Chapter 46 fourth quarter

Roughly speaking, Lu Rongting's road to prosperity is an orphan-beggar thief-soldier-traveling bandit-accepting recruitment as a Qing military officer-participating in the Revolution of 1911. His key step is to accept recruitment.Zhang Zongchang's road to prosperity is a gangster - going to the Guandong to become a bandit - going to Vladivostok - participating in the Revolution of 1911 - taking refuge in Feng Guozhang - taking refuge in Zhang Zuolin. The last three steps are very important to him. People only show their true nature when they are proud.Lu Rongting and Zhang Zongchang have similar backgrounds and similar cultures. After gaining the power to rule a province, their actions and performances are quite different.

After Lu Rongting took charge of Guangxi, he first began to eliminate feudal abuses according to the instructions of the Nanjing Provisional Government.He ordered the abolition of titles such as "adult" and "lord", and ordered officials to be commensurate with each other's official titles; the folks promoted new titles of the Republic of China such as "Mister" and "Jun".He also decreed that instruments of torture should be destroyed, and that footbinding, braiding, gambling, and opium smoking were outlawed.The social atmosphere in Guangxi is one of the new ones.

Lu Rongting also imitated the "Interim Constitution of the Republic of China" promulgated by Sun Yat-sen's government. On February 25, 1912, he promulgated the "Guangxi Provisional Constitution" formulated by the Guangxi Provincial Assembly.This local law is divided into seven chapters and fifty-eight articles, with more than 3,000 characters. It stipulates that the governor shall be elected by the people, and the term of office shall not exceed two (six years).should say.This agreement had a very high historical height at the time. Although it was not strictly implemented, Lu Rongting has always regarded it as a major achievement that he is proud of.

Lu Rongting also spared no effort in developing Guangxi's economy. From 1917 to 1918, Guangxi produced more than 4.5 billion jin of rice annually, which was sold in Guangdong 300 to 400 million jin a year, in addition to being consumed in the province.The province's private sericulture industry can earn as much as one million yuan a year.Forestry has also made great progress. Forest reclamation companies have been established in various places to plant star anise, tung tree, osmanthus, fir, pine, eucalyptus, camphor and other tree species. According to incomplete statistics, there were 23 forest farms in Guangxi during his rule.

In terms of transportation, Lu Rongting mobilized his engineering battalion in 1914 to build the high-grade Yongwu Highway, which was the first model road in Guangxi for automobiles; Longzhou built Longzhou Shuikou Highway, Longzhou Pingxiang Simple Highway, Longzhou Iron Bridge, Shuikou Iron Bridge and other transportation facilities. These projects pioneered the construction of automobile roads in Guangxi. The waterway transportation industry has also begun to enter a period of prosperity. The Xijiang, Dangjiang, Yujiang, Liujiang, Guijiang, Zuojiang, Youjiang and other rivers can be navigable by small steamers and electric boats. There are dotted commercial fairs along the coast, forming a commercial circulation network. As a result, commercial and trade centers in Wuzhou, Nanning, Liuzhou, Guilin, Baise, Longzhou and other towns have become increasingly prosperous.

During the period when Lu Rongting was in charge of Guangxi, the education of Guangxi has been greatly developed.He mainly focused on two aspects: practical secondary vocational education, and high-end international student education. In 1912, the No. 1 Sericulture School in Guangxi was established in Wuzhou; in 1913, the No. 1 Provincial Agricultural School was established in Lingui, and the No. 1 Provincial Industrial School was established in Guilin in the same year.In addition, a series of vocational schools such as Guilin Women's Machine Weaving Institute, Guilin Zhenkun Women's Industrial School, and Rong County Sericulture School were established.These schools have played an active role in improving the quality of Guangxi citizens.

