Lu Rongting, the former warlord of the Gui family: GuangxiWei Xiaobao
Headline Creation Challenge Although Guangxi is not a province with a large economy and population, it gave birth to an important warlord faction during the ** period, the Gui faction. The Gui system is divided into two stages, one is the old Gui system represented by Lu Rongting, and the other is the new Gui system represented by Li Zongren.
Lu Rongting, who was from the old Gui lineage, is not famous on the Internet today, but his influence during his reign in Gui can be compared with Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zuolin. At that time, there were even sayings of "Northern Ape (Yuan Shikai) Nanlu (Lu Rongting)", Nanlu (Lu Rongting) Northern Deer (Zhang Zuolin)".
Today, let's talk about the Gui family in the history of warlords, starting with the old Gui lineage, which is not well-known but extremely important to the political trend in the early stage.
People in the world often say that princes and princes are not destined by heaven? However, in turbulent times, children from poor families also have the opportunity to make their mark. However, Lu Rongting's background is too poor, and he doesn't even have biological parents.
He was born in a poor peasant family of the Zhuang nationality in Wuming, Nanning, Guangxi, a month before Yuan Shikai. Due to his poor family, his parents died when he was very young, leaving him an orphan.
Later, he was adopted by a ferryman named Tan Taiyuan, and made a living by ferrying in Shuikou Town, Longzhou County, on the Sino-Vietnamese border. Tan Taiyuan not only adopted Lu Rongting, but also married his daughter to him.
Tan Taiyuan's son later followed Lu Rongting to break through, and Lu Rongting has been reusing this brother-in-law since he became developed. After conquering Guangdong, Lu Rongting was reappointed as the patrol envoy of the two Guangzhou, and the Guangxi overseer let his brother-in-law serve as him, which is Tan Haoming, another core figure of the old Gui family.
When Lu Rongting was young, he showed excellent martial arts and uninhibited character. At the age of twenty, he joined an organization called the "Three Points Society" and soon became the leader of the local chapter.
Although the name of the "Three Points Society" may not be well known, it has another name that is like thunder - "Heaven and Earth Society".
Lu Rongting, like Wei Xiaobao, not only served as the boss in the gang, but also held important positions in the imperial court. He was appreciated by Cheng Wuying, an officer of the Green Battalion, who found that Lu Rongting was not only smart and clever, but also proficient in official and local dialects, so he kept him by his side and became his own personal soldier.
This can be seen as a low-profile version of "Little Guizi".
During the Sino-French War, Lu Rongting joined Tang Jingsong's army and fought against the French. After the war, he left the Qing army and continued to confront the French along the Sino-Vietnamese border with his members of the Heaven and Earth Society.
Many of his gang members later became the core generals of his Gui lineage, such as Mo Rongxin, Wei Rongchang, and Tan Haoming, who held important positions in the Guangdong-Guizhou War.
Around 1893, Lu Rongting was recruited by Su Yuanchun, then the governor of Guangxi, and led his subordinates to join the Qing army. Subsequently, because of the word "Rong" in his name, Cen Chunxuan, the governor of Liangguang, appreciated his talent and allowed his troops to expand and form the "Rongzi Battalion".
This was the original structure of the Gui Army.
Many people will wonder, is the Heaven and Earth Society an organization that opposes the Qing Dynasty and restores the Ming Dynasty? Although some people may have defected to the Qing army in the past to go undercover or defend against enemies (such as the French army), what is the situation this time?
According to Lu Rongting's confidential officer Lu Wuzhou, Lu Rongting did not have a deep hatred for the Qing court. He didn't join the gang voluntarily at first, but was forced by circumstances.
He is not a Han Chinese, but a Zhuang. He may not have much feeling for such a slogan as the expulsion of the Tatars and the restoration of China. In addition, Lu Rongting likes to watch "Water Margin" very much, and he thinks that Shandong Hubaoyi and timely rain like Song Jiang can also accept Zhao'an, so why can't he?
Li Zongren of the Xingui Department also commented on his predecessors, believing that Guangxi was a place where "there are no mountains, no mountains, no caves, no holes and no bandits" in the late Qing Dynasty, and the local people are also happy to raise their own respect.
In this case, the local government did not dare to encircle and suppress, so they could only solve the problem with appeasement. In addition, the military system at the end of the Qing Dynasty was extremely broken. If you want to rise through the ranks by military merit, then it's almost impossible.
