Chapter 176: Annexation of the Northwest (2)

Qinzhou, later known as Tianshui in Gansu, was one of the "three prefectures and eight states" to which Gansu belonged during the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and its economy and culture were relatively developed, and it was called the "gateway of Gannan." The pen "fun" pavilion www.biquge.info south into Sichuan, east to Shaanxi", since ancient times it has been a place for soldiers to fight. In the revolutionary wave of Xinhai year, following the uprising of the revolutionary Huang Yue in Qinzhou, because of the overt and covert support of the southwest government, this place has been occupied by the revolutionary party armed forces so far.

But now, the southwest government decided to annex the northwest, and the revolutionary army in Qinzhou was reorganized into the 25th Division of the People's Army.

When the news reached Lanzhou, the provincial capital, the atmosphere in the city became unprecedentedly depressing, and some of the officials and gentry in the city were frightened, some were happy, and all living beings were different at this moment. But among the people, the most complicated people in their hearts are the governor Zhao Weixi and the governor Ma Anliang.

Since the assassination of Li Jingqing, the speaker of the Gansu parliament, Ma Anliang has become more and more unscrupulous, nepotism and suppression of dissidents are already trivial matters, such as manipulating the parliament and confronting the governor have become commonplace. Even so, Ma Anliang still did not feel satisfied, because at that time he set his sights on the position of Gansu Overseer, which was a higher level than the Admiral. As a result, the contradiction between the governor Zhao Weixi and the admiral Ma Anliang became increasingly intensified, and the two began to fight openly and secretly, but Zhao Weixi, who was born as a literati, was the opponent of Ma Anliang, who was born as a bandit and held military power. Within two months, Zhao Weixi, who had been suppressed and excluded by Ma Anliang's political and military forces, could no longer hold on, and soon submitted his resignation to Beijing, wanting to leave Gansu.

After learning the news, Ma Anliang was simply overjoyed, and soon went through some arrangements. On the one hand, he not only instructed the leading generals in the Western Army under his command to jointly send a letter to President Yuan Shikai, proposing the policy of "Gan people governing Gan", but also sent people to bribe officials at all levels of the Presidential Palace, thinking that Ma Anliang would take the position of governor to dredge up relations. On the other hand, he has frequently made overtures to the Kuomintang in order to gain the full support of the Kuomintang Party, which is currently dominating the domestic political arena on the surface, when he took office as Gandu.

Although Song Jiaoren reorganized the League into the Kuomintang Party, he did the same as Sun Wen when he ran the League, and vigorously recruited celebrities, forces, and even local garrison generals in various provinces to join the Kuomintang Party. In this way, although the strength of the Kuomintang and its influence in the provinces were rapidly expanded, it also led to the spread of the disadvantages of the mixed good and bad during the League period. Under these circumstances, Ma Anliang, who is like a local snake in Gansu, is obviously the target of the Kuomintang to woo him. The two sides hit it off, and when the Gansu branch of the Kuomintang was established, Ma Anliang became the branch head of the Kuomintang and concurrently the president of the branch newspaper "Dahe Daily".

Ma Anliang met between Beiyang and the Kuomintang on both sides, which can be said to have vividly interpreted the phrase "if you have milk, you are a mother". But what Ma Anliang didn't expect was that although he was in Gansu for a while, Yuan Shikai was not ready to appoint Ma Anliang as the governor of Gansu. The reason is very simple, first of all, the fear of the Kuomintang power is big, the second is the fear that the first-class generals will interfere in politics, which will lead to political instability in the northwest region, and the other is that the Hui army controls the army's power and does not listen to the orders of the central government. Therefore, as soon as Zhao Weixi's resignation was rejected by the central government, Yuan Shikai rejected it. From this point of view, Yuan Shikai's political vision and governance ability are really extraordinary.

Now, the People's Army is advancing into the northwest, and although Zhao Weixi is still serving as the governor, with his understanding of the strength of the southwest in the past, he knows that although he has not been dismissed by Beijing, he will not be able to work for long. At this time, he felt that he could see it like never before. In today's world, if you have a gun, you are the king of grass, and it is precisely because he Zhao has no soldiers in his hands that he can't fight Ma Anliang, an old bandit. In the peaceful and prosperous times, he Zhao may be a generation of capable officials, but in this troubled era...

Zhao Weixi can become so open-minded, but it doesn't mean that Ma Anliang can also see it. Although the People's Army defeated the British army, although he had suffered the loss of the People's Army in Shaanxi, although... However, Ma Anliang was just unwilling. Their Ma family started from the Hehuang Revolution during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, and after two generations, it has become a force that can now influence the situation in Gansu and the situation in the entire northwest. What's more, Ma Anliang knows very well what kind of outcome awaits him after the Communist Party occupies Gansu. It is not difficult to see from the past practices of the Communist Party that Governor Zhao Weixi may be spared death, but he who masterminded the assassination of the speaker of the provincial assembly and organized the sale of ** tobacco to the People's Army, how can he survive after falling into the hands of the enemy?

Ma Anliang has made up his mind to fight with the Communist Party to the end, but in the huge Lanzhou city, not everyone has the same heart as him, and they all think like him.

December 24, west of Lanzhou.

In a barracks at the garrison of the Loyal Army of the Gansu Standing Army, Zhou Wuxue, the commander of the Loyal Army sitting on the main seat, was contemplating his brows. There were one person sitting next to Zhou Wuxue on the left and right, one of whom was Lu Hongtao, the commander of the Zhenwu Army, although his face was serious, but his expression was mixed with a little excitement.

