Chapter 43 first quarter

The history of the first half of the Republic of China is almost a history of warlords' separatism and melee. This period was continuous with the late Qing Dynasty, which constituted the chaotic background of modern Chinese history. In that chaotic world, there were a group of people who said that they had no family background, no culture, and no serious talents when they talked about their talents. Relying on opportunities, courage, righteousness, cruelty, cunning and other personal qualities mixed with good and bad, they went all the way. Passing through the treacherous tortuous river course of the hidden reef of history, boarded an important position one after another.

There are quite a few warlords who were born recklessly in the history of the Republic of China. The two that will be highlighted here--Lu Rongting and Zhang Zongchang--are outstanding representatives of them.Both of these two were born in the cold and helpless, and they both became the emperors of the separatist side, leaving many anecdotes and anecdotes. When it comes to "King of Guangxi", most people know Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi better, as well as the "Guangxi faction" headed by them that competed against the Chiang Kai-shek clique almost until the end of the Republic of China in 1949.However, among the separatists in modern China, Li and Bai were only rising stars in the southwest, and their armed groups could only be called the "Xingui faction".Their predecessors were Lu Rongting, who ruled Guangxi for ten years after the founding of the Republic of China, and carved a deep mark in the anti-Yuan "second revolution" and the war to protect the law.

Regarding "Shandong King", people may think more easily of Han Fuju who is said to have made so many jokes with his "short bag".Similarly, before Han Fuqu, there was Zhang Zongchang who dominated Shandong for three years.During Zhang Zongchang's tenure as the "King of Shandong", he controlled Shandong so tightly and devastated it fiercely, which is very rare among the numerous separatist warlords in various places. The river of time has washed each living person into a pale and shriveled symbol. The local emperors Lu Rongting and Zhang Zongchang who were once in power in the local area have left a historical message of "warlords" to this day.If you want to tell them about their well-known achievements in later generations, it is that Lu Rongting moved the capital of Guangxi, which had been in Guilin, to Nanning, and it has continued to this day; Zhang Zongchang founded Shandong University, which is now a first-class university in the country. .

Lu Rongting and Zhang Zongchang are not of the same generation.Lu Rongting was born in 1859, twenty-two years older than Zhang Zongchang, who was the same year as Lu Xun.The path traveled by these two generations of warlords happened to be a section of China in the troubled times from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the middle of the Republic of China.