, ben is a land of retreat. However, the turbulent modern history of China has made this otherwise unknown place famous all over the world. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, such a group of people came to Xiaozhan to participate in the exercise of the new army, and they later became important figures who stirred up Chinese history: Yuan Shikai, Feng Guozhang, Xu Shichang, Cao Kun, Duan Qirui... These names are all closely related to the small station training. In the sound of soldiers and horses' hooves, what happened to Tianjin Small Station? Since May 13, "City Memory Story" will tell you the history of small station military training, welcome to pay attention.
Feng Gong's great-grandfather was Feng Guozhang
Speaking of Feng Guozhang, I have to talk about his most famous descendant, Feng Gong, who is Feng Guozhang's great-grandson. Feng Guozhang married the four houses, the main room Wu, the stepmother Peng, the third aunt Taiwang, and the fourth aunt Taicheng. Wu had three sons and a daughter, his third son Feng Jiayu gave birth to three sons and two daughters, and his third son was Feng Haigang, that is, Feng Guozhang's grandson, Feng Haigang gave birth to three sons and two daughters, and his third son was Feng Gong, and Feng Gong's son was called Feng Kaicheng.
Pictured: Feng Gong
Their family took the cross of "the country's sea is forbidden to open, and the eastern events are up" as the order of generations. Feng Guozhang is the first "guo" character. His five sons are of the "jia" generation, named Jia Sui, Jia Di, Jia Yu, Jia Mai, and Jia Zhou. The grandchildren from the "sea" generation, there are Haidai, Haisheng, Haiyan, Haigang, Island and so on. Great-grandchildren should have been banned from the word "forbidden", but due to the political climate and social environment, they could only violate the ancestral instructions to show a "break with the reactionary family". Therefore, the children of Feng Gong's generation will no longer be ranked in the "forbidden" character. In the next generation of Feng Gong, it was then named in the order of "kai", and Feng Gong's son was called "Feng Kaicheng".
Photo: Feng Kaicheng
Feng Guozhang was born on January 7, 1859 (the fourth day of the first month of December in the eighth year of Qing Xianfeng) in Xishijing Village, Hejian County, Zhili (present-day Hebei), the Feng family was originally a large household in the village, but by the time of his father's generation, the family road began to fall. At the age of 7, he entered the private school of his village, and five years later, he entered the Sanlipu Maogong Academy, where his grandfather's family was located, and graduated in 1876, ranking among the top in the examination. With the financial support of his cousin Feng Gantang, Feng Guozhang went to Baoding Lotus Pond Academy for 2 years in 1881, but he "repeatedly tried to take the imperial examination". Due to his family's difficult circumstances, he dropped out of school and returned home in 1883. In order to find a way out, Feng Guozhang was introduced by his uncle in 1884, did not bid farewell to his parents and wife, and went to Dagukou to join the Huai Army and began his military career. In 1885, Feng Guozhang joined the Huai Army's Zhizi Battalion as a soldier.
Photo: Feng Guozhang
Entering the barracks, Feng Guozhang continued to read, but no longer read those ancient cultural classics, but modern military books. In June 1885, Li Hongzhang founded the Beiyang Wubei Academy in Tianjin, which was the earliest specialized military academy in modern Chinese history. The academy stipulates: as long as those who are slightly literate and willing to learn martial arts will be admitted, Feng Guozhang is undoubtedly the best candidate, so through the promotion of his superiors, he has become the first batch of students of the academy.
Photo: Beiyang Wubei Academy
During his studies at the Beiyang Martial Arts Academy, although he studied military knowledge, he did not forget to pass the imperial examination and embark on a career path. Perhaps it is the heavens that favor this excellent student, and the content of the annual examination does not need to be tested in the eight strands. Feng Guozhang was good at mathematics, and in 1888 he returned to his hometown to take the imperial examination, and he won the Xiucai examination as he wished. After Li Hongzhang heard about this incident, he said: "No, the martial arts school is a scholar." "But at the end of this year's township test, he still fell behind sun mountain."
In July 1889, Feng Guozhang graduated with honors at the Tianjin Beiyang Wubei Academy, stayed on to teach, and began his military education career very early, laying the foundation for his future participation in the construction of Yuan Shikai's military school.
At that time, Feng Guozhang was already in his prime, he was uneasy with the status quo, and wanted to make military merits and get ahead, so in 1893 he entered the Nie Shicheng Army to serve.
