In September 1932, the Japanese army had already invaded the northeast and flaunted its might in the northeast, and many foreign businessmen with good connections took the opportunity to do business in the northeast and made a fortune.
Amazing kidnapping
There is such a foreign company in Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, which is run by the British, and they are the only ones who bully others on weekdays, and no one dares to make trouble in their shop. But on this day, the foreign bank suddenly received a letter, and the person who wrote the letter called himself "Old North Wind", a big local bandit.
Lao Beifeng wrote to the British this time to open a foreign company, just to inform them of one thing, he kidnapped two Britons, one is the son of the owner of the oil tank company, and the other is the daughter of the doctor of Puji Hospital. After the news that the two were kidnapped by the Northeast bandit Lao Beifeng, the British immediately felt extremely humiliated and angry.
They are used to running rampant in the Northeast, and they have never suffered such anger. When the British top brass learned of this, they immediately sent people to put pressure on the Japanese troops invading China, forcing them to immediately and properly handle the matter, eliminate the bandit Lao Beifeng, and rescue the two British who were kidnapped. In order to make the Japanese army pay attention to this matter, the British even did not hesitate to unite the British in more than 100 cities to put pressure on Japan, and sent three cruisers to Yingkou Port.
Their intentions were obvious, if the Japanese could not properly handle the matter, the British would take matters into their own hands, and then the British and Japanese would clash with the Japanese army, and the matter would definitely be a big problem. At that time, the Japanese invasion of China had a very big plan, so they naturally did not want to let the British intervene at this time, so they sent people to participate in this matter.
Lao Beifeng wrote very clearly in his letter to the British that there is no ransom for this kidnapping, as long as weapons and supplies, as long as the British send a thousand rifles and ammunition, the hostages will naturally be released. Obviously, the British did not intend to suffer this grievance, so they forced the Japanese to send troops to deal with the matter.
But the British had long expected what the British were doing, so he attached a condition to the letter, if the British dared to let the Japanese army send troops to rob people, he would immediately tear up the ticket. It was precisely because of this request that the Japanese army was in a dilemma, and finally had to send a representative to meet Lao Beifeng, hoping to resolve the matter through negotiations.
Before the negotiations, the Japanese representatives made a plan to absorb Lao Beifeng, so that they could not only solve the trouble of the British, but also solve one of their own troubles, because the number of bandits under Lao Beifeng's command was as high as several thousand, and they had always insisted on resisting Japan, which caused a lot of trouble to the Japanese army.
But what they didn't expect was that after the Japanese representative expressed his thoughts, he was immediately rejected by Lao Beifeng. Lao Beifeng told the Japanese representatives that if the Japanese army wanted to redeem the hostages without giving them guns and ammunition, he would not want money or official positions, as long as the Japanese army got out of the northeast.
Naturally, the Japanese representative could not accept such conditions, and he rebuked Lao Beifeng in a condescending tone, and was unceremoniously beaten by Lao Beifeng and kicked out of the cottage. The Japanese delegates were so humiliated that the Japanese troops were very annoyed, but they did not dare to send troops to attack. But according to the old Beifeng's request to give guns and ammunition, the old Beifeng will use these guns and ammunition to fight the Japanese army, isn't this digging his own grave? Hence the dilemma.
What is strange is that although there are many troops of the old North Wind, the weapons and equipment and strength of the Kwantung Army are definitely superior. Moreover, although the two British hostages were important, they would not completely restrict the movement of the Japanese army, so why was the Japanese army so afraid of the old north wind? The main reason is that Lao Beifeng is really amazing, even the Japanese army has suffered a lot of losses from him.
Old North Wind
Lao Beifeng's original name was Zhang Haitian, a native of Panshan, Liaoning. As for why he was later called the title "Old North Wind", there are two mainstream theories, one is that he is thin but agile, and he is like a gust of wind when fighting the enemy. There is also a theory that after the Japanese army invaded China, Zhang Haitian learned that the commander of the Japanese Kwantung Army was called Honjo Shigeru, so he reported the name "Old North Wind", which was taken from the meaning of "North Wind" in mahjong to restrain "Honjo", and also showed his determination to resist Japan.
After the 918 Incident, there was a big traitor in the Northeast named Ling Yinqing. This person lived in Japan for a few years in his early years, and he respected Japanese thought very much, and after returning to China, he willingly acted as a pawn of the Japanese invaders and harmed his hometown. Although the weapons and equipment of the Japanese army invading China are good and there are many troops, they are still slightly insufficient compared to such a large area as the northeast.
