#为什么有人把湖南称为 "Prussia of China" #
Hunan is referred to as "Xiang", and since the late Qing Dynasty, there has been a saying that "no Xiang can not form an army". The reputation of "Only Chu has talent, Yu Si is prosperous" has spread all over the world. However, more than 100 years ago, some people called Hunan "China's Prussia".
To answer this question, we must first introduce a legendary figure: Yang Du.
Yang Du (杨度), also spelled 皙子, formerly known as Chengzhen (承瓒), nicknamed Tiger Gong (虎公) and Hu Chan (虎禅), was born on January 10, 1875 in Jiangshe Shitang Village, Xiangtan County, Hunan Province.
Although Yang Du was talented and clever, the road to the imperial examination was very bumpy, and he entered Beijing for 4 consecutive times to participate in the examination, and he fell behind Sun Shan and returned home. However, he was favored by a generation of famous Confucian kings, Min Yun.
Wang Minyun belonged to the kind of person who was highly ambitious and had no children leftovers, and even Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang did not pay attention to it. In the "Six Gentlemen of Wushu", two were disciples of Wang Minyun (Yang Rui and Liu Guangdi). Wang Minyun admired Yang Du very much and wanted to accept him as his disciple, so he did not hesitate to put down his body and personally went to Yang Du's house to collect disciples. After that, Wang Minyun loved Yang Du all his life, affectionately calling him "Yang Xianzi" in the "Diary of Xiang qilou". Among the people around Wang Minyun, only Yang Du could joke with him casually.
Yang Du and Wang Minyun learned the art of royal emperorhood, but later, despite his master's objections, he went to Japan in 1902 at his own expense to study and became a constitutional monarchy. At this time, Yang Du befriended Liang Qichao and other reformists, and had close contacts.
In 1903, Yang Du took the newly opened examination for the special science of economics and achieved a good result of the first class and the second place, but because he was a "Hunan Normal Student" and made remarks dissatisfied with the imperial court when he studied in Japan, he was removed from his grades, and he was also wanted, and was forced to study in Japan again and study at the Hongwen Academy. In the autumn of that year, Yang Du met Liang Qichao again in Yokohama.
In October, Yang Du copied Liang Qichao's famous work "Young China Says" and wrote a "Hunan Youth Song", which was published in the "Xinmin Cong Bao" founded by Liang Qichao (founded in Yokohama, Japan in 1902).
The full text of "Hunan Youth Song" is more than 1900 words, and the opening paragraph clearly proposes that "I am a Native of Hunan and sing Hunan songs." Hunan teenagers are good at what they do, but when the time is dangerous, they are in the south of Hunan." Next, Yang Du praised the great landscape of Hunan and the patriotic feelings of Hunan Junjie such as Song Yu and Wang Fuzhi. In the article, Yang Du exposed the crimes of the Western powers in plundering China, praised the spirit of the Chinese people, especially the people of Hunan, in resisting rape, and called on people to rise up and save the country. To this end, Yang Du wrote poems such as "China is now Greece, Hunan as Sparta; China will be Germany, Hunan as Prussia" and "If the Chinese nation dies, unless the Hunan people die".
Obviously, Yang Du hoped that Hunan and Hunan teenagers would play an important role in saving China and resisting foreign enemies, and shoulder the heavy responsibility of history, just as Sparta was to Greece and Prussia was to Germany.
After the publication of "Hunan Youth Song", it has produced a strong inspirational effect among the patriotic youth in Hunan. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Hunan has indeed produced many heroes who have touched the world and the earth.
In the War of Resistance Against Japan, Hunan made a particularly great contribution.
As we all know, a total of 22 large-scale battles were held in the War of Resistance Against Japan, of which as many as 6 were held in Hunan, accounting for nearly a quarter of all of them, including 3 battles of Changsha, Changde, Hengyang, and Xiangxi.
In the three Battles of Changsha, the anti-Japanese army and civilians annihilated a total of more than 110,000 Japanese troops, enhanced confidence in the victory of the War of Resistance, improved China's international status, and forced the United States, Britain and other countries to voluntarily give up all kinds of extraterritorial jurisdictions obtained in China since the First Opium War in 1840.
In the Battle of Changde, the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians killed and wounded more than 10,000 Japanese troops, and achieved a major battle that ended in victory by our army in the frontal battlefield, which was known as the "Stalingrad Defense War" in the East.
In the Battle of Hengyang, the anti-Japanese army and civilians annihilated more than 70,000 Japanese troops, which was the city offensive and defensive battle with the largest number of casualties between the enemy and us in the history of the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the longest frontal engagement of the Chinese army, and was known as the "Moscow Defense War in the East".
In the Battle of Western Hunan Province, the anti-Japanese army and civilians annihilated more than 30,000 enemy troops, and after that, the Chinese anti-Japanese frontal battlefield shifted from defense to counter-offensive.
It is precisely because of the great contribution made by Hunan in the War of Resistance Against Japan that when the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression ended, the place chosen by China and Japan to surrender was located at Moxikou, Qiliqiao Village, east of Zhijiang County, Hunan Province.
In this fertile land of Hunan, not only huang xing, Song Jiaoren, Jiang Yiwu, Chen Tianhua, Liu Yiyi, Tan Renfeng, Cheng Qian, Tan Yanmin, Cai Hesen, Deng Zhongxia, Xiang Jingyu and other revolutionary elders, but also produced many founding generals.
Among the top ten founding marshals, Hunan came out of 3 places, second only to Sichuan.
Among the top ten founding generals, Hunan contributed 6 places, ranking first in the country.
Of the 57 founding generals, Hunan accounted for 19, just one-third. Among them, several hunan founding generals have profound qualifications and outstanding military achievements, and are fully qualified to be rated as founding generals.