Chapter 31 "Fairy" out

On May 25, 1934, a farce was staged at the Qingyang Palace in Chengdu.A Taoist wearing a big cloak and holding a dust whisk in his hand bowed to the seats of Yuqing Yuanshi Tianzun, Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun and Taiqing Daode Tianzun.He bowed respectfully and fell on the altar, chanting words, and after saluting, he turned around and shook the whisk in his hand a few times in the air, then sat on the grand teacher's chair, half-closed his eyes, and accepted the disciples bowing down at the altar.These disciples were all neatly dressed in military uniform, with stars shining on their shoulders, but they saluted the Taoist respectfully and accepted his command by name.Liu Xiang, Tian Songyao, Yang Sen, Li Jiayu, Luo Zezhou and other warlords are among them.The Taoist commanded the general, and the scene was funny and neither fish nor fowl.Which song is this sung?

After Liu Xiang gained the supremacy of Sichuan, the warlords of various factions in central Sichuan were not satisfied with Liu Xiang's dominance of Sichuan, but also worried that through this "communist suppression", Liu Xiang would grow up and his own power would be weakened, so Liu Xiang would eat them all at once.Liu Wenhui was a lesson learned from the past, and there will be Liu Cunhou in the future.Due to the loss of Xuanhan and Daxian, Chiang Kai-shek removed Liu Cunhou's commander of the 23rd Army and replaced Liu Cunhou's brother Liu Bangjun as the deputy commander and took charge of the entire army. As a result, Liu Xiang's third division commander Wang Lingji tried to force Liu Bangjun away , trying to incorporate the 23rd Army and replace it by himself, which caused a restlessness among other warlords. "A rabbit dies and a fox is sad, and things hurt its kind. If you meet him today, whose turn will it be tomorrow?" Black people eat black people and fight each other. This is the "rule of action" among the Sichuan warlords. "Standing together under the banner of ", in fact, they do not trust each other, and they have to wait and see each other in every action, saying one thing with their mouths, and doing another thing with their actions, and no one is willing to make a loss-making business.

When the Red Army concentrated its main force and went south to Wanyuan to fight against Tang Shizun on the fifth road, Deng Xihou stopped the frontline troops on the right bank of the Tongjiang River and stood still to watch the tigers fight and watch the changes.The commander-in-chief of the second route, Tian Songyao, and the Red Army suffered heavy losses in the Liulinxi battle. He was unwilling to do any more money-losing business for Liu Xiang.Although Li Jiayu and Luo Zezhou, the commanders and deputy commanders of the third route, were grateful to Liu Xiang for their promotion and reuse, they feared the might of the Red Army and did not dare to attack the Red Army with all their strength. They only sent part of the army to participate in the siege of the Red Army.Moreover, Li Jiayu once ate Luo Zezhou's troops, Li and Luo's grievances persisted, and the command of the third line could not be unified at all, making it even more difficult to cooperate to attack the Red Army.Yang Sen of the Fourth Route was beaten several times by the Red Army in the battle of Yingqu, and the remaining troops in his hands were dilapidated, demoralized and morale was very low.Yang Sen didn't dare to lead his troops forward to fight the Red Army, nor did he dare to retreat to provide excuses for Liu Xiang's crime.

