After the War to Protect the Motherland, due to Tang Jiyao's repeated use of troops, the peasants went bankrupt, industry and commerce withered, and the grass fell into the mountains to become bandits almost all over Yunnan. In western Yunnan alone, there were more than a dozen bandits of all sizes, including Zhang Zhanbiao (nicknamed Zhang Jieba) in Dali, Dengchuan, and Eryuan, Zhang Liang in Fengyi, Weishan, and Yangbi, Chen Daguan in Yongbei and Huaping, and Li Jichuan in Chuxiong and Yao'an. Some of these bandits accepted Zhao'an and stepped onto the political stage of history. Some are like Zhang stammering, suspicious by nature, free and unwilling to be restrained, and always act as bandits to endanger the people.
Evade encirclement and slaughter of Eryuan
In July 1925, the defender of Dali sent troops to Li Xuanting (a general of the Yunnan Army, a native of Maguan County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan) to surround and suppress Zhang Jieba, who occupied Eryuan. Zhang stammered not wanting to sit still, nor was he willing to bear Eryuan's money, and after careful consideration, he decided to adopt a scorched earth strategy, scavenging Eryuan's money and property, and then burning it to ruins, leaving it to a useless empty city in the official palace.
During this time, Eryuan was like hell. When the bandits encountered a slight resistance, they did not hesitate to kill them on the spot, and even as many as dozens of people were eaten by the heart. After a period of burning and looting, Zhang stammered and drove the remaining people out of the city, continuing to loot along the way. In the end, all the hostages were imprisoned in the bandits' four old lairs, namely Qingshuihe, Malutang, Huangdian Dam, and Huangzhushan. When they kidnapped these people up the mountain, the bandits feared that they would run away on the road, so they tied them up with ropes and rattan and drove them away. Those strong young men also carried the belongings stolen by the bandits. Old people and children were threaded with twine through their ears, in groups of ten, most of whom fell and trampled to death along the way, or bandits disliked their slowness and were shot on the spot.
Eryuan Niu Street
Purgatory on Earth is hard to read
After returning to the lair with these hostages, Zhang stammered and immediately announced three mountain rules: "First, send Maozi to the party (Maozi refers to the hostage, and the sending party refers to the hostage's family sending money and goods to ransom the person); 2. Take the lamp of the rich mother by yourself (referring to the woman and woman); 3. Discretionary (killing) Maozi". In addition, he personally demonstrated to the bandits and made new tricks on the hostages. He ordered the bandits to tie an old hunter, a young regimental soldier, and a beautiful girl to a tree. Zhang stammered first and asked the old hunter why he resisted, and the old hunter asked him why he robbed his prey. Zhang stammered seeing that the old man dared to question himself, took the old man's hunting arrow through his chest, and suddenly bled like a blood, and was killed on the spot.
Then he shouted and asked the regiment how many bandits he had killed. The regimental soldiers quickly begged for mercy, arguing that they had not killed the bandits. Zhang stammered at all to listen to him, raised his knife and fell, and cut off the head of the regiment soldier in one fell swoop.
Finally, he came to the girl and asked her if she would like to be his little wife. When the girl heard this, she cursed and spat on him. Zhang stammered into anger, cut off the girl's nose, and then stabbed the girl twice in both arms, and the girl was in unbearable pain and passed out. Since then, the bandits have begun to frantically torture hostages and extort money, and their cruel methods are unheard of, and they are miserable.
During the Beiyang period, the warlord "King of the Southwest" Tang Jiyaorong pretended to be photographed
At this time, the bandits did not care about the life or death of the hostages. Some of the hungry hostages had the courage to beg the bandits for food, drink, and fire. So Zhang stammered and ordered the people to carry three large cauldrons full of meat and oil, light a fire underneath, and then tie the hostages to stakes around the oil pot. The hungry hostages rushed to grab meat to eat, while the bandits took advantage of the situation to press their heads into the pot and burn them alive. Then, in the name of heating, the bandits tied more than fifty people into a circle, and set fire on all sides. After a while, the hostages were roasted and screamed. The bandits on the side laughed. After that, the dead and half-dead were thrown into the fire and burned to ashes. More than twenty hostages demanded courtesy, and Zhang stammered and ordered the bandits to dig their anuses open with sharp knives, pull out the head of the large intestine, tie it to the bent treetops, and then as soon as they let go, the human intestines hung on the straight treetops in strings with the elasticity of the branches, and the hostages lost their breath in a scream. What is even more heinous is that they peeled more than 200 human skins alive from hostages, made belts and human skin drums, and picked out the hearts and eyes of living people for barbecue and ate them.
