Youth is full of hardships
Zhang Zongchang was born on March 4, 1882 (one theory is: February 13, 1881, which is also the fifteenth day of the first lunar month). Because of this day It is the Lantern Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival, and there is a folk saying that "the queen who is on the first day of the Lunar New Year is the official of the fifteenth", so Zhang Zongchang was nicknamed "Dengguan". Zhang Zongchang received a brief private school education when he was young, which laid the foundation for Zhang Zongchang's later ability to read and write. The school teacher Zhu Xiude named him Zhang Zongchang, which means prosperous Zhang family. As a boy, Zhang Zongchang often had no food and clothing, and suffered from hunger and cold. In order to make ends meet, Zhang Zongchang let cattle go and worked as a gunslinger, a drunkard, etc. The painful childhood not only made him taste the coldness of the world prematurely, but also tempered his will and strengthened and improved his ability to adapt to the harsh environment. In 1897, the Jiaodong area encountered another famine year, and the people were in dire straits, so Zhang Zongchang fled outside the famine customs. While wandering in the Northeast, he worked odd jobs, carried out long-term labor, and worked as a herdsman for an old wealthy family. In 1899, Zhang Zongchang was recruited to work as a road builder on the China Eastern Railway. During this period, he worked as a loader and switchman. Because Zhang Zongchang was tall, brave enough to do hard work, generous and magnanimous, and valued justice over profit, he was very prestigious among the workers and gradually gained favor from the Russians. And learn to speak Russian fluently and with accurate pronunciation. Later he went to Siberia to pan for gold and served as the general foreman. When he served as the general foreman in a gold mine, he not only learned excellent gold mining techniques, but also trained himself to be an outstanding hunter of wild beasts and developed extremely accurate marksmanship. Joining the Army Alone
After the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911, Russian newspapers continued to report news about the Chinese revolution.
According to someone’s introduction, Zhang Zongchang had contact with revolutionaries Zhang Ximan, Hu Jinzhao and others. In addition, Zhang Zongchang had already been exposed to revolutionary ideas when he was in Vladivostok, and through propaganda and agitation, he mobilized his troops to return to China to participate in the revolution. He surrendered to Hu Ying, the commander-in-chief of the Shandong People's Army, and soon followed the army to Shanghai, where he served as the commander of the Liberation Army under Chen Qimei. In 1913, Zhang Zongchang was promoted to commander of the Third Division of the Jiangsu Army. During the Second Revolution, Jiangsu was the main province where the Kuomintang fought against Yuan. Zhang Zongchang's Third Division was sent to Xuzhou to defend Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army moving south. However, Zhang Zongchang defected on the front line and surrendered to Beiyang general Feng Guozhang; he became a member of the Zhili clique from then on.
In November 1916, Feng Guozhang became the acting president, and Zhang Zongchang became the military attaché. After the outbreak of the France-Defense War in 1918, Zhang Zongchang served as the commander of the Sixth Mixed Brigade of Jiangsu Province. He followed Zhang Huaizhi to Hunan to participate in the battle against the southern army. However, he was defeated and fled, and was appointed as the temporary commander of the first division. In 1921, Zhang Zongchang was ordered to lead his troops into Jiangxi and fought with Jiangxi Governor Chen Guangyuan. As a result, he was defeated by Chen Guangyuan in the Ji'an area and his troops were disbanded by Chen Guangyuan. Zhang Zongchang had no foothold in Jiangsu and had to go north to Zhili Province alone. He moved to Baoding and took refuge with Cao Kun, the patrol envoy of Zhilu and Yu. Cao Kun originally wanted to take Zhang Zongchang in, but Wu Peifu and other generals could not tolerate the bandit commander. In anger, Zhang Zongchang and Xu Kun, a frustrated officer under Cao Kun, went to Fengtian to seek refuge with Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Xueliang. Go to Fengxian.