Facing the dilemma of the lack of joint strength of the army and each having their own thoughts, Liu Xiang also had a headache.The first three phases of the attack suffered heavy damage and were unsustainable. Apart from the fact that the Red Army was too powerful to attack, the main reason was that the warlords from all walks of life protected themselves, were wary of each other, and refused to work hard. On May 15, Liu Xiang convened a general command meeting in Chengdu to coordinate actions, and decided to set up a "Sichuan Bandit Suppression Headquarters Front Military Committee" in Nanchong, so that all warlords could be "members" and participate in commanding the fourth attack.In order to win everyone to work together, Liu Xiang had to make a gesture and took out all his family assets to join the war.He transferred the Chen Lanting Division of the frontier defense army to strengthen the Fifth Route, transferred Pan Wenhua's instructor and Han Peng's temporary second division to form the general reserve team, with Pan Wenhua as the commander-in-chief and Han Peng as the deputy commander-in-chief.As a result, the besieging Red Army's strength increased to more than 140 regiments, about 200,000 people, and his 21st Army alone had more than 80 regiments.At the same time, he assured all the warlords that after the "suppression of the Red Army", all the warlords could get "safety guarantees".Despite Liu Xiang's actions, the warlords from all walks of life are still complaining, and you sing him.Liu Xiang understood that they were "begging for milk", and they would not move unless they were given something sweet.Liu Xiang gritted his teeth and set aside 3 million yuan in military expenses and 3 million rounds of ammunition to help the various warlords.He also understands that this group of white-eyed wolves cannot be bought by this kind of favor alone. No matter how strong or weak this group of people are, no one is a fuel-efficient lamp.How can these people work together to fight the Red Army with all their strength?He thought about it, and what was unexpected was that Liu Xiangqian, who was so poor in donkey skills, actually asked the warlock "Liu Shenxian" beside him to be the "chairman" of the military committee in the front, relying on this Taoist to use "witchcraft" to command this difficult gang warlord.

Liu Xiang has a long history of practicing magic.There is a Taoist priest named Liu Congyun in Chengdu who claims to understand the art of astrology. , Fushun, Neijiang and other places became famous for a while.Its influence spread to Chengdu, Chongqing, and Wanxian, and Sichuan warlords were also often recruited.When Liu Xiang was the head of the Sichuan Army, he asked him to look at his face. After Liu Congyun looked at it, he said: "The face of the king is nothing but a feudal marquis, and the back of the king is so precious." Your Excellency is in charge, but once you encounter Caotou (alluding to the word Jiang), you will lose your gains if you turn the tiger away from the mountain. I hope you can do it yourself."

In the next three years, as Liu Congyun said, Liu Xiang's official career went smoothly, and he was promoted repeatedly because of his military achievements. He became the commander of the 21st Army and was stationed in Chongqing.As the prophecy came true, Liu Xiang highly praised Liu Congyun, gave Liu Congyun a luxury house in Chongqing, and formally joined Liu Congyun's "Confucius and Mencius Taoism", and was awarded the Taoist name Yuxian by Liu Congyun.As a result, Liu Xiang entered the Tao, and a group of generals under him joined in one after another. Pan Wenhua named Yuyu, Tang Shizun named Yumei, Wang Lingji named Yubao, Wang Zuanxu named Yudao, and Fan Shaozeng named Yuquan.About 90% of the officers above the battalion commander of the Liu Xiang Department are Taoists.Except for Liu Xiang's 21st Army, the heads of other armies also followed Liu Xiang and worshiped Liu Congyun as their teacher.Deng Xihou named Yuqi, Liu Wenhui named Yuyou, Yang Sen named Yuyong, Tian Songyao, Li Jiayu, Luo Zezhou, Xie Dekan, etc., were all disciples of Liu Congyun.During a severe drought in eastern Sichuan, Liu Xiang asked Liu Congyun to pray for rain. This monster pretended to be troubled for a few days, but Chongqing was actually torrentially raining. .Liu Congyun is regarded as the contemporary "Liu Bowen" by the generals around Liu Xiang.Liu Xiang respected Liu Congyun as his military adviser and obeyed his words. A monster full of nonsense turned out to be the most powerful person in central Sichuan.Everyone in the military and political circles in Sichuan knows that flattering Liu Congyun is the ultimate shortcut to promotion and fortune, so much so that some newspapers ridiculed Liu Xiang for "ruling the army with gods, interfering with politics with the army, and disturbing the people with politics."Because Liu Xiang set up a model division for Liu Congyun, and Liu Congyun was in charge of it, so everyone ridiculed Liu Xiang for having four arms: land, sea, air, and gods.

This time fighting the Red Army, all the ministries were exhausted and full of complaints. Liu Xiang hoped to spiritually control the warlords of all walks of life to work for him, so he brought out this "Immortal Liu" to be the commander-in-chief of the front enemy and command the front battle.So there was the opening scene. Liu Xiang wanted to use Liu Congyun to fool those disobedient warlords, but this Liu Congyun actually wore a monkey crown, put on a Taoist robe openly, held a whisk, announced his inauguration in Chengdu on May 25, and then chose an auspicious day to sit on the eighth day Take the big sedan chair, shouting in front and hugging in the back, and went to the Nanchong headquarters to take up his post.After arriving in Nanchong, the demon Taoist issued a declaration. He arrogantly declared: "It only takes thirty-six days. After I send all the thirty-six celestial gangs, the communist bandits will naturally be eliminated without any effort."

