Xiao Yaonan
Xiao Yaonan, the word Truss Shan. A native of Cangzibu, Huanggang County, Hubei (present-day Kongbu District, Xinzhou County, Wuhan). Born in March 1877 (February of the third year of Qing Guangxu). He came from a humble background and came from a poor family. His grandfather worked as a village schoolmaster, and his father, Xiao Yuanting, made a living selling fin fish, and later became a cargo man. Xiao Yaonan studied at the Rural Enlightenment Hall at an early age, and failed to pass the county examination twice, but because he "hung up the water card," he was able to serve as a teacher in the Enlightenment Hall in the countryside. During his teaching period, "the annual income from the bundle fee was only more than twenty yuan, which was not enough to support the family" (1). In 1897, when he was twenty years old, he married a local woman, Su Shi, and after marriage, his life became more difficult. He sighed: "If you follow the example of Ban Chao, throw a cone of hair and do things, and even if you seal ten thousand households, why can't you get a student?" (2) He took a dozen or two lines of Su's weekday spinning and sold it for money, and went to the eighth town of Wuchang as a soldier.
In 1900, Xiao Yaonan was admitted to the Hubei Jiangben Academy founded by Zhang Zhidong, and was deeply appreciated by the instructor Ha Hanzhang during the three-year semester. After graduation, Xiao entered the Left Banner of the Guards as a sentry officer of the Second Battalion, and the following year he also served as an assistant and a teacher of the Guard Left Banner Camp Academy. In May 1906, Xiao Yaonan was introduced by Ha Hanzhang, deputy envoy of the Army, and became a first-class section member of the Army Training Department, and the following year he was changed to a first-class section member of the first division of the Military Commandment Department; in July 1907, he entered the second class of the Army Academy, and his classmates included Wu Wenyuan, Ruan Zhaochang, Li Jinglin, and others.
Hahan Chapter
In 1909, Xiao Yaonan joined the General Affairs Department of the Military Affairs Department, serving as a first-class section officer, and was soon promoted to section chief.
(1) Li Maodong, "The Life of the Warlord Xiao Yaonan", Edited by the Literature and History Materials Research Committee of the Wuhan Municipal Committee of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, Wuhan Literature and History Materials, Vol. 2 (12th Series), 1983 edition.
(2) Liu Rongbai: "Remembering Xiao Yaonan", Shi Bao, Semi-monthly Magazine No. 24 (October 1, 1936).
In the winter of the same year, Xiao was sent to the third town of Beiyang to serve as a staff officer in the cao won office. Because he was obedient and taciturn, and had a certain ability to do things, he was trusted by Cao Feng, and in 1910 he was also the pipe belt of the third battalion of the ninth standard in the third town.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Cao Yun's troops moved to Xiniangziguan to suppress the Yan and Jin allied forces, and Xiao was promoted to the twelfth standard system. At the beginning of 1912, the North and the South reached an agreement on peace, and Sun Yat-sen advocated that the capital be Nanjing, and Yuan Shikai was reluctant to go south; when Nanjing welcomed Yuan's envoys to Beijing, Cao Zu, instigated by Yuan Shikai in front of Yuan Shikai, created a "mutiny" in Beijing on February 29, set fires and robberies with chaotic soldiers, and stayed up all night to create an excuse for Yuan to refuse to go south. In this incident, Xiao Yaonan has always participated in its plot. After Yuan Shikai became president, the third town was renamed the Third Division and was transferred to Beijing to defend Gyeonggi, with Cao Feng as the division commander and Xiao Yaonan as the chief of staff of the Third Division. Yuan purged the southerners of the Beiyang Army, and Xiao Yuan was also among them, and later gained his position because Cao Wong was able to protect Yuan Libao. In 1913, Xiao was transferred to the regimental commander of the Ninth Regiment, and was awarded the rank of major in the army for his "meritorious service" in suppressing the Bailang Uprising in Henan. The following year, Yuan Shikai appointed Cao Gen as the commander of the garrison in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, stationed in Yuezhou, and monitored the revolutionary forces in the south. At the end of 1915, after Yuan Shikai received an alert for the independence of Yunnan, he ordered Cao Yu to enter Sichuan to help Chen Eunuch suppress the defending army, and Xiao followed Cao into Sichuan to confront the defending army. Yuan ordered the Third Division to expand its army, Cao Cheng established the Five Battalions of Guards, and Xiao Yaonan was replaced as the commander of the Guards. In June, Yuan Shikai died in a nationwide spat and curse, and Li Yuanhong succeeded him as president, and Cao Wong took advantage of Xiao Yaonan's relationship with Li Yuanhong's fellow villagers to lobby Li Zhi for more than 600,000 yuan, and finally obtained an important position of directly subordinate to the overseers for Cao. Subsequently, Cao's Third Division went to Baoding and expanded its army to form three mixed brigades, with Xiao Yaonan as the commander of the third mixed brigade.