After joining the Fengcian faction, Zhang Zongchang had no choice but to start from scratch, first serving as the commander of the military police battalion. Soon, the Jilin Army brigade commander Gao Shibi (the nephew of the former Jilin governor Meng Enyuan) joined forces with the Hu bandit Lu Yonggui to fight Zhang Zuolin. At that time, Zhang Zuolin had just been defeated in the Zhili-Fengtian War and had no troops to send, so he decided to send Zhang Zongchang to lead the military police battalion to fight. This was originally a contest of great disparity in power, but because many of Lu Yonggui’s leaders were fellow villagers who broke into Guandong with Zhang Zongchang. In addition, there were many fellow Shandong fellows, either from Huang County or Ye County. How often do you hear that " Zhang Changji"; with this relationship, Zhang Zongchang organized the Hu bandits into three regiments without losing a fight, and Zhang Zongchang also absorbed the Russian White Army who fled from Russia to China. Zhang Zuolin was very happy and appointed him as the commander of the third brigade of the Jilin Province Defense Force and the garrison envoy of Suining, Jilin Province. In this way, Zhang Zongchang had a foothold. Soon, the Russian Civil War broke out, and the White Russian Guards were defeated and fled to China. Most of them took refuge in Zhang Zongchang. Before long, Zhang Zongchang had nearly ten thousand troops.
Due to the large number of men and guns, Zhang Zongchang's military expenditures were huge. Although Zhang Zuolin continued to allocate funds from Fengtian, he could not make ends meet. So Zhang Zongchang had no choice but to let soldiers grow opium in his own area to make up for the shortfall. This incident aroused dissatisfaction among various departments in the Feng Army and asked Zhang Zuolin to disband the team. In addition, Zhang Zongchang's troops had always been extremely banditry and had a bad reputation, so Zhang Zuolin was determined to dismantle them. In the autumn of 1923, Zhang Zuolin took advantage of the exercises of various army departments and sent review member Guo Songling to Zhang Zongchang's third brigade to inspect Zhang's exercises. It was called a review exercise, but in fact it was waiting for an opportunity to be dismissed.
The exercise process was quite harsh, and Zhang’s soldiers were tortured to the point of climbing on ice and lying in the snow. Zhang Zongchang hid aside and complained, cursing: "What the hell, this is some idiot's plan to make us like this."
While he was scolding, Guo Songling suddenly opened the door and came in. Hearing the scolding He immediately asked Zhang: "Who are you scolding?!"
Zhang Zongchang laughed and said: "This is my spoken language, and I am not criticizing anyone."
Guo was furious, pointed at Zhang's nose and cursed: "I × your mother! This is also my spoken language!"
Zhang Zongchang's face turned from red to black, and he jumped down from the kang. , said: "Second Master Guo, you x my mother, you are my biological father, what else can you say?"
Guo Songling is two years younger than Zhang Zongchang, but Zhang Zongchang actually called him For "Dad". This kind of quick wit must be matched with extraordinary shamelessness. A storm came to nothing. Guo instead had a good impression of Zhang. Thinking that he was tolerant, he naturally completed the review and returned to Fengtian with many good words, and the discussion of abolition was discontinued.
Afterwards, Zhang Zongchang said to his cronies: "I call him dad, but he is not my dad anyway."
So Zhang Zuolin doted on Zhang Zongchang and immediately transferred him from Jilin. Arrive at Shenyang and change Zhang Zongchang's department into the third brigade of the Fengtian Army, with four regiments under its jurisdiction.
