A.D. 1918.

This year, the European war ended; This year, there were constant wars between the north and south of China; This year, there were many contradictions in Zhiwan; This year, Wang Hengyue, who was in the south, prepared for the Northern Expedition!

However, just before Wang Hengyue's Northern Expedition, an incident occurred in Russia that closely linked the direct line, the Anhui lineage, the Feng lineage and Wang Hengyue's southwest lineage.

This cooperation is not for the benefit of each other, but for:

National dignity!

The dignity of the country is greater than the factional contradictions, and the honor of the country is greater than the civil war!

The October Revolution in Russia put more than one million overseas Chinese stranded in Russia into an unprecedented threat to their lives and property in the face of the chaotic and bloody Russian civil war.

Flying from Vladivostok to Yanjing like snowflakes:

Compatriots are starving, and some overseas Chinese have only four taels of grain per capita

Compatriots are being plundered, whether it is the hungry Red Army or the White Army in Russia, as long as they are old men with guns, they all regard overseas Chinese as a treasury to take and take

Compatriots are being slaughtered, and Russia's opposing armed factions are forcibly pulling overseas Chinese strong men and putting on dirty military uniforms, and these Chinese who only understand "Ula" are thrown into the rain of bullets. Even those who have not been forcibly pulled are like lambs to the slaughter in front of a group of robbers in uniform. Even the Japanese army, which sent troops to Russia in the name of "protecting overseas Chinese," inexplicably launched a large-scale killing campaign against the Chinese

Millions of overseas Chinese are looking south and asking for help from Yanjing!

At this time, China's internationally recognized central political axe, Beiyang political axe, was in a hurry, on the one hand, had to face the complicated international situation, on the other hand, it had to deal with the mountainous domestic forces.

But even in this case, the "dark, decadent, and reactionary" Beiyang political axe withstood the pressure from all sides and ordered to send troops to Siberia to protect overseas Chinese, even ignoring the threats and warnings of Yu Ben.

This is the first time in China's thousands of years of history that the ruling party has used military force overseas to protect the interests and security of overseas Chinese. In 1918, the whole world was impressed with China!

The great waves of revolution from St. Petersburg, when they reached the Pacific coast, were almost a few small sprays left. The Bolsheviks, who numbered less than 10,000 in the Far East, did not have enough appeal, let alone influence, and after a sudden military coup d'état occupied Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Burleigh, and other strategic locations, the nascent Soviet power was quickly overthrown, and the Bolsheviks could still only conduct guerrilla warfare underground.

The dominant position was occupied by the White Guards, who defended the old regime, but they were also replacing the names of the leaders and regimes like a marquee, "Siberian Provisional Political Axe", "Siberian Autonomous Provisional Political Axe", "All-Russian Provisional Political Axe", "All-Russian Political Axe".

At this time, there were millions of overseas Chinese stranded in Russia. Among them, in addition to traditional merchants and craftsmen, there were hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers sent to the front lines of World War I. In World War I, China joined the Allied Powers and sent a large number of Chinese laborers, many of whom traveled overland to the front via Russia. After Russia fell into civil strife, these Chinese laborers successively gathered in Irkutsk and other places, and the situation was miserable.

After the news of the October Revolution reached the Far East, the situation in Vladivostok and other places also became uneasy, and the news of the riots was alarming. Local overseas Chinese flocked to the Chinese Consulate General in Vladivostok, "coming to the embassy to appeal, one after another". As the Russian side has completely lost control of the situation, overseas Chinese organizations such as the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Vladivostok, the Overseas Chinese Association in Heihe Jiangbei in Russia, the Boli Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, and the General Association of Overseas Chinese in Amur Province have all urgently appealed to the motherland to send troops to protect the overseas Chinese.

Zhang Zuolin and other Feng warlords who controlled the northeast had a deep contradiction with the Anhui warlords who controlled Yanjing, but on the issue of protecting overseas Chinese, the two sides rarely maintained agreement.

The two provinces of Fengtian and Jilin were ordered to immediately transfer a large number of troops. Zhang Zuolin and others also popularized self-protection methods among overseas Chinese: "1. A register of property should be sent to the Russian official as the basis for compensation for losses. 2. In case of emergency, hang the national flag to mark overseas Chinese. 3. Each merchant shall set up a regiment for self-defense. ”

However, this kind of boot-scratching approach is no longer able to cope with the deteriorating situation in Russia.

The State Department immediately held discussions and finally decided to send a warship to Vladivostok to protect overseas Chinese, and the Admiralty Department would be responsible for implementing it. The Admiralty has designated the destroyer "Jiankang" to undertake this groundbreaking mission of protecting overseas Chinese.

China sent warships to Russia to protect overseas Chinese, which angered Yuben.

At this time, he was working hard to establish a common defense system between China and China in order to seize his own privileges in the "North Manchurian region." China's single action has greatly disrupted the plan to sign the "Sino-Vietnamese Military Agreement on Mutual Defense against the Enemy." It can be said that the "Jiankang" was ordered to go to Russia, but because its strength was still weak, it was of little practical significance to the protection of overseas Chinese.

However, this was not only the first time that the Chinese rulers expressed their concern for overseas Chinese through armed escorts, but also a soft confrontation against the persecution of the Chinese people in the weak environment at that time.

Under the high pressure of the book, the central political axe tried its best to perfunctory the book on the one hand, and urged the "Jiankang" to make the trip as soon as possible and cook the raw rice into rice. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has constantly urged the Admiralty to "set sail immediately" and has telegraphed to the Consulate General in Vladivostok to earnestly do a good job in supplying the "Jiankang" with coal, fresh water, food, and so on.