In terms of sending overseas students abroad, from 1912 to 1921, except for 1915, the examination for studying abroad was held every year.According to incomplete statistics, during the ten years of Lu Rongting's reign in Guangxi, Guangxi sent a total of 139 students, including 117 to Japan, 18 to the United States, 2 to France, 1 to Germany, and 1 to Belgium.In terms of the treatment of international students, self-financed students are the most, with 78 students; government-funded students are next, with 51 students; official-funded students are 10, and the subjects they study are 29 in engineering, 26 in political science, and 26 in politics and economics. There are 15 people in law, six in education, three in medicine, two in agriculture, two in business, and one in art.The overseas students in Guangxi have greatly improved the scientific and cultural level of Guangxi after returning to China after completing their studies.

Lu Rongting came from an extremely "humble" background. After becoming a prince, he did not act as a domineering figure to make up for the sadness and depression in his early years psychologically.He was nurtured by the generous and simple Zhuang culture, and he always behaved like a strong man all his life.His father was beaten to death by his neighbors, and he did not take any revenge after he became an officer in the Qing Dynasty and the governor of Guangxi in the Republic of China. He was called "Yi Shi's revenge for killing his father"; The wives and concubines of the noble families are all low-level civilian women, and like other strong people, he has no concept of "chastity" towards wives and concubines before marriage, and the children born to his ex-husbands brought by his wives and concubines are all regarded as his own; His life still maintains the tradition of the strong people's "living harshly and simply" and "kneading rice and scooping water for food". It is rare among warlords who spend their days and nights; Lu Rongting, a middle-aged and senior official, still uses the fake chrysanthemum chrysanthemum to satisfy his childhood hunger.And the Ningwu Manor he deliberately built is actually just a slightly more elegant village of the Zhuang nationality, which cannot be compared with the luxurious mansions and manors of other warlords.

The most interesting thing is that in addition to accurate marksmanship, Lu Rongting also has another unique skill: frying cattle into the water.The taste of the beef offal he fried is not inferior to that of famous chefs in big hotels; just after he became the "King of Guangxi", he even cooked the mouth-watering beef offal in some activities for entertaining common folks. Bring to the table. Of course, these advantages also come with disadvantages.Lu Rongting started his career as a reckless man, and he paid special attention to the brothers who fell into the grass with him back then, appointing them with low education and limited vision to various important positions.Another characteristic of his employment is that he values ​​the ties of nostalgia. People from Wuming, Guiping, Longzhou, and Maping (Liuzhou) who are either his hometown, or the places he wandered, or where he was an official are often easy to find. He has been reused, so that Guangxi folks describe his "cadre line" as "if there is injustice", "no dragon is the horse".In the Gui army, he placed a large number of confidants, such as Tan Haoming, Mo Rongxin, Wei Rongchang, Shen Hongying, Lin Junting, etc., as well as his incompetent son (not his own, born to his wife and ex-husband) Lu Yuguang was 20 years old He was appointed as the teacher.Lu Rongting's success depends on them, and their failure also depends on them.

Lu Rongting was one of the most powerful factions in the country in the early years of the Republic of China, but he had no intention of aspiring to the Central Plains and ruling the whole country. He only wanted to manage Guangxi as his own iron country.Even so, he was still a national figure of his time, not just a local figure. During the Revolution of 1911, after Lu Rongting declared the independence of Guangxi, Sun Yat-sen placed high hopes on Lu Rongting and got in touch with him, hoping that he would send troops to the Northern Expedition to help the militiamen fighting against Yuan Shikai's Qing army in central and eastern China.Several times in a row, Lu Rongting used various excuses to evade. At that time, what he was anxious to do was to preserve and expand his power and consolidate his rule in Guangxi.

