In October 1883, a boy was born in a small landlord's family in Hebian Village, Wutai County, Shanxi, and the child's family was immersed in the joy of inheriting the son, and no one would have thought that the baby in his arms would become the actual controller of the land in Shanxi after 28 years. How did he gradually grow from a child in a small landlord's family to a "earth emperor"? How did he stay still on the throne of the "King of Shanxi" in an era of turbulent ups and downs and frequent changes of political power?
Yan Xishan
If you are interested in this topic, please help "press the 2-second like button" to give a strong thumbs up. And "pay attention" to it, often come later, and don't get lost.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > abandoned business and joined the army and changed his life trajectory</h1>
Yan Xishan's birth is not prominent, neither a family family, nor a merchant or a rich merchant, the family is a small land and a small business of the lord of the field, compared to the peasants do not worry about food and clothing, never worry about livelihood. In the eyes of Yan Xishan's father, the requirements for his son are nothing more than the son inheriting his father's business and being a rich farmer, and Yan Xishan in the early days may also think so, but the torrent of the times continues to move forward, and finally pushes him into the opposite trajectory of life.
Throughout the decades that Yan Xishan ruled Shanxi, the land of China was devastated, and there were constant conquests in various places, you sang it, our side appeared, the people everywhere did not talk about life, and there were only a few ordinary people who ate enough food. On the other hand, although Shanxi has not been prosperous, nor as rich as the south, it has maintained a rather enviable calm in that environment, the people live well, Yan Xishan has money, power and soldiers, how did he do it?
Yan Xishan dropped out of school at the age of 14 to follow his father in business, and the father and son went astray and made a living by lending money and collecting interest. At the age of 17, due to the failure of speculation, he owed a lot of money, and had to hide in the provincial capital Taiyuan, that is, during this period, his thinking began to change, and there were risks in doing business, and his father's efforts for decades were all in vain overnight, which showed that his own way of doing business was not a long-term solution, the warlords at that time already had great power, and the ideas related to "democracy" after the change of the law have never really been broken, under the conflict between the old and the new, it is necessary to find a more stable way to survive, and joining the army may be the best choice. You can settle down, you can attack and retreat, as long as you don't stand in the wrong team, there will not be too much risk.
In 1902, at the age of 19, Yan Xishan was admitted to the Shanxi Wubei School, and the next year he was sent to study at the Military School in Japan, where he was further exposed to the democratic trend of thought during his study in Japan, joined the League, and had contact with Dr. Sun Yat-sen. During this period, he signed a strategic decision with the League, and began to step into the military and political arena.
In 1909, Yan Xishan returned to China, this year he was 26 years old, had become the main member of the league in the local area, after returning to his hometown, he actively drilled camp, in just a few months he became the colonel of the Shanxi New Army, taking the leadership of the new army in his own hands, while preparing to participate in the important actions to be launched by the league.
When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911, the Qing government was instantly overthrown by this democratic trend, and activities to overthrow the rule of the feudal government began all over the country. According to the pre-agreed plan, Yan Xishan led the other alliance fighters to rise up, directly led the rebel army to attack the city of Taiyuan, killed the former Qing government's inspectors, and established a more democratic military government, and then Yan Xishan, with the support of the rebel members, became the governor of Shanxi and took control of most of Shanxi.
The Taiyuan Uprising was the highlight of Yan Xishan's life, and even mr. Sun Yat-sen, president of the Republic of China, affirmed Yan Xishan's merits when he came to Shanxi to inspect, if he had not cut off the north-south transportation hub in the uprising, the Qing government army would not have been able to reach, and perhaps the uprisings everywhere would not have been so smooth. Yan Xishan soon faced his first important choice after entering the military and political circles.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > from passive choice to out of his own path, what did Yan Xishan experience? </h1>
From the perspective of modern history, from the period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the years of the War of Liberation, although Yan Xishan has always occupied an important position, as a former warlord, he always gave people a feeling of being out of place in the ranks of the Kuomintang. Unlike when we later saw that he only knew how to earn money and control power, and his face was full of old scheming, the early Yan Xishan also had a bloody period of southern conquest and northern warfare.
(Yuan Shikai)
In 1912, the revolutionary situation was faced with a certain crisis under the interference of military power, Yuan Shikai, as the aggregator of military power at that time, had long been eyeing the post of great president, and after Sun Yat-sen resigned, Yuan Shikai immediately took over the baton and sat on the throne of the supreme ruler of the new government.
Few people know that Yuan Shikai was emperor for less than 100 days, and during the restoration of the feudal imperial system, he had the credit of Yan Xishan. However, in the final analysis, he just wanted to rule Shanxi more justifiably and concentrate the power in his hands, so he did not hesitate to betray the revolution and his original beliefs, and instead threw himself into yuan shikai's door, who had once had a grudge with him.
In order to gain Yuan Shikai's trust and support, Yan Xishan sent his father to Beijing as a hostage. At the same time, he had not completely cut off the alliance and bet on both sides of the wall to consolidate his position in Shanxi, so as to gain an advantage between the old and new forces. It has to be said that Yan Xishan's behavior pleased Yuan Shikai to a certain extent, and after he became president, he explicitly and secretly banned the democratic regime of the former Alliance, but left Yan Xishan's Shanxi regime, which shows that Yan Xishan has made the final choice at this time.
