At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the whole country was in chaos, after which Yuan Xiangcheng came to power, the Beiyang government was established, and the chaotic history of Beiyang also began to appear in Chinese history.
In history, there have been chaos at the time of the change of dynasties, and some historical figures have appeared in the chaos. Some people were scolded by posterity, some were praised by posterity, and some were very controversial. Therefore, chaos is not a bad thing, but may herald the birth of new things.
There is a figure in Beiyang that has become the most commented on in recent years, and this person is Xu Shuzheng, who I also wrote about in the past two years. The reason why Xu Shuzheng is revisited today is mainly from the perspective of Xu Shuzheng, a historical figure, to see the personal grievances of the Beiyang period.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="33" >1, a main line</h1>
Combing through Xu Shuzheng, in my opinion, he is a very loyal person, loyal to one person all his life, this person is Duan Qirui.
Xu Shuzheng was born in Xiao County, Jiangsu Province at that time, and now belongs to Anhui Province. Xu Shuzheng's family is also a family of readers, and his mother also claims to be a descendant of Yue Fei, but I don't know if it is true or not. Xu Shuzheng decided to join the army after failing the township test. But it was opposed by parents. Xu Shuzheng is very sharp, and his parents decided to let him get married and start a family quickly, so he would not think wildly. But after starting a family, Xu Shuzheng still wanted to join the army, and eventually his parents agreed.
In 1901, Xu Shuzheng went to Jinan, Shandong Province, to join Yuan Xiangcheng, the governor of Shandong at the time, and wrote a long letter to show Yuan Xiangcheng his concept of governing the country. However, yuan did not have time to see him because he went home for funerals, so he arranged for Zhu Zhongqi to receive Xu Shuzheng.
But I didn't expect that Xu Shuzheng and Zhu Zhongqi, who is known as a celebrity, did not speculate, and neither of them looked down on anyone. Xu Shuzheng failed to throw yuan.
Xu Shuzheng was not reconciled, so he settled down in Jinan. One day he was writing About Lian when he met Duan Qirui, who was visiting. Duan also had no intention of going to this small inn. He saw that Xu Shuzheng's writing was very beautiful, and he thought that he was not an idle person. Duan Qirui also needed talent at this time, so he chatted with Xu Shuzheng for a while, and after knowing his situation, asked Xu Shuzheng if he would like to follow him, Xu Shuzheng was not humble to such a big person as Duan Qirui, and did not agree at that time. But later, at the invitation of Duan Qirui, Xu Shuzheng began to follow Duan Qirui's career.
After that, Duan Qirui sent Xu Shuzheng to Japan to study military affairs, and Xu Shuzheng became the most important military general under Duan Qirui after graduating from the Japanese non-commissioned officer school. In 1912, Duan Qirui became the chief of the army under Yuan Xiangcheng, then promoted Xu Shuzheng to the director of the Department of Military Science, and in 1914 became Duan Qirui's deputy and served as the deputy chief of the army.
When Yuan Xiangcheng became emperor, Duan Xu objected, and Yuan believed that Xu Shuzheng had instigated Duan Qirui to oppose him, because yuan Xiangcheng regarded Xu Shuzheng as a thorn in his eye.
Since then, in the events of Yuan Shikai's descent, the First World War, and the dispute between the government and the court, Xu Shuzheng has always firmly supported Duan Qirui, and the two have a tacit understanding. Xu Shuzheng also became the "vanguard" under Duan Qirui. Moreover, Xu Shuzheng was the head of state of Duan Qirui and was willing to risk his life and not hesitate to offend the warlord boss.
For example, when Feng Guozhang was the contemporary president, Xu Shuzheng advocated the southern conquest of military unification, and also introduced warlords of the Feng clan, all of which he did was to serve Duan Qirui as president or cabinet premier, and if successful, Xu Shuzheng would be the defense minister of the country.
After that, Duan Qirui became prime minister three times, while Xu Shuzheng always adhered to the military unification, and eventually the military unification failed. Xu Shuzheng traveled abroad.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="32" >2, a merit</h1>
When Xu Shuzheng was mentioned, posterity praised him for going to Outer Mongolia three times to fight against the powerful people in Outer Mongolia, opposing the withdrawal of the rule, and ensuring that the land was not lost for the time being.