However, if you start out as a bandit and then accept the recruitment, then you can start directly from the sentry or pipe band. Lu Rongting is a typical representative of this.
Doesn't that sound a bit like some foreign students at domestic universities? It may be a bit difficult for them to get into a major university in the country, but they can immigrate out and come back.
After Lu Rongting joined the Qing army, his mentality was very good, and he was even more ruthless than the Qing army. After the Sino-French War, many soldiers with party backgrounds left the army and went up to the mountains and fell into the grass. At that time, there was an officer named Chen Rongting, who had the same name as Lu Rongting and was also a member of the party.
Su Yuanchun asked Chen Rongting to suppress the bandits, but Chen Rongting was unwilling to contribute because of the friendship of the party. However, Lu Rongting didn't care about this, because he was a bandit before, and he knew the bandits' defense mode and living habits very well.
Therefore, he sent him to suppress the bandits, and he was invincible. In 1907, Sun Yat-sen carried out the Zhennanguan Uprising in Guangxi, and Lu Rongting worked very hard to exterminate it, so he also won the brave name of "Baturu".
Now "Little Guizi" has become "Aobai".
Lu Rongting's loyalty and bravery made his official position soar, and he was promoted from the pipe belt to the chief soldier, border superintendent, and finally the governor of Guangxi. However, his promotion did not stop in the turmoil of the late Qing Dynasty, but reached its peak when he was the governor of Guangxi, in June 1911, when the Qing dynasty was about to fall.
As the top governor of a provincial green battalion, Lu Rongting is inevitably embroiled in the upheaval that is about to take place in China.
On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising pierced the darkness like a lightning bolt and illuminated the road to salvation for the Chinese nation. Just a month later, on November 7, Shen Bingkun, the governor of Guangxi, together with Wang Zhixiang, the political envoy of Guangxi, and Lu Rongting, the governor of Guangxi, launched an uprising and declared the independence of Guangxi.
Shen Bingkun was elected as the first military governor of Guangxi, and Wang Zhixiang and Lu Rongting served as deputy positions, and they worked together to fight for Guangxi's independent cause.
Throughout the History of Warlords series, you will find an interesting phenomenon. The independence of many provinces involved the participation of the New Army, and the governor of a province was usually held by an officer of the New Army or a temporary member of the Revolutionary Party.
But in Guangxi, the entire leadership group is the old **, and there is no shadow of the new army. It's confusing.
During the Xinhai Revolution, the New Army played an important role in the independence of the provinces. According to statistics, half of the 25 governors of the 16 provinces that became independent were related to the New Army.
This is not a coincidence, because at that time there were multiple armies in many provinces, for example, the Sichuan system had three armies at the same time. However, the situation in Guangxi is somewhat special.
Although due to its geographical location, the number of troops was relatively large, including one division and one brigade, the 25th Town of the Army was transferred to Guangdong in April 1911 to quell the Huanghuagang Uprising, while the other association, although it had six infantry battalion plaques, was actually only two.
Therefore, in the process of Guangxi's independence, the new army did not play much of a role. Without the support of the new army, the alliance could do very little, and in the end, the uprising was also wiped out by Lu Rongting.
After the independence of Guangxi, Shen Bingkun and Wang Zhixiang, the two governors, were excluded in Guangxi because they were both outsiders, and Shen Bingkun had a cowardly personality and Wang Zhixiang's reputation was not good.
At this time, Feng Guozhang led the army south, and when he came to aid Hubei, Shen Wang and his wife left Guangxi with their men and horses. After that, neither of them achieved anything big. Lu Rongting, on the other hand, took the opportunity to take control of Guangxi, and officially accepted the appointment of Yuan Shikai as the governor of Guangxi after he came to power.
Since Lu Rongting had previously suppressed the uprising of the League, his relationship with Sun Yat-sen was strained, so he naturally chose to side with Yuan Shikai. When Sun Yat-sen launched the Second Revolution, he still stood firmly on Yuan Shikai's side.
In the next issue, we will reveal Lu Rongting's transformation after opposing Yuan, how did he become an important pillar of Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou Army? Why did the old Gui family make such a change?
What achievements did Lu Rongting make during his governance of Guangxi? Finally, what led to their demise? Stay tuned for the next installment.