This year, the European War ended; this year, the war between the north and the south of China continued; this year, there were many conflicts between Zhizhi and Anhui; this year, Wang Hengyue in the south prepared for the Northern Expedition!
But just before Wang Heng left for the Northern Expedition, something happened in Russia that closely linked the Zhili, Anhui, Feng, and Wang Hengyue's Southwest Clan.
Their cooperation this time is not for mutual benefit, but for: national dignity!
National strictness is greater than factional conflicts, and national honor is greater than civil war!
The October Revolution in Russia caused more than one million overseas Chinese stranded in Russia to face the chaotic and bloody Russian Civil War, and their lives and property were under unprecedented threats.
Urgent messages and telegrams flew from Vladivostok to Beijing like a snowstorm: compatriots are starving, and some overseas Chinese have only four taels of food per day...
Our compatriots are being plundered. Whether it is Russia's hungry Red Army or the White Army, as long as they are old men with guns, they all regard overseas Chinese as a treasury for taking and taking...
Compatriots are being massacred. The opposing armed factions in Russia are dragging strong overseas Chinese men and putting them on dirty military uniforms. These [Chinese] people who only understand "Ula" are being thrown into a hail of bullets.
. Even those who have not been raped are like lambs to be slaughtered in front of groups of uniformed bandits. Even the Japanese army that sent troops to Russia in the name of "protecting overseas Chinese" inexplicably opened up to the Chinese.
Killing...
Millions of overseas Chinese gathered together and looked south, asking for help from Beijing!
Compared with China's internationally recognized central government, the Beiyang government is in dire straits. It has to face the complex international situation while also dealing with various domestic factions.
But even under such circumstances, the "dark, decadent and reactionary" Beiyang government resisted pressure from all parties and ordered the dispatch of armed troops to Siberia to protect overseas Chinese, even ignoring threats and warnings from Japan.
This was the first time in China's thousands of years of history that the rulers used military force overseas to protect the interests and safety of overseas Chinese. In 1918, the whole world looked at China with admiration!
When the revolutionary wave from St. Petersburg reached the Pacific coast, almost only a few small waves were left. The Bolsheviks, with less than 10,000 people in the Far East, did not have enough appeal, let alone enough influence.
force, after occupying Irkutsk through a sudden military coup,
After conquering strategic locations such as Vladivostok, Burgh, and Hellenic, the new Soviet power was quickly overthrown, and the Bolsheviks could still only carry out guerrilla warfare underground.
Those occupying the dominant position are the White Guards who defend the old regime, but they are also changing the names of leaders and regimes like a revolving door: "Siberian Provisional Government", "Siberian Autonomous Provisional Government", "All-Russian Provisional Government", "All-Russian Government", "You
After Fang finished singing, I came on stage, and there was a great buzz.
At this time, there were millions of overseas Chinese stranded in Russia. Among them, in addition to traditional merchants and craftsmen, there were also hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers sent to the front lines of World War I.
In World War I, China joined the Allied Powers and sent a large number of Chinese workers, many of whom traveled overland to the front line via Russia. After Russia fell into civil strife, these Chinese workers gradually gathered in Irkutsk and other places.
, the situation is miserable.
After the news of the October Revolution spread to the Far East, the situation in Vladivostok and other places also became uneasy, with news of riots becoming more and more alarming every day. Local overseas Chinese flocked to the Chinese Consulate General in Vladivostok to make appeals one after another.
When the Russian side has completely lost control of the situation, overseas Chinese groups such as the Vladivostok Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Heihe Jiangbei Overseas Chinese Association in Russia, and the Khabarovsk Chinese Chamber of Commerce,
The Overseas Chinese Association of Amur Province and others urgently appealed to the motherland to send troops to protect the overseas Chinese.
Zhang Zuoshuang and other Feng clique warlords who control the Northeast have deep conflicts with the Anhui clique warlords who control Beijing. However, on the issue of protecting overseas Chinese, the two sides have rarely reached agreement.
Fengtian and Jilin provinces were ordered to immediately mobilize a large number of troops. Zhang Zuoshuang and others also promoted self-protection methods among overseas Chinese: "First, register the property and send it to the Russian officials as a basis for compensation for losses.
Second, in an emergency, hoist the national flag to mark the overseas Chinese. Third, each business group should set up a regiment for self-defense."
However, this scratchy approach can no longer cope with the increasingly deteriorating situation in Russia.
The State Council immediately held a discussion and finally decided to send a warship to Vladivostok to protect overseas Chinese, and the Navy Ministry was responsible for implementation. The Navy Department designated the destroyer "Jiankang" to take on this unprecedented mission of protecting overseas Chinese.
[China] sent warships to Russia to protect overseas Chinese, which angered [Japan].
At this time, [Japan] was committed to establishing a common defense system between China and Japan in order to seize its own privileges in the "Northern Manchuria Region." China's independent actions greatly disrupted the signing of the "China-Japan"
Japan’s plan for the Military Agreement on Mutual Defense of Enemies... It can be said that the "Jiankang" was ordered to go to Russia, but because its strength was still weak, it had little practical significance for protecting overseas Chinese.
But this was not only the first time that the Chinese rulers used armed escorts to express concern for overseas Chinese, but it was also a soft confrontation against Japanese persecution under the weak environment at the time.
Under the high pressure of Japan, the central government tried its best to deal with Japan, while urging the "Jiankang" to make the trip as soon as possible. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued to urge the Ministry of Navy..., today
Sailing..., and telegraphed to the Consulate General in Vladivostok to ensure the supply of coal, fresh water, food and other supplies for the "Jiankang".