After the failure of the second revolution in 1913, Yuan Shikai ordered the dissolution of the Kuomintang, and Yan Xishan was almost the first person to respond, not only disbanding the revolutionary Kuomintang throughout Shanxi, but also officially announcing that he had broken away from the Kuomintang, a move that once again pleased Yuan Shikai and made Yan Xishan's position in Shanxi more stable. This year, Yan Xishan was not standing, and he had been in power in Shanxi for two years.
In order to further consolidate his position in Shanxi, Yan Xishan learned that Yuan Shikai wanted to be emperor, called The Beiping side three times to express loyalty and support, and also petitioned in the name of the people of Shanxi, hoping that Yuan Shikai would soon ascend the throne and become emperor. Yuan Shikai finally made up his mind to restore the imperial system and make Yan Xishan a first-class marquis.
This perverse farce soon aroused the opposition of the people of the whole country, and for a time the flames of opposition to Yuan Shikai burned all over the country, and warlords in various places once again rose up and raised the banner of revenge against Yuan Shikai. Yan Xishan made a wrong bet, and within a few months, the dream was in vain, Yuan Shikai cried out for his life in fear, and Yan Xishan lost his patron.
This time, without hesitation, he made the choice, returned to the Kuomintang camp again, and explained his behavior as being in the heart of the enemy camp and in Han, and moving closer to Yuan Shikai was only to maximize the preservation of the revolutionary forces in the north. It is difficult for others to say whether they believe it or not, but the Kuomintang and others can only believe his set of statements, Yan Xishan's power in the north and Shanxi has been basically stabilized, forcing his dog to jump the wall, what reason and strength does the Nationalist government have to use this scattered sand to shock Yan Xishan?
In the following years, Yan Xishan formulated various systems in Shanxi to strengthen his rule over the people, and externally he continued to bet and follow the trend of investment, supporting that and crusading against that, and continued to be active in the military and political fields. During this period, he also made another wrong bet in the Dharma Protection Movement, and after suffering losses, Yan Xishan finally learned a lesson, thought bitterly, decided to isolate Shanxi to a certain extent, and he no longer arbitrarily took sides, and played the sign of "three noes and two doctrines," that is, the famous principle of "not joining the party, not asking questions about provincial affairs, not using soldiers for personal rights, obeying the orders of the central authorities, and defending local public orders." In layman's terms, it is for the sake of protecting the border and the people, Shanxi does not easily participate in the standing line, and whoever is in power will follow whomever is stronger, and whoever is stronger will listen to whom.
Yan Xishan's policy instantly solved his own dilemma, turned passive into active, he did not take sides, and others should not come to win him over. In the land of Shanxi, he is the "emperor", and what he has to do is to maintain public order in Shanxi as much as possible, protect the rights and interests of Shanxi, and by the way, he can fish for benefits and concentrate on making money.
In the more than 30 years that he has been the "King of the Northwest", both Shanxi and himself have revealed an untimely tranquil nature, as if isolating the earthly world. But in fact, Yan Xishan is not really out of the dust, but has been secretly observing, expanding the army, expanding finances, manufacturing weapons and armaments, further arming Shanxi into a "small kingdom", and quietly expanding his sphere of influence when others can't take care of him. By the 1930s, Yan Xishan had gained de facto control of the four provinces of Jin, Ji, And Chasui, and even Beiping and Tianjin were gradually falling under his control.
In the contemporary workplace, there is such an unspoken rule, how can you be considered to be doing a good job in a position? It is not how much technology you have, nor how many rights you have, but to be irreplaceable in a certain position, to make others feel that anyone in this position is not as good as you, this is the success of the workplace.
For Yan Xishan, he had done this, even if he had been lonely and ups and downs later, but at this time, Shanxi was firmly tied to him, and he had already done irreplaceable in this land. After the "918 Incident", Yan Xishan, who had briefly been dormant in Dalian, returned to Shanxi again and continued his previous career, but now there is not much to do, as long as it is maintained.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, Yan Xishan, who was strong and strong, had always been firmly attached to the Kuomintang, participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and maintained a tacit understanding with the Japanese and the Japanese. Participating in the encirclement and suppression of the Communist People's Liberation Army, and finally unpopularly, he took the "kingdom" he had operated for decades into it, and on April 24, 1949, the People's Liberation Army conquered Taiyuan, and Yan Xishan's 38-year regime ended. Yan Xishan died in Taipei in 1960 at the age of 77, ending his ups and downs.
Yan Xishan, as a member of the early Alliance, witnessed the whole period of China's transition from feudalism to democracy and republicanism, some people evaluated him as a villain at both ends of the rat, and some people said that he was the representative of the slippery hand of that era, no matter who he was, after all, he protected one side of the water and soil and the other side of the people in this land of Shanxi, as for his personality and deeds, it is left to posterity to evaluate.