Under the repeated rebuke of the "Jiankang" sailed out of the domestic military port, and on 16 April, amid the cheers of overseas Chinese, it entered the port of Vladivostok.

Less than a month after the destroyer "Jiankang" was stationed in Vladivostok, the Russian "Czech Legion" launched a rebellion, and the situation in the Far East became even more chaotic.

Lenin immediately set about making amends, creating the Red Army "Eastern Front" to launch an attack on the Czech Corps and the White Guards. The "white" side gradually lost to the "red" side and began to retreat eastward step by step. And the Entente countries that supported the "white" side, including China, began to actively deploy missions to rescue the Czech Legion.

The Czech Legion incident made the situation of the overseas Chinese in the Far East even more tragic. The Czech Corps cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, and at least 200,000 Chinese laborers were stranded in Omsk and Irkutsk, causing a serious food crisis.

Although the army came to provide relief to the victims on several occasions, it clearly announced that overseas Chinese were not within the scope of relief and were not even qualified to purchase relief grain.

In addition to the White Russian regime, the Bolsheviks and the Bunjun also printed their own banknotes and forcibly exchanged them, making the Far East the region with the largest number of paper money and the most outrageous prices in the world. Coupled with the imposition of high taxes by various regimes, the Chinese merchants in the Far East were completely transformed into "proletariats". Moreover, personal safety is not guaranteed in any way, and the burning and killing of silver against the Chinese are endless.

"Property can be disposed of at will, and life is trampled at will", "The lives of hundreds of thousands of overseas Chinese are at the bottom of the kettle, and millions of assets are like eggs." ”

Overseas Chinese in the Far East once again appealed to the motherland: send troops! Dispatch troops!

At this time, the Entente countries were also actively negotiating to send troops to intervene in the Russian Civil War, and the United States, Britain, and France gradually formed a consensus, and the Beiyang political axe was not far behind, and launched diplomatic representations with the Allied powers, saying that China would accompany the request to send troops to Siberia Beiyang political axe, which was resolutely opposed by Yuben. What we hope is to bring China into the so-called "China-China joint defense against the enemy" system, and China only needs to provide bases and supplies, and the army will help protect overseas Chinese. He said that his wishful thinking was to seize the opportunity to seize greater interests in Northeast China.

Although the Beiyang political axe did not show weakness, although it could not go toe-to-toe with Yue himself, it still carried out a soft confrontation, and revised the purpose of China's military dispatch from protecting overseas Chinese to "assisting the Czech Legion for the purpose." This reason was supported by the United States and France, and the United States even made it clear that the Beiyang political axe should control the Middle East Railway on its own.

It is inconvenient to continue to oppose this, but it is proposed that the number of Chinese troops should not be large.

After the end of diplomatic mediation, the Beiyang political axe decided to send troops to Siberia. The real purpose of sending troops is twofold: first, to take precautions to protect China's sovereignty, including the navigation rights of Heilongjiang, and to prevent the great powers from reaching any agreement that harms China in their absence; The second is to protect overseas Chinese.

From 2 to 8 August, the United States, and Britain issued declarations to formally intervene in the Russian civil war.

On 3 August, Lin Jianzhang, captain of the destroyer "Jiankang," who was already in Vladivostok, was appointed "commodore general" and was responsible for the full command of the troops stationed in Russia!

On August 22, the Beiyang political axe officially issued a declaration of dispatch, and the Ninth Division of the Army transferred a total strength equivalent to two regiments, with a total number of 4,000 people, including infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, baggage troops, and machine gun units, which were successively marched into Siberia in six batches, under the command of regiment commander Song Huanzhang.

The main mission is to ensure the evacuation route of Vladivostok-Shuangchengzi-Suifenhe.

The arrival of the Chinese [***] team has greatly increased the ambition of overseas Chinese.

At the request of overseas Chinese, the troops stationed in Russia have continuously sent small detachments to carry out rescue and protection tasks. In cities where the troops stationed in Russia could not be stationed, overseas Chinese began to set up their own militia organizations, "merchant groups", and the consulate quietly assisted them in purchasing guns and ammunition to enhance their self-defense capabilities.

Under the majesty of the troops stationed in Russia, on the front line of Irkutsk, where the civil war was most intense, Chinese diplomats braved hardships and dangers, contacted and dispatched trains from Moscow and Harbin, escorted them throughout the whole process, and rushed out 30,000 trapped Chinese laborers in just a few months.

Although the stated purpose of China's troops was to rescue the "White Russians," the attitude of the White Russians towards the Chinese did not change in the slightest. The head of the White Guards, Semenov, continued to massacre and rob the diaspora.

Semenov did not care in the slightest about the friendship of "friendly countries" and the anti-Chinese atrocities became more and more intense, and simply announced that within his jurisdiction, all the property of overseas Chinese would be confiscated and overseas Chinese would be forbidden to live.

It's tolerable, it's intolerable.

While carrying out diplomatic protests, they did not cower in the shell of a turtle that "took the overall situation into account," but bravely resisted and opened fire on the "friendly countries" and "White Guards" who dared to come and harass. At the same time, the troops stationed in Russia are also stationed in Boli, Shuangchengzi, Hailanpao and other places to protect overseas Chinese!

At the moment when overseas Chinese were being bullied, warlords from all walks of life in China rarely united together!

(To be continued)