In 1923, Wu Peifu celebrated his 50th birthday in Luoyang. There were six to seven hundred people from all over the country who came to Luoyang to celebrate his birthday, including dignitaries, cultural celebrities and envoys from various countries to China. At that time, Luoyang was crowded with people, and it was very lively.
Provincial governors, large and small warlords and local dignitaries not only gave Wu generous gifts, but also knew that Wu was fond of dancing and writing, so they all presented flattering birthday couplets. The most famous among them is Kang Youwei :
Makino Yingyang, who is only half a century old when he is 100 years old;
At this time, General Feng Yuxiang, who was also born directly, sent a beautiful porcelain altar, sealed the mouth of the altar with red paper, and wrote in gold characters "Dedicated to Wu Yushuai, congratulations on his 50th birthday" (Wu Haoziyu), Signed "Congratulations to Feng Yuxiang".
Feng Yuxiang was born in the military and did not have the arty elegance of a scholar. In the future, he became famous for his straightforward "Qiu Ba Ti". At this time, Feng Yuxiang's relationship among Zhi, Anhui, Feng and Sun was very delicate, and he belonged to the "key minority" who controlled the current situation.
The year before, Feng Yuxiang led his troops to Shaanxi to aid Zhizhi and defeated the Henan governor Zhao Tibu. He was transferred to the Henan governor but was rejected by Wu Peifu. In October, he was sent as an army inspection envoy and led his troops to garrison Nanyuan in Beijing to intensify troop training.
had just finished "bullying" Feng Yuxiang, but he came to his door with gifts. Wu Peifu also felt particularly proud of this special gift.
People guessed that this was probably a jar of fine wine. In order to show the respect of Feng Yuxiang, who had always been upright, Wu Peifu specially invited guests to taste it. When everyone raised their glasses and drank the wine, they immediately looked at each other with astonishment on their faces. Wu Peifu's face turned red and white, looking very embarrassed. It turns out that this is not a fine wine at all, but a jar of pure water.
Wu Yue thought about it and felt more and more uncomfortable. He slapped the table angrily and said, "This Feng Yuxiang is so ignorant of current affairs. What kind of good wine is he? It's just a jar of cold water!"
Seeing that Marshal Wu was angry, Kang Youwei quickly smoothed things over and said, " Yushuai , don't be angry, it is very reasonable for General Feng to send this jar of clear water. There is an allusion, which comes from " Zhuangzi Shanmu" " The friendship between gentlemen is as light as water", the true meaning of General Feng's gift of this jar of clear water is. He said that Yu Shuai is elegant and pure, and his official status is as pure as water. I think this is the most precious birthday gift." After hearing this, Wu had to step down from the stage and said, "That's wrong!" Huanzhang (Feng Haozhang) knew that I was too. !"
The next year, Feng Yuxiang took advantage of the fierce fighting between the Zhizhi and Fengzhai armies in Shimenzhai, Shanhaiguan and other places, and accepted Zhang Xuelianghtml's bribe of 2.5 million silver dollars. On October 19, Feng Yuxiang convened a secret meeting with his subordinates to announce his defection plan. Change the name of the unit to National Army . Wu Peifu was also defeated because of Feng's defection.
