Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Nationalist sentiment in Beijing reached a climax with Zhang Zuolin's order to take back the Eastern Railway on March 3.

In the late period of World War I, the February Revolution broke out in Russia in 1917, the Russian Empire collapsed, and a new provisional government of the Russian Republic was established, but it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution.And after the October Revolution, the Soviet government was established in Russia, but during this period, no country on the Soviet side recognized the Soviet regime. On March 1918, 3, the Bolshevik government signed the "Brest-Litovsk Treaty" with the German Empire, announcing its withdrawal from World War I and an armistice with the German Empire.The move angered various anti-Bolshevik nationalists at home and abroad, and Russia lost large tracts of land to the treaty.After the Soviet-German Armistice Treaty was signed, British and French troops occupied some ports in the former Russian Empire. In the spring of 6, more than 1918 members of the Czech Corps, supported by the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionary Party, mainly composed of former imperial Russian Czechs and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, mutinied. In July, they took control of the Siberian Railway from Lake Baikal to the Ural Mountains. On November 7, the government of the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries was overthrown by the former imperial Russian Admiral Kolchak's coup.Kolchak called himself the "Supreme Commander of All Russia". In March 11, Kolchak organized 18 White Russian troops to cross the Ural Mountains and attack the Volga Valley.In this way, only Belarusian Semenov's army remained in the Far East.

Semyonov is a native of Transbaikal province in Russia. In 1911, Semyonov graduated from the Orenburg Military School.He fought in WWI as a yesaul. In July 1917, Semyonov served as a representative of the Provisional Government in the Baikal region and was responsible for recruiting Cossacks.After the October Revolution, Semyonov launched a rebellion against the Soviet Union. After the defeat, he fled to China. On April 7, 1918, he recruited 4 battalions of the Volunteer Army from Hailar and Angang River along the Middle Eastern Railway, and marched to Manchuria to establish the "Transbaikal" Local Provisional Government".In August of the same year, with the help of the Czechoslovak Legion, he captured Chita and moved the "Trans-Baikal Regional Provisional Government" there.With his ruthless rule, he consolidated his position in the Baikal region.As he ruled the region, he was portrayed as a "steppe bandit, intercepting trains and looting property, no matter whose cargo it was." The Provisional Government of Siberia appointed Semyonov as commander of a detachment headquartered in Chita.Initially, General Kolchak refused to recognize Semyonov's authority, but he was later forced to accept this fact and appointed Semyonov as commander-in-chief of the Chita Military District. In early 6, Semyonov declared himself the ataman of the Transbaikal Cossacks and was supported by the Japanese intervention forces.

But now the Japanese have used their usual methods to support Zhang Zuolin's army Wu Junsheng's department to take over the Middle East Railway Company unceremoniously and drive out the Russian employees.Semyonov was so angry that he immediately organized an army to fight back, but was opposed by the intervening army. More importantly, Zhang Zuolin's army did not seem to be easy to provoke, so Zhang Zuolin's Dongdong Road was so unclear. It was taken back, and for a while in the Beijing-Tianjin area, Zhang Zuolin was dubbed a patriot by various big and tabloid newspapers.

Although the Belarusian side was extremely angry about Zhang Zuolin's behavior, at this time the Russian Civil War had entered a critical moment, and they had no good solution except to protest.Britain and France are deeply worried about this, while the United States has no attitude. Japan has not objected this time and even supports it secretly. It is not difficult to say.

And Zhang Zuolin is happy. He can now be said to have gained both fame and fortune. Not only can he get enough income from the Middle East Road (a large number of intervening military supplies to aid Russia have to go through this railway), but he has also gained enough political fame. At this moment, the little flame that unifies the whole country deep in his heart began to jump up uncontrollably. . .

In the next month or so, Zhang Zuolin received 1000 million ocean taxes (contract [-] million Chinese yuan) paid by the Nationalist government on the one hand, but on the other hand, he created public opinion in the Congress, trying to abolish the local government of the Nationalist government, and completed the National unity.

In history, the Feng family was beaten all over the place by the Soviet Red Army in order to regain the Middle East Road. However, the smooth recovery in this time and space has further raised the expectations of the patriotic students in the Beijing-Tianjin area for the Paris Peace Conference. It can be said that it is already The tall ones cannot be higher.Looking at the map of the whole country, Wang Zhenyu took a deep breath and said, "Let Zhang Zuolin be happy for a while!"

In April, the Paris Peace Conference entered a critical moment. The Chinese delegation, composed of Lu Zhengxiang, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Beijing Central Government, Shi Zhaoji, Minister to the UK, Wei Chengui, Minister to Belgium, and Gu Weijun, the diplomatic representative of the Nationalist Government, formally submitted China's seven points to the peace conference. Require:

[-]. Abolish the sphere of influence; [-]. Withdraw foreign troops and patrols; [-]. Abolish foreign post offices and wired and wireless telegraph offices;

[-]. Revocation of consular jurisdiction; [-]. Return of the leased land; [-]. Return of the concession;

[-]. Freedom of tariffs;

The Paris Peace Conference was conducted from beginning to end under the manipulation of the victorious imperialist powers.

