In the history of modern wars, in addition to the wars between countries, warlord struggles are definitely a part of it that cannot be ignored. There have been years of scuffles within the warlords, and the local warlord forces, large and small, have fought in the face of interests. In addition, there are disputes caused by internal contradictions.
The rumors of father and son soldiers in battle are familiar to everyone, but the uncles and nephews who are on the battlefield are probably rarely seen. Among the Sichuan warlords, there was a pair of uncles and nephews, namely the younger uncle Liu Wenhui and the cousin Liu Xiang.
Not only did they not go hand in hand to march toward victory because of their blood relations with each other, but because of each other's interests, they turned against each other, fought fiercely, and finally even made trouble to the point where water and fire were intolerable, and you were dead and alive.
Liu Wenhui and Liu Xiang
Liu Xiang was born in July 1888, Liu Wenhui was born in January 1895, the two belong to Dayi County, Sichuan province and are also uncles and nephews, but this is only a generational ranking, just look at the age, Liu Xiang is still a few years older.
The original site of the Liu family was originally in Anhui, and in the early Qing Dynasty, it was transferred to Sichuan to settle down. The poor Liu family has been farming for generations, and the family has no money to be handsome. By the time of the war and chaos of the Republic of China, liu xiang and liu wenhui had successively appeared.
Among them, Liu Wenhui was talented and intelligent, and since he was a child, he was bent on serving the country from the army, and when he was thirteen years old, because he was not old enough to join the army, he lied about his age to sixteen years old and successfully entered the Chengdu Army Primary School.
However, the Liu family had been poor in farming for generations, and Liu Wenhui had never entered the school before. When faced with the opening exam of the Army Elementary School, I was faced with a full volume of unclear questions, so I had to write down my own description of the concept of serving the country one by one.
Although this volume is not relevant when it comes out, after the principal and director see it, they all feel that this person's concept of serving the country is advanced and resolute, and the principal personally named the interview. After the interview was smooth, Liu Wenhui still maintained his super high level of personal performance after enrolling, and continued to study until the Baoding Army Officer School.
Liu Xiang joined the army a few years earlier than Liu Wenhui, and at this time he was already the leader of the Sichuan army. When Liu Wenhui graduated from the artillery section and came to Liu Xiang, Liu Xiang hesitated at this time.
If he is really included in his own command, there should be no problem in cooperation in a short period of time, but after a long time, the two are still in the relationship between high and low generations, and keeping up with the relationship between subordinates is bound to cause some conflicts. Therefore, under Liu Xiang's consideration, he still decided to recommend his uncle to Chen Hongfan's Eighth Division of the Sichuan Army as a captain's staff officer.
Contradictions erupt
Liu Xiang's idea seemed to be completely without any problem at the time. In terms of war leadership, the development of each side is far more harmonious than the warmth of the group, at least not for the sake of differences of opinion. But it turns out that human nature is far more difficult to deal with than imagined.
In the five years that Liu Wenhui joined the Eighth Division of the Sichuan Army, Liu Xiang has always given great support, and Liu Wenhui himself is not a fool, and in the past five years, he has been promoted to brigade commander. At that time, Liu Xiang was the commander of the Second Army of the Sichuan Army.
Man can never be satisfied with the status quo in the face of desire. The brigade commander is not the end of Liu Wenhui's imagination, in fact, when Liu Wenhui became the brigade commander, he already imagined in his mind the glorious scene of his being crowned king in Sichuan. As a result, Liu Wenhui constantly recruited troops in the local area and spent money and expenditures on the troops.
At this time, Liu Xiang was elected and promoted to the position of commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Military Region and governor of Sichuan Province. The first point of contradiction between the two people broke out, that is, the difference in expanding power.
Liu Wenhui, who is ambitious as a wolf, is dissatisfied with the status quo and wants to expand the army's power outward, and even one day dominate the Central Plains. So he found Liu Xiang to express his ideas, and proposed the idea that he would go out to conquer the four sides, and Liu Xiang would sit in Sichuan and be responsible for supply support.
Compared with Liu Wenhui, liu xiang is a few years older after all, and he knows the cruelty of war and the power of warlords everywhere, and he believes that the current Sichuan army still has a large gap and room for progress compared with warlords everywhere, and must not take the initiative to provoke and cause war disputes.
Liu Xiang also made it clear that it would be better to turn to Chiang Kai-shek and make good friends with the Nationalist Government, and that future development might be more smooth. However, Liu Wenhui did not know why, he was all kinds of resistance to Chiang Kai-shek, he supported Wang Jingwei, supported Wang Jialie to show his overtures to many forces, but Chiang Kai-shek was rejected by him.
In 1931, Liu Wenhui spent millions of dollars to import a batch of advanced weapons and equipment, but was detained by liu Xiang's order when passing through Wanxian Port. The cash weapons purchased by real money and silver are now undesirable in the hands of his relatives, and Liu Wenhui is angry and anxious in his heart.
Later, Liu Xiang's mother died of illness, Liu Wenhui should have come to mourn, taking advantage of this opportunity Liu Wenhui spent 450,000 yuan to bribe Liu Xiang's two division commanders, but he greatly underestimated Liu Xiang's deterrence in the army, he turned his head and just left, one of them reported and exposed the matter, instructing the contradictions between the two to be completely open and fierce in the army.
Assassinate Liu Xiang
After this incident, the furious Liu Wenhui found a killer, and after careful negotiations, the killer firmly stated that the assassination was foolproof, but no one expected that the killer Liu Wenhui found was a unique "fool" in the world.
The killer hid in the path that Liu Xiang usually passed, and then climbed to a tree to disguise himself. Two days passed, and he did not see Liu Xiang's figure for a long time. But the killer was also so persistent that he did not dare to be distracted for a moment, until on the third day, he was hungry and dizzy, fell from the tree, and was grabbed and shot by Liu Xiang's men.
After that, the two officially went to war for the rule of Sichuan Province, and Liu Xiang took the lead in firing the first shot of the battle. However, Jiang was still old and spicy, and after the airtight deployment preparations before the war, Liu Xiang beat Liu Wenhui to a defeat and retreat, and collapsed into an army.
The arrogant Liu Wenhui now knew the strength of his nephew, and hurriedly asked for help from his eldest brother Li Wengang to intercede with Liu Xiang, declaring that he really knew that he was wrong. Later, Liu Xiang remembered his old feelings and forgave Liu Wenhui, and the battle between the two of them was only after this point that the drum and banner were stopped.
brief summary:
In the face of each other's interests, the meaning of family affection does not seem to be so unwavering, and people's hearts are unpredictable. In today's impermanent world, life is full of all kinds of temptations and interests.
When these factors and family affection stand on the irreconcilable opposite, how many people can not forget the original intention and stick to the bottom line? However, as long as we do not cross the boundaries and bottom lines of morality, any choice is beyond reproach.