In 1928, Zhang Zuolin died, and everyone elected his brother Zhang Zuoxiang as the commander-in-chief of the three eastern provinces.
Soon, Zhang Xueliang came back, and he also tried his best to promote the military and political power to unify the Northeast, but who knew that he still refused.
Zhang Zuoxiang, Zhang Xueliang's old uncle, Zhang Zuolin's sworn brother, was loyal to Zhang Zuolin, and after his death, he fully assisted Zhang Xueliang, which can be described as the second-in-command of the warlords.
But it was such a Kuomintang bigwig, but he let his son join the Eighth Route Army during the Anti-Japanese War, what was going on?
Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zuoxiang in film and television dramas
From masons to feudal officials
Zhang Zuoxiang was born in Yixian County, Jinzhou, Fengtian in 1881, and his family was poor, but he still studied private school for three years.
When he was 16 years old, because his brother was plotted by the enemy, he was afraid of being implicated, so he ran away from home and lived in Jinzhou and Fengtian.
In order to make ends meet, he had to work for the people in the village for a short time, and sometimes do masonry work for people, so many people later criticized him for being a bricklayer and came from here.
In 1901, his brother was assassinated by the enemy, so he took a risk, planned to kill the enemy who hurt his brother, and then simply did not do anything, and led twenty or thirty people to defect to Zhang Zuolin in Xinmin Mansion at that time.
Zhang Zuolin saw that he had the same surname as himself, and he also had similar interests, so he accepted him as a brother.
In 1902, Zhang Zuolin's team was incorporated by the Qing court, Zhang Zuolin was the pipe band of the Xinmin Fu guerrillas, and Zhang Zuoxiang became a sentry officer.
In 1907, Zhang Zuolin already had the strength of 5 infantry companies and 7 cavalry companies. After that, the local armed forces were continuously recruited, and by 1908, there were 3,500 elite troops.
During this period, Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zuoxiang, Ma Longtan, Wu Junsheng and other 8 people became brothers, which were the original members of the Feng Group.
Zhang Zuolin et al
With the development of Zhang Zuolin's power, Zhang Zuoxiang is also gradually promoted.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Zhang Zuolin was the commander of the 27th Division, and Zhang Zuoxiang became the commander of the cavalry and artillery of the 27th Division.
Later, he became the brigade commander, the chief of the general staff of the Patrol Embassy, and the head of the lecture hall of the three eastern provinces.
From 1922 to 1924, two wars broke out, and Zhang Zuoxiang held important positions in both wars.
In 1924, he was appointed as the superintendent and governor of Jilin Province, and became a feudal official who could take charge of himself.
However, no matter how big an official he is, he is loyal to Zhang Zuolin, but he has his own views on some internal and external policies.
He has always held the idea of "sticking to care, recuperating and recuperating, training soldiers, and expanding strength", so he was opposed to the two direct wars.
During his tenure as the overseer of Jilin, he did many things that benefited the people, such as resisting Zhang Zuolin's policies such as opening up the ban on smoking and paying him for growing drugs, refusing to cooperate with the Japanese, building the Jihai Railway on his own, and founding Jilin University.
Zhang Zuoxiang
Be a key figure
In November 1925, Guo Songlin's rebellion against Feng broke out within the Feng army, Guo Songlin and his wife were shot on the spot, and most of the other major generals were also captured.
Zhang Zuoxiang hated Guo Songlin's betrayal, but when the Feng army captured the headquarters of Guo's department, he sent people to appease the captured officers and soldiers, and said to the captured family members:
Everyone has been brothers for many years, but they have met each other in the midst of war, which is the misfortune of the Northeast. There is no way to save the dead brothers, and I will be responsible for everyone's safety in the future for the living officers and soldiers. I will intercede with you from above, and as long as I have one breath left, there will be no more such misfortunes.
But things are not so simple, on the evening of December 19, Zhang Zuolin held a meeting to discuss Guo Aftermath in the Fengtian Marshal's Mansion, at which Zhang Zuolin scolded Guo Songlin, saying that he had made everyone miserable.
Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zuoxiang in film and television dramas
Others echoed the idea, and everyone advocated the eradication of the leading elements.
At this time, I saw Zhang Zuoxiang stand up, and he said: Since Guo Songlin has obeyed the law, everyone else is our brother, and they should be allowed to make meritorious contributions and be exempted from prosecution.
