What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
In the early years of the struggle of the Fengzhi warlord Zhang Zuolin, "anger against the Japanese garrison" is a well-known allusion to the pile: around 1907, Zhang Zuolin led troops stationed in Xinminfu, but clashed with the local Japanese garrison. Two of his soldiers were killed, and the Japanese lost only a thousand taels of silver afterwards. The young and vigorous Zhang Zuolin (who was in his early thirties) ate this loss? Then he sent three Japanese soldiers to death, and then sent 1,500 taels of silver according to the gourd painting scoop, and the japanese were punched in the face.
This storm that caused Zhang Zuolin to be transferred away by the Qing government at that time was often written by the big book later, but when carefully examined, it made people sigh even more: How can there be Japanese troops stationed in the Xinmin Mansion? In fact, this comes from a fatal privilege of Japan in northeast China after the Russo-Japanese War: the right to garrison troops.
In the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government suffered a crushing defeat, but Tsarist Russia took advantage of the fire and robbery, first forcing the Qing government to sign the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" and the "Brigade Lease Treaty", and obtained the right to railway and garrison troops in northeast China. Who knew that this privilege was not yet hot, and the Japanese were fighting with their teeth and claws, and a Russo-Japanese war called Tsarist Russia to sign the "Portsmouth Treaty", "transferring" the lease right of Lushun Dalian and the property right of the railway coal mine from Changchun to Lushun to Japan. Then he mended the Qing government and forced the Qing government to sign the "Treaty on matters concerning the Three Eastern Provinces of the Sino-Japanese Conference" and the "Annex", and obtained the trade rights and "marching railway rights" in the sixteen northeastern regions.
It is in this series of privileges that there is an important clause: Japan can set up "garrisons" on railways in these places, no more than 15 people per kilometer. Japan's subsequent garrison in China came from this "legal basis." It can be said that for Japan, which was sharpening its knives at that time, this clause was really like tearing a hole in the land of China.
Thus, after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan quickly saw the needle in the haystack, and various aggressive institutions were quickly established. For example, the "Kanto Hall" as an administrative agency, the "South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd." of the British East India Company, and the "Fengtian Consulate General" as a diplomatic agency. But the one that danced the most was the "Mantetsu Garrison" set up in Japan in 1907, and of course, its later name was more widely known: the Kwantung Army!
(Russo-Japanese War)
The establishment of the "Manchurian Railway Garrison" was to exploit the loophole of the "garrison" in Japan's privilege, and in the name of garrison railways, Japan has since openly increased its army in the northeast. In April 1919, Japan officially established the Kwantung Army Headquarters in Lushun, with one division and six garrisons. At that time, the Kwantung Army totaled about 10,000 people, but they were all elite in the Japanese Army. It was like a dagger, stabbed in the northeast land early.
For the Northeast before the 918 Incident, the real horror of the Kwantung Army was not its scale, but its infiltration. As mentioned earlier, the Kwantung Army exploited the loopholes in the "garrison" clause, so its deployment was also closely related to the "Mantetsu" operated by Japan in the Northeast at that time: the "Mantetsu" operated by the Japanese "NammanTetsu Co., Ltd." not only penetrated into various industries such as transportation, ports, mines, agriculture and forestry in the northeast, but also the railway was expanding wildly. To the east, he obtained the right to operate the Jichang Railway, and also forcibly built the Jidun Railway and the Sitao Railway. These privileges made Japan a lot of money and built a strong transportation network.
(Lushun Heavy Artillery Corps Live Fire)
Therefore, the Kwantung Army, which relied on such a railway line, could rely on railway privileges to infiltrate the northeast arbitrarily before the 918 Incident: before the 918 Incident, the Kwantung Army had already spread all over Gongzhuling, Siping Street, Kaiyuan, Tieling, Hushitai, Fengtian, Fushun, Andong and nearly twenty other important places. This also means that once an incident occurs, this fierce and premeditated army can attack the northeast with "the first time and the first speed".
In this sense, Japan's coveting of China is really a deliberate attempt for decades.
It is precisely because of this deliberate infiltration that Zhang Zuolin, as the "King of Northeast China", had great ties with the Japanese invaders in several critical periods of his development. But Zhang Zuolin, who is well aware of Japan's ambitions, has also stubbornly adhered to the bottom line: he did not recognize all the provisions of the Twenty-One Articles about the northeast, and also developed the "Mantetsu Parallel Line Railway" and planned to set up a port in Huludao. All these painstaking efforts are aimed at curbing Japan's pace of aggression against China.
(China-Japan "Article 21" Representations)
Ning Encheng, former president of Northeastern University, said with emotion: "Why did the Japanese blow up lao shuai (Zhang Zuolin), because lao shuai is patriotic. ”
What is particularly worth mentioning is the "Transportation Committee of the Three Eastern Provinces" established by Zhang Zuolin in 1924, which was the highest transportation decision-making organ in the three eastern provinces at that time, which was actually an important fortress to resist Japanese aggression, and almost gathered the most outstanding construction talents in northeast China at that time, such as Wang Yongjiang, Yang Yuting, and Jiang Dengxuan. In the following seven years, the personnel of this committee underwent changes, but the purpose of "anti-Japanese resistance" never changed, and a number of railway trunk lines were developed successively, which greatly eliminated the railway advantages of "Mantetsu". In addition, Yang Yuting also developed the Fengtian-Brigade University War Readiness Highway. The existence of this highway can ensure that once war breaks out, the prepared and orderly Northeast Army can fully compete with the Kwantung Army relying on "Mantetsu"!
Therefore, after watching the fengzhi warlords build the northeast era, this series of operations also has to sigh: Although Japan is deliberate, although the knife handle of the Japanese army has been on the northeast land, the politicians of that generation in the northeast are also really fighting for the sake of the country's grand plan and in order to curb the aggressive ambitions of the Japanese army.
However, all this painstaking effort could not withstand the ugly order of "put the gun in the storeroom and stand up for death" on the night of the September 18 Incident in 1931. The efforts of generations, how many bloody dreams, were buried overnight. Why is the "9/18 Incident" a national shame? Having seen this cause and effect, shame to the point of pain!