Black Flag Army

Chapter 119 Feng Huafu takes the stage

When Zhang Xun learned that Bian Zi's army was completely wiped out, he was heartbroken and wanted to commit suicide. He was persuaded by his adviser Su Xilin, who urgently called the Dutch Embassy. The Dutch Embassy sent a car to take Zhang Xun and Su Xilin to the Dutch Embassy for refuge. The Dutch did not help in vain, as Su Xilin spent fifty gold bars.

After Duan Qirui drove Zhang Xun away, he became the Prime Minister and Army Chief again, and Feng Huafu became the Acting President. When rewarding the officers for their merits, he asked the division commanders and brigade commanders to reimburse the military expenses. These officers reported hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands of yuan, but only Feng Jishan reported 10,000 yuan. Duan Qirui laughed and said, "Feng the fool is really a fool. He can't even report false military expenses. No wonder he is so poor."

He told Feng Jishan not to go through the reimbursement procedures and directly sent someone to deliver 20,000 yuan to Feng Jishan.

Feng Shenshan sent someone to Beijing Quanfu Printing Factory to call the factory director Yin Quan. He took out 5,000 yuan from the 20,000 yuan and returned it to Yin Quan, saying, "This is the 5,000 yuan you helped me redeem the house deed last time. Now that the military funds have been sent down, I will return it to you immediately. Thank you! And thank Brother Di for me."

Yin Quan said: "Captain Feng, you don't have to return it to me. Mr. Di asked me to give it to you. I didn't lend it to you."

Feng Shenshan frowned and said, "How can that be possible? Five thousand dollars is not a small sum. I am very grateful that you can lend it to me. Take it back quickly."

Yin Quan had no choice but to put the money away. Feng Jishan then asked, "I heard that when I was not in the 16th Brigade, Yang Guitang launched a purge and drove away Jiang Hongyu, Feng Anbang, Liu Ruming and others. They had nowhere to go, so they followed Wu Chunlei to Mobei?"

Yin Quan said: "Yes, there were more than 180 people in total. The highest-ranking one was the brigade chief of staff Jiang Hongyu, and the deputy regiment commanders Feng Anbang and Liu Ruming."

Feng Jishan said, "I didn't realize that Wu Chunlei is such a good talker. He could actually trick people of higher rank than him to go to Mobei. Can they stay in such a bitter and cold place? Now that I have resumed my position as brigade commander, please send a message to them to come back. It's also okay if Wu Chunlei wants to come back."

Yin Quan smiled strangely and said, "I'm afraid they won't come back."

Feng Jishan asked, "Why? Have I, Feng Jishan, done anything wrong to them? Or is it that Brother Di is unwilling to let them go?"

Yin Quan said: "Neither. There are three reasons for not coming back. First, Outer Mongolia is not as bad as Brigade Commander Feng imagined. Second, the Black Flag Army never defaults on military pay. It is true that the 16th Mixed Brigade often defaults on military pay, right?"

Feng Jishan said angrily: "This is because the Beiyang government's Army Department owes the 16th Mixed Brigade military pay. What can I do? I can't conjure up the money!"

Yin Quan said: "This is the difference between Brigade Commander Feng and Mr. Di. Mr. Di has been the garrison commander of Western Meng until now, and the Beiyang government has not given him a single copper coin in military pay, while the troops under his command receive a full salary every month."

Feng Jishan said with a bitter face: "In terms of making money, I am indeed not as good as Brother Di. I am not capable of making money, but I still want to save face. I could have asked for more military funds this time. I also know that this is a bad habit, but I can't change it. What is the third reason why they don't come back?"

Yin Quan said: "Jiang Hongyu is now the Major General Chief of Staff of the First Division of the Black Flag Army, Feng Anbang is the Major General Deputy Commander of the Security Division and Commander of the First Brigade, Liu Ruming is the Major General Deputy Commander of the Cavalry Division, and Wu Chunlei is the Major General Commander of the Second Division. The soldiers led by Commander Wu have become squad leaders at the lowest level, and some have been promoted to platoon leaders and company commanders."

Feng Jishan looked at his rank of colonel and sighed, "It turns out that they have all been promoted to higher ranks than me. I really don't have the qualifications to ask them to come back and serve as brigade chief of staff or deputy regiment commander."

Yin Quan said: "This shows that Commander Feng has a good way of training his troops and has many talented people under him. If he were a mediocre person, he would not be able to hold such a high position in the Black Flag Army because Mr. Di is very strict."

Guard Captain Zhao Dengyu, who was standing by and serving them tea, could not help but say, "The Black Flag Army is just a local armed force. How can it be compared with our regular army? Many local armed forces have a mob of a few hundred people, and they dare to call themselves commanders or division commanders. Chief of Staff Jiang is not a regular soldier, but he is in the local armed forces. How can he have a future? The brigade commander should write a letter to ask him to come back."

Yin Quan said seriously: "The Black Flag Army has fighter planes, bombers and Krupp cannons. They have defeated the Japanese in air battles and the Russians in land battles. We have also defeated the 20th Division of the Beiyang Army. If such an army is also a mob, then I would like to ask Captain Zhao, what kind of army is considered a strong army?"

