Since the chaos of ancient times, there have been heroes, but also out of the heroes!
In the Nanyang period of the Republic of China, it can be said that "birth, dan, purity, end, ugly" all appeared in ink, in the territory of their own government, heroes, gentlemen, bandits, gangs, showing their own magical powers, leaving a historical story of chaotic competition for dominance, smoke and smoke, and continuous conquest! In this story, "Bei Tingfang" is definitely a "legendary" existence, and the Wanxi autonomy led by him has played a huge role in the history of Nanyang and even the subsequent social changes!
But at the same time, Bei Tingfang is also a controversial existence, some people praise him as a hero of Nanyang, saying that he led the Nanyang military and people to give up their lives and forget their deaths when resisting Japanese aggression, prompting the Japanese army to suffer heavy losses, so that after his death, he was still greatly annoyed by the Japanese, and did not hesitate to bomb his grave with aircraft! But some people also call him the "Murderous Devil King", he executed a melon stealing child who was only 8 years old, killed many so-called "outliers" that he thought were, and was the warlord "leader" above the law!
From "Gopher" to "Regiment Leader"
Bei Tingfang, born in a small town in the north of present-day Xixia County, from an early age he loved to play with knives and sticks, although he had been in a private school for 10 years, but the good "chivalrous" and "noisy" personality has really become the object of headaches for the neighbors, and now there are still many "childhood stories" about him being naughty around Xixia, but who ever thought that it was such a "mischievous" child in such a village that in the following decades, he became the overlord of 13 counties in Nanyang Wanxi, and even finally became the "veritable" King of Nanyang!
And it all starts with "killing the county magistrate."
Around 1916, as the "king of the mountains", Bie Tingfang, with dozens of brothers who followed him, called himself a hegemon, but unlike other bandit leaders, other bandits were drunk on "eating meat in large mouths, drinking in large bowls", "fish and meat adjacent, killing people and goods", but At that time, Bie Tingfang chose to "be recruited", he was fierce, and his subordinates were not afraid of life and death, but they had great ambitions and ideas, so after thinking left and right, Bei Tingfang jumped from "bandits" to "defending the place" of the leader of the militia. At this point, Bei Tingfang changed from a "jianghu" gangster to a "government" person, and has since begun the road of suppressing bandits and growing!
Ten years of development have allowed the vigilante group led by Bei Tingfang to grow from a few dozen people to an army of several thousand people, and at this time, the real threat is Peng Xu, the governor of Neixiang County. Because even if Bei Tingfang's development is great, he is always a "one-size-fits-all warrior", the leader of the "vigilante group", and nominally still has to be led and constrained by the "county magistrate", but the aspiring Bei Tingfang's personality since ancient times is that "people block killing, Buddha blocks killing Buddha"!
At the same time, in Peng Xu's psychology, he was also very entangled and worried, and what was tangled was that there were other vigilantes in Bei Tingfang, bandits and others, who did not dare to go to the inner countryside to make trouble, but at the same time, Bei Tingfang's "strong soldiers and strong horses, many people" himself had no way to control and use, how to do it? Peng Xu thought of the "government" and a more powerful army!
But there are always "loopholes" in everything, because Peng Xu's cronies have informed, and some people say that it was originally the eyeliner that Bei Tingfang installed next to Peng Xu, and as a result, Bei Tingfang learned of Peng Xu's attempt, so he made up his mind and killed the killer, solving the last step towards the "integration of military and government" Wanxi autonomy!
From Wanxi Autonomy to "Wanxi Joint Defense"
In 1926, after the successful assassination of the county magistrate Peng Xu, Bie Tingfang took all the military, political, civil, and commercial powers in Neixiang into his hands, and thus began his journey to realize his "ambitions"!
In the course of this journey, he met his comrades-in-arms and confidants who had similar "ambitions" to him, Peng Yuting of Zhenping! Peng Yuting is a traditional literati, once served as the secretary of Feng Yuxiang of the Northwest Army, has his own thinking and methods for the army and politics, but since the ancient literati are difficult to lead the troops, although Peng Yuting also convened a vigilante group in Zhenping, but the combat effectiveness and quantity are very different from Bei Tingfang, and finally he was also calculated by the traitors, killed by his most trusted guards, this is the last word!
However, at this time, when Peng Yuting saw Bei Tingfang, both of them felt that they hated each other late, one was able to write and the other was able to use martial arts; under such a confrontation, Bei Tingfang accepted and practiced the strategy of "autonomy"; militarily, with the training methods and management methods of the Northwest Army, he implemented the armor protection system at the local level, encouraged the development of production in the people's livelihood, and practiced the method of "using heavy codes in the chaotic world" in the law; in the strategy of talent, running new-style schools, and so on
Since then, Bei Tingfang has been rich in materials and strong in military strength, and has become the biggest military overlord around Nanyang at that time! He also held many discussions with Peng Yuting of Zhenping, Ningxigu of Deng County, and Chen Chonghua of Huaichuan, and realized the ambition of autonomy of the "Four Counties of Wanxi"!
Wanxi Joint Defense, organizing the Wanxi Local People's Self-Defense Regiment, advocating the Three-Self Policy, realizing the Three People's Principles, guaranteeing autonomy with self-defense, promoting self-support with autonomy, setting up self-defense regiments in all counties, taking Dai Bei as the leader, unifying the establishment of self-defense in Western Wanxi, setting up telephones, planning production and construction, and implementing the three-self principle. In the same year, don't mobilize more than a dozen vigilante groups to wipe out tens of thousands of bandits who invaded from other places.
Achieve the real "Nanyang King"
From 1937 onwards, the all-out War of Resistance broke out, and before the national uprising, Bei Tingfang insisted on resisting the war, and was awarded the commander of the Nanyang Self-Defense Army by the Then Kuomintang government, becoming a veritable King of Nanyang!
In 1939, the Japanese army invaded Nanyang, the first New Tang War broke out, then the commander of the Nanyang anti-enemy commander Bei Tingfang, as a pioneer, cooperated with the Kuomintang army to resist the invaders, this campaign eliminated more than 3,000 Japanese troops, victory inspired the determination of the Nanyang military and people to resist the Japanese Kou, at the celebration meeting, Bei Tingfang showed more than 100 Japanese prisoners to the public, greatly encouraged the anti-Japanese enthusiasm of the Nanyang military and people!
At this point, the Japanese army, which is known for "remembering revenge", bombed The tomb of Bei Tingfang many times with aircraft in 1945, but still could not escape the fate of "Sunset West Mountain", and finally ushered in the fate of failure!
In 1940, Bie Tingfang died of illness at the age of 58, and the Kuomintang sent Bang Lian from Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang, etc., and Peng Xuefeng, a general of the Communist Party of China and then the New Fourth Army, also sent Bang Lian, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Nanyang were buried!
How many things are behind you, leave it to future generations to say!
But in my opinion: he is worthy of the title of hero, because he, so in the Republic of China, where "soldiers are in chaos and bandits are rampant", Wanxi has become a paradise where "the road is not left behind, and the night is not closed"; he, who deserves the title of "tough man", even if he kneels in front of Chiang Kai-shek, has also done the work of killing people and overselling goods, but when he is facing the great national righteousness, when the nation is in the midst of survival, he can lead the Nanyang army and people to resist Japanese aggression and inflict heavy damage on the basis of the invaders; at this point, he is both a tyrant and an even more heroic!