Photo: Nie Shicheng
Served in Nie Shicheng's troops
Why did nie Shicheng's troops enter it? There are two reasons: one is that Nie Shicheng's troops use German teachings and German exercises for training, which is actually a "new army", which is what attracts Feng Guozhang; the other is that Nie Shicheng's Luyu Defense Army is stationed in Lutai, and Feng Guozhang's location in Tianjin Wubei Academy is on the left bank of the Haihe River, and this area is also the defense range of The Luyu Defense Army. Based on these two factors, it was logical for Feng Guozhang to throw in the Nie Shi Chengbu.
Nie Shicheng, a patriotic general of the late Qing Dynasty, was a native of Hefei, Anhui Province, and a martial artist. At first, he was subordinate to the three departments of Yuan Jia, the minister of regiment training, and later transferred to the Liu Ming Chuanbu of the Huai Army, and successively participated in the suppression of the Taiping Army and the Twist Army, and was tired of serving as the commander-in-chief of the name. In 1883 (the ninth year of Qing Guangxu), the Sino-French War broke out, and in October of the following year, the French army captured Keelung, Taiwan. He took the initiative to invite war and led 850 officers and men to Taiwan to resist the war and establish military achievements. In 1892, he was promoted to the commander-in-chief of Taiyuan Town, and remained under the command of the Huai Army, stationed in Lutai.
In 1893, Li Hongzhang, the governor of the prefecture and minister of Beiyang, summoned his staff to study the threat of Japan and Russia to the northeast, and sent people to the east to investigate the border terrain. After Nie Shicheng heard this, he took the initiative to ask for help, and led the three students of the Wubei Academy, Zhang Zuyou, Yan Yuchun, and Feng Guozhang, to survey the eastern border, survey the dangerous mountains and rivers, and the border route of the survey covered the northeast border and extended to Russia and North Korea, and the canine teeth were staggered, lasting eight months and traveling more than 23,000 miles. They recorded and surveyed all the way, and formed a report called "Journey to the East" and presented it to the imperial court, which became a very valuable military geography document at that time.
This was the beginning of Nie Shicheng's friendship with Feng Guozhang. To say that this trip to the northeast should be said to be a spectacular trip, followed by Nie Shicheng and Feng Guozhang ushered in a tragic war together. In 1894, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War broke out, and Nie Shicheng was ordered to lead his troops into Korea to participate in the war, and Feng Guozhang followed Nie Shicheng around. After the Qing army retreated to the Yalu River, Song Qing led the defense of the Yalu River, but could not block the japanese invasion, and the Qing army continued to retreat. In this decadent war, the only battle won was the Battle of Motianling commanded by Nie Shicheng and Feng Guozhang.
Pictured: Nie Shicheng fought the Eight-Nation Alliance in blood
On October 24, the Qing army withdrew across the Yalu River and launched a defensive line along the line of Jiulian City and Hushan in Andong. At that time, the Qing army deployed on the first line of the Yalu River had a total of 82 battalions and 28,000 people, led by Song Qing. The japanese offensive force was the First Army of General Aritomo Yamagata, with a total of 30,000 men. Less than three days after the two sides fought, the Yalu River defense line collapsed completely. After the Japanese army broke through the defense line of the Yalu River, the soldiers attacked Shenyang in two ways, with the east road pointing directly to Liaoyang and the west road bypassing Xiuyan and Haicheng.
On the Eastern Front, the main force of the Japanese attack was the Fifth Division, which advanced rapidly, and after the capture of the strategic city of Phoenix (present-day Dandong Fengcheng) on October 30, The Sky Ridge became the last barrier to guard Shenyang. At that time, the Japanese army was arrogant, shouting "rush to Fengtian for the New Year", for the Sky Ridge, the Japanese army is determined to win, thinking that the sky ridge defenders will be vulnerable, a big war is about to begin.
At that time, at The Sky Ridge, the army led by Nie Shicheng was fighting against the enemy in a dangerous situation of isolation and helplessness. Feng Guozhang used the military knowledge he had learned to suggest that General Nie plant the banner of the Qing army in many places, deploy a wide range of soldiers to confuse the Japanese army, and set up heavy troops at key points to intercept the enemy.
Photo: Sky Ridge
Subsequently, Nie Shicheng's army successively recaptured Lianshan Pass and the mouth of the Grass River, killing Japanese infantry captain Saito Masaki, wounding Japanese artillery captain Ikeda Tsunadei and artillery lieutenant Sekiya Huo. This was the only team that defeated the Japanese army in the northeast battlefield at that time. After the Battle of Jiawu, Feng Guozhang had become Nie Shicheng's confidant. After the war, Feng Guozhang was given the title of alternate ZhiXian and added wupin ding dai, and Nie Shicheng appointed him as the inspector of the Ordnance Bureau.
