Fourth, Zhang Bi forced the palace
In 1923, Zhang Bi became the superintendent of police in the capital. At that time, the government of the Republic of China in Beijing was controlled by the warlords Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, who were directly related to the warlords, and history called it the "Beiyang Government", and Sun Yat-sen also established a National Revolutionary Government of the Republic of China in Guangzhou, and the whole country was divided between the north and the south. Feng Yuxiang was then the army's inspection envoy, unifying five mixed brigades with tens of thousands of elite troops stationed in the southern suburbs of Beijing, and was the most important military general of the Beiyang government besides Wu Peifu.
Feng Yuxiang despised Cao Kun, the "bribery of the president," and disagreed with Wu Peifu's policy of unifying China by force. He secretly contacted the Warlord Zhang Zuolin and Sun Yat-sen in Guangdong. On October 22, 1924, taking advantage of Wu Peifu's visit to Shanhaiguan to block Zhang Zuolin's coup d'état, he expelled President Cao Kun, cut off Wu Peifu's rear road, forced Wu to retreat along the Yangtze River, and thus took control of the Beijing regime. Feng Yuxiang had a plan with Zhang Bi in advance. In this coup d'état, the police controlled by Zhang Bi all wore the armband of "swearing to die to save the country" to control the order of the capital and prevent Wu Peifu from rioting, which contributed a lot to Feng Yuxiang.
The coup had a certain degree of justice, which Feng Yuxiang called the "capital revolution." Later, he invited Sun Yat-sen to go north to discuss the national policy of reunification between the north and the south, which was of some progressive nature. However, the consequences of bringing Zhang Zuolin into the customs and controlling the Beijing regime were serious, because Zhang Zuolin's rule was inferior to that of Cao Kun and Wu Peifu. Therefore, all the historians have called it the "Beijing Coup". After the "Capital Revolution", Feng Yuxiang became more thorough for the "revolution" and pointed the spearhead at Puyi, who was still the emperor in the Forbidden City.
In 1912, Yuan Shikai formulated the Regulations on Preferential Treatment of the Qing Dynasty in order to force the Qing court to transfer power peacefully, the main content of which was that Puyi still retained the title of emperor after his abdication, and the Republic of China regarded him as a foreign monarch to respect. 2. The Republic of China shall allocate 4 million silver dollars per year for the liquidation of the house. 3. The Qing Room temporarily lived in the harem of the Forbidden City, and later moved to the Summer Palace. Since Zhang Xun supported Puyi's restoration once in July 1917, progressive forces and public opinion throughout the country were dissatisfied with the Qing Dynasty, believing that retaining such an "emperor" would not be able to carry out restoration at any time, and most of them advocated abolishing him as a commoner.
On October 25, 1924, Feng Yuxiang summoned Hu Jingyi, Sun Yue, Huang Gao, Zhang Zhijiang, Sun Lianzhong, He Sui, Zhang Bi and others to a meeting, and promoted Huang Gao to be the premier of the "Regency Cabinet" and the regent of the presidency.
On November 4, 1924, Feng Yuxiang summoned Zhang Bi to the Tan Temple of Zhān and instructed Zhang Bi to cooperate with Lu Zhonglin to expel Puyi from the palace. Zhang Bi suggested that the matter should be ordered by the Regency Cabinet. Feng Yuxiang asked Huang To sign a decree entitled "Amending the Preferential Conditions for Clearing the House". Let Lu and Zhang do it. Lu and Zhang believed that they were both soldiers, and fearing that public opinion would criticize them, they invited Li Shizeng, a radical professor at Peking University, to carry out the execution.
