Chapter 175 Blood Debt Paid in Blood (11)

Before Feng Guozhang was arrested, he was unaware of the Navy's conspiracy. Even at the moment of his arrest, he did not immediately form the thought that the Navy had defected to the People's Party.

This "Dog of the Beiyang," who was appreciated by Yuan Shikai for being "loyal and reliable" among the Beiyang generals, had fallen into the pathetic state of a stray dog ever since the collapse of the Beiyang government in Beijing last year. Solely in terms of the territory nominally controlled in 1916, Feng Guozhang was considered the second largest power in China, second only to the People's Party. The three southeastern provinces of Zhejiang and Guangdong were wealthy lands, and even Fujian was not poorer than Jiangxi under the People's Party rule. Holding these three places, yet ending up in such a state, Feng Guozhang himself found it very puzzling.

The People's Party had no direct presence in these three provinces. All official agencies of the People's Party in the three provinces had openly completed their evacuation before April 12th. Beiyang and the Guangfu Society had simply stood by and watched. After April 12th, heads rolled locally, and the traditional gentry once again grasped local power. If the new-style figures were still willing to cooperate with Beiyang to some extent, the old-style figures were polite to Beiyang, but merely polite. In terms of land taxation and trade, these old-school figures were old hands at struggling against the government. After clearing out the "radicals," the conservative factions guarding their turf practically painted themselves into a corner.

In order to expand its military strength, the Beiyang Army recruited a large number of locals from the three provinces. These people formed cliques within the army, directly weakening the Beiyang Army's control capability. When it came time for tax collection, the localities controlled by the old-style figures could not collect any tax at all. Feng Guozhang had also adopted some coercive measures, but after pushing the localities too hard, they actually handed over some IOUs as "tax payments." In a fit of rage, Feng Guozhang ordered troops to go down and urge the collection of arrears.

The troops of the locals naturally dragged their feet; when asking for military pay, they didn't miss a single copper, but when collecting taxes, they had zero effectiveness. When Feng Guozhang's Beiyang Army was sent out, the landlords got the news and actually ran away with their money in advance. Local officials and troops obstructed the regular Beiyang Army in every possible way. The Beiyang Army could not be stationed locally for long, and unable to find the major landlords who owed money, they could only return dejectedly. After several such struggles, Feng Guozhang ended up in total failure.

After the collapse of the Beiyang government in Beijing, Feng Guozhang's once ample military funds were immediately cut off. Military pay could not be issued on time; Feng Guozhang could only maintain the military expenses of the old Beiyang Army, while the newly joined Beiyang troops had to be owed. Having done this, it was even less possible for Feng Guozhang to rely on the new southern Beiyang Army to accomplish anything.

At first, Feng Guozhang also hoped to learn from Yuan Shikai and solve the immediate financial problems through a series of foreign loans. But the British were very cold towards Feng Guozhang, and the Japanese once enthusiastically contacted Feng Guozhang, but the precondition was actually requiring Feng Guozhang to recognize Sun Yat-sen's (Sun Wen's) provisional government. Feng Guozhang couldn't help but curse in private, "What kind of thing is Sun Wen!" During the Beiyang government period, Sun Wen was basically a clown in Beiyang's hands; Feng Guozhang would rather die on the battlefield than bow his head to such a thing.

It wasn't that Feng Guozhang hadn't tried to contact other Beiyang forces. Even without Yuan Shikai, the leader of Beiyang, Beiyang was not completely destroyed. Speaking only of the controlled territorial area, the People's Party did not occupy half of China's territory either. Feng Guozhang still had certain illusions about the revitalization of Beiyang. Through unremitting efforts, Beiyang news was finally obtained. The "Dragon of Beiyang" Wang Shizhen was released because of his meritorious service in "protecting cultural relics" and was now "spending his remaining years in peace" in Beijing. The "Tiger of Beiyang" Duan Qirui withdrew into Shanxi with more than 300,000 Beiyang troops. He was now occupying Shanxi and Shaanxi. In Duan Qirui's letter to Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui asked Feng Guozhang to negotiate with foreigners as a representative of Beiyang, hoping to gain their support.

While Feng Guozhang was striving to contact foreigners, things quickly changed. After the People's Party drove the Japanese away in the Northeast, they actually signed a peace agreement with the Japanese. Not only did the British attitude become colder, but the Japanese simply disappeared from Feng Guozhang's side.

Feng Guozhang's personality was not suitable to be a supreme leader. He had neither Yuan Shikai's ability to command the overall situation nor Duan Qirui's daring determination. Without Yuan Shikai's support, when Feng Guozhang had to create a situation on his own, he just muddled through day by day. Internally, he could not integrate the three southeastern provinces; externally, he couldn't even sign a traitorous treaty.

