Text/Fu Huaxuan
Yuan Shikai was obsessed with it, made a farce of calling himself emperor, became emperor for 83 days, and then quickly hung up. Yuan Shikai made such a fuss and caused the very strong Beiyang Army to fall apart, resulting in a direct lineage, an Anhui lineage, and a Feng lineage.
These three main factions each have a ghost fetus, and neither of them can command the other. At that time, the Beiyang government was faced with the fact that the warlords of all sizes in the country were lined up on their own, what to do? It's not like a country either! There must be unity.
Duan Qirui advocated the reunification of the whole country by force, and Cao Kun pulled Zhang Zuolin to advocate peaceful negotiations to unify the whole country.
The final result of disagreement, the direct family must be convinced with fists! The country is still divided, and the Beiyang government has caused a family riot on its own. "Originally born from the same root, he is too anxious to fry!"
Cao Kun and Zhang Zuolin wanted to teach Duan Qirui a lesson, but if they really did, wouldn't they be using an excuse to "unify China by force"? Duan Qirui waited for this opportunity for a long time. The pre-war preparations for both sides are proceeding in an intense and orderly manner. Fast forward to July 1920, these days, in the skies of northern China, the clouds of war are thick. According to the "three key points of the warlord mixed world" and "to be a bitch, you must also set up a archway" to deduce the political image to beautify the Dafa", there must be a saying for fighting a war, so both sides of the Zhiwan decided to play the golden sign of "justice". Because once the people of the whole country know that they are "rabbits carrying guns in the nest of anti-", it will attract overwhelming public opinion condemnation, which is really difficult to deal with.
Cao Kun and Wu Peifu gave their "rebel army" a very just slogan of "Duan Qirui's traitor to the country and flattered the country, but he is really a traitor, and today's battle is to fight for the salvation of the country!" Fight for the nation! Fight for peace! Zhang Zuolin was also very cooperative with his allies, and he sent a telegram to the whole country saying: "I will meet with the rebel army to cooperate in eliminating traitors such as Duan Qirui and Xu Shuzheng!" Duan Qirui was not willing to show weakness, and the name of the unit was "Dingguo Army", which was more prestigious than the "rebel army", and the reason for leaving the division was also just - Wu Peifu colluded with the south and betrayed the central authorities. Because Wu Peifu did accept the Guangzhou government controlled by Tang Jiyao and Lu Rongting, he gave 300,000 yuan before leading the army to retreat north.
After playing with each other's spitting tricks, both sides have been prepared, and the next thing is only real guns and live ammunition. On July 14, 1920, the Zhiwan War began. The area around Zhuozhou and Gaobeidian in Hebei is the main battlefield, which is now the area of southern Baoding and north of Beijing, and the north and south are facing each other. The two sides invested more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in this relatively wide area. The direct line attacked in three ways, with a total strength of nearly 50,000 troops, led by Wu Peifu of the West Road, Wang Chengbin of the Middle Road, and Cao Zheng of the East Road. The anhui faction's confrontation was also very neat, with Duan Zhigui, commander-in-chief of the West Road, Chen Wenyun, commander-in-chief of the Middle Road, and Xu Shuzheng, commander-in-chief of the East Road, leading more than 60,000 people. In general, the Anhui military forces are superior. However, on the battlefield, the factors that determine victory or defeat are multifaceted, and the strength of the troops is not necessarily the decisive factor, and the quality of soldiers and the command art of the commander are often more critical.
The first two days of the attack were tentative, and the troops invested by both sides were not too much, Wu Peifu won a small victory over Duan Zhigui, Xu Shuzheng won a small victory over Cao Zheng, Chen Wenyun and Wang Chengbin each had victories and losses. The war was won on July 17. The Anhui clan suffered major defeats on both the main battlefield and the middle road of the West Road, and the direct clan won a decisive victory. First of all, on the West Road, Wu Peifu lured the enemy deeper, and Duan Zhigui, who usually engaged in interpersonal relations and administrative work, fell into a trap as soon as his head was hot, and the lone army went deep, encountering Wu Peifu's ambush at Songlindian, and the whole army was destroyed. Then there was the middle road, and the artillery fire of Wang Chengbin, who was directly related to Wang Chengbin, directly hit Chen Wenyun, the commander of the Anhui Army's middle road, and Chen Wenyun was seriously injured and fled under the escort of the guards. The leader ran away, the chain of command was paralyzed, the resistance of the creeps could only be stopped, and in the end, most of them chose to surrender.