After the war, Feng Guozhang visited Japan twice. The first time was in April 1895, when Feng Guozhang accompanied Yu Geng as a military attaché on a military expedition to Japan. An eye-opener in Japan, he examined Japan's modern military science and training methods and theories. After returning, he sorted out and published several military books.
Feng Guozhang trained troops at a small station
In 1896, Yuan Shikai trained troops at Xiaozhan Station. Yuan Shikai asked Yin Chang to recommend talents to him, and Yin Chang recommended Wu Beisheng Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shijie, Liang Huadian and so on. Feng Guozhang was grateful for Nie Shicheng's kindness and could not bear to leave, and finally General Nie sent Feng Guozhang to a small station, and when they were separated, the two of them were reluctant to leave and shed tears.
When training troops at Xiaozhan Station, Yuan Shikai regarded Feng Guozhang's several military books as "Hongbaoye" and said that "the sons of the academic circles have no one who exceeds the public". Feng Guozhang and Yuan Shikai were born in the same year and lived for several months. Yuan Shikai was good at paying tribute to Corporal Xian, and soon called Feng Guozhang the "fourth brother", and completely handed over the training and camp affairs of the new army to Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui, Wang Shizhen and others.
Feng Guozhang worked very hard at the small station, and he and Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui jointly compiled many military training textbooks, which became the main teaching materials for the preparation and training of the new army in China's military schools at the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is also recorded in the "Diary of Xu Shichang" that Feng Guozhang once broke his shoulder on horseback. Feng Guozhang was first the deputy of the Supervision Camp Office, then the Inspector of the Infantry Academy, and then promoted to the General Office of the Supervision Camp Office.
In 1899, Yuan Shikai's new army was renamed the "Wuwei Right Army". In the same year, Yuan was appointed as the inspector of Shandong, and Feng Guozhang also entered Lu with the army, and was ordered to reorganize the former Shandong Old Army and form the 20th Battalion of the Vanguard of the Wuwei Right Army. In November 1901, he was promoted to the title of supplementary prefect and added the title of salt transport.
In 1900, Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Right Army held a military exercise in Shandong, which was called Qiu Cao. During this military exercise, because Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui, and Wang Shizhen performed very eye-catchingly, they were praised by the German governor in Jiaozhou at that time as "three masters of Beiyang".
Photo: Duan Qirui
Photo: Wang Shizhen
In 1901, Feng Guozhang accompanied Yuan Shikai to Baoding. In 1902, Yuan Shikai established the Beiyang Military and Political Department, and Feng Guozhang served as the general office of the Coaching Department, and was promoted to Daoist for his achievements in handling military schools.
In 1903, Feng Guozhang and the imperial court officials Tie Liang and Feng Shan went to Japan to investigate the military again. In 1904, he was appointed to establish the Beiyang Army Normal School and served as the superintendent. In 1905, he became the commander-in-chief of the River Club. And assisted Yuan Shikai in organizing the six towns of Beiyang. In 1906, he was appointed as the general office of the Army Noble School, acting as the deputy governor of Mongolia under the Yellow Banner. In October, when Zhangde Qiu cao was in charge, he served as the chief judge of the Southern Army. In 1907, because of his outstanding achievements in managing the various schools of Beiyang Armed Armament, he was awarded the title of three generations and one product, and later served as the chief envoy of the Military Consultative Office of the War Department.
In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, Feng Guozhang served as the commander of the Second Army, and later served as the president of the First Army, leading the army to capture Hankou and then Hanyang, and was awarded the title of "Second Class Baron" by the imperial court. Because he did not understand Yuan Shikai's intentions, he was replaced by Duan Qirui, and then went north to Beijing to serve as the leader of the Janissaries. Feng Guozhang was appointed president of the Janissaries by the Qing court, thus fully grasping the defense of Gyeonggi.
Yuan Shikai forced the Qing Emperor to abdicate, but was opposed by the officers and men of the Janissaries, so that the terms of the peace were delayed. At this time, Feng Guozhang was determined to help Yuan Shikai, personally went to the headquarters of the Janissaries to gather all the officers and men, and loudly announced the preferential conditions for the qing emperor after his resignation, and the salaries of the Janissaries remained unchanged, claiming that it would not be possible to save the imperial family. Feng Guozhang and his life guarantee, the honorific title is still not abolished, the right to give way is not abdicated, the two palaces are guaranteed and the treatment of the Janissaries are guaranteed to the end, no matter what position the individual transfers, he will still follow the Janissaries. As a result, a storm of Janissaries that tried to hinder the abdication of the Qing Emperor was calmed down, and Feng Guozhang made a great contribution to Yuan Shikai's forcing the Qing Emperor to abdicate at a critical moment. In fact, this is also the merit that Feng Guozhang made for the peaceful transition at this time of dynastic change.
