The Xinhai Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew more than 2,000 years of feudal autocracy, but after the Xinhai Revolution, the revolutionaries in Guangxi failed to control the situation, and the actual power eventually fell into the hands of Lu Rongting.
This Lu Rongting was a down-to-earth local faction, and since then he has become the leader of the warlords of the "Old Gui Clan".
In 1924, Lu Rongting's "old Gui" warlords fell, and then the "new Gui" system belonging to the Kuomintang was established. And the three giants of this "new Gui family" are: Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu.
In the past 25 years, the new Gui clan has gradually gone from prosperity to decline, and the three giants of the warlords have also gone to different ends in life after parting ways...
The three giants of the "new Gui system"
A sign of the formation of the new laurel system
As the leaders of the New Gui clan, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu were not big bureaucrats, nor were they the sons of the family of a large landlord, they were all born into a small and medium-sized landlord family.
Li Zongren's ancestors have been farming for generations, but they are also intellectuals who have read books; Li Zongren's father was a private school teacher and ran an agricultural business.
Bai Chongxi's father abandoned Confucianism early to engage in business and opened a Yongtailin store in Suqiao, Xixiang, Guilin, Guangxi.
Huang Shaohu's father was admitted to Xiucai in the late Qing Dynasty, and the family had a rich industry, and later opened an instructor in the township.
All three had similar family backgrounds, and all enrolled in the Guangxi Army Primary School, and all accepted the revolutionary ideas of the bourgeoisie during the Xinhai Revolution.
After the independence of Guangxi, Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohu participated in the Guangxi Northern Expedition and became a student soldier, going to Hubei with the Northern Expedition to resist the Qing army. After the peace between the North and the South, the student army that had gone to the Northern Expedition was disbanded.
Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohu studied at the Wuchang Army Preparatory School and the Baoding Officer School, and after graduating in 1916, the two returned to Guangxi to serve as company officers in Lu Rongting's model battalion.
In 1908, Li Zongren was admitted to the third phase of the Guangxi Army Primary School and graduated in 1911. In May 1916, Li Zongren served as the platoon commander of the 34th Regiment of the Fourth Division of the Dian Army, and then transferred to Lu Rongting's department.
As the leaders of the new Gui clan, these three people were all born in Guangxi, received modern military school education, as classmates of the military school, they embraced each other and accepted each other, which was also a major reason for the formation of the new Gui clan.
In June 1921, Sun Yat-sen launched a war against Lu Rongting, which caused the warlords of the old Gui clan to gradually collapse and disintegrate, and Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu, as middle and lower-ranking officers of the old Gui clan, also led their troops to divide and develop independently.
After Sun Yat-sen defeated Chen Jiongming, Huang Shaohu thought it was time to open up a new situation.
He seized this opportunity and sent his staff officer Chen Xiong to Guangzhou to inquire about the news, and at the right time contacted Bai Chongxi, who was recuperating in Guangzhou, and asked him to find a suitable opportunity to contact the revolutionary government in Guangzhou and express his intentions.
Bai Chongxi accepted Huang Shaohu's commission, and through Zhu Peide's introduction, met with Sun Yat-sen at Shilong Station, and expressed to Sun Yat-sen in person that "he was willing to lead the soldiers of the former model battalion to follow Sun Yat-sen in the revolution together."
In this regard, Sun Yat-sen expressed his appreciation and support.
Subsequently, Bai Chongxi rushed to Wuzhou overnight to meet Huang Shaohu and inform Sun Yat-sen of his views and ideas during the meeting, and Bai Chongxi and Huang Shaohu also preliminarily agreed on a plan to "cooperate with the Yue army in Xijiang to hold the Wuzhou Uprising."
On July 18, 1923, Huang Shaohu served as the commander-in-chief and Bai Chongxi as the chief of staff, leading his subordinates to a successful uprising and officially playing the banner of "Thief Army". Soon after, Li Zongren also played the banner of "Dinggui Army" in Yulin, and sent troops together to cooperate with Huang Shaohu. Under the joint leadership of the three men, they quickly eliminated the autonomous armies in Guixian, Guiping, Jiangkou, and Pingnan.
In coordinated operations, the two ministries established initial contacts with the Guangdong revolutionary government and expressed their acceptance of the leadership of the Guangdong revolutionary government, and together they launched various campaigns to pacify Guangxi.
In June 1924, after running-in, Bai Chongxi, Huang Shaohu, and Li Zongren reached a tacit understanding and immediately organized the "General Headquarters of the Dinggui and Thieves Coalition Army". Among them, Li Zongren and Huang Shaohu were the chief and deputy commanders, and Bai Chongxi served as chief of staff and commander-in-chief of the former enemy.
This is the basis for the long-term implementation of the leadership system of the three giants in the "New Gui" since then, and it is also a sign of the formation of the New Gui group.
