In May 1923, there was a sensational carjacking in the city.
In the early morning of May 6, 1923, the second special express train from Shanghai to Beijing on the Jinpu Line entered Shandong from Jiangsu, passed through Shagou Station, and headed for Lincheng Station. In Lincheng, 40 foreign tourists and more than 200 Chinese tourists on the train were abducted, and there was a great robbery in Lincheng that shocked China and foreign countries.
There are different names about this train, some people use to call it "blue steel skin", because it was just bought from the United States, China's first all-steel shell train; Some people call it "the first express train between Beijing and Shanghai"; Others call it the "Second Special Express of the World Intermodal Bus". The trains are divided into first-class, second-class, and third-class carriages, and tickets for first-class carriages are only sold to some Chinese officials and foreigners traveling to and from Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai.
The scene of the crime
At that time, there were many important passengers on the car, including the general representative of nurses of the American Red Cross, the counselor of the French legation, the adviser to the president of the United States, dozens of foreign journalists and foreign tourists who attended the inauguration ceremony of the Yellow River Palace in Shandong, as well as Mexicans with their newlywed wives on their honeymoons, and Italians with beautiful secretaries.
By the time the train reached Shagou Mountain, about three kilometers from Lincheng, most of the passengers were asleep, and Benjamin Powell, the chief writer of the Millers Review and a U.S. correspondent in China, and a Frenchman named Behebe were still chatting. Bebebe, who was very familiar with the situation in China, told Powell: "We have entered the famous bandit area. ”
Sure enough, at two o'clock in the morning, the driver relied on the faint moonlight in the dark night, found the black shadow in front of him, and still couldn't drive away by playing the whistle, it seemed that the gang was either looking for death or looking for trouble, so the driver braked urgently.
Due to the huge inertia, the train could not stop for a while, and rushed to the rail that was about tens of meters long and had been dismantled to connect the sleepers, and the locomotives, mail cars, and third-class passenger cars in front of them all derailed and overturned. A burst of gunfire ensued, and as the gunfire rang out, more than 1,000 bandits with pigtails on their heads swarmed, jumping onto the train to loot property and kidnap passengers.
According to American journalist Powell, he suddenly heard the sound of brakes at that time, and most of the passengers fell out of their seats. He looked around through the window, only to see the vast mountains, the thick night, where there were any stations. Suddenly, gunfire rang out all around, and the bandits rushed into the carriage, drove all the passengers out of the car, and ransacked their luggage.
One of the Romanian passengers tried to resist and was killed, but according to the Beiyang government's explanation, the passenger who was killed was not a Romanian, but an Englishman named Rossman. The passengers who got off the train were barefoot, and Powell and the Frenchman were allowed to put on their shoes because they had voluntarily handed over their weapons.
Reactions from all sides
A few hours after the incident, the Beiyang government and the missions of various countries in China made important reactions, but whether it was the Beiyang government or the missions of various countries in China that night, the specific circumstances of this incident were unclear, and they did not know what the kidnappers intended. Some of the powers remembered the Shandong Boxer Rebellion in the past and suddenly shuddered.
Two days later, the explosive news was reported in the world's major media. On May 7 and 8, the envoys of Britain, the United States, France, Italy, and Belgium successively lodged the sternest protests with the Beiyang government. U.S. Minister Shulman was more quick, and he rushed to Jinan that night to learn more about the situation.
Among them, the Italian minister was the most ridiculous, declaring that the Lincheng incident would be fully managed by China's tariffs, railways, army, and transportation. Japanese newspapers that read the hilarity and are not too big to see are also schadenfreude and clamor, advocating the organization of an international coalition army to jointly manage China's railways.
U.S. troops stationed in Beijing demanded direct action, and U.S. Defense Secretary Levy even openly suggested to Secretary of State Xu Shi that china be sent, but Then U.S. President Harding was still calm, worried that the reaction of the powers in the Lincheng incident would anger the Chinese people.
However, the great powers still dare to lay a dead hand on their own slave regime, and the people do not dare to provoke them, so I will bully my slaves and let my slaves clean up the disobedient people, which is a trick that the great powers habitually and tried and tested. On May 9, the envoys of the five countries restricted the Beiyang government to rescue all captured foreigners within three days, otherwise they would have to double their losses every twenty-four hours.
The Beiyang government was suddenly frightened, and in an instant there was chaos, and it quickly stopped the rest of the things at hand, whether big or small, and specifically discussed the way to rescue the foreigners. This is the typical representative of the soft-boned government, the foreign master's face changed, immediately frightened, how his own people rescued it did not matter to him.
Officials and bandits negotiate
The Western powers continue to exert pressure, and they want to use the topic to put forward a series of conditions for infringement of sovereignty, and a national crisis is imminent. Who is such a bold and hostage-taking person? During the battle between the government army and the bandits, the bandits sent out a letter, from which they learned that the boss behind the incident was named Sun Meiyao.
The letter warned government forces to kill all foreign hostages unless there was an immediate ceasefire. It seems that the bandits really have a certain strategy, knowing that the lives of foreigners are worth more than their own compatriots in the eyes of the government, and there is no doubt that the letter worked very well, and the government troops stopped pursuing them that night. The bandits also took the opportunity to run back to the easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack cradle.
