Just as the sound of killings in the north was shaking the world, another call for peace suddenly broke out in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River!
On February 14, 1918, Feng Yuxiang sent a telegram announcing his suicide in Wuxué, denounced the Civil War as the most unconscious and unreasonable war. He had previously ordered the "Review" to drive to Pukou and stop advancing, just to promote the North-South war.
Peace. The basis of the peace talks is that Yuezhou returns to Hunan and Jingxiang returns to Hubei. Each defends its territory and neither invades. It is not impossible to achieve. Finally, he said that soldiers should obey the president. And the president has always advocated peace, so the advocate
Harmony means obeying the president.
He concluded in two ways: "either to stop the troops, or to kill Yuxiang to thank the world." Feng's move was of course an arrangement by the peace faction to disrupt the main war party's attack on Hunan, because Wu Xué was between Hubei and Jiangxi
In the meantime, Feng's actions had an impact on the first and second route armies of the main war faction. It is said that this was planned by Lu Jianzhang behind the scenes... Lu also had a plan to raid Anhui and drive away Ni Sichong.
At the same time as Feng Yuxiang issued a cold message, the Anhui rebel army appeared in the Hubei-Anhui border, Huoshan, and Lu'an areas. They issued a petition against Ni and recommended Lu Jianzhang as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army. Ni Sichong hurriedly mobilized troops for self-defense and telegraphed to the Beijing government for an order.
Remove Li Chun and attack Feng Yuxiang.
However, the actions of Feng Yuxiang and Lu Jianzhang failed to get the response of the three governors of the Yangtze River. Therefore, they were isolated and helpless. The main combatants shouted loudly to punish them, while Wang Shizhen was like an old monk in meditation, never speaking.
On February 25, the Beijing government ordered that Feng Yuxiang be dismissed from the post of brigade commander and handed over to Cao Zui for investigation. Dong Shilu, the commander of the brigade, was appointed as the acting brigade commander. Feng Yuxiang telegraphed to Zhang Huaizhi that he was willing to take advantage of his guilt. All officers and soldiers of Feng's brigade also sent a telegram to Beijing on March 1.
The government withdraws its order to replace the brigade commander.
Duan Qirui was extremely shocked by Feng Yuxiang's sudden proposal for peace, so he focused all his anger on Feng Guozhang and determined to stage a military coup to drive Feng out of power. However, since all the troops of the Anhui clique were transferred to the south, he did not have enough troops to do so.
In order to support his plan, he sent his trusted advisor Xu Shuzheng to go to the Northeast to find Zhang Zuoshuang under the pretext of "contacting national defense", and persuade Zhang Zuoshuang to send his Feng army to the pass to implement the plan to expel Feng.
Although Zhang Zuoshuang was born in the green forest, he had long had the ambition to "support the troops outside the pass with self-respect" and was waiting for the opportunity to inquire about the Central Plains. Duan asked him for help, and he readily agreed and immediately sent troops to enter the pass. After the news of Feng's army entering the pass came out, finally
Of course, it was Feng Guozhang who felt uneasy. Fengtian was behind Beijing, and he could arrive at dawn or dusk.
Ma Guozhang was a president without troops and power. He had no control over Beijing. He had a premonition that he might be expelled or put under house arrest at any time, so he calculated the Thirty-six Strategies to still go as far as possible and secretly arranged the second "Southern Strategy".
"Xun" planned to go south from Jinghan Road to Hubei, but how could the Duan clan let the tiger go back to the mountains? Of course, he would not be allowed to leave Beijing.
However, after Duan Qirui convened a secret meeting with his cronies, they changed the military regime to a military threat, which made Feng Guozhang feel threatened and did not immediately expel him.
At the same time, it is planned to convene the new Congress as soon as possible in order to re-elect the president.
On February 17, Feng Guozhang was forced to publish the Congressional Organization Law and the Election Law of the Members of both Houses of Representatives as amended by the Provisional Senate. On the 18th, he ordered the Ministry of the Interior to prepare for the election of the new Congress.
On February 24, the Beijing-Fengtian Road train was detained by the Fengjun Army for transporting troops. On the 25th, the 53rd Brigade of the 27th Division of the Fengtian Army was detained in Luanzhou. Yang Yuting, chief of staff of the Fengtian Military Department, led troops to Qinhuangdao to arrest the [Japanese] government.
