Back to the Republic of China as a commander

"Da da da, da da da, boom boom boom, rush, kill!" At the foot of the majestic Qilian Mountains is the narrow and long Hexi Corridor, where the war of the Republic of China followed Wu Peifu's Northwest Frontier Army unceremoniously. . .

After the Revolution of [-], Gansu Province was divided into small warlords with local forces, forming the "Eight Towns of Longshang".Among the eight towns, there are half of Hui and half of Han.From the Hui nationality: Ma Fuxiang, the guardian of Ningxia, Ma Lin, the guardian of Ninghai (Qinghai), Ma Tingyu (son of Ma Anliang), the guardian of Liangzhou, and Ma Lin, the guardian of Ganzhou; from the Han nationality: Lu Hongtao, the guardian of Longdong, Suzhou The guard envoy Wu Tongren, the guard envoy of Longnan Kong Fanjin, and the guard envoy of Hezhou Pei Jianzhun.In this way, there is no unified military force and command center in the province.

This is the characteristic of the political situation in Gansu at the beginning of the Republic of China, which reflects the dispersion of the feudal economy and the complexity of ethnic relations here.The small warlords of the eight towns do not belong to each other, and there are many conflicts.

But it doesn't matter, Wu Ziyu is here, and he still brings 10,000+ tigers, wolves and lions.

Although Wu Peifu has narrowed down now, but after taking refuge in Wang Zhenyu, his strength immediately recovered. The Northwest Frontier Army under him has a total of five divisions, the first division commander Xiao Yaonan, the second division commander Sun Chuanfang, and the third division commander Sun Chuanfang Feng Yuxiang, Yang Sen, commander of the Fourth Division, and Wang Lingji, commander of the Fifth Division, had an astonishing total strength of 15 troops.Most of them are the hard-working Sichuan Army and the brave and skilled Shaanxi Army. More importantly, they also received supplies from Wuhan, sufficient ammunition and food fodder, and enough officers.In Wu Ziyu's own words, after leading troops for so many years, this time is the most prosperous.

And the army of the eight towns put together is about 10 people. You must know that this scale has made the 900 million people of Gansu miserable.So as soon as Wu Ziyu's banner came out, the leaders of the eight towns had to give up their past enmity and start planning to protect themselves in tandem.

The most tragic thing here is Zhang Guangjian, the governor of Gansu at that time. This man was appointed as the governor of Gansu by Yuan Shikai in 1913.In terms of ability, it really has some points. Without an unarmed soldier, it successfully took advantage of the local Hui-Han conflict in Gansu and the mutual restraint between the eight towns to successfully control the situation in Gansu. At one point, it even dealt with warlords like Ma Anliang , Seeing that Gansu will be stable in his hands.

But things are unpredictable. Just when Zhang Guangjian was full of ambitions in ruling Gansu, the War to Protect the Country broke out.The turmoil that was originally thought to be only three or two months, turned out to end in the defeat of the Beiyang Army across the board in less than two months.After Yuan Shikai's death, Zhang Guangjian chose to continue to join Duan Qirui of the Beiyang government, unlike Yang Zengxin, the governor of Xinjiang in the same year.Originally, I thought that this day could continue, but in a little over a year, Duan Qirui's government collapsed in the Zhiwan War, and now the Gansu area is full of excitement.The result of the weak central government is naturally obvious. Everyone’s fear and fear of Zhang Guangjian, an airborne cadre, has dropped to zero. Before Wu Peifu announced his march to the Northwest, Gansu had already announced the expulsion of Zhang Guangjian under the leadership of the Ma family. .

Zhang Guangjian is not very worried about the Hui people. What really makes him depressed is Wu Peifu.Speaking of which, everyone used to make a living under Yuan Gongbao's tent. Now that you, Wu Ziyu, took over other people's jobs and immediately smashed your brother's jobs, it can't be considered kind.Zhang Guangjian, who was confused about the situation, even sent a telegram to Wu Peifu, hoping that he would not disturb the local people in Gansu.

Wu Peifu, who is arrogant, has a strong army and horses at the moment, so he doesn't pay attention to Zhang Guangjian at all, and directly sends him a telegram, telling him to resign immediately and leave immediately, Zhang Guangjian is so angry that he scolds the scholar for being rude.

Later, Zhang Guangjian sent an urgent telegram to the newly established Zhang Zuolin government in Beijing in the name of the Governor of Gansu, hoping to gain the support of the central government. In order to win this possible support, Zhang Guangjian also added a sentence at the end of the telegram: "The Ministry of Staff will command the entire province to fight to the end!"

But the telegram seemed to disappear, and the Beijing side turned a blind eye to Zhang Guangjian's telegram, as if it had never been sent, and there was no news.

If Zhang Guangjian still doesn't understand that he is a fool by this time, Beijing must have taken a tacit or even acquiescing attitude towards Wu Peifu's current actions.Then there is nothing to say, Zhang Guangjian tried to keep his position as the governor of Gansu under Wu Peifu's soldiers.

It's a pity that Yang Du, whom Wang Zhenyu rationed to Wu Peifu, is still on vacation in Wuhan. In Yang Du's view, the Gansu issue is not worth his worrying at all. What he has to worry about is what happens after the army finally enters Xinjiang.So Wu Peifu, who had no political restrictions, rejected Zhang Guangjian's request very simply, but Wu Peifu still did not forget the old feelings, and finally told Zhang Guangjian that if you leave in time, I will send troops to escort you, otherwise, you will be the enemy.

