In 1990, Zhang Xueliang, who had been under house arrest by Chiang Kai-shek's father and son for 54 years, finally regained his personal freedom.
At that time, he was nearly 90 years old, "young handsome and old", no longer the affair of the past, but the world's attention to him has never cooled.
A reporter specially flew to the United States to interview Zhang Xueliang himself, in order to hear the history of that year from the mouth of the young marshal Zhang Xueliang, including the famous Xi'an Incident and the past of the "Northeast Yizhi".
During the period, when talking about the things he regretted the most in this life, Zhang Xueliang thought a little, finally confided his heart, and proposed a person's name - Yang Yuting.
Looking back on the past in his later years, Zhang Xueliang felt that the last thing he regretted in his life was initiating the Xi'an Incident.
And what made him deeply annoyed and regretted in his life was that he ordered Yang Yuting to be shot in the Tiger Hall, which eventually created a change in the situation later, and everything was irreparable.
In this regard, Zhang Xueliang said bluntly: "Before that, I was never superstitious, and after killing Yang Yuting, I had to believe it." ”
So, who is Yang Yuting? Why did Zhang Xueliang kill him back then?
The death of the great marshal
In the early morning of June 4, 1928, a train from Beijing drove into Qiaodong near Huanggutun Station, only one and a half kilometers from Shenyang.
As a result, there was a sudden bang, black smoke filled the sky, the train exploded, the bridge above was blown off, debris flew into the sky, and one of the carriages of the train was directly blown up to only a chassis.
And the leader of the warlord of the Feng, Grand Marshal Zhang Zuolin, was sitting in that carriage at that time, and when the explosion occurred, he was blown out of the three zhang and his throat was directly broken.
Later, Zhang Zuolin was rushed to the marshal's mansion, and died a few hours later.
This incident, that is, the "Huanggutun Incident" that later shocked China and abroad, and the Japanese Kwantung Army was the mastermind of the incident, the details of which were not fully revealed until 1945, when Japanese war criminal Daisaku Kawamoto was arrested.
At that time, the Japanese not only wanted to build roads, open mines, set up factories in "Manchuria", but also rent land and emigrate to the country, which can be described as ambitious, and Zhang Zuolin obstructed it, which became the main reason why the Japanese eventually killed the killer.
Because Zhang Zuolin died, the Feng's army was leaderless, which could facilitate the actions of the Japanese, or re-cultivate an obedient puppet.
Zhang Zuolin obviously expected this, and he deliberately left his last words in the marshal's mansion, and Mrs. Tuo relayed: "Tell Xiaoliuzi (Zhang Xueliang's milk name) to put the country first and do it well!" I'm nothing with this stinky skin bag. Tell Xiao Liuzi to go back to Shenyang quickly. ”
After speaking, he swallowed.
The Japanese, as the mastermind, "killed their people day and sat in their homes at night", just to determine whether Zhang Zuolin was dead.
For more than two weeks, the marshal's mansion remained secret, and it was not until Zhang Xueliang sneaked back to Shenyang that the news of Zhang Zuolin's death was announced.
Later, as Zhang Zuolin's eldest son, Zhang Xueliang naturally became the commander-in-chief of security in the three eastern provinces, and his son inherited his father's business and began to sit on the first chair in ruling the northeast.
At that time, Zhang Xueliang was only 27 years old, in fact, his road to "succession" was far from being so smooth as a sentence, and there was a dark tide behind it.
In the northeast at that time, as soon as Zhang Zuolin died, in addition to the Japanese, there were also intricate powers within the Fengjie warlords.
The latter was not feared before Zhang Zuolin's death, but as soon as Zhang Zuolin died, it became a fatal problem.
The old marshals who once fought the world with Zhang Zuolin have all experienced hundreds of battles, and in terms of seniority, Zhang Xueliang, who is still young, is not enough to convince the public, let alone be favored.
Among them, Yang Yuting is especially representative.
It is also worth noting that within the Fengjian at that time, people tacitly assumed that there were two people who were more qualified to take over as the marshal than Zhang Xueliang, one was Yang Yuting and the other was Zhang Zuoxiang.
Zhang Zuoxiang
However, unlike Yang Yuting, Zhang Zuo's relative power ambitions were not so great, and he simply opposed Zhang Xueliang's contact with Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, feeling that Chiang Kai-shek was unreliable.
In addition, Zhang Zuoxiang, as Zhang Zuolin's sworn brother, and Zhang Zuolin had the same brotherhood, and he lacked interest in taking over as Zhang Zuolin's marshal, but resolutely pushed Zhang Xueliang and regarded assisting Zhang Zuoliang as his unfulfilled responsibility.