Xingui system one Guangxi
Li Zongren, Huang Shaohu, and Bai Chongxi, as the main generals, worked closely together to adopt the correct strategies and tactics for breaking through the old Gui clan. With their tacit cooperation, in less than a year, they have swept away the most powerful Lu Rongting and Shen Hongying.
After another six months of bitter fighting, the three men led their subordinate troops to expel the troops of Tang Jiyao, a Warlord of the Dian Clan who had attempted to enter Guangdong from Guizhou and take advantage of the situation to occupy the territory of Liangguang, thus ending the nearly five-year division in Guangxi, unifying Guangxi, and enabling the people of Guangxi to have a relatively stable social environment.
After the unification of Guangxi, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu naturally became the rulers of Guangxi. They went on to accept the invitation of the Guangdong revolutionary government and twice attacked Deng Benyin and Shen Baofan, the sworn enemies of Chen Jiongming on Guangdong South Road, and then helped Guangdong achieve reunification.
The reunification of the two provinces officially made Guangxi the second province under the leadership of the National Government in Guangzhou, and at the urging of the Kuomintang Central Party Department to dispatch personnel several times, Li Zongren and Huang Shaohu served as "party affairs commissioners of Guangxi Province organized by the central government." ”
In the early days of unifying Guangxi, the New Gui clan paid great attention to summing up the lessons of the failure of the Gui clan, and although they were superficially divided into classes, the three leaders of the new Gui clan had the opportunity to express their opinions.
Although Li Zongren's rank is the highest, when expressing his opinion, he still has to consult with Huang Shaohu and Bai Chongxi, and the three of them have formed a close-equal cooperative relationship.
Li Zongren
Entered the Northern Expedition
In 1926, under the impetus of the revolutionary torrent, the new Gui clan led by the three giants threw themselves into the war of the Northern Expedition, and before Chiang Kai-shek sent the Northern Expedition, bai Chongxi was also promoted to acting chief of the general staff of the front line of the Northern Expedition, which opened up a broader world for Bai Chongxi to display his outstanding military command ability in the Northern Expedition War, and also deepened the cooperation between Jiang and Gui.
During the Northern Expedition, the New Gui Clan fought a bloody battle with the Ye Ting Independent Regiment of the Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army at Hesheng Bridge, and defeated the Beiyang warlord Wu Peifu, and then participated in the Battle of Longtan on the outskirts of Nanjing, in which the Seventh Army of the Gui Clan fought a bloody battle for seven days and seven nights, winning more with less.
The Seventh Army of the Gui Clan was known as the "Seventh Army of Steel" in the Northern Expedition war with its brave offensive.
The rapid success of the New Gui clan in the Northern Expedition brought the power of the three giants to the peak, which also inspired the ambition of the three to continue to win the Central Plains, but at the same time, they were also jealous of the new Gui clan by Chiang Kai-shek.
In the process of entering the Northern Expedition, Bai Chongxi used a large amount of booty captured in pursuit of the defeated army to replenish the Gui army, which caused Chiang Kai-shek's dissatisfaction, and the enmity between Chiang Kai-shek and Gui deepened.
After the establishment of the National Government in Nanjing, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, who had made great contributions, did not receive the honor they deserved, which made them very dissatisfied.
Bai Chongxi
In June 1927, due to the division of Ninghan and Han, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi stationed troops in the Xuhai area, and Chiang Kai-shek was worried that the communist army would take advantage of the emptiness in the rear of Ninghu to march east, so he sent a telegram ordering Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi to withdraw their troops.
Bai Chongxi was going to refuse this order, but Li Zongren, who had a far-sighted plan, immediately made a decision and showed Bai Chongxi that he could take the opportunity to go south and withdraw to Nanjing and Wuhu for defense, so as to achieve control over the area where the Nationalist government in Nanjing was located.
Later, Chiang Kai-shek was defeated by Sun Chuanfang in Xuzhou, and the forces of all sides pressed on Chiang Kai-shek's shoulders, forcing him to resign as commander-in-chief of the National Revolutionary Army and leave his post.
Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi were divided into cities such as Beiping, Wuhan, and Guangzhou, and thus the New Gui clan occupied large provinces such as the Two Lakes and Two Guangzhous, and their power reached its peak.
Jiang Gui's Controversy: "Three Battles and Three Defeats"
The power of the new Gui clan continued to expand, so Chiang Kai-shek had to convene a meeting in an attempt to weaken the power of the three giants by means of military reduction. Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek made a remark that "the people of the Gui clan attended the meeting in praise of the meeting, and actually plotted to resist outside the meeting," and the Nanjing government immediately attacked the Gui clan on the grounds that the central authorities were crusading and calling the rebels who called the soldiers rebellious.
