On April 15, 1926, Zhang Zuolin's Feng army occupied Tianjin, and on the 17th, Feng's army entered Beiping.

Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist army was routed towards the Mongols.

At this point, the war ended in the victory of Zhang Zalin, who became the most dazzling figure in Chinese politics.

For a while, there was no difference in the limelight.

Many people believe that Zhang Zuolin is most likely to unify China and has the appearance of an emperor.

In history, it is often the figures who raised troops from the north to occupy the advantage, waving their troops to the south, and achieving hegemony.

The entry of the Feng army into Beijing marked Zhang Zalin's control of the center of China's political power, and the northeast region naturally wanted to praise it.

Harbin, where Lin Zixuan is located, was jubilant, and there were even calls in the local newspapers for Zhang Zuolin to be inaugurated as president, as if Zhang Zuolin was the one who was destined to save China.

Lin Zixuan knew that this was just a flash in the pan, and this period was Zhang Zalin's peak, but unfortunately it didn't last.

The good news for him was that the fighting had subsided, and he could leave Harbin and go to Beiping.

On April 20, Lin Zixuan came to Beiping and found that the situation in Beiping was quite grim and could be called terrifying.

There were garrisons inside and outside the city of Beiping, and the flags for recruiting troops at the city gate could be seen everywhere, and there was constant friction between the armies of different factions.

This situation affects the daily lives of the people.

At less than six or seven o'clock in the afternoon, the usually bustling streets had been turned off and closed, and people came and went in a panic, as if a catastrophe was just around the corner.

This is just the life of ordinary people, and the cultural world has been affected more severely.

Feng Jun raided newspaper halls in the city and searched the dormitories of teachers and staff in various schools. Arrest troublemakers.

Including Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Women's Normal University, China University and other places, Peking University is the focus of the search.

A number of students and teachers were arrested. A group of celebrities who instigated the students were on the arrest list, and everyone in Beiping City was in danger.

Since the Republic of China. The political atmosphere in Peking is quite relaxed.

With the help of various public petitions and demonstrations, scholars in the cultural circles have constantly challenged the bottom line of tolerance of those in power with an increasingly high-profile posture, which has intensified the tension between them and the Beiyang government.

However, the struggle between the two sides has always been manageable.

But in this year, the March 18 tragedy broke through their bottom line and made the situation completely out of control.

The seizure of newspapers, the arrest of reporters, and professors by Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Zongzhuan, and others reflects a different thinking logic from that of the previous Beiyang government.

They don't care if you're a celebrity or not, a journalist or a professor, they will be arrested if they are caught, and they will be killed.

Adopt a high-pressure policy to control public opinion, and whoever is disobedient will be killed.

This has caused the cultural circles in Beiping, which have always lived in a relatively relaxed public opinion environment, into a panic situation.

Whether in the educational sector or not. Both the faculty and the students were in a state of great anxiety as if a catastrophe was coming.

So described in Modern Review.

"In the past seven or eight months, the city of Beiping has been in a state of terror. First it was the terror of aerial bombs, then the terror of the army entering and leaving the city, and then the terror of countless officers or military organs taking people and killing people at will. ”

When Lin Zixuan was talking to the members of the Crescent Society, they were in a state of panic and wait-and-see.

Some of the people who sensed the danger had already left Beiping for refuge.

"Guowen Weekly" reported: "The elements who can scream and jump have left Beiping in a hurry, so that. The educational circles in Peking have become more and more twilight. ”

However, most people are reluctant to leave.

Beiping is an ancient capital of humanities, with many universities and academic research institutions. It is the center of Chinese culture and education, if it is not forced to do so. Few academics choose to leave.

In their eyes, Shanghai is a commercial city. The rest of China's cities are cultural deserts that are not suitable for research.

It's just that. The situation of these people in Peking is not good.

Due to the change of government in Beiyang, the education funds could not be in place, the school had no funds, and the salaries of the teachers and staff were seriously in arrears.

Taking Peking University as an example, it was reported that it could not start school on time due to a shortage of daily maintenance funds, and even was almost cut off from the water source due to its inability to pay the tap water bill.

Peking University professor Gu Jiegang recorded it in his diary.

"In January 1926, Peking University could not pay salaries on time, and the part-time Confucius School was 'only half salary', so I had no choice but to ask Shen Jianshi, director of the Chinese Studies Department of the Peking University Research Institute, to borrow 88 yuan from the school."

Even Hu Shi, who has a good salary, has difficulties in life because of the problem of unpaid wages.

Peking University, which has Cai Yuanyuan and others, has fallen to this point, and the situation of other schools can be imagined.

According to newspaper reports, in 1926, the Beiyang government had serious wage arrears in all departments, except for the institutions related to foreigners, which paid salaries on time.

If it's just unpaid wages, you can still bear it, but it's just a big deal to live a harder life.

Now Zhang Zuolin has adopted a high-pressure policy, which has silenced the cultural circles, and the literati dare not write articles and newspapers dare not publish them.

Many newspapers have canceled their editorial columns and started publishing recreational novels, indicating that there was no room for pluralistic thought in Peking at this time.

Before that, life was in difficulty, but now the living environment is in danger.

Under the dual control of economy and ideology, fleeing from Beiping has become a more common and realistic choice, and the large-scale southward movement of intellectual groups has become an inevitable trend.

Lin Zixuan had just returned from the Soviet Union and encountered this situation, which was similar to the withdrawal of cultural control in the Soviet Union.

He welcomed these intellectual elites to Shanghai, where the political environment was much more relaxed, and these people were able to bring cultural prosperity and improve the quality of education to Shanghai.

These people understand that if they go to Shanghai in the future, they may have to rely on Lin Zixuan, and they will have more and more respect for Lin Zixuan.

In the past, Lin Zixuan was in Shanghai, and his presence in the Crescent Moon Society and the Modern Critics was not strong, but when he arrived in Shanghai, Lin Zixuan would become the core figure of this group.

This is a matter for the future, Lin Zixuan doesn't want to stay in Beiping in this atmosphere, it's too depressing.

He persuaded Cheng She, me and Zhang Zhenshui to leave Beiping, a place of right and wrong, and it was not uncommon for me to be arrested in the style of Cheng She's newspaper, and this was the price of telling the truth.

I politely declined Lin Zixuan's invitation, he felt that he needed to stay in Beiping when all the horses were in full swing now.

1926 was a special year in the Republic of China, and it can be said to be the most intense and turbulent year.

In this year, the rule of the Beiyang warlords was already on the eve of collapse, and the warlords fought the most times, mobilized the largest number of people, and involved the widest geographical area.

The situation in which the warlords, big and small, are at war with each other and are in opposition to each other has also developed to the most delicate level.

It was also in this year that intellectuals, mainly university teachers, living in Beiping, were trapped by political pressure and economic embarrassment, and started a trend of migration that attracted attention.

This heralds a restructuring of China's political and cultural landscape, and the dawn of a new era that is different from the past. (To be continued.) )