The Thousand-year-old Shaolin Temple, the ancestral court of Chinese Zen Buddhism, and the birthplace of Chinese Kung Fu. "The world's kung fu out of Shaolin", but in the war years, the Shaolin martial monks with high martial arts can not let the Shaolin Temple stand alone, and the history of the Shaolin Temple is the history of continuous destruction and rebirth.
Among the previous disasters of the Shaolin Temple, the most serious one was the burning of the Shaolin Temple by Shi Yousan in 1928. The scourge of this disaster was caused by Fan Zhongxiu, a disciple of the Shaolin Temple.
Fan Zhongxiu is a native of Xiazhuang, The West of Baofeng County, Henan Province. At the age of thirteen, he skipped school and ran to the Shaolin Temple, where he worshipped under the great monk Shi Henglin and became a lay disciple of the Shaolin Temple. He studied art for three years and practiced martial arts.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Henglin became the abbot of the Shaolin Temple. At that time, the soldiers were in chaos and bandits were rampant, in order to protect themselves, the Shaolin Temple established the "Shaolin Temple Protection Regiment", and the abbot of Henglin naturally became the regimental general. Henglin bought firearms to arm the Shaolin warrior monks. At that time, there were more than 200 monks in the Shaolin Temple, armed with martial arts and guns in their hands, which was more than enough to deal with small groups of bandits.
The "Shaolin Temple Guard Regiment" and the bandits had more than a dozen encounters, and they were victorious. Henglin became famous, and he contributed to the defense of the Shaolin Temple, but also laid the foundation for future disasters.
After Henglin's death, his apprentice Miaoxing took over as the commander of the "Shaolin Temple Defense Regiment".
After Fan Zhongxiu came down from the mountain, in order to avoid bandits, the Fan family moved west with their family and came to Luochuan County, Shaanxi. Luochuan County is close to the peaks of Huanglong Mountain, which covers an area of 400 to 500 miles, with abundant water sources and dense trees, which is a good place for agricultural production, but it is also a hidden place for bandits.
In the spring of 1914, the bandit leader Huang Biao learned that Fan Zhongxiu's sister looked like a flower, so he sent someone to inform the Fan family to send someone to the mountain to be the lady of the press, otherwise the murder would burn the village, and the chickens and dogs would not be left.
Fan Zhongxiu couldn't bear it, and summoned 5 friends from Henan, including Guo Jinbang, Xu Laomao, and Ma Shuiwang, plus his brother, to go up the mountain at night, slashed the bandit leader Huang Biao, put the bandits on the mountain in a pot, and confiscated a lot of guns.
Fan Zhongxiu's move not only revengeed personal vendetta, but also removed a harm to the local people. The news spread, and many green forests and "knifemen" came to him. Fan Zhongxiu simply pulled up his own team.
This team has more than 200 people at the most, and it is active in Luochuan, Ganquan and Fuxian areas. Later, this team was incorporated by the government, and Fan Zhongxiu successively followed Lu Jianzhang, Chen Shufan, Xu Lanzhou, and Wu Peifu.
In 1922, during the First Zhifeng War, Zhang Yushan, commander of Wu Peifu's division, arrived in Dengfeng. Fan Zhongxiu served as the leader of the regiment under Zhang Yushan and deliberately returned to the Shaolin Temple. When he saw the ruined Daxiong Treasure Hall, he sighed and donated four hundred yuan. The Shaolin monks were grateful and have been associated with Fan Zhongxiu since then.
The following year, Fan Zhongxiu's disciple Miaoxing, under the influence of Lu Yaotang, the commander of the First Brigade of Zhang Yushan's department, also joined Wu Peifu's troops and served as the commander of the first regiment of the First Brigade. In 1927, during a battle with Feng Yuxiang's Ren Yingqi Department, Miaoxing was killed.
Although Fan Zhongxiu had been in the ranks of the Beiyang warlords for many years, he longed for the revolution led by Sun Yat-sen.
In 1923, the Zhiyue War broke out, and Chen Jiongming took the opportunity to attack from behind. At a time when the revolutionary government in Guangdong was in danger, Fan Zhongxiu led his troops to mutiny in response to Sun Yat-sen. He telegraphed the whole country and became the commander-in-chief of the Yu Army of the Guangzhou government.
He led his troops to occupy Nanxiong, then attacked Shaoguan, took control of the northern gate of Guangdong, and passed the Grand Marshal's Palace. Sun Yat-sen replied with a congratulatory telegram: "Fan Zhongxiu, commander-in-chief of the Yu Army's Thief Army, is sincere and patriotic, the first righteous Gannan, and the officers and soldiers of all the departments can understand the great righteousness and work with one heart." ”
At this time, Chen Jiongming's army had captured Shipai and Baiyun Mountain on the outskirts of Guangzhou, preparing to shell the Grand Marshal's Palace. The Guangzhou base camp had no troops to use, and Sun Yat-sen urgently ordered Fan Zhongxiu to reinforce.
