During his administration in Guangdong, Chen Jiongming made great achievements and his style was clean. Sun Yat-sen's Northern Expedition advocated "joint provincial autonomy" and peaceful reunification of China, which was considered unrealistic and opposed because of the practical difficulties in Guangdong. Its contribution to Guangdong is:
Politically, the implementation of "joint provincial autonomy" has made Guangdong a "model province" in the country. Modern political institutions have been established, such as Guangzhou, which is led by them. The legislative, administrative, financial, auditing and other institutions operate in an orderly manner. Promote democratic autonomy at the grass-roots level, simplify administration and recuperate.
Economically, Guangdong achieved the best development during the Republic of China by setting up industries, building expressways and supporting private enterprises.
In education, private schools are thriving, ranking first in the country; Develop public education and implement free education; Please Chen Duxiu as the Minister of Education of the province.
In social life, getting rid of bad habits, mainly smoking and gambling, makes it extinct and has good folk customs.
Chen Jiongming and Sun Yat-sen
In the modern history of China, Chen Jiongming is an all-powerful figure and a controversial figure. In the impression of ordinary people, Chen Jiongming is a reactionary warlord who betrayed Sun Yat-sen. One of his evidences is the shelling of the presidential palace on June 1922, which forced Sun Yat-sen to flee Shanghai in disguise. However, today, if we don't respect historical facts, make an objective investigation of historical events under the corresponding historical conditions, or simply use feudal charges such as "disorderly officials and thieves", "crime", "killing the Lord" and "perverting morality" as the final conclusion, it will really not help to correct this old historical account again. ...
Fundamental disagreement
After graduating from the first Guangdong School of Law and Politics in the late Qing Dynasty, Chen Jiongming was elected as a member of the Guangdong Advisory Council, a constitutional talent trained by the Reform Movement. Joined the league in his early years and planned the independence of Guangdong. After the Revolution of 1911, he took charge of Guangdong, devoted himself to building Guangdong into a national model province, banning smoking and gambling, reforming education, developing the economy, advocating the new culture movement, inviting Chen Duxiu to be the secretary-general of the Guangdong Education Commission, supporting trade union organizations and newspapers led by the * * * production party, promoting local autonomy, and electing county magistrates and county councillors.
The difference between Chen Jiongming and other warlords is that he has democratic thoughts, opposes military rule and political party system, and advocates civilian rule. The Kuomintang and even Sun Yat-sen may not agree with this .. Sun Yat-sen's ideal is to establish a formal central government to lead the national revolution. He divided the national revolution into three periods: military and political period, political discipline period and constitutional period. In his eyes, the people are "ignorant and poor" children, and the revolutionary party is a nanny. He said: We established the Republic of China, and sovereignty belongs to the people. These 40 million people are our emperors, hence the saying of "emperor people". The 400 million emperor is too naive to lead his own government. Our revolutionary party wiped out cruelty by force, rescued the emperor from the quagmire, defended him and educated him, then the foundation of the Republic of China will be consolidated, and the emperor and the people will have no borders forever. (Ju Zheng: "Memories of the Revolutionary Party of China")
Chen Jiongming disagrees with this statement. His criticism of political instructions was particularly inappropriate. This is the keynote of the monarchy, not used by the party to attack, so as to be close to the people. What is politics? Still to be trained! Democratic politics takes people's autonomy as the ultimate principle. People can't manage themselves, or don't give them the opportunity to do so. They only rely on bureaucrats to govern for them and learn from them. This kind of bureaucratic politics, proclamation politics, has been practiced in China for thousands of years, but it has not made great progress. What magic weapon does the Kuomintang have to learn from others? The people are deprived of the opportunity of self-government, and bureaucrats of all sizes have to use the fallacy of political instructions to hinder the process of people's governance. (Collected Works of Chen Jiongming, Volume 2, Sun Yat-sen University Press,1September, 998)
Chen Jiongming's heart is provincial autonomy.