Arrogant and domineering, Yang Yuting
On the other hand, when Yang Yuting elected the military and political leader of Northeast China after Zhang Zuolin's death, he also personally issued a telegram, saying that he would uphold Zhang Zuolin's legacy, put the overall situation of the three eastern provinces first, and support Zhang Xueliang.
It can be said that he has done enough work on the surface to show that he has no ambition to rebel.
Yang Yuting
But behind the scenes, Yang Yuting continued to elevate himself, "Revealed openly and secretly that only he has the ability to solve many problems." ”
This undoubtedly aroused Zhang Xueliang's disgust.
It is also worth noting that in fact, at the beginning, there were many more people who supported Zhang Zuoxiang to replace Zhang Zuolin than Yang Yuting.
But since Zhang Zuoxiang's attitude was resolutely assisting Zhang Xueliang, those people did not turn to support Zhang Xueliang, but turned to support Yang Yuting.
It can be seen that Yang Yuting is not simple.
In fact, as early as when Zhang Zuolin was still alive, Yang Yuting's eyes, except for Zhang Zuolin and a few old marshals, could not let go of anyone else.
And this has a lot to do with Zhang Zuolin's connivance with him.
Because Yang Yuting can be said to be a wise man around Zhang Zuolin, known as "Little Zhuge ", this person is strategic, shrewd and capable, and at that time, all thorny issues involving Fengjun's negotiations with Japan were all solved by Yang Yuting.
Therefore, Yang Yuting was quite used by Zhang Zuolin, and when Zhang Zuolin was still in office, Yang Yuting held the two positions of General Staff and Inspector of the Arsenal for a long time, and these two positions have never changed hands since he took over.
Therefore, the military and political personnel in the northeast called him "Supervisor Yang".
It is precisely because he has stayed in the supervisor's seat for a long time, Yang Yuting has become more and more unseen, arbitrary and arrogant, and the money of the Northeast Arsenal is like his private treasury, which he always spends whenever he wants.
For this reason, Governor Fengtian even left in anger because he was dissatisfied with Yang Yuting's behavior.
Later, after Zhang Xueliang officially took over as the commander of the security department of the three northeastern provinces, Yang Yuting did not retreat, or it can be said that he did not put Zhang Xueliang in his eyes at all, and often asked the financial department for money in the name of superintendent.
In addition, although Yang Yuting was quite used during Zhang Zuolin's lifetime, he did not really lead soldiers, which was regarded by him as a regret in his life, for this reason, after Zhang Zuolin's death, Yang Yuting was not satisfied with the position of superintendent, and proposed to concurrently serve as the commander of the corps.
It happened that the commander of the fourth army suffered a stroke at that time, and Yang Yuting became the commander of the corps again, wanting to grasp both military and political power.
And Zhang Xueliang saw all this in his eyes, and the disgust and dissatisfaction in his heart deepened day by day, but he had not repaid the revenge of killing his father, considering the overall situation, he has been suppressing his personal feelings and putting aside his personal feelings, according to his father's last words, everything "puts the country first and does a good job."
Yang Yuting
In addition, the people around him kept repeating to him that "Supervisor Yang is the left and right of the marshal", Zhang Xueliang has not taken practical actions to deal with Yang Yuting.
On the contrary, he took the initiative to seek peace, Zhang Xueliang also said to Yang Yuting that he was willing to hand over Fengtian Province to Yang Yuting, but Yang Yuting said very arrogantly: "I can work with your father, but I can't work with you." "Obviously, Zhang Xueliang is not put in his eyes.
In the end, the two broke up unhappily.
However, Zhang Xueliang's efforts are not only here, in order to ease the relationship with Yang Yuting, Zhang Xueliang also often visits Yang Yuting's home and says good things.
As a result, Yang Yuting was even more proud of his achievements when he saw this, and took out the posture of the commander-in-chief of Taishang, and directly called Zhang Xueliang "young man".
Yu Fengzhi, Zhang Xueliang
Later, in order to help Zhang Yang's family reconcile, Zhang Xueliang's wife Yu Fengzhi also sent Lanpu to Yang Yuting's third wife, and Mrs. Yang San also gladly agreed, but a few days later, Lanpu was returned back.
The small house responsible for returning Lanpu to the marshal's mansion said: "Supervisor Yang thinks that they are different in generation and cannot accept it. ”
It can be said that when Zhang Zuolin was alive, Yang Yuting took over the military and political power, and it was very prosperous for a while, and after Zhang Zuolin's death, Yang Yuting did not retreat, but became more unsightly and regarded himself very high.