On November 5, Lu Zhonglin first sent Han Fuyu, the commander of the 43rd Regiment, to surround the palace, disarm the troops guarding the palace, and set up cannons on Jingshan Mountain north of the palace. Then, together with Zhang Bi and Li Shi, they entered the imperial palace to find Shao Ying, the minister of internal affairs of the Qing court, and presented the State Council order and the "Regulations on Amending the Preferential Treatment of the Qing Dynasty". The main content of the regulations is to abolish the honorific title of Emperor Puyi, regard Puyi as a citizen, no longer give those living expenses, and immediately move out of the palace. When Shao Ying saw that things were not good, he hurriedly accompanied Lu Zhonglin with a smiling face, and Li Shi once said: Aren't you the nephew young master of Lu Xiangye's family? Aren't you the son of Li Xiangye's family, the imperial court is not thin to your two families, why force each other to do so? At this time, Zhang Bigui persuaded: "The privileges enjoyed by your emperor have been tolerated by the social trend, and all sectors of society and military circles do not take you seriously and ask you to move out of the palace." We are well-intentioned to protect you from the palace so that there will be no accidents. Otherwise, people's feelings will be fierce, and the police in our capital will not be able to take on the responsibility of defending. Shao Ying asked for another three-month grace, and then a one-month grace, ten days, or three days. Li Shi once said: "Today's matter must be resolved today, the outside is very chaotic, if it is not solved, it will be difficult for Lu and Zhang to give orders." Shao Ying and others repeatedly entered the palace to discuss with Puyi and rubbed until three o'clock in the afternoon. Lu Zhonglin was in a hurry, and deliberately said to ding yingchang who came with him: "Go quickly and tell the commander of the Han regiment outside that three o'clock has arrived, the matter can still be discussed, and the cannon on Jingshan Mountain should not open fire first, and then delay it for 20 minutes." At this time, Puyi's father, Zaifeng the Prince of Alcohol, had been invited to come, and Zaifeng decided to leave the palace immediately and go to the Palace of the Alcohol King. After Zhang Bi and others sent Puyi out of the palace, they immediately ordered the military and police to put seals on the harem storehouse and all the palaces, cleared out the eunuchs and palace women in the palace, and sent the military and police to guard them strictly. Lu, Zhang, and Li took the two jade seals that Puyi handed over to Feng Yuxiang and handed over orders. Feng praised the three and ordered them to hand over the jade seal to the State Council for safekeeping.
The expulsion of Puyi from the palace and the revision of the preferential treatment regulations for the Qing Dynasty were actions that conformed to the will of the people at that time and were unanimously praised by the public opinion circles of the whole country. In this operation, Zhang Bi took a positive attitude and was resolute and resolute; in particular, he did not allow Puyi and others to postpone the period of time, and after Puyi left the palace, he immediately sealed the palace treasury and sent the military and police to strictly protect it, preventing Puyi and the eunuchs in the palace from stealing state cultural relics and properly handing over countless treasures to the people. Later, the Nationalist government converted the Forbidden City into a museum, and Zhang Bi was one of the first directors. Most of the collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing and the National Palace Museum in Taipei were preserved at that time.
5. Tianjin Incident
Since joining the coup in Beijing, Zhang Bi has developed a closer relationship with Feng Yuxiang. In 1926, Feng Yuxiang was forced to withdraw from Beijing, when Zhang Bi's mother, brother, sister, nephew, niece and a large family had settled in Beijing, with complicated family affairs, all supported by Zhang Bi, and it was inconvenient to evacuate with Feng. Zhang Bi took advantage of his old connections with various factions of the old Beiyang Army to stay in Beijing and Tianjin, and used his position as an old subordinate in the police force and the boss of the Qing gang to maintain his rights. In 1928, Feng Yuxiang's northern expedition, defeated the Warlords of the Feng clan, and reoccupied Beijing, and Zhang Bi served as a high counselor in Feng Bu. In 1929, Feng Yuxiang planned a military campaign against Chiang Kai-shek, zhang Bi actively supported, as Feng Yuxiang's representative to and from the Jin army Yan Xishan, Gui army Li Zongren, the northeast army Zhang Xueliang, secret contact, repeated negotiations, transmission of information, promote their alliance, and later as Feng Yuxiang's special envoy, stationed in the northeast army Zhang Xueliang department.
In April 1930, various anti-Chiang warlords supported Yan Xishan as the "commander-in-chief of the army, navy and air force of the Republic of China", and Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Xueliang, and Li Zongren as deputy commanders-in-chief. "Commander-in-Chief Ben will command all the armies and chen shi Zhongyuan to save the party and the country." In ancient times, there were those who threatened the Son of Heaven to order the princes, and the whole country will rise up and crusade against them, and now there are those who threaten the Party department to be a blessing, and the people of the whole country will also rise up and crusade against them. This is the famous "Central Plains War" in history. In fact, since the Northern Expedition, the various "princes" have entered a period of chaotic warfare for territory, whether they support Feng against Chiang Kai-shek or support Chiang Kai-shek against Feng, there is no distinction between justice and injustice, just as historians commented that the Spring and Autumn Period was "Spring and Autumn Without Righteous War", and there was no righteous war at this time.
