Chapter 232 231. Xu Shuzheng Murdered in Gallery

The killing of Xu Shuzheng (Youzheng) was another major event that caused a sensation both at home and abroad after the Guo Songling anti-Bong incident during the Beiyang warlord period.The matter started when Xu Shuzheng was sent abroad for investigation.Xu Shuzheng is Duan Qirui's soul, Duan's trust in Xiao Xu (at that time Beiyang Xi called Xu Shichang Da Xu, Xu Shuzheng Xiao Xu), and Xiao Xu's loyalty to Duan, can be regarded as a good story in Beiyang. After the Second Fengzhi War, Duan Qirui rose again and served as the temporary ruling of the Beijing government. Many people wondered why Xiao Xu did not come to Beijing to participate in Duan's conspiracy. Under the protection of Feng, he also felt that it was difficult for Xiao Xu to get along with Feng, so he arranged to send Xiao Xu abroad.

As early as January 4, 2014, Duan announced that Xu Shuzheng was the "Special Envoy to Investigate Japan's Political Envoys".At this time, Xiao Xu was already in Europe, living near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. At that time, his family was going abroad and was planning to stay in Europe for a long time. Change to Politics and add Japan. In mid-March, Xiao Xu sent his family back to Shanghai from Paris, and then organized his investigation team, which included the military team: Song Ziyang, Chu Qixiang, Han Zhenxian, Liu Zhuobin, Sun Xiangzhen, Li Nai, Si Kezhuang, Chu Zhewen, Han Huirong .Political group: Weng Kegu, Lin Zifeng, Zhang Wenxuan, Dong Shiwu.Secretary Zhu Foding, Wang Zhitao, Xue Xuehai, Wang Yanxi, Cai Zengji.

On the first ten days of the 4th, he inspected France, and the French government sent Lieutenant General Bai Lisuo to be in charge of hospitality. Visit the UK in early May. Visit Switzerland on May 26. Visit Italy on June 3.The Italian government sent the Lieutenant General of Babelis District to be in charge of hospitality.I met Mussolini twice. The first time, Chief Mo stood in the living room, with his right hand inserted into the front of his chest, like a Napoleon, shaking hands with Xiao Xu, and the short greetings were over.Xiao Xu was very dissatisfied, so he asked Lieutenant General Baberi to make another appointment.The next day Chief Mo met in the office instead. Mo and Xu sat and talked with each other. Zhu Fu was appointed as an interpreter. He stood opposite General Ba and had no seat. He talked about international issues very speculatively and talked for two hours.

June 21 to Germany, when Germany was defeated and had not yet recovered, the US dollar was worth 420 million marks, and the National Socialist Party had risen. On July 18, he went to Russia and visited Stalin and Trotsky. August 3rd to Belgium. August 9 to the Netherlands. Went to New York in mid-October, lived in the Mayflower Hotel, and went to Washington to meet President Coolidge. In late November, I went to Tokyo and lived in the Imperial Hotel. I met the Japanese emperor and his wife, as well as the Japanese prime minister and foreign ministers. In mid-November, he took the Tianjin Maru back from Japan and landed in Shanghai. Shanghai celebrities Huang Jinrong and Du Yuesheng all boarded the Tianjin Maru to welcome them.After disembarking, he went straight back to his private residence on Nanyang Road.

Sun Chuanfang, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces of the Five Provinces, went to Shanghai from Nanjing to welcome him sincerely.Various groups in Shanghai welcomed Xu and Sun grandly at the chamber of commerce.Xu and Sun had a secret talk and went to Nantong to visit Zhang Jian together. Xu Shuzheng returned to Shanghai from Nantong, and received a call from Duan Qirui, telling him not to go to Beijing for the time being.Because there was a war between Zhang Zuolin and Guo Songling outside the customs, and a war between Li Jinglin and Feng Yuxiang in Tianjin, the situation was very chaotic.Beijing is Feng Yuxiang's sphere of influence, and Feng's direct descendant Lu Zhonglin is in charge of the command of the Gyeonggi Army and Police Constitution.Duan's strategist Zeng Yujun was also captured by Lu Pai soldiers.Duan himself is ready to go down the field at any time.Under such circumstances, if Xu Shuzheng enters Beijing, with Xu Pingsu as an arrogant person and Duan's most important right-hand man, it will definitely increase the seriousness of the situation.