In July 1917, Zhang Xun's restoration failed, and Duan Qirui formed a cabinet. In order to safeguard the success of the revolution, Sun Yat-sen set up a military government to protect the Law in Guangdong, and the situation of confrontation between the north and the south once again formed. Duan Qirui sent Cao Fu as commander-in-chief of the Southern Expedition, with Wu Peifu acting as the commander of the Third Division. At that time, The Hunan overseer Tan Yanmin had mobilized the Second Division of the Xiang Army to carry out the Northern Expedition, and Duan Qirui heard that the Wu Division had entered Changsha to stop the Southern Army; Xiao's Third Mixed Brigade was also under Wu Peifu's jurisdiction at this time, stationed in the area of Hengyang and Qiyang. Cao Bao, hoping to win the post of vice president in the North-South War, actively engaged in civil war, and in the following year pulled out all his troops and moved them to southern Hunan, where Xiao Yaonan's mixed brigade was also among them; Cao also appointed Wu Peifu as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy of the Zhi Army. Soon, the Northern Army once again invaded Hunan.
Under the influence of the patriotic salvation movement of the people of the whole country against the civil war and the traitorous national salvation movement, the contradictions between the direct and Anhui clans within the Beiyang warlords have developed new developments. In June 1918, Xiao Yaonan and five other brigade commanders jointly asked for leave, and the Hunan front produced a master and faction. Wu Peifu refused to carry out Duan Qirui's telegram order to attack Liangguang, openly opposed the policy of "reunification by force," and in August issued a "horse telegram" to Acting Commander-in-Chief Feng Guozhang, asking Feng to issue an armistice order to unite the armies of the north and the south, and Xiao Yaonan was one of the names listed in the telegram. In September, Xiao Yaonan, together with more than 20 generals of the Southern and Northern Armies on the Hunan Front, including Wu Peifu and Tan Yanmin, jointly issued a "sleeping telegram" asking Feng Guozhang to issue an armistice order. This was the first time since the Civil War that soldiers from the North and the South had united against the leaders of the Beiyang faction. When the May Fourth Movement broke out in 1919, the people of the whole country opposed the civil war, the north-south peace talks, and Xiao Yaonan accompanied Wu Peifu to garrison Xingtai and Luoyang.
In 1920, the contradictions between the Beiyang warlords and the Anhui clans became increasingly acute, and the leader of the direct clan, Cao Feng, personally went to Tianjin to perform the oath ceremony and sent Wu Peifu as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy. In July, war broke out, and the Zhi army waited for the work, and the Lianke Anhui army. Xiao Yaonan's Third Mixed Brigade, under the command of Wu Peifu, marched into Zhuozhou and defeated the strength of more than one division of the Anhui Army with a brigade of troops, thus making great contributions to defending the Baoding base camp. After the direct line won, the troops were expanded again. In October, the 3rd Mixed Brigade was expanded into the 25th Division, stationed in Zhengzhou, with Xiao as the division commander and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Later, the Twenty-fifth Division became the basic force for Xiao Yaonan's rule over Hubei. In the same year, Xiao Yaonan returned to his hometown to build the Xiao Family Manor.
