Feng Yuxiang's life is remarkable, and he has participated in major events in the history of the Republic of China. In his later years, in the United States, he made many public speeches denouncing the erroneous policy of the US government to assist Chiang Kai-shek in fighting the civil war. On his way back from returning to China to participate in the construction of New China, Feng Yuxiang died unexpectedly, and the cause of death has been a mystery for decades. "Legendary General Feng Yuxiang" disclosed for the first time the real reason for Feng Yuxiang's death. Feng Yuxiang's daughter-in-law Yu Huaxin uses words to uncover the mystery of Feng Yuxiang's bizarre death.
Silent fire burst forth
On July 31, 1948, Feng Yuxiang's family broke through the siege and persecution of Kuomintang agents, boarded the "Victory" in New York, and prepared to return to the motherland.
During the voyage, Feng Yuxiang half-leaned on the bed and chatted with his two daughters, Xiaoda and Yingda. He said: "My mother and I have been running around for most of my life, and we have not achieved anything or saved any money. In the past, I had a little money and I started a school. In the future, if you want to live well on your own, you must rely on real skills. After all, money is very empty and weak, because it is not a necessary item in itself, and once it cannot be exchanged for something, it is useless. So, Dad always wants you to work harder..." As soon as the words were spoken, Xiaoda, who was the most sensitive to everything, sniffed and asked, "What smell?" "When she looked around, she noticed smoke pouring into the house through the crack in the door." It's on fire! Xiaoda exclaimed, jumped up from the sofa, and was the first to rush out. Yingda followed and ran out.
Xiaoda's panic caused panic. Feng Yuxiang didn't have time to think more, didn't have time to calm down judgment, he jumped out of bed, picked up a small box with him, and instinctively left the room and walked towards the aisle. Mrs. Feng grabbed her husband's coat and followed closely behind. At this time, the aisle was already full of smoke, pitch black, and filled with a heat wave of carbon monoxide.
At the same time, Feng Yuxiang's son Hong Da was also lying in bed, and Feng Yuxiang's secretary, Lai Yali, was packing up his things while telling Hong Da about the various situations he saw in the Soviet Union in 1926. Hunda saw smoke pouring smoke from the ceiling at the top of the form. Secretary Lai Yali pulled Hongda: "Can't get out, jump out of the window!" Hong arrived outside, first tried to save his parents and smashed open the window of Feng Yuxiang's house.
The patriotic general passed away
The cabin was full of smoke, and Hong Da forcibly suffocated and reached out to touch everywhere. He touched someone, and he couldn't see who it was, so he picked it up violently and sent it to the window, smoothing his head out first. "It's Mom! Mom! Lida whimpered and Yuan Zheng pulled her mother out and put her down on the deck.
Hunda struggled and stumbled to pick up the fire extinguisher handed in from the window and knocked open the valve, and a powerful jet of foam erupted. The smoke was slightly dispelled, and he faintly saw his father's huge body lying inward and face down at the entrance.
"Dad..." Hunda pounced, flipped his father over, held his head in one hand, and reached into the crook of his legs with the other, trying to pick him up. But with the last bit of strength in my body, I tried several times without success.
Hunda hugged his father tightly, and he fell on his father's body.
At this moment, four tall Soviet crew members in fire suits rushed into the cabin. With the help of the Soviet crew, Feng Yuxiang was finally rescued and carried to the deck away from the fireworks.
The ship doctor arrived, he squatted down and opened Feng Yuxiang's eyelids to see that his pupils had spread, and he tried his pulse again, but he couldn't find it. General Feng Yuxiang passed away.
The fire was "caused by high explosives"
The truth of General Feng Yuxiang's death has long been a mystery. The most widely circulated theory at that time was that he played a movie in his cabin and accidentally burned the film, causing a fire. As mentioned earlier, this is not the case at all.
In the summer of 1982, Lai Yali and his wife Zhu Hong went to Qingdao to recuperate and met with Hongda.
For the first time, Lai Yali revealed to us such an inside story: after the Black Sea incident, the Soviet side finally had an investigation report that the fire was "caused by high explosives." This statement also coincided with the gray circular mark on Feng Yuxiang's cheek that had never been seen before.
"Why hasn't this investigation report been made public?" Hongda asked. The answer is: "For international and political reasons." ”
"It's not clear who did it. There have been a lot of speculation, such as the ship has been overhauled in the United States, the hull has been painted, has anyone done anything in the middle? And then those thousands of Armenians boarded the ship, were there Kuomintang agents mixed in? It is not good to say whether there are any conspiracies of other political forces. Lai Yali said.
"It's still a mystery!" Hunda sighed.
"Anti-Ge General" Feng Yuxiang
Among the warlords of the Republic of China era, none of them had more names than Feng Yuxiang, known as General Christ, General Cloth, and another named General Anti-Ge.
In 1924, Feng Yuxiang rebelled for the first time in his life, causing an earthquake in the political arena.
Feng Yuxiang came from a poor background, served in Yuan Shikai's army, and was outstanding in diligence and strength. Over the years, he has cultivated a backbone force that is absolutely loyal to him.
"Christ ruling the army" is the most unique way for Feng Yuxiang to unite the hearts of the army. The presence of chaplains in the army is unique in the Chinese army. By 1924, more than half of Feng Yuxiang's more than 30,000 officers and men were religious, of whom 90 percent were baptized.