Because Zhang Xueliang defected to Jiang, Yan and Feng were defeated. For the second time, the Feng army occupied the area around Beijing and Tianjin. Zhang Biyuan was entrusted by Feng Yuxiang to serve as a special envoy of Feng's army in the northeast. Zhang Xueliang also vowed to oppose Chiang Kai-shek and did not want to suddenly turn against Feng and cause Feng Bu to suffer a crushing defeat, while the Northeast Army entered the pass and controlled the Beijing-Tianjin region. Zhang Bi felt that he had the heavy trust of his old friend Feng Yuxiang, and he hated the Northeast Army even more for taking advantage of the opportunity to seize the territory, which laid the foundation for Zhang Bi's anti-Chiang Kai-shek and anti-Northeast Army in the Tianjin incident.
In 1931, Chiang Kai-shek was busy suppressing the Communists and turning a blind eye to Japan's ambitions to invade China. On August 22, when arranging the encirclement and suppression of the Central Soviet Region in Nanchang, he declared: "If China died of imperialism, we can still be slaves to the country and survive; if we die in the Communist Party, we will not be able to become slaves." Unexpectedly, on September 18, Japan launched the "9.18" incident in Shenyang and occupied all of Northeast China. Chiang Kai-shek was not prepared to resist at all, so he had to resort to the "League of Nations," and the League of Nations sent Lytton to organize a fact-finding mission to China to investigate "who is right and who is wrong." In order to influence the results of Lytton's investigation, Japan sent a high-ranking secret agent, Kenji Doihara, to Tianjin to plan a mass demonstration to express the popular will of the people in North China who opposed Chiang Kai-shek's rule and "demanded autonomy." At that time, Li Jichun and Zhang Bi, who had served as commanders of the Ninth Army of the Zhilu Coalition Army, were living in the Japanese concession in Tianjin and seeking opportunities to make a comeback. Tu Feiyuan's plan coincided with the two men's intentions in trying to regain their prominence in the military and political circles, so Li Jichun, led by lilacing with the scattered soldiers of the former Zhilu coalition army and the leaders of the Tianjin Qinghong Gang, Yuan Wenhui, Cao Yanghua, Gao Pengjiu, and others, organized a "plainclothes team" of more than 2,000 people. On November 8, 1931, he "petitioned" the Tianjin Municipal Government under the banner of calling for the autonomy of North China. At that time, the governor of Hebei Province was Wang Shuchang, commander of the Second Army of the Northeast Army, and the mayor of Tianjin and the director of the Public Security Bureau was Zhang Xueming, a soldier of the Northeast Army's Shaozhuang faction, who was the younger brother of Zhang Xueliang. Tough measures were taken against these "petitioners", the "petitioners" were dispersed by force and a number of minor leaders were arrested. At 10:00 p.m. on November 8, Li Jichun saw that the "petition" had not been successful, so he personally led more than 200 plainclothes armed personnel to rush out of the Japanese concession in a vain attempt to occupy the public security bureau, and a gun battle broke out between the two sides. Under the pretext of firing guns at the Japanese concession and injuring the overseas Chinese, the Japanese troops in the concession built barricades along the concession and set up machine guns to warn outside the concession. Tianjin public security forces also built barricades along the Japanese concession to prevent plainclothes troops from storming the concession again. This caused a diplomatic incident of modest significance. From the 10th to the 21st, sporadic exchanges of fire continued along the edge of the Japanese Concession. This is the famous "Tianjin Plainclothes Team Incident".
At the time of the armed conflict in Tianjin, the Sun Emperor Puyi was living in the Japanese concession. Tu Ihihara said to Puyi: The Tianjin military and police have surrounded the concession and may rush in at any time to arrest you, because you are the core figure of the attempt to restore. At present, the northeast has no master, or follow me to the northeast to restore the imperial system. Puyi listened to Tu Feiyuan's words and sneaked to Dalian on the 11th.