It was not until the People's Party fought into the three southeastern provinces that Feng Guozhang immediately received requests for help from all over. The local forces that seemed to disappear during tax collection finally remembered that there was still Feng Guozhang, the Warlord who theoretically stood at the highest position in the southeast. And they also tried to beg Feng Guozhang to save them.

It wasn't that Feng Guozhang hadn't made efforts. He united with the forces of other provinces to set up defense lines in various strategic locations, trying to play a defensive role when the People's Party attacked. In order to maintain these defense lines, Feng Guozhang's Warlord's Office had almost pawned its pants. But these defense lines played no role at all. Under the fierce attack of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army, the defense lines were breached, and the defending troops were wiped out. These were the elite troops of the three southeastern provinces. The speed was so fast that Feng Guozhang was completely caught off guard.

The People's Party's offensive, which started in August, had never stopped. The troops of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army conquered cities in Zhejiang and Guangdong one by one, but ignored Fujian. It could be clearly seen from the map that the People's Party seemed to have spread its north and south wings; after swallowing Zhejiang and Guangdong, they would launch a pincer attack on Fujian. At that time, Feng Guozhang, staying alone in Fujian, would face an inevitable doom.

By this point, Feng Guozhang also understood that all his efforts would fail. On the eve of destruction, Feng Guozhang was full of puzzlement in the Warlord's Office: what had he been doing in the southeast these past few years? Feng Guozhang had thought that it would be great if he could launch an attack on the People's Party regardless of everything. But this idea was quickly overturned by himself. If Feng Guozhang did this, the result would only be that the People's Party would turn the forces originally used to attack the Beijing government to attack Feng Guozhang. Would Feng Guozhang be able to withstand the People's Party's attack then? Feng Guozhang had no such confidence at all.

However, this regret was very hollow, because all the news coming now was so unreal. Just like all the news Feng Guozhang had heard about the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army, incredible battle results flew in one after another. It was as if what existed in front of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army were not enemies and various difficult terrains to breach. What existed in front of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army was a wide and flat golden avenue, and those legendary incomparably fierce soldiers just walked easily all the way, heading straight for the final victory.

Hearing that Beiyang troops everywhere were fleeing towards Fuzhou, Feng Guozhang's last psychological line of defense also collapsed. He knew the current situation of Fuzhou very well. After Feng Guozhang's scavenging over these few years, Fuzhou, which should have been considered very prosperous, now had sparse commerce and a sharply decreased population. The entire city simply had no way to maintain so many troops. After painful consideration, Feng Guozhang decided to abandon all the troops and flee Fuzhou, fleeing to Shanghai.

So on September 10th, Feng Guozhang contacted the Beiyang Minister of the Navy, Sa Zhenbing, asking to arrange the command headquarters on a naval warship. Sa Zhenbing replied to Feng Guozhang that the warships currently lacked maintenance and supplies, and only small vessels could operate. Feng Guozhang had long been annoyed by Sa Zhenbing's ceaseless requests for supplies and maintenance for the Beiyang and Nanyang Fleets over the past year or so; now being checkmated by Sa Zhenbing like this, Feng Guozhang could only accept it.

The report brought back by Feng Guozhang's trusted aide didn't tell lies either; the navy's big ships had been beaten by wind and rain for over a year and were already covered in rust. Feng Guozhang was able to gain Yuan Shikai's favor also because he had written some military theoretical works. Feng Guozhang was still relatively clear about basic naval knowledge; without supplies and maintenance for so long, the navy's warships were indeed in a miserable state.

Left with no choice, Feng Guozhang could only agree to choose a small warship as his command ship. Spending a day moving the wealth piled up in the Warlord's Office onto the warship, Feng Guozhang pretended to go inspect the navy's situation first.

Sa Zhenbing invited Feng Guozhang to the navy's flagship to discuss issues regarding naval supplies. Feng Guozhang naturally couldn't refuse to give face. Taking a few guards onto the navy's flagship, the peeling paint on the hull and the mottled gangway ladder all strengthened Feng Guozhang's determination. As soon as he fooled Sa Zhenbing, he would order his flagship to set sail under the pretext of an inspection. Fleeing to Shanghai and never coming back.

Holding this thought, Feng Guozhang entered the flagship's command room accompanied by Sa Zhenbing. As soon as he entered the door, he saw his old acquaintance Yan Fu standing inside the command room, and then several muffled sounds came from behind him. Before Feng Guozhang could figure out what was happening, Sa Zhenbing's subordinates who had come to accompany him had already seized Feng Guozhang and dragged him into the command room. As the door of the command room closed, Feng Guozhang found himself alone with Yan Fu, Sa Zhenbing, and six wolf-like naval officers in the command room.

"Huafu, long time no see," Yan Fu said brightly.

Feng Guozhang did not have Yan Fu's self-restraint, and more importantly, Yan Fu already held the winning ticket. As the guy who had fallen into the trap, Feng Guozhang's breadth of mind and spirit were far from reaching the level where he could tease his opponent a bit.

