In the history of China's modern revolution, there was a long period of time when Sun Yat-sen did not attain a position of exclusivity, and although he was the undisputed leader of the revolutionary party, there was still one person who went hand in hand with him, and even the prestige in the minds of many people overshadowed him, and this person was Huang Xing, who was jokingly called "Hunan Mule". At the beginning of the establishment of the League, it was The then 32-year-old Huang Xing who took the initiative to push it, and the "Light Pole Commander" Sun Yat-sen could directly become the leader of the League without going through the election procedures. At the beginning of the establishment of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen became the provisional president, and it was Huang Xing who played a key role. Sun Yat-sen himself once commented that Huang Xing was "the hope of his fellow people, and the key to the success or failure of the revolution."
At the beginning of 1912, the revolutionary party and the Beiyang department successfully negotiated peace, sun Yat-sen resigned as provisional president, and Yuan Shikai, the chief leader of the Beiyang department, took over. At this time, everything in the south was undecided, so in the days when Sun Yat-sen left his post and returned to his hometown, it was Huang Erge who took up the burden and served as the left guard in Nanjing. The most important duty of the Nanjing garrison was to reorganize the armies of the southern provinces and demobilize the civilian army.
Due to the special situation, the post left behind in Nanjing at this time can really be described as mighty and powerful, and the actual impact is far greater than that of the previous post of army chief of the provisional government. At that time, many people believed that Huang Xing, as a retainer in Nanjing, had 300,000 heavy troops in his hands, and in terms of momentum, it was almost two out of three worlds. The British Times reporter Foreza, who was based in Nanjing, said that "Huang Xing's status is equivalent to that of six governors, ruling about one-sixth of China." ”
If they are enthusiastic about the powerful, they can use this as a basis to eliminate the weak and survive the strong, and build a "Huang Family Army" to serve as the capital for the future to fight for the world. At that time, many revolutionary officers of all sizes who had great ambitions and were unemployed due to the dissolution of the provisional government flocked to try to come up with advice, support Brother Huang, and ask for an official and a half-post.
Unfortunately, Huang Xing is a rare "person who does not know current affairs". He believed that after the peace talks were concluded, the Southern Revolutionary Army was in fact useless, and it was necessary to dismiss most of them in terms of public and private interests. In the face of the many younger brothers who came to his aid, he even published a statement in the public newspaper that he could not be selfish and had no job to give.
Huang Xing's biggest difficulty is that the severance pay has not been settled. Of course, Yuan Shikai hoped that Huang Xing would quickly dismiss the Southern Revolutionary Army, but his telegram to Huang Xing blindly cried poor, saying that the central government had no surplus grain, Huang Laodi, look at you!
Huang Xingben is not a person who is good at managing money, not to mention that it is difficult for a woman to cook without rice, and there are only two ways he can think of, one is to ask the Beijing government to borrow foreign debt on behalf of him, and the other is to advocate "national donation". These two methods, however, have their own difficulties, and they cannot be done in a short time.
As a result, some of these troops, who were crowded inside and outside Nanjing, suddenly mutinied and rushed out of the barracks to loot, and the area around the Taiping Bridge and the Baimen Bridge in Nanjing was particularly seriously damaged. At the time of the mutiny, Huang Xing was launching a "national donation" in Shanghai. After he learned the news of the Nanjing mutiny, he immediately stopped the affairs at hand and rushed back by car overnight. By the time he returned to Nanjing, it was already dark, and the mutiny had been suppressed by the various ministries stationed in Nanjing with very cruel means.
Huang Xing was very sad to witness the tragic situation after the mutiny, but he did not have much money in Shanghai and no money in his hands, so he had to urgently call the Beijing government and ask for funds, but at this time, Tang Shaoyi's cabinet in Beijing, although he also tried his best to solve the problem of military expenditure in the south, he could not come up with much money.
As a result, there was nothing he could do, and Huang Xing had no choice but to call for "patriotism" and encourage soldiers to voluntarily leave their posts and help each other in times of difficulty. He himself led by example, and despite the strong opposition within the League, he repeatedly asked Yuan Shikai to resign from his post.
Thanks to Huang Xing's efforts, the demobilization of the army went on. However, Huang Xing was also exhausted, so by early June, seeing that most of the army had been dismissed or resettled, he resolutely resigned from his post and quietly left Nanjing.
After Huang Xing left office, he was relieved for a while. In October of that year, Huang Xing returned to his hometown of Hunan, where he had been away for many years, on the way to his 39th birthday , he couldn't help but sigh with emotion, and wrote a poem: "Thirty-nine years of knowing forty wrongs, the wind and song are better than home; amazing careers are like flowing water, love my garden wants to fall." In the night, the fish and dragons are lonely, so the mountain ape crane is clinging to it; the sky is independent and unprovoked, and sometimes there is a breeze to vibrate my clothes. ”
Although Huang Xing's self-disbandment power has objective reasons such as financial difficulties, what is more important is that he wants to set an example for the people of the world, so he is unwilling to control the position of power and does not go to the stack. Huang Xing's move was later criticized by some young zhuang factions in the party, which also caused a lot of "criticism" at that time.
Before he was dismissed, Tan Renfeng, another revolutionary party leader, rushed to Nanjing and advised him in person that "after the cabinet members left their posts (according to the fact that Tang Shaoyi's cabinet had collapsed for some reason), the one who guaranteed the republicans was only One." Why bear to give up responsibility and retire from the false name? ”
After reading the telegram of Huang Xing's request for resignation and retirement, Cai Yi, the governor of Yunnan, immediately called to persuade General Huang Xing not to resign, believing that "if the merits have not yet been accomplished, how can he retire?" ”
Because Yuan Shikai completely fell out with the revolutionary party after the Song case occurred and basically swept the revolutionary party out of the "second revolution," many people looked back out of the party's concept and even more thought that Huang Xingci's stay was a big mistake.
However, in the public opinion of historians, they cannot but admit that Huang Xing's move was "painstaking and lonely, and the wind and bright festivals" were enough to "be ashamed to die of the supporters of the army and self-defense in the future generations of the world, and they are not sincerely superior to others"! As Li Jiannong, a famous scholar at the time, pointed out, "The new and old warlords in the future can no longer make such moves."
At that time, Huang Xing said in a letter to Zheng Zhannan, a member of the American League: "The resignation of the former chief and the resignation of the present resignation are actually for the sake of reconciling the north and the south and breaking through suspicions, and it is not to be afraid of difficulties and shirk responsibility." ”
Perhaps, for Huang Xing's move, a comment made by Zhang Shizhao in the "Minli Bao" at that time can best tell the true meaning of this, so it is excerpted below:
"Huang Xingben is a scholar who is extremely well-known for his tactics, and this is a sincere remark; but if he can repay the country with death and cover the world with righteousness and courage, then the gods and men will believe in it." Huang Xingben yiwufu (this is not contrary to the friendship of scholars), in the political situation and jurisprudence, the study or not deep; to the political views of the time, there is no need to satisfy people's wishes, that is, the reporter holds the argument, and always has the position of opposition; as far as the brightness of his heart, he is a gentleman of the clear way, and the reporter dreams, he does not or doubt. ”