On the evening of August 29, 1936, agents of the Kuomintang Shaanxi Provincial Party Department arrested Song Li, a student representative of Northeastern University, Zhang Xueliang, and an underground party member who had carried out the Anti-Japanese Salvation Movement in the Northeast Army, at the Northwest Hotel in Xi'an, based on a list personally determined by Chiang Kai-shek. The agents were familiar with the arrest of people, and the arrest process went smoothly, but they did not want to go out for a long time before they encountered big trouble and collided head-on with the cavalry patrol of the gendarmerie battalion of the Seventeenth Route Army. Song Li quickly shouted, "Bandits tie up tickets!" Bandit kidnapping! The cavalry rolled over and dismounted, handed over the guns of the agents, and brought them all to the battalion headquarters.
At the gendarmerie battalion headquarters, Xie Jinsheng, the battalion attached, and Li Mu'an, the military judge in charge of the interrogation, were both acquaintances of Song Li and both underground party members. In order to cope with the provincial party department, Song Li studied the confession together according to their arrangement, and then recorded it in the form of a question and answer. After a while, Zhang Xueliang (Song Li had previously called Zhang Xueliang's official residence, and Che Xiangchen, a democrat who escaped when he was arrested, also reported to Zhang Xueliang) assigned Sun Mingjiu, the battalion commander of the Guard Battalion, to lead soldiers in and take Song Li away.
Song Li had just been picked up, and two trucks carrying armed personnel from the provincial party headquarters also drove into the gendarmerie camp with great momentum, holding the official documents of the provincial party department to mention people, and the people on duty said that Deputy Commander Zhang had taken the people away. The agents did not believe it, repeatedly demanded evidence and asked the gendarmerie battalion for evidence. While the gendarmerie battalion was circling with the agents, it quickly sent people to the Zhang Mansion to complete the procedures for proposing people. Zhang Xueliang personally wrote a warrant for the gendarmerie battalion of the Seventeenth Route Army and dealt with the matter. Before that, Zhang Xueliang also sent Guan Shirun of the Staff Secretary's Office to Song Li's residence at the Northwest Hotel to get relevant materials so as not to fall into the hands of secret agents. After Guan Shirun left, he was arrested by the agents who were waiting there, and detained with Ma Shaozhou in the provincial party department. This move was tantamount to adding fuel to the fire, and Zhang Xueliang was both furious at the boldness of the secret agents and worried about the safety of those arrested, so he decided to take military action decisively.
When Song Li was picked up at the Zhang Mansion, Zhang Xueliang was holding an emergency military conference to deploy the operation. Song Li waited in the living room downstairs for less than half an hour, and Zhang Xueliang came in and said to him: "I know all about your arrest, this matter cannot be underestimated, this is the Nanjing side looks down on us, deceiving people too much!" I just had a military meeting to rescue those who were arrested. I had fewer troops in the city, only one guard regiment, and the other side had three regiments. In order to prevent accidents, I have ordered an infantry regiment from Wang Qu's 105th Division to march into the city in a hurry, declare martial law, and transfer Yan Dao to the mansion to talk (Yan is the chief of the general staff of the Northwest Suppression Campaign and a close confidant of Chiang Kai-shek) to prevent him from taking action.
Song Li was very happy to see that Zhang Xueliang was ready to openly work with the Nanjing side, but he felt that he was not strong enough, and in order to expand the situation and prompt Zhang to further openly go to the anti-Japanese resistance, he added a fire and said: "President Zhang Xueliang (Zhang Xueliang is also the president of Northeastern University) is the acting commander-in-chief here, and they arrested your students and staff without passing you, is this not lawlessness?" If you want to do it, do it, the bigger the better. Zhang Xueliang looked at Song Li silently and continued: "I have ordered martial law tonight, and Shao Lizi (chairman of the Kuomintang Shaanxi Provincial Government) will come to inquire about the reason, and when he comes, you will come to my office and listen to what he has to say." ”
Not long after, the bodyguard loudly reported: "Chairman Shao of the provincial government has arrived!" Zhang Xueliang casually covered the door and came to the outer living room to greet him. Shao Lizi and Zhang Xueliang had a good personal relationship, and Zhang always treated Shao with courtesy. Shao Lizi did not expect that after entering the door, Zhang Xueliang reversed the normal state of courtesy and humility in the past, and was furious: "Why did the provincial party department arrest my students, secretaries, and staff behind my back?" I am a member of the Standing Committee of the Kuomintang Central Committee, the deputy commander-in-chief and acting commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang Central Committee, and I am the chairman of the Standing Committee on behalf of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek. I must strictly deal with those who despise me so much and dare to arrest me without authorization! Shao Lizi had never seen Zhang Xueliang lose such a big temper, nor had he ever seen him so disrespectful to himself, and he couldn't help but be a little frightened and uneasy, and said in a loud voice: "Deputy Commander Is angry, I really don't know about this matter, I will report it immediately after I find out." At that time, Song Li could hear clearly in the back room and secretly applauded in his heart.