Liu Congyun said that gods and ghosts commanded operations by divination and calculation. Even the Kuomintang newspapers did not believe it: "Liu Congyun is what the world calls Immortal Liu. He is a myth. He knows nothing about soldiers. A wise man predicts the future of suppressing bandits and will suffer unexpected setbacks." Letting a charlatan who has no military experience and has never fired a gun command an army of 200,000 troops has become a big joke unprecedented in Chinese military history. Liu Xiang himself was fought on the battlefield with a knife and a gun. Of course, he understands that commanding the army is not a child's play.But why did he do it?Xu Shaozong, Liu Xiang's teacher, described it after liberation:

Immortal Liu is deceitful and treacherous, and uses superstition to confuse people. If Liu Xiang is superstitious about immortals, it is better to say that Liu Xiang needs immortals.He was very respectful to Liu Congyun's disciple, and the gods gave him the name Yuxian. He also called all the officers above the regiment leader to pay homage to the teacher.At that time, I named Yuying.This kind of forced belief made many officers very dissatisfied.Tang Shizun publicly stated when Liu Shenxian was awarded the power to command the entire army: "The generals are still willing to be directly under the command of the commander-in-chief (meaning that they are unwilling to be under the command of Liu Congyun)." Liu Xiang said: "If you don't believe it, you can do it yourself. Take off the hat on your head." Liu Xiang's attitude towards Liu Congyun is so, who would dare to say no to his subordinates?It is not the commander in chief of the 21st Army, you use the gods to punish us, and we use the gods to deal with you, deceit against deceit, everyone swarms and bows to God Liu.Liu Xiang originally wanted to use the relationship between the subordinates and the teachers and apprentices to encourage all walks of life to fight together to deal with the Red Army.But this is only his fantasy.Liu Shenxian knew nothing about military affairs, and made a lot of jokes when commanding operations...

Wang Lingji fought against the Red Army on the front line. Liu Shenxian watched the stars at night to determine the marching route. Wang Lingji obeyed the order, but unexpectedly the route appointed by Liu Shenxian was full of cliffs along the way. Wang Lingji was furious and disobeyed.He also said: "Liu Yao's order, I swear to oppose it!" In order to maintain the authority of Liu Shenxian, Liu Xiang actually withdrew Wang Lingji's Fifth Route Commander. Yan Xiaohu's rebellion against Liu Shenxian was even more intense.He wrote to Liu Xiang: "Please kill the monster to thank the 21st Army, otherwise Sichuan will be a hundred times as corrupt in the future as it is today." Even Wang Lingji was dismissed from office for refusing to listen to the call. They all thought that Yan Xiaohu was ignorant of current affairs and might lead to unforeseen disasters. Chief of the Major General's Staff at the Command.

Through this incident, it can be seen that Liu Xiang has his own sense of propriety in his heart. It is not conclusive to say that he really believes in gods, but it is similar to saying that he plays with gods and uses gods to rule the army. At the meeting, Liu Xiang announced his plan for the fourth phase of the general offensive through the mouth of Liu Congyun: On the first road, Deng Xihou's troops advanced towards Lianghekou on the Sichuan-Shanxi border, cutting off the road for the Red Army to enter Shaanxi; The Tian Songyao Division on the second route, the Li Jiayu and Luo Zezhou Division on the third route attacked Seoul; The fourth team, Yang Sen's Division and Pan Wenhua's Division of the General Reserve Team, attacked Zhuyuguan; The Tang Shizun Department of the Fifth Route and the Liu Bangjun Department of the Sixth Route captured Wanyuan and the line west of it. Among the above-mentioned routes, Tang Shizun's fifth route was the main attack, with the main goal of capturing Wanyuan, and then combined attacks from east and west to achieve the goal of finally destroying the Red Army.