Feng Jishan and Zhao Dengyu were shocked when they heard this. Yin Quan took out a red book from his arms, put it on the table in the living room, and said to Feng Jishan, "I think Brigade Commander Feng doesn't know much about Outer Mongolia and Beitang City. This book can help you understand it. It was not written by one of our people, but by a famous scholar from Peking University."

Yin Quan said goodbye and left. Feng Jishan took a look at the red book with eight big characters on it: "China's Strength Lies in Northern Tang."

In the evening, in the western part of Outer Mongolia, at the Lager Ridge of Hangai Mountain, the one-eyed dog Gou Zongwei stood in the largest bunker on the ridge, watching the smoke outside from the observation hole. He sighed and said, "Another day has passed. The Black Flag Army's attacks are getting more and more fierce. I don't know if we can hold on tomorrow. I really envy the Black Flag Army for having so many advanced weapons. Miss Yunzi! When will the air force you promised arrive?"

His last words were directed to Nakajima Yunko who was behind him.

Starting from mid-March, the two brigades of the Justice Army Security Division, under the command of Division Commander Liu Chengliang and Deputy Division Commander Feng Anbang, launched repeated attacks on the bandits of Lagerling. Gou Zongwei organized his men to defend tenaciously. The offensive and defensive battle lasted for more than four months, with heavy casualties on both sides. Gou Zongwei used the steep terrain and solid bunkers to defend his old nest. The Security Division, with the cooperation of aircraft, used heavy artillery to bombard and destroyed more than a dozen bunkers. The last few bunkers were built on the mountain and made of granite. Infantry artillery could not penetrate them, aircraft could not blow through the top of the bunker, and heavy artillery could not be transported up. The batches of demolition experts sent by Liu Chengliang all fell under the muzzles of bunker snipers. Finally, Feng Anbang came up with a stupid way to dig soil at the foot of the mountain and pile up another mountain. When the new mountain was level with the top of Lagerling, the heavy artillery could be set up to bombard. This method took too long, and it was reported to the headquarters. Di Xiong approved it, so he transferred thousands of young and strong refugees to dig soil and pile up the mountain.

Gou Zongwei realized that he could not just sit there and wait for his capture, so he organized several breakouts, but all of them failed. Liu Chengliang surrounded Lagerling with a moat. Gou Zongwei's horse bandits originally had more than 5,000 people, but most of them were killed or wounded, leaving only more than 1,000 people. In order to save food, Gou Zongwei ordered the thousands of seriously injured and disabled people to be shot. The security division also suffered more than 3,000 casualties, but fortunately, they were supplemented with 3,000 people in the rear. Gou Zongwei could only put his hope of rescue on Nakajima Yunko, as Yoshida Ryozo had been killed by the enemy sniper in a gunfight a few days ago.

Nakajima Yunko said: "We have sent three telegrams to the garrison headquarters. The headquarters explained that due to the leak of intelligence by enemy agents within the Black Dragon Society, the supporting air force was ambushed twice by the Black Flag Army's anti-aircraft artillery and air force, suffering heavy losses. They are temporarily unable to provide rescue, but they have captured the Black Party's Tianjin Intelligence Station Chief Cha Jingfeng, and the Tianjin Intelligence Station has also been wiped out."

Gou Zongwei said, "I have no interest in the Tianjin Intelligence Station. I just admire this guy Di Xiong. Why did he let so many people come to die? We have killed at least 3,000 of them in the past few months, but there are still so many people continuing to attack. And there are airplanes. He started making airplanes when he was in Suiyuan. His forward-looking vision is amazing. It is so painful to be his enemy."

Nakajima Yunzi said with some worry: "Why do I feel that you admire him more and more? If he sends someone to persuade you to surrender now, will you accept it and hand me over to them?"

Gou Zongwei said: "This is impossible. He stole Bai Xiuling, the woman who originally belonged to me. He and I can only be enemies for the rest of our lives."

After the failure of Zhang Xun's restoration, the Anti-Rebellion Army announced the abolition of the monarchy and the restoration of the Republic of China. Duan Qirui became a hero of "rebuilding the republic" by virtue of his title as the commander-in-chief of the Anti-Rebellion Army and public opinion propaganda, while Li Yuanhong's reputation was ruined. He could not continue to serve as president, and was soon driven to the French Concession by Duan Qirui's men. With Li Yuanhong's complete resignation, who would take over the presidency became a big problem. At this time, Duan Qirui thought of Feng Huafu, who was the vice president, and after discussing with his subordinates, he decided to invite Feng Huafu to Beijing to serve as acting president.