Prosperity
During the Second Zhili-Fengtian War in 1924 (the 13th year of the Republic of China), Zhang Zongchang was appointed deputy commander of the 2nd Army of the Zhenwei Army and made military exploits. After the war, Duan Qirui's provisional government of the Republic of China was established, and Zhang Zongchang was appointed commander of the 1st Army of the Xuanfu Army, stationed in Shanghai. In February 1925 (the 14th year of the Republic of China), Zhang Zongchang was appointed as the commander-in-chief of bandit suppression in the three provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Shandong and was stationed in Xuzhou. Subsequently, with the support of Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Zongchang was appointed as the Supervisor of Shandong Military Affairs in April of the same year. As a result, Zhang Zongchang ruled Shandong Province, but during his tenure he was called the "Dog Meat General" by the people because of his harshness and cruelty and the punishment he inflicted on the people. Zhang Zongchang, like other generals of the Feng faction, relied on Japan as his backing. In May 1925 (the 14th year of the Republic of China), Zhang Zongchang suppressed a general strike by Japanese cotton mill workers in Qingdao, resulting in the "Qingdao Massacre". During his rule in Shandong Province, Zhang Zongchang accumulated a large amount of private wealth and deposited it in a Japanese bank in Dalian.
In October of the same year, the National Army of Zhejiang Military Affairs Supervisor Sun Chuanfang and Feng Yuxiang began to join hands to challenge the Feng Faction, and Zhang Zongchang responded (Zhejiang-Shandong War). Subsequently, Wu Peifu, the once weak Zhili clique after the Second Zhili Clan, entered the war, creating a situation in which the National Army faced off against the Zhili Clan and the Fengcheng Clan alliance. In December, Zhang Zongchang appointed himself the commander-in-chief of the Zhili-Shandong Allied Forces and began to attack the National Army in Beijing. In April 1926 (the 15th year of the Republic of China), Zhang Zongchang captured Beijing from the National Army. Because he had little knowledge, Zhang Zongchang admired the old learning very much. When he entered Beijing, Zhang Zongchang forced all schools in North China to resume Confucian education.
In September 1924, the second Zhili-Fengtian War broke out. Zhang Zongchang was promoted to deputy commander of the First Army (Commander Li Jinglin), and led his troops from Rehe to Chaoyang, and then attacked the pass. In October, Feng Yuxiang, commander-in-chief of the Third Army of the Zhili Army, returned to Beijing, launched a coup in Beijing, and imprisoned President Cao Kun for bribing the election. As the Feng army took advantage of the situation and invaded Tianjin and Beijing, Li Jinglin first grabbed the title of Military Affairs Supervisor of Zhili Province. Soon, Zheng Shiqi of the Anhui Clique was appointed as the Supervisor of the Shandong Province's aftermath, while Zhang Zongchang was only appointed commander of the First Army.
Although Zhang Zongchang became the army commander, he no longer had his own territory in the Northeast, Zhili, Shandong and other provinces controlled by the Feng clique. If he wanted to become a military governor or provincial governor, he had to fight southward. Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
At that time, the governor of Jiangsu was Qi Xieyuan, and the governor of Zhejiang was Sun Chuanfang. Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the direct spheres of influence. Duan Qirui appointed his close confidant Lu Yongxiang as the propaganda envoy to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, preparing to eliminate Qi Xieyuan and seize more territory; Zhang Zuolin also wanted to expand to the south of the Yangtze River, so, Support Zhang Zongchang's move south. After discussing with Chief of Staff Wang Hanming, Chief of Staff Li Boren, and generals Xu Kun, Bi Shucheng, Wu Zhichen, Chu Yupu, etc., Zhang Zongchang led his troops to set off south from Tianjin. Chen Tiaoyuan, the garrison envoy of Xuzhou of the Direct Army, was originally a general under Zhang Zongchang and had received many favors from Zhang Zongchang. This time when Zhang Zongchang went south, he did not forget his previous kindness and gave way to the main road, allowing Zhang Zongchang to march straight into Jiangsu. Qi Xieyuan fled in panic. In Nanjing, Zhang Zongchang easily captured Jiangsu and ordered his troops to station in key areas in southern Jiangsu. He personally led his troops into Shanghai and launched a massive attack on Zhejiang. Sun Chuanfang knew that his strength could not resist the Feng army, so he had already sent people to express his sincerity to Zhang Zuolin. Zhang Zuolin also intended to win over Sun Chuanfang and promised to stop his march to Zhejiang after Qi Xieyuan was eliminated. When Zhang Zongchang entered Shanghai, Sun Chuanfang knew that he was a gangster, so he sent his confidants to Shanghai to take over all the brothels, casinos, and wine markets, so that Zhang Zongchang could spend all his time in debauchery and entertainment. Later, Sun Chuanfang went to Shanghai in person, met Zhang Zongchang, tried his best to win over him, and even became a brother. In this way, Zhang Zongchang gave up his plan to capture Zhejiang.