Xiao Xu's problem is that he is daring and arrogant.He thought that he was ordered to investigate, and he should return to Beijing after the investigation.In addition, this time in Europe, America and Japan, he is generally valued by the leaders of various countries. Among the Beiyang soldiers, he can be regarded as the only person with international reputation. Who would dare to do anything to him?So regardless of everyone's opposition and Duan's telegram, he resolutely decided to enter Beijing. On December 19, 2014, Xu Shuzheng and his entourage traveled from Shanghai to Tianjin on the Shuntian Ferry. When they arrived in Tianjin on the 23rd, Song Ziyang greeted him with a car. This car was borrowed from the British Consulate. Xu boarded the car and drove straight to Beijing. Take the train to Beijing.Arriving in Beijing on the same day, Xu stayed at the king's house in Wuliang Hutong, and his entourage lived in a hotel.

Xiao Xu first pushed Duan Qirui alone, and the two bowed to each other, crying with each other.It was mid-winter and the weather was extremely cold. Duan Qirui was so sick that his legs had to be immersed in an ice bucket to relieve the pain.Duan and Xu reunited after going through changes in the world, and they were deeply moved by each other. Beijing is the place where little Xu thrived, but since the first battle between Zhi and Anhui, and the defeat of the Anhui Clique, Xiao Xu has been running all over the place, and now the old place is revisited, completely changed.Although Xiao Xu has the heart of a diligent king, he has no soldiers and no courage.

At this time, the situation in the north gradually became clear. Guo Songling was defeated when he left the customs, and the couple were both dead with white flags.After the bitter battle in Tianjin, Li Jinglin had already fled. Feng Yuxiang's national army had Beijing and Tianjin on the verge of death, but Feng's position was not very stable. Need a breather outside the customs. Beijing is a dangerous city, especially for Xu Shuzheng, because everyone knows that Duan Qirui's temporary administration is a bachelor's administration, but if Xiao Xu is by Duan's side, he will make trouble. It is said that he has a secret agreement with Mussolini to accept arms aid from Italy .With all these things, Xiao Xu became a target at that time, which was not good for Duan, but especially bad for Xiao Xu.

So a week after Xiao Xu arrived in Beijing, everyone advised him to leave Beijing and return to the south as soon as possible. If he stayed in Beijing, something bad might happen. Sure enough, after Xu left Beijing, he was killed in Langfang.When the bad news came out, Duan wept bitterly for it. Xu Shichang, known as the Great Xu in Beiyang, once wrote a couplet saying: Rumor has it that the road was robbed by soldiers; Cherish your talents every time! This Lian Da Xu also tried to save Lu when Xiao Xu killed Lu Jianzhang. The elegiac couplet of Nantong number one scholar Zhang Jian says:

There is no reason for the prophecy, listening to Dajiangdongquge, I suddenly feel that the hero's blood is endless; The frontier is in a hurry, and I sigh that Pu Haixi has a lot to do, where can I get this dragon and tiger man. Regarding the process of Xu Shuzheng's murder, here are a few paragraphs of narrations by relevant people. The first paragraph is a transcript of the death story written by Xu Daolin, Xu's philosopher, as follows: Mr. left Shanghai on December 19, arrived in Tianjin on December 23, and arrived in Beijing on the same day.On the 29th, it was suddenly decided to leave Beijing and return.Instruct the road bureau to prepare a special car.In the afternoon of that day, Duan Zhizheng was on his desk, and suddenly found a note with the words "It's not feasible, if you do it, you must die".Duan was very anxious, and quickly ordered someone to give the note to the husband, but the husband didn't mind.When he arrived at the station at night, Chu Zhewen brought a company of people to escort him, but my husband insisted not to do so.