With regard to the "Tianjin Incident," historians in the past said that Li Jichun and Zhang Bi would organize their actions. However, judging from the recently discovered historical data: on November 17, 1931, the Japanese Consul General in Tianjin Kuwajima's "Report" to Japanese Foreign Minister Motohara, Zhang Bi did not participate in organizing and leading the "Tianjin Plainclothes Team" riots. The original text of the "Report" states: After the original jin of Tufei, "first negotiated with the Anfu faction, and the result was not popular." Therefore, he persuaded Zhang Bi, who was in contact with the local security forces, Li Jichun, who was in collusion with a group of hooligans and the Qing Gang, and Ma Tingfu, who was quite influential on Xuezhong's subordinates, to bribe the security team, organize plainclothes troops, or bribe Yu Xuezhong's troops, etc., to pay another 50,000 yuan for activities; he also used two or three cadres in the garrison army to secretly hand over weapons from the Kwantung Army to Li Jichun for use. When everything is ready, join the riot as originally planned. We have definite information to prove this. At the beginning, the consulate had heard a little about the above conspiracy, and the spy report found that Zhang Bi had been bribed by Zhang Xueming, but on the seventh day, it informed the military that in case of such a plan, it should be put away as soon as possible. Although the military completely denied it, it had actually decided to launch a riot at ten o'clock on the night of the eighth day. The result was a tragic defeat. The Public Security Bureau of Gein, which had an internal line in Zhang Bi's faction, specially strengthened its vigilance on the eighth day, and the security team did not respond as agreed, leaving only a group of plainclothes troops gathered by Li to participate in the riot, resulting in a total defeat. This article was originally published on page 115 of the book "Tianjin Plainclothes Riot" compiled by the Editorial Department of the Literature and History Materials of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The "Report" was sent to Tokyo by the Japanese Consulate in Tianjin at the end of the Tianjin incident in a document entitled "One of Telecom 553, Confidential, Fastest, and Extremely Confidential to the Outside World." Japanese Consul General Kuwajima is a well-known "China Passer" who has long been responsible for the administrative security of the Japanese Concession in Tianjin, and his "Report" should have a high degree of credibility.
Judging from the "Report," first, after Tu Feiyuan arrived in Tianjin, he did contact Zhang Bi to organize the Tianjin riots, and then Zhang Bi informed Zhang Xueming, director of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau, about this matter, so that the Tianjin military and police were on guard. Second, Zhang Bi's influence in Tianjin is mainly in the Tianjin Security Corps, which is also an armed police force. Li Jichun's power is mainly among the gangsters and the Green Gang. Third, Toihara sent weapons through Li Jichun to the "plainclothes team" composed of rogues and green gangs recruited by Li Jichun. Fourth, the security team controlled by Zhang Bi did not participate in the Tianjin riots, and the armed attack on the Tianjin military and police was "only a group of plainclothes teams gathered by Li Jichun."
At the time of the Tianjin incident, why did public opinion say that Li Jichun and Zhang Bi had organized the incident, and now it seems that Tu Feiyuan did contact Zhang Bi at the beginning, and placed great hopes on the security forces influenced by Zhang Bi to participate in the riots, and zhang Bi's fame and status at that time were much higher than Li Jichun.'s And historical data confirm that Zhang Bi and Li Jichun are indeed different. The day before the Tianjin incident, Zhang Bi learned that Zhang Xueming's contact situation had been detected by secret agents from the Japanese consulate, and he left Tianjin for fear of an accident, took refuge in Shanghai, and then transferred to Dalian.
Zhang Bi was wanted by the Nationalist government because of his involvement in the Tianjin incident, and Zhang Bi canceled the arrest warrant through the dredging and appeal of the former Feng Yuxiang generals Song Zheyuan and Zhang Zizhong, and returned to Tianjin. According to the Kuomintang military commander Wen Qiang in the "Oral History of Wen Qiang" after liberation, after the Tianjin incident, in 1932, the leader of the military command, Dai Kasa, was assigned by Chiang Kai-shek to beijing and Tianjin to carry out activities, and also found Zhang Bi to help. It can be seen that Dai Kasa did not regard Zhang Bi as an "outsider". After liberation, Wen Qiang served as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference twice. In the article, Zhang Bi was called a "famous politician in Beijing", which is perhaps the most accurate political status. (To be continued)
Originally published in the 2013 edition of "Bazhou History and Culture Series • Celebrity Volume"