Zhou Wuxue, the word Benzhai, Tianshui Dongguan people, for the Guangxu years. He is loyal and pragmatic, reads military books, always has the heart to serve the country, and always has the ambition to serve the country. Later, he was recommended to be an official outside the province, and in the late Qing Dynasty, Gansu was preparing for the new army of the army, and then he was transferred back to the province to take up the post of the third battalion of the newly established standing army, and was later promoted to the third standard commander. Although Zhou Wuxue was born in the old army, he did not have the habits unique to the old soldiers. After the success of the Xinhai Revolution, he also quickly completed the transformation of an old soldier under the rule of feudal autocracy into a new soldier of the democratic republic, although he tried his best to get rid of the constraints of feudal rule in action, but in a closed and conservative place like Gansu, some things were not so easy to do.

At this moment, Zhou Wuxue was able to share a room with Lu Hongtao, the commander of the Zhenwu Army, because of another person present, Lieutenant Colonel Lin Weiran, director of the Lanzhou Office of the Second Department and First Bureau of the General Staff of the People's Army. Although the KPA has launched an offensive from the front, the comrades hidden in the intelligence front are still doing all kinds of work. This time, Lin Weiran asked Zhou Wuxue and Lu Zhentao together, and what they talked about was nothing more than being ordered to rebel against the two. Among the two, except for Zhou Wuxue, who has not yet made a decision, Lu Hongtao is already determined to fall to the southwest. If Lu Hongtao was able to make up his mind so quickly, it was thanks to one person, that is, Qu Tongfeng, commander of the People's Army and Navy, both of whom graduated from the Tianjin Military Academy. In this era, being away from home, fellow villagers, and friendship are quite a great resource.

Seeing Zhou Wuxue's tightly knit brows, Lin Weiran spoke again: "According to the order of the General Staff, the Zhongwu Army and the Zhenwu Army after the uprising will be reorganized into a Class A Infantry Division along with the Zhaowu Army of General Ma Fuxiang in Ningxia, numbered the 26th Division of the People's Army, with General Lu Hongtao as the division commander. ”

Ma Fuxiang was able to revolt on the battlefield, which did not surprise the two of them at all. Ma Fuxiang's life experience is different from Ma Anliang's, and his style is also different. Ma Anliang was born as a bandit from the anti-Qing Dynasty and descended to the Qing Dynasty, Ma Fuxiang was born in an official eunuch because of the emperor's protection, and he was proud of his background in Kejia, and Ma Fuxiang, who has always despised Ma Anliang's various officers, is unique in the Hui army, which is something that many people know. It was only because he was squeezed out by Ma Anliang, who occupied a high position for his "meritorious service to quell the chaos" after Xinhai, that he had no choice but to go to Ningxia. At this time, if Ma Fuxiang is not right, it will make people feel abnormal.

"Lieutenant Colonel Lin, that Benzhai and General Ma Fuxiang, don't you know?" Lu Hongtao's heart was hot when he heard this, how strong is the strength of a division of the People's Army, he didn't see it when he was in Shaanxi, but this time was not the time for him to be eager, Zhou Wuxue had some things to ask, and now he can only do it for him.

According to his personal wishes, General Ma Fuxiang will choose to enter politics, and later he will rush to the advanced seminar for provincial and ministerial-level cadres at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for half a year, and after graduation, he will become the vice governor of Gansu Province. As for General Zhou, if he enters politics, he will also be like General Ma Fuxiang, if he joins the army, if there is no accident, he should serve as the major general of the Ninth Army. Regarding Zhou Wuxue's arrangement, although Lin Weiran was not very sure, as an intelligence person, he naturally had gossip that belonged to them.

"The Ninth Army? Captains? At this moment, not only Lu Hongtao, but even Zhou Wuxue was shocked. Since the People's Army defeated the British army in Burma, Zhou Wuxue has not studied much of the neighboring army.

"Yes, the General Staff has submitted to the Military Commission for approval the creation of the Ninth Army, which is under the jurisdiction of the 25th, 26th and 27th Divisions, as well as the 9th Artillery Brigade. Among them, the 27th Division will be reorganized from the Xinjiang Yang Zengxin Overseer and General Yang Zhanxu. ”

Lin Weiran didn't understand the above arrangement, what the major general meant, as Lin Weiran in the People's Army system, his understanding was undoubtedly deeper than that of Zhou Wuxue and Lu Hongtao. It's no wonder that Lin Weiran thinks so, you must know that so far, there are not many officers above the major general level of the entire People's Army, Navy and Air Force, but Zhou Wuxue, a person outside the People's Army system, has become a major general, which has to be surprising. In fact, no one knows that this stems from Xiao Mubai's appreciation of Zhou Wuxue's military character, and Xiao Mubai's admiration for Zhou Wuxue's self-martyrdom in the face of the Tsarist Russian bandit army in another time and space.

From the arrangement for himself, Zhou Wuxue could feel that the Communist Party attached great importance to him, and dispelled the last concerns, and Zhou Wuxue quickly made a decision. The three of them had agreed to raise an army to revolt at a favorable time, but no one expected that the opportunity would come so quickly.

On December 28, Ma Ting, the third son who was regarded as the successor of Ma Anliang, was defeated in Dingxi, and the elite of his department was completely lost, and he fled back to Lanzhou, the provincial capital. At this point, Ma Anliang's Western Army lost seven or eight out of ten, and its strength was greatly reduced.