According to the Sino-Japanese arms loan agreement, more than 27,000 rifles were robbed in the first batch. When the news reached Beijing, Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui were both shocked: especially the batch of arms that Duan Qirui purchased from Japan.
In order to train his direct troops to "join the war army", but now Fengjun took the lead, how could it not be a big headache? On the 26th, Zhang Zuoshuang sent a message to Zhang Zuoshuang asking for the "original return" to be transported to Beijing.
Zhang also sent a message on the same day, "saying that he had already arranged for the southern expedition, but due to lack of arms, it was inconvenient to set off. Now he is taking away the arms without reporting, because he is afraid that it would be time-consuming to go back and forth for instructions." Therefore, he had no choice but to retain them first and then report them.
Zhang Zuoshuang did not rob the arms without authorization, because he did not know that the arms arrived in Qinhuangdao. So who hinted to Zhang Zuoshuang? It turned out to be Xu Shuzheng!
Due to Feng Jun's rapid entry into the Pass, Feng Yuxiang's "surprise force plan..." to attack Anhui could not be realized.
The Beijing government had previously ordered to replace brigade commander Feng Yuxiang. Feng Yuxiang had threatened all officers and soldiers to advance and retreat with the brigade commander. At this time, the situation forced him to bow his head. Ni Sichong asked the Beijing government to quickly send a message to Cao Sui to send troops to attack Feng's brigade in order to control the Yangtze River.
"There is a huge danger" and he accused Feng Kang of refusing to explain, adding troops to block the upper and lower reaches of Wuxué, and secretly going back and forth with Su Du to secretly discuss military strategies. "This shows that he is ambitious and under the instigation of others. But Cao Zuo refused to send troops." So Ni Sichong also
Don't dare attack alone!
Feng Yuxiang had already become prominent at this time. Zhang Huaizhi suggested that Feng brigade be transferred to Heilongjiang for garrison. Feng Yu,
Xiang, of course, refused to be conscripted into the army and "sent to the frontiers to serve". And Zhang Zuoshuang did not welcome this army either.
It was not until March 18 that the Beijing government adopted Cao Cao's advice and gave Feng Yuxiang the sanction of "removal from his post and keeping him in office". He kidnapped the army lieutenant general and was temporarily allowed to remain as brigade commander and handed over to Cao Cao for control and deployment.
After Fengjun entered the customs, Zhang Zuoshuang made two demands: to remove Li Chun and to attack Feng Yuxiang. He said this was to "support the head of state." However, the head of state Feng Guozhang whom he supported was frightened and panicked.
Why would Duan Qirui marry Zhang Zuoshuang if he didn't know that the king of Guanwai was not easy to mess with, and it would not be easy to invite him out. But since he drank poison to quench his thirst, he had to "force himself".
Feng Guozhang knew that it was impossible to ask Duan Qirui to withdraw from the Fengtian army, so he had to ask Zhao Erxun, who had served as governor of the three eastern provinces in the late Qing Dynasty and personally recruited Zhang Zuoshuang, to go to Fengtian to persuade Zhang Zuoshuang to withdraw from the army. However, times changed and Zhang Zuoshuang had already
If he doesn't buy into his old boss's fault, Zhao Erxun will naturally run away in vain.
Feng Guozhang was in pain at this time. He really wanted to bring peace to the people, but he couldn't get it. He was now a bare president. Although Qian Nengxun was acting as the Prime Minister of the cabinet, Qian refused to take over and made troubles every day to explain. Feng wrote a letter
I wrote to Yang Shiqi and asked the old fox from Anhui to come out of the mountain, but Yang didn't even reply to the letter.
However, the governors acted on their own and had no president. Fengjun not only sent troops without authorization, but also took weapons without authorization. Is this tolerable, but is it intolerable?
Since Fengjun entered the customs, its momentum has been aggressive. On March 5, a unit of the Fengjun army drove from Tianjin to Langfang and inspected passengers at the station, which shocked people at home and abroad. The State Council in Beijing sent a call to dissuade them, explaining that Langfang was not under martial law.
In the area, passengers could not be inspected, so Feng Jun continued to perform his duties and ignored them. However, Zhang Zuoshuang's telegram was ignored.
At this time, new terror arose inside and outside Beijing, and it was believed that the restoration of the braided soldiers would happen again.
Because the warlords of the main war faction had jointly sent a telegram to release Zhang Xun, Zhang Xun and Zhang Zuoshuang were sons and daughters, and there were many restorationists in Zhang Zuoshuang's curtain, and the Feng army marched into the pass and pressed directly into the capital. Everything was as it was on the eve of Zhang Xun's entry into the capital. Why?