After the May 4th Movement, some scholars thought that since the northern and southern governments were unable to unify the whole country, instead of fighting for years, it was better for the provinces to govern themselves first, and then implement joint provincial autonomy. In this way, national reunification can be finally achieved without the use of force. What federalists talk about most is the history that North America 13 states broke away from Britain after the War of Independence, and then 1 1 year established a "confederation" with a high degree of local autonomy. This seems to provide another feasible choice for people who have suffered from war and long for peaceful reunification. Therefore, once the idea of joint provincial autonomy was put forward, it not only swept through the southern provinces, but also quickly spread to the northern provinces under the Beiyang government.
Chen Jiongming is particularly fascinated by the autonomy of the United provinces. 192 1 February, 2000, he expounded his political views in detail in the article "Construction Strategy": in modern times, the closer the relationship between the state and the people, the more complicated the political affairs, and all political affairs have direct interests with the people, so the people cannot help themselves. If everything is accepted by the central authorities, the closer it is to the central authorities, the farther it will be from the people. Not only is the people always in a passive position, but people's governance can't be cultivated, and the central government has the sincerity to seek happiness for the people, and it can't be realized. (Collected Works of Chen Jiongming, Volume 2, Sun Yat-sen University Press,1September, 998)
But Sun Yat-sen's idea of establishing a formal government and electing a president has been decided. 192 1 year 1 month 12, the provisional parliament resumed in Guangzhou. Sun Yat-sen called on the Kuomintang to launch another national revolution and overthrow the Beiyang government, just like overthrowing the Qing government and Yuan Shikai. He declared: "The Beijing government is really not the government of the Republic of China. I am waiting to create a real Republic of China. "
presidential election
Chen Jiongming and others don't agree with Sun Yat-sen's idea: According to the presidential election law, the president is jointly elected by the two houses, and at least two-thirds of the members present, that is, 580 people, can convene a presidential election meeting. At present, there are only more than 200 members in Guangzhou's old parliament, less than half of the original House of Representatives, and a secret ballot is implemented. Isn't this a self-destructive law? What is the essential difference between the northern extermination method and the northern extermination method? Once a formal government is established in Guangdong, there is only one outcome: the north and the south are once again in war. Any local autonomy and building a model province have become a mirage.
Sun Yat-sen, on the other hand, thinks that Chen Jiongming's protection of the environment and the interests of the people are selfish, and his character is his favorite goal, so he goes on without hesitation, fails, loses and ignores it. This is also called "easy to do despite difficulties". The people of Pai Cheng failed to defeat Sun Yat-sen in the end. 192 1 On April 7, 2000, more than 200 members of Congress held an interim congress and voted to adopt the Outline of the Government of the Republic of China. In this outline, only the election and authority of the president are stipulated, but the term of office and the organizational structure of the government are not stipulated. All government affairs, military affairs and cabinet appointments and dismissals are "arbitrarily" decided by the president.
The meeting was held by secret ballot "to show responsibility". As a result, Sun Yat-sen got 2 18 votes, Chen Jiongming got 3 votes, and one vote was invalid. Sun Yat-sen was elected President of the Republic of China. The whole process takes less than two hours.
As Chen Jiongming expected, Sun Yat-sen's election as president and the Western Expedition and Northern Expedition are only three links in one thing, and they are closely related.
In June, Sun Yat-sen appointed Chen Jiongming as commander-in-chief of aid and Ye Ju as commander-in-chief of former enemy, and started the second Guangdong-Guangxi War. With thunderous momentum, the Guangdong army wedged into Guangxi and entered Nanning in early August.
Subsequently, Sun Yat-sen sent Zou Lu to Guangxi to urge Chen Jiongming to go to Hubei for military aid, and the Guangdong government supported the military expenditure of 4 million yuan. However, Chen Jiongming said that the war between Guangdong and Guangxi was very costly, and almost all the money available was invested. He did his best, but he could only raise 2 million yuan, and he couldn't afford it until the Northern Expedition started. Ambassadors from both sides went back and forth in vain, to no avail. Sun Yat-sen should be honest with Chen Jiongming when he goes to Nanning. As a result, Chen Jiongming still advocated setting the provincial constitution first and establishing the foundation of rule by man. Re-discuss the national constitution and promote reunification step by step. He said that he was not opposed to the Northern Expedition, but now that the soldiers are in a state of chaos and the pockets are empty, it is impossible to carry out the Northern Expedition.