Seeing such an answer, Zhang Guangjian sighed involuntarily. The Gansu warlord who had been sitting for five years was at an end. On November 11, Gansu Governor Zhang Guangjian announced his resignation.However, Lu Hongtao and the other four Han guardian envoys thought over and over again, but they couldn't figure out that their army would have a slight chance of winning if they resisted by force, so they immediately and neatly announced that they would accept the command of the Northwest Frontier Defense Army.Naturally, Wu Peifu would not reuse these surrendered generals, and sent 17 Huayuan per person to be an apartment.As for the army under his command, he naturally chose the elite to be incorporated into the Sixth Division of the Northwest Frontier Defense Army without any politeness, and Yu Xuezhong was exceptionally appointed as the division commander.

As for Wuhan, Wang Zhenyu's idea of ​​the Northwest Region is not only to complete the unification, so he ignored Wu Peifu's private expansion of the establishment, and did not approve or say a word about the report of the Security Bureau.It was just that a group of young officers with reliable political thinking were mobilized from various military academies to serve, and Wu Peifu also saw trust from them. . .

The four horses finally embarked on the reactionary road of uniting against Wu, and their first battle was a desperate contest with Wu Peifu's army at the foot of the Qilian Mountains.

This battle, named by historians as the Battle of Lanzhou, was actually fought in the Yuzhong area about 20 kilometers away from Lanzhou. Four horses in Gansu gathered a total of [-] Hui armed forces to fight Wu Peifu's [-] troops here.

Although the Hui army is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of military strength, the four horses are not worried about this, because they believe that their army is blessed by Allah.Moreover, the imams of almost all mosques in the jurisdiction came forward to mobilize, in the name of jihad, they encouraged 30 jihad fighters to gather in Lanzhou, planning to defeat Wu Peifu in one fell swoop.Among them, there are many people who are full of fantasies, dreaming of taking this opportunity to continue to spread the teachings of Allah to the East. . .

On November 11th, I don't know the reason, and I don't know what happened. In short, the jihad fighters who entered Lanzhou unceremoniously killed the Han residents in Lanzhou city. It happened, and the number of Han people killed was astonishing, but the government of later generations stupidly covered up the truth out of national unity.

However, the Han people in Lanzhou are obviously more reliable than those in Nanjing. Facing the brutal extremists, they knew that they would not be spared, and they fought desperately.Although the effect of this spontaneous resistance was weak, the result of the Lanzhou incident was that nearly [-] Han Chinese were brutally massacred in Lanzhou City, and more than [-] women were raped and tortured. Eat, but the bloody outburst of the Han men at the last moment made those wood dead forests who believed in Allah feel a little shocked.As an imam who blocked the mob with his life but was killed by the mob as an apostate said: "If it is true that Allah allows you to do evil like this, and allows you to regard life as worthless and yourself as a beast, then Allah It's a devil!"

The whole of Lanzhou became a hell on earth, full of the wailing of the dying, the screaming and crying of women and children, and the triumphant self-boasting of the perpetrators.Even after nightfall, many years later, the horrors of that day can still be heard. . .

The Lanzhou incident soon spread to Wu Peifu, who had just entered Tianshui. When he learned the detailed report of the whole incident, he was filled with anger and vomited blood.Then he ordered the 20 tiger and wolf divisions under his command: "Brothers, just three days ago, a group of cultists from the Northwest claimed to have followed Muha's order and frantically killed [-] Han compatriots. Old people, women and children, they didn’t do anything bad, they were brutally killed just because they were of different ethnicities and didn’t believe in cults. Who gave these thugs the power to deprive others of their lives? Who gave this beast... As a soldier, I I have nothing to say, I only know that I should do one thing, take up our guns, and avenge the dead compatriots. Are you willing to avenge me? Kill all cults, kill all rebels!"

Before the soldiers came to the meeting, they had more or less obtained information about the Lanzhou incident from their officers. Although they were not educated, they had seen the world as soldiers, and after a long time they understood what a nation is, what a country is, and what compatriots are.Now that the commander incited them like this, they felt bloodshot in their foreheads, and shouted murderously: "Revenge, revenge, kill all cults, kill all rebels!"

In Nanjing, the ethnic issue has caused the most extensive discussion and controversy in the two houses, and the debated members of the parliament have been unable to form an effective resolution for a long time.This time, the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government in Wuhan issued an order that caused widespread controversy:

"First, from now on, all officers and soldiers in the army will wear black veils for three days to mourn the victims of the Lanzhou Incident, and the Northwest Frontier Army will wear mourning for one year;

Second, from now on, the distinction between various ethnic groups will be abolished, and the Chinese nation will be the only nation in the Republic of China, and there will be no distinction between Han and Yi;

Thirdly, from now on, there is freedom of religious belief, but cult organizations that incite human beings to be hostile to each other, to kill each other, and to defraud money and benefits shall not be regarded as religions.

Fourth, Wu Peifu, the commander of the Northwest Frontier Army, was appointed with full authority to take charge of the aftermath of the Lanzhou Incident. . . "