Therefore, the Japanese invaders actively bribed traitors and lackeys, and were eager to expand the strength of the Japanese puppet army in order to better invade the northeast. Although Lao Beifeng's troops were not many at that time, after the Japanese army invaded China, he resolutely changed from the bandit team to the anti-Japanese team, and also used his influence to pull several bandits together, so that the anti-Japanese force reached more than 2,000 people, and the Japanese army was miserable.
The biggest idea of the Japanese army at that time was to be able to co-opt this bandit, because many bandits were mercenary people who burned, killed and looted, and often the Japanese army promised that high-ranking officials would easily buy the bandits to sell their lives, so the Japanese invaders were very confident in this matter, and asked the traitor Ling Yinqing, who had just returned to China, to negotiate.
Ling Yinqing had just returned to China and was thinking about how to "make meritorious contributions", and this opportunity fell on his head, which made him extremely happy. Ling Yinqing quickly found Lao Beifeng and said his thoughts to his face, hoping that Lao Beifeng could take his brothers to join the Japanese army and follow him to enjoy glory and wealth.
Since Lao Beifeng had always insisted on resisting Japan before, it would obviously not be too easy to persuade him to defect to the Japanese army at this time, which made Ling Yinqing mentally prepared for the failure of the negotiations. But to Ling Yinqing's surprise, Lao Beifeng not only did not embarrass him, but happily agreed to the incorporation, claiming that he had already had enough hard life and wanted to take his brothers to join the Japanese army to enjoy happiness, and even handed over the roster and weapon statistics table to Ling Yinqing.
This situation made Ling Yinqing overjoyed, and went to the Japanese army to report the good news with a smile, and in order to show that he had made up some plots to prove how hard he had worked to successfully integrate Lao Beifeng's team. Because Ling Yinqing's move happened to help cover up the suspicion that Lao Beifeng suddenly chose to surrender, which made the integration very smooth.
But what Ling Yinqing didn't know was that before he came into contact with Lao Beifeng, Liaoning Provincial Police Commissioner Huang Xiansheng got the news in advance and secretly contacted Lao Beifeng, hoping that he could make the right choice in front of personal interests and national gains and losses, and put forward the idea of letting Lao Beifeng pretend to accept change, which was recognized by Lao Beifeng.
In the early morning of November 3, 1931, Lao Beifeng, who had already mingled with the traitor Ling Yinqing, suddenly got up to gather the team under the cover of night, and led his troops into the Japanese garrison overnight. The Japanese army did not defend against the old north wind, and the traitor Ling Yinqing was even more encouraged, until the moment before he was pulled out of bed by the old north wind, he was still smoking a big cigarette.
Lao Beifeng sent people to collect important materials such as weapons and ammunition, and at the same time sent people to prepare for the public trial. Because this operation not only arrested the traitor Ling Yinqing, but also arrested 13 Japanese advisers. Five days later, Ling Yinqing and 13 Japanese advisers, as well as more than 50 heinous puppet soldiers, were all shot in a public trial, which made Lao Beifeng's name famous.
The last unwillingness
Lao Beifeng was praised as an "anti-Japanese hero" by the people, and was awarded 50,000 oceans by Zhang Xueliang, and was appointed as the commander of the 2nd Route Army of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army. As much as the old north wind was supported by the people, how much was hated by the Japanese invaders, but in the following year, the old north wind's troops really swept through the Japanese strongholds like a whirlwind, and frequently won victories in battles with the Japanese invaders.
In 1932, the Japanese army learned that Lao Beifeng had kidnapped the British, and naturally believed that they dared to tear up the ticket, because the threat of the Japanese army had no effect on Lao Beifeng at all, so they thought of using negotiations to win over Lao Beifeng. What the Japanese invaders didn't expect was that the representatives sent were beaten up and driven out, but they still didn't dare to send troops to fight Lao Beifeng.
The Japanese army was not all afraid of offending the British, mainly because they had fought with the old north wind before, and they won less and lost more. After thinking about it, the Japanese chief still didn't dare to send troops to attack Lao Beifeng, so he reluctantly ordered: "Do as he says."
In the end, Lao Beifeng got his weapons and ammunition as he wished, and further expanded the anti-Japanese armed forces. He used these weapons to continue to fight against the Japanese invaders, and the Japanese invaders frequently failed, and he gritted his teeth with hatred for the old north wind. However, due to the very difficult anti-Japanese environment at that time, although Lao Beifeng was able to win the battle, his body was also injured and weakened during the battle, and later he had to leave the army to go to Beiping to recuperate.
Even so, before leaving, Lao Beifeng specially called his son and told him earnestly: "You swear to me that you must fight the Japanese invaders to the end!" Seeing that his son swore according to his own will, he went to Beiping unwillingly. Later, Lao Beifeng did not come back to resist the Japanese and died of illness in Beiping.