10/0 On October 29th, Sun Yat-sen set up camp in Wuzhou and sent Wang Jingwei back to Guangzhou to raise money. At the same time, I personally supervised the teacher and returned to Jiangbei to advance into Guilin. He said angrily, "I have vowed not to compete with (Chen Jiongming) * * *. I don't kill competitive survival, competitive survival will kill me. " (Huazi Daily)1June 24th, 922) Then he gave Huang Dawei a pistol to assassinate Chen Jiongming. (Zhang Taiyan: Epitaph of General Ding Wei Chen Jun, 9th edition of Guangzhou Literature and History Materials, which was also confirmed by Huang Dawei himself).
The death of Deng Keng
After a long period of brewing,1February 3, 922, Sun Yat-sen made up his mind to March into the Northern Expedition through Hunan. However, due to years of being attacked by soldiers, both officials and people in Hunan were tired of long-term fighting, so they announced that they would protect the environment and let the people rest, and publicly rejected the false road of the Northern Expeditionary Army. The plan to March into Hunan fell through.
On March 26th, Sun Yat-sen held a meeting in Guilin and decided to move troops back to Guangdong and divert to the Northern Expedition in Jiangxi. At this time, a murder case occurred in Guangzhou.
On March 2 1 day, Deng Keng, Chen Jiongming's confidant and chief of staff of the Guangdong Army who was in charge of planning the Northern Expedition in the rear, returned to the province from Hong Kong on business, was suddenly assassinated at Guangjiu Station and died two days later. The official history of the Kuomintang has always said that Deng Keng was assassinated by Chen Jiongming. But judging from the current historical data, this statement can be questioned. According to Luo Xianglin's account: "As we all know, the murderer came by himself, and he was in a critical situation. He knew he couldn't avoid it. He urgently ordered the driver to drive back to the provincial office and told Chen Gong (Ji Ming) and his family and friends what happened later. " (Luo Xianglin: Biography of Revolutionary Martyr Zhong Yuan) Chen Jiongming also said in the History of Treason: "After being stabbed, Deng was carried into the general headquarters and sighed to the public, saying,' I know the position of chief of staff is dangerous, why should one of us kill one of our own?' When someone asked who the murderer was, Deng sighed again and said,' I know him, but I didn't expect him to kill me. "
If Deng Keng knew that the murderer had something to do with Chen Jiongming, how could he immediately return to the provincial office (where Chen Jiongming worked) after being injured and order someone to inform Chen Jiongming? Later, Chen Jiongming resigned and left Guangzhou. "Mrs. Deng Zhongyuan (pit) and Deng Zhijie's brother rushed to the station to see him off. Chen talked with him for a long time and talked about the status quo behind Deng Zhongyuan and cried. " (Shen Bao1April 30, 922) It can be seen that Deng's relatives do not think that Chen Jiongming is behind the scenes, and Chen and Deng have always maintained a good family relationship.
The U.S. and British consulates in Guangzhou, which pay close attention to the development of the situation, also believe that Deng Keng's assassination was committed by Sun Pai Kuomintang. On April 4, 1922, the vice consul of the United States reported: "I got two reports from foreign intelligence agencies about the motive of murdering Deng Keng. One said it was the Guangxi Ministry, and the other said it was the Kuomintang, in order to warn Chen Jiongming and kill him. " On April 22, the British Consul General also reported: "It is a well-known fact that the Kuomintang murdered Deng Keng, chief of staff of Chen Jiongming."
Deng Keng's death is a fatal blow to the already fragile relationship between Sun and Chen. There is a saying that Chen Jiongming did not want to fully support Sun Yat-sen's Northern Expedition, and Sun Yat-sen wanted to get rid of it quickly in order to solve the worry of military forces and salaries, so as to kill Chen's number one general as an example. (Wong Young-tsu: Exploring the Truth of Deng Keng's Death, Li Ao Qian Qiu Commentary Series, 1990 February)
On April 9, Sun Yat-sen decided to change his plan and let all the troops in Guangxi return to Guangdong to become potential teachers. Only in Wuzhou did Chen Jiongming know. Sun Yat-sen asked Liao to tell Chen Jiongming: First, Chen Jiongming will participate in the Northern Expedition; Secondly, 5 million yuan will be raised for military spending. Chen Jiongming couldn't accept Sun's terms, so he was ousted.
