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In Beiping in February 1929, every household was illuminated, which was the first New Year spent under the banner of Qingtian Day. Just when everyone was full of joy, only one person was full of sorrow, and that was Bai Chongxi.
Bai Chongxi, the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army and a member of the Beiping Political Branch, who monopolized the military and political power of Peiping, frowned under the lights. The 51st Division of Li Pin's division and Liao Lei's 53rd Division, stationed in Tangshan, did not receive any military expenses since January.
When Bai Chongxi arranged for his chief of staff, Wang Zemin, to apply to He Chengjun, a parallel battalion in the north, he received a reply that nanjing's appropriations had not yet arrived.
In addition, the Wei Yunsong Division, which was stationed in Nanyuan, was formed by the downsizing of Bai Chongxi's original troops, and there was no financial appropriation like the other two units. There must be a demon when things are impermanent, Bai Chongxi secretly thought, "Is it difficult for He Chengjun to do this kind of manipulation?" ”
In reality, however, he was merely following orders, and Chiang Kai-shek planned to bring down the Gui forces. On the one hand, he arranged for He Chengjun to withhold Bai Chongxi's military expenses, and on the other hand, he arranged for Liu Wendao, director of the Political Department, to persuade Tang Shengzhi to secretly alienate Li Pinshi and Liao Lei's army.
Because Li Pinshi and Liao Lei were both from Guangxi, most of the soldiers under his command were Sanxiang disciples. These soldiers were all cultivated by Tang Shengzhi, and without going through too many twists and turns, the two division commanders expressed their willingness to follow Tang Shengzhi's dispatch.
At this time, Bai Chongxi was still in the dark. After taking full control of the military power, Chiang Kai-shek held a banquet at the Hongmen Gate and wanted to detain Bai Chongxi.
Above the meeting, Li Pinshi acted exactly according to the previous arrangement, but Liao Lei was not like this. Liao Lei had always longed for Guan Yu's brother Gongyi, and immediately after the meeting, he arranged for someone to escort Bai Chongxi to flee Tianjin, and when he fled, he also specially arranged for Bai Chongxi to dress as a woman to prevent the news from leaking.
"Little Zhuge Ge" Bai Chongxi was imprisoned
In early 1928, Chiang Kai-shek was the commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army, and he was planning the Second Northern Expedition with Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, and Li Zongren.
After the end of the First Northern Expedition, Peiping was restored, and the entire National Revolutionary Army was divided into two factions, Jiang and Gui. Although on the surface it seems calm and quiet, and even the exchange of courtesies between each other, in fact, it has long been an undercurrent, and the contradictions are deepening.
The place where you lie on your side will allow others to sleep peacefully. Chiang Kai-shek monopolized power and wanted to eliminate dissidents in the party, that is, Li, Bai and other Gui forces, and this plan of his has been planned for a long time, and Sima Zhao's heart is well known.
During the Northern Expedition, Bai Chongxi was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Army, and after the war, he became the chairman of the Peking Political Committee with his outstanding military achievements. On the surface, such an identity seems to be a powerful minister who combines military and political power, but in fact it is not the case.
The army stationed in Beiping under Bai Chongxi's jurisdiction was not his own Gui troops, but the old troops that tang Shengzhi had shrunk down.
At that time, rumors flowed from Yan Xishan's troops that Chiang Kai-shek planned to ask Bai Chongxi to make his own choice in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army.
Either transfer the military power currently in hand and go to remote Xinjiang to take up a post, or go abroad to Europe and the United States to investigate and study. Both of these options are undoubtedly to release the military power with a glass of wine and to bring the military and political power in the hands of the veteran General Bai Chongxi to the central authorities.
Bai Chongxi, known as "Little Zhuge Ge", led his army from Nanguan in southern Xinjiang to Shanhaiguan, and successively recruited Sun Chunfang and Tang Shengzhi, who was by no means an idle person, but now he was reduced to the right to be deposed by Chiang Kai-shek. The bird is hiding with its bow, and such an ending is inevitably chilling.
In fact, as early as October 1928, Bai Chongxi had already seen that Chiang Kai-shek had a crush on the Gui army. In order to resist Chiang Kai-shek's Third Plenary Session of the Kuomintang in Nanjing, Bai Chongxi secretly summoned Xia Wei, Li Renren, and other henchmen to discuss military affairs in an ironclad car.