At that time, all newly appointed county, bureau and above officials, Yang Yuting would come forward to woo and invite him as a guest, and for a while, Yang Mansion could be said to be a city.
In addition, since Zhang Zuolin's death, Yang Yuting has also bought officers with money several times, and these things happened under Zhang Xueliang's nose, or it can be said that Yang Yuting is blatantly underestimating Zhang Xueliang.
As a result, the gap between the two became larger and larger.
The Japanese sow discord
At this time, the Japanese also began to see the stitches and take advantage of the void (looking closely at the whole incident, there are Japanese figures).
Regarding Zhang Zuolin's death and regeneration, the Japanese began to spread rumors that Yang Yuting was responsible for the explosion in Mukden.
Acacia
In addition, the Japanese also engaged in a lot of information about the 20,000 weapons of the Heilongjiang Provincial Security Corps organized by Chang Yinhuai, governor of Heilongjiang Province and chairman of the Northeast Communications Committee (this person has the same personality as Yang Yuting and is also proud), and did not hesitate to ask the arsenal to work overtime, and so on.
All this information finally reached Zhang Xueliang's hands.
At that time, for the sake of national righteousness, since his father's death, Zhang Xueliang had been planning for the "Northeast Yizhi", that is, cooperating with Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing government to merge the two into one and make efforts for national unification.
However, Yang Yuting was resolutely opposed to this, for the same reason as most of the old-school ideas within the Fengjie department at that time, that is, he felt that Chiang Kai-shek was unreliable, and then he did not want to hand over the territory he had worked hard to build, and there was no overall view of national unification in his heart.
And this has also become the fundamental difference between Zhang Xueliang and Yang Yuting, and it cannot be reconciled, and Zhang Xueliang is even more unable to give in this matter.
As a result, Yang Yuting's side also showed a posture of not giving in, and he presided over the construction of a war-ready highway and handed it over to his henchman Chang Yinhuai to be responsible for operation.
When Zhang Xueliang proposed to plan and use the war-ready highway jointly in Nanjing, Yang Yuting resolutely opposed it, and even took all the income from the operation of the highway into his own pocket.
Zhang Xueliang was very dissatisfied with Yang Yuting and Chang Yinhuai at that time, coupled with the Japanese intelligence provocation about Yang Chang and the two, the contradiction was even worse.
A step that must be killed
Then an encrypted emergency telegram was placed in front of Zhang Xueliang, and things began to move towards an irreversible step.
The urgent telegram was sent by Chiang Kai-shek, and Zhang Xueliang learned from the urgent telegram that Bai Chongxi was instigating Yang Yuting to conspire against Zhang.
For this reason, Chiang Kai-shek, who had always hoped to make Zhang Xueliang his northern ally, urged Zhang Xueliang to "strike first and become strong" in an urgent telegram.
Zhang Xueliang was deeply shocked when he read this urgent telegram, and he couldn't help but think that not long ago, when he was brewing the Northeast Yizhi, Bai Chongxi and other forces had sent his cronies to Shenyang to win for the Feng, but they did not go to Zhang Xueliang, but directly boarded the door of Yang's mansion.
Later, Zhang Xueliang saw the cronies representing various forces, and was greatly surprised, and asked, "Why didn't you come to see me?" ”
As a result, the men said, "We've already met Inspector Yang. ”
Zhang Xueliang's face lengthened after hearing this, and he immediately asked Yang Yuting if he had already met with those people?
At that time, Yang Yuting said very reasonably: "We do it separately, you take your central line (contact with Chiang Kai-shek), and I will liaise with the local faction." ”
Thinking of this, Zhang Xueliang couldn't help but feel that everything was very reasonable, it turned out that these people hooked up together in the morning.
Immediately afterwards, not long after, another thing happened that greatly stimulated Zhang Xueliang.
On January 7, 1929, Yang Yuting decided to celebrate his father's birthday in a private house, and his friend persuaded him to return to his hometown to celebrate his birthday, but Yang Yuting did not listen.
He just wanted to take advantage of this birthday banquet to show his status and strength to the outside world, and at the same time demonstrate to Zhang Xueliang.
Sure enough, on the day of the birthday banquet, Yang Yuting put on a banquet, and the lights in front of Yang's mansion were colorful, and there was a lot of traffic.
Chiang Kai-shek, Bai Chongxi, Yan Xishan, powerful people in Guangdong, Sichuan and other places, Japanese dignitaries, and dignitaries from the three northeastern provinces were all invited to attend.
And Zhang Xueliang was naturally also invited, although he was dissatisfied with Yang Yuting, he still went.
