Lu Jianzhang was born in 1862, a native of Mengcheng, Anhui Province, graduated from the Tianjin Wubei Academy, and in his early years he followed Yuan Shikai to train troops at The Tianjin Small Station, successively serving as a sentinel officer, a pioneer officer, a commander, and a general soldier. After the establishment of the Republic of China, he served as the chief of the Military Justice Department and the overseer of Shaanxi under Yuan Shikai.
Lu Jianzhang, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others were about the same age and seniority, all graduated from the Tianjin Wubei Academy, and were veritable Beiyang elders, but their positions were lower.
One fence three piles, one good man three gangs. Duan Qirui trained Xu Shuzheng, Cao Kun promoted Wu Peifu, Zhang Zuolin reused Yang Yuting, Lu Jianzhang naturally had to cultivate some young talents to be his confidants, and the person he cultivated and promoted was Feng Yuxiang. Of course, Lu Jianzhang's confidants are definitely not only Feng Yuxiang, but Feng Yuxiang is the most famous.
Then, what virtue and ability did Feng Yuxiang have to be favored by Lu Jianzhang?
Many people say that Lu Jianzhang is Feng Yuxiang's uncle. It was only natural for the uncle to promote the nephew.
This is actually a mistake on the part of some historians, so much so that it is falsely rumored. For example, Lai Xiaxin, a more authoritative historian of Beiyang history, made a mistake in Xia Xin's "History of the Warlords of Beiyang".
In fact, the two are not related by blood. Feng Yuxiang's mother's surname is You, not Lu.
In order to bring the two closer, Lu Jianzhang introduced his wife's niece Liu Dezhen to Feng Yuxiang and became Feng Yuxiang's original wife. The two became relatives in this way.
Feng Yuxiang was favored by Lu Jianzhang mainly because Feng Yuxiang's ability was very strong.
This is by no means a tout, but a fact. Lu Jianzhang would never promote mediocre people.
Although Feng Yuxiang's family was poor, he only attended private school for more than a year and did not learn a few words, but after joining the army, he improved his cultural level through self-study. How high is Feng Yuxiang's cultural level? It is said that he was the most read of the Beiyang warlords.
Feng Yuxiang learned martial arts from an early age, accurate marksmanship, known as sharpshooter, all-rounder of literature and martial arts. He also endured hardships and hard work, and even after becoming an officer, he still did the dirty work and tired work like ordinary creeps, and cared for the soldiers very much.
Most importantly, Feng Yuxiang was good at training troops and leading soldiers to fight. Within the Beiyang Army, no matter what kind of officer Feng Yuxiang was, the soldiers he led were always the most disciplined, and they were always the first in every exercise. It is in stark contrast to lao Jiang, an old rival who is good at "micro-exercises".
Feng Yuxiang has another advantage, that is, his appearance is thick, but in fact, he has a lot of eyes. Feng Yuxiang was particularly attentive in training troops and fighting wars, and made great efforts. When he was in a low position, he could not fight in the war, and when he became an officer, he never went to the front line again, but hid in the rear hospital to visit and take care of the wounded. It's both morale-boosting and safe. He worked very hard to train troops in peacetime, and when the war came, he let the "Five Tiger Generals" and "13 Taibao" lead the troops to the battlefield, giving the generals in the front complete command and never "micro-manipulations."
If he hadn't had a lot of eyes, he wouldn't have been able to preserve his strength in decades of warlord melee and finally stand out.
Feng Yuxiang's performance in the Beiyang Army was so brilliant, it was not surprising that he was promoted and reused by the commander Lu Jianzhang.
Feng Yuxiang served as a soldier in the Huai Army for six years and failed to become an officer, and after arriving in the Beiyang Army, with his excellent performance, he was promoted every few months. When he was appreciated by Lu Jianzhang, his position was probably equivalent to that of a squad leader, and he could manage more than a dozen people. After being appreciated by Lu Jianzhang, his promotion was faster.
In 1912, Feng Yuxiang, who had been promoted to battalion commander, led his troops to participate in the Luanzhou Uprising, and was arrested and imprisoned for leaking information from his subordinates. The other leaders of the Luanzhou uprising were all killed, and Feng Yuxiang could not escape death. At the critical moment, Lu Jianzhang stood up. Lu Jianzhang happened to be the head of the Military Justice Department and was very appreciated by Yuan Shikai. Through Lu Jianzhang's efforts, Feng Yuxiang saved his life and was stripped of his post.
A few months later, Yuan Shikai asked Lu Jianzhang to recruit and train five battalions. Lu Jianzhang recalled Feng Yuxiang to the army and made him the battalion commander, responsible for recruiting and training a battalion. Feng Yuxiang recruited five or six hundred troops in JingXian County, Hebei Province.
By this time, Feng Yuxiang had been a soldier for 18 years, and had been an officer for many years, but in the past, he had brought other people's soldiers, and from this time on, he had his own concubine unit for the first time. Later, these five or six hundred people became officers of the Northwest Army.
Feng Yuxiang was promoted to brigade commander of the 16th Mixed Brigade under Lu Jianzhang. Later, because Lu Jianzhang was killed, Feng Yuxiang stayed in the position of brigade commander for 8 years, did not get a promotion, and was dismissed twice. Fortunately, Feng Yuxiang already had more than 10,000 troops of the Concubine clan who could fight a good battle. With this capital, he later became a feudal official.