Unfortunately, the action of sending a few people out to lobby did not get an effective reply, which inevitably disappointed Bai Chongxi. Just when he was at a loss, his chief of staff and division commander Wang Zemin returned from the field and brought about changes from the outside world.
Bai Chongxi hurriedly asked:
"What are the military trends in the outside world today? Did Chiang Kai-shek take any action? ”
Wang Zemin replied:
"Recently, two of my regimental commanders, Liu Chunrong and Wei Yi, have been promoted to division commanders, and He Chengjun is also the commander of the Tenth Army while serving as the director of the Northern Parallel Battalion, and now I, the nominal commander of the Eleventh Division, have long since died in name."
When Bai Chongxi first handed over the two regiments to Wang Zemin, he also wanted him to help manage and effectively control them. Now, without the consent of Bai Chongxi and Wang Zemin, Chiang Kai-shek had promoted the two regimental commanders to division commanders without authorization, and they were naturally now separated from the Gui clan.
Such a change is undoubtedly a drain on Bai Chongxi. Bai Chongxi continued to ask:
"Is there any other intelligence?"
Wang Zemin said bluntly:
"Recently, Tang Shengzhi has been active in Tianjin, and it seems that there are some actions..."
The news had been spoken, and Bai Chongxi realized the seriousness of the matter and stood up and paced the room non-stop. After a while, he suddenly said to Wang Zemin:
"We need to immediately reorganize the troops and lead the troops to the south, and gradually move closer to Wuhan, as for the troops, as much as we can take away..."
However, at this time, Wang Zemin said to Bai Chongxi:
"Nowadays, whether we want to go from Jinghan Road or Jinpu Road, we will inevitably pass through the jurisdiction of the Second Group Army, and Feng Yuxiang here is not such a good talker."
Bai Chongxi gradually fell silent.
"Thirty-six counts for the upper count"
Just when Bai Chongxi was running into walls everywhere and frowning, the guards came to report that Fang Zhenwu, the commander-in-chief of the First Army, had come to visit.
Bai Chongxi clearly knew that Fang Zhenwu was a subordinate of Chiang Kai-shek's concubine, so what was his intention in coming now? How many troops to bring? It is now unavoidable.
The guards reported:
"There was only one jeep, accompanied by two guards"
"Hurry up please!"
After the guards turned to leave, Bai Chongxi immediately glanced at Wang Zemin, suggesting that Wang Xian temporarily avoid acting at the opportunity to deal with what would happen.
Then Bai Chongxi calmly stepped out of the door to greet:
"Brother Zhenwu, in such a cold weather, what kind of wind blew you here?" Any advice? ”
"Don't go to the Three Treasures Hall without anything!" Fang Zhenwu unceremoniously walked into the hall and then said to Bai Chongxi:
"Recently, I inadvertently learned a piece of news that was unfavorable to you, remembering that we fought side by side during the Northern Expedition War, and specially informed."
"Thank you Brother Zhenwu for your thoughts, I don't know what exactly happened to make you come to tell you overnight?" Although Bai Chongxi superficially put on an expression of light clouds and light wind, and did not care about himself, he was already panicked.
After looking around, Fang Zhenwu whispered to Bai Chongxi:
"There may be one thing you yourself are still in the dark, and now several brigades led by your subordinate Hao Mengling want to tie you up and escort you to Chiang Kai-shek."
This change came so quickly that Bai Chongxi could not accept it for a while, but he had maintained a calm and self-assured demeanor to say to Zhenwu:
"I have heard about these things, but I already have countermeasures to solve them, Brother Zhenwu does not need to worry too much, no matter what, I still have to thank Brother Zhenwu for his heart, I don't know if there is Yaxing who talks about wine?"
"You don't have to drink, I came here mainly to inform you of this matter, you still have to do it yourself!"
Bai Chongxi sent Fang Zhenwu out of the gate, and then back home, he reached out and touched it, and it turned out that his pocket was already soaked with sweat because of nervousness.
After Fang Zhenwu left, Wang Zemin came out of the backyard, saw Bai Chongxi's face was pale, and hurriedly asked what had happened, bai Chongxi stabilized his mind and told him what had just happened.