As soon as Zhang Xueliang arrived at Yang's mansion that day, Yang's adjutant shouted: "The commander-in-chief has arrived!" ”
However, in the entire living room, only a few people got up to greet them, and most of them were slightly owed, made a appearance, and sat down again, continuing to play cards and chat.
After a while, when the banquet was about to begin, Yang Yuting appeared in the finale, and the adjutant shouted again: "Supervisor Yang has done it!" ”
As a result, this time, the entire living room people all stood up, stopped the movement of their hands, where did they see someone playing cards and chatting, after entering the living room, Yang Yuting enjoyed the crowd of people, and the people around him had a meal, and for a while, these guests were seated one by one.
It can be said that Yang Yuting, who was at the old father's birthday banquet that day, was said to be in the limelight, and although he was a supervisor, he was full of posture as a leader.
During the banquet, some people even complimented Yang Yuting in front of Zhang Xueliang as "a figure that everyone in the northeast hopes for", and Yang Yuting simply did not refute when he heard it, and directly responded triumphantly.
Zhang Xueliang's wife Yu Fengzhi saw this scene, and thought of the rejection of Lanpu before, and her attitude completely changed
Returning to the Shuai Mansion that night, Yu Fengzhi said bluntly to Zhang Xueliang: "Where do you seem to be the master of the Northeast, and he Yang Yuting is the real master of the Northeast!" ”
When Zhang Xueliang heard this, he sat down at the desk and took out a silver dollar from his cloth pocket expressionlessly.
Yu Fengzhi was so angry by the daytime banquet that he poured himself tea and drank it in large gulps, looking at Zhang Xueliang's move, he asked suspiciously: "What are you going to do?" ”
"I will still be three times, if there is a negative side, then count it first, if it is three times positive, then kill."
After speaking, Zhang Xueliang threw the silver dollar in the air and threw it twice in a row, all head-on.
With the silver dollar thrown for the third time, it fell on the table, Zhang Xue also had an answer in his heart, the silver dollar was still positive, it seemed that it had to be killed.
On January 10, 1929, the third day after the birthday banquet, Yang Yuting and Chang Yinhuai went to see Zhang Xueliang together and asked Zhang Xueliang to approve the establishment of the office of the Northeast Railway Administration.
"It's dinner time now, let's make a decision after I've had dinner!" Zhang Xueliang excused dinner as a pretext, and said, "Either the two of you will stay and have dinner together." ”
"No, I'll go back to dinner, and I'll come back after dinner." Yang Yuting didn't know what medicine was sold in Zhang Xueliang's gourd, so he said directly.
Chang Yinhuai naturally followed Yang Yuting to advance and retreat together, and also said that he would come back after the meal.
The two said nothing, turned to leave, completely unaware that Zhang Xueliang behind him, his eyes were no longer the same as when he had just made an excuse for dinner.
Here, as soon as the two left, Zhang Xueliang urgently summoned Police Commissioner Gao Jiyi into the marshal's mansion and directly explained: "Yang Chang and the two have deceived me too much, now, the two are going back for dinner, come in a few moments, I give you an order, immediately execute these two, you lead the guards to execute." ”
When Gao Jiyi heard this, he asked again: "Where is it executed?" ”
Zhang Xueliang said, "It's in the living room of the Tiger Hall." ”
So, after a few moments, Yang Chang and the two had eaten enough, and sure enough, as soon as the two took their seats, Gao Jiyi led 6 guards to break into the door.
Yang Chang and the two were shot in the Tiger Hall just like that.
Later, Zhang Xueliang telegraphed Chiang Kai-shek about the reasons and circumstances for the execution of Yang Chang and his wife, and posted a verdict stating that Yang Chang and his wife were killed on charges of "obstructing reunification and obstructing the New Deal."
Yu Fengzhi talked about the death of Yang Chang and the two, and once said: "This matter was forced. ”
After the death of Yang Chang and the two, Zhang Xueliang's prestige in the northeast was greatly enhanced, there were no more constraints, the people's hearts were unified, and the overall situation in the northeast was determined after Zhang Zuolin's death.
Although many people praised Zhang Xueliang's decisiveness in killing and felling in those years, saying that he "quietly eradicated Yang Chang by lightning speed" and "young marshal" was "powerful" at this point.
However, there are also many people who feel sorry for Zhang Xueliang, thinking that killing Yang Chang and the two is the first step for Zhang Xueliang to destroy the Great Wall, and even the end left to himself and the northeast.
However, history is always unassumable, and neither option can be seen out of the context of the times.
Later, Zhang Xueliang talked about Yang Chang again, and also said: "This is the end of a miserable and regrettable matter. ”