Under repeated criticism from Japan, the "Jiankang" left the domestic military port and entered the Vladivostok port amidst the cheers of overseas Chinese on April 16.
Less than a month after the destroyer "Jiankang" stationed in Vladivostok, Russia's "Czech Legion" launched a rebellion, making the situation in the Far East even more chaotic.
Lenin immediately set out to make amends and established the Red Army's "Eastern Front" to attack the Czech Army and the White Guards. The "White" side gradually lost to the "Red... side and began to retreat eastward step by step. The Allied Powers that supported the "White" side included
[China], including China, began to actively deploy the mission to rescue the Czech Legion.
The Czech Legion incident made the situation of overseas Chinese in the Far East even more miserable. The Czech Legion cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, leaving at least 200,000 Chinese workers stranded in Omsk and Irkutsk, creating a serious food crisis.
Although the Japanese army came to rescue the victims several times, they clearly announced that overseas Chinese were not included in the relief scope and were not even qualified to purchase relief grain.
In addition to the Belarusian regime, the Bolsheviks, the Japanese Army, etc. also printed their own banknotes and forcibly exchanged them, making the Far East the region with the most banknotes and the most outrageous prices in the world.
Coupled with the forcible imposition of high taxes by various regimes, Chinese businessmen in the Far East were completely transformed into the "proletariat". Moreover, their personal safety was not guaranteed at all, and the burning and killing of Chinese people was endless.
"Property is disposed of at will, and lives are ravaged at will." "Hundreds of thousands of overseas Chinese live in the bottom of the cauldron every day, and millions of properties are like eggs."
The overseas Chinese in the Far East once again appealed to the motherland: Send troops! Send troops!
At this time, the Allied Powers were also actively negotiating to send troops to intervene in the Russian Civil War. Japan, the United States, Britain,
France and others gradually formed a consensus, and the Beiyang government was not willing to lag behind. It launched diplomatic negotiations with the Allied powers and stated that China would send troops to Siberia. The Beiyang government's request to send troops was met with firm opposition from Japan. Japan
What I hope is that [China] will be included in the so-called "China and Japan jointly defend against enemies" system. [China] only needs to provide bases and supplies, and [Japan] our army will help protect overseas Chinese. [Japan] myself
His wishful thinking is to take the opportunity to seize greater interests in the northeastern part of China.
The Beiyang government did not show weakness. Although it could not confront the "Japanese" themselves tit for tat, it still implemented a soft confrontation and changed the purpose of China's troops from protecting overseas Chinese to "the purpose of assisting the Czech Army." This reason won the United States.
With the support of France, the United States even made it clear that the Beiyang government should take control of the Middle East Railway on its own.
It is not convenient for Japan to continue to oppose it, but the number of people who propose that China sends troops does not need to be large.
After the diplomatic negotiations ended, the Beiyang government decided to send troops to Siberia. The real purpose of sending troops was two-fold. The first was to prepare for a rainy day to protect China's sovereignty, including the navigation rights of Heilongjiang, and to prevent the great powers from accomplishing any damage in its absence.
China’s agreement: The second is to protect overseas Chinese.
From August 2nd to 8th, Japan, the United States, and Britain successively issued declarations of dispatching troops, formally implementing armed intervention in the Russian War.
On August 3, Lin Jianzhang, the captain of the destroyer "Jiankang" who was already in Vladivostok, was appointed as the "acting general" to take full command of the troops stationed in Russia!
On August 22, the Beiyang government officially issued a declaration of dispatching troops. The Army's Ninth Division mobilized a total force equivalent to two regiments, with a total strength of 4,000 people, including infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, heavy heavy troops and machine gun troops, divided into batches.
They drove into Siberia one after another, under the command of regiment leader Song Huanzhang.
The main mission is to ensure the evacuation channel of the twin cities of Vladivostok and Suifenhe.
The arrival of the Chinese army greatly boosted the ambition of the overseas Chinese.
The troops stationed in Russia continuously dispatched small teams to perform rescue and protection missions at the request of overseas Chinese. In cities where the troops stationed in Russia could not be stationed, overseas Chinese began to set up their own militia organizations, "merchant groups." The consulate quietly assisted them in purchasing guns and ammunition.
Enhance self-defense capabilities.
Under the might of the troops stationed in Russia, on the front line of Irkutsk, where the civil war was the fiercest, Chinese diplomats were not afraid of hardships, dispatched trains from Moscow and Harbin, and escorted the whole journey. In just a few months,
Evacuate 30,000 trapped Chinese workers.
The official purpose of sending troops to control China was to rescue "White Russia", but Belarus's attitude towards the Chinese did not change at all. The leader of the White Guards, Semyonov, continued to massacre and rob the Chinese.
Semyonov did not care at all about the friendship between "friendly countries" and the anti-Chinese atrocities became more and more intense. He simply announced that all the properties of overseas Chinese within his jurisdiction would be confiscated and overseas Chinese would be prohibited from living there.
It's tolerable, but it's intolerable.
The guns of the Chinese troops stationed in Russia are not just decorations. While conducting diplomatic protests, they did not cower in their tortoise shells of "taking the overall situation into consideration". Instead, they fought bravely and challenged "friendly countries" who dared to harass.
, the "White Guards" opened fire. At the same time, the troops stationed in Russia also divided their troops and stationed in Khabarovsk, Shuangchengzi, Hailanpao and other places to protect overseas Chinese with arms!
At a time when overseas Chinese are being bullied, warlords from all walks of life in China have rarely united together!!