If Zhang Xueliang did not clean up Yang Yuting, would the highly influential Yang Yuting react? Let’s not talk about the personal grudges between Zhang Xueliang and Yang Yuting. If Zhang Xueliang does not kill Yang Yuting, will Yang Yuting rebel and kill Zhang Xueliang? It’s not easy to make a final decision. But if Yang Yuting does not die, it is certain that the Feng faction will fall into a long-term state of civil war.
Firstly, we know that there are three major factions in the Feng faction, the non commissioned faction led by Yang Yuting. There are also some old factions who followed Zhang Zuolin to fight against the mountains and rivers, as well as the Lu Da faction led by Guo Songling. With the failure of Guo Songling, the Lu Da faction also basically lost its strength to confront the other two factions. After Zhang Xueliang took power, it was actually a battle between the non commissioned officials and the old school.
The non commissioned faction has always been the key to handling the relationship between the Fengtian and Japan, but with Zhang Zuolin being killed by the Japanese army, the relationship between the Fengtian faction and Japan cannot be relaxed, so the non commissioned faction can no longer receive the attention and support of Zhang Xueliang. Yang Yuting will also be in a very awkward position, so it is inevitable that non commissioned officials will cause some trouble.
If Zhang Xueliang is willing to sincerely support the non commissioned officials, then the uncles and uncles of the old school will definitely not agree. They will launch a crazy counterattack, and perhaps Zhang Xueliang will still die under the gun of his uncles.
Compared to the warlords in other parts of the country at that time, the Feng faction had its own uniqueness. The early development of Fengshi relied on nepotism. Several old friends with Zhang Zuolin supported each other and came out step by step with the help of relatives, subordinates, friends, and others. So the early Fengshi lineage had a strong characteristic of hooliganism. Compared to the larger direct and Anhui branches, in short, there is a lack of discipline.
At first, Zhang Zuolin also valued these brothers who fought with him, but later in his battles with the direct line, he realized that relying solely on his group of old brothers could not achieve great things. It was necessary to cultivate a well-organized team that could win modern wars. So it was in this situation that Yang Yuting and his non commissioned faction began to surge in power and rapidly developed into a force that could compete with the old faction and the Lu Da faction.
Due to Zhang Zuolin’s trust in Yang Yuting and other civil servant factions, many of the old factions were severely excluded, which also intensified the conflict between the old faction and the civil servant faction and became irreconcilable. When Zhang Zuolin was present, the old faction would still give Zhang Zuolin face. With Zhang Zuolin’s death and Zhang Xueliang, a young and furry young man, taking over the government, the old faction could no longer allow the officialdom to be arrogant. So, if Zhang Xueliang’s coordination is not good, there will be a very serious conflict between the old faction and the non commissioned faction, directly triggering a civil war in the Feng faction.
After Zhang Zuolin’s death, Zhang Xueliang’s prestige had not yet been established. At this time, although the uncles of the old school were all “six sons” to Zhang Xueliang, in fact, they still had many personal feelings for him, mostly a kind of care from the elders to the younger generation. In principle, they will fully support Zhang Xueliang’s governance.
The way Yang Yuting and Zhang Xueliang, who were sent by non commissioned officials, got along was completely a hierarchical relationship. This is also because Yang Yuting himself did not grasp his size well and always held a high position in handling interpersonal relationships, which will inevitably make Zhang Xueliang, who is still young, feel resentful.
Fengshi is actually the private property of the Zhang family, and Yang Yuting is just a senior private advisor hired by the Zhang family. And those uncles, due to their nepotism with the Zhang family, are more or less considered their own people. Yang Yuting doesn’t seem to understand this very well. However, we can boldly speculate that Yang Yuting is ambitious, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so focused on other people’s careers that he would have forgotten his identity.
For Zhang Xueliang, the old-fashioned style is relatively reassuring, and Yang Yuting’s non commissioned officials seem to pose a greater threat to him. Although the young Zhang Xueliang had always supported change in his early days, he was closer to Guo Songling’s Lu Da faction at that time, and the Lu Da faction and the non commissioned faction were also at odds, resulting in Zhang Xueliang and the non commissioned faction being out of place. So he decided to kill Liwei.
For Zhang Xueliang, Yang Yuting is the best target for killing Li Wei. But Zhang Xueliang, who pretended to be clever, wanted to save face for the non commissioned faction. While attacking Yang Yuting, the old-fashioned Zhang Zongchang also became a ghost of Zhang Xueliang’s efforts to maintain faction balance. Overall, Zhang Xueliang has put some effort into handling the relationship between factions.
So, killing Yang Yuting was a measure taken by Zhang Xueliang to establish his reputation. At the same time, it also to some extent avoided a large-scale civil war within the Fengshi faction. As for some who say that Yang Yuting’s death accelerated the downfall of the Fengtian sect, this is too one-sided. The real acceleration of the downfall of the Fengtian faction may be a series of actions taken by Zhang Xueliang in the future, such as stimulating the Soviet Union and causing the Fengtian faction to be attacked from both sides. In short, if Yang Yuting does not die, it is really difficult to imagine what kind of state will be in the later stage of Fengshi.