In the late Qing Dynasty, zuo Zongtang, the feudal governor, recovered the lost land in Xinjiang, which was one of the few victories of the Qing court, which laid the territorial integrity of the motherland, and Zuo Zongtang became a national hero.
Here, the person we want to talk about, like Zuo Zongtang, recovered a large area of the motherland's territory, and his merits are comparable to Zuo Zongtang, but he has received an evaluation that is diametrically opposite to Zuo Zongtang, and even left a stink for eternity.
This person is Zhao Erfeng, the governor of Sichuan at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and it can be said that Zhao Erfeng was a person nailed to the pillar of shame, and although he had the merit of recovering the lost land in Xikang, it was difficult to offset his guilt, and this crime was to suppress the road protection movement.
For Zhao Erfeng, although he has merit, it is far inferior to the sins he has committed, and the things in this must be said slowly.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the situation in Tibet was very turbulent, and the British invaded Tibet many times, and in 1904, they forced the Qing court to sign the Treaty of Lhasa.
The British invaded Tibet from British India
The key point of this treaty was that without the consent of Britain, the Qing court was not allowed to buy and sell territory to other countries, and the Qing court was not allowed to engage in any activity related to economic interests with other countries. On the surface, the British recognized the Qing Dynasty's sovereignty over Tibet, but in fact, the British held the lifeblood of Tibet.
In this context, the Qing court also strengthened its management of the southwest region. Zhao Erfeng also became close to the southwest, and became a feudal official from a small county.
In 1903, when the British invaded Tibet, Zhao Erfeng's Bole and Shanxi Governor Xi Liang were transferred to the governor of Sichuan, and Zhao Erfeng was also transferred to Sichuan with him and began to appear on the stage of history.
In 1905, in Batang, Sichuan, the Qing court minister Feng Quan handled local affairs unfavorably, at the instigation of the British, Batang Toast and Lama killed Feng Quan and two French missionaries, burned the Catholic church, after the incident, the Qing court sent Zhao Erfeng, then the Governor of Jianchang Province, and Ma Weiqi, the viceroy of Sichuan, to suppress it.
Zhao Erfeng advocated the use of force to suppress the rebellion, adopted violent means, quickly quelled the rebellion, the local Toast fled to Sangpi Temple, but did not capture it for several months, and finally cut off the water source of Sangpi Temple before attacking the temple, but Tusi fled to Tibet in advance, and since then there has been no news.
After this incident, Zhao Erfeng was appointed minister of defense in Sichuan and Yunnan, and became a qing dynasty feudal official, and after taking office, Zhao Erfeng began to implement the policy of land reform and return to the stream in the Sichuan-Tibet Border Region.
The interests of the toastmasters were greatly weakened, the unwilling toastmasters kept rebelling, and Zhao Erfeng was also constantly fighting. To deal with the situation of rebellion, Zhao Erfeng adopted a policy of pulling one by one, favoring the people and taking bloody and cruel suppression of Tusi.
This means effectively weakens the forces of the Toast rebellion.
During his term of office, Zhao Erfeng abolished the political status of most of the toastmasters and living Buddhas, moved the people inland to areas where the land was changed and returned to the stream, reclaimed land, reduced the people's servitude taxes, and developed local agriculture and animal husbandry, transportation, posts, telecommunications, culture and education, etc., which brought many benefits to the local people.
In 1907, the governor of Sichuan, Xi Liang, left office, and the following year, Zhao Erfeng's brother Zhao Erxun (巽, Siyin) took over as the governor of Sichuan, and Zhao Erfeng was appointed minister in Tibet and concurrently served as the minister of defense.
Zhao Erfeng planned to garrison a large number of troops in the Kangding region and then enter Tibet in order to strengthen his control over Tibet, at which point the 13th Dalai Lama Tuden Gyatso, who had resisted the British invasion, returned to Lhasa, but became pro-British for his own benefits. With British support behind it, Thubten Gyatso intended to independent Tibet and safeguard the interests of the exploiting classes. For historical reasons, the local people's strength is minimal, it is difficult to resist, and they can only endure exploitation.
The 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso
The Tibetan Kashag (the administrative organ of the Tibetan region) was worried that Zhao Erfeng's interests would be damaged after he entered Tibet, and decided to rebel first and attack the riverside.
