Chapter 443: The Great Robbery!

With the Northern Expeditionary Army in the Hebei War, Beiyang was in chaos!

And when he was hesitating at both ends of the jade head rat in the Shandong overseer Tanaka, a robbery made him fall into an extremely passive position, forcing him to change his thinking greatly.

That is the "Lincheng carjacking case" that caused a sensation across the country!

The main culprit of this case is Sun Meiyao.

The Sun family was not a bandit, but a well-known and wealthy family in Teng County, Shandong. At that time, disasters were still frequent throughout the country, and people were chatting about their lives, and bandits were everywhere, especially in Shandong. There is also a very loud slogan when the bandits are called, "Rabbits don't eat the grass by the nest!" "That is, no one who is near the den of the bandits, they will not rob. Having said that, when the "business" is light and there is a lack of clothing and less food, I have to turn my thoughts to my neighbors, but my attitude is more polite and I don't use force, and I call it "borrowing grain".

Since the Sun family is a well-known and wealthy family, how can the bandit party not borrow grain from his family, and his family has no choice but to borrow it as a ritual. However, on the part of the government, they believe that borrowing grain from bandits is a serious crime and must be dealt with strictly. Although they are powerless to suppress bandits, they are powerful to suppress the people. If you catch the rich family, how can you spare it? Every time the officers and men went out to suppress bandits, they always carried out a meticulous and meticulous loot in the name of checking their household registration, and only after their pockets were filled up did they kill a few innocent and destitute people, and "return home with triumph."

Therefore, the common people hate soldiers far more than bandits, and would rather be robbed by bandits than be searched by officers and soldiers. The anger of the officers and soldiers of the Sun family over the years has long been enough, and they can't help it, so Sun Meiyao's eldest brother Sun Meizhu complained, thinking that instead of doing this, it is better to simply pull up the flag and go up the mountain to rebel. For him, this was originally an angry statement, and he didn't really want to do it, but when the young and bold Sun Meiyao heard it, she immediately set fire to her home and burned her home to the ground, so the Sun family had to bite the bullet and go to the calf.

The team directly pulled up by the Sun brothers was only four or five hundred people, but there were originally a few local bandits in the mountain, and later they also merged with them, and Sun Meizhu was elected as the leader; When going out to rob, each small unit still acted alone, led by the original leader, among which the stronger ones were Guo Qicai, Zhou Tianlun, Chu Sizhen, etc., with as little as two or three hundred people per share, and as many as five or six hundred people, all of them combined, claiming to be more than 4,000 people, but in fact, 3,000 was not enough, and more than half of them still did not have guns. Sun Meizhu is nominally the owner of the village, but she can't make it necessary; But it is his uncle Sun Guizhi, who can say one is one on the mountain, so that everyone will obey their orders.

Sun Guizhi was about 50 years old at the time, short and thin, his appearance was not good, and his clothes were very shabby, like a farmer. Some people say that he has set up a private school, sat in a hall, and is an old master, so he is thoughtful and full of plans. In fact, he has also broken into the rivers and lakes, joined gangs, and has dealings with people in both black and white, so he is a veteran who is very good both inside and outside. On the calf, starting from Sun Meizhu and Sun Meiyao's brothers, to the bottom of the little minions, they are obedient to him, not just because he is older.

In July 1919, Sun Meizhu was captured by He Fengyu, the commander of the Sixth Mixed Brigade in Shandong and the guard of Yanzhou Town, in Xiji near Yi County, and immediately executed.

After Sun Meiyao took over as the master of Dazhai, she was fierce and deliberately wanted to avenge her brother's revenge, but because Sun Guizhi was cautious, she did not start it immediately.

Sun Meiyao has a cousin named Sun Meisong, who also fell into the grass nearby, surrounded by officers and soldiers, for nearly a year, the situation is very critical, and repeatedly sent people to ask Sun Meiyao to send troops to relieve the siege.