Wang Zemin couldn't help but have a palpitation after listening to it, and the other party Zhenwu preached:
"Now that the time has come to burn the eyebrows, we must make a decision on where to go, otherwise it will be too late."
Bai Chongxi made up his mind to wave his hand and said to Wang Zemin:
"Thirty-six plans are the best policy."
Bai Chongxi then whispered a few words to Wang Zemin and explained the matters that needed to be prepared next, and then Wang Zemin began to prepare for the retreat according to the instructions.
After about half an hour, the Fourth Command arranged for vehicles to drive into the French-run hospital. At this time, four soldiers dressed in military uniforms stepped out of this car, escorted the guards and Bai Chongxi into the hospital and disappeared.
Within a few minutes, several soldiers came out of the hospital and drove away, returning to the mansion as they had been. People who heard about this incident simply believed that Bai Chongxi was only hospitalized due to illness.
Immediately after the soldier left the front door, another car appeared at the back door of the hospital and left in the opposite direction from the front door car. Sitting in the car were Bai Chongxi, his guards, and Liao Lei, the commander of the Thirty-sixth Army.
At this time, in order to prevent his identity from being revealed, Bai Chongxi deliberately changed into civilian clothes, brought sunglasses and a fake beard, and wanted to use the "golden cicada shell" scheme.
The purpose of this was, on the one hand, to be able to not alarm the personnel of the Fourth Army Headquarters, and on the other hand, to take this opportunity to be hospitalized, secretly transferred to Liao Lei's residence in Beiping, and then further planned the next action.
The reason for this decision is entirely because of Bai Chongxi's absolute trust in Liao Lei. Bai Chongxi personally promoted Liao Lei from a small division commander to the commander of the Thirty-sixth Army, allowing him to make a greater difference on the battlefield.
Subsequently, on top of Liao Lei's father's birthday banquet, Bai Chongxi condescended to personally come to the banquet to wish Liao Father a happy birthday, and prostrated to Liao Father with the gift of the younger generation. Such a move made Liao Lei feel grateful to Bai Chongxi, which showed that Bai Chongxi had already regarded Liao Lei as his brother.
After this incident, Liao Lei completely became Bai Chongxi's right hand, which is also the fundamental reason why Bai Chongxi dared to give his life to Liao Lei.
Liao Lei once said to Bai Chongxi:
"Only I Liao Lei are here, then there must be Chief Bai there!"
"The Technique of Golden Cicada Shelling"
On the evening of March 6, Wang Zemin used the excuse of celebrating his birthday to hold a banquet at the Donglaishun Hotel in Beijing, inviting many officials of the Fourth Army at or above the regimental level to come to the banquet.
For a time, the vicinity of Wangfujing was very lively, but at this time, the mainstream view of the entire Beiping military and political circles was: anti-White support for Tang.
When the situation was not yet clear, everyone was confused with understanding, no one took the initiative to bring up this matter, and everyone came here with a lively mentality.
It is precisely through this way that Wang Zemin diverts everyone's attention, and his plan can succeed. After the banquet began, everyone did not see Bai Chongxi for a long time, and they all thought that he was still on the shelf of his commander-in-chief.
However, until after three rounds of drinking, Bai Chongxi still did not come to the scene, so finally someone could not bear it, and took the initiative to ask Wang Zemin.
At this time, Wang Zemin slowly opened his mouth:
"Brother Bai's leg injury has now recurred, so he has to be hospitalized for recuperation, and there is no way to come to this birthday party in person."
After Wang Zemin said this, the scene immediately exploded, some complaining, some suspicious. However, no one ever asked Liao Lei why he did not attend the banquet, because at this time Liao Lei had already stationed his Thirty-sixth Army in Kaiping, Tangshan.
Just when these anti-Bai and Tang generals above the regimental level were red in the face, Liao Lei had already quietly left Beiping in a military vehicle with Bai Chongxi and headed for the eastern direction...
In order to hide his eyes and ears, Liao Lei deliberately released news to the outside world, claiming that he would move his family members to Kaiping, where he was stationed, and hung a special train to transport furniture.
The special train was piled with the luggage of the family, and of course Liao Lei and Bai Chongxi. Liao Lei specially arranged for someone to prepare a large wooden box to place in the luggage, so that when soldiers came to search, they could be used as a hiding place as cover.