In 1909, Zhao Erfeng defeated the rebels who attacked the Batang area, entered Tibet, and recovered Jiangka, Gongjue and other areas.
In 1910, Zhao Erfeng and Ai Xinjue Luo Zhongying joined forces to continue to recover the lost land of the rebellion, and Zhao Erfeng adopted a policy of suppression and appeasement, establishing counties in the local area.
On February 12, 1910, Zhao Erfeng entered Lhasa, and on the 25th dalai Lama Thubten Gyatso fled to British India.
Zhao Erfeng wrote to the imperial court to carry out land reform throughout Tibet, but the Qing court was worried that the reform would be too radical and did not agree.
Zhao Erfeng's reconquest of Tibet this time dealt a blow to the political forces of the local princes and Dalai Lamas, carried out land reform and return to the stream in many areas, established counties and counties, declared China's sovereignty over Tibet to the British, and laid the foundation for the later Xikang Province.
This time into Tibet, Zhao Er harvested more than 4,000 miles of land from the east and west, maintained China's territorial integrity, and thwarted Tudeng Gyatso's intention to independent Tibet.
This credit is the same as Zuo Zongtang's recovery of Xinjiang. In his capacity as a feudal official at that time, he said that Zhao Erfeng should have received praise and praise from later generations, but because of the difference in thoughts, he was left with a thousand years of stink.
In 1911, Zhao Erfeng succeeded him as the governor of Sichuan, and in the same year, the Qing court declared that the railway was nationalized, but it sold the sovereignty of the railway to the great powers, and the Sichuan region set off a huge road protection movement.
On this matter, Zhao Erfeng believed that the people's move was a very normal thing, and on the one hand enlightened the people, on the other hand, he wrote to the imperial court to impeach the officials who had betrayed their sovereignty, asking for the matter to be suspended, but the imperial court ignored Zhao Erfeng's demands and demanded that Zhao Erfeng dissolve the masses.
As a Qing courtier, Zhao Erfeng was helpless, the construction of the railway in Sichuan can be said to be the participation of the whole people, and the people gave great hopes to the railway, but the Qing court was suddenly nationalized, and the people's reaction was naturally very fierce, if they could handle this matter slowly, maybe things would change, but the Qing court demanded that the people gathered be dissolved immediately.
Zhao Erfeng invited the shareholders of the Sichuan-Han Railway and dozens of people from the Sichuan-Han Parliament to come to the official office for a meeting, where Zhao Erfeng made a big mistake and detained them after the talks were fruitless.
The next day, thousands of agitated people surrounded the official office, demanding the release of people, worried that the angry people rushed into the official office, Zhao Erfeng actually ordered the firing of guns, as soon as the gun was fired, it was chaotic, and finally more than thirty petitioning people died under the muzzle of the gun, creating a bloody case in Chengdu.
After the bloody case, Zhao Erfeng continued to suppress the Road Protection Movement, but the situation lost Zhao Erfeng's control, and The climax of the uprising in Sichuan was set off, the Sichuan army was unwilling to accept the control of the Qing court to suppress innocent people, and the Qing government sent a new army from Hubei into Sichuan, which also became the fuse of the Xinhai Revolution.
On October 10, 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, a military government was established in Sichuan, and the governor Zhao Erfeng surrendered military power and power in accordance with the general trend.
On December 6, the Sichuan army experienced a mutiny, and at the request of some wealthy merchants in the city, the former governor Zhao Erfeng posted a notice in the name of the governor to appease the military, but Yin Changheng, the military minister of the Sichuan Army, sentenced Zhao Erfeng to death under the imperial city of Chengdu on the grounds that Zhao Erfeng was plotting to change the army.
Zhao Er's exploits of recovering the lost land in Tibet were like a comet flashing by.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Thubten Gyatso took the opportunity to return to Tibet, and Tibet entered a semi-independent state for forty years, until 1950, when the People's Liberation Army crossed the Jinsha River and reached a peace agreement, Tibet returned to the embrace of the motherland.
Tibet was peacefully liberated
Later generations' evaluations of Zhao Erfeng varied greatly, and he had made meritorious contributions to recovering lost land, but he was also wrong in his bloody suppression of the revolutionary masses.
For the Qing government, Zhao Erfeng was a loyal subject, but for the general situation of the world, he was a sinner. Now people have no way of knowing how Zhao Erfeng made the choice at that time.
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