Later, the bandits became addicted to killing, and even the hostages who paid the ransom could not escape the doom. A chief surnamed Li, entrusted by the villagers, came to the bandits' nest to ransom people with the money and grain that he had not easily scraped together. The bandits said not enough and hung him overnight. The next day, he was sent back to the village, and when he parted, the bandit asked: "Was last night's fried liver delicious?" Li Jiachang said, "It's delicious." The bandit then said, "That's the heart and liver of three people in the meat ticket you want to redeem." After hearing this, Commander A's soul flew away, he vomited blood, and was scared to death.
There was a village that was too poor to scrape together the ransom demanded by the bandits, so they had no choice but to elect an old man to go to Qingshuihe to pray for release. How could Zhang stammer, and immediately let the entire 26 hostages in the village, including the old man who interced, be killed one by one with a knife through the skull.
There was also an old man who went to deliver money for ransom according to the bandits' request, but because of the rough mountain road and inconvenient legs and feet, he arrived at the bandit's nest half a day late. After the bandits accepted the ransom, they took the old man to a pile of dead bodies, from which the old man took out the body of his son, who was still warm, and his heart ached so much that he fell next to his son and died of anger.
The list goes on. The women who were plundered to the mountains were subjected to horrific humiliation and cruelty. In Qingshuihe, bandits pulled out more than two dozen women who were desperate and gang-raped them in front of their relatives. In Malutang, dozens of girls whose families could not afford to pay the ransom were stripped naked, their hands and feet were tied to stakes, and bandits took turns to vent their bestial desires. In Chunzhushan, more than 30 women were abused and gang-raped. Most of these unredeemed women, except for those who were taken as wives by bandits, were gang-raped by bandits, and one by one they sat on sharpened tree stumps and bamboo, resulting in their bodies being pierced and screaming to death.
Escaped the encirclement and suppressed the vitality was greatly damaged
The brutality of Zhang stammering this gang of bandits is indescribable, like the evil ghost Yan Luo, no matter whose children in the local family cry, just listen to the adults say: "Zhang stammering is here." The child immediately did not dare to cry and hid in the arms of adults.
Some dignitaries and landlord gentry in western Yunnan were even more afraid of this group of murderous demon kings, and they wrote to Tang Jiyao, the overseer of Yunnan, demanding that troops be sent immediately to suppress them. At this time, Tang Jiyao had just relied on the help of bandit forces to defeat Gu Pinzhen and return to power in Yunnan, so he was very kind to the bandit team, and Wu Xuexian, the bandit leader in southern Yunnan, was appointed as the commander of the Yuanwu River Defense because of his meritorious killing of Gu Pinzhen. Many bandit teams were also transferred to Kunming, becoming "recruiting security troops" who obeyed and did not obey the tune. However, in view of the widespread grievances in western Yunnan, Tang Jiyao had no choice but to call the Dali Bandit Suppression Headquarters at the end of 1925 and ordered Shi Hua to lead an independent battalion to western Yunnan to specifically suppress Zhang Stammering.
Wu Xuexian, a famous bandit in Yunnan. He was later killed by Long Yun Design.
Zhang stammered when he heard that the officers and soldiers were coming to suppress him, so he repeated his skills, first dividing a group of bandits to Shaxi, threatening to destroy Shaxi and capture Heqing, in an attempt to transfer the independent battalion, while he led the main force to hide in Xishan and wait for the opportunity. But Zhang stammered and miscalculated, and when he led the bandits south, he was bumping into the muzzle of the independent battalion, and the two sides fought fiercely. The soldiers of the independent battalion were fierce and fought viciously for half a day, defeating the rabble Zhang bandits. In this battle, the independent battalion captured 160 guns, 200 silver dollars, tobacco soil, etc., and killed 145 bandits. Yang Laoman, the head of the four kings, was also killed, and his head was hung in Fengxiang Town for public display.
Having eaten the defeat, Zhang stammered and fled lifelessly. A few days later, he gathered the remnants of the bandits and ran to Shaxixi to prepare to rob Lajijing. Lajijing is a mine salt production farm, and in the nearby area is considered to be a relatively wealthy area, there is a squadron of well-armed and well-trained in the mine area. They learned in advance that Zhang had stammered and fled here, so they were ready to attack. In order to avoid being attacked by bandits, they laid an ambush in advance and took the initiative to lure Zhang Stammering to attack. Zhang stammered and lost the battle again, fleeing back into the mountains.