In early 1928, Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei joined forces to isolate the more dispersed Gui clan, and after that, the two sides broke out because of the control of Hunan and the "Jiang Gui Dispute".
Li Zongren openly stated and attacked Chiang Kai-shek as an authoritarian dictatorship and betrayed Sun Yat-sen, and both Sides began to present themselves as Sun Yat-sen's successors and condemned each other for their "great rebellion."
Chiang Kai-shek gradually divided the new Gui clan with the momentum of internal and external attacks.
Soon, Hubei Li Mingrui, Yang Tenghui, and Guangdong's Chen Jitang all began to defect to Chiang Kai-shek. The first anti-Chiang kai-shek campaign of the New Gui clan thus failed, and the three giants Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu also fled to Hong Kong in a hurry to save their lives.
In the second half of 1929, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu took advantage of the opportunity of Wang Jingwei and others to oppose Chiang Kai-shek, and successively returned to Guangxi, and won the support of the old department of Guangxi. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the New Gui Clan echoed with Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan and jointly began to oppose Jiang.
In April 1930, the Central Plains War broke out. Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and Huang Shaohu in this battle, because of improper coordination, led to the defeat of the new Gui clan, the three sides began to complain to each other, coupled with the new Gui clan in many struggles against Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly defeated, Huang Shaohu had the idea of wanting to demand peace, after discussing with Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, Huang Shaohu left the new Gui clan and turned from warlord to engaged in the political field.
After the outbreak of the "918" incident, Chiang Kai-shek once again went to the field, but more than a month later, he came back and began to encircle and suppress the Red Army. With the gradual growth of Chiang Kai-shek's central army, Chiang Kai-shek was ready to take this opportunity to completely eliminate the Xingui clan.
At this time, the Xingui clan took advantage of the rising anti-Japanese sentiment of the people and launched the "Two Guangdong Incident" in 1936, but it eventually ended in reconciliation between the two sides. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi continued to lead their troops to garrison Guangxi.
In 1937, the Gui clan experienced a second defeat against Chiang Kai-shek, and Bai Chongxi went to Nanjing to serve as deputy chief of the general staff, although the new Gui clan still had control over Guangxi, but it was already divided again.
The three giants of the new Gui system parted ways
In 1949, the remnants of the Central China Theater led by Bai Chongxi fought a decisive battle with the People's Liberation Army, this decisive battle was called the Battle of Hengbao, and the result can be imagined, the People's Liberation Army annihilated Bai Chongxi's four elite divisions, giving the New Gui clan a fatal blow.
This battle broke Bai Chongxi's lie that "the Communist army could not defeat his Guangxi troops" and completely smashed the new Gui clique's anti-Chiang Kai-shek anti-communist policy.
When Chiang Kai-shek made it clear that he wanted to "retire," Bai Chongxi, who was keen on power, naturally could not let go of this opportunity, and with his all-out efforts, he finally gave Li Zongren the throne of acting president, but he did not know that this also gave Chiang Kai-shek the opportunity to break up Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi to work closely together.
Bai Chongxi was very obsessed with money and power, so Chiang Kai-shek secretly threw himself into his favor, sent gold, and proposed to him the idea of cooperation.
Under Chiang Kai-shek's honey-bellied sword, Bai Chongxi's heart was loosened, and he also took the initiative to express to Li Zongren that he was ready to vote for Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist thoughts. However, Li Zongren insisted on opposing Chiang Kai-shek to the end and did not compromise at all, so the two completely parted ways.
Although he served as the "acting president," Li Zongren was hollowed out by Chiang Kai-shek and did not receive actual rights. As the People's Liberation Army successfully crossed the Yangtze River and swept away China, Guangxi, the lair of the Gui clan for nearly 25 years, eventually changed hands.
After the defeat of the Kuomintang and the escape of Taiwan, Li Zongren was elected vice president with the support of the United States, and Chiang Kai-shek was forced to step down, but soon after, Li Zongren was abandoned by the United States.
In December 1949, Lee Zong-jin flew into exile in the United States on the pretext of medical treatment, where he spent 16 years assassinated by agents sent by Chiang Kai-shek.
It was not until 1965, with the help of Premier Zhou Enlai, that Li Zongren finally returned to the mainland of the motherland. In 1969, Li Zongren died of pneumonia in Beijing.
After Bai Chongxi's troops in Guangxi were completely destroyed, he first ran to Hong Kong with gold, silver and treasure, and then went to Taipei to join Chiang Kai-shek because he was not willing to be lonely. In 1966, Bai Chongxi died in Taipei.
Huang Shaohu remained on the mainland because of historical events, he was forced to commit suicide in 1966 at the age of 71.
Since then, the story of the new Gui and the three giants of the new Gui family,
It has completely turned a page in China's modern history.