On the way, Liao Lei repeatedly told Bai Chongxi not to fall asleep, otherwise according to his snoring, he would definitely show his stuffing when he encountered the soldiers' inspection.
Bai Chongxi said:
"Got it, I must be in control of myself."
At this moment, the normal military train suddenly stopped, and there was a noisy noise outside the carriage.
"You can't carry out inspections, this is a special train for Captain Liao to escort his family, and in the event of an accident, none of you can bear this responsibility."
"We have to check today, and if we don't let us check, you don't want to leave Tianjin."
At this moment, soldiers on both sides began to pull up the bolts of their guns. Liao Lei saw this scene and knew that if he let things continue to develop, he would inevitably wipe out the gun.
So Liao Lei hurriedly said a few words to his family, and then got out of the car to deal with the contradiction.
"Commander, they're going to forcibly inspect the vehicles."
The soldiers who were holding out saw Liao Lei get out of the car and immediately came to report.
Liao Lei stood on the stairs of the train, looked condescendingly at the soldiers who wanted to get on the train to investigate, and asked in a condescending manner:
"What part of you are all?"
"According to the report, we are the subordinates of Fu Zuoyi, the commander of the Tianjin Garrison, and we have been ordered to search all passing vehicles again, and there is no room for mistake."
Seeing that Liao Lei's tone of voice was not good, these patrol soldiers had to change their attitude and report honestly, but there was still a posture of wanting to salute first and then soldier in their tone.
"Oh, Fu Zuoyi, I also know, they are all their own families in the process of the Northern Expedition, there is no need to investigate my family train."
"Don't make it difficult for us, we only strictly follow the orders arranged by our superiors," the inspector said in a strong tone.
"If you really want to search, then search, I don't have anything else in my car, just a few family members and some accompanying furniture."
After the inspectors got on the train, they found that there were several Liao Lei's family members and some luggage sitting in the middle of the train. Just as several soldiers were trying to check their luggage further, one of the female relatives turned around and shouted at the soldiers.
"Get out of here, my wife is washing her feet here, what kind of body are you here?"
It turned out that there was a custom in the northern folk at that time, when a woman washed her feet, everyone except her husband could not see it.
Liao Lei's wife used this custom to set up a barrier and give the inspection team a way out. After this incident, the inspecting soldiers then left the train and released Liao Lei.
It was not until early in the morning that the train finally arrived in Kaiping, and Liao Lei arranged for his personnel to carry his luggage, along with Bai Chongxi's large wooden box, back to Liao Lei's residence.
"The sin of conspiracy, I will die in heaven"
After this journey incident, Bai Chongxi also fully believed in Liao Lei's loyalty and loyalty. After calming down, Bai Chongxi analyzed the current situation and believed that only by truly controlling the Thirty-sixth Army in his own hands could he have the opportunity to compete with Chiang Kai-shek.
Subsequently, he arranged for Liao Lei to summon officials above the Thirty-sixth Army Corps to a meeting to further grasp the true thoughts in the hearts of these subordinates.
Although both agreed to this approach, the meeting could not be successfully held. It didn't take long for the officials who came one after another to leave, and Liao Lei thought that there must be something strange in it.
Sure enough, when Liao Lei inspected the conference room, he found a letter that had been unfolded. The letter was written by Ling Zhaoyao, commander of the Twenty-second Brigade, to many participants, saying that now that Tang Shengzhi had become the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Army, he would soon come to Kaiping to take up his post, and there would be many Xiang troops who had defected to Tang Shengzhi.
The main purpose of this letter is to tell the people who come here to attend the meeting not to stay too long, so as not to fall into the tongue, and to be targeted by everyone when Tang Shengzhi comes here in the future.
When Bai Chongxi saw the letter, he looked up and sighed:
"The sin of non-conspiracy, I will die in heaven!"
At this time, Liao Lei, as a veteran, immediately calmed down, since all the old subordinates had different intentions, the only thing he could do now was to ensure his own safety, and as for the matter of turning over, he could only leave it for the future to make a comeback.
After a little thought, Bai Chongxi also agreed with Liao Lei's idea, and finally the two people discussed sending Bai Chongxi out of Tanggu. Then take a foreign ship to Shanghai, and when you arrive in Shanghai, you will discuss the next plan with your colleagues.