Sun Guizhi, who is old and serious, does not advocate rash action, but Sun Meiyao and the others can't hold their breath. After deliberating for a long time, Guo Qi, who was originally born in the army, came up with the idea of intercepting the train and taking the meat tickets, in order to achieve the conditions of oppression on the one hand and the official acceptance and relieve the siege of Sun Meisong; On the one hand, he demanded Zhao'an and defrauded the government of a batch of arms and salaries. Sun Guizhi saw that the situation in the mountains was indeed very embarrassing, and if he asked his brothers to tighten their belts and hold on, it was likely that everyone would be discouraged, disappointed, and break up, so he no longer objected and agreed to do a big job.

At half past two o'clock in the morning of September 26, 1919, when the northbound car on Jinpu Road passed through Shagou Mountain, which was about three kilometers away from Lincheng Station, the driver found a dark shadow in front of him under the diffuse oblique moon, and the screaming of the whistle could not drive them away, so he came to an emergency brake. Due to the high driving speed, the car could not stop for a while, and walked to the railroad track about dozens of feet long with the connecting needle removed, and the locomotive, mail car, and third-class passenger car in front of it all derailed and overturned. Then there was a burst of gunfire, and with the sound of gunfire, more than 1,000 pigtailed bandits appeared in front of their heads, swarming forward, jumping into the sleeping car to rob their belongings and kidnap passengers! …,

The train carried a number of Chinese and foreign journalists and foreign passengers who attended the inauguration ceremony of the Gongjiaba embankment of the Yellow River in Shandong. A total of 19 foreign passengers were kidnapped and killed, except for the British overseas Chinese Rossmen who slept in a first-class sleeping car and tried to resist, and was shot dead by the bandits on the spot. Among them, Powell, the chief writer of the Millers Review, was also among them, as well as more than 100 Chinese tourists.

As soon as this news was announced, the Beijing government was frightened.

Ministers of various countries were afraid of harming the lives of overseas Chinese and resolutely opposed the use of force, but they urged President Cao Kun to find a way several times a day. On 27 and 28 September, the envoys of Britain, the United States, France, Italy, and Belgium lodged the most severe protests to the Beijing government; overseas Americans in Shanghai sent a telegram asking US President Harding to quickly rescue the exiled overseas Chinese; the US garrison in Beijing demanded direct action; and US Secretary of Defense Tai Weishi openly suggested to Secretary of State Xu Shi that troops be sent to China.

Although no expatriates were taken into exile in Japan, the Japanese newspapers gloated and advocated the organization of an international coalition to jointly manage China's railways.

On 29 September, the envoys of the five countries gave the Beijing government three days to rescue all the captured aliens, otherwise they would have to pay an additional amount of compensation every 24 hours. The Beijing government panicked about this, and when the Northern Expeditionary Army was pressing the border, it stopped all government affairs and concentrated all its efforts on discussing the issue of rescuing foreigners.

The captive Chinese and foreign meat tickets were all taken to the foothills of the bandits' nest and the calves. Baoqianggu is the jurisdiction of Yi County, Shandong. In the past, when Zhang Jingyao was the supervisor of the border suppression of bandits in Suzhou, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui provinces, he did not suppress them, but appeased them, so the bandits became soldiers. After Zhang Jingyao's defeat in Hunan, the soldiers became bandits again, and after the defeat of Zhang Xun and Zhang Wensheng, most of the remnants of the remaining troops were defeated and scattered in the mountainous areas of Lunan.

Therefore, the three counties of Zou, Teng, and Yi have been areas where bandits are rampant for many years.

After Sun Meiyao succeeded, she followed Sun Guizhi's idea to release the four foreign female guests first, and at the same time taught them to convey three conditions to the official: first, quickly withdraw the officers and soldiers surrounding the mountain from 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 to incorporate them into the government army, not to ransom them. The first letter sent down from the mountain was written by Powell, a reporter for Shanghai's Milles Review, advising the government army not to attack the mountain and to seek a peaceful solution. All the foreign prisoners signed the letter.

Since the foreign diplomatic missions resolutely advocated sending people to make peace with the local bandits, so as not to endanger the lives of foreign prisoners, the senior members who rushed to Zaozhuang from all over Beijing and Jinan to negotiate with Sun Meiyao on 30 September included Tian Zhongyu, the governor of Shandong, Xiong Bingqi, the governor of Shandong, Wu Yulin, the chief of communications, and Yang Yide, the representative of Cao Kun.