Transfer troops to the northern expedition
On the afternoon of April 23rd, Sun Yat-sen held a staff meeting at the Presidential Palace in Yuexiu Mountain and decided to close it. At the base camp, there are two opinions. One is to suspend the Northern Expedition, clear the internal worries first and solve the "Chen Jiajun"; Second, immediately turn to the Northern Expedition to avoid direct conflict with Chen Jiongming, and both sides still have room for change.
Sun Yat-sen agreed with the second view: "The dispute between Guangdong and Guangxi has not yet been revealed, but it still wants to be preserved after years of struggle by the Guangxi and Vietnam armies." Therefore, he decided to personally supervise the Northern Expedition. "Guangdong and Guangxi still have to pay the price for confrontation, and giving them special benefits should be very exciting."
Sun Yat-sen's eagerness to explore the north has something to do with the development of the situation in the north. In late April, the first direct war broke out Sun Yat-sen has been in secret contact with Feng and Anhui warlords, forming a triangular alliance. Sun Yat-sen deeply felt that this was an excellent opportunity to unite with Feng Wan and Anhui warlords and attack the direct line. He must send troops to coordinate immediately, and he has no time to solve the problem of Chen Jiongming.
But unexpectedly, in a short week, it was defeated, and the plan to go straight to the north and south fell through. But the northern expedition in the south, as imminent as an arrow, had to be done.
On May 9, Sun Yat-sen swore an oath to the three armed forces in Shaoguan, telling people to point to the north. "The purpose of starting a career is to establish real harmony, sweep away the political darkness and evil over the years, unify the country and develop the rule of the people." However, when Sun Yat-sen sought an alliance with Feng and Anhui, he had reduced the Northern Expedition to an ordinary warlord war.
On June 2nd, Beiyang President Xu Shichang announced his resignation under great pressure. Because Sun Yat-sen has made many political declarations, he promised that as long as Xu Shichang stepped down, he would also step down at the same time. Therefore, public opinion generally believes that after Xu Shichang stepped down, there will finally be a ray of light to stop the civil war and achieve peaceful reunification. On June 3rd, Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi and more than 200 celebrities from all walks of life jointly called Sun Yat-sen and Guangzhou Extraordinary Congress, calling on Sun Yat-sen to implement the declaration of abdication at the same time as Xu Shichang. This shows that this requirement was quite popular at that time.
Bomb the presidential palace
The Guangdong army stationed in Guangxi was furious after hearing the news of Chen Jiongming's downfall. On May 8, Sun Yat-sen appointed Ye Ju, a subordinate of Chen Jiongming, as the border inspector of Guangdong and Guangxi to show his trust in the Guangdong Army. However, Ye Ju was ungrateful. On May 20th, he led more than 60 battalions of Guangdong Army and suddenly entered the provincial capital.
Although the Guangdong army is under the banner of welcoming Chen's reinstatement, it has begun to divide internally. One faction demanded that Chen Jiongming immediately return to the province, resume all his duties, and take care of the overall situation; Another faction is dissatisfied with Chen Jiongming's weak attitude towards Sun Yat-sen, and hopes that Ye Ju will lead the Guangdong army and make a clean break with Sun Yat-sen. If Chen Jiongming doesn't agree, please ask him to go abroad or stay in Huizhou to recuperate. On May 3 1 day, an article in Shanghai's Shenbao revealed the differences within the Guangdong Army: "Now Chen Trilogy is also divided into two factions. If Chen advocates returning to the province immediately, the overall situation has been set; I advocate that Chen Can should not make mistakes and return to the province after proper settlement. "
Chen Jiongming lives in seclusion in Huizhou. Letters and telegrams from all walks of life calling on Chen Jiongming to return to the province are overwhelming and appear in newspapers; The messengers who went to persuade the driver kept flowing. Even Chen Duxiu came to Huizhou to persuade Chen Jiongming to join the * * * production party and lead the South China revolution.
