hengti was completely unaware of the actions of the Sichuan Army. It will echo the Sichuan army and attack the straight army. Yichang is an important city in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries have warships stationed on the surface of Yichang, and other countries also have consulates in Yichang.After the Sichuan army surrounded Yichang, the sailors on the warships of Britain, the United States and Japan landed in Yichang under the pretext of protecting overseas Chinese, and the consuls of the three countries also came forward to mediate the Sichuan-Zhi war. They went to Kuizhou on September 5 to represent the first Commander-in-Chief Tang Shizun negotiated the terms of the armistice. When the Three Kingdoms came forward to mediate, Wu Peifu quickly dispatched the first regiment of the third division, one part of Wang Chengbin's twenty-third division, one part of Zhang Fulai's twenty-fourth division, and Wang Ruxian's eighth division to Yichang day and night. Help. On September 6, the Sichuan army attacked Yichang again due to the breakdown of negotiations.The straight army stood firm. On the 14th, Wu Peifu and Du Xigui arrived on the Chutai ship. On the 16th, the North Road of the Sichuan Army crossed Dongshan Temple. Wu Peifu personally supervised the battle on the front line and fought back the Sichuan Army. However, the South Road of the Sichuan Army entered Mopan Mountain again, and Yichang was in danger. On the 18th, Wu fired artillery at Daliang Mountain and Erliang Mountain on the north bank of the Yangtze River to bombard the Sichuan army on the south bank. This Sichuan army was forced to retreat to Zhujiaping, and the Sichuan army on the north bank also retreated to Nanjinguan.From the 18th to the 27th, with the assistance of the navy, Wu successively occupied Nanjinguan, Pingshanba, and Nantuoxi, and in the first ten days of October, he occupied Zigui, Badong, and Xingshan. The war in western Hubei lasted for more than a month, and the Sichuan army came fiercely. From September 10 to 22, they occupied the dangerous areas on both sides of the Yangtze River. They captured Dangyang on the north road and Changyang on the south road. Yichang may be captured at any time. This time, Wu Peifu successfully turned defeat into victory again. Because Britain, the United States, and Japan came forward to mediate, the Sichuan army hesitated. However, although the Sichuan army was defeated, Wu did not have the strength to pursue it, because Sichuan was easy to defend and difficult to attack, not to mention that Wu Peifu had to deal with the Northern Expedition of the Feng Faction and Sun Yat-sen, so he made peace with the Sichuan army on the condition that the Sichuan army withdraw from western Hubei. Wu Peifu handed over the responsibility for dealing with the Sichuan Army to Sun Chuanfang, and the responsibility for dealing with Hunan to Zhang Fulai. This was the happiest time in Wu Peifu's life, when he "conquered east and west", and he was very handy. Long before the Hunan Army "aided Hubei", on June 4, Lu Yongxiang, the governor of Zhejiang Province, proposed to hold a joint meeting of all provinces to promote the self-government movement. The prestige is not high enough to refuse to host. Before and after the Xiang army expelled the king, Zhao Zeng sent many representatives to the southwestern provinces to carry out activities. He planned to hold a joint meeting of the provinces in Hankou after the capture of Wuhan to discuss the organization of a joint provincial self-government. Chen Jiongming and the authorities of the three provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou All agreed. Zhao's representatives also went to Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Jiangxi and other provinces separately, and Lu Yongxiang and Chen Shufan from the Anhui Department unanimously agreed.Chen Shufan had already left Xi'an at this time, but he still had soldiers in his hands, and he was willing to send troops from southern Shaanxi to Hubei to join forces with the Hunan Army in Wuhan. The most puzzling thing is that Chen Guangyuan, the immediate governor of Jiangxi, also signed the list of Hunan provinces seeking autonomy, and told Hunan representative Hu Ying that the Hunan Army's "aid to Hubei" does not affect the Hunan-Jiangxi Joint Defense Treaty.It turned out that Chen Guangyuan was flattering Hunan because he was afraid that Sun Yat-sen's Northern Expeditionary Army would send troops to Jiangxi, and he was also afraid that Li Liejun would attack Jiangxi.Later, after Wu Peifu repelled the Hunan Army, Chen Guangyuan turned his face again and sent troops to take advantage of the fire to loot Hunan. On August 11, Zhao sent a telegram to the whole country to suggest that the National Assembly be held to discuss the issue of provincial autonomy and inter-provincial autonomy.Zhao originally intended to hold a "joint