"Men, come!" Feng Guozhang shouted.

Naturally, no one would come to save Warlord Feng. The few people in the command room looked at Feng Guozhang's stubborn resistance with amused expressions. After shouting several times with no response, Feng Guozhang suddenly tried to use his shoulder to ram away the naval officer behind him and rush out of the hatch behind him. The naval officers gave him no such chance; they held Feng Guozhang tightly, pulled out a rope, and tied the Lord Warlord up firmly.

A few minutes later, Feng Guozhang was tied to a chair. Yan Fu sat in the main seat opposite Feng Guozhang, and Sa Zhenbing sat in the seat to Yan Fu's right. Just from this seating arrangement, Feng Guozhang understood everything.

"Sa Zhenbing! You traitor!" Feng Guozhang cursed angrily.

Sa Zhenbing blushed, while Yan Fu took over the conversation, "Huafu, why is this necessary? Moving the command headquarters to the warship—why exactly are you doing this? Do we, your own people, really need to spell it out?"

These words stung Feng Guozhang's sense of shame like a knife. He also blushed and stopped uttering a sound.

Yan Fu did not persuade Feng Guozhang to surrender; such a hypocritical practice was meaningless. Firstly, Yan Fu didn't have any intention to definitely save Feng Guozhang; secondly, for Feng Guozhang's actions, Yan Fu also believed he must be severely punished. So Yan Fu just looked at Feng Guozhang gently, stood up, and said one sentence, "Huafu, for future matters, look out for yourself."

Walking out of the command room with Sa Zhenbing, Yan Fu said: "The plan for now is that we must immediately send troops to seize Fuzhou City."

Capturing Feng Guozhang was an unexpected joy, but Feng Guozhang's subordinates did not know that Feng Guozhang prepared to abandon them and flee for his life alone. So troops loyal to Feng Guozhang might still attempt to snatch Feng Guozhang back. Most of the naval vessels were immobile at this time; the only way was to suddenly adopt a raid method and seize Fuzhou City with the assistance of the fleet's naval guns.

"Two regiments of troops can seize Fuzhou City?" Sa Zhenbing asked skeptically. After the reorganization of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army, the total number of troops in two regiments was less than three thousand. The Beiyang Army inside Fuzhou City had to be at least twenty or thirty thousand. Fighting ten with one—such an action completely exceeded the scope of normal thinking.

Yan Fu could only issue the order to attack at this time. Although there was no need to play the hero, at the critical moment, someone had to stand up and be the hero. The officers and men of the Beiyang and Nanyang Fleets agreed to surrender, but they were certainly not convinced in their hearts. Soldiers, after all—whether they could fight or not, they had to see the war with their own eyes to know.

That was a battle the Beiyang and Nanyang Fleets would never forget. Although the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army's surprise attack held the advantage of catching the enemy off guard, this advantage was not enough to offset the numerical disadvantage of fighting one against ten. The officers and men of the navy knew for the first time what modern warfare in the world was really about. It was not just the attitude of regarding death as returning home, which is indispensable in modern warfare; the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army displayed superb war skills, approaching the enemy first, then effectively combining various weapons to break through the enemy's defense lines with maximum speed, dealing the enemy a devastating blow.

The Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army could conceal themselves to the maximum extent on the battlefield, and the navy's high-power telescopes could not effectively track the movements of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army. But the battle lasted for more than three hours, and the Beiyang Army was forced to the southwest corner of Fuzhou City by the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army. Two regiments surrounded the Beiyang forces, which were seven or eight times their number.

Feng Guozhang was dragged onto the city wall, and Sa Zhenbing, along with the naval officers and men whose morale had been inspired, also brought weapons and joined the ranks of the encirclement. That was a scene Sa Zhenbing would never forget. Feng Guozhang, with a trembling voice, told the Beiyang Army officers and men into the microphone that he had been caught while trying to run away. The Beiyang Army did not curse angrily, nor did they wail in defeat. Only a soldier walked forward and threw his rifle on the open ground under the city wall. Subsequently, tens of thousands of Beiyang Army officers and men stepped forward one after another and threw their weapons there. The weapons piled up like a small mountain, yet no officer or soldier fired a single shot at the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army with these weapons.

Sa Zhenbing had also read some poetry and books, so he vaguely recalled a line from a certain poem he had read before, which seemed to be, "Fourteen thousand men all stripped off their armor, was there not one who was a man?"

When he first read this poem, Sa Zhenbing felt it seemed full of tragedy. When he witnessed a similar situation with his own eyes, Sa Zhenbing was stunned to discover that the only expression on the faces of all the surrendering Beiyang officers and men was the sense of relief brought by escaping from the war. This discovery couldn't help but make Sa Zhenbing feel that his view of the world was truly wrong.