The Night Beijing Changed Hands | 1924 Warlord Coup (Shorts) · 神州大地 · 第一季

In 1924, an army turned on the capital it was sent to defend.
Its commander had been at the front three days before.
Presented by SY Horizon
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CHINA'S SACRED LAND
A DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Episode 24 · When the Banners Changed Overnight
Remember a name: Feng Yuxiang. In the autumn of
1924, in the city of Beijing, two doors were
knocked on — on almost the same night, by the
same troops, from the outside. Behind one door
lived the President of the Republic of China
Cao Kun. Behind the other lived a young man of
eighteen — his family name Aisin-Gioro, the last
emperor still inside the Forbidden City. Two
doors: one the presidential palace, the other
the imperial palace. The same men, the same
guns, opened both. In a single night, the sky
over the warlord north turned over. But before
that night, the guns at Shanhai Pass had
already roared for nearly a month — the
soldiers at the front were still fighting for
their lives, while the rear courtyard of the
capital was quietly, gently, overturned from
behind
Let's see that night clearly. In the early
hours of October 23, 1924, inside the
presidential palace, Cao Kun was still in his
bed — unaware that, beyond the city, a force that
should have been marching to the front had
wheeled around and was feeling its way darkly
into Beijing. And in the Forbidden City, the
eighteen-year-old Puyi was also asleep
equally unaware that in a few days, soldiers
with guns would walk into his bedroom and ask
him to move out. The same night, one city, two
battlefields: one amid the shellfire of
Shanhai Pass; the other beside a bed in the
capital
The sharpest picture is two things set side
by side. On one side, the dust of the Shanhai
Pass gate tower, three meters shaved off by
heavy artillery. On the other, the quiet
streets of Beijing, where a column of troops
cut the telegraph wires, sealed the news, fired
not a shot, and took a whole capital. The front
was bleeding; the rear was changing hands — and
these two things happened on the same day, the
men at the front knowing nothing of it yet
This episode uses the night of Feng Yuxiang's
Beijing coup to press one large question: when
the gun decides who sits in Zhongnanhai, has
this country moved forward, or merely spun in
place
But don't rush to label that night. This coup
on its face, was warlords turning on each
other — yet the thing that lit the fuse was a
bowl of gruel. A bowl of millet porridge that
Feng Yuxiang's men ate every day at their
post. Why would a turncoat general be set
alight by a bowl of porridge? For that, we must
start with the guns at Shanhai Pass