In September 1912, Feng Guozhang was appointed as the governor and civil administrator of the province directly under his jurisdiction. He was promoted to general in 1914. In 1913, he served as an envoy to Jianghuai Xuanfu and the commander of the Second Army, leading the army to the south to suppress the second revolution, and later became the governor of Jiangsu. Since then, he has become a feudal official and occupies a territory. In 1914, he allied with Wang Zhanyuan and Li Chun, with Feng Guozhang as the leader of the alliance, which was the early prototype of the later direct line.
In June 1915, Feng Guozhang met with Yuan Shikai and expressed his opposition to the imperial system. Here is a story: Feng Guozhang told Yuan Shikai that there were rumors of imperial system, and he did not know whether it was true or not. Yuan Shikai replied in a swear word: "How come, one of my sons is a cripple, the other is a literati who doesn't care about this, I have let them buy a house abroad, if you ask me this again, I will go abroad to live." Feng Guozhang was convinced from then on, and when Yuan Shikai was really an emperor, why Feng Guozhang tried his best to oppose it was because he felt teased. Therefore, Feng Guozhang refused to serve as the commander-in-chief of the Conquest Dian Army during the Patriotic War. After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, Li Yuanhong became president, and Feng Guozhang was elected vice president in October.
Acting President
In 1917, there was a dispute between the government and the court, and Feng Guozhang tried his best to mediate. When Zhang Xun was restored, Li Yuanhong resigned, and Feng Guozhang took the presidency as vice president. After Zhang Xun's restoration was destroyed, the declaration of war against Germany was also solved, and on August 14, Feng Guozhang issued a declaration of war against Germany and Austria.
In 1918, Feng Guozhang was sixty years old. After becoming the last president, although the issue of declaring war on Germany was resolved, Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui disagreed on the issue of reunification. Duan Qirui has always been a hardline faction, advocating the reunification of the whole country by force, while Feng Guozhang is the main peace faction, advocating peaceful negotiations to unify the country. In the new round of government-court disputes, Feng Guozhang's term of office is approaching, and the presidential election will be held, and at this time Qirui is more powerful and controls the overall situation, so under the manipulation of Duan Qirui's Anhui family, in October 1918, Xu Shichang was elected as president by the Anfu Congress manipulated by the Anhui family. At the inauguration ceremony, he expressed the political proposition of "Yanwu Xiuwen".
In 1919, Feng Guozhang's fifth son, Feng Jiazhou, was born. In April, Feng Guozhang returned to his hometown of Hejian Shijing Village to visit the tomb. In September, the 15th and 16th divisions under his jurisdiction were placed under the jurisdiction of the War Department. Feng Guozhang was not exempt from vulgarity, he still went to Xu Shichang to negotiate this matter. After all, Xu Shichang was a literati president, or relatively moderate, so the two divisions returned to Feng Guozhang's control.
On the morning of October 10, 1919, the handover ceremony of the only new and outgoing presidents in Chinese history was held at the The President of the Republic of China Mansion in Beijing. This ceremony was discussed by Feng Guozhang and Xu Shichang. Feng Guozhang bought a private house in Mao'er Hutong in advance and moved his family out of the presidential palace. The handover ceremony was held at Juren Hall, where the ceremonial officials shouted according to the procedure. When it was time for the handover ceremony, Feng Guozhang waited for Xu Shichang's arrival at Juren Hall. When Xu Shichang came, Feng Guozhang held the president's big seal in his hand. Xu Shichang bowed three times to the Great Seal, and then took the Great Seal. After Xu Shichang took over the Great Seal, Feng Guozhang bowed three times to the Great Seal. Then Feng Guozhang delivered a speech, first of all, a humble speech, saying that during his term of office, he served without a letter and did not make up for the difficulties of the country. Then he said that there had been no presidential border ceremony before, and it started with the two of us, to show that the head of state came and went to the border ceremony and could not be abolished. The civilian officials attending the ceremony wore tuxedos and military attaches wore military uniforms, and when the ceremony was over, all the civil and military officials followed the new president Xu Shichang to send the outgoing president Feng Guozhang out of the purple gas to the east.
On December 12, 1919, Feng Guozhang fell ill in Beijing. What people did not expect was that by the 22nd, not only was it not good, but it was more serious. After seeing Chinese medicine, western medicine, and Chinese medicine, after several diagnoses and treatments, the treatment was ineffective, and he died on December 28, 1919.