Enter Shandong
While Zhang Zongchang was still having fun in Shanghai, the Duan Qirui government appointed Lu Yongxiang as the Supervisor of Jiangsu Military Affairs. Zhang Zongchang’s wish to seize Jiangsu territory fell through. In anger, he withdrew his troops to Jiangbei and concentrated them in Xuzhou. Zhang Zongchang withdrew his troops. Zhang Zuolin was anxious and asked Duan Qirui for mercy, asking for the transfer of Shandong, which was managed by Zheng Shiqi of the Anhui clique, to Zhang Zongchang. At that time, Duan Qirui wanted to rely on Zhang Zuolin to compete with Feng Yuxiang to maintain his position in power, so he had no choice but to remove Zheng Shiqi as military affairs supervisor and replace him with Zhang Zongchang. However, although Zheng Shiqi was removed from office, he did not leave office. Zhang Zongchang waited for three months. Finally, he sent Xu Kun to lead two brigades into Shandong, and sent chief of staff Wang Hanming to Jinan to visit Zheng Shiqi. He used both soft and hard tactics, and Zheng Shiqi had no choice but to leave Jinan. In April 1925, Zhang Zongchang led a large group of troops from Xuzhou into Shandong and served as the Superintendent of Military Affairs of Shandong Province. Then, Zhang Zongchang forced out the provincial chairman Gong Boheng by force and became the provincial chairman himself.
Unlucky fortunes
After Zhang Zongchang took sole control of the military and political power in Shandong, he used Shandong's wealth to vigorously expand his armed forces, which soon reached more than 100,000 troops. At the same time, he brutally suppressed the worker and peasant movements, such as suppressing the strike of Japanese cotton mill workers in Qingdao, which caused the Qingdao massacre that shocked the whole country. However, it was not easy for Zhang Zongchang to maintain his territory when China's political situation was very chaotic at that time. Not long after he arrived in Shandong, Feng Yuxiang's First National Army came to Zhili and pressed hard against Li Jinglin; Henan Military Affairs Supervisor Yue Weijun's Second National Army also took the opportunity to attack Shandong, with their troops directed towards Xuzhou, the southeast gate of Shandong. Zhang Zongchang was preparing to go to the front line to command the battle in person. Unexpectedly, before he left Jinan, Xuzhou garrison envoy Sun Bochuan had abandoned the city and fled. Jinan was in danger. Zhang Zongchang led his troops to fight back hard and suffered heavy casualties. Finally, Jinan was saved and the Second National Army was driven out of Shandong.
However, in 1925, Fengjun entered the customs several times and gained many benefits. After Li Jinglin and Zhang Zongchang successively served as military affairs supervisors in Zhili and Shandong, Fengjun took Tianjin as its base and expanded southward to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Xing Shilian's division was stationed in Shanghai and Ding Xichun's division was stationed in Nanjing. Later, Liu Yifei and Zhao Mingzhen were sent to the brigades. Shanghai. In September, Zhang Zuolin forced Duan Qirui to appoint Yang Yuting as Jiangsu Military Affairs Supervisor and Jiang Deng as Anhui Military Affairs Supervisor. At this point, all provinces and regions along Jinpu were occupied by the Feng clan. However, just when the Feng faction was getting carried away, Sun Chuanfang and Chen Tiaoyuan suddenly launched an army to rebel against Feng. In October, the war between Feng and Zhejiang broke out. The Feng army was unprepared and fled in defeat. The southeastern half of the army was completely lost. Unwilling to accept defeat, Zhang Zuolin convened a meeting with generals such as Zhang Zongchang and Shandong Military Affairs Assistant Shi Congbin. He appointed Zhang Zongchang to supervise the aftermath of Jiangsu and Shi Congbin to supervise the aftermath of Anhui, and led his troops south to recover Jiangsu and Anhui. In December, Zhang Zongchang, Shi Congbin and others received a large amount of salary and supplies in Beijing. Zhang Zongchang appointed Shi Congbin as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy and led his troops to attack Bengbu, Anhui. He led the White Russian army from Jinan along the east side of Jinpu Road to cover Shi's troops' rapid southward advance.