The Bingyin Incident agreed to recruit An
Because Tang Jiyao planted cronies everywhere, it caused dissatisfaction among the local powerful factions in Yunnan. In order to confront Tang Jiyao, Luo Shuchang, former deputy envoy of the Li (Jiang) Wei (West) Town Guard of Dali Town and commander of the 13th Regiment, recruited bandits by forcibly merging the militia, and greatly expanded his power to form the "Xianxi Security Army". In May 1926, he raised the banner of opposition to Governor Tang Jiyao in Yongbei and Huaping (known in history as the "Bingyin Incident"). The western security forces attacked from the east, west and south. The West Road, led by Fan Guangzu, led four brigades including Chen Daguan and Song Jinrong, went south through Heqing and went straight to Deng Chuan. Luo Shuchang had previously planned to recruit An Zhang to stutter, but Zhang had never said no. When Chen Daguan captured Deng Chuan, Luo came to recruit An Zhang and stammered, and promised to entrust him with important posts in the brigade after capturing Dali. Zhang stammered in agreement, but he never went down the mountain, ready to see the wind make the rudder.
During this period, Fan Guangzu led his army to storm Shangguan, and the defenders were only Shihua's independent battalion, and their strength was stretched thin and gradually unable to support. Zhang stammered and scattered one of Shi Hua's companies to block him, and then took advantage of the victory to attack the independent battalion, and Shi Hua, who was suffering from the enemy, had to retreat. Luo Jun then captured Shangguan, and then Zhang stammered and followed Luo Jun to Xizhou, attacked it and grabbed it wildly, and then retreated to Nanzhong to rest. At this time, Fan Guangzu's advance squadron also came to Nanzhong and stood by near Zhang's station.
Luo Shuchang (1893~1945), character and literary image, from Hexi County, Yunnan
Before attacking Yucheng, Luo Shuchang decided to send Qiu Huicai, the leader of the advance squadron, to negotiate the recruitment of security, but Zhang stammered and never expected that he had kidnapped Qiu Huicai's father that year, and after getting the ransom, he still killed people and threw his corpse into the wilderness. At this time, Qiu Huicai was close to Zhang Stammer, and the revenge of killing his father made him sit still, and it happened that Luo Shuchang came to order him to talk with Zhang Stammer. Qiu Huicai suppressed the fire in his heart, thought about it again, and decided to meet with him, and then he would see the opportunity to act. Zhang stammered and received an invitation to talk with Luo Shuchang, and he did not put the advance squadron in his eyes at all, let alone know that he was the other party's father-killing enemy, so he agreed to talk, but proposed to only talk with the leader of the advance squadron for an hour, and idle people were not allowed to be present.
Pretend to be dead and alive to escape
On the day of the negotiation, after Qiu Huicai entered the house alone, he smiled slightly, said hello to Zhang Stutter, and suddenly pulled out his pistol and fired a few bullets. I saw Zhang stammering and falling to the ground. The surrounding bandits and Qiu Huicai's entourage officers and soldiers heard the gunshots and did not know what happened. Qiu Huicai thought that Zhang Stammering had been killed by himself and had a great revenge, so he calmly shouted at the bandits outside the door: "Don't be afraid, it's the gun that went off!" Hurt your boss, can't help it! After saying that, Qiu Huicai swaggered out, closed the door, and quickly returned to his defense with the guards.
The bandits outside the door didn't know what was going on at first, but after Qiu Hui left, he quickly pushed the door and went in to see it, Zhang stammered and fell to the ground, and suddenly made a mess. Hearing the bandit's exclamation, Zhang stammered and climbed up, it turned out that Zhang stammered to death. He was cautious and cunning by nature, and Qiu Huicai was discovered by him as soon as he pulled out the gun, knowing that it was too late to fight back, so he immediately fell to the ground and pretended to die with the sound of the gunshot, but fortunately, only the left arm was grazed by the bullet and a few pieces of skin, and the injury was not serious.
After Zhang stammered and got up, he immediately commanded the bandits to flee in the direction of the Barren Dam. This time he was shot in black, he didn't know that it was the bane he planted, and thought that Luo Shuchang set out to get rid of him in the name of Zhao'an, so he gave up the idea of Zhao'an and went back to the mountains to become a bandit.
(To be continued)
Quoted from sources
"The Evil Bandit of Western Yunnan "Zhang Stutters""
"Zhang Stuttering Down Record"
"Bandits in Western Yunnan - Zhang Stutter's Jianghu Road"
"The Mystery of the World's No. 1 Bandit Zhang Stuttering Huge Treasure"
"Republic of China Yunnan Yunnan Western Bandit Gang"
"Ninglang Timeline - The Period of the Republic of China"
"Yunnan Bandits in the Republic of China"
"The "26" coup and the end of Tang Jiyao's rule in Yunnan"
"Warlords of the Republic of China - The Legend of the Dian Lineage"
"The Secret of Old Chinese Bandits"
"Opposition to Tang Jiyao's "Bingyin Incident" in Western Yunnan", Zhongshan Wind and Rain, Issue 05, 2002