The special car started at nine o'clock, and because there were so many military vehicles along the way, it didn't arrive at the gallery until about one o'clock in the middle of the night.As soon as the car stopped, a man named Wang (from Guizhou?) who claimed to be Zhang Zhijiang's chief of staff asked him to get off the car with Zhang's business card.While talking, more than ten soldiers swarmed up, took Mr. off the car, walked to a place about one mile away from the station, and shot him dead. It was half past one in the morning on the 30th.All Mr.'s entourage (including Chu Qixiang, Xue Xuehai, Xu Zanhua, Sun Xiangzhen, Han Binli, Liu Zhuobin, etc.) were detained in the stables of the headquarters of the British American Tobacco Company. At seven o'clock in the morning, the gentleman's entourage was summoned to the meeting hall.After a while, four or five broken cars, dragging a road of dust, came galloping.It was Lu Chengwu who came from the British Concession in Tianjin under the order of Feng Yuxiang.He gave them a speech, saying that the husband was disloyal, filial, benevolent and righteous, and today he wanted to avenge his father by cutting out his flesh and heart.He didn't know that Mr. was killed six hours ago. The entourage was interrogated by the "military judge" for another eight hours. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Zhang's adjutant told them that "Xu was killed by Lu Chengwu, and it was revenge. The king and others were released, and Zhang supervised (Zhijiang) The power to protect."They were also ordered to cut knots, make handprints, and swear not to reveal a word, otherwise the lives of each and the whole family would be in jeopardy.They also took a photo of all of them, and each of them paid for the short-distance bus ticket before they were allowed to leave the gallery alone and empty-handed. The next day, the newspaper published a telegram from Lu Chengwu, saying that he killed Xu to avenge his father.It also published a telegram from Feng Yuxiang to Duan Zhizheng, saying that General Xu had made great contributions to the country, but unfortunately he was robbed by bandits on the road and died a terrible death.But the government did not take any action (I think this is a silent protest by Duan Ruling).But on the 30th, Shanghai's "Times" had already published the news that Special Envoy Xu's car had been bombed.This was Feng Fang's pre-announced news, but later things went out of order, so they showed their flaws. It turned out that Zhang Zhijiang received Feng Yuxiang's order to ask the engineering team to bury landmines and blow up the special car.But Zhang did not do this (I think it was because of the soldiers coming and going. Some people said that Zhang was a Christian with a kind heart and did not want to hurt too many people).After Mr. was murdered, Feng ordered all the entourage to be killed. It is said that Zhang begged repeatedly before releasing them. On the second day after Mr. was murdered, Mr. Hong, Zhang Zhijiang’s health director—Duan Honggang said, his original surname was Duan, his name was Duan Dahong—who claimed to be Mr. Asked to find the body for burial (he only asked for burial, he dared not say that he would transport it away).Zhang taught him to cut the knot, and the knot must have the words that Xu was killed by Lu in revenge (he wrote two knot posts because of this), so he reluctantly agreed to his request.Hong Jun searched hard in the snow twice all night before he found his husband's body.Finally, I bought a birthday tree from someone else and buried him.On the third day, Zhang Zhensheng, the husband's guard, transported it to Beijing in a mule cart.Because of this, Mr. Hong was greatly complained by Zhang Zhijiang, so he left his army, and since then he has been praying to Buddha for a long time. Give it to me, and send a large package of all the written materials and photos he kept at that time, and recount the process of pleading for mercy and finding the corpse at that time, more than 5,000 words, every word and tear. He said that he waited for this day, and he also waited. twenty years). The reason why Mr. was encoffined and killed, I guess, is mainly related to Mussolini's arms loan agreement.Because it was a huge sum of money for Mr.It is said that the husband disclosed this secret to only three people at that time: one was Duan Zhizheng, the other was Feng Yuxiang, and the third was Sun Chuanfang (I heard this from Mr. Zeng Yujun, and Zeng was from Sun’s Chief of Staff Liu Zongji).In the past six months, Mr. Feng Yuxiang has been in contact with him. His former brigade commander Song Ziyang was sent to Feng's place.When he was abroad, Feng often sent telegrams, calling him "Jun Zuo", claiming to be "Zhou", and asking him to come back to "host" and "lead" and so on.In mid-July and August, when Yang Yuting was supervising Su, Mr. Yang issued a long telegram against him—someone