Not to make people shocked by the past. Therefore, many wealthy and dignitaries in Beijing left the city one after another, and the railway station was crowded with passengers leaving the capital, supporting the old and the young, as if a disaster was imminent.
On March 7, Fengtian published the correspondence between Zhang Zuoshuang, Cao*, and Zhang Huaizhi. On March 5, Zhang Zuoshuang
Rigedian stated that his purpose was to "support the [Central] Central Committee, maintain the overall situation, always unite, quell civil strife, contact comrades, and save danger together."
He also said that the Tianjin Conference organized Fengjun into the First Army, and later reorganized it into the Second Army. He expressed his great sympathy. Now it has been organized into six mixed brigades. If he does not move out, he will not trust his comrades, and he will not trust my brother.
Injustice, the brigades will arrive in Xu soon to join the army and listen to the command. Zhang Zuoshuang tried his best to explain in this telegram that "I have no personal ambitions. I have exceeded my wealth, fame, and power, so what else can I do?"
I hope that I will only focus on the current situation and expand my strength, specifically for the purpose of tutoring my brother. Otherwise, I have no ulterior motives. If there is any falsehood, ghosts and gods will detect it."
Cao*’s Yang Dian on March 7th welcomed Fengjun’s entry into the Pass, and praised Zhang Zuoshuang for his righteousness, uprightness, and close friendship between flesh and blood. He asked Fengjun to gather in Xuzhou and join the second route. Please also send one or two more.
The mixed brigade arrived at Hankou and joined the first line. Zhang Huaizhi's Yang Dian praised Fengcao's entry into the pass as "strengthening our morale and strengthening our backup" and said that Hanzhuang had been designated as the first stop for Fengjun's march south.
On March 7, Feng Guzhang sent out the power supply that had been on hold for three days.
After Feng Guozhang's telegram was announced, the situation seemed to have eased. The main reason was that the Anhui clique and the main war faction did not want to expel Feng from power immediately. Therefore, Cao Zuo, Zhang Huaizhi, Zhang Jingyao, etc. of the main war faction all responded by calling Feng Zhi, Lu, and Zhi.
The governors-general of six provinces including Jiangsu, Anhui, and Han issued a joint telegram, strongly denouncing the overthrow of the head of state and preparations for restoration as nonsense.
On March 8, the situation in Beijing became very tense. The Presidential Palace was under emergency martial law, and troops were deployed to guard Duan Zhai in Fuxue Hutong.
On March 9, Wang Shizhen disguised himself and fled to Tianjin. After arriving in Tianjin, he wrote a letter to two old friends, Feng and Duan, vowing never to return to Beijing to take up a post.
During this period, the Anhui clique used all its power to oppress Feng Guozhang and reject Li Chun. Although Feng Guozhang was weak, his attitude towards Li Chun was very tough. He said that the president did not have the power to remove the governor. If he had the power to remove the governor, he would
The first governor to be dismissed was not Li Chun but Zhang Zuoshuang, who led his troops into the customs without authorization and robbed arms. If Li Chun was guilty, he was only making peace, and making peace was not a crime. Zhang Zuoshuang was free to send troops to threaten the president.
, much more sinful than Lord He!
Duan Qirui instructed the Anhui cabinet members to pass a motion at the State Council: Li Chun often asked for leave and asked him to leave his job to recuperate. Instead of leaving his original post, he sent Lu Yongxiang to act as Jiangsu governor. Feng Guozhang refused to stamp this order and at the same time instructed Li Chun
The fakes were sold on the same day to fund the boycott. Duan Qirui also suggested that Li Chun should be transferred internally to serve as chief of staff, but Feng Guozhang did not agree. As Duan's pressure continued to increase, Feng Guozhang agreed to imitate the previous method of dealing with Chen Guangyuan and give Li Chun "dismissal and retention".
, Duan Qirui also disagrees.
On March 12, Ni Sichong, the extreme main-warfare faction, came to Tianjin again and invited Zhang Zuoshuang to Tianjin to jointly instigate support for Duan to form a cabinet and remove Li Chun. It was on this day that Fengjun established the Commander-in-Chief of Fengjun in Guan Nei in Junliang City, 50 miles away from Tianjin.
Department, Zhang Zuoshuang served as commander-in-chief, and Xu Shuzheng acted as commander-in-chief in the name of deputy commander.