At that time, Wang Zhanyuan, the Governor of Hubei, was practicing cruel rule, and people from all walks of life launched a campaign to exorcise the king, demanding that "the Eren people rule Hubei." One faction secretly contacted Xiao Yaonan and prepared to take his place. Cao Yun and Wu Peifu secretly planned to replace Wang Zhanyuan as the overseer of Hubei, because Xiao was a Hubei native, met the requirements of the E'e people, and could completely obey his orders. At this time, Jiang Zuobin, Kong Geng, Li Shucheng, and others took a different route and went to Hunan to ask for troops and asked the Xiang army to "aid E" to drive out the king. In July 1925, the Xiang army issued a general attack order, and Wang Zhanyuan heard the news and immediately sent a telegram to Wu Peifu for help. At the meeting in Baoding to discuss sending troops to aid Hubei, Xiao advocated taking advantage of this opportunity to get Hubei in his hands, and Wu Peifu was very appreciative and immediately appointed Xiao as "aiding Hubei, commander-in-chief, and secretly instructing Xiao to "aid Hubei and not aid the king." Xiao led the 25th Division to Hankou on July 31 and sent troops to hold important positions, but did not meet Wang Zhanyuan. At this time, the battle in the front was very tense, and Wang Zhanyuan constantly urged Xiao Jun to reinforce, but Xiao refused to send troops under the pretext that the army had not yet been concentrated, and at the same time co-opted Du Xijun, the defender of Hankou Town, to form an inverted wang force within Hubei. On August 9, after receiving news of the defeat in the front, Wang Zhanyuan was forced to announce his resignation at a joint military-political meeting. On the same day, the Beijing government appointed Wu Peifu as the envoy of the Two Lakes Patrol and Xiao Yaonan as the overseer of Hubei.
Shortly after Xiao Yaonan took office, Wu Peifu came to Hankou, successively appointed his cronies to important posts in E, and reassigned all the personnel arranged by Xiao Yaonan. At wu Peifu's behest, Xiao proposed an armistice to the Xiang army in order to win time to dispatch troops. In late August, the Zhi army defeated the Xiang army at the Xianning Tingsi Bridge and the Guanbu Bridge and entered yueyang. After that, Xiao Yaonan presided over the defense of Hubei in accordance with Wu's will.
Liang Shiyi, a pro-Japanese bureaucrat who had actively planned the Hongxian Imperial System, became prime minister in December of that year with the support of Zhang Zuolin, implementing a pro-Japanese policy and trying to suppress direct forces. On January 5, 1922, Wu Peifu sent out a "song telegram" to overthrow Liang, and Xiao Yaonan followed Wu to attack Liang, sending out "Qingdian", "Wendian", and "Gongdian" in succession, accusing the Liang cabinet of colluding with Japan, and reprimanding Zhang Zuolin for undermining reunification under the pretext of seeking reunification, "using excuses to remove obstacles and making himself an obstacle", and falling behind several of the ten major crimes of bringing calamity to the country and the people. In April, the Zhifeng War broke out. Xiao Yaonanyuanyuan supplied guns, bullets and grain, making E'an the main military salary and munitions base for the Zhifang side. Although the army under Xiao's command did not directly participate in the battle, he stood by and stood by, both as a mobile unit of his immediate lineage, and could also resist the attack of Lu Yongxiang's troops supporting Zhang Zuolin from the southeast, and at the same time discarded the threat of Sun (Zhongshan) Duan (Qirui) Feng (Zhang Zuolin) triangle alliance from the south, relieved Wu of his worries, and enabled Wu to fight against Feng with