"蹚將" also means bandit, which is the name of Henan during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
Some scholars have analyzed that in the early years, when there were many bandits, there was a huge team of young peasants working in southwest Henan all year round, and when the farmers were idle, they went to do some work to repair the river embankment and ditch, which the locals called "squatters". These young people really can't find a job, so they are easy to become bandits, so people call bandits "squatters".
Personally, I think there is also a saying that is very reasonable: at the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were natural and man-made disasters in the southwestern region of Henan, and the people could not live a long life, so they dragged their families and mouths to flee the wilderness. "Wading" itself has the meaning of "wading across the river", people will go out as "wading the road", and these people who have fled the wilderness, many of them may be forced to become bandits, and they are naturally called "wadding generals".
"Waddling" means "trying to find a way", the victims have no way to live, they have to gang up as bandits, occupy the mountains as kings, rob towns and caravans, and live a precarious life.
The most impressive general is the "old foreigner" Zhang Qing.
Zhang Qing is not a foreigner, he is a child of a peasant family in Ruzhou, Henan, because he is tall and looks a bit like a foreigner, he has this nickname (of course, there are other sayings, which will no longer be examined here). At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the people were in turmoil, and the people's lives were not good. When Zhang Qing was very young, his parents fell ill and died, and he had no choice but to follow his brother around to make a living.
In 1911, when the old family was hit by disasters, the taxes became heavier and heavier, and the days could not go on, so the brothers defected to the peasant rebel army of Blanc. In fact, it is to join the gang as a "squatter".
A few years later, Bai Lang's army failed, and Zhang Qing had to return to his hometown and run to serve as a soldier in the Hongwei army led by Zhao Jie, the brother of Zhao Qian, the overseer of Henan. In the first Zhifeng War in 1922, the Hongwei army was defeated by Feng Yuxiang and later disbanded by Wu Peifu.
These people who lived on military salaries suddenly had no livelihood. What can you do, carry a gun and be a bandit.
Zhang Qing took more than 300 of his men and officially became a bandit. At that time, the people were living a hard life, no matter who had food, they were willing to follow, Zhang Qing's team was getting bigger and bigger, and finally some small bandits were gathered, reaching the scale of seven or eight thousand people.
When there are many people, they all have to eat, so they must continue to grab and fight everywhere. In this way, it is said that when Zhang Qing was the largest, he could have tens of thousands of people under his command. How to say this, most of them are some starving people who have fled the famine, dragging their families with their mouths, and eating mixed food.
Later, Zhang Qing also kidnapped several foreigners, which caused protests from the great powers, and the Beiyang Army at that time certainly could not sit idly by, so it joined forces to suppress the bandits. Zhang Qing traveled to many places, fought continuously, and finally almost reached the point where there was no way out. In the end, Zhang Qing was killed by his men...
In short, the bandits at that time, on the one hand, were forced to be helpless, in order to survive. On the other hand, they are also fierce and cruel, and they are a disaster for the people. Whether it is officers and soldiers or bandits, it is the common people who suffer in the end.