After the achievements of the Revolution of 1911 were stolen by Yuan Shikai, Sun Yat-sen fought an arduous struggle against the warlords of the north and south in order to safeguard the republican system.
However, although Sun Yat-sen recognized the importance of military struggle very early, he never had the military power he could directly control. In previous struggles such as the Dharma Protector Movement , Sun Yat-sen always relied on the Southwest Warlords to achieve his struggle against the Northern Warlords .
However, these warlords did not support Sun Yat-sen, but only engaged in political and military speculation for their own interests. Even the Cantonese warlord Chen Jiongming he supported betrayed him.
Relying on warlords to fight against warlords is nothing more than "seeking skin from a tiger."
However, what is little known is that Sun Yat-sen, who used Guangdong as his revolutionary base, had some cooperation with the Feng clique warlord who was far away in the northeast.
The so-called enemy of the enemy is a friend, this is clearly revealed here.
Since the Zhili clique always supported the Gui clique and Chen Jiongming who opposed Sun Yat-sen, Sun Yat-sen had to establish temporary military alliances with the Anhui and Feng warlords - the Guangdong, Anhui and Fengtian Triangle Alliance, also known as the Sun, Duan and Zhang Iron Triangle.
In this "iron triangle", although Sun Yat-sen was prestigious, he was the weakest party and had to be funded by the other two parties.
.1 million living expenses
In June 1922, Chen Jiongming finally took off his mask, colluded with British imperialism and the Zhili warlords, and started a rebellion. Chen Jiongming even ordered the bombardment of the Presidential Palace located under Guanyin Mountain. Sun Yat-sen was unable to gain a foothold in Guangzhou and had to withdraw to the naval warship Yongfeng for command.
The fall of Guangzhou put Sun Yat-sen in a dilemma, and even eating and drinking on the Yongfeng ship became a problem. He had to write to Zhang Zuolin , hoping to borrow a sum of money to eliminate the rebellion and regain Guangdong.
At the same time, the Direct-to-Fengtian War started in April 1922. The Feng Brigade failed, and the Beijing government removed Zhang Zuolin from all his posts. Under this situation, Zhang felt politically and militarily isolated, and was eager to take revenge on the Zhili clique. In September of the same year, he sent someone to Guangzhou to contact Sun Yat-sen.
When Han Linchun and others were sent to see Sun Yat-sen, they prepared to give 20,000 yuan in living expenses. When Zhang Zuolin found out, he became furious: "How dare I, Mr. Zhang, only give Mr. Sun this small amount of money? It's impossible, I'll make up another 80,000 yuan as soon as possible!"
Therefore, during Sun Yat-sen's "tribulation", Zhang Zuolin gave him 100,000 yuan in living expenses.
However, this money is enough to live on, but it is still far from enough to defeat Chen Jiongming's collection and payment in Guangzhou.
sent people to Fengtian to borrow money
Sun Yat-sen sent Wang Jingwei to Fengtian to discuss common anti-straight issues with Zhang on November 20. Sun Yat-sen told Wang Jingwei, "Only 500,000 yuan is needed for peace and security, and 200,000 yuan is needed for security. Due to the fierce fighting here and the huge expenses, it is difficult to balance both, so I plan to ask Yu Gongshang to help me recover."
Zhang Zuolin agreed to fund the Guangdong army 500,000 yuan.
Asked for help from Fengtian God of Wealth Wang Yongjiang
However, Zhang Zuolin was cheerful verbally, but he was not cheerful about "making money". Sun Yat-sen could not wait for the money for a long time, and even had to write to Zhang Zuolin's "think tank" Wang Yongjiang, the God of Wealth (director of the Fengtian Provincial Department of Finance) for help.
In February 1923, Sun Yat-sen wrote a letter to Wang Yongjiang. The letter was to the effect: "Last year in mid-winter, Ji Xin (Wang Jingwei) was sent to visit and met with General Yuting. General Zhang agreed to fund the Guangdong army 500,000 yuan. But I haven't received it yet. As the governor of the province and the supervisor of the official bank account of the three eastern provinces, Brother Minyuan has no greater influence than brother Minyuan. Can you please help?..."
After that, Sun Yat-sen received funding from Zhang Zuolin. He relied on the Yunnan and Guangxi Army to defeat Chen Jiongming, regained Guangdong, and prepared for the Northern Expedition.
Sun Yat-sen later received support from Zhang Zuolin many times.
Every time after receiving a donation from Zhang, in addition to thanking Zhang Zuolin, he also wrote another letter to express his gratitude to Wang Yongjiang, six letters in total.These six letters were dated between 1923 and 1924. From the letters, it can be seen that Feng Zhang’s military expenditures for Sun Yat-sen exceeded one million yuan .
sent a letter to Zhang Zuolin to thank
On November 25, 1923, Sun Yat-sen entrusted Ye Gongchuo with a letter to Zhang Zuolin to express his gratitude to Zhang Zuolin for his many aids. "In the past year, has been repeatedly supported by my father and has been able to clean up the remnants... and Guangzhou The fundamental ground has been restored, and this is all accomplished by the great efforts of the public.".
This letter can be described as high-sounding and sincere. However, the Guangdong-Anhui-Fenghuang Triangular Alliance did not have a solid political foundation.
Later, due to Feng Yuxiang's "defection", the Feng clique defeated the Zhili clique. Duan and Zhang Dian invited Sun Yat-sen to go north to "discuss the state affairs." However, Zhang Zuolin was extremely indifferent to Sun Yat-sen and lost his enthusiasm for "subsidizing" at that time. However, this was That’s another story.