all his strength and defeat the Feng army. After the end of the Zhifeng War, the warlords of the direct lineage headed by Cao and Wu advocated the restoration of Yingli (Yuanhong) in order to expel the presidents sun Yat-sen and Xu Shichang, and in June Xiao Yao was sent to the south to echo it. With the support of his immediate family, Li Yuanhong succeeded him as president. Unexpectedly, when Li Yi came to power, in order to limit the power of the provincial overseers and further achieve the goal of abolishing the governors and reducing the troops, he appointed seven provincial governors, of whom Tang Yanming was the governor of Hubei Province. Cao Feng and Wu Peifu originally intended to completely bring Hubei into the sphere of influence of their direct lineage, and how could they allow dissidents to intervene, so they intervened, and Li Yuanhong recommended Xiao Yaonan to concurrently serve as the governor of Hubei Province, and Xiao himself wanted to take over the military and political power of Hubei Province. At the instigation of Xiao Yaonan, some people in Hubei organized a "refusal of soup group" to create public opinion against Tang Luoming's arrival. On the day of Tang's arrival in Han, Xiao mobilized many people to wave the flag and shout at the wharf along the river and refuse to enter the country. Tang saw this situation and immediately returned, but finally did not arrive at his post. Half a month later. Xiao Yaonan announced that he had no choice but to follow the citizens' request and had the right to serve as a provincial seal. At that time, people who understood the inside story ridiculed him as "Xiao Zi and governor of the province."
On February 1, 1923, the inaugural meeting of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Federation of Trade Unions was held in Zhengzhou, Wu Peifu's army went to carry out armed intervention, and on February 4, the Federation of Trade Unions held a strike of the Beijing-Hankou Railway General Union. After receiving the order, Xiao Yaonan instructed Zhang Housheng, chief of staff of the Hankou Town Guard And Envoy Office, to suppress the striking workers, and secretly ordered the Hankou Police Department and the Inspection Office to send plainclothes agents to pay close attention to the dynamics of the strike. On 5 July, Xiao sent Zhang Housheng to the Jiang'an Branch Trade Union to blackmail the responsible persons of the Beijing-Hankou Railway Federation of Trade Unions and the Jiang'an Branch Trade Union, but the trade union sternly refused. On 6 July, under the organizational leadership of Communist Chen Tanqiu and others, eighteen trade unions and student federations in Wuhan went to Jiang'an to hold a meeting of 10,000 people to offer condolences to them. This strike and demonstration caused panic among the imperialists and warlords, and Wu taught Xiao ying to stop it by force to "curb the chaos." Xiao immediately appointed Zhang Housheng as the commander of the Liujiamiao Railway Police Road and deployed armed ammunition. On the afternoon of 7 July, Zhang led two battalions of heavily armed soldiers to surround the trade union, shot and killed 36 people, wounded more than 200 people, hunted down Lin Xiangqian and Shi Yang, and created the "27" massacre. After the tragedy, Xiao Yaonan sent troops to close down more than a dozen trade unions, including the Hubei Federation of Trade Unions and the Yangtze River Machinery Trade Union, poisoned workers, arrested deputies, seized Zhen Bao, an organ publication of the Hubei Federation of Trade Unions, and forced Wuchang's Ta Kung Pao to stop publication. Xiao also declared special martial law in Han and strictly forbade the people from engaging in revolutionary activities.