In the meeting of major powers, all major issues of the peace conference are first discussed and decided by the meeting of the five major powers.First there was the "Ten-member Conference", which was composed of Wilson and Lansing from the United States, Lloyd George and Belfort from the United Kingdom, Clemenceau and Bisheng from France, Orlando and Sannino from Italy, Komochi Saienji and Nobuaki Makino from Japan . The "ten-member meeting" is a "regular official meeting" of the five major powers, and more than 60 times were held during the peace meeting. From March 1919, 3, the "ten-person meeting" was reduced to the "four-member meeting", that is, the heads of the four countries of Britain, France, the United States, and Italy negotiated privately on European issues during the peace meeting (the Italian Prime Minister Orlando left the meeting on April 26) , the leaders of Britain, France, and the United States will control the situation in the form of a "three-person meeting").

The peace preparatory meeting, that is, the 'National Plenary Meeting, was held only 6 times during the peace meeting, and it was just a formality.

In the official peace conference, the representatives of the Allied Powers and the former enemy countries met separately, once to submit the final draft of the peace treaty, and once to sign the peace treaty.

Although the Chinese European Expeditionary Force has achieved beautiful results in Europe, and although the national government in the south has begun the pace of modernization, in the eyes of the great powers, China is still a weak ancient country, while Japan is the regional power in Asia.

The United Kingdom still takes good care of Japan, the little brother, but after the war, the United Kingdom has nothing to appease Japan. What they can do is very simple, which is to use China to satisfy Japan, and then enable Japan to continue to contain them Russia, at the same time, don't try to think about British and French colonies in Southeast Asia.

The peace meeting initially promised to return the rights and interests in Shandong to China; but the Japanese representative Makino Nobuaki proposed the so-called "21 Articles", saying that the member insisted that according to this treaty, the interests of the Shandong area should belong to the Empire of Japan.Britain and France transferred this right to Japan almost without thinking.

Gu Weijun immediately asked to repeat the request, changing the original seven points to eight points:

[-]. Abolish the sphere of influence; [-]. Withdraw foreign troops and patrols; [-]. Abolish foreign post offices and wired and wireless telegraph offices;

[-]. Revocation of consular jurisdiction; [-]. Return of the leased land; [-]. Return of the concession;

Seven, the right to freedom of tariffs; Eight, the abolition of Article 21.

For this reason, they even asked the French Prime Minister Clemenceau alone to seek support, because the damn British have clearly stood on the side of their Japanese allies (the Anglo-Japanese alliance is the British control of the Far East and the Pacific region, Russia and the United States an important policy).

However, the peace conference still ceded Germany's rights and interests in Shandong to Japan from April 1919 to 4.

On May 1919, 5, Lu Zhengxiang, China's negotiator and foreign minister, telegraphed the matter to the Beijing government, saying that if he did not sign a contract, it would be detrimental to the abolition of consular jurisdiction, cancellation of boxer indemnity, tariff autonomy, and compensation for losses, etc. .Shanghai "Continent News" "Beijing Newsletter": "The government received a call from the Chinese delegation in Paris, saying that the diplomatic war with Japan on reclaiming the lease of Jiaozhou had failed.

This involves a political struggle. Unlike in history, the current Anhui Clan has failed early.Today's central government is in power under the Qian Nengxun government supported by the Clan.In addition to Cao Rulin, who originally belonged to the Anhui faction in history, Cao Rulin defected to the south to serve as the mayor of Wuhan, while Lu Zongyu and Zhang Zongxiang carried the banner of the new transportation department and defected to Zhang Zuolin. So united.

Correspondingly, a group of politicians who were not in harmony with the new transportation department created a National Diplomatic Association with the support of some veterans who had already gone south: on February 1919, 2, a joint organization of various groups from all walks of life in Beijing The People's Diplomatic Association holds an inaugural meeting at Xiong Xiling's residence, and elects Xiong Xiling, Wang Daxie, Liang Qichao, Lin Changmin, Fan Yuanlian, Tang Hualong, Yan Xiu, Zhang Jian, and Zhuang Yunkuan as directors. On the 16st, the committee sent a telegram to issue seven diplomatic propositions: "21. Promote the implementation of the League of Nations; [-]. Abolish the sphere of influence and formulate implementation methods; [-]. Abolish all non-breaking equal treaties and treaties concluded by coercion, lure or secret [-]. Contracts and other international documents; [-]. Regular withdrawal of consular jurisdiction; [-]. Striving for freedom of tariffs; [-]. Cancellation of Boxer indemnity balance; [-]. Take back the concession area and change it to public trade.”

Strictly speaking, the news of the failure of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference was leaked by this institution. Here we have to say that Zhang Zuolin failed in life. Although Xu Shichang, the great president, was supported by him, he did not agree with him. I have expectations, so if the negotiation fails, Xu Shichang will not and cannot sign it.But Zhang Zuolin and the Japanese couldn't afford to offend him, so he chose to secretly support the People's Diplomatic Association.