A day later, on the 18th, Zhang Zuolin's Feng army drove to Zhuozhou and joined the battle in the case of victory and defeat, and Zhang Zuolin finally did not waste his calculating expertise. The rest of the battle was one-sided, Xu Shuzheng's Eastern Route Army was broken by the Zhi Army and the Feng Army, and the Anhui soldiers either surrendered or collapsed, and did not re-form an army. The Battle of Zhiwan was disturbed one after another, and its contradictions and conflicts were brewed for nearly two years. The war of words between the two sides accusing each other of intimidation lasted for several months, and the real war was actually only four days long, and it was basically over from the 14th to the 17th. Why did Duan Qirui lose? Some people may ask, isn't Duan Qirui's army quite bullish? All Japanese ordnance, Japanese training, military pay is also the most generous, military cadres are also military school graduates, the quality of personnel should be said to be relatively superior, why will they be defeated? Excuses such as public opinion will not be said.
Duan Qirui's comprehensive quality of the army is good, but he lacks actual combat experience. Any good army must go through war, and even if it fails, it is a valuable experience. A new army is often brave when it gains superiority on its own side, but once it is frustrated, it does not know how to face it, so that the army's heart is shaken or even immediately collapsed, which is actually the result of the lack of actual combat. When I was a child watching movies, the kuomintang commanders suffered defeat, and when they met their superiors, they always liked to say a sentence: "It is not that the nationalist army is incompetent, but that the communist army is too cunning." Attributing the reason for the defeat to the strength of the opponent, although it is a bit to elevate oneself, but for the Battle of Zhiwan, this is indeed a fact. The Opponents of the Anhui Clan were very strong, especially Wu Peifu's Beiyang Third Division, which was an old unit with more than twenty years of actual combat experience. From the formation of the army to the Xinhai Revolution, from the "second revolution" to the War of Defending the Law, it can be said that it has experienced hundreds of battles.
Moreover, Wu Peifu's war command art and military attainments were not only superior to Xu Shuzheng's, but also far superior to Duan Zhigui's. This battle of Zhiwan completely wiped out Duan Qirui's elite concubine troops, the "Border Defense Army" (participating in the battle), and although there were still some provincial overseers who were duan Qirui's old subordinates, they were not directly related to the hardcore subordinates after all. It is inevitable that the troops that are separated from the direct relationship will not be able to command for a long time. Having said all this, it can be summed up in one sentence: Duan Qirui is no longer the Duan Qirui of the past, his power has been greatly reduced, and the tiger has fallen to Pingyang. Duan Qirui, the protagonist of this war, was quietly standing in the courtyard of Beijing at the moment, and the gentle breeze of the summer night could make him think better about the road ahead, but he certainly did not notice that his sideburns had added a few more whites.
Nothing is not terrible, what is terrible is to get and then lose! Duan Qirui's success is also not easy, he was originally a poor boy in the countryside, climbing to the peak of imperial power with a grassroots root, but after so many years of ups and downs, he understood that many people's life principles, the key moments in life must understand "willing to give", there is a sacrifice to get, the essence of "willing to give" is to be able to afford to put down. Therefore, he understands that for his current self, he can still live by letting go, and if he continues to hold it, he may die. Therefore, Duan Qirui decided to put down everything that should be put down--the army is gone, the power is gone, and the honor is gone.
On the 19th, Duan Qirui ordered the front-line soldiers to cease and surrender! Then he resigned from all his posts, stripped himself of all the medals, removed his armor and returned to the field, and restored the identity of the common people. The old duan is really convinced this time.
Cao Kun, Wu Peifu, and Xu Shichang were all very pleased that this guy who was strong enough to "unify China by force" finally went down, so let him go to Tianjin to slowly grow old and slowly wait for death. They really can't tell Duan Qirui what to do, Xu Shichang is his brother for many years, Cao Kun is his colleague for many years, and even Wu Peifu is nominally Duan Qirui's student at the Baoding Military Academy, not to mention that he has also made meritorious contributions to the Republic of China. However, the fate of Xu Shuzheng, Duan Zhigui and others under the old Duan's hardcore subordinates was not very good, and they were wanted by the whole country and fled everywhere. The Anhui forces dissipated within a few days.
Through a zhiwan war, Wu Peifu immediately became famous and became the first person of his direct family. In 1923, Cao Kun became president, and Wu Peifu was promoted to inspector of Zhiyulu.
Later, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese secret service wanted to choose Wu Peifu as a puppet and establish a nationwide political power, but Wu reprimanded him and sternly refused. On December 4, 1939, Wu Peifu died of illness. Wu Peifu defended the great national righteousness, maintained the late festival, and was posthumously awarded the title of general of the army by the Kuomintang government.