Disclaimer: Wu Xuehua's original works
In 1913, Yuan Shikai stole the fruits of the revolution with the help of Beiyang forces, and after Song Jiaoren was assassinated, the revolutionaries recognized Yuan Shikai's ugly face and launched a second revolution. However, in the first year of the Republic of China before the second revolution, at the junction of Henan and Hubei, an anti-Yuan armed force suddenly appeared. The appearance of this armed force without warning but fierce, the armed contingent played the slogan of "robbing the rich and helping the poor", and in just a few months, occupied several counties in western Henan, with a huge momentum of 20,000 people.
This is the Blanche Army, which is short-lived in history.
For the leader of this rebel army, Bai Lang, there is no record in the history books, only in some folk interpretations, some stories. It is said that Bai Lang was originally a junior officer in the army, and because he was a righteous man, he was deeply loved by the soldiers, and because the upper echelons of the army withheld military salaries, he resolutely took his brothers to court Yuan; some people also said that Bai Lang was a native of Baofeng County, from a wealthy family, and was Chinese New Year's Eve eight years old at the time, and once served as a staff officer under Wu Luzhen, the commander of the sixth town, Yuan Shikai sent people to assassinate Wu Luzhen, and Bai Lang then became the "Great King" in Songshan, calling himself "the governor of the Chinese Fuhan Army."
Anyway, Bai Lang is a very righteous person, that is true.
After the uprising of the Blanc Army, he was deeply loved by the people because of his bravery in battle and the robbery of the rich and the poor. At that time, there were songs circulating in the western Henan area: good Bai Lang, Bai Lang is good, robbing the rich and helping the poor, for the Heavenly Path, everyone says that Bai Lang is good! Old Bai Lang, Bai Lang Old, rob the rich to save the poor, for the Skywalker, everyone says that Bai Lang is good. In the past two years, the rich and the poor have been equalized.
Many soldiers who were dismissed by the Beiyang government went to defect. Wang Shengqi, former commander of the First Division of the Shaanxi Army, led all the officers and men of the regiment to join the Bai Lang Army and join the ranks of Yuan.
Seeing that the momentum of the Bai Lang army was getting bigger and bigger, Yuan Shikai urgently dispatched his confidant Duan Qirui to serve as the governor of Henan, leading an army of nearly 100,000 people to suppress the Bai Lang army.
Although the Bai Lang Army was of a rogue nature, it had a relatively regular military establishment, which was divided into "infantry, horses, artillery, workers, and reinforcements, camps, sentry patrols, and all kinds of troops." The soldiers of the Bai Lang Army can receive a monthly salary of twelve, while the monthly salary of the Beiyang Army is only four or two. Although the Beiyang Army was recruiting and suppressing the Bai Lang Army, many Beiyang Army soldiers secretly defected to the Bai Lang Army.
The Bai Lang Army fought bravely and used very flexibly in guerrilla tactics; although the enemy was outnumbered, they were good at avoiding the real and being vain, often luring the Beiyang Army with small troops, and fighting in a roundabout way, attacking the rear of the Beiyang Army and attacking the heavy troops of the Beiyang Army. Often, at a small cost, greater results are achieved.
While fighting the Beiyang Army, the Bai Lang Army's range of activities became larger and larger, and in the territory of Shandong and Anhui, a wave of anti-Yuan was rolled up.
Yuan Shikai, in addition to offering a reward of 120,000 oceans to Bai Lang, also adopted the method of "meeting and suppressing" the four provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Henan, and Lu, mobilizing 200,000 troops, and successively appointing the Beiyang Army generals Duan Qirui, Zhao Qian, Lu Jianzhang, Zhang Jingyao, and Wang Zhanyuan to be responsible for "supervision and suppression."
Zhao Qian, who was born in the General Army of the Qing Dynasty, led his troops to cooperate with Duan Qirui in the conquest of western Henan for several months, in vain, and he once lamented: "The tail pursuit is not a good strategy, and it is difficult to encircle and suppress, and whenever I think of this, I am worried." ”
In April 1913, Duan Qirui led a large army to surround the Bai Lang army in the mountains of western Hubei, and before they could react, the Bai Lang army actually disappeared. What was even more peculiar was that bai lang's army appeared in the mountainous area of eastern Henan and completely jumped out of Duan Qirui's encirclement. Due to the rapid march of the Bai Lang Army, the encirclement and blockade of the Beiyang Army were often repeatedly frustrated.
The Bai Lang Army and the Beiyang Army fought several fierce battles, winning or losing each other. In order to gain the support of the outside world, in 1913, Bai Langjun openly played the banner of currying favor with Yuan Yuan, exposing Yuan Shikai's ambition to "rely on the name of the republic, but to practice despotism", and his wishful thinking of risking the world and intending to claim the title of emperor.
At that time, the strategists around Yuan Shikai were beginning to create momentum for his future title of emperor, and the relevant plans were still in progress, and Bai Langjun was so calculating, which was really unbelievable.
Huang Xing, a revolutionary who was then the commander-in-chief of Jiangsu yuan, wrote a letter to Bai Lang in July 1913, praising him for his "great merits and martyrdom, which can be immortalized in future generations", and asked Bai Lang to occupy the Eyu area, "attack with cameras, spy on Yuzhou, and destroy more railways to hinder Yuan's way."
Yuan Shikai was greatly panicked by this wandering and impermanent "bandit" army, and in order to cover up the incompetence of the Beiyang Army, he announced in the newspaper that the Bai Lang Army had reached 300,000 or 400,000 people, scornfully called Bai Lang a "white wolf", and said that the Beiyang Army had killed tens of thousands of bandits of the "White Wolf"...
In order not to unite the Bai Lang army with the revolutionary army in the south, Yuan Shikai, after removing zhang Zhenfang, the governor of Henan, and Zhao Qian, the protector of the army, asked Duan Qirui to eliminate the Bai Lang army within half a year.
Duan Qirui adopted the village joint sitting system, and one village funded the Bai Lang Army, and the whole village suffered. In order to protect the people, the Bai Lang army had to leave western Henan and march in the direction of Shaanxi and Gansu.
In order to find out the whereabouts of the White Lang army, he rented an airship from the Russians at a great price, and with the help of the airship, he quickly figured out the movement of the White Lang army, and sent people to intercept it while overseeing the pursuit.
From western Henan to Shaanxi and Gansu, the Bailang army was blocked by officers and soldiers along the way, and the number of people became smaller and smaller, and in early 1914, after several months of conquest, the Bailang army had less than a thousand men left. Seeing that the Shaanxi-Gansu area was desolate and the team could not gain a foothold, Bai Lang led the only people to rush back to Henan. After the team returned to Henan, due to the betrayal of the traitors, Bai Lang and the last dozens of bodyguards were surrounded and suppressed by thousands of Beiyang troops, and finally outnumbered and killed. The three-year-long uprising came to an end.
Logically, bai langbing was defeated and killed, and should be shown to the public by the officers and men, but there was no news in this regard.
Folklore has it that Bai Lang did not die, but fled to a temple in the mountain to become a monk. There are also rumors that Bai Lang robbed the rich and helped the poor, killed many landlords who were rich and unkind, and seized a large amount of floating wealth, which was buried in the mountains of Luanchuan County, Western Henan, about Bai Lang's treasure, there is a proverb: "The mountain is on the mountain, the ground is on the ground, the basin in the basin, the people are superior, who can find it, eat and wear the tenth grandson."
In other words, to be able to find the treasure of Bai Lang, ten lifetimes are enough to spend. I don't know who has this luck!