meeting of all provinces". Later, someone suggested to Zhao that in order to get Wu Peifu to agree, it is better to change the name.As early as when Wu Peifu was stationed in Hengyang, he had established a secret agreement with the Guangdong military government and the two armies of Hunan and Guangxi. After the Anfu regime was overthrown, the National Assembly would be convened to restore the legal system, abolish the northern and southern governments, and organize a unified "legal government" across the country. ".After the Zhiwan War, the Anfu regime collapsed, and Wu Sui publicly proposed to hold a national assembly, but Zhang Zuolin strongly opposed it. Therefore, Wu's proposal fell through, and a hollow gun was fired, which made him bitter.At this time, if Zhao added new content based on Wu’s old case, he proposed to convene a National Assembly in Hankou, pass the Provincial Autonomy Law, abolish the northern and southern governments, and form a nationally unified inter-provincial self-government. Wu Peifu might agree.This is the wishful thinking of Zhao et al. Zhao's proposal runs counter to Wu Peifu's ambition to unify by force, and it is not the same as Lu Yongxiang's proposal, because Lu's plan is anti-straight line. Wu's opposition to self-government was firm, as can be seen from a letter he wrote to Liu Xiang, saying: "Xiang is the beginning of self-government, the preparation period is years, what is the achievement of governance? In terms of disarmament, there are many troops; The rivers and mountains are broken. I still don’t know how to repent. In the name of aiding the self-government of Hubei, I am willing to be the leader of the army. If the cloud unites the provinces, it is even more shocking. Although the north and the south are divided, the trade of merchants and the exchanges of people are still the same. The people of the country. In the past, the United States practiced the system of joint provinces, which was divided and united. Today, our country advocates the theory of joint provinces, which is divided by union. To carve up the beans, I'm afraid it's not in the strong neighbors but in the small walls." Wu Zeng threatened: "With me, Wu Peifu, I will never allow the establishment of a federal self-government government!" Regarding the Hunan Army's aid to Hubei, here is the transcript of Mr. Zhao Hengti's interview as follows: "The direct line Wang Zhanyuan ruled the government of Hubei for a long time, and the daily affairs gathered, and the troops under his army returned to the army and changed frequently. When the inter-provincial autonomy movement prevailed, the people of Hubei tried to expel Zhanyuan for self-government, but they had no troops, so they pushed Li Shucheng, Jiang Zuobin, He Chengjun and Kong Geng begged for aid from Hunan and Sichuan provinces to achieve their goals. Hunan not only advocates provincial governance first, but also has a close friendship with Hubei, so it is willing to send troops to help.Li, Jiang and others also announced a provisional agreement on self-government in Hubei Province, appointing Jiang Zuobin as the director, Kong Geng leading the self-governing army, and using the Hubei Army of Xia Douyin's Department who had stayed in Hunan for several years as the vanguard, and Hunan Province sent Song Hegeng's first division as the reinforcement army main force.Yu Zeng went to the front line to inspect the teacher. The battle to aid Hubei began in late July of the tenth year.The morale of the Hunan army was fierce, and the key points were conquered. The battle of Yanglousi was especially fierce.Sun Chuanfang's troops lost consecutively, and Wang Zhanyuan was eventually dismissed.The north sent Wu Peifu's army to help, so the situation changed. Our army and Wu army faced each other at Tingsi Bridge, and Wu sent the navy to attack Yuezhou. Our army was threatened by Luton and had to retreat, and Yuezhou was captured by the Northern Army.Xiong Kewu from Sichuan once agreed to send troops to Hubei, but the communication failed. At that time, the Sichuan and Hunan armies did not have telecommunication equipment, so they could not cooperate in the battle. In addition to the defeat of the Hunan Army, the morale of the soldiers was weak and the military discipline could not be maintained.If Wu Jun pursues and pursues, it will be difficult for Changsha to hold on.At that time, the outside situation was unclear, so Yu Nai decided to take the risk of visiting Wu Peifu himself on his warship moored in Yuezhou.Based on the hearts of the people in Hunan and the overall situation, Wu Mingxiao has interests, and Wu Yifang has something to do in the north, so he used this to make friends with the Hunan people, and the peace agreement was reached.Officially suspended on September 1st.The condition for direct negotiations between Yu and Wu Peifu was that the Northern Army be temporarily stationed in Yuezhou. ..."