In China's modern history, Feng Yuxiang has the title of "General of defection". From the beginning of the Luanzhou Uprising in 1912, Feng Yuxiang had defected to the Qing government, the Beiyang government and the Nationalist government in his lifetime, and he was born as a warlord, and every time he defected, he faced mixed evaluations. However, in 1924, as a direct general, he launched a coup d'état in Beijing that imprisoned President Cao Kun and ousted Emperor Puyi. Favorable conditions were created for Sun Yat-sen to go north to preach the revolution and promote the rise of the mass movement in the north!
Anti-straight alliance, undercurrents surging
Since the failure of Zhang Xun's restoration, the power struggle within the Beiyang government has directly turned from a struggle between political views and systems to a naked confrontation of force. The Zhiwan War in July 1920, the First Zhifeng War in April 1922, and the Second Zhifeng War in September 1924, the wars between warlords, large and small, were almost never broken. In this era of "you sing and I appear, and the city head changes the banner of the king", the supreme power of the Beiyang government has become the focus of contention.
After the First Zhifeng War, the direct family that won a complete victory dominated the Beiyang government. As the head of the direct family, Cao Kun first expelled the grand president Xu Shichang and pretended to welcome back Li Yuanhong; then forced Li Yuanhong to become a puppet; and finally succeeded in becoming the grand president by bribing the election. Cao Kun's series of operations not only made himself discredited, but also attracted many opposition voices from outsiders and even within his direct family, even Wu Peifu, who he relied on the most, also expressed strong dissatisfaction.
At the same time as the direct line was expanding vigorously, Zhang Zuolin, who had just been defeated, formed an anti-Zentagonal alliance with Duan Qirui of the Anhui clan and Sun Yat-sen in the south. Yue Anhui was agreed by the three parties to jointly send troops, sun Yat-sen's Northern Expedition, Zhang Zuolin's entry into the customs, Duan Qirui and Lu Yongxiang assisted, and a war against cao kun and Wu Peifu, who were directly related to cao kun, began. Among the three-way crusade army, the strongest is the Feng army, and the second direct Feng war has begun.
At this time, Wu Peifu dispatched troops and commanded the generals of his direct lineage to meet the battle, and Feng Yuxiang, as the commander-in-chief of the Third Army, was sent to Beigukou to march to Chifeng. Wu Peifu's move was tantamount to borrowing a knife to kill people. It should be known that Feng Yuxiang's marching road, the natural conditions alone are very bad, the road is long, the road is rough, the mountains are crossed, the population is sparse, the north is cold, the lack of clothing and food Feng Yuxiang, even if not destroyed by the Feng army, will be punished in the name of defeat.
The class returned to Beijing to monitor the president
Originally, he had a grudge with Wu Peifu, and now that he saw the war situation of "man-made knife tricks, I am for fish meat", Feng Yuxiang naturally would not let others slaughter. Instead of being passively calculated, it is better to be the first to do it. In fact, as early as before the Zhifeng War, Sun Yat-sen and Zhang Zuolin had already sent people to win over Feng Yuxiang, and if the anti-Straight Triangle Alliance had Feng Yuxiang's "internal response", it would really be a direct attack on the Yellow Dragon. Feng Yuxiang, who was forced into a dangerous situation, after accepting a bribe of 500,000 silver yuan from Zhang Xueliang, decided to return to Beijing for a liquidation.
In order to be foolproof, Feng Yuxiang really made a lot of efforts. As early as before the expedition, he had already planned to send his close confidant Sun Yue to serve as the deputy commander of the Beijing garrison, nominally the Gongwei Jingshi, but in fact to do a good job in the internal response to the coup. Before returning to Beijing from the Gubeikou front, Feng Yuxiang released smoke bombs, first ordering roads to be built in various places along the way to prepare for the opening of the army; then ordering his subordinates to carry out daily marching training from the front line back to Beijing, which could not only confuse the opponent, but also make sufficient military preparations.
Just when Wu Peifu and the Feng family front were in a good mood, Feng Yuxiang was already eager to move. In order to further weaken the guards of the Beijing Division, after determining that Wu Peifu's elite 3rd Division was transferred from Fengtai to the front, Feng Yuxiang finally began the journey back to Beijing. On October 19 of that year, Feng Yuxiang gathered his generals and carefully tested their attitudes, and after receiving a positive reply, Feng Yuxiang changed the army to "National Army", echoing Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang.
After establishing a return to Beijing, Feng Yuxiang began to deploy. He ordered Hu Jing's wing to go south at night and cut off Wu Peifu's western retreat; he also ordered Lu Zhonglin's troops to quickly return to Beijing and enter the city together with friendly and neighboring troops. At this time, sun yue, the pawn that had been installed earlier, had a big effect, and Feng Yuxiang ordered him to secretly monitor the remaining troops of Cao Kun and Wu Peifu and take decisive action at any time. Everything is in place, and Beijing is about to usher in great changes.
Drive out the emperor and embrace the revolution
Tens of thousands of troops marched in a hurry, and Feng Yuxiang's vanguard troops had already reached Beiyuan in only three days. With Sun Yue as an internal response, Feng Yuxiang's troops successfully entered the city of Beijing, they fully took over Beijing's defense, and cut off telephone contact with the outside world, the presidential palace was fully monitored, and Cao Kun once reached the most depressed moment in his life. The grand president of the hall could not move at this moment, looking at Feng Yuxiang's nationalist army with a fierce momentum, Cao Kun was really remorseful.
Cao Kun, who was reduced to a prisoner of the order, only wanted to save his life at the moment, and after handing over the presidency, he was not pursued again. Feng Yuxiang did not waste a single shot and peacefully completed the Beijing coup d'état. In order to make the division famous, Feng Yuxiang first condemned Cao Kun for bribery, disaster to the country and the people, Wu Peifu's main battle, and the destruction of life. He also ordered an armistice between the lords and lords of peace, sent a nationwide telegram, and invited the social elites to enter Beijing for consultation. It was against this background that Sun Yat-sen issued the Declaration on going North to fight again for the National Revolution.
However, Feng Yuxiang, who had a revolutionary heart, soon found himself under siege. The encirclement and suppression of the old forces and the undercurrent of counter-revolution made Feng Yuxiang uneasy. On November 5, 1924, Feng Yuxiang ordered Lu Zhonglin to enter the Forbidden City with live ammunition and completely tear up the "Preferential Conditions for the Qing Dynasty", which not only drove the last emperor Puyi out of the Forbidden City, but also eradicated the bane of the feudal imperial system. Leaving the palace with Puyi, there were also a group of Manchu Qing widows and widows.
Beginning in 1912, the remnants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, who had been living in the Forbidden City for 12 years, came to an end completely under the strong authority of Feng Yuxiang. When Puyi was expelled from the palace, the emperor also fell on the altar, and no one could restore in the name of the emperor in a dignified manner. The Beijing coup, regardless of the starting point, had a positive role in promoting the society at that time. Expelling the emperor from the palace, Feng Yuxiang left a strong mark in China's modern history.
postscript
At the same time as inviting Sun Yat-sen to go north to discuss the matter, Feng Yuxiang also sent a telegram inviting Duan Qirui and Zhang Zuolin to Beijing. Despite his desire for revolution, Feng Yuxiang, forced by the situation, could only compromise with the warlords in the end and form the Beiyang government with Duan Qirui as the provisional ruler. Even so, Sun Yat-sen's National Assembly movement and the call for the abolition of unequal treaties inspired the people's anti-imperialist and anti-feudal warlord ideas, and directly promoted the development of revolutionary movements in the northern region.