Chapter 50 Section VIII

It has been seventy-nine years since Lu Rongting's death, and seventy-three years since Zhang Zongchang's death. A unique page in the history of this place has long been revealed.Don't say that Lu Rongting and Zhang Zongchang are so reckless in troubled times, no matter how great the heroic deeds are, they will only show a pale old shadow in the long river of history, but the paper and ink that record history and personal literacy are passed down from generation to generation. Longer than people, this is the pride and comfort of literati.Interestingly, Lu Rongting and Zhang Zongchang, two reckless figures with extremely weak cultural foundations, have also been handed down to this day.

This time I will talk about Zhang Zongchang first.After Zhang Zongchang ruled Shandong, he felt that as a "parent official" in Shandong, a place where saints were born, how could he be uneducated?So he worshiped Wang Shoupeng, the number one scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and the head of the Shandong Education Department, as his teacher, and learned to write poems, and soon published his personal "poetry collection".I don’t need to elaborate on this, because it has been a big joke for decades. The famous ones are “The cannon is fired and his mother is bombarded, and Vega and Hainei are returned to their hometown. Heroes are Zhang Zongchang, and giant whales are swallowing Fusang. ""Suddenly saw a chain of fire in the sky, as if the Jade Emperor was going to smoke. If the Jade Emperor didn't smoke, why was there another chain of fire." Not famous ones are "Daming Lake Minghu Da / There are lotus flowers in Daming Lake / There are toads on the lotus flowers / One poke one bounce" and so on.

There is no need to think too much that these "works" really humiliated his champion teacher.The reason why Wang Shoupeng won the first prize is because of his name: Shoupeng, which means Pengzu who lived 800 years longer than him.That year, the examiner ranked this auspicious name first for the joy of the old Empress Dowager Cixi. What you may not expect is that Lu Rongting, an orphan of the Zhuang nationality who only attended school for one year, later learned culture and wrote poetry from a teacher.He invited Cai Huawen, a famous person from Guangxi.Under Cai Huawen's careful guidance, by the end of the Guangxu period, Lu Rongting could already read ancient Chinese fluently, not to mention novels such as , , and so on.Lu Rongting also asked a calligrapher surnamed Chen to teach him how to write. Teacher Chen asked him to write 30 large characters one foot square every day no matter how busy he was.So far, there are still his handwriting that is not ashamed in Wuming, Nanning, Longzhou and other places.

Now let's take a look at Lu Rongting's poems.Personally, I think that even those who specialize in ancient prose today may not be able to write old-style poems at his level. After the victory of the national protection movement against Yuan and proclaiming the emperor, Lu Rongting rewarded the soldiers in the "Bagui Hall" and wrote an impromptu poem: The great army of the Northern Expedition shared their swords, and the pennants flowed across the Xianghe River. Returning to the Republic of China to repay the original intention, the Bagui Hall played a triumphant song. If you feel good about this poem, but you don’t admire it very much, let’s take a look at his Qilu poem written in 1921:

Flocks of flying seas compete for supremacy, when will Ou Yu see Datong. Rushing the sword leisurely still reported to me, looking at the princes in time. Unintentional unification eventually prospers the Han Dynasty, and the fate of the country calls for the three parties to wish Song. In his eyes, Sun Cao is up and down, talking and laughing with Jun in the wine glass. How about it?Have you taken it? It is worth sighing that Lu Rongting's coffin was buried in Xiaoshi Mountain, four miles away from Wuming County, his hometown in 1929. On the night of September 13, 1980, grave robbers dug up the tomb of the "King of Guangxi".Relevant departments of Wuming County rushed to the scene the next day and saw that the 2-meter-high and 8-inch-thick coffin was still brightly painted with red paint, and the silk clothes in the coffin were as new as new. rot.

Only a broken blue-and-white porcelain jar was seen outside the tomb. People don't know what treasures were stolen.It is understood that the most precious of the funerary objects are two pearls, which were placed in the mouth and anus of the deceased, as well as ancient porcelain and ivory chopsticks.Because it is customary to believe that metal has a rotten effect on the corpse, there is no gold or silver in Lu Rongting's coffin. No matter how all-powerful a person is, he will be ashes after all. "King of Guangxi" Lu Rongting's mighty army and magical marksmanship can't deal with the unscrupulous little thieves on his grave after death.

Finally back to Zhang Zongchang.Doesn't this person who everyone can kill has no bright colors all over his body?Not quite.Although it is very difficult to find his merits--as for the "generosity, not stinging money" and the like, it is just plundering the people's fat and buying people's hearts to work for him.But he does have one outstanding character that should be affirmed-filial piety. His father died early, and he was raised by his mother, Zhu Shi. In 1925, Zhang Zongchang, who had been wandering abroad for many years, was appointed as the military supervisor of Shandong.The sent adjutant rushed to Ye County overnight, but the villagers said that "Big Foot" remarried to a carpenter ten years ago, and went to other places to make a living with this carpenter.

The adjutant searched for more than a month according to this clue, and finally found Mrs. Zhu in Zhucheng County.A dilapidated hut, and a man, this is Supervisor Zhang's mother's house. The adjutant announced the good news to her.But Mrs. Zhu said that after Zong Chang left home, she had no means of living, so she followed Mr. Jia; now she can enjoy life, but she can't take Mr. Jia to embarrass her son; The adjutant was very embarrassed, and he didn't dare to make up his own mind to bring back a stepfather to Supervisor Zhang, so he had to go back and report the truth.Zhang Zongchang was furious: "Bastard, I am incompetent. I left my old lady at home, and the person surnamed Jia took care of my mother. Shouldn't I be grateful to him? Why didn't you bring the person surnamed Jia along?" Then he dictated a The adjutant wrote down the letter without changing a single word, and then went to pick up Mrs. Zhu.

The letter reads: "Er Zongchang is not filial. He went out to wander by himself, leaving his mother alone to suffer at home. He deserves death. Now, he has become a very big official, as big as the former governor of the eight prefectures. I also have money, and I have money that I can't spend in my lifetime, please bring that great benefactor named Jia to enjoy the blessings together. When you come, I will apologize to you face to face." When his filial son Zhang Zongchang was killed, Zhu almost went crazy when he heard the news.Losing her support, she was ashamed to return to her hometown because of remarriage, and she became a nun for a while; and the property Zhang Zongchang gave her was also ruined by her nephew...