Feng Yuxiang aspired to be a "clean official" and a "good official", and at every opportunity he practiced "moral governance" in the area under his jurisdiction, set up schools and factories, and immediately began to purify the social environment wherever he went, eliminating social vices such as drug abuse, gambling and prostitution.
In 1922, Feng Yuxiang was already famous throughout the country, but at this time, Feng Yuxiang fell into the dilemma of cooking without rice. Because of his disagreement with Wu Peifu, the head of the line, Feng Yuxiang was removed from his post as an overseer of the South China Sea and returned to Beijing to serve as an army parade envoy.
Feng Yuxiang took 30,000 troops and stationed on the outskirts of Beijing, but the government had no food and salary. In 1923, Feng Yuxiang directly cooperated with the direct leader Cao Kun by demanding food and resignation, and forced President Li Yuanhong away.
Then Cao Kun bribed the president, which was condemned by public opinion, and Feng Yuxiang was also reproached, and he was called "Cao Shi's lackey".
Such strong criticism from public opinion stimulated Feng Yuxiang, who was determined to distance himself from Cao Kun and contacted Sun Yat-sen, saying that he would wait for the opportunity.
In September 1924, Zhang Zuolin marched into Shanhaiguan to intimidate Beijing, and the Cao Kun government issued a crusade against Zhang Zuolin. The Second Zhifeng War broke out.
On the same day, Sun Yat-sen issued the "Northern Expedition Declaration" in Guangzhou to attack Cao Kun and Wu Peifu. Feng Yuxiang was dispatched to fight Zhang Zuolin in the area of Xifengkou. Feng Yuxiang, who had a heavy army, became the target of vigorous struggle for the direct lineage, Feng's lineage, and Sun Yat-sen's factions in the south.
In the end, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin reached a two-point agreement, first, after the completion of the matter, the state affairs were presided over by Sun Yat-sen. Second, the Fengjun army is not allowed to enter the customs.
Feng Yuxiang's army then marched day and night back to Beijing, and in the early morning of October 23, 1924, Beijing citizens found that a large number of Feng Yuxiang's troops wearing white armbands "sworn to death to save the country, truly love the people, and do not disturb the people" were standing guard on the streets, only to learn that an earth-shattering event had occurred, known in history as the "Beijing coup". On November 2 of the same year, President Cao Kun was forced to notify the Senate and House of Representatives of his resignation. The bribed president and government stepped down, and Feng Yuxiang was once again praised by public opinion.
At this time, an important opportunity to practice a democratic republic appeared, but unfortunately it was fleeting. After the coup d'état in Beijing, Cao Kun went to the field. Feng Yuxiang's next move was to expel the last emperor Puyi from the palace.
The "Republic of China Daily" reported on November 6, 1924 that Feng Yuxiang had always hated the feudal imperial system before the Xinhai Revolution, and the Feng forces called for a provisional cabinet meeting, revised the preferential conditions for the Qing Dynasty, decided to expel Puyi from the Forbidden City, and decided that Lu Zhonglin, commander-in-chief of the Beijing Garrison, and others would carry out this task.
On the same day, Lu Zhonglin came to the Forbidden City and ordered Puyi to hand over the jade seal, Puyi hesitated, the chief minister of internal affairs Shaoying was resolutely disagreed, Lu Zhonglin considered that he only brought a few soldiers, and there were still 3,000 Janissaries in the palace, delayed, fearing accidents. So he called the adjutant, took out his pocket watch and said, the time is almost up, don't do it outside, there is still something to say here.
Puyi and Shaoying were shocked, thinking that they had been surrounded by heavy troops, so they agreed to do everything. Pu Yi and the concubines hurriedly packed up, and Lu Zhonglin sent them by car to Pu Yi's father's house, the Alcohol King Mansion in Shichahai. When the news came out, the whole country applauded, and the whole city of Beijing hoisted the national flag on the day after Puyi left the palace to celebrate warmly.
Later, in 1959, after Puyi was amnestied as a war criminal, he met Lu Zhonglin, who had driven him out of the palace during the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, warmly hugged Lu Zhonglin, asked for a group photo, and repeatedly thanked General Feng Yuxiang.
The coup d'état in Beijing in 1924 and Puyi's departure from the palace greatly encouraged Sun Yat-sen, who was seriously ill, and Feng Yuxiang sincerely invited Sun Yat-sen to go north and sent representatives to Guangdong with personal letters to greet him, which also made Sun Yat-sen very happy. He frequently called back to encourage Feng Yuxiang, and on November 10, he issued the "Declaration on Going North", and two days later left Guangdong on the warship Yongfeng to go north. But on the other hand, although the direct Wu Peifu was defeated, but the power remained, he led the remnants of the army to counterattack Beijing, Feng Yuxiang was undecided at this time, he invited Sun Yat-sen to go north, and at the same time invited the leader of the Anhui line, Duan Qirui, to come out of the mountains and beat Wu Peifu away.
The Feng-affiliated warlord Zhang Zuolin reneged on the agreement that the Fengjun army would not enter the customs, marched into Beijing in a big way, and planned with Duan Qirui in a secret room to put pressure on Feng Yuxiang.
Feng Yuxiang eventually abandoned Sun Yat-sen and joined forces with Zhang Zuolin to support Duan, and on November 14, Duan Qirui was sworn in as provisional ruler, and on December 31, when Sun Yat-sen arrived in Beijing with fervent hope, Feng Yuxiang had already gone to Zhangjiakou to take up the post of "Northern Border Supervisor".