During the "second revolution" against Yuan Shikai, Sun Yat-sen mobilized Lu Rongting to overthrow Yuan, but Lu Rongting observed the situation and felt that Sun Yat-sen would not win this struggle, so he fell to Yuan Shikai, suppressed Liu Guxiang's anti-Yuan uprising in Liuzhou, and killed Wuchang's first hero Jiang Yiwu. When Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor, Lu Rongting saw that Yuan Shikai had lost popular support, and it would be unwise to get together with Yuan Shikai, so he turned against Yuan.By the end of 1915, he confirmed that Yuan Shikai would be defeated, and said: "I am in favor of Yuan Shikai as president, but I oppose him as emperor. If he wants to be emperor, I firmly oppose him." He recalled his son Lu Yuxun, who was working in Beijing.Yuan Shikai knew that he had turned his back on him, so he laid a murderous hand on Lu Yuxun.Lu Yuxun traveled to Wuhan and died suddenly inexplicably.Lu Rongting knew it well, but pretended not to know, and received Yuan Shikai's fake condolences as usual. In 1916, 57-year-old Lu Rongting went to Beijing to work. Yuan Shikai, who had accepted the imperial rule, hosted a banquet for him.Lu Rongting stood up and said that when he was young, he had practiced with a gun and even shot fish in the river. Now that he is old, let's try shooting the goldfish in the fish tank, let's shoot the anchovy first.After finishing speaking, he fired a shot, and the fish tank in Yuan Shikai's living room exploded. Everyone stepped forward to see that the bullet passed through the anchovy's body.Amidst the applause, Yuan Shikai forced himself to be annoyed—because the fish in this tank was his pet!After the banquet was over, Yuan Shikai cursed again and again: "It's wild, it's really wild!" The shooting of Yuan Shikai's pet was Lu Rongting's attitude to Yuan Shikai: he wanted to oppose Yuan.Lu Rongting very shrewdly expressed his loyalty to Yuan Shikai first, asking for payment and weapons; after Yuan Shikai was satisfied one by one, on March 15, 1916, Lu Rongting issued a telegram in Liuzhou to protect the country and challenge Yuan, announcing the independence of Guangxi, which dealt a major blow to Yuan Shikai. Lu Rongting took advantage of the opportunity of the National Defense War to control Guangdong and Guangxi, and became a major warlord in the southwest region. In April 1917, Li Yuanhong appointed him as the visiting envoy of Guangdong and Guangxi. After Yuan Shikai's death, the Beijing government was controlled by Duan Qirui of the Anhui faction. Duan Qirui attempted to unify China by force, which aroused the resentment and fear of the southwest power faction.In order to protect himself, Lu Rongting welcomed Sun Yat-sen, who was carrying out the "law protection movement" (restoring the "Temporary Constitution of the Republic of China"), to go south to Guangdong and Guangxi as his base, which objectively also provided Sun Yat-sen with favorable conditions. During the Dharma Protection War, Lu Rongting sent troops into Hunan to fight against the Beiyang Army. With the cooperation of the Hunan and Guangdong Dharma Protection Forces, he successively occupied Zhuzhou, Changsha, Yueyang and other places.After the Guangxi troops took control of Hunan, Lu refused to implement Sun Yat-sen's instructions to continue the Northern Expedition, and did not support his troops.His mind is to build Hunan as a "buffer zone" between Guangxi and Beiyang forces, and to preserve the ruling power of Guangxi is the goal. Sun Yat-sen hoped to use Lu Rongting's power to protect the Dharma, but Lu Rongting planned to use Sun Yat-sen's Dharma protector to resist the weakening of his status as "King of Guangxi" by the Beiyang government.Naturally, this movement can only fail.Seeing that warlords everywhere only defended their own interests, Sun Yat-sen said sadly: "The south and the north are the same breed." Although there are obvious historical limitations, Lu Rongting, who should have done more in the meeting of the wind and clouds, finally became a "King of Guangxi" with a good reputation in the local area. , after all, he has no more bad deeds.And the later "Shandong King" Zhang Zongchang, although he only served as the "Shandong King" for three years, he turned Shandong, a province that has won the reputation of "a state of etiquette" for the Chinese nation, into a hell on earth!