Huanggutun Incident
Hello everyone, I'm Lantai.
Today I want to talk to you about zhang Zuolin's death.
Lan Tai has always advocated that Zhang Zuolin is a warlord supported by Japan, and although he and Japan have a struggle, in general, Zhang Zuolin still obeys Japan more than resists.
Zhang Zuolin was killed not because Zhang Zuolin harmed Japan's interests in the three eastern provinces, nor because Zhang Zuolin refused to betray the country; but Because Zhang Zuolin chose to cooperate with the Japanese civilian government, so that the Japanese military, especially the Kwantung Army, would lose their voice on the issue of the three eastern provinces.
For the Japanese "horse dung" (civilian officials' contemptuous name for Japanese soldiers), if the Kwantung Army could not dominate the three eastern provinces, it meant "failure", so the Japanese Kwantung Army bombed zhang Zuolin, not because Zhang Zuolin did not betray the country, but because Zhang Zuolin had been tamed by the Japanese civilian government.
In the long run, the Japanese Kwantung Army and the Japanese military will be marginalized in the three eastern provinces, which is unacceptable to the Japanese "horse dung".
In fact, after the Huanggutun incident, the commander of the Kwantung Army, Muraoka Shotaro, was directly dismissed from his post and retired from active service; and Kawamoto Daisaku, who planned the Huanggutun incident, was dismissed from active service, and the punishment for retiring from active service can also be seen that the Japanese government and the Japanese military are dissatisfied with the Kwantung Army's bombing and killing of Zhang Zuolin.
This is in stark contrast to the "918 Incident" after the "9/18 Incident" when everyone planners "added officials to the knighthood".
In fact, regarding what the Japanese Kwantung Army would kill Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Zuolin's Japanese adviser Takema Machino published a memoir after World War II, which praised Zhang Zuolin's obedience to Japan.
Next, Lan Tai will introduce to you how Takema Machino recalls zhang Zuolin's death.
Takeshi Machino
Takema Machino was a Japanese Army commander who spent his early years as an instructor at the Beijing Police Academy directly under the Qing Government's Patrol Police Department.
Since 1913, he has been appointed by the Governor of Kanto of Japan to Zhang Xiluan (Fengtian Governor) as an adviser.
Formally hired Japanese advisers like Takema Machino are nominally subject to consultation, but in fact they are internecineers and spies selected by the Japanese General Staff Headquarters who are directly under the leadership of the Japanese government and secret services and specialize in intelligence gathering.
After Zhang Xiluan stepped down, Takema Maino became an adviser to his successor, Duan Zhigui.
In 1916, Zhang Zuolin won the power of the governor of Fengtian Province, and Takema Maino continued to serve as an adviser to Zhang Zuolin.
This adviser of the Three Dynasties had been by Zhang Zuolin's side until the day before Zhang Zuolin was killed, and he was very familiar with the major events that took place in the northeast at that time and what Zhang Zuolin had done.
In fact, in his memoirs, Takema Machino is satisfied with Zhang Zuolin's obedience to Japan.
Zhang Zuolin
On October 9, 1927, Takema Machino, in conjunction with Jotaro Yamamoto, then president of Mantetsu Corporation, said that Yamamoto was about to meet Zhang Zuolin in Beijing to discuss the "Manchurian New Seventh Road", which was regarded by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka as the seven railway lines of Japan's lifeline.
Zhang Zuolin expressed a certain degree of dissatisfaction with the Japanese side's pressing, and as a result, Takema Machino said that if Zhang Zuolin did not want to see Yamamoto, then he resigned from his advisory position, and Zhang Zuolin also quickly apologized and expressed his willingness to see Yamamoto.
On the morning of October 11, 1927, Zhang Zuolin met with Yamamoto for a long talk for three hours, and Yamamoto proposed a plan for the construction of seven loan railways. On October 12, Yamamoto met with Zhang Zuolin again and finally agreed on the "Manchurian-Mongolian New Five-Way Pact".
