Jianghuai Province once sat on the vast land of Jiangbei, why was it revoked in less than 100 days?

Mondo Social Updated on 2024-02-16

As the most famous bulk province in China, Jiangsu Province has 13 prefecture-level cities, each of which is both civil and military, and is known as the Thirteen Taibao.

Jiangsu's GDP ranks second in the country, only 800 billion yuan worse than Guangdong Province, but Guangdong Province has 21 prefecture-level cities with a population of more than 100 million.

In terms of agriculture, Jiangsu is a major grain-producing province in China, and in terms of culture and education, Jiangsu has always been a place where champions have emerged.

Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, is the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, a famous cultural city, and has a high status as a city, not only because it is the provincial capital, but also because it is one of the 15 sub-provincial cities in China.

After the defeat of the old Chiang and the retreat to the treasure island, he never forgot the prosperity of Nanjing, and there were many road names in the Taipei area that were exactly the same as those of Nanjing, so some people jokingly called Nanjing the capital of the three provinces, as for which three provinces, everyone understands.

Although Jiangsu is an excellent student in all aspects, there are great cultural differences within the region.

The whole Jiangsu Province is divided into three major plots: central Jiangsu, southern Jiangsu, and northern Jiangsu.

Let's talk about southern Jiangsu first, the geographical conditions of southern Jiangsu are unique, east of Shanghai, west of Anhui, south of Zhejiang, north of the Yangtze River, is China's most powerful economic region.

Southern Jiangsu includes five prefecture-level cities: Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Zhenjiang.

Among the five tigers in southern Jiangsu, Suzhou has the best economic development, not the provincial capital Nanjing.

In fact, during the Qing Dynasty, the yamen of the governor of Jiangsu was in Suzhou and not in Nanjing. Of course, there are governors in Nanjing, but they are governors of Anhui, and it seems that the title of Nanjing Huijing has existed since ancient times.

In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, although the nominal provincial capital of Anhui Province was Anqing, the real provincial capital was Nanjing—whenever Anhui wanted to hold the township examination, the students had to work hard to go to Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, to participate in the township examination, because Anhui's academic and political masters also worked in Nanjing.

In fact, at the beginning, the southern Jiangsu region only included Suzhou, Xichang, but in recent years, the geographical concept of southern Jiangsu has expanded, bringing Nanjing and Zhenjiang into it.

Such a division has caused the "unhappiness" of the old southern Jiangsu. Culturally, the southern Jiangsu region belongs to the Jiangnan cultural circle, and Suzhou dialect, Shanghai dialect and Hangzhou dialect can basically understand each other.

The Shanghai Burlesque Troupe went to Suzhou to perform, and Suzhou Pingtan performed in Shanghai, which can attract a full house.

The taste of southern Jiangsu is sweet, which is basically the same as the taste of Shanghainese people now.

The northern Jiangsu region is completely different from the southern Jiangsu region, and it is said that there are five tigers in northern Jiangsu, including Xuzhou, Suqian, Huai'an, Lianyungang, and Yancheng.

Culturally, the northern Jiangsu region is closer to Qilu culture or Central Plains culture, especially Xuzhou, in Xuzhou, you say that it is a Shandong city, and there is no sense of disobedience.

The economy of northern Jiangsu is relatively backward, and in the minds of the old southern Jiangsu people, the education level of northern Jiangsu people is a little worse.

It seems that in the eyes of the people of southern Jiangsu in the past, northern Jiangsu was at the bottom of the chain of contempt, and even now there are some old southern Jiangsu, seeing some bad phenomena in society, they all came up with a sentence of "just Boning".

There are even the older generation of southern Jiangsu people who have immigrated to Europe and the United States, and when they see some old blacks who are not doing their jobs, they will use the phrase "Gang Boning" to express their dissatisfaction.

Once upon a time, southern Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu were separated by a river, as if separated by the Pacific Ocean. In recent years, the rise of northern Jiangsu has continued, and the phenomenon of discrimination against northern Jiangsu has almost non-existent.

In fact, the economy of northern Jiangsu is not bad, even if it is the oldest in the thirteen Taibao, sitting on Guan's brother: Guannan's master, replacing Nanjing and Nantong to become the new generation of Jiangsu's southern brother, and Suqian, which is the last seat in Jiangsu's county-level economy all the year round, is it also economically super strong in other provinces?