After Shao Lizi resigned, an infantry regiment of the 105th Division, led by Deputy Division Commander Tan Hai, ran into the city and imposed martial law. Zhang Xueliang immediately ordered Tan Hai and Sun Mingjiu to lead a battalion of guards to surround and raid the provincial party headquarters, rescued Guan Shirun and Ma Shaozhou, and also captured the secret telegrams falsely accused by the provincial party department of the Northeast Army and the list of more than 300 people of the Northeast Army who were preparing to arrest them for participating in anti-Japanese activities.
Shao Lizi found out the arrest of the provincial party department and returned to zhang mansion, And Zhang Xueliang asked me to go to the back room again to avoid it. Only to hear Shao enter the door, he said in a loud voice: "I have ascertained from several members of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Department that there is indeed a matter of arresting people, but it was not handled by the Provincial Party Department, but it was the Nanjing side that, on the orders of Chairman Jiang, sent people to personally command and arrest them by name. After Zhang Xueliang read the telegram, he said to Shao Lizi with a pleasant face: "I'm sorry for the late-night alarm, please go back to rest." ”
This incident in which Zhang Xueliang sent troops to raid the Kuomintang Shaanxi Provincial Party Headquarters occurred on the evening of August 29, according to the telegraph rhyme method, the pronoun of the day was "Yan", so it was called "Yan Evening Incident".
The next day, Zhang Xueliang sent an urgent telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, declaring: "On the evening of the 29th, the Shaanxi Provincial Party Department did not let Xueliang know about it, nor did it go through formal procedures, and Ma Shaozhou, who was arrested in plain clothes without authorization, was a general staff member of the crackdown, which was an act of distrusting Xueliang and distrusting the headquarters. The officers and men of the headquarters were immediately enraged, and Xueliang was forced to directly ask the provincial party department to return the arrested personnel. However, due to the haste of the incident, he failed to request the throne of the emperor in advance, and he was not reckless, so he asked for punishment on his own, and planned to hand over Ma Shaozhou and others to the strict examination department of the military judicial organ of the headquarters. ”
Chiang Kai-shek was extremely outraged by Zhang Xueliang's disregard for Nanjing's authority and his open dispatch of troops to raid the provincial party headquarters. However, he was busy dealing with the liangguang incident at that time, and he could not spare his hands for a while, and he had no time to take care of the northwest, so he decided to adopt the strategy of being patient and not sending it, and he sent Zhang Xueliang back such a telegram: "My brother handled this case recklessly, but he knew that he was wrong, and he should pay attention later, and the punishment section requested should be exempted from discussion." Zhang Xueliang, who knew Chiang Kai-shek very well, knew that Chiang Kai-shek would not give up, and after sending a telegram, he asked Mo Dehui, the elder of the northeast, to go to Nanjing to meet Chiang Kai-shek in order to explain the "Yanwan Incident." After mo dehui saw Chiang Kai-shek, he felt bad about Chiang Kai-shek's ambiguous attitude, believing that Chiang Kai-shek had ulterior motives, and instructed Wu Jiaxing, a general section officer who accompanied him, to tell Zhang Xueliang to be more careful.
This incident was the first head-on clash between Zhang Xueliang and the Nanjing side and Chiang Kai-shek, and it was a manifestation of serious confrontation and intensified the contradictions between them. In the course of the incident, the Seventeenth Route Army rescued the anti-Japanese students and informed Zhang to send them back, and the Northeast Army raided the provincial party headquarters and seized important materials, preventing the evidence of the united communist resistance from falling into the hands of Chiang Kai-shek and avoiding serious consequences. This incident enhanced the understanding, trust and unity between Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, the Northeast Army and the Seventeenth Route Army, and became a true friend of the suffering (the next day Zhang Xueliang personally came to the door to thank Yang Hucheng). It can be said that the Yanwan incident is the prelude to the Xi'an Incident.