Judging from the memoirs of Takema Machino, in the process of Zhang Zuolin and the Japanese side reaching the "Manchurian-Mongolian New Five-Road Pact", although Zhang Zuolin had resistance and dissatisfaction, this resistance was not as strong as that of the Qinglou women.
Takema Machino once told Zhang Zuolin that if Zhang Zuolin signed the "Manchurian-Mongolian New Five-Way Pact," the Japanese government would immediately give Zhang Zuolin an interest-free loan of "three million to five million yen," and there would be no restriction on the purpose of the loan.
At this time, Zhang Zuolin, who was suffering from the lack of military expenditure, said that Japan's interest-free loan of "three million to five million yen" was undoubtedly a charcoal in the snow.
In fact, Zhang Zuolin's degree of cooperation and "taming" in the whole negotiation surprised the "China Pass" such as Takema Maino and Jotaro Yamamoto, so when sending telegrams to Japan, they all said that "it went smoothly by accident", believing that "the country's luck is nothing more than this" (Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archives Film P58)
Old photos of the Northeast Army
In addition, according to the archives of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the recollection of Takema Machino, the reason why Zhang Zuolin rushed back to Shenyang was requested by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiichi Tanaka:
In Tanaka's view, to return Zhang Zuolin and his 300,000 Feng troops to Fengtian without any losses, and then to establish Zhang Zuolin's regime with this military force, and then to control him, to separate Manchuria and Mongolia from China and place them under Japanese power —this political blueprint will surely be realized.
Even after the Huanggutun Incident, on June 16, 1928, Tanaka Yoshiichi and the Japanese ambassador to China, Yoshiyoshi Yoshiyoshi Yoshizawa, expressed optimism in a telegram, hoping that Zhang Zuolin would be fine, and said that as long as Zhang Zuolin was safe, then Zhang Zuolin could resist the "expansion of southern forces to the three eastern provinces":
If Zhang Zuolin can still recover, even if the southern forces reach Shanhaiguan, the three eastern provinces can also resist the south and eliminate their forces.
Takema Machino also said in his memoirs that Zhang Zuolin's death was planned by the Japanese Kwantung Army out of "jealousy of civilian officials":
The Manchurian-Mongolian Five Railways will be officially announced in July, and the matter is known to the Army, who believe that if this matter is successful, it will not only be a matter of five railways, each railway has a leased land, so Manchuria is equivalent to Japan, and Japan's position in Manchuria has been completely resolved. In that case, the soldiers never had the opportunity to build meritorious service again.
In fact, Takema Machino's view in his memoirs is correct, because Takayoshi Tanaka, the Japanese military attaché in Beijing at the time, testified: "Kawamoto's plan was that as soon as the explosion of The Imperial Gutun sounded, the Kwantung Army was urgently assembled, and the Manchurian Incident occurred at that time." ”
This fully shows that the Huanggutun incident was only the first step in the "big chess" of the Japanese Kwantung Army, followed by the Kwantung Army's armed solution to Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army; but because the Japanese government did not agree, Kawamoto's plan was only stopped until the first step.
To sum up, Zhang Zuolin was indeed killed by the Japanese, but the killing of Zhang Zuolin did not represent the opinion of the Japanese Government; it was only for its own selfish interests and regardless of the actions of the Kwantung Army of the "overall situation of Japan," the Japanese Kwantung Army could not represent the Japanese Government.
Zhang Zuolin's death does not explain what kind of patriotic warlord he was, in fact, according to the memoirs of Takema Maino, we can see that Zhang Zuolin was quite obedient in the face of Japanese coercion and inducement, even more obedient than his son Zhang Xueliang.
The Huanggutun incident saved Zhang Zuolin's reputation in a sense, otherwise Zhang Zuolin would have returned to Shenyang alive and officially announced the "Manchurian-Mongolian New Five-Way Plan" in July, which really nailed Zhang Zuolin to the pillar of shame of the traitor forever.
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