It's really crowned, and the people in the small place are stunned.

Sun Meiyao didn't expect things to be so big, and she couldn't help but be a little flustered, and those small leaders under him, such as Guo Qicai and Zhou Tianlun, had different opinions and had their own plans. Some advocates should be stopped in moderation and should not be overly troubled; Others, seeing that the government is afraid of foreigners and do not dare to use force, advocate taking advantage of this opportunity to make a big profit.

It's all thanks to Sun Guizhi as the old master, who presided over it. The living conditions in the mountains are too poor, and the bandits' personalities are very rough, and the tied meat tickets can't endure hardship, and there are many deaths, and he is also distracted to take care of them. As for the conditions for negotiation with the authorities, of course, he has to appear. But he is very good at concealment, he does not come forward, only follows behind the backs of others, and secretly instructs, so the officials did not notice him at first. It wasn't until the negotiation reached a certain stage later, when the bandits promised to release a batch of Chinese and foreign meat tickets first, that they found that the release certificates issued by the bandits were all signed and sealed by Sun Guizhi alone, and there was a child named Qin Zhenyuan, because he did not have this release certificate, he was temporarily stopped back, and everyone knew that the actual leader of the bandits was Sun Guizhi.

The officers and soldiers besieging the mountain did not receive their salaries for a year and a half, so they had to often sell arms to local bandits, and Tanaka Yu understood this situation and was afraid that the officers and soldiers would not be reliable, so he transferred 1,500 troops from Jinan that he could rely on to defend himself.

When the officials and bandits began to conduct peace talks, the official found Li Linge, a gentleman from Yi County, and others to go up the mountain to contact, and Yang Yide found Guo Taisheng, Zhang Jingyao's old department, to act as a mediator between the officials and bandits. The local bandits on the mountain loved Zhang Jingyao very much, so some people in Beijing suggested that Zhang Xun and Zhang Jingyao should be appointed to handle the matter of appeasement.

The first formal negotiation between the Beijing government and the kidnappers was held at the Zhongxing Coal Mining Company, and the official meeting was the Shandong Governor Tian Zhongyu and Shandong Governor Xiong Bingqi, and the representative of the bandits was Zhou Tiansong. The bandits put forward several conditions: (1) the government army lifted the encirclement and withdrew to its original defense; (2) Incorporate the bandit army into a brigade, with Sun Meiyao as the brigade commander; (3) Replenishment of arms.

Officially, with the exception of Article 3, the authorities considered it acceptable, and officially proposed to release the prisoners in three batches. When the two sides were about to sign, the bandits asked the foreigners and the gentry of Zou County, Teng County, and Yi County to sign together to guarantee the official performance of the treaty!

After the negotiation was successful, Wu Yulin, the chief of transportation, was "filled with righteous indignation" and volunteered to go into the mountain as a hostage to exchange "foreign tickets" for early release; Then Shandong Governor Xiong Bingqi was also willing to "attach the tail" and go up the mountain with him.

When the news reached Beijing, Cao Kun immediately sent a telegram to commend Wu and Xiong for their loyalty and bravery, and persuaded them to return to Beijing early.

On October 1, Tian Zhongyu, the overseer of Shandong, ordered the government army to relieve the siege and retreat, and appointed Sun Meiyao as the commander of Zhaofu and sent people to go up the mountain with orders. In front of the official representatives, Sun Meiyao tore up the appointment order and sent a letter to Tanaka Yu, claiming to be the commander-in-chief of the Autonomous Army of the Jianguo State, denying the peace conditions signed by the officials and bandits, and declaring that after the government army completely retreated and received food from the mountains, he convened a meeting of the leaders of the mountains to put forward the official conditions of the bandits.

Sun Meiyao's change of hexagram was because she saw that the official would make concessions, thinking that this deal could make a big profit, so she pushed over the official peace treaty signed the day before. This greatly surprised the Beijing legation, and sent a series of notes to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prevent the government from changing the military into a suppression.

At the same time, he also instructed Cao Kun to order the Shandong authorities to end peacefully, so as not to hurt the foreign prisoners! (Lying on the bear_ provided by no beginning)