Text/Fu Huaxuan
On October 12, 1920, Li Chun, the overseer of Jiangsu, died suddenly and violently at the Office of the Governor of Jiangsu, the cause of death is a mystery.
If the truth is not clear, it will lead to a lot of bizarre rumors, often these rumors, all of which have a nose and an eye, and there are troubles.
Let's take a look at the beginning and end of the events:
With the decline of the first generation of warlords (those who had ties with the Qing court) and the rise of the second generation of warlords (mostly grassroots), the open and secret struggles between warlords in various regions became more and more intense and confusing. In addition to the great warlords such as the Direct Feng dynasty and the Anhui clan, small regional warlords have emerged in many provinces, delineating defensive zones on their own, collecting taxes, constantly clashing militarily with each other, and ensuring the lives and property of the people. Among them, Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi and other provinces, which are located between the north and the south, are the most important. Compared with those literati who have no power to bind chickens, these armed soldiers have more inconsistent strategies for governing the world. Serving the country and the people has often become a pretext for separating one side and confronting the government. The uneven character and motives of the warlords make it difficult to judge political opinions. In the chaotic world, some warlords died and became an eternal mystery. One of the most influential events was the sudden death of Li Chun, the overseer of Jiangsu, on October 12, 1920.
Li Chun was "one of the Three Governors of the Yangtze River", belonged to the direct power faction, and was only forty-six years old at the time of his violent death. What a young and strong boy! How did he die violently?
Li Chun was a native of Tianjin, and in the thirteenth year of Guangxu (1887), Li Chun went to Tianjin Beitang with his father to rely on his second brother-in-law Tan Qingyuan to live and open a small grocery store to make a living. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), the second brother-in-law Tan Qingyuan was forced by his livelihood to join Nie Shi into the army, successively serving as a leading officer and a pipe belt, and then Li Chun entered the camp as an errand boy and was rotated to a sentry officer. In the seventeenth year of Guangxu (1891), Li Chun was sent to the second phase of the Tianjin Wubei Academy through Tan Qingyuanbao. Guangxu graduated in the twenty-first year (1895) and stayed in the classroom to serve as the class leader (class leader) because he was proficient in German exercises, and assisted in the training of military exercises. With a degree, the business is good, and it is time to start to emerge. In December 1895, Yuan Shikai trained the new army at the small station, and Li Chun went to serve as a coach. In January 1896, he was appointed Inspector Of the New Army Inspectorate.
In May of the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu (1902), Yuan Shikai set up the Military and Political Department to train the standing army in Baoding, and Li Chun was promoted to the coaching office (general office Feng Guozhang), because he was a fellow villager with Yuan Shikai's concubine Yang Shi, and he was very popular with Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang. At the beginning of 1903, Li Chun was promoted to the cavalry battalion pipe belt of the Jingqi Standing Army (late Qing Dynasty Heavy Minister Tie Liang was appointed as the wing commander), and in May, the first town of the beiyang new army (commander Wang Yingkai) was established, and Li Chun was appointed as the cavalry battalion pipe belt of the town. In September of the thirty-first year of Guangxu (1905), Li Chun participated in the Qing Army's Hejian Autumn Exercise, singing in the large playground, his voice was loud, the sound shocked the whole audience, good guy! It was a standard tenor, who was immediately rewarded by Yuan Shikai, and was immediately promoted to the third standard belt of the Second Association of the First Town (Commander He Zonglian), garrisoned in Beiyuan, and became a close associate of Yuan Shikai. In July 1907, Li Chun was promoted from staff general to deputy general under the sponsorship of Tie Liang, and was transferred to the eleventh commander of the Sixth Town of the Beiyang Army, and also supervised the Sixth Town Suiying School and garrisoned Baoding. The standard class background, small station team, too powerful, want to be reused are difficult!
Feng Yuxiang said in his memoirs that Li Chun had "thick eyebrows, big eyes, a straight nose, and a majestic appearance", which belonged to the style of "diligence, meticulousness, shrewdness and ability". Li Chun was credited with suppressing the "Second Revolution" and was promoted to the governor of Jiangxi. After Feng Guozhang went to Beijing in 1917 to become the president, he transferred Li Chun to the Jiangsu Overseer, in charge of the military of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi, with a status equivalent to that of the Viceroy of Liangjiang in the Qing Dynasty.
Regarding Li Chun's death, the Beijing government officially released information that it was because the country was divided and political affairs were not repaired, and then indignantly killed himself, and left a will as evidence.
However, many people do not believe the official statement, and rumors are flying all over the place. There is a saying that Li Chun's concubine had an affair with his Ma Ben (also known as a staff aide-de-camp), and just when the concubine and Ma Ben were like glue and upside down, they were accidentally bumped by Li Chun, and in a panic, Ma Ben swung a gun and killed Li Chun.
According to another account, Li Chun died violently because he was appointed by the Beijing government to be an envoy to Su Wangan, but Anhui and Jiangxi did not obey the control, so Li Chun was stimulated by this and shot himself insane. There is also a more legendary saying, saying that Li Chun and the beautiful adopted daughter have an affair, the adopted son-in-law at first just heard about it, and did not believe, the relationship between father and daughter, the point of closeness does not matter, and later because the two became more and more arrogant, the adopted son-in-law saw the real evidence in the dark, and the ear heard that the false seeing was believing, so the adopted son-in-law was not willing to be humiliated, and he was angry and angrily stabbed him to death.
It is also said that after the Zhiwan War, Zhang Zuolin planned a mutiny and sent people south to contact Qi Xieyuan, commander of the Sixth Division and the defender of Jiangning Town, but was unexpectedly arrested by Li Chun, who was afraid of growing branches and simply killed Li Yi, or said that Qi coveted the position of overseer. (Qi Xieyuan, later reduced to a traitor)
Opinions vary, but there are differences.
After Li Chun's death, Sun Yat-sen did not forget this important figure who had advocated "peace of speech" and was quite concerned about his sudden misfortune.
On November 6, he sent a telegram to Qi Xieyuan, the overseer of Jiangsu, saying: "The death of Xiu Gong (Li Chun), a powerful person in the north, has repeatedly sent people to commit suicide, not the truth, there is a shady scene, and between the words, there is a reference." The implication is that Li Chun's death is not a single "pure" word like his name.