As a result, Shi Congbin's troops suffered a disastrous defeat in Bengbu, and Zhang Zongchang's White Russian army also suffered heavy losses. Shi Congbin himself was captured and executed by Sun Chuanfang, and Zhang Zongchang led his troops to escape back to Shandong. Soon, Li Jinglin was defeated by Feng Yuxiang's National Army and retreated from Tianjin to Shandong. He jointly organized the Zhilu Allied Forces with Zhang Zongchang, with Zhang Zongchang as commander-in-chief and Li Jinglin as deputy commander-in-chief.
In the summer of 1926, the Guangzhou National Revolutionary Army launched its Northern Expedition. Wu Peifu was the first to suffer a heavy blow. Sun Chuanfang decided to rebuild the relationship with Feng and jointly deal with the Northern Expeditionary Army. In November, Sun Chuanfang sent Yang Wenkai to see Zhang Zongchang and Zhang Zuolin successively and obtained an understanding. Subsequently, Zhang Zuolin, Zhang Zongchang, and Sun Chuanfang gathered in Tianjin, and Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang jointly proposed Zhang Zuolin as the commander-in-chief of the Anguo Army. On December 1, Zhang Zuolin was sworn in and appointed Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang as deputy commanders. At the same time, it was decided to send Zhang Zongchang to lead the Lu coalition forces south to support Sun Chuanfang.
In early 1927, Zhang Zongchang mobilized more than 100,000 troops to go south to assist Sun Chuanfang and stationed in Nanjing, Shanghai and other places. In Shanghai, the Zhili-Shandong coalition forces massacred workers and students and suppressed the armed uprising of Shanghai workers. However, as the Northern Expeditionary Army advanced towards East China, Beiyang Army generals Chen Yi, Zhou Fengqi, Chen Tiaoyuan, Wang Shan, Zhang Keyao and others successively joined the Northern Expeditionary Army. The Northern Expeditionary Army occupied Anqing, Wuhu and other places in Zhejiang and Anhui, and took Nanjing and Shanghai directly. Seeing that the situation was over, Sun Chuanfang handed over the defense of Ninghu to Zhang Zongchang's Zhilu Allied Forces, and led his troops to flee to Yangzhou in the north of the Yangtze River. Zhang Zongchang's Wang Hanming's 11th Army suffered a disastrous defeat in Shouzhou. Zhang Zongchang personally conquered Hefei and surrounded it for three months but failed to capture it. In late March, the Northern Expeditionary Army successively occupied Nanjing and Shanghai, and then crossed the Yangtze River and marched northward. The Zhili-Shandong Allied Forces retreated steadily. In May, the Northern Expeditionary Army captured Bengbu and Xuzhou, and Zhang Zongchang led the remaining troops back to Jinan.