Although Fan Zhongxiu only had 8,000 troops, he did not show weakness, he carried a large knife in his hand, went into battle shirtless, and took the lead, and the whole army was excited. After a night of fierce fighting, Chen Jiongming's troops were repelled, and Guangzhou turned the crisis into safety.
Fan Zhongxiu led his troops into Guangzhou, and Sun Yat-sen personally went to greet them. He took Fan Zhongxiu's hand and said, "Good, good, good comrade!"
Sun Yat-sen appointed him commander-in-chief of the Jianguo Yu Army and conferred the rank of general of the army.
Later, Fan Zhongxiu was dissatisfied with the open and secret struggle between the Armies of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, and Hunan provinces, and led his subordinates to the north alone, returning to his hometown of Henan in January 1925.
After returning to Henan, Fan Zhongxiu still carried the banner of the founding of the Yu Army, was unwilling to accept the control of others, and was a relatively independent military force on the territory of Henan. He often said: "The founding of the Yu Army was appointed by President Sun Da, who dares to change my flag?" ”
After the Northern Expedition began, Fan Zhongxiu's troops were subordinate to Feng Yuxiang's Second Army of the National Revolutionary Army. However, he was proud of himself as a hero of the Jingguo, and the signboard of the founding of the Yu Army was given by Mr. Zhongshan himself, and he had no intention of attaching it.
After the end of the Northern Expedition, the three divisions of Shi You, who were stationed in Wanluo, Henan, were Feng Yuxiang's subordinates. This Shi Yousan was also a "defective general", at this time there were 60,000 troops, and the weapons were sophisticated, mostly Soviet-style equipment, which could be described as strong soldiers.
Fan Zhongxiu, on the other hand, had no more than 10,000 men and backward equipment, mostly Made in Hanyang and made of native guns. The balance of forces is huge, why does Fan Zhongxiu want to "hit the stone with a pebble"?
This one is that Fan Zhongxiu has a very high self-esteem and does not put Shi Yousan or even Feng Yuxiang in his eyes. Second, between Yuxi Wanluo has always been Fan Zhongxiu's territory, and Fan Zhongxiu's subordinates are mostly natives of western Henan. Third, local forces in Henan, such as the Red Gun Society and local militia groups, are friends and not enemies of Fan Zhongxiu.
In March 1928, Fan Zhongxiu, who thought he had geographical advantages and people, took advantage of the emptiness in the rear of Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist Army and captured Gong County and Yanshi County. Shi Yousan quickly counterattacked and quickly took it back.
Fan Zhongxiu withdrew south and instead attacked the county seat of Dengfeng, where he set up his headquarters in the Shaolin Temple. As a temple, it should have stayed out of the matter, how could it participate in the warlord melee. However, the Shaolin Temple not only provided territory, but also sent Shaolin warrior monks to block Shi You's three departments in the eighteen plates south of Song Mountain.
Despite the assistance of the Shaolin warrior monks, Fan Zhongxiu was far from Shi Yousan's opponent and eventually collapsed.
On March 15, Shi Yousan entered Fan Zhongxiu's headquarters at the Shaolin Temple, and by this time not only Fan Zhongxiu's headquarters had long since withdrawn, but the Shaolin monks had also scattered and fled, and Shi Yousan, enraged, set fire to the Dharma Hall.
The next day, Su Mingqi, the commander of ShiYou's three brigades stationed in Dengfeng, ordered the sergeant to bring kerosene to the temple, and the soldiers and some tenant farmers who resented the Shaolin Temple together burned the Shaolin Temple.
It is said that the Shaolin Temple burned for 40 days, and the important buildings of the Shaolin Temple, such as the Scripture Pavilion, the Hall of the Heavenly King, and the Hall of the Great Treasure, were caught in the fire, burning a total of 296 rooms. The 1,400 sutras and 105 sets of Shaolin Temple boxing and Song script printed copper plates were also reduced to ashes.
The essence of the Thousand Years Shaolin Temple, all were destroyed by the Fire Dragon!
Although Shi Yousan was the culprit in this disaster of the Shaolin Temple, Fan Zhongxiu and the Shaolin Temple could not escape the blame.
After this disaster, the Shaolin Temple has not been able to recover its vitality until more than 50 years later, with the release of the movie "Shaolin Temple" starring Jet Li, the Shaolin Temple has dried up and flourished.