There are also some legends about the origin of the calf. In modern times, it is recorded in the "Records of YiXian County" that in the past, there were old kings who held calves to cultivate it, and then the immortals went, so they got the name "Hugging Calves". Legend has it that in ancient times, there lived an old man surnamed Wang at the foot of the mountain, because he could not stand the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes of the officials, he was determined to go to the tall and steep loushan mountain to spend the remnants of his life, but the old Han's farming cattle could not go up, so he had to carry a calf to the top of the mountain, build a house to open up the wasteland, and live a hard life.
Who expected that the old man was starving for pine nuts and poria on weekdays, thirsting for mountain spring nectar, and over time, he gradually felt that the gods were clear-eyed and the wind and bones were out of the ordinary, and then after being ignited by an immortal, he actually flew away, and the was thus named. The Qing Dynasty poet Lei Xiao wrote a poem specifically for this purpose: There are good fields on the mountain, and the rain is hoeing and cultivating the clouds and the sun and the moon. Ande's long ladder also hugged the calves, urging the rentless officials to the edge of the sky.
After Sun Meiyao succeeded, she followed Sun Guizhi's idea to release four foreign female tourists first, and at the same time asked them to convey three conditions to the authorities: First, quickly evacuate the officers and soldiers from the mountain ten miles away; The second is to incorporate the bandit army into a brigade, with Sun Meiyao as the brigade commander; The third is to replenish arms.
The purpose of the kidnappers was to relieve the siege of the calves and recruit them into the national army, not to redeem them. These bandits turned out to be the same as the good men of Shuipo Liangshan in those years, not really wanting to oppose the authorities, but wanting to be recruited, made a high-ranking official, and lived a life of wife and children all day long.
The first formal negotiations between the Beiyang government and the kidnappers were on May 15, 1923, at a coal mining company, officially seated by Shandong Governor Tanaka Yu and Shandong Governor Xiong Bingqi, and the bandits' representative was Zhou Tiansong. The bandits put forward the following conditions:
(1) The government forces lift the encirclement and withdraw the original defense;
(2) To reorganize the bandit army into a brigade, with Sun Meiyao as the brigade commander;
(c) Replenishing them with arms.
From these conditions, it can be seen that the conditions conveyed by the four hostages who were previously forced to release have remained almost unchanged. However, soon Sun Meiyao changed her mind, and the reason why she changed her mind was because Sun Meiyao was sure that the official would make concessions. As the conditions put forward by Sun Meiyao and others became more and more stringent, the negotiations became more and more difficult, and they reached an impasse for a while.
The kidnappers could not wait and transferred the three foreign hostages to the top of the mountain, where they were hoisted up the mountain with ropes and tortured. In contrast, Chinese are treated much worse, because Chinese have no use value, which is equivalent to scrapping tickets, so most Chinese are thin and mistreated. Foreigners who also have freedom of speech can receive help from outside. Here, we have to sigh for the people of that era.
Sun Meiyao
After that, the kidnappers asked Powell to go down the hill to convey the terms of the negotiations, but there was no result, but Powell returned to the kidnappers quite faithfully. On May 26, Tanaka returned from Beijing, ordered government forces to strengthen the siege, and sent planes around the mountain to distribute leaflets.
The kidnappers panicked, and in addition to asking for peace, they again sent Powell to carry two more concessional conditions, which were:
(1) The government forces are relieved of the siege and withdrawn;
(2) The incorporation shall be limited to the Second Brigade.
The government has accordingly put forward two counter-conditions:
(1) To release two-thirds of the Western prisoners first;
(2) The number of bandits to be recruited shall be limited to those who have guns.
The negotiations once again reached an impasse, and the reason for the stalemate was because the officials and bandits did not trust each other, and the officials were afraid to accept the conditions, and the bandits did not let anyone go; The bandits are worried that if they release people, the officials will turn their faces and not recognize them. The two sides were so deadlocked, until the appearance of a man named Chen Tiaoyuan, who handled everything exquisitely and comprehensively. The government sent this man up the mountain to negotiate with Sun Meiyao and others, and finally broke the siege.
On June 2, Chen Tiaoyuan took Sun Meiyao down the mountain and signed a peace treaty with Zheng Shiqi, a government representative. On that day, sun Meiyao's minions, whether men, women, old or young, were given a death certificate, and those who did not want to join the army were allowed to surrender their weapons and be dismissed, and their personal belongings were allowed to be taken home.
It was not until June 12, when all eight Western prisoners were released and returned to Shanghai on the 13th, that the lincheng robbery that shocked China and foreign countries was officially closed, which lasted a total of 37 days.
Sun Meiyao and the others were recruited as they wished, but the good times did not last long, and Sun Meiyao's brigade commander served for six months, and on December 19 of the same winter, he was killed by Zhang Peirong, the newly appointed Yanzhou town guard, who set up a feast at the Hongmen Gate.
However, Sun Guizhi, the person behind the Lincheng bandits, still escaped, and he took a group of remnants and wandered around in the Lunan Mountains, and the officials never did anything about him.
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