Zhang Zuolin was very angry about Zhang Zongchang's defeat and wanted to investigate the responsibility. At this moment, Zhang Zongchang received information that Bi Shucheng, commander of the Eighth Army and commander of the navy, and Chiang Kai-shek, commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army, were secretly connected, so he decided to kill Bi Shucheng. Since Bi Shucheng held military power, Zhang Zongchang was inconvenient to kill him openly, and was not willing to do it himself, so he ordered Chu Yupu, the then general of the Zhili Military Affairs Supervision Office, to trap and kill Bi Shucheng in Jinan on April 4, 1927. Zhang Zongchang not only killed someone with a borrowed knife, but also excused himself from the blame for the defeat in the south, blaming Bi Shucheng's collaboration with the enemy as the cause of the defeat. The two warlords of the Zhili clique, Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang, had been wiped out and disintegrated under the attack of the Northern Expedition. The remaining warlords of the Feng clique still wanted to resist. On June 18, 1927, Zhang Zuolin took office as the Grand Marshal of the Anguo Army at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, and announced the establishment of the Anguo Military Government. Zhang Zongchang was appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Anguo Army and the commander of the Second Army Corps. Zhang Zuolin took advantage of the split between Ning and Han and sent Zhang Zongchang to lead his army to the Longhai line to deal with Feng Yuxiang's army. The two sides fought in Xuzhou, and Zhang Zongchang's troops suffered heavy losses. Zhang Zuolin sent an urgent telegram and severely criticized Zhang Zongchang for "prolonged fighting without success." Zhang Zongchang became so angry that in early October he fought another fierce battle with Feng Jun in the Lankao area of ??Henan. Pan Hongjun, commander of Zhang Zongchang's division, used a trick to lure Feng Jun's brigade commander Jiang Mingyu and his troops to defect, arrested Feng Jun's eighth front army deputy commander and commander Zheng Jinsheng, and escorted him to Jinan. Zhang Zongchang was overjoyed to win and ordered Zheng Jinsheng to be shot. All his staff tried to dissuade him, but Zhang Zongchang insisted on killing him. And this killing, just like Sun Chuanfang's killing of Shi Congbin, caused him to be killed a few years later.
In the spring of 1928, the four major military groups of the Kuomintang jointly launched the Northern Expedition. The Fengjun army was defeated one after another. Zhang Zongchang's life in Shandong was already very difficult. Many local forces in Shandong united to force Zhang Zongchang to break away from Zhang Zuolin and form his own army. Shandong Provincial Security Headquarters. Soon, I heard that the Nanjing government had appointed Chen Tiaoyuan as chairman of Shandong Province. Zhang Zongchang was forced by internal and external pressure, so he had no choice but to lead the Zhili-Shandong coalition forces to leave Shandong at the end of April and withdraw to Dezhou and Tianjin in Zhili to Luanzhou in eastern Hebei.
Escape eastward
In early June 1928, Zhang Zuolin knew that Beijing and Tianjin were no longer safe and decided to withdraw from the customs. But on June 4, 1928, after he left Beijing by train, he was killed by the Japanese army in Huanggutun (the "Huanggutun Incident"). After Zhang Zuolin's death, Zhang Zongchang was extremely sad, and he still had 50,000 men under his command who didn't know where to go. He begged Zhang Xueliang to come out of seclusion. Zhang Xueliang was deeply afraid that he would replace him after he came out of seclusion. Not only did he not allow him to leave seclusion, but he sent Yu Xuezhong and other ministries to control him.
After the Northern Expeditionary Army occupied Beijing and Tianjin, in September, Bai Chongxi led his troops to Jidong and surrounded Zhang Zongchang's tribe. Zhang Zongchang felt that the situation was over, so he disguised himself and walked out of an alley, found a small fish boat, fled from Luanzhoukou to Dalian, and then took the boat east to Japan. The remaining 50,000 people were taken in by Bai Chongxi.
Although Zhang Zongchang went into exile in Japan, he was still unwilling to fail and looked for an opportunity to make a comeback. In 1929, with the support of Japanese imperialism, he united the remaining troops of Shandong Province to land in Yantai. However, he failed and fled back to Japan. After the September 18th Incident in 1931, the Japanese invaded the Northeast. Zhang Xueliang led the Northeast Army to retreat into the pass and became the director of the Peking Pacification Office. In the spring of 1932, Zhang Xueliang was worried that Zhang Zongchang was acting as a traitor, so he sent a telegram inviting him to return to China immediately and live temporarily in Tiesezi Hutong, Beijing.