Most people at the banquet objected to his opinion, and Zhang Zuolin never spoke, and when he saw that the matter was getting more and more serious, Zhang Zuoxiang cried at the venue, he said:
If you have to kill them, then kill my Zhang Zuoxiang first, I don't want to see this kind of fratricidal tragedy again.
In the end, Zhang Zuolin could only say: Let Zhang Xueliang handle this matter.
It can be seen from this that Zhang Zuoxiang has a very high prestige among the generals of the new faction, and he is the only key figure who can stand up and stabilize the situation in the midst of the contradictions between the old and new factions.
Zhang Zuoxiang in film and television dramas
Assisted by Zhang Xueliang
On June 4, 1928, the Huanggutun bombing incident broke out, and Zhang Zuolin, Wu Junsheng and others were killed on the spot. The generals of the Feng Department became panicked for a while because the dragons had no leader.
In the minds of many generals, Zhang Zuoxiang was the most suitable candidate, so when Zhang Xueliang had not returned to Shenyang, the Federation of Meetings of the Three Eastern Provinces openly elected Zhang Zuoxiang as the security commander of the three eastern provinces, and sent the official recommendation letter and the seal letter to Zhang's mansion.
But Zhang Zuoxiang refused, saying that he would wait for Zhang Xueliang to come back and then discuss it in the long run.
In Zhang Zuoxiang's mind, Zhang Zuolin is his eternal boss, and Zhang Xueliang is the existence of the young master.
In the early years, when Zhang Xueliang graduated from the lecture hall of the three eastern provinces, he suggested to Zhang Zuolin that Zhang Xueliang take over his position as the brigade commander of the patrol embassy guard.
After that, he accompanied Zhang Xueliang to Japan, and at that time he secretly swore that his only wish in this life was to assist Zhang Xiaoliang to inherit his father's business.
Later, Zhang Xueliang rushed to Shenyang day and night, and after handling Zhang Xueliang's funeral, he convened a meeting of the Northeast elders to study the question of who would succeed Zhang Zuolin as the boss of the three eastern provinces.
Zhang Xueliang said that he was very young and strongly admired Zhang Zuoxiang to unify the military and political power in Northeast China.
But Zhang Zuoxiang resolutely did not accept it, and he must let Zhang Xueliang inherit his father's business, and he was only willing to fulfill the responsibility of assisting.
In the end, Zhang Xueliang, with the resolute support of Zhang Zuoxiang and others, rightly grasped the military and political power in the northeast.
Zhang Zuoxiang
Zhang Xueliang and Zhang Zuoxiang have always had a good relationship, he called Zhang Zuoxiang a teacher very early, and then called him an assistant coach.
Later, he asked his wife Yu Fengzhi to be the goddaughter of the second wife Zhang Zuoxiang, so the relationship between the two families became closer.
Zhang Zuoxiang did his best to assist Zhang Xueliang in stabilizing the situation in Northeast China. He didn't trust Chiang Kai-shek very much, and he always supported Zhang Xueliang's "Northeast Change of Banner".
In 1931, when the September 18 Incident broke out, Zhang Zuoxiang, who was taking care of his father's funeral affairs in his hometown, knew about the incident and said to the generals of the Fengjun who came to mourn:
The Japanese army will not be able to swallow the Northeast no matter what, and the Northeast will always be ours, so don't worry.
Who knew that the situation was more complicated than Zhang Zuoxiang imagined, Xiqia (originally the Aixin Jueluo clan), who originally acted as Zhang Zuoxiang's chairman of Jilin Province, had a teacher-student relationship with the commander of the Japanese division, Duomen Erlang, so he took advantage of Zhang Zuoxiang's absence to betray Jilin as the acting commander and became a traitor.
Zhang Zuo was very angry about this, and immediately called the military and political personnel in Jilin, asking them not to obey Xiqia's false orders, and sent people to confront Xicha's traitor organization, but there was no return, and a year later, Jilin Province was all occupied by the Japanese army.
It can be said that credulity and misuse of Xiqia were the biggest mistakes in Zhang Zuoxiang's political career.
Chang
Withdraw from military and political circles
After the September 18 Incident, Chiang Kai-shek advocated that "the outside must first be at ease", and strictly ordered the Northeast Army not to resist.
Soon, the invading Japanese army easily occupied the entire northeast and then approached the Guannai.
In 1933, the Japanese army invaded Rehe and approached Beiping, forced by the strong pressure of public opinion in the country, Chiang Kai-shek had to withdraw part of the army and strengthen the defense order around the Great Wall, Zhang Xueliang was the commander of the 1st Group Army, and Zhang Zuoxiang was the commander of the 2nd Group Army.
