Wu Peifu "did not enter the concession" all his life, and his heart was very high.
After Feng Guozhang lost power, Zhang Zongchang was beaten into a light pole commander by Chen Guangyuan in Jiangxi, and took out money to bribe Cao Kun, wanting Cao Kun to take him in, Cao Kun took advantage of it, and already planned in his heart, and casually gave him a position to let him play with.
However, wu Peifu was disdainful when he saw Zhang Zongchang, he was born in Xiucai, although he later joined the ranks, but the pride in his heart was always there, so naturally he did not look up to Zhang Zongchang, who was born as a small.
Although Wu and Zhang are both warlords, Wu Peifu wants to be a first-class warlord of quality and a warlord who can unify China in the future.
Yes, Wu Peifu, like Duan Qirui, who controlled the Beiyang government before him, also aimed at unifying the south by force, even Zhang Zuolin, who came to power in Beijing after him.
Wu Peifu's heart accompanied him step by step to rise, and then accompanied him step by step to decline, and even the so-called end of the road.
Before talking about how Wu Peifu went to decline and end the road, we must talk about how he reached his peak, without prosperity, where did the decline come from?
Wu Peifu's power reached its peak through two wars, one was the Zhiwan War in 1920 and the first Zhifeng War in 1922.
Wu Peifu belonged to the direct line of warlords, and before he and Cao Kun became the leaders of the direct line, the direct line was actually led by Feng Guozhang, but Feng Guozhang was tricked into going to Beijing by Duan Qirui when Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui were in a "dispute between the government and the courtyard", which led to the gradual detachment of the direct family from Feng's control.
Later, as soon as Feng Guozhang died, the direct family completely fell into the hands of Cao Kun and Wu Peifu.
After Cao and Wu took control of their direct lineage, in order to go further, they set their goal to replace Duan Qirui as the helmsman of the Beiyang government.
Therefore, in July 1920, the "Zhiwan War" broke out, because there were many factions within the Anhui clan at that time, and there were many disobediences to Duan Qirui, resulting in Duan Qirui's strategic misconduct, coupled with Zhang Zuolin's secret joining the "anti-Duan" ranks and hitting Duan Premier by surprise, so Cao and Wu finally won the Victory of the Zhiwan War.
Once Duan Qirui was defeated, he naturally had to hand over the control of the Beijing government and make room for Cao and Wu, and Cao and Wu thus became the third generation of leaders of the Beiyang government after Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui.
Zhang Zuolin also contributed to the Zhiwan War, but after Wu Peifu won the Zhiwan War, he did not share too many benefits with him, which led to the Zhifeng war.
Of course, Zhang Zuolin had ambitions, and he always wanted to extend his hand to Guannei, even if there was no problem of the distribution of benefits after the Zhiwan War, there would be a war between Zhifeng sooner or later.
In April 1922, the Feng army marched into Shanhaiguan, and the Zhi army was also waiting for the war, which could be described as a hair-trigger, and on the 29th, the two sides fought.
But at this time, is Zhang Zuolin wu Peifu's opponent? To put it bluntly, the foundation of the Feng clan is not as good as that of the direct lineage, Zhang Zuolin only annexed Feng Delin's 28th Division after Zhang Xun's restoration, thus controlling Fengtian and then annexing the provinces of Ji and Hei, but the direct line was attacked from Yuan Shikai's six towns of Beiyang, whether it was the foundation or prestige, it was not comparable to the Feng clan.
What's more, at this time, the direct family controlled the Beijing government for only more than a year, and the limelight was in full swing and the morale of the military was booming.
Therefore, the result of the first Zhifeng War can be imagined, the Feng clan lost to the direct family, and Zhang Zuolin had to obediently retract his hand back to the northeast.
After Wu Peifu won the first Zhifeng War, in order to take the next step, he continued to expand his strength, reaching his peak in 1924, and thus appeared on the cover of the American "Time" magazine, known as "China's strongest".
After Wu Peifu reached his peak, it was followed by decline.
His prosperity was through the two decisive wars of the Zhiwan War and the First Zhifeng War, and his decline and even the end were also two wars, one was the Second Zhifeng War, and the other was the Northern Expedition War.
After Zhang Zuolin lost the first Zhifeng War, he did not completely concede defeat, but instead buried his head in development and accumulated strength, thus making a comeback in September 1924 and setting off the Second Zhifeng War.
This time, the Feng army had become a strong army after rectification, while the Zhi army had become a proud soldier, and coupled with Feng Yuxiang's imminent defection, Wu Peifu finally lost to Zhang Zuolin.
After the defeat of the Second Zhifeng War, although Wu Peifu was also unwilling and wanted to make a comeback, he actually fell into ruins from then on.
At that time, the overseer of Hubei was Xiao Yaonan, who was supported by Wu Peifu, so he had planned to go to Hubei and then use Hubei as the capital to turn around, but who expected to be driven out by Xiao Yaonan. However, not long after Wu Peifu returned to Henan, he encountered Manager Li leading the army into Henan, so he also went to Hubei "dead skin" and stayed in Huangzhou after the Sichuan army was reconciled.
Wu Yushuai fell to this point, and it was also quite desolate.
Later, Xiao Yaonan died, and Wu Peifu finally gained control of Hubei.
What made Wu Peifu completely go to the end of the road was the Northern Expedition War launched by Jiang, and together with the Northern Expedition, Zhang Northeast, Feng Northwest, Yan Shanxi, etc. could not help but enter the courtyard, and it could be said that the world was one.
At the time of the rise of the Northern Expedition, it was Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang, who were directly related to the Northern Expedition to the north, and if Feng Zhang had set aside his prejudices at that time, did not fight the idea of "clams fighting with the clams, and the fishermen were profitable", and sent an army together with the direct family to block the Northern Expeditionary Army, it might have been another end.
Wu Peifu was already at the end of the crossbow at this time, how could he stop the morale of the Northern Expeditionary Army? The two battles of He Sheng Bridge and Tingsi Bridge made Wu Peifu lose completely.
The Battle of the Northern Expedition actually announced Wu Peifu's withdrawal from the stage of history.
After the Northern Expedition, Wu Peifu once took refuge in the Sichuan army Yang Sen, and later moved to Beiping, although the Japanese Kou once tried to buy him, but never lost his integrity.