In October 1923, the head of the immediate lineage, Cao Feng, with the support of imperialism and provincial warlords, began to bribe the president. Xiao Yaonan spared no effort to bribe Cao Won this time and poured out his heart to help. In order to cooperate with Cao Feng's election, he convened a joint meeting of military, political, gentry, and business circles in E'e Province to advocate the speedy election of the president and create a great momentum for Cao to come to power. Cao Won and Wu Peifu still had differences over the timing of bribery in the election of the president, and Xiao Yaonan, relying on his special relationship with both sides, mediated in the middle, so that Wu would go along with Cao Wong and no longer obstruct him. Xiao also contacted the direct lineage and the overseers and governors related to the direct lineage to jointly support Cao Wong. The bribery funds were apportioned by the provinces, and Xiao Yaonan, despite the opposition of the people of Hubei Province, bore 600,000 yuan. After Cao Feng became president, he rewarded his meritorious deeds and greatly sealed the generals of his direct lineage, and on November 11, he ordered Wu Peifu to be the envoy of Zhilu Yu and Xiao Yaonan to be the envoy of the Two Lakes Patrol, subject to Wu's control. On the 14th, Cao Di also made Xiao a general and a commander.
On the occasion of this official fortune, Xiao supported the continuation of the Xiao clan genealogy with the same clan, and personally wrote the "Continuation of the Genealogy Narrative", which is called "Repairing the Ming Genealogy", which is to "fulfill the righteousness of future generations, borrow the past, recite the Xianfen, and carry on the previous Xu" (1). He also asked Cao Feng and Wu Peifu to write "Chu Huang Xiao Clan Continuation Genealogy Order" and "Huanggang Xiao Clan Continuation Genealogy Order" for the Xiao Clan Genealogy respectively, in order to gain momentum.
In February 1924, the Beijing government ordered Xiao Yaonan to be appointed as the governor of Hubei Province, and the post of commander of the 25th Division was succeeded by Chen Jiamo. This year was Xiao Yaonan's forty-seventh birthday, and he disregarded the people's suffering, celebrated on a large scale, and also sent a notice to the military and political chiefs of all provinces throughout the country. On the day of their birthday, there were senior members of the Beijing government, governors, or their representatives of various provinces, senior military and political chiefs of various regions in Hubei, and as many as 5,000 greeters. Cao Feng and Wu Peifu also wrote a joint to help the revival. In September, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang War, which was the outpost of the Second Zhifeng War, broke out, and the direct family received the Soviet army from Hubei and Yu provinces. In addition to sending a joint telegram with Feng Yuxiang and others to attack Lu Yongxiang, the governor of Zhejiang, Xiao Yaonan also sent Wang Ruqin's troops to the east to aid the Soviets and support the Soviet army with all the guns and ammunition of the Hanyang Arsenal. In October, the Zhejiang army was defeated, and Zhang Yunming's troops of the E's army first marched into Shanghai. At the same time, the Second Battle of Zhifeng was also fought in the north. Xiao Yaonan assisted Su and Wu in both prongs, and was busy raising funds to supply military supplies, sending a total of 2 million yuan in military salaries, 5 million bullets, and 1.2 million strings of copper yuan. On October 22, Feng Yuxiang returned to Beijing and launched the "Beijing Coup", which caused the Zhi Army to collapse rapidly. In the face of this rapidly changing situation, Xiao Yaonan sent out a telegram to help Wu Qiufeng, saying: "Yaonan swore to follow the whip and stubbornly commit this fierceness." He also ordered Chen Jiamu's division and Kou Yingjie's brigade to prepare to go north along the Jinghan Road to aid Wu, but later gave up because Shandong and Shanxi declared neutrality and the road was blocked. The Second Zhifeng War ended with the total annihilation of the direct army, Wu Peifu led the remnants south, through Tianjin to Shanghai, Xiao sent ships to meet, Wu arrived in Hankou on November 17.
After the war, the power of various parties in the country weakened: Cao Wu's power had declined, Duan Qirui was in power, Feng (Yuxiang) Zhang (Zuolin) was in open and secret struggle, and Sun Chuanfang was gradually consolidated in the southeast. In order to achieve the goal of self-preservation, Xiao Yaonan skillfully maneuvered between the various political forces and adopted the tactics of alienation, soft resistance, and alliance with Wu Peifu, Duan Qirui, and Sun Chuanfang. On 17 November, when Wu Peifu set up a military government to protect the Constitution in Wuhan, Xiao Yaonan said that he would "protect the border and rest the people," and went out of the mountains with Sun Chuanfang and others in a joint telegram to deny Wu Peifu's military government, and Wu had to return to Henan to find another way out. In early December, Wu Peifu was in Luoyang
(1) The Genealogy of the Xiao Clan of Cihuang Xiao, Vol. 1 (I), the Genealogy of the Xiao Clan of Chu Huang, has more than 20 volumes, two of which are dedicated to the life of Xiao Yaonan.