/kloc-in June, 2000, Sun Yat-sen led two battalions of guards to return from Shaoguan to Guangzhou, which was heavily surrounded by the Guangdong army. On June 2, Sun Yat-sen hosted a banquet in honor of the generals of Guangdong Army in the Presidential Palace. Unexpectedly, no senior officers were invited, only a few junior officers came. He said to the young officers, "Tell your officers not to think that you can run amok by holding Baiyun Mountain. I'll immediately board the Yongfeng ship, set fire to Dongjiang and shoot you, even your base areas will be destroyed! Now that the Dongjiang River is flooded, the Yongfeng gunboat can go straight into Chen Jiongming's lair! "
Sun Yat-sen sent three telegrams in a row, demanding that Chen Jiongming immediately go to Guangzhou to discuss everything and send someone to drive in Huizhou. But Chen Jiongming refused to go to Guangzhou at this time. He said that he didn't plan to go to Guangzhou until the troops in the provincial capital withdrew. Obviously, he doesn't want to be misunderstood. Chen Jiongming once said that once the Guangdong army rose up against Sun, "all evil will come to an end", which he didn't want to see.
However, the situation continues to deteriorate. On June 3rd, Ye Ju declared martial law in Guangzhou, with main roads and sentries everywhere. On June 12, Sun Yat-sen invited the Guangzhou press to a tea party. He is determined to show his cards to Chen Jiongming through the newspaper. He announced: I ordered the Guangdong army to withdraw from the provincial capital for 30 miles. If he doesn't obey orders, I will subdue him by force. People say that Sun Wen is a car cannon (talk big), but this time the cannon is more powerful. It is not difficult to turn his more than 60 battalions of Chen Jiajun into mud powder in three hours, not with solid bullets, but with flowering bullets, or with gas bombs from eight-inch cannons. However, it would be too violent to kill more than 60 battalions of soldiers and disturb the residents of the whole city, but they will not stop until I do so. I only hope that all the gentlemen in the press can uphold justice and do their best to correct Chen Jiajun within ten days. It would be a blessing if Chen Jiajun changed his attitude. If it fails, he will carry out the functions and powers of the commander-in-chief of our navy and impose sanctions on him. (Shenbao 1922 June 19)
Late at night in June of 5438+05, senior generals of Guangdong Army held an emergency meeting in Zhengxian Hall and decided to launch a military coup to oust Sun Yat-sen. "At this critical juncture, Chen Jiongming sent secretary Chen to dissuade Ye Ju in Huizhou with a personal letter ... The letter said to the effect that if Sun Yat-sen sent troops to the Northern Expedition, if he could win and consolidate, if he failed, I would temporarily transfer the troops back to Dongjiang for training as a secretary of the army and make full preparations. Then I could clean up the mess. Chen sent the letter to Zhengxian Temple. Ye Ju, after reading it, threw the letter on the ground in front of Chen, saying that Chen Jiongming knew nothing about military affairs. He also said, where can I eat in Dongjiang? Tell Chen, report to Chen Jiongming ... Chen Jiongming was furious and fell down. "(Peng Zhifang:" Chen Jiongming goes out before and after Sun Rebellion ")
The rebellion finally took place. /kloc-in the early morning of June 6, the Guangdong army besieged the presidential palace, Sun Yat-sen boarded the warship, and the navy declared war on the rebels. Rao, this rebellion is a little different from killing people, because Ye Ju and others don't want to kill Sun Yat-sen, they just want to drive Sun out of Guangdong, so they asked someone to call Sun before firing, asking him to escape. Their demand was put forward by Cai Yuanpei and others earlier, demanding that Sun Yat-sen fulfill his promise and step down with Xu Shichang. (Morning News June 4th 1922, and see Yuan Weishi's related analysis: cultural impermanence and historical contamination, published in the third issue of 2 1 Century online edition on June 29th, 2002).
The political differences between Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming, after many twists and turns, finally had to resort to force and ended in tragedy.