Because the Kuomintang still implemented the surrender policy of "resisting on one side and negotiating on the other", the Great Wall War of Resistance was finally defeated.
Chiang Kai-shek put all the responsibility on Zhang Xueliang, forced Zhang Xueliang to go into the wilderness, and then called Zhang Zuoxiang and said: You can go down if you are old. Therefore, Zhang Zuoxiang retired from the military and political circles in 1933.
After that, Zhang Zuoxiang had been living in seclusion in the British Concession in Tianjin, and the then senior staff member of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Banheng, asked him to go out of the mountains to serve the Japanese puppet, and Zhang Zuoxiang was unmoved by all kinds of persecution and coercion and temptation for him.
After the man left, he angrily said to his family: I am Chinese, and I still have to leave some virtue for my children and grandchildren.
The Japanese were greatly annoyed by Zhang Zuoxiang's ignorance of current affairs, so they spoke ill of Zhang Zuoxiang in the newspapers in an attempt to sow discord between him and the Kuomintang authorities.
As a matter of fact, their provocation was successful, and the Kuomintang did send spies to closely monitor Zhang Zuoxiang, but they all returned in vain because they could not catch any tricks against Zhang Zuoxiang.
Zhang Zuoxiang in film and television dramas
And Zhang Zuoxiang was not a vegetarian, at this time he had no confidence in the authorities, so he let his son Zhang Tingshu secretly join the Eighth Route Army and went to the forefront of the anti-Japanese resistance.
The Japanese were so annoyed by this that they blew up Zhang Zuoxiang's father's grave and seized part of his house after occupying Tianjin.
In this way, Zhang Zuoxiang still lived his own life, did not return to the Kuomintang, and did not work for the Japanese puppet. Until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, he had been living at home raising flowers and planting grass, and lived peacefully.
In 1936, on the eve of the "Xi'an Incident", Zhang Zuoxiang was worried about the current situation.
Later, Lao Jiang put Zhang Xueliang under house arrest, Zhang Zuoxiang was worried about this, and used his own forces and connections to do the work of the rest of the Northeast, and the right to everyone: maintain internal unity and focus on rescuing Zhang Xueliang.
At the beginning of 1948, the Kuomintang collapsed on the battlefield in the northeast, and Chiang Kai-shek appointed Zhang Zuoxiang as the vice chairman of the Northeast Political Affairs Committee in order to win the hearts of the people.
But in fact, he is just using his prestige to act, and he has no real power in his name. He was perfunctory on the surface, but he didn't agree with it in his heart, so he kept shirking and didn't take office.
Later, when the People's Liberation Army liberated Jinzhou, Zhang Zuoxiang was captured, and the principal responsible person of the field army immediately met with him and told him: I hope he can stand on the side of the people's liberation and do things that are beneficial to the people.
Zhang Zuoxiang agreed, and later the People's Liberation Army sent people to escort Zhang Zuoxiang all the way back to Tianjin.
After Zhang Zuoxiang returned to Tianjin, Chiang Kai-shek sent people to urge Zhang Zuoxiang to go to Taiwan, sent plane tickets several times, and reserved half a boat for his family, but Zhang Zuoxiang was unmoved, and he told his family that no one was allowed to leave.
Zhang Zuoxiang in film and television dramas
Write at the end
In March 1949, Zhang Zuoxiang died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage, and Premier Zhou felt very sorry after learning the news of his death and said to his nephew Zhou Jingwen: Why did the old gentleman leave? We also want to ask the old gentleman to come out and work together.
After the liberation of the country, the government was very concerned about Zhang Zuoxiang's family, and during the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Zuoxiang's wife was affected and had difficulties in life. Later, Zhang Xueliang's brother Zhang Xueming reported this situation to Premier Zhou, and the premier immediately said that he would ask the relevant personnel to return the copied things immediately.
Looking back on Zhang Zuoxiang's life, it is a blessing to be born in troubled times and meet the master.
Although he is in a high position, he still adheres to the original heart of loving the country and the people, is not greedy or takes credit, and does not do anything that violates his conscience and the purpose of a soldier.
Therefore, he will be respected by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party all his life!
What do you have to say about Zhang Xueliang's old uncle? Feel free to leave a comment.
(Source: Baidu Encyclopedia: Zhang Zuoxiang; Character 1985 "Zhang Xueliang's Old Uncle")
Zhang Zuoxiang in film and television dramas