When he was expelled by The Commander of the Thirty-fifth Division of the Zhensong Army, Huan Yukun, and wanted to go to Wuhan, Xiao Yaonan immediately sent a telegram to Wu to persuade him to go to the wilderness, and the Provincial Council of Hubei also refused Wu entry, so Wu had to stay at Jigong Mountain. In January 1925, Wu entered Hankou alone without Waiting for Xiao's consent. Xiao obstructed the old boss's affection and was inconvenient to drive Wu away by force, but he was appointed by Duan Qirui's government as the military governor and governor of Hubei, and in order to avoid causing Duan's dissatisfaction, he sent Wu Peifu to Huanggang after the Lantern Festival, still saying that he was "rejecting Wu Bao'e."
After the "May Thirtieth" massacre in Shanghai, Wuhan workers and students marched and gave speeches in the Dazhimen area on June 11, when British sailors strafed the parade crowd with machine guns, and the parade retreated north along the British Concession docks, but they were unexpectedly blocked by the military and police sent by Xiao Yaonan to the bullets. When the masses were forced to return to the British Concession again, the "volunteer brigades" of various countries and American sailors burst out of Beijing Street, strafed with machine guns, killed eight people on the spot, wounded seventeen people, and a few days later three more seriously injured people died in the hospital. After the massacre, Xiao went so far as to apologize to British imperialism and exonerate them for the massacre of the Chinese people; On the other hand, progressives were arrested, Communists were wanted, and white terror was created. Xiao Yaonan's behavior of curbing the people's anti-imperialist anger and acting for the tiger in Hubei has enabled the people of Hubei to further understand the reactionary nature of the Beiyang warlords.
Faced with the grim situation in which the Feng clan's forces were gradually expanding into the Yangtze River Basin, Xiao Yaonan put forward the so-called "supporting Duan, honoring Wu, and lianfeng" in order to oppose Feng Zhang. In July, Xiao and Yue Weijun, the governor of Henan who belonged to the Feng clan, secretly signed a treaty of alliance at Jigongshan, in which both sides promised not to invade each other and concentrated their forces against the Feng clan. At this time, Wu Peifu made frequent contacts with various provincial warlords in Yueyang in an attempt to make a comeback. Wu's subordinates also openly organized support for Wu in Hankou. Xiao Yaonan realized that Wu's time for resurgence was not far away, so he telegraphed Wu Peifu instead and urged him to come out of the mountain. On October 21, Wu Peifu arrived in Wuchang by ship from Yueyang, and Xiao Yaonan personally led the civil and military officials and the military music company to the dock to greet him. Wu formally established the Anti-Feng Fourteen Provinces General Headquarters of the Thieves Coalition Army at Chajiadun in Hankou, and appointed Xiao Yaonan as the commander-in-chief of the Hubei Thieves Coalition Army and the commander-in-chief of the rear preparations. In order to meet Wu Peifu's needs, Xiao Yaonan once again transferred troops to Hubei to raise salaries, and expanded and reorganized four mixed brigades.
Wu Peifu was angry about Feng Yuxiang's defection in November 1924, and at the end of 1925 he and Feng Shi abandoned their old hatred and united against the Nationalist Army led by Feng Yuxiang. In January 1926, Wu Peifu attacked Henan in three ways based in Hubei Province, and Xiao Yaonan sat in Hubei to support Wu.
On February 14, 1926, Xiao Yaonan died of lung disease at the age of 49.