Omens of murder
After Zhang Zongchang returned to China, he wanted to return to Shandong to recruit his old troops and make a comeback. However, the chairman of Shandong Province at the time was Han Fuju, the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang's Jiyulu "bandit suppression" and the commander-in-chief of the Third Route Army, and Zhang Zongchang could not be allowed to return. In August, Zhang Xueliang summoned the generals stationed in North China to attend a military meeting in Peiping. During the meeting, Zhang Zongchang met Han Fuju through the introduction of Shi Yousan. Later, with the help of three friends, Zhang Zongchang, Han Fugu, Yu Xuezhong, and Zhang Xueliang formed an alliance. Zhang Zongchang was several years older than Han Fuju, so he regarded himself as the eldest brother. He once said this to his younger brother during the banquet: "Many of my old subordinates are now scattered throughout Shandong. I just need to go and say hello, and they can be reunited immediately." Form a team!" After hearing this, Han Fuju remained calm on the surface and just smiled. However, he had murderous intentions in his heart. He knew that Zhang Zongchang would pose a threat to his rule in Shandong.
Two days later, Han Fuju returned to Jinan from Peiping. A few days later, Zhang Zongchang received many gifts and a handwritten letter from someone sent by Han Fuju, inviting Zhang Zongchang to come to Jinan quickly to "plan big things." After reading the letter, Zhang Zongchang felt that an opportunity had come and decided to go south to Shandong. However, Zhang Zongchang's former subordinates Jin Shouchang and Xu Xiaolou, his mother Zhu Wuwu, the lower field warlords Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang, and Zhang Xueliang all opposed Zhang Zongchang's return to Shandong and believed that Han Fuju had bad intentions. However, Zhang Zongchang was eager to make a comeback and ignored everyone's dissuasion. He arrived in Jinan with his former chief of staff Jin Shouchang at the end of August.
Death by hand
After Zhang Zongchang arrived in Jinan, he was warmly entertained by Han Fuju, and Shi Yousan was also invited to accompany him. However, after several days, Zhang Zongchang felt disappointed when he did not hear Han Fuju mention "the Communist Party is planning big things". Besides, Zhang Xueliang was very anxious when he learned that Zhang Zongchang was going south to Shandong. On September 2, 1932, Zhang Xueliang sent a telegram to Zhang Zongchang in the name of Zhang Zongchang's aunt, pretending to wish the witch a critical illness and asking him to return to Peking immediately. On the morning of the 3rd, Zhang Zongchang received the telegram and was extremely anxious. He immediately explained and said goodbye to Han Fuju. Han Fuju also seemed very anxious and sympathetic, and immediately sent someone to book a train ticket for Zhang Zongchang at 5:37 pm. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Han Fuju notified the military and political officials of Shandong Province to see Zhang Zongchang off at Jinan Railway Station. Zhang Zongchang said goodbye to Han Fuju and others, and when they returned to board the car, he was suddenly shot by an assassin and died instantly. The assassin raised his gun and shouted: "I am Zheng Jicheng, the son of Zheng Jinsheng. I avenge my father! Surrender yourself now!" It turned out that when Han Fuju invited Zhang Zongchang to Jinan, he had already planned for provincial councilor Zheng Jicheng to shoot Zhang Zongchang when he left. He became an avenger for his father (uncle, adopted son), and he was happy to take on this responsibility. After September 4, 1932, Zheng Jicheng avenged his father, assassinated Zhang Zongchang, and the news of his surrender spread throughout the country. Zheng Jicheng became a hero in people's minds. After Feng Yuxiang and others came to help him, a month later, Zheng Jicheng was pardoned by the National Government. . Zheng Jicheng was acquitted.