Let’s talk about Feng Huafu. Like Duan Qirui, he was one of the three Beiyang heroes. He was nicknamed "Beiyang Dog". He also followed Yuan Shikai during the Xiaozhan military training period. He had a very close relationship with Duan Qirui in his early years. But after Yuan Shikai's death, the relationship between the two began to take a sharp turn for the worse. When Li Yuanhong was president, Feng Huafu was in Nanjing and often sang against Duan Qirui. The open and secret struggles continued. In order to fight against Duan Qirui, Feng Huafu won over the middle forces of the Beiyang side, so there was a high voice for him to succeed the president. Duan Qirui knew that Feng Huafu's strength was not much weaker than his own. Once a war broke out, he would not be able to gain an advantage, and it would also lead to the complete division of the Beiyang Army. So even if Duan Qirui didn't like Feng Huafu anymore, he still had to give him the presidency.

Of course, Duan Qirui dared to let Feng Huafu be president, and he had made his own plans. The current Republic of China is a responsible cabinet system, and the power of the prime minister actually exceeds that of the president. This is the result of Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui's arbitrary changes to the Constitution of the Republic of China, and Feng Huafu has to accept this fact. On the other hand, Feng Huafu's territory and army are basically in the Yangtze River Basin. He has no foundation in Beijing, so it is easy to deal with him if he is called to Beijing.

Feng Huafu was also full of fear of Duan Qirui. He repeatedly declined Duan Qirui's invitations and made personnel arrangements in the three provinces of the Yangtze River, leaving no room for Duan Qirui to interfere. At the same time, Feng Huafu called Duan Qirui several times before going to Beijing and put forward a lot of conditions. The two sides kept pulling back and forth until the end of July, when Feng Huafu officially led people to Beijing and took office on August 1. Soon after, Duan Qirui announced that the Beijing government declared war on Germany. The Republic of China officially participated in the World War in the late period of World War I. Of course, no troops were sent, only 140,000 laborers.

Since Feng and Duan had similar qualifications and were both veterans of the Beiyang government, it was only a matter of time before they would have a conflict. Sure enough, not long after, the two had a second dispute over the issue of the southwestern warlords.

The forces in the southwest are mainly composed of the five provinces of Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan. These five places are basically the sphere of influence of local warlords and the White Star Party, and are beyond the reach of the Beiyang warlords. Among them, the most powerful are the warlords of Yunnan and Guangxi. The current warlords are Tang Jiyao of Yunnan and Lu Rongting of Guangxi. In fact, these southwestern warlords are not a monolithic entity, and conflicts may break out between them, but they can often reach a consensus in opposing the Beiyang warlords.

When Zhang Xun restored the monarchy, he dissolved Li Yuanhong's parliament. After Duan Qirui's anti-rebellion army defeated Zhang Xun, he regarded himself as a hero who "rebuilt the republic" and refused to restore the parliament and the Provisional Constitution, which aroused strong opposition from the southwestern warlords. In addition, Duan Qirui planned to exclude the members of the White Star Party and the southern warlords from the new parliament, which further aroused the disgust of the White Star Party. In late August, the White Star Party held a meeting in Guangdong and held an "extraordinary parliament". Soon after, they put forward the concept of "protecting the law", denied Feng Huafu and Duan Qirui's Beijing government, and called on the southwestern warlords to launch a northern expedition.

Duan Qirui naturally could not tolerate the actions of the southwestern warlords. He had long been unhappy with them. Now that the southwestern side had given him an excuse, he was more determined to wipe them out. But Feng Huafu had a different view. When he was still in Nanjing, he had already had a lot of dealings with Lu Rongting and tried to win over the southwestern warlords. In Feng Huafu's view, eliminating the southwestern warlords would increase Duan Qirui's strength and would not be conducive to balancing the internal forces of the Beiyang warlords. Therefore, the matter of conquering the southwestern warlords began to seem a bit far away.

Seeing Feng Huafu's procrastination, Duan Qirui became a little impatient. He arranged for his confidants Fu Liangzuo and Lu Yongxiang to serve as the governor of Hunan and the military affairs director of Jiangsu respectively, intending to control the dominance of the Yangtze River region. Under the military pressure of Duan Qirui, Feng Huafu was forced to agree to his request.

In addition to political arrangements, Duan Qirui also made new arrangements for military expenditures. The Beiyang government had been heavily in debt for years, and the treasury had long been out of money. Duan Qirui discussed with Xu Shuzheng and planned to borrow money from foreigners in exchange for military expenditures. At this time, the British and French coalition forces and Germany were trapped in the quagmire of war and had no spare money to borrow. The United States was focused on Europe at this time and had no interest in the civil war in Asia. Instead, the Japanese extended a helping hand to Duan Qirui. Since the new Prime Minister Terauchi came to power, Japan has changed its military approach to China and switched to economic infiltration, so it was quite happy to lend tens of millions of yen to Duan Qirui.

Of course, the Japanese did not take the money for free. The Japanese envoy made many requests, one of which was to ask Suiyuan and Chahar provinces to cooperate with the Japanese garrison air force to attack the Black Flag Army in western Mongolia. The Duan Qirui government also acquiesced. As the president, Feng Huafu was completely unaware of this. At this time, Suiyuan Governor Jiang Yanxing had been sidelined by the 20th Division Commander Fan Guozhang and was unable to stop it. All he could do was send someone to tip off.