Later, when some people wrote about this history, they believed that Xu Shuzheng aimed at Outer Mongolia in order to preserve the strength of the army participating in the war. It is obviously inappropriate to evaluate a Beiyang general in this way. Among the Beiyang warlords, there are many warlords who are unambiguous in patriotism, especially after Japan invaded China, Japan tried to invite Duan Qirui, Wu Peifu and other warlords to go out to the mountains to serve as pseudo-officials, but they were all rejected by these people. From this point of view, the warlords of the Beiyang government did not dare to be ambiguous in the matter of patriotism.
In the issue of Outer Mongolia, Xu Shuzheng had the factor of keeping the army participating in the war, and there were also the factors of Duan Qirui, but more of it was to preserve the national territory, unlike the old Chiang Kai-shek who later recognized the independence of Outer Mongolia.
Let's look at a piece of historical data: on December 2, 1919, the Beiyang government appointed Xu Shuzheng as the special envoy for the canonization of the living Buddha in Outer Mongolia, on December 27, 1919, Xu Shuzheng came to Outer Mongolia Kulun for the second time, on January 1, 1920, he held a canonization ceremony for Jebtsundamba VIII, and returned to Beijing on January 24, 1919 after inspecting the border affairs in Kyakhta.
On May 10, 1920, Xu Shuzheng went to Outer Mongolia for the third time. At this time, there were constant internal disputes within the Beiyang government, and Duan Qirui recalled Xu Shuzheng from Outer Mongolia for safety reasons. In July 1920, Xu Shichang dismissed Xu Shuzheng from the post of envoy. If not, perhaps Xu Shuzheng will consolidate his rule over Outer Mongolia for a long time.
After Xu Shuzheng left, Outer Mongolia was not afraid, and the plot in Soviet Russia was actually "independent".
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="22" >3</h1>
Xu Shuzheng can be said to be born into death for Duan Qirui, and he is not afraid of offending any powerful man. At that time, Xu Shuzheng advocated military unification in order for Duan Qirui to become prime minister, but there was a warlord who opposed military unification, and this person was named Lu Jianzhang.
Here is an introduction to a Lu Jianzhang, known as "Lu Tubo", who served under Yuan Xiangcheng as a staff officer in the Guard Army, the director of the Military and Political Law Enforcement Department in Beijing, and killed many revolutionaries and progressives, and was a vicious figure.
When Lu Jianzhang suppressed the Bailang rebel army in Shaanxi, he directly controlled the military affairs of Shaanxi and became a figure of real power at that time. Lu Jianzhang opened brothels, opened tobacco houses, sold cultural relics, and did many evil things in Shaanxi. Later, after Chen Shufan seized power, he began to squeeze Out Lu Jianzhang, and eventually squeezed Lu Jianzhang out under the pretext of threatening to kill Lu's son. Since then, the people of Shaanxi have finally been glad that this scourge has left Shaanxi.
Although Lu Jianzhang did nothing evil, he also paid attention to managing his own connections, and his granddaughter also married the northwest warlords Feng Yuxiang and Song Zheyuan, vigorously cultivating his personal power.
On June 14, 1918, Lu Jianzhang shot Xu Shuzheng for opposing Xu Shuzheng's military command. After this incident, Xu Shuzheng dared to act boldly, and the newspaper explained why Lu Jianzhang was said.
Xu Shuzheng thought that there was nothing wrong with killing Lu Jianzhang, but he did not expect that Feng Yuxiang hated Xu Shuzheng. In 1925, Xu Shuzheng returned from a foreign study and traveled from Shanghai to Beijing and entered the port in Tianjin. After staying for 10 days, I was ready to take the train to Tianjin. Feng Yuxiang's confidant Lu Zhonglin reported Xu Shuzheng's itinerary to Feng Yuxiang and asked for instructions on how to deal with it. In the end, Xu Shuzheng was shot and killed by Feng Yuxiang's men in Langfang.
At that time, Feng Yuxiang did a good job, he did not want people to know that he did it, he let Lu Jianzhang's son also appear at the scene of the crime. When he learned that Xu Shuzheng had been killed, Duan Qirui was very sad and said twice: "Break my humerus!" It can be seen how much Xu Shuzheng's death has cost Duan Qirui.
From the murder of Xu Shuzheng, we can see that in the chaotic world of Beiyang, personal grudges often occur. Some warlords are only for themselves and have no long-term vision at all. This is also the sadness of that era.
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