The "white girl" dressed as a woman and went to Shanghai
The transfer action Bai Chongxi planned to dress up as a woman, this is because when Bai Chongxi was studying at the military academy, because he was born with white skin, he was jokingly called "White Girl" by his classmates around him.
In this operation, he disguised himself as a man and a woman to disguise himself as Liao Lei's wife Hu Hui, put on Hu Hui's turban and coat, and then brought a mask to cover people's eyes.
Because it was a cold winter and the weather was relatively cold, this kind of clothing did not look abnormal at all. After bai chongxi passed through the security check, he successfully boarded the Japanese ship to Shanghai.
After getting on the ship, Bai Chongxi was finally relieved, so he immediately sent a telegram to the post and telecommunications office to Shanghai to inform him of the next arrangements.
However, even if Bai Chongxi and Liao Lei were planning carefully, the news was still leaked out. Not long after Bai Chongxi left, the news of his absconding in disguise leaked into Chiang Kai-shek's ears.
At this moment, Chiang Kai-shek had already put Li Jishen, the leader of another faction, under house arrest in the city of Nanjing. He was preparing to arrange for the army to carry out operations against the Gui forces in Wuhan, trying to eliminate political enemies and achieve unified control of military power throughout the country.
At the same time, Chiang Kai-shek arranged for He Chengjun and Tang Shengzhi to gradually dissipate the strength of Bai Chongxi's Fourth Army and remove the troubles of his confidants.
At this time, when Chiang Kai-shek heard that Bai Chongxi had absconded, of course, he was very angry, so he immediately ordered:
"Ordered the Songhu Police Department to immediately arrange for the army, and the commander Xiong Shihui personally led the gunboats to Wusongkou to intercept them, and Bai Chongxi must be executed locally." If the Japanese ship did not accept the search, the ship was immediately shelled, and the Japanese embassy was negotiated later in this loss. ”
After this order was issued, Chiang Kai-shek arranged for the foreign minister to invite the Japanese representative to explain the matter to him, just as the so-called salute was first and then the soldiers, so as to prevent political disputes in the future.
The matter was of great importance, and the Japanese representative in Nanjing immediately sent a telegram back to Tokyo, Japan, seeking a reply. The Japanese side said that at this time, China's domestic military relations are extremely delicate, and the relationship between various forces has not yet been clearly defined.
Japan, which had received Chiang Kai-shek in shimono a year earlier and then helped Katsura officers, was not a wise choice to support either faction now. If Chiang Kai-shek were to arrest Bai Chongxi for execution at this time, it would obviously not be in the interests of the Japanese side.
So Tokyo decided that it was necessary to rescue Bai Chongxi.
At this time, the Kuomintang elders in Shanghai, Xu Chongzhi, Zhang Dingpan, and Li Zongren's wife Guo Dejie, all learned through different ways that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to intercept and kill Bai Chongxi, and it just so happened that they all had inextricable interests with Bai Chongxi and tried their best to stop Chiang Kai-shek's plot.
Shanghai colleague emergency rescue
When Xu Chongzhi heard that Li Jishen had been put under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek, he saw Chiang Kai-shek's wolf ambitions. He did not want to see Chiang Kai-shek exterminate all his enemies, so he took the initiative to go to the Japanese embassy and asked to send Japanese ships to escort Bai Chongxi to Shanghai safely.
The Japanese side said that if chiang kai-shek was to refuse to send someone to search the ship, it was itself an illegal act, but if another ship was arranged to meet Bai Chongxi's ship in the sea and change positions on the way, it would be able to ensure that he would arrive in Shanghai secretly.
Xu Chongzhi thought about it again and again, believing that this was also the best way at present. So the steamship company that went to Osaka arranged for a steamship from Tanggu to shanghai to set sail early, and successfully escorted Bai Chongxi to Shanghai under the supervision of xiong shihui ships.
When the Osaka steamer arrived at Wusongkou, it was intercepted by gunboats, and all passengers and luggage were closely checked, and nothing was found.
A few days later, Bai Chongxi successfully arrived in Shanghai and met with Li Zongren and several other people in Rong County, but several people were not willing to submit to Chiang Kai-shek's oppression, so they conspired to compete with Chiang Kai-shek.
In early May, after careful planning, Bai Chongxi and his party erected the banner of "Defending the Party and Saving the Nation" in Shanghai and continued to compete with Chiang Kai-shek.