It's just that due to the separation of a river, the cultural differences between southern Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu are very large, and compared with the Wu Nong soft language in southern Jiangsu, the northern Jiangsu dialect is more sonorous.

Shanghainese people are gifted with northern Subei dialect, and almost every adult in Shanghai can speak a few words of northern Subei dialect, but it is really difficult to understand the northern Subei dialect spoken by a northern Subei person. The language barrier makes the culture between southern and northern Jiangsu seem incompatible, and it is difficult to penetrate and integrate with each other.

The Suzhou area is Tongyangtai, Nantong Yangzhou and Taizhou. The Suzhou area is in a league of its own, and its development momentum has been very strong in recent years.

When it comes to Jiangsu, we have to mention the Grand Canal! The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was the lifeline of goods from the south to the north in ancient times.

In particular, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty was Beijing, and the grain, tea, porcelain and silk from the south were all transported to the north through this lifeline.

As the capital, Beijing eats horses and chews a lot of money, especially relying on the Grand Canal for transportation. Therefore, during the Qing Dynasty, in order to ensure the smooth flow of Caoyun, in order to ensure the supply of Caoyun to the Beijing circle, and attached great importance to Caoyun, the Yamen of Caoyun Governor was set up in Huai'an, which was in charge of thousands of people and was a very powerful department. Look at Jin Yong**'s preference for the Cao Gang.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the whole society faced collapse, the Qing Empire entered the state of what to do and what to do, the first place to eat, the Grand Canal, as the lifeline of the Beijing Division, fell into disrepair year after year, and the silting up of the embankment and dam became commonplace, and the traffic capacity of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal decreased significantly, coupled with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, both sides of the Grand Canal became the main battlefield of the Qing army and the Taiping army, and the Grand Canal was repeatedly destroyed by the people and horses of both sides.

Therefore, in the late Qing Dynasty, the Grand Canal was no longer as busy as it used to be, and its traffic capacity dropped significantly, and its contribution to the Beijing circle fell again and again.

The Grand Canal fell, but the number of dignitaries and nobles in the Beijing circle did not decrease, and these people still had to eat and drink spicy food, and the Qing Dynasty had to transfer the grain and rice that was originally transported by Cao to sea.

By taking the sea route, the pressure of Cao Yun was shared. In this way, the position of the governor of Caoyun is very embarrassing, since Caoyun is no longer as important as before, why do you set up such a huge yamen?

But how easy is it to dissolve such a large organization?

How did the thousands of people in the governor's yamen be diverted? The slightest carelessness will cause trouble in Jiangsu Province.

This was difficult for the clever Qing **, who decided to divide Jiangsu Province into two, and the state capital south of the Yangtze River was still called Jiangsu Province.

On January 27, 1905, the area north of the Yangtze River, which originally belonged to Jiangsu Province, was established as a new province called Jianghuai Province, and the provincial capital was Huai'an, the hometown of Wu Hao (Zhou Gong's pseudonym).

The governor of Caoyun served as the governor of Jianghuai Province, and all levels of the governor's yamen worked in this newly established yamen.

However, as soon as Jianghuai Province was established, it encountered unanimous opposition from Jiangsu. The reason is that the current Jiangsu Province only includes the southern Jiangsu region, and the area is too small to become an independent province.

The Qing Dynasty also planned to abolish Jianghuai Province and establish a new province centered on Xuzhou, similar to the current Huaihai Province, but to establish a province, it is not just as simple as tossing Jiangsu Province, Henan, Shandong, and Anhui. All have to carve out the territory for this new province.

No one was willing to accept a piece of his own place to be dug up for others, so this idea ended in opposition from the local governors.

Finally, in April 1905, the province of Jianghuai, which had existed for only three months, was abolished. The governor of Jianghuai, who had just taken office, was transferred to Shanxi and continued to serve as governor, and the personnel at all levels, who were originally under the command of Governor Cao Yun, were shunted to work in various departments under the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang and the Yamen of the Governor of Jiangsu and Anhui.

At this point, the Caoyun Yamen died in the end, and the farce of Jianghuai Province caused by the dismissal of the governor of Caoyun can be regarded as the end.

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