Sun Meiyao

In the early hours of 6 May 1923, Sun's twelve hundred bandits attacked and then derailed the "Blue Express" near the town of Lincheng (Xuecheng) on the Tianjin-Pukou Railway in Hebei Province close to the Jiangsu-Shandong border.^[7] The bandits looted the train and killed a number of Chinese passengers ^[8] as well as a British subject, Joseph Rothman ^[9] after he refused to surrender his valuables.^[10] They took 300 passengers hostage, including 30 westerners, most of whom were Americans,^[11] but also included British, French, Italian, German, and Danish nationals, and forced them on a 10-day march to their mountain base at Baodugu. Some of the more prominent hostages included Lucy Aldrich, eldest daughter of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island and sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr. J. B. Powell, editor of China Weekly Review,^[12] and Commodore Guiseppe Musso, a wealthy and influential Italian who was the chief attorney in the Shanghai French Concession.^[13]

Sun led negotiations with intermediaries that included he U.S. Minister to China Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman and American China hand Roy Scott Anderson. Sun's demand included the removal of government troops from Shandong, an official pardon for the kidnappers, reinstatement or enrollment into the army for those among the bandits who wished it, and guarantees by six foreign powers that the demands would be met. As a gesture of good faith, the women were released within a couple of days of the kidnapping,^[14] while the remaining male hostages were held for over a month^[11] as negotiations dragged on. Ultimately the Shanghai Green Gang leader Du Yuesheng secured the release of the remaining hostages on June 12, 1923 ^[15] with an $85,000 ransom along with the Chinese government's agreement to accept bandits who wanted it into the military. Many bandits understood the dangers of joining the military and declined. Sun Meiyao and other leaders even received military commissions.^[1]

Over the next six months, the bandits who were inducted into the military were refused weapons and pay, and encouraged to live off the surrounding countryside.^[16] Most were killed before the end of the year.^[5] Sun was executed six months later on December 19, 1923 at the Zhongxing coal mine by General Zhang Peiyuan, on orders of the new Shandong governor Zheng Shiqi, who had accused Sun of failing to turn over guns and ammunition captured from bandits and of illicitly communicating with the bandit Lao Yangren with the intention of returning to banditry.^[17]