said at the time that this telegram was equal to the strength of three divisions—that attacking Fengtian was to help Feng Yuxiang.In mid-November, the feud between Feng and Zhang had deepened, and Zeng Yujun and Yao Zhen, who were close friends, were arrested by Feng Jun one after another. Duan was in power, and many people fled to Dongjiaomin Lane.At that time, everyone thought that Beijing was dangerous, and they advised my husband not to go, which was the reason.But they didn't know that Mr. Feng had such a secret bond with Feng.This is the reason why Mr. dared to risk his own life.Duan Zhizheng probably also thought that this secret agreement might be useful, so when Mr. Wang left Beijing, although he received a serious warning of those eight words, he did not try his best to stop it.Mr. suddenly decided to leave Beijing on December 29th, which was the forty-fifth day after Guo Songling's defeat.Guo's failure is Zhang Zuolin's victory.He wanted to leave Beijing suddenly. I think maybe he was afraid of being trapped in Zhang Zuolin's hands with Duan Zhizheng.Since he was afraid of Zhang Zuolin, of course he would not suspect Feng Yuxiang. I think there are three reasons for Feng Yuxiang to harm Mr. 1. The agreement between Mr. Mussolini and Mr. Mussolini has made Mr. Husband like a tiger.It is good to cooperate with Feng now, but if they turn their backs, there will be endless troubles.It's better to get rid of him before he gets water, so as to eliminate hidden dangers in the future. 2. Mr.'s anti-communist attitude at that time was very obvious... 3. Feng Yuxiang is not only Lu Jianzhang's nephew, but also received his kindness and leadership.In the first year when Luanzhou became independent, Feng was escorted back to his hometown, and it was Lu who bailed him out.Later, relying on the strength of the landing, Feng Cai was once again registered as a military member.The stay in Pukou (January of the seventh year) and the electrification of Wuxue (February of the seventh year) were all planned by Lu.So what exists between Feng and Lu is not just the general friendship between nephew and uncle.Feng Yuxiang's intention to harm Mr. would not be without some element of revenge for his uncle. In November of the fifteenth year, on October 29th of the lunar calendar, Mr. was buried in the original place of Fengzhong Mountain in Xiao County, which was the place where he played as a teenager. The coffin where the husband was buried was purchased and presented by Hefei.However, official articles such as "relief" and "punishment" have always been absent.I used to be dissatisfied with Hefei because of this.But after reading several articles in his "Zhengdao Juji", I realized that he really believed in the theory of "reincarnation" and "cause and effect".Later, I saw Mr. Zeng Zongjian say in a note: In April of the 15th year, Hefei went out of Beijing. "One hour after the special car left, Hefei walked into the car hall and asked how long the car would stay in the corridor room? And asked 'Yezheng' Was the accident at the station? And when the car passed by the corridor, Hefei opened the window and looked west for ten minutes, his lips moved slightly, murmured something, tears filled his eyes, and he hid his face and fell into bed" (Tian Wen He, 44 July 10th, 2010) A few years ago, I saw Hefei’s grandson Changyi in Taipei. He said, “Grandpa ordered that every year, when offering sacrifices, Grandpa Xu’s tablet must be placed next to the ancestral tablet and kowtow to Grandpa Xu.” So I understand very well that the old man has his own sense of propriety. The second paragraph is the dictation of Xu Shuzheng's tragic death by Zhang Yue, the chief of staff of Zhang Zhijiang of the Feng Ministry: Zhang Zhijiang and Lu Zhonglin are both Feng Yuxiang's confidantes and cadres, but their personalities are quite different. Zhang is a loyal Christian and is extremely sincere in everything and everyone.Lu is alert and meticulous, cautious in dealing with things, and good at considering Feng's psychology, and he is very trustworthy by Feng.He was serving as the commander-in-chief of the Beijing garrison at this time, so Feng Yuxiang specially designated him as the No. 1 "executioner" to kill Xu. ...So after he was ordered, he was very cautious and did not dare to take the liberty of doing it, for fear that if Feng Luo was suspected of "the master murderer" after killing Xu, he would not only have no merit to speak of, but would even be reprimanded.Therefore, he had discussed with Feng back and forth on the phone, but he never came up with an excellent method of "not leaving traces". During this time, the wind had reached Youzheng's ears.At the beginning, Youzheng still thought that the rumors were not believed.On the 29th, the news got worse and worse, so he had to make a plan to leave Beijing.In the afternoon of the same day, he ordered someone to notify the Jinpu Road Bureau to prepare a special car, and planned to leave Beijing for Tianjin at 9:00 pm.At that time, some people thought that this way of going was inappropriate, and it would be better to borrow the car of the British embassy to leave Beijing quietly.Youzheng smiled and said: "All around Beijing, there are enemies' minions everywhere, and they can kill me anytime and anywhere. The reason why I am still safe and sound is that I dare not show my true colors openly in broad daylight. If I Hiding and hiding is not the right plan!" So there was no objection.Only Song Ziyang still felt uneasy about this trip, so he secretly borrowed a group of armed soldiers from the British embassy to protect him with his car.He firmly knew that these dozen or so British soldiers alone were not enough to escape the enemy, they were just in order to conform to Youzheng's opinion, pretending to show off, and making Youzheng's actions more public.At nine o'clock in the evening, he took more than ten servants and boarded the car eastward. Who would have thought that "the strong man will never return when he is gone". It is only 240 miles from Beijing to Tianjin, and it can be reached in three hours at the speed of ordinary express trains.Youzheng took a special car, and according to common sense, it should take two hours to arrive.Unexpectedly, Feng Jun's westward marching chariot along the road was blocked, and he had to stay at each stop for tens of minutes. It was almost midnight, and he still hadn't reached Yangcun.You Zheng and his party thought that they had heard a lot of bad news beforehand, so everyone was anxious, so people kept getting off the bus and urging them to the station, because everyone was in a state of irritability, and there was inevitably a little extreme in their words.At this time, due to the relationship of military transportation, Feng Jun's transportation command sent some liaison staff to each station to specialize in vehicle dispatching.These staff officers heard that it was Special Envoy Xu's special car, and they were afraid of being punished for delaying the special car's journey, but in fact they couldn't get out of the way and let the special car go fast, so they had no choice but to ask their commander on the phone for instructions. How to cope?Their transportation commander, Xu Xiangyun, was originally a dismissed division commander under Feng's subordinates. I heard it, so when I received a call from my subordinates, I also found it difficult to deal with it.In desperation, I came up with an idea to shirk responsibility; I hurried to see Zhang Zhijiang, and asked Zhang to call the special envoy Xu who was still on the way, explaining the crowded situation of military vehicles along the road, and asking Xu Duojia for forgiveness.Unexpectedly, because of this report, another life was accidentally ruined.It turns out that between Feng and Lu, because they couldn't discuss a magic way to kill people without leaving a trace, they deliberately postponed the plan for the time being.But Zhang Zhijiang only knew that Feng had the intention of killing Xu, and he had already instructed Lu to do it in Beijing.But they didn't know that Feng and Lu changed their plan due to various concerns, and now they suddenly heard Xu's report of going out of Beijing, they were taken aback immediately, and then said to Xu: "Well, why did Commander-in-Chief Lu call me about this in the future? Wait for me to ask!" After he called and told Lu about the situation of going out of Beijing again, Lu Zhonglin was not surprised, but slowly replied: "Xiao Xu went out of Beijing, I already know, but I haven’t reported to the supervisor yet. Please transfer the stations first, try to delay Xiao Xu’s special car as much as possible, wait for me to talk to the supervisor on the phone, see if he has any instructions, and then pass them on to you.” Zhang Zhijiang responded, “Okay! "He hung up the phone and told Xu Xiangyun to transfer to each station according to Lu's wishes. Afterwards, the private car again, of course, was even slower.After twelve o'clock at night, Zhang Zhijiang received an order from Lu Zhonglin from Beijing to Feng Yuxiang, saying: "The supervisor wants me to tell you that if Xiao Xu's special car arrives at the corridor, you should shoot him immediately. And please send him overnight. Some people go to Tianjin to take Lu Chengwu to your headquarters. After dawn, the supervisor will send someone to the corridor to discuss with you all the aftermath!" Zhang Zhijiang heard this, frowning, shaking his head, talking into the microphone, muttering for a long time Only then said: "It seems inappropriate to deal with it like this? Xiaoxu is still a special official of the country!" Lu replied: "This means supervising, what can we do?" Zhang said: "Since it means supervising, Of course we obey. However, since the supervisor wants to send someone to come, it is best to ask him to issue a warrant and send it to someone to bring it, and then ask the person to preside over the handling, and I will try my best to assist him." Lu Zhonglin knew that Zhang Shan was not good. Ken was the murderer, so he didn't say any more, but simply replied: "You can detain him first, and we can talk about the future." Zhang replied: "Okay!" These several phone calls decided Youzheng's fate. At about 1:00 am on the 30th, Youzheng's special car began to creep into Langfang Station.At that time, the surrounding area of ​​the station was already covered with guard posts, and several sections of the rails outside the station were also removed.As soon as the train stopped, Zhang Yue, Zhang Zhijiang's chief of staff, boarded Youzheng's sleeping car, opened the door, gave a respectful military salute to Youzheng, held Zhang Zhijiang's business card in both hands and said, "We are all very busy now. If you can come to meet the special envoy, please order me to ask the special envoy to get off the car, go to the headquarters to rest, and leave after dawn." Youzheng was originally lying on the sleeper, but at this moment he sat up hurriedly and nodded to Zhang as a salute , Smiling and replied: "It's too late, I won't go down to disturb you! Please thank you all for me!" Zhang Yue answered yes and bowed out.Just as Zhang got out of the car, another major military judge came up, opened the car door and said to Youzheng impolitely: "We all have something to discuss with you, please get out of the car with me immediately, and go to the headquarters together." Youzheng observed the situation, and knew that things had changed, so he proudly replied: "Go back first, tell Zhang Dutong, and ask him to take a closer look at Mr. Feng's telegram. Is there any mistake?" The military judge saw the matter. The truth had already been explained by Youzheng, but without further explanation, he turned around and waved to the outside of the car, immediately rushed in a dozen soldiers, dragged Youzheng off the berth without any explanation, set them up and left.Youzheng asked to wear an extra coat, but was not allowed. He only wore a pajamas. In the cold snowy night, he was sent to a truck and drove away.Then another group of soldiers escorted another group of entourage into another truck and drove away from the station.The seventeen British soldiers on board were also disarmed and temporarily placed under house arrest in the original carriage until dawn before they were hung at the end of an eastbound passenger train and taken to Tianjin. At this time, Youzheng was imprisoned alone in a warehouse next to the headquarters of Zhang Zhijiang (British American Tobacco Company), and his entourage was imprisoned in a nearby stable.At around 8:00 in the morning, Lu Chengwu came from Tianjin in a truck sent by Zhang Zhijiang to meet him. After jumping out of the car, he was guided by the adjutant who went to Tianjin to pick him up into Zhang Zhijiang's headquarters. With a red face, he yelled and asked, "Where is Xiao Xu?"Zhang Zhijiang had heard it, so he immediately lifted the curtain and pulled him into the room. While comforting him to sit down, he said: "You don't have to worry, this time Lang Gong (Lu Jianzhang's style name Langzhai, Zhang called it this time) I can definitely avenge him. Xiao Xu has already been detained in my headquarters, so I can’t escape him anyway.” Lu Chengwu still clamored, “I’m going to kill this kid now, please send someone to take me there!” Zhang Zhijiang said again He stopped and said: "Mr. Feng has promised to send someone to solve this matter, and it will be here soon. The people who are traveling with Xiao Xu are in the conference room. Please go and say a few words to them first. When you are young, Mr. Feng sent someone to come. Now, let’s deal with Xiao Xu’s problem.” So Lu Chengwu was led into the conference room, and complained to Chu Qixiang and a group of Xu’s entourage.It wasn't until four o'clock in the afternoon that Judge Xu Jun sent by Feng Yuxiang (I don't remember his name, I only remember that he was the nephew of Xu Qian, a well-known left-leaning literati around the tenth day of the Ming Dynasty) arrived from Zhangjiakou by train. After he saw Zhang Zhijiang, he first handed Feng Yuxiang's warrant to Zhang, and then Zhang called Lu Chengwu. The three talked secretly for a while, and then Zhang ordered an adjutant to accompany Lu and Xu with four spearmen. When he arrived at the place where Youzheng was imprisoned, he died.Lu Chengwu returned to Tianjin that night.The next day, various newspapers in Tianjin published huge news that "Lu Chengwu avenged his father and killed Xu Shuzheng".This public case has been pressed for nearly twenty years. In August 1934, after I won the War of Resistance Against Japan, the truth of the matter